Fresh pheasant

There are still a good number of traditional local butcher shops to be found in England.  One Sunday afternoon Steve and I were walking in Reading’s main shopping district, running some errands and just seeing what there was to see.  We saw an old, traditional butcher shop and stopped to look in the window.  We were discussing how the meat keeping rules are very different here (they are much less strict about refrigeration) and remarking about the wide variety of meats available.  Then my eye caught the row of pheasants hanging along the wall.  I pointed them out to Steve – and he said ”oh – those aren’t fresh.”  Then I pointed out the drip-catching sawdust spread on the floor beneath the birds as evidence that the birds were fresh.  He laughed and admitted I was right.

Local pubs

We have 2 pubs within walking distance – one about 15 minutes and one about 25.  The closer “The Pack Saddle” is a good sized country pub along a main road.  It is an easy place to go when you want to get out of the house in the evening when you’re tired from a long day at work.  There is a well established group of regulars that sit at the lower bar area.  They serve food, good, but nothing super special. 

The further one ”The New Inn” is smaller, and off any main roads in a very small village.  It is a very pleasant walk along a lightly travelled lane through a wooded valley and across the countryside.  Their food is very good, the bar menu is the right mix between “pub food” and “gastro pub food.”

A third pub has been under refurbishment and it looks like it will be re-opening soon.  It is called The Pack Horse and is just about 3/4 of a mile down the road from “The Pack Saddle.”  (I wonder if there is a story behind how that came to be)  It will be nice to check that out too.  The walk there will be more complicated, as we will need to either cut across a golf course or take a footpath through the woods (tricky at night).

A perfect Saturday cycle

Today Steve and I rode our bikes about 4 miles: destination a good pub lunch. It was a beautiful, crisp, sunny day. We rode through some lovely countryside to get there. A couple of pictures are up at Flickr (click on the picture at right).

There are probably 100 pubs within 10 miles of our cottage, so we have than enough destinations for the number of sunny Saturdays we’re likely to get.

Your brakes are backwards

(Guest post by Steve.)

My mountain bike was in pretty rough shape when it arrived from the states. We dropped it off at the local bike shop for a tune up on Saturday. Today I received a call that went something like this.

Bike guy: Hello, Steve. Your bike is ready for pick up.

Me: Great!

Bike guy: The strange thing is that your brakes are backwards.

Me: What?!

Bike guy: Oh, you are from America, aren’t you?

Me: Yes…

Bike guy: I’ll leave the brakes how they were then so that you don’t hurt yourself.

Me: Great!

Sarah rode her spiffy new UK bike to work for the first time today. Apparently she always engages both the front and rear brake levers simultaneously and did not realize they were reversed. I would have certainly been in for a nasty surprise if the bike guy had “fixed” my brakes, so I am grateful that he left them American-style.

Should I stop playing this game?

Steve’s cousin Luke got married to Leisa in October.  Steve and Luke are known to play Xbox online with some of their other Morton friends on a semi-regular basis.  We found a great resource online to help the newly-un-batchelorized Luke decide if he should quit or continue gaming.

Should I stop playing this game?

Flooding

We have been having a lot of rain this week in Berkshire.  The Thames is very high, and over its banks in several places.  Here you can see the Thames running high.  There is some grass to the right of the picture – I think the towpath is somewhere underwater between the grass and the tree sticking up out of the water. 

Traffic has been horrific this week, due at least in part to the flooding.  It took Steve over an hour to drive the 5 miles to work on Monday.  Too bad that the bike path is underwater at the same time…

Groceries Part II

So…the groceries themselves are also all subtly different.  I endeavored to make chocolate chip cookies (the classic American comfort food).  The chocolate chips over here are rubbish.  I also needed baking soda – it does not come in a yellow box (it comes in a little plastic jar) and it is called “soda of bicarbonate.”  That took forever to find!  The cookies have not been made yet – my enthusiasm wained.

The cottage cheese is the same texture, but has a more sour taste (don’t quite like it yet).  Almost all liquids are sold in different size containers, so US recipes will need a lot of conversion.

It is not all lost.  Nutella (chocolate and hazlenut peanut-butter-like spread) flows like water and is so yummy on digestive biscuits (cookies).  There is a large variety of yummy crisps (chips).  The best thing about groceries over here is the wide selection of ready made meals.  You can buy refrigerated ready-made meals at the store that run circles around frozen dinners in the states.  I’d love to research the reasons for this, but I am confident that it is some combination of people having tiny kitchens and refrigerators and not cooking as much and the culture where people stop by the store on their way home on foot or train.

Grocery shopping

Grocery shopping abroad is an experience.  So many things are different – the products, the stores, the carts (trolleys).  Some for better, some for worse.  I’ll outline a few.

Carts/Trolleys:  In the UK the carts are called trolleys.  All 4 wheels spin independently, as opposed to US style cars where the front wheels turn and the rear ones don’t.  The UK trolleys are great when they’re nearly empty – very manuverable – but when you have some heavy items and the trolley starts to get heavy they are really hard to turn.  I have come home from the supermarket with sore forearms more than once.

Delivery:  The UK is years ahead in the grocery delivery service sector.  I ordered our groceries online and set a delivery window of one hour, they arrived on time as promised and everything was in great condition.  This works great for a standard weeks worth of shopping when you know what you want.

Car wash:  At our local Tesco you can get your car washed while you shop.  You just tell them you want it washed, they roll their cart over and when you get back out your car is washed, pay them a few quid and you’re on your way.  Brilliant!

Products:  I’ll make this a 2-part post…

The post (sometimes known as snail mail)

After being in the house for about a month we know a bit more about how the post works.  If a letter envelope is sent from the USA it will get to us in about one week.  I’ve seen as little as three days between a Morton, IL postmark and our mail slot – that’s super!  It costs $.90.  What a bargain! 

A box will not make it quite so quickly.  Our moms mailed two packages from Morton, IL on Dec 12th and 14th.  They both were delivered yesterday.  25 and 27 days.  They were both the size of a large shoebox and postage was $35-$40 a pop. 

Word to the wise – just send us letter sized envelopes.

** If you want our contact information send me an e-mail and I’ll send it to you.  If you don’t have my e-mail address post a comment in the blog and I’ll send it out to you – I can see the e-mail address you post your comment with even if it is not visible to other readers.

Sterling

One of the things that is taking some getting used to is the new currency.  In the UK they use a lot more coinage – and it is in different denominations.  I’ve pretty much got it figured out, but their 5 pence piece is almost exactly the same size as a US dime, that one is going to take a while to retrain the brain for.

Steve found a great post that explains the slang associated with UK cash money.