British culture

Field Notes from Dad

April 15, 2012

Last week I shared a few tips for expats when they host their parents in their new city. Apparently, we did a pretty good job with the task because I received a 4,000 word email from my father recapping the trip. 4,000 words, I kid you not. My father is naturally a writer and has [...]

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Dining out with the Christmas menu

November 13, 2011

David already shared how early the Christmas season gets going in the UK with decorations, markets, and holiday windows in full swing by early November. Another interesting element of Christmas in the UK is the presence of a special “Christmas menu” at restaurants  and pubs. I may need the help of the few English readers [...]

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Christmas Comes Early (really early!)

November 1, 2011

Guest post by my husband, David I love Christmas. I don’t mean I just like parts of Christmas like, getting presents, eating decadent meals or taking time off of work. I love CHRISTMAS and everything that goes with it; advent calendars, decorations, TV specials (I personally own over 20 different versions of A Christmas Carol), and setting up the [...]

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The Poppy Appeal

October 30, 2011

Coinciding with Veteran’s Day in the US, the Armed Forces in Britain are honored on November 11 - Remembrance Day. The UK charity, the Royal British Legion is most visible during the weeks leading up to the holiday  because of its very successful fundraising and awareness campaign called the Poppy Appeal. By selling small paper lapel poppies, [...]

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Polo in the Park

June 5, 2011

Last July, I wrote a post lamenting that David and I did not take advantage of all the events in June in London. Honestly, most of last summer passed in a blur as our only true holiday was our trip to the States to collect Sammy the cat. With all of the adjustments of the [...]

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The Tele

May 25, 2011

In today’s mail I received an offer for Virgin Media’s Tivo service for 3 pounds a month (after a one time charge of 90 pounds, of course). I commented to David that this was a pretty good offer, and he responded, “what would we tivo? The 8 episodes of Friends or Two and a Half [...]

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Here Comes the Bride

May 5, 2011

I’ve been experiencing a slight case of the Post-Royal Wedding-Blues, or maybe more aptly the Post-Bank Holiday Bonanza-Blues. With Easter, the Royal Wedding, and a day off for May Day, I enjoyed three short weeks in a row, but now that Europe is ‘coming to’ after the late spring holidays, work has resumed its hectic pace, and [...]

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Springtime Signals

April 10, 2011

There are obvious signals from Mother Nature that spring is upon us — flowers in bloom and the delicate coating of pollen on cars, and the like. To signal that winter is behind us, London residents pull out their garden furniture from storage. For the last two weekends I have spotted more and more first [...]

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SAD Darkness

November 15, 2010

Everyone told me this would happen, but I found it hard to believe, or I just generally refused to accept it.  The sun shone plenty this spring, summer, and autumn – topping out at over 15 hours of sunlight in June. Now, we’re lucky to see 9 hours of the sun – or rather the [...]

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Market Fare

November 10, 2010

In case you are a bit tired of my ankle-related posts, I’ll put those moans aside for now and get back to the business of this blog – sharing stories and observations about living as an expat in London. A few weeks ago, we were lucky to have some Stateside friends visit us on the [...]

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