K flew the coop at 5:52 this morning. I dropped her off at the National Express bus stop. Then she ventured up to Heathrow to fly to Florida.
Usually, when I get home from work, K is home finishing up a section of her PhD with a news channel on in the background. Some lights are on and the apartment is warm and inviting. But this evening it was dark and cold when I got home. I turned on a couple of lights, turned the TV on, and took a beer out of the fridge. Now I'm contemplating dinner for one and watching a bit of Fox News International (conservative and sensational as hell, but it's American news at least).
I'll be joining K in Florida in about 16 days. We're house-sitting for my mom so she can have a nice, long trip to Sweden and Denmark to see her brother and extended family. When I get there, K will probably be done with her PhD and then we will have two weeks of maximum relaxation in the beautiful Florida sunshine (probably the most perfect climate between October and May). I'm hoping I'll be able to shake this damp, mold-infested air -induced cough I've had since last August.
Wednesday, February 27
Sunday, February 24
The Old People Won't Leave Us Alone
There are 18 flats (apartments) in the building we live in. At least 14 of those are inhabited by pensioners (retirees). We are the youngest people in the building. That's not generally a problem and it's been OK for the most part. There are a few that are outright meddling, but most of them are polite and friendly (at least, to our faces). The building has an "association" that consists of several of the residents, one of which is the chairperson. This "association" handles the general maintenance issues of the building like getting people in to clean the windows, mow the lawn, etc. They also have written a set of rules for living here. Things like not parking outside of the garage, no pets, or no remodeling without their consent.. Apparently, they also have something against people who are renters (as opposed to owning the flat).
They haven't been blatantly after us, but for the entire year and a half that we have lived here, they have been picking at us. Just little hints every so often.
"How long are you planning to stay here?"
"Would you like to park your car in my garage? I'm not using it. Can you afford £30 per month?"
ound an overflow in the brickwork, although the overflow itself has not been seen to be dripping." It asked that we arrange for an inspection because the clients are "concerned that the structural integrity of the building will be compromised if this situation is left unattended to." We're talking about a small, dark patch on the side of the building.
Yes, in November the pipe was indeed dripping. Something that one of the pensioners saw fit to notify us about by coming to our door at 8:45 one Saturday morning late last year. He said the exterior wall was getting wet. This is a country where it rains A LOT. I'm pretty sure the entire exterior surface is wet most of the time. Nevertheless, at that time we contacted the letting agent and they said they would make an appointment with a plumber. It never happened (big surprise), but after a while, it stopped dripping, so I didn't bother chasing them anymore about it.
Then we get this letter. Pick, pick, picking at us! I contacted the letting agent right away and in no uncertain terms, demanded they send the plumber with due speed. He came a week later. That was this past Thursday. He checked the boiler and the surrounding area. There is no leak, no damp, and no threat to the structural integrity of the building. We are vindicated on this score, so they're just going to have to find something else to pick at us about.
Of the pensioners in this building, there are a couple of nice ones that we get along with. The couple that lives below us is nice enough. We thought they were our allies in the face of the building association. K discovered the other day that this doesn't seem to be the case. The lady is obviously spying on us, too. She came to the door earlier this week to ask K when the plumber was coming. When she told her he was coming on Thursday, she said, "Oh, that's good. I will be home then." K was a bit confused, "Why do you need to be home? I'm going to be here." The reply, "Oh, because Margaret likes to know what's going on." Margaret is the chairperson of the association. "Margaret likes to know what's goin on!!" She was surprised at K's strong reaction and started back-pedaling and trying to change the subject.
Most of the old men in the building are OK. It seems like it's just the old ladies that are doing the pick-pecking at us. Just leave us alone, you old farts! Isn't there something to knit or crochet, instead?! Sorry, that sounds very ageist and anti- old people. We actually liked living here until they started their little crusade.
Don't hate us because we're younger than you.
Then again, could it have something to do with Satan?
K has been forbidden from taking any food or drinks from these people.
They haven't been blatantly after us, but for the entire year and a half that we have lived here, they have been picking at us. Just little hints every so often.
"How long are you planning to stay here?"
"Would you like to park your car in my garage? I'm not using it. Can you afford £30 per month?"
ound an overflow in the brickwork, although the overflow itself has not been seen to be dripping." It asked that we arrange for an inspection because the clients are "concerned that the structural integrity of the building will be compromised if this situation is left unattended to." We're talking about a small, dark patch on the side of the building.
Yes, in November the pipe was indeed dripping. Something that one of the pensioners saw fit to notify us about by coming to our door at 8:45 one Saturday morning late last year. He said the exterior wall was getting wet. This is a country where it rains A LOT. I'm pretty sure the entire exterior surface is wet most of the time. Nevertheless, at that time we contacted the letting agent and they said they would make an appointment with a plumber. It never happened (big surprise), but after a while, it stopped dripping, so I didn't bother chasing them anymore about it.
Then we get this letter. Pick, pick, picking at us! I contacted the letting agent right away and in no uncertain terms, demanded they send the plumber with due speed. He came a week later. That was this past Thursday. He checked the boiler and the surrounding area. There is no leak, no damp, and no threat to the structural integrity of the building. We are vindicated on this score, so they're just going to have to find something else to pick at us about.
Of the pensioners in this building, there are a couple of nice ones that we get along with. The couple that lives below us is nice enough. We thought they were our allies in the face of the building association. K discovered the other day that this doesn't seem to be the case. The lady is obviously spying on us, too. She came to the door earlier this week to ask K when the plumber was coming. When she told her he was coming on Thursday, she said, "Oh, that's good. I will be home then." K was a bit confused, "Why do you need to be home? I'm going to be here." The reply, "Oh, because Margaret likes to know what's going on." Margaret is the chairperson of the association. "Margaret likes to know what's goin on!!" She was surprised at K's strong reaction and started back-pedaling and trying to change the subject.
Most of the old men in the building are OK. It seems like it's just the old ladies that are doing the pick-pecking at us. Just leave us alone, you old farts! Isn't there something to knit or crochet, instead?! Sorry, that sounds very ageist and anti- old people. We actually liked living here until they started their little crusade.
Don't hate us because we're younger than you.
Then again, could it have something to do with Satan?
K has been forbidden from taking any food or drinks from these people.
Sunday, February 10
A Pro-England Blog Entry - Part 1
We've been rather critical of England during the time we have lived here, right or wrong. Of course, we don't think we're wrong in these criticisms, but it still makes us feel a bit sheepish sometimes. Other times it's just fun and cathartic!
In an attempt to strike a bit of a balance, I am writing a two-part piece about things that are good about England/UK. This segment, Part 1, concerns some things in British society that I agree with. Now, three of these things are shared with Europe, but still.
The Brits are right about...
- The way they pronounce words with the letter "T". Whereas Americans usually soften the T sound to a D sound (budder, wadder, tomado, etc.), the Brits actually pronounce the T as it should be, using the fricative hard T sound like BuTTer, waTer, tomaTo, etc. To my ear, the American pronunciation sounds a bit silly, something that didn't really become clear to me until living here. I've also noticed that Brits sometimes have difficulty understanding words pronounced with the soft D sound, so one ends up having to repeat oneself. Being conscious of this has lead me to pronounce my words with a harder T sound, not quite as hard as the English pronunciation, but somewhere in between. It perhaps sounds a bit Canadian.
- How dates are written. In Europe dates are written Day/Month/Year as opposed to the Month/Day/Year in the US. Why is this "correct"? Because it makes the most sense. The date is expressed in ascending order of incremental value. Think of those Russian dolls. The small one covered by a larger one covered by a larger one and so on. The Day is the smallest doll, the Month second largest, and the Year the largest. It just makes more sense. You wouldn't be able to put the middle-size doll inside the smallest one. Do you know what date Europe has trained itself to write/say incorrectly? 9/11 (which would be the 9th of November here). That's the only exception. When we first moved to Europe we had some problems with K's financial aid because of this. The US student loan company had typed 9/01/03 (September 1st, 2003) on the start date of the loan. When the university in Belgium received this they read it as 9th of January, 2003 which, of course, was a bit of a problem for them since K was due to start in September. A few frantic phone calls back and forth sorted out the confusion.
- The use of the Metric system. Ok, this is cheating a bit because the UK doesn't really use the Metric system fully (but Europe does). They still have their Stones, inches, feet, and miles. But they've at least partially adopted it by using Celsius, metres/centimetres/millimetres (for some things), and litres. Again, it just makes so much more sense to have units of measure that are divisible by 10. Who thought dividing units of length by 12 was a good idea? And don't even get me started on ounces, cups, and gallons! When I use an American recipe, I get annoyed when I have to measure dry ingredients by volume. Did you know a cup of flour can weigh anywhere from 3 to 6 ounces? That's a huge difference! Recipes written in grams and millimetres are so much more accurate. Wonder why your from-scratch cake doesn't quite turn out as it should? Maybe it's because you're measuring flour volumetrically.
If I was allowed to be a despot ruler of the US, I would put the above things into law. Everyone would have to pronounce their T's, write the date correctly, and use the Metric system!
- The PAL video standard. The European video standard is far superior to NTSC, used in North America. While the standard used in the US has 525 lines of horizontal resolution and a clunky 30 "frames" per second display rate, PAL is 625 lines of resolution and 25 "frames" per second, closer to that of film. Furthermore, the color rendition of PAL is better. Bottom line: NTSC is C-R-A-P. Fortunately, this will soon cease to be a concern because everything is going HD, which is one single standard.
In an attempt to strike a bit of a balance, I am writing a two-part piece about things that are good about England/UK. This segment, Part 1, concerns some things in British society that I agree with. Now, three of these things are shared with Europe, but still.
The Brits are right about...
- The way they pronounce words with the letter "T". Whereas Americans usually soften the T sound to a D sound (budder, wadder, tomado, etc.), the Brits actually pronounce the T as it should be, using the fricative hard T sound like BuTTer, waTer, tomaTo, etc. To my ear, the American pronunciation sounds a bit silly, something that didn't really become clear to me until living here. I've also noticed that Brits sometimes have difficulty understanding words pronounced with the soft D sound, so one ends up having to repeat oneself. Being conscious of this has lead me to pronounce my words with a harder T sound, not quite as hard as the English pronunciation, but somewhere in between. It perhaps sounds a bit Canadian.
- How dates are written. In Europe dates are written Day/Month/Year as opposed to the Month/Day/Year in the US. Why is this "correct"? Because it makes the most sense. The date is expressed in ascending order of incremental value. Think of those Russian dolls. The small one covered by a larger one covered by a larger one and so on. The Day is the smallest doll, the Month second largest, and the Year the largest. It just makes more sense. You wouldn't be able to put the middle-size doll inside the smallest one. Do you know what date Europe has trained itself to write/say incorrectly? 9/11 (which would be the 9th of November here). That's the only exception. When we first moved to Europe we had some problems with K's financial aid because of this. The US student loan company had typed 9/01/03 (September 1st, 2003) on the start date of the loan. When the university in Belgium received this they read it as 9th of January, 2003 which, of course, was a bit of a problem for them since K was due to start in September. A few frantic phone calls back and forth sorted out the confusion.
- The use of the Metric system. Ok, this is cheating a bit because the UK doesn't really use the Metric system fully (but Europe does). They still have their Stones, inches, feet, and miles. But they've at least partially adopted it by using Celsius, metres/centimetres/millimetres (for some things), and litres. Again, it just makes so much more sense to have units of measure that are divisible by 10. Who thought dividing units of length by 12 was a good idea? And don't even get me started on ounces, cups, and gallons! When I use an American recipe, I get annoyed when I have to measure dry ingredients by volume. Did you know a cup of flour can weigh anywhere from 3 to 6 ounces? That's a huge difference! Recipes written in grams and millimetres are so much more accurate. Wonder why your from-scratch cake doesn't quite turn out as it should? Maybe it's because you're measuring flour volumetrically.
If I was allowed to be a despot ruler of the US, I would put the above things into law. Everyone would have to pronounce their T's, write the date correctly, and use the Metric system!
- The PAL video standard. The European video standard is far superior to NTSC, used in North America. While the standard used in the US has 525 lines of horizontal resolution and a clunky 30 "frames" per second display rate, PAL is 625 lines of resolution and 25 "frames" per second, closer to that of film. Furthermore, the color rendition of PAL is better. Bottom line: NTSC is C-R-A-P. Fortunately, this will soon cease to be a concern because everything is going HD, which is one single standard.
Sunday, February 3
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