Viking Tea Party

Cider Post No. 1

Matt and I sampled a couple of ciders from Southampton Somerset (correction madedays later - cider goes straight to my head and fiddles with my fingertips) tonight after he got home from work.  A little to dry for the tastes of either of us but still incredibly drinkable. 

Did you know that Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova of Once fame have an album out/coming out?  Yet again, something I should have known about but had to hear about on Facebook.  NPR is streaming the entire thing until October 27th - I listened to two of the songs and will hopefully be picking up the album tomorrow as I think it's already been released here*.  They're coming to the O2 in London in January and I'm really looking forward to seeing them.  If you've yet to watch Once for whatever reason, I highly recommend it. 

Speaking of concerts and the O2 - as an early Christmas treat from Matt's mum, Matt, my sister-in-law Laura, and I are going to see Bill Bailey's Remarkable Guide to the Orchestra in December.  I feel like everyone should know who Bill Bailey is but I know my friends back in the states probably don't know who he is so here are some helpful links: Cockney Music, Kraftwerk, Pub Jokes, Dueling Xylophone.  All right, enough.  I'm very excited - he's hysterical.  And - yikes! - it's after one - off to bed(ish)....

*Nope, I was wrong - it's not out until the end of the month.  Argh.

A Little Gray Cloud Day

I had my first strong "What have I done?!" day today.  Not in a bad way, just in a very homesick kind of way.  In the morning, Matt suggested we go to Stourhead since the weather was amazing and I suggested Longleat since it closes in a few weeks and I haven't been there before.  The little gray cloud lingering over my head, though, kept telling me to crawl back into bed and cover my head with the duvet.  If it had been a work day for Matt, that's probably what I would have done.

By the time I made the banana bread I'd obsessively woken up wanting to make (four over ripe bananas had been staring at me for several days), it was kind of too late to do the zoo or Stourhead so we actually ended up packing a bag of knitting, books, iPods and journals and driving not too far away to Stockbridge to shop a little bit with the idea of eventually finding a cafe to relax in for a bit.  That never really came to fruition but it was still a nice day.  Sure, I nearly burst into tears at Maison Blanc, a cafe in Winchester, but you'll have that.  Part of me was yearning to sit in an American restaurant - not a cafe.  In fact, we walked into a Costa and I had to admit I couldn't do Costa again and I love Costa.  Thankfully, I could at least have a cold diet Coke at Maison Blanc.  Finding a Cath Kidston shop wasn't too painful either and I picked up a really cute set of note cards.  There's something about living here that makes me want to send out real mail.  If you're interested in getting a little card from me and I don't already have your address - 'cause you lot are already going to get mail from me and a few of you already have something on the way - send it to me at sushichickATgmailDOTcom and eventually I'll send you a line or two.  :)

Anyway, being out and about was probably better than sulking at home but, at the same time, it really reminded me how different things are here.  My mood certainly perked up a little bit when we got back because once you've decided a place is home, it's home - even though I have days where even being here with all the boxes is overwhelming.  Of course, baking cookies and opening a bottle of wine didn't hurt either.  Yes, banana bread and cookies in one day. The looming PMS wasn't really doing me any favors.

I know it'll take awhile before days like this are non-existent.  And I'm sure tomorrow will be much better.  I'm really looking forward to Thursday, too, as fellow Raveler, Squiblet, has offered to meet up with me for some tea, wandering, knitting or whatever.  I love my husband and the fact that we actually live in the same country now but it'll still be great to have a little girl time.  

I had a post ready for today full of photos from our drive through the New Forest yesterday but my mood just didn't match and I want to "keep it real, yo."  This blog is about learning to live in a new country, after all and it's not all days out exploring and fun - it's hard.  I miss my friends and family.  I could even really do with a Buddy hug right now, to tell you the truth (why does that, of all things I've thought about while writing this post, make tears well up in my eyes, for Pete's sake?).  I miss the way things have always been and where and how I've lived for the past 35 years.  It's almost like being at home some times - a nudge away - but also just not like home at all.  I have to make myself deal with it, though, by being aware of it, talking about it, having an understanding husband and knowing that it won't hurt like this all the time.  

And nothing beats a good night's sleep (and maybe one last glass of wine)....

This Week's Menu: Fresh Grilled Veggies

Some fresh veggies from my mother-in-law's garden.  A green pepper, an aubergine and, here in the UK, that frightening vegetable on the right is called a swede.  I figured we had to have it in the US but I wasn't sure what we would call it.  Obviously I've never seen nor eaten a rutabaga.  The UK wins in the eggplant department by calling an eggplant something as pretty as an aubergine but how often do you get to say a fun word like rutabaga?   

One-Pan Chicken Couscous

We have had our old standbys of pasta with garlic and bacon and grilled cheese sandwiches countless times in the few days that I've lived here but the other night we made a one-pan chicken couscous recipe from the November issue of BBC Good Food that was so good I had to share.  

One-Pan Chicken Couscous by Emma Lewis

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 onion, thinly sliced
• 200g/8oz chicken breast, diced (we used Quorn)
• good chunk fresh root ginger
• 1 - 2 tbsp harissa paste, plus extra to serve 
• 10 dried apricots
• 220g can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
• 200ml/7fl oz hot chicken stock
• handful coriander (cilantro) chopped, to serve

1. Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan and cook the onion for 1 - 2 minutes just until softened.  Add the chicken and fry for 7 - 10 minutes until cooked through and the onions have turned golden.  Grate over the ginger, stir through the harissa to coat everything and cook for 1 minute more.

2. Tip in the apricots, chickpeas and couscous, then pour over the stock and stir once.  Cover with a lid or tightly cover the pan with foil and leave for about five minutes until the couscous has soaked up all the stock and is soft.  Fluff up the couscous with a fork and scatter over the coriander to serve.  Serve with extra harissa if you like.

Serves 4

We like couscous so much that we added nearly double what the recipe calls for and we also just about doubled the harissa paste as well.  The recipe says it preps in five minutes and cooks in ten which we initially laughed at but the recipe was right. It's a fantastic, quick dish that we'll be making again soon. 

The photo was actually taken of the leftovers we had for lunch today. :)

Spending Time in Town

It's a beautiful day in Salisbury today - made even more beautiful by the fact that it rained, nonstop, yesterday.  After a little housework, I packed up my knitting bag and headed out to spend the afternoon wandering around town.   The key word there is "wander."  Thankfully I discovered today that if I wander around long enough I'll eventually find what I was looking for which, in this instance, was Paperchase.  

The girl in me that still loves when stores start putting out school supplies, who would love to dive in to a swimming pool full of crayons, loves Paperchase.  It's full of cute notebooks, stickers, cards and fun little things that you really don't need but have to have.  After picking out a handful of cards and a couple of packs of stickers, I wandered around a little more until I found Starbucks, bought a cafe mocha (which, unlike Starbucks in the US, they give to you in a real mug if you're "staying in") and headed upstairs.

Despite all of the wandering, I really am feeling a little more confident.  Being out and about by myself felt really good today.  I even found myself paying for things with more than just notes and one pound coins.  I know that sounds absolutely silly but I'm still learning what each coin is worth and if you're behind be in line you might be waiting for awhile as I look for 2p.  I'll figure it out eventually, though.

After writing a few cards and finishing my coffee, I picked up a soda and a chocolate bar and headed home via the cathedral (even though that means crossing a busy street to get home - I had to walk past our flat by a block to get to a crosswalk because I don't feel confident enough to cross on my own yet).

This was the view from my bench where I wrote a few more cards and wished I had either finished the pair of fingerless mitts I started knitting back in August or that I had unpacked my outer wear box and found the ones Kim made for me back in the days of the first Knitters Hunk.  It's sunny and warm here but a bit chilly on the extremities. 

In the past I've lived across the street from a shopping center at best so it's utterly amazing that I live across from something like the cathedral. 

Just gorgeous.  

 

I also took a photo of what Matt has always called The Giant Button.   I don't know what it really is and refuse to find out until I have to (i.e. when Mom and Dad come to visit in March or April).  

As always, time has gotten away from me and my stomach, which is more used to the time change than the part of my brain that tells me when to go to sleep and when to wake up, knows it's way past lunch time....

Bournemouth & Christchurch

The original plan for yesterday was to do a little more unpacking and cleaning but, since Matt was taking the day off, the plan turned in to a trip to the Oceanarium in Bournemouth which is about a half hour away. 

The fact that the wind broke my new Monet umbrella on its first venture out, before we could even get from the car park to the aquarium, was an unfortunate sign of things to come: there had been a power cut at the aquarium and it was closed for the day.   Argh. 

Instead we went for a walk on a very windy beach.

 

We thought about doing a little shopping in Bournemouth but, after walking around for a little while, we decided to drive a few miles away to Christchurch.  We stopped for lunch at Costa...

 

..and then walked around town a bit, stopping at a great book store called Bookends and stumbling across a yarn shop called Honora Wool Specialists.  It was small but, literally, packed floor to ceiling with yarn - woo hoo!  I left with a set of needles for the Gooseberry Cardigan because I can't find my size 6 needles (note to self: carry a conversion chart of English to metric sizes in your wallet to save yourself some embarrassment), a skein of Manos in shades of blue and green, some Rowan Alpaca Cotton and a skein of Spirit (I had tried to get this online awhile ago but I think it's discontinued) to make a meerkat that actually looks like the pattern (because my first three attempts at meerkat heads weren't quite meerkatty enough).  

Then we walked around the beautiful priory. 

The volunteers should ask you what language you speak when you first go inside, not where you're from.  After my lengthy answer of, "I'm from the United States but just moved to Salisbury last week," he grinned, said, "We don't have it in United States so you'll have to take it in English," and handed me a little guide.  Embarrassing.  

There were lots of magpies on the grounds surrounding the priory.  I am obsessed with magpies and tried desperately to get a good photo (but didn't really).  Before I came here, magpies were just something from a nursery rhyme so the multitude of magpies (and pheasants!) fascinates me.  Imagine how excited I'll be if I ever get to see a hedgehog in the wild....

Lastly, I got a kick out of this sign.  Christchurch is obviously budget conscious as it was, of course, much cheaper to paint over the "West" on this sign than to build a new one after the unification of Germany.  

 

In other news, Matt is working two days in Oxford so he'll be staying overnight which means I have the house to myself until late tomorrow.  I know this kind of opportunity will be kind of exciting eventually but now, since I've only been here for, nearly at this moment, exactly a week, it's kind of weird.  But good, too.  There's still lots of unpacking and cleaning to do.  Plus I might venture in to town again to do a little knitting at Starbucks or maybe take the new book I'm reading, Olive Kitteridge (very good so far), to the Mill for tea and a flapjack (yum).  Or I might just lounge in front of the television watching British cooking shows....

Meeting New People, Seeing New Things & Being Out and About On My Own

I felt a little overwhelmed yesterday for the first time.  I really thought I would stay in "oh, I'm on vacation" mode for at least a week but, no, I woke up grumpy and a little...off.  Thank goodness for understanding husbands and happy pills.  I had actually forgotten to take mine for a couple of days which, I'm sure, didn't really help with the feeling of being overwhelmed. 

Some Sunday I'll take a photo of the Sunday papers here because the papers in the States just do not compare.  We picked up three yesterday and spent the morning relaxing in bed - my favorite way to spend a Sunday.  My original idea was to walk over to Starbucks by myself to meet the knitting group but I'd yet to go in to town alone and my mood wasn't exactly ideal for meeting new people so Matt and I walked over just so that I could say hi and meet everyone.  And by everyone I mean lots of people - for you Daytonians, it reminded me a lot of the early, crowded Brown Street days but with more seating.  Anyway, it was nice to finally put faces to Ravelry names and I really, really can't wait for the next meet up.

After Starbucks we drove out to Matt's favorite walk, Pepperbox Hill.  It was a little gloomy yesterday but I snapped a few photos as we walked up the ridiculously steep hill, around and back down again.

The cathedral, which is right across the street from our flat - I can see the spire from the window here on the third floor - is near the center there, a bit to the left.

 

 

 

This is the path back down Pepperbox Hill and the road that leads back to Salisbury.  

There's a folly here as well but we saved that for another visit.

So I mentioned that my original plan yesterday was to go in to town by myself but, when you get right down to it, I chickened out, right?  Well, I walked to the grocery alone today!  I have to admit, I took the long way at first to avoid crossing the road and then only crossed the road when the signal said it was okay or if someone else was crossing because I still can't get used to looking in a new direction and I'm sometimes not even sure where a car might be coming from.  Silly, I know.  I'm a bit paranoid, too, and felt like everyone could peg me as a non-native - especially the check out lady at Tesco who took a good long look at me more than once which made me feel like I was doing something wrong.  Even though the language is the same, things here really are very different.  And, of course, I completely forgot the diet Coke I walked there for but I did get the makings for salsa and veggie burgers for lunch tomorrow so it wasn't a complete failure.  

Anyway, lots to do.  One more box and the kitchen is completely unpacked!

Settling In

I know it's only been two days but I'm still bowled over by random thoughts of, "This is where I live" - a statement that has randomly ended with a period, exclamation point or question mark.

We're already working on making the flat "ours" and made an exploratory trip to the IKEA in Southampton today.  We managed to come home with chocolates, my third mini pink hippo, two baskets for the bathroom and the thought that we might come back after we've done a little more with what we have.  Speaking of what we have - my stuff arrived the day after I got here.  Eighty boxes are stuffed into the conservatory.  Matt's going to work tomorrow so I'm going to attempt to start unpacking the kitchen.  Considering we packed all of our wedding gifts within a handful of days of receiving them, it's going to be like opening them all over again. Fun!

I haven't been online much since I got here but I'm looking forward to catching up on some blogs and email tomorrow, too.  And knitting on the new bag I started Wednesday.  Sunday afternoon is the Salisbury knit together and I'm really looking forward to walking over to meet some new people and, hopefully, make a few new friends. 

All in all, things have been good so far.  I just have this thought in the back of my head, though, that one day I'm going to realize without a doubt that I do indeed live here and I wonder how that's going to make me feel....