25 things

I finally managed to put this together when I had no home internet, one of those '25 fact about me thingys'. It was a facebook thing; but I'm not so fond of facebook, it requires way too much daily commitment so it never ended up there...

1. I play sports like a left-hander, always have. In particular, I intrinsically do it in sports where a fast reaction is required and I don't have time to think.

2. I'm a very visual person. Don't tell me something, show it to me. Even better, just hand me the problem, I'll figure it out on my own.

3. My earliest sport activities as a child were taught by a left hander. I think that's where I picked up some of that influence.

4. When I'm thinking or singing, thoughts or songs come out in a particular language (English, Spanish, Polish, or German) based on my mood.

5. Spanish thoughts or songs come out when I'm content or pleased. German comes out when I'm angry or annoyed. Polish comes out when I need an intellectual challenge, something to chew on, probably due to the myriad of endings and forms to consider.

6. Living in Germany, I found myself drawn to the heavier and darker music I found there like Die Toten Hosen, Rammstein and Kool Savas, rather than chirpy pop like Die Ärzte or Fettes Brot.

7. I learned how to drive manual transmission autos as a necessity while living in Europe as my desire for a small car trumped the challenge of learning a new mechanical skill. I'll never go back to an automatic transmission, even once/if I return to the US.

8. It took me about a month of smacking my right hand against the car door in the UK to figure out that I need to shift with my left hand here. I'm amused when people in the UK are surprised that I drive a manual transmission auto.

9. I've now lived more than one-fifth of my life in Europe. It's not that I don't like the US, but this is the right place for me to be at this time. In the work environment people treat me very well here and that's nothing to dismiss lightly.

10. I plan to go back to school in the fall; I'm intellectually bored. I've been accepted to the London School of Economics into a Master's program, not sure if that will be the final landing spot though.

11. I've been a vegetarian since 2000, but the topic is not something I'm militant about--I won't bring it up in conversation, and I could care less that you eat meat. Occasionally I go vegan when I'm not feeling up to par. If you wish to joke about it, I have no problems and in fact I'll shovel it back at you. I feel better not eating meat--it's a personal choice.

12. I make up for my healthy eating by drinking too much coffee and alcohol. My ultimate weakness is french fries (chips)!

13. If I lived somewhere with pure fishing waters such as Iceland or the Faroes or northern Norway I'd probably start eating fish again.

14. I am an extremely private person and purposely put a limited amount of personal data about myself on the internet, along with no recognizable photos. I've been known to invoke EU Directive 95/46/EC in the office, on principle.

15. If you know me personally, the previous statements won't surprise you.

16. I appreciate people who tell me where to put it, how high to put it, and how I should have put it there last week.

17. I don't suffer fools lightly, never have.

18. I believe in the power of self. If you want something bad enough, you can make it happen. I wanted to work in Europe since forever. Was it easy? No. Could I do it? Of course, it's only a matter of figuring out how to make it happen and having the patience and enough attitude to see it through.

19. Is it easy to work in Europe as an American? Hell no. You must be prepared for your dream to go through the massive spin cycle (multiple times) and see if it survives. You must be prepared to look like an idiot at least once (and probably closer to three) times a day. You must be prepared to endure some very dark and cold days. Would I trade it for anything else? No way.

20. I grew up poor and statistically probably shouldn't have ended up where I did. Was it easy to be the first person in my family to graduate from university? Of course not.

21. In some ways that makes me a little tougher on people. I managed to do it, so should you.

22. I chose to study Spanish when the choices where Spanish, French or Latin because it gave me the best career possibilities from where I was. It has served me very well.

23. I believe that growing up poor is actually an advantage in life. You're not expected to amount to much, so the world is yours for the taking, no expectations. If you can get your act together and have a vision, you become smarter, faster, and stronger. You don't fail, because failure is not an option. You have no safely net, so you excel automatically, as an ingrained habit.

24. This background causes me to root for the underdog. Intelligence coupled with motivation is unstoppable. These are the people whom I seek to work with me.

25. I have a job I like where I'm paid very well to do what I do. The people who report into me are superb and my boss is great; I cannot complain. I believe that you create your own reality and I've created mine.

Recycling in the UK

One thing I really liked about life in Germany was the prevalence of environmentally friendly options which were readily incorporated into daily German life. I had very little garbage there because much of it was placed in the various paper and yard waste containers and yellow sack. So at the end of the day I had less than a small shopping bag of 'true' garbage per month. Glass would be deposited in the pods less than a block from my flat.

Here in the UK I've already noticed more packaging and more plastic. I've researched from the local council's site the recycling options and overall, I find the system to be unconnected at best, disjointed at worst.

To start, I live in a flat building. Recycling is not available to my flat building the way it is to local houses. Boooo Essex! So we have two large dumpsters for 12 flats in the basement of the building which are absolutely full every two weeks. In Germany we had four garbage bins (smaller than those giant wheelie ones in the US or UK) which were emptied twice per month and never packed.

So if I want to recycle, how can I do it?
Here are the giant recycle pods down the street behind 'my' bar, located in a pay parking lot. On the plus side, ther are no quiet hours on them like in Germany so I can bring my glass at any hour it appears.

On the negative side, I can only bring the following four items to these four pods:

1. brown glass

2. green glass

3. clear glass

4. 'food and drink cans' - this category is only for tin or aluminum, not plastic.

So where does my plastic go?

5. I need to haul that with me to the big supermarkets such as Asda or Tesco, they have giant pods too. Or I need to drop it with a friend who has a bin which will accept those.

Where does my paper go?

6. Paper can go to the Tesco box.

What about cardboard?

7. Cardboard is harder to find a home for. There is a box for it in the hidden long term parking lot.

8. The same parking lot has a bin for shoe donations as well.

So why not take everything to Asda or Tesco in the car?

A. I try to avoid the supermarkets in person and don't go so often. Plus--I'm not in the car every day, I'm trying to go to and from the office on foot.

B. Tesco and Asda have a variety of bins depending on which one you go to. This one takes aresol cans, that one doesn't. This one takes plastic and squashes it in an instant machine, that one has pods which are always full and on and on...

Overall--not so impressed yet on this point for my corner of Essex.

Let the games begin...

One thing I was afraid about in moving from Germany to the UK was a rapid (and detrimental) change in my eating style. I ate well in Germany mainly because of a lack of processed and readily available vegetarian foods. It took me a long time to kick the processed, prepared and packaged foods from my daily intake.

Sure I made my periodic sojourns to Holland (where prepared vegetarian food is plentiful) or Belgium (land of the breaded cheese) and then rationed for a few weeks, but for the most part I prepared meals from scratch because I couldn't find good vegetarian options in the German supermarket, beyond frozen french fries and frozen pizza. Yeah sure, there's plenty of bio salad material there, but I try to vary my diet and only have salad as one main meal per day; the other should be something different like pasta and a cooked veg or two. Veg Schnitzel just turned me off, and for the most part I found German convenience veg food to be terribly salty.

Moving forward...mid-August I will have been here six months. I find the UK supermarket options to be closer to the American ones, and I feel myself becoming lazy. The vast availability of Quorn is slowly becoming my undoing as I've attempted to shed all vestiges of my life in Germany...

Periodically I go from vegetarian to vegan when I'm feeling a little sluggish and it's easy enough. To really kick it up and make it a real challenge, I decided for the month of August:
1. to go vegan
2. to give up alcohol

I periodically do both and sometimes inadvertently overlap at various meals, but this time I will purposely overlap for the entire month.

Why?
Why not?

1. I need a bit of a challenge. Just going vegan doesn't phase me, but it will be new to do it in the UK. Giving up alcohol is my January thing; I've never tried it in the summertime.

2. August is a great time to go vegan, the best local produce is in. Many people go on a new diet as of Jan 1, but January is an awful time to go vegetarian or vegan, the options where I've always lived are potatos, onions and cabbage.

3. I'm feeling partially healthy from the 4 miles a day of walking I get in on days when I walk to/from the office. I'm already in this mindset.

4. A side comment someone made to me over the weekend, who then looked up to make sure that I heard it. Noted.

5. I have some friction below the surface trying to figure out how to emerge. Somehow it should be positive change, but I can't yet figure out what it's trying to be.
(If you ever watch House, you're familiar with the tactic when he medically pushes someone to recreate the symtoms of the mystery illness by maxing them out under the same scenario, to try to cause more clues. It's a little of the same here; my ruffling up the status quo I can try to unearth what I'm currently not able to figure out.)

6. It will be great blog fodder, and it's all about you. ;-)

I'll try to keep up the posting on the sorts of things I'm eating here in the UK. Because it's me, they're guaranteed to be frugal. ;-)

Anything specific you'd like to know during this fun-filled month of healthly living (food photos, ingredients, cost, etc)? Leave a comment and I'll be sure to address it.

The cat in action

*don't worry, this won't become a cat blog!
however I took the cat out on a leash on the roof terrace tonight...since we're four floors up and she's only been an inside cat, we're working only on the halter leash at this at this point.

I'm not sure which part of this video is most fascinating:
-where she bops her head against the glass wall (and really, they're not clean enough to justify that one away!)
-or where she steps on her own leash
-or where she blatantly stares through the fence at the neighbors
Slocombe at her finest:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnnyPNsPLG0

In front of Tesco

Can't you imagine a bunch of UK marketing folks...
What is American?
-Cheeseburgers?
-No brownies!
-No chips!
-What about soda??

Heck, let's just do it all...

Online grocery shopping in the UK

If you read even 10% of my posts you probably know that I despise shopping. It's not just brick and mortar shopping, I don't want to spend hours online shopping either. Not sure if it's the cheapness factor, or moreso the desire to limit the amount of clutter entering this tiny flat.

The past few times I've been schlepping cans of refried beans and bottles of fizzy water up the steps, I've been heavily considering alternatives. I had dropped fizzy water from the Heather rotation, as well as beer (glass bottles too heavy for four flights of stairs and I'm not so fond of cans as they don't go cold enough), plus having to park down the street after 6 PM as I don't have parking yadda, yadda...

Perhaps my brain was being slow (and thinking only in German mode where online grocery shopping is not yet available--correct me on that?) but it took me about six weeks to give this a spin. I think I'm a convert based on this first experience.

I was guessing I needed to go with Asda, Tesco or Sainsbury online. Asda is my mainstay, so I decided to start with that one. Sure there's deliver to my postal code (I'm in the heavily populated area, so I'm not surprised there.) Now it becomes interesting...supply and demand...different delivery times have different prices.

As we all know--Heather in Europe may have well have grown up in a depression because I went for one of the cheapest slots. Most interesting to me--for my postcode, shopping on a Tuesday evening, I could book until 10 PM for a Wednesday delivery which was the cheapest. I love economics. Wednesday and Thursday are the same for me this week--make Wednesday 1 GBP cheaper and you can influence my behavior.

More interesting--certain slots have a little truck icon:
'Reduce carbon emissions. A van might be in your area.'
However, those prices are the same as the ones immediately before and after. I expect You, Asda, to be smarter and manipulate my behavior using your technology and data. If you'd knock it down another 50 p or 1 pound, I'd sign up. If you're already coming to my building for another order it's a sunk cost for you...

So off I go online to shop. I know the Asda prices of the items I buy regularly and they were the same online. I know I need a refill on items like cans of catfood. In addition, I'm in one of my Mexican moods so every dinner for myself alone for the past 10 days has been Mexican. Load up the fajitas and refried beans!

So I go through the online browsing and clicking and paying. I love techonology! Tonight, my delivery slot is 6 to 8 PM. Tick tock. At 7.50 the driver calls--where are you on your street? At the end, where it meets this street. OK, be there shortly. Ten minutes later, another call...I'm in front of (Heather's local pub), but I cannot find you? Hold on, I'll pop out.

So seeing from whence I came, he now found me and is able to schlep up my Entire Order in one go, up four flights of stairs. Keep in mind, I was going all out with the heavy things thinking this would be a once a month or once every three weeks adventure. Therefore, my very heavy order included:
-4 bottles of 2 liter fizzy water
-7 bottles of wine. I was very excited to find some non-alcoholic wine options to try as these are not available in my local store
-12 cans of cat food
10 cans of refried beans
And such a sweetheart, at the door he says, 'well that was a workout, but at least I now know where you are for next time.'

I can only imagine what he thinks--no veg or fresh things (I still want to pick those things out myself from the farmers' market), a plethora of white wine and every el paso Mexican item made in the UK because there was a good sale on.

Final verdict: I'm a big fan. OK--so I had said 'no substitues' on any out of stock items and they were out of my on-sale organic eggs. However, I like fizzy water and I've missed it over the past few weeks. 3.50 GBP (4.05 EUR/5.76 USD) is a very small price for me to pay to avoid 5 miles of driving/exhorbitant petrol cost and the hassle of wandering around the store and waiting in line and packing it up and putting it in the car, parking up, and making multiple trips up and down the four flights of stairs.

I'll definitely do it again, and probably with Asda. Tesco gets on my nerves because their computer system is not up to date so I cannot register my address online for their loyalty card (the address has been here for almost three years so I expect some better technology) and Sainsbury charges more for delivery in general, so those 3,50 slots are few and fair between for my postal code, whereas they're pretty easy to get with Asda.

So here it is Wednesday night and I'm already looking forward to a weekend which won't involve going to a supermarket. Things couldn't get much better on a Wednesday night...

Frugal clothes drying - the roof terrace clothesline

One of the things which caused me to fall in love with this flat is the outside roof terrace space, although primarily I was thinking of the gardening and bbq prospects...

Here in Europe I've lived in various temporary accomodation over the past six plus years, or visited the places of colleagues. As most have been flats and not houses and most have been older places, seeing a clothes dryer has been a rare sight. My first UK company provided place had a combination washer/dryer, but it didn't dry so well...

I had one place in Germany with a dryer-it was in the shared cellar and I was on the top floor so washing clothes and then trekking down to put them into the dryer and then remembering to get them before they sat too long and wrinkled was a hassle. Although I couldn't complain--my two colleagues in company provided housing had shared dryers; one had allocated days/times in which it could be used, the other shared with four other washing machines so one had to move their clothes quickly from this one dryer lest someone either complain or take it upon themselves to fold your clothes.

My new place came with the existing washing machine included (in the kitchen). I like having the washing machine here in the flat as opposed to the German option of in the shared cellar. It is a perfectly fine machine which should last a few more years, but it is a washing machine only, not a combination washer/dryer. (I don't have a dishwasher either, but that is a separate post!) I must say, I do like the UK standard of white goods staying in the flat, as opposed to the German norm where they tend to move with you.

As I moved into the new place and was looking at the space, I pondered whether or not a clothesline would possibly work, mainly because I was spacing out my outlay of cash (the trashpicked German drying rack didn't make the move), as well as that I figured that line drying outside would allow the clothes to dry faster.

I gave it a spin on the corner of the back terrace, the one which gets afternoon and evening sun:

Here is the view from that corner. The neighbors below have a great outside area which they rarely use:

This direction is actually stores: two hair salons, a dentist, a pizza place, a pet store, etc, so I don't feel that I'm influencing the view as this back space is never used.

While standing in the corner, here is the view of the rest of the terrace (before the garden was established):

The verdict after 1,5 months:

-so far so good, but it's summertime. I like the freshness of clothes drying outside, and I do get a good breeze up here, so I think in general they dry faster than they would inside.

-I'm definitely saving any electricity costs associated with a dryer, which is a good thing, as well as any envirnomental costs, nevermind the cost of the machine itself.

The negatives?

-It is the UK, so it tends to rain a lot, and often unexpectedly. So my clothes could dry while I'm in the office during the day but by the time I get home and there's a sudden rainfall I'm stuck to give them time to dry again. Doing the one set of bedding involves excessive planning and weather watching. ;-)

Would I change to a washer/dryer if I could once this washer wears out?

Eh, maybe. I wasn't so impressed with the only UK washer/dryer I used, and air drying seems to be more gentle on my clothes and more a habit now, (similar to how having a dryer is a standard habit in the US).

the catching up: the cat

now that the internet is back, here's what's been shaking around here this past month. introducing Slocombe:

-->Yes, the name comes from where you think it comes. Looking back, this probably wasn't appropriate for American Public Broadcasting, where I grew up watching it on Channel 12 WHYY in the Phillyland area.

She's 11, she came from here. (11 in cat years is around 60 person years.)

So far, she's adjusting fairly well. She's a mighty huntress of fake mice and live moths. I'm not quite sure what she does during the day while I'm at the office, but I suspect she sleeps on the sofa and gets on the kitchen counter. Otherwise she's quite a spendid cat, very clever. Or perhaps even more clever, to save those forbidden activities for when I am not present. ;-)

Return from the dead

After a painfully long hiatus, I am finally on the internet at home. Saturday morning with my coffee and online access and suddenly the world looks brighter. So much catching up to do...

Vaguely impressed

Four days of walking to and from work (over an hour together per day), plus additional walking in the evening for errands, etc, (two nights was another hour in addition) and I can feel the difference in a positive way. Funny how little effort it takes really to make a difference.

My commute

Is a 30-35 minute walk of 2.03 miles, 75% of which is through the park system, the remainder being sidewalks. I find it to be the perfect start and end to the work day. My old commute in Germany was 4 kilometers over sidewalks but the most direct route was also the most direct auto route so it was a constant stream of BMWs in the morning and evening. I find this one to be a more agreeable, although I may switch to the main thoroughfare and avoid the park once winter sets in and it's dark and with few people.

Right now it's interesting to observe the people coming and going; I have a reverse commute in that I'm heading toward the city outskits from the center while others are coming in for their jobs or the train station. It's a great mix of people being creative--today I saw a man in full suit, perhaps 40 or so, on a skateboard. Usually bicycles or scooters are the mode of transport when not on foot. For now I'm sticking with walking as I think it gives a decent form of exercise and the distance doesn't justify a bicycle (at this point) for me.

My tax money at work

Living on the fourth floor rooftop flat with no elevator, I very quickly came to the conclusion that I will get a compost bin to avoid carting ridiculous amounts of compost up the stairs to support my gardening habit, as well as having to avoid carrying large amounts of garden trash down the stairs. (I acknowledge, this one is more lazyness than environmental do-goodism.) I checked the large homegoods store down the street--there were a few nice looking options. Although, grumble, grumble, why does a big plastic box cost 50 pounds?

So I was pleasantly pleased to find out that Essex County Council offers a subsidized compost bin scheme. A giant subsidized box has now been ordered. I love living here!

Texas-sized

Everything in Europe is smaller than in America, and my flat in my corner of Essex is smaller than my flat was in Germany. When recently purchasing a litter box for the cat at a big-box pet retailer, there were four options: small, medium, large, and jumbo.

I had a moment of confusion, because small was about the size of a 9 inch cakepan, and medium didn't look much bigger. Jumbo was on par with a litterbox one would find in America, but it was labelled for two or more cats.

As I mentioned this out loud and that this wasn't much space for the cat to use, my UK shopping partner politely pointed out that of course the boxes would be smaller here--everything is bigger in America, and that the cat would be accustomed to this small size.

Duh, of course. I've gotten used to the smaller housing, cars, and McDonald's portions--I never considered it would apply to the cat too.

So I went with the medium sized version and she's getting along fine for aiming and use, excluding the issue that she sometimes in trying to cover the output she whacks the top edge of the box repeatedly with her paw instead of the inside litter. Not sure what that is about...

The minimal lifestyle

Living in my Heather-sized flat in Essex, I have the opportunity to stay minimalized in possessions. Coming over from Germany, I took the chance to cull out anything which did not please me or no longer fit my lifestyle--clothing, dishes, books, etc. with the idea that I would replace anything I eventually missed. Now, being in a smaller space, there's no chance to purchase anything new unless something is outgoing. It's somewhat of a pleasant, de-cluttered feeling.

Friday evening

Will be having a glass of Spanish wine on the roof terrace, because it still feels like Spain here...

Still continuing to get things in order and watching them slowly fall into place.