England 08 in juicy detail - part 2

Heron House
Sorry it is taking me a while to get these out! So where did I leave y'all, oh that's right, St Pancras Station. And what a station it is, whoo! It is HUGE, but light and airy and industrial and gorgeous all at the same time.




As I mentioned previously, while we stood at the boards waiting for a platform number to attach itself to the train we were after Jo's uncle Tim, who had ingeniously planned his own rail trip from Cornwall to coincide at this point, strolled over to us and introduced himself. Jo hadn't seen him since she was 14 but apparently it was my hair that tipped him off!

After a half hour train trip chatting to Tim we arrived at Bedford where I finally got to meet Aunty Ruth! I have heard so much about her and her family and we'd been talking online so I already felt like we knew each other, but it was even better to finally meet. Ruth was strikingly like Jeannie, but more overtly impish and cheeky!

Ruthie drove us to 'Heron House', where we would be spending the next four nights, which felt like a mini eternity given the hopping around we'd done so far. The addition of the Aussie stragglers meant they had a full house, since we were in addition to Uncle Keith, Keith's mum (our adopted Grandma for the visit), the cousins Phil, Tim, and Bridget, and of course Ruth and Uncle Tim (many Tims). That was the biggest collection of in-law-family I had met to date and it felt wonderful to be surrounded by people. And our thanks to all of the family for making us feel like we fit right in! Especially poor cousin Tim who gave us his room (known as the west wing) for us for the duration of the trip.

Heron House

I won't go through every little detail of our stay because it would become my most epic post yet. Let me just recap some highlights. That first night we had baked salmon and scalloped potatoes and quiche for the non-fishies and afterwards there was a cheeseboard! The board was laden with a local organic brie, a wonderfully sharp cheddar and a creamy, crumbly stilton that was just divine. The entire family teased me outrageously about my passion for said cheese!

The next day we went to London, but that trip deserves its own post. Christmas eve we slept until nearly lunchtime, recovering from a big day in London, our filthy colds and just traveling in general. I took a drive with Keith, Grandma and Bridge into a nearby village for supplies...well they went for supplies, I went for photos! The villages are gorgeous and while I should have been expecting them based on television exposure, it isn't quite the same as wandering one in real life. I loved the thatched roofs and the animals on top, also made out of thatch.






We also went for some good, get the blood flowing and let Jac take lots more photos kind of walks around Pavenham, including one where Jo, Bridge and I got gum-booted up (wellingtoned?) and hiked on out through the paddocks by the river (I want to call it the Greater Ooze but I know I didn't spell that right, and it definitely wasn't oozing!)

Jo and I looking like farmers!

Teasel

We also went for some lovely strolls around Pavenham with various family members. I was totally enamored with the houses and gardens and trees...I'd love to see some of them in the spring!

Pavenham

The church at Pavenham

I loved all the stone walls and conjoined houses

My absolute favorite tree

Other than walking we spent time just hanging out with the family, playing board games, watching the boys play football (and remembering not to call it soccer) and cooking/eating yummy food. Christmas eve we had a wonderful feast of gammon, which Ruthie had cooked in cider and all kinds of other yummy stuff then coated in mustard and spices and baked...oh wow was it ever good and so juicy! Then there was Christmas dinner...slow cooked turkey, three kinds of stuffing including a very old recipe for onion stuffing and a stunning sausage stuffing that I couldn't get enough of, roasted potato, sweet potato and parsnip, sprouts, pigs in blankets and Yorkshire puds!

Gammon dinner (sorry about the pic) including potato bake and delicious salad

Christmas dinner with all the good stuff!

I have to stop here apparently because it seems that I broke blogger, probably with the sheer size of this post.! More as soon as I can get it working again!!

England 08 in juicy detail - Part 1

Manchester and Leeds
Well I promised a more detailed write up of the trip so here we go. We arrived in Heathrow on the morning of the 19th and since the tailwind we had for the flight gave us a few extra hours we decided to splurge on a hearty breakfast in the airport. It was immediately apparent that we were in England, me with a huge plate of ham, eggs and chips and Jo with bangers and beans and eggs... wonderful! We quickly worked out the tube terminal transfer and made our way through to terminal 2 with almost no hitches. I say almost because the first train we hopped on never left the station, only shuddered a few times and went black. The official diagnosis was that the train was 'broken' so we hopped to the next platform and all was saved.

We took a one hour British Midlands flight to Manchester where we were met by Jo's Aunty Kate (her Dad's sister) and Uncle Chris, who kindly braved the cold, dark and wet Christmas traffic to collect us and drive us to Bolton, their home town just outside Manchester (a two hour round trip for them!) It was about 6pm and 2 degrees by the time we arrived at their house, where we promptly embraced both showers and food!

The next morning we were going to head out to a place called Styal Mill, but as it was back out in the same direction we had come, with most of the drive on the motorways, we changed plans and instead decided to go touring around Greater Manchester. It was cold but not too bad and a little drizzly, but luckily that was the only sign of rain we saw the entire trip!

It was an interesting drive from Bolton to Manchester, with Chris pointing out all the sites and explaining about the industrial history of the place while Jo and Kate chatted away in the back of the car. We stopped in Manchester and wandered a modern incarnation of a Roman road, overlooked by an enormous glass monstrosity known as Beetham Tower, currently the tallest building in Manchester and absolutely impossible to miss!

Beetham tower reflected in a canal

The Roman road...although I forget the actual name of the street!

Then we decided to mosy through MOSI, the Museum of Science and Industry, starting with a much needed coffee. The museum was wonderful! Ranging from trains to power generation to all kinds of communication, textile production and prehistoric computing. Kate and Chris were involved in getting the place started and knew a lot about it, so it was even better to wander with those possessing insider knowledge. The set of Coronation Street was just behind the museum too, but we didn't get to peek in there :)

One of the warehouses that make up the MOSI complex

Another coffee break later and we went to check out some canals and warehouse developments that were just gorgeous! Then is was off to the curry mile for lunch at a halal place called Saajan where the chicken kebabs were just so good!

Part of one of the canals

Later we went to the Salford Museum where they have the most wonderful section in the bottom level of the building that is set us as a tiny cobbled street full of Victorian era shops known as Lark Hill Place. My favorites were the toy shop, the tiny pub and the chemist and druggist! Oh and the mail box of course...



We headed home mid afternoon, partly because it was on the way to freezing but also because the cousins were coming down to have an early Christmas dinner with us! Robert from Sheffield where he is at Uni and Andrea and her partner Ronnie from Leeds. Dinner was wonderful and very traditional. Turkey with chestnut stuffing (so good), tiny sausages wrapped in bacon, sprouts, parsnip, carrots and roast spuds! All that was topped with gravy, bread sauce and apple cider jelly...oh boy!

The next morning Andrea and Ronnie drove us to their place in Morely, a little town outside of Leeds, and we were able to spend the next day and a half hanging out with them. They took us to the German Christmas market where they originally met, which was brilliant! There were rides and stalls selling all manner of Christmas trinkets and candy and food. We lunched on spicy sausages and potato pancakes made with finely grated spuds battered and fried! Perfect on a chilly day. We followed that down with hot chocolate or spiced wine and a brisk walk.




We also got to see the Town Hall where they are getting married later this year, and in the morning they took us for a walk around the reservoir lake in Tingley (what a brilliant name for a village). The light was perfect that morning and the lake and village were so pretty so of course I took a billion photos.




From Leeds we took the train to Bedford to meet Jo's Aunty Ruth (her mum's sister) and family. The train was a brilliant idea and much better (and less stressful) than us hiring a car. It meant we were both able to enjoy looking out the windows at the gorgeous countryside. The only down-side was the group of three obnoxious drunk folk in our carriage, but we survived with only the briefest of interactions and mostly they were just a minor annoyance. The train was surprisingly stress free and we only had one change, where we stopped at King's Cross and walked over the road to St Pancras to catch the final train to Bedford. I did have a rather shocking moment when I stepped out onto the street and realised I was standing in London, the real London!

More about that soon...

2009 - A wonderful time

I know I'm supposed to be posting the detailed account of our trip but I promise the first of those will be up tonight. We've been pretty busy since we got home. We went straight back to work, and we've both been trying to shake both jet lag and our colds, but making progress with both!

We totally piked on New Years Eve, making it to about 10.30 before dropping the ball, so to speak. We ushered in 2009 with a solid sleep, which seems like as good a start as any to me!

Yesterday was our 8 year anniversary (I know!) and we had a lovely time hanging out at home, getting the house in order and doing not much of anything. We didn't leave the house all day and it was just what we both needed. Back to work today though, but thankfully it is Friday :D I did spend most of the day painting, so I should have some pics up on the blog soon. It was great to be painting again but I got so absorbed that I'm completely paying for it today... my neck especially! Starting to wonder if I even moved. Ahh obsession...

Anyhow, Happy New Year everyone! Cheers!

We're home!

Just a quicky to say that we're back home and the flight was fine, no hitches, but the wait in Houston was the suck. Back to work today but I doubt it will be a full day! We both slept well so that should help.

The fridge is bare so I really need to address that tonight, and we have more washing than you can poke at stick at. However we are full of wonderful memories. Hoping we can make it back to England soon. Updates to follow as soon as we find our feet.

The wind up

Well it is our last day in Pavenham and we have had just the most wonderful time. Christmas was brilliant, really chilled out and so good to be with family. We took it easy in the morning then went to church with our adopted grandma, then Jo chatted to her folks in Australia while we sat around the tree opening presents. Lunch was a group effort (although Ruthie did the bulk of the hard work) and we ate at around 2. The food was brilliant, with a locally sourced turkey (slow cooked), pigs in blankets, three kinds of stuffing including a really old recipe for bread and onion stuffing, spuds, sweet potato, sprouts and bread sauce. I made the gravy but it wasn't tops because I didn't reduce it enough, but no dramas. We had grand plans for sweets but we were all so full that most of us opted to nap instead!

Today we've had more family to visit, another of Jo's aunt and uncles and another cousin, and we've all been hanging out and eating and going for brisk walks in the cold! Tonight we're heading to Elmswell (near Bury St Edmund's), our final destination for the trip really. We probably won't have the internets again until we get back to San Antonio on Monday night, so look out for some decent updates and pics after that. Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and sorry we couldn't really call or txt.
I promise I'll explain this picture later ;)

Christmas eve and some pics

Well it is Christmas eve here in Pavenham and the boys are outside playing football (soccer), grandma is in the lounge reading the paper and Jo, Tim, Ruth and Bridget are in the kitchen talking and cooking and listening to carols. I'm at the laptop blogging with a mug of mulled wine... perfect!

Yesterday we caught the train to London and had a wonderful day touring and shopping and such. We went to St Paul's Cathedral, Covent Garden (which I loved) and a lot of other monopoly board places full of shops and people and wonderful buildings. We caught the tube several times and it was surprisingly uncrowded... well it was crowded but not too badly. Ruth's friend Katie was our fabulous tour guide and she did a great job while we school of fished behind her (luckily she's a tall lass). In the evening we went to a little Italian restaurant for dinner, then across to the Apollo Victoria Theatre to see Wicked! It took a while to get going but it was a wonderful show, and yes I even cried at the end.

Today we had a wonderfully restful day, we slept in until 11! (we didn't get home until after midnight and Jo and I both have filthy colds so go easy on us) We just had an invigorating walk along the river and down the back of all the cottage gardens and I managed not to fall down once!

And now, some random photos!

Covent Garden from the opera house

The interior of the St Pancras station (we could have caught a train to Paris!)

Is the Doctor in?

A Manchester canal

St Paul's

Heron House

We're having a great time here in UK Tour 08. Had a fab time with the Richardson side of the rellies. We toured Greater Manchester with Jo's Aunt and Uncle, including lots of great industrial history and canal tours and such (I love a good bit of industry). I liked Manchester much more than I expected, especially considering how cold and wet it was! Then Saturday night the cousins came to join us and we had an early Christmas dinner with all the trimmings including chestnut stuffing and apple cider jelly.

Sunday we headed up to Leeds with Jo's cousin Andrea and her chosen other half Ronnie (great lad). They took us to a fabulous outdoor German Christmas market for shopping and sausages and potato pancakes, wonderful in the cold! We spent a lovely day and a bit with them, then this afternoon they got us on the train to Bedford via London. I'm so glad we chose 'rail tour 08' over hiring a car, oh boy. We were both able to enjoy looking out the window and checking out the gorgeous countryside, so wet and green and non-texas like! The only downside was sharing the carriage with a group of obnoxious drunk folk. We had to change trains at St Pancras and while staring at the board waiting for our platform number to show and handsome pixie-like fellow came over to us and said "Hello, I'm your uncle Tim" and he was! He had cleverly arranged to be on the same train so we traveled the rest of the way chatting to Tim, brilliant!

Arrived in Bedford at around 5pm (in the dark of course) and met Ruthie. it's hard to explain how good it is to meet people who you have been looking forward to meeting for so long and feel like you already know, and there were no letdowns (except maybe on their part but we'll see, I have time to charm them yet)

So now we are at Heron House, hanging out with all the family like this is something we've been doing for years. Heading to London tomorrow for shopping, sightseeing, dinner and a show! More news soon.

[Had to edit this for horrendous spelling errors!!]

Safe arrival

We have arrived, safe, warm and with bags. The flights were great and we even scored the whole row on the long flight, plus a strong tail wind meant the 9 hour flight was more like 7.5! Just outside of Manchester now with rellies on Jo's dad's side. Sightseeing tomorrow plus an early Christmas dinner, conplete with chestnut stuffing, yay!

More comprehensive update soon.

We're going to ENGLAND!

We're on our way! The usual last minute dramas (like me having an article due to the publisher...) but all is good. We managed to pack super light! Who says girls can't travel light :D

Anyhow, I'll try to post a few updates on the way and keep an eye out for some epic posts and pics when we return. We have phones on us but with international roaming please save calls for emergencies. We should be checking email fairly often though! Yay!!

Happy Christmas y'all.

 

Christmas is in the air...bbrrrrrrr!

I'm starting to feel like we're living in the middle of some governmental weather test site! Yesterday it was pushing 90 (30C) and today it's a degree or two above freezing!! However, the cold weather is helping us get prepared for Thursday, when Jo and I grab our swag and head to chilly England for Christmas! We're really looking forward to it, even if it is the coldest start to a winter they've had for a while (30 years apparently...just our luck). I'll finally get a chance to meet a whole lot of Jo's relatives (and they me, scary prospect), from both sides of her family, which will be fantastic :D

Aside from the rellies, I'm really looking forward to some good cheese! Sharp and crumbly cheeses are almost non existent here, and most of the blues are French and creamy (which isn't bad, but give me a good Stilton and I am putty in your hands) Other than my hope of cheese I have no expectations, I'm just looking forward to letting this trip unfold as it may, and enjoying every second of it! I know winter isn't the best time of year but I'm sure we'll be back, plus the idea of Christmas with family was too much to resist.

It has been a fairly full week or so leading up to leaving. We've been house-sitting/cat-sitting again, which has been great in terms of having a washing machine (yep, we still don't have one) but a bit tricky flitting between two houses. We've also had Christmas parties a gogo, including a fabulous Norwegian/Swedish celebration with lots of baking and glögg (similar to gluvine), a decoration swap with the girls and the big work Christmas party with lots of good food and dancing contests.


Somewhere between all that and the packing we managed to get our packages out to Oz, a new record this year I think! We also got so disgustingly far behind in sending out our Christmas cards that they might just arrive in time for the next one. But we did manage to get our tree (twig) up and adorned.

More conference sketches

I just scanned some more recent conference sketches. It's a shame that the only time I really get to draw now is when I'm at these things listening to people talk. I feel like I'm losing the knack. Anyway, I have a couple of projects planned that might get some of the discipline back, we'll see!


Who is the crazy person who decides to start conference sessions at 7.30am??

Morel and porcini mushroom pasta

I realise I promised I'd start putting recipes on here rather than just waffling on about food in general and I totally forgot.

Lorena furnished us with a couple of packets of very good looking dried morels, so I promised to cook her some pasta. I rehydrated them in water and a touch of soy in the fridge for a day, then kept the soaking liquid and gave the mushrooms a really good wash (morels tend to be on the gritty side because of that puckering on the outside)

I also had half a pack of porcini mushrooms in the freezer, maybe 8 caps and stems, so I decided to chop them up fairly finely to make sure the dish had plenty of that divine, rich mushroom flavour that will always remind me of Rome.

The big ones are the porcini, the little wrinkled ones are the morels and the greenery is fresh tarragon from our tiny deck garden!

Recipe as follows:
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
Half a cup of mushroom soaking liquid, finely strained
Half a cup of white wine (or vegie stock)
Half a cup of cream
Salt and pepper to season as required
Finely chopped tarragon and Italian parsley to garnish

Sweat the garlic and a little salt in the olive oil for a minute (before the garlic browns). Add the soaking liquid and the wine and let it reduce by half. Add the cream and mushrooms, stirring well to prevent curdling. Add pepper to taste and allow to simmer until the cream starts to thicken. Toss in some pasta and the fresh herbs, stirring well to coat the pasta, then serve! Enjoy :D

Deep in the Heart of a Texan part 2

Ok, a update on Tom. Like I said, he's one tough bugger. Tom is home (as of Saturday would you believe) and now he just has to rest and contemplate :D

It seems amazing to me how far they have come with bypass surgery, and that you can have your ribs cracked open, your legs stripped of veins and your heart manhandled and be home within days. Or maybe that's just Tom, remember what I said about high achieving. Anyway, keep up the happy thoughts and thanks to everyone who sent best wishes.

Deep in the Heart of a Texan

My dear friend Tom had six bypass surgery on his heart the other day, yeah six! I don't even know what that's called and I didn't know there could be so many things to bypass but he sure is a high achiever so why not this time too. Anyway, he is doing well and if he scares me like that again it might be me he wants to bypass...

So please, if you have any spare thoughts or prayers, swing them his way. Lord knows he could use them regardless...

The prairie sky is wide and high...

...deep in the heart of Texas.

Random shot of twilight from work.