The Chip Butty

I seem to be finally getting a life here. Or choosing to enjoy the life that I have rather than compare it to my life in San Francisco and then choose to not be happy because Im homesick.

I love my life here. It's amazing. I just went through a big wave of homesickness and sadness and I have to remember that will come and go. Anyway.... choosing to not get to deep and whiney and get you caught up on what I've been up too the last few days.

For one, I've weened myself off of Dexter. I am on Season 3, episode 6 so it took a while...but I finally did it.

On Friday nights our friends Vicki and Ben invite us to the Social Club in a village near by called Blagdon where they live. It's a place where all parents can bring their children to the pub on a Friday night from 6-8, drink pints for 2 pounds, and eat English fare (Ben and Vicki have 2 super cute little girls, 7 months and 2 years old). Last Friday I learned about these things called Chip Buttys (see attached). This consists of what we in America call French Fries jammed in between two pieces of white bread with some Ketchup or some Brown sauce. My friend Vicki calls this Britain on a plate and the brown sauce Britain in a bottle. Tim ordered it like it was a totally normal thing to do and when the plate of food arrived I looked at him and was like, "what in the hell is that?? It's just chips and white bread!" He was like, "yeah?" and then everyone at the table could not believe I did not know what this was like I was the crazy :). I tasted it and it was weird. Who knows..I thought beans on toast was completely repulsive when I first moved here and now I crave it. Anyway...the place is absolute chaos. Babies and kids up to about the age of 7 running around the pub like bananas while their parents casually socialize and bounce babies on their knees while drinking large pints of beer. Im pretty in love with this place and seems we have a new ritual on a Friday night. They have these great friends who are both cops. Tanya is a detective (just like Dexter's sister ;) and her husband Mark is on the team that busts graffiti artists. He knows every graffiti artist in England. I have not spoken to him much about his line of work and am DYING to but I have to ease my way into it as I guess he does not like to talk to much about it. His wife Tanya tells us about the cases she is working on. I love it. Oh..and for the record...I love graffiti art so hopefully he just busts the gang taggers but I will find out and get back to you.

I am so greatful to my friend Vicki. She's seriously saving my life out here. Always inviting me to things and introducing me to her friends and Tim and I are getting a nice social life. Tonight Tim and I are going over to their house and I am cooking them and our other new friends Steve and Rachel (who are Ben and Vicki's best friends) a Vegan dinner. I have these paraniod visions that Tim and I are this nightmare couple who want to be their new best friends and totally overstep our boundries and want to be with them all the time. So I try to be cool around them but really I want to kiss them all the time and tell them how much I love them for giving me a life here. Anyway...staying cool ;)

I've also included some other pic's. My favorite picture that Tim drew, a picture of a storm coming in over the Cafe the other day, a 15 pound bowl of crab apples that I made crab apple jelly out of (sort of unsuccessfully but it tastes good, it's just having a hard time acting like the jelly it's suppose to be and acting more like syrup) and a shot of our front yard with the apples falling off the tree near the small bridge.

AND lastly..Tim and I went to our first Kundalini yoga class last night in Bristol. Got to say..NOT the best class in the world and it's held in a cub scout lodge with bright lights in a basement by a guy who's website is called The Sleeping Serpent (gag). BUT....all that aside, it was a nice class and the only one it a 200 mile radius so Im not going to complain. It was just nice to take a class, he was not smarmy like I thought he would be and we will go back. Might even inspire me to be courageous enough to start my own class in Wrington. We shall see......