The Man Drawer

I had never heard of Michael McIntyre before I arrived in England and I have to say he is one of the best discoveries that I have come across. He seems like a really decent guy and we even saw him on a random street in London once.
One of his most loved bits is his 'Man Drawer' routine. I have seen funnier bits of his, but this has to be one of his universally understood. I knew exactly what it was about just on the title alone. Enjoy...

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

I just finished Robert Louis Stevenson's Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. If you have never read it, please do so. The final chapters are full of biblical allusions and the story is told very well.

One of the lines that stuck with me though is an allusion to a different ancient document; Horace's Odes. Translated the line reads;

but lame-footed Punishment rarely forgets the wicked man, despite his start.

As a church we are focusing on the prophet Amos and the thing that has really struck me hard is that punishment or judgment is a good thing. God's judgment proves that he cares about us, that he is just, and that he will right wrongs. Not only that, but God's judgment ultimately provides us with salvation, for without judgment we are left in the despair of our own created hell.

If you do decide to pick up this gem by Mr. Stevenson, please try to set aside what you might already know about the story. It makes it all the more enjoyable.

Marzipan and Other Unexpected Delights

Hell is where:

The police are German
The mechanics are French
The cooks are British
The lovers are Swiss
And the whole thing is organized by the Italians...

Heaven is where:

The police are British
The mechanics are German
The cooks are French
The lovers are Italian
And the whole thing is organized by the Swiss.

So goes the joke, but kidding aside I am been pleasantly surprised by British food.
Sure they have come up with some doozies like this and this, but allow me to list just a few items that I really enjoy.

Chicken Pie--As a kid I always loved the nights when we popped the little tins in the oven and out came deliciousness with a crispy delicious crust. At university I graduated to these (10 for $1 at Jewel if you were lucky). Now I have entered pot-pie heaven over here. Jamie Oliver has a great recipe that we use.

Cornish Pasties--Its a reoccurring theme over here, put meat and pastry together and it is hard to go wrong. Now I know you can make them yourself, but in all reality these are the best.

Marzipan--No, not her. Granted, marzipan is not British, but it is all over the place here, and I love it! This is kinda weird, but this is just tasty!

Cider--We arrived in Britain in the autumn and saw signs for cider all over the place. Wow just like home! Well, not quite. Note, if you want to try some British cider don't buy Strongbow, just a hint, they sell it by the 2 liter bottle over her. Instead try to find a Cornish brand or skip the British part and try to find a local cider. Alternatively, come visit, and we'll give you some of the stuff we just made.

One last note, fish and chips. I have been bitterly disappointed. The best fish and chips I have ever had are still located here. If anyone is in Chicago please stop by. In my day it was only $9 on Friday nights for all you can eat, but now they do it on Wednesdays and Fridays and it's only $10.25.

British Summer Time

Summer Time in Britain started today. Granted seven of the last eight days have been mostly sunny, but with a predicted average temperature this week of 52F and rain forecasted you can hardly call it summer.

Fortunately for summer's sake, British Summer Time is to the UK what Daylight Savings Time is to most of the U.S.

All in all, I think it is just a bit of deceptive advertising.

Groundhog's Day

Because of the Groundhog's Day Blizzard of '11 is covering most of the U.S. we are still in the UK.
A short recap...

We were supposed to fly out of Heathrow to Chicago O'Hare on Wednesday morning. Late Tuesday night we checked our flight status and saw that it had been canceled and that we would be on a later flight on Wednesday. Fair enough. Instead of getting up really early we slept in a bit, finished some cleaning around the house and got ready to leave to catch our 4.30pm flight from Heathrow.

We checked, double, and triple checked our flight status and finally left for Heathrow yesterday afternoon. We got to Heathrow, got our luggage out, found our ticket counter, and the girl's headed off to the toilet. As soon as they were out of hearing range the announcement came over the speakers. "American Airlines regrets to inform passengers that flight 91 to Chicago has been canceled. Please come to the ticket counter for more information."

We trudge to the counter and are told that Erica has been put on a British Airlines flight to Chicago via New York at 8.30am on Thursday and that Inga and I would be on the same flight that had just been canceled except on Thursday. Well that was no good, so we arranged for all three of us to be on Thursday's 4.30pm flight. The difficulty with the 4.30 flight is that we get into Chicago at 7.30pm which is too late for Erica and I to catch our flight to Cleveland. So we have to stay overnight in Chicago (very thankful for the Brankatelli's hospitality in this regard) and catch a Friday morning flight to Cleveland.

So now it is Thursday morning. We slept in a bit, finished some cleaning around the house and are getting ready to leave to catch our 4.30pm flight from Heathrow.

Again.

Woah!

The past two months have been a whirlwind roller coaster so we'll just have a few high (and low)lights.

+ On New Year's Eve Erica had her second scan and Clive Neubauer is a healthy growing boy ready to enter the world come mid-May.

+ Dave & Camille Ho moved back to Maidstone; we were acquaintances with Dave while we were at Moody and were astonished to find once we moved here that he was from Maidstone. He and his wife Camille just moved back. Dave and I were in the same major at Moody, and Camille and Erica were both in the communications department and they are expecting their first child in June. They have been a tremendous encouragement and help to us over the past few months.

+We spent Christmas Day with Steve & Helen Price and their daughters. Steve is the Priest-in-charge at our church and we attend the same home group. Our first Christmas over here in the Isles was tough, but a year of experience plus the Price's hospitality helped this one a lot.

+Erica has completed her final project and her thesis and just has an external examiner coming on Monday to grade her.

+We're coming back to the States for a visit on Wednesday. You probably know this already though...

+My admin job is going well. More about that later.

+Got to see Matt & Meredith Riordan (plus 13 of their teen aged friends) in London two weeks ago. Meredith was leading a Literary London J-term trip so we met up with them for an evening and enjoyed

Some not so hot news...

-Our 17 year old Nissan Micra broke down. It had been a bit rough going and we weren't sure if it would pass the next M.O.T. in May. Our transmission decided to put an end to any speculation though two weeks back, and left us on the side of the road. We have the British version of AAA and got home, but found out the car was going to cost more to fix than it was worth...
We struggled through two weeks of no car, but made an offer on a 2000 Toyota Yaris and are picking it up tomorrow. It is bittersweet as we definately were not planning on buying a car with our meager paychecks, but a couple from our church are trustees of a trust fund and that fund is giving us over half of the money we need for it!

Is that me?

About a two months ago on UK-Yankee, Erica and I came across an opportunity to be extras in a feature film. The film was being directed by Madonna and filmed in London, except that a certain scene was going to be set in New York and Madonna was insisting on real American extras. Erica took a few nice headshots of the two of us and we sent them off. A few days later they contacted us and said they could use us. Long story short it eventually fell through and we forgot about it; until last month when the casting agency contacted me and wanted to know if I was available the next day to be a driving double in a different movie.

The movie's working title is My Week With Marilyn and is based on a book written by Colin Clark during his time on the set. My role as driving double had me showing up at Saltwood Castle in nearby Hythe at nine in the morning. I was given a costume and then was told to wait until called. I sat around and read a book until one; then we broke for lunch. After lunch I was given a quick driving lesson. The car in question was a 1934 MG coupe convertible (The car in the picture). After my ten minute lesson I sat around again until three then drove off with some camera guys to a rather remote location of Kent where a road had been closed off for us. They then proceded to have me drive up and down a road twice while they filmed, probably 500 feet of driving total. Then they took the car to another location and filmed the owner of the car driving it. The shot was from a distance so it didn't matter who was in the car. Then at six I went home. My fee for twenty minutes of work? £120

Since my face wasn't seen in the car scenes they asked if they could use me again in another scene at a later date. About two weeks later I was asked to be at the Rivoli Ballroom in Lewisham near London at 6:45 in the morning. This meant leaving home at about five, but a job is a job. Once they had costumed, fed, and made-up everyone it was a little after nine and we were ready to film. The scenes to be shot featured Eddie Redmayne (the actor I had doubled for) and Emma Watson (Hermoine from Harry Potter) who plays a small but important role. Starting at nine we shot three scenes. We finished the first minute and a half scene at three...In the scene Lucy (Emma) and Colin (Eddie) are dancing, return to their table, and end the scene by kissing. The table that I am sitting at should be in the background of the shot. The last three hours of filming was spent on two dance scenes. I quietly opted out but may be seen in the background at a table taking to a waiter. We finished off the day with a short scene of the ballroom band playing and people crowded around.

All in all both days were enjoyable and the £120 a day was nice. I have not been contacted for any other work. (Guess I'll have to wait until Mr. Redmayne is in another film). I won't be rushing out to see the film, but might check it out on Netflix eventually. I won't be taking anymore work unless my lovely wife is offered a part too. It seems that attractive pregnant moms would be in high demand.