A Holiday Care Package

A couple of weeks ago, we were pleasantly surprised by the postman knocking on our door in the morning. He bore a huge box, emblazoned with the vivid red of the Royal Mail. After the obligatory signature, the box was ours.

And what a great box it was. Of course I am not talking about the integrity of the box, but rather, the contents of it. A special treat from England, my Mum and Gran (mostly my Gran I think) had sent us a huge goodie box of Christmas decorations and Christmas chocolate. It cost them a small fortune to ship it, but as we pulled the assortment of gifts out of the box, it brought smiles to our faces, as we thought about my Gran insisting that she must buy this and send it to us, or that this was completely Nicole or Ben and had to be passed on. My Gran simply loves Christmas you see, and you can barely move in her house for Christmas decorations around this time!

And so, in the spirit of her spirit of Christmas, we decorated out apartment a little, with red shoes and ice rink boots as decorations on the lights, a Christmas Winnie the Pooh out on display, next to a Christmas pillow, topped off with a Christmas tea towel in the kitchen. Our advent calenders are out too, but we will save the rest of the candy and chocolate for a later date, given that we still have chocolate coins from last Christmas.... the white choc was still good, but the milk choc was past its best!!!

With all the Christmas in the air, it's easy to forget that Hanukkah began yesterday, a lot earlier than usual. In the spirit of multiculturalism, we are making a trip out to the supermarket to see if we can find some Chanukkah decorations; at the very least we will find a Menorah!

Here's to Happy Holidays!

The Magic of the Movies

This Thanksgiving weekend gave us the chance to sit back, relax and spend some time watching films, something which we haven't really had time to do; we don't go to the cinema nearly as often as both Nicole and I would like, due to time and cost. But in 2 days, we saw 2 films at the cinema, and in the past week or so saw 3 others at home. There really is nothing more fun and satisfying than escaping for a couple of hours in a great film, particularly if you have the made the trip out to the movie theatre, sat down with fellow fans, and feasted your eyes and ears on an enormous screen with booming sound.

First up was some true magic. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1. Don't you just hate that.. part 1. That's means double the money, and it means you know there is almost certainly going to be a cliffhanging moment in the middle, or at the very least you walk away from the movie theatre feeling disappointed that the story hasn't been concluded. That said however, I am somewhat glad the final HP movie is in two parts, for they never really managed to fit a single book into one film, and this last one is nothing but epic.

I'll be honest: I have never really liked the Harry Potter films. I am too much of a fan of the books, an early convert to the magic of Rowling, and so have never truly embraced the films for what they are. Cinematic stories, and not, novels turned into film. I should really think of them as separate entities, but I have never been able to do that. And yet the sixth movie, the one least based on the book, is my favourite, so I suppose I am getting better. What annoys me most is the additions to the films; little things here and there which are simply nowhere to be found in the book. Fine if the story needs extending, but when you cut out great little scenes and dialogue, why would you add something in?

Back to the penultimate film. Though it actually stood up reasonably well to the book, I had a number of criticisms about the actual film making this time around. But let's start with the good things. WARNING POSSIBLE SPOILERS. The acting was very good, with all the actors showing great improvements since their early days. A lot of the classic British actors were missing this time around, or only had bit parts due to the nature of the story, but the 3 main actors held their ground. Daniel Radcliffe still had a few shaky moments, in my opinion, but that could have been more down to direction rather than his acting. I have never thought he was a particularly good actor, often times lacking emotion and conviction. Granted, I might be saying that through a hint of jealousy, but I do think there is evidence to support this. It's also true that I never got over the fact that he was cast in the role without ever having read the books, and didn't even read them all straight away when he found out he had been cast. "bitterness" yes, but still, he just wasn't a true fan.

Rant over, the comedic parts of the film were also excellent, provoking laughter throughout the audience. Though the dialogue worked for these moments, overall I felt the lines were strained and too rushed. Perhaps again due to the nature and story of the book, I felt that the film was very "jumpy" cutting from scene to scene very quickly and severely, and then moving on just as fast. Thus the dialogue mirrored this, with often only 2 or 3 lines, rapidly delivered (and sounded very scripted) before they needed to be, and used only to fill in plot lines. The second film should have a little more time to breathe.

As always, I was impressed with the visuals, as film makers brought the magical world to life once again very effectively. However in the past while I have always enjoyed the extended and expanded action sequences (the need to thrill the audience), I was a little disappointed this time around. Some scenes I felt were a little too dramatic (Dobby) and others were not dramatic enough; I was really looking forward to the opening chase scene, but found it lacked depth (and fighting) and though I thought the tension in the Bagshot house scene was good, the buildup led to an anti-climatic end.

Overall, it was enjoyable, but given the past few films, I expected a little better. If you like what you saw, read the book, as is usually the case.

 

Enough Harry, back to the real world... sort of. Next up, we watched Date Night, for the second time. A great action comedy, with a dab of romance thrown in, it really makes be laugh, and has two great actors in the form of Steve Carell and Tina Fey. Caught with the mob in NYC, a couple out trying to spice up their date night end up with a night to remember. Sounds clichéd, but it was actually very original, and really very enjoyable.

The following night, we were out at the cinema again, this time to watch Morning Glory, a romantic comedy set in the ruthless world of journalism. I thoroughly enjoyed this "relaxing rubbish", perhaps because there was more comedy than romance. It offered a nice little insight into breakfast morning shows (if they are really like that) and showcased a promising actor (Rachel McAdams) along side some veterans like Diane Keaton and Harrison Ford. For me, Mr. Han Solo/Indiana Jones made the film, on top form as a bitter, dedicated and serious journalist, offering lots of sarcastic asides and having great chemistry with McAdams. While it was nothing special, I'd say it's definitely worth a rent on DVD.

Finally, back at home in Madison, Nicole and I watched Killers, courtesy of Nicole's Netflix subscription. Netflix... a great service, offering streaming movies and TV shows online, and a DVD delivered to your door (free delivery) every time you send one back. Well worth the pretty low monthly cost. Anyway Killers was another Rom Com, with a lot more action, more like Date Night. An amusing story about a hitman who falls in love and settles down with his new wife, before getting dragged back into the business along with his wife. Sounds very familiar, and it was, but at least it didn't take itself seriously, and was a very light-hearted affair. It also has Tom Selleck, who was a nice little comedic addition.

After all those comedies and easy watching films, I am now ready for something a little more serious for the next film we watch. Something more like What's Eating Gilbert Grape, a film we watched last week. What a great film that was, starring a very young Leo DiCaprio and Johnny Depp. An indie film made in 1993, it chronicles the life of a young man growing up in a tiny rural town in Iowa in the 1980s, forced to care for his mentally disabled younger brother. Depp plays the young man, in a relatively normal role played to perfection, while Leo is truly incredible as the handicapped brother. No wonder both of them have become such great movie stars. It's a very poignant film, while still offering a number of moments of laughs and smiles. Thoroughly recommended.

 

There are a huge number of other films out right now at the cinema, and a number of new releases we have already missed. I should write a list to make sure I catch them all on Netflix. That's where we watched Gilbert Grape- streamed instantly. Christmas time we surely see more trips to the cinema, although of course there will also be more new releases to catch! At least we'll never be stuck for choice!

 

 

 

In the News Today!

Well let's start with what I consider to be very amusing... snow in England! I thought heading out to Wisconsin that I would be the first to get snow, certainly the one to get a lot of it... not England!

But once again, the entire country comes to a standstill as snow accumulates on the ground. Schools close and roads are blocked, as local government fails to mobilise the gritters and ploughs in time! In fact, I don't think we even have ploughs! Well it's about time we got some, as this seems to be becoming a regular occurrence. So no more, "oh it will be a waste of money", it's time to get our snow action plan into action!

 

While snow may have been on the minds of many Brits, the top story on the BBC was an article closer to home for me- http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11883322

A 15-year old student in a high school just north of Green Bay took a class of students hostage with two semi-automatic handguns. Thankfully, this shocking scenario didn't end like many others; the gunman didn't hurt any hostages but instead turned the gun on himself, putting an end to his life. Why he did this, no-one knows. It was very out of a character, but it comes just a week after a man in Kenosha shot his own TV out of fear that Bristol Palin would win Dancing with the Stars (the American Strictly), and at a time when gun laws in Wisconsin will probably be reviewed in the new legislative session.

Let's see how that works out.

 

 

A Weekend of Thanks- The Big Day

After a run Thursday morning, in the bright sunshine and mild weather of Huntington Beach, I arrived back to Nicole's Grandma's house to the smell of cooking! Multiple different smells in fact!

The oven was on, the turkey was stuffed, and half the pies were already refrigerated. That's right, we didn't just have one or two pies, we had 4 different desserts, not including fruit! But more on that later; first things first!

Once Liz's homemade stuffing (an eclectic array of ingredients) had been pushed deep inside the turkey, and its entire body had been pasted in herbs, it was my job to lift the 21 pound bird into the oven! While that was cooking, we pealed apples and pears, assembled a corn cake mixture,  and chopped the potatoes.

4 hours later, after I'd shoved a thermometer inside the turkey's butt, the meal was ready!

While we were waiting to take our seats at the big kitchen table, I'd been enjoying the company of Nicole's wonderful family; her Mom, Grandpa, Aunt and Uncle, Kiki and Nicole's great cousins Shanaya and Aiden. Sadly Nicole's Dad and Mari had taken a Thanksgiving cruise to Hawaii, so they were missed. We had all been sat learning about the best way to escape a car sinking in water, and how many times you really can fold a piece of paper in half, courtesy of Mythbusters!

With the table set and the food all cooked, we began our meal. Starters was a yummy salad consisting of artichoke hearts with a sweet citrus dressing, which tasted great, despite being frozen by accident a few minutes previously. Talk about chilled salad! I enjoyed the appetizer, but Nicole's uncle considered it a waste of time, and was eager to get to the "proper" food. The plates were quickly cleared, and Nathen was satisfied, as we piled our plates high with Liz's wonderful Thanksgiving dinner: large helpings of turkey; moist, flavoursome stuffing; smooth mashed potato; candied yams/sweet potato topped with cinnamon and marshmallows (I never did find out the difference between yams and sweet potatoes); bourbon flavoured corn cake; and of course, incomplete without the cranberry sauce and gravy to top it off. I almost forgot the broccoli, which added some much needed green, both colour and healthwise to the meal!



Such a feast, we had to wait an hour after our main course before we could hit the desserts. They looked so incredible, that I couldn't decide which one to have, so I ended up with a little of 3 different ones; sumptuous pumpkin pie; an exquisitely light, home-made, lemon chiffon pie; and a fulfilling apple and pear baked pie. All topped with whipped cream from Liz's new whip cream maker! I never even got around to the chocolate birthday cake baked for Aiden's birthday and hand decorated by Nicole.

I almost passed out from that calorific intake of yumminess, and spent a good few hours on the sofa recovering after that, chatting with everyone before it was time to part ways. We did enjoy watching "Punkin Chunkin" though, a national event which attracts thousands of spectators, as competitors try to "throw" pumpkins as far as they can. By throw, I mean fire, as they use all manor of equipment to get the distance: aircannons, catapults, trebuchets and hand powered. Should you feel inclined, you can check out the official website here http://www.punkinchunkin.com/ and videos here http://science.discovery.com/tv/punkin-chunkin/



The best of all the food? The leftovers. Who could grumble at a turkey and spinach omelette the following morning, or turkey, cranberry and stuffing sandwiches to take on the plane? One of the things I find in the US is the willingness to use leftovers. I am sure its the case in most countries, but particularly in the US, I notice that every house hold has a large supply of Tupperware containers and ziploc bags, on hand ready to save food. In restaurants it is even more noticeable, where  asking for a box to take home food is a common occurrence, much more so than in England. And why not? You paid for it!

I really enjoy the Thanksgiving holiday. It really is a family friendly holiday, where no-one has to worry about putting up the decorations, getting the right presents for everyone, or spending a ton of money (unless you count on food!). It was a very relaxing occasion, with time just to enjoy each others' company. And, it was nice early taste of a Christmas dinner, albeit with some interesting additions.

With Thanksgiving however, comes Black Friday. A crazy day (or rather night, as a number of stores now open at 4am, or even earlier at midnight!) where shoppers flock to get the best bargains on anything and everything. While it would be nice to pick up some bargains, there is no way I am fighting with a big crowd just to save 20% on a TV, or something like that... even if it does save big bucks! I always find sales are overrated. To give you some idea of the number of people who attend Black Friday, you need look no further than the barriers which were in place outside of Walmart on Thursday morning when I went to get facewash (I was surprised Walmart was open, but it was certainly handy!). Outside of the store, metal gates had been set up in a snake like pattern, to form the kind of queuing area one would expect to find at Disney, not Walmart. And at 10am, there were already people with tents set up and deck chairs in place, ready for the store to open and to snatch up the sale items at 4am the next morning.

No thank you, not for me! I'd much rather relax at home and enjoy some delicious food!



P.S. Courtesy of Wikipedia, apparently this is why Yams are called Sweet Potatoes (they are kind of the same thing in the US)... The sweet potato is only distantly related to the potato (Solanum tuberosum). The softer, orange variety is often called a yam in parts of North America, a practice intended to differentiate it from the firmer, white variety. The sweet potato is botanically very distinct from the other vegetable called a yam, which is native to Africa and Asia and belongs to the monocot family Dioscoreaceae. To prevent confusion, theUnited States Department of Agriculture requires that sweet potatoes labeled as "yams" also be labeled as "sweet potatoes".^[1]

A Weekend of Thanks- The Journey out to SoCal

Every fourth Thursday in November in the US, the country stops to eat. And by eat, I mean GORGE themselves on food! Traditionally though, it's a specific kind of food, or rather, a specific bird: The Turkey.

My second Thanksgiving in the US was another fantastic experience of family get togethers, home cooking, and a great weekend just to sit back, relax and give thanks for all the things we have in the world, but especially, thanks for having each other.

But first, we had to get to our holiday destination, along with millions of others who travel to family or friends housing for the occasion.

The long weekend began on Wednesday, with Nicole and I thanking my work colleague for driving us to the airport to catch a flight "home" to California. Away from the cold, wintry weather of Wisconsin, and across the country to the sun, sea and sand of Southern California.

And it was really that simple.

Milwaukee airport is such a great airport, nice and small but with a good number of reasonably priced flights to a large variety of places. We took a Southwest flight, to the south west of the US, which is a great airline as you can check two bags completely free of charge! Despite this however, for the first time in our lives we travelled incredibly light, and only took carry on bags, so we didn't need to wait in line at the check-in desk. Being Thanksgiving, we were expecting lines at the airport both to check in and to get through security. However, we sailed right on through, including the line for security, which was non-existent. There was literally not a single person in front or behind of us when we went through the rigorous, but now monotonous routine of loading bags onto the conveyor belt, laptops out, shoes off, belt off and pockets checked for anything that might cause a beeping noise and result in irksome looks from TSA staff. It was so quiet, we could take our time unloading everything and putting everything back on; even the TSA lady who checks your boarding cards joked about how busy it was.

We had heard that Milwaukee had the new airport scanners, which x-ray your body and create an image of it on a computer screen which leaves little to the imagination. Though we have had these for a while in England now (I went through them in Manchester) there has been uproar in the US recently about the privacy these scanners offer to travellers, and the alternative option of a very intense hand pat down. Despite the concern for safe air travel, there have been calls for these security procedures to be reviewed, with a number of protesters calling for travellers to refuse the scanner and cause big delays at airports. Personally, I don't see what all the fuss is about. Our imaginations can create just as, if not more detailed images, and the images are merely outlines, with faces blurred, and are viewed by someone who doesn't even see the real you. If it makes travelling safer, speeds up the line at security, and means I don't have to take my belt and shoes off, then I am all for it. And the pat downs? Well either just go through the scanner, or sit back, relax, and enjoy the feel of a stranger's hands roaming over you. Try to look on the bright side!

Though I was expecting a nice little dose of radiation, or at the very least a soothing massage, I was very disappointed; the promised new scanners were turned off in Milwaukee, and on our return flight from LAX (we had to wait in line here at security, but the airport was still surprisingly quiet, both flying in and out) the scanners were nowhere in sight.

Having enjoyed a nice un-rushed experience through security, Nicole and I, after debating the various overpriced food options in the terminal, opted to get some sustenance for the flights (we had to change planes) at the classic all-American diner- Johnny Rockets. Though I am sure it is entirely unauthentic, it does make me wish I could have seen American diners in their heyday in the 1950's, just like in Grease, or Back to the Future. Johnny Rockets does a reasonable job, but I think there is a market out there for more classic diners, with burgers, fries and shakes galore at customer friendly prices.

After a fulfilling Philly Cheese-steak, we began the "pre-boarding process" for Southwest, which basically means we stood in the right location, as dictated by the letter and number on our boarding card. Like the cheaper European carries, Southwest doesn't assign seating numbers, but instead (in a more civilised way than EasyJet or Ryanair) assigns passengers a specific spot to board the plane, based on how early you check in. So, the early bird catches the worm, as those who check in 24 hours in advance get the A1-10 slot, which ensures them either seats at the front of the plane so as to be first off, or seats in the exit rows for that little extra legroom. Personally, as long I get an overhead slot for my bag, I don't care where I sit, as long as it is next to someone who put on deodorant that morning.

With a headlong wind heading towards Nevada, we arrived in Las Vegas a little late, having experienced a reasonable amount of turbulence (that's why I spilt water down your back Nicole! Honest!). We thought we might have had to run for our connection, but it was only two gates down. Instead we got to spend time admiring all the slots machines, which greet Vegas visitors before they have even left the airport. The city of gambling and sin looks great from the air at night, with the strip all lit up, pyramids glowing and hotels shimmering. If only you could hear the sound of coins falling, cheers erupting and money being wasted.

Minus x-rayed images of ourselves, we arrived late Wednesday night back in the OC, and at Nicole's Grandma's house.  After a good night's sleep, the preparations began, the smell of food spread through the house, and the eating commenced....