March 2009
Graeme’s entry
It was all about flying back to the UK this month as I had a couple of meetings in Oxford but thought it made sense to visit a few friends and family while there. The question would be ‘How will I feel being back in the UK?’ and would I feel like staying there or happy to come back home to the US?
Now, after arriving at Heathrow on a chilly February morning to lovely grey skies, chilly winds and a cast of many nationalities working at immigration, arriving made me feel like I’d come back to the UK, but not necessarily ‘home’. Heathrow terminal 3 is not the nicest of places and leaves a slight embarrassing feeling that surely this is not the best that England can provide new arrivals to our once great and beautiful land!?
After picking up my bags, I set of for the car hire place (well I am from England so no excuses about driving!) to set straight off to work (slave drivers) which gave me one of the first challenges I faced and that was driving on the right side of the road.. Well left side of the road to be exact, but I think you know what I mean! That shouldn’t be a problem I thought as I’d spent 24½ years driving on the left, so after driving on the right (wrong side) for 4 months shouldn’t represent a problem reverting back. Well after travelling on an overnight flight from Chicago and only getting 6 hours sleep in the last 48 hrs made the experience slightly more daunting than it should have been. Having picked up my Kia Cee’d (stop sniggering) it took all my powers of observation just to keep on the correct side of the road. While I’m at it, who’s idea was it to put the Avis compound in the middle of what seems like an industrial estate near Heathrow? It’s hard enough avoiding the oncoming cars and white van drivers with blurry vision, let alone trying to find my way out of Hounslow on a Thursday lunch time!!
Having escaped the riches of cosmopolitan Heathrow I made it to work to find many changes.. but I won’t bore you with that in this blog.. After my meetings I set out to stay with my brother (Dave) and his good woman Tina, well after popping into my mum & dad’s first. Well they are my parents so it only seems right that I visit them before going out with my mates, don’t you think? They seemed pleased to see me and fed me a little something English that you can’t get in the US of toasted black pudding sandwich with tomato ketchup!! Actually, I couldn’t get this while in the UK as Dee is very against the thought of black pudding so was band in our household in every way, even the words were banned (I’m writing this in secret so should be OK)!!
With duty done (to be honest, it was good to see them), off I went to my brothers and then straight out with some friends to Rudis. Good to see Nige and Dean and talk bollox for the evening which isn’t that difficult with Nige as this is his specialist subject after practicing the art for 40+ years and nearly 20 years on me! After ‘one’ beer too many my good brother came and picked me up and took me home for some well earned rest.
Saturday was a strange day as I was visiting my sister-in-law and her family for breakfast in our house (the house we still own in the UK) so it was a case of the landlords inspection trip with a breakfast thrown in to sweeten me up! It worked as the house looked lovely, but if you could just board out the garage, put wooden floors and heating in there, we would be very appreciative! The fry up was also just what the doctor ordered after that ‘one’ too many beers the evening before and it is at this point you just don’t realize how much you miss traditional ‘English’ food. And not a pancake in sight!
The afternoon took me to ‘down town’ Swindon to find out that all of the immigration staff at Heathrow had taken a day’s holiday and spent a day trip in Swindon town centre. Not venturing into town very often, even when I lived there, it was a bit of a shock to see so many ‘non’ Swindon people shopping, sorry meant congregating, while I played the game of spot the empty shop!
Saturday evening, the Blackler brothers hit the town. Well Rudis again to be exact and we discussed for many hours how to put the world to rights and where to go for a curry! After all, this was the ‘real’ reason for my visit home and what a fine choice we made after many beers. So off we went and I had a nice hot chicken Jalfrezi, keema nan and pilau rice, not forgetting popadoms. Yum yum and the trip wasn’t wasted!
Sunday was family day and off to my mum & dad’s for Sunday roast and joined by Dave and Tina for the experience. You can’t beat your own mum’s Sunday roast and again I wasn’t disappointed. I had a chilled afternoon chatting and watching footie on Sky, before eventually making my way back to my brothers and out ‘again’ for a couple of beers at the local Coleview community centre before going back for sleep.
The next morning was back to work in Oxford and out for a meal in the evening with a couple of work colleagues before flying back to the good ‘old US of A and hooking back up with Dee and the kids. Always a great feeling to come home and be with the ones you love!
On a side note. On the Thursday evening I got an e-mail from Nyah’s teacher saying how much Nyah missed me and was really upset. I then got an actual e-mail from Nyah herself while at school that makes travelling sooooo hard to know that the girls miss you and want you to come home. After replying to her and getting another mail back saying that she was now happy and looking forward to watching High School Musical 3, made me feel better and able to enjoy the rest of my trip!
As for St Louis, we have done a few things that I will let Dee explain and entertain you with as I’m sure she will mention her birthday, the Arch and other things..
Finally, I think our dog has physiological problems as she now gets very scared going out for a walk with Dee and I’m wondering if she was emotionally scarred from the police experience and fears being arrested every time she ventures out!!
March 09
So…what have we been up to this past month or so? Well I’ve discovered the ‘cruise control’ button in my car…I could never really see the point of it before but I’ve found it a great tool for controlling my speed! Perfect…set it to just above the speed limit & I’ll never be in trouble with the law….after my last brush with them (court case this week…yikes!) I’m doing all I can to stay on the right side of them! Only problem is there’s not much proper driving that needs to be done…all the cars here are automatic then once you have the cruise on all you have to do is steer...oh & brake! Only problem is it starts to get a little boring, you don’t have much to keep you occupied, which is probably why we’ve seen some very strange goings on in the cars of Americans….including a guy drinking a bottle of bud while cruising the freeway, a woman with a pile of papers in one hand & cell phone in the other & steering with her elbows while working! Nail filing, breakfast eating & they are always always on the phone!!
We went to a Liquor Superstore where I’ve never seen so many bottle of drink all in one place…they didn’t have a vodka section they had a vodka aisle!!!! It was fascinating! We’ve also joined he local library…well the girls & I have. We used the library a lot in the UK & were interested to see if it was any different over here, they’re not really that different but they have the same books but they are called by different titles which I’ve never really understood. The last time I went I was alone…the girls were at school so I spent a bit longer than usual enjoying some ‘me’ time choosing books at my leisure….I found Jane Austen’s Pride & Predjudice (just seen the film recently & thought it might be interesting to see if any good….of course it’s ‘good’ in a literary sense but I mean good in an easy read enjoyable kinda way! You know what I mean!) I also found Jackie Collins new blockbuster…what a find, don’t usually find the really new ones at the library do you….off I went to the check-out counter with my books feeling really pleased with my finds….the lady behind the counter looks at my copy of P&P, hears my accent & obviously takes me for a literary genius…yes she was wearing glasses also….we were having a very intellectual conversation about Jane Austen of course who I know all about having done my thesis at Uni on her (yes those who really know me, know I actually did hair & beauty at the college in Swindon!) so you can imagine her disappointment in me when she gets to the Jackie Collins….she looked heartbroken, destroyed…I couldn’t do it, I just couldn’t….”oh that’s not mine...it’s for my sister!” Not sure if she believed me as I left pretty rapidly…sorry Sis, but it was an emergency! (**,)
I’ve stared jogging again…in a bid to lose my spare (donut) tyre I seemed to have grown….I really don’t want to give up the donuts & seeing as the dog can’t be let off the lead while I’m a fugitive of the law I thought maybe jogging with the dog might do the trick or at least help me on my way. While my head can remember that I used to jog, my body has forgotten we’ve ever gone faster than walking & in my advancing age is rebelling against this new extra activity in a big way & is letting me know in no uncertain terms that it’s bad, bad, BAD! I ache like you can not imagine & if I don’t stop aching soon I’m giving up, to hell with my donut tyre, I’m kind of getting to like my new best friend!!
I saw a scary advert in the local paper recently that was a little worrying & at first I thought it was a joke… I’ve posted it on the picture wall but sorry for those of you who I’m sending this to & who aren’t on facebook… but seriously, hello is this for real?! The ad says “Business is good & we need guns…Firearms for Men, Women & Children!!!” Oh help!
We’ve been out & about a bit more now the weather is starting to get more spring like & we’ve also bought ourselves a new camera after the last one got thrown by Nyah (old story now!) so anyway on our first trip out with the new camera, we went to Turtle Park which is a great park with these huge turtles made of stone that you can climb on etc, we had a great time & took some great pic’s on our new camera but OMG…I can’t believe what happened….I dropped the new camera, thought it was safely attached to my wrist but next minute it was on the floor…maybe we’re just not meant to have a camera while were here?! I thought G was going to implode…like explode…like oh dearie me combust…you get it right?! Camera still works thank god, which is good as we’ve had a fair few photo ops recently!
It was my birthday….now let’s rewind briefly to 12 months ago…it was my 40th & it was H..U..G..E as I’m sure you will remember as I had even got too telling complete strangers it was going to be my birthday after I ran out of people I know who I could tell! It was big thing, huger than huge! It lasted the whole month of March & I was even taken to Barcelona for a long weekend …actually thinking back I think G may have taken me out of the country for my safety & my friends sanity as I think I may have gone on a little bit too much maybe?! Anyway last year I was out of the country for my actual birthday for the first time ever & that was a major big deal for me…little did I know that the following year I wouldn’t just be out of the country I’d be living in another country!! It still doesn’t seem real & we’ve been here 5 months at the end of March! We went to the famous STL landmark for my big day…the Gateway Arch…it’s an impressive steel (arch shaped believe it or not!) monument built in the 60’s (looks very futuristic for the 60’s!) & is an impressive 600 odd feet high… it’s an amazing structure up close & looks superimposed on the skyline. You can actually go up inside it to a viewing platform high above the city! To get up there you have to go in these little round capsule things that seat 4-5 & it’s like your own mini lift. You can’t see anything on the journey up & once you’re up you go up a small flight of stairs & then you’re on the viewing deck…the only thing we weren’t prepared for was the fact it moves in the wind & it was a very windy day when we went up there…it was like when you walk on a plane or a boat & it was a little disconcerting but it was great & we got some fab views & pictures of the city & river! I had a great birthday wkend!
This week I’m loving… the spring weather, unpredictable but never boring!
This week I’m not loving… the thought of going to court!
