Inane Comment

Experimental

mandyleh — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 22:12:24 +0000

This week’s side venture. http://thingsthecamerasaw.wordpress.com/

April Impulse Buy

mandyleh — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 11:00:13 +0000

Guess where the water goes in.I did need an indoor watering can that fit under the sink taps. Thanks Tesco!

Spring Sprang

mandyleh — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 18:13:25 +0000

Cambridgeshire has finally defrosted and the first bug of spring splat on my windshield on the way home today. 45 knot winds (over 50mph) have also arrived, as if driving and walking wern’t hard enough. I also saw a small rainbow today, but the sky this evening is very tornado-like.

Anyway, the appearance of sun has been a highlight

So posh!

mandyleh — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 16:03:47 +0000

Friday I was off to London for a talk with Michael Palin and drinks at the Royal Geographic Society, it was very interesting plus I got to meet my first real celebrity. Saturday involved a trip to Cambridge to see an excellent production of Noises Off at the Cambridge Arts Theater, and Sunday dinner will be at a fancy pub in Oundle with friends.
I can do chores and spring cleaning next weekend the temperature has finally gone above freezing!

No Matzo for Jew

mandyleh — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 23:15:14 +0000

We’re tripping over Easter food and sugar displays everywhere here, but the four local UK grocery stores in my area did not stock matzo-anything this year (thanks Tesco, Waitrose, The Cooperative, and M&S Food). An online grocery delivery store was sold out and had some shockingly unhelpful suggestions; yeast and bread mix are not alternatives to matzo ball soup mix, thanks anyway.
Last year I bought supplies at the US Commissary, but they forgot to put things out this year until after the holiday started even though Easter candy has been multiplying for weeks. And it’s not all bunnies, but chocolate crosses and candy bars with white Jesus drawn on the wrapper at the Commissary; in town its mostly eggs, bunnies, and pink chocolate pigs, which are a more interesting kind of strange.

I had apparently complained enough that my network of great ladies hooked me up as soon as the Commissary put matzo on the shelves Tuesday. Passover isn’t actually a big deal to me (well, matzo balls soup is), but Easter has become so outrageous that the oversight is insulting. I’m sure items were available in Cambridge and the handful of major UK cities, but it reflects the value of diversity in regular society here. If grocery stores in Alabama stock Passover items in time for the holiday period, the rest of civilized Western society should be able to as well!

It’s still Still Winter

mandyleh — Sun, 24 Mar 2013 11:11:36 +0000

We’ve had another two days of snow following the spring equinox, which did little to break up the freezing wind from the week before.
I like winter and all but this is getting ridiculous!

I decided to spend the weekend in to get some chores done, since TV and internet tend to distract me during the week. Would you believe, they distract me during the weekend too! I can’t wait for spring.

Its Still Winter

mandyleh — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 17:56:58 +0000

Though the sun has started to rise earlier, it is still very much winter here, with freezing wind and regular snow showers. I don’t mind cold weather but it makes it less fun to go out and do things. I did manage to visit Kew Royal Botanical Gardens last Sunday, which was also Mother’s Day in the UK. It was cold and overcast, but also the last day of their orchid show, which was worth the trip. I also really liked the large Victorian greenhouses around the garden.

Tonight is the second day of the annual three-day Booze on the Ouse St. Neots Beer Festival sponsored by the Campaign for Real Ale (indoors, thankfully), and tomorrow I’m off to Birmingham for more scheduled activities. More rain and blog posts on the way!

BMW exhaust probably smells like roses

mandyleh — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 17:28:27 +0000

Hey where have I been? Much of this month was dedicated to, well, work mostly, but also having my car repaired after an accident where I was hit from behind while waiting to turn across traffic. A young lady immediately got out of her car and apologized and admitted fault, and the insurance claims were suspiciously easy to deal with, but the process was still time consuming. My car is now repaired after three days in the body shop, though the trunk lid and interior panels may never be the same.

I can’t decide how much it matters. I’m glad it wasn’t worse; although unrelated to my accident, tailgating is rampant here even at highway speeds, and I’m always worried about getting rear ended on the road while moving in traffic. People even follow me in to other lanes when I try to relent and let them pass; I’ve decided BMW exhaust must smell like roses and they like following me. I am taking other people’s jerk driving habits too personally and don’t really like driving any more. However, I am still the best driver I’ve encountered, of course

The accident made me miss a planned snowboarding outing that afternoon, which turned out for the better since I ended up getting almost a private three hour lesson last Monday morning instead. I signed up for a required beginners course at the indoor snozone freezer dome in Milton Keynes. Snowboarding was fun, but harder than I thought it would be. It was difficult to learn while sharing a small learners slope with even just a few others (so glad no one else was signed up for the 0905 group class I was in), and I did my best steering maneuvers only when small child obstacles were in the way. This included my patented beginners’ stop, which involves planting yourself in the snow as an anchor by any means necessary. This resulted in soaking wet gloves and trousers-pants-butt, but I definitely didn’t get cold out there. I fell quite naturally on my own anyway, so it was a long trip down the little hill at first. I’d admit it’s probably better to learn this sport young, when you are closer to the ground and less fragile, but I’m looking forward to more practice because it seems like it would be even more fun to do outdoors in the real world. I was quite sore the next day, and still am in fact, but plan to fall less next time. Good times!

Black and White Forever

mandyleh — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 00:52:57 +0000

I decided to order new sofa covers to “celebrate” my lease renewal since I’ll probably spend at least two more years with this furniture.

I may have reached the pinnacle of decorating around my pets and am very happy with the upgrades. This was also a great distraction from the years worth of ironing that has piled up. Just kidding! (Not really!)

A Blizzard Through Lille

mandyleh — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 17:50:55 +0000

Made plans last year for an overnight trip to Lille to partake in the government-regulated winter sale period.

And Boulangeries.

As it turned out, the weekend also happened to bring severe snow to the region in a storm that engulfed most of northern Europe. UK and France are unaccustomed to receiving snow in such volumes and the roads were difficult, especially between Lille and Calais where we pick up the Euro Tunnel crossing train connecting to Dover. So we left early, drove slow, and made it back safely just hours before Eurostar canceled service for the day. Lille was nice though and the company was good, so it was still a fun trip. And successful, since everyone managed to buy something