Close Enough

Normally, I don't advocate buying food because it is funny, but in this case it turned out ok.

I know, you would too, right? A British grocery store tex-mex kit. Most likely even worse than those "American style" frozen pizzas we keep buying. What the heck, I thought, might as well get some iceberg lettuce and tomatoes in case we actually decide to eat it. Don't worry, the kit doesn't come with chicken - THAT would definitely be gross considering it wasn't refrigerated. Jeff and I don't eat meat (most of the time) so I bought Quorn instead. 

Quorn is a brand of mycoprotein sold in the UK (and in the US), which is pretty much protein from fungi. I'm not very interested in meat substitutes because I genuinely don't like meat, but Jeff thinks it is pretty tasty. 

We decided to give this fajita kit a try tonight. I used the chicken breading stuff from the kit on the Quorn. The tortillas looked, smelled, and, most surprisingly, tasted like any other tortilla I've had before. We used shredded iceberg lettuce, chopped tomatoes, "soured cream", cheese (I even bought orange cheddar because the regular white stuff just wouldn't look right), and Cholula as toppings. I didn't bother opening the "spicy tomato salsa" packet that came with the kit - it looked suspiciously like pizza sauce and I didn't want to push my luck. 

Man. How is it possible that we enjoyed a fajita kit this much?? I think it is a sign of how much we miss Mexican food. It pretty much doesn't exist here. If I want black beans I have to special order them online. I keep going down the canned goods aisle in every grocery store I go to, only to encounter miles and miles of baked beans. We are going to be in Seattle in March and you better believe we'll be hitting up our greasy Mexican restaurant of choice, Taqueria El Rinconsito, as many times as possible. 

John Pawson: Plain Space, Design Museum

Sunday was the last day of the John Pawson exhibition at the Design Museum in London. Pawson is one of my absolute favorite architects and I had been meaning to go see it since I moved here. Other things got in the way until I got an email from the museum reminding me that January 30th was the last day. It was go time! Jeff has a few very generous friends at work who have offered to watch the dogs for us, but I couldn't risk someone bailing (hey, it happens!) so I arranged for them to stay with a sitter for the day. We dropped them off there at 9AM and headed to the Birmingham train station. The Virgin Pendolino trains run between Birmingham and London Euston and take a little over an hour. As I've said before, that is quite a long way by British standards, but definitely beats the cost of actually spending the night in London. It still isn't cheap for a day trip, though. Off-peak roundtrip tickets cost about £44 per person.

We took the train the London Euston and hopped on the tube to London Bridge station. From there we walked about a mile on The Queen's Walk, along the south bank of the Thames.

There you can see the Tower of London off in the distance, the HMS Belfast, and the Tower Bridge.

We were quite happy to make it to the museum. It was hovering in the 30s in London (even lower back in Dorridge) and walking next to the water didn't make it any warmer.

The exhibition was on the top floor. Jeff and I particularly liked an area that showed large pictures of some of Pawson's completed works in combination with very large samples of the materials used in each building.

Wood and marble is one of my favorite materials pairings.

A large part of the show centered on Pawson's work on the Novy Dvur Monastery in the Czech Republic, commissioned by Cistercian monks and built on the grounds of a 100 yr old abandoned farm. Talk about a cool project! I really enjoyed seeing the design process documented from beginning to end. Displays included correspondence between the Father Abbot and Pawson. Amazingly, Pawson had some guidance from St. Bernard, who laid out an architectural model for the Cistercian order in the the 12th century, emphazing the quality of light and proportion and simplicity.

There were many architectural models on view. It is amazing how real they look.

Of course, as the letters between Pawson and the Abbot showed, they also discussed much more mundane details.

I'm so happy I was able to see this exhibition. Jeff's main comment, "It's so... white. Now I see why you like him so much." Guilty as charged!

We had a delicious late lunch at Orsini (Italian restaurant) across from the V&A and caught a train back home. The ride was uneventful and quiet until an American businessman got on the phone with wife.

"Yep, I seen the changing of the guards at Buckin'ham palace. You know Buckin'ham palace? It's like the British version of the White House. Mm hm and I seen the big church type thing they got over here. And Big Ben. And then I went to the Hard Rock Cafe."

Classic.

Can't... stop... eating...

Cadbury Carmel Nibbles!!!

Jeff and I picked up Thai on Friday night and then stopped at the grocery store to get beer. I was feeling kinda crazy so I asked Jeff to get me a "selection" of candy while I sat in the car with the seat heaters on keeping the food warm. Normally, I say I want candy and then change my mind in the candy aisle, but since I stayed in the car, Jeff did indeed return with a selection of candy. I was all "What?!?!?! Why did you buy me so much candy??!!" and he was all "um... I'm sorry for doing what you asked me to do?! Stop being crazy and just eat the candy."

Anyway, these carmel nibbles are the bomb. It doesn't help that they are called NIBBLES though. I'm constantly like "Oh, I'll just have a NIBBLE" as if eating five nibbles in a row doesn't equal half a candy bar. Sometimes two nibbles are stuck together, but that only counts as one nibble.

By the way, we may not live in London near all those silly museum thingys, but we are just 30 minutes away from Cadbury World! That's culture for you.

Bathrooms Galore, near Birmingham

Okay, so the company we're working with on the bathroom is called "Bathrooms Galore". I know, not a good sign. Just look at the Google street view. 

Nasty. Despite outward appearances, our meeting with them at 2pm today went really well (summary: "just give us a bathroom that looks nothing like any of the bathrooms in your showroom k thx"). I made Jeff come with me because I am So Mean. Anyway, I snapped some terrible iPhone photos on the way home so you can see what things are like closer to Birmingham (and why we don't live there). 

Hey! A Mad Men billboard. It is very confusing - here they call a "season" of a show a "series" (as in the 3rd series of True Blood will be airing here in February!!!)

On the upside... this makes Dorridge look pretty damn good, carpeted bathroom and all.

Front page of Solihull News this week

Similar but different: in the kitchen

Just wanted to show you all a few things in my kitchen that always remind me - I really do live in a different country!

When I first saw this at the grocery store I almost tapped the person nearest me and exclaimed "Look!! It's from Cornwall! So cool!" I didn't, but I'm sure they would have been pretty nonplussed.  Jeff and I haven't really gone anywhere fun since I moved here (I know... you've noticed) but I love the idea that I could drive to Cornwall in 4 hours if I wanted to. 4 hours is nothing! British people think driving more than 15 minutes to get anywhere is ridiculous. I once asked the guy who came to measure the upstairs for  new carpet if he was from around here. "No, " he said, "I'm from about 30 minutes north of here." Okay, dude, I consider that to be "from around here".

Ah, man. Waitrose, now my grocery store of choice (Whole Foods, how I pine for thee!), has the cutest packaging. Here, they call "cornstarch" corn flour which confuses me pretty much every time I need cornstarch. About halfway through a recipe, I'll open the pantry drawer looking for cornstarch and think "DAMNITTTTTTT, I TOTALLY THOUGH I HAD CORNSTARCH!!!" and it takes me a couple seconds to realize I do have it, only it says corn flour on the box. I actually wrote "cornflour aka cornstarch" on the top of the box, but it hasn't seemed to help. Also, I just love that the baking soda is called "bicarbonate of soda".

My milk (thank god I can at least get organic milk) is from a partnership between Waitrose and Duchy Originals, launched in 1990 by the Prince of Wales (Prince Charles). Apparently, he is really into organic farming. In the early 1980s, The Prince began the process of converting the Duchy Home Farm (part of his Highgrove estate in Gloucestershire) to an entirely organic system. Now they have over 200 organic products and all the profits go to The Prince's Charity Foundation. I also get Duchy Originals eggs - they are gorgeous! Clearly, I have a major weak spot for the monarchy. 

Anyway, the milk may be good, but the largest you can buy milk here is in 4 pint containers which is only 1/2 a gallon. Jeff and I plow through the milk so we are used to buying 2 gallons at a time in the US. Even if we wanted to buy 2 gallons of milk here we would never have the space in our teensy-tiny under counter fridge. We are constantly running out of milk. 

I have to say "soured cream" sounds gross. I was skeptical at first, but not to fear, it tastes just like sour cream - only creamier, because I'm used to buying non-fat sour cream in the US and I don't have that option here. Too bad! I only like cooking unhealthy things so I tend to use a fair amount of buttermilk. This is the only size and brand of buttermilk I have encountered in all the grocery stores around here. For some reason, grocery stores tend to only get about 6 containers at a time - so when I see it I buy as much as I can because chances are they won't be getting more until next week. Sometimes, I have to go to multiple grocery stores looking for it. I've learned to check for buttermilk before I buy anything else for the buttermilk-containing recipe. I know, I know - it is possible to make your own buttermilk but I've never done it and sometimes a lack of buttermilk is a good reason to forget all about cooking and order thai. 

The Bathroom, Part 1: The Dark Ages

I know this may be a touch dramatic for some of you, but when I first saw pictures of our bathroom-to-be I RECOILED IN HORROR. Jeff's email with the pictures read: "House in Dorridge. Bathrooms are tiny." "Hey Jeff " I thought, "you left something out. That bathroom is tiny and REPULSIVE."

At the time I was used to my palatial bathroom in Seattle, but after living with this bathroom for a while it isn't quite as bad as I made it out to be.

When I first moved in, the bathroom window had a blind on it similar to this one (this is the window in the guest bedroom, featured in one of the many subtly artistic photos Jeff took of the house).

You better believe I ripped that blind out (I tried to get it off reasonably first, I swear...) at the first opportunity. Then, I threw it on the ground. And I stamped on it forcefully. And threw it away. Gross.

The next major hurdle has yet to be overcome. Carpet in the bathroom is just wrong (an opinion I voiced, quite passionately, to one of Jeff's coworkers and his wife, only to be informed that they have carpet in all their bathrooms BY CHOICE thank you very much. We won't be having drinks with them ever again.) I see carpet in the bathroom and all I can think of is mildew carpet. And germs (but I'm always thinking about that). How do you expect me to sit in that damn tub and wash my hair with a shower head that looks like an old telephone without getting a single drop of water outside the tub?! It is agonizing. You drop any sort of liquid on carpet and where does it go?? It just soaks in! I want a bathroom in which I can scrub and bleach every surface to within an inch of its life. Can you believe we used to have this gross beige carpet covering every floor in the house except for a strip of faux-rustic tile in the kitchen area?

What really annoys me is that there actually used to be a shower in this bathroom, but the previous owner removed it so she could put this ridiculous tub in. Mainly, I think she is an idiot. Supposedly, she renovates houses for a living, which is an absolute joke. Slapping down cheap beige carpet, installing floral draperies and a bathtub, and leaving a bunch of tacky garden sculpture in the yard is not renovating.

Fortunately, I've tracked down a bathrooms specialist in the area and we are going to remodel this bad boy. The tub and the telephone are going to be the first to go. I think Jeff might actually miss the tub though. He has "breakfast in tub" every morning before work. Did you know he was so decadent?? Ooh la la. I'm not enjoying it quite so much. Baths are supposed to be relaxing and taken by choice. I used to really want a bathtub, but it is no fun when you are forced to take a bath. There's no "taking a quick bath" or "jumping in the bath". It WILL take a long time, and you WILL be cold and uncomfortable if you try to rush it. Since I can't say "I'm going to take a shower" to Jeff without him saying "but Lauren, we don't have a shower" and I resent saying "I'm going to take a bath", I stick to saying "I'm going to wash myself". And I will absolutely not enjoy it.

The good thing about the bathroom is that the toilet and the sink are white and relatively inoffensive so they can stay. We are going to be moving in a few years so there is no reason to go overboard. The wall mounted cup holder and soap dish are definitely going. I prefer hooks to hand towel rings and towel bars so they are going, too. The walls are going to be floor to ceiling white subway tile and the floor will be small white square tiles. I've already bought a new sink tap (on eBay -and it was a steal!).

Sink taps are fun. Maybe it is backlash against the current bathroom sea of beige, but I thought the new bathroom could use a little style injection. Since the bathroom is so small, however, it could easily turn into a chrome explosion if I'm not careful.

I'm thinking of using ceramic hooks like these (from Home Depot - I can't seem to find anything similar in the UK, but I like them enough that I wouldn't mind picking up a few of them when I'm in the states in March) :

This toilet roll holder (from www.manufactum.co.uk):

I've come to the conclusion that I hate most bathroom light fixtures. Why are they all so tacky?? This one is simple, fits in with the porcelain/white ceramic thing I have going, and won't break the bank. The Bromolla bathroom wall lamp from Ikea:

We desperately need some storage space in there. Obviously, we have a pedestal sink so there's no under sink storage and a medicine cabinet would jut out too far over the sink. Some people are really opposed to open shelves, but I don't mind them. I think I'm going to go for three of these white ceramic shelves from Villeroy & Boch over the toilet:

This small trash can (from www.manufactum.co.uk):

We use white towels (surprise!) but I bought this bathmat from Ikea for a little zing.

I'm really excited! Meeting on Saturday to hash out the details.

Healthy Skepticism

When I describe conversations that Jeff and I have, will you all please picture him making this face?

That's the I'm-exceedingly-skeptical-of-everything-you-are-saying face. Ha! Good thing I'm completely immune to it.

In totally unrelated news, I'm painting the skirting boards. Watch out!