Today's quiz - guess the nationality

Whenever I'm in the US or the UK, whenver I hear someone speaking something other than English, I tend to inadvertently tune in. Then I end up purposely tuned in, trying to guess what they're speaking. Here in my corner of Essex I occasionally hear German speakers, actually more often than I hear American English speakers here.

In the late evenings I often stop by Tesco on my walks around. It's a great time to shop as the store is virtually empty and the late night markdowns are superb. I noticed a couple doing 'the circuit', which is a path through the store stopping at the various locations where marked down goods are located. I short circuited the path and worked backwards and we overlapped in the meat/cheese/dairy markdown corner.

I could hear them speaking softly next to me. He was reviewing the instructions on one of the packages with her, explaining the English text to her...in German.

My curiousity got the better of me so I had to ask in German where they were from, and we had a short conversation then. The husband asked, 'Oh are you from Germany?' But of course you'd think that, hearing my stellar accent. That, or he was playing the odds that Germany is the biggest exporter of German speakers. Could be either. ;-)

Today's quiz: Guess where the German speakers were from?

Possible clues:
1. I would estimate them to be around 60 years of age.
2. Everything in their basket was from a marked down section. They were buying ingredients so they obviously had full cooking facilities, so not tourists and on a budget.
3. It was around 20.30 in the evening. My corner of Essex has high flyers who commute daily to London for silly money as well as locals who work in trades in Essex, it's a big mixture who you'll see in Tesco at that hour.
4. Their spoken German wasn't terribly foreign to me.

Any questions? Or take a guess...

Slocombe the cat in the rooftop garden

Slocombe has her own special corner in the rooftop garden near the door, with two pots of grass at an appropriate cat height:

The grass had planted itself into a corner of a pot and she started to nibble on it, so I gave it a dedicated area and it has flourished. However, I have no idea how grass managed to plant itself, four flights up...but it makes SC happy, so ok, it is a productive member of the garden.

Not one to limit herself, she decided to investigate and give the 'volunteer' garlic greens a little taste as well:

The outside garden so far - strawberries!

The main reason I bought this flat in the UK is probably because of the roof terraces. When I lived in Cologne I had a beautiful ground floor flat with a fenced in back garden but being inside the courtyard it was too shaded and wet in rainy DE, nevermind the city rats which ate anything I managed to get growing.


In NRW the Balkon was great but I was maxed on space. Everything had to be planned and studied and even then there was only room for two people at one time due to my plant maximization. :-)


So here I am absolutely delighted at the amount of outside space I have. Even moreso, I've been surprised and pleased of the heat capture up here. Last year my top plants weren't the zucchini or cucumbers like in DE. Here, my top producer were the peppers, in particular the hot variety. I grew them on a whim and they thrived on the hot concrete stones next to the wall which absorbed the heat during the day. It may have well been Spain up here some days. ;-)


This year, I experimented with overwintering my strawberries from last year. In DE my Balkon was standalone and uncovered so the winter items took the brute of the cold and wet weather. The only thing which could withstand the winter was my lavender bush. Here, I took a chance on the strawberries which produced runners last year. I set them into any spare pots I could find and moved them into the sunniest sheltered corner.


Then I bit my nails when they got repeatedly covered in snow, that it would do in their fledgling roots in the tiny pots.


As I work from home, I make an effort to break away from the pc at least once during the day. Now that the weather has been warmer, i try to go out for 15 minutes around mid-day to take advantage of it. After a week I've been able to get the strawberries re-potted into their homes for this summer and to start some seeds under my makeshift mini-greenhouses (re-purposed plastic food containers).

I did lose a few small plants to the winter weather, but all of the strawberry plants here (excluding the ones in the red bag from last year) are my 'first years'. In total I have 10 baby strawberry plants and the three from last year who are already getting new leaves in this warmer weather. Don't they look simply divine?

Spring cometh

Now that I've lived in the UK for a year and experienced the weather and a summer of gardening, I'm a little wiser this year of what I should plant where and when.

I am very lucky being on the top floor with unblocked sunlight that I think I'm getting the full brunt of spring a little bit earlier than people with houses, they still have a bit of a wet frost on the ground in the mornings.

Also, as I'm taking a trip to the US next month and need to have the second in commands doing occasional watering, I need to have things in a position of being as self-sufficient as possible, rather than saddling them with the extra care of seedlings...

On Saturday I started my first seeds for the inside kitchen windowsill:

And today, here are the first to action:

I didn't mark the containers, that's part of the fun for me. I have five containers out:
1. oregano
2. basil
3. hot peppers
4. lettuce mix
5. tomatoes

I've now devised little cardboard stilts in this container to keep the leaves away from the clingfilm as it does get rather warm in the sun. In the meantime I'm getting the outside area ready so that once they're a little larger and it's a little warmer for certain, I'll be able to plant these outside.

Another visitor

Winter here has been trundling along. I was recently back on the continent (not DE) for a work trip, but otherwise I'm trying to hold on for spring seedling plantings.

A few months back I mentioned that I occasionally host visitors via hospitality club. My corner of Essex is convenient to Stansted and all of the cheap Ryanair and Airberlin flights for people looking for a short hop on the way into London or to explore Essex.

Tomorrow I have a Brazilian arriving from Poland, for one night before returning to Poland. He has spent a few weeks in Poland and got one of those ultra cheap flights so he's coming to the UK for one night. He has never been to the UK so he's looking forward to a massive front of English. (I didn't mention to him that I speak 'American' English and Ian speaks 'British' English. This should be enough to blow his mind.)

In additon, under interests he's listed WW2 books. A Brazilian with WW2 interests, this promises to be interesting. I offer a couch and a vegetarian meal and he enthusiastically accepted both and looks forward to his first trip to England; this should be good fun.

More on my frugal grandparents

I mentioned my frugal Polish grandparents before. Last night on the way home from class I stopped in Tesco at the 11th hour just before they shut; it's the best time to get the markdown bargains. While wandering around the store a long forgotten memory outed itself, so I thought I'd share it with you.

As the youngest, I only remember my grandparents as retired. They came of retirement age when Social Security solvency issues weren't on the horizon and companies still provided pensions. Still, they planned carefully and grew vegetables all summer and shopped at the supermarket on senior citizen day to maximize their purchasing power.

In addition, there was a large regular flea market located nearby which was open on Mondays. It was a super place, open year round, mainly outdoors with a small indoor building for the antiques dealers and some food stalls. You could buy anything at this flea market which was casually known around town as 'The Sale'. You could get a table as a regular trader and sell new or used items, or you could get a special table for a week or two if you had a big house clean-out. In addition, there were regular weekly auctions.

Pretty much everything was sold as The Sale. Furniture, books (my first Nancy Drew books came from there), vegetables and flowers from the local Amish communities, clothing, sports items, old postcards, whatever. It was a fun mix of anything and everything.

On public holidays we had to get up and out of the house at the crack of dawn to be there before 7 AM as the parking lot would fill up with all the 'non-regulars'. Winter was an interesting time as well, as there were few buyers we had to go for the bargains, all bundled up at the crack of dawn. We would walk around for an hour or so, and then I would have french fries around 8 AM, my reward for the foolishness of the activities.

During the rest of the year, The Sale was frequented by people who didn't work--people on disability or mothers with small children, or the core community: senior citizens, particularly males, my grandfather included. Usually they'd show up and have a wander around the outside tables and then meet up for a coffee and talk. Many of them showed up with a list of things for buy for the ladies, particularly the vegetable bargains like crates of tomatos or peaches which could be had for a song. I think it was more for the camaraderie than anything else, that they got out of the house with a mission and a chance to meet and mingle without the women-folk.

Many of them would attend the auctions which were an interesting affair. There were a few actions running simultaneously, usually each area had a theme. One was furniture, another was glassware, another was books, another was random things, and on and on. During the busiest periods there would be quite a few, during off periods, perhaps they'd be down to one or two. The auctions started at 07.00 sharp, although things would be existing on the tables in advance with lot numbers, that you could examine the goods before they were up for buying. These were really casually affairs which took place next to the building, under the vast awning but still outdoors.

Then, you could flit between them based on the lot number, or you could try your luck at the random one. As the day went on they heated up, but around lunchtime sellers would start to pack up and go home and people would too. That was when the best bargains would come up however, because they had orders to move all of the goods. So if something didn't move it would get thrown into a box. Then, boxes would start to get combined (usually by like areas) and would start at 50 cents and go up from there. Sometimes you had no idea of what was in the box exactly, except that it was a box of books, for example.

I still remember a very good school friend, his German born mother would go to the auctions. One day she bid on a box of 'carrying things'--a suitcase, a few backpacks, some purses, etc. She ended up paying 1.50 for the lot. Later, she found over 2 USD in the various pockets of the items, so she made a profit on her purchase. This was what The Sale was all about.

Now that you have the background setting, here comes the real story:
My cousin and I were at our grandparents house, with Grandmom. Grandad had gone early to The Sale. He came home with a gleam in his eyes.

Grandad: You'll never guess what I got today!?!

Grandmom: It had better be seeds like I asked you to get.

Grandad: Yes, yes, I got those, but guess what I got at the auction? (Noticeably pleased with himself.)

(Grandmom already steeling herself for the worst. While she was frugal, she did not put up with clutter in 'her' house. He could store as much as he wanted in his basement lair, however.)
Grandmom: Yes?

Grandad: (whipping out a pair of burgandy colored trousers from behind his back) Look!
(They were boys knee-length trousers like here, called knickerbockers)

Grandmom: Stanley! What is heaven's name is the point of this?

Grandad: Aren't they great!?!

Grandmom: Stanley!!! Our parents left Poland for a reason. What are you possibly going to do with those as they certainly won't fit You, and I doubt your grandson would want to be seen wearing those!

(My cousin looks up now from where we were playing)
My cousin: Boys don't wear pink!

Grandad: They're burgandy. Or maroon. AND THEY WERE FREE! (Grandad beside himself with glee.) And I got over 40 pairs. Can you believe they were throwing them out, that no one would buy them at the auctions?

Grandmom: Yes, actually, I can imagine that no one would want to buy a World War 1 era pair of pants. And what are you going to do with those, exactly?

Grandad: Well....I was thinking....Father Cranky-pants was mentioning that we need to give to the Catholic Charities clothing drive for East Europe. (This was before the fall of Communism in Poland in 89.)

Sidenote: We had three Catholic priests at the time in our church: Father Cranky-pants predicted doomsday destruction for everyone. 'The new priest' was a nice guy who I think was brought in to stem the tide of departing Catholics due to Cranky-pants. And Father Brown was the retired priest who still lived with the others. They would bring him out when the others would go on vacation. He would forget where he was in the service so we would either sit through a repeat of sections of the mass, or an alter boy would direct him forward and we'd then miss parts.

Grandmom: Stan-ley!! The children don't need to be picking up that name from you!

My cousin: That's ok Grandmom, we already know this name.

Grandmom: (under her breath) Heaven help me.

Grandad: (knowing he had her hooked, now just to reel her in.) Since it's for the church, I throught that would be ok. Besides, they had just set them by the garbage bin. They would have gone to the dump. This is good material.

Grandmom: (examining it closely now, she was a seamstress in her career.) yes, this is quality cloth, even if the color is objectionable for a boy.

Grandad: And you know Poland, good quality clothing would be nice to have. If the style is a little off, they can tailor it or make it into something else.

Grandmom: grrrrr. Ok, but they do not come into this house, these moth-bitten clothes. They stay in the trunk of the car. And you need to sneak them into the donation box, I do not want to be associated with these shenanigans.

What I learned from such experiences with my grandparents, was to be generous when you found a bargain, especially when it required little effort from you to make a bigger positive impact to someone else. And to go after bargains with an intent, when you knew they would benefit someone else. And the other main point which always came up with this generation--something usable should never be send to the garbage! Ultimately, I think this was what won over my grandmother...

Follow-up on British humor and frugal eggs - a female British perspective

As a second follow-up, after getting a male perspective on the frugal egg post, I wanted to get a female opinion as well. I have two colleagues who work in the front office at benevolent company J. As it's an international company, both have exposure to many people of other lands, and while both have visited other countres, neither has lived abroad. I wouldn't try to guess ages, but the one's oldest child is 30, while the other's oldest child is 20.

H: Hi ladies, I need a UK female perspective. (I regularly do this sort of thing to them--is this dress correct to wear to this UK occasion, is this the correct response to x here, etc.)
What do you think of this egg carton? (Bringing out the now famous one.)
C1: HA!
C2: Hold on, I need to get out my reading glasses...tsk! Naughty! (smirk)
C1: Is this from the US?
H: No, it's from here.
C1: No! How funny.
C2: They were clever.
C1: Fab!

H: So would you purposely buy or not buy these eggs?
C2: If the price was right, I'd buy them, it wouldn't sway me either way, it's just advertising. How much did you pay?
H: 61 p, marked down as they were at the 'best buy' date.
C1: good deal, 10 p an egg.
H: I know!

C2: (pondering) You know....this was created by a man.
C1: Oooooh, definitely.
H: How do you know?
C2: A female wouldn't come up with this way to market eggs.
C1: Don't you know it!
H: Really?
C2: (Now holding the box) Where are these from? Suffolk. Do they have a website H?
H: None that I could find.
C2: Hmmm.
H: So what would a female have said instead?
C2: Something more subtle, still with a double-meaning, but not so forward.
C1: Yes.
C2: Like 'we're fresh' or 'fresh today' or something like that.

Bad translation at the D'dorf airport

When I have to write something official in German (which thankfully is almost never now), I ask my native German speaking colleagues to proofread it for me, to make sure I'm saying 100% what I want to be saying. They then do the same in return, when they want to be sure that their English is in top form, I will review their text for them.


Apparently, at the D'dorf Airport, they don't have native English speaking colleagues or they think their English is super just the way it is:

(If you want to see this fine sign yourself, this photo was taken in the car rental parking structure, on the 4th floor next to the elevators.)

However, we failed to find the so named 'confidence tricksters'.

(Yes, I realize I'm in Germany so I should be grateful that I'm seeing a sign in English. And if I was at a non-profit institution with a shoestring budget or a government office where all activities were conducted in German, I'd be a little more forgiving. However, this English is amazingly poor for an international airport when you consider that other airports are able to produce correct signage in four or five languages.)

An update on the Orthokeratology adventure

A little while back, I mentioned that I was trying orthokeratology. Since a few asked for an update I thought I'd give one here as well as answer the comments people left on the first post. As of tomorrow, it will be three weeks since this experiment started.

From G in Berlin: Is it new, or Europe based, or perhaps my severe astigmatism and near-sightedness did not make it an option? Did you need to fall into a certain range to do it?
It's been around since the 1960's although my UK eye guy was saying that it has had recent increased popularity here in the UK due to some newer lenses on the UK market and as well it had received approval from the US FDA which increased its profile internationally in the eye world. There was a range one had to be within on both the vision and astigmatism, something like -6.00 and -1.50, but don't quote me on that.

And do the hard lenses hurt and is there any issue of oxygen starvation to the eye?
The eye guy mentioned that the older version of lenses did have some issues, but that the current ones on the market are much improved so that oxygen starvation is not an issue in his book.

When I first put them in, it was more irritation than hurt, and my eyes started to tear up, almost like I had a bit of dust or something in them. After the second night, however it wasn't so noticeable, and I figured out to go right to bed, where they were ok when I wasn't looking all around.

This morning, I had a minor moment of freaking out when I thought that I had forgotten to put them in, they are now that unnoticed.

From J: Aren't the hard lenses uncomfortable when you're sleeping?
I had done the overnight soft lenses before so maybe I'm biased based on already having that experience, but I would say no, they're not uncomfortable for sleeping. Not sure what I would say if I didn't go through that learning experience with the soft ones. if anything, it was a bigger deal for me to be able to get them in and out, it's such a different experience than soft lenses.

From Jen: Let us know how it works. I can recommend Lasik.
(cringe!) Just the very thought of that freaks me out, the idea that one must be awake for that. But everyone whom has done it has made a similar comment as yours. I realize it's a nice solution, but give me a few glasses of wine before you tell me how they did yours.

Overall, only three weeks into it and I've been pleasantly pleased. I had a few really short nights in DE last week, going to bed at 1 and getting up at 7, so I wasn't sure how that would work, if I would be under-corrected or if it wouldn't last as long or anything like that...I didn't notice any difference than when I am in the UK getting eight or more hours of sleep.

I've gotten half decent at taking the lenses in and out. It's under a minute in either direction, so that is ok. There was some 'star-bursting' or 'ghosting' as they call it, at night, in that lighting would not be sharp or crisp, this has gradually diminished to a less noticeable point.

If I had it to do over would I do it again? Yes, definitely. As long as it continues in this direction, I will continue to carry on with it.

Follow-up on British humor and frugal eggs - a 38 year old British male

Following up on British humor and frugal eggs, as a bit of cultural investigation, I took the opportunity to ask D his opinions on this topic as a British person. Granted, he's a little bit more international than the average Brit on the street as he worked in the US for two years, in Australia for two years and Germany for seven years. However, I was curious as to what a late 30's British male would say on this topic.

H: What do you think about the egg post and the comments on it?

D: I think you have a bunch of Americans reading and posting on your blog who never lived in the UK.

H: Well sure, some of them are Americans in America and others are Americans in Germany, and others are to/from elsewhere but my UK readers living in the UK are few and far between. Did you see any reason to be offended by this egg cartoon, as a Brit?

D: I think it's advertising or marketing. It's not intended to offend, it's meant to sell eggs in a way which is different from its competitors.

H: Yeah, you're a male, would a female British person perhaps be offended? Your sister or mother?

D: I can see if you are a mother with young children, that you wouldn't want to have to explain the slang of 'to get laid' to a five year old in the supermarket. But in that case you're using the basic explanation that the chickens laid the eggs recently, so what's the problem?

To explain further, the point you're missing H...'to be laid' isn't such a commonly used phrase over here like it is in the US. Sure, we know what it means, mainly from American movies or television, but I would never say, 'I got laid last night', nor would I hear that phrase from any of my friends. You would said 'I had sex last night' and that would be that. So it doesn't have as much force or such a negative connotation to me, because I never use the phrase.

So I would be curious, in particular of the people who were offended, as to who has ever lived in the UK? I would think none, because this type of humor is normal in the UK and wouldn't be cause for offence. Similar to how when I lived in Germany slapstick humor was quite popular there so one saw lots of this type of humor. I can see this egg box wouldn't have made it to the shelves in the US because the definition of humor is different and the culture is different.

H: So would this advertising impact whether or not you'd buy these eggs?

D: Nah. I do buy only free range eggs, which these are, so perhaps I'd buy them, perhaps not depending on the price and expiration date. Normally I buy happy eggs as that is what Asda carries in free range at a good price.

H: Thanks for the info.

So there we have an initial opinion. My population to survey is a little bit small in that anyone whom I interact with is usually a little more international than the average Brit (so working in international company J, for example). However, I will be surveying a female from there next to get another opinion on this topic.

Cosmic irony

In my early university years, I studied literature (English and Spanish). One of my favorite literary terms was 'cosmic irony', which according to Wikipedia is

'the notion that the gods (or the Fates) are amusing themselves by toying with the minds of mortals with deliberate ironic intent'

An example of cosmic irony:
Last year on February 14th, Heather was done packing and was celebrating the sweet feeling of freedom that was coming from knowing it was her last night as a resident in Germany and was so terribly looking forward to starting life in the UK.

this year on Febrary 14th, Heather is packing to catch a flight in four hours--from the UK to Germany for a week of working there.

My new nickname

From one of my law class colleagues, upon seeing me hand in the assigned work early:

You are such a boffin!

Out of curiousity I looked it up on Leo--> der Wissenschaftler. I get the translation, but I think something is sorta lost there...

Orthokeratology

I am now one week into my Orthokeratology adventure.

This adventure involves putting in hard contacts each night at bedtime and taking them out first thing in the morning. Then, the eye retains the shape from overnight, so I'm not wearing any sort of contacts or glasses during the day.

It's been a fascinating week.

First, I've never worn hard contacts, only soft, so that has been a learning experience, getting them in, taking them out, and just having them in at all.

Second, I started to wear glasses when I was around 16 and starting to drive. Over the years I've held steady with a low prescription, but I need them for generally walking around and driving, movies, classes, etc, anything that requires distance vision.

Later I switched to daily contacts and alternated with glasses, then weeklies, then in DE I changed to the 'keep them in 14 days/nights', but would swap back to glasses then for a few days.

So at this point I've amost had some type of eye correction for almost half of my life, every single day. This is the first time I've been able to walk/drive around without anything in/on my eyes and it's vaguely unnerving as I've forgotten what that's like.

In case you're curious about the details:
-I am nearsighted, albeit mildly so. I have moved slowly through glasses/contacts until my most recent prescription of -2.25.
-I have astigmatism

Costs:
-Not sure what this will run you in various countries. In the UK I got set up for 200 GBP from my eye guy for all eye photos, office visits and the initial set of contacts plus solution etc. In theory, assuming I do not manage to lose, mangle, etc. the contacts, they should last for about 10 years he suggests, before I might need reading glasses or some other change to the eye landscape requiring a new purchase.

I would normally pay around 200 GBP+/year on a new pair of glasses + disposable contacts. (Yeah, I'm not so frugal on this point.) So changing to this method should be a more frugal option in the long-run, assuming I do it for more than one year.

Pros:
My vision at the end of today (working for 8 hours in front of a pc, and then walking an hour to reach the eye office) was better than 20/20, 10 hours after taking out the hard contacts.

Cons:
The right eye (with the stronger astigmatism) is correcting a little more slowly than the left so at the end of the day it's a tiny bit weaker. This may correct out in another week or two, or it may require a different nightly contact to sort it out.

British humor and frugal eggs

Or should that be 'humour'? Can you imagine this cartoon egg making the same statement in an American supermarket?

I rarely buy full price eggs anymore. I had purchased these on Feb 2nd in the morning and they were down to half price. If one waits longer, they'll go to 75 or 90% off. My only requirement is that I only do free range eggs anymore. These have the added bonus of being produced in Suffolk, a neighboring area near to Essex.

When I get a great egg deal I usually fry and then freeze them on the day of purchase, although others put them raw in an ice cube tray and freeze. Then I carry on with my egg stock when the deals aren't coming.

Behold, the breakfast bar

After much research and hemming and hawing on the room layout and then losing auctions on ebay, we are finally here:

My flat has one living room, one kichen and one bedroom. The kitchen is too tiny for eating, so that left only the living room.

The clever idea was to get the seats above the window, so as to enjoy the downtown Essex view and the morning coffee with the sunshine. The difficult part was finding a table and seats which were tall enough.

The height of the window to the floor is 115 cm, which is pretty tall. Many breakfast bars are around 90 cm, too short. This one is 105 cm which works out pretty well.

This is a standard Ikea set. I couldn't bring myself to schlep over to Ikea (45 min away), and trundle through the big store. So I bought this one on ebay for a fraction of the cost, and closer.

Ikea sells the table for 99 GBP and the stools are on sale for 10.99 each. Instead, I got all three pieces for 35 GBP, the only bidder in the auction.

So far, so good. We'll see what the cat thinks when she comes home from visiting The House of Treats as this has been 'her' window.

Pre-spring gardening adventures

Over the weekend the air while cold was bright and fresh and gardening season is just around the corner, so I thought it would be a nice time to get cracking on some outside tasks in New Friend Ian's back garden.

One task I had on my 'to do' list was to go after a giant heap of a makeshift compost pile now that the council distributes free 'vegetation' wheelie bins and picks them up each week. In particular, this pile has been home to bramble cuttings and they are vicious in attempting to re-root themselves so out they go. My gift to Ian a few months back was a reduced price compost bin, subsidized by the council so that he would be able to compost properly, even more reason to get rid of this pile. In addition, I have my eye on the dirt beneath for a potato patch. ;-)

A few months back I was vigorously hacking at the pile to get out the dried branches so that we could burn some of them in the fall while they were dry. As I hacked at the pile, elements from within it started to scurry. We suspected rats. Ian warned me that he would be off like lightning if any rats emerged. As I was yielding the hoe I was holding my ground. We burned all the dry stuff in the burn barrel but couldn't get to the bottom of the scurrying activity.

Over the weekend the wheelie bin was brought to the back garden to get a helping of the never ending pile of branches and brambles. While down there, we finally got to the lower levels of the pile, which actually looked like nice mulch, perfect for preparing the other garden beds, to get some nutrients into the soil in advance. I hacked at the pile to break it down while Ian shoveled it along. Nothing moved within the pile, so my hacking away was really moving along at a good clip.

Until I hacked right next to a hedgehog who was in the middle of enjoying his winter sleep. I screamed because another inch or two over and I would have hacked into him. Ian took off running suspecting that I finally found the rats.

We gently covered up the hedgehog who seemed undisturbed by the whole affair in the middle of his winter hibernation.

After he wakes up in March or so we can resume our attack on the pile. In the meantime I'm researching 'hedgehog houses' for next year when the pile is gone, assuming Hoggy wants to stick around after all this ruckous, he'll need a nice place to stay. I'd love for him to stick around, our garden needs all the free pest control it can get. And don't tell, but I think I know what someone will be getting for Valentine's Day!

Frugal dinner for the cat (or people!) in the UK

When I moved back to the UK, one of the things I liked here was that food in the supermarkets is marked down as it gets closer to its 'best buy' date. Where I lived in Germany, food was never marked down, although it would perhaps be on a weekly sale. I find that to be a difference between the UK and Germany: Germany won't have any food to mark down, because they'll under order potentially and the customer might not get what they want (at full price) because its all been sold, while in the UK they will over order and have to mark things down because they have too much but the customer will never be left without their items.

Slocombe the cat has a healthy appetite and during her month at the 'House of Treats' she came to appreciate eating a meal a day of actual meat rather than the '4-8% meat content' cat food which she enjoys from the mid-range cat food section. In addition, she absolutely love variety in her meals. Serving the same rotation of cat food breeds discontent. What to do?

Enter Tesco's markdown section, stage left. Each day the Tesco which is a 10 minute walk from me will mark down meat, bread, veg, cakes, etc. which is reaching the sell by in the next day or so. The starting markdown is 25% off. As it nears closing time on the expiration day, the markdowns increase to 50% off, then 75% and finally 90% off in the last hour or two. This Tesco is on my way to/from places, so easy to pop round.

Slocombe isn't so particular, she adores poultry and isn't so fond of lamb, anything else in between is acceptable. Tesco uses these opaque bags for fish and items from the meat counter so you can't really see what you're buying...it's like a surprise in a Cracker Jack box. So what do we have here? Salmon with lemon cracked black pepper, originally priced at 8.00 GBP, down to .50 p on a mid-afternoon Sunday when they close at 5 PM. I give all purchases a sniff test in the store, but beyond that, it's anybody's guess:


Upon getting it home...not looking too bad, four servings of salmon. It's really a nice meal for a person actually rather than a cat. Too bad I'm a vegetarian, so on with the example:

As Slocombe gets easily bored with repeating meals, I separate and bag the pieces, so that she can have a meal or two out of each section before moving on to a different item and coming back to another piece from the freezer at a later date.

All wrapped and bagged and into the freezer they go, 12.5 p per bag, which I estimate 2 meals from each bag, so 6 p per meal:

My tips on the above:

• Give everything the sniff test and eyeball or feel for weight as much as possible. It's being marked down as it nears the sell by date, but often it's perfectly useable.
• Freeze right away if you're not eating that night.
• It's not much of a bargain if you don't like it. There was a super deal on lamb but SC could care less so I skipped it.
• SC isn't brand specific or coming to the food bowl with any pre-set notions, she gets whatever is on sale and fresh enough and she seems happy enough by this concept.

I am lucky in that Slocombe's chefs (from the House of Treats and New Friend Ian) take care of all meat cooking for me, so I only need to de-thaw and serve. That being said, I will avoid whole fish and having to take out the bones due to the extra work (SC doesn't have much patience to wait!)

pardon me, Germany

After years of griping while living there about having to go down to the cellar to do a load of laundry (I always lived 2 or more floors upwards), i can now see a bit of a benefit.

Last week the washing machine connection had a slow leak and the girl downstairs is away a lot and came home to a leaked upon ceiling (in three places spread over two rooms). Thankfully, building insurance will cover anything over the 250 GBP deductible.

Oh how I know miss the subterranean dungeon of washing machines/dryers with concrete floors slanted toward a central drainage point where leaks happened with some frequency but the only issue was a soapy wet floor...

Praktisch!
Logisch!

Tappity tap - January updates

Dear Internet readers,
Slocombe the cat here. The lazy human who owns this blog hasn't been writing here, so I've taken it into my own paws to catch you up on things...

December was an exciting month, I spent most of it with Uncle Dean at the 'House of Treats'. In January I returned to the 'House of Stress'. Someone had her fall semester law exam on Monday. Then, in big news, she passed her practical (on the road) driving test on Wednesday. I heard her mutter....one less piece of Germany as she put her German license away.

In addition, January is the month where she gives up alcohol (her and the Irish). Personally, I enjoy when we sit here with a glass of wine and surf the internet, so I think this alcohol abstinence is for the birds, but who am I to complain...alcohol is more expensive in the UK than in Germany, so maybe this means she can save spend her alcohol savings on more catfood for me!

Speaking of Germany, she'll be back there next month for a week. I shall again be a week away on vacation, this time to New Friend Ian's. Such a busy cat life I lead!

Regards from Essex,
Slocombe the cat

The arrival of the pumpkins in the UK!

A few months ago I was terribly disappointed, I couldn't find a pumpkin for the life of me. As we know, I like to cook pumpkins, use them in stir fries, and especially to make pumpkin soup. I searched far and wide in the days in October leading up to Halloween, but I could only find a few large decorative pumpkins, nothing edible. My UK friends and colleagues tried to explain that UK people don't really eat pumpkin...

Therefore, I was pleasantly suprised when wandering around Asda this week to find these:

I was downright amazed that their source country was the UK. The green squash in the back had hit their best buy date so they were down to .50 pence each, the orange fellows didn't expire until later in the month, so they were regular priced at 1.64 GBP each. They were stored under the herbs in a hidden place well out of site, so no wonder no one bought them.

When I was in Germany in the fall I did manage to buy one there to cook, it had cost me 1.99 at Lidl. (1.64 GBP = 1.82 EUR = 2.62 USD as of today)

I did actually buy a third one, that already became soup. :-) Pumpkins in January though, usually I'd be well into my German stockpile by now and the stores wouldn't have any for sale, so this turned out to be a pleasant surprise for me this week.

Yet another reason I enjoy having the roof terrace

Without overhead cover, there's enough snow for a front balcony snowman:

And a back balcony snowman too:

noch einmal?

To recap, i took the overnight buses to get to Heathrow, then the 6 AM down to Portugal, and then a connecting flight to Newark. I was lucky on the long flight over, as there was an empty seat next to me, I was able to sleep almost the whole time.

So I arrived into Newark relatively refreshed in the grant scheme of things and managed to hold off until 21.30 to go to sleep.

It was a little surprising then when I woke up dreaming in German.
I have no idea where that one came from.

Frugal travels - taking food to the airport

So I got my cheap ticket back to the US, what else...

My flight leaves at 0600 (weather willing)--yeah, there was a reason it was so cheap. ;-) However, 0600 actually makes it easier for me, because I'm out of Heathrow in this go round, so I have a quiet overnight of travel, starting at 23.40 from my corner of Essex, with two overnight buses which will deposit me at the door of Heathrow. In some ways it's a lot easier than traveling during the day when everyone is out and about...

One of my biggest frugal irritations is the cost of food in the airport, and that you're a bored and captive audience. How do I combat this issue?
I bring my own food. I pack along food on the assumption that I won't be fed on the plane, or that I'll be stuck at the airport for 12+ hours.

To start, I eat before leaving the house. Tonight I'm out the door at 23.40, so I had dinner and then an additional little meal, along with a beer to boot. So the below rations are what will get me through the next 12+ hours.

Starting at the top right:
-a leftover salad from lunch at Nosh today. They make a nice vegetarian spinach and cous cous with feta cheese and advocado salad. I wasn't overly hungry today, so half of it comes along.

-bottom right - two fried egg whites. Sometimes I boil eggs, other times I fry them. I like a little protein to carry along.

-bottom center - two granola bars. If all goes well, I won't touch these. I carry these along as insurance, in case there is suddenly a freak snowstorm grounding all planes or if the airline somehow doesn't have my veg meal.

-bottom left and center top - marked down goodies from Marks & Spencer. I find M&S's veg options to be top of the line but too expensive for daily use. However, they do great markdowns when items are nearing their best buy as these were. Left is a salad with lots of vitamin goodness for 1.50 GBP, top is a melon mix for 1 GBP. Both were more than half off their regular prices and fit my needs as I will consume them within 24 hours.

-top left - a bottle for water - i've yet to have a problem with taking an empty bottle through security and refilling it from the water fountain on the other side. plus, i don't usually travel beyond the industrialized countries of Europe and the US, so I've not so exposed to water which may cause issues with different bacteria, etc.

What else? Yeah, I carry along a spork and napkins always.

What will I buy at the airport?
Coffee. A black coffee is usually one of the cheapest items anywhere, and I loathe instant.

Back when I lived in Germany, I would tote along a beer or two as that was socially acceptable if you were on the train or stuck waiting at the airport, etc. One could carry along a beer for a fraction of the airport cost and only lose the .08 cents deposit. Now that I'm in the UK I've modified my behavior back to the US style. I may have a beer or two on the way out but I won't carry further and will probably wait until I'm on the (Euro carrier) airplane to (freely) indulge.

The UK snowman

Thursday night into Friday we got pummeled in the UK with snow:

Saturday the Phillyland area got pounded with 20 inches.
Heathrow is still recovering today from snow delays earlier this week and facing new ones.

With any luck, all of these issues will be cleared by 6 AM tomorrow UK time. :-)
I've left you a few pre-postings as I'm in the air.

To the House of Treats!

Everyone's favorite cat has her bags packed and ready by the door. In less than 24 hours she will be deposited at her home away from home where she will spend the next few weeks being spoiled, including her own portion of freshly cooked meat each evening of whatever is being served. She's not so choosy there, but she does seem to favor poultry...

Countdown to flight time: 4 days

More Christmas shopping - homemade bags

In my quest to remain homemade this year, I bought a few of these homemade bags from the same charity who was selling the sweaters. I imagine they are made with donated materials, the price was three for 5 GBP. The are well-made and lined and one of a kind so they fit the bill.

Sidenote: When I was home two years ago for the holidays I was still in the autopilot 'I live in Germany therefore I take my shopping bags with me' mode. Most of my relatives found it strangely quaint, and my grandmother backed me up with the sentiment, 'back in the depression we didn't have all of these plastic bags, we wrapped things in reused paper and twine or a reused burlap sack, but we were so poor we barely had anything to wrap or carry anyway!'

I'm not sure how much of this statement was exaggerated, but she enjoyed asking if we were taking along our bags each time anyone went out the door, with a wink to me. It's all good fun so they will enjoy to receive these as gifts.

Terry's money woes and the lack of data security

You may recall from a few months back, when I first arrived my company J issued mobile phone was previously in use to someone named Terry who seemed to forget to pay a few bills. For a few months I was regularly receiving calls from bill collectors (uups, 'Finance companies'), so much so that I regularly turned my work phone off outside of work hours. For the most part, they were pleasant enough when I explained that it was a company phone issued and paid for by benevolent company J, and they were welcome to call company J to try and find Terry as I never met him, nor did I replace him or know anything about his location.

A few weeks back, Terry's misadventures appeared again, as Terry forgot to pay the water bill and I started to get SMS notices that further action would be taken. Due to the location of the water provider, I now know Terry's geographic region of the country.

Last night, Argos sent an SMS to Mr. Terry (lastname), thanking him for his order and informing him that it would be shipped tomorrow and they would call one hour in advance of delivery. Previously I didn't know Terry's last name, although I did a short first name search on company J's internal phone directory on the chance that I could get a new business number to forward people to, but no Terry's or any such close variations existed in the UK.

Sure enough today an Argos guy calls:
Argos guy: Hi, Argos here, we'll be there in an hour.
Heather: Sorry, I didn't order anything from Argos.
AG: It's a delivery for Terry (Last name)?
Heather: Sorry, that's not me.
AG: We're making a delivery to (Town, Address line 1, Address line 2)?
Heather: Sorry, I live in Essex (the opposite side of London from the address, at least 2 hours away).
AG: Sorry, I may have mis-dialed, I was trying to reach (my phone number).
Heather: Yes, you've reached the right number, but it does not belong to whomever ordered something.
AG: No worries, I try to find them.
Heather: (Good luck, you and the bill collectors.)

So Terry who spent months not paying bills including most recently the water bill is now buying something from Argos.

Perhaps more concerning--I've purposely stayed uninvolved from this situation and without trying I now know the guy's full name and address. It's not easy to see how people commit identity fraud...

The homemade Christams gifts - knitted items

I mentioned a little while back that it would be locally sourced, handmade and secondhand Christmas. I've been pleased with my corner of Essex, when there are street parties or the like, a local charity will often put up a booth with homemade items. Chief among these is handknitted items like sweathers, socks and mittens, and the prices are extremely affordable, for less than what you'd pay at a discount retailer like Walmart even. (I guess as the materials and labor are donated efforts, anything they make for the charity is therefore pure profit.)

So when I had the chance to pick up these two items for less than 10 USD together, I did, especially as I can't knit myself. :-)

The influence of the EU on the UK

Being a non-EU citizen in the EU is an interesting perspective. While we studied the EU law chapter in my law course, it caused a bit of passion on the topic, as to how being in the EU has impacted the UK. As I have no personal, historical perspective on this account, I tend to see it more from a black and white numbers or law basis.


As we know, I need to take the UK Driver's test. Background on that one is here and here. While doing a little research, I noticed that they are hiring Driver test examiners in the UK. Most interesting to me is under the 'brief description':

You’ll need to have held a UK or EU licence continuously for 4 years (and with no more than 3 current penalty points)

Well, that's me actually. I've held an EU license continuously for 4 years with no more than 3 penalty points. When I mentioned this to one of my UK colleagues, to borrow one of my favorite German terms, he ausgeflippt.

His key points were:
-There was probably some EU directive forcing the UK to allow other EU country citizens to apply.
-Driver examiners could then come over from other EU lands where they are used to driving on the other side of the road and other types of road signs, etc. Just because they hold an EU passport does not qualify them to examine UK drivers without intrinsic UK road knowledge, and at a very minimum, a UK driver's license.

-->EU Directive 91/439/EEC from 1991 abolished the need for EU community members to exchange drivers licenses, btw, and established that member licenses are fully recognized in other member countires.

-->From this act also: 'The work of driving examiners must be monitored and supervised, by a body authorized by the Member State, to ensure correct and consistent application of fault assessment in accordance with the standards laid down in this Annex'.

Freedom in a small frame, this EU...

On the way to Germany

But only a quick trip for meetings on Monday and Tuesday, so alas no time for the Christmas markets. :-(

The frugal Christmas decorations - part 1

While living in Europe, I never saw a huge point of doing a lot of decorating for the holidays because I'm always in the US for most of the period. Therefore, I went very minimal with just a string of lights in Germany.

Similar to yesterday's topic of a secondhand Christmas, rather than buying one more 'made in China' thing which would clutter up a landfill someday, I decided to buy my holiday decorations from the charity shops here in my corner of Essex.

OK, so there are five of them so I have plenty of choices, and plus, the profits are going to the charity rather than some big non-local corporation.

Behold, my first purchase:

Yes, that's an actual Weihnachtspyramide (Christmas pyramid) from Germany. It was in a German box, no wonder no one here in the UK bought it, it probably looks like the oddest thing if you haven't seen one before. For a mere 3.95 GBP it was mine, complete with the candles (looking a little worse for the wear, but with a price tag in DM!).

The garland was also a recent purchase there. For 2.50 GBP I picked up a gigantic catch-all back of various garlands and strings of tinsel in all sorts of colors and sizes.

I wasn't sure what the cat would thing about the pyramid, or the tinsel for that matter, so it's safely resting on top of the bookshelf being ignored. :-)

The frugal holidays - homemade and secondhand

The thing I like least about the holidays is all of the stress that goes along with them. Of course, it's always nice to come back to the US for two weeks and enjoy time off and the traditions of my childhood...

I've been informed from home that due to economic conditions, Christmas is being scaled back and gift giving should be minimal. Something similar happened last year as well. Having spent my student years doing retail stints, I've been forever since turned off of mass produced gifts which sprout like mushrooms in all the aisles of the mall and Target. In the past few years I've attempted to make an effort in what I buy or make to make it meaningful rather than costly. On the receiving side, I've made a request in the past few years for nothing much as I have limited ability to carry it all back, but instead to receive gifts like 'pick Heather up at the airport rather than jetlagged having to take the train home'.

So how did it work last year?

It was quite a mixed bag in the end.

-A few people couldn't deal with the change and at the last minute bought last-minute gifts.

-My self-professed shopaholic aunt had been on a decluttering spree so she went 'shopping' in her stash of treasures. She had a different goal of 'spend no money and get rid of excess stuff' so that was acceptable.

-Some re-gifting was being done, of gifts received from work or the like. This was deemed acceptable as the giver wasn't spending any money.

-I shop throughout the year so this edict came too late for me. As I tend to buy secondhand or homemade items, I skirted in under the wire of acceptability.

Overall, I was very pleased with the experiment. Anticipating something similar this year I followed a similar tactic. As I'm starting to set things aside as I begin to pack for the trip home in December, I'll make a few postings in the coming days about what one can buy homemade or secondhand in Europe for the curious frugal out there.

The *somewhat* frugal beach holiday in Portugal

A few months back, new friend Ian and I went to Portugal. Portugal has been an elusive one for me for a few years. Back in 2003 when I first arrived in Europe, there were a lot of cheap flights and travel, but over the years it seemed to dry up. Portugal was never a cheap flight from my corner of Germany though, so I was pleased to finally go.

The flight and transport:
Living (relatively) near Stansted means that we're somewhat limited in our flight selection. Love them or hate them, Ryanair runs the show over there, so you're hard pressed to find a cheaper flight option, unless it's a country specific one like AirBerlin to Germany.
-I had a few requirements--I wanted to go to the beach.
-Ian had a few requirements--he didn't want to go on (another) 6 AM Ryanair flight, he wanted a more civilized time.

We were somewhat lucky in that we were both flexible on when we could go. We held off until September (the beginning of school sessions), and prices dropped.

I found three cheap Ryanair flights--2 in Spain, 1 in Portugal. We ended up with Stansted to Faro for 83 GBP each, which included all their silly taxes and baggage fees, and a civilized flight take-off time of 09.25.

We skipped parking at the airport because the airport bus is easy to take and parking is expensive. Ten GBP gets you a roundtrip ticket on the nice, direct bus and it leaves you 2 minutes walk from the check-in desks.

On the arriving end, I had pre-booked a reputable transport company [Algarve-365 Airport Transfers (transfers@algarve-365.com)] to take us to and from the Airport to our hotel in Albufiera. They are staffed by UK folks living in Portugal, so our driver was a great source of info on the local area. We didn't want to deal with the hassle of renting a car, or a never-ending shuttle bus run to multiple hotels. So we paid 60 Euros for the roundtrip transport. With two or more people, it's a great way to go.

The Hotel

Now that Easyjet and Ryanair have come to Faro, the surrounding beaches are overrun with Brits. In addition, the market is mainly filled with the gigantic, all-inclusive hotels. We were looking for something a little smaller and quieter.

We ended up choosing the Albufeira area due to its reputation for nice beaches. I searched far and wide for a hotel. I searched through the Spanish sites in addition to see what I could find.

We went with Residencial Mar a Vista, a smaller hotel of five floors located at the top of one of the winding hills. The area is very hilly. It was only 150 metres away from Peneco beach, but it was pure treading uphill at the end of the day. We liked the exercise, so it was great. Five nights came in at 173 Euros total (excluded breakfast) and we didn't see a single Brit there. It was a smaller, cozy hotel set a distance from the loud discos and such. The steep walk ensured that it attracted more of a Portuguese crowd, or some other healthy Europeans.

There was an option to get breakfast for an additional 5 EUR per day, we tried it one day. The difficulty on this point is that I am not a breakfast person, only coffee, so I'm always peeved at the thought of overpaying for coffee only. Ian isn't a huge breakfast person, so we tended to pick him up a sandwich on the way.

If you did happen to be going to this hotel--the site where breakfast is located is beautiful, if you can get the two outside tables overlooking the ocean, but the sun glare off of it is immense. It's nothing fancy for breakfast--bread rolls, cheese, salami, and a choice of cereals.

A much better option--which we did--was to stop at the neighborhood supermarket on our way down the hill. It had all the basic provisions like bottled water, cookies, etc. at a fraction of the cost of the beach stores.

The Food:
When in Rome...the dish of the region was chicken piri piri, which Ian enjoyed multiple times. At many places it was advertised for 5 Euros for the plate which offered a choice of fries or some or some other potatoes:

For the vegetarians in the party (heheh), options were a little more limited. However, virtually every place offered salads and omelets. I'm not a huge fan of omelets, but they did mushroom ones pretty well:

A lot of places did lunchtime specials. The vacationing Portuguese (and us) were smart enough to get out of the sun from 1130-14.00. The sun was really strong still in September and temps were high 20's. The Brits stayed on the beach and fried to a pink crisp.

The result was that most restaurants offered great lunchtime offers to get people in. Often our best meal of the day would be lunch.

Along the way I noticed that everyone was using those floaty things not for paddling around in the water, but for sleeping on the beach:

And there were plenty of places selling them, plus umbrellas, hats, sunblock, etc. all at exorbitant beach prices:

One day, the clouds came overhead ominously and it began to spit rain. There was an exodus from the beach as everyone headed back to their hotels. On the way, beachgoers who were obviously on their way out that night or tomorrow morning started depositing their floating things, umbrellas, etc. next to the trash bins on the beach.

Ian was fully embarassed by me picking up two rafts which looked like new, as well as an umbrella. He wasn't so embarassed however, not to use the raft the next day for his ancient back, once i rinsed it off in the ocean. Talk about a consumer society...the items looked new, like they would bought in the past day or two. So we got a good couple of days out of the two rafts and umbrella, and then donated them on our way out to the charity shop for pets who were selling all sorts of that stuff and who gladly accepted them.

Heather's thought for the future-->check the local charity shops in advance for beach things and general souvenir stuff, if there is one relatively close to our location. Portugal is known for cork, so had I wanted to pick up any of those little gifts for anyone like cork coasters or Portugal spoons or plates, the charity shop was oozing with that stuff, for a fraction of the cost of the main shops.

One thing we did enjoy...coffee in Portugal reminds me of coffee in Spain--it's strong and it's cheap. We ferreted out a place near the beach, but off of the beaten path, which seems to be frequented by locals. I sent Ian in, but the woman only spoke Portuguese (score!). I went in and spoke Spanish with her (I was a little hesitant to do this, my Spanish colleagues have given me quite an education about the historical role of Spain in Portugal's history), however, it seemed better than English in this case.

I was able to get my strong expresso and Ian's frilly Latte at a lower price than any of the cafes where the menu was in English:

Could we have done it cheaper?

Well sure. We could have done couchsurfing to save the hotel costs (Ian not so fond of that idea and had already vetoed camping). Or we could have stayed at a closer beach to Faro (Heather not fond of that idea since we were there for five nights, maybe if it was only a weekend.) Or we could have gone with a self-cathering flat and done lunch at home. We had asked the shuttle driver how business had been, she said the numbers have been down, and those that were coming were saving pennies. She noticed a big increase to trips to self-catering flats in the past year over previous years to full-service hotels. In addition, she mentioned that people who own properties there and usually rent them out were coming to use them for personal use--a cheap holiday for the owner while the place was unrented.

Would I do Portugal again?

Yes, definitely. The little we saw of it I liked. However, seeing the dry landscape in September, I'd be careful to avoid the summer months. In addition, my work colleague went during August and told me how the beaches were packed, so September was really the way to go, even though the sun was setting behind the mountains as of 18.30 each day.

UK theoretical driving test - done!

I've been a bit MIA this past week. All of my free time was spent working on a big law assignment for Wednesday, I had a lot of after hours work calls with the US office, and the rest of the time was spent studying for the UK theoretical driving test.

I had two UK 'how to get your driving license' books from the library, a printout of the UK Highway code from the the government motoring site, and most importantly, The Official Theory Test for Car Drivers from the UK Driving Standards Agency, the government group who licenses drivers. My version was from the library so it wasn't the latest and greatest version, as well it had plenty of pencil marks of previous borrowers, however, I knew I didn't need this book long term so it was good enough for my purposes. This book is all questions from the test bank, actual questions, almost 400 pages of them.

I had booked the next available appointment at the closest testing site. The testing centers for this theoretical computer test are outsourced centers, so a little different from the US version where they are goverment agencies. My corner of Essex is large so we have one in town, a mere eight minutes walk from my house.

I remember when I turned in my Pennsylvania licence for a California one. I was in San Mateo and the Driver's License office was gigantic. You entered a took a number for the main desk. The main desk looked at your forms and ID and insurance papers or whatever, and then instructed you to take various numbers from machines next to them. The number slips were different colors, and it corresponded to different areas. For my part I needed to convert my PA license to a CA one, to do so I had to take the theoretical test. Then I had to change over my car registration as well once that was passed. The changeover included showing the car insurance paperwork, title, etc. to someone at a desk, as well as the car receiving a once over to insure that it was worthy for CA roads. I had three or four little slips of paper and was there a good two hours or so, but everything was done in that one visit, although I did have a little waiting at each 'station'.

So I showed up 15 minutes early for my 10 AM appointment as the appointment letter suggested. Only in the UK--when you walk it, there is a sign 'please take a seat.' There is no number taking machine. There are already five people there, how would they know who is next? When the man sitting at the desk said next, they all looked at each other, eventually coming to consensus as to whose turn it was after 15 seconds or so. Can you imagine this scenario in Germany? ;-)

After reviewing the Provisional license and the accompanying paper form which travels with it, I was sent to his colleague for a second review. Both of them crossed me off their lists once proof was appropriate. The second colleague was also a little older, both of them looked as if this was a part-time retirement job. She goes through the rules--don't stand up until you are done, please use the anti-germ hand gel here, if you have any issues please raise your hand, etc etc--'and most importantly...good luck!'

I took my seat at my assigned computer and followed along the introductory tutorial. The temperatures were rather chilly, I felt like an egg in the icebox. There are two parts to this theoretical test: Part 1 is 50 multiple choice questions in 50 minutes; part two is 14 'hazard scenarios' where the camera is positioned like you're in the driver's seat in the car going down the road, and you're supposed to mouse click when you see hazards developing.

The first part is nicer than any driving test I've taken in the US, or maybe it's because my US driving tests were 10 years ago (CA) or ahem, *cough*, more than 15 years ago (PA). This multiple choice test was completely touch screen, no mouse needed, and it had such fancy things like 'flagging a question' to return to it later or the option to review all questions at the end, etc.

As I started, I recognized many questions from the book, so most were quick. Plus, I was freezing cold, so not dillydallying on the answers. I went through the 50 questions in 7 minutes. Granted, I was on autopilot on a number of them as they were from the book and some of them are just common sense if you are already a driver.

Sidenote: in the waiting area, I was the oldest applicant by a good 15 years or so. The two young ladies near me were chatting--both had failed this test previously and both have been actually driving on the UK roads since August. Boy did I feel old...and maybe wise with experience, not sure.

I then proceeded to part two of the theoretical test, the hazards. I didn't prepare for this bit at all, but probably should have in retrospect. It takes you through these driving scenarios (which make me a little carsick). The camera is bouncing along, just like you're in a car. In the introduction, it gives you an overview of how it works. You're driving along and it circles the hazards for you. There is a pedestrian on the sidewalk...as she approaches the sidestreet to cross it, there is a motorcycle in front of you nearing the sidestreet. It circles the woman as a traffic hazard as the motorcycle might want to turn left and there will be a pedestrian crossing. (In my corner of Essex, that wouldn't be called a 'hazard' but rather a 'nuisance' and the driver would honk the horn at the pedestrian for slowing him down--but I digress.) It gives you the warning not to overclick or willynilly click, or that scenario will be given 0 points. There is the instruction that there is one hazard per clip, with one clip having two, and that you should click as soon as you notice the hazard, and then subsequently click each time the scenario changes.

Off we go on scenario one. I was giving each clip about four clicks in my quest to not invalidate my scenario. A car is signalling to put into the lane (click). The car pulls into the lane in front of me (click), and on and on we go. A child is playing with a ball on a sidewalk (click), a bird flies through the air in front of the car (no click?).

As I muddle along, I get really bored of this game around scenario five. Click, click, click. One scenario has sheep wandering into the road, it looks like you're driving deep in the Wales countryside or maybe up North in Scotland. I have no idea where the closest sheep field would be to my corner of Essex, but I guarantee it's at least two hours away.

I finish with the scenarios, stepping out into the hallway looking forward to putting on my coat and scarf. The woman checks my id once more and sends me to my locker to retrieve my coat etc. with instructions to then report to the first colleague for the results. He hands me two papers folded up and says, 'I'm not allowed to tell you the results.' As no one was there, I unfolded the sheets to look. He helpfully suggests--It's usually the first sentence.

The pass rate on this test seems higher to me than the US equivalent tests. On part 1, one must get at least 43 of 50 multiple choice questions correct; I had 47. On part 2, one must get 44 of 75 points (5 points is the maximum per scenario, there are 14 of them and one has two), I had 44 dead on, so one less click and I would have been sunk. In retrospect, I didn't click enough for their stringent requirements. For example, there is a puddle on the other side of the road and no cars coming on that side. To me that is not a hazard, but I think on this test it was. Then a car comes toward the puddle--that should have been another click--then the car swerves into my lane to avoid the puddle--ok, so I clicked there. And then another car does the exact same. Who swerves into another lane with a car coming to avoid a puddle??

But anyway, a pass is a pass, so it's on to the second part next, the Practical driving part of the exam. In theory, I could drive as a learner with this Theoretical Pass for up to two years, but my 'non-learner' status under the 'one year as a foreign driver' expires in Feb so you can be sure I'll be working toward that date. :-)

Frugal side potatoes

I've had a busy week this week. I knew going into it that it would be busy, so I created a few big meals and spent the rest of the time combining them in leftover fashion. In addition, it was chilly this week in the UK so I made meals that could go into the oven for heating.

I started with the rooftop garden potatoes. I boiled them for 15 minutes and then put them into the roasting pan. I added a bit of onion and garlic (also from the garden). I added half of a leek from the market and a little oil (cost negligible). Full cost of the leek was .75 pence, so we're up to around .37 pence cost here:

Next I topped it with the remaining breadcrumb/parmesan cheese mixture from the Breaded mushrooms. As I calculated that cost into the mushroom recipe, I considered this one to be a free addition:

It went into the oven for 25 min at 175 C. Then I added a few chopped up tomatos for moisture and because they were reaching the end of their shelf life:

The final outcome was a side of potatoes with at least 5 meals this week:

Total cost per serving? Around 7 pence.

What ended up with it? One day I had leftover pasta bake for a carbfest, another day was a green salad, another day was assorted leftovers, and on and on...the above photo was the salad day, other day's portions were smaller.

Technology

is like everything else, it's neither good nor bad in and of itself, but it's all in how you use it. More so, it's how the people who set it up create the user experience...

Example: bad technology
Southern Water Company sent me an SMS yesterday on my company J provided work mobile--'please contact this number to pay your water bill immediately, it's past due. If you do not contact us further action will be taken.'

Here in my corner of Essex, I'm serviced by Essex and Suffolk Water. Further, that water bill is paid through the property management company who covers the flat and then bills us all back every six months.

Out of curiousity I looked up where this company is located--they deliver water to people across Kent, Sussex, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. The person who had this phone before me (not at company J), skipped out on some bills it appears. For some weeks I had collection agents calling me a few months back, but once I informed them that it is a corporate registered work phone since February and here is the registered work address, they would usually back off as these bills were coming from before then.

Not wanting to get further bothered by Southern Water Company, I called them to point them in another direction.

Southern Water Co voice: What's your account number?
H: I don't have one...(explains situation)
SWC: OK, let me try to search on the mobile number.....nope, not here. Any chance you have a name or an address?
H: No...I don't know this person, I just received the mobile number later.
SWC: There's nothing we can do.
H: So you're smart enough to send me the SMS messages, but you can't figure out the person linked to that number?
SWC: Not on this system, without an account number or a full name or an address, no, sorry about that.
H: Well, it's not your fault, you didn't design it.
SWC: I would recommend, when you get more of them, just to ignore them.
H: Will this account then go to a collection agency?
SWC: If not paid, yes.
H: ....(eyes heavenward)
SWC: But if you explain, then they'll stop calling. Sorry I can't provide more help.
H: ... Well. you did your best.
SWC: I know I didn't help you so much today, but would you mind to go to a customer service survey to rate my support?

Example: good technology
I went to donate blood here in the UK. I had donated blood over six years ago, when I lived here last. I no longer have the card, nor do I remember the address registered as I do remember giving a work colleague's home address rather than worry about them sending sensitive mail to a corporate flat.

I show up and mention that the last time was over five years ago (as a non-UK resident, on top of it!), so that I probably need to register once again? The woman taps onto the laptop my name and date of birth and manages to find my record.

NHS Woman: Was your home address... (screws up face in concentration)
H: in Wales.
NHS: Yes, and you last donated in (J work city near Birmingham)?
H: Yes, that's me!
NHS: (dryly) I'll assume I should change your home address and donation address to this corner of Essex?
H: Oh yes. When I called the central help line, they mentioned that I would need to register again as a new UK donor, as it was more than five years ago?
NHS woman: They tend to say that, but your name and date of birth is distinct, so possible to find you.
H: And they don't remove the records after they are dormant for a while?
NHS: Only if you ask.

I was pleasantly surprised by that one, that they made this system easy enough to use that this woman was able to locate my six year old record in under a minute, nevermind the huge geographical disparity of where I am now to where I was before. Well done, NHS.

Breaded mushrooms

I recently bought this book at Oxfam for 8.99 GBP. It was rather heavy to carry home, but it's absolutely superb. Every single page has a recipe and 4 photos: the final product and 3 steps leading up to it. I love photos in my cooking, mainly because I have no idea what I'm doing most of the time. ;-)

If you'd like to try some vegetarian recipes which are slightly above basic skills, I'd highly recommend it. I also like that it includes the nutritional info with each recipe, so that you can see what you're getting into.

Below, I tried out 'Mushroom Bites with Aioli' (page 161 in my edition):



On the left are the mushrooms which were dipped in two egg whites and then dipped in a breadcrumb and parmesan cheese before going into the oven for around 15 minutes. On the right is the Aioli. I took some heavy liberties with this one. The recipe suggested 2 egg yolks, garlic cloves, olive oil, and salt/pepper. However, it also suggested a variation to try instead fresh herbs and sour cream instead of the egg yolks. I combined a bit from both ideas and it all came out right in the end.

I know you can get packaged frozen version of breaded mushrooms, but these were so much better than the ones I had like that in Germany or here in the pubs. There is no oil involved in the mushrooms of this recipe so they come out much lighter and it was simple to make. (Excluding the self-inflicted injury Ian suffered while trying to grate the frozen bread into breadcrumbs.)