Overheard

"Joan, feel like a cuppa?  I'll put the kettle on."

It's bit brisk here today.  I think I'll put the kettle on myself.

Punting on the Cam

Today we went punting on the Cam. For the uninitiated:

(After our trip, someone said "I really enjoyed the punt ride today," and Colin responded "I really liked the boat ride!")

The Cam is the river for which the town of Cambridge is named. We started our tour at Magdalen bridge, which is the site of the first Cam bridge, back in the 800's, we were told.

We lazed southward to the end of the city centre, and then back again. We did not do the punting ourselves, but that's a popular thing to do. Also risky: novices are known to lose their balance and fall in the river! We saw the beautiful backs of several colleges, including St. John's:

Going past it, we went under the bridge we had stood on a few weeks ago when touring the college.

We also came upon Trinity College, which we learned is the richest college in Cambridge. It has roughly 2.4 billion pounds in assets. There are less than 2000 students in attendance, so that's a pretty good per capita money to student ratio! Also, it turns out that 31 Nobel prize winners have come from Trinity. Only three countries can boast more.

This is the Trinity College bridge that I often ride over on the way to Microsoft and the Computer Lab (I ride there coming from the left, and ride home coming from the right). The red brick building behind the bridge is meant to look like a ship coming into port.

King's college, which we also visited before, came next. Here's the King's college chapel that we spent much time in:

There were several other colleges we passed before getting to the end, but my camera battery died. Sigh. It was a lovely day for a lovely ride. We hope to try again, but next time I'd like to do the poling!

Ely Cathedral

Last Sunday we joined a couple of friends, Gareth and Jess, on a roughly 18-mile train ride to Ely, to see the Ely Cathedral. Ely sits on the river Cam, the same river that runs through Cambridge.

Ely is a small town (pop. 12,000) in a remote place in the middle of the fens, so one immediately wonders why there is such a large, ornate Cathedral there. Turns out the Cathedral came first.

Ely was the site of a monastery founded by St. Etheldreda in 672. This monastery operated modestly until 870 when it was destroyed by Vikings.

After nearly 100 years, Benedictines took up the place, and by the year 1000 Ely was a flourishing market town with a powerful abbey. The Cathedral was started in 1080 by the Abbot Simeon, and work continued for three centuries.

Work began at the east end with the choir (the east end is the very right of the first photo at the top of this post). The above photo was taken, facing east, from within the octagonal tower toward the center of the cathedral (the nave is behind me). The tower construction began in 1322 when the old tower collapsed.

The upper part of the octagon is called "the lantern." Each corner of the lantern's octagon, on the interior, is a single 60-foot beam constructed from a single English oak tree, and the fan moulding beneath is made of Baltic pine. The lantern also contains copious amounts of lead and glass and weighs two hundred tons. It is supported by a "hammerbeam," a device apparently invented here and used in countless medieval churches elsewhere.

The Cathedral continues westward to the nave (I'm facing toward the choir in the above photo, with the nave behind me), and the nave itself ends at the second, taller tower.

Though construction of the nave likely took 60 or 70 years, it is remarkably consistent. We heard that the artist who painted the ceiling died halfway through, from licking his fingers which were coated with lead paint. We tried to figure out where the apprentice started work after the master died, but it wasn't obvious.

The entire cathedral is incredibly ornate, down to the minutest detail. Here is a bit of carving from the altar at the east end of the church, in the choir:

The shrine of St. Etheldreda (near the statue shown earlier) is in the area behind the altar. There are lots of ornate tombs of past bishops throughout the choir area (in the mid-1500's, during the Reformation, the monastery was taken over by the crown and made King's New College, and the Cathedral was assumed by the Church of England, as it remains today).

Ely was also home to Oliver Cromwell and his family for a time.

A beautiful place, and a fun trip.

Learning New Vocabulary

We've collected a bunch of English vocabulary that was new to us---sometimes new words, sometimes old words but different uses.

Everyone (parents and children) contributed to the list. There are others that we know but we haven't really used (thankfully, in the case of "sacked" for "fired"!), so we've left them off.

Add your own!

Food
jelly=jello
biscuit=cookie
chips=french fries
crisps=(potato) chips
rashers=bacon
courgettes=zucchini
aubergine=eggplant
coriander=cilantro
turtle beans=black beans
pudding=dessert (sometimes; pudding is used in a variety of ways referring to foods)
school dinners=hot lunch

Household
rubbish=trash
plaster=band aid (bandage)
cling film=plastic wrap
bin=can (e.g., rubbish bin instead of trash can)

School
maths=math
spellings=spelling
English=language arts
head teacher=principal
rubber=eraser

Clothing
wellies=rain boots (short for "wellingtons")
jumper=(nice) sweatshirt
vest=tank-top undershirt
plimsoles=lightweight, slip-on, flat-soled shoes

Transportation
lorry=truck
boot=trunk (of your car)
cycling=biking

Others
cross=disappointed
noughts and crosses=x's and o's (naught=0, cross=x)
toilets=restrooms
take away=carry out
football=soccer
holiday=vacation
pancake day=mardi gras
Mum=Mom
fringe=bangs (noun---part of your hairstyle)

What Shall I Do?

Isn't this what I have waited 8 years for?

I find myself in the enviable position of being in Cambridge (England, not Maryland!), unemployed but fully funded, with all three children in school all day.  I have -- gasp -- time to myself!

What shall I do?

At first, my newfound freedom left me feeling a bit guilty. With fewer commitments and a smaller house, less is actually required of me here than in Maryland. But I am quite unaccustomed to not being in demand. The first day that I had the opportunity to wander the quaint City Centre streets and shops, I was ill at ease.  I kept mentally checking that I had no outstanding responsibilities. Children safe and cared for? Check. Cell phone at the ready? Check. Not supposed to be somewhere else? Check. Food available for the next meal? Check. Household not falling apart from neglect? Check. Well then, what shall I do?

It's been a fun, easy question to answer. I've been exploring the neighborhoods, checking out the old buildings and the winding streets. I'm browsing in tiny, crowded stores, slowly and without fear. I've been to a free lunchtime concert featuring British violinist Jennifer Pike.  I'm practicing riding my bike. I'm people watching. I'm nursing cappuccino while composing blog posts. I'm sampling new foods. I'm researching opportunities for weekend family activities. I'm reading British writers (this month Ian McEwan and Charles Dickens). I'm applying to do some volunteer work at the schools. And of course laundry management is always on my mind -- I have to be vigilant about the weather and drying clothes outside!  One thing I'm not really doing is exercising, but any given day brings a few miles of walking or biking, so I'm not stressing about that.

So lest you think I might be bored with no baby at home to keep me busy, I'm here to tell you that this sabbatical year is going great. So glad that Mike could work out this opportunity for me to change my routines and find new and stimulating experiences to inspire me when I get back to my old job. A great guy he is for sacrificing some time in Maryland for me to hang out in this old English city for a while. Got to make the best of it.

What shall I do next?

Marmite

If you're British you know what Marmite is. It's a spread with a strong, salty flavour that is often served on toast, with butter. A yeast extract, Marmite is by-product from the process of brewing beer. I've read that Marmite is to British children as peanut butter is to American children, and Nutella is to French children: it's part of the fabric of life.

When I mentioned this assessment to my friend Gavin, he told me that he and his children absolutely love Marmite, but that his (Slovenian) wife Mateja absolutely hates it. This is apparently not an uncommon assessment -- Marmite's slogan is Love it or hate it. They get pretty creative in their adverts, as with http://www.visit4info.com/advert/Marmite-Kiss-Marmite/29606.

Gavin was really curious to see whether we might like Marmite, so a week or so back he bought us a small bottle (photo above). The next evening, as we sat down to dinner, Kim put out a piece of buttered toast, with a thin layer of Marmite spread on top, sliced into four triangles.

First up: me. I like it! Very salty, strong flavour.

Next up: Tim. He takes a bite, contemplates, and says "Tastes like soy sauce." I think that's a fair assessment (this observation is also mentioned in the Wikipedia article). He takes a couple of more bites but does not finish.

Next up: Kim. She is skeptical, but takes an aggressive chomp. (She is committed to showing Anne that trying a new food should be a positive experience.) But then: Eeeww! She contorts her face and sets it down. A decided vote against.

At this point, Anne and Colin are scared off, so they don't even try it.

So in total, we have about 1.5 votes in favor, 1 vote against, and 2 abstaining.

Since the taste test, I've been the only one to eat the stuff. Yum!

A trip to the Tower

On Friday evening we decided to spend Saturday visiting the Tower of London.

We took a coach to London (much cheaper than the train), which should have taken us straight there, but roadwork confused our driver, and he skipped our stop at Tower Hill. Instead he dropped us off at Kings X station, from which we took the Underground to Tower Hill. The trip had been irritating enough that I'd begun to think we shouldn't have bothered, but then we emerged from the station to see the Tower looming in front of us. My anxiety was replaced with awe at the sight of its northern face (the picture doesn't do it justice).

Then we wandered around ...

... toward the entry gate, on the southwestern side.
(The green grass is where the moat once was - they have lovely lawns in England!)

According to the Tower web site:

In the early 1080s, William the Conqueror began to build a massive stone tower at the centre of his London fortress. Nothing like it had ever been seen before.

Through the centuries that followed, successive monarchs added to the fortifications. This short history charts the different stages of its construction and explains its role as fortress, palace and prison.

The central tower he started building, called the White Tower, is well within the outermost walls there today, as can be seen on this map (you can see the entry gate at the bottom of the map, and the tower is the big building in the middle).

In the photo, the wall to the lower left is an earlier Norman ruin that was used as part of other construction. Across the street from the Tower is piece of a Roman wall. Reduce, reuse, recycle, don't you know! (And "restore;" notice the right side of the White Tower is covered with white plastic, to cover up a renovation.)

Everyone had a good time. The boys particular enjoyed the hands-on weapons display.


We also ran into some employees dressed in 12th century attire. They explained to us the process of how a boy became a knight, starting as a page. "Sir John" used Tim to demonstrate some of the page's functions, such as carrying the knight's weapons.


Notice in the foreground the gold noggin. That's Colin wearing his knight costume that Kim made him for Halloween last year. It was his idea to bring it but he was too shy to wear it at first. After Sir John seemed to be a fun guy, Colin put it on. Sir John immediately started calling him "Sir Colin" and observed that he must be a very rich knight to have gold mail, as most knights could only afford steel!

After seeing a lot (but less than we should have, if not for the bus mishap) we caught our ride home without a hitch. Our first visit to an English castle!