Sunday in the UK

Since the car is in the shop, had a day at home catching up on things. Started the day with a proper coffee. This is my baby French press, purchased while in Guildford. It makes one cup. Usually I think it makes sense to try to do things as people do them locally, to experience how others live...but this is one of my few concessions to my American-ness. I will no longer tolerate instant coffee. When I lived here previously I actually gave up coffee, rather than continuing to live the lie that instant coffee is.

Late morning, made some mushooms on toast, topped with crumbled goats' cheese. Nothing too fancy, I sauteed them in olive oil and added some pepper and dried mixed herbs.

I reviewed the remaining mushroom stockpile, and set the majority in the freezer.

I messed around a little in the garden as the weather here was lovely in the early afternoon...

While I was outside, I had the washing on inside. In America, I don't know anyone with a drying rack. In Europe, I don't know anyone without one. The UK ones uniformly go upward rather than the Germany ones which go horizontal. Not sure that one design is any better than the other...

Caught up on some housecleaning with all of the windows open. When the sky went overcast around 15.00, I nipped over to Asda, which is open on Sunday from 10-16. Was off in search of some fresh cleaning supplies, which I found. I was also seeking breadcrumbs to top my cauliflower, but those I didn't find. Not sure if they sell what I'm looking for in the UK, will need to investigate that one further online.

Caught up on some paperwork, assembled lunch for the office tomorrow. Feeling relaxed and set for the work week.

Cheeseman and frugal mushrooms

After work I took advantage of my carless state this week and the warm weather and walked into town. Friday afternoons and Saturdays there is a market in the downtown area and I wanted to buy more of that goat's cheese I had bought last time I was there, as well as to stop in at Oxfam and look at the books.

After book shopping, I stopped by to have a chat with the cheeseman. He remembered me from before, even before I opened my mouth (well played cheeseman!). I was expecting to be remembered only after he heard the accent. (Am finding not so many Americans in this immediate area.) He had sold out of the one I bought last time, so I went with a different, but similar, goat's cheese. Last time he had mentioned, he could bring me other varieties of goat's cheese if requested in advance, he just doesn't usually bring so many to this market as it's not his biggest seller. So next Friday he'll be bringing a herb-crusted goat's cheese and keeping it under the counter for me. Super, I have a 'local dealer'. ;-)

After that, I stopped by the main veg stand. I've bought a few things there, they are a better value than the supermarket, but they are still not completely local. At the end of the stall, they have the '1 Pound' bowls. It's a collection of things they'll sell off for a pound--things that are reaching the end of their sellable life, or maybe the last of the box of something they're selling, etc.

As it was nearing closing time, it was a great time to visit, as they were dropping the prices on things to clear them out. Stopping by the 1 Pound area, I was pleased as punch to find a super deal on mushrooms (tough to see these are about 2-3 inches across), 2 Pounds for a very large box:

They're looking a little worse for the wear from a long trip home, but overall they are divine.

How many mushrooms did I get for 2 Pounds (2.26 EUR/2.97 USD)?

-->46!

To give you some perspective, a package of three to five of these runs just under one Pound at Asda.

Here, my cost per mushroom is about 4 pence GBP/5 cents EUR/6 cents USD, nevermind the fact that I love mushrooms.

6 of them were sliced and given a quick boil to go over tonight's fresh pasta. Now only 40 more to figure out. I'll be looking into some freezable recipe options by Sunday night lest I turn into a mushroom myself from unadulterated consumption this weekend. :-)

The outside garden so far

Garlic:


Garlic, onions, and potatoes. The potatoes are in small pots on a temporary basis until I get to more permanent digs.

Pretty pleased with how things are turning out so far...

The Germany shopping list

Last week, while I was 'vacationing' at my work colleague's flat, she had asked if I wanted anything from Germany. She goes back on a regular basis, normally the car is almost empty on the UK to DE leg, but full on the return, mainly to take advantage of cheaper prices in DE.

(On the Easter weekend trip they took English mustard and 7 of those gigantic UK chocolate eggs from the UK to Germany, and enough food to survive the drive/ferry over.)

I thought long and hard of what I would be missing from DE which I could not find here. OK, so there's no Koelsch in my immediate vicinity, but plenty of other German beers if I feel the urge. I'm an hour plus north of my colleague and I was coming home before her return, so it needed to be something which would keep for some weeks until I see her again.

What could I possibly need from Germany which is not available in the UK??
-->German pillows!

I am so psyched. My DE pillows were at the end of their natural life when I was leaving, so I tossed them. Currently I'm on borrowed bedding for a few more weeks, so I haven't had to purchase UK ones...and nothing against the UK pillows, they're ok, but....

They are not the big marshmellow squares of fluffy goodness that is Germany pillows.

For example, here is an Ikea Germany version, 80x80: http://www.ikea.com/de/de/catalog/products/30125273

Its Ikea UK counterpart, 50x80:
http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/70129113

And notice the weight difference--Germany's 1230 g vs. the UK's 1065 g.

I am very lucky to have good friends...I received a call on Thursday while at the office...we're in the store in the pillow aisle, here are your options...so two 15 Euro pillows, plus dark pillowcases were purchased and got to take the ferry ride over from Dover and are currently relaxing in Guildford until such time that the drop-off can be exchanged. :-)

Easter wrap-up: US vs UK chocolate goodies

Apparently the Easter bunny must have special sources of information, because he sent a delegate with dark chocolate on Easter Monday who was able to find me to deliver even though I wasn't at home. ;-)

Most interesting to me in the UK--gigantic Easter hollow chocolate eggs own the show (note my 2 liter water bottle for size comparison purposes):

In the US, I don't recall ever seeing such giant eggs. As a norm, the US has chocolate bunnies, like this, which sometimes are filled with something like caramel in the smaller ones:

(Courtesy of Amazon)

(Also from Amazon)

Also noticeably missing in the UK from my US point of view: Peeps.

But overall it was a very nice Easter in a pleasant location with good company.

...and one can never complain about a four day weekend in any event! ;-)

Signs from the South

I spend too much time studying signs. In Germany no office ladies toilet is complete without a cartoon toilet brush ordering one to use it correctly.

In the UK last week there were no such cartoons, but this one stuck out for me because of the use of the word 'please' and 'now':

The US version would look a little more like this:

(From http://www.designerysigns.com/osha-signs.html)

My favorite kitchen sign last week is from below:

If case you have difficulties to read this, here is the text, but converted from all uppercase to mixed case:

Milk is provided for tea and coffee.
With the exception if you commence work at 7 AM or before. You may use on cereals.

If not Please provide your own milk.

This one interests me because we have a similar sign in the Essex office, to not use milk on cereal, but it does not have the 7 AM exclusion.

I'm not sure why this sticks out to me except that:

-I've never seen such a sign in the US.

-Probably because we don't have gallons of milk in the office fridge.

-Probably because we're not proper tea drinkers, and the only milk for coffee drinkers is often coffee-mate or those little packets of cream which require no refrigeration.

Easter weekend travel foibles

I'm beginning to think that I should lock the doors and shut the shades and lay low for the four day Easter weekend.

Last year, I had gone camping in lovely Austria. I had returned Easter Sunday to a car which wouldn't start at the train station. As it was Easter Sunday, it had taken me over an hour to get by train from the airport (usually a quick 32 minute door to door trip) so I was already cranky.

As it was Germany on Easter Sunday, I knew that to call the car helpline would be useless as it wasn't a car emergency. The car was safely parked at the train station. Plus, I didn't feel like battling the helpline people who would skewer my crap German. So I decided just to take the bus home as nothing was open Easter Monday where I would need to drive, and then to have my work colleague deal with it on Tuesday.

Of course I just missed the 'once per hour Easter Sunday schedule' bus. As I was considering my options, it was hella cold and it started to spit flurries. Fortunately, I had not yet eaten and the Turkish pizza was open, so I went there to burn 45 minutes. Upon coming back to the bus station, a little crowd was waiting for the bus. A young man comes up to me and says something.

Not feeling in the mood, I claimed ingorance, of only speaking English, sorry. He seems stymied for a moment as he walks away and starts looking for something in his bag. He comes back in two minutes--perhaps this is better?

Yes, it was the Watchtower (the Jehovah's Witness publication), in English. Fortunately, he had his school English, and was now mentally prepared to give me the song and dance, in English, including the info that there are English meetings in Cologne.

I looked Heavenward, pondering the state of life.
Easter Sunday in Germany--probably no way to get someone to fix up the car as it's Easter Sunday in Germany--not willing to stress myself out trying to log the case in German--stuck in the freezing cold waiting for the bus on a commute which became 2,5 hours when it was normally 1 hour 10...and someone is trying to convert me.

-Fast forward, Easter 2009
Today, I was out and about shopping. I had a whole little circuit planned to maximize my time. What I didn't plan for was my driving ineptitute, and managing to whack a curb on the highway while going at highway speeds. If you were behind me on the highway, you would have thought I was drunk driving at 10.30 AM--no, just 'American driving'.

I made it ok to my destination after that. (OK meaning, if the trip time is estimated at 30 min, I add on one third of that to get lost.) I managed to give a good gash onto the hubcap. This is actually the 3rd time I've done this to a Benevolent Company J car, mind you. My only car incidents in my life are bumping curbs. For some reason, I can parallel park to within an inch either up or down hill, but God forbid I have a wide turn to make, all bets are off.

After shopping, I noticed that the tire was a teeny bit deflated. Considering how I whacked it, this was not surprising. I popped into a tire place on the way out to see what they had to say. They were able to look at it on the spot, and yes, that is an issue.

(Around this time, I was pondering how this would have worked in Germany...here's how it looked in my head:
-No, we cannot look at anything for the next three weeks, we're booked.
-Heck, they would have been closed Easter Saturday at 13.00 in any event.
-How did you manage to do this (insert withering stare here, of disbelief at such stupidity).
-Tsk tsk. or Haw-haw-haw, stupid American woman driver.)

Returning to reality....three guys looked at it. The one had mentioned, it probably needs a new tire, but how about they put on the spare so that I can get home? Duh, I hadn't thought to that angle. I was pondering that I would be trapped in Southeastern England, and today is the day I am scheduled to go home.

I am directed to a waiting room where I watch three of them zip to it, and 7 minutes later, it's done. (That included removing the case of local organic apple juice I had just bought out of the trunk to get to the tire.) As he looks in the boot for the tire, he doesn't say anything about the tray of tomato seedlings I have resting on the back shelf, although I see him giving it a quizzical look. "Sorry, I'm hauling around all this crap." His answer-->No worries, that's what a trunk is for, to haul around crap (smile).

They pop back into the office--all done. I ask, what's the damage. The answer? No cost, we only put on the spare tire for you. -->Are you serious?? Yep, for us that's hardly work (smile).

I adore this country.

Perspective

I am a strong believer in:

"Change your location, to change your perspective, to change your thoughts."

(I imagine others would spin it from the other direction:
"change your thoughts, to change your perspective, to change your life")

I studied English and Spanish Literature as my undergraduate degree. I had to take one 'Modern Literature' requirement to fulfill the requirements--I chose 'Modern Literary Criticism'. It was the one of the best things I have ever fallen into, having fought it a little prior to sucking it up and succumbing to it. My primary reason for choosing it was that I didn't like the 'primary' Modern Lit professor, so I wanted something from the 'secondary' one, and this fit the schedule as well as making me more well-rounded, as it was my final year and I had no such course earlier.

One of the main items I took away from this course was the point of one of the essays, to paraphrase:
"All great works of art (literature, music, painting, etc) only come after turbulent historical times. Strife creates emotion which creates art."
It proceeded to give multiple examples, such as Picasso and others in connection to WW2, and other historical examples along the same vein.

I believe that holds true overall in life. One cannot create greatness without having to overcome something in the process. Great things do not come after steady times, they only come after strife where one can truly find oneself.

I had a few different seats this week, so I met some different people and had a chance to see and talk to different people than usual....

Most interesting to me this week--there is a woman at Benevolent Company J who is very close to my age, perhaps in a similar career level in a different area, who is an expat over here in the UK. I had met her about five years ago or so in the US. We could not be more different as she has a very different personality and style from me. Nothing against her personally, we have pleasant enough conversations, but we are exact opposites in personality and style so we have very little common ground.

She came to the UK almost two years ago as an expat for benevolent company J and has decided to go home after her two year assignment here. A few key points:

-I spent the first five months of my company J career in the UK.
-In retrospect, I would have loved to stay here instead of going to DE.
-Going to DE made me a lot stronger, so it's not necessarily bad.

I was interested to hear why she was going home. After having to jump through a lot of hoops to make the UK happen for myself, I was curious as to her incentives to go home, as Benevolent company J would have preferred that she stay another year or more.

"It's just too hard here!"
Most interesting. And I do mean that quite seriously, I like to try to understand what people say, and why they say it.

Tonight is the Thursday of Easter weekend. My DE colleagues--I'm sure you battled the crowds today to shop as the stores are closed tomorrow. They're mobbed again Saturday, and then (shudder) closed Sunday and Monday. (Thus the source of my annual exodus to the Netherlands.)

-->Do you want to know the UK schedule for the big supermarkets?

Open Thursday (normal hours)
Open Friday
Open Saturday
Closed Easter Sunday
Open Monday

I would never have appreciated this properly, had I not lived in DE where everything ground to a halt this weekend. Or worse, I had to leave this weekend, because DE was shut-down in effect, for visiting with family (of which I had none in DE).

So it's nothing against the DE way of life, or my US colleage for going home...but I am so very happy to be over here right now. I think I tend to appreciate it more having seen other options...and I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing...

How to humor me

While on the drive South today I stopped for a coffee from a little stand along the highway. My expectations were rather low, for a coffee stand which is brought along behind a car which seemed to be in the 'wrong' directions for the commute. Imagine my surprise to see a 60+ gentleman in a full white outfit including the hat, who asked 'what would you like today, Sweetheart?' upon my walking up. Obviously he loves what he does--as I was getting back in the car and on the cell phone while still parked, I caught him waving to some cars and trucks who beeped to him. Genuinely being called Sweetheart and served real (not instant) black coffee what a super start to the morning.

Part of my trip to Guildford this week was to visit the Portsmouth area office for a day as it was only an hour or so from here. During the past six years, I've probably visited 30 or so offices of Benevolent Company J. It can be quite interesting, because on one hand Company J is a large American company, but on the other hand, it's interesting to see how various offices in different countries conduct business, crafting solutions to similar problems through local protocols.

I've visited a few offices where parking is at a premium or non-existent. Mainly there are workaround such as parking at another location or catching a ride from another colleague. Here in Southeastern England, I got a named visitor parking spot for the day, the first time I've ever seen such a solution at one of our offices. The front desk controls reservations so my colleague managed to get me on the list for one of the four visitor spots:

I was here doing some work for this main colleague today, along with a newer, local fill-in colleague for a second piece.
Colleague 1: Do you think you can work with this like Heather has it, Colleague 2?
Colleague 2: I think so. Although it would be better if it included x and y. Although if that's too hard to do, that's ok...
Colleague 1: Say it if you want it while "the Wizard" is here with us today.
Heather (muttering): I am 'The Wizard'??
Colleague 1: (under her breath) of course, you make the magic happen!
Colleague 1: Yes, Colleague 2, 'the Wiz' will try to sort that for you, but you won't get won't you won't ask for, so speak up.

I had such a great time in the South being humored with such special nicknames and rock star parking that I'll go back on Thursday as I need a place to sit that day. If I manage to remember the right highway point, I'll try to stop off at the same place for coffee too.

The American influence in Guildford

The writing may be difficult to read here. It says:

Inkwell & Ivy The OFFICIAL apparel of the IVY LEAGUE

Rare and cult American imported brands

I'm not sure how the British poster in the window fits into the mix:

I haven't been to one of these in at least 10 years. Curious about the local menu?

Eating in Guildford

On Saturday, I spent a few hours downtown exploring Guildford's High Street. I wasn't feeling up to either the Dutch pancakes or the German sausage. True to form, the German stall was selling jarred hotdogs and the Dutch lady (in the photo, she was on the way to talk to the German guy) had not only an orange apron, but also orange shoes.

I had a feeling that in a town like (upper crust and posh) Guildford, I'd be able to find somewhere with a strong vegetarian bent. Sure enough, found The Fooderie on Swan Lane just off of the High Street:


They have a tiny corner bar area for eating (where I caught the girl in the photo), but mainly it's a take away sandwich place. I had a lovely chat with the owner, she had started it about a year ago as a vegetarian/vegan sandwich place, but she had to expand outward a bit as business just wasn't good enough. So she also sells sandwiches with local free range eggs and local meats. She'll be expanding into an upstairs area to have actual seating.


I had asked for a recommendation for a hot vegan sandwich. She suggested grilled veg with hummus. My photo doesn't really do it justice, the sandwich was superb, so much so that I sucked down half of it before remembering to take a photo:

A work colleague had recommended to check out the Guildford Saturday market, knowing that I am a vegetarian. I had stumbled upon it early in the day but didn't want to have to carry things around, so I made it my last stop before leaving.

Overall, I thought it was OK, better than shopping at Tesco I guess. I was a little lucky, it was the end of the day and they were starting to drop the prices a bit to sell things off. Mostly they were selling pre-bagged items, the bags were around 1 or 1.20 GBP, but by the time I was there they were dropping most to 1 GBP if they weren't already. I bought 2 bags of tomoatos, zuchinni, mushrooms and pears. (And there are two bottles of organic wine, coffee, and a book I bought at Oxfam.)

Ever curious as to the source of my food, I was pleasantly surprised to find UK sourced spinach (OK, from Lancashire, not exactly from around the corner, but at least from on the happy island.) I was not so impressed upon inquiring about the asparagus....it came from Mexico, so I decided to skip that one. Not so impressive when you consider that Europe's asparagus season is almost upon us.

My colleague had mentioned that I should eat any of the cheese, veg or bread in the house which would go bad before her return, so I went a little creative here with some different things. My work colleague is German, so of course there was no jar of pasta sauce here. However, everything was here that I needed to make my own.

She had left half a yellow bell pepper. I combined it with garlic and half an onion, and added the market tomatos. I then sliced in a few of the mushrooms and one zuchinni and simmered it up. I had brought along the spinich ravioli and some goat's cheese from the Essex farmer's market. I put the whole thing on a bed of Italian watercress which I found in the fridge. Overall, I'm pleased the way this one turned out:

Next up, more Guildford adventures...

From Guildford

I'm living the good life this week. Here are my temporary digs (my work colleague's flat):

My view from where I sit with the PC:

The view from the window, of where I may sit with a book tomorrow, depending upon the weather:

I had a great day exploring downtown Guildford today, which is worthy of a whole post itself. That will be next up...

The past two nights

I took to the backyard for some fresh air. I think the first night had some frost overnight and was a little chilly. The second reminded me of the Faroes, to wake up to a swift wind in the morning and a grey sky. It was later explained as a North wind here.

In the afternoon it was quite pleasant when I took the tent down and spent an hour or so setting up the remaining garden things I needed to do at this time. The first two outside plants have appeared at the same time, here is one of them, a garlic:

Currently, I'm enjoying a work colleague's comfortable sofa in Guildford (having driven two hours South tonight) feeling very relaxed under a fluffy duvet and with a German pillow (yes, one of the big square ones imported in!).

UK Muesli

In general I'm not much of a breakfast person, but I do like cereal anytime during the day. In Germany I fell in love with all natural unsweetened musli. While in Germany I ate cereal every day in the office at around 10 AM, and it's a habit I've continued here. Gotta keep the priorities straight--coffee at 0730 first and foremost, food later. Since arriving I've been trying various UK crunchy cereals and mueslis, this is my current one:

**Today's quiz: Where was this Swiss Style Muesli which I bought in the UK (at Asda) produced?

Your prize? A postcard from the South, where I'm going for the next week or so. Or we can be environmental and skip the postcard and give you online bragging rights instead. ;-)

Chalking up another cultural faux pas

I still hold that language and behavior is learned through unconscious effort as much, if not more than purposely learned skills. Since I am highly cognizant right now of cultural norms, as I try to figure out what I don't know, I'm picking everything apart that I see, hear, and feel and analyzing it to try to make sense of it.

(Sidenote: be glad that you're not a British person with regular communication with me--otherwise you are subject to daily grilling on topics like 'what is the correct response to 'Cheers' like when someone holds open a door?-->Answer: to make eye contact and nod.)

I find it somewhat fuzzy to pick up the cultural norms. On one hand, the shared native English language and many similar societal norms ease the process, but at the same time that comfort level only serves to make one lazy or complacent in not studying closely enough the rules as one would in a vastly different landscape. To pick up the correct behaviors one needs to concentrate as many of these habits are not remotely in the same ballpark as as their American equivalents. Or--I've been too long out of American to recognize what I see here.

S0 in the early wee hours of drunken debauchery on Saturday I had asked someone a question which was met with hesitation before answering. It was in line with a standard German dinner table question (which would make the average American blanch, as well as the average Brit apparently) where anything along ths lines of the below would be fine, such as:

-how much money do you make?
-how much did your house cost/do you pay in rent?
-any question about bedroom behavior...
-any questions about whatever physically can be seen (weight, ethnicity, disability etc.)
-->if you are an expat living in Germany, I suspect you could add at least 10 more...

Even more interesting (and painful) to me--I didn't catch it before I asked it, that this question wouldn't been seen as innocuous. Just call me German direct, Ach mein Gott! Even worse--I had asked this exact question to a German once and it was honestly answered without blinking, leading to an interesting discussion. It's not something I would have done before living in Germany. This directness was something I really fine-tuned upon living there, and after about the third year I was comfortable with it.

But here--the last thing I wanted to do was to make someone uncomfortable. And worse--I'm not German, so I should have known better.

If this post appears

It means that the weather is great here in Essex on a Monday and I'm working in the garden on the side hustle. I spent 6 hours inside there on Saturday, because the weather was too wet to work outside.

My latest conclusions from this gig:
- You couldn't pay me enough to own a farmhouse. It was raining buckets on Saturday and the water flooded the floor of the laundry room area. In addition the gutter was clogged so it was dripping through a wall seam into the kitchen.

- Big space requires major upkeep to look nice. 6 bedrooms plus 3 bathrooms and a full living room, dining room etc. requires a lot of work plus a lot of heating costs, in particular with the lack of double glazing. Just to maintain it weekly once it's cleaned up will require hours in vacuuming alone. Not that I can complain--more work for me. :-)

Back onto the letter mystery

A while back I mentioned the Greek mystery WW2 letter which I need to get translated at some point for my genealogy research. The colleague who was going to do it left the company and then I was busy with the move from Germany to the UK. Right before I left Germany, I had dinner with my French colleague.

My French colleague's town is twinned with a Greek town. Each year the students travel between France and Greece for a week on each side to increase their cultural understanding. So the Greek student comes for a week and spends it in the French household and then the French student does the reverse, visiting Greece. My work colleague's daughter and her 'Greek sister' were randomly paired up and hit it off so well that they chose to be paired off together in subsequent years and still remain in close contact years later as a result of this program.

So my work colleague told her daughter about this Greek letter. The daughter told her Greek friend who told her family who are intrigued. So tomorrow a copy of the letter goes to the older sister of the Greek sister who is good at English to translate.

How did I come to these arrangements today since it's a weekend and I'm not in work to be speaking with my French colleague?
French colleague's daughter and I are connected on Facebook. :-)

Third country culture shock

This coming week marks six years since I first moved to Europe. Moving from Germany to the UK has put me in a bit of a strange position as an American expat to the UK.

-I'm in a completely different position in life than I was six years ago when I first arrived in the UK, and I was only here for 5 months before moving to Germany, so I find it hard to compare my 'new' UK time with my 'old' UK time.

-The people here tend to pick up that I'm an American and usually ask about the biggest difference I see in life here than in America. There's a moment where I stutter and then cannot think of anything to say. Because I've been mainly out of the US for so long I'm not making so many comparisons with the US, but more with my recent Germany life. This may also be because so many UK things are so similar to US things that they do not really stick out as differences, vs. there are differences between UK and Germany things.

-I convert all Pound Sterling prices to Euro in my head to figure out if something is a good price. Then if I'm talking to an American about prices I convert the Euro amount to US dollars. Not sure when I'll break this currency triangulation and go direct from GBP to USD.

-The only German I've heard here has been in the office.

-When I'm torked about something here, the voice in my head speaks German or my immediate response is to speak German. When I'm speaking German in the office on the phone to my colleagues in Germany, it's not because I don't want the UK colleagues to understand; it's because I'm annoyed and that's how it comes out of my mouth automatically, in a torrent. I'm wondering if/when I will break this habit.

-I'm shuddering at the amount of packaging existing in this country on everything one buys and the proliferation of plastic bags given away free. OK that I miss about Germany--the collective environmental nature of society there and how recycling is woven into daily life as a norm rather than an exception.

More frugalness: my new side hustle

"Good things come to those who wait, only the things left by those who hustle."

I'm a big fan of the side hustle (a little side job), always have been. One of my favorite frugal writers talks more about the concept here.

Side hustles I've done over the past few years:
-English tutor
-Spanish tutor
-Algebra tutor
-Statistics for non-math majors tutor
-Flower delivery person
-Babysitter for a couple who were starting up a restaurant
-Lawn mower

When I first arrived in the UK, I didn't have so much to do, not yet knowing anyone. In addition, I started working earlier hours to avoid the traffic thus ending up with even more free time.

In addition, I feel all my energy and creativity which has been dormant in Germany coming back. I find a side hustle a great way to learn about something outside of my normal work world.
For fun, I put an ad up on gumtree (more popular here than craigslist), offering to do odd jobs on an occasional basis, just to see what would appear. I have a varied set of 'Girl Friday' skills: gardening, cleaning, organizing, packing, grandma driver, babysitter, whatever.

A woman called me, she had a farmhouse which she had been renting, and she wanted help to put it back into tiptop shape after the last tenants (four young men). We spoke and then I popped over to see the place earlier in the week.

It's a 200 year farmhouse, with a large backyard, pool, overlooking rural land. It's beautiful, with all of the old woodwork, a solid structure which just needs a heck of a lot of work to put it back in order. It's the type of place that when populated by a family really needs a regular gardener, cook, nanny, etc. She's decided not to rent it again, but instead to get it in order to sell it sometime in the summer.

I was over there tonight for 3,5 hours and we spent the majority of time on the kitchen. The gentlemen didn't really do regular cleaning, it seems, as there was a layer of grease on everything. They spilled sugar in the cabinet and it melded to the shelf, they spilled rice in the back of another cabinet, left a large amount of useless crap to throw out, and on and on. After both of us working together for 2,5 hours, it now looks like a farmhouse kitchen which you'd see in a magazine. We scoured from the top of the cabinets to the floor. The pure beauty of the place is underneath all of the months of disuse. In addition, she bought some flowers and plants so that as it goes in order she's adding the staging bits to get it ready to show, so it really looks super.

I spent the last hour getting stains off the carpets, handprints off the walls, and scouring windowsills. These old windows aren't doubleglazed and it seems no one dusted for at least a year so there was a layer of grime on the windows and all of the woodwork.

I've been asked back for 8 hours on Saturday, to get the flower beds ready for spring and to tackle the other rooms which we didn't touch. Her brother has been up to do the heavy yardwork already, but it has a lot of flower beds to re-establish.

I've been asked to become the regular temporary caretaker for the next few months. It's only 12 minutes from benevolent company J and she doesn't live in this area. So she'd like someone to stop by regularly and check on the mail, water the plants, take care of mowing the grass and adding the weekly pool chemicals.

This one appeals to me for a few reasons:

-I'm considering longer term, to buy a property expressly for the purposes of renting it out. I was 50/50 on whether that should be a house or a flat. I'm now 100% feeling that it should be a flat, without a yard, having had this limited experience on the topic. I think there are more points here for me to learn regarding property renting based on this experience, so I'm here to learn them.

-The place is absolutely gorgeous. I imagine once it's fully back in order and only in maintenance mode, it will be divine to attend to.

-She hopes to have it on the market early in the summer, to use it on some weekends during the summer while it's still not sold, and then finally sold by the end of the summer. This schedule aligns perfectly with my (hopefully!) LSE October start (more on that soon--two more weeks to decide).

-The hours are flexible and not so many after this initial clean-up effort. For now, I could use the extra cash (and that's a whole other blog post still to come!)

-My lazy self likes a bit of physical activity after sitting 8 hours in the office.

-She paid me in exact change tonight, as well as offered me tea, coffee, etc.

The answer to the Betty Crocker quiz....

Since this was a tough one--the answer to the Betty Crocker UK cookie mix question....
-->India!

You sweet talker, Betty Crocker

I got in in my head to make 'American' cookies, and lo and behold, Tesco sold this chocolate chip cookie mix:

http://www.bettycrocker.co.uk/product_detail.asp?range=4 (the one on the left in the green box)

It's been at least 10 years since I've made cookies, but they seemed to go well, even with a substitute of olive oil in place of vegetable oil.

This cookie box had labeling to be sold in the UK, Finland, Denmark, Sweden, and Iceland.

Here's the pop quiz question:

--> In what country was this Betty Crocker cookie mix which I bought in the UK produced?

Is there a prize involved here? Sure, a little something will be winging its way to you via post to the first right answer. :-)

*and if you were eating these cookies with me, you are disqualified from answering due to insider knowledge!

22.16 on Friday night

We went to the 24 hour Tesco:

Living in Germany didn't manage to break me of the late night shopping habit. While I can understand the arguments I heard while living there (the workers should have a day off with their families, you should be able to plan your shopping to meet their hours), I like having the option to shop late.

That being said, late night shopping here hasn't yet reached the true 24 hour status like in America. My Tesco's hours?

Monday 08.00-00.00

Tues-Fri: 24 hours

Sat: 00.00-22.00

Sun: 10.00-16.00

Who is at Tesco at 22.16 on a Friday night? Mainly:

-A lot of stock people.

-Kids buying beer.

It was easy to park, the sale items were fully in stock, and there were no lines at the checkout, superb!

The univited visitor

I came immediately home from work in order to get moving on my seed planting in the late afternoon sun. As I arrived, I noticed an univited visitor sunning oneself:

After two hours I now have the three house windowsills which get the sun filled with the small seedling pots, along with a few to take to the office. My desk is against a heating radiator, and I have a wide windowsill which gets sun from 13 onward.

I'm also considering to use my personal solar dehydrator/hothouse for the next week or two as we've been having fully sunny days and it would be warmer than the sunny windowsill.

How's life in the UK so far H?

The month (OK I was a week in Bratislava), has flown by.

Over the weekend I went to Sudbury, Suffolk (leaving Essex) with new friend Ian. We saw this graffiti and sunshine and blue sky there.

When my Polish frugal grandparents did spend money

Growing up on that side, I was the youngest of three grandchildren. Gifts were modest, but they were well-thought out and carefully arranged. In addition to birthdays and the December holidays there were always little things for other days like Valentine's day or St. Patrick's day.

When I was in my high school years, my grandmother has passed away and my cousin was getting close to graduating from the university. As she neared graduation, my grandfather got it into his head that to honor my grandmother's memory--as well as to be practical--he would give my cousin 500 USD for interview clothing. Here she was coming out of a four year degree program, maxed to the gills financially--although well-educated--and he was sure that she's be OK once she got a paycheck or two, but she needed to look her best to get that job.

My cousin and I were younger, but not to be forgotten. While my eldest cousin got the immediate cash, my grandfather searched around at local banks for find the one offering the best rates on 5 year cds, as both the middle cousin and I were more than five years aways from graduating from any university, so our equivalent 500 dollar gifts were deposited into cds for us to gain interest.

Upon receiving the gift, the background of the reason (my cousin's graduation) was explained. And the additional footnote I received with mine was: this is in honor of your grandmother, you're to save it until you graduate from the university, use it to buy interview clothes to get that job, as she'd want you to look nice. The five years will be up on this while you are in university, so you can use it for books or fees if you have to, but the best thing would be to put it into a 2 year cd so that it's ready for you as you finish.

It's probably imporant to note that my Polish grandparents were the first-born children of Poles who had recently emigrated to America. They grew up in North Philly speaking only Polish at home back when it was a Polish part of Philly and went immediately to work in manual jobs upon graduating high school. (I found their SSN applications in my genealogy research). Their entire working lives were factory situations, so the thought that went into this gift cannot be underestimated. It wasn't a matter of not spending money, it was a matter of knowing when one should spend money, and to plan it wisely.

Frugal garden beginnings in the UK

Spring is attempting to break through in the UK--daffodils are everywhere, and temperatures have finally jumped into double digits this weekend.

I've been thinking quite a bit about garden topics. The place it looks like I'll move into has the outdoor space. I've been reading up online about UK planting times and I stopped by the garden store to get an idea of what is sold here and the pricing. Seed and container prices are roughly equivalent to Germany prices. There is some variety here in what is sold: I saw more varieties of potatos than I've seen in my entire life! Also, they sell these sort of heavy plastic bags in which you grow potatos, or with holes in them on the sides for more plants, strawberries. The advantage which I see with them is that once you empty the dirt in the fall, they can be flattened down for easier storage.

I was thinking about that bittersweet moment a few months ago, when I freecycled my garden stuff on Freecycle Cologne. On a whim I signed up for my 'new' local freecycle in Essex this morning and cancelled my Cologne one, and noticed that someone was cleaning out their planting things.

I sent her a note an hour after she had posted, offering to pick them up anytime today. She named a time two hours later. So basically three hours or so after I had started this adventure, I was bringing home exactly the basis which I need to get started, at zero cost:

Everything was used and obviously well loved and cared for. She mentioned that it had all belonged to her father (and now they're getting rid of all of it, so I didn't inquire further). I am especially pleased with the seedling trays on the left--they're useful, but I find it irritiating to pay so much in the store for a little plastic box, first, because of the cost, and second, because it's plastic.

I'll still need to get some larger pots or those plastic bags described above for the summer season, but this is exactly what I need for right now to get started with seeds. This was a perfect end to a fantastic weekend.

Making my frugal grandparents proud

I was very blessed while growing up, to spend a lot of time with 3 people who remembered the depression and the lean years during war time. I imagine the take home message was the same as anyone else who had similar grandparents--work hard, study harder, think twice before buying, pay cash not credit, and be clever--preferably grow it or make it yourself.

I had not quite realized the impact until I was in Asda this week and was reviewing the discount shelf where they put the the dented packages or soon to be out of date jars and cans. I was very exited to find a dented can of coconut milk and a minestrone soup (items I would like to have in the cupboard), each for .25 p off due to the tiny ding on each can.

Making every cent count, credit crunch or not....

Veg English breakfast cost summary

The last time I did a vegetarian English breakfast post, it was in Germany.

Costs:
Approx 1/3 of the Heinz baked beans mega sale can: .25 p

Mushrooms: around .20 p

1/2 of 1 tomato which came in a 6 for 1 pound package: .08 p

1 free range egg: .25 -->I'm not fond of the yolk so I added it to D's egg.

1 Linda McCartney sausages, 1.89/6-->.31 p, one other veg sausage, guessing .31 p

1 piece of bread, toasted and lightly buttered (not in photos). -->let's guesstimate .12 p

Total cost--> around 1 pound
Frequency-->around once each week, usually Sunday

Germany from the outside

In the new office, I sit across from someone, I have no idea what he does. In fact, I have no idea what most of the people sitting around me do, and they are probably as puzzled by my activities. What we do have in common...this particular office has very close ties to the office in Germany where I was located.

This office and that office collectively supply things to big company F. Big company F's HQ is in Germany near benevolent company J's head office. This office exists to support company F's local office here. So needless to say, people in this office spend a lot of time in Germany at either company F or J. Some of them even spend Tuesday-Friday of every week there.

There is, however, a basis for shared understanding based on being a non-German having to work with Germans, which culturally transcends job details. The colleague who sits across the table from me was on a difficult phone call....

Colleague P (in English): Carsten, we need to blah blah. Carsten, you need to think about blah blah. Carsten.......
Colleague P (silent for a few minutes, head goes into hands).
Colleague P (phone on mute, to me): Aargh. This is like watching an episode of Laurel & Hardy. Instead of discussing how to fix Q, they're arguing amongst themselves as to whose fault Q is. It's like they have blinders on.
H: Are you on the phone with Germans?
Colleague P: How did you know? (rolling eyes)

(Although, of course, I realize on the other side of the call, the Germans are probably just as stymied by the non-German behavior). ;-)

Playgrounds in the UK

On Sunday it was chilly but sunny all morning so I took a short walk. I've been very impressed with the Essex neighborhood, and how these playgrounds seem to be seamlessly integrated into the local neighborhoods:




These three were all within a five minute walk of the residential neighborhood where I am. Somewhat interesting to me is that most of the time when I walk past, they are empty, even on a Sunday.

Supermarket shopping in the UK

As I've only been here two weeks or so, I've yet to figure out any alternatives to buying my food at the big supermarkets. I'm sure in spring/summer there will be some sort of farmers markets or farms to find, but in the meantime, I'm down to Tesco or Asda. Particularly--Asda is within walking distance to my temporary accomodation, although the 24 hour Tesco is on the way home from work.

I'd prefer to buy a little more local, less "big retail" but my longer term accomodation will be on the other side of town, so rather than trying to ferret out local options here only to move, I'll suck it up in the short term and go to Asda.

I still have the habit of shopping like I'm in Germany (= going to the supermarket 2 to 3 times in a week). This habit is a little silly here as refrigerators are closer to American sized so I can buy more, and further--the selection is virtually the same Tuesday, Thursday or Sunday, so there are no advantages to multiple trips.

Because I am temporary accomodation and trying to minimize the disruption, I'm a little limited in cooking properly, for example to have lots of spices on hand or to dirty every dish in the house. So I'm leaning more toward packaged goods than I normally would.

In case you're curious, here's what I've bought during the past two days (Friday and Sunday). In general, I'm flexible with what I buy, so will bend to accomodate sales or markdowns. From the below photos, everything was on some sort of price droppage.

To explain further--Asda has various schemes of pricing--'rolling back the prices' ala Walmart, multiple savings if you buy 2 for a certain price you get the discount, and markdowns due to items reaching their 'use by' date. For the most part, if you're willing to be fleixible--i.e. 'I want any green vegetable to cook for dinner tonight'--or 'I want something vegetarian as a main course which will reheat well on the next day', then you can make your choices according to price and do well. Here is how I did. All prices are in Pounds. Where I put a price (in parenthesis), that is the 'regular' price one would normally pay for this item at Asda.

Old El Paso Fajita Kit 1.50 (2.76)
Old El Paso Taco Kit 1.50 (2.76)
3x Quorn Mince 1.00 each (1.98)
Heinz baked beans .75 (1.24)-->840 gram can!
2x Asda cheese pizza 1.00 (1.58)
Bistro gravy 1.00 (1.58)
Frozen broccoli .84
Frozen peas 1.00
Grand total--> 12.34

There's a little cake/pie on the right side, someone brought those into the office and offered it to me. I'm not a cake person, but being new to this office I didn't want to decline, so I brought it home and D had it with his tea.



Today's trip....it's Sunday and I'm going to the supermarket. I have to say--I prefer Sunday to Saturday for the supermarket, mainly because I'm in the right mindset for food shopping since I'm normally making up my office lunch meals for the week on Sunday.

Today's take:
Asda Baking Potatos, hidden in the back--the only regular priced item - 1.48 for 7 large potatos
Garlic bread with cheese .68 (1.38)
Garlic bread (hidden underneath) .32 (.50)
2x strawberries .68 (1.88)
grapes .38 (.58)
herb salad .38 (1.00)
Quorn mince and onion suet pudding .83 (1.68)
Dairy free sunflower oil spread 1.00 (1.12)
Cauldron veg sausages .97 (1.98)
expensive cheddar cheese 2.00 (2,38)
the supreme bargain of the day - a small squash .10 (1.64) -->who would pay 1.64 for a tiny squash??
Grand total-->just under 10 quid


So what kind of meals are upcoming this week?
-Last week, I used a package of the Quorn mince and combined a can of beans with a cup of kidney beans to make a superb chilli. I'll do something similar to use with the taco shells/cheese.
-There will be baked potatos on the menu, mainly to heat up the house in the evening.
-The bag of salad will go into the office and will last three days
-The sausages and baked beans are the making for a full English breakfast, which is also great for dinner. The only thing missing to supply is an egg and toast.
-The squash will be tonight's dinner, with some rice
-The frozen veg will be combined with last week's pasta sauce and perhaps some of the mince, to go over pasta.
-The 'close to being out of date marked down' items the mince pudding thingy, the sausages, the bread, etc. all went into the freezer for a different day.

I hear the 'tsk-tsk ing' from Germany all the way over here, btw.
But H, grapes and strawberries are inappropriate for the season/location. Just think of your carbon footprint!
Yeah, I hear you. I went up and down the fruit and veg aisle to try and figure out what is locally grown here. It was somewhat surprising to me, that there was not a plethora of 'warmer' EU country items, such as strawberries from Spain or anything from Italy, like there is in Germany or Dutch or UK greenhouse items. Most of the off-season veg (including my strawberries in this instance) comes from more distant, exotic places like Morocco and Mozambique. Ouch.

My primary issue with these far away items isn't the environmental concerns of shipping items so far (although it probably should be!) My concern is in going outside of the EU that the regulation is not as strict or as closely monitored as to what chemicals are used in the growing process. My German colleagues have drilled in me a distrust of Spanish produce, never mind the non-EU varieties. In addition, something which travels such a distance never tastes as good as something local which didn't endure such a long food route.

The only local items which I found so far in the produce area were brussel sprouts on a stalk (last week's rollback deal--1 pound for a stalk which included approx 40 sprouts), and potatos. I'll keep searching...

All told, from the above, I'm under 25 pounds a week for food. While some of the multiple items will be stored for another week as well as the butter substitue will be spread over many weeks (spread, haha!). I'm using things purchased last week, so I think 25 pounds would be about average for a weekly shopping bill for me. For you folks at home, that's about 35 USD on today's conversation rates. Granted, this model is also taking into account that there is no cafeteria on-site at the office so I must buy enough to produce 5 weekday lunch meals, although that is usually just additional portions from my evening meals.

So how is this comparing from Germany, H?
I cannot make a full comparison yet as I'm doing a lot less cooking from scratch in this moment. Once I'm in the new place and back to that method, I think I'll run through this again and cost it out to see. In addition, I didn't shop at the big shops in Germany, so my comparison is additionally skewed in this moment.

If you enjoyed this sort of banal, everyday life analysis, let me know. Or any specifc UK food queries, I can look into it...

Two sandwich shops

On the street where I will probably live (fingers crossed!) there are two lunchtime sandwich shops. While I've been out and about, I've tried to interact with both, to get a feeling for the neighborhood.

Sandwich shop 1 (last week):
H: Can I have a jacket potato with cheese?
Sandwich lady 1: Oh......sorry, we're all out. But it's the only thing we're out of, you can pick anything else.
H: Hmm. What do you recommend, that is vegetarian?
SL: Well, we can do cheese on a roll, or a toasted cheese or an egg salad sandwich, or Tuna--if you're 'that kind of vegetarian', or you can say what to put on the sandwich and we'll make it.
H: Cheese on a roll sounds great.
SL: OK....type of bread?....toasted?....do you want a bit of salad on that? (good suggestive upselling there)
H: Super.
SL: Here you go. Apologies again on the potato.
H: Obviously I'll need to come back, they must be good to sell out!

Sandwich shop 2 (today), after waiting 3 minutes for someone to appear from the back:
H: (needing to break a 5 pound note to get parking meter change) One pack of M&M's please. (holding the 5)
SL2: Do you have 55 p by chance?
H: Sorry, no.
SL2: (pauses, with 5 in hand) Is this for change for the parking meter?
H: Yes.
SL2: We can't always be doing this, you know!!
H: (slightly shocked, after 2 stress-free weeks, mentally taken back to DE). (blink.) Sorry, I didn't know, I'm not from here.
SL2: (big German F-off sigh, and goes to the back. Comes back with change and then must go to the cash register.) Here....it has to be small change.
H: Sure.
SL2: Because we don't keep a lot of change.
H: Sorry, I'm a visitor, I didn't realize. (But don't worry, I won't bother you again!)

IF I live on this street--which shop do you think will get all of my business?

At the end of the day, both transactions completed successfully, I loosely got what I went in for (lunch, change). However, I was so turned off by the second shop experience. If I had visited there before I went to see the flat on that street, it probably would have colored my view of the flat. I was mentioning this experience to D later, who was completely peeved, as he explained that this was rude by UK standards. I was considering it by:

1. US Standards - as a business, you're sorta being stupid here. By not keeping change in stock and requiring a sale to give it, you're losing out on business.
2. German Standards - there would have been sighs about having to count out the change if it had been bigger than a 5 perhaps, but you buy something, you get change, none of this whining about not wanting to give it based on the purpose.

danger or opportunity?

The past week has been in flux. The universe finally coughed up a sign to answer my question.

In response I kicked off a few events which spawned even more surprising changes. Hmm. Not yet ready for prime time.

In other topics, I mentioned a while back that I was applying for grad school, to be able to attend part-time while working full-time. Today I received the acceptance letter from here. Now the question--do I want to attend? And how does it relate to other future plans now envisioned?

thinking...
thinking....

Burning the midnight oil...

as I try to sort some things out.
Various changes are working their way through my universe.

Back to 'life as an expat in the UK' shortly...

Guess the city

jumping through hoops

i found a flat i rather like in the downtown area, close to the main train station, only 15 minutes by car from the office. now i'm in the process of providing one billion pieces of paper in order to rent it for 6 months.

i must say, on this point, it was much easier in germany.
1. my work colleagues and i scoured the local paper based on my requirements (not on ground floor, lots of sun, including kitchen)
2. found a few interesting ones
3. called, visited, said i'd take it
4. signed the papers
5. put down a deposit, and away we go.

in the uk...
1. saw a handful of flats, liked one of them.
2. researched a little...realized i wouldn't be able to pass a uk credit check as i have no credit history here, so
3. had to offer to pay all six months in advance. negotiated the price down slightly based on paying six months in advance.
4. had to provide copies of my passport and work visa.
5. had to provide copies of utility bills in germany, to prove that i lived where i said i did.
6. had to provide contact details of my german speaking landlord, that they can cough up someone who speaks basic german to check a reference.

and now, just waiting....

oh really.

Big US Accountant company which did my taxes while I was an expat for company J: Dear H, our German partners would like for you to release your US 2003 W-2 to them. Due to data privacy, we need your consent.

H: Dear US Accountancy, why would this be? My 2003 taxes were done and closed years ago and your German partners did not do my 2007 German taxes, someone else did. (and your German partners are useless)

USAcct: The German government has decided to audit you for 2003. Our German partners will review and respond on your behalf, don't worry, this is standard from the German gov't.

H: Send me the German correspondance for my records, please. I am now curious as to why they would choose to audit me for 2003 at this time and would like to review it before I release data to them.

It's a little too coincedental that I de-registered on Feb 12th and now Germany chooses to audit me for the same year in which I arrived, 5 years ago.

(I loathe Tuesdays. I try to keep my head down and don't tempt fate, because usually anything bad will occur on a Tuesday.)

My Monday

was extremely productive, i...
-received a new office pc, with all the stuff moved over from the old one and the new one is totally up and running.
-found the new office building, including the coffee machine and the bathroom.
-was placed in a desk next to a window.
-looked at my empty desk (which does not yet include a phone) and was rather pleased with the simplistic look.
-received a new company J car. it's no polo, disappointingly, but something larger which cost me 47 pounds sterling to fill up.
-opened a bank account, so benevelont company J can pay me to look at the empty desk and out the window.
-applied for a flat which i fell in love with. let's see if they can manage to take my reference in german so that i can be approved for said flat.

catching up and starting over

In the rush of the past few weeks, I may have missed a few key points if you're following along:

So what happened on the job front, H?
Benevolent company J came up with an offer which appeases me for the moment, so I stayed with them and received a UK contract.

Why the bitter melancholy?
In moving to the UK I had wanted a London location, or another major city like Edinburgh or Dublin. Company J has locations throughout England only; all were open options to me, excluding the central London office, due to space constraints. So while it's nice to have a well-paying job where they showed flexibility for allowing me to transfer, a small part of me recognizes that it's not the complete dream.

So where are you then H?
Somewhere in Essex county. Specifically, I'm in a commutable town into London, and company J has one of their larger offices here. There is a regional train into London and this town is 30 minutes or so from Stansted.

So what do you think so far?
It's a little quiet out here and not very diverse, but the people seem polite enough and the area seems safe.

So will you keep the blogging as is on this site?
Yeah, for now. Officially the title can remain the same (not sure if that's due to my forward thinking or abject lazyness!). Now, instead of whining about Germany I can whine about the UK instead. :-)

memo to self

Bratislava in the winter is too cold. -6 is not a happy place for heather.

Coldness aside, I've had a nice time in Bratislava, although most of it was spent in the office or with work colleagues in the evenings. I did manage to take a few photos, all of them containing snow, as it snowed each day this week and it didn't melt. I had a great time with work colleagues; most were from the Eastern Europe countries surrounding here and all were a pleasure to meet.

Am back to the airport tomorrow morning, then back at Stansted around lunchtime.

So German was useful after all

I called the Taxi's number in Bratislava, company J's recommended company, who supposedly speak English.

Taxi Guy: (bla bla Taxi!)
H: Hi, do you speak English?
TG: Uuuh. (pause) Germanish?
H: Ah supi....(proceeds to ask for the Taxi pick-up in German).
TG: (answers me enthusiastically in German, understanding and confirming).

So one of the most useful applications of my German skills is to be able to order a taxi in Bratislava. Well there is a justification for the last 5,5 years of my life.

24 hours

I left Germany at 3 PM on Sunday. Most interestingly, balloons and confetti did not fall from the ceiling upon the presentation of my passport with the brand new UK sticker, which is now date stamped with my arrival.

I drove a left-handed manual car for the first time. I'm sure the car rental people at the airport were wondering why I was circling the car park. I thought it would behoove me to get some familiarity before getting on the highway where I have no directional clue.

So far, 22 hours later, I've only whacked my right hand on the door 10 times when attempting to shift gears. :-)

I called to get a National Insurance number. Because of the type of work permit I have, and because I'm from the USA, I may fall under their 'mail NI scheme', meaning they will mail me the paperwork rather than forcing me to come in for an interview. The phone person said I would either receive a post or hear back from them in a week if I need to come in. I'm a big fan of the mail-in idea.

Am back on the road in an hour, back to the airport, then on to Bratislava for the week.
Limited posting for a few days....

Reminder: Koeln Deutz on Saturday night

No valentine? No worries, I'll be wearing black. Stop by for a Koelsch, J will be here too. :-)

Location: Koeln Deutz (comment or send me an email-->phillygirl06@ NOT coldmail.com and I'll give you the exact location. ;-) It's a small, local, friendly place.

Time: 19.30ish, until 22ish or whenever people go home. Feel free to stop by for one beer if you're only passing through en route. Will even buy you a beer if you prove that you read me on a semi-regular basis. ;-)

See you Saturday night!

The rules! Snow clearing

I ran into my whistling downstairs neighbor tonight. He reminded me that I promised to stop by to say goodbye tomorrow, and they are looking forward to it. He was outside with a shovel and then proceeded into a diatribe of why.

'You remember Frau Nice Neighbor downstairs, the one who moved out in December? Well she got a call at 3 AM because Herr Replacement Neighbor didn't clear the back steps in a timely manner, and someone didn't have the new tenant's number. Frau Nice Neighbor called Herr Replacement who then called Whistler's Daughter (who is the Hausmeister) as he was out of town....in the 3 AM hour.' So Whister's Daughter needed to do his shovel duty, grumble grumble, grumble.

There is a complix algorithm of outside step cleaning. We pay a little extra for a cleaning service to do the inside steps and hallways (one of the reasons I liked this flat), but the outside clearing is shared among the 3 flats which have grass: Herr Replacement, Whistler's Daughter and the other nice couple. There are 3 flats, but only 2 walkways, so they do some kind of rotation, or two of them often are out together.

'This was after Herr Replacement used the wrong salt on the front steps. The front steps are not poured concrete but a different stone which is not supposed to be salted. Now the steps will need replacing soon, because the salt will eat them away and make them not safe.'

So now, Whistler's Daughter needs to do the back steps again multiple times, because it was snowing again off and on for the past few hours here in the Bergisches Land. 'But, because Herr R didn't do his step clearing in a timely manner, the snow today fell on top and froze over. So now he needs to crack the ice and scrape. it's too slick, like glass.' grumble, grumble, grumble.

To his credit, Whister's Daughter is dutifully out there keeping our steps safe whenever it snows. If it starts snowing in the evening, he'll be out there at 11 PM, and then again, usually at 5 AM he's at it again. When I drove back from Belgium he was out there at 8 PM, clearing the path to the trash bins as it was 3 inches and falling.

To the credit of the Germans, there is a shared responsibility, with rules to back it up, and as long as everyone follows the rules, efficiency reigns. The only reason I'm actually noticing this is because the system is broken. Someone is not following the rules!

One if by land, two if by sea

On Thursday night I arrived at the Hook of Holland ferry terminal just before 20.00 for the 22.00 ferry. I had never driven this route before, so I left plenty of time to allow for traffic and getting lost. From the Cologne area, it's actually quite easy, mappy sends you up the A3, then over to Venlo, and onward to Tilburg/Breda, then to the Rotterdam Ring road. The tiny town of B is slightly north of Cologne, and door to door my trip time was 3 hrs 15 minutes. I was taking it easy as Mr. Polo was fully loaded and not going much above the speed limit. I imagine you could do it faster if you tried.

Upon arriving, the terminal seemed very empty. Check-in is from 18.45-21.15. When bringing along a car, assuming you already have your ticket purchased and printed out, you drive immediately up to the check-in booth. There were no cars in front of me, and two lanes to choose from which shared a middle booth. (So if you were driving a UK car you could choose the lane which put the booth window on the right, while in my German car I choose the opposite.)

Upon driving up, I saw the clerk look at something and then greet me in Dutch, so I think there was a little camera showing the number plate. I responded with a general 'Hallo'. She continued in Dutch and asked me for my passport. Once I handed it to her she switched to English and was very friendly.

So I'm driving a car with a German license plate which is packed to the gills.
My passport is American.
I purchased my ticket on the Irish version of the Stena ship site (as opposed to the UK version) because I wanted to pay in Euros to avoid a conversion fee.

After she gave me a room key and a little map 'and remember, once you pass my gate, you are on UK time!' and the next step was to proceed up to the next booth, passport controls.

At passport controls, there was a man in a safety vest standing in the middle of the lane. Why they do not invest in more durable gate controls rather than humans, I am curious. He also started with Dutch and then switched to English upon receiving my passport.
Passport guy: Are you travelling alone tonight?
Heather: (slightly confused look, as Mr Polo was visibly packed up, including my tent and backpack on the front seat). Yes.
PG: (now noticing the full car). Moving?
Heather: yes, moving flat to the UK, from Germany.
PG: I need to take this inside to stamp it, just a moment.
Heather: Sure, no problem.

I can see him in my mirror, he's showing my passport to the other guy operating the other window. After about 5 minutes, he comes back out.

PG: I've never seen this before. (waving my passport)
Heather: You've never seen an American passport before??? (realizing how incredulous I sounded after it came out of my mouth. I realize this isn't a common travel route for tourists, but really, now.)
PG: No, these pages with letters. I've only seen numbers before.
Heather: (relieved) Oh! That's the extra pages, when you get them added later.
PG: Hmm. When did you enter the Schengen area?
Heather: Umm. Christmas time? I arrived in Holland tonight from Germany. I am a permanent resident in Germany; I live and work in Germany.
PG: So then you're moving to the UK then you come back to Germany to return the rental car?
Heather: I return from the UK by ferry on Monday, then I return to Germany. But it's my company car, not a rental.
PG: I need to ask my chief about these letters. Can you drive over here, I show you where.
Heather: (drives into the detention zone and opens a pack of crackers.)

Blue Immigration Police car zips up near me. I draft an SMS to my Dutch colleagues to come rescue me from the Dutch slammer at Hook, with it one button away from sending in case I need to send it in a hurry.

Blue Police Man: (appearing at my window after another 5 minutes) Hello!
Heather: (black coat now covered in Saltine crumbs.) Hi.
BPM: (smiling) Going to the UK tonight, you will need this. (handing me my passport)
Heather: Did you give it a nice stamp?
BPM: Yes of course! Sorry about that, my guy, he had never seen the letter pages before.
Heather: No problem. Better safe than sorry. (Wondering if that phrase is fully understood by Dutch speakers, or too colloquial. Also wondering if they have an information source where they look up standards like the letter pages or do they have a special hotline to a US government person who would answer such questions on the fly? Or would the chief be expected to know all such variations?)
BPM: (thumbs up and smiley): Have a safe trip!
Heather: (Dumbfounded, zipping away toward the boat, slowly realizing, this was the anti-German passport experience--someone just apologized to me rather than blaming me for their lack of knowledge and was friendly.)

Memo to self: If the UK doesn't work out, perhaps I need to think about working in the Netherlands...