May 26, 2003

Hello again. Miss us? Visitors Since we last talked to you, we've had a couple of visitors. First our friends Carol Young and Chris Smither came to visit us. Actually, Chris (Chris' website) came to tour and Carol used that as an excuse to come and see us. (Hee hee.) So we got to see a Chris Smither show at a funky arts center in Aldershot (about an hour southeast of here) and this time we brought some friends who, of course, loved the show. We spent the night nearby and after breakfast with Chris and Carol we brought Carol back home with us for a few days. We really did just about no sightseeing; we just hung out and caught up, which was great. We have friends here to do things with, but nobody we just hang with for no reason. (Despite the fact that we want to extend our stay until about September '04, we DO miss you guys!) Here's a picture of me with Chris and Carol and one of Tom showing Carol how to use the XBox. We had some good car races, but despite our best efforts, Carol and I could barely compete with Tom. Must be a guy thing.

The occasional webcam

Next came our friends David Stolow and his wife Suki. They were in London for a week but wanted to see some of the countryside - so they came to us one Saturday and we walked them around Oxford, took them to lunch at our local pub and then drove around the Cotswolds for a while. We tried to give them a sense of what it's like to live here. I think we gushed a little, but they didn't seem to mind. In the pictures we are at the top of Carfax Tower - part of a 14th century church. 99 steps up - gives you a nice view (very similar to the one from the Saxon tower we told you about last month).

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Toby, Chris and Carol	Carol and Tom playing XBox	Suki and David on top of Carfax Tower (Oxford)	Tom and Toby up there too (Toby sporting the new 'natural grey' look!)

More recently, Dad and Fari (my step mom) came to visit. They spent 3 days with us before heading to London for a few days and then to see Fari's brother's family who live just west of London (in Maidenhead, for those of you familiar with the area). We had a nice relaxing time with them, showing them Oxford and all the places we visit as part of our regular routine. Even took them to Akzo to see where I work and to show them where Tom works (even though we couldn't get in). Here's a picture of us at a Lebanese restaurant we like in Oxford. We tried to get Fari to join in with the belly dancer but she wouldn't go. Next time.

The one touristy thing we did was to go see Waddesdon Manor - home of Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild. It's a magnificent home with amazing stuff throughout. (It was built about 120 years ago but has lots of 18th century French furniture and art in it.) And it has its own aviary with some pretty cool birds and a g'zillion acres of beautifully landscaped lawns. Plus they had a bunch of sheared sheep hanging out. Unfortunately, I couldn't get a picture but it was kinda cool, take my word for it. It is definitely sheep shearing time around here and more and more of the ratty old sheep are looking lamb-like. (That's what happens when you cut their hair.)

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Fountain at Waddesdon Manor	The Manor House	Lou and Fari	A colorful bird at the aviary	Lemon Tree (oh so pretty!)	A fern ready to open up (looks like a fiddlehead)

The 2nd weekend they were here we met them for a proper Sunday roast at a pub in Maidenhead with the whole clan; dad and Fari, Fari's brother and his family and Fari's daughter, Mojgan, who had come over with her daughter Tara (pictured to the right with the English lamb we gave her for her first birthday coming up next month) and spent the week in Maidenhead. Nice to meet more extended British family!

Travels

We had a three-day weekend at the beginning of May and took a quick trip over to Jersey, the largest of the Channel Islands. It's where Jersey cows come from and where New Jersey was named after. It's a gorgeous island with a really nice atmosphere. We had beautiful weather all weekend and it was a really nice mix of being relaxed on an island and getting a little history as well. The whole island is about 45 square miles with a population of about 85,000. It is a "parliamentary democracy which is a dependency of the Birtish Crown", which basically means that it is a British Island but it's not part of the United Kingdom, nor is it a colony. (I could pretty much have put that in quotes too;-) It is closer to Normandy, France than it is to England and was actually ruled by the Normans until 1204 when France lost a war with England. Jersey was given the choice of pledging their allegiance to England or France and they chose England. That's your history lesson for this month.

One advantage of living (or shopping) on Jersey is that it is a tax free zone. We didn't actually do any shopping, but saving 17.5% sounds good to me. The island also has many beautiful beaches to attract tourists and just recently added a big cinema complex complete with a KFC and a Pizza Hut. Sad, in'it?

As you will see in the pictures, we had our friend Gnomie with us on this trip. Gnomie belongs to my boss, Sharon, and he is a world traveler. Also somewhat easy as he doesn't mind living in a bag in the boot of the car. He'll go anywhere with anyone. You can check out his website to see all the places he's been. (Not really up to date at the moment, but hopefully it will be soon. Not our job!) He asked to come with us to Jersey since he'd never been. Amazing that we'd gotten away without taking him somewhere before now. He actually turned out to be a good traveler. Quiet, agreeable and asked for nothing but to have his picture taken. Well, he did need to be carried a lot…

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The duty-free shop (note the Red Sox hat)	Mont Orgeuil Castle	View from castle (low tide)	The castle chapel
Top of the castle	Another castle shot	Old gas pump	The rocky north coast

On our first day there we visited Mont Orgeuil Castle, (started in the 13th century - used to defend against France) which was spitting distance from where we were staying. You can actually see France from the top of the castle.

On Sunday, we went to see the Jersey War Tunnels. Jersey was the only British territory to have been occupied during WWII (1940-45). Facing a German invasion, Churchill made the tough decision to remove all defenses from the island and not to try and defend it (had to do with resources and strategies and stuff), so it was easily taken over. The Germans built an underground tunnel - over a kilometer of tunnels (mostly using forced labor from all over Europe) to house offices and a hospital and it is now a museum. Pretty well done, actually. Really gave you a good sense of life on the island under the occupation.

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War tunnel entrance	Sign at tunnel (Churchill quote)	Gnomie on a German motorcycle (in the tunnels)	The only escape boat that made it to England (the Ragamuffin)

Then we played some crazy golf on the way home (mini-golf or putt-putt to most of you) and got some ice cream made with Jersey dairy from those Jersey cows.. Hard to resist. We had a wonderful dinner that night at the Village Bistro just behind our hotel. Mmmm. It really was one of the best meals we've had in a while, fresh crab and scallops - delicious.

On Sunday we went to the Jersey Zoo - part of the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust. It's not a typical zoo (no lions or tigers or elephants) as most of the animals there are endangered species. They put them in habitats that are as close to their natural settings as possible to help learn more about them and save them from extinction. Lots of rare birds. The orangutans were great fun to watch as they are very playful and active. A couple of them kept putting burlap bags over their heads and then falling over. Still makes me laugh.

Then we stopped at the La Mare Vineyards and Distillery - partly to taste some wine and partly because they had some Jersey cows there. They sure do have some sweet faces.

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The vineyard (Gnomie looking for grapes)	The famous Jersey cow	Sweet face!	Zoo shot (Meerkats?)
Bear at the zoo	Glow-in-the dark toads having fun		Cobiere Lighthouse

Another game of crazy golf, a quick trip to Cobiere Lighthouse and we were on our way home. The lighthouse is pictured above - it was built in 1873-4 and is believed to be the first lighthouse to be built out of concrete. Note that you can only walk out to it (or back) during low tide! (Jersey has some of the highet tides in Europe and they can rise at a rate of 2 inches per minute in the 'third and fourth hours of flood'. Wow.) We didn't really have time for a visit but Gnomie insisted on having his picture taken there.

Fun Things

We took a quick trip to Nuffield Place, which is conveniently about 30 minutes from us here in Oxford. Nuffield Place is the former home (from 1933-63) of William Morris, Lord Nuffield, founder of Morris Motors. Besides Morris Motors, he funded a lot of research into the iron lung. They had one on display there - very interesting. The house was interesting because it has been left exactly as it was when he died, so you get a really good feel for the man rather than his taste in art and antiques. On the grounds, the bluebells were in full bloom. Just a few pictures to remind you of how beautiful they are. When you see a field (or forest) of them they really do look like a real life watercolour. (There were some pictures last year too).

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Bright yellow fields of rapeseed	Classic Morris car	Nuffield Place
Bluebell, up close	A sea of bluebells	Beautiful blues and yellows

Akzo's Sports and Social Club had a couple of events in the last month. The first was a pub quiz (very common here - a lot of pubs have weekly Sunday or Monday quiz nights). Spouses weren't invited, so I was on a finance team (Jackie, Sharon, Alex (Greek student worker), Justine (assistant cashier) and I). We came in 2rd out of 5. Not bad for a team with 2 foreigners! Although I did help out with some US related questions…

The 2nd event was a Dragon Boat Race. It was a charity event in Abingdon where I work, and Akzo sponsored a boat. Basically, there were about 30 20-person teams, racing in groups of three in canoes with big dragon heads and a seat at the front for someone to sit and bang a big drum. Treedy, our receptionist, drummed the pace and we finished 12th for the day. Not bad. Most teams were in three races to determine who would be in the finals, but we were asked to do a 4th race that was filmed for a tv advert or something. That might have tired us out a little more than the other teams. Unfortunately, we paddled three really good races but were crap on the one they filmed! We just weren't together at all! I was in one of the front seats with Lisa (Nigel, one of our controller's wife) while Tom was put in the middle next to Trevor (one of Sharon's friends). Still, it was great fun with good weather and a yummy BBQ (thanks to Luiz). I know I winge a bit about work, but really, it is a very good group of people to socialize with. Easy going and good fun.

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Ready! (a shot of dutch liqueur for strength)	Set! (lifejackets for all)	Go!

Film

We saw a couple of movies this month: X Men II (which I think I enjoyed more than Tom) which had great special effects, and Far From Heaven which was very good but not a happy film. We also saw The Matrix II, Reloaded. Unfortunately we were both disappointed - we expected more. Yes, it was pretty good and had good special effects, but it didn't live up to its hype. Oh well, at least Toby got buttered popcorn.

We rented some too: Novacaine (with Steve Martin - pretty good, not great) and One Hour Photo (a little odd, especially for a Robin Williams film).

Theatre

Tom and I saw Stones in His Pocket at the Oxford Playhouse this month. It's a two-person play, where each of the performers plays a number of characters on the production set of a film. (It's similar in that way to Greater Tuna Texas except they don't change clothes for each character.) It's about what happens to a small Irish town when Hollywood comes to make a movie. Very well acted - funny and touching with a great dance scene. We'd recommend it if it comes your way. Or if you come our way.

Then when I took Dad and Fari to London I got to see My Fair Lady as well. It was an excellent production - really well done. The musical numbers were wonderful, and I thought the guy who played Professor Higgins was very much like Rex Harrison (which I know isn't really the standard to live up to but it made me able to really enjoy it without having to compare the two).

Also, a correction - the play I saw last month that I said was called Cooper was really called 'Jus Like That'. Sorry.

Music

Well, I already told you about seeing Chris Smither, but we had another treat this month. We went to see Joan Armatrading at a really nice arts center in Basingstoke (about an hour southeast of here, actually on the way to where we saw Chris). It's a good venue for us to be on the mailing list for since they get a lot of good acts coming through that for some reason never seem to make it to Oxford.

As for Joan, well, it was more of a treat for Tom who's been a fan for a long time. He really enjoyed the show and loved hearing the older songs that made him a fan in the first place. I, on the other hand, although I really thought I would like her, just didn't. Oh well. Now I know. Tom says her voice isn't what it used to be, perhaps because this was the end of her tour, perhaps because it just isn't what it used to be. But still enjoyable.

Miscellaneous

Toby's work: The saga continues with only two of us left in the department. Thankfully, we will offer someone a permanent position soon (to replace Alan) and we will get a temp in for the rest of the summer to replace Maggie. It's been ok with just the two of us (me and Arry) because it's been a very quiet month in terms of incoming calls. Still, it's not something I would want to do long term. I have been working longer hours to try and get more of the work done, but still not as many as last year.

As for Tom's work, it's user conference time (of sorts) and he's been away 2-3 nights a week for the past 4 weeks. Thankfully, that's over now. Well, until they send him to California for 2 weeks in July. Sigh.

Toby's gambling update: Well, I haven't been as lucky this month. I basically put £16 in and got nothing back. (£6 of that was at Alan's leaving do - he's a big fruit machine player and it's part of how we bonded in the beginning. It was our swan song, more like a good bye gift than a gambling loss really.) Of course I did win 50p off dad for picking Sunny Cide in the Preakness.

(Tom) While we don't have any pictures handy of my friend Ed and his family, he recently was on the television show Trading Spaces (known in the UK as Changing Rooms) where they remodeled a room in a friend's house, and the friends remodeled a room in their house. Some before and after shots here that he sent along. We didn't get to see the show (aired on May 24) as it was only on in the U.S., but hopefully it was taped for us.

Other events from last month (April) include Tom's 38th birthday (April 15th for those of you who want to remember it for next year!). Still just a kid. To celebrate we went out for a nice dinner at the Randolph Hotel in city center Oxford. (If you remember, it's where mom and I had cream tea one afternoon and where the Clintons stay when they're in town.) A delicious dinner in a lovely atmosphere. Dinner we can afford. A room for the night? Well…

We spent the first night of Passover with my cousin Sarah, who was here for a semester on an exchange program from UConn (see our March 9th entry). Not very traditional, but nice to be with family none-the-less. Here's a picture of the three of us.

Lastly, we did our second annual asparagus picking this weekend. Yum. This time we even made cream of asparagus soup. Yum again. Won't bore you with the pics, but I will say the fresh asparagus is delicious!

Bits & Bobs:

• The area where the gas pumps are in a filling station is called the forecourt
• Instead of saying "for the most part", here they say "In the main"
• Click here or the picture to see the third in our series of bad ties (check out last month for another bad tie)
• Instead of saying "run of the mill" or "everyday", here they say "bog standard"
• Instead of saying "John Doe" or "John Q. Public" they say "Joe Blogg"
• Instead of calling "time" (you know, at the tone, the time will be...) here, they call the Talking Clock
• More amazing cigarette pack health warnings (Click here)

And there you have it for this report.

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