The end of the American adventure.....

....although not the end of *this* American Adventure (although this is also worth mourning).

No, I'm referring to the fact that in but two short weeks we will, to paraphrase Take That, be back (in the UK) for good. Omar has been offered a nice job working for 'The Man' and I'm going to be doing....well, something..... (probably just being a live-in cake baker for whoever will take me).

So it's something of a hectic time at the moment and I realise that there are lots of America-related posts that I want to write and lots of photos that I want to bore people with before we leave.

So without further ado, I'll jump into what is probably going to be the last ever edition of 'America's Got the Crunch Factor' (unless it gets rebranded as 'Devon's Got the Crunch Factor'). That sound you can hear is my stomach celebrating......   

The Holiday Season in three easy steps....

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

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

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.

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

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

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...