English Chutney and Whatnot

Hello all from the good ol grey UK,

I will start off by telling you two amusing things Mr. Leonard my driving instructor shared with me.

1) We are very lucky to be living in South East England as this area gets the best weather in all of England. Really? No really?

2) He also cautioned me from using the mister so much (defogger).. According to Mr. Leonard it uses up almost as much gas as the air conditioning. Of course I asked the obvious question, "do you use your air conditioning much here?" His response was, "Oh yes occasionally in the month of July."

The weather forecast in the six weeks I have been here usually consists of fog, partly cloudy, mainly cloudy, light wind and rain, showers and rarely like today partly sunny. The sun here is rare and fleeting so I try to make the most of it. I believe the weather in the UK is a cross between Seattle and Cleveland.

There is a television program that is on here in Great Britain called "A place in the Sun, Home or Away". It is on every day almost 24 hours a day. Couples from Britain are followed while they look for a new home either in the UK, Greece, Spain or Italy. It astounds me that while the camera follows them to Canterbury, Kent and Essex and then to someplace 30 degrees warmer with a pool and endless sunshine they still hem and haw. Jeff usually has to tell me to shh while I am yelling at the TV. "Spain you morons! Spain!

Allot has happened in the past few weeks. I have been granted a provisional license to drive in the UK which will allow me to skate by for at least one year. Mr. Leonard is convinced I will never pass the Practical but I aim to prove him wrong!

I am on second or final interviews with three top international companies so I hope to have a full time job by the end of the month. Interestingly, the base pay and bonus for this level of device job is half of what it would be in the U.S. thanks to socialized medicine and the National Health System. Heads up to my medical sales friends in the U.S.A. who all voted for Obama. Be prepared for your income to take a nosedive. On the positive side all three companies are excellent and it will allow me to make friends here and immerse myself in the technology and the culture. I really need to get a job because I am running out of rooms to paint. I finished the downstairs yesterday and I am down to the stairs and upstairs hallway. I have been spending more time at the gym and have even dragged Jeff to yoga class with me. He is much better at the tree pose than I am. It turns out that I have very poor balance. Who would have thought?

I received my first care package in the mail. My wonderful sister sent me a box full of Crystal Light in multiple flavors. Oh happy days!!!!! I have been lost without my CL drink mixes. Jeff said that the box should last me at least a year after viewing the contents of the box. What? I told him one month to six weeks at the most. He told me that he cannot believe that I would put that many chemicals in my body in such a short time. Apparently my beloved considers his Sunday morning bacon rashers, Herbie's Pizza loaded with bacon and sausage and diet Pepsi as the epitome of healthy eating. We both agree that the red wine is sure to flush the toxins from our system. Jeff then told me to have my sister send him chili powder and chipoltle sauce which is not available here. I told him that my sister is my CL supplier and he needs to ask his own family to hook him up for his chili seasoning needs. Besides, it would make his mom so happy to finally after years of asking me what Jeff needs for his birthday or Christmas to actually have a legitimate answer! Donna, now you know he needs chili powder and chipoltle sauce

Although the grocery stores here do not have certain items they have shelves and shelves of beans and chutneys. Just today at Waitrose I noted there must have been 40 different types of beans with the most popular being Heinz baked beans. The English eat beans on toast, beans on baked potatoes and sausage and beans. They are part of every full traditional English breakfast. With the large Indian population here in England there is also a selection of beans with curry. As far as chutney goes I have never seen such a selection. Chutney appears to be a sauce/pickle/relish mixture. In one store you can find an average selection of the following: Hot Tomato chutney, Curried Aubergine chutney, Mediterranean chutney, Beetroot and Horseradish chutney, Date and Orange chutney, Gooseberry and Coriander Chutney etc etc etc)

Jeff and I are going skiing next weekend in the Italian Alps. Yup, the Italian Alps. If I survive the experience I will be sure to include lots of pictures in my next e-mail.

M