Wednesday 12 June 2013

Things I love about being in England

OK, so I've been here for two whole days, but already I'm smiling.

The weather is co-operating. (There, just jinxed it.) We've had sunny, cool and windy days. Lovely. Right now it's evening, I have a glass of wine, the Little Guy is in bed, I'm leafing through recipes books looking for a birthday cake that he can easily cook for grandma, and it's pouring, but......

I can hear the rain on the conservatory roof. I love that. Conservatories, although not unknown to other countries, are a trademark of England. It's 9.30pm and still light, so I can sit in the conservatory and pretend I"m actually out in the garden, even though it's like a monsoon outside.

I blend in. Sort of. No one turns round when I talk, although when they hear my kids speaking with American accents I can tell people are dying to know our story. However, I get a little bit of special attention when I hand over a credit card in shops. It doesn't have a chip and pin so we always have to have a conversation about the transaction, which them moves on to being asked where I live, for how long, do I like it, etc. etc.

Having found our cake recipe, I am now lazily leafing though Good Housekeeping summer recipes, writing down the ones that I think I can manage. They will be taken back to Chicago and probably never made, but I'm enjoying myself right now.

All that remains is for me to get on to this time zone and wake up a little earlier than noon and it'll be great!


14 comments:

  1. Glad to hear it's nice being there...I'll be back very soon. Have a good holiday.

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  2. Conservatories. Yes. They are very British, aren't they?

    Do get in touch when you're headed my way, and we'll see if we can meet up.

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  3. A conservatory....that's kind of like what we call a sun room, isn't it? Have a great time!!

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  4. Glad you are enjoying yourself! We are hunkering down on the East Coast waiting for another blimmin tornado and something called 'large hail'!!

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  5. My sister-in-law and her husband recently visited us from Cambridge. We're EST, but one more hour doesn't mean much, I think. My sister-in-law just soldiers on; her husband had a rough couple of days. They're both my age, well past retirement. I would have been sleeping to noon.

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  6. "The weather is co-operating!?! Where are you? I want to be there!

    Oh, and welcome to Britain.

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  7. The weather's being a pain a bit further south.
    Hope you enjoy your trip home. Will miss you at BritMums but I think I will stand on my own feet this year, thanks to you cajoling me to go in the first place.

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  8. Oh the swipe cards! I had to finally get a British bank card because I just COULD NOT STAND having to swipe my card everywhere anymore. In one large DYI store they actually got out the old-school clunky carbon paper thing to do my card with. ARRRGH!

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  9. Devon Mum- the funny thing is, I wrote about this last year and the year before and on both occasions had people (British and American) telling me I was wrong!

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  10. Give my regards to Blighty! :-)

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  11. Glad you're fitting back in here.
    The weather has been hot today. Hope you shared it.
    Enjoy the rest of the stay.
    Maggie x

    Nuts in May

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  12. Ha! The chip & pin makes me crazy. have a great trip. Wondered where you were on the Twitter chat yesterday!

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  13. Ha! The chip & pin makes me crazy. have a great trip. Wondered where you were on the Twitter chat yesterday!

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