Saturday, October 22, 2011

Marmite


Marmite.  Ever heard of it?  I think it existed somewhere on the vague outer edges of my awareness before moving to London, now it's everywhere.  

What is Marmite?  It is a sticky, dark brown paste with a "distinctive", powerful salty and savory flavor.  It is a yeast extract that is a by-product of brewing beer.  Really.  

The company was formed in 1902, and here in the UK they start you on Marmite early.  This must be the only way you can develop a taste for it.  


There are (so I've been told) unending ways to consume it, but the most popular seems to be spreading it on toast with butter.  


I have actually tried Marmite, it was in a bed and breakfast where Stephen and I stayed in Bath.  They had it in little individual packets like jelly, and I've never been brave enough to buy a whole jar to try it, so I took the opportunity.  You wanna know what it tastes like?  You know that burned oil grease that your car mechanic has all over him and under his nails?  Like that.  In a reduction form.  Disgusting.  Which brings me to the official Marmite slogan:  "Love it or hate it."  Um, yeah, I hate it.  


The Marmite website even allows visitors to choose which side of the website they view:  the love or hate side.   The "love" side has a lot of propaganda.  There are entire cookbooks dedicated to recipes that use Marmite in breakfast, lunch, dinner and dessert.  (Ice cream with sludge, anyone?)


There are clothes advertising your love for Marmite...



During WWI British troops were issued Marmite as part of their rations, and have had it ever since.  Jars can last for years without spoiling!  Which is how long a jar would sit in my cupboard.  In one episode of the t.v. show with Mr. Bean, he made a tray for a party by spreading Marmite on twigs cut from a tree outside of his kitchen window.  I read that some nursing mothers put Marmite on their nipples before feeding their babies (it's on the internet, it must be true).  I even read that it can be used as a topical treatment for hemorrhoids (again, must be true).

In Denmark, Marmite is illegal.  Maybe I should go live there.  

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Cambridge

We visited Cambridge recently - my dad's friend, Bob, was up there visiting his "adopted family", Mr. & Mrs. Lewcock, and asked if we wanted to join them for the day, we hadn't been to Cambridge yet so we went!

The modern city of Cambridge was founded in 875 when the Danes conquered Eastern England, and a bridge has been over the Cam River since that time - hence the name "Cambridge".  


Mr. and Mrs. Lewcock are pretty incredible people - Mr. Lewcock is a professor at Cambridge in Middle Eastern architecture (and has taught all over the place) and Mrs. Lewcock is an internationally known writer and textile designer.  They split their time each year between their three homes: Cambridge, Sri Lanka (her origin), and Australia (his).  They are fascinating people and we thoroughly enjoyed our time with them.  

Here they are at the pub where we ate lunch, isn't this just the cutest picture??  Can you feel the love?


They have visited Texas where Bob took them to Billy Bob's ("the world's largest honky tonk") and the stockyards in Fort Worth, where Mrs. Lewcock picked up a genuine Texas cowboy hat.  She brought it out along with her best Texan accent, both were great!  


Mr. Lewcock took us on a tour around the campus, the highlight of which was seeing the King's College Chapel.  It is considered one of the greatest examples of late Gothic architecture, and the place will knock your socks off.  


The chapel was started in 1446 by King Henry VI and took over a century to build.  It has the largest fan vault ceiling the in world and some of the finest medieval stained glass.  Amazingly enough, after mason John Wastell took charge in 1508 (the architect of the ceiling), the ceiling took just three years to build.  




During the WWII, most of the stained glass was removed for safe keeping.  Our punting chaperone (more about that in a bit), told us that in their haste to remove the windows and get them to safety, they didn't take very good notes about where it had all been originally placed.  When the time came to re-install all of the stained glass, it took a lot of thought and head-scratching to right it all again!  


We weren't around for the choral evensong, how I would have loved to have heard that! 

The view from the door of the chapel:


Punting!  By far the best way to tour Cambridge on a beautiful afternoon.  A punt is a flat-bottomed boat especially good for small rivers or other shallow waters.  A punting driver (ours called himself a "chaperone") stands on the back end with a very long, skinny pole (aluminum or lightweight wood) and while holding on to one end of it, finds the river bottom with the other and pushes, propelling the boat through the water.  (This is different from a gondola, which propels the boat through the water using an oar.)


Us, punting down the Cam River:  


As a novice, anyone can rent a boat and punt your way down the river unsupervised, but I felt no need to try given my God-given gift to fall anywhere.  Plus, those poles can get stuck in the mud at the river bottom - the trick is to let go of the pole if this happens and not try and hang on to yank the pole free.  Usually what happens is the pole remains firmly planted, and if you hang on, the boat will continue on without you and you fall in the river with a splash.  Of course if you let go, then you're stuck unless someone comes to help you or you can back up on your own - like these people:  


No thanks, I'll just leisurely ride around.  





The Christopher Wren-designed library at Trinity College:




The Mathematical Bridge between two sides of Queen's College:


Beautiful Virginia Creeper just starting to turn:


We walked up to the top of Castle Mound where an ancient 11th century Norman castle used to stand:


All that's left of the castle today is a big mound, but it gives you a great view of the town:


What a beautiful place to live.



Sunday, October 16, 2011

New Zealand Rugby

We just watched the end of the New Zealand vs Australia game in the Rugby World Cup (New Zealand won).  Maybe they got a little extra push because they perform a haka at the beginning of every game.  

What is a haka?  It is a traditional ancestral war dance of the Maori  - the indigenous people of New Zealand. 




I wonder if it makes their opponents feel more like they are going to battle than playing a game of rugby!


Saturday, October 8, 2011

War Horse

We saw the play War Horse this week, it was pretty incredible!  If you aren't familiar, it's a story about a boy and his horse.  His horse is sold to the army in WWI and goes to war with an officer, and the boy later joins the war to look for his horse after he hears the officer has been killed.  The play highlights the realities of war, both animal and human.

It's a good story, but the most amazing part are the animals on stage.  They aren't real horses, but large puppets constructed of wood and fabric.  A team of puppeteers accompanies them at all times, around and even inside the horses, moving their ears, bodies, and tails with lifelike precision.  Even making horse sounds!  After a while, the people around the puppet disappear and all you really notice is the horse.  It's amazing what emotions a puppet can evoke!  Think a puppet can't make you cry?  Think again.

Two of the horses ("Joey", the titular War Horse is on the right):



They can even be ridden:



War Horse the movie, directed by Steven Spielberg, is coming out this Christmas:



Watching this play made me think of the Animals in War Memorial here in London; it is dedicated to the animals that have served alongside troops in war and I have always loved passing by it.  It's a bit of a tear jerker, on one side is the quote "They had no choice."  



War has all different kinds of casualties, and I think it's nice to pay tribute to the animals who truly had no choice.  

War Horse just won 5 Tonys this year for its NYC show, if you have the chance to see it I highly recommend it!

Sunday, October 2, 2011

Return to Work


I started work again this past week.  I am SO glad to be back at work.  Sound crazy?  Well, there are things that I already knew about myself that were just reaffirmed during this long break.  1 - I don't do well with unending free time, it actually makes me uncomfortable.  It sounds like a luxury, and I know that it is... months off from working, living in London, no kids... and a lot of it has been great, really great.  

But, 2 - I do not like feeling unproductive.  I do not like feeling that I am in no way contributing something society, my life, etc.  I am definitely not the best version of myself without it.  

3 - It's hard for me to enjoy free time off that hasn't been "earned".  Weekends are much more fun after a week of working.  Vacations are sweeter when they are a break from work.  My first day off this week after returning to work felt better than every other free day I've had since January.  

4 - I like making my own money.  My husband has been very supportive of me during this time off, but I've been working on and off since I was 16 and completely full time from 22.  I am used to having a paycheck.  I supported myself from 22 on and even after I was married and joined my finances with someone else, I still was a major contributor.  There is something deeply satisfying about supporting my own life.  

5 - My previous job required me to use my brain, a lot, and I missed that!  I didn't want to lose that knowledge and just have everything go all mushy.  

Clearly this is only my opinion about myself, not anyone else, lots of people satisfy these or other needs in different ways, we all get to make our own life choices.  But I know what makes me happy and I'm glad to get a piece of it back.  And anyway, I'm only working on average 3 days a week, so it's not like I won't still have time off to enjoy life here in London while I have it.  :)