Our Quiet Holiday
It's been a quiet week in Ipswich. (Sorry, Mr. Keillor.)
We've been spending our holidays indoors. We hardly leave the house. I've been working from home, but Margo's off, and Sarah's off school. We did visit some friends, and get out for some meals, but mostly we're at home.
Margo's been feeling unwell, with a cold she's only now recovering from. I think it's one of those situations where bugs go around and a few end up inside you, just waiting on the sidelines until you have a chance to rest, and then they pounce. I've managed to avoid it for a week, but just picked it up a few days ago. And Sarah never wants to go anywhere, so it's been easy to stay at home.
Another contributor is that train service is rubbish over the holidays. This is unique to the UK and is much lamented here. Apparently the rest of Europe not only runs at normal schedule; some run extra trains, as you'd expect when people are traveling a lot. But not here. Our regional train operator doesn't even run trains to London until after the holidays because of engineering work at Liverpool Street station. They have a replacement bus service from Colchester. So I've put off any trips to London for fun.
I don't think we've written about Christmas crackers yet. They come out for work parties and other gatherings over Christmas. We made some at home. They are paper tubes with ribbons at both ends. At the Christmas celebration, you take your cracker and hand one end to the person sitting opposite the table from you, and you pull it apart quickly. There's a "bang" from a rigged thing inside the cracker. That's the crack. Then inside will be a little present - usually just some plastic trinket - and a piece of paper with a joke or fortune or such, and a bit of really thin paper that unfolds to become a paper crown that you put on your head.
But honestly, we're in the same boat as nearly everyone else, sitting around at home and ... watching television. It's a tradition. The Queen gives an annual message. This year's was about the importance of solid families.
Some of the year's best programming is reserved for the holidays. Many are in the form of specials from series that may or may not have been running earlier in the year. So we enjoyed the Doctor Who special "Voyage of the Damned" (which didn't really live up to the hype). But I also caught a special from Catherine Tate and really enjoyed the special of Extras. We've also been watching some of the James Bond films on ITV.
I watched some of the more adult specials on my computer. The BBC's much-anticipated iPlayer service is now available, even for Macs. It allows one to watch selected programmes from the past seven days. I was impressed with its performance. I expected perhaps some buffering or occasional interruptions, but playback is immediate and smooth.
So on some days, when I'm working and Margo is busy on her computer, we guiltily let Sarah watch lots of childrens' television. We console ourselves a bit because the childrens' programming is excellent here, and there are no adverts with the first few channels.
Margo's busy on her computer with two projects. One is her application for the University of British Columbia. We're also starting to think and plan about our move. It's a lot to take on - we'll have about a week or two between the time Margo leaves her job in Essex and the time Sarah and Margo start school. That's a short runway to get things in order: bank accounts, finding an apartment, getting a car, setting up car and house accounts, getting Sarah enrolled, getting our stuff moved from Portland storage, the rest of the house furnishing, and finishing all our Canadian applications for driver licensing, health insurance, retirement, and so forth. But it's also the start of the end of our time living as Europeans, which is bittersweet.
Which brings me to Margo's other project - our next holiday, in February, to Bavaria. She's been busy making reservations for trains and hotels. We'll have a night in Paris, a few in Munich, two in Prague, a night in Vienna, and back through Munich and Paris. We're only planning one more major holiday - Barcelona in the spring - and that's it for Europe for us, though we're hoping to fit in a few more weekend trips within the UK.
Tonight we'll ring in the New Year at home with a nice meal and drinks. It's unlikely we'll even stay up late. Then it's back to work for me on Wednesday and Thursday for Margo.
We've been spending our holidays indoors. We hardly leave the house. I've been working from home, but Margo's off, and Sarah's off school. We did visit some friends, and get out for some meals, but mostly we're at home.
Margo's been feeling unwell, with a cold she's only now recovering from. I think it's one of those situations where bugs go around and a few end up inside you, just waiting on the sidelines until you have a chance to rest, and then they pounce. I've managed to avoid it for a week, but just picked it up a few days ago. And Sarah never wants to go anywhere, so it's been easy to stay at home.
Another contributor is that train service is rubbish over the holidays. This is unique to the UK and is much lamented here. Apparently the rest of Europe not only runs at normal schedule; some run extra trains, as you'd expect when people are traveling a lot. But not here. Our regional train operator doesn't even run trains to London until after the holidays because of engineering work at Liverpool Street station. They have a replacement bus service from Colchester. So I've put off any trips to London for fun.
I don't think we've written about Christmas crackers yet. They come out for work parties and other gatherings over Christmas. We made some at home. They are paper tubes with ribbons at both ends. At the Christmas celebration, you take your cracker and hand one end to the person sitting opposite the table from you, and you pull it apart quickly. There's a "bang" from a rigged thing inside the cracker. That's the crack. Then inside will be a little present - usually just some plastic trinket - and a piece of paper with a joke or fortune or such, and a bit of really thin paper that unfolds to become a paper crown that you put on your head.
But honestly, we're in the same boat as nearly everyone else, sitting around at home and ... watching television. It's a tradition. The Queen gives an annual message. This year's was about the importance of solid families.
Some of the year's best programming is reserved for the holidays. Many are in the form of specials from series that may or may not have been running earlier in the year. So we enjoyed the Doctor Who special "Voyage of the Damned" (which didn't really live up to the hype). But I also caught a special from Catherine Tate and really enjoyed the special of Extras. We've also been watching some of the James Bond films on ITV.
I watched some of the more adult specials on my computer. The BBC's much-anticipated iPlayer service is now available, even for Macs. It allows one to watch selected programmes from the past seven days. I was impressed with its performance. I expected perhaps some buffering or occasional interruptions, but playback is immediate and smooth.
So on some days, when I'm working and Margo is busy on her computer, we guiltily let Sarah watch lots of childrens' television. We console ourselves a bit because the childrens' programming is excellent here, and there are no adverts with the first few channels.
Margo's busy on her computer with two projects. One is her application for the University of British Columbia. We're also starting to think and plan about our move. It's a lot to take on - we'll have about a week or two between the time Margo leaves her job in Essex and the time Sarah and Margo start school. That's a short runway to get things in order: bank accounts, finding an apartment, getting a car, setting up car and house accounts, getting Sarah enrolled, getting our stuff moved from Portland storage, the rest of the house furnishing, and finishing all our Canadian applications for driver licensing, health insurance, retirement, and so forth. But it's also the start of the end of our time living as Europeans, which is bittersweet.
Which brings me to Margo's other project - our next holiday, in February, to Bavaria. She's been busy making reservations for trains and hotels. We'll have a night in Paris, a few in Munich, two in Prague, a night in Vienna, and back through Munich and Paris. We're only planning one more major holiday - Barcelona in the spring - and that's it for Europe for us, though we're hoping to fit in a few more weekend trips within the UK.
Tonight we'll ring in the New Year at home with a nice meal and drinks. It's unlikely we'll even stay up late. Then it's back to work for me on Wednesday and Thursday for Margo.
posted by Michael Nelson at 4:48 am
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