Kate and I have left the green pastures of northern England for the snow of the upper Midwest for almost three weeks. We have been back for the last five days and have both made trips to our parents' houses as well as some visiting of friends.
The cabin trip to the U.P. was canceled this year due to "weather," but I'm still pretty sure we could have made it. Instead we went to some of Adam's relatives' cottage. It was much closer, it had running water, electricity, and didn't involve a trudge through a half mile of snow to get to it. Needless to say, I was a bit disappointed, but we were able to spend the weekend catching up, so it wasn't all bad news.
We were also able to get everyone's family together at Mike's house for an evening. It's a bit strange to see so many children running around since I can remember when we all rode our bikes around talking about how crazy it would be when we had our driving licenses in a few years. It's like everyone magically became old in an instant. Not old, maybe, but adults. There is no denying it; we are all productive members of adult society. Although, I still have the same mountain bike from back in the day, so we can't be that old.
Yesterday Kate and I went skiing/snowboarding with my brother, Mike, and Claire. Today we are off to Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon for a few days. After that, it's my little sister's graduation and then less than a week before flying back to the UK. Time is passing quickly.
This year's Thanksgiving celebration was somewhat non-traditional. We decided to celebrate on Monday night with turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, rolls, pumpkin pie, etc. We had the full spread and about 12 guests. Seeing as we only have four full sized plates and four (now 8 thanks to Lisa) small plates, we had to use paper plates and plastic cutlery for some people, but it all worked out.
I made the turkey and Kate made the stuffing, mashed potatoes, and rolls. Since we have a small kitchen and limited prep time, we asked everyone to bring a dish to pass. Nothing against the Brits and their choice of dishes, but I think it's fair to say that Thanksgiving is a decidedly American holiday. Chicken nuggets and cocktail weenies did not fit in as well as green bean casserole, but they were good none the less.
On Thanksgiving Day, Kate and I flew to Malaga, Spain, for a weekend in the region of Andalusia known as Costa del Sol. It did live up to it's namesake when it came to sunshine on the first few days, but it was much colder than we were expecting. It was in the 60s the entire time (the week before when we booked the trip it was in the 80s) and the last day brought heavy down pours. All the same, we had a good time. After 3 1/2 years in Hawaii, I am a bit spoiled when it comes to beaches. The town we stayed in, Torremolinos, had a beach that was like Waikiki in that it was surrounded by hotels, restaurants, and shops, but at this time of year it was without all of the people or warm water. We were really surprised at how cheap our trip was (we got roundtrip airfare and a one-bedroom apartment with a kitchen for about $200 per person), but once we arrived we figured out that the town had more or less closed down for the winter. We never saw more than 5 people on the streets at any one time and the beach was deserted. It was a ghost town.
In the end, it worked out well. I have never been able to sit on a beach for more than 20 minutes without feeling like there was something else I should be doing, so even if the weather was nice, I doubt we would have been hanging out in the brown sand. We took advantage of the convenient public transportation and spent one day in Malaga and another in Granada (not pronounced at all like Canada, but fun to pronounce it that way anyway).
Both towns were similar in that there was a lot of semi-modern sections of town with a center that looked as if it hadn't changed in a thousand years. We spent our time meandering through the narrow streets, looking at old buildings and forts, and eating our loaves of bread with Vaca Risa cheese triangles and smoked salmon. All in all, it was a really good time. Granada was a bit better than Malaga. In part because it was older, and in part because we were wearing pants and jackets vice slippahs with bare legs. Like I said, we expected it to be warmer than it was.
This week has been very busy with work, but next Thursday I will be flying back to the US for almost three weeks of vacation. Kate and I have already booked a trip to Las Vegas (but we will probably spend most of our time at the Grand Canyon) and are planning on skiing/snowboarding as well. Other than that, I will be attending my sister's college graduation and just catching up with old friends. I'm looking forward to it.
The first thing I will be doing when I get back; however, is heading up to the UP for a trip to the cabin. Most of the guys will be there and it should be a great time, despite the cold. We may make a side trip to the Paulding Light, but we will see. Rumor has it that it can be difficult to find the place to go, so our trip may end up more like this one.
The days have been getting shorter, but so far I have really enjoyed that. It makes me feel less guilty about leaving work earlier. To me, it just makes sense that it's time to go home when it's dark and it's way better to go home at 5:00pm than 11:00pm.
Another great thing about the change in daylight hours is the light. When I drive to work in the morning, the sun makes everything look incredibly vivid; almost surreal. The green grass, white sheep, the trees with their yellow and orange leaves, and even the gray rocks are more vibrant. It's really impressive. Whoever said that England was a dreary, gray place wasn't paying much attention.
Things have been going really well at work. It's starting to slow down a bit and I have been able to work on more long term sort of work instead of the day to day things. Sports have kept me at work until about 10:00pm every night, but I am enjoying 'playing' sports again. I joined two basketball teams and a volleyball team. Football finished up a few weeks ago, which is good, because that one was outside and even with games at 5:00pm, we were running out of light.
This weekend Kate and I installed a pretty large mirror in the bathroom (up to this point I only had a 6" mirror for shaving), booked a trip to Spain, and went for a hike in the Dales.
The mirror bit isn't very exciting, but it's helpful. It helped me to realize that a new sweater I got is way too small. It's made of alpaca wool and is super warm, but it looks like a child's sweater. I probably won't be wearing that one as much anymore. Thanks mirror.
As for Spain, we were messing about online on Saturday and found a really good deal for a package vacation. For £260 (about $440), the two of us get round trip airfare (with checked luggage; that counts for a lot on budget airlines over here.) and 3 nights hotel in a one bedroom apartment across from the beach in Torremolinos, Spain, on La Costa Del Sol. Basically, the Brits don't really celebrate Thanksgiving, so we won't be missing anything but the chilly weather. I'll be sure to include an update on that trip once we return.
Today we went for a hike. It was a last minute decision to go and we were a little short on daylight towards the end. With that being said, when the sun was shining, we had that magical light I have been enjoying so much (the picture at the top of the post is a good example).
The hike itself was very pleasant. It involved country roads, trails, streams, cliffs, waterfalls, sheep (of course), a couple of small towns, and limestone rock formations.
The highlight, for me, was the Goredale Scar. We parked in Malham and walked first towards the scar. The book we had included some really great maps with terrain features and relief drawn, as well as clear directions and descriptions; however, the choice of pictures was a bit silly. For example, this is the picture they showed for the scar (this is actually a picture I took, but it's from the same angle as the picture in the book):
Not terrible, but why didn't they turn around, walk down the hill and show it from this angle:
Much more interesting from this angle, if you ask me. Or, since they would have been at the bottom of the hill anyway, why not turn around once more and take a picture that looks like this:
That happened to be a lucky shot in that the sun was doing it's magic, low in the sky, and the clouds broke for a minute right when the light was tucked behind the edge of the scar. This picture doesn't really give a sense of how bathed in light everything was. Nor does it show how huge the land features really are. For reference, you can see some people off to the left. If you ever come to England, it's definitely a site worth seeing and you can practically drive up to it, if you want to.
The rest of the walk was nice, but the main excitement in the geography department included much smaller limestone formations.
By the time it was all said and done, we had only been walking for 3 hours, but it was already dark (in this picture, it's only 3:45pm):
We made our way home and just finished out the weekend with an oversized chicken and mushroom salad with hot chocolate and earl grey tea. It was a pretty good day.
It has been a long long while. Some of the highlights from the last six weeks, in order, are:
1. Went to Oktoberfest in Munich. 2. Battle with the neighborhood kids over? 3. Kate moved in.4. Tuesday dinners moved to Mondays. 5. Weekend trips. 6. Halloween parties. 7. Front row at a Wilco concert.
The weather this past week has been beautiful. On Labor Day, after spending two days in the house for no really good reason, I decided to go for a walk. I thought that 30 minutes out of the house would do me some good.
I walked to the end of the lane and found a trail that used to be railroad tracks. I walked on that for a few minutes and found some fields, woods and streams. I ended up meandering through the woods until I came to a small river. I followed the river. About 2 hours later I was in the next town over, Knaresborough. The weather was as near to perfect as one could hope for in September.
I spent about an hour in Knaresborough eating chicken and mushroom pies and drinking blackcurrant juice since I left the house with nothing more than my cell phone, wallet, and keys (everything else, you can buy on the way, right?). For the walk back I popped up the map and my position on my iPhone and walked home as directly as possible. I was on my couch eating popcorn and drinking some GeeBee in under an hour. All and all, a very pleasant day.
This past weekend I went for a run on the trails. I turned right instead of left and ended up in Starbeck, another part of Harrogate. After 30 or so minutes of running, I had to stop and find a trail back. I was hoping to make the run into a loop back up Skipton Road, but got a bit turned around. As much as I hate to admit it, I am a bit dependent on my iPhone. I tried finding paper maps at bus stops without luck and I didn't recognize any of the roads. When all was said and done, I walked/jogged home, finding short cuts through some fields, and made it back within the hour. Another fine morning.
What awaited for me at home was less pleasant. I'm still having issues with the neighborhood boys. They have taken to climbing on my sheds. I still laugh at myself every time I tell the kids to, "get off the shed." (That was a Will Ferrel line on Saturday Night Live, I think) At any rate, I spoke to a woman watching the boys and she was somewhat receptive to my asking her to keep the boys out of my yard, but a mere two hours later, they were running through.
As I was leaving on Saturday afternoon, one of the boys took to swearing at me and calling me names through a hole in the fence. I laughed it off, but when I got home later that night to find that there were scratch marks on my door, I wasn't laughing. I spend a couple of hours that evening trying to figure out the UK laws on how to deal with this type of situation. For better or for worse, property owners are a bit hamstrung here. It's not too dissimilar to the US, but where in the US I get the impression that the laws err on the side of the property owner, it seems that they err on the side of the trespasser in the UK.
In the end, I went out and bought 500g of 40mm (about 2") nails and put those on the vertical surfaces where the kids climb. I thought that that would be a good stop gap measure while I ordered an anti-climbing paint. The paint is something I learned about around midnight while researching on my iPhone. Basically, it never dries and it stains clothes. I figure that will be a good solution. It doesn't look terrible and it should have the desired effect.
About two hours after putting the nails in, I heard a commotion outside once again. Once again I went outside to see what was happening. I was surprised to find that the bratty red-haired kid was smashing the nails sideways with a hammer while being held on top of the shed by an adult. The man was surprised to see me and seemingly even more surprised that I confronted him.
As if it wasn't obvious, I told him that I put the nails in place because I was trying to stop the kids from climbing on the shed. I could tell he was really uncomfortable and a bit embarrassed for getting caught. He just kept cutting my off by saying, "yeah, ok," over and over again, but I was unrelenting. I was polite, calm, and collected, but I didn't let him walk away like he wanted to. I explained about the broken window that the kids admitted breaking, the two sections of fence that they admitted breaking, the torn up hedge, the swearing, and, what I consider to be the last straw, the scratched up door.
His only comment, as he was leaving, was that it wasn't his kid, but he would pass the message along. I'm not sure the message got passed.
So, that brings me to my new plan: anti-climb paint and a lot of spikes. I'm considering a thorny, climbing plant, but that would take a little while to grow. Long story short, I have run out of patience with the kids. My upstairs neighbor told me that the more they are told not to trespass, the more they make a point of doing it.
(Great defensive posture at this place. If I ever buy in the UK again...)
I feel a bit ridiculous, but I'm thinking of keeping a bucket of ice water by the door and dousing them as they pass through as the next step. I'm trying to decide whether or not that's over the line...
Last meal before living off of sandwiches for a few days.
Entry from Tuesday, 18 August
Giant's Causeway
The past few weeks have included a fair bit of travel.A friend from Hawaii, Patrick, was out here for a work conference and we took a trip to Ireland (some call it Fireland due to so many people having red hair) for a few days.We didn’t have much time, but we were able to hit the main attractions in Belfast and Dublin.
Giant's Causeway
Our day and a half in Belfast included a trip to Giant’s Causeway. It got its namesake from the hexagonal stones along the shore and cliffs (as the story goes, the giant Finn McCool built it to kill a Squirtish giant, but there was no fight and the bridge was destroyed). The real reason for the shapes had to do with crystallization and the way the magma cooled, but giants make for a better story.
City government center (the exact names escapes me), Belfast
Story behind the Red Hand of Ulster:
Captain of raiding party: "First one to touch the coast with their right hand owns it."
Soldier: (after cutting off his own hand and throwing it ashore) "BOOYAH!"
Black cab (ours was red) tour, Belfast
We also took a black cab tour of Belfast to see the old division lines of Protestant v. Catholic.Besides that, we did a good bit of walking around and even got to argue with some old people.Maybe I just haven’t had much luck with the Irish I’ve met, but I haven’t been able to carry on a conversation with any Irish people without it turning into them spewing a fair amount of hate and discontent my way.The evening in the Belfast pub started with some friendly banter about physical stature and John Wayne, but quickly turned into a discussion about who really should have won the American Civil War, how certain ethnicities are deceitful, and how America was a big bully.It seem that we were really just witnessing the start of an elongated downward spiral, so we left after two drinks.
Dublin started with a tour of the Guiness Brewery.Guiness happens to be one of my favorite beers.The key take-aways from the tour were: 3 million pints brewed there each day, each one is perfect, only 4 ingredients used (water, hops, barley, and yeast), and Guiness is good for you.
We also went to a few museums, one of which had quite a few mummified bodies from hundreds of years ago.Each one was slaughtered differently; some had body parts removed, some were slashed to death, others bludgeoned, still others were strangled.Bottom line: death and destruction appears to have been a hobby on that island for quite some time.
After the trip to Ireland I had two days to get ready for my trip back to the US.It was a 10 day work trip, but it just so happened that one of my friends from Hawaii who moved to Maryland got married on August 15th.Kate was able to come down from New York for the weekend, so it was a double bonus.The ceremony was nice and they had a really good menu: filet minon and crab cakes.Money.
Double fisting to start the evening (open bar)
Last call; down to one at a time
Although I was only in the UK for about 4 months, there are some definite differences I noticed from my short trip.
Some of the nice things about the US:
-If you are willing to drive for a short while, you can find anything you need at any time, day or night.
-Things are cheaper and bigger.
-The roads a big and wide and don’t have a roundabout every mile and a half.
Some of the nice things about the UK:
-People know how to use roundabouts correctly (it’s painful to watch their use in the US).
-Buildings don't look or feel like they were thrown together overnight by a developer looking to make a fast buck (our hotel in Annapolis was ridiculous. I really wish I took a picture of the "Greek" fountain.)
-No humidity
The trip was pretty good overall, but had its strange moments.This past Monday was somehow both fun and sad. I sat around my hotel room in my underwear eating microwave dinners, followed by going to a movie by myself.It’s like I couldn’t figure out what would be more disheartening, so I did both.While the tag line for the movie, 500 Days of Summer, was, “it’s not a love story, it’s a story about love,” it was, in fact, a love story.The theater was full of teenage girls traveling in packs and severely obese middle-aged balding men with goatees flying solo.And there was me.
Today I had some time to kill after my final meeting and before my flight, so I went to an all-you-can-eat buffet.Those are always a study in a certain element of society not found in other parts of the world.Anyone who wants to pick on how America does things has to go no further than a buffet.For under $10 (GPB 6) you can get stuffed with hot dogs, hamburgers, fried chicken, pot roast, pastas, potatoes, tacos, Chinese food, creamy soups, pies, cakes, ice cream, and more.Yes, they also had a fruit bar as well as a vegetable bar, but those weren’t very popular.I don’t work out as much as I should and I don’t always eat as well as I should, but I try not to make it a habit.For a good percentage of the people at this particular buffet it seemed that they were doing everything they could to be unhealthy.It makes no sense to me, but all I can do is sit silently and judgmentally and watch the show.
Another thing I did on this trip was to spend like crazy.My reasoning was that everything would be much more expensive in the UK, but I bought so much junk that I went over my weight allowance for the flight.Luckily I was early and was able to move some heavier pieces into my carry-on luggage (you’d be surprised how much Chaco sandals weigh) and get half a pound under, but I probably didn’t need the paper towel dispenser or quite so many spikes.
That brings me to my next subject: the crazy old man of the neighborhood.As it turns out, it’s me.A short background: I live in a maisonette (a detached house split into two apartments) at the end of a block of terraced homes (row houses).My flat also adjoins a bike path.Long story short, my yard is the only place people can cut through without going through someone’s house or around the other side of the block.In the grand scheme of things, it’s really not that huge of a deal, but I don’t like it.On top of the people coming through I also have animals pooping in my driveway and neighborhood kids tearing up my hedge making a fort.As you can see, there is a pattern of encroachment.
That’s where the Home Depot come in.Since I was here in the land of cheap and plenty, I decided to purchase some defensive counter-measures to the encroachers.The idea is to develop a layered approach to security and to do it one step at a time.
-Step 1: I am going to start closing the car gate to my driveway and drive some 3’ fence posts into the opening of the hedge.
-Step 2: I am going to lock the gate and add a good deal of chicken wire to the posts.
-Step 3: I will add some of the awesome spikes I bought to my car gate as well as the “No Trespassing” and “Beware of Dog” signs.As for the kids in front, I might move some of the animal poop from the driveway to the area under the hedge.They already used a fence post to take down two sets of chicken wire and make a bigger hole in my bushes, but I have a feeling that crawling through poop will prove to be more trouble than it’s worth.
-Step 4: If that doesn’t work, I will need to figure out how to attract colonies of hornets and spiders to my bushes.It can’t be too difficult.
I was thinking that things would slow down after the conference, but my schedule is still somewhat busy for the next month.I have another work trip to Germany planned and I was able to magically match it up with Oktoberfest.The only question is whether I want to stay an extra weekend on both sides of the trip or just one weekend.I’m pretty sure I am just going to go with one.I am planning on staying with Jens and Ana (they came out to Hawaii about 2 years ago).Jens, our German foreign exchange student my senior year of high school, is always fun to hang out with and he speaks German.Always a plus when in Germany.
Other than that, nothing too crazy planned.I have another Friday off coming up at the end of the month, so I’m thinking about going somewhere.Maybe Spain, but I’m not sure.After only 10 days away from the UK I am already looking forward to getting back and relaxing at home.That might officially make me a crotchety old man; I can’t say for sure.
Entry from Wednesday, 19 August
I got stranded at the airport last night.Due to the thunderstorms, I didn’t make it to Newark in time to catch my flight to Manchester.Luckily for me, Kate lives in New York.After an air train ride, NJ Transit train ride, some walking, a subway ride, and some more walking, I made it to Kate’s apartment.I didn’t get there until after 2:00am, but she was nice enough to take the day off work and we were able to hang out.We went through the obligatory bring/don’t bring tour of her apartment.Long story short, talk to me in a couple of months and I might have a smoothie maker staring at me from my kitchen counter.Money.
Entry from Thursday, 20 August
I made it back home in one piece.I did get some bad news today, but I’m trying not to let it bother me too much.So far I have been somewhat successful at blocking the bad thoughts, but I am really tired and might dwell on it more when I am rested.Long story short, I have no one to blame but myself.I didn’t read all of the laws and did not do enough research.It’s amazing how much money one can save by speaking to someone with experience.Long story short, if I knew two months ago what I know now, I would most likely have an additional huge chunk (five figures) of British Pounds Sterling in a couple of years.
Entry from Friday, 21 August
As for the house, there's no going back. I will have to chalk this one up as a "learning experience" and move on. I did some more research today and figured out that it isn't as bad as it seems. When all of the factors are considered, yes I am still out a considerable amount of money. Bottom line, I do have a roof over my head, so I have no grounds to complain!
