I Love Diplo

Just signed up for his podcast - Mad Decent Radio. He rocks.

Sep 26 - Pictures on my way home

I try and tote my camera around with me - but too often I leave it at home. Luckily I had it with me today - when the cows started moseying down the path in my direction.

Loves - bacon and donkeys

Shawn, quite a foodie, sent me the transcripts of "Life on the Farm." It's a short audio segment on KUSP hosted by Andrew Griffin of Mariquita Farm, and it's about - well, life on the farm. Shawn wrote, "My food-writer friend sent this to me. All of the items are good but scroll down and check out the pork one at the bottom."

"I was invited to a pot luck barbeque so I brought a goat. Another guest brought a pig. As the animals turned on the spit a crowd gathered to take in the spectacle. The laymen were impressed, but there were a number of professional chefs present and they fell to murmuring. And there was something odd to behold; the goat was fatter than the pig!"
....
"Traditionally, a spit roasted pig bastes itself as the carcass turns over the heat, but this animal had no fat to render. The professional chefs present among the guests began asking each other the kinds of questions that some small scale livestock producers might like to
answer like, "where can we get old fashioned, heirloom swine?" Saving endangered heirloom livestock varieties is an issue the whole eating public ought to take seriously. I'd like to hear a politically motivated folk singer pick up a guitar and start singing out for all The People to hear, "Oh, where have all the fat pigs gone?" " (copyright 2006 Andy Griffin - bolding is mine) (complete audio)

When I searched the web for him, I found another site of his postings. It included this gem.

"Prima Donna-key

Some men reach middle age and react by spending lots of money on sports cars and trophy wives. Not me. For my forty seventh birthday, I stayed with my wife and bought myself a pregnant donkey. A perfect mid-life crisis car like the Porsche 911 Turbo sells for one hundred twenty two thousand, nine hundred dollars M.S.R.P, but my donkey only cost me one hundred and fifty dollars. By my calculation I saved myself one hundred twenty two thousand, seven hundred and fifty dollars, plus a whole lot of alimony, but people still question my judgement. “What’s the donkey good for?” they ask. Read more"

Milk Delivered At Your Door

On M*'s first day of classes, I thought I'd be nice and make M* a nice breakfast of eggs, tomatoes, oj, coffee and fresh sausage and bread from the local butcher. At 7am I walked over and bought the sausage, the bread was still baking, and on my way home I noticed milk bottles on the front stoop of a number of houses - including that of our next door neighbor/ landlord.

I don't think I've ever seen milk delivered. There's a vague memory of such an occurrence when I was very young and lived on Long Island, but I don't think it's a true memory. Milk delivery just seems so quaint, such a throwback, so non-LA, that I rushed to take a picture. When M* was coming home late Monday night from a pub, he ran into the milkman and place a daily order of a jar of milk. Obviously M* was a bit too excited about milk delivery, as we don't go through this much, but all one has to do to change the order is to leave a note. They come around to collect payment once a week. If you are not there one week, they'll just get you the next collection day.

A fellow from M*'s program, who is from Ireland, was surprised that we found milk delivery a novel experience. It's still common in Ireland. As he put it - dairy at your door solves the problem of going to the grocery store and wondering if you've remembered everything only to find out the next morning that you've forgotten the milk for your cereal. Now if you've forgotten the cereal, you're out of luck.

--update - It turns out that you are suppose to leave your empty milk bottles on your stoop. I was recycling them until M* saw me throw a bottle in with the rest of the plastics, glass, etc. His suggestion that the milk delivery company picks them up when dropping off a new bottle is now confirmed. The four empty bottles I put out last night were not there this morning - plus I noticed that my neighbor left his out. Oops!

September 15 - Spiders

I've certainly seen more spiders busily spinning, hanging out on and catching prey in their webs in Cambridge than in LA. I thought this was normal - and it is to a point - until I saw a bit on some BBC morning news show about how there is an increase in the amount of spiders in the UK. I can't remember if it was being linked to global warming, because I caught more of the headline than the actual report.

I'm not much afraid of spiders - and for some reason I find them more charming here. There are many more insects here than in LA, so I feel that spiders do not have to bother themselves with entering the potentially dangerous human dwelling. I had a friend in LA who was bitten by a brown recluse and was eventually treated for the bite in the ER (yes I know there are urban myths about brown recluse spider bites, but this really happened). From that point on, I always cast a suspicious eye on arachnids in SoCal. I'm sure my Charlotte's Web/ Alice in Wondlerland/ Masterpiece Theatre inspired view of the friendly but harried UK spider rushing about muttering to itself with a British accent will change once I meet a victim of a nasty UK spider bite.

This morning I saw something dangling outside one of our living room windows, and soon enough it caught M*'s eye. A spider had caught a mosquito in its web and was busy with the task of paralyzing/killing it. The mosquito was still trying to escape (or maybe it was just leg spasms like when a chicken runs around after its head has already been severed - or maybe that's a myth as well) when we reached for our camera. M* and I both agree it was a pretty cool way to start off our one month anniversary.

Here are a few photos:

Finches Bed and Breakfast

We're here in Cambridge!

M* and I arrived last Wednesday, Sep 6, but it seems like we've been here much longer. We had lodging for six nights at a great B&B - Finches Bed and Breakfast - just outside the Cambridge city limits in Girton. I love B&Bs, so I was partial to staying in one. This one was reasonably price and it had Wi-Fi. We couldn't have stayed in a place without it since we needed to check the listings of available flats and make phone calls using Skype on our computers. Also, their web site noted that one could rent a bike just a few blocks away. Bikes in Cambridge are a necessity.

Finches attracts a variety of guests from families of students, to those attending lectures or training at a nearby university or business, to those on vacation, to those looking for lodging, to those in town for other sorts of business.

The couple that runs Finches lives in an attached part of the house with their three children. Jane, the wife, and I emailed a few times before Mat and I even left the States. She was very friendly and helpful, so I knew that I had made the right choice. Check-in time isn't normally until the afternoon, but she made sure that they were around to meet us in the morning. Our room was actually ready, so we dropped off our massive suitcases right away and went off to rent bikes. Since we had five large bags, Nigel, Jane's husband, offered to store any bags that we didn't need. Storing meant putting them in their part of the house, their living room I think.

Chris's Bikes, just three blocks away from Finches, is a small bike shop. He had just two rentals left, and Chris had them ready for us by the end of the day on Wednesday. If you stay at Finches and want to rent a bike, I suggest contacting Chris ahead of time (01223 276004).

Why did we love Finches so much? Well, it's a lovely and very comfortable place to stay. There are only three rooms - each with its own bathroom. Our room had a double bed, a desk, wardrobe, etc. We could walk into the heart of Cambridge in about 25 minutes - and there are buses that run into town frequently. But most of all, it's because of Jane and Nigel. They are just lovely people.

Jane cooked us a hearty breakfast every morning - included in the price of course. Breakfast is served between 7:30 and 8:30am Mon-Fri and 1/2 later on weekends. Since we had full days planned filled with walking and biking, we needed fuel to get us going. I normally have an appetizing breakfast of protein powder and almond milk, and it was so enjoyable to chow down on eggs, sausage, grilled tomatoes, ham and potatoes. We were always greeted by orange juice in champagne flutes, and we also had a choice of fruit, yogurt, cereal as well as tea and coffee. She asked us each morning what we wanted, and after the first day we just told her, "The same." The food was so nourishing, that we basically didn't have to eat until dinner. This was helpful because the food here is very expensive since the US dollar is so weak.

A few days we ate alone, and other days we ate with the other guests. However, if we were the only ones at the table, we didn't just talk to each other. Jane, and often Nigel, were around to greet us and check-in on our flat-hunting progress. We had so many questions for them, and they never tired of our inquiries. They pointed us to another bike shop for purchasing a bike - a place where their daughter had just picked one up (I ended up buying a bike from this place today after looking around at a number of other shops). They told us about Argos - a convenient and cheap place to pick up a number of items that we need for our flat. They also lent us their Cambridge map until we bought one. They pointed out shortcuts for all the flats we had to go visit. There was so much more they helped us with. However, it was more than their answering our questions, the conversation was just truly enjoyable.

One of the landlords that we met was surprised that we had a good B&B - he said that English B&Bs are often not that great. Jane worked in the travel industry part-time before they opened the B&B, and she has traveled a bit. She has remembered what she liked and didn't like in all the places that she went. This knowledge has shaped the way the guests are treated, and it is why our stay was truly comfortable.

M* and I were so happy with Jane and Nigel, that I had to remind myself that we were their guests so they probably would have been nice to us regardless if they liked us or not. However, when our cab arrived to take us to our new flat, she presented us with a bottle of champagne from her and Nigel - they remembered that M* and I had just gotten married three weeks earlier. M* and I were so touched. I remember thinking, "Yeah, they really do like us!"

What a great way to be welcomed to England.