Book Reviews 2

Here are some more book reviews:

Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolfe:
This book was akin to a running stream of consciousness that passes from one character to another when they cross each others paths spatially or mentally. There are no chapter breaks. Makes for an interesting, but sometimes hard to follow read. I would put it down one night and pick it up the next and have to refresh myself as to whose thoughts/actions we were in at the time. I did like the language and the novelty, but I was hoping for a little more closure at the end.

Far from the Maddening Crowd by Thomas Hardy:
Our base library has a Classics section that I am slowly working my way through. I read Tess of the D'Ubervilles and the Mayor of Casterbridge probably 10-12 years ago and remembered liking Hardy's writings, so I picked this one up. It was fun to get more of the English and historical references this time around. There are little quips throughout that are sometimes funny, sometimes poignant, and sometimes completely sexist. But I enjoyed reading this story of Bathsheba Everdene and her three suitors, and it made me want to read more British classical literature, which, as we all know, is more than any of us can read in a lifetime. It has been a while since I have read Dickens, so maybe he's next...

Eight Years

Eight years ago today Dave and I were married. Every year gets better and better. I am so lucky to have such a wonderful husband who takes care of me and our family, helps me be a better person, and makes my heart leap with joy when he smiles at me. I love you sweetheart.

Thomas the Tank Engine

I think it would be hard to beat the total excitement and cuteness level Enoch reached today. We drove to Bolton's Abbey Station for a day out with Thomas. Percy took us to Embsay station where Thomas was waiting. Enoch and Hilde got to go inside Thomas and see where Mr. Tophamhat feeds him coal, and even got to blow his whistle. Hilde wasn't a big fan of the whistle, but Enoch blew it enough for both of them.

It was small scale, but there were plenty of steam engines around for the kids to gawk at, and it was just about perfect. They jumped in the Thomas moon bounce until they were all tired out. Dave got a delicious cornish pastie and the kids were wore out when we rode the train back to Bolton's Abbey Station and drove home. Dave has some really great pictures on his camera and they are here. For now, here are some of my pictures from the day:

Best day ever!

Yesterday was the best day ever, why, because all of our things arrived! Dave took the kids to daycare early in the morning and the movers arrived while he was gone, at 7:15. By 11:45 everything had been unloaded and "unpacked". We were exhausted and decided to celebrate by going out to lunch at Betty's in town. It is a local institution and a place that everyone takes their guests to. We had been looking forward to going to it for some time, but other than getting a vanilla slice or two to go, pure heaven, we hadn't been able to sit down for a meal. I got the Alpine Maccaroni and Dave got a chicken and Asparagus Rosti. For dessert Dave got the Peach Melba Sundae and I got the Betty's Sundae full of yummy strawberries, raspberries and blueberries, delicious! Anyone who comes to visit has a yummy meal to look forward to.

On the way home I told the kids there was a big surprise for them. When they walked in the house, they were so excited, jumping up and down and running all around the house. I think they had forgotten how much they missed everything. So now we are finally home. And last night we all slept soundly, from 8 to 8 in our own beds. Sublime.

Flower Power

We live in an area famous throughout England for its flowers, and every day we get to see why. I admittedly am NOT a botanist and hardly know the names of any trees/flowers/plants. Here is a sampling of some of the flowers just on our street. I have given them alliterative names of my own, if you know their real names, please teach me!

a) Petal Power

b) Blue Beauties
c) Pretty Purples
d) Finally one I actually know - Rhodedendrons, or as we call them in the Pacific Northwest, Rhodies.
e) Precious Petals
f) Purplicious
g) Mellow Yellowh) Ruby Reds i) Yellow Yardstick j) Cutie Beauties

TV Bizzarro World

Whenever Dave and I turn on our TV, we are amazed at what we find. There are plenty of funny British commercials (at least funny to us, they are perfectly serious for the Brits). And a few British shows, but the majority of the TV programming is older US shows or older episodes of current US shows. All of these are advertised as hit US shows, I'll let you be the judge. I would bet that for many of us only a handful, if any, of these would make our list of BEST American TV shows. This is just a small sampling, many of the others are a lot WORSE than these:

1) How I Met Your Mother
2) The Big Bang Theory
3) Sex and the City - there is an obsession here not to be believed
4) Friends
5) Chuck - on every hour in the evening
6) Law & Order - in all its varieties
7) Desperate Housewives
8) American Idol
9) Scrubs
10) Veronica Mars
11) Two and a Half Men
12) Scooby Doo
13) My Super Sweet Sixteen (MTV)
14) The Jerry Springer Show

In other Bizzaro news, Dave and I know Gordon Ramsey from his US show, Kitchen Confidential. We have only caught pieces of that show, but he spends a lot of time yelling at chefs that can't live up to his expectations. He is notorious for his foul language. Here there is a show of his called The f Word. When it came on, we couldn't change the channel. He was having fun, laughing and teasing the four people he had helping him cook. A guy burned Gordon's arm with a hot pan and Gordon laughed it off. We couldn't believe this was the same person, truly bizzarro. I mean, do the Brits think he is a big teddy bear???

Also, almost every reality show you can think of exists here as well. Britain's Next Top Model, The Apprentice, Britain's Got Talent, Big Brother, and the list goes on and on and on.

Sometimes it is frankly embarrassing to see a show that is advertised as being a hit show in America, when it is SO terrible. When the Brits watch it, do they think, Americans are really shallow and stupid? So this leads me to an interesting question, If you could pick a few shows to air in another country that you thought were clever, fun, and interesting to another country as well as truly representational of the US, what would they be? Or alternatively, what shows would you be proud to see while lounging around in your hotel room in a foreign land?

Hilde's British Phrases

Hilde has definitely picked up an accent, and we are only a month into our grand adventure. She puts it on whenever she is talking about something about school, or one of her friends that is British, or repeating a phrase she has heard a Brit say. Basically her pattern of speech has become very situational. Here are a few of her phrases these days (imagine these in 4 year old British accent):

- It would be silly not to have the windows down because it is such a lovely day outside. (she uses lovely to describe just about anything these days)
- Mum, you got that straight away (praising me for being able to guess her I Spy object quickly)
- Pardon. Pardon. Mom, pardon means I didn't understand you.
- Enoch, did you go wee in the toilet? I am so proud of you.
- I would like some crisps now. (Asking for potato chips)

Fountains Abbey

Last weekend we took the family to Fountains Abbey and joined the National Trust. Fountains Abbey is a World Heritage site and was a massive Abbey that King Henry VIII destroyed when he was dissolving the old church structure and creating the Church of England so he could marry and divorce at will. Too bad, because you can tell that in its heyday, the place was awesome in size and beauty. The National Trust is basically a yearly pass to many of the UK's historical and natural park system. We plan on getting a lot of use out of it.

We packed a picnic lunch and trounced around for a couple of hours on what the Brits claimed was the most beautiful day in over a year. It couldn't have been more lovely. All sorts of people had come just to have a picnic, or toss around a Frisbee, or play soccer on the big grassy areas surrounding the Abbey. What a beautiful setting. Dave posted all of the pics on his Flickr page, so you can go there to see all of them. Below are a few of my favorites:

Happy Mothering Day

England celebrates Mother's day in March, so I am really belated with my mother's day wishes this year. When they refer to the US holiday, it is called Mothering Day. So our ward program today said "Happy Mothering Day to all colonials".

To my mom, I love you. Here are some things I thought about today, and why I am glad you are my mom.

- You let me be me, and loved me for it.
- You always set an example of faith and service.
- You were open and honest with me and I always felt I could talk to you about anything.
- You were fun to be around, and we laughed loudly and often growing up.
- You were really good about not holding our mistakes against us long term, setting a good example for forgiveness.
- You taught me about being a good wife and mother. We all knew that you and dad put each other first and that you backed each other up in good times and bad.
- You make great Caramel Corn.

There are lots of other things, but the main thing is that you were just the right mom for me. So Happy Mothering Day Mum!

Hunting for Monkeys and other fun games

I bet you didn't know that the trees here are swarming with Monkeys. They are. Lucky for everyone, Enoch knows exactly how to protect us all.

Step 1: Find the Perfect Stick.
Step 2: Locate trees containing Monkeys. (Which is, of course, all trees).
Step 3: Bang your stick on the tree while yelling at the Monkeys to Go Away. Don't mind all of the confused Englishmen walking by and looking at you with strange expressions.
Step 4: Catch the Monkey with the end of your stick.
Step 5: Throw the Monkey into the bushes.
Step 6: Repeat

This game can last for hours and is asked for every time we go outside. Lucky for us we live across the street from a large green space with lots of sticks, trees, bushes and open space to run around from (assuming a monkey escapes). Here are some other pics from our outdoor fun.

Home Sweet Home

A few weeks ago we moved into a lovely Victorian townhouse. The above picture is the windows in the Master Bedroom. It is a 5 bedroom townhouse, MUCH bigger than our place in Centreville. 4 of the bedrooms are extremely large. The 5th one is pretty small, but Enoch immediately claimed it for his own and loves it. According to him, it is just the right size. So we have two very large extra bedrooms that we don't really know what to do with. We will use them as office and guest space - so come visit! The owners are great. They left us some pieces of beautiful Victorian furniture and we are using them with care. The morning we signed the contract and moved in we talked cooking, and mentioned that we had herbs at our old place. An hour later they came back with several herb plants for us.

The front door has two doors. The outer one is all black and doesn't have a handle, a little odd, but it works. The inner door has this beautiful stained glass that is original. You can see the short pathway to our house. The pillars at the end are original and many of the houses have names carved into them. Ours doesn't, but it is still fun.

When you come into the house you are greeted with a series of stairs like these. We thought we had a lot of stairs in our old place, but this has even more. We are definitely getting our exercise. We lucked out and got a place with 2 and a half bathrooms. There is a master bathroom with a power shower, toilet and sink and is pretty new. The house bathroom is black and white and very large. It has a tub and a separate shower. The kids love bathtime with the tub shower head.

One of the biggest adjustments us Americans have to make is to very small kitchens and kitchen appliances. Here is where we really lucked out. We have an awesome, very large Gas DeLonghi oven with a 5 gas burner top. The burner in the middle is a Wok burner. The oven is large enough to fit just about anything, and is fantastic. It makes cooking a lot of fun. There are a bunch of settings and we haven't figured everything out, but we know we like it. There is plenty of counter space and an open space for a table and chairs or our shelving unit. Hilde likes to eat at the bar, but Enoch is afraid he will fall off the stools, so he avoids it.





One of our favorite features of the house that was left over from Victorian times is pictured below. It is the servants bell and it still works. There are other bells around the house that do not. This is right outside the kitchen on the main level. The kids rooms are on the very top level, and that is a lot of stairs. So they are trained now that when we ring the bell (which rings on their level) they run down for dinner, etc. A lot of fun. We have small courtyards in the front and back of our house. The one in back is just barely large enough for our grill, a table and 4 chairs, and a parking spot for our car. And we have a large unfinished basement that is full of shelving units. Finally, a place for storage. We have a UK washer and dryer and an old Victorian sink downstairs as well. Additionally there is a root cellar downstairs and a coal bin outside. We have two working fireplaces, one in the living room and one in the dining room. Everyone burns coal here, which is strange to us since we have never really used it as a source of fire fuel. So far we haven't tested out the fireplaces. We love our new house and are now anxiously awaiting the arrival of our furniture. Until then we are using loaner furniture from the base. This means a folding table with 4 chairs, 3 of the most uncomfortable beds known to man, 2 tiny dressers, 2 small wardrobes and the ugliest sofa and easy chair in the entire world. The interesting fact of the sofa and easy chair is that they are so old and worn out that whenever anyone, including Enoch, sits on them, the cushion immediately retreats deep into the far reaches of the sofa or chair so you end up sitting on the wood bar. Lovely.

Book Reviews

While we have been internet and TV challenged, I have had plenty of time to read. So here are reviews from my two most recent reads:

Four Queens: The Provencal Sisters Who Ruled Europe by Nancy Goldstone:
This is a history book and since I am in Europe now, I found it really interesting. So much I don't know about European history. Also, interesting to me because it focused on the females in an important historical period. It was well written and kept me interested. And also made me incredibly thankful that a) I wasn't born in 13th century Europe, 2) Am not a member of a royal or influential family, 3) Married Dave. Recommended for those who like non-fiction history.

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde:
I had this on my list of classics from years ago and have always meant to read it since I like Oscar Wilde's plays The Importance of Being Earnest and An Ideal Husband so much. I didn't know any of the background. Turns out this is Wilde's only novel and was used against him in some indecency trials. Oscar was pretty openly homosexual and that was taboo in his day. I am not sure what exactly was used in the trials since the Dorian character is not homosexual in any open sense. He does have VERY close male friends, but Wilde doesn't go into any detail about it. Wilde did serve time in prison for his indecency, i.e. homosexualness. Anyway, the book itself was interesting because Dorian Gray is a beautiful youth that has his picture painted. The picture is beautiful and Dorian says that he wishes he could stay that young and handsome. From then on the picture ages and Dorian does not. It had some of Oscar's wittiness, but wasn't as fun as his plays. Recommended for those who like classic novels, Irish writers, or books used against their authors in courts of law.