Everything In Its Right Place

The Holiday Season in three easy steps....

2011-11-26T18:29:00.000Z

So, Thanksgiving was this Thursday and we find ourselves in the middle of the holiday season. I enjoy this time of the year in the US, the weather's nice (well, most of the time), the local scenery's great and there's more food than you can cope with (most of it pumpkin-based). There's the public holidays as well, which is nice.

The season pretty much starts after Labor Day in September, when people start putting up their Halloween decorations and ends in the New Year. As I've already written quite a lot about the holiday season (see here for last year's post about Thanksgiving), I thought I would do a pictorial summary of three cornerstones of the season to date:

1) Halloween

There's a whole lot of this.....

...and a fair amount of whatever this is too.....

2) Thanksgiving

Which, of course, is all about the food, and for which I was very thankful :-)

3) Sports

The holiday season isn't complete without some sporting events. We tend to favour the local Ohio University (American) football team - go Bobcats!

The added bonus with American sports is the entertainment - beats a pukka pie and weak tea...

I think that's a fairly comprehensive summary, don't you? :-)

Christmas to follow.....

Summer in Athens

2011-09-06T18:41:00.000+01:00

Yesterday was Labor Day (no, still looks wrong without the 'u') in the US, which is a public holiday for most people. This is what wikipedia says about Labor Day. So this is basically a holiday dreamt up to appease the trade unions, which seems a little at odds with the state legislators' current attitude towards the unions, but that's America for you. What's more important is the shopping! Because after all, that's what holidays are really about.

Anyway, I'm digressing somewhat from the point of this post, which is to say that Labor Day is traditionally considered the end of summer. And as it has just stopped raining after 36 hours, it seems like a good time look back over our summer in Athens. Yesterday was also the one year anniversary of me moving to Ohio, so that's another reason to feel reflective.

So, summer in Athens - well, it's been crazily hot (like, 40c hot), which comes with some intense thunderstorms:

But in between bouts of thunder and lightening, we spent a lot of time hanging out around our local lake. Some times we went canoeing....

Other times, when we were feeling particularly brave, we waded in a bit further and went for a swim...

But mostly it was just nice to make the most of the view...

There are a lot of scenic places we tried to visit over the summer, mostly centred on the interesting geological make-up of the Hocking Hills area. Most of Ohio, north of Columbus, is as flat as a board, courtesy of the monster glacier that covered the region during the last Ice Age. Southern Ohio, however, escaped the ice and is now much more picturesque.

And speaking of pictures.... this is Ash Cave. Three weddings took place here during the hour or so that we visited, each of which with it's own horrible colour scheme (peach and navy blue anyone?) :-) That also explains why the guys in the foreground are in shirts and trousers, it's not just that people get dressed up to go hiking round here...

In the same region is Conckle's Hollow, named after some guy who carved his name in the rock there in 1797. This is not the way to punish vandalism, if you ask me....

But that aside, I really liked the views from the top of the ridge (once I'd recovered from the climb). With the view and the loudness of the chirping bugs, it felt like we were in a jungle wilderness. Or Jurassic Park. One of those two.

Our final stop on the Hocking Hills scenic tour was Old Man's Cave. I have more photos of this area in my post from last November, but here's a little refresher...

The next series of photos is simply entitled, "You know you're at a 4th July in rural Appalachia when...."

Yes, these are the highlights of Athens' 4th July parade and what I got up at 8am on a Sunday morning to enjoy. But it wasn't a complete washout, we were with some friends that have a young daughter, so people on the floats threw sweets at us. We also got to stand in a car park later on and watch some fireworks.

Independence from the pesky British wasn't the only thing to be celebrated in July. I celebrated my continued descent into the post-30 wilderness (also known as my birthday) by doing the things I do best, namely drinking beer...

....and making big cakes. And then eating them.

July also saw Athens' main street closed down for the internationally renowned (because I've just told you about it) 'Boogie on the Bricks' event...

Ok, so there wasn't a whole lot of boogie-ing, but there were bricks (just out of shot) and beer, some of which wasn't gross

We also ventured up to Columbus over the summer and ate at the capital's premier faux-German wurst emporium, Schmidt's Sausage Haus

Unfortunately, it's a beloved favourite of tour groups (there really isn't a whole lot to see in Columbus besides a replica of Christopher Columbus' boat), but once you get past the crowds and onto a table, the all-you-can-eat sausage and sauerkraut buffet is something to behold

They brew their own beer as well, which is surprisingly good. I suspect they may also paint their own artwork, which is less so....

And that's about that for the summer. Congratulations to everyone (anyone?) who made it to the end, have an e-cookie from me. It certainly made a change to actually have a summer this year, rather than a period of time that we euphemistically call 'summer', but is actually indistinguishable from 'spring', 'autumn' or 'winter' and it was nice to get out and about in the local area.

We did make one more trip over the summer, but I'll save that for another post....

America's Got The Crunch Factor: BBQ Edition

2011-07-31T18:20:00.000+01:00

For someone who's effectively unemployed, it's been a hectic couple of months. Lots of writing has been taking place, but not much of it actually what I would call 'fun' (unless you happen to enjoy writing grant proposals that is). But I aim to try and rectify that in the coming month, so I thought I'd start with another instalment of my long-running (give it time) series 'America's Got The Crunch Factor'.

Of course Ohio isn't known for its barbeque, which is why it's perfect fodder for the 'Crunch Factor', a series devoted to America's more dubious culinary delights. We've had some proper Texan BBQ when we were in Houston last year so the bar has been set high.

But before we start, it's time for a bit of a history lesson - Barbeque in the US is a very different beast to that in the UK. The meat is slow-cooked over a long period of time. What we're used to, cooking over a grill, is known as grilling (unsurprisingly). Don't say you never learn anything from this blog :-)

So without further ado.....

We had been enticed by the Millstone BBQ for a while, as it sits by the side of the local freeway. So we popped in recently, and as usual, my eyes were very much bigger than my belly:

This pulled pork (at the bottom) and beef brisket (on the right) extravaganza promised so much, but alas, was only lukewarm when it was served and quite sickly (if you look at the top of the picture you can see the bowl of sugar that Omar's meal was served with). Although the meal gained points for even having meat in the baked beans, the potato wasn't cooked through, which was a complete deal-breaker for me. Boo! Although I took the left-overs home, they ended up in the bin due to their sickliness. What a disappointment!

So all-in-all, I think it's fair to say that, on the basis of current evidence, BBQ should probably be left to the Southern states. And for Omar and myself, at least we'll always have Texas..... :-)

Crunch rating: 3 crunches (out of 5).

The. Best. Thing. Ever.

2011-05-20T18:14:00.000+01:00

Ok, so that might be a slight exaggeration, but anyone who knows my love of classy and sophisticated knick-knacks (or what some philistines might consider cheap and tacky tat *cough* Omar *cough*) will understand my excitement upon discovering that the Taj Mahal snow globe that one of Omar's friends brought us back from India both flashes and plays music. And not just any music, it plays the Lambada. Oh joy of joys!

If this wasn't enough, this discovery co-incided with Omar's recent trip to Rome, from which he bought me a bobble-headed Pope to add to my collection of Catholic paraphernalia (seriously, they do amazing things with plastic 'gold' leaf).

Put these two wondrous items together and something amazing emerges:

I could listen to this all day. And I do.

The tune does have a habit of sticking in your head, but I'm hoping that it will pass

..... dooooo de do de do, do de do do do de do do dooooo.......

Our friends in the North

2011-05-15T04:24:00.000+01:00

I've been in the midst of a flurry of writing activity recently, mostly academic in nature (papers, grants, job applications, all the fun stuff), and none of it blog-related. I realise that I am a bit behind schedule and haven't got around to putting up some pictures from our trip back to the Motherland in March. So here I am to rectify the situation. As it happens, I only took photos when we headed up to the northern reaches of the country - Newcastle and Liverpool. I guess after living in Southampton for seven years, I had enough images seared into my memory to not need any more :-)

So with further ado.....

... we ventured out of the safe bosom of the south of England to ventured into the frozen wastelands of the north to visit the lovely Cara and Tom, fellow Wessex Lane survivors

(I'm not sure if Omar was wincing with cold here or just working the camera)

Ahhhh...... the seaside. Being in Tynemouth reminded me of how much I miss the British coastline (and being near the coast generally), which can always be relied on to be striking

If only Ohio wasn't so land-locked (lakes and rivers just aren't the same, in case you were wondering)

I think we're going to make this the front cover of our next album...

....although I think Tom's expression in this one would give the album a certain gravatas

And while I'm talking of things that I miss about the UK, here's another one.... cream teas, although I was prepared to overlook the poor choice of cream on this occasion. Desperate times call for desperate measures and all that.

And keeping with the food theme (is there any other?) - Tom and Cara took us to an awesome restaurant in Newcastle called Blackfriars (this is their website). The building dates to 1239 and is suitably atmospheric. There was a liberal application of wine (and gin & tonic, and mead), so some aspects of the meal are a little fuzzy to my recollection, but I do have extremely found memories of what was definitely the best scotch egg I've ever had...

... I know that that isn't often saying much, but this hen's egg scotch egg with a duck scratching and mustard hollandaise was the business. Mmmmm..... *drool*

In between bouts of eating we also did a bit of sight-seeing, which included sights such as Earl Grey's column (apparently famous for other things than tea, who knew)...

... and a fine selection of bridges over the Tyne.

We also saw the 'New Castle', from which Newcastle got its name, although if I was being picky (unlikely, I know), we could debate the 'newness' of this particular castle

A particular highlight of our trip oop norf was a stop-off at Anthony Gormley's Angel of the North statue. The little guy at the bottom gives you a sense of the scale of the thing

And of course many photos were taken, from a variety of jaunty angles

And as the statue comes to life, Omar makes a desperate dash for safety. Ok, my imagination is getting a little carried away, but it would be funny if it really happened, right?

And of course no trip to the North would be complete without a greasy fry-up, which was provided courtesy of Matt in Liverpool and his local greasy spoon. Marvellous.

So that was but a brief snapshot of our trip back to England, which also incorporated stops in Leicester/Nuneaton, London and Southampton. It was a hectic trip but we both really enjoyed it (especially because I got my pimped-up visa approved) and relished the chance to catch up with people (although not as many people as we would have liked). So much so that we wish we could bring everyone back with us. Instead, I hope that adding pictures of Athens on this blog persuades people to come and visit us instead ;-)

But that trip feels like an age ago already, and now Spring is officially springing in Athens and everything is green and beautiful (and wet as Spring also seems to be monsoon season), which almost makes up for the Arctic Winter we had to endure.

So I guess it's time to get the camera back out and prepare the Spring instalment of my 'Athens through the seasons' series...... :-)

Winter in Athens

2011-03-26T23:51:00.001Z

So with the sun (occasionally) in the sky and the temperature (occasionally) rising above freezing, I feel hopeful that Spring is finally on the way. Therefore, this is a good time to present Part Two of my four part series, 'Athens through the seasons'. In this episode: Winter.

Having barely recovered from the excesses of Thanksgiving (otherwise known as 'Christmas in November'), it was soon time for our second Christmas of the year. This ended up being a lot like our first Christmas, although this time we had a tree ... and a lot less green bean casserole.

We went for the full Christmas dinner, resplendent with brussel sprouts (my personal favourite) and pig wrapped in more pig. And of course, no British Christmas is complete without trifle (we even made our own custard)! Admittedly, after eating it for a week the novelty started to wear off..... but seriously....trifle!

So other than the excitement of two Christmasses in one year, and the small matter of an engagement (!), there wasn't too much else going on in Athens over the Winter. Except snow......

And when it wasn't snowing, it was birding...

So during the three months of almost continuous snow, and temperatures that rarely got above -5 Celcius, that wasn't a whole lot of stuff that could be done outdoors, unless you like the cold that is. We did, however, develop a fondness for walking on frozen lakes, like this one.....

And this one.....

Well, that weren't any other beach activities that appealed to us at the time

But don't worry kids, we took precautions to ensure we weren't at risk of a soaking - I had my best man on the case...

The lakes were solid all the way to the lake bed, which was pretty neat..... and reassuring

Even Omar couldn't break through it :-)

So that's about it for Winter in Athens. Not too exciting, but we did escape a couple of times, to Michigan in December (a few posts up from this) and to Vancouver/Seattle in January (see the photos via this link to facebook photos (no login/profile required)).

So we weren't completely overwhelmed by the Snowpocalypse. That's not to say we aren't glad that Spring is (might be) on it's way...

Autumn in Athens (not to be confused with Fall in Athens)

2011-01-31T00:49:00.001Z

Looking back over the posts on this blog, you would think that all I've done since I arrived in Athens is eat. *Clearly* that's not the case ;-), so I thought I should redress the balance and add some photos from the last few months, split into 'Autumn' and 'Winter' posts. And with no food photos in sight! Well, maybe just one or two ;-)

So without further ado....

It was still nice and warm and sunny in October, so we tried to make the most of it by taking a canoe out on our local Dow Lake...

Luckily, I had my own 'outboard motor' with me, so I didn't need to exert myself too much...

Ahh..... sunshine, how I miss thee....

Southeastern Ohio is well-known locally for being particularly beautiful in the Autumn (or 'Faaaaaal' if you come from round these parts), which certainly appeared to be the case. Athens County sits in a large area of forest, and Athens in particular is located in the Hocking River Valley, so I see why these area is popular with Ohioans (yes, that is a word) when compared to the 'badlands' of Northern Ohio. Ok, 'badlands' may be a bit harsh, but it's pretty flat up there.

Anyways, during Autumn I felt quite sorry for this tree, across the road from our flat, as it seemed to be thinning a little on top...

But was still beautiful on the inside :-)

The grounds of the former mental hospital are now popular with walkers (it's that kind of town), and they give some nice views back over Athens...

And here's Omar demonstrating what 'taking in the view' might look like (and I resisted the urge to make a joke inferring that perhaps Omar had escaped from the aforementioned mental hospital. How very charitable of me)

But of course it wouldn't be Athens if there wasn't something random to see, like this chair, in the middle of a field....

And even the Walmart car park likes to get in on the nice views as well, which is certainly in stark contrast to the 'views' you get inside Walmart

So, I have already posted some photos about our slightly debauched shenanigans over Thanksgiving, but while Kieran was here we also managed to fit in some outdoorsy stuff, in between the hangovers.

First off was a trip to Old Man's Cave, near Logan, Ohio...

And very nice it was too

In addition to caves, there were also a number of waterfalls provided for our enjoyment, or mostly just to look at

How cold was it at Old Man's Cave? This cold!

Apparently the valley that we were walking through sees some serious flooding every decade or so, which shifts a lot of rock around and alters the landscape. Which I assume explains things like this...

Storms just knock over trees. Pah.

Either there are some big-ass spiders in this gorge that I didn't see, or I'm getting completely confused...

And here's another waterfall at the other end of the gorge (large American shouting "where you guys all from?" at us just out of shot)

The next activity in the Thanksgiving extravaganza was a trip on the Hocking Valley scenic railway. This would be a nice way to show Kieran around the area, or so we thought.

The scenic railway (there's no longer any commuter trains running in Ohio), starts in Nelsonville, about 15 mins drive from Athens

The train comes from old stock, bought up when the commercial railway was shut down

And as an added, but slightly confusing (given it was November), bonus there was Santa!

Of course, because it was the Santa Express this meant that we were the only adults unaccompanied by children. But no parents complained and we still got our candy canes, so it was all good...

...until the journey started of course. The first 'landmark' on our journey was this lovely trailer. Can you spot all the spelling mistakes? I'm guessing they didn't go to Hocking 'Collage' themselves....

Nelsonville is also home to this charming 30ft tall sculpture of what I can only assume is a giant 't' (it lights up at night as well, which is a nice touch, because nothing says 'welcome' better than a flaming cross)

So I'll spare you the remaining photos from the rest of the trip, which consist mostly of the motorway, sofas left under motorway bridges, trailer parks and farmers fields. The highlight of the journey, however, was spotting this particular field...

Perhaps the apocalypse has come early to Ohio.....

So all-in-all, not the best trip to take when suffering from tequila poisoning (see the Thanksgiving post). I guess we misinterpreted what they meant by 'scenic', although I think it gave Kieran an accurate picture of rural Ohio. The only thing worse than the view from the train was the fact that it only travelled at 10 miles per hour...... that was 2.5 hours to remember *sob*

Next stop on the 'Athens across the seasons' express...... Winter!

The Firminator Challenge

2011-01-18T21:47:00.000Z

Belated Happy New Year! I have a few Christmas/New Year/general eating endeavours posts waiting in the wings, but in the meantime I wanted to write a little about a little project I'm embarking on.

In the summer I'm going to be a bridesmaid at the wedding of the very lovely Sarah and Sean, Sarah being my oldest friend (relatively speaking, not absolutely). On a recent visit to see Sarah in Vancouver (more to follow) she presented me with a bottle of Soap and Glory's The Firminator, as a bridesmaid gift. It had come highly recommended from her sister (also a bridesmaid), on the premise that it breaks down fat and thus decreases cellulite in the treated areas. Interesting. The reviews I've read online are unanimous in their praise for the effects of the Firminator, so I'm encouraged to do a bit more research on this miracle product.

The key ingredient here seems to be glaucine, which is purported to break down the fat. A quick bit of Google-based research suggests that the primary use is as a bronchodilator and antitussive (a cough suppressant). It also has some anti-imflammatory effects. I have a grotty chest infection at the moment, so I'm not put off by this. I'm also reliably informed by Wikipedia that the side effects of glaucine are sedation, fatigue and hallucinations, prompting use as a recreational drug. Bonus! ;-)

Being a committed sceptic (I prefer to think of it as having an enquiring mind) I decided that this was the perfect opportunity for a bit of empirical testing. This isn't the sort of thing I would usually buy for myself, so maybe I've been missing out? It helps that I haven't been exercising much recently, so I have cellulite in abundance :-) Also, it's been a while since I measured any monkey hands, so I've been craving 'research' somewhat.

So the experiment will run as follows:

- I will apply The Firminator, as per pack instructions (twice a day) to a region of my choosing

- To increase the chances of seeing an effect, I have picked my most cellulite 'afflicted' area - the thigh

- To control for the affect of any 'lifestyle change' (i.e. I'm definitely considering thinking about doing some more exercise over the next few months), I'm only going to apply the Firminator to one leg, the left one. And as all good laterality researchers know, the lower limbs are less likely to show behavioural or morphology asymmetry compared to the upper limb, so using the legs acts as a further control. See, I knew that PhD would come in useful eventually :-)

- I will record my findings on a weekly basis, until this pack runs out. The info on the packing says that I need to continue for 56 days, but I'll review this as I go along.

The null hypothesis is for no effect on cellulite levels. My guess is that, as it states on the box, it will 'diminish the appearance of cellulite' to an extent, which is not quite the same as getting rid of it. Not being a biochemist, I'm going to guess further that it will do this primarily through dehydrating the fat cells.

Today is day 1 and I applied the first 'treatment' this morning. Results so far: I smell slightly mintier than before.

I'll keep you posted!

Are you a Michi-can or a Michi-can't?

2010-12-25T03:07:00.001Z

As I never got around to writing anything about our trip to Washington DC for the Rally to Restore Sanity, I thought I should make more of an effort for our recent trip to Michigan (another work-based trip for Omar, and some more tagging along for me). Before I start, I should probably apologise for the lame use of the 'Once Upon a Time in Mexico' quote above.

Right, apologies out of the way, on to business.

Ann Arbor was our first stop, and very nice it was too. It's a small town, home to the University of Michigan and because of that it was very similar to Athens. Except that there was a lot more to do in Ann Arbor. And by a 'lot more to do', I mostly mean there were more random shops full of stuff that no-one actually buys to browse around. But that was nice. To be fair, there seemed to be a lot more 'happening', i.e. museums, theatres, music, good food, places to drink tea. In fact, such is there love of tea in Michigan that I'm actively campaigning Omar to look for his next job here if we can move somewhere more cosmopolitan.

As it happens, I didn't take any photos of Ann Arbor itself, but I did take some inside the brew pub we went to:

The shakiness of the photo of course doesn't have anything to do with intoxication on Omar's part. Of course.

Next stop on the tour was Detroit. Despite reading lots of bad reviews of the area beforehand, we thought that we'd pop in for a night, seeing as we're unlikely to be visiting again. Alas, some driving snow and howling winds also decided to 'pop in' at the same time, so we didn't get to do much sight-seeing. We did try to see some sights from the top of the GM-owned Renaissance Center, but apparently we're not la-di-da enough, and only people classy enough to eat in their fancy restaurant could go up to the 73rd floor. Pah.

But it's ok, we found pizza instead.....

And what a pizza it was!

And here are the guys making the pizzas (that blurred object is the guy throwing the pizza base onto the shelf)

The pizza parlour was in Greektown, so here's a picture of the main street - eerily reminiscent of Bedford Place's Kebab Alley if you ask me...

The next day we went to try some of the hotdogs that Detroit is well-known for...

Apparently there's a lot of rivalry between these two hotdog vendors - we couldn't possibly choose between them, so we had one hotdog in each :-)

I preferred the 'dog' itself in American Coney Island, but the chilli on top was better in Layfayette Coney Island. So there you have it.

But our trip to Detroit wasn't all about eating (yes it was). We managed to venture out in the snow and went to the Detroit Institute of Arts.

I bet these guys are regretting not putting some socks on before they went out that morning (arf arf)

I didn't pin Detroit for being much of a cultural centre, but the museum had a lot of interesting stuff. Like these Van Gogh's....

And this Cezanne, amongst other things... and very splendid they were too.

So that was about it for Michigan, save for a 9-hour hell ride through the snow blizzards back to Ohio.

So all-in-all I'd give the parts of Michigan we saw a thumbs up, but it definitely lost marks because we didn't see Enimem even once while we were there :-( Maybe next time...

America's Got the Crunch Factor: KFC Edition

2010-12-19T02:52:00.001Z

In the second instalment of my 'America's Got the Crunch Factor' series, I'm deviating slightly to include a particularly spectacular item from the kitchens of KFC.

You may have heard of the 'Double Down' sandwich (and I wouldn't recommend looking up the phrase in the Urban Dictionary as I've just done), but it really has to be seen to be believed. It's effectively a cheese and bacon sandwich, where the bread roll has been substituted for two pieces of fried chicken. Oh yes.

As you can imagine, my curiosity was well and truly piqued when I heard of such a magical sandwich, so when I saw this sign on our recent drive to Michigan recently (more on that to follow), I could hardly refuse now could I?

So, despite Omar advising that I exercise some sanity over my menu choice I persevered and ended up with this bad boy:

Oh yeah. And here's me, taming the beast:

So, my verdict? Well, I have to say that it wasn't quite as greasy and crunch-inducing as I had anticipated. Such a large amount of chicken ended up being quite dry (although that was probably all the salt) and I was disappointed with the cheese, which didn't really melt and the measly amount of bacon. So a bit disappointing on all counts. That being said, I didn't need to eat for quite some time afterwards, so I guess it did well on the calorie count.

It also made me think of John Oliver talking about the Domino's Oreo pizza:

“That is the single most patriotic item I have ever seen in my life. Have that fluttering in the moonlight at Yankees Stadium as a single tear spills down Derek Jeter’s cheek. Because that is the biggest imaginable ‘fuck you’ you could possibly issue to terrorists. By hoisting the Oreo pizza up a flagpole, what you’re essentially saying is, 'There is nothing you can do to us we are not already doing to ourselves'.”

Amen to that.

So in conclusion, the overall crunch factor is: 1 crunch out of 5.

Not even a sniff of a stomach ache and no other immediate ill effects. Maybe I've been in America too long.

The jury is still out, however, on the number of years this little escapade has shaved off my life. I doubt I'll be trying it again, you know, just in case.

Thanksgiving and other festivals...

2010-12-02T02:53:00.000Z

One of the things I like about America is the amount of public holidays they have. Admittedly, every day is a public holiday for me, but it's nice for Omar to have some time off :-)

So 25th November was Thanksgiving Day, and we weren't really sure what to make of it all - it felt a bit like Christmas, just without the presents, decorations and festive jumpers. We had the turkey....

...which in true festive fashion didn't defrost properly and was a bugger to cook. I under-estimated how long it would take to defrost the 13 lbs monster, so we had a traditional early evening dinner. Which of course came with all the trimmings....

... I am pleased to report that Brussels sprouts seem to be part of Thanksgiving Dinner traditional, along with some more unusual trimmings - like sweet potato (understandable), macaroni cheese (?), and a green bean and Campbell's mushroom soup casserole, with onion ring topping (??). Apparently Campbell's Soup contributed to Thanksgiving what Coca Cola contributed to Christmas, as I'm pretty sure the Pilgrims didn't have crispy fried onions and mushroom soup.

And speaking of the Pilgrims, I tried to find out a bit more about the 'meaning' of Thanksgiving and what precisely I was supposed to be giving thanks for. Admittedly, most of my information ended up coming from Wikipedia and the History Channel (I was busy cooking, ok!), but the gist of it seems to be that Americans started celebrating the fact that they managed to survive some harsh winters and bad conditions when first colonising the eastern states.

It would appear, however, that the main reason the first colonialists survived was due to the benevolence of the local Native American tribespeople, who provided corn seed for the Pilgrims to plant when their wheat crops failed, and showed them how to live off the land. So perhaps they are giving thanks to Native Americans? And considering how this particular relationship developed, I felt a bit uncomfortable celebrating what is ultimately the exploitation and overthrow of a native culture. By the British.

But I guess that, like Christmas, this holiday is more about eating and shopping these days than anything else. So maybe it's not as tasteless as I think, well not in that way at least :-)

But have no fear, normal service was resumed the next day....

.... courtesy of Buffalo Wild Wings...

...and some Mexican buddies.

Bleurgh.

And while we're talking of festivals, I was fortunate enough to experience my first ever Feuerzangenbowle this year (see the wikipedia page for more background), courtesy of Athens' German contingent. For the uninitiated, it's turbo mulled wine, WITH ADDED FIRE!! Oh yes.

The fire comes courtesy of a rum-soaked sugar cone, which is suspended above the mulled wine/gluhwein and set alight. It looks something like this:

(It's on fire, honest - our host Christian has the singed arms to prove it)

And to facilitate ongoing genial Anglo-Deutsch relations, I led the way in consumption of this uber-gluhwein. Alas, my kind gesture back-fired on me the next day.

But it was worth the sacrifice :-)

So November has been pretty festival-tastic - roll on December!

A little moral dilemma for today...

2010-11-13T23:57:00.000Z

One of the advantages/drawbacks of working from home is that you have the opportunity to watch significant amounts of day-time TV (with only one eye of course, the other eye is, like, totally concentrating on work). My personal preference is for Law & Order, but if I can't find that then I usually drift over to the History Channel, the Discovery Channel, or maybe even the National Geographic Channel.

But anyways.... I was watching a documentary the other day on the Uruguayan plane that crashed in the Andes in 1972. The survivors of the crash were trapped for over 2 months and became 'famous' because they resorted to eating the bodies of those who died in the crash in order to survive (see the Wikipedia article on plane crash for more info). The film 'Alive' with Ethan Hawke was based on the accident.

So, I think you can guess where I'm going with this moral dilemma thing, and you'd be right.

The mother and sister of one of the survivors died in the crash and this survivor talked in the documentary about his dilemma - as the 'food' became increasingly more scarce, should he allow other people to eat his mum and sister in order to stay alive? Or should he eat them himself to prevent others doing so?

Irritatingly, he didn't say what he chose to do, so I present the dilemma to you. If you were in the same situation, would you:

1) Allow other people to eat your loved ones, but abstain yourself?

2) Chow down on Steak au Famille rather than let others tuck in?

I asked Omar what he would do and he didn't answer - I assume this means that he definitely would eat me :-)

Personally, I haven't decided yet, although all this talk of meat has made me hungry...

Houston....[insert space/'we have a problem'-related joke here]

2010-11-01T03:03:00.000Z

Very belated I know, but I've finally got around to putting something up on our trip to Houston at the start of October. Omar was sent there for work, so I thought I'd tag along. If it's good enough for Yoko Ono, it's good enough for me.

Although there were nice oases of greenery in the city (like the Japenese Garden in the photo above), to be honest, Houston was pretty underwhelming (and over-heated), or at least the Medical Centre area that our hotel was in (I'm willing to give everyone a second chance). Although being next to a zillion hospitals, did give our hotel the added 'charm' of being full of the sick and the diseased, which was a bit of a bummer. It's difficult to feel super-psyched about a place when everyone looks like they're suffering.

That said, the highlight of our trip was the food, which was something of a carnivore's paradise. And apparently it's completely normal to have chicken wings and Belgian waffles... for breakfast:

Admittedly, it took a week for my digestive system to return to normal, unfortunately the Atkins diet doesn't agree with me as much as I was hoping.

To take it easy on blogspot, I've put more photos up on facebook. This is a public album link, so you can look at the photos without needing an account/having to sign in:

Houston photos on facebook

There are also some photos of Galveston and Kemah Broadwalk, on the Gulf of Mexico coast, where we went for a daytrip. It was just like Blackpool, just hotter and with more water pollution.

But in the end, mostly I was just upset about the lack of ten gallon hats and cowboy boots. Such much for stereotypes....

America's Got The Crunch Factor

2010-10-15T22:03:00.000+01:00

In the first part of an ongoing series, I've decided to catalogue and rate some of the culinary delights that I encounter during my time here in America. The supermarkets here are a veritable carnival of weird and wonderful (but mostly weird) food items that may appear bewildering to the non-native, so in my commitment to public service, I'm letting my curiosity get the better of me, to make the gastronomic mistakes so that you don't have to.

Each delicacy will be rated on a 'crunch scale' of 0 - 5. For those of you who have eaten in Connaught Hall, you'll understand the scoring system, but for those who have not had the 'pleasure', a crunch is a measure of amount of stomach ache suffered post-consumption, ranging from 0 (no crunch - a pleasant eating experience) up to 5 crunches (a foul abomination of a meal, equivalent to eating a full Saturday brunch at Connaught).

So without further ado, like the crunching commence!

First up is something of an American instituition, guaranteed to cause bemusement for all other speakers of the English language:

Biscuits and gravy

After encountering these bad boys on a few occasions, I think I've finally worked out what they are. The 'biscuits' are a bit like heavy croissants, with a bun-like crust. They are quite sweet, but seem to be eaten with bloody anything and everything over here. Nothing too offensive.

The gravy is something else all together, and that something is pretty digusting. I should add the disclaimer that this gravy came out of a packet, so I'm not sure how it compares to the 'gold standard' of gravies, but I'm not optimistic based on this experience. The 'gravy' is a strange savoury porridge-type sauce that may or may not have little bits of sausage in it. I can't really describe the taste, other than 'savoury'. Suffice to say, you'd be hard-pushed to get me to try it again.

And if that decription wasn't appealing enough, here's a picture of the feast (that's a fried egg on the top left):

Crunch Factor: 3 crunches out of 5 (it would have been more, but the biscuits weren't too bad. On the otherhand, I'm still having nightmarish flashbacks about the gravy)

1 month in Athens

2010-10-06T22:57:00.000+01:00

Following all the excitement of being somewhere sort of near a tornado, things have been quite sedate here in Athens. I've been trying to plug away on my journal article, getting distracted by all day Law & Order marathons, and occasionally whizzing around on my bitchin' new set of bad-ass wheels (or 'bike' as all you squares call it). I've also been snapping away, so what better way to celebrate the end of my first month in Athens with a little photo gallery? (I've put more photos up on facebook for those who'd like an extra Athens hit)

One of the benefits of everything being bigger in America is that we can rent somewhere a bit bigger too....

Our flat is one half of the top floor, we get the little balcony too

And this is the view from the balcony - just try and pretend that you can't see the car park, that's what we do :-)

This is a view of the Hocking River from the cycle path to and from University, which makes a nice change (although there is a freeway on the other side of those trees!)

So this rather pleasant view is directly outside the Physics and Astronomy building.... ahhhhh, relaxing :-)

This is a random street round the corner from our flat, with what appears to be some precariously hung traffic lights. It appears that they don't believe in mounting them on posts round this neck of the woods.

And speaking of woods... there area lot of nice local walks through the woods in the hills above Athens

....and here is me on the aforementioned hills, feeling (and looking) a bit hot and bothered. Cloud of irritating flies just out of shot.

And you'll be pleased to hear that Athens certainly doesn't shirk its responsibility for hard-hitting local news (although I'm not sure what the answer is to this pressing question)

Dow's Lake at Stroud's Run Park

Another view of Dow's Lake, with a bit of beach action

More Dow's Lake: Spot the difference (hint: there's a person in the foreground)

And some Dow's Lake. How nice :-)

But if you really want to get a flavour for what it's like in America, check out People of Walmart. It pretty much sums up the sort of people you see around and about. Maybe someone should set up the 'People of Asda' as a comparison?

There's a storm coming.....

2010-09-17T21:40:00.000+01:00

There were two questions I asked Omar before I came to America:

1) Does Ohio get tornadoes?

I was assured that, while the northern parts of Ohio occasionally get tornadoes, the south of the state (where we are) never gets them because it is too hilly. I felt reassured by this seeing as we live on the first floor and don't have a convenient basement/tornado bunker. So imagine my surprise yesterday when, while sitting outside a local coffee shop, confirming to British stereotypes by complaining how difficult it is to get a proper cup of tea here, an air raid siren goes off, followed by:

"THIS IS A TORNADO WARNING. GET INSIDE IMMEDIATELY"

Hmm......

Anyways, after a little bit of mild alarm and general bemusement among the locals who assured us that this was the first tornado warning that Athens had ever had, it was agreed that there were worse places to be stuck than a coffee shop, even if the tea is rubbish. And is it happens, the 'tornado' was something of a non-event, I'm disappointed to report. Apparently some parts of Athens were seriously damaged, in the places where the tornado 'touched down', but all we saw was some heavy rain and a few gusts of wind. I mean, the rain wasn't even horizontal or anything. So that was that....

.....until we got home and found out there had been a power cut in our part of town. It was mildly entertaining at first, but 20 hours later I'm now in exile at the University (which still has electricity fortunately) and feeling a bit peeved. And we've just found out that we might not quite power back until Sunday night/Monday morning. Woohoo! Good job we have that wind-up torch :-)

But I mentioned earlier that I'd asked Omar *two* questions, the second being:

2) Are there bears in Ohio?

I watch tv, I know what bears are like. They look all cute and whatnot, but they like to eat stuff. And people*. Bears very much fall into the 'spider' category of creatures for me, they are a valuable part of the ecosystem and a vital part of natural diversity and therefore should be protected. But surely we don't need to live in the same 10m sq. area of land?

But I was informed that Ohio doesn't have bears any more, thanks to the efforts of farmers and hunters in the 1800s (I guess once they'd finished scaring off the Native Americans it was time to move on to something else). So I was once again surprised to hear that a black bear was spotted a couple of weeks ago in a Halls of Residence where some of Omar's friends live.

Awww..... doesn't it look hungry? :-) Which isn't surprising, as apparently they eat for up to 20 hours a day (Black bears are back in Ohio!)

While I would usually be in favour of bears running amok in a Halls of Residence, on this occasion it just makes me wonder how far they'll go for a snack?

Anyways, after having having two of my core beliefs about Ohio shattered, I'm starting to wonder what else forms part of this web of lies? ;-)

*This is mostly wild, unfounded speculation on my part, fuelled by too much tv and that Herzog film about the crazy guy who was eaten by bears.

Possessions....

2010-09-14T01:02:00.000+01:00

...... are something that I don't have a lot of at the moment, which is quite liberating as it happens. It has also made moving into our new flat, sorry apartment (damn all these vocabulary changes), a lot easier and quicker, which is a bonus. There are downsides to our new uncluttered lifestyle, however. It turns out that I'm quite sentimental about random useless stuff so I miss being able to decorate the new place with what I lovingly think of as 'ironic kitsch' and everyone else (or maybe just Omar) thinks of as 'crap'. From a practical perspective, it has also been bloody annoying to have to start again from scratch. I knew this would happen, but it's still frustrating to end most sentences with "we had one of those in England, but we had to get rid of it". All in good time I guess. But I swear, I refuse to move again until we can afford to ship all of our stuff :-)

And speaking of shipping, I'm going to take this opportunity to voice my disappointment (ok, I mean whinge) about the piss poor service provided by both UPS and ParcelForce. The second shipment of boxes we sent from the UK arrived today and again the box was battered to hell. This time was with ParcelForce and the box didn't even arrive in one piece :-( Luckily most of the books weren't too damaged, just a bit of scuffing, and at least they didn't get wet as they did with UPS. Boo!

But enough of all that, I can now luxuriate in my new pile of books, before putting them back on a bookcase and pledging to certainly, definitely, getting around to reading them one day...

Goodbyes

2010-09-07T23:29:00.000+01:00

It's day 2 in Athens, Ohio, and while I wouldn't go as far as saying that the dust has settled after the move, it's certainly starting to clear and I have been thinking about all the goodbyes I've said over the last few weeks. I've decided that I feel dissatisfied with them, as if I didn't spend enough time on each one and make it as 'significant' as it should have been. Part of this is my general problem with being sincere, but mostly it was just because I was so busy in the weeks before I left that I didn't have any time. I'm starting to think that being so manic in the run up to big life events, like leaving a job or moving overseas (or both!), is a psychological mechanism to stop you thinking too much about the magnitude of the changes you are making. By the time you have the time to stop and think about what you're doing, it's too late to go back! I know that I'm doing the right thing in moving, but being busy has stopped me about being too sentimental about all the people I will miss while I'm here.

However, if circumstances had been different, and I had had more time for goodbyes, what would I have said? I guess I just hope that people automatically know what I wanted to say.

But I'm not just looking back, there's a lot of looking forward going on as well, it's just that the future seems a lot more complicated and confusing. So as of tomorrow, the focus moves back to sorting out my new life. I think some sort of list is called for..... :-)

T-minus 7 days......

2010-08-29T17:17:00.000+01:00

.......argh!! This time next week I'll be on a plane over the Atlantic and now that the dust is settling from finishing work, the amount of things that are still left to do is starting to dawn on me.

So... argggghhhh.... ehfsodifhavwioeruVOWEURVOWEIUXMSKdgkjh k,sjdgh ae

Ahhh...... that's better, now where was I?

Welcome one, welcome all

2010-08-21T17:02:00.000+01:00

I didn't ever think I'd be here, but my narcissism finally got the better of me, so here I am with a blog (or should that be 'blawg'?).

I decided that, as I'm not going to be moving continents everyday, and keeping a paper diary is soooooo 1993, that if I wanted to keep a record of this period of upheaval, that the internet was the way forward. So here it is.

So what to expect? Well, my ramblings really (and if that doesn't put you off, nothing will). When the dust settles from the Big Move West (TM) I wanted a way of looking back on it all, to try and convince myself it wasn't *that* much of a pain in the arse :-). I also wanted an easy way of keeping in touch with all those who want to keep in touch. Finally, I wanted to give an insight into life in small town America and the trials and tribulations of trying to force my way onto the postdoctoral treadmill.

So without further ado, and if we're all sitting comfortably, then I shall began.....