Welcome to Our Neighbourhood

You've seen the inside of our place so I thought I'd give a brief tour of the neighbourhood we live in.  When we moved here I had some apprehension about moving to the big city since for the past 20 years or so we have lived in small towns or fairly rural areas.  My husband did a lot of research online looking for good student accommodations that would be at least partly furnished, close to campus, and would be close to doctors and hospitals (just in case).  We had a friend in the area who was willing to check out potential locations so we could see beyond the online hype and make sure the flat was as good as it seemed.  The flat we are in now was our second choice after our first choice was rejected by the letting company. Thankfully, this flat has turned out to be perfect for us.

We are in an area that is sometimes referred to as Heaton and sometimes Byker (we are kind of on the border between a couple of areas).  Even our mail is split between the different names.

Our little corner of Newcastle Upon Tyne is close to all the services I need (and some I had no idea existed), but far enough from the city centre so it doesn't feel overwhelmingly big. We are 0.4 miles from the Molineux Street NHS centre that has my GP (General Practioner), Psych, and pharmacy all in one building (the building also houses a Walk-In Centre, Dentist, Physio, Pain management and a whole list of other things I'm probably forgetting).  

Google estimates an 8 minute long walk and I would say that's about average.  If I'm walking with David it doesn't take nearly that long, and if I'm by myself it's probably closer to 10 minutes to get there.  The art studio (Chilli Studio) is just a bit farther at 0.5 miles but tends to take longer to get there (I average 12-15 minutes to get there).  

https://www.chillistudios.co.uk

These two are in opposite directions from each other, so that I take a left turn for the studio and a right turn for the medical building.  Both walks are relatively easy with not much in the way of hills between here and there. The worst part of the walk to the studio is having to cross a bridge that is very busy, so it's really noisy, but even that isn't too bad.

Looking right, up the road

Looking left 

The next great thing in this area, that we visit a couple of times a week, is our local grocers.  For most of our weekly shopping we use the local Morrison's, which is also about 0.4 miles from our flat, so when traveling empty-handed its about 8-10 minutes to get there. On the return with our bags full, it does take a little longer, but still not more than 15 minutes at our slowest.  Our Morrisons is huge, at about the size of the Walmart where we lived before, but this is almost all food stuff.

David will also stop on his way between campus and home at smaller stores to pick up something essential for that evening's dinner.  We both carry bags with us at all times just in case we need to pop in and get something so we don't have to pay for a bag (single-use plastic bags are not used in larger stores and there is a nominal charge for reusable bags depending on size) just to get something home.

As a quick run in, run out and to get a very random assortment of products, Wilko can't be beaten.  It's kind of like a high-end dollar store.  The prices are very reasonable, and while the quality isn't top shelf, it's decent, and you never know what you'll find if you spend any sort of time wandering the aisles.  So far Wilko is the main shop I can handle on my own without having a huge panic attack, because it's not as crowded and not as big, but I have my eye on Morrisons and I will conquer it.

Something I didn't imagine we would come to claim but this is our go-to pub, that serves decent food, has vegetarian options for David, and is quite reasonable.  It is basically next door to Wilko and not even a parking lot away from the GP surgery, meaning it's perfect.  It's called The High Main, but it is part of a chain called Wetherspoons, so there are lots of them with each having unique characteristics but being basically the same.  

There are multiple historical markers throughout our area mainly marking spots that relate to the coal mining that was done right under our feet early on in Newcastle's history.

Most neighborhoods we travel through have play areas for kids that can be used for multiple sports (but my guess is they are mostly used for football practice). The one closest to us has basketball hoops as well.  There are more traditional playgrounds for younger kids that have some very cool activities beyond just basic swings and slides. 

The park we walk through to get to the city centre has exercise equipment along the walking path with things like an elliptical machine and multiple ways to work out your abs.  Down along Quayside they have a similar set of equipment, but their equipment looks much newer.  I keep telling myself that I will go check it out, but for now walking through the neighbourhood is plenty.

This gate is at the very end of our street, and is closed most of the time, but if we leave the flat at just the right time we will find groups of mums (and dads too) dropping off their children to the school that is through there.  Such a beautiful schoolyard and during the day you can see lots of blue dots running around in the field (bright blue is the colour of the jumpers the kids wear as part of their uniforms).

If you exit the flat via the backdoor our gate opens into an alley, this lineup is what you will find.  We are amazed at how much easier and accessible recycling is here, and this group shows that.  The little blue bins are for glass, the big black bin with the multi-colour sticker on it is for recycling everything else (cans, aluminium, plastic bottles, etc), and the next big bin is for all of the things that don't seem to fit in any of the other categories.  This makes keeping up with and taking care of the recycling so easy; other nations need to get on top of this too.

At the end of our row of houses these pretty little flowers are already growing so well.  It's hard to believe that February is not over yet, but new growth is coming through.

This ring of flowers is in the green space around a high-rise set of flats and I can't wait for it to finish coming in, it will be beautiful.

Coming up the path from the studio at the end of the row of houses directly behind ours this famous face will greet you.  I haven't been able to find out a whole lot about Mr. Shakespeare and how he came to oversee our area, but you have to admit he is pretty cool looking and some serious work went into arranging the bricks into his likeness.  I've been told that during the Summer there are people who gather in the grassy area here and do yoga at least once a week, so I'll keep my eyes open for that.

In one of my earlier posts I talked about one of the reasons for not being interested in driving is all of the roundabouts.  This one here is outside of the Morrisons and is the smaller of the 2 that seem to be right on top of each other.  I had hoped to catch a shot of when the multiple busses will work their way around this at the same time with cars weaving in and out, but this is what I got.  Even without busses coming through there is way too much going on and I'm thoroughly impressed by anyone who can drive these things on a daily basis.

There is so much more I could show you all within an easy walk of our flat.  We have all of these amazing things at our disposal and we aren't even in the middle of the city.  We have found our perfect little nook of Newcastle Upon Tyne and we will stay here for as long as possible. 

More to come soon.  Cheers!

From Point A to Point B

When you live in a small town in the United States, your options for getting around are pretty much limited to walking or driving a personal vehicle. Of course, this varies with the size of the town and basic infrastructure.  Owning a car is considered by many to be a necessity even if it is never driven farther than the local corner store to pick up beer and 'smokes'.

In Colorado, it is common to take a trip for shopping or Dr. appointments that can be as long are 3-5 hours one way.  Denver is the hub for all things medical; it's where the big hospitals, the teaching hospitals, and the majority of the rarer specialists are located.  Denver also has more malls than anywhere else, so it does bring in long-distance shoppers, especially around special occasions or holidays.

It is possible (and frequent) that on a long road trip you can go for an hour or more without passing more than trees, fences, an occasional house (in the middle of nowhere) and lots of cows and other wildlife, depending where you are at (deer, elk, antelope, mountain goats etc.).  Small towns start to get more frequent as you approach many cities and at the base of the mountain passes, it is often prudent to stop before making the drive up and over.  On trips that are made frequently you learn where all the best places are to stop for a quick top off of the tank, a boost of energy through a snack or drink, and most important where the last chances are to visit the loo for a more comfortable ride.  In Colorado, weather also factors into these plans, making a quick hour-long hop to the next town easily turn into an unpleasant trek that takes infinitely more time, and at night gives you the impression of jumping into warp speed as the snow flies towards your headlights.

When we moved here to Newcastle we knew we were not going to get a vehicle, and had no interest in learning to drive, especially because of the incredibly complicated roundabouts.  We are always impressed watching our Uber drivers manage the directions on their GPS (talking about 'taking the third left in the middle lane but tending to the right' and around the circle) and miraculously we come out where we are supposed to be.  Uber has been a lifesaver for those times that are either just awkward timing to get someplace on the bus network, or when travelling to and from the Central Station with enough luggage that juggling it on a bus would be difficult and walking there is not worth the stress.

My husband has become an expert at getting around by bus. My last experiences with riding busses were as a young teenager, too young to drive but wanting to explore the city with my best friend. Since then I've relied on getting places by car.  There are multiple companies that run buses that stop within a short walk of our flat.  The difficulty is figuring out which bus, heading which direction, and where the closest stop to our ultimate destination is going to be.  David relies on Google maps and their public transportation option to help figure out where and when to hop on and then counts down the stops to where we need to get off.  We do have a few routes that we have taken often enough that I've learned the landmarks to watch for and that let me know when I'm about to reach the final stop to disembark at.  Except for these main routes I am scared to death of getting on and heading the wrong direction or miscounting bus stops and ending up way off target.  For now these anxieties keep me from traveling alone but I will soon have some help in learning how to make the system work for me and not be scared to death of exploring the city apart from the areas around my flat.

I have a goal for early March to get from our flat to a local clinic where I will be attending some therapy groups.  It would be over an hour to walk there and the route seems quite complicated or I can take one of 3 bus routes to make it there in about 40 minutes and only 10 of those would be walking.  I know what I have to do, and will spend the month of February gaining confidence in getting from Point A to Point B.  If I get lost somewhere between here and there then it will be Uber to the rescue, and a dose of anti-anxiety meds while I wait.

When we travel further distances we hop aboard any one of the many trains that are heading in the right direction.  If we are heading far afield (like London, Liverpool, or Edinburgh) we will pre-purchase tickets and whenever possible choose seats that allow us to face the direction of travel (motion sickness from riding backward is not our friend).  For quick day trips we just purchase tickets at the station and since many of these trips are less than 30 minutes we are just fine if we can't find open seats and instead 'train surf' as my daughter called it.  Some of our trips to London have been amazingly quick, with less than half a dozen stops between here and there, while other trips seem much longer because we stop at every little town/city on the route.  Google Maps shows the distance between here in Newcastle and London as being right around 280 miles (450.6 kilometers) and taking about 5 hours to drive. Compare that to a trip we made frequently between Craig, CO, and Denver, CO, with a distance of 198 miles (318.65) and taking about 3 hours and 45 minutes to drive.  The biggest difference between the two is the number of towns you encounter along the way.  For the Colorado trip, there would be roughly 9 chances to stop, or at the very least a need to slow down for a short distance (this is not counting all the suburbs of Denver that some may claim are independent towns). Based on Google, there seem to be 15 places where the road travels through or very close to a town (again not counting all the suburbs of London). 

We've come from the land of everyone owns a car (or at least a majority) and considered having all the adults in the household capable of driving (even if just around our small town) as a necessity, and have now landed in the perfect spot that allows us to walk for most of our necessities. Instead, we've come to a place with a robust public transportation system.  So instead of firing up our TARDIS (the nickname for our blue Toyota) every time we wanted to go anywhere we can now hop on a bus (or train, or metro, or Uber) to get from Point A to Point B.

Cheers!

The Parent Trap

In 1997 my husband used my family's tradition of opening one big gift on Christmas Eve to propose to me in front of all of them.  We set our wedding for October of 1998 and worked on getting things together.  One of the big discussions we had was about having children and we decided that yes we would have kids (eventually), we would aim to have 2 kids (twins run in my family so we were kind of rolling the dice on a second go around), and that we would name a boy William (a name popular on both sides of our families) and a girl Jessica Anne (the 'e' was very important).

The plan was to wait "awhile" after the wedding to start our family and we talked about travelling to Egypt, Europe, the UK, and anywhere else we had ever dreamed of visiting.  We knew that we would try to do things very differently from our families of origin (staying together and not marrying psychopaths were on that list).  In general we acknowledged that we had no clue how to be good parents but we would try to not "f*ck up the kids" to the best of our abilities.

October 24, 1998- Came, went, was absolutely amazing, beautiful, and just about perfect (a little issue with massive amounts of Grand Marnier in the frosting of the cake being the biggest hitch).  One big thing was missing though, my period.  A few weeks later and still no signs of "Aunt Flo" and we popped out to the drugstore for a home pregnancy test.  SURPRISE it was +, tried a second one (just to be sure) and still +.  Okay, okay home tests are sketchy so I'll see a Doctor and still + (holy shit we have a little one on the way).

Parenting went from a theoretical to an onrushing conclusion in the space of 2 supermarket tests and a little bit of wee.  Our plans for Egypt were quickly squashed and arrangements for a crib, a place for the baby to sleep, and natural childbirth vs. C-section moved into its place.  When we were far enough along for the ultrasound to (relatively) accurately predict the gender of our rapidly growing lump we cheated and chose to have the doctor tells us.  It's A Girl and it's not twins (thank god).  We continued our preparations and in July 1999 our daughter announced she was finished cooking and ready for the outside world.  The plan was for a vaginal birth (epidural included please), but this did not suit our little girl and after quite a lot of pushing (and not getting anywhere) plans were changed to an urgent/emergent C-section.

She was beautiful but a little cone-headed because of all the pushing and like all babies she knew how to get what she needed day and night.  We learned fast and we all survived (and even thrived).  She hit all of her milestones and of course we thought she was brilliant and going to change the world (we still think she is going to change the world and she's doing everything possible to make those around her see the same things).

During our initial discussions about having children we decided that we wanted them to be fairly close together age-wise and not more than 3 years apart if we could help it.  So, sometime around Fall of 2000 I stopped my birth control pills and we let fate decide when our next child would come to us. It didn't take long at all when we figured out Child 2 was on the way.  Again we let ultrasound take a peek for us and our little boy was willing to give the doctor the perfect flash of parts to let us step up our planning.  Since the birth of our daughter was fairly traumatic for all involved we decided it would be safer to schedule a C-section (all measurements showed William was going to be bigger than his sister so caution made sense), and by having all of my 'lady' parts hanging out after he was extracted it also allowed them to quickly and easily 'tie my tubes' to prevent future pregnancies.

Our son was beautiful, amazing, and loud, and with his birth I was now mom of a newborn and a toddler (what were we thinking) and learned the art of juggling like a pro.  By this time we were living in a very rural part of Colorado but made frequent trips to town to give them chances to socialise before they were old enough for school.

My daughter was fairly healthy but needed a couple of surgeries to fix some common childhood issues.  Her brother decided to make things more interesting by having some pretty complicated medical and behavioural issues that kept us on our toes and making frequent trips to town (an hour away) and to Denver (2 1/2-3 hours away) for specialist visits.

The local school was small enough to be Pre-Kindergarten - 12th grade in one building and was where my husband had started teaching.  At one point my whole family was together in the same school for a majority of the day.  Both kids did great in school and really thrived in the small class sizes.  After my husband completed his Master's degree we moved to a whole new corner of the state and into a "real" town with less than a mile between houses and even a McDonalds (amazing how easily amused we were).  The kids moved into much bigger schools and my daughter adapted no sweat but things were a little rougher for our son because of his special needs (but he did okay to start).

Being in a small town suited us all and made getting services for Will much easier.  We still took frequent trips to Denver for specialists (now 4 1/2-5 hours one way) but his day to day medical care could be handled a few blocks from home.  Will was also able to get involved with Special Olympics as an athlete in multiple sports (track and field, bocci ball, and bowling) and Jessica became a youth leader(?) and helped him and the rest of the team when she could.  They made an amazing pair and she was the best at reading him and knowing when he was running out of energy or getting overly excited, and she knew the easiest ways to intervene.

School was a place our daughter excelled!  She even used a program of concurrent enrolment that was offered between the high school and the local community college to graduate with both her high school diploma and an associates degree, all within a week or so of each other.  She also participated in multiple extracurricular activities through the school and continued to help with Special Olympics. She has gone on to University (the same Uni her father and I met at -- small world huh) working her way towards a history degree and certification to teach special education (told you she was going to change the world).  Just this term she is starting her student teaching, working on her senior thesis, and working as many hours as possible at an on campus job.  She will finish in Spring of 2020 and will go on to even greater things than she has accomplished so far.

School for William was a place to go, be with his friends, and learn some social skills.  Educating him is a huge challenge because he knows what he knows and those special things that excite him he knows enough that he can teach others about them (if you can keep up with him).  If it's not exciting to him or not presented in the perfect way it just does not make it through his filters, so it becomes frustrating to all involved. The school district was also not equipped to take on his medical needs and from middle school on it became a constant fight just to keep him safe while there.  So we made the decision this past Fall that he was better off getting real world skills than rereading Animal Farm or continuing to fight to learn division, so we unenrolled him from public school.  He has been able to participate in a jobs program that has introduced him to some of the types of work available in town and he loved it.  He also interviewed and was hired for a position that will have him learn about a local attraction, and once tourists start coming back he'll lead tours of it.  At Christmas he was able to share a very lengthy introduction after only having read an article online.  He'll do great.  He currently lives with his grandmother and helps take care of her, the cats and the house.  In the Fall when he turns 18 we'll start looking for the best place for him to be whether that continues to be in the town he's in now or in a larger city that may have more resources that will allow him to continue to grow and live semi-independently at some point.  He is an amazing person and when you consider all that he has overcome it is truly remarkable.  He makes an impression on everyone he meets and is going to take on the world and leave a mark wherever he lands.

Parenting started for us like it does for all parents, I think, it was theoretical and of course we imagined the best case scenarios for our children but you know what we got better than that from both of them.  They have blossomed into amazing young adults and have so much potential for the future it's immeasurable.  They will leave a legacy that we never could have fathomed.  We started our family a little earlier than originally planned but what we ended up with could only have been provided by fate.  Jessica and William are moving out into the world beyond our day to day influence but they remain the best of us.  Our family is strong and has endured much and now we get to watch as they make their mark on the world around them.

Cheers!

Getting ready to go through TSA screening on their way to visit us for the holidays.

When Do We Eat and What’s on the Menu

In 'Lord of the Rings' Merry and Pippin like all good Hobbits are concerned about the meal schedule while they are travelling with Frodo, Samwise, and Strider.  After their breakfast is interrupted and being told they will travel as fast as possible to Lothlorien they ask about 2nd breakfast and Elevensies.  As humorous as this exchange is it is based (somewhat loosely) on actual traditional British meal times.

I experienced this for the first time while on a hospital ward at the Royal Victoria Infirmary.  At roughly 0600 the lights were turned on and a trolley was brought in with the offer of coffee or tea.  Not a bad way to wake up but somewhat unexpected (nothing like this happens in most U.S. hospitals).  An hour or so later we were all moved from our beds to one of the chairs next to them and breakfast was offered, this consisted of the choices of bread and jam or an assortment of cereals with milk.  Throughout the rest of the day trollies were brought around with snacks and meals (all with tea as the main drink option).  With the last offer of tea and a snack at 2100 (an hour I am usually asleep).  Upon coming home I started looking into why there were so many chances at eating throughout the day, it seemed excessive, and this is what I found.  These are not hard and fast rules but it has a historical aspect that hasn't totally been converted to the typical 3 meals a day.

Breakfast - ≈  0600-0900 (sometimes called Brekkie)
     Light foods such as bread and jam, cereal, porridge (oatmeal) with syrup and/or brown sugar, fruit
     A Traditional English Breakfast (a Fry-up) is what a lot of people think of when they hear breakfast here and includes foods such as sausages, beans, toast, bacon, fried eggs (that are usually still runny so you can dip your toast in the yolk, yuck!), fried mushrooms, fried tomato, hash browns, and sometimes kippers (haven't seen these offered yet) or blood sausage (sausages filled with blood that has been mixed with a filler to solidify the mixture when cooked).  Most eating establishments offer a vegetarian version with veggie sausages replacing the meat.
Brunch- ≈ Late morning meal between breakfast and lunch to replace both meals that day
     Anything goes for brunch, most places still serve breakfast or the lunch menu can kick in on the early side.  Nothing too different from brunch in the U.S.
Elevenses - ≈ 1100
     Snack foods such as biscuits and coffee
Lunch - ≈ 1200-1300
     A variety of foods such as sandwiches (one of my favourites is egg mayonnaise and cress), sometimes bread and cheese, crackers, soup and bread, pork pie (served cold), salads.  Sometimes eaten at pubs or easily transported to work.
     Sunday Lunch (or Sunday Supper) would include foods such as roasted meats, potatoes, gravy, and Yorkshire puddings, and is a somewhat formal meal.
Tea - ≈ 1600-1700 sometimes referred to as Afternoon Tea or even High Tea (later in day closer to 1800)
    Light meal of foods such as sandwiches, cakes, biscuits and tea, scones, jam and cream.
Supper- ≈ 1800-1900
    A light meal in the evening
Dinner x- ≈ 1900-2100 sometimes served as a midday meal
    Main meal of the day with foods such as roasted meat, veggies (frequently 2 vegetables are offered), potatoes, Yorkshire puddings.

While looking for some of this information I came across a couple of great websites that you may want to check out.  The one has a basic introduction to everything British for incoming students:

http://www.ukstudentlife.com/Britain/Food/Meals.htm

The other site is aimed at students and teachers:

https://www.englishclub.com/ref/esl/Power_of_7/7_Meals_of_the_Day_2946.php

There are days where eating so frequently is appealing but I'm too much engrained in the 3 meals a day scheme to do it very often.  There are so many great foods to eat that I'm becoming spoilt and very rarely do I miss the foods that used to be staples in America.

My husband and I are not typical foodies, he is a strict vegetarian and I am kind of wishy washy about meat, we are very happy to have the simplest of meals (soup and bread, scrounge through left overs, or pasta are all favourites).  We do have some meals that we fall back on frequently and usually keep the ingredients in stock to make a quick decision on the nights he returns from Uni. kind of late or I'm too tired to put a lot of effort into putting a meal on the table.

+ Cheese toasties and soup (we have found the most amazing cream of tomato soup in a tin here).
+ Pasta with sauce (there is one brand of sauce we love and are working our way through the varieties of flavours) sometimes we add in vegetarian meat crumbles if we want extra protein.
+ Bread, fruit and cheese (the freshness of all of these is amazing here and unlike in the U.S. it doesn't cost us an arm and a leg to have our Roman meal).
+ Sandwiches with soup if it's a dinner or with fruit or another side if for lunch (favourite sandwiches include Egg mayonnaise and Cress, lunch meat with cheese and tomato, peanut butter and jam, and just cheese and tomato sometimes).  We have a favourite bread that is perfect for making toasties but is also great for other sandwiches.
+ Bangers and mash with lots of gravy (we tend to use vegetarian sausages to make it easier to cook for us both).
+ Indian sauces with rice and vegetarian chicken pieces (there are so many choices in sauces from flavourful but mild to melt your tastebuds off, there are also at least 3 brands of ready made sauces to choose from).
+ Anything combined with chips!  Boca burgers, fishless fish fingers, chicken nuggets (veggie style of course).  The requisite condiment for chips is curry sauce, something we used to have shipped to Colorado and now can buy it no sweat in our local market.  For me chips nuked with cheese, meat and salsa is a favourite breakfast when I'm totally uninspired.

These are the offerings we keep in almost constant rotation, and since there are so many different varieties we have yet to get bored with the foods we eat (or maybe those are the nights we plan on a takeaway instead of cooking something).  I won't lie there have been foods I didn't like when I tried them here, but I keep trying new things and have expanded my food repertoire quite a bit since being here.

If there are any foods you want to try but are afraid of drop me a line and I can try to give you a personal review that may just be enough to help you give it a go.
Cheers!

A Winter Wonderland

I grew up in Colorado so I am very used to winter weather.  I may not have always liked it, but it was what it was.  Starting in October, snow could come at any time of day or night, even while the sun was trying to shine.  A couple of inches of snow were no big deal, and it wasn't until 6-12 inches of the white stuff fell that we'd even bother bringing the boots out of the closet.  Blizzards came and went, sometimes leaving feet of snow in their wake and giving us kids  a few days off of school, but inevitably with a shovel in our hands instead of a pencil.   Anything that had even the mildest elevation change became a "hill" worth dragging the sled out of the garage and up to the top of (over and over and over).

My kids grew up in Colorado, and they do not share a love of the white stuff that fuels the state's economy.  In fact,  they can be fairly vocal in their hatred of it.  My daughter is of driving age so that's where a lot of her dislike comes from, and my son just hates change, and anything that requires him to cover up his beloved hoodies with a heavy coat.

When they came to visit over the holidays we pretty much promised them that, although they weren't escaping to anywhere tropical, they would most likely be getting a break from the snow.  The trip came and the weather gods were in our favour, so nothing much fell from the sky.  The past few days, though, my husband and I have been watching the forecasts and here and there the little snowflakes were appearing.  Since meteorology seems to be more guessing than science, we didn't worry about it at all.  Besides, the measurements they were showing were in the millimetre range (we didn't even know people tried to measure snow that small) and occasionally a whole centimetre.  We watched the forecasts and looked at the sky, and over and over again there was no snow.  Then last Thursday morning, when my husband opened the curtain in our kitchen, we were finally greeted with British snow, and it was beautiful.

Great big fluffy flakes, drifting down gently and leaving behind not much in the way of accumulations.  Like with a lot of early snow the ground wasn't cold enough for it to stick around very long, but while it was here it kind of looked like home.  We watched along with the rest of the world when last year "The Beast from the East" came through and dumped a couple of inches of snow in some places and feet in others, so we know it's possible, but for now we'll enjoy our first "snowstorm" and wait to see what the rest of the winter brings us.

What Was That Car That Tried to Run Me Over

One of the things we are taught fairly early on is how to cross a street, we come to the corner look left, right and left again for good measure.  If no cars are coming we take the step of faith off the curb and hurriedly walk across the street.  Until school age, we may only be allowed to attempt this complicated set of steps when in the company of an adult or older sibling, but soon after the start of the first school year the hand holding ceases and we are free.  As we grow up this process becomes automatic and we tackle busier and busier streets, even crossing against the light.  Our judgement for distance improves (and maybe even our reflexes) and we leave less and less lead time between ourselves and any cars coming in our direction.  This is the general process that allows us to leave our home block and explore out into the wide world, what no one tells us is that what is done in the United States is not always the same for that wide world we were going to explore.
In the United Kingdom, a similar set of steps is used when crossing the street but it's the order of the steps that are so different and will get you squashed like the poor frog from the game Frogger if you aren't careful.  It's often joked about the British driving on the wrong side of the road, and how poor Americans come here and try to learn to drive but find it so difficult.  I never once heard a joke about the perils Americans face when they try to walk across the road.  See if the cars are driving on the wrong side then looking left before starting across the road is also the wrong side.  So here the proper procedure is to look right, left, right (and then close your eyes and hope for the best j/k) and then take the step of faith, some crossing points have painted on the pavement the words "LOOK RIGHT" with an arrow pointing the correct direction.  I have found that additional glances both directions are crucial depending on how close to a roundabout you are attempting to cross because cars, buses, and bikes can and do come out of nowhere.  Walking half a block or more from the intended crossing point is sometimes wise to be able to use a crossing light and have the cars halt while making your way across.  There are some crossing points that do not include stoplights but there are flashing globes of light that act as a warning for drivers that there is a crossing and that the kind thing to do is slow down just in case.  There are also crossing points named after the unlikely animals Zebra and Pelican.  A zebra crossing looks much like the striped crossing lines from the US and it is a crossing point where the pedestrian has right of way (think of the famous album cover for the Beatles, and that's a zebra crossing).  Pelican (Pelicon) crossings are the ones using a traffic signal to stop the vehicles and an indicator (can be visual and auditory) for the pedestrian that signals when it's safe to walk.  There are many crossings that include a median and the lights are supposed to include both directions at the same time and to make it even more of a challenge some crossings can include three directions.  So it's a lot to try and keep track of for such a simple procedure as crossing a road.
Another difference that doesn't really change the crossing steps but involves identifying the vehicles coming at you (or the safe ones that are parked).  I'm somewhat famous for my notice of details, especially when out and about, and one of the things that interested me right away was the identity of all the cars on either side of the road.  The UK has many new brands of vehicles and the majority of them are in the compact or subcompact size.  There are many of the usual brands like Ford, Toyota, Volkswagen, and Nissan all with their well-known symbols, but it's the new ones that are so cool.
My favourite is the Vauxhall:

Next favourite would be a Skoda:

The Peugeot is pretty cool:

Citroen is basic:

As is Fiat:

The image for the Mini is different here:

Last one that is seen frequently is Clio:

I'm still on the lookout for any new or less popular brands, I'm sure there are many that I have just not stumbled across, Yet.  Since I will not attempt driving (walking is complicated enough) identifying vehicles travelling at rapid speeds is not an altogether necessary skill, but it sure is fun.