First I have to acknowledge these elusive, and nearly ridiculous by now, 3rd and 4th "update from England" posts that have yet to be published. Elusive because, well, I've been making allusion to them for nigh on a year+ now. Ridiculous because I somehow still believe that someone out there, somewhere, gives a holy hootenanny. (<- that last one for my friends in Argentina who seem to derive some enjoyment from uncommon American English colloquialisms. Espero che disfruten el post!)
I remain eternally optimistic. I have plenty of material. Plenty of material.
One way to shake myself out of this lackadaisical conundrum is to simply list out all of the places we've traveled to here in the UK. In this way, perhaps, one or another locale piques your interest and you will come a'running back for more -- or you may feel the urge to post a comment asking whether the settlement in Bath was in fact occupied by those industrious Romans even earlier than 1AD. Why dost think I should possess of such chrestomathy?
Thus, here is the geographically organized list of our Great Britain family travel days out. Thereafter I may actually get around to telling you about this Big Training Day on my road to the London Marathon.
Bath
Brighton
Bristol
Bornemouth
Weymouth
Portsmouth
(This reads a bit like the Shipping Forecast, doesn't it? Enjoy the meditative rhythm.)
Oxford
Birmingham
Manchester
Liverpool
Hayfield (hello relatives!)
Edingburgh (Scotland)
Perth (Scotland)
Pitlochry (Scotland)
Inverness (Scotland)
Warwick (impressive castle grounds)
Every castle, Historical Trust site and museum in Surrey county (Okay, that is not true. But you might be amazed at the sheer number of such destinations in this one county alone. We aim to visit a significant portion however.)
So you can see, there is a fair helping of pent up travel angst chomping at the proverbial bit.
----
Now on to more substantive matters: fundraising. That's right, I need your help. And that of your friends too. A couple weeks ago I completed the Brighton Half Marathon (bib 2005) as the first in a number of self-prescribed "official" runs leading up to the London Marathon. I ran this same course in 2010 and swore that I would never do it again; the rain and wind and cold were so substantial. But weather be damned, I signed up for it again and actually had a great time. I ran with a friend, Shane, with whom I also ran the previous year. I did not fundraise for this run simply because I need to keep focused on my still substantial Children's Trust fundraiser goal. It could also be said that another reason for not fundraising was due to the fact that Shane and I decided to contribute to the local Brighton economy by donating a hefty sum to the oh-so-efficient Ethical Parking Management bureau. Egad.
The course this year was really enjoyable. It snaked up along the coast to the east of Brighton on Marine Drive. Along the way it made a steady incline along the ocean front for about 3 miles until turning back on itself to head back towards Brighton Pier. From there the course continued a further 3 miles west towards the neighboring town of Hove. At all times the sea was either on your right or your left or your right again. Now, provided there is no gale force wind pummelling you like a boxer from the left then the right and then the left again, you're fine. Body blow! Body blow! Otherwise, you would be better equipped for a day of windsurfing than, pfooey, this running business.
In any case, it was a successful day with no injuries and a good dose of Brighton scenery taken in. My next big run is the Reading Half Marathon in a couple of weeks. I look forward to running with some of the team from the Children's Trust. They tell me that a number of us are signed up.
I also hope to have passed the GBP 1000 mark by that date. I'm very grateful to those who have already sponsored me - every amount brings me one step closer to the goal. And I've even received donations from the US. So indeed you can donate in dollars without much hassle. Fantastic.
2011-01-25
Training day
Today I took place in a training run with my 2011 London Marathon team representing The Children's Trust. The Children's Trust is a non-profit group that provides care, education, therapy and rehabilitation to children with multiple disabilities, complex health needs and acquired brain injurys. It's main offices are in Tadworth which is about 20 miles due East of Woking, also in Surrey county. Tadworth, apparently, is well-known for being home to The Children's Trust: make a web search for Tadworth and the first result, at the time of this writing, isn't the Tadworth wiki or a real estate site or a tourism page, but rather the Children's Trust web site.
The Trust occupies some 24 acres of land variously interspersed with buildings including rehab centers, medical treatments wards, school/education buildings, lodging and others. They form a circumference around a red brick 17th century mansion that sports a proud front lawn and venerable shady trees. Inside is a grand two story atrium lined with refined (but not ostentatious) wood paneling. The white ceiling is artfully decorated with raised floral patterns. The administrative arm of the Trust is housed there and that is where we, the marathon team, were warmly welcomed to tune of tea, biscuits, fruit, juice and other goodies. We received our jerseys and our fundraising materials and got a bit of history about our role in this year's fundraising. After the run we would have a full tour of the grounds, and maybe I'll come back to that later, but for now, more about the group itself and the jog...
Our training group consisted of about 25 twenty to fifty-somethings. Apparently we represented about half of those who expressed interest in doing today's training run (a 50% success rate is probably not all that bad considering that the signup was a simple tick of a box completed over 2 months ago during the first registration). I recon that the overall team for the Trust numbers around 100 (to be confirmed) -- on this point, too, I may expound and wax lyrical, for the whole deal of awarding a certain number of runner slots to declared charities on particular days by the London Marathon organizers is quite interesting in it's own right. Suffice it to say here that the London Marathon is the premier fundraising event in the UK and is, by some reports, "the largest annual fundraising event on the planet" [source]. Wow. Thus, if we each strive to raise at least £2000 (~$3200) then that nets the Trust with (well, you do the simple math - I'm sure there are many other numbers to add and subtract from this figure, but we'll just use it for illustrative purposes) £200,000. Anyway you slice it, not bad. And not that this post is a pitch, but please do support my fundraising effort if you feel the spirit move you.
Back to our training plan. We were given the option to set off for either a six or twelve mile jog. The route (pronounced in the UK as "root" - yes it's taken me this long to finally remember which variation to use for what expression. For instance, in the UK the only use for that other thing the goes by same spelling is pronounced as "rowt"; as in the person who directs parcels or referring to the electronic thing you connect to your cable modem.) made a full loop, so you could run it either once or twice depending upon your goal. Now, at this point I have to mention that I had bicycled from my home in Woking in the wee hours of the morning over to Tadworth because on a Sunday morning there aren't as many trains running, fewer still that travel between two suburbs equidistant from London city center - that is, one can easily travel, as with a hub and spoke, in and out of London, but between spokes take considerably longer. I don't have a UK drivers license (aka "driver licence") so I reasoned that it would be a great excuse for a "nice tour of Surrey county up close". Indeed the bucolic hills sported many horse stables, hazy glens, and a look at some new town centers I hadn't seen before. I found the route between Leatherhead (What a name! Don't you agree?) and Tadworth to be particularly windy and hilly. So anyway, when I finally arrived to the Trust at 8:26 for the 8:30 jog, I was breathing pretty hard and having second thoughts about the twelve miler.
Never fear! Peer pressure is here! Straightaway we gathered outside in the parking lot where we received the obligatory pep talk. I heard announced: "Everyone who wants to run 12 miles go to this (-->) side of the lot, and everyone who wants to run 6 miles go to that (<-- 20="" a="" adjoining="" an="" and="" arch="" chat="" crown="" few="" folks="" greater="" guess="" have="" hills="" href="http://www.epsomderby.co.uk/" i="" in="" instant="" into="" it="" jewel="" just="" ll="" made="" meet="" neighborhoods="" of="" on="" opportunity="" our="" people="" run="" running.="" s="" side.="" side="" small="" some="" sorted="" target="_blank" the="" then.="" then="" there="" this="" through="" to="" train="" under="" up="" way="" we="" were="" while="" whilst="" whoosh.="" with="">Epsom Downs Racecourse. What a fantastic place to jog/walk/stroll! We galumphed through the moist ground past the grandstands generally making our way around the course. There were plenty of other joggers, walkers, and, oh yes, a few horses calmly chewing their cud. Probably thinking to themselves "Silly humans. Why are they all walking in different directions on our gorgeous course? Don't they know they should be following the white railing all the way around the nice oval?" After Epsom we engaged a fairly long (+1 mile?) and steady hill that would eventually crest and allow us to coast at an even pace back down to the Trust. A right nice route indeed and one that certainly contributed to my fondness for jogging in Surrey.
But back to Epsom Downs for a moment. There are two overriding observations to share about this historic track. First, it's big. Among the UK's biggest at 1.5 miles, or 12 furlongs. Second, it's not ... flat. Huh? Who ever heard of a non flat oval racetrack that wasn't obviously some kind of steeplechase? Indeed this track undulates and banks - and it wasn't even a complete oval but rather, perhaps as a pun only appreciated by those flying overhead, horseshoe shaped. To make mattes worse, both the start and the finish are uphill. Doesn't it make you fatigued just thinking about it? For this reason, I suspected, and my hunch appears to be right, that Epsom Downs is among the tougher courses of this distance anywhere. Finally, I'll note that Epsom is the second race among the British Triple Crown.
At the conclusion of the jog, and after having wound down by chatting with some folks about the Trust and fundraising and "I prefer my glucosamine with a little aloe but only after drinking cherry juice on the morning of a sub 1500 calorie day", I decided it was time to shove off. I stuffed a couple bagels and bananas down my gullet, hopped on my trusty Brompton and made my way back to Woking feeling downright optimistic that the forthcoming marathon would be a memorable and rewarding experience. In the interest of full disclosure, I can't say that I rode all the way back. I picked up a train about halfway back because the weather just wasn't warming up.
Now where to run next...
The Trust occupies some 24 acres of land variously interspersed with buildings including rehab centers, medical treatments wards, school/education buildings, lodging and others. They form a circumference around a red brick 17th century mansion that sports a proud front lawn and venerable shady trees. Inside is a grand two story atrium lined with refined (but not ostentatious) wood paneling. The white ceiling is artfully decorated with raised floral patterns. The administrative arm of the Trust is housed there and that is where we, the marathon team, were warmly welcomed to tune of tea, biscuits, fruit, juice and other goodies. We received our jerseys and our fundraising materials and got a bit of history about our role in this year's fundraising. After the run we would have a full tour of the grounds, and maybe I'll come back to that later, but for now, more about the group itself and the jog...
Our training group consisted of about 25 twenty to fifty-somethings. Apparently we represented about half of those who expressed interest in doing today's training run (a 50% success rate is probably not all that bad considering that the signup was a simple tick of a box completed over 2 months ago during the first registration). I recon that the overall team for the Trust numbers around 100 (to be confirmed) -- on this point, too, I may expound and wax lyrical, for the whole deal of awarding a certain number of runner slots to declared charities on particular days by the London Marathon organizers is quite interesting in it's own right. Suffice it to say here that the London Marathon is the premier fundraising event in the UK and is, by some reports, "the largest annual fundraising event on the planet" [source]. Wow. Thus, if we each strive to raise at least £2000 (~$3200) then that nets the Trust with (well, you do the simple math - I'm sure there are many other numbers to add and subtract from this figure, but we'll just use it for illustrative purposes) £200,000. Anyway you slice it, not bad. And not that this post is a pitch, but please do support my fundraising effort if you feel the spirit move you.
Back to our training plan. We were given the option to set off for either a six or twelve mile jog. The route (pronounced in the UK as "root" - yes it's taken me this long to finally remember which variation to use for what expression. For instance, in the UK the only use for that other thing the goes by same spelling is pronounced as "rowt"; as in the person who directs parcels or referring to the electronic thing you connect to your cable modem.) made a full loop, so you could run it either once or twice depending upon your goal. Now, at this point I have to mention that I had bicycled from my home in Woking in the wee hours of the morning over to Tadworth because on a Sunday morning there aren't as many trains running, fewer still that travel between two suburbs equidistant from London city center - that is, one can easily travel, as with a hub and spoke, in and out of London, but between spokes take considerably longer. I don't have a UK drivers license (aka "driver licence") so I reasoned that it would be a great excuse for a "nice tour of Surrey county up close". Indeed the bucolic hills sported many horse stables, hazy glens, and a look at some new town centers I hadn't seen before. I found the route between Leatherhead (What a name! Don't you agree?) and Tadworth to be particularly windy and hilly. So anyway, when I finally arrived to the Trust at 8:26 for the 8:30 jog, I was breathing pretty hard and having second thoughts about the twelve miler.
Never fear! Peer pressure is here! Straightaway we gathered outside in the parking lot where we received the obligatory pep talk. I heard announced: "Everyone who wants to run 12 miles go to this (-->) side of the lot, and everyone who wants to run 6 miles go to that (<-- 20="" a="" adjoining="" an="" and="" arch="" chat="" crown="" few="" folks="" greater="" guess="" have="" hills="" href="http://www.epsomderby.co.uk/" i="" in="" instant="" into="" it="" jewel="" just="" ll="" made="" meet="" neighborhoods="" of="" on="" opportunity="" our="" people="" run="" running.="" s="" side.="" side="" small="" some="" sorted="" target="_blank" the="" then.="" then="" there="" this="" through="" to="" train="" under="" up="" way="" we="" were="" while="" whilst="" whoosh.="" with="">Epsom Downs Racecourse. What a fantastic place to jog/walk/stroll! We galumphed through the moist ground past the grandstands generally making our way around the course. There were plenty of other joggers, walkers, and, oh yes, a few horses calmly chewing their cud. Probably thinking to themselves "Silly humans. Why are they all walking in different directions on our gorgeous course? Don't they know they should be following the white railing all the way around the nice oval?" After Epsom we engaged a fairly long (+1 mile?) and steady hill that would eventually crest and allow us to coast at an even pace back down to the Trust. A right nice route indeed and one that certainly contributed to my fondness for jogging in Surrey.
But back to Epsom Downs for a moment. There are two overriding observations to share about this historic track. First, it's big. Among the UK's biggest at 1.5 miles, or 12 furlongs. Second, it's not ... flat. Huh? Who ever heard of a non flat oval racetrack that wasn't obviously some kind of steeplechase? Indeed this track undulates and banks - and it wasn't even a complete oval but rather, perhaps as a pun only appreciated by those flying overhead, horseshoe shaped. To make mattes worse, both the start and the finish are uphill. Doesn't it make you fatigued just thinking about it? For this reason, I suspected, and my hunch appears to be right, that Epsom Downs is among the tougher courses of this distance anywhere. Finally, I'll note that Epsom is the second race among the British Triple Crown.
At the conclusion of the jog, and after having wound down by chatting with some folks about the Trust and fundraising and "I prefer my glucosamine with a little aloe but only after drinking cherry juice on the morning of a sub 1500 calorie day", I decided it was time to shove off. I stuffed a couple bagels and bananas down my gullet, hopped on my trusty Brompton and made my way back to Woking feeling downright optimistic that the forthcoming marathon would be a memorable and rewarding experience. In the interest of full disclosure, I can't say that I rode all the way back. I picked up a train about halfway back because the weather just wasn't warming up.
Now where to run next...
2010-12-31
52 in Slovakia - footnotes about Slovak culture
I've recently come across a blog (actually, I was sought out; I am one of the website administrators for the Colorado Slovaks yahoo group -- not to be mistaken with the official Colorado Slovak Society website) that I'd like to make mention of here. While the topic matter of the blog is not about my family's experiences living near London or observations about England, it is relevant in that it is written from the point of view of an American living abroad. And the location, Slovakia, scores points for me with respect to my own Slovak family heritage.
52 Weeks In Slovakia is by Allan Stevo, a writer from Chicago living in Bratislava. He chronicles traditions taking place in Slovak culture, giving a bit of history, color and commentary to the oft under-appreciated region. Much is said on the topics of Christmas, food, dancing and music, just to name a few. I fancy him an aspiring Bill Bryson-esque character. Below is an excerpt from his "about the blog" page.
But first, let me wish everyone out there, especially family and friends, a very happy and healthy new year. Can you believe it? We're well into a new decade already. I'm happy to be out of the "naughties".
Each time I read an un-insightful and tiring article about Slovakia with dateline Prague or Vienna, or each time I read an article by an overly critical “expert” who was “just passing through,” my desire to put together a weekly column like this was strengthened. In that respect, this website is the realization of a mutli-year dream.
Each week, something fantastic happens with a regularity in Bratislava and in many cases throughout Slovakia. On this website, I will spend 52 weeks highlighting some of those regular traditions that take place in Slovak culture. I will try to avoid the cheap joke – they’re always easy to make, especially after a person has had a bad day in a foreign culture. Instead I will try my best to approach this topic with a desire to understand.
Please make your way through some of the topics that might be interesting to you, and let me know what you think. I welcome you to sign up for the email newsletter on the right to learn more or to visit my own homepage www.allanstevo.com to read more of my writing. ...
Lastly, a few books on the topic of Slovakia that you might enjoy:
52 Weeks In Slovakia is by Allan Stevo, a writer from Chicago living in Bratislava. He chronicles traditions taking place in Slovak culture, giving a bit of history, color and commentary to the oft under-appreciated region. Much is said on the topics of Christmas, food, dancing and music, just to name a few. I fancy him an aspiring Bill Bryson-esque character. Below is an excerpt from his "about the blog" page.
But first, let me wish everyone out there, especially family and friends, a very happy and healthy new year. Can you believe it? We're well into a new decade already. I'm happy to be out of the "naughties".
Each time I read an un-insightful and tiring article about Slovakia with dateline Prague or Vienna, or each time I read an article by an overly critical “expert” who was “just passing through,” my desire to put together a weekly column like this was strengthened. In that respect, this website is the realization of a mutli-year dream.
Each week, something fantastic happens with a regularity in Bratislava and in many cases throughout Slovakia. On this website, I will spend 52 weeks highlighting some of those regular traditions that take place in Slovak culture. I will try to avoid the cheap joke – they’re always easy to make, especially after a person has had a bad day in a foreign culture. Instead I will try my best to approach this topic with a desire to understand.
Please make your way through some of the topics that might be interesting to you, and let me know what you think. I welcome you to sign up for the email newsletter on the right to learn more or to visit my own homepage www.allanstevo.com to read more of my writing. ...
Lastly, a few books on the topic of Slovakia that you might enjoy:
2010-07-02
Family Picnic
Today and tomorrow marks the celebration of the annual Trojanovich family picnic in Calhan, CO (well, in recent years, held at the American Legion hall in nearby Ramah). Picture yourself and a hundred of your close, somewhat distant, and "i had nooo idea we were even related!" kinfolk gathered together for the weekend. Sometimes there's a game of horseshoes going on, sometimes guitar and singing, crafts, tug-o-war, a hay ride, a Christian devotional, and of course, plenty of eating and socializing. As long as I can remember, we've been having these picnics -- we've been having them a lot longer than I have years on this planet. These family picnics were always a happy and special event for my dad. There you would find him in his element. Time to step away from the computer; do some manual labor; catch up with family. He was always one of the organizers, very involved.
Since Erin and I and the girls can't make the trip home to Colorado from London this year, we decided to make a Google Earth video instead that links, figuratively, Calhan with London. It's not a video in the sense of getting to stick your tongue out at the video camera and sneak rabbit ears onto the person next to you. Rather, it is a "geo tour" that zooms from place to place. If you'd like to see it, and learn about some of the places we've traveled to in England so far, have a gander (18M .kmz file, install Google Earth if needed).
Thank goodness for technology (and Google)! The geo tour condenses nearly all of our tours around the UK in the span of just a few minutes. The original plan was to blog about each one of them separately. We may still do that, but events of the current day (World Cup, my new Brompton, future travel plans, a bump on the way!!) make for pretty interesting fodder in their own right.
So for now, we bid adieu and wish a Happy Fourth of our July our countrymen, from the land of our colonial forebearers.
2009-05-26
Blogging Baba
So I've come across a relative's blog here: http://blogginbaba.thewachs.com and I'm thoroughly enjoying reading the musings of baba ("grandma" in Slovak).
This is clearly someone who loves to write, has many interesting topics to write about, and shares some common interests: family, kids, life, death, songs and music, spontanous-stream-of consciousness-writing (ahem, I guess that last one characterizes a fair number of blogs these days). Have a gander, maybe you'll learn a new song.
Meanwhile, our dawdling, deleterious delay continues for the third third installment of "From Russia With Love", er, England. "From England With Love". We hope you're getting your reading glasses and cuppa' ready for this one.
This is clearly someone who loves to write, has many interesting topics to write about, and shares some common interests: family, kids, life, death, songs and music, spontanous-stream-of consciousness-writing (ahem, I guess that last one characterizes a fair number of blogs these days). Have a gander, maybe you'll learn a new song.
Meanwhile, our dawdling, deleterious delay continues for the third third installment of "From Russia With Love", er, England. "From England With Love". We hope you're getting your reading glasses and cuppa' ready for this one.
2009-04-20
Third Letter From England... coming
Family, Friends-
We are quite delinquent in posting our 3rd (and 4th for that matter) letters.
If you're just chomping at the bit to hear more about biscuits, tea, the M4 and M25, HRH, castles and the like, stay tuned, all will eventually be posted.
We recently celebrated the life of my dad, William Trojanovich, back in Boulder, Colorado. His obituary was posted in the Ranchland News, the local newspaper of Calhan, CO and surrounding area, as well as in the Daily Camera in Boulder, CO [here]. He will be sorely, sorely missed.
Why do I otherwise sound a measure chipper in this post? It's because I am happy that dad is now at peace. While I can't put into words how much he means to me or how much I miss him, I am comforted knowing that he is in a better place and that his spirit lives on. His illness got worse and worse and rendered him disoriented and completely incapacitated.
The family thanks you for all of the letters, emails, phone calls, contributions, flowers, in-person visits and thoughtful words at the service. Your sentiments and condolences were heart felt and very much appreciated. Dad's "extended family" was substantial: he touched people as far afield as Slovakia, Germany and the UK, not to mention many parts of the US. And from as diverse fields as the US Army, private pilots, computing associations, bee keeping, farming, family heritage, Boy Scouts of America, church community and more. His roots are strong and they run deep.
If you would like to contribute to his memorial, our family has designated these three:
Calhan School Academics
Attn: Carol/William Trojanovich Memorial
P.O. Box 800
Calhan CO 80808
USA
University of Colorado Foundation
C/O Dr. William Tse
MDS/Adult and Childhood Cancer Fund
4740 Walnut St.
Boulder CO 80301
USA
MacKenzie Lectureship Series
First Congregational Church of Boulder
1128 Pine St.
Boulder CO 80302
USA
We are quite delinquent in posting our 3rd (and 4th for that matter) letters.
If you're just chomping at the bit to hear more about biscuits, tea, the M4 and M25, HRH, castles and the like, stay tuned, all will eventually be posted.
We recently celebrated the life of my dad, William Trojanovich, back in Boulder, Colorado. His obituary was posted in the Ranchland News, the local newspaper of Calhan, CO and surrounding area, as well as in the Daily Camera in Boulder, CO [here]. He will be sorely, sorely missed.
Why do I otherwise sound a measure chipper in this post? It's because I am happy that dad is now at peace. While I can't put into words how much he means to me or how much I miss him, I am comforted knowing that he is in a better place and that his spirit lives on. His illness got worse and worse and rendered him disoriented and completely incapacitated.
The family thanks you for all of the letters, emails, phone calls, contributions, flowers, in-person visits and thoughtful words at the service. Your sentiments and condolences were heart felt and very much appreciated. Dad's "extended family" was substantial: he touched people as far afield as Slovakia, Germany and the UK, not to mention many parts of the US. And from as diverse fields as the US Army, private pilots, computing associations, bee keeping, farming, family heritage, Boy Scouts of America, church community and more. His roots are strong and they run deep.
If you would like to contribute to his memorial, our family has designated these three:
Calhan School Academics
Attn: Carol/William Trojanovich Memorial
P.O. Box 800
Calhan CO 80808
USA
University of Colorado Foundation
C/O Dr. William Tse
MDS/Adult and Childhood Cancer Fund
4740 Walnut St.
Boulder CO 80301
USA
MacKenzie Lectureship Series
First Congregational Church of Boulder
1128 Pine St.
Boulder CO 80302
USA
2008-09-17
Second Letter From England
Family and Friends-
Hello from across the pond. It's time for another email update from sunny England!
If long emails scare you - the way they do me - a brief summary is below followed by the long format further on. And if you're already thinking of hitting the "save for later" button, you can visit our London blog, http://trojanlondon.blogspot.com/, at your leisure. Phew. We've thought of everything.
--------------------
The girls are doing wonderfully. No, Lucy isn't referring to pants as "trousers" or backpacks as "rucksacks" or boots as "wellies" yet but she is starting to get a little conflicted over Ellie's "nappies" instead of diapers and "biscuits" instead of crackers or cookies (or, to really keep her on her toes, in Italian, "pannolini" and "biscotti", respectively, by her slave driver dad). She has started pre-school which is held at a nearby cricket club. The school is called Jiminy Cricket. How cleva. Lucy is learning to ride a bicycle and is picking it up quite well. Her bike is pink with tassels on the handle bars and has "stabilisers" (training wheels) on the back. Lucy loves running, jumping, serving tea, playing with her dolls, and anything pink.
Ellie Jane is now starting to eat some solid food. Peas and carrots oh my! She's crawling, pulling up, and of course hamming it up whenever we put the camera in front of her. She's learning to tolerate her sister's affection (did somebody say rough-housing?) just a little bit more. She loves being held and making loud noises whenever mom and dad talk too much without giving her a turn. If you Skype us and she is nearby, you'll see what we mean. Needless to say, mom and dad are overjoyed watching them both grow and experience the world. They both miss their grandparents, cousins and friends.
Erin and I are getting along in our new home swimmingly. I guess you could say our initial adjustment period is over. Certainly we've stopped counting days (it's been three months), watching the currency exchange rate (1.79 USD to 1 GBP today), and thinking about the economics of VAT tax (17.5% in the UK) and Council tax (levied in tiers on renters. Ugh.). We're really getting to know our neighbors and to participate more in the goings on of our town and nearby church. Our small block has some nice Polish, Russian, Dutch and Indian couples, to say nothing of the nearby Italians and Koreans we have yet to properly meet.
We speak often to some of you over IM, Skype, Facebook, Google Video and email - but perhaps you may still find the highlights below interesting. Or maybe you just need to procrastinate for something important by reading our blog. Anyway, check at the very bottom for a link to some fun pictures from London and Madrid.
Regards,
The Troj Fam
--------------------
So blackberry season has ended. It was wonderful being able to pick berries whenever we took walks anywhere (which meant everywhere and all the time). Along the way we discovered that the fiendish Stinging Nettle, described in our last post, has an arch-rival plant called the dock leaf. If you get carried away in your hunt for the perfect juicy blackberry and get your legs all stung up, you can seek out the milky sap from the dock leaf plant, which, happily, grows right beside the nettle. Brilliant! As the Brits would say.
Our diet has changed a bit. In our last email we mentioned how our eyes had been opened to the joy of beans-on-toast. And in due course we have come to appreciate how a good crumpet just can't be beat, especially when accompanied by a strong cuppa English tea. Erin has taken this tradition to heart and is known to imbibe regularly of said beverage. This is evidenced by the fact that our purchase of a box containing 80 portions is very nearly empty. Truly good stuff! We are able to find good Indian food left, right and center, no big shocker to anyone. I myself have come to appreciate Marmite on toast (a spread which is a lot like vegemite if you remember the Men At Work song from the 80s. Go to mark 1:16) and having sweet, organic local berries with every dessert. What food do we miss? Hands down: Qdoba Mexican burritos (admire one here. Ah, vicarious wonder). We missed them so much that we declared a Mexican food day. We invited our fellow American neighbor over to feast on homemade black beans, pico de gallo, mexican rice, tortillas with ground beef and Coronas with lime. And to further satisfy that gastronomic urge, we then decided to celebrate the start of college football season by going to a friend's to cook cornbread and thick, spicy chili. Erin is cooking our neighbors into submission. Too bad the Longhorns game was delayed.
What are we up to? Well, somehow we managed to make it out for a Michael Franti concert. How cool to see an American artist raising the roof at a small London joint! (Thank you Maribel for the babysitting!!!) We spent a day ogling the medieval cathedral at Salisbury: 800 years old, grand arches and an impossibly high nave. We explored the Tate Modern Museum in London (a hit with Lucy). We met up with a high-school friend of Erin's who came from Paris by train. We've had various other small day trips. We're especially looking forward to a trip to NW England to see Hayfield where Erin's dad was born and hopefully catch up with relatives there.
A word on Madrid. We spent a few days in downtown Madrid for a work trip of mine. We all agreed (Ellie and Lucy included) that we dig the Spanish lifestyle: wake up late, eat lunch late, eat dinner late, stay out late, and finish it off with some nice warm chocolate milk. The Spanish really like their chocolate! (and Iberian ham) Again, brilliant! It provided a much needed refresher to be in such a hot and sunny place, if only for a few days.
We've taken to listening to BBC on the radio. At home we would occasionally listen to BBC World Service which would give international news highlights. Here, however you can get filled to the brim with hearty BBC programming. You can catch broadcasts in all sorts of English accents and eras covering the likes of Mr Darcy! in Pride and Prejudice to a faaabulous rendition of "Valerius Terminus of the Interpretation of Nature" - all on the FM dial. Hopefully you're chuckling right now because that is right in line with subtle, sharp British humor. Quite clever I say. Indeed Mr Wandsworth, indeed! Also on the radio and media here we see frequent coverage of the US presidential election. I would hazard a guess that much of Europe is watching rather closely.
I'm looking for a segue into the next topic, but try as I might, the flow is eluding me. Ah yes, British standards. You can't miss'em. There are many little details to keep track of on this front: electrical plugs here have a very complicated though sturdy design; sink nozzles always produce the hot water from a separate tube within the faucet; the definition of a two-way street is perplexing at times; houses have names. For example, what do "In Time", "Tigger Heath", "Little Cottage", "Brickyard" and "Verity" have in common? Absolutely nothing save that they are all nearby houses. It's really odd: these houses really do not have numbers. It's not like "Little Cottage" over in NW Woking is otherwise known as "23 Temple Bar Road". That would be too easy. How does the postal service do it's job?
On the topic of postal workers (this one's for you Aunt Sandy), in Woking anyway, the Royal Mail rides red bicycles to deliver the day's parcel. Our home happens to be at the top of a small hill, so I'm curious what will happen in winter when the mail load is heavy, the weather is rotten, and we're at the end of the route. Let's just say that if we don't receive every letter from the US, we won't be surprised. Another interesting tidbit is how the mail carriers share the road. Here is a informative illustration of Woking's idea of a two-way street (a little ASCII art for Jeremy):
| | xxx| | xxx| | | xxx| | | | | xxx| | xxx| | | xxx|
where parked cars - the "xxx" blobs - occupy the road, often on both sides, while bikes, buses and other cars travel by. So if a parked car is precisely "xxx" wide and the lane is "____" wide and a bus coming the opposite direction is "xxxx" wide, and you leave point A at 12:03 traveling at 5 mph but Marge leaves point B traveling in a straight line at 12:06 traveling at 8 mph...
oh, sorry, a little off track there (the answer is D, all of the above).
The bottom line? It seems a minor miracle that anyone gets anywhere. It's like tetris meets frogger.
Lastly, we'll leave you with, as before, some random observations about our area.
- When you first get a driver's license here, you have to display a 6"x6" card on your dash or rear window: "L" for learner driver. What a [insert qualifier here: brilliant|great|clever] idea, especially considering the rigors or learning the windy roads, roundabouts, and tight traffic.
- It's not called "drunk driving" here, rather "drink driving". Much more optimistic don't you think?
- Marleen, Euro fashion sense is alive and well. Er, well, to my eye, it is alive, but not always well. It can range from Brittany look-a-likes to sharp pinstripe suits (complete with Captain Kirk pants and boots), to droopy, tight at the ankle grunge jeans. One thing seems to hold true: the current fashion trend puts on clothes just a wee-bit tighter.
- Familiar US stores seem to have British alter egos: "TK Max" instead of "TJ Max", "Home Base" instead of "Home Depot", and in a reversal of fortune, it is Starbucks stores that are dirty and messy inside but BurgerKing and McD's that are squeaky clean. Who knew?
- Certain words are very, very popular. If you haven't gathered that already from the post, you're not paying attention. For instance, if you are clever (pronounced "CLE-va"), you could have just done any number of things, some certifiably quick-witted, others having little at all to do with the word. Here's an example: Lucy is a clever girl when she stands on the step ladder to place something high up on the fridge. Ah, but she is also very clever when she greets adults in a sweet voice. Brilliant!
Okay, that's all. We wish you all the best. You're brave for reading this far.
As a small reward, some pictures of Madrid: Kodak Gallery Madrid
Or visit: http://www.trojanovich.com/erinmatt
Cheers,
Matthew, Erin, Lucy and Ellie Jane Trojanovich
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