Happy New Year!

It's snowing!! It has been cold as hell these past few days and they were calling for a nasty storm for late afternoon today. Well, by 7 p.m. the storm hadn't hit. Brad and I went out to dinner at this great Thai restaurant that recently opened up in Harrogate. What makes it even better is that it's only a short 10-minute walk from our place. By 10:30 p.m, we were well back home and warming by the fire in front of the telly. I was beginning to nod off when I looked out the window. The sky had this really funny color to it. I approached the window to see that it was snowing fast and furious outside. It is past midnight now and doesn't give a sign of letting up anytime soon. I really never expected a snow storm like this in Yorkshire. I was led to believe if it snowed we'd only get about an inch or two that wouldn't last but a day. I wouldn't be surprised if we get at least a half a foot of the white stuff before the storm lets up.

The show that I was beginning to fall asleep to was a special on the BBC, "Missing -- Nearly Wiped", about shows from the 60s and 70s that were nearly lost for good. It seems back then TV execs were not farsighted enough to care about preserving some of TV's best comedies. To save money original shows were taped over for newer shows (probably not as good). There has been a campaign recently to find bootlegged copies of the shows, restore them and bring them back to the airwaves. We saw a rare clip from "Steptoe and Son", the predecessor to "Sanford and Son". We also saw a restored episode from "At Last That 1948 Show", a sketch show predating Monty Python starring John Cleese, Graham Chapman and Marty Feldman. Another gem was the first episode of "Until Death Us Do Part", the predecessor to "All in the Family".

A few minutes before midnight we began scanning the channels looking for a countdown to midnight. The best we could find was Big Ben tolling in the new year with fireworks from the river Thames in London. Then we switched to another special on Hogmanay -- that's the Scottish New Year's celebration. Sadly the street party in Edinburgh had to be cancelled because of the bad weather. They didn't have snow but the winds were too strong for fireworks. Even so, the crowds in the street sounded as if they were having a good time.

Our First Panto

We went to our first pantomime Monday night. What a hoot! For those unfamiliar with this art form, as we were until we moved to England, Pantomimes are farcical musicals staged live every year around the Christmas and New Year's holidays. A good panto, as they are fondly referred to, always stars a man in the role of a grand dame and a woman in the role of a man or boy. The costumes are outrageous -- especially those of the grand dame. There are a stock number of panto plays, usually based on fairy tales: Sleeping Beauty, Jack and the Beanstalk, Dick Whittington (you have to be British to recognize that fairy tale), Cinderella...but the jokes are new each year. The jokes are one-liners, many of them puns with two levels of meaning, one level for the kiddies and another level for the adults. Many of the jokes poke fun at contemporary celebrities or local oddities. There is also a fair amount of audience participation. The audience is encouraged to yell out stock phrases upon certain cues from the actors. The villain must always be booed and hissed at. At one point a monster will be lurking in the background and the audience shouts out "Watch out behind you!!!!" For each performance one audience member, "the victim", is singled out for heckling by the actors on stage. At another point the actors come off stage for a chase scene through the audience. Great fun for kids, but us kids-at-heart had a good time too.

We had heard that Harrogate Theatre does a pretty good job each year with their panto and they certainly lived up to their reputation this year with their production of Aladdin. We were so impressed with the costumes and the sets. They were lush, fanciful and inventive. At one point Aladdin takes a ride on a magic carpet -- the stage went dark except for Aladdin floating on his carpet passing objects lit up by ultraviolet light: Saturn, the man in the moon, the Starship Enterprise... The grand dame's costumes and makeup were absolutely hilarious. Impossible to describe but at one point, he, I mean, she came out in a brilliant red dress that looked like a five-tiered pagoda. The woman playing Aladdin made no attempt whatsoever to look like a boy: she was busty with impossibly long legs and traipsed about all night on four-inch heels. The jokes flew fast and furious and I'm sure a few of them went over our heads due to local accents and idioms.

I gather that in England, either you love panto or you hate it. Some people find it just too goofy to bother with. Others, I guess the type that love Benny Hill-type humor, are mad about panto. I left the theatre that night hoarse from shouting and, though I've never been a Benny Hill fan, I like panto alright.

Christmas Day has come and gone so swiftly. Brad and I had a nice quiet little celebration at home. I was ready to hop out of bed and head for the tree first thing, but Brad wanted to prepare a special pancake breakfast first. So, after showering and breakfasting, we opened our packages by the lights of the Christmas tree. We were plumb pleased with all our wonderful gifts and we placed a gold bow around Ginger's neck which he wore all day long, never fussing with it and looking quite handsome and festive. Brad took off for a couple of hours to put in some volunteer work at the office, serving Christmas dinner to the folks who were unfortunate enough to have to work on the holiday. Meanwhile I began preparations for our Christmas feast: roast turkey with bread and mushroom stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, sauerkraut and cranberries. Turns out it was the exact same menu that JoAnn prepared back home, except she forgot the cranberries. Everything turned out great, despite our temperamental oven that provides uneven heat. It was a lot of work for a meal for two people. But, damn, it was worth it. I love a traditional Christmas dinner. So now we can eat leftovers for a coupla days and I won't have to worry about what to make for dinner. While cleaning up the phone calls began. We heard from Vince and Jody first. Then we made the rounds talking to various members of our both our families. The Siersdorfers all wanted to know what the weather was like (mild and overcast) and if we had had any figgy pudding (by then we had had our dessert of traditional Christmas pudding with raisins and currants and sultanas but no figs). The Genoveses wanted to know what was the first thing we ate at Christmas dinner (mashed potatoes). After dessert and most of the phone calls had been made I got involved in a mesmerizing movie, Photographing Fairies about a photographer in the early 20th century whose belief system is shattered by what appears to be an authentic photo of magical beings: fairies.

I was awakened at around 4 a.m. this morning by Ginger, hungry for his breakfast. I was wondering why he was being so persistent as I put his morning meal in his automatic feeder set to go off at 5 a.m. as usual .... then, ohmigod, I sprang right up realizing we had forgotten to feed him his dinner yesterday! Of course, we had given him some treats of roast turkey. I even tried to give him some stuffing but he turned his nose up at that. I can't beleive he never made a fuss about not getting his dinner last night, but our routine was far from usual yesterday, so maybe that threw him off.

Today is Boxing Day, an official holiday that originated in Britain and is celebrated also in Australia, New Zealand and Canada. The Brits take this holiday very seriously apparently cause the town shut down nearly completely. We took a walk through town in the morning and found only a handful of stores open. Only one department store was open, Debenhams, with their biggest sale of the year. A few, but by no means all, book stores were open with some half price sales. We browsed but did not buy. Harrogate Theatre was open as they are running their wildly popular pantomime, Aladdin. As far as we could tell only one cafe was open. So we headed back home and have spent a lazy day futzing on the computer and watching old movies. Well, gotta go now and heat up all them yummy leftovers. Mmmmmm...leftovers, my favorite meal.

Ahhh... it's Christmas Eve, that magical time of year. My sprained ankle healed very quickly so I was busy as an elf today running some last minute Christmas errands. It has been a bit of a challenge getting ready for Christmas here ... many of the foods that we associate with Christmas simply are not available in this part of the world. So, we've made a compromise, and have added some traditional English elements to our Christmas celebration.

We had planned to go out to eat for Christmas dinner, but were unable to secure a booking at any of the restaurants in town. Why, you might ask? Because only a scant few restaurants will be open on Christmas Day and by the time I called (two weeks ago) all the restaurants were fully booked. So, we'll be preparing a traditional meal tomorrow.

I won't be making my favorite Christmas dessert: pumpkin pie. You simply cannot buy a can of pumpkin (or a fresh pumpkin, for that matter) in the local stores in Yorkshire. The commissary only stocks the giant 2 lb. cans -- too much for the two of us. So, we've decided to sample some traditional English desserts. I bought a couple of miniature steamed Christmas puddings and some mini mince pies. Both feature scads of dried vine fruits. I had hoped to pick up one of Betty's famed Christmas puddings. They've been judged No. 1 best Christmas pud in the UK by the BBC Food magazine. Alas, once again, I was too late. When I arrived at Betty's last Sunday, they were sold out of Christmas puddings. They only make so many every year, beginning the process in July and allowing the puddings to mature over the months running up to December. Betty's Christmas pudding is said to have a nice fudgy flavor, even though neither cocoa nor chocolate is one of the ingredients.

I decided to make some Christmas crackers for our Christmas dinner. (shhhh, don't tell Brad, it's a secret.) If you haven't heard of Christmas crackers, they are a de rigueur party favor at an English Christmas dinner. I scoured downtown Harrogate to find a place that sold Christmas "snaps" -- the little tab in the cracker that makes it go pop. I finally found them yesterday. Pleased as punch, I brought them home then realized I had no goodies to put in the crackers. So, that was one of my stops today.

We had almost given up hope of preparing one of our favorite Christmas goodies: pizzelles. A key ingredient is anise extract. Could not find it anywhere, neither locally nor at the commissary. Then I happened to try this odd little store in one of the downtown shopping centers. Pick and Mix it is called and they sell candies and nuts by the scoopful. Lucky for me, they also stock some obscure cooking ingredients. I snatched up the last bottle of anise extract. Enough to make the pizzelles, but I had to forgo making anise biscotti. While searching for the anise extract in the baking section of the English grocery stores I noticed that vanilla is usually only available in very small bottles (about 1 oz.) and is extremely expensive. I guess the English must not use vanilla in many of their recipes.

I've just found out that there will be no public transportation services on Christmas Day or Boxing Day in Britain. No trains. No buses. Nada. Zip. Oh, of course, you can catch a cab, but, due to the increased demand, you may just have to wait a good long while to get a cab. It's just... just... too hard to believe. I would expect a reduction in services. But to eliminate all public transport services seems so, so, I don't know, idiotic. And insensitive. The official line is that it is not cost effective to run public transport on the holidays. Balderdash!!!

Our strange and wonderful kitty cat.

Ginger likes polenta. I wouldn't have believed it without having witnessed it just yesterday. I was cooking up some polenta and he was begging. I tried to convince him he wouldn't like it. To prove it I offered a tiny piece thinking he'd turn his nose up at it and walk away. He gobbled it up and begged for more. Previous to this, the only other people food that he has liked has been chicken, cheddar cheese (no other kind of cheese, just cheddar), tuna juice (the water from a can of tuna fish) and any form of fresh fish (about which he is passionate).

Ginger has been spending his days lately inside a cardboard box. This is by his own choice. He was not banished there or anything like that. I had been scrounging in the garage for boxes to mail some packages back home. One of the rejected boxes was left in my computer room. Ginger climbed in and decided he would just hang out there all day. And the next day and the day after that. He also likes to hang out in closets and under the bed covers. When he is not in one of those spots, he is lounging on top of another cardboard box next to a radiator. And the really weird thing is that he presses his little pink nose and his little pink toes right up against the hot radiator. Very strange. It's not like we haven't given him other comfy alternatives. We bought him one of those carpet covered cat houses with a cave inside. He avoided it like the plague. We bought him a cushy round cat bed and placed it under the radiator in the living room. Despite our encouragement, he still prefers the cardboard box.

Ginger ignores store-bought cat toys in preference for twist ties, plastic film canisters and foil balls.

Ginger's all-time favorite things to chase are light reflections and shadows.

Ginger hates loud noises and runs like the devil at the mere appearance of the vacuum cleaner.

Ginger has great range with his purrs and his meows. Some of his meows are so soft they are barely audible; at other times he will come out with an oddly articulate call that sounds exactly like he is saying (or yelling) "helloooo". His purrs can be gentle enough to lull me to sleep; at other times they are so loud you can hear them from across the room.

Ouch!

I tripped on some steps last night and injured my right foot. Right after I did it it hurt so bad I was sure I had broken my foot. But after the initial pain wore off I revised my diagnosis. There is not much swelling so I think it's just a sprained ankle. This morning, though, it is a bit painful to put any weight on my foot, so I'm taking it easy, keeping my foot elevated and placing ice compresses on my ankle now and again. Just when I should be hustling and bustling getting ready for the holidays, this has to happen. Arrrrgh.

Down Memory Lane

We went to see the Bootleg Beatles last night. They are a highly popular musical act who do a credible job of recreating a live Beatles performance. We joined a sell-out crowd at Harrogate International Center for the concert. I expected there would only be aging Beatlemaniacs in the crowd, but there were lots of young folks in the audience, besides us baby boomers. The band performed many of the fab four's hits in chronological order. Each set was preceded by a montage of black and white video clips introducing the era represented. The band members changed costumes to suit the era. They began dressed in black turtlenecks and black jeans (ala "A Hard Day's Night") and sang their earliest hits. For the next set they switched to those awful beigey military suits that I think they wore for their last concert in San Francisco. Now we were into "Revolver" and "Rubber Soul" songs. Next change of costume was the "Sgt. Pepper" era, then they switched into "Abbey Road" gear. Oh, and their hairstyles changed with the outfits. But what about the music, you might ask. Welllll, it was pretty good. The instrumental parts of the songs were very faithful to the recorded music (they even included the cough at the beginning of Taxman). Vocals by "Paul" were not very good and a bit off-key, but "George" and "John" did a decent job of it. Though the band members didn't really look like the original Beatles, they sure got the mannerisms of the Beatles down pat. John's stance was spot on. For between-song banter they used comments I recognized as having been actually said by the fab four. For example, to end the concert, "John" said, "I'd like to say thank you on behalf of the group and ourselves, and I hope we passed the audition." I hated it when the audience sprang up on their feet for the fast numbers -- I couldn't see, even when I stood up. I also wasn't crazy about the selection of tunes the band played. There seemed to be a predominance of sappy (i.e. Paul songs) and not many real rockin' numbers. I could have done without "Yellow Submarine", "Magical Mystery Tour" and "She Loves You" and would have loved to have heard "Dizzy Miss Lizzie" or "Don't Let Me Down".

I must admit, when the show began I felt a little bit embarrassed to be sitting there in the audience. Isn't this just like going to see an Elvis Impersonator? But after awhile, I let go and just enjoyed the music and the experience. As I listened to the songs, so many memories of the 60s came flooding back to me. Like when I used to play "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away" over and over and over again in my bedroom. My mother finally stopped by my bedroom door and said, "How can you stand to listen that song again?" I guess it was really she who couldn't stand to hear it one more time. Or the time when my dad insisted the Beatles were a passing fad. "I love them now (I was 11, I think) and I'll still love them when I'm .... 21!" I answered defiantly, thinking 21 sounded so old and so far away. I won't confess how old I am now (you can probably do the math), but I still love their music.

This has got to be one of the all time best headlines in newspaper history: Jagger Gets His Title From Mother's Little Helper. That's the Time's take on Mick Jagger's acceptance of knighthood from Prince Charles (Liz is in the hospital due to routine surgery).

England Swings

The English Rugby team have won their sport’s World Cup and were feted with a parade through downtown London yesterday. Though football (i.e. soccer) is the more popular sport, the country has gone mad over these sports heroes who snatched the trophy away from the favored Aussies. An estimated three quarter of a million fans showed up for the procession. The main reason for the big fuss, so I’ve heard, is that this is the first World Cup for England in nearly 40 years. The thing that I found really amazing, though, was the theme song that was adopted by the rugby team: “Swing Low Sweet Chariot”. For weeks there have been countless ads and promotions featuring that song. Fans can even download the anthem to play as a ringtone on their mobile phones. And then to hear it (on the telly) chanted by those three quarter of a million fans in the streets of London yesterday…how bizarre!

I miss John Lennon.

We went to Leeds last night to attend the Christkindlmarkt. Yes, vendors from Frankfurt, Germany, have set up an authentic German Christmas market complete with wooden stalls, bratwurst, gluhwein and beer. We were glad the weather had turned a bit chilly, as there is nothing like warming your hands around a nice hot mug of gluhwein. They sold the gluhwein just like they do in Germany, with a deposit for the mug. You can either keep the mug as a souvenir and forgo your deposit or return the mug for a refund of the deposit. I chose to keep the mug so I could add it to my collection started while living in Germany. And, best of all, the gluhwein tasted just as we remembered it from past Christmases spent in Germany. Wish we could've said the same for the bratwurst, which only faintly resembled the delicious sausages we used to get in Deutschland. There were many vendors selling trinkets and Christmas ornaments, several vendors selling typical German foods (sausages, Christmas stollen, lebkuchen, candied nuts, haribo candies, pretzels) and one lone merry-go-round. Though the festival was small and not well attended, we enjoyed our visit to the Leeds Christkindlmarkt.

We went to see Master and Commander last night. Brad is a big fan of the Patrick O'Brian novels, two of which this movie was based on. Me, I'm a big fan of Russell Crowe, and I'll go see just about anything he's in. Neither Brad nor I was disappointed with the film. In fact, I thought it was great. Life aboard an early 19th-century sailing vessel was so accurately depicted I nearly got seasick. The battle scenes were a bit horrific and difficult to watch but the depictions of the various crew members, the repartee betwen the Captain and the Doctor and the lot of the everyday sailor were absorbing. Brad felt the film was true to the source material, even though some details of plot had been changed.

The Hunt is On

Yesterday, I met with a representative from Creyf's, a job recruiter located in Leeds that specializes in appointments in creative media. I had contacted them a few months ago and submitted my resume, or CV (curriculum vitae) as it's called here. The next step was a face-to-face meeting and review of my portfolio. Since my portfolio did not arrive until the end of October and these past few weeks have been very busy with visitors and travel and settling in to our apartment, this was the first chance I had to present my portfolio. I think the meeting went well. Creyf's seems to have many openings in Yorkshire, particularly in Leeds. I told them I'd be willing to accept assignments that I could get to easily via public transport. I'm not ready to brave the roads beyond Harrogate. So, just a few more administrative particulars to take care of with Creyf's and I'll be on call for work as a designer or "artworker" (production artist).

In the meantime, I've been contacted by Weider Publications, a magazine publisher in Harrogate that I interviewed with a couple of months ago. Weider publishes a few "fitness" publications, "Muscle and Fitness" (your average muscle-man mag), "Muscle and Fitness for Women" and another mag (whose title I forget) that is for hard-core muscle men. They also produce a number of collateral pieces. I was not selected for the full-time designer position at that time, but my interview was very positive. Now I've got an appt. set up next week to talk to them about either a full-time position or possibly freelance assignments (my preference).

Woo-hoo. Keeping my fingers crossed that soon I'll be back in the work force again.

Copenhagen: Afterthoughts

We got back from Copenhagen yesterday afternoon. It was an easy return journey. A five-minute walk from the hotel brought us to the Central Train Station. From there we hopped on a train to the airport. SAS offers self-service check-in, so there was no waiting in a long line to check in. The flight was rather empty and we arrived in Manchester a bit ahead of schedule. We made good time driving home from Manchester -- since it was Sunday there was not much traffic on the road and very few of those dreaded trucks. We got home in time to laze around the house reading the Sunday paper.

Reflecting on our brief stay, here are some impressions of Copenhagen:

* With few exceptions, it is a very clean city.

* The public transportation system is good. There is a new metro (which we never used) and an extensive network of city trains and buses. We rode the trains once and a bus once. They are not as user-friendly as I would have liked. On the bus, for example, stops were not announced and there was no digital display indicating which stop you were approaching.

* Copenhagen is a big city with lots of attractions spread out, yet the city center is compact with several pedestrianized streets, so you can see a lot on foot.

* The Danes are fairly liberal with sexuality. The TV in our hotel had two erotic channels with very explicit coverage, though nothing really kinky. There is an Erotic Museum on one of the main shopping drags. We saw many sexually explicit advertisments and window displays. I read an article in the Copenhagen Post (free English-language newspaper) which stated that employers are contemplating offering sex therapy counseling for workers who are suffering from stress.

* I'm sure there are many good restaurants in Copenhagen, but I was never very satisfied with any of the dinners we had there. Buffet style restaurants appear to be very popular. We fared better with our lunches. And there are some wonderful cafes. The Danes know how to make an excellent cup of coffee and the pastries were out of this world. I finally got to sample a true Danish pastry or Wiener Brod. The pastry itself was light, buttery and flaky, and the frosting was extremely sweet. Fillings varied and were always delicious.

* Copenhagen reminded me a lot of Germany. The konditereis (cafes) and the sausage vendors were much like the ones we encountered in Germany. The architecture and the weather were also reminiscent of Germany. Also, though many of the Danes were quite friendly, we encountered some rather gruff service as well.

* It's a damn expensive city!