March 27, 2006

"Keeping Up Appearances" has got to be one of my first experiences with everyday life in a middle class English home. Hyacinth is a comedy heroine and her family and neighbors are all kind souls who put up with her needing to act posh. For those who haven’t seen the show it probably means that you don’t live in the UK, or don’t watch BBC America. I saw Hyacinth years before I married into my British family, and have to say that I am thankful for the show as it has helped me understand them so much better. Even though we both share the same language, the words we use can sometimes mean completely different things. This has been a constant reminder to me since we moved to London.

I was treated to an episode of Keeping Up Appearances last night and the wonderful brother-in-law (Onslow) and sister of Hyacinth (Daisy, wife to Onslow) were having one of their typical conversations on love and marriage. Daisy was fondly remembering how Onslow used to nibble at her ear, but now all he does is nibble on crisps. Onslow’s response to this was that there wasn’t as many flavors of crisps then as there are now. Take me back 8 or 9 years and I couldn’t have told you what a crisp was let alone that they came in a multitude of flavors.

This all brings me to the real issue at hand…Potatoes!

Growing up my parents didn’t stock the cupboard with potato chips, nor did they make french-fries for us to eat. We as a family didn’t go out for fast food either, and the closest I came consistently knowing I was going to get to eat a potato dish was mash potatoes at Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Saint Patrick’s Day. On a rare occasion we would have baked potatoes with our dinner, but it was never a staple in my diet.

Living in the UK you get a whole new perspective on the world of potatoes.

Let’s start with crisps (English for the American potato chip). Onslow was spot on when he said that crisps come in many flavors. You won’t see shelves of Lays, Doritos, and Ruffles here, except on the rare occasion. Stores carry their own name brands and with that a unique variety of flavors. I will start with some basics but trust me they do begin to seem a bit strange as the list goes on:

Balsamic Vinegar & Sea Salt, Hickory Smoked Ribs, Mango Chili, Salsa Mesquite, Sea Salt & Black Peppercorns, Undressed, Cheddar Mango Chutney, Oriental Ribs, Sweet Chicken Pork Crackles, Chicken Posada, Grilled Steak, Yogurt Mint, Oriental Chicken, Oak Smoked Barbeque Hand Cooked, Tomato Garlic Plus Basil, Flame Grilled Steak, Pickled Onion, Prawn Cocktail, and finally Slow Roasted Lamb Mint.

But the world of potatoes doesn't stop there. If you would really like a baked potato, you need to keep your eyes peeled for jacket potatoes on the menu. You won't find French fries on the menu at all, they're called chips. But be warned that you would look quite out of place if you ate your chips with your fingers. Here a knife and fork are the proper way to devour the tasty bits of starch, salt, and grease.

Amazingly enough mashed is still mashed, but is rare to find and never quite as good as crisps, chips or jackets.

March 25, 2006

Grandmas have a way of imprinting some of the best parts of them on to you. My Grandma Leppink was no different. For as long as I can remember she called me her "Little Mary Sunshine". She would let me help her cook in the kitchen even though it would be years before I could actually manage something edible on my own. She would treat me to warm afternoons on her porch with her special "limeade" (lemonade with limes), and no Leppink would ever be without cucumbers and onions in a salt and vinigar liquid. She instilled me the love for a clean kitchen and bathroom, and taught me how to clean them proper. She had a love for all things that grow and her garden made you wish you had your own that was full of tasty veggies, flowers and shade trees. She showed me how to buff my nails to a shiny gloss, and that all ladies should wear proper jewelry. The last time I got to see her we spoke and she told me how proud she was of me, and that she loved my drawings and cards. She passed away the first day of spring while I was walking through Hyde Park admiring the dafodils thinking how much she would love see them all coming into bloom. She will be missed and she was loved.

Grandma Leppink
March 21, 1922 - March 21, 2006

March 22, 2006

It's the beginning of spring and I still feel like I have yet to experience winter here in London. After walking Donald to the Notting Hill Gate tube station, I like to walk through Hyde Park (which is blooming with daffodils and tulips right now). It is always busy with nannies pushing buggies, dog owners taking their four legged loved ones for a morning tryst, cyclists galore, business men on their way to work, and small uniformed children excitedly walking to school with mom or dad. Yesterday, we were all in for a special treat with the Royal Calvary moving through the park in uniformed groups. The whole experience was quite impressive, the sound of hundreds of hoofs, commands from leaders, and decorative riders. In the far distance you could hear a band; I am guessing the band was at Buckingham Palace, which is a short walk from Hyde Park. A part of me really wanted to walk over to the Palace to view all the festivities, but my mind was tugging me back to our flat as I was in the home stretch of finishing my website.

So, today I am pleased to announce after about 3 weeks of continual work in Flash, Dreamweaver, Illustrator, and Photoshop, I now have my own website uploaded to the web for all to view. Well, maybe not everyone. Since I created my site in current version of all the above programs, you will need to have Flash Player 8 downloaded to your computer in order to view the site, and it would also help to have high-speed internet connection due to the effects and high image content. I was lucky enough to have a few friends on the web team for the San Diego Zoo give me advice and help through my crazy experience of looking for a host for the site and programming. I am proud to say that I did all my own programming and action script writing, which I loved doing and got quite addicted to. My dad believes programming is in the Leppink blood, and was not shocked at all by my new found love for it. You can check it out at www.suzannelitzenberg.com

Monday, 20 March:

We had a celebrity citing this weekend. Not one that would mean much to most of our U.S. readers, but a celebrity that has been in the news over here quite bit. His/Her name is Pete Burns and s/he is probably most known for the hit single "You Spin Me Right Round" from the '80s. Over here, he was a recent contestant in Celebrity Big Brother which is a very popular show and is sponsored by my company. He was evicted from the house, but not before adhering to the adage that there is no such thing as bad publicity. Either way he is rather frightening looking and hard to miss, so when we were walking around Notting Hill, having just come out of a Paul and Joe store, we were not in any doubt as to whom we were looking at. Here is a picture of the celeb in question:
Other things of interest that we saw in and around Notting Hill included the coolest Orange store I have ever seen. The store's window display included three very antique phones with the features that once had consumers buying them in droves (easy dial rotary, coiled chord) and one modern phone (the Nokia N70) with video calling functionality. The interior of the store had framed pictures covering every possible inch of the walls, and on closer inspection, the pictures were of people who had been shopping in the store. Every few feet there were screens from Nokia that displayed pictures on a random loop, much like a screen saver. I will try and get back so I can get pictures of the place, but for a mobile phone store, I will leave at this: it is one of the few that Suzanne didn't mind going into. We also came across an old stone church that had display windows and a clothing store in it. At first Suzanne and I thought it was a converted church, but upon further review, it was in fact a church that was leasing out space for retail use. Odd combination that. I mean, it is always a part of my consciousness that churches need to make money in order to stay open and do God's work, but I never considered that they would rent out space for a retail store to do it. I wonder if they pass around a collection plate. And finally, I will leave you with a space invader's moment. This little guy was just sitting on a white wall with no signage or indication of what it meant.

Sunday, 5 March, 2006

We decided to not be so cultural this weekend and went to IKEA. The trip up there means that you leave the city center and end up in the outskirts of London, very near a very unfinished Wembley stadium. One of the things that always surprises me is the amount of trash we see when we go there. When you walk on overpasses and along sidewalks, any industrial estate that is not currently in business is full of cans, bottles, etc. (In central London, there are constantly bin men picking up rubbish, vacuuming the sidewalks, sweeping the sidewalks, etc.) One of the things that was very beneficial about the exhorbitant CA redemption value in San Diego was that it was income for anyone who was willing to go around and collect cans. In fact, the dumpster behind our last place always had dumpster divers looking for aluminum money. We had our very own recycling service. Here that is definitely not the case. In fact, as we were walking across one of the bridges, we came across this scene (shot with Samsung D600). Note the can perched on top of the TV.