The Year of the Horse

January 31st - Happy New Year; welcome the Year of the Horse!

To celebrate the Chinese New Year, some friends of ours organizes a big table at the fancy Chinese Restaurant located in the old royal bath building just down the street from our house. It was a 10-course meal, complete with an exuberant lion dance after dessert. 

First Course - Crispy Duck

The first course was a tasty crispy duck that you tucked inside a bun and drizzled with one of several sauces. It was delicious! 

Bill's Happy - No Corn or Corn Derivatives!

Our friend who organized the dinner made sure that the meal was free from corn, corn starch, etc. Bill was so happy, as he hasn't had Chinese food ever since a bad experience several years ago. The restauranteur assured us that these were traditional recipes and didn't include any of that stuff - Bill didn't have an allergic reaction - huzzah!!!

Royal Baths Chinese Restaurant

The food just kept coming and coming, and it was all delicious. The atmosphere was a neat mix of Victorian and Chinese; odd, but it worked!

Yummy Grub

We were stuffed by the time the desserts arrived, but they were so cute we couldn't resist. Little egg custards, sweet sticky rice balls, and a candied strawberry? Yes, please!!

Dessert

And then it came time for the lion dance. And dance they did! 

Lion Dance!

The tradition is to put some money in the red envelopes left on the table. When the lion comes close, you give the red envelope offering to the lion and you'll have good luck in the new year. 

Lions in Action

Of course I gave the lion money - who would pass up a year's worth of good luck?!?

Lions in More Action 

I have posted two short clips; first, in a jumpy, bad quality file with no sound that should play on mobile devices (phones and tablets). The same clips are posted again in a much higher quality, but can only be seen on laptop and desktop computers. Tell me which one you prefer (low or high quality) for future posts.

Low quality:

Moving Lions

Don't Eat my Arm!

Same videos, high quality with sound (view on laptop or desktop):

Burns Night

Our friends recently hosted a Burns Supper. What is a Burns Supper, you ask? Good question, as Bill and I had no idea! Robert Burns is Scotland's favorite poet. When he died, his friend started hosting an annual supper in his honor, every year on his birthday. This tradition soon spread, and on January 25th, Burns Suppers are hosted around the world - complete with haggis, neeps (boiled, mashed turnips), and tatties (mashed potatoes), and usually lots of whiskey.

At Brian & Regine's house (the same house where we had thanksgiving) for Burns Night, the men who had kilts wore them, and the ladies draped tartan scarves over their shoulders. 

The appetizer was Scotch Broth (beef stew). Before we ate the main meal, we had to preform the traditions Address to the Haggis, a poem highlighting this amazing food written by Robert Burns. Anyone willing had to read a verse, then have a drink of whiskey.

Burns Night - Scotch Broth

(all blue words are hyperlink'd to their definition if you want to learn what they mean)

Address to a Haggis, by Robert Burns, 1786

Fair fa' your honest, sonsie face, 

Great chieftain o' the pudding-race! 

Aboon them a' yet tak your place, 

Painch, tripe, or thairm: 

Weel are ye wordy o'a grace 

As lang's my arm. 

Verse One read by Brian and Verity reads verse two

The groaning trencher there ye fill, 

Your hurdies like a distant hill, 

Your pin was help to mend a mill 

In time o'need, 

While thro' your pores the dews distil 

Like amber bead. 

Verse three read by Regine

His knife see rustic Labour dight, 

An' cut you up wi' ready sleight, 

Trenching your gushing entrails bright, 

Like ony ditch; 

And then, O what a glorious sight, 

 Warm-reekin', rich! 

Cindy reads verse four

Then, horn for horn, they stretch an' strive: 

Deil tak the hindmost! on they drive, 

Till a' their weel-swall'd kytes belyve 

Are bent like drums; 

Then auld Guidman, maist like to rive, 

Bethankit! hums.

Go, Bill!! (Verse five)

Is there that owre his French ragout 

Or olio that wad staw a sow, 

Or fricassee wad make her spew 

Wi' perfect sconner, 

Looks down wi' sneering, scornfu' view 

On sic a dinner? 

Verse six

Poor devil! see him owre his trash, 

As feckles as wither'd rash, 

His spindle shank, a guid whip-lash; 

His nieve a nit; 

Thro' blody flood or field to dash, 

O how unfit!

Andy reads the seventh verse

But mark the Rustic, haggis-fed, 

The trembling earth resounds his tread. 

Clap in his walie nieve a blade, 

He'll mak it whissle; 

An' legs an' arms, an' hands will sned, 

Like taps o' trissle. 

Reading the final verse
(photo taken by a better camera than my phone!)

Ye Pow'rs, wha mak mankind your care, 

And dish them out their bill o' fare, 

Auld Scotland wants nae skinking ware 

That jaups in luggies; 

But, if ye wish her gratefu' prayer 

Gie her a haggis!

And with that, we ate and had a few wee drams o' whiskey :-)

Time to Tuck In! 

Hadrian's Wall, Part Two

The night we stayed in Northumbria visiting Hadrian's Wall, we booked a room at a pub. I always imagined a room in a pub would be a very rustic affair, similar to Hobbits sleeping on fresh rushes scattered on the floor as rowdy crowd downstairs get louder and louder as the night wears on. Turns out this isn't the case in 2014... And you know, not in middle earth.

Our quaint little pub was in a tiny village called Talkin. We arrived around 5:00pm and had a pint (half pint for the half pint!) before the barkeep showed us to our room. The bar was pretty empty, but the barkeep suggested we put our name in for dinner, which we did. Our room was actually a purpose-built building behind the bar and probably only dated back to the '70s - quite modern for England! The room was very big, had a sofa, fireplace, and all the amenities you could ask for. When we returned to the bar for dinner, the place was PACKED! We were sure glad we put our name in for a table, as I think the whole village came out for Saturday dinner. And the food was delicious: haggis in Drambouie sauce (starter), lamb chump (chop/rump cut) in minted gravy for bill and a parsnip, carrot, and chestnut bake for me. To finish it all off we split a sticky toffee pudding and waddled back to our room behind the pub. 

Hadrian's Wall

After a full English breakfast and finding a treacherous bit of black ice in the car park the next morning, we were off to visit more of Hadrian's wall. We first stopped at a Roman Military Museum and learned all about the life and times of the Roman army. For some reason I never realized that it was composed of people from conquered lands all over the globe - if you joined the roman military you could retire after 25 years of service, become a Roman citizen, marry the local woman you've "united" with and your kids would be legitimized. Thus, the Romanization of Britain (and many other countries).

The last Roman fort we visited, Birdoswald, was very similar to Housteads - a small fort along the wall. The best thing about this fort is that the car park is very near Hadrian's Wall so we didn't have to hike over various hills to view and walk the wall. 

Ravine behind Birdoswald Fort

Behind the Birdoswald Fort is a huge ravine. The day was cold but clear, so we walked out and took a few shots of the ravine and river far below. 

Bill roaming the countryside

And there were sheep. Lots and lots of cute sheep. 

Baaaa!!!

Vindolanda, Housesteads, & Hadrian's Wall

I have learned a lot about the Roman occupation of England during my volunteering at the York Minster, so I was excited to visit some of the Northernmost Roman fortresses in England. Bill was an excellent tour guide, as he had visited this area a few years ago. 

The Roman Emperor Hadrian realized that the Roman Empire was stretched far too thin, so he decided to pull back their boarders and solidify their control over most of Europe. One of the locations that proved to be very hard to control was the upper region of England and Scotland - those people would just not roll over and allow Rome to rule them - what's up with that?!? So, he thought the best thing to do was to build lots of forts and then one giant wall from the east coast of England to the west coast of England, this wall is now known as Hadrian's wall. It was built during the early 4th century, is 73 miles long, and depending on the location, would have originally stood between 5 - 6 meters (16 − 20 feet) high and about 3 meters (almost 10 feet) wide.

Location of Hadrian's Wall

A fort was located every mile along the wall for soldiers who were stationed at the wall. A few miles south of the wall, a very large settlement/fort called Vindolanda has been an ongoing archeological treasure-trove since it was unearthed in the late 1960s / early 1970s.   

Roman Fortress Vindolanda

Vindolanda has been uniquely preserved, thanks to the climate and earthen materials that have been covering the site since the Romans pulled out entirely in the late 300s. The museum at Vindolanda showcased many pairs of well-worn shoes, pottery, jewelry, bones, etc. They have even found party invitations (written by a woman!) and thank you notes buried within the rubble! Sadly, no photos were allowed inside the museum. 

High Noon at Vindolanda

Although the days are finally getting longer, this photo illustrates not only the Roman building foundations, but also my long, long shadow at high noon!

Hadrian's Wall at Housteads

One of the wall forts we visited is called Housteads, and is located right along side the wall. You can see the wall dipping up and down the hillside in the photo above. The wall is now much shorter than it once had been, but I'm sure the stones are still nearby - in barn walls, church steeples, farm walls, etc. Why chisel out new rock when you can just bash out some of the already-formed rock squares from that weird, abandoned wall?!

Atop Hadrian's Wall

Near Housteads, we were able to hop on top of the wall and take a nice, little walk.

The crazies north of Hadrian's Wall

And later we hopped down on the Scotland side (we weren't really in Scotland, the boarder is farther north) for a picture of us on the "northern barbarian" side of the wall :) 

Housteads Fortress and Hadrian's Wall

By the time we made it to the Housteads fort site, the sun was going down and the site was about to close for the night. I mean, it was 4:30 - shouldn't we all be ready for bed at that late hour?

Roman Bath House at Housteads

We hustled around the site, which was very similar (but smaller) to the Vindolanda site we visited earlier that day. We were able to see the foundations of the barracks, bath house, and high officer's quarters. 

Bill is cold, but happy

It was about 2* C (35.6* F) that day, which wasn't too bad, but up on the bluff with the wind whipping all around, it was DAMN cold. I couldn't imagine having to walk the wall all night, waiting and watching for celtic barbarians wearing a wee roman man-skirt and sandals. I'm sure they had a cloak, but still - Brrrrr!!!

Keeping watch

Northern Lights or City Lights?

One night last month Bill got an email from his mom (Hi, Bev!) saying that the Northern Lights may be visible as far south as London that night due to a solar flare. Since it was already 10PM, Bill and I were already in our PJs and getting ready for bed. One of the things on Bill's bucket list is to see the Northern Lights with his own eyeballs, so we decided to seize the potential opportunity. 

We put on some street clothes and hit the road! We drove north, heading towards dark skies with good vantage points of the horizon. After a while I started seeing some light in the distance, but couldn't tell if it was reflections from city lights, or something way more cool. We kept driving, all in all we drove for about an hour on little, dark, twisty British roads until we found a nice pull-out overlooking the mysterious lights I noticed from afar. 

Northern Lights?

Or City Lights?

We took these photos at 11:30PM, looking out towards the Northwest coast of England. Bill and I eventually decided these are simply city lights, but we still aren't sure what city we were viewing. We were corroborated by a radio article I heard the next day saying that the Northern Lights were only somewhat visible from 12:30 − 2:00AM up around the Newcastle area. We weren't out that late or that far north, so a city it must have been.  

Stars!

We did get a chance to practice some night-time photography, something neither of us have really ever done before. Bill's camera took some great photos, so I'm hoping he'll have time to write up his own blog post on this event in the near future. 

Moon Through Trees

Someday, we'll see the Northern Lights. And I'm sure when we see them, we will know instantly... Yup! That's them! :-)

Happy New Year!!

We flew home from our Christmas in LA, landing in Manchester, England at 6:30am on the last day of the 2013. We got home a few hours later and set an alarm to wake us up in four hours. The alarm rang, I turned it off, and two hours later we finally woke up. Oopsies! 

We had tickets to meet our friends at a local village hall for their New Year's Eve celebration. Unbeknownst to us, the event was black tie (tuxedos!), so we were rather underdressed. Oh well, what are you gonna do?!

We had a three-course meal in the nicely decorated village hall. After dessert, we had a rousing game of trivia, which I am proud to say our table won! 

Darley Memorial Hall

We had an unfair advantage during the trivia, though. Our table of ten had equal amounts of Brits, Americans, and one Aussie. The trivia consisted of television theme songs, which were fairly American-heavy. As the Brits at our table (and around the entire hall) shrugged their shoulders in bewilderment, us Americans sang along to one of the songs... Just sit right back and we'll tell a tale, a tale of a fateful ship.... Another song that stumped the Brits was the original 90210 song; Bill proudly got after just a few notes. That said, there were a few theme songs that the Brits at our table were dumbfounded that we didn't know.

Our table won a big box of fancy chocolates. We unwrapped the package and opened them up; low and behold, each chocolate was grey with age. We checked the expiration date on the bottom and it had expired a year earlier. I am sure it was some nice villager's donation, but... ewwww! 

Big Ben Clock Tower - 40 seconds of 2013 remaining

After trivia, the DJ started pumping out the jams! Bill and I did our typical dance in our chairs, and had a lot of fun. And we learned at midnight, instead of watching the ball drop in Times Square, everyone watches the Big Ben clock tower strike midnight. Bill told me next year he wanted to be in London to watch it with our own eyes, so I'm going to hold him to it! :-)

Happy New Year!! (with our friend, Brian, photo-bombing)

Since we slept until almost 3PM, we were in rare form at midnight. Usually we're sound asleep at that time of night, but not when we're jet lagged! 

We kept trying to do a New Year's Eve "selfie," and our friend, Brian, kept photo-bombing our efforts. 

Another attempt at a selfie (with Brian photo-bombing yet again)

And finally, a selfie with no photo-bomber. It's not nearly as fun, though!

Last selfie is best, but not nearly as fun as the first two

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! 

(I know, this post is going up almost a week into February, but oh well!)

Cool Aunt Toni

Aunt Toni was a big hit with the girls. Alas, she will always be the "Cool Aunt," and I am the other Aunt. I'm okay with that, Toni is pretty darned cool :-) 

Toni, who has taught herself how to play every stringed instrument (and then some), received a brand new, fancy harp for Christmas. The girls were enthralled with her new instrument, and were allowed to play the harp with Aunt Toni's supervision.  

Toni teaching Emery and Ella the harp

Ella and Emery are also big, big dog fans. And they L-O-V-E-D Toni's dog Malik. Malik is a very patient, well-behaved, and friendly dog and the girls fell in love with him instantly. He tolerated them with ease and grace. When Todd and his gals left at the end of the week, the girls cried because they wanted to stay... with Malik! 

Malik, Toni's wonderful dog