My first Snow Day

Ok, so when I woke up this morning it was snowing. Very exciting. I have never lived in a place that snowed before. Jon was born and raised in Colorado and always spoke of how he wanted to move back there because he loved the snow. I would tell him......send me a postcard. Now, we are living in London, and South of the Thames, where it doesn't snow as much.....supposedly. Anyhoo....beautiful this morning, took lots of pictures and then showered and decided to brave the elements and go down to the cafe to hook up to the internet. It is even snowing more heavily now and I'm pretty much over it. Without having all the bells and whistles to connect here, check out the pictures on facebook. Keep in mind, those pictures are when it wasn't snowing as heavily and when I thought it was pretty. Is it spring yet?

Happy Thanksgiving or as they say in England "Oh, look it's Thursday".

As I sit in the cafe, wishing we had internet, I am reminded of all that I'm thankful for.
My health.....which is crap right now.....horrible cold.
My family.....who are a million miles away and one of them (Nikki) has a broken foot!
My friends....who also wish we had internet so that we can video skype.
My puppies...I wish I could scratch Annie's belly and smell Lucy's bad breath.
So.....Virgin Media, who had 3 weeks to get a permit called us late Monday night and said they would have to reschedule from Tuesday to sometime later in the week. ARRGH! But to quote our friend Shaun.."Since Thanksgiving is just a Thursday here, maybe we can hope for a Thanksgiving Miracle." Fingers crossed.
Seriously, and with all the love in my heart, I (we) wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving and know that we are thankful for each and everyone of you.
Deb & Jon

The Lord Mayor’s Show

Every year since the mid 1300’s, London has had a Lord Mayor’s Show.  “What kind of show is that?” and “Who/What is a Lord Mayor?” are the questions you are probably asking now.  Well, read on…The Lord Mayor is the Mayor of London.  He/She serves a one-year term and is inducted to the position on the second Saturday in November every year.  Before the induction, there is a big “show” which is actually a parade.  The parade starts at 11:00 a.m. and goes from Mansion House (the Mayor’s home) and proceeds to Victoria Embankment on the Thames.   At 13:00 (that’s 1:00 p.m. for you non-military and non-European types), the parade makes an encore performance going the other way (from Victoria to Mansion house).

Polling current London citizens, we learned that only about 1/3 of them even know what The Lord Mayor’s Show is.  Shocking!  As was true when we were in LA, we do things that are here and the locals have never heard of it or have never participated.  Also shocking!

A little history on The Lord Mayor’s Show – it has occurred every year for the last 650+ years with only two exceptions: The funeral of The Duke of Wellington and The Black Death.  There’s nothing like a Black Death to rain on your parade, n’est ce pas?  Also, the Lord Mayor travels the parade route in the original coach used in the 1300’s – it is like a Cinderella coach.  He is accompanied by his chaplain and two stewards.  The photograph below shows the coach and his chaplain from this year’s parade.

You will notice the chaplain is wearing his proper white curls!  We tried to get a photo of the Lord Mayor himself, but we were foiled by the camera gods that day and weren’t able to grab a snapshot (so much for our careers as Paparazzi).

We went to the show via train and tube, getting out at the Bank station.  There were thousands of people there, but Debbie snagged a great spot on the side of a big financial building on Cheapside Street (we don’t make these names up, really!).  It is peculiar to have a slew of banks located on Cheapside Street, isn’t it?  Oddly enough, the return route goes down a different street, called Poultry.  No “street” or “road” in that one, just Poultry.  We stopped near 1 Poultry before we went to Starbuck’s after the parade.  To prove it, we grabbed a snapshot of the building at 1 Poultry so you would believe us.

After the parade, we had a whirlwind of fun getting to a tube stop because they had suspended service on the Northern Line – reasons unknown (well, explained to us, but still unknown because the TFL worker was speaking very quickly).  Our stop, which was “5 minutes away” took us 25 minutes to get to, but we finally made it.  Then we had a yummy dinner of Steak and Kidney Pie and Chicken and Vegetable Pie – very English indeed!

We still can’t tell you the Mayor’s name (without looking it up), though we can tell you that the weekend before, we celebrated another Englishman, Guy Fawkes. But that is another story which we will post soon with pictures. 

With warmest wishes that your next party is not cancelled due to The Black Death,

Deb and Jon in South London

What's on Page 11 This Week?

The London commute is unlike most any other.  Add to that the Londoners' love for the daily newspapers and advertisers need to get the word out and you end up with a free newspaper every morning and every evening.  They hand out the papers at all of the Tube stops and Train stations.  Roughly 3 out of every 5 people take one of the papers to read on the train.

The morning paper is called Metro and the evening paper, oddly enough, is called The Evening Standard.  Each is full of interesting articles covering business, world news, entertainment, style/fashion, and US Politics.  As now avid readers of these free papers, we've come across an interesting phenomenon from the Metro (a bit more "cheeky" paper than The Evening Standard) - there is almost always a story you wouldn't believe was in print or couldn't believe is factual.  And it usually appears on Page 11.  Since we will be reading these papers every day for the foreseeable future, we've decided that What's on Page 11 This Week? will likely be a recurring post on the blog.

4 highlights from this week, ranked in the order of peculiarity and interest:

4. From page 11 on 11-Nov-2010:  You actually cannot get Cancer from a toilet seat.  This and several other urban myths were dispelled in this article, most of which were backed up by a government funded research project.

3. From page 11 on 10-Nov-2010: Not an odd one, but of interest to some - There is going to be a new television series that is actually an old series.  That's right British comedy fans, Absolutely Fabulous is going to start taping new episodes again in the spring.  If you've never heard of this show, then this will mean little to you!

2. From page 11 on 9-Nov-2010: A woman in Lewisham was grossly overcharged for her produce at a local grocery store (one called The Cooperative).  She only had about £2 worth of produce and was charged over £7.  In and of itself, this is uninteresting, but read on...in the supermarkets here, the cashiers do not stand at the register as they do in the US.  They sit in comfortable swivel-style office chairs (actually this is true in most of Europe).  At any rate, the cashier in question was nuzzled into her little cashier's space and began weighing the customer veggies - the whole time unaware that her large breasts were resting on the scale and causing the veggies to be overweighed.  The customer asked the manager what was wrong with the prices and the manager replied (and this is a quote from the newspaper) "It appears the cashier's boob was resting on the scale."  That's right, this is news in the Metro, at least on page 11!

1. From page 11 also on 9-Nov-2010 (a banner day!): this one is best started with the printed headline: Cricket's Balls are Biggest on Earth.  Seeing this, one would assume it is a sports-related story about the size of the balls used to play Cricket, a popular British sport.  NOPE.  This was actually a story about the Bush Cricket (one of the chirping kinds) and its Testicles!  According to the article, the Bush Cricket's testicles comprise 14% of it's body weight - making its balls the biggest on earth relative to the animals size.  Interestingly enough, this apparently shattered the previous record of 10.6% held by some beetle from Africa. 

So that's the news this week from Page 11,
Deb and Jon in South London

Deb's Journey to Ikea and I mean Journey...

So what does one do when it is pouring rain and you are bored to tears.....that's right you go shopping.  I knew that the closest IKEA store was about an hour away, but it was in a different direction than I had been before on the buses. First the "197" which was packed, and then you connect with a tram, then you walk.  OK, not so interesting, but what happened on the bus was quite amusing.

After a number of stops on the bus, I was starting to get antsy, fearing I'd miss the tram and be stuck in B.F. Egypt in the rain.  Apparantly I was fidgety.  A lady behind me said "Excuse me, where are you headed?"  I said "The East Croydon Tram stop."  She said, "Oh , that is the next stop, you're ok."  Then, as if rehearsed, the rest of the ladies on the bus said in sequence........Take the tram, marked Wimbledon.......It's on Track 3....Going to Ikea then?......(head nod from me).....another lady......take the Amberly exit.....We all started laughing and I waved my hand around the whole of the bus and said....."Thank you Bus"!  I love it people are so friendly here. 

Did my shopping at Ikea, wine glasses, we now have six, two coffee cups and some candles and decided I needed to eat before my next tram, bus ride home.  I went up to the IKEA cafe and had some of their famous meatballs and berries. There were two older ladies sitting at the table and we struck up a conversation.....mainly because I have a very strange accent....and we visited for about 45 minutes or so.
They were very interested in America's politics and why on earth we would leave Los Angeles for England.  They said they see we did not bring the weather with us.....I apologized.

So all in all, a good day, wet, but worth the trip.

P.S.  Just so you know, the blogging is a blast but don't think for a moment that I am not homesick and miss you all terribly.
Much love,
Deb

Dial W for "Yes"!

So, Jon got his new company phone this week - A Blackberry Bold 9700 with all the bells and whistles.  We had already secured a temporary phone last week for Debbie so that we had a UK phone number.  Debbie's phone is a Nokia-cheapo Model.  Jon tried a test text to Debbie on Thursday night, which she received on the 202 (Bus) returning from Blackheath.  The Nokia-cheapo does not have a QWERTY keyboard, so it is frustrating at best to type a text message.  The text exchange that ensued is below:

From Jon to Debbie:  Testing...do u receive this text?
From Debbie to Jon:  Roommate
From Debbie to Jon:  Hi
From Debbie to Jon:  Hi
From Debbie to Jon:  Lloyd's
From Jon to Debbie:  Leaving shortly, I'll call you later from the train station

Later that night, Jon finally figured out how to turn off the "smart typing" feature (where it figures out what you are trying to type instead of sending what you type)...or so he thought...

Day 2 of texting in England:

From Jon to Debbie:  Will you be near the phone at 3:00 p.m.?  I am asking a y/n quetsion so your phone doesn't thwart you.  If I get a Y from you I will call at 3. ok?
From Debbie to Jon:  www
From Jon to Debbie:  It sent me "www" - I will assume that is "Y"...
From Debbie to Jon:  W

So "W" is yes until tomorrow when we get Debbie a "big girl" phone (or what the English would call a "proper" phone).

Cheers!
Deb and Jon in South London

First Official Pub Crawl

We went to Central London so Debbie could introduce herself at the Soho Theatre where she had applied for a job while we were still in L.A.  The position was for a Writer's Assistant.  After 4 flights of stairs and an oxygen tank later she met one of the producers she had sent her information to.  Good news......interviews hadn't started yet......Bad news.....over 500 people applied for the two positions.
We took the "DLR".....(don't know what that stands for but we assume it is for some sort of light rail) to Lewisham, which is the county seat for the borough that we live in. It's a little rough around the edges but we visited the mall . Poundland and the 99p store are located there.......that's right, nothing too good for us! Anyway, in the center of the mall they were holding auditions for "Annie" with hundred of little girls singing "Tomorrow".  We listened to the first ten or so then decided we'd rather shop at Poundland.....didn't care if the sun came out tomorrow.
There was a great Farmer's Market going on outside and we chose a local cafe for lunch.  Jon had a "so-so" cheeseburger and Debbie had the lambchops and chips.  She expected maybe two lambchops but got five rather tough ones instead.  She asked Jon to put his foot on them so she could cut through them.We were the youngest and most mobile people in the cafe.....but on a sad and rather sweet note.....there was a lady who was elderly and had lost one of her friends that morning.  She was with her son and as she feebly stood up to leave, she fixed the collar on her son's coat.  Love between a mother and child is ageless.
That evening we decided to go to a pub in Forest Hill which is a city close to us and turns out we like that area alot.  It is by the overground train station that we use.  The name of the pub is "The Hob" Very quaint and popular.  It had a sixties band playing that night and we met the female singer's best friend, Sonia, who joined us at our table.  She is a curator at a Museum in London's Financial District.  She told us of an event coming up in November where the oviginal Mayor of London's Coach will pull the new Mayor by horses.  Everyone will be in Medieval dress, except for Sonia.  She said noone has asked her to do so yet and she is not going to say anything.  I think we'll go, sounds like fun.
So.........2 and 1/2 pints of Kronenberg for Debbie and 3 1/2 pints for Jon, we walked around the corner to Pizza Hut and ordered a pizza to "take-away".  We ate at the bus stop, on the bus, and on the way up the hill to the flat.  Finished our midnight dinner and passed out.

By the way, we figured out the boiler and we now have heat in our HOME for the first time in two years.
One last note of interest.  Saturday morning we took the bus into a town called Bromley, where they have a very nice mall, similar to the one in Topanga (L.A.) and it rained on and off.  At one point, when the rained stopped, we heard very cool jazz music.  Turns out, in the town square there were dancers doing the jive and they even have a web site. http://www.surreyjive.co.uk/  so apparently the sun did come out tomorrow.
Cheers,
Deb and Jon

Quickie Recipe inspired by a UK commercial for Philadelphia Cream Cheese

Kelvin Grove Chicken

Chicken Thighs (6) skinned, deboned and cut-up
1 red bell pepper - sliced
1 green bell pepper - sliced
1 small yellow onion - diced
4 large mushrooms - sliced
cooked rice
Garlice sauce
1 heaping tablespoon Philadelphia cream cheese
1 heaping tablespoon butter

Prepare rice, simmer till done.  Meanwhile, slice and dice then saute chicken in butter.  Add remaining ingrediants.  Saute until done. Add garlic sauce and cream cheese.

Spices used:  black pepper, salt, red crushed chili peppers, garlic powder and mixed herbs.
If you don't have Mowry's Garlic Sauce, use mayonaise and crushed minced garlic.

Put rice in a bowl, add chicken mixture to the top.  Yummy.

Cheers !