Watching the English

On the recommendation of a few friends I checked out a book from the Library called Watching the English by Kate Fox. It is so fantastic, I wish they had one called "Watching the Texans" when I moved to Amarillo! The most interesting part is that I have a little bit of an uncontrolled experiment going on because I'm reading the book as I'm here and so sometimes find myself in situations before I've read about them and sometimes after. For example, we went to a pub on Friday and I noticed some differences between American bars and pubs, but didn't think too much of it. Reading her chapter on Pubs though threw a whole new light on the experience. When we went in I automatically started looking for a place to sit and wait for a waiter, but my brother said no, we have to go to the bar to order. Fair enough. But Kate goes in depth as to why this is so, how the English use going to the bar as an opportunity to talk to other people since starting conversations is culturally more difficult here etc. etc. Fascinating.

The chapter on language was really interesting too, having lived with Madeleine (Hi Maddy!) for a while, then reading about all the words she uses and what they mean in terms of where someone is from etc. What I found particularly striking was how so many of the words that "smart" or "posh" upper class people used (sofa instead of setee, dessert instead of afters, home instead of inside, bathroom instead of toilet) were common (no pun intended, for those familiar with the English use of the word "common") in American usage. I wonder if Americans were trying to imitate upper class accents and that turned into the American vernacular? or did our adoption of those words evolved independently ? Fascinating stuff, even if you aren't an anthropologist. I did skip ahead to the chapter on sex (!!!) just out of curiosity and it largely involved a discussion on dating. Very apropos because a girl in the knitting group has a date on Thursday. Perfect for me to compare notes with Kate Fox's ideas on the subject.

Fun English difference of the day noticed at the Hammersmith Bus station waiting for my Red Double Decker number 220: Way out instead of Exit, Way In instead of Enter.

Big Weekend in London

Hello all of you out in blog reader land. This weekend was full of fun with trips to the city and birthdays.

On Friday my good friend from graduate school Molly came to visit me from Cambridge. We happened to be walking by the area of London where a lot of the London fashion week stuff is happening. But we didn't figure that out for a little while, and were surprised to come across these characters at a cafe.....

Lets get a closer look, shall we?
There was also a guy (we think it was a guy) wearing Dwayne Wayne flip up sunglasses. SO hot right now.....
After that we walked in search of a knitting shop near Camden Road and went past my favorite shop in Covant Garden.



Sadly we didn't have a chance to go in Lush because we had too many other places to go, but soon, soon (sorry Chanda and Don, I did think about it!)


London's Chinatown, didn't get a chance to stop there but that will hopefully be someplace I'll be exploring soon. We did go to Liberty department store where they stock the entire Rowan yarn line and Kaffe Fasset's quilting fabrics. I was in heaven. To top it off, one of the women in the store asked us "Are you being served?" in a very serious way. We couldn't help giggling at that a little bit...


Later on, street performers across the London Jubilee bridge along the banks of the Thames under the London Eye.

Our last stop was iKnit, a fantastic little yarn shop in Waterloo. On our way there we stumbled upon this graffiti tunnel where incidentally they were shooting some kind of cop show (possibly Silent Witness?) Lots of guys in SWAT team gear, but didn't see anyone we recognized. We did however, spot some knitting graffiti (yes, it's a real thing, yes I have done it). How cool is that?

After a long day of wandering around the city we went back home and made chili that was waaaaay too hot and had birthday cake with Chris (he just turned 30!!) and went out with Patrick and Molly to the Duke's Head pub to have a few drinks. All in all a great weekend, wish it could have lasted longer!

Benchmarks

Well I have achieved three important steps for moving within the past two days.

1. Found a local Stitch and Bitch (The Hammersmith Stitch N Bitch)

2.A stranger on the street asked me for directions - and I was able to give them

3. I got a library card! And about 10 books, many of them on the local area, trying to learn the history of my new home. I also learned yesterday that the Library is not open on Tuesdays. After I walked all the way up there. In the rain. Just another part of moving to a new place, learning the ins and outs. Also the flower shop doesn't seem to be open on Wednesdays, or maybe just no before 10. It's hard to tell, a lot of shops have funny hours but no signs.

English things I have encountered:
Ms. is pronounced Muz, instead of Miz, and they put Mr., Ms., Mrs., Miss on things like you bank card and library card.
It's not a sidewalk, it's the pavement
Zucchinis are courgettes

If you are looking up sweet potatoes at the Sainsbury's (Local grocery) check out, look under potato, sweet.
Your local Burrough is run by a Council. I live in the Burrough of Wadsworth.

And....... our street is patroled by women on horseback. No serously! I got a photo...

I heard a noise that sounded so much like horses, I looked out the window and there they were. If it's really rainy they wear big plastic skirts (the police officers, not the horses) to keep the rain off their "trousers". Very cool.

Finally, I want to get some knitting content on this blog. Here is the beginning of a hat reknit I'm doing for Patrick. It's two end knitting so a little tedious to undo, and especially to redo, but it keeps me busy.

I'm off to clean the back garden and the front while it's sunny. Cheers!

A journy of 1,000 miles...

Begins with a single step they say. Well today was my first 'working' day in Putney, London, UK. Patrick has some sort of food poisoning so I've been helping to take care of him. This morning we had to go out and get bananas, sprite and apple sauce for him. Looking everywhere for applesauce I finally had to ask someone, who directed me to the shelf under the mustard. Yes, it's really a 'sauce' here, a sweet, sticky, put-it-on-your-crepes sauce. Not exactly appealing to Patrick's upset stomach, so I decided that I'd buy a ton of cheap apples and make it myself. That good old American, Pioneer can-do spirit!. It was actually quite easy, I just peeled, sliced and boiled the hell out of them and mashed them up with a wooden spoon. It seems to have worked, as Patrick was able to keep it down, and I have mastered another domestic skill.

After seeing Patrick safely home and on the couch I went back out to Putney High street to do some other shopping (since stores don't open until 10). Some photos of my walk:

Poor, sick Patrick.....

"Typical" street in Putney.


MAILBOX!!


I found a 'fabric' store, which they call Haberdashery, and asked for 'batting' which they call wadding. I had a nice long chat with the woman at the counter about starting a knitting group and plan to email her tonight to get the ball rolling. We'll see what comes of it, but I'm also angling for some piecework tailoring and hemming etc. It's a start. I then wandered over to another shop and the woman at the counter was knitting, so we had a nice long chat and she directed me to lots of places to get yarn and the local library. The library is pretty quaint, and I"m planning to get quite a few books on the history of the local area. On the way back I hit up the thrift stores (there was a hot water bottle there Maddie, so tempting!) and the local Yoga place, which is pretty intense. The first class is free so I'm going to check it out tomorrow, the classes are 90 min long!!

Just finished up the day with vacuuming and taking care of Patrick some more. At least I feel useful. My next project after finishing the quilt and hat is to create a backstrap loom from bamboo that I'm going to pinch from our back door neighbor and weave a rug from old t-shirts and jeans..... should be fun! I'll take pictures if I get it all sorted.

As promised, here is the mystery sign I found, any guesses as to what it means?

I'm Here!

Well followers (all three of you.....) I have arrived in England. It's been rainy and cloudy since I got here which suits me just fine, it's that lovely gray light sifting through the the skylight in the ceiling that lets me know I'm really in England. I've been here two days and have thoroughly cleaned both the Kitchen and Bathroom. I haven't lived with other people in over 5 years so this is a new challenge but I will try to make the best of it. So far everyone else is pretty busy which means Chris and I have the house to ourselves most of the time.

In addition to kitchen cleaning I have finished piecing my brother's t-shirt quilt (see below) and will start hunting for a store that sells batting tomorrow (shops close here on Sundays, how quaint).

My good friend Molly is coming to visit Friday and I'm so stoked! Hopefully my hip will be rested up by then, it's been aching the past few days making walking difficult, but then I only really have to get to the tube to get into town, and I can make it if we take it slow.


I have been really busy with the house and settling in so I haven't been able to take many pictures but during the week when everyone is at work (and hip-pain permitting) I will go forth and explore the city a little. There is one particular sign that confuses me here, but I'm going to try to get a picture and see if any one can guess what it means before I ask a Brit.

Thanks for commenting on the last posts (Susan, Adam, Jennifer), I will try to have a follow-worthy blog, though it may only be of interest to people who like laughing at the English or crafts.....no offense Madeleine!

The trip where nothing went right...

Hello all,

Here is my first attempt at blogging. Some of you have asked me if I would start one, and I've been thinking about it for a while so here it is. I'm going to see about posting twice a week minimum, we'll see how it goes, there may also be some guest posts from a certain Mad English person I know....

Right now I am NOT in fact, a Lindon in London, I am mired in Snowmageddon Part 2 (see ski photo, taken in front of the house after the first 20 inches of snow), my Tuesday flight having been moved to Wednesday, then moved again to Thursday. The good news is it went from a two part over night trip to a one part day trip, so there is some benefit after all.

I will post from London, as soon as I get there....