May

8

iced tea and the unexplained

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My recipe for vanilla iced tea:

  • Boil 1 quart (or 2 UK pints) of water.
  • Add 5 bags of tea (I used PG Tips) and 1 bag of Rooibos Vanilla tea.
  • Steep for an hour, give or take, then squeeze the bags hard and discard them.
  • Stir in 1/2 cup of white sugar until dissolved.
  • Add 1/2 quart (or 1 UK pint) of cold water.
  • Don’t add ice, but chill in the refrigerator.
  • Enjoy.

There is something about moving thousands of miles and an ocean’s distance away from the place that you were raised that stirs up longings you never possessed before. At least not when it was logical to possess them. For me, today, on a warm and sunny day in the first part of May, I made iced tea. And I made it my own. Like I knew something or had the right to tinker with an old hand-me-down recipe. I don’t actually have any such birthright. My mother drinks hot tea only— no milk or sugar and strong as mud. My dad, I don’t remember what he drank, but I would guess he drank coffee at work. Until today, I could count the number of times I ever sipped from a glass of iced tea on one hand, but on this warm May day — and for no reason other than it felt like the most natural thing in the world — I made iced tea. Vanilla iced tea. And it is good. Good like I have been making vanilla iced tea for years. Good like my mother must have taught it to me. Good like she learned it from her mother. Good like this couldn’t possibly be the first time I have ever made iced tea.

I think the tea is a result of recently spending time in the state of my birth and raising. I have been affected in ways I did not expect, and I don’t just mean that in the context of my rather exceptional vanilla iced tea.

We’ll get to Indiana in a few more posts. My next post will continue where we left off for more of the Wisconsin leg of the holiday.

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May

3

Alive and well and still on holiday

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I am sitting outside the Steve Alford All-American Inn on 3 just outside New Castle, Indiana. They have free wireless internet for guests and although we aren’t staying here, they have range enough for me to leech teh internets through their walls. Hooray!

All is well from the road. We’ve driven miles and miles and miles and have stories and photos to share. Most of that stuff is going to wait until we get back, as we will not always have drive-up wifi access on our routes.

We’ve seen the family and friends we needed to see, and found the places I wanted to photograph. Roads are mostly familiar and food is more wonderful than it should be. In short, life is good.

More from us when we get back to the UK.

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Apr

14

As our Spring holiday nears

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…I have come to notice that I am planning, quite possibly, the white-trashiest vacation ever.

Here’s what’s on the list (so far) for our upcoming trip back to the American Midwest:

  • Firearms lesson and range time.
  • Tattoo work. Call it, an expansion of my already colourful body art.
  • An evening of ogling and over-priced drinking in a strip club. (Gotta love the weak American dollar! Lap dances for everyone!)
  • Gorging at Taco Bell.
  • Meeting my Mom’s pet possum. (If Gerald hasn’t already moved on from her garage. Yes, she named him Gerald.)
  • Edgerton. (My friends in Wisconsin will understand that one without being offended by it. That’s part of why I love them.)
  • Waffles. Possibly at ‘bar-time’.
  • All-You-Can-Eat Friday Night Fish Fry.

There is more to our visit that the above list of amazingly exotic options, but it really struck me as amusing when I was getting them down on paper. Good God— we should pack Neil’s banjo and plan a canoe trip while we’re at it. ;)

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Mar

17

photos, paints, pencils, words, and my Indiana

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Holiday planning is in full effect this morning, but not in a traditional sense. No, I’ve already snapped up bargain flights, planned out car rental packages, found accommodations. That typical sort of holiday arranging has been done and dusted for a month. Today?
I’m planning via flickr.

reDCP_0465.jpg

I’m finding flickr groups, pools, sets, and tags that relate to where I’m from in Indiana — and also where I lived in Wisconsin — to give me ideas on things to visit. Flickr is a fantastic visual tour guide, provided people geo-tag or label their photos accurately. Though I spent the first eighteen years of my life in Wayne County Indiana (and spent the last half of that time waiting to leave it) it is thanks to people on flickr that I am reminiscing and looking forward to what I’ll see (and document) when I get there. I also have a fiction project that taps into certain places I used to know. The opportunity for research will be so valuable.

It’s an interesting feeling knowing that I’m going back to the places I once knew so well, this time, as a tourist— this time, armed with cameras, art stuff, and Moleskine notebooks.

I think I may finally be ready to appreciate the place where I grew up. I can’t wait to share it with Neil.

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Nov

5

Three years ago on Guy Fawkes night I watched fireworks from above

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Three year anniversary collage

I moved to the UK three years ago tonight. I miss family and friends, but absolutely love my life in England.

(See the above picture on flickr for more information about the images in the collage.)

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Sep

24

Thank you, American economy

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I’ve just spent the morning hanging out with our bank, then chatting long-distance with several staff members of my American credit card, and now have a big fat cheque on its way to the US to free us from the last of my US financial burdens.

We’ve been watching the US dollar exchange rate for about a year and the time is right to use the roughly 2:1 ratio to our advantage. Our bank was able to give us $1.9898 to the £1. Not too shabby. Makes debt a whole lot less painful if you can essentially cut it in half, let me tell you.

What a day. We’ve been clearing debts on both sides of the ocean and still have enough for the Tesco delivery. Life is good and getting better all the time! Hooray! :D

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Jun

7

OK, who told her about my tea issues?

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Looks like my worries about the British tea ritual were all for nothing. The landlady came over today, (after a reschedule), and didn’t have tea or biscuits. * sigh * And I had quite the spread too…

She had a glass of water (perhaps she’s not really into tea) and I gave her two of the muffins as takeaway. That required no arm-twisting whatsoever. On the plus side, Neil’s pleased about the biscuit surplus as he’s trying to convince me that they’re medicinal. (Poor thing is catching my cold…)

So the meeting with the landlady went well. She took a table we didn’t want and is addressing a couple of minor issues with window seals and extra phone lines. I like her— she desperately wants to be sure we’re happy here. She needn’t worry— it’s the perfect place for us right now.

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May

26

Mom, is there something you haven’t told me?

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Several weeks ago, I sent my driving licence and the paper counterpart forms off to the DVLA to get the address updated to reflect our new residence. Neil was slightly more on the ball — in this household, it’s an ADD crapshoot as to when things get done — and sent his off more than a week before mine. His returned corrected and mine went out soon after.

The postman delivered my licence and new counterpart document today. I checked it over for errors. Thankfully, I was sharper than most mornings with credit due to the accidental use of espresso instead of our typical coffee—

My place of birth has changed by about 14,000 miles.

Indianaindia

Indiana had become India.

I phoned the DVLA in Swansea right away and have been instructed to hand write a little letter about the error and to send both my licence and counterpart form in again. Fortunately, there is no charge for updating you address, or apparently, birthplace.

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