The Eleventh Hour of the Eleventh Day of the Eleventh Month

This Tuesday was Armistice Day. I didn't realize until now that this is the one non-religious holiday that America and England share. In America, Veteran's Day is also commemorated on the day of the Armistice. Having experienced both holidays in both countries I am sad to say that America's observation pales in comparison to the honor which the English bestow on their veterans on this day. If you asked the average American what date Veteran's Day is, if they aren't looking at a November calendar chances are they couldn't tell you. I am sure this week on Tuesday when everyone turned the page on their day to day desk calendar, more than one office worker turned to a coworker and commented "Hey, did you know today is Veteran's Day?" I find it sad that Americans need a small italicized reminder on their calendar or date book to remember such an important day in our history. By contrast, if you asked a British citizen what date Armistice or "Poppy Day" falls on they will quickly answer "the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month".

For the month preceding the holiday, everyone wears a paper poppy on their lapel. The proceeds go to the British Legion and one of the most amazing things is that every single television personality makes the poppy a permanent part of their wardrobe for the month leading up to Armistice Day. Even the contestants on The X Factor (Britain's version of American Idol) wear a poppy on their outfits on stage. I guess it could be compared to the American flag lapel pin, no Member of Parliament would be caught dead without one pinned to their suit.

British Legion's Paper Poppy

I suppose here both World Wars quite literally hit closer to home. The British isles were heavily bombed by the Germans and there are still reminders everywhere of the death and destruction. Here in the North, one of the biggest reminders is the depressed economy.

Before the World Wars, Hartlepool was a major English port and a hub of industry with several dozen shipping companies calling the port of Hartlepool home, accounting for nearly 250 ships. Hartlepool's position as a major British port made it a strategic target for the Germans. On the morning of December 16, 1914 Hartlepool became the first town in England to be bombed by the Germans. On this day over 1000 shells rained down on Hartlepool from German ships. Guns on the Heugh (pronounced "Yuff") Gun Battery in Hartlepool fired back around 150 shells with more accuracy than the German ships and initiated the first and only land to sea attack from the British mainland and severely damaged the attacking ships. Despite this contribution, World War I and the following Depression crippled the once robust Hartlepool shipping industry only to be revived again during World War II. Yet again, this prosperity made Hartlepool a prime target for the Nazi forces and Hartlepool was raided from the air 43 times during the course of World War II. This once and for all cut off the Hartlepool shipping industry and it has never recovered since.

Hartlepool homes destroyed in December 16, 1914 bombing

Hartlepool's story is similar to many other English towns, which is maybe the reason that Armistice Day and honoring their veterans is such a hallowed tradition here. Particularly in the working class towns of the North where the economic effects of war are still relevant decades later, these stories still hit close to home and in many cases the people who lived through them are still around to remember.

Last Sunday nearly every town in the country held their own "Poppy Parade" with veterans and active members of the British Armed Forces marching through the center of town to be honored for their service. In London in front of the World War I memorial, 3 surviving veterans of World War I were honored. They were all well into their 100s and all in wheelchairs, but still proudly wearing their uniforms and displaying their medals. Jason marched in a Poppy Parade in the Northwestern town of Barrow-in-Furness which his ship HMS Walney is named for after an island off the coast.

If you don't know the significance of the poppy, it comes from a poem written by a Canadian soldier during World War I.

In Flanders Field
by Lt.-Co. John McCrea

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Newcastle, New Couch and Bonfire Night

I have definitely had a busy week! Tuesday I took the train into Newcastle which is such a beautiful city. It was my first time actually going into Newcastle proper and it was wonderful to be downtown in a city again. Arriving by train in Newcastle is really breathtaking. From Hartlepool the train runs along the sea coast. After three months I have grown accustomed to the sights and sounds of this area, but moving along the coast through this very different terrain I was again reminded that I do live in a different country with a very different landscape. When the train pulls into Newcastle it is elevated to about the roof level of most of the buildings so you are looking down into the streets and then the train passes over the River Tyne. This moment passing over the river in an elevated train I couldn't help but feel nostalgic. I could see myself living in this city and really feeling at home.


Tuesday night I obviously stayed up very late watching the election results roll in. The first results came in at about midnight and I stayed up until about 3 am at which point enough states had been called and I had a pretty good idea that unless there was a major upset in California the election was pretty much determined. I got a text message from a friend of mine in Chicago who was attending the Obama rally, and I am so glad she texted me awake because I was able to watch the rally in Chicago live on TV. This week it has been nice for me to see live coverage from Chicago, probably not something that will happen much in the future. Without sounding too politcal here, I have to say that one thing I have found amazing over the last few days is the coverage that has come from all over the world. This election might have divided the US, but throughout the rest of world people are dancing in the streets hoisting American flags that are actually not on fire. Some of you may be disappointed in the results of the election and some of you may be elated, but as an American living abroad this is the most important thing to me and its very encouraging.

Wednesday morning I got a call that my couch would be delivered the next day!!! Before purchasing a new couch Jason and I had only this very ugly loveseat which I only just recently learned was left here in our flat by the previous owner. This new development made the mystery stains all over the loveseat that much more foreboding. Here is the old loveseat:

Here is our new corner sofa! I absolutely love it, and it fits perfectly in the living room as if it was made to measure. I also love that the section at the end is a footstool so if we have company over we can move it anywhere we would like for additional seating and two people can easily fit on it. I also love the that the frame is covered in leather but the cushions are fabric. I love the look of leather but the fabric cushions are warmer and more comfortable.


This week was also Guy Fawkes Night, also known as Bonfire Night. Always associated with the rhyme "Remember Remember the Fifth of November." Guy Fawkes Night commemorates the foiling of the Gunpowder Plot in 1605 which was a Catholic conspiracy to blow up the Houses of Parliament as well as the King and much of the Protestant aristocracy. The day is commemorated every year with fireworks displays, and bonfires where effigies of Guy Fawkes are burned. These bonfires are also a convenient way to get rid of bulky waste like furniture once every year.

Guy Fawkes was the plotter who prepared the explosives meant to blow up the Houses of Parliament but the plot also has a connection to Northumberland. Henry Percy was one of the principal conspirators and his family domain was Alnwick Castle which you may remember from an earlier post, My First Visit to an English Castle.

The fireworks display in Hartlepool was right here in Seaton Carew so Jason and I were able to walk down to the beach to watch them, along with Jason's sister Kirsty and our niece Abbie. It was a great thing for us to do together before he left for three weeks.

Today all over England there are "poppy parades" in every town, Jason marched in uniform in a parade in Barrow which is a place associated with his ship HMS Walney. November 11th will be Armistace Day so in next week's post I will go into more detail about this holiday which is obviously of great importance to our family.

Happy to report...

I am BUSY! I feel like I have been going going going since Friday. I won't give you all the details but this weekend I went to a Halloween party and met some new people, and the best news is that tomorrow I have a meeting with a recruiter that specializes in marketing and media jobs.

I think I am going to delay posting until tomorrow after I have met with this recruiter. I am sure everyone is probably more focused on tomorrow's election than they are on my blog. Please excuse this brief semi-political commercial (I promise its purple, no blue or red here). I make it a point not to make this blog political in any way but I think this is important enough to make an exception just this once.

On that note, please remember to vote tomorrow. Here in the UK, the citizens do not have the luxury of choosing their own leader. First of all the ultimate head of state is the Queen, and while she is in many ways more of a figurehead rather than an actual policy maker, for all intents and purposes she is the head honcho for no reason other than her place in the royal bloodline. The British people do not get to vote on the Prime Minister, either. The public elects a political party, and then it is up to the party to appoint a Prime Minister. Imagine if it was up to American politicians to choose the President! We as Americans have a unique privilege to decide who will lead our country and it isn't something that should be taken lightly or for granted.

No matter how long the lines are at polling centers, its your right and privilege as an American to vote. I know its easy for me to say that because I voted absentee a month ago from the comfort of my living room, but I believe it is important to first and foremost educate yourself about the candidates and then get out there and vote. Its not too late to do your homework!

If the sense of responsibility to your country isn't enough to motivate you to get out there, Starbucks is giving a free tall coffee to anyone who voted.

I will report tomorrow on my experience with riding the train alone for the first time in this country, and any news on the job front.

Happy voting!!!

English Pub Culture

Ahhh yes, Ye Olde British Tradition- drinking. This weekend Jason and I went for "a night out" together. I mostly went for his benefit, as I have begun to find the pub culture a bit boring. I promise to explain later.

I put "a night out" in quotations because here, a night out is far more specific a term than it is in America. In the States, if you tell someone you are going for a night out it could mean a whole spectrum of things. It could mean that you are going for dinner and a movie or that you are going to get dressed up and see a play or that you and some friends are going to go out and have a rowdy time. The possibilities of what a night out in America can mean are endless.

In England, "a night out" means that you are going to drink in at least one pub and plan on drinking for the duration of the evening. More specifically in Hartlepool, the qualifications for a night out are even more stringent.

First of all, there seems to be an unwritten dress code. It could be an instinctual thing, some kind of genetic code that is only strong in the blue-blooded English and not those of us who have been tainted with German or even (gasp!) Scottish blood. I say this because I obviously always miss the memo. The dress code isn't usually the same from one night to the next, or from one weekend to the next. It is mostly a female thing since most men have two or three "night out" shirts that they rotate. I never seem to get it right but luckily my style is understated enough that my faux pas go unnoticed.

Women always seem to be dressed the same. Saturday night, most of the night-outers were wearing leopard print and/or sequins although there was a sect of people wearing sweater dresses and leggings. There are usually only two or three different variations of outfits and then if you go out the next weekend thinking you are onto the pattern, they have changed the encryption again and everyone is wearing two or three completely different styles.

Secondly, there is a strict itinerary that everyone follows, but everyone takes a different shift. I think it might be something where upon turning 18 the new crop of drinkers is given their itinerary and this remains with them until death.

The intinerary goes like this: You always begin in the same pub and after having no more than two drinks you move on to the next pub. Repeat this until closing time. The order in which you proceed to the pubs is always the same. For this reason a night out in Hartlepool means that even though you never stay in the same place for more than a round or two, you continuously see the same groups of people coming and going. Like clockwork, you see the same groups of people leaving as you enter the pub and then continue to see familiar faces as you finish your round and the next shift arrives and then the whole cycle starts again.

For this reason, I find pub culture in this town very boring. I never meet new people since my group is always on the move, I never get the chance to settle in before moving on to the next place (there are very few tables and chairs in the pubs in which to settle) and I am usually uncomfortable from trekking from "the top end" of town to "the bottom end" while dressed up more than I would like to be. It is normal (but thankfully not mandatory) for women to wear cocktail dresses out, and for the younger and wilder crowd the equivalent of what you would wear to a bachelor or bachelorette party.

Coming from the cozy and quiet "come as you are" pubs of Chicago this all seems like too much trouble for me. I prefer to stroll down the street in a t-shirt and jeans, park myself at the bar and have a lively conversation with my dear friend the bartender. The bartenders here are more like the cashiers at a fast food restaurant. You give them your order which had better be one of the things they see on the touch screen in front of them, they quickly bring it to you, you pay, you walk away drink in hand, end of transaction.

Also, despite the "shaken not stirred" stereotype about the English, in my experience no bartender in England is capable of making a cocktail that doesn't give you the recipe in it's name. Basically, if it isn't a Jack Daniels and Diet Coke or a vodka and Red Bull they can't make it and God save you if you order something else and they actually give it a try. The vast majority of people drink lager, usually Fosters, Carling or Kronenbourg. Second to lager is cider, Strongbow being the most popular but there are several brands. After that are ales which is basically any dark beer like Guinness. Never fear if you prefer a fruity cocktail because Britain's solution for having poorly trained bartenders is to bottle everything under the sun. You can get a wide array of cocktails in a bottle and this fourth category of drinks is called "alchypops". Even though the option is there, drinking a premade screwdriver out of a bottle just doesn't do it for me. That basically covers the options you have when you go out, although I have found there is usually a refrigerator behind the bar stocked with things like Corona and other more "exotic" drinks that are more to my liking.

It isn't all bad because one thing about all the moving around is that you have more opportunity of running into people you know, and we almost always do. Still, the malarkey I described above is precisely what is implied when someone asks if you are going for "a night out", and I am always expected to know what this means and follow suit to fulfill all of the night out qualifications.

Here in England we have turned back our clocks a week early, so for those of you in the Eastern time zone I am only 4 hours ahead and those in the Central time zone I am only 5 hours ahead. Next week when the US follows suit we will be back to the usual, but this week I will enjoy feeling a bit closer to home even if it is just a technicality. Thanks again for reading! More next week when I will be reporting on my first Halloween weekend here!

The Best Gig After The Queen

Tonight was my first night singing with the Hartlepool Community Choir. It is a bit of a milestone for me because it is my first excursion into Hartlepooligan society without Jason or any of my in-laws as a chaperon. I was pretty freaked out because I was afraid the choir would be composed of a bunch of lethargic old people. Luckily, the crowd was more the regular enthusiastic multi-generational crowd and everyone was very friendly and made me feel welcome. It was the most socially comfortable I have felt around people in this town, even though their sense of humor was still totally lost on me. That is one of the most difficult things about living here, I feel like I have absolutely no sense of humor. The only jokes I get are the ones that somehow end with "The Queen".

Tonight I also learned my first new English Christmas carol. This is exciting to me because I know literally every Christmas carol in the American repetoire, most of them backwards and forwards. The past two years running my team won the games portion of the company Christmas party solely on my ability to name any Christmas carol in just three notes. Some might even say that Christmas carols are "my thing" because they combine my two favorite things- Christmas and singing. For me, learning a new Christmas Carol was exhilirating, I can't remember the last time I heard a Christmas song that I didn't know. I am glad I will get to know some of the Christmas music standards in the choir because I can't imagine Christmas without being able to sing along to every song on the radio during the holidays.

This weekend I finally made something with pumpkin- pumpkin pancakes. They were delicious and really hit the spot. I found several recipes but modified some to come up with my own recipe and they came out great. Here is my recipe for whole wheat pumpkin pancakes!

Spiced Whole Wheat Pumpkin Pancakes

First I seeded and roasted one medium baking pumpkin for about 35 minutes at 400°F, or until a fork can easily sink into the flesh. I used about half of the baked pumpkin for this recipe. I mashed the flesh with a potato masher and then removed any large or tough chunks that wouldn't mash. I baked the pumpkin the night before so it was completely cooled when I added it to the recipe.

1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3/4 cup baked pumpkin flesh, mashed (or canned pumpkin)
1 cup milk
2 eggs, separated
3 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons butter or margarine, melted
1/4 teaspoon salt

In a large bowl combine dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg). In a separate bowl combine the pumpkin, milk, egg yolks, brown sugar, butter and salt. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients until just blended but still lumpy. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites with an electric mixer or whisk until they form soft but not stiff peaks. Gently fold the whites into the batter just until they are combined.

Heat a lightly oiled skillet over medium-high heat or 375°F on an electric griddle. Using a ladel, pour batter on the heated skillet until bubbles form on the surface and then flip them over until they are browned on the bottom.

This recipe makes about 4 "servings", but if you are like me and you really like pancakes its enough for two people. I served the pancakes with butter and cinnamon sugar but they would also be great with butter and warm maple syrup with a sprinkle of cinnamon and a handful of dried cranberries. They are very moist and hearty and great on a cold morning!


I apologize again for the late post, Jason took a couple days off work so he just went back to the base today. We try to spend as much time together as we can when he is home, so I couldn't tear myself away long enough to post. Next week I should be posting again on time.

Autumn in England

I am feeling a bit under the weather today so this post might be a bit short. Its been a rough week, my computer randomly crashed this week and now I am using Jason's laptop. It is a good thing I have been keeping this blog because I have been posting my photos on the internet. Had they not been stored on internet sites I would have lost all of our honeymoon pictures so I am very grateful for internet file storage.

First I should report that I found apple "cider" at the supermarket this week. Sadly it was very disappointing. It was commercially bottled juice so I should have expected what I got but it just wasn't the same. It tasted like regular old apple juice but with appley pulp in it. It was too sweet and didn't have that tang that real fresh apple cider has. Its kind of like when you buy chunky applesauce in a jar. Despite their best efforts, putting chunks of apples in applesauce doesn't make it comparable to homemade. I was right about one thing, though. It is called cloudy apple juice here.

It is a good thing I bought some other fall staples while I was at the store like apples and pumpkins. For the first time in years I made Betty Crocker's apple crisp and it more than made up for the cider let-down. I also bought a baking pumpkin but haven't decided what to make with it yet. I think I might bake it now and then freeze it until I decide what pumpkin treat I want to make. Feel free to post your favorite pumpkin recipes in the comments section of this post if you have any suggestions.

One thing to note is that here in England they don't use the term fall. Most of them know what it is thanks to American TV shows and movies, but here it is strictly called autumn. Possibly because there is nothing significant about the falling of the leaves here. Living here by the sea the sights, smells and other sensations of autumn are sadly absent. The seaside always just smells like the sea. The only indication that the seasons have changed is that the parks service came through and tore all the flowers out of the beds lining the promenade.

I am interested to see what Halloween is like here because although children do go trick-or-treating, this is not a holiday that adults really get into. I suppose Americans have turned Halloween and pretty much every other obscure holiday into an excuse to drink. Here in England they don't really need excuses to drink so I suppose that is the reason they don't make a big deal out of Halloween. We don't have many children in our area here so I don't anticipate that we will get any trick-or-treaters.

Thank you for reading! Hopefully by next week I will be feeling much better and I will be able to write a bit more. Enjoy all of that real apple cider...

Bathroom Renovation Project

I don't know if it is appropriate to call it a "renovation" since we haven't done much other than taking the vinyl tiling off the walls and changing the fixtures. The transformation certainly looks like we have done a lot but we have changed the look of our bathroom without replacing the bath/shower unit and ceramic tile surround, sink or toilet. I didn't take a photo of the bathroom before we started but I do have a couple photos that show the vinyl tile wall covering and will give you an idea of the general state of our bathroom before we undertook this project. When I moved in back in August it looked like either an old woman or a bachelor lived in the flat. It was difficult to discern which because Jason had just layered his bachelor style "decorations" over the outdated decor. Below you can see the lovely dolphin toilet seat (Jason's choice) and also the very classy sign he posted above the toilet. I guess he was just worried he would get distracted by the dolphins so he thought he should remind himself. Anyway, those things aside you can see in these photos the vinyl tiling that was covering the walls. The tile wasn't installed very well so it was peeling off and bubbling in many places and the pale pink and green motif went out of style sometime in the last century. I had a feeling that the tiles were hiding something horrendous underneath and as we began to peel them off it revealed about 4 layers of chipping and peeling paint and many large gouges in the plaster. It certainly wasn't the worst situation I have ever seen but it was a lot of work to remove the old wallpaper paste, sand down the rough edges where the paint was chipping off and fill in the gouges. To be honest, when we finished the wall wasn't 100% smooth. Since the paint color I chose was a clay color I thought it would look fine if the wall was uneven or textured in places and I am glad I made that decision because it would have taken us countless hours to get the wall completely smooth. Last weekend Jason and I painted the walls and I spent this week shopping around for bathroom fixtures and we completed the project this weekend. Here is the final result, well at least the completion of Phase I.


As you can see the walls have been painted a clay color. The name of the color is Rum Caramel 4 but I honestly don't think it looks like rum or caramel and I am very familiar with both. The dolphin toilet seat was replaced with a pine toilet seat which coordinates with the pine medicine cabinet. Before we just had a plain unframed mirror bolted to the wall so it is nice to have a good medicine cabinet.

A few years ago for Jason's birthday I gave him this set of three hanging photo frames with photos of Chicago and we thought it went really well with the bathroom decor. Actually, this was the only part of the bathroom that was Jason's idea so I feel I should give him proper credit.


The old bathroom had some very cheap beige plastic fixtures which we replaced with these nice chrome accessories.
We used to have a really ugly wooden cabinet in this corner that was painted pale antique green. We replaced it with this chrome and glass shelving unit and I found some great things at TK Maxx (exactly the same as TJ Maxx except here it is with a "K"). This is my favorite part of the bathroom. I think every woman aspires to have a "spa inspired" bathroom and this is my little spa corner. I found some nice little spa bottles of toiletries, some handmade English soaps, some little sea sponges, a reed infuser and a faux orchid plant (I killed the last live orchid that was left in my care). I think it was the most confusing moment for Jason when I spent a good 20 minutes in the bath product section of TK Maxx sniffing and inspecting an array of soaps and trying to explain to him that these were for display, not for washing your hands.

One thing you may notice is that there are no electrical outlets in the bathroom. This is no freak accident, there are no electrical outlets in any bathrooms in England. I might even go as far as to say that this is the one thing I miss the most about America. I just feel very strange about drying and styling my hair in my bedroom. I haven't adjusted to storing my hair products anywhere else but the bathroom even though it would probably make more sense if I didn't have to walk back and forth from the bathroom to the bedroom with my hair products and hairbrush and clips but I guess old habits die hard.

I am really proud of us because we did all of the work ourselves with minimal arguing and I think we did a quality job. My mother-in-law and my sister-in-law Diane have both been up and they were amazed by the transforation. Eventually Jason would like to replace the toilet, sink and bathtub but I think for now this is something we can definitely live with.

Thanks again for reading everyone! Have a lovely fall, I really miss the Midwestern changing of fall colors and here the leaves just kind of turn brown and fall off the trees so its definitely making me pine for that unmistakable smell of a fall day in Michigan.

I would like to take this moment to apologize to the my male readers for putting you through all that talk of handmade English soaps and hair products.