from my rooftop garden - peas

The view from my window

Across the street, they've taken a vacant building and they've started to gut it and built it up by one story. This was my view from my kitchen window today, on the zoom setting:

In the US, I've yet to see a Sikh construction worker, but here in the UK they are plentiful. So much so that the UK has published regulations, http://www.hse.gov.uk/foi/internalops/fod/oc/200-299/282_27.pdf regarding their exemption from wearing helmets on construction sites.

More from America - rules

While seeing a free 'summer concert in the park' Friday night event, I noticed the children enjoying the fountains in the hot and humid summer night. I later noticed the 'FOUNTAIN RULES':

It cautions against anyone with a communicable disease, or 4 wheeled recreational vehicles, or diaper changing.

A few interesting things to note:

-It's not a fountain that includes a pool, it's only shooting spurts of water from the concrete.

-It's a tiny park tucked inside an upscale shopping area. Any 4 wheeled recreational vehicles would not be welcome well before arriving here.

-Diaper changing in the water area defeats the idea of dryness.

I have not yet noticed any 'fountain signs' in Europe, so I have no comparison points to America.

Another reason to love Philadelphia airport

Free wifi!

You are located at:
Philadelphia International Airport
8500 Bartram Ave.Philadelphia, PA, 19153

They could use a few more outlets, however. Newark is much better about outlets, they're usually on the poles, with plenty available. With Philly you're usually camped out in random corners on the floor, or I see a few people tucked into them in the airport eateries.

So it's been a short visit back to the US for the 4th and a week of 90+ temps in Philly.

From the rooftop garden - strawberries!

Sorry for the delay, I've been back in the US for work, and then busy with work here.
While away, my strawberries were gearing up, so I came back just as the first ones were ready. Then, I had about 3 weeks straight of strawberries for breakfast, freshly picked off the balcony each day.

Here are some of the last ones (notice the green insect on the right one--organic!):

I have around one more week left of strawberries. I currently have three runners started, so the rest will soon follow suit.

I arrived in the UK in early 2009, so this is the third year for some of my plants. Strawberries build up in the first year, peak in the second and then start to wane in the third. So the runner plants will get planted in as starters for next year's crop.

The countdown continues...

This week is a small milestone. The UK, like Germany, allows for permanent residency after 5 years of residence. Different from Germany, however, the UK in addition allows for a path to dual citizenship after a few additional activities.

Even though I had Germany permanent residency, it did not count for anything in the UK, so the clock started over again for me in 2009.

5 years x 365 days = 1825 days

This week I dropped into triple digits, so below the 1000 day mark.

The next milestone will be the half-way point of 5 years, in August 2011.

Life in Germany: the Department of Order

A short article about Germany's Ordnungsbehörde, or Department of Order. If you're planning to move to Germany, it's worth a quick read:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/22/magazine/you-are-here-germanys-anti-chaos-crusaders.html?_r=1&ref=magazine

I personally never met them, but a few work colleagues in Cologne (both German and not), have mentioned experiences with them, mainly those crossing the street (empty or not) against the light, and for bicyclists going through red lights rather than following the rules of stopping with the cars.

An impressive UK border agent

If you read this blog regularly, you know that I don't have the highest of opinions on the folks controlling the UK borders, in particular, because I'm irritated with playing 20 questions with them when I have a legitimate work permit that is valid into 2012.

Although I'm as equally annoyed when they play 20 questions with you tourists and I'm usually in the queue behind you, although their questioning of how you are getting from London to Shakespeare's house, and the waiting while you get out the Rick Steve's book all marked up with post-its can be endearing (or would be if I wasn't so jet-lagged).

Yesterday, I went through the usual at Heathrow:
what kind of work do you do?
how long have you been doing that?
what is the company?
where is the company?
etc.

Then, a brand new one:
Are you planning to stay for residency and perhaps citizenship?

Why yes, that is the plan. And my tired heart soared, as no one usually thinks that one can have both, or maybe people expect that Americans go home, but no one ever asks that question. In particular, no one has ever asked me that at the border, so it made my dream a little more tangible, that I didn't have to present it or explain it, that someone can see the path, that it seems feasible.

As he stamped my passport he then explained:
In that case, you'll want to take care, they will want to review all of these entry stamps, and we must stamp in the page next to or behind your permit. It those pages start to become too full and the stamps not legible, you'll probably want to get a new passport to avoid any hassles later on with your application.

Not a concern as I need to get a new passport anyway late this year, but I was impressed that he proactively presented the tip.

Back in the UK

After 2.5 weeks (mainly work related), I am back in the UK. Our plane was 4 hours late to take off due to storms in the Mid-Atlantic region.

Jet lag gives me a wonderful opportunity to appreciate the time prior to sunrise here. In the UK our winter days are very short, but our summers are very long.

Sunrise today: 04.57
Sunset: 20.50

Slocombe's fan club

The garden is a flurry of activity these days and I'm selling plants via multiple channels. All the way in the back of the photo, in front of the frosted wall, is Slocombe the cat, on the chair. On the other side of the wall is my lovely and sweet Italian neighbor, A.

Essex has been having hot summer weather, so I've been leaving the front terrace door open. The back is a little more dangerous, as it's larger and there are some 'escape routes' so SC only goes on the back on the lead.

Today, as I was watering the plants, I noticed that something caught her eye and she went immediately into attack mode--bottom to the ground, and focused while she crept over to the frosted glass wall and then was chin to the ground in front of it. As she is an inside cat except for the balkon, her mighty huntress routine can be rather amusing....although that being said, she takes care of any fly or mosquito that gets trapped in the flat quite handily.

I figured out by being near it, that A's British boyfriend was on the other side of the wall on the balkon, reading a book. This was very exciting to SC, to sit next to the wall and watch him, like she's stalking a giant mouse.

He must have pointed her out to A, because then I heard, 'Awww...the kit-ty!', and SC realized she was the center of attention and immediately took off to back inside her flat. A and her 'loud Italian-ness' are a little bit scary to SC, although it is all meant with love...

Later today as I was coming home, I ran into A.

A: I saw your kit-ty!

H: Oh, sorry about that, I hope she did not bother you?

A: OH no! My boyfriend loves cats! He was happy to see her!

So sweet. Maybe I need to unblock the exits on the front balkon, so she can pop over for a visit at some point.

Schadenfreude

Definition here.

Let's use it in an example:

Heather experienced schadenfreunde when this glorious UK summer weather was cut short by an impromptu rain shower, as it forced her neighbors to take their stereo and their cigarettes inside, as our rooftop terraces are uncovered.

After three hours of listening to their trance music at a volume that could be heard inside her flat, with all doors and windows shut, and earplugs in addition, this unexpected rain was most delightful!

Granted they are students and it is a Saturday afternoon, so their behaviour, while chavish, is not out of line. As they are young people, they will bounce back from this misfortune and hopefully re-group in a bar down the street.

For the travel nerds amongst us - long journeys

Benevolent company J recently launched a new internal travel system here in the UK. I have IT colleagues who were involved in it; apparently this is a huge cost savings as it's very expensive for a 'person-issued' ticket as opposed to a self-administered booking. In addition, the application has all sorts of bells and whistles built in to enforce various policies. However, it seems to lack a bit on the 'common sense' side of things, but perhaps that it not programmable. ;-)
It is smart enough to tell me that 'you have chosen a fare that is more than 100 GBP than the next closest fare and within 3 hours, enter your mandatory comments in the box which will be reviewed by management'. I need to remember to stifle any sarcasm before I start typing as it starts to come out like, 'Will miss the meeting start time of 9 AM by several hours due to the 13 hour overnight connection in Los Angeles' and 'Will negate cost savings due to extra hotel night due to connecting flight leaving one day later.' Behold my options for the London to Chicago route (sorry, you need to click on the jpg to expand it.)

Remember that a London-Chicago direct flight will come in slightly under 9 hours...so it's fascinating that I can fly over Chicago and go all the way to California with Air New Zealand, and even better, with a 13 hour overnight layover at LAX. It's a similar story for Stockholm and Istanbul, except that those journeys are first going in the opposite direction of where I need to go. The third is magnificent, as I've never been to Asia, this could be my golden opportunity to fly Cathay, plus the added bonus of an overnight in a German airport, in addition to a second German airport in the same trip!

Apparently they used the same logic for domestic routes as well. I will wrap up my trip in Milwaukee, and then I will head home to Philly for a few days. There are a few direct options, USAir and Frontier come to mind, for this short 2 hour flight. It's much more interesting to instead take 10 hours however...
because to travel to Philly on Hungarian Malev Airlines via Canada would probably make for a good story.

UK politics and immigration

Even though the economy is supposedly picking up, immigration remains a hot topic as the UK continues to try and lock down the borders and implement hurdles for those of us entering legally. I've been achieving my old pc data as it is ready for retirement at 8 years old. Here was a photo from before, with yours truly in the foreground:
Local elections are upcoming on May 5, 2011. My corner of Essex is a hotly contested battleground as the numbers in the last election were very close. As well, we're a densely populated region of many flats, so one assumes a transient population. Therefore the parties are out in full force, to try and lock down a win. Every week, I get papers under the door, telling me who I should vote for, and why the other party has failed me. These folks are out prior to 9 AM on Sundays, during the week and at all other hours. Unfortunately, as a non-UK citizen, their papers are mainly a waste as I have no vote here.

UK Passport control at Eurostar Paris

Someone asked me about work in Europe and is it exciting to travel to so many countries. No, quite frankly I find it irritating, especially so now that I live in the UK. As mentioned previously, it's a hassle to travel back into the UK on a non-European passport. Last week, I needed to go to a business meeting in Paris. I left on Wed night and returned Thurs night. Upon leaving the UK, you go through French passport controls while still in the Eurostar terminal in St Pancras, in London. Sidenote: I love travelling on Eurostar to the continent rather that having to go via the airport, but it's only really viable from my corner of Essex when:

• going to a direct Eurostar destination of Brussels or Paris rather than an indirect one like Cologne, otherwise to fly is faster.


• when the company is paying for business travel as it's awfully expensive.

So coming back, one clears UK immigration on the French side at the Gare du Nord Eurostar terminal in Paris. After you get through the ticket checkers and bag x-xray, it's on to passport control. I had a young Asian border agent, whom interestingly, I had a hard time hearing. This is quite an accomplishment, as I have 'bat ears', I can hear a gnat sneezing in the next county. So it went something like this:

(Heather, handing across the passport, work permit side open and face up, along with the required entry card).

Border agent: Travelling to the UK?

Heather: Yes (Thinking: No, I just wandering in here and handed you my passport to get to the platform where trains only go to the UK as a mistake.)

BA: Do you work in the UK?

H: Yes. (Did you not just see my work permit page, the one that you scanned, or are we playing border agent games?)

BA: mhrp mmm trp?

H: Yes?

BA: Trrgh sm profession?

H: Yes.

BA: (More loudly this time) What is your profession?

H: Computer work. (like it says on the border card that I handed to you.)

BA: What is your work permit?

H: I'm sorry?

BA: What type of work permit do you have?

H: (Now sitting on the fence and contemplating a response that is either condescending at her obvious border games, or more of a 'German irritation' flavour, ultimately I go with the latter. Insert German scowl here.) Tier 1. It's the page where I gave you my passport and where you scanned it.

BA: Are you employed?

H: Yes. (Not that I really need to answer that. My permit does not require me to remain 100% employed, only that I meet the criteria prior to renewal.)

BA: And where do you work?

H: Benevolent company J.

Finally she stamps the passport and through I come. I continue to find the UK immigration experience to be ridiculous. It's interesting that there is such a strong local backlash against immigrants 'taking the jobs of UK workers' and specifically at illegals, but I have to go through the dog and pony show every time I want to come into the UK on my legal work permit. Specifically, I find some of these agents to be over the top, that they appear to be pinning their frustrations onto the only targets they can find, rather than the ones engaged in illegal activity.

1039 days until I can apply for UK citizenship to have a UK passport and get off this teacup ride. Or two years and 10 months, but who's counting?

May 23 then will be the day that I drop below the 1k mark, to 999 days. I may throw a small party to celebrate the milestone. ;-)

Frugal tomato seedlings

Up here on the rooftop, I have a head start on plants and seedlings because my last frost is earlier than that on the ground. Therefore, I can start my plants earlier. Here is a recent tomato plant that I have grown from seeds from last year's tomatoes: Granted, I have a perfect growing environment here on the roof, over the average UK growing climate....but I must admit--I find seeds to be expensive around here.

A pack of tomato seeds from Asda (aka Walmart) is 1.95 GBP (2.21 EUR/3.19 USD). It then follows that plants are more expensive than seeds. A single tomato plant at homebase (like Lowe's or Home Depot) is 1.98 GBP, which is slightly more than the prices I just listed.

Of course growing your own is cheaper than supermarket prices, no doubt, but starting seed from scrath is ridiculously cheaper than buying new plants.

Business travel in Europe, in the tiny town of B

I get the feeling sometimes, that when I mention being on work travel to Germany or Paris, that people back home in the US have a vision of a fancy 5 star hotel, with pool and doorman and elegant spoken English by the friendly desk clerk. Really, however, it's a totally different experience as many of company J's preferred hotels are located near the offices that tend to be tucked away in Industrial Parks....so maybe to compare it to say, Newark, New Jersey would be a closer comparison.

I was reminded of that this week, when my German work colleague was in contact. The hotels around benevolent company J's headquarters in Germany are so small that they cannot be booked using our online travel application; but as it's hit or miss whether you'll get anyone who speaks English, most of them do not. So when our work colleagues travel, they will find a German speaker to arrange their reservation. (That being said, the staff at these small hotels are extremely forgiving with 'less than adequate German', so as long as you can muddle along with the basics and have no special requests, you're usually ok.)

My German colleague (who is married to a non-German and lives here in the UK) was tasked with making the hotel reservations for a boss a few levels up, a sophisticated yet pleasant enough fellow, one of those persons who is probably used to five star travel. Here was our conversation:

Colleague A: Hey H, 'Normal Hotel' (the favourite of company J visitors, it is close to the office, very modern inside and has menus in multiple languages) is booked up, do you know hotels X or Y?

Heather: Yes, both. X is the tiny one near Normal Hotel, Y is the one near the Pizza place, where the owner wears a dirndl*.

A: Aaah right, so then X probably make sense.

H: You might want to pre-warn him--X looks like your grandma's living room...old lady lace decor, and oodles of glass dolls and clowns all around the place.

A: Oh man.

H: It's a little freaky when you come back of an evening out and you are reaching around for the light, and when you turn it on there are 20 pairs of glassy eyes staring at you...but the main deal breaker for me is that they only have dial-up network access, no wifi.

A: Maybe Y is better....

H: Yes, dirndl lady is pleasant, but if he arrives on Monday they do not open until 18.00. And again, no wifi there either.

A: Mann, mann, mann. Maybe I should tell him they were both booked up and just put him in the Hilton in Cologne instead...

*Dirndl Lady is a real anomoly for the area of DE between Cologne and D'dorf...normally we only see Dirndls for Karneval or maybe the town's anniversary, but never for 'daily wear'.

UK-US dual citizenship

On my previous posting last week, J was asking about UK/US dual citizenship. Yes! The UK allows for dual citizenship with the US. A few thoughts on this topic...

It actually was a criteria for me a few years back, when I was nearing the threshold of German permanent residency. Germany does not allow for dual citizenship. Some of my work colleagues at benevolent company J have turned in their tiny Asian country citizenship for German citizenship. Their reasoning? European citizenship will enable them to work without hindrance, and their tiny Asian nations will always let them return as visitors, without restrictions.

I have a former work colleague, she is from the UK, but originally from one of the former UK colonies in Africa. As a result, she has dual citizenship: UK + her African country. The UK citizenship enabled her to work in Germany and meet the love of her life. They made sure that their children currently have all three passports possible: UK, Germany, and the African one. She mentioned...when they turn 18 they must choose as Germany only allows for one citizenship, if one chooses to 'be German'. She hopes that they will choose UK instead, because by choosing UK, they can then retain the African nation passport as well. However, as they were born and raised in Germany, they will probably identify as Germans, so not so easy...her point: UK people have the same rights in Germany, so there is no point in having German citizenship over the UK version, as long as the EU exists as it does now.

I would never give up my US citizenship, although I can understand why my work colleagues would do so.

I feel that the UK culture, lifestyle and beliefs is complimentary to that of the US, so to take on UK citizenship would not be against anything else in my belief system.

I continue to ponder the place of the UK in the world. I'm always fascinated when my work colleagues talk of 'heading to the continent' for work, and how they don't want to do that (be it France, Germany, the Netherlands, etc.) It's been previously suggested to me that the UK would be better off aligned with the US rather than Europe. Not sure on that, but ok.

So back from my rambling thoughts. I'm almost 26 months into the 36 required to re-up my work permit, and then the 60 required to go for permanent residency, with citizenship right after. All this planning assumes that the government doesn't change the rules before then. Currently there is a severe backlash about immigrants, jobs and everything else related to the recession. There's been a knee-jerk decison to pull back rights for workers, students, etc, but we'll see how all that pans out in the future.

Bottom line: I've spent almost 25% of my life now in Europe and the European lifestyle treats me well. At this point I see no reason not to go after both and to gain the flexibility to be able to go back and forth for work/life, as the need arises.

Back from Germany

Posting has been a little lax recently, sorry about that. I had a last minute trip to Germany for work last week. I must admit, the weather could not have been more glorious--decadently spring-like in the Koeln/D'dorf region.

Coming into DE, I can choose between low budget flights to Cologne via German Wings or D'dorf via Air Berlin under benevolent company J's travel policy. I loathe Wings to the very core of my being; I put them into the same category as Ryan Air, mainly because of the lingering memories of when they did not assign seats and I had no desire to join the scrum that involves unassigned plane seating and Germans...as well their 'Happy Snack' concept and charging for luggage just irritates me...so Air Berlin with their assigned seating and one free bag is my choice.

Coming into passport control at D'dorf, I still travel under my DE permanent residency permit. Two years back, I tried to get them to stamp me in, but they refused. Apparently, according to the passport guy, they are not allowed to stamp me as long as the permit is in effect. It is the rules! Ja, ok. So every time since I've just shown the residency page and I've been in 12-15 times and no one blinked twice.

This time, I was in the foreigner queue with a real stickler. I counted 30 EU'ites passing in the EU queue while I was #3 in the Auslander queue. The passport guy was questioning the American in position #1 about what he was doing on this trip to Germany and where he was travelling to onward, and why was he not stamped out of Germany on his last visit (he left from Germany to Belgium by car), and on and on...

The main queue finally ran out of EU people so that guy took person #2, and I got the stickler. I hand him the passport and he scans it and then looks at his screen. I imagine my German travel history now looks questionable at best:
-2003-2009 - a variety of trips in and out, with Germany obviously as a base
-2009 - permanent residency, and then a lot of time out of Germany, once I moved to the UK.

I see him scan and then squint at the screen.
He looks through the passport, page by page, passing all of the expired DE permits and the current UK one.
He looks up at me, and I give him an appropriate German scowl.
He looks once again at the screen.
Apparently he decides that I'm not an easy enough target as he hands back my passport through the slot with a 'Danke schoen'.

At the end of the year I need to renew my passport early in order to be able to get my new UK work permit sticker in Feb 2012 as my pass expires in early 2014 and the new sticker needs the passport to be valid for six months beyond the next permit expiration. So the work permit will go to Feb 2014, therefore the passport needs to be valid until Aug 2014, else they will limit the work permit and charge exorbitant fees to extend it again. My cheapest option is to renew my passport early and not be limited by the UK then.

As a result, as of Nov of this year, I will lose my free access into Germany, until I can claim UK citizenship in Feb 2014, right after getting permanent residency here (assuming that all laws remain as they all now.)

How much do I dread that gap year of 2013 and travelling to DE??

Puttering around the rooftop garden

Weather in my corner of Essex today was 'white clouds' and a high of 12. I would have never understood that forecast prior to coming here. It was a bright, but not sunny morning, and vaguely warm, when one had on long sleeves and garden gloves. Fortuneately I worked from 8-12 AM on the balkon, because 'grey clouds' rolled in around lunchtime, and brought rain along.

My camera bit the dust on the recent trip to Spain, so no photos, however, here is what I was up to today:
-I bought a giant planter at poundland a few weeks back. (no really, 1 GBP for a reinforced plastic woven square shaped bag that will probably do for a year or two, with 100 litre capacity, so quite large). I think it will suit a few chilli pepper plants. I cleared out some of the 'compost bags' that have been in place since the fall. It's always an education to me, to see what goes on in such a little ecosystem. I had a lot of worms due to the decaying veg scraps as well as the dead potatos that I had lost due to the early fall snow.

In addition, I always like to see what is growing from the compost. In this case, I had some ivy that I had clipped from Ian's in the fall; I had thought it was done and threw it into the compost, and here it comes back with a vegence and strong root system. I did remove that and put it into a smaller pot as ivy is so invasive. It will be a good candidate for ebay. :-)

-I moved the garlic mini-plants from the sprouting containers to the large pots that I won't need for the peppers. ;-) Slocombe the cat loves(!), loves(!), loves(!), garlic, and I enjoy it as well, so I felt it appropriate for us to have 20 some cloves to plant. :-)

-I spun off more of my 'seed sown' oregano to its own pots. I was not sure that oregano would really take up here, but in a garden surprise, it has flourished! I have it in one long planter, about 18 inches long, so as it spawns off in an increasing manner, I separate it out into smaller pots. If only oregano would be as big an ebay seller as strawberries. (smile)

-I re-jiggered the wall area that leads to dear A's balkon, to block it with a foraged log. The log came from the park, in the hope that Slocombe would appreciate it as a scratching post, but alas not. Slocombe has been increasingly curious and once managed to slip between the posts that support the glass that separate my balkon from A's. I like A a lot and would not want her to be offended when someone's furry behind decides it appropriate to investigate her balkon, complete with sitting on her patio table(!). Slocombe the cat doesn't recognize boundaries on her own, they need to be erected for her, so now they have been.

-And work on round 2 of the seedlings has commenced. Now that I made it through 'strawberry season' on ebay, next up will be the small plant auctions, mainly I have tomatoes and peppers, but I have a few others as well such catnip and eggplant.

No idea why eggplant seems to be a losing battle up here. Most things will sprout easily, but eggplant is the lowest percentage for me, for seeds.

I hope you are enjoying your Sunday, wherever you are? :-)

Back from Spain

from overnight lows of 7 in Malaga to -2 in Essex. brr. i did get a few days of sunshine however, to get me through this last ditch Essex cold snap.

my plants survived me being away. in addition to my usual ones, i currently have seedlings started for basil, tomatoes, eggplant, hot peppers, and cat nip.

i had a week of speaking spanish, which is always good for the soul. the amusing part was that occasionally some germans would be nearby, and if it would be for an extended period, such as the evening next to them at dinner, then the sounds of german would suddenly infitrate my brain, and an entire sentence would pop out in german, something like this:

Si, yo vivo en inglaterra pero yo soy americana. bla bla in spanish--where did you learn spanish? Estudie la literatura en la universidad; parece que ich habe nicht vergessen. Pero hace muchos anos que no hablaba mucho la lengua, bla bla.

I find as a foreigner, you become quite good at reading people, to make sure that they are understanding you. I'd get a quizzical look, then I'd ponder back and realise what I just slapped together and instantly re-calculate. It would only be when we were near Germans or Dutch, somehow the cadence crept in and attempted to take over part of the conversation. Odd.