Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Vacation ramblings...

Ramble #1

We spent a few days up at my cousin Jean's house in the peak district. She said that lots of people go jogging there and I wouldn't look at all out of place. So, I did, following the route (more or less) that she'd showed me. I did get a bit lost one morning and when I saw an older gentleman say "Hello!" and wave, I waved back and said, "Morning!"

He gave me a bit of a funny look and I quickly realized that what I thought was a lane road was actually a rather long driveway - his. So I turned around and made like I was doing a hill sprint back up to the main road.

Ooops.

Ramble #2

I also took the opportunity to debut the new running skirt that I bought at the fitness fair at the race before I left. I remembered the rule "Nothing new on race day!" and I've been aching to try it out ever since. Works well. Cute. But running skirts are definitely not popular (yet?) in these parts of England. So, the running didn't get me funny looks, but the skirt did. We'll save the skirt for when I go back home now...

Ramble #3

My cousins all sound very 'posh' to me; except when they say 'ate'. It comes out more like 'et', with a very enunciated 't' at the end. It sends me off into peels of laughter and I make fun of them by saying, in my best hill billy accent, 'Yeah, I et me some cow and 'den I et me some corn.'

They seem amused, but only politely so.

Ramble #4

Everyone here, regardless of their age, sends text messages - compulsively, like a bunch of addicts. Seeing my more... er... 'mature' cousins sending each other texts is quite endearing, really. My sister said the other day that she didn't know how to text. I thought my cousins were going to fall off their chairs in disbelief. Our cell phones don't work here, but I do believe that a tutorial is being arranged as we speak.

Ramble #5

I am delighted by the clothes lines that people have outside their houses here. My one cousin doesn't even have a dryer; said she's never had a dryer and never planned to. She takes her clothes out of the washer, puts them into a different machine called a spinner, that removes much of the water and then line dries everything. Delightfully quaint, IMHO.

10 comments:

ipodmomma said...

of all the places in the WORLD that need tumble driers, it blows me away how many people don't have them...

just amazing!!

ta love for the cream... you're tops!

Unknown said...

I like the ramblings. Enjoy the rest of the vacation.

psbowe said...

haha, my 13yr old niece is trying to teach the tricks about how to txt msg quickly. I keep telling her, that she's gonna get carpal tunnel from it.

Glad you vacation is a blast.

Backofpack said...

My kids text me, I call them back. Once in a while I text, but I believe in using full spelling and proper grammar, plus I need to find my glasses to do it, so it takes me forever!

I like clotheslines and often wish I had one. What I don't like is the ironing that follows. That makes me glad I don't have one!

Ginger Breadman said...

Oh, man - your post had me laughing so hard. England is such a riot! It sounds like you're having a great time - keep us posted.

Anonymous said...

Hello Sarah, you just visited my blog and I thought I would return the visit. What a delightful blog! I love your writing. If you don't mind, I have to add you to my links.

John Vezina
Devon (Alberta, not England)
johnsjar.com

Turtle Guy said...

Aren't these ramblings just what vacation's all about!

Good to hear you're having a scream of a time! ;)

Toasty said...

I have cousins in England ... at least I think I do ... I should text them.

Granny said...

I used to have an old washer with a "spinner" (extractor they called it here) attached.

It did a great job. We could almost, but not quite, put the clothes back on out of the machine.

I have a dryer now but I used to love to hang clothes.

Anonymous said...

I'd like to add my 2 cents worth about the clotheslines. They are all we had as kids. In the summer we used to love the smell of the clean cloths as we raced down the line. In the winter, we had fun beating the ice out of the clothes. With documentaries such as "An Inconvenient Truth" explaining the seriousness of the runaway greenhouse effect becoming more available, we hopefully will back away from the building codes that say, "No clotheslines, they are too ugly..."

--John Vezina