i like how the UK seems to put all bank holidays on a monday. i'm also pleased with this one as it seems like a great time to schedule a bank holiday--the last week of August--odds are good for sunny weather. much nicer, than say, the November 1 one in Germany where it was usually raining that day in my corner of the world. ;-)
and even better--the stores are open here on a bank holiday, although on limited hours. therefore none of that crazyness of last minute shopping due to the stores being closed on sunday/monday--so feeling stress-free tonight. :-)
Friday, August 28, 2009
Thursday, August 27, 2009
6 months
August 15th marked 6 months in the UK for me. I've been busy with other things, as well as that time is flying, so I haven't been overly introspective on this point.
However--I was out watering the roof terrace garden, specifically the pepper row that week:
However--I was out watering the roof terrace garden, specifically the pepper row that week:
Tucked behind them, between the peppers and the glass wall was a greeting card.
The front says 'Congratulations', inside is a handwritten message to someone (not me) about a training contract.
I'm not an overly religious person (although I have no issue with those who are), but I do retain some spiritual belief in the connectedness of the universe. I took it as my mother sending me a card from heaven congratulating me on 6 months here, and that things are going well.
Uninformed, analytical, agnostic Semi-significant other who misses some of the background details on this topic, looking at this from face values says: 'this card isn't for you.'
Heather: 'I'm four floors up off the street and getting a card down from Heaven isn't so easy in general, let alone four floors up onto a private roof terrace. It was deposited in my peppers on an anniversary, therefore it was most certainly for me, so that I knew she was thinking of me. And such good taste, a Marks and Spencer card no less, very impressive of her.'
I believe that the universe works in mysterious and impressive ways sometimes... ;-)
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
From the Saturday market and the rooftop garden
I went at 16.20 so the prices were starting to drop for the 17.00 shutdown. :-)
-In the photo, starting at 12 o'clock, 3 packages of strawberries from Kent, all 3 packages together were 2 GBP
-1 o'clock - 5 ears of corn for 2 GBP
-4 o'clock - 6 peaches for 2 GBP
-center - 3 bananas for 60 pence
-6 o'clock - 3 packages of berries for 2.50 GBP
-8 o'clock - young purple broccoli shoots and leaves, the giant bag for 1 GBP
So everything in the photo came to 10.10 GBP (16.51 USD/11.52 EUR). Food tends to be more expensive here in the UK, so I was pretty pleased at the above. To preserve the berries I am drying them as I would only be able to go through one package of the raspberries and one package of the strawberries before they would start to go off.
What aren't I buying there?
- Lettuce - I'm still a big convert of lettuce in a bag with the roots in dirt from asda as that extends its shelf life for me. Next week my roof terrace lettuce should be ready.
- Tomatos - those are coming from the roof terrace as well.
-Peppers - I'm not a big fan of eating them although I do enjoy growing them. Unfortunately, the roof terrace favors pepper growing. This proficient one has produced 3 so far with 18 more still growing, nevermind what her 3 sister are doing in their own right (the scotch bonnet, bell pepper and sweet pepper plants).
Other people get overwhelmed by zucchinni, I'm stuck with peppers. I never imagined this would be the case in the UK...
I've now taken to inviting people over so that I can make pepper based dishes. ;-) Tonight's guest is being treated to Mexican with a variety of chopped up pepper based salsas and fresh pepper toppings for the tacos.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Some German English fun
Yo H, where've you been?
Still here, busy with work and some holiday planning. In addition, I have a German visiting. She came to me through http://www.hospitalityclub.org/, similar to http://www.couchsurfing.org/ if you know that one.
She is a student who has never been to the UK before or to any native English speaking country. She's spending her time and limited student funds trying to see as much of the country as possible and rachet up her English, which until now has been only 'school English'.
Not wanting to deter someone from their dream, I've only been speaking English to her-- although I will give her the English word when she only knows the German term. She wanted to 'mitfahren' to save on expensive British train fares but was having difficulty to find a source in English without knowing the term 'rideshare'.
Of course she makes the classic German mistakes: 'I drive with bus'.
But I love the other mistakes or how someone comes up with a way to say something in English, which while correct is not how a native would usually say it, because it gives you better insight into their language and seeing things in differently in English. This morning as I'm trundling out to work she tells me:
Your cat, she was broken in this night.
(Pause, Heather thinking--looks at cat who is noisily gulping down breakfast--she is physically fine having ran into the kitchen upon hearing me...)
(thinking.....The cat does meow a lot, I did warn the girl that the cat can be locked in the hall so she is not so disruptive....or maybe the cat was walking on her while she was trying to sleep, meaning she's broken or not well trained, although I did warn her that she wakes up at 2 AM full of energy....the girl is not so much a cat person, she's always had dogs....I haven't yet had any coffee so I'm not awake enough to figure this one out....she's broken...kaputt sein...defekt...lots of words ending in brochen, what can she mean?)
On the floor...where you are standing...?
Oh! She threw up, she was sick = she is broken.
Sheesh, I must be losing my touch, I don't think I would have figured that one out even with coffee.
Still here, busy with work and some holiday planning. In addition, I have a German visiting. She came to me through http://www.hospitalityclub.org/, similar to http://www.couchsurfing.org/ if you know that one.
She is a student who has never been to the UK before or to any native English speaking country. She's spending her time and limited student funds trying to see as much of the country as possible and rachet up her English, which until now has been only 'school English'.
Not wanting to deter someone from their dream, I've only been speaking English to her-- although I will give her the English word when she only knows the German term. She wanted to 'mitfahren' to save on expensive British train fares but was having difficulty to find a source in English without knowing the term 'rideshare'.
Of course she makes the classic German mistakes: 'I drive with bus'.
But I love the other mistakes or how someone comes up with a way to say something in English, which while correct is not how a native would usually say it, because it gives you better insight into their language and seeing things in differently in English. This morning as I'm trundling out to work she tells me:
Your cat, she was broken in this night.
(Pause, Heather thinking--looks at cat who is noisily gulping down breakfast--she is physically fine having ran into the kitchen upon hearing me...)
(thinking.....The cat does meow a lot, I did warn the girl that the cat can be locked in the hall so she is not so disruptive....or maybe the cat was walking on her while she was trying to sleep, meaning she's broken or not well trained, although I did warn her that she wakes up at 2 AM full of energy....the girl is not so much a cat person, she's always had dogs....I haven't yet had any coffee so I'm not awake enough to figure this one out....she's broken...kaputt sein...defekt...lots of words ending in brochen, what can she mean?)
On the floor...where you are standing...?
Oh! She threw up, she was sick = she is broken.
Sheesh, I must be losing my touch, I don't think I would have figured that one out even with coffee.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
The face of new Europe
While shopping on High Street on Sunday, I saw these two. (Yes! in my corner of Essex, all the shops are open on Sunday--but that's a different post.)
Unfortunately I missed to get the fellow's face in the photo--his is painted with the Lithuanian flag, while hers has the Polish one.
I've been to the store they advertise, it's close to my flat. Specifically--this store has all sorts of Eastern European goods--frozen pierogis and jars of mushrooms from Poland, Russian juices, frozen Lithuanian cepelinai, that sort of thing. There's little in the store which isn't Eastern European--unless it's something from elsewhere in Europe which one can buy in Eastern Europe--i.e. German Milka bars.
I find it interesting that they advertise the store as 'European' rather than 'Eastern European'--or maybe that's how they see themselves--as opposed to British.
They have little competition in my corner of Essex, beyond Tesco's token attempt to sell to the Eastern Europeans here by importing their cheeses and jars of pickles.
Unfortunately I missed to get the fellow's face in the photo--his is painted with the Lithuanian flag, while hers has the Polish one.
I've been to the store they advertise, it's close to my flat. Specifically--this store has all sorts of Eastern European goods--frozen pierogis and jars of mushrooms from Poland, Russian juices, frozen Lithuanian cepelinai, that sort of thing. There's little in the store which isn't Eastern European--unless it's something from elsewhere in Europe which one can buy in Eastern Europe--i.e. German Milka bars.
I find it interesting that they advertise the store as 'European' rather than 'Eastern European'--or maybe that's how they see themselves--as opposed to British.
They have little competition in my corner of Essex, beyond Tesco's token attempt to sell to the Eastern Europeans here by importing their cheeses and jars of pickles.
Monday, August 10, 2009
Vegan day 9 - Fresh Saturday
Were you wondering what happened with the food from the Saturday market?
Everything looked so great and fresh, so I went extremely basic on the cooking--minimal spices and low, short cooking.
Here is a third of the carrot bunch. The were sliced in half and given a short fry in olive oil.
Here are potatoes, fresh from the roof terrace garden:
The broad beans were in the '1 pound' markdown area, so I knew they needed to be used Saturday or Sunday. They had gone for about three minutes into boiling water and then were rinsed in cold water. Right after that they were shelled. Here new friend Ian is demonstrating the appropriate shelling technique.
The cooked potatoes and beans were then combined together. I had some ideas from http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/content/recipes/, I like their photos, as well as that their recipes are not too complex. They were suggesting mint as the appropriate spice, but I wanted to leave out anything heavy as I wanted to truly taste the potatos.
Everything looked so great and fresh, so I went extremely basic on the cooking--minimal spices and low, short cooking.
Here is a third of the carrot bunch. The were sliced in half and given a short fry in olive oil.
Here are potatoes, fresh from the roof terrace garden:
The broad beans were in the '1 pound' markdown area, so I knew they needed to be used Saturday or Sunday. They had gone for about three minutes into boiling water and then were rinsed in cold water. Right after that they were shelled. Here new friend Ian is demonstrating the appropriate shelling technique.
The cooked potatoes and beans were then combined together. I had some ideas from http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/content/recipes/, I like their photos, as well as that their recipes are not too complex. They were suggesting mint as the appropriate spice, but I wanted to leave out anything heavy as I wanted to truly taste the potatos.
Sunday, August 09, 2009
Super Saturday - from the market
August is a great time to buy local produce here in the UK. Most of the 'local' produce here is coming from Essex or Kent. It's especially good if you go at the end of the market day on Saturday as the prices start to drop. ;-)
My photo isn't so great, but starting at the bottom and moving clockwise:
1 bunch of carrots
2. cauliflower - the carrots and the cauliflower were a deal together, for 1 GBP
3. 3 kilos of onions - 1 GBP
4. bunch of 4 bananas (the only non-local item) .90 p
5. in the back - tomatos on the vine and small tomatos - the gigantic bag weighing a few kilos for 2 GBP
6. broad beans - 1 GBP for the lot of them
7. strawberries - 2 containers for 2.50 GBP
8. in front - rosemary/olive oil bread - 2.50 GBP
I'm now set for the next few days with veg, excluding lettuce. :-)
My photo isn't so great, but starting at the bottom and moving clockwise:
1 bunch of carrots
2. cauliflower - the carrots and the cauliflower were a deal together, for 1 GBP
3. 3 kilos of onions - 1 GBP
4. bunch of 4 bananas (the only non-local item) .90 p
5. in the back - tomatos on the vine and small tomatos - the gigantic bag weighing a few kilos for 2 GBP
6. broad beans - 1 GBP for the lot of them
7. strawberries - 2 containers for 2.50 GBP
8. in front - rosemary/olive oil bread - 2.50 GBP
I'm now set for the next few days with veg, excluding lettuce. :-)
Friday, August 07, 2009
Vegan dinner - day 7
Yeah, back to Mexican. :-)
Tonight: two bean burritos I assembled at home, easy peasy. A can of beans plus two flour tortillas. I was feeling a little edgy so I applied liberally jalapeno peppers to the interior. ;-)
To the right, I whipped up a little tomato mix to liven them up. I had roma tomatos from the weekly market. I added chopped garlic (from the roof garden) and as well as a pepper from up here. I finally have my first rooftop tomato which is about ready to be picked, looking forward to that one tomorrow...
Tonight: two bean burritos I assembled at home, easy peasy. A can of beans plus two flour tortillas. I was feeling a little edgy so I applied liberally jalapeno peppers to the interior. ;-)
To the right, I whipped up a little tomato mix to liven them up. I had roma tomatos from the weekly market. I added chopped garlic (from the roof garden) and as well as a pepper from up here. I finally have my first rooftop tomato which is about ready to be picked, looking forward to that one tomorrow...
Thursday, August 06, 2009
Vegan dinner - day 6
It was warm and humid here today through this evening, now it's cool and rainy.
Today's dinner was pasta, two zuchinnis (we're in full zuchinni season here, they're dirt cheap!) in Dolmio's pasta sauce and a bit of bread. These pasta sauces have been on sale at asda, two 500 gram jars for 3 GBP. I'm a big fan, because there is nothing in these sauces which wouldn't be there if I made them from scratch.
Today's dinner was pasta, two zuchinnis (we're in full zuchinni season here, they're dirt cheap!) in Dolmio's pasta sauce and a bit of bread. These pasta sauces have been on sale at asda, two 500 gram jars for 3 GBP. I'm a big fan, because there is nothing in these sauces which wouldn't be there if I made them from scratch.
You may notice this is a little carb heavy for me. I've noticed when I go vegan, to drop the cheese out of meals really knocks out a lot of the fat/calories. The rest of my work days usually look like this:
Breakfast: 08.00 - coffee in the office
09.30ish - cereal in the office. (I keep Bran Flakes in my desk drawer)
Lunch: 11.30ish - lunch in the office. Lunch is usually a leftover dinner. So when I made the above tonight, I made enough to have a second, smaller portion which will be tomorrow's lunch, usually with a side of salad, but sans bread.
Dinner: 17.00ish - tonight's dinner was the above.
19.00 - tonight a small bowl of cereal (again, focusing on the carbs a bit more than usual to keep the energy up--not normal when i'm my normal vegetarian self).
Tuesday, August 04, 2009
My morning commute
I walk about five minutes from the center of town to enter the park.
Most people are coming into town to work or catch the train to London while I'm heading out of town.
The pedestrian paths finally end in a cute little neighborhood.
The final ten minutes are industrial areas similar to what you'd see on the intro to the Sopranos, so we'll skip those photos. :-)
Most people are coming into town to work or catch the train to London while I'm heading out of town.
After about 15 minutes through the park, I continue on pedestrian paths.
The pedestrian paths finally end in a cute little neighborhood.
The final ten minutes are industrial areas similar to what you'd see on the intro to the Sopranos, so we'll skip those photos. :-)
A little over two miles each way, twice a day, usually four days a week = 16 miles of walking/week for the purpose of 'commuting to/from work'.
On each trip I burn approximately 145 calories for my walking speed/weight.
Monday, August 03, 2009
vegan eating - day 2 Mexican Sunday
It's difficult to find good Mexican food in Europe. Thankfully, finding the ingredients in the UK is a little easier and less expensive than it was in Germany.
Breakfast was coffee.
Here is the late lunch. Starting around the table, here we go...
11 o'clock is Old El Paso refried beans.
12 o'clock is a veg chili mix from Asda. The suggestion is to add mince to it, but it perks up nicely with dried soya chunks.
1 o'clock is some of those mushrooms from the freezer with Old El Paso Mild Fajita Sauce. I orginally bought this sauce because it was a markdown due to a torn label and I was pleasantly surprised with this one. It has a mild smokey flavor.
3 o'clock is partially hidden behind a glass, it's the lettuce, tomato and pepper salad from yesterday.
4 o'clock is fresh tomatoes, a smattering of garlic, and more garden fresh pepper - a light little flavor
The setting is outdoors on my patio table, slightly in the shade because it was hot as heck.
Later in the day was leftover Chinese from yesterday.
Breakfast was coffee.
Here is the late lunch. Starting around the table, here we go...
11 o'clock is Old El Paso refried beans.
12 o'clock is a veg chili mix from Asda. The suggestion is to add mince to it, but it perks up nicely with dried soya chunks.
1 o'clock is some of those mushrooms from the freezer with Old El Paso Mild Fajita Sauce. I orginally bought this sauce because it was a markdown due to a torn label and I was pleasantly surprised with this one. It has a mild smokey flavor.
3 o'clock is partially hidden behind a glass, it's the lettuce, tomato and pepper salad from yesterday.
4 o'clock is fresh tomatoes, a smattering of garlic, and more garden fresh pepper - a light little flavor
6 o'clock is mild English cheddar for New Friend Ian.
7 o'clock is Heather's sauce. Chopped tomatoes, garlic, and Dave's Gourmet Insanity Sauce which I bought at Asda in the UK.
9 o'clock is some fajita wraps.
The setting is outdoors on my patio table, slightly in the shade because it was hot as heck.
Later in the day was leftover Chinese from yesterday.
Sunday, August 02, 2009
Aug 1 - vegan eating day 1
Saturday started off with a long 'to do' list of things to do in town and tasks at home. As I've been living in this flat for almost two months, I'm starting to get more ideas about how I want to use the space in some areas.
Breakfast - coffee at home.
I'm not a fan of eating peppers, but I enjoy growing them for my guests...
Breakfast - coffee at home.
Lunch - since we were out and about in town, we went to Nosh+Coffee. The one in the center of my corner of Essex is relatively new...
On the plus side:
-they are less expensive than their coffee counterparts Costa or Starbucks
-their food selection is more expansive--salads, sandwiches, containers of fresh fruit for 1.50 GBP
-they have a vegan option - salad with beans, hummus, and falafel for 3.50 GBP (which I had), as well as plenty of decent veg options like a feta cheese salad or egg and mayo sandwich.
On the negative side:
-I suspect the people management is lacking at this particular one, or maybe they're all this this, it's the only one I've been to. When you go to the main Costa in my corner of Essex, it's staffed by friendly Eastern Europeans or Spaniards, the Costa above the bookstore is staffed by friendly students, the Coffee+Nosh people are always sour faced, or complaining to one another about their work hours. But anyway...the salad is quite nice...
Dinner: We start with fresh peppers from the garden...
I'm not a fan of eating peppers, but I enjoy growing them for my guests...
I did a stir-fry--it's broccoli from the Saturday market, zuchinni from my garden and tofu, which later had Sharwood's Kung Po sauce added:
The final results....
The final results....
At 12 o'clock on the table is a fresh salad with lettuce, tomatos, and olive oil.
1 PM is a homemade dipping sauce: tamari sauce, olive oil, water, dried chilli pepers.
3 PM is homemade vegan spring rolls that oversprung
The bottom are our two plates in action
center of the table is the fresh peppers chopped up.
The fancy table setting is a giant cardboard moving box which gets a new round of paper to cover it weekly. I still haven't decided upon a dining room table or coffee table yet, so I'm making due with this one until I figure out how I want the layout of the flat to be.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
25 things
I finally managed to put this together when I had no home internet, one of those '25 fact about me thingys'. It was a facebook thing; but I'm not so fond of facebook, it requires way too much daily commitment so it never ended up there...
1. I play sports like a left-hander, always have. In particular, I intrinsically do it in sports where a fast reaction is required and I don't have time to think.
2. I'm a very visual person. Don't tell me something, show it to me. Even better, just hand me the problem, I'll figure it out on my own.
3. My earliest sport activities as a child were taught by a left hander. I think that's where I picked up some of that influence.
4. When I'm thinking or singing, thoughts or songs come out in a particular language (English, Spanish, Polish, or German) based on my mood.
5. Spanish thoughts or songs come out when I'm content or pleased. German comes out when I'm angry or annoyed. Polish comes out when I need an intellectual challenge, something to chew on, probably due to the myriad of endings and forms to consider.
6. Living in Germany, I found myself drawn to the heavier and darker music I found there like Die Toten Hosen, Rammstein and Kool Savas, rather than chirpy pop like Die Ärzte or Fettes Brot.
7. I learned how to drive manual transmission autos as a necessity while living in Europe as my desire for a small car trumped the challenge of learning a new mechanical skill. I'll never go back to an automatic transmission, even once/if I return to the US.
8. It took me about a month of smacking my right hand against the car door in the UK to figure out that I need to shift with my left hand here. I'm amused when people in the UK are surprised that I drive a manual transmission auto.
9. I've now lived more than one-fifth of my life in Europe. It's not that I don't like the US, but this is the right place for me to be at this time. In the work environment people treat me very well here and that's nothing to dismiss lightly.
10. I plan to go back to school in the fall; I'm intellectually bored. I've been accepted to the London School of Economics into a Master's program, not sure if that will be the final landing spot though.
11. I've been a vegetarian since 2000, but the topic is not something I'm militant about--I won't bring it up in conversation, and I could care less that you eat meat. Occasionally I go vegan when I'm not feeling up to par. If you wish to joke about it, I have no problems and in fact I'll shovel it back at you. I feel better not eating meat--it's a personal choice.
12. I make up for my healthy eating by drinking too much coffee and alcohol. My ultimate weakness is french fries (chips)!
13. If I lived somewhere with pure fishing waters such as Iceland or the Faroes or northern Norway I'd probably start eating fish again.
14. I am an extremely private person and purposely put a limited amount of personal data about myself on the internet, along with no recognizable photos. I've been known to invoke EU Directive 95/46/EC in the office, on principle.
15. If you know me personally, the previous statements won't surprise you.
16. I appreciate people who tell me where to put it, how high to put it, and how I should have put it there last week.
17. I don't suffer fools lightly, never have.
18. I believe in the power of self. If you want something bad enough, you can make it happen. I wanted to work in Europe since forever. Was it easy? No. Could I do it? Of course, it's only a matter of figuring out how to make it happen and having the patience and enough attitude to see it through.
19. Is it easy to work in Europe as an American? Hell no. You must be prepared for your dream to go through the massive spin cycle (multiple times) and see if it survives. You must be prepared to look like an idiot at least once (and probably closer to three) times a day. You must be prepared to endure some very dark and cold days. Would I trade it for anything else? No way.
20. I grew up poor and statistically probably shouldn't have ended up where I did. Was it easy to be the first person in my family to graduate from university? Of course not.
21. In some ways that makes me a little tougher on people. I managed to do it, so should you.
22. I chose to study Spanish when the choices where Spanish, French or Latin because it gave me the best career possibilities from where I was. It has served me very well.
23. I believe that growing up poor is actually an advantage in life. You're not expected to amount to much, so the world is yours for the taking, no expectations. If you can get your act together and have a vision, you become smarter, faster, and stronger. You don't fail, because failure is not an option. You have no safely net, so you excel automatically, as an ingrained habit.
24. This background causes me to root for the underdog. Intelligence coupled with motivation is unstoppable. These are the people whom I seek to work with me.
25. I have a job I like where I'm paid very well to do what I do. The people who report into me are superb and my boss is great; I cannot complain. I believe that you create your own reality and I've created mine.
1. I play sports like a left-hander, always have. In particular, I intrinsically do it in sports where a fast reaction is required and I don't have time to think.
2. I'm a very visual person. Don't tell me something, show it to me. Even better, just hand me the problem, I'll figure it out on my own.
3. My earliest sport activities as a child were taught by a left hander. I think that's where I picked up some of that influence.
4. When I'm thinking or singing, thoughts or songs come out in a particular language (English, Spanish, Polish, or German) based on my mood.
5. Spanish thoughts or songs come out when I'm content or pleased. German comes out when I'm angry or annoyed. Polish comes out when I need an intellectual challenge, something to chew on, probably due to the myriad of endings and forms to consider.
6. Living in Germany, I found myself drawn to the heavier and darker music I found there like Die Toten Hosen, Rammstein and Kool Savas, rather than chirpy pop like Die Ärzte or Fettes Brot.
7. I learned how to drive manual transmission autos as a necessity while living in Europe as my desire for a small car trumped the challenge of learning a new mechanical skill. I'll never go back to an automatic transmission, even once/if I return to the US.
8. It took me about a month of smacking my right hand against the car door in the UK to figure out that I need to shift with my left hand here. I'm amused when people in the UK are surprised that I drive a manual transmission auto.
9. I've now lived more than one-fifth of my life in Europe. It's not that I don't like the US, but this is the right place for me to be at this time. In the work environment people treat me very well here and that's nothing to dismiss lightly.
10. I plan to go back to school in the fall; I'm intellectually bored. I've been accepted to the London School of Economics into a Master's program, not sure if that will be the final landing spot though.
11. I've been a vegetarian since 2000, but the topic is not something I'm militant about--I won't bring it up in conversation, and I could care less that you eat meat. Occasionally I go vegan when I'm not feeling up to par. If you wish to joke about it, I have no problems and in fact I'll shovel it back at you. I feel better not eating meat--it's a personal choice.
12. I make up for my healthy eating by drinking too much coffee and alcohol. My ultimate weakness is french fries (chips)!
13. If I lived somewhere with pure fishing waters such as Iceland or the Faroes or northern Norway I'd probably start eating fish again.
14. I am an extremely private person and purposely put a limited amount of personal data about myself on the internet, along with no recognizable photos. I've been known to invoke EU Directive 95/46/EC in the office, on principle.
15. If you know me personally, the previous statements won't surprise you.
16. I appreciate people who tell me where to put it, how high to put it, and how I should have put it there last week.
17. I don't suffer fools lightly, never have.
18. I believe in the power of self. If you want something bad enough, you can make it happen. I wanted to work in Europe since forever. Was it easy? No. Could I do it? Of course, it's only a matter of figuring out how to make it happen and having the patience and enough attitude to see it through.
19. Is it easy to work in Europe as an American? Hell no. You must be prepared for your dream to go through the massive spin cycle (multiple times) and see if it survives. You must be prepared to look like an idiot at least once (and probably closer to three) times a day. You must be prepared to endure some very dark and cold days. Would I trade it for anything else? No way.
20. I grew up poor and statistically probably shouldn't have ended up where I did. Was it easy to be the first person in my family to graduate from university? Of course not.
21. In some ways that makes me a little tougher on people. I managed to do it, so should you.
22. I chose to study Spanish when the choices where Spanish, French or Latin because it gave me the best career possibilities from where I was. It has served me very well.
23. I believe that growing up poor is actually an advantage in life. You're not expected to amount to much, so the world is yours for the taking, no expectations. If you can get your act together and have a vision, you become smarter, faster, and stronger. You don't fail, because failure is not an option. You have no safely net, so you excel automatically, as an ingrained habit.
24. This background causes me to root for the underdog. Intelligence coupled with motivation is unstoppable. These are the people whom I seek to work with me.
25. I have a job I like where I'm paid very well to do what I do. The people who report into me are superb and my boss is great; I cannot complain. I believe that you create your own reality and I've created mine.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Recycling in the UK
One thing I really liked about life in Germany was the prevalence of environmentally friendly options which were readily incorporated into daily German life. I had very little garbage there because much of it was placed in the various paper and yard waste containers and yellow sack. So at the end of the day I had less than a small shopping bag of 'true' garbage per month. Glass would be deposited in the pods less than a block from my flat.
Here in the UK I've already noticed more packaging and more plastic. I've researched from the local council's site the recycling options and overall, I find the system to be unconnected at best, disjointed at worst.
To start, I live in a flat building. Recycling is not available to my flat building the way it is to local houses. Boooo Essex! So we have two large dumpsters for 12 flats in the basement of the building which are absolutely full every two weeks. In Germany we had four garbage bins (smaller than those giant wheelie ones in the US or UK) which were emptied twice per month and never packed.
So if I want to recycle, how can I do it?
Here are the giant recycle pods down the street behind 'my' bar, located in a pay parking lot. On the plus side, ther are no quiet hours on them like in Germany so I can bring my glass at any hour it appears.
Here in the UK I've already noticed more packaging and more plastic. I've researched from the local council's site the recycling options and overall, I find the system to be unconnected at best, disjointed at worst.
To start, I live in a flat building. Recycling is not available to my flat building the way it is to local houses. Boooo Essex! So we have two large dumpsters for 12 flats in the basement of the building which are absolutely full every two weeks. In Germany we had four garbage bins (smaller than those giant wheelie ones in the US or UK) which were emptied twice per month and never packed.
So if I want to recycle, how can I do it?
Here are the giant recycle pods down the street behind 'my' bar, located in a pay parking lot. On the plus side, ther are no quiet hours on them like in Germany so I can bring my glass at any hour it appears.
On the negative side, I can only bring the following four items to these four pods:
1. brown glass
2. green glass
3. clear glass
4. 'food and drink cans' - this category is only for tin or aluminum, not plastic.
So where does my plastic go?
5. I need to haul that with me to the big supermarkets such as Asda or Tesco, they have giant pods too. Or I need to drop it with a friend who has a bin which will accept those.
Where does my paper go?
6. Paper can go to the Tesco box.
What about cardboard?
7. Cardboard is harder to find a home for. There is a box for it in the hidden long term parking lot.
8. The same parking lot has a bin for shoe donations as well.
So why not take everything to Asda or Tesco in the car?
A. I try to avoid the supermarkets in person and don't go so often. Plus--I'm not in the car every day, I'm trying to go to and from the office on foot.
B. Tesco and Asda have a variety of bins depending on which one you go to. This one takes aresol cans, that one doesn't. This one takes plastic and squashes it in an instant machine, that one has pods which are always full and on and on...
Overall--not so impressed yet on this point for my corner of Essex.
Monday, July 27, 2009
Let the games begin...
One thing I was afraid about in moving from Germany to the UK was a rapid (and detrimental) change in my eating style. I ate well in Germany mainly because of a lack of processed and readily available vegetarian foods. It took me a long time to kick the processed, prepared and packaged foods from my daily intake.
Sure I made my periodic sojourns to Holland (where prepared vegetarian food is plentiful) or Belgium (land of the breaded cheese) and then rationed for a few weeks, but for the most part I prepared meals from scratch because I couldn't find good vegetarian options in the German supermarket, beyond frozen french fries and frozen pizza. Yeah sure, there's plenty of bio salad material there, but I try to vary my diet and only have salad as one main meal per day; the other should be something different like pasta and a cooked veg or two. Veg Schnitzel just turned me off, and for the most part I found German convenience veg food to be terribly salty.
Moving forward...mid-August I will have been here six months. I find the UK supermarket options to be closer to the American ones, and I feel myself becoming lazy. The vast availability of Quorn is slowly becoming my undoing as I've attempted to shed all vestiges of my life in Germany...
Periodically I go from vegetarian to vegan when I'm feeling a little sluggish and it's easy enough. To really kick it up and make it a real challenge, I decided for the month of August:
1. to go vegan
2. to give up alcohol
I periodically do both and sometimes inadvertently overlap at various meals, but this time I will purposely overlap for the entire month.
Why?
Why not?
1. I need a bit of a challenge. Just going vegan doesn't phase me, but it will be new to do it in the UK. Giving up alcohol is my January thing; I've never tried it in the summertime.
2. August is a great time to go vegan, the best local produce is in. Many people go on a new diet as of Jan 1, but January is an awful time to go vegetarian or vegan, the options where I've always lived are potatos, onions and cabbage.
3. I'm feeling partially healthy from the 4 miles a day of walking I get in on days when I walk to/from the office. I'm already in this mindset.
4. A side comment someone made to me over the weekend, who then looked up to make sure that I heard it. Noted.
5. I have some friction below the surface trying to figure out how to emerge. Somehow it should be positive change, but I can't yet figure out what it's trying to be.
(If you ever watch House, you're familiar with the tactic when he medically pushes someone to recreate the symtoms of the mystery illness by maxing them out under the same scenario, to try to cause more clues. It's a little of the same here; my ruffling up the status quo I can try to unearth what I'm currently not able to figure out.)
6. It will be great blog fodder, and it's all about you. ;-)
I'll try to keep up the posting on the sorts of things I'm eating here in the UK. Because it's me, they're guaranteed to be frugal. ;-)
Anything specific you'd like to know during this fun-filled month of healthly living (food photos, ingredients, cost, etc)? Leave a comment and I'll be sure to address it.
Sure I made my periodic sojourns to Holland (where prepared vegetarian food is plentiful) or Belgium (land of the breaded cheese) and then rationed for a few weeks, but for the most part I prepared meals from scratch because I couldn't find good vegetarian options in the German supermarket, beyond frozen french fries and frozen pizza. Yeah sure, there's plenty of bio salad material there, but I try to vary my diet and only have salad as one main meal per day; the other should be something different like pasta and a cooked veg or two. Veg Schnitzel just turned me off, and for the most part I found German convenience veg food to be terribly salty.
Moving forward...mid-August I will have been here six months. I find the UK supermarket options to be closer to the American ones, and I feel myself becoming lazy. The vast availability of Quorn is slowly becoming my undoing as I've attempted to shed all vestiges of my life in Germany...
Periodically I go from vegetarian to vegan when I'm feeling a little sluggish and it's easy enough. To really kick it up and make it a real challenge, I decided for the month of August:
1. to go vegan
2. to give up alcohol
I periodically do both and sometimes inadvertently overlap at various meals, but this time I will purposely overlap for the entire month.
Why?
Why not?
1. I need a bit of a challenge. Just going vegan doesn't phase me, but it will be new to do it in the UK. Giving up alcohol is my January thing; I've never tried it in the summertime.
2. August is a great time to go vegan, the best local produce is in. Many people go on a new diet as of Jan 1, but January is an awful time to go vegetarian or vegan, the options where I've always lived are potatos, onions and cabbage.
3. I'm feeling partially healthy from the 4 miles a day of walking I get in on days when I walk to/from the office. I'm already in this mindset.
4. A side comment someone made to me over the weekend, who then looked up to make sure that I heard it. Noted.
5. I have some friction below the surface trying to figure out how to emerge. Somehow it should be positive change, but I can't yet figure out what it's trying to be.
(If you ever watch House, you're familiar with the tactic when he medically pushes someone to recreate the symtoms of the mystery illness by maxing them out under the same scenario, to try to cause more clues. It's a little of the same here; my ruffling up the status quo I can try to unearth what I'm currently not able to figure out.)
6. It will be great blog fodder, and it's all about you. ;-)
I'll try to keep up the posting on the sorts of things I'm eating here in the UK. Because it's me, they're guaranteed to be frugal. ;-)
Anything specific you'd like to know during this fun-filled month of healthly living (food photos, ingredients, cost, etc)? Leave a comment and I'll be sure to address it.
Friday, July 24, 2009
The cat in action
*don't worry, this won't become a cat blog!
however I took the cat out on a leash on the roof terrace tonight...since we're four floors up and she's only been an inside cat, we're working only on the halter leash at this at this point.
I'm not sure which part of this video is most fascinating:
-where she bops her head against the glass wall (and really, they're not clean enough to justify that one away!)
-or where she steps on her own leash
-or where she blatantly stares through the fence at the neighbors
Slocombe at her finest:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnnyPNsPLG0
however I took the cat out on a leash on the roof terrace tonight...since we're four floors up and she's only been an inside cat, we're working only on the halter leash at this at this point.
I'm not sure which part of this video is most fascinating:
-where she bops her head against the glass wall (and really, they're not clean enough to justify that one away!)
-or where she steps on her own leash
-or where she blatantly stares through the fence at the neighbors
Slocombe at her finest:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnnyPNsPLG0
Thursday, July 23, 2009
In front of Tesco
Can't you imagine a bunch of UK marketing folks...
What is American?
-Cheeseburgers?
-No brownies!
-No chips!
-What about soda??
Heck, let's just do it all...
What is American?
-Cheeseburgers?
-No brownies!
-No chips!
-What about soda??
Heck, let's just do it all...
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Online grocery shopping in the UK
If you read even 10% of my posts you probably know that I despise shopping. It's not just brick and mortar shopping, I don't want to spend hours online shopping either. Not sure if it's the cheapness factor, or moreso the desire to limit the amount of clutter entering this tiny flat.
The past few times I've been schlepping cans of refried beans and bottles of fizzy water up the steps, I've been heavily considering alternatives. I had dropped fizzy water from the Heather rotation, as well as beer (glass bottles too heavy for four flights of stairs and I'm not so fond of cans as they don't go cold enough), plus having to park down the street after 6 PM as I don't have parking yadda, yadda...
Perhaps my brain was being slow (and thinking only in German mode where online grocery shopping is not yet available--correct me on that?) but it took me about six weeks to give this a spin. I think I'm a convert based on this first experience.
I was guessing I needed to go with Asda, Tesco or Sainsbury online. Asda is my mainstay, so I decided to start with that one. Sure there's deliver to my postal code (I'm in the heavily populated area, so I'm not surprised there.) Now it becomes interesting...supply and demand...different delivery times have different prices.
As we all know--Heather in Europe may have well have grown up in a depression because I went for one of the cheapest slots. Most interesting to me--for my postcode, shopping on a Tuesday evening, I could book until 10 PM for a Wednesday delivery which was the cheapest. I love economics. Wednesday and Thursday are the same for me this week--make Wednesday 1 GBP cheaper and you can influence my behavior.
More interesting--certain slots have a little truck icon:
'Reduce carbon emissions. A van might be in your area.'
However, those prices are the same as the ones immediately before and after. I expect You, Asda, to be smarter and manipulate my behavior using your technology and data. If you'd knock it down another 50 p or 1 pound, I'd sign up. If you're already coming to my building for another order it's a sunk cost for you...
So off I go online to shop. I know the Asda prices of the items I buy regularly and they were the same online. I know I need a refill on items like cans of catfood. In addition, I'm in one of my Mexican moods so every dinner for myself alone for the past 10 days has been Mexican. Load up the fajitas and refried beans!
So I go through the online browsing and clicking and paying. I love techonology! Tonight, my delivery slot is 6 to 8 PM. Tick tock. At 7.50 the driver calls--where are you on your street? At the end, where it meets this street. OK, be there shortly. Ten minutes later, another call...I'm in front of (Heather's local pub), but I cannot find you? Hold on, I'll pop out.
So seeing from whence I came, he now found me and is able to schlep up my Entire Order in one go, up four flights of stairs. Keep in mind, I was going all out with the heavy things thinking this would be a once a month or once every three weeks adventure. Therefore, my very heavy order included:
-4 bottles of 2 liter fizzy water
-7 bottles of wine. I was very excited to find some non-alcoholic wine options to try as these are not available in my local store
-12 cans of cat food
10 cans of refried beans
And such a sweetheart, at the door he says, 'well that was a workout, but at least I now know where you are for next time.'
I can only imagine what he thinks--no veg or fresh things (I still want to pick those things out myself from the farmers' market), a plethora of white wine and every el paso Mexican item made in the UK because there was a good sale on.
Final verdict: I'm a big fan. OK--so I had said 'no substitues' on any out of stock items and they were out of my on-sale organic eggs. However, I like fizzy water and I've missed it over the past few weeks. 3.50 GBP (4.05 EUR/5.76 USD) is a very small price for me to pay to avoid 5 miles of driving/exhorbitant petrol cost and the hassle of wandering around the store and waiting in line and packing it up and putting it in the car, parking up, and making multiple trips up and down the four flights of stairs.
I'll definitely do it again, and probably with Asda. Tesco gets on my nerves because their computer system is not up to date so I cannot register my address online for their loyalty card (the address has been here for almost three years so I expect some better technology) and Sainsbury charges more for delivery in general, so those 3,50 slots are few and fair between for my postal code, whereas they're pretty easy to get with Asda.
So here it is Wednesday night and I'm already looking forward to a weekend which won't involve going to a supermarket. Things couldn't get much better on a Wednesday night...
The past few times I've been schlepping cans of refried beans and bottles of fizzy water up the steps, I've been heavily considering alternatives. I had dropped fizzy water from the Heather rotation, as well as beer (glass bottles too heavy for four flights of stairs and I'm not so fond of cans as they don't go cold enough), plus having to park down the street after 6 PM as I don't have parking yadda, yadda...
Perhaps my brain was being slow (and thinking only in German mode where online grocery shopping is not yet available--correct me on that?) but it took me about six weeks to give this a spin. I think I'm a convert based on this first experience.
I was guessing I needed to go with Asda, Tesco or Sainsbury online. Asda is my mainstay, so I decided to start with that one. Sure there's deliver to my postal code (I'm in the heavily populated area, so I'm not surprised there.) Now it becomes interesting...supply and demand...different delivery times have different prices.
As we all know--Heather in Europe may have well have grown up in a depression because I went for one of the cheapest slots. Most interesting to me--for my postcode, shopping on a Tuesday evening, I could book until 10 PM for a Wednesday delivery which was the cheapest. I love economics. Wednesday and Thursday are the same for me this week--make Wednesday 1 GBP cheaper and you can influence my behavior.
More interesting--certain slots have a little truck icon:
'Reduce carbon emissions. A van might be in your area.'
However, those prices are the same as the ones immediately before and after. I expect You, Asda, to be smarter and manipulate my behavior using your technology and data. If you'd knock it down another 50 p or 1 pound, I'd sign up. If you're already coming to my building for another order it's a sunk cost for you...
So off I go online to shop. I know the Asda prices of the items I buy regularly and they were the same online. I know I need a refill on items like cans of catfood. In addition, I'm in one of my Mexican moods so every dinner for myself alone for the past 10 days has been Mexican. Load up the fajitas and refried beans!
So I go through the online browsing and clicking and paying. I love techonology! Tonight, my delivery slot is 6 to 8 PM. Tick tock. At 7.50 the driver calls--where are you on your street? At the end, where it meets this street. OK, be there shortly. Ten minutes later, another call...I'm in front of (Heather's local pub), but I cannot find you? Hold on, I'll pop out.
So seeing from whence I came, he now found me and is able to schlep up my Entire Order in one go, up four flights of stairs. Keep in mind, I was going all out with the heavy things thinking this would be a once a month or once every three weeks adventure. Therefore, my very heavy order included:
-4 bottles of 2 liter fizzy water
-7 bottles of wine. I was very excited to find some non-alcoholic wine options to try as these are not available in my local store
-12 cans of cat food
10 cans of refried beans
And such a sweetheart, at the door he says, 'well that was a workout, but at least I now know where you are for next time.'
I can only imagine what he thinks--no veg or fresh things (I still want to pick those things out myself from the farmers' market), a plethora of white wine and every el paso Mexican item made in the UK because there was a good sale on.
Final verdict: I'm a big fan. OK--so I had said 'no substitues' on any out of stock items and they were out of my on-sale organic eggs. However, I like fizzy water and I've missed it over the past few weeks. 3.50 GBP (4.05 EUR/5.76 USD) is a very small price for me to pay to avoid 5 miles of driving/exhorbitant petrol cost and the hassle of wandering around the store and waiting in line and packing it up and putting it in the car, parking up, and making multiple trips up and down the four flights of stairs.
I'll definitely do it again, and probably with Asda. Tesco gets on my nerves because their computer system is not up to date so I cannot register my address online for their loyalty card (the address has been here for almost three years so I expect some better technology) and Sainsbury charges more for delivery in general, so those 3,50 slots are few and fair between for my postal code, whereas they're pretty easy to get with Asda.
So here it is Wednesday night and I'm already looking forward to a weekend which won't involve going to a supermarket. Things couldn't get much better on a Wednesday night...
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Frugal clothes drying - the roof terrace clothesline
One of the things which caused me to fall in love with this flat is the outside roof terrace space, although primarily I was thinking of the gardening and bbq prospects...
Here in Europe I've lived in various temporary accomodation over the past six plus years, or visited the places of colleagues. As most have been flats and not houses and most have been older places, seeing a clothes dryer has been a rare sight. My first UK company provided place had a combination washer/dryer, but it didn't dry so well...
I had one place in Germany with a dryer-it was in the shared cellar and I was on the top floor so washing clothes and then trekking down to put them into the dryer and then remembering to get them before they sat too long and wrinkled was a hassle. Although I couldn't complain--my two colleagues in company provided housing had shared dryers; one had allocated days/times in which it could be used, the other shared with four other washing machines so one had to move their clothes quickly from this one dryer lest someone either complain or take it upon themselves to fold your clothes.
My new place came with the existing washing machine included (in the kitchen). I like having the washing machine here in the flat as opposed to the German option of in the shared cellar. It is a perfectly fine machine which should last a few more years, but it is a washing machine only, not a combination washer/dryer. (I don't have a dishwasher either, but that is a separate post!) I must say, I do like the UK standard of white goods staying in the flat, as opposed to the German norm where they tend to move with you.
As I moved into the new place and was looking at the space, I pondered whether or not a clothesline would possibly work, mainly because I was spacing out my outlay of cash (the trashpicked German drying rack didn't make the move), as well as that I figured that line drying outside would allow the clothes to dry faster.
I gave it a spin on the corner of the back terrace, the one which gets afternoon and evening sun: 
Here is the view from that corner. The neighbors below have a great outside area which they rarely use:
This direction is actually stores: two hair salons, a dentist, a pizza place, a pet store, etc, so I don't feel that I'm influencing the view as this back space is never used.
While standing in the corner, here is the view of the rest of the terrace (before the garden was established):
Here is the view from that corner. The neighbors below have a great outside area which they rarely use:
This direction is actually stores: two hair salons, a dentist, a pizza place, a pet store, etc, so I don't feel that I'm influencing the view as this back space is never used.
While standing in the corner, here is the view of the rest of the terrace (before the garden was established):
The verdict after 1,5 months:
-so far so good, but it's summertime. I like the freshness of clothes drying outside, and I do get a good breeze up here, so I think in general they dry faster than they would inside.
-I'm definitely saving any electricity costs associated with a dryer, which is a good thing, as well as any envirnomental costs, nevermind the cost of the machine itself.
The negatives?
-It is the UK, so it tends to rain a lot, and often unexpectedly. So my clothes could dry while I'm in the office during the day but by the time I get home and there's a sudden rainfall I'm stuck to give them time to dry again. Doing the one set of bedding involves excessive planning and weather watching. ;-)
Would I change to a washer/dryer if I could once this washer wears out?
Eh, maybe. I wasn't so impressed with the only UK washer/dryer I used, and air drying seems to be more gentle on my clothes and more a habit now, (similar to how having a dryer is a standard habit in the US).
Monday, July 20, 2009
the catching up: the cat
now that the internet is back, here's what's been shaking around here this past month. introducing Slocombe:
-->Yes, the name comes from where you think it comes. Looking back, this probably wasn't appropriate for American Public Broadcasting, where I grew up watching it on Channel 12 WHYY in the Phillyland area.
She's 11, she came from here. (11 in cat years is around 60 person years.)
So far, she's adjusting fairly well. She's a mighty huntress of fake mice and live moths. I'm not quite sure what she does during the day while I'm at the office, but I suspect she sleeps on the sofa and gets on the kitchen counter. Otherwise she's quite a spendid cat, very clever. Or perhaps even more clever, to save those forbidden activities for when I am not present. ;-)
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