26-3-15

Let’s begin with the crap this time, so we end on a better note than another whine fest on how I feel about our bathroom. Which still sucks. We may have solved the leaking shower/tile/tub issue, but we weren’t able to hang out the various holders as we broke the drill trying to get a pilot hole into the wall. We think the problem is that there is brick behind some of the walls and sheetrock and it was just more than it could take. So, now we have to get a replacement drill to try again, and a special kind of drill bit to deal with it, although with our luck the bathroom walls will somehow be different and something else will go wrong. Is it really so much to ask that there be a place to hold toilet paper? I really don’t feel like I’m asking that much?

It is also still too cold to get the grass to grow in the back garden, so the dogs are constantly giving me dirty looks when they have to take a poop on pavers and as an added bonus, they are tracking in lots of mud from the few bits of exposed ground they can find back there. Poor things. It really will be nice eventually, but it’s pretty abysmal for them right now. I’d feel worse though if Asia wasn’t passive aggressively peeing in the house on a semi-regular basis and Ruffy hadn’t viciously attacked me last night. Yup, that happened. I’m not really sure what happened to set him off, but luckily all he got was my arm, so aside from a small puncture and a large bruise he couldn’t really get a good enough grip to hurt me very badly. And, the Asia peeing thing is improving. I think the curtain that covers the door confuses her, so she won’t scratch at the door as she is trained to, so we’re retraining her to give better signmals for us… and watching her like a hawk in the meantime.

Now, to the good stuff. My resume is freshly updated and I’m going to start looking for work next week, I think I’m also going to start looking for volunteer opportunities in the village. The charity shops are always looking for volunteers, so I figure at least that way I’ll get to get out of the house and expend some social energy. Which I miss, especially since online chatting is actually even difficult here, what with the time difference.

We went to London! This was our first big day outing since my arrival. And, no surprise, it was awesome. We took a bus and then a train into the City, then after a cheap and weird lunch in a little cafe, we visited the British Museum, St. Martin-in-the-Fields and Trafalgar Square.

First things first, the funny lunch: The funny lunch was a hole in the wall cafe/restaurant a couple of blocks from the British Museum, it had a extensive menu and cheap prices posted, so we went in. It had 4 tables and a counter behind which they did some of the food prep (I think the kitchen was in the basement). Of the extensive menu, they didn’t have 3 of the things matt tried to order, so we both ended up getting chicken burgers and chips. The chicken burgers tasted weirdly middle eastern, like falafels. We have not figured out how, but we both agreed that was the flavor. They were also served without any sauce and with cucumbers instead of pickles, the latter of which was kind of funny. We asked for ketchup for the chips and we’re given a bottle of it. What came out of it looked and smelled like ketchup, but was totally as much pink as it was red – like somehow the color was hot pink mixed with red… It was crazy. I’m not sure if this is what UK ketchup is like, as we have only had it in one other place and they called it ‘American ketchup’ on the packet. We’ll keep you posted.

Next, was the main event of the trip, the British Museum. I know some of you have already been there, done that, so you can skip this part if you’d like – I’ll catch you later. But for everyone else, read on. The British Museum is huge, like 17 acres huge, or something like that. It’s ginormous. It’s also apparently home to a collection of like 8 million objects from all over the world. Matt said he heard somewhere that it has a reputation for having the most stolen antiquities in collection of any museum anywhere, so there’s also that. We started with the Rosetta Stone, then went through the Greek, Etruscan, and Roman areas, including the Parthenon collection. We spent about 2 hours total in the museum, but at a fairly quick clip, we actually visited a decent chunk. Especially considering the crowds were were fighting. My favorite collection was of clocks/watches, it was so nifty. I assumed Matt’s fave was probably going to be the one on money… Until we made one last stop at a temporary exhibit named, “Bonaparte and the British: prints and propaganda in the age of Napoleon.” This exhibit was all about anti-Napoleonic propaganda in British media throughout his career. It was fantastic, and, let’s just say, not exactly politically correct. At all. Which is kind of refreshing at this point. If you can’t draw your political opponent taking a dump in a giant pot while being shamed by a tiny demon about the smell, then really, what is the world coming to… I liked the exhibit, but Matt totally loved it. You’ll have to ask him why for details.

Next, we made it over for our first ‘traditional’ English tea service at the Café in the Crypt of St. Martin-in-the-Fields (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Martin-in-the-Fields). The cafe is really in their crypt and I had tea there when I was here for study abroad, the whole experience made a big impression, so I wanted us to go back there and do it again together. It is still such a weird and nifty place and thing to do, though I was disappointed in a few changes this time around. For one thing, we had our first encounter with a super rude Brit. And, imagine this, it was a poor, overworked guy in food service. Which is me saying, you can’t really blame the guy, but he was a total asshole. I’m really glad we didn’t have to tip him. So, their Afternoon/Traditional tea is a ‘homemade scone, jam and clotted cream, double chocolate fudge cake and lemon drizzle tea cake, served with a pot of tea or coffee’, and so that is what we got, but instead of it being a scone, with the cream and the jam on the side, it was a little pre-assembled scone sandwich, which was delicious, but it kind of subtracted from the experience of it, pre-assembled doesn’t exactly scream tradition or classic. Plus, I remember sitting there and assembling my little bites of scone and staring at the crypt walls and it was just better before that little, tiny streamlining (there. soapbox dismounted).

St. Martin church is in Trafalger Square so our last stop was to wander the square and take our selfies with the fountains, the lions, and Lord Nelson.  We had to wait in line and totally frame things carefully to actually get to be alone in the shot with one of the lions, but I think that is just how London goes most of the time, from what I gather and vaguely remember. From there, tube to train, to bus, to home. It’s about 2 1/2 hours to make it from Wantage to London, and unfortunately at least 30 minutes of that is wasted time due to poorly timed bus arrivals/departures, but it’s pretty great that we’ll be able to day-trip there when we choose, without having to kennel the dogs. I think I want to get us set up with a dog-walking/dog-sitting service here in Wantage, so then if we want to be gone longer than 8 or 10 hours we can, without it being abusive to the demon spawn. A few pics are up on Facebook, as I still can’t get wordpress to let me upload them here, but I am working on it!

Observations: The Tube used to scare me in a way that it no longer does after my time commuting in LA, I’m pretty happy about that. But, the Tube system also used to seem so impressive before LA Metro. But, now it seems a lot dirtier, smellier, and more expensive. 🙁 And, don’t get me started on the bus system.

The Brits are really into cake. There’s a whole aisle in the grocery store of breakfast/tea time/snack cakes and tarts and baked goods. It’s a big thing genre here. I still need someone to explain to me what clotted cream is!

Harry Potter (book two) is calling, so goodnight for now.

More to come.

– alaina