Sadness.

It is hard to look at the images from the Virgina Tech shooting - and there is no answer to the biggest question....

WHY?

Reading the opinions here, it makes a bit sad to think that this is how other countries see the United States. But nothing makes me more sad than to think of those poor young students, and the fear they must have experienced. May God Bless them and their families.

From the London Times....
"Perhaps of all the elements of American exceptionalism – those factors, positive or negative, that make the US such a different country, politically, socially, culturally, from the rest of the civilised world – it is the gun culture that foreigners find so hard to understand.

The country’s religiosity, so at odds with the rest of the developed world these days; its economic system which seems to tolerate vast disparities of income; even all those strange sports Americans enjoy – all of these can at least be understood by the rest of us, even if not shared.

But why, we ask, do Americans continue to tolerate gun laws and a culture that seems to condemn thousands of innocents to death every year, when presumably, tougher restrictions, such as those in force in European countries, could at least reduce the number?"
article link:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/gerard_baker/article1662949.ece

Weekend Update

It was that kind of party...dirty feet, barn animals, ping pong and sand boxes..... We helped celebrate the first birthday of Maggie Kahn. It was a party with a mixture of British and American couples, with about 6 children under the age of 1.

The day was the first time in months that I felt a bit like we lived in London. After the past weeks, recovering from the stress of Dad's operation and recovery, and all of the stresses of living in a new city - I've well, been a bit "grumpy." My sweet husband has been kind enough to put up with me, and comfort me. But I think anyone would grow a bit tired of me - I was a bit tired of me. Somehow this weekend, I feel as if a fog has been lifted. Being around people who have moved here, and made lives, and laughing about all the things we've encountered....was exactly what I needed.

I can begin to see that we'll be very happy here. 70 degree weather in April, and cupcakes help a bit.

Today's Word :: Zed

first there was the infamous ZBM (Zed BM) radio station in Bermuda... then here we are given an A to Zed book by friends as part of a welcome basket (which is a critical item used universally to help with attempting to find your way to the various nooks and crannies of the city), and then I inherit a UK client named PZ Cussins (p-zed, when describing them in the office)... Without verbal spell check it is tough to catch this one...

However - my question is, "why the aversion to the zed?" - as a result there are basically 25 letters in the British alphabet because of its exclusion... otherwise I would not have to spend time figuring out my laptop's spell check settings (why it cannot remember overnight that we are here when the clock, time zone and everything else is set properly I do not know) for my frequent emails that contain:

• organise
• analyse
• specialisation

I say embrace the zed and use it as it was intended!

not to mention the other interesting auto-correction when you get to other common words in my work world of 'programme'... etc. - but that is for another day's exercise.

In my opinion there should be some type of alphabetical 'compromize'... just think about the poor confused Zedbra at the zoo...

Best New Commercial

A quick, but necessary post...

We have a Sky+ box which = Tivo in the US...which in turn allows us to fast forward through various bad debt and L'Oreal ad/vertis/ments as well as promos for Scrubs, the UK version of the Apprentice with Sir Alan Sugar instead of Trump, etc... but one has just recently popped up that is more than worth mentioning, especially in this 'blog category' of what's in the paper / what's on tv.

... it highlights the fact that Diff'rent Strokes and The Cosby Show are now on back to back on "the Trouble Network" (go on... click it) with clips synced (I would spell it 'synched', but my British spell check is disagreeing) with the music of the Farmington, Connecticut resident best known as 'Fitty'...

there really is no more that I can add than "Roll with the big dogs..." (wait for the end):

Easter Weekend

One of the best things about living here, is the abundance of "Bank Holidays". My vacation days increased from 20 to 25, and my paid holidays went from 3 days to something like 12.

Britain's idea of Easter Sunday turned our weekend into four days. Good Friday and "Easter Monday" gave us a nice long weekend with which to travel - and use of the car was a great reason to drive to the 'country'.

TJ found a great hotel in the quaint town of Cheltenham,
called "32"

We left on Saturday and went to Stonehenge first. It's about an hour and a half drive out of London, and while fascinating, it's the kind of thing you see and say, "'huh, there it is.....ok, let's go."


The rest of the weekend was spent having a 'proper english lunch' at a pub further out in the country and investigating another town called Stow on the Wold. (see 'rest of pictures' link below)

One of the best moments of the weekend, came on Easter morning. We went for a walk after breakfast. After being out for about 15 minutes, and walking away from the center of town, we started hearing trumpets. It sounded a bit like a high school band practicing. We saw a large church, and thought that there must be musicians outside - but the music kept shifting direction until we got right in front of the church.


There were two sweet older ladies, handing out programs from baskets with ribbons....people were arriving to the chapel on foot, and being dropped off in the front car port....and the musicians, were on the roof of the church, waving down to their families. We walked on, with the music heralding our journey, and annoucing Easter across the town.

You can see the rest of the pictures from the weekend here.

Gingervitis!

Who knew? There is a focus on, and general fascination with, redheads in the UK...

We first saw / heard of it on the morning news here -- kind of a remark made in passing that caused us both to react with a "what did they just say?"

...then earlier this week was the headline on the BBC's website as part of their coverage of the cricket world cup (no - I am not watching it) that read (pun intended) Cricket World Cup Turns Ginger":
Come on you reds!

Then - we pop on the telly (no - we definitely do not say stuff like that) and bring up the program guide to see how many episodes of Scrubs, Columbo, Murder She Wrote, or any of the other favorites here are on... and there it was...

"F*** Off I'm Ginger"

and did we watch it? -- YES

look! click to enlarge to see the program description :

but in my opinion the best item on the subject is still the Ginger episode of South Park -- a clip from it is below:

Happy Easter

An early Happy Easter....

We have a 4 day weekend courtesy of bank holidays on Friday and Monday- and we have a CAR!!!! Our friends, (same ones- just still have the one set) are in Thailand and they've let us use their car. So we're off to a town in the Cotswold, called Cheltenham.

http://www.visitcheltenham.com/

It has been beautiful weather here, yesterday was about 70 degrees and the parks were filled with people.

We hope you all have a fantastic holiday- send us pictures, let us know what you're doing.

My First Round of English Golf

...happened to coincide with my first 'driving on the other side of the road' experience (except for the various scooter / mopeds in Bermuda years ago). What that taught me is that there is A LOT of traffic in London... hence the London Congestion Charge initiative that had its zone expanded at the beginning of March.

How was the driving? Let's just leave it with 'it had my full attention'...and 'shifting with one's left hand is fun'...and 'it was about as good as my driving was on the golf course' (shots off the tee for those non golfers out there) - which was really not bad at all (with a few 'tenuous' moments).

While not quite the Swilcan Bridge at St. Andrews, this was not a bad 18th hole setting... and I was pleased that my ball decided to use the bridge to avoid the stream that I did not know existed right where my tee shot would land - click to see larger view.

The course is Finchley Golf Club and to use my favorite Britism, was good value for money at £30.

Score... 81.

Pancake Day.

Trying to fit in and understand just what the hell they are talking about.....

We started the season of Lent, by joining in one of the first new UK traditions that we encountered:

Pancake Day- or more practically by making crepes, (pancakes) for dinner.
Our version had ham and gruyere with a grain-mustard sauce.


Basically, years ago, people got ready for the season of Lent- typically a time of fasting or giving up rich food - by having a rich, buttery, sugary pancake dinner on Shrove Tuesday. This has now somehow evolved into Pancake races, where people in UK towns race around while tossing pancakes. (This from a country with such a reputation for being 'reserved', and now showing their emotions- but they'll run around with hats and pancakes.)


You can read about it here...

And then I saw this on the NY Times- which shows us that you can eat pancakes anywhere in the world. Ah, I feel closer to all of you already!

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/28/dining/28mini.html?ex=1332734400&en=7a5cd81d49f0924f&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

The Tube

It is great - and gets you pretty much anywhere you want to go... if you are patient.

(South Kensington after the snow)


Prior to our arrival I pictured it being an amazing way to zip around London, and it is (minus the zip), if you can put up with occasional signal malfunctions that slow down entire tube lines, security or medical alerts which completely shut them down, weather issues (the one day of snow we had or even leaves apparently), and other 'slight delays' (my favorite one was last week when there was a shortage of available trains on the Circle Line.

Some lines get brutally crammed with silent masses of humanity -- what is the story with the 'no talking on public transit' unwritten rule?? All speaking ceases when boarding, unless you need to discuss where to get off the train (unless you are a foreigner - then blab away at high volumes oblivious to the Brit laser beam stares.

This past week I had to go to one of our other offices here, which put me on the Northern Line at rush hour... I got off of my first line (Picadilly), and then joined a slowly moving blob of people heading through small tunnels 5 or 6 across -- in silence. All you could hear were hundreds of footsteps - and I was looking around with a small grin on my face to see if anyone else thought it was weird... nope.

We then descended a stairway - even more slowly - to the train platform where we were yelled at by one man in a fluorescent vest to use the entire platform (right) - (no idea why that guy's bag was so shiny or why the flash was right on him - but you have to be quick w/ the camera).

I inched closer to the platform's edge (it is a delicate positioning 'ballet' - those on the train have to get off, so if you are standing right where the doors end up, it is your duty to give way - which means you lose your spot) and was finally able to wedge myself on the third train that came along with some strategic blocking out aided by my bag... there's nothing like being jammed into a space that was not designed to handle that many people at once in an overcoat... unable to unwrap your scarf from your neck... with little airflow except the breathmint free ambient breezes...

Otherwise it is great for us - and really is a good system overall. We both take it at least 2x/day -- and I even have invested in an annual "season pass" Oyster Card - good investment decision TBD.

A tube map ( and real time system/delay news) can be found here: http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/livetravelnews/realtime/tube/default.html

BBC coverage Here.

Oyster Card information
Oyster Card parody card wallets:



--- Paddington Station where the Heathrow Express departs is below:



and this is a little old school Sesame Street clip that still manages to sum it all up today... enjoy!!