Our lovely coloured walls and linens. We're going for a spicy theme, and the wall colour makes the room look a lot warmer.

The bedroom--and proof that the sun DOES shine in Grimsby.

Our Christmas tree--it was so hard to find crafty ornaments for it! We strung the cranberries and popcorn garland while we cuddled on the sofa and watched a movie. Ahhh, romantic.

Our living room is really starting to look lived in. See that lovely coffee table? Martin made it for me. The best part of it is that the legs are hinged so we can fold it down and push it under the sofa when we get the dining table out to eat!

My trip to the supermarket...

I know this is my second post of the day, but I just had the most amusing trip to Asda ever, and I wanted to share.
So I went to buy grenadine because we're going to a dinner party tonight and Martin and I are doing alcohol free cocktails. Grenadine, for those of you who don't know, is a cherry flavoured syrup. It has NO alcohol in it. In fact, you use it to make Shirley Temples! It took some finding as it was hidden with all the brandys and stuff, but I finally managed to get some. I took it up to the checkout and got carded when I tried to pay for it. Made even funnier by the fact that the legal drinking age in England is 18!
So that was my experience at the checkout, but it gets better! As I was walking out the door, I got stuck behind a Chinese couple. There was an older English guy stuck behind them as well, and we were listening to the couple speaking Chinese to each other. This English guy turns to me and says, "You hardly ever meet any English people any more." As I turned to him and said, "And I'm not one of them," he turned to me again and said, "It's all bloody foreigners!" He started to blush like mad when he heard my American accent, and I started to giggle. We turned away from each other, he was embarrassed and I was laughing, and walked to our cars. I sat giggling in traffic for the next ten minutes!
Don't you think you should take in the situation fully before you open your mouth and say something racist and inflammatory???

The January Sales...

Cathy and I are going shopping today--in the famed January sales. We are going to brave the horrible queues for returns in pursuit of the ultimate bargain, and I am cringing in anticipation!
Seriously, the January sales are such a huge thing. I think the whole country must go shopping for clothes this week. I'd probably give it a miss, only I need new clothes so much! I didn't bring hardly anything with me when we moved,
It snowed a few days after Christmas, and I think it's funny the way the English react to a bit of snow. I already told my family about it, but this country seriously comes to a grinding halt when it snows. We got about three inches or so, and people were encouraged to stay inside and only drive if they absolutely HAD to. Three inches of snow, and you don't go to the grocery store, just to the hospital??? Sure, they don't really have snow plows this far south (Scotland gets a lot of snow, so they are prepared for it), but still--that strikes me as a little ridiculous. Most people over here think nothing of driving in a really bad rainstorm, and a pea-souper is not a big deal to them. But if you put the liquid in powder form, they freak out!
Martin and I did have a close call on Tuesday night. We spent a lovely afternoon in Lincoln, had lunch with Martin's cousin Gareth (really cute and desperate for a greencard all you single ladies!), did some shopping, etc. We took the A46 home, and it was a clear, warmish night when we left. It had snowed, but there had been enough traffic earlier in the day that the roads were just wet, not snowy or slushy. People were driving ridiculously slow, so Martin passed about 8 cars in a row. Then, between Faldingworth and Middle Rasen, the road got slushy and icy. Martin took a curve in the road a little too fast. He was in the process of slowing down, but with the brakes instead of the engine (big mistake in the snow!).
To make a long story shorter, Martin lost control of the car on the curve and we ended up sliding off the road and missing a few rather large roadsigns by about 4 inches in the front and 4 inches on the passenger side. Miraculously, we weren't hurt at all and the car wasn't damaged. We were able to back up onto the road and drive away. I felt really blessed, and VERY shaky. Needless to say, we slowed down after that. But we still didn't drive as slow as most of the other drivers on the road.
We spent the day with Martin's family again yesterday, and it made me miss mine even more. Everyone played games together, which was fun, but everyone had been drinking and they were getting to that really annoying stage where they think they are really funny. All the same, we had a good time. I wish we were in Utah right now.
The homesickness has really set in now, and I keep catching myself making fun of England and the English. I shouldn't do that, because I am sort of outnumbered, but I just want to talk to my fellow Americans and feel warm and relaxed and see friendly faces on the street. I want to be around a lot of people who don'tsmoke and aren't alcoholics. I miss my family, the climate, the culture, everything. I've lived in England longer than I did last time now, and I'm feeling it. Of course, last time I was a newlywed and only wanted to be with Martin. I still love him as much as I did when we got married--maybe even more. But now I'm realising that I need more than just my husband. I need the rest of my family, too.

Christmas was a success!

Homesickness aside, Christmas was really great. I didn't want to go to Martin's parents house because thy sort of fight a lot and Christine gets really stressed out about the dinner and the presents and the decorations. Plus, I really wanted to be at MY parents' house. But Martin wanted to spend Christmas eve there, so we did. It worked out all right, and we enjoyed ourselves.
We went to a beautiful midnight communion service on Christmas eve at the church in Wootton, one of the small villages nearby. We sang Christmas carols and listened to the vicar preach about loving others regardless of their religious persuasion.
Martin's grandparents came over for Christmas dinner, and it was a great meal. Not as nice as Thanksgiving dinner, but still nice! Cathy and her boyfriend Karl came over later that day and we played blackjack and roulette on the casino set that we got from Santa. Then came the highlight of my day--my family's phone call! I miss everyone back home so much, and it was great to talk to them!
The presents were great, of course, but to me Christmas is more about being with your loved ones and celebrating the relationships that are most important to you!
I'll post some pictures later--we had to borrow Martin's dad's digital camera as we left ours home. I'm going to download the pictures on Wednesday when we go out to Ulceby again. Lovely Christmas though!

Happy Christmas!

Sounds weird, doesn't it? Merry Christmas still gets said over here, but not as often!

I am done with work until the 2nd of January now, and it's good to be off. I have been looking forward to a week off almost since I started working at Volvo. Today was weird. We only worked a half-day, and everybody still left early because the boss was gone. I was blown away by how irresponsible everyone was, and how they are completely unable to work without supervision. I guess not everyone had my daddy to teach them how to work!
I am going to make Russian Tea Cakes tonight, which are my favourite cookie in the whole world. They're so easy to make, too. Every time I bake something I amazed by how easy it is, yet people are so impressed when you do it. Cooking really is becoming a lost art. I AM stalling, to be perfectly honest, because I don't want to spend a lot of time in my tiny, cold kitchen.
Last weekend was great. I went shopping with Cathy, and had one of the best shopping days I've had in a long time. I have lost so much weight that I was able to buy styles I haven't been able to wear for a long time. And I was pleasantly surprised by the sizes I bought. It's always nice to be pleased with your size during the holiday season.
My work party was a good time, though it turned into a night of drunken debauchery about 1 hour in. One of the guys was trying to take his clothes off, and a couple got caught in a delicate situation in the Ladies' room. It makes me very happy to be a non-drinker when I see people's inhibitions fly out the window like that. Plus, Martin and I remembered everything that happened. The same can't be said for a lot of the people there that night.
We had our church Christmas party on Wednesday, and it went well. The Primary kids did their Christmas Nativity program, and I played the piano for it. They were adorable, but I had to play all these bouncy, happy, jolly songs. I also got roped in to playing a few carols for the rest of the ward to sing, and I would have loved to be able to sing instead of play. I have a sneaking suspicion that I'll be stuck behind the piano until the day I die.
Anyway, I need to get to these cookies. Maybe it'll warm up our freezing cold house!

Wow, I guess people really ARE reading my blog! I got a lot of e-mails over the last few days, so I guess it’s worth while to continue posting.
Not much new here, as usual. This weekend should be interesting though. Martin is working tomorrow morning, and I am going shopping with my lovely sister-in-law, Cathy. She always looks like a star, and I could use a little help. Tomorrow is the office Christmas party, and I want to look really good.
The holiday season in England is manic! There seems to be so much pressure to have the perfect Christmas, though maybe I just get that impression because of my mother-in-law. So much time and money is spent on decorations and presents and Christmas dinner. People usually gasp in amazement when I tell them that we used to have hamburgers or soup on Christmas day. They always forget that we have our huge family meal in November for Thanksgiving. Nobody wants to cook an elaborate feast on Christmas day!
The weeks leading up to Christmas at work are a little different, too. All of our suppliers have been coming in with gifts on their sales calls, and it’s usually a bottle or two of wine. I have two sitting on my desk right now. Everyone’s being taken out to lunch, which usually includes a lot of drinks. There are street vendors everywhere selling hot, mulled wine. It’s like the whole nation turns into a giant pub crawl. They estimate that one in three adults in England will drink and drive over the holiday period.
I am still not used to how heavily drinking is involved in the culture here. Being Mormon in this country is weird, because social occasions almost always call for a cup of tea or a pint. It really is difficult to be friendly without one or the other in your hand.
When you grow up as a Utah Mormon, it’s so easy to believe that the whole world lives basically like you do. For all practical intents and purposes, they do. If you don’t often leave, you never experience life in any other way. You get used to hardly anybody smoking, almost never seeing alcohol except next to the Coke in the gas station. People talk about Enrichment Night at work, and read the Ensign or the Book of Mormon on their lunch breaks. That’s what is normal.
Hearing our friends at church here talk about a visit to Utah is so funny. It’s completely bizarre for them to run in to the church outside of church. A trip to Provo is sort of surreal. They talk about their experiences like the strangest things just happened, and Martin and I nod our heads and say, “yeah, so?”

Jamie recently posted a message in regards to English cooking and how bizarre and quite unsavoury it can be. And from the sound of a lot of them, you might be right in agreeing with her.

But what you have to remember and, ultimatley appreciate, is the sheer ingenuity and economy of it. Yes allright, it is the leftover bits, like innards and blood. But then, when they came up with these dishes, that is all they had. So they utilised it and adapted it, and made it so it could be eaten.

We really are no different from other cultures either. In India, they developed their wonderfully flavoured dishes, not for the taste, but to mask the taste and smell of rotten meat! So, is it really that big a stretch to see the similarity between indian and enlish cooking.

Now, one thing you hear so often is "eughh that sounds revolting" and you know what? It does! But that doesn't mean it tastes bad. Properly cooked and served a lot of the dishes which Jamie describes are, surprisingly, very tasty. But so many people don't try them because of their contents.

This does lead us to one of my pet peeves. the question is asked:"do you like...(insert dish here)?" "No" next question "Have you tried It?" and here comes the kicker..."no, but it doesn't sound good, so I haven't" And there it is. Such a cutting insight into many peoples perception of food, and many other topics. In Jamies defense, she is quite willing to try many weird and wonderful foods, so I can' criticise her. But people, wake up! there are so many great culinary delights that are open to you if you can just get past that little hurdle of a description. Go on, try those sweetbreads! Delve into offal! Please?

The disadvantages of a blog...

It seems like I don't get many personal e-mails lately, and hardly anyone ever posts comments to my blog. Not to sound neurotic or anything, but is anyone even reading this? Sometimes I feel like I'm doing all this typing for my own benefit, and that's really not necessary. I type a lot every day at work. What's going on?

hello everyone!

Hogpenny Cottage, home sweet home!

Eating in England...

Anyone fancy some bubble and squeak?
How about some bangers and mash?
I could really go for pie, chips and mushy peas!
Spotted dick sounds smashing!
A bit of sponge would be lovely for pud!
Ooohhh, I love scampi!
Spaghetti bolognase sound OK for tea?
Black pudding for breakfast?
Dead man's leg for dessert.
Haggis, neaps, & tatties for Burns Night.
Cockles and Whelks are lovely if you're at the seaside.


Does this sound like a foreign language to you?

The food over here is lovely, but man it is weird for someone who grew up on mid-west cooking! And the names they give their food--why can't they just call it what it really is?

Translation:
Anyone fancy some bubble and squeak? / mashed potatoes and cabbage, fried (leftovers only)
How about some bangers and mash? / sausage and mashed potatoes
I could really go for pie, chips and mushy peas! / meat pie, fries, and boiled, mashed peas (a lot like refried beans but radioactive green instead)
Spotted dick sounds smashing! / a sweet suet (shortening) cake with raisins
A bit of sponge would be lovely for pud! / cake for dessert
Ooohhh, I love scampi! / breaded and deep fried shrimp or monkfish
Spaghetti bolognase sound OK for tea? / pasta with meat sauce
Black pudding for breakfast? / a nasty concoction not fit to be consumed by man OR beast that the English eat fried up on a plate of death! Congealed blood mixed with herbs and oats and stuffed into a sausage casing
Dead man's leg or jam roly poly pudding. / cake and jam rolled up together
Haggis, neaps, & tatties for Burns Night. / Oats and herbs and ground up "meat" in a sausage casing which is steamed and served with rutabega and potatoes
Cockles and Whelks are lovely if you're at the seaside. / small clams and other strange shellfish, eaten with vinegar

Is it any wonder that I've been losing weight!

Saying that, I should be gaining it instead. Look at all the potatoes on the list above. Not to mention all the desserts (annoyingly called "pudding," even when the substance does not resemble pudding in any way, shape, or form). The desserts are almost always served with cream as well.

This whole country seems to think they are either back in the dark ages or still on post WWII rationing and they eat accordingly. Go into a traditional butcher's shop some time--I dare you. Most likely you will eaither vow to eat ONLY steak or become a vegetarian! If you want a research project, find out what's in Brawn!

Martin has a rebuttal to type, but I personally think he's biased!

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Working in England…

It’s a whole other world working in England vs. working in the U.S.—especially in this industry! It’s been quite a job, adjusting to the working environment here. In some respects it is so much more reserved, and in others it is much more informal.

For instance, back home we all talked about our home life at work. It didn’t absorb us completely, but we would chit chat about what we did over the weekend, mention it if our husbands had done something silly, gush over cute things that kids or pets had done, etc. Here we very rarely discuss our home lives. Even in the times when nothing much is going on it seems to be a taboo topic!

In my previous jobs we were never very formal. I always called people by their first names—even my superiors. Still, the casualness of things here is shocking. I have never been called so many pet names in my life! It’s always “love,” or “darling” or “chuck,” and it’s nice! Maybe it’s just that I am working in an industry that is mostly male, and the women tend to get pampered a little bit. Some people find it a bit condescending, but it’s quite nice to be treated like a lady.

It also seems that the further south you go the more American the working style becomes. I hear that northern men tend to be chauvinists, and I guess I can sort of see that. But maybe it’s not that they’re chauvinists—maybe they’re just more traditional in the way they see gender roles. When we call depots down in the London area, it seems to be business as usual.

Phone calls are a bit strange as well. Other than not knowing whether I’ll be able to understand people when I pick up the phone, the manners are completely different. For starters, when I pick up the phone and say hello, the person on the end of the line usually sounds surprised. How can they be surprised that someone is answering? They called me—they should be expecting to hear someone’s voice!

The niceties are usually done away with as well. Back home we always said “how are you,” or something like it. Here, they tend to jump straight into business.

In the U.S. the person who placed the call is usually the one to end it. It seems like common courtesy to me. Not only are they the one paying for the call, but they phoned you with a purpose. Once they have got the information they needed, they should signal that by ending the call. Here there seems to be this extreme reluctance to hang up first. So many times I feel like I’m hanging up on someone. They say thank you and then wait. There’s this moment of awkward silence—I usually end up asking if there’s anything else I can do for them, and that is even more awkward.

Someone should teach a course in telephone manners so we can standardise them! I’m sure I’m being rude a lot of the time and just don’t realize it.

All these differences aside, it’s amazing how many similarities there are. People are people, no matter where you are. We all tend to have the same needs, wants, fears, desires, and insecurities. We grow up so differently, but we end up pretty much the same.

Where to start?

Nothing's really new, but life is good all the same. Martin and I had a great weekend, even though we didn't see each other very much.

On Saturday I went down to Lincoln with my friend Sam. Her husband kept the baby, so we had a total girls' day out. The Christmas fair was on, and it was very groovy. They open up the castle grounds and have loads of craft stands, food vendors, and kid's rides. I got most of my shopping for Martin done, and it was so good to just hang out with Sam. It seems like ages since I've done something without Martin.

Speaking of the cutie, Martin worked on Saturday and went down to Lincoln later that afternoon. He shopped for me, and then he had a work party. I went to bed early and was already asleep when he got home. But we slept late the next day and went to church together, and it was great.

We got our "poor man's double glazing" up this weekend too, and our house feels much warmer already. The house is really starting to come together. We're still a little short of storage and the walls are a little bit bare, but it's all good. We have what we need, and we're settling in. We are even going to start looking at houses to buy soon, which will be great!

Still no word from the fertility clinic--I'm hoping we'll have some news on that front by Christmas. It's really exciting to think that by next Christmas we could have a baby, or at least be expecting one.

I always thought that I would have kids by the time I turned 27. Life hasn't exactly gone as planned. In some ways it's better than I could have ever imagined, but some areas are a bit disappointing. Maybe that's part of growing up though--coming to terms with what you've got in life, making the best of the crummy bits, and enjoying the really great stuff.