World Wide Web Woes

I've just sat down at a large faux-birch IKEA style desk at the Caversham public library. There are three old computers that chug along and I sit somewhat dumbfounded in front of one of them. They keyboard seems to have an issue with the letter 'n': it doesn't like to type it without a good hard smack of the letter. It is all strangely reminicent of our travels across Europe in 1999 when Ange and I would seek out some public internet access to quickly set about composing a group email. In the background, despite it being a library, there is a very loud conversation between an old lady who has lost her keys and the nice gentleman who works here. He's helping her go through her purse as she's a bit hard of sight as well as being hard of hearing.

Why does Ben find himself at the public library to write this blog entry? Well, the move from the arctic flat went very smoothly. Moves are made easy by having hardly any stuff. We are now into our terraced house and it is warm and well furnished with fewer dangers for a growing toddler than the last place. And, while the move went off with hardly a hitch, connecting to the world wide web has not gone nearly as well. Just about everyone over here offers broadband internet. From the grocery store Tesco to the mobile phone companies to the more traditioanl telephone companies and digital tv providers. After limited research, I have opted for the broadband plan offered by our mobile phone provider, Orange. Orange offers a great rate but can't sort you out with connectivity for 10 working days. So, I find myself at the library listening to the conversation with the deaf lady and the library attendant (they've found a set of keys... but they're the wrong one. Very strangely, they're the keys to her scooter?!?) and madly trying to pound out an entry on this keyboard before my time runs out.

We will have internet access from home on December 2. Or maybe later. But probably not sooner. That's what the lady at Orange said. So, the blog will hit full swing again in early December and I will also respond to everyone's email at that time.

In the meantime, I'll leave you with an Anna update... she is now moving with alarming speed. She can stand, even unsupported, though only briefly. And, we may have found another favourite food. Blueberries. We can only afford frozen blueberries here (because fresh ones are about £3 for 100g), which presents an interesting mess dilemma. Anna loves them, but as they become unfrozen, blueberry juice gets everywhere. So, she essentiall stains her lips and mouth and hands with every meals we serve them, leaving her looking like she is slightly hypothermic. Of course, with our new heated house, we know this isn't the case. Certainly, it would have been cause for alarm at the last flat, but we're out of the woods for "freezing in your own house" concerns. So, look out for an interactive blog in December: bananas vs. blueberries. Start the hype, this could be big.

Anna also starts daycare next thursday... which corresponds with me starting work. I'm not sure how I feel about it at the moment. The last few months have been a gift. We'll update 'feelings' later. I surely can't add to the chaos at the library right now by getting emotional.

Epilogue: The old lady has found her keys, thanks to the library attendant, who heard them jingle in her coat. Her 'scooter' isn't a motorcycle, though there were shared looks of concern amongst a few of us when we thought it might be: it is an electric 4-wheel sitting thing with a basket on the front. Phew.

Future early December blogs to look forward to: TV Licenses: Can Ben Fail? and IKEA's in London? How Hard Can That Be To FInd?

Tourist in Oxford

Sunday morning we woke up early and started gathering things for our day out in Oxford. Ange had been in touch with a former colleague from the University of Southampton and had arranged to meet in Oxford after decided that it was mostly a central meeting place for us (she lives further away in Birmingham). Five miles donw the road, I realised that I had forgotten the camera (leaving only the phone camera) which was most unfortunate because Oxford is lovely...

I took a different route to Oxford than I had when we went up for my interview at Oxford Brookes. While scenic, it was considerably slower. Then when we got to Oxford, I made the critical error of following the route in Oxford chosen for me by Google Maps. Cripes. I ended up in the "Buses Only" section of road all through the centre. I managed to get off, only to head in the wrong direction. Ange patiently tried to navigate us through the center of Oxford with our less-than-suitable map. The map is of the UK generally; however, for cities, it throws and olive branch by giving you a 2" by 2" mini detailed map of the city center.

With only the occassional road actually named on our map, we were in a bit of trouble. Further, unlike North America, the posting of street names in the UK are a bit hit and miss. In fact, often they're just missed. So we started out driving tour of Oxford center. At one point we thought we had it worked out, only to be foiled by a road closure... and then another road closure... and another.... it seems they were having some sort of run in town which seemed to arbitratily close roads in all directions. Or, at least, the directions we wanted to go. But, we prevailed and finally found the car park we were advised to park in.

Alison and her husband and two young children met up with us on the high street. It was a great day of exploring a stunning little city. Alison's husband had gone to uni in Oxford and showed us all over. We visited his college and ate our picnic lunch on the steps of the library. We also visited the Oxford Natural History Museum, which was an excellent choice with three young children in our company as it was voted the most family friendly museum in Britain. So much to see and touch. Importantly, to touch. Anna was well pleased with the cheetah and we returned to him many times to both pat and to laugh at. To Anna, he was a very funny cheetah. The funniest she's met, in fact.

There was also a french market in town (like the one that visited Henley) that was advertising itself as a Chrismtas market but was, in fact, just a regular French market with nothing Christmassy about it. Still, it was excellent and we had French goodies.

In the end, it was a great day! It was a little short, which is to be expected when it involves cheetahs and non-Christmas French Christmas markets which make everything far too exciting for a nap. Mind you, even dad needed a nap! And the company was great. I'm sad that they live so far away!

Tomorrow, we move into our new house! Hooray! This, of course, is presuming that Countrywide Letting Agency doesn't come up with some surprise thing that we needed to do but haven't, despite us asking if there was anything we needed to do. I am sure it will provide some sort of story that isn't entirely interesting but that I will recount in great detail regardless.

By A Hair

It was cold when I wandered into the kitchen at 7:15 this morning. Not as cold as a couple of mornings over the past weeks, where we had the frost overnight but still a cold that would clearly challenge our fridge.

Yesterday mum arrived from Canada. Anna and I picked her up from Heathrow and braved traffic on the M4 until cutting cross-country and through Henley towards Caversham(-on-Thames). We stopped for a quick walk about the town, showing off the lovely old buildings as if they somehow belonged to us. We had delicious, but over-priced mochachino at the Café Nero and a nice chat with mum about settling in England and what the family was up to in Vancouver.

When we got back to our flat in Caversham, mum was only slightly taken aback by its sparsity and frigid temperatures. She opted to have a nap on our bed rather than the pitiful little futon we had managed to borrow for her visit. While mum had a nap, so should have Anna. But it wasn't on. So, Anna joined me in a quick jaunt down to the high street to pick up a thermometer. I had tried to pick up a thermometer at the Tesco and the Waitrose, the local pound store (akin to a dollar store at home) and a hardware store in Henley. The supermarkets both showed me a thermometer to read ones' temperature with while the pound store had somehow managed to sell out of them. I guess others are having similar questions about their houses with the onset of autumn. The store in Henley had them, but they were horrible little things that they were charging 5 quid for. I simply couldn't justify $12 on a thermometer. Luckily, the 'everything' store on the corner (where we buy birdseed) had them for a couple of quid. It's even made in Britain. But it is a cheap thermometer, so I can't guarantee the accurateness of the readings it gave: but I am assuming it was consistent, so the relative temperature of the fridge and the kitchen should be soundly measured.

Getting back to the plot: I walk into the kitchen and it is cold enough to see your breath, but I don't believe it was the coldest it has been. Still, our little experiment wasn't about the coldest the kitchen ever got, merely that we would measure the temperature on the morning of Friday, November 10, 2006. So, the temperature in our kitchen? 8 degrees Celsius (or, if you prefer, about 46/47 Fahrenheit).

Our fridge? Well, in this instance, the seemingly obvious answer was the correct one. But, just how close was our fridge in managing to be the colder of the two?According to our cheap-o thermometer from the everthing store, it was 7.5 degrees Celsius (about 45/46 Fahrenheit).

Well done to Shivani and Jacqui! Jaq, you've won yourself a British chocolate bar on the draw. What can we get for you? Shiv, you may bask in the satisfaction of getting it right (though in the hearts of everyone who was thinking, "Gaww, it has got to be the fridge that is colder, no matter what Ben thinks!", I am betting you were not thinking the difference would be half a degree)... and, Shiv, when you visit us: I'm sure we'll have chocolate on hand! ;-)

As a side note, after cooking a meal using the gas stove and cookers, the temperature shot up to nearly 13 degrees Celsius. Though still a little cold, persepctive (let me assure you) is everything and it felt quite nice...

Interactive Blog #2

When I last wrote that the fridge had become redundant, I admit to trying to be funny. Only, I fear I may have been closer to the truth than either Angela or I care to admit.

There are some strong indications that our kitchen is abnormally cold by the standards set in the Western world in 2006. First, we bought bananas last week and have left them on the counter to ripen. Only, they haven't ripened. I think the refrigeration unit that is our kitchen has slowed the ripening to a near stand-still. The upside is that I went to Waitrose and got a reduced price on a couple of bananas that were already ripe and needed getting rid of.

The second indicator is that Ange's plant never needs watering and seems to be in a state of non-activity. By contrast, the same type of plant she took into her office needs watering daily. Over a week and not a drop needed for the one in our kitchen. It's like being in the fridge at the florist. Maybe we should buy some cut flowers for the rest of our stay here?

Wearing shoes in our kitchen is simply a must. Not to do so borders on painful after a short time. And, in the morning, walking into the kitchen almost takes your breath away as if you've jumped into a cold swimming pool... the breath you do manage to let out is clearly visible.

So, what's interactive about this silly complaining? Well, we're going to do an experiment. It can generally be characterised as such:

Is our kitchen colder than the inside of our fridge?

I can honestly say that I think this will be incredibly close. We may have to go to fractions of a degree to declare a winner. Here's the plan: on Friday morning, we will have left a thermometer out all night, and we will measure the temperature as we come in (before we boil the kettle or run the toaster). After recording the temperature, we will put the same thermometer in the fridge for 30 minutes or more before measuring the temperature of the fridge. We will declare the coldest (the fridge or the room in which the fridge sits) on Friday before Canadians are done work.

So, you just have to post on this blog which you think will be colder. Of those who get it right, we'll draw for the chocolate! Now, I've got to get my toque before preparing dinner...

GCH

First off, it isn't astonishingly cold here. The Reading area appears to be marginally colder than Southampton, which was on the coast. We have had two mornings of frost here, whereas in Southampton there was hardly ever a frost, even in the middle of winter. Despite not having the sea to slightly moderate the temperature it is, as they say, a damp cold. For a Canadian example, the temperature is nearly identical this week to Vancouver, only with much less rain.

The thing is, furnaces are kicking in all over the lower mainland as autumn sets in. Us? Well, we don't have a furnace. It's funny, they advertise gas central heating (GCH) as a feature on rental properties here. It is becoming abundtantly clear why one might think that a feature rather than a "nice-to-have". I must first qualify that we have been very lucky to have been let the place we're in: it is inexpensive, shockingly convenient for both Ange and I, it has been entirely flexible and it is very clean. It is however an old building and the flat we're in seems to have been squeezed in at some point, as it was needed. Rather than central heating, it has four wall-mounted electric heaters. One in the lounge (common room), one in our bedroom and another in one of the other two bedrooms. Haphazardly, there is also one in the hallway. So, for those who are paying keen attention, you'll notice I haven't mentioned two critical rooms: the kitchen and the bathroom.

To round out the picture, I will explain that when most of these older home in Britain were built, "singled glazed" windows were installed. In other words, a single piece of glass. And if one might think that a lone piece of glass doesn't act as insulation, in addition to being right, they'd also have to appreciate that most of these old wooden window frame don't actually meet and seal, so windows are essentially always open in some capacity. So, put together a night of frost, a house full of open windows and nothing of substance to heat the house with the open windows and you have the picture more or less... Not surprisingly, rental accomodation also advertises "UPVC double glazed windows" as a feature.

With our windows and feeble electirc heaters, only two rooms are currently moderately unlike being outdoors. Regardless, it is cold in our accomodation. I don't honestly think I'd be lying to say that the fridge has become reduntant in our kitchen. But, we're only 10 days from double glazed windows and gas central heating, using radiators. Glorious radiators.

Yesterday, Anna and I trecked down to Ashford, Kent. I have an aunt and uncle there and my cousin, with her husband and three children are also there. Anna had a wonderful day playing with Max (6), Freddy (3), and Mimi (6 months) and all of their toys. It was great. Dad even dropped by on his way back to Norfolk from a job on the south coast. Anna was also given a super-cute toque and mitts by Aunt June and Uncle Ron, so she's all ready to go into the kitchen, bathroom and third bedroom of our flat. Mimi, Freddy and Anna pose for a photo:

And the Winner is...

Anna got up this morning with her usual chipperness. Ange took her down and started her on her breakfast while dad really worked hard to drag himself out of bed. Not surprising to any parents out there, but it still amazes me slightly that my new life of liesure involves getting up earlier than I have ever had to for any job that I've had (except for the odd coffee shop gig back in the day)... To the right, Anna early this morning in her hoodie, as it was shockingly cold in our flat.

A quick inventory of food revealed that we were in need of avocado for the favourite food selection lunch. Dad alo needed a coffee. It was brisk outside, but sunny. Like Calgary, only not quite that brisk. We stopped to get a coffee at the new coffee shop in town, which has supplanted all others for a blend of affordability and quality. We then visited the Waitrose to get avocado, picked up a nice little bottle of Italian red wine that is ridicluously cheap as this month's specialty and then walked over to the butcher. With a tiny fridge and no freezer, I find we end up buying food almost daily. The butcher is particularly friendly and when I explained that I wanted some steak for fajitas, he pulled out a couple of little steaks that he figured would be difficult to sell because of their odd size and gave them me them at cost. Then (and this makes a special trip worthwhile) he offered to cut the steak into strips for me. He noted that his knife was probably sharper than anything I had... if he only knew. And he could have seen very clearly, because I happened to have our Swiss Army knife on me to cut fruit in an emergency hunger situation.

When we got back to the flat, Anna was giving all the signs for a nap. So, we made our first of three attempts at a nap this morning. She's learned to roll over and get herself up adn crawl/stand about the crib, so naps are beginning to be more and more a time to play in the crib rather than actually sleep. However, as the one truly warm room in the house, I suppose I shouldn't complain. Anyway, after lying down, sitting up, and flopping around the crib for 40 minutes, Anna was ready for her pick-the-favourite-food lunch. As promised, the food was layed out on her high chair tray as equally as I could, as can be seen. I have to confess, I had secretly chosen avocado to win this little eating lottery with a suspicion that the cheerio might just slip in based on the level of comfort she has dealing with cheerios (a fairly regular snack fo her).

By now it was all business. Anna was hungry and she had 5 of her favourites about to be placed in front of her. There would be no humming and ahhing. She would go right for one without question. But which would it be?

We see Anna just prior to selection carefully considering her options (cheerio fans, don't worry, the tray was no yet on her high chair and after taking the photo, the cheerio was moved back into position)...

And the winning food? The food of choice? The preference when all the options are presented? Banana. Second was the gouda cheese which she certainly hadn't finished chewing before the avocado was stuffed in too. Kiwi was fourth, leaving our most popular choice in dead last. Anna Fitch: making healthy choices at 10 months old.

Robyn and Matt, you've won and all-expense paid trip for a chocolate bar of your choice to Calgary, Alberta! You'll have to email me your address as I don't actually have it?!? So we leave you with the moment of truth: