1940s Babes... And How the Brits Won World War II at Bletchley Park

Since moving to England, Bill has wanted to travel down south to visit Bletchley Park, the location where Alan Turing and other mathematical smarties helped break Germany's Enigma machine. Breaking thier secret code enabled the Allied troops victory in WWII. Many of our friends hadn't been either, so Bill looked into organizing a group trip for us all to visit. He found out Bletchley Park was hosting a "1940s day" where they talk about the history of the female workers at BP, and teach us about the make-up and hair of the time period.

Attempting 1940's hair and makeup

Us gals were excited! We could do a bit of touring Bletchley, learn the history of the ladies, and get all glamed up in the process. We learned Hitler didn't like red lipstick, so British women took to wearing bright red lipstick as a great big ef-u to Hitler! Also, there was no shampoo to be found during the war, so women took to washing their hair once a week with laundry flakes. And they jerry-rigged eyeliner by burning cork, then using a stick to scrape the burnt cork off and apply it as eyeliner. 

Colleen's a natural

Our teacher said, although there weren't a lot of luxuries available, and what was available was very, very expensive, women took it as their duty to look nice for the boys fighting on the front line. 

Is my hair done yet?

Victory rolls, the big donut-shaped hair rolls, were a practical way to put hair up to work (as the women had to do while their men were off) and worked well on unwashed hair. Our hair was nice and washed, so we had to add loads of product (dry shampoo, mousse, hairspray) to get our hair to co-operate. Cindy was the fastest learner, and ended up doing most of our hair, while she only got small little pin-curls in her short hair. 

Cindy styling Regine

Regine's victory rolls turned out quite well for her medium-to-short hair. 

Regine's victory rolls

Reg was the last one to get her hair styled. Since my hair was done, she was the lucky lady to get photos taken during the process of getting her hair all curled up. 

Finished! 

Our youngest co-hort, Colleen, took to the style quite naturally. She and her Mom both looked great! 

A beautiful mom and daughter picture

We were the last five ladies to leave Bletchley that day. I don't know if we were slow or just meticulous, but we had fun regardless. 

Beauty is your duty! 

And when we left, the guys finally saw us in our finished style and laughed and laughed! They thought we looked great, just so very different. They made us line up against the wall for another photo. The picture below reminds me of the photo still for the movie The Usual Suspects. 

The Usual Suspects... Who is Kayser Soze?!?

At dinner that night at a fancy Indian restaurant, us gals got quite a few looks and questions. It was fun for a day, but I certainly wouldn't want to go through all that rig-a-ma-roll every time we had to get ready in the morning! 

The only downside to the day was that the ladies only had a short window of time in which to explore Bletchley Park. The guys spent the whole day touring the park and the nearby Computer Museum, where Bill took the pictures below of the famous Colossus computer. Honestly, the gals had a lot of fun, but I think the guys geeked out big time and really had a blast as well. 

The Colossus

The Colossus

Owl Encounter

I heard about a 2-for-1 owl encounter voucher at a country estate hotel located about an hour north of where we live. There were only 10 vouchers available, so I hopped online, purchased the tickets, and tucked them away to give to Bill as a Christmas present. We decided to make a short weekend out of it, and booked the owl encounter for a Saturday evening, with an overnight stay at the hotel.

Coniston estate hotel

After arriving, we took a short walk around their private lake. Although the "estate hotel" was not an old country house turned hotel as I had imagined, the purpose-built hotel off the side of the highway was pretty nice, and the man-made lake was very pretty.

Pretty lake

We arrived at the falconry centre a few minutes early and were able to walk around and take photos of the birds of prey. They had several falcons as well as the owls. But tonight, it was mostly about the owls! 

Barn owl

The owl below was at least twice as large as the other owls and had deep red, devil-y eyes. I was secretly happy when the falconer said "We won't be flyin' that lad, he dun like me a bit!" 

Scary owl - maybe a great horned owl? 

We flew two owls (barn owl and long-eared owl) and the hawk below. The hawk flew so fast we didn't get good photos. But I will say when the hawk was on my arm he stared into me eyes, moved in closer and cocked his head. Bill said my eyes got really big and scared as I told the falconer, "I'm a bit intimidated, to be honest!" And right then, the hawk flew away. Whew! 

Hawk (cannot remember type - sorry!)

When it was time to fly the owls, the falconer gave you a one-day old chick's leg to hold out for the owl. (Shudder! I am glad he tucked the leg into our gloved hand; I know that's what Owls eat, but I didn't want to see or touch it.) Once the chick's leg was held out, the owl came swooping in for dinner and a nice rest on your gloved hand.after a minute or two, s/he would get bored, and fly back to the rock wall to await another chick's leg. 

Coming in for a landing

Just chillin'

Later!

Bill enjoyed "his" Christmas present. But I'll be honest, I know this was a gift I purchased for myself!

Bill and the long-eared owl

We got to fly both a long-eared owl (above) and a cute barn owl (below). 

Bill and the barn owl

Barn owl enjoying some tasty chick leg...

My barn owl friend

I loved every minute of it! But, I doubt I'll ever keep an owl as a pet. I can't imagine purchasing dead, day-old chicks in bulk. Eww!! And sad face :-(

SNOW!!

2014 saw very, very little snow, and none of what fell ever really stuck. Although there still hasn't been as much snow as the year we moved here, we've had nice little dustings off and on, all through January and February. 

Whee!!

And when the snow started to fall, I was really, really happy! 

A few days later, We were driving around in the country and got off the beaten path for a while. Not only did we see the pretty sheep below, but my poor car actually got hit with buckshot from a group of clay pigeon shooters. We sure were glad we hadn't been walking by, that could have been problematic! 

Wooly Jumpers

And just a few days later, the first telltale sign of winter's end we're starting to pop up all around town - snowdrops!!  

Snowdrops

After snowdrops come the crocuses, then the happy, spring daffodils!

Science-y Stuff in London

When we decided to go to London for New Year's, Bill asked if we could avoid any and all castles and churches. For the last year and a half he has gone to every historical sight I've suggested (usually castles and churches), so I thought it was more than fair to accommodate his wishes. 

After spending the last day of 2014 window shopping, seeing a play, fine dining, and fighting the hordes at the fireworks show, we spent the first day of 2015 doing science-y stuff.

Charles Babbage's differential machine

We spent the majority of the day at the Museum of Science & Technology, where we saw Charles Babbage's early computer, created in 1822. Ada Lovelace, the daughter of Lord Byron and an amazing mathematician, was Charles Babbage's working partner. An unsung hero, she is the namesake for one of our cats.

Radio Shack's TRS-80

They also had a display with some of our childhood computers, including Radio Shack's TRS-80 and the Mac Apple computer.

Apple II

Later that day, we walked across the way to the Natural History Museum where we saw a complete stegosaurus skeleton. If you look closely in the first picture, you can see a blurry Bill! 

Bill and a Stegosaurus

Stegosaurus

We also saw a real, still-wrapped dummy. It was kinda creepy!

Mummy

That evening we made our way to Leiscester Square and saw The Theory of Everything, the movie about Alan Turing and decoding the Enigma Machine at Bletchley Park. It was wall-to-wall science, all day long, and we both enjoyed every minute of it!

Fireworks Over Big Ben... Success or Failure?

Behold! The London Eye (with blue lights) and if you squint & look really hard, you can see Big Ben below the string of white lights, center of picture. This is as good as it gets, ladies and gentlemen...

New Year's Eve

This was the first year they sold tickets to be down by the river front to better manage crowd control and avoid any scary scenarios, so we figured it would be crowded, but manageable. The gates opened at 7:30pm; we got there at 8:00 and got fairly close to the riverfront, but fairly far from the Eye and Big Ben. We didn't mind as most of the fireworks would be up in the sky anyway. 

But the crowds just kept coming. They all had tickets, and they just kept coming. 

Pushing and shoving to get in front or at least closer.  

But there wasn't an inch in any direction to move... and we'd only been there an hour. 

The only thing I could do was watch the back of the person in front of me as Bill protected me from the jostling hoards. Every 15 minutes or so I'd swivel around to look up at Bill, see how he was doing (he'd grumble), ask what time it was (another grumble), and then swivel around to look at the back of the person in front of me again. 

The porta-potties were back near the entrance, so good luck getting to one and forget ever getting back to your spot. We stayed two full hours, but knew we had to stand there ANOTHER TWO HOURS to enjoy the 15-minute fireworks display. 

Bill finally asked if I would be devastated if we left early, and honestly, I was pretty ready to go myself. Once we decided to go, trying to extricate ourselves from the crowd was yet another challenge. It was horrible. Once away from the teaming hoards, Bill turned to me and said the quote of the evening, "That was one of the dumbest ideas I've ever had!"

Needless to say, we walked back to our bed & breakfast amongst festive New Year's Eve revelers.

Once "home" we watched the New Years Eve fireworks like normal people, on the television.

Here it is, thanks to BBC1. It sure would be cool to see it some day with our own eyes... 

Ringing in 2015, London Style

Last year we rung in 2014 at a local village hall with some of our newly-made friends. At midnight, we watched Big Ben in London strike midnight on the big projection screen (England's version of Times Square), everyone yelled Happy New Year, kissed their loved ones, then held hands and sang auld lang sign as we watched the fireworks over the river Thames on the big screen. Bill turned to me and said, next year, let's see that in person. Surprised, I asked if he was sure he wanted to brave the hoards and watch Big Ben strike midnight live, and he said and emphatic YES. So, I set the "NYE 2015 London" plans in motion. 

Fancy (blurry) dining room 

We took the train down to London on December 30th and spent a lovely half-day in London. We found a rather posh restaurant for our first dinner. More posh than we were expecting, as we were looking for a simple pub. But once you walk in and get seated, what are you going to do? There was a great piano player and the food looked delish, so we stayed. 

Liberty's of London

We spent the last morning of 2014 walking around some of the hoity-toity neighborhoods around london. We browsed through Liberty's and I drooled at their wonderful fabrics and high-end accessories.

Fancy hats!!

We stumbled upon a Phillip Treacy stand-alone shop that was sadly, closed. Phillip Treacy is the haberdasher to the Royal family and movie stars. My Royal Ascot friends would have been very jealous if (had it been open) I had braved going inside, trying on an outrageously expensive hat and taken a selfie. Oh, well, this photo of the window display will have to do.

Bubba Gump's

We found a Bubba Gump's. I teased Bill that it could be a portal to Cannery Row, and we could pop in to visit home, and all of our friends could easily visit us here. Would that's be awesome?!

Victorian arcade

We walked through a gorgeously decorated, high-end jewelry and watch arcade that was bustling with business. Because, you know, the end of the year is always the best time to buy your antique Cartier diamonds and last season's Rolex watches!  

After a morning of walking around, and a quick bite to eat in a pub, we made our way to a small theatre to see a matinee performance of The Woman in Black. The play was made into a movie a few years ago with Daniel Radcliff (Harry Potter). I hadn't seen the movie, but we enjoyed the play very much. 

We knew we'd be standing all night for the fireworks, so we figured a play and a nice, long dinner would be nice before braving the elements. 

Fancy dining room, New Year's Eve

Our dinner was at a rather fancy restaurant right next the the famous Savoy hotel. We booked dinner several weeks early knowing the number of people in town for New Years would make finding a good place with availability by chance very difficult. Simpsons on the Strand turned out to be lovely. They serve roast beef, cut table-side with all the trimmings as well as a bevy of other delicious items. Yum!  

Buckingham Palace

On our walk back to our Bed and Breakfast that night, we spied Buckingham Palace all lit up. It was beautiful and I had to take one last photo before we packed it in for the night.

As for the fireworks over Big Ben?  I'll save that story for the next blog post :-) 

Christmas Cake, Crackers, and Craziness

I know posting this at the end of February is weird, but I am catching up! I hope I will soon be posting events shortly after they've occurred, but until then I am still playing the catch-up game.

The Christmas season is really fun in England. All of the towns really go crazy with the decorations. Every restaurant seems to have special "Winter Warmer" menus, craft fairs and Christmas markets are held almost every weekend in nearby villages and towns. The York Minster had a gorgeous wreath bedecked with holly and mistletoe - which is kind of cool because because they go back to the pagan winter holidays and not all churches will use them in their decorations. 

Advent wreath at York Minster

We attended a Christmas party at a local restaurant that had great decorations and the ubiquitous Christmas crackers with the paper hats.

Christmas Party

Christmas crackers

We decorated our home a wee bit, with a pre-lit, used tree I purchased and some cheap-o ornaments from Amazon. (Because all of our Christmas ornaments are still back in the states.) 

Our Christmas tree

I used my knowledge from last year's cookery course at Betty's to make another Christmas cake. This year I got a bit fancier with the fondant and decorations. 

Christmas cake

Christmas cake

I also made a classic Christmas pudding that we set alight before serving up on Christmas eve.

Flaming Christmas pudding

And last, but not least, every Sunday in December Bill and I got up a bit early and walked down to Betty's tea room for a fancy, sit-down breakfast. What fun we had! 

Betty's for Breakfast

PS Bill's showcasing a cake fork, which he likes to call a sporknife - it cuts, it stabs, it scoops!! 

When Surrounded by Sheep & Wool, One Starts Knitting Again!

I used to knit. I made scarves and blankets... basically anything flat. And then I decided to knit a vest for Bill and it was a miserable failure. I tried again and knitted myself a sweater... another failure. All the pieces looked fine but once I sewed them all together they were tight over here and lumpy over there. I set my knitting needles down and hadn't picked them up in years.

Back of sexy dress

And then I moved to Yorkshire, where the lamb and wool are aplenty. And a fabulous knitting shop within walking distance. I dipped my toe back in by crocheting a few projects. When they went well, I finally picked the knitting needles back up again. So far I've only made a few scarfs, but after attending the annual knitting & stitching show last Autumn (where these photos were taken), I have been inspired to sign up for "beyond the basics" knitting classes. 

Whimsical knitted vest

Perhaps I won't be knitting anything quite so ornate as the dress and shirt above, or the felted dresses below...

Felted dress for Maleficent? 

Another felted dress

But I hope to move on from knitting flat objects to 3 dimensional ones that can actually be worn proudly as clothing!

The Hunter's Prayer on Location

We had some excitement in late November, in that a hollywood movie came to town to film in one of the older corners of our town center. It's a movie called The Hunter's Prayer and it stars Sam Worthington of Avatar fame and is supposedly set in Switzerland. Or at least the scenes filmed in town were supposed to be in Switzerland - apparently it looks kinda swiss in the Monpellier quarter. 

Sign explaining street changes

One of the restaurants that Bill and I have enjoyed several meals was used for a key chase scene. The co-owner / hostess told us she was there all night during the filming and it was really, really boring. The poor extras just had to keep pretending to eat as the main characters chased the bad guys (or maybe they were being chased by the bad guys?) through the restaurant. And apparently they had to re-do the scene hundreds of times as it was rather technical, with explosions and the like.  

Filming and food wrapped for the day

Personally, I think it all sounds rather fascinating. But I assume by 4am it probably wouldn't be fascinating to anyone anymore, would it? 

Timberlake's Restaurant, AKA Le Dernier Bistro

The film crew re-labeled all of the street signs, shop signs, and even brought in a sausage cart to make everything look authentic. 

I want a brockwurst!

Oops - silly me! I was walking all around the filming location taking camera-photos willy-nilly. No one shoo'd me out or seemed to mind, but then I saw the sign below. And what did I do? Take a picture of it with my phone. D'oh! 

Oops... I used my phone to take this photo!