Overheard this today

I’ll get to that in a second. First, some background….

Wore my red scarf today. Felt quite the fashion plate. Even was wearing the gray color that is so popular here…my pants (chinos). The clothing color palette here is just barfy. Shirts in greys, pale peaches that resemble skin tone, paired with stripes and or florals. So gross. Combine this with daisy duke shorts of any kind of material, black panty hose, gladiator sandals and a waterfall cardigan and you’ve got the Geordie girl uniform. {Finger in throat}. Oh, and something else: I like to call it the teenage combover. On any given outing, I will invariably see 5 or more girls with their hair parted two inches from one ear, teased into place, and combed over their head. I will post a pic as soon as I get a good opportunity. BUT WHAT are the girls wearing back home? Do please respond, gentle reader.

So, took the bus into town this afternoon. Checked in with the charity shop to see if they needed help today. They didn’t. Have wanted to get some comfortable and fashionable walking shoes…I can’t keep wearing my sneakers…sometimes they look ridiculous. Choices here are so limited BUT there is a Clark’s store where I did find some pretty cute ones {navy blue BUT BATTLE METALLIC!!! and criss-cross straps} which I think are $110 in the US but here they’re £55 which translates to around $84 and change… See Clark’s (Unstructured Collection) Un.Glare if you want to see what I’m talking about… So, I might just go back and get them tomorrow.  But I get ahead of myself…

This is what the action was here today in goodjolly old Durham:

I thought this was epicute of the older generation.

I really like people/crowd watching. Sometimes is more interesting than the purpose for the crowd.

Even the bankers took time of to capture the moment.

And this is what we were all watching. The raising and setting of the Marquis of Londonderry.

I too stood around to watch this event. The crowd gasped when the statue wobbled and the men working on it set it down to rebalance it. Finally they raised it to the plinth and set it down. A very demure cheer went up with a smattering of clapping. I so wanted to do the rebel yell BUT I refrained. SEE???!?!!1!! I’m assimilating!!!! I asked a lady who was the statue of…Just some guy who owned coal mines and built Seaham (a town here). Turns out that the statue of the Marquis is turned the wrong way, or so sayeth  the local lady’s son. Then as I was walking off, two local girls, dressed as mentioned above, walked past me. One girl facetiously deadpanned, “That was emotional.” “A lot of fuss for nothing”, responded her friend. Yes my friends, that is what I overheard today. Evidence that teenagers are the same everywhere. But I betcha ten quid that they too clapped and demurely cheered with the rest of them.

What I’ve been reading:

1. Terry Pratchett: The Colour of Magic, the Light Fantastic, Equal Rites, Going Postal, Making Money

2. James Patterson: I, Alex Cross

3. Andrea H. Japp: The Season of the Beast = medieval drama set in France…there’s a sequel and I’m going to the library tomorrow to see if they have it which I doubt but HERE’S TO HOPE!!

4. Winifred Foley: Full Hearts & Empty Bellies = autobiography of a 1920s childhood ‘from the Forest of Dean to the Streets of London’. The Forest of Dean is in Gloucestershire, closer to the Welsh border than to any other big town/city. Picked it up today actually and have laughed out loud more than once. She talks about having to wear handmedown panties that she belted with string.

5. Tami Hoag: Still Waters. Peter the bartender gave it to me. I don’t recommend it at all. If I were you, I’d go buy it and burn it for fuel.

6. Various children’s books. Rapunzel, Sid the Snake, Miss Polly’s new Brolly. A brolly is an umbrella. Umbrella is a fun word already and in Ohio they’re bumbershoots (bumberchutes?). Why is this contraption so crazily and happily named?

WHAT’S GOOD HERE:

Ah, the part of this blog that’s been missing these last several weeks…

1. Health care- I didn’t pay for my visit to the doctor. No copay, nothing. Then again, he didn’t give me any medical advice that I didn’t already know. By the by, the back is doing much better thanks for asking.

2. Double decker buses- Natalie loves them so hard that if we see one, she wants to ride it. Even if it isn’t our bus. TIP: always ride up top in the front but be sure to wear light loose clothing. It gets HOT!

3. The gummi bears are awesome! Much better than in US. Sorry.

4. Lisa- she’s a childcare worker at St Oswald’s. She always has time to stop and talk to me about Natalie’s day and I love how she treats my daughter.

5. New purse- I bought a new purse Mom! Navy blue leather…slouchy. Cute. It’ll match my new shoes =)

6. Window ice cream- Thornton’s is a chocolate/sweet shoppe (emphasis mine) on Silver St Bridge. They sell ice cream out of the window of the store. Today, Natalie asked for some window ice cream. Guess what we’re doing this weekend?

7. Open air markets with unique items.

8. Billie Jo’s- This pizza is sooooo much like a combination of Hideaway and BJ’s. The first bite put me into a foodie coma. I <3 Billie Joe’s. AND LOOK! It has the same initials as BJ’s!!! Trock on!

9. Alex Day- Please look him up on YouTube: Alex Reads Twilight. I ROFLMAO during Chapter 7.

10. Because Letterman does 10 things, so can I. Ummmmm…..Cupcakes are not called cupcakes here. They’re called fairycakes. And Christmas tree lights are not called Christmas tree lights. They’re called fairylights. Oh la. How does this work out? Santa’s a jolly old elf, not a FAIRY!

Hey! Thanks a bunch!

Earlier, @4: You really know how to make me feel loved, my peeps! I really frickin appreciate all your trolling…makes me feel good! I’m so underwhelmed by your response to me. Now you know you’re not the only one who doesn’t read this pos. Srsly, am I being punished? Rather passive-aggressive of you, wouldn’t you say? Normally you’d just tell me to my face, eh?

Took Natalie to the market square today to ride the merry-go-round and ended up riding the spinning teacups instead. Bought a new scarf today. It’s red. Also bought Natalie grey pants and a grey skirt to wear to school. The nursery starts on Monday.  I’ll keep volunteering at the Children’s Society. That’s right. I’m volunteering BECAUSE THERE AIN’T NO FRIKKIN JOBS HERE!!! Can’t even get a job as a garbage collector.

I hate it here. What a nice place for visiting but sol for living. I am really having a hard time trying to stay positive, optimistic, and upbeat in this place.  But do I want to come home? Not really. Work on that one, bitches.

Later, @9pm: You see, I have a lot of latent anger. I think. I’m trying to be a parent and not some woman with a kid. This is hard, even with Dan parenting with me. It doesn’t help that there are daily minor irritations that build up and then there’s something that I see, read, or hear about some/anything. And I get frustrated and infuriated by everything.

I’m so tired of hope. I keep hoping that I’ll get it together, that something I do will turn into a job possibility. I keep hoping that I’ll make a friend here… One that calls me. But you’ve got to be around where adults are for that to be possible. So I keep hoping that the drama classes (ironic, yes but shuttup) starting later this month will be a place where I’ll meet some nice lady (don’t care how old) or ladies that I can meet up with for coffee. But I’m also aware that (maybe)  there won’t be anyone there who I can hang out with. So this is why I’m tired of hope. It is exhausting trying to keep them up when the return has been so relatively little.

No I don’t want to join a church. Been there, done that, got the souvenir T-shirt. I will (most likely) never do that again. So what have my ideas been other than the drama workshop/class? Well…

1. Belly Dancing Class

2. Yoga Class

3. Creative Writing

Drawback… These cost around $65-$70 for 10 weeks… each. And then what?

Ennui

Infuriation

Wishful Thinking

Retreat.

Someone once told me that I could possibly make a book out of this blog, or the experiences I have here…same diff. Who the hell would buy this crap. I’m under the impression that I can’t even use my normal vocabulary on this blog because of  who’s reading it. Are my ex-students reading this? Is my mom or m-i-l or dad? My grandmother reads it, and if I used curse words like shit in the normal course of a diatribe, most likely she’d roll her eyes, purse her mouth, and send me the mental vibe that there’s a better word to use, one that’s more ladylike. She’d be right of course. So if people aren’t reading it, then what makes you (whoever you were who first suggested it, I can’t be bothered with that detail…What? I’ve got a brain like a sieve sometimes) think that someone would pick it up off the Buy 2, Get the 3rd book free table at Border’s?

Alright. I’m not the best communicator in the world. I haven’t emailed each of you personally and I’ll be damned if I call each of you… so, so what? Some people are self-centered, get over it. But I’ve kept my end of the bargain… how about you keeping yours?

Are you still with me? Good. This is where I’m going to lose some friends now.

And I can’t do it. I really cannot bring myself to say what I really want to say. I hate this. I hate this about me.  I have no one I can yell at.

But I still love you. Even if you don’t comment. I still love you. I will continue to keep checking my phone’s Google email  alert each morning in case one of you says something to me.

Ah, the in-laws.

How I appreciate them. They are too funny.

Congratulations Meg and Chris on attaining your master’s degrees. Very very proud here.

This is awesomeness.

Longbottom is a real last name here.

How do I know? I received a letter signed by an Electoral Registration Officer with the last name ‘Longbottom’. In addition, I also received a voter registration form. It is mandatory that the occupant/recipient fill out the form or call the number or go online to register. British citizens are required by law to give the information asked for in this form. This may sound similar to our census  process but it is not a ‘census-taking measure’.

BUT FIRST! A little Natalie-Zen: http://dailybooth.com/MollieB/latest/large.jpg

In the US you register to vote via a form that you go get from some purveyor of said form. Then you fill it out with the appropriate information about yourself and where you live, send it in to the state electoral board, and you receive a card stating your political affiliation or non-affiliation. You do this when you turn 18 or later on… just WHENEVER.

So, here in the UK, a registration form is sent to the house and details of the people eligible to be registered who are living in that house on a certain day (October 15, 2010) must be entered on the form. Here’s the details: Surname, first name and other initials, Nationality, and Jury Service Exemption (only for those over 70 y/o).  Also, you indicate via checkmark for the following: if you do not wish to appear on the edited register AND if you wish to apply for a postal vote. I don’t know what that is exactly. Things are counter-intuitive here. It could be simple, like someone wants the ballot sent to their home so that they can then mail in their vote. Or it could be something completely different, like your vote is cast for the candidate from your postal area. Who knows? I have to ask about this. The last thing that is glaringly different than our registration process is that you include the names of anyone over the age of 16 along with the birthdates. 16/17 year olds do not vote until they are 18 anyways, so I question this… Turning the paper over to the back has “About This Form” FAQs.

I look for more info about the 16/17 registering and I quote: “Please provide the details of any 16 and 17 year olds in the property. Make sure you include their date of birth so that they can vote as soon as they are 18.” AND THAT’S IT. I look over to the Age info: “You must be 18 or older to vote.” So I was right. But then it goes on: “You can register to vote when you are 16.”

WHY?

What are they going to be doing for the next two years? So I read some more about the ‘full’ and ‘edited’ registers.

“The full register lists the name and address of everyone who is registered to vote. Anyone can look at a copy of it in the council office… it is a criminal offence to supply or use copies for purposes other than those set down in law.” {Okay, I’m on board with this….} “The main use of the full register is to show who can vote in elections and referendums.” {Reasonable… I’m thinking} “Credit reference agencies can use it, but only to check your name and address if you are applying for credit and for other purposes specified in law” {Wait a minute…starting to head from the shallows toward the deep end of the pool} “It can also be used for law enforcement.” {WHAT FOR? IN WHAT WAY?}

“The edited register is available for general sale and can be used for any purpose.” {!((@#)*} “The edited register can be bought by any person, company or organisation and can be used for commercial activities such as marketing.” {Hmmm, thinking we dodged a bullet there because this is definitely deep end floaties}

So I imagine that the buyers of this list are looking for consumers and can get all sorts of lovely info about you because the form is confusing. It is worded in that typical confusing way forms have. “√ If you do not wish to appear on the edited register. (already ticked = excluded now delete if necessary).”

This can be interpreted two ways:

(1) write a check mark if you do not wish to appear on the edited register.

(2) If you do not wish do appear on the edited register, delete the checkmark.

Most people don’t take a lot of time to analyze forms and don’t pay attention anyways. So if you left the preprinted checkmark alone then you won’t appear on the ‘free-for-all’ list. But the format uses the negative which is a ‘no-no’ and also uses the word ‘excluded’. It seems misleading: JoeBob English doesn’t want to be excluded from a list. Human nature, right? Just a bunch of joiners? But the font on the form is small too, so I know that there are some who don’t read closely because they CAN’T see closely.

Oh, and if you are in anyway untruthful about the information you put on this form, you face fines up to £1000. You can bet I called the number before I hit the confirm button online.

At the end of the first quarter...

We're on top of the mall right next to the train station. That's the train station behind Natalie but in front of the old buildings.

On Saturday, we took the train to Edinburgh. It’s a two hour train trip and it was a very pleasant way to travel. Dan wants to travel by train everywhere now. The trick when traveling with kids is to have something for them to do but the majority of seats are like airplane seats: slightly bigger/taller with a small tray that folds down. The seats are two on each side and not too uncomfortable. Natalie likes to be doing something when she’s not watching for sheep or rabbits. So I reserved ‘table’ seats online. That was the smartest thing I did for that day. She was able to color easier than if we had the normal airline seats. The train went over 100 mph at several points in the journey. There were times when we could see the North Sea as we went north there and back south. Didn’t see any castles en route but did see a rather large house. I guess it may have been a manor house at some point. It was too far away to see if it was still a private residence.

So we arrived and had some time to kill before we went on our bus/boat tour of Edinburgh. We let Natalie run around on the roof of the mall and in the park with the memorial to Scott. Took a couple of pictures. Then we got on the bus. 20/20 hindsight: had it just been the two of us, we would have gotten on the bus as soon as it arrived. We didn”t and we ended up in the back of the bus where the windows were covered by that semi-opaque window stuff that advertisers use. Sadly, a lot of what everyone else got to see we didn’t see because the view was obscured by the bus company’s need to self-promote. On the tour, the pre-recorded voice told us about the multiple memorials to authors in the city, but we didn’t drive by any except two…the one for Scott and some other writer. You can tell it made a big impression on me.

The boat ride was nice enough…We embarked on the boat at a really small hamlet called North Queensferry… named so after the Queen who visited the town… 900 years ago. And it really was quite small. It only had one pub and no shops that I could see…just a pier. Where I live, we have two pubs and two grocery stores, so I’m sitting fairly pretty. So we head inland at first up the River Forth, ostensibly for the purpose of going under the bridge just to say we’re going under this bridge that is falling to bits. Seriously. They said they have fans on the cables to dehumidify them so they won’t snap. I can neither confirm nor deny this. Maybe I misunderstood… I was occupied with keeping my kid from climbing over the side of the boat or being knocked off balance into the water. Luckily we got a seat up in the front of the boat, the Belle Forth. Turning around, we go back under the bridge and go under another bridge that’s just for trains. A cruise ship was in the Firth of Forth on the east side of the train bridge because it was too tall to go under and could not dock at Queensferry.  We sailed out into the Firth of Forth and saw some seals around Inchcolm Island. Really! Two of them were asleep on a buoy and one had come fairly close (40 feet away?) … his/her head looked like a dog…it was grey with dark spots and was having fun just watching us.

We sailed around Inchcolm Island with the option of disembarking for 1 1/2 hours, to be picked up by the next group. I would’ve liked to have explored the abbey and the WW2 buildings and the puffin nests (who have lilac colored eggs!) but it was lunch time at this point.  We ate the packed lunch I brought and drank a Peroni and some coffee. We didn’t get off the boat.

I feel like I’m failing to point out that this was a delightful excursion. Natalie’s enjoyment was tangible… We get off the train in Edinburgh and she exclaims “This is my home! This is my home!”. I’m thinking my kid really likes Edinburgh. I do too for that matter. It’d be nice to go back and explore it a bit more… Maybe see the castle and Holyrood.

Probably why I’ve got a bit of a negative tone in this entry is that that was also the day I threw my back out. I say “threw my back out” because that’s what I think it feels like. Went to the doctor today to double check that I don’t need medical attention (I don’t) and that was a nice experience. No copay, no paying anything. The doctor is a nice Indian man, Dr C. F. Khan. As I typed his initials I realized that he has the same as KFC. The KFC here is okay. But they don’t have the chicken sandwich. You know the one I’m talking about right? The bread is chicken.. … The meat is chicken. With some cheese, maybe. MMMMMM.

Back to my back… the old theater injury, hurr hurr durr. I wouldn’t have gone to a doctor back home normally. I’ve had twinges that burn in the muscle but they pass quickly. This has stuck around for more than 48 hours so I wanted to be sure it wasn’t a slipped disc or whatev. Fairly certain that the trigger was a combination of maintaining my balance while seated, maintaining Natalie’s balance while she’s standing on the seat next to me and then holding her weirdly while she was asleep at the Burger King in the Edinburgh train station. Serious pain folks. I was crying at one point, it was so bad. My muscles seized up and I was having trouble breathing.

I think this is typical of me. I’ve done this before: Sophomore or Junior year in high school = just sitting in the middle of the backseat between two people on our way to play mini-golf and ride go-karts at the place in Edmond (no longer there…mmmph) and I somehow pull a groin muscle. Mom was ticked at me and I laugh now but OH MY EFFING G did it hurt.  Same thing here. I didn’t do anything wrong and didn’t overly exert myself but something goes wrong anyways. Leg cramps in my calves, charley horses in calves and thighs… muscle afflictions are anathema. Even shin splints, and I’m not a runner!

Well…I’m off to do child’s pose. Here’s to the next 14 or so days… May I continue to feel better.

One of the reasons...

I didn’t update for a week is that I started volunteering at the Children’s Society charity shop on North Street in Durham. I went two days last week. It’s been fun trying to decode the accents and answering questions about where I’m from. But the biggest perk is that I’m around people. It gets me out and meeting people. I also get to observe the funner and finer elements of Durham culture, like the older man wearing a Russian fur hat complete with flaps and rhinestone brooches across his tummy.

I can’t make this stuff up. And to make it seem even funnier (even though this is a true story) I’ll tell you how I came to observe him:

A fellow volunteer*, “C”, and I were organizing jewelry at the till (cash register) when this gentleman stopped in front of us. He had at this point browsed through the entirety of the store and didn’t find anything to his liking. Except the jewelry. The two or three rhinestone pins we had laid out on the counter to be exact. He stared at those pins for a good two minutes, not acknowledging C or me at all. Then he left.

I wish he had let himself buy a pin to keep the other five across his tummy company.

Volunteer

I’m taking my application to volunteer at a charity resale shop down to the city centre today. Read an article on a teaching-job-locater site (tes.co.uk) that has made me feel a bit better about the lack of success I’ve had with jobs. I know that if I think I’m having a hard time, there’s someone who’s got it rougher:

http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=6053540

So that’s not such a big deal anymore. It still is sad in some ways, for me but I want to get this emotion over and done with. I know that when I look back on the time spent here I’m going to have some interesting memories and I don’t want them tainted with me recollecting how I mooned over my old job and bleated on about not getting one here.

So here’s a fun story:

Getting Natalie ready for bed last night. This was the end of tooth brushing stage of the evening process. She likes things her way and when she doesn’t get her way, she’ll yell. Wonder where she gets it.  Natalie does like the taste of toothpaste and will more often eat it than brush with it. So I’ll brush her teeth after she’s done because I’m trying to clean her teeth after she’s done her vague attempt. I will even model the tooth brush process. This is tiresome to her and she’ll argue with me by yelling. I usually respond with drama queen comments.  this was our conversation:

“Come on drama queen.”

“I’m not a queen , I’m Natalie.”

“Well you can be a bit of a drama queen sometimes.”

“No, I’m a puppy.”

I really can’t argue with this.

Clever title

Happy Birthday Dad. Sent a couple of cards. Hope they arrive on time. 

Took another extended bus trip yesterday. This time, only had mesel’ and chose to do this on purpose. I picked the #20 bus to Sunderland. Saw some of the area that I hadn’t seen yet. Wrote a little while on the bus. There were some fairly interesting bits of architecture that I’d like to explore … A collection of imposing red brick buildings and what appeared to be (from a distance, on a hill top, through rain) ruins of a Roman-ish temple. At first, while I was on the bus, I thought I was mistaken and that it had other uses (grain elevator?) But I get to the Sunderland bus station and there’s a painting of what I saw from the bus. A temple-like building: 5 or so pillars, with lintel. But with a little rooting around on the internet, found out that it was built in 1844 in the Doric style (Greek) as a monument to the first Earl of Durham.

I got excited over a reproduction. But then again, millions of visitors to the Disney theme parks get excited over those castles, so I’m not alone.

Today, we’re shooting for Hartlepool’s Tall Ships Races 2010. It’s time we showed Natalie a larger body of water than the River Wear.

update 12 hours later: verdict- disappointing. bus ride home- horrendous. Natalie- very good.

Have learned some disturbing bits of information about the universities here… They cost £3000 a year…ALL OF THEM. Cambridge, Oxford, Durham all cost the same as say, the University of Sunderland. And that you can only apply to 6 total. So I imagine that if you get rejected by all 6 then you’re screwed. No college for you. And you can’t apply to both Cambridge and Oxford. You can only apply to one or the other, not both.

As you can see, I have learned how to put pictures in the blog only slightly. Still working on this.