The occasional webcam
| Hello. Hard to believe another month has gone by already, but it has. And a busy month it was. But before I get to February, I should let you all know that Tom passed his 2nd driving test and we now both have British driving licenses! It is conceptually odd to me that if we need to provide identification now, we will show something British (when something less than a passport is needed). Of course, they don't really need picture I.D.'s here for anything anyway. Don't even have to carry a license when they drive - just need to be able to provide one within a week. Very odd. Wouldn't go anywhere in the states without I.D. |
The occasional webcam |
Visitors
Well, we are finally getting visitors - just as we suspected, all at once! We've actually got people coming every month through August! (Well, so far there's nobody in July….) No matter, we're glad to see everyone. We love showing off our new home.
Our first guest was mom (Toby's mom, that is). She came on Wednesday the 5th of February and stayed for a week - allowing us to take her out for a curry on her birthday (Feb. 8th)! A real treat to be able to celebrate with her. Mom loves history and royalty and just about everything British. It was great to have such an enthusiastic guest. She loved just looking out the window. I took Thursday afternoon off and we had 'Cream Tea' at the Randolph Hotel (where Bill and Hil stay when they come and visit Chelsea). Very elegant and very fattening. Yum! I know I should have taken a picture of the table when the sandwiches and sweets arrived, but we couldn't wait to dig in. So here's a picture of what we left!
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) What's left of high tea |
) Toby and Mom in the Cotswolds (Burford) |
) Marlene, Joan and Linda |
) Ann Hathaway's cottage (see below) |
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Friday night we went to The Trout - the pub that Inspector Morse frequents. (Mom's a big fan!) On Saturday, we took her for a drive around the Cotswolds which she always wanted to see and on Sunday we met up with some family friends - Joan Abarbanel (see August 3, 2002 entry) whom mom hadn't seen in yonks, and her sister-in-law, Linda Wantman (see May 25, 2002 entry). Another afternoon tea with the ladies. Monday she went downtown on her own and took the bus tour of Oxford. Lucky mom was the only one on the bus for most of the trip and basically had a personal guide! It was perfect for her - so full of questions as she is.
I took Tuesday off of work and mom and I went to Stratford Upon Avon (I had to make up for embarrassing her 20 years ago when we were here and I didn't even know what (or where) Stratford Upon Avon was - despite having read about 5 Shakespeare books....). We took the bus tour, which was a little disappointing, but then went to see Ann Hathaway's cottage (Shakespeare's wife) which was really interesting. They had the actual bench that they courted on there. Kinda cool. Hard to believe so many people lived in these tiny houses.
Sadly, on Wednesday, mom went home. It's nice to know she now has an image of us here in Oxford.
Three days later, Ronda came to visit. Ronda is a Folk Alliance friend of mine from Texas. (Love those Texans!) She came for a 3 week European holiday to visit some friends and tour with a musician friend for a week. We were her first stop. Spent a nice day in Oxford showing her around and catching up on all the music biz I've missed. See the picture below of us at our kitchen table (dining room table, hall table….that's it, our one table). Sadly we had to cut Ronda's visit short on Sunday to go into London, but it was great to see her.
The next weekend my cousins were in town. My cousin Sarah is in London for a semester (she's a junior at U Conn) and her mom and sister (Barbara and Paula) were visiting. So they hopped on the train and came to visit for the day. We showed them all around city center Oxford and then took them to see our flat. They insisted. Don't know what they were expecting, but again, there is something nice about having people know where you are. Here's a picture of us at the Radcliffe Camera. Great to have family here and to catch up on what's been happening. Actually, not all of the news is that good. Barbara's sister-in-law, Donna, is a nurse in the reserves and was sent over to the Middle East for 10 months. Her unit specializes in chemical and biological warfare so she's likely to be in one of the hot spots. Seems to make it all just a little more personal... We're thinking of you Donna!
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) Toby and Ronda at the table |
) Toby and Barbara, Paula, Sarah Klaman | ||||
Family news
Unfortunately, this month Tom and I had a funeral to go to. Kevin's (Tom's British bother in law's) grandfather (Charles Moss) died - one month away from his 97th birthday. Although we really didn't know him that well, he was always a smiling presence at family gatherings. He was a very nice man who'd done some pretty amazing things in his life - like help found the Kingston Synagogue many years ago. He will be missed. Obviously it wasn't a happy occasion, but in a strange way it felt nice to have a family commitment here. Hope that makes some sense.
Fun things
We finally made it out to High Wycombe - one of the only cinemas around here that has buttered popcorn. MMMMMMMM It's about 1/2 hour from here so we don't go often. (Once a year counts as 'not often', doesn't it?) Anyway, I pretty much insisted we stop on our way back from London one Sunday to see the movie Catch Me If You Can - a good movie if you can get past Tom Hanks' Boston accent. What was the point of that? Does anybody know? The good news is that they use real butter, not butter flavoured oil. (Yes, I know, flavOUred. What can I say, when in Rome…) The bad news (well, not that bad) is that they actually ladle it on. I of course asked for some in the middle as well as on top before knowing this. About 6 ladles later I was holding heaven. Ohmygod. It was truly gross and absurd, and I ate the whole thing! How wonderful to have that gross, coated feeling in my mouth again. Enough, my mouth is watering.
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Later in the month I (Toby) had a 'work do' at Blenheim Palace (where Churchill was born, see July 26, 2002 entry). It was a thank you to the office staff on the Car Refinishes side of the business since we had such a good year and the sales guys got to go to Beiritz for a few days. There were only about 24 of us, but it was really nice. We were in the Orangery - a long, elegant room (see picture). Dinner was superb - it started with a crab/cream cheese thing wrapped in smoked salmon. And I ate it! It was my first time eating lox and it turned out not to be so bad. I may be Jewish after all! They set us up at one big long table and we had to switch seats before every course, so there was interesting conversation all night. After dinner they had set up a little casino - a roulette wheel and a blackjack table. I started out at the card table and then switched over to roulette which proved to be much more profitable. I hit a few times on my own and then lent Philip James (our Managing Director) a few chips and he won too. Not quite sure how much of my winnings I owe to him, but I did come in 4th for the night. Unfortunately there were only 3 bottles of champagne to be given out. Ain't that always the way?!
Two days later it was bowling and pizza with the Sports and Social club at work. Made me feel American again! Sadly, Tom didn't come with me. It was out in Swindon which is about an hour from here and Tom didn't want to make the trip having travelled already that day for work. I couldn't resist.
Theatre
We saw two plays this month - one in Oxford and one in London. We saw Noises Off at the Oxford Playhouse with Sharon and Steve. The play is a play within a play - a very funny farce. It is actually one of the plays mom and I saw here 20 years ago. It's a very fast paced, physically demanding play that requires real concentration and was extremely well performed. Highly recommended to all.
The following week we saw Macbeth in London with Sharon, Steve, Autumn, Trevor and Alex (remember the group from Bruges?). It starred Sean Bean (from Lord of the Rings, 1st one, along with other British stuff) and Samantha Bond (Moneypenny in a few Bond movies) and was very well done. Samantha as Lady Macbeth was particularly good. I had seen it in Boston with Kelsey Grammar (Frasier) but this was better. Kelsey was very good, but the staging and the production were much better in London.
The most exciting part of the evening was driving in with the new Congestion Charge in place. That's £5 to drive into the heart of London between 7:00am and 6:30pm, Monday-Friday. We crossed the line at 6:15. Once we parked the car, we called in and reported our car registration and gave them a credit card number. Sort of a silly system (you have to call in every time or send a text message), but there did seem to be less traffic. Of course that allows everyone to drive a little faster - the next issue for them to deal with.
Movies
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The Hours (very good). Punch Drunk Love (not what we expected - it's a psycho film, really. I think Tom liked it more than I did.). Catch Me If You Can (good, as noted above), Magdelene Sisters (artsy, depressing, but well done), The Good Thief (Nick Nolte, pretty good), Adaptation (pretty good, better than The Good Thief). |
Miscellaneous
After applying for her National Insurance number (the equivalent of a social security number), Toby was asked for her police registration document. Okay, she was supposed to register upon arrival, but we, um, never got around to it. It is now done (£34), but since we did it a year late, we could potentially be fined up to £5000, put in jail for up to 6 months, and deported. Keeps it interesting anyway. Tom seemingly does not have to register. Go figure.
Phew. It was a busy month, but lots of fun.
Coming next month…… Toby plays the fruit (slot) machines - is it a winning proposition? And British television - what is the country watching? (You must be tired of our daily itineraries, no?)
Bits & Bobs:
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We are amazed at the choice of neckties by news presenters. They are always brighly colored and stand out. (Tie fashion is generally very different here.) Click the picture to see the first in our series of bad ties (note that this will only be an occasional feature as we don't always have the camera handy!))
Cigarette packages have great warnings - big text and right to the point. Click
here to see what I mean.And there you have it for this report.
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