Category: Living in the UK 2008

Daughters on Holiday

Lee Hausman
 
I picked up my daughters, Lindsay and Sarah, at Heathrow airport last Friday and they were none the worse for the flight from Dulles (even if it was a few hours late departing). It was wonderful to see them and they are beautiful, poised, smart young women, and a tribute to their mom.
 

We took the walking tour of the Reading city center that afternoon and had dinner at the local Irish pub, O’Neil’s. Saturday morning we took the train into London and the girls got a close-up look at drunken soccer fans. All of the trains were jammed with fans from Bristol going to a big match in at the stadium in Wimbledon. We encountered these young men at 10:30 am and they’d already been drinking for several hours, and continued to do so on the train (which is legal here). Lindsay and Sarah wound yp sitting right amongst them while I stood in the aisle. I had to quietly put up with these louts oogling the girls and making a few sotto voce comments but, in the end, the boys behaved themselves. I dare say they probably would have been very surprised had they gotten frisky with their hands; Lindsay would have put them in their places in a flash. Mostly, the fans were just noisy and in the way.

 
We arrived at Paddington Station in London to transfer to the tube and there were hordes of additional soccer fans (and police keeping an eye on them) also getting on the tube and, sadly, going our way. With the added chaos of a shut down of one tube line for maintenance, the crush of soccer fans, tourists and natives made for another set of jammed train rides. It took us two hours to get from Reading to Westminster Abbey, about twice as long as usual.
 
We waited for about half an hour in line to get into Westminster Abbey. The girls, left, used the time to take many photos and pose for a few, too.
 
We spent an hour touring inside, and what an amazing architectural achievement a cathedral is. It’s also amazing that it survived the World War II bombings of London. The girls were fascinated – it’s so nice to have adult children who actually enjoy seeing things related to history! A lot of kings, queens, and knights are buried beneath the abbey’s floor and you walk right over their "horizontal headstones". The altars, side crypts, ceilings, and ornaments are really fascinating.
 
In one section, "Poet’s Corner", it was very cool to see the graves of Alfred Tennyson, Lord Byron, Dylan Thomas, Robert Browning, Chaucer, Dickens, Rudyard Kipling, and others. And, of course, there was Issac Newton’s grave, which figured heavily in The Da Vinci Code. If you ever get to London, we recommend you see Westminster Abbey! Our next stop, discussed in my next post, was Churchill’s War Rooms.
 

Very Special Guests

Lee Hausman
 
My apologies for the sporadic nature of my recent posts. I’ve been preparing for the arrival of my two very special guests: Lindsay and Sarah, my 22- and 19-year old daughters. They’re arriving Friday for a week and I’m looking forward to seeing them. A number of other recent events has complicated my life (in a good way) including the addition of another employee at our office and the delivery of my leased company car.
 
Having a car has changed life immensely and opened up lots of things to do with my time: gym, driving range, golf, going to the super-duper grocery store across town, etc. It’s been interesting not having a car for 4 months but it’s also been limiting in many ways. Now I’m exploring the surrounding area and having a ball.
 
Stay tuned for Father-Daughters Adventure reporting!
 
 

Good Times at the Reading Library

Lee Hausman
 
Libraries are wonderful institutions and the Reading Central Library has provided me with a lot of good books to read. Some cultural observers think that, in the Digital Age, printed books, like newspapers, will die off but I strongly disagree. Something about the tactile experience when reading seems so fundamentally human, I hope it is never replaced by "digital book readers", several of which have come to market and failed. However, I feel the same way about the print version of newspapers and they are clearly under seige these days.
 
I was amused when I went to the Reading Library to get a library card; as a recent arrival here and someone who lives in a serviced apartment, I had neither a bank statement nor a utility bill, the common proofs of residence, to present. However, on the strength of my passport, I was allowed a "Junior Membership". This did not, in fact, restrict me to the children’s books but simply limited my borrowing to 2 books at a time, plus 1 CD and 1 DVD (more on these last items in a minute).
 
The Reading Library has a rather unusual book shelving system. Many fiction books are shelved in "A-Z by author name" fashion. However, there are "specialty subject" shelves as well, such as "Action & Adventure", "Adult Crime Fiction", and "Historical". It gets a little confusing when you find, as I have, that books by the same author and of the same genre are sprinkled around in all these areas. Locating a specific book is sometimes a challenge!
 
However, there is a modern stand of PCs, with a good catalogue search, so that helps a lot.
 
I’ve found no big lag between here and the US in terms of when books are released. Some of my acquaintance assure me that books are published here before being released in the US but I see no proof of that either. In general, the books in the Reading Library are not in as good condition as those commonly found in the Fairfax County library system, for example, though they’re not abused or torn up. That may say something about circulation rates being higher here or the US penchant for replacing perfectly good stuff when it shows a little age.
 
As I said, you can also "borrow" DVDs and CDs, however you must pay a rental fee or 1-2 pounds to do so, ala Blockbuster. I found this revenue center a bit surprising in a public library but that’s today’s economic reality, I guess. The library also features good-sized sections of books in several foreign languages reflective of the local immigrant communities.
 
I give thanks for the library here; it was a great comfort to have books to read for entertainment when I arrived. In these often-mercenary times, the idea of a free, lending library is just fabulous.
 
 

Farewell $1 Bill

Lee Hausman
 
From time to time you read about the U.S. Treasury department considering doing away with the $1 bill. They say it would be much better, for many reasons, to replace it with a coin. These stories usually also contain many reasons why it would be a bad idea, not the least of which is the failure of the Susan B. Anthony and Sachajawea $1 coins to "catch on".
 
Apparently, almost every other industrialized nation has already made the switch. And, here in the U.K., there is no 1 Pound note, only a coin. This coin is small in diameter but pretty thick and easily identified both visually and by touch. They’re also heavy and a pocketful of them is pretty weighty. There’s also a 2 Pound coin which is widely-used and reduces the bulge in your pocket.
 
So, as a newcomer here making the monetary system transition, has it been a shock not having a 1 Pound note? Not at all – I’ve not noticed any operational inconvenience as a result of having to use only 1 Pound coins. In fact, I think I find it rather more convenient to be able to make most small purchases without having to haul out my billfold.
 
I chalk up the poor acceptance of the Susan B. and Sachajawea dollars to their sizes (one’s too big and the other’s too close to a quarter) and the continued presence of the competing $1 bill. In addition, cash register drawers here are designed so that coins get most of the real estate, which is just the reverse in the U.S. making it difficult for cashiers to find a place to put the $1 coins that do come their way.
 
I think the U.S. would find that doing away with the $1 bill would not be the end of the world and that retail commerce would very quickly adjust. Coins apparently last 5-10 times as long as bills, are cheaper to produce, and are harder to counterfeit. Go for it, U.S.!
 
While we’re on the topic of handling money to buy things, every now and then I find myself still surprised by the fact that you pay the exact cost of an item. There is no sales tax on most consumer goods, so the if the price is 6.99, you hand over 6.99. I suppose it’s the same in states that have no sales tax, like Florida, but decades of dishing out an extra 4-5% in Virginia has made an impression, and it’s a pleasure not to have to do so here. They do, of course, have the dreaded Value Added Tax (VAT) on lots of stuff here and that’s 17.5% of the item cost!
 
 
 
 

Rugby: The Sport of Men

Lee Hausman
 
Today I attended my first professional rugby match, featuring the local favorites, The London Irish, versus Leeds. There’s a nice stadium just outside town and convenient bus service from the city center, so off I went. I’d followed this team a bit over the last few months here, watching parts of matches in pubs, but I was intent on attending because today was their last home match of the season.
 
Rugby has the reputation of being a brutish sport and most Americans know little about it. It is, actually, a very interesting game, requiring lots of strategy, skill, and athleticism. The rules are totally beyond me, though, and learning them is my off-season challenge. Note that rugby doesn’t attract the kind of violent fans that football (soccer) does here. Supporters of both teams mingle in the stands and will even applaud scoring and good plays made by the opposing team.
 
I’m going to post my observations and leave an explanation of the game to Wikipedia. I plan to look for a “Rugby for Idiots” book to see if I can figure out what’s going on during the off season.
 
The stadium is very nice but small: maximum capacity 25,000. So, there’s not a bad seat in the house. My walk-up ticket was in the upper deck, along the south side of field and just a bit off center. The view was fantastic.
 
The scoreboard is modest in size and tucked into one corner of the stadium; there were no pre-match fireworks, dancing girls, etc. though the crowd sang along with traditional Irish songs that were played. Did I mention this team has a heavy Irish heritage thing going? Yep, and so do I: me mum was of Irish descent.
 
     
 
The teams engaged in 40-minutes of pre-match warm-ups, calisthenics, and drills before withdrawing to their locker rooms. Local middle school children formed the “Walk of Honor” down which both teams later entered the field. The players are a bit like NASCAR vehicles, with advertisements plastered on their jerseys, totally upstaging the team name, but the whole scene was very charming anyway.
 
There was no security search of bags upon entry, there’s no smoking in the stadium at all, and alcohol is only sold before and after a match, and during half time. When they’re being sold, you may stock up on beers and take them to your seat, but I saw no one who behaved as if they needed to be cut-off.
 
The traditional stadium hot dog exists here, too, only it’s a foot-long and served in a baguette (French bread). From the look of them, they enjoy the same questionable nutritional content and health risks inherent in all stadium dogs.
 
      
 
A match has two 40-minute halves and 5 points are apparently awarded for running the ball across the goal line, 2 points for the “extra point kick”, and 3 points for a penalty kick. The extra point kick, for reasons that eluded me, is kicked straight-on sometimes and sometimes from a right or left hash mark (which makes for a much smaller target). Get this: the team who is scored against must then kick off to the team that scored! A sort of “off-sides”, high tumbling kick is usual, followed by a wild scramble for the ball.  Team members who are “on the bench” often stand behind the end zone and shout encouragement as their teammates approach to score.
 
Basically, the ball (which is football-shaped) is moved down the field using a series of lateral passes (must always go backwards) that moves the ball down a running wave of players spread across the field. Ball carriers are tackled and brought down and immediately swarmed by players. The ball squirts out the back of the pile and the lateral passes begin again. The ball hitting the ground and being “down” isn’t a concept that applies here. Helmets, shoulder and kidney pads, and all that other sissy U.S. football gear isn’t worn either. Oddly enough, no one was injured and carried from the field during the match.
 
Well, anyway, it was a terrific afternoon and lots of fun. I’m considering buying season tickets for next season (starts in August) which are laughably cheaper than, say, Redskins season tickets. Oh, yes, we won: 43 to 20.
 
 

The Reading Beer & Cider Festival

Lee Hausman
 
Reading is hosting its annual 4-day Beer & Cider Festival celebrating the convivial spirits. It’s put on by CAMRA, the Campaign for Real Ale, which fights for the preservation of traditional English culture and spirits and consumer rights, and has 89,000 members (89,001 now, including me).
 
I attended the festival on opening day and also went back this weekend and it’s an amazing event. First of all, I saw no one who was intoxicated and there was No Smoking allowed – so a very clean, civilized atmosphere. The festival is held in a large meadow at the edge of town and two football field-sized tents hold the drinks counters and souvenir vendors booths. Outside, there are food vendors and a large grassy area where groups put down blankets and camp chairs and picnic. This is also a family event, with all manner of strollers seen and a moon-bounce and face-painting provided.
 
    
 
Here are the stunnings stats: for your drinking pleasure, there were 450+ native beers on tap, 160+ ciders, 145+ foreign beers, and 40+ wines. Naturally, you need a comprehensive festival program to be able to tell one beverage from another; do not bother looking for your garden-variety Budweiser or Stella. Upon arrival, you pay your entrance fee and collect a glass. Then you tour the tents, paying more or less pub prices for any drinks you want. This was the 14th annual running of the event and it was very well organized. Volunteers manned the drinks counters and were on hand to help with everything.
 
A group of Morris Men, traditional English dancers, are shown above. They were scheduled to provide some entertainment in the afternoon and several bands were lined up for the evening. The festival hours are 11 am – 11 pm.
 
The portable toilets looked like the usual fare from the outside, just restrooms on trailers, but inside they were marvelous! Clean and spacious, with marble formica counters (even over the urinals, so you had somewhere to park your glass) and wood trim, and with nice music piped in. Truly, the nicest port-o-Johns I’ve ever seen.
 
Alcoholic apple and pear ciders are very popular with younger folks here these days. I was tempted to try a "perry" – a pear cider – but didn’t get around to it. In the same way there are brewers with their many lines of beers, there are also cider makers and their products. Women, which made up 25% of the crowd, favored the ciders and wines.
 
The names of the beverages were so much fun: Fission, Road Hog, Posh Pooch, What He’s Having, Ramblers Ruin, Rip Tide, Men of Norfolk, Hornets Nest, and Dazed & Confused are but a few examples. Check out the complete list. The attendees ranged from serious students of the brewers art to those who just wanted to have some fun. It was quite a neat event to attend and unlike anything I’ve seen in the US.
 
  
 

Snapshots of Life in Reading

Lee Hausman
 
The Sun rose here today at 5:30 and will set today at 8:30 – a pretty long day for April.
 
The Royal Mail Service delivers the post twice a day, the Post Office still sells stamps you have to lick, and I was startled today when the postal clerk began talking me up, trying to sell me auto insurance (yes, the Post Office sells that, too).
 
Ordering a sandwich? Would you like that on a baguette (the mini-French bread), on a Bap (recognized as an “English muffin” in the US), or on sliced bread?
 
I drop in to the local “news agent” pretty often – the mom-and-pop convenience store – and when there I marvel at the 22 different kinds of crisps (that’s “potato chips” to you Yanks) he features. They come in multiple shapes and flavors but my favorite has to be: Tomato Ketchup. Others include the usual combinations of cheese, onion, salt, and vinegar but there are also some odd ones like prawn, caramel, and paprika.
 
They opened a new Starbucks in the city center pedestrian-only zone. It seems as if it took only about 48-hours after work on the retail space commenced before the place opened. The intersection at which it stands now has fancy coffee shops on 3 out of 4 corners and, yes, the place has been packed.
 
My favorite new lunch restaurant: Picnic. This place offers two different signature salads each week. They consist of a bed of couscous and fresh greens (none of your iceberg lettuce, either) and then additional ingredients. Last week, your choice of those was either halved, roasted red peppers, filled with feta cheese and olives, or fresh avocados with cheese shavings and pine nuts. The salard is finished with a light, homemade dressing. This is packaged in a very nifty little box for take-away and costs only 3.50!
 
 

Not So Funny To Some

Lee Hausman

The movie 3 and Out, directed by and starring Mackenzie Crook of The Office, opened here to protests. The movie’s protaganist is a London Tube (subway) train engineer who tries to take advantage of a work rule that allows him an early retirement and nice pension if a third person kills themselves by jumping in front of his train. Two lost souls have already made that jump and so he sets about finding and paying a homeless person to make it three. Dark comedy ensues.

Potentially a dark and funny premise. However, the real Tube train engineers here in London don’t think so. Running someone over with your train, and having a front-row seat no less, is traumatic and scars the drivers for years, they said. The situation was exacerbated by some ham-handed comments by the director on a local TV show. So the engineers protested outside the theatre.

The newspaper coverage produced some interesting stats:

3,000 – the number of drivers employed by the Tube
40,000 GPB – their annual salary (that’s $80,000); they also receive nine weeks annual leave and a pension upon retirement
35 – hours in their work week
50 – people, on average, who commit suicide by jumping in front of London Underground trains each year

There is, incidentally, no such "3 and out" work rule. The whole thing is food for thought the next time I ride the Tube. And maybe that was part of the director’s intent.

 

More UK Driving Fun

Lee Hausman
 
Continuing the tales from my driving lesson experience mentioned in my last post, I wish to share with you a few passages from the Driving Standards Agency Official Guide to Driving, which I bought today, regarding the use of the parking brake:
 
"You should normally apply the parking brake whenever the vehicle is stationary. Apply the parking brake and put the gear lever into neutral when you’re stopped at traffic lights or queuing (lining up) behind other vehicles, unless the wait is likely to be very short. If not, your foot could easily slip off the footbrake if, for example, your shoes are wet, or if you’re bumped from behind. You could then be pushed into another vehicle. The habitual use of the parking brake is even more important in vehicles fitted with an automatic transmission. The parking brake will help avoid the possibility of ‘creep’ or the vehicle surging forward if the gas pedal is pressed accidentally."
 
I couldn’t understand the other day why the driving instructor was going on about me not using the parking brake at every red light where we stopped longer than 30 seconds. Now I do. Are you slapping your forehead in disbelief, too? I have, at times when stopped on steep hills, used the parking break to hold a (manual shift) car steady during start up, but at every light??
 
Now you can appreciate why I was somewhat stressed after my two hours in the car the other day. More of these kinds of tid bits will, I’m sure, be be unearthed and I’ll certainly share them with you.