proper english

So I’ve been vaguely avoiding updating. I was going to point in the direction of jet lag, but really, it hasn’t been too much of an issue.

It’s more that we had no (or at least very little) internet access in England, so we couldn’t upload and post things gradually (not that we had the time to do so even if we had the net) and so now there are probably a good thousand or so photos to sort through and post. Which is daunting.

Well, on the whole, lets just say I enjoyed myself. For now. I checked pretty much everything off of my list.

Actually… “enjoyed myself” might be an understatement. I think I might like to live there someday. In a little cottage. In the English countryside. With the occasional trainride to London for shopping (amazing, amazing shopping).

I mean my parents said it when they were there last (and they have more right to, as they were both raised by very British parents) but it kinda felt like home, for some strange reason.

I guess it all adds up – since a very young age every other book I read (certainly all the favourites, at least) were set in the British countryside: Diana Wynne Jones, Arthur Ransome, Lewis Caroll and Roald Dahl.

Speaking of which, I just found that the people that make those amazing Penguin paperback mugs and things (which I searched all over England for, and could not find for some strange reason) make a Swallows and Amazons set of mugs, and I want one desperately and dearly.

Then, while looking around, I found that another company that designs elegant and thoughtful souvenirs for iconic British entities makes Pantone!!! Swatch!!! Mugs!!! and, well, my heart pretty much swooned and exploded.

So, in summation, I will shortly be installing a Pay Pal donation button, to which all funds will go directly towards buying myself a small cottage in Kent, Sussex, or other suitable English countryside.

Ok, no, maybe I’m just kidding.

Well… Actually… Then again… Never say never…

back from britania

yes, I re-designed

Ok, so here’s my official: “hey look everybody, I re-designed this baby!” post (as if you needed prompting, my lovely, lovely fans).

Like always, I’m asking you out there to beta this for me – it should be perfect on Macs running Safari or Firefox, but if you are on a Windows machine running Internet Explorer, I would especially like to hear from you because I no longer have a PC around to check these things on. If anything looks weird (not like the screenshot up there) please comment!

By the way, there is no particular inspiration for this look other than that I wanted something that was fun and summery.

The many body font should be American Typewriter. According to some website I looked at it’s on ninety-five of computers running Windows or Mac operating systems. If you don’t have American Typewriter, the typeface you’re looking at should be Courier New, which, while obviously not my ideal choice (that would be American Typewriter, duh) I feel is a nice face that is seriously underrated for uses outside of coding. At very least it gives me an approximation of the old timey typewritery feel I’m going for.

In crazy and completely unrelated news, last night I had a dream that we found a drowning Staffordshire Bull Terrier while driving along a country road. It had a collar, but it only had it’s name on it. It’s name was Rock & Roll. Is that not the most awesome name for a little bull dog, ever? Now I want a Staffordshire Bull Terrier named Rock & Roll.

Tomorrow I leave for England!

reasons

Reasons why this is a good weekend so far:

1. We just bought a new little pocket camera that takes pictures like the above (^)
2. We just got back from the local farmers market in the neat, old, reclaimed factory district a block away (where I bought tiny pattypans)
3. We also bought homemade cherry-buttermilk muffins
4. We also got cafe au lait and freshly squeezed lemonade from the local parisian style cafe
5. We are leaving for london in LESS than one week

now taking your suggestions

So, I am going to London in about a weeks time. London as in England.

Any suggestions?

Here’s my list of Must-Dos (most of them involve food and booze):

1. Harrod’s food court
2. High tea – the works (clotted cream and scones and cucumber sandwiches)
3. Bangers and mash
4. Pint in a pub
5. Fish and chips (will substitute with anything else deep fried that probably shouldn’t be).
6. Curry
7. Pim’s Punch
8. Ride Tube
9. Savile Row, High Street, Portobello… Shopping! (Even just of the window variety.)
10. Tate modern, National Gallery, National Portrait Gallery, Victoria and Albert, St. Paul’s Cathedral, Tower of London, Westminster Abbey, etcetera, etcetera, blah blah blah, yeah we’ll see if we have time after the eating…

rats and mice

I went up to my family’s cottage this weekend. It was very cold, and there were mice. Probably didn’t get warmer than 20 degrees (C) ’til the day we left (of course). Still got to get in a little swimming (had to traverse debris though – my dad was rebuilding the dock).

We saw Ratatouille before we left, and I was quite surprised by it (although really, what was I expecting from a Pixar flick? Anything less than amazingness?).

Thanks to Disney’s inept marketing I knew pretty much nothing about it going in, other than it was a Pixar movie about rats (which is really a good thing – I’m sick of seeing movies where I already know all the good moments because they put them all in the trailer).

It is about a adorably ambitious little rat who has a stirring passion for cooking who finds himself in the (once) finest kitchen in all of Paris. He pairs up with similarly adorable but not nearly as ambitious human to take on all the snobbery and bad tempers that France has to offer. Hilarity ensues.

What this movie comes down to is rats, the cooking of truly fine food and Paris – and Pixars animators captured them all in a gloriously gauzy haze of nostalgia (which won me over to their chubby, fuzzy, adorable little interpretation of rodents – they already had me with the Paris and the fine food).

They actually used Chefs from French Laundry (one of the finest restaurants in the world, with the most beautiful food) to oversee the food design. A more appropriate choice could not have been made, and speaks to Pixar’s incredible taste and discretion.

There were also small references to Amelie, and larger allusions to the Muppets (Jim Henson being the patron saint of adorably sarcastic rats and underground dwellers).

Do I even have to tell you how much I loved this movie?

It did, occasionally, have it’s faults (overlong by a about twenty minutes, and there is this speech at the end that I didn’t really get the point of – and felt was a little misplaced). But overall it sucks you into it’s golden little epicurean world, and you don’t mind staying there at all (even during the slow bits, even with all the rats).

All in all, I am definitely putting Brad Bird on my “geniuses I would someday like to steal the brains of” list. He has more than proved himself with this one.