afternoon tea

Ant and I treated ourselves to afternoon tea at Brown's Hotel in Mayfair today. Apparently it is the oldest hotel in London, it played host to Alexander Graham Bell's first phone call in Great Britain, Agatha Christie while she was writing At Bertram's Hotel, and numerous other famous and royal guests. Afternoon tea is held in a very relaxed dining room with all-you-can-eat finger sandwiches, scones, and cakes. There is an extensive tea menu, from which we each sampled two pots of tea.


Scones with clotted cream and strawberry jam are a wonderful British invention. Sometimes Air Canada serves them on the way out of London and that is one of the only times I eat them. But these scones were so much more delicious, fresh, and airy than those airplane biscuits.


Relaxing in my easy chair and chatting with Ant was so refreshing. We were in no hurry, and the price tag meant we felt like getting our money's worth. So we stayed for two hours, enjoying the good service, delicious food, and leisurely company.

first fruits

Well, today was an exciting day on which the fruits, er, vegetables, of my labour were tasted. I took the first snips of mixed salad leaves from the box I planted for our lamb burgers tonight. I have used Sonya's lamb burger recipe three times recently since she shared it with me. I was looking for a way to get into lamb, since it is so popular here and I have little experience with it.



Minted Lamb Burgers

0.5 kg lamb mince
1/2 cup crumbled (low fat) feta cheese
sliced green onions
2 tablespoons dried mint
1 teaspoon cumin or other spices (eg. garam malasa)
1 egg

Shape into six or eight burgers. Serve with mixed salad leaves, crumbled feta, and red onion marinated in balsamic vinegar. Yum, yum.

St Albans

Yesterday I went on a day trip to St Albans, just north of London. Sadly all the pictures I took have disappeared from my phone and I am very sad. You will have to imagine it all instead!

St Albans has a huge cathedral. I enjoyed its beautiful floor tiles, which have raised, embossed patterns. I loved the massive rose window (see the Cathedral's photo page for a nice shot) and the ornate carvings around the lower window casings. I visited the shrine of St Alban--he was a Roman who harboured a fugitive priest, and converted under his influence. Then when executioners came knocking for the priest Alban said that he was the priest and the priest escaped. Alban was the first British martyr. Walking around the cathedral I used a guide called a prayer trail, which was really interesting, if a little pluralist for me.

I had lunch sitting on the grass of the park behind the cathedral. I am still reading The Idiot and am now on page 400 (of 660). I have a bit of a cold so I had quite a long rest and then ambled over the park to the Roman museum. St Albans was built on the site of an important Roman town called Verulamium. The museum was excellent and the history fascinating. I traipsed over to the ruins of a Roman theatre, the only one in Britain.

I saw a bench at the theatre dedicated to someone that had the epithet, "A person who also lives in the past lives doubly" (or something thereabouts). This reminded me of what we have been talking about at our house group, that looking at life from an eternal perspective changes everything. "There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal." CS Lewis said.

St Albans was an excellent day out. It is so close to London (just half an hour from St Pancras). If I would have had more energy I would have also climbed the clock tower.

culture

My uncle Walt was visiting this last day and a half--how nice to see him! He is one of my mother's brothers and I don't get to see many of my Mum's family very frequently. He arrived yesterday morning and after a brief nap we headed into London for a walking tour of the south bank, passing the Tate Modern and walking over the Millennium footbridge. From the footbridge there are stunning views of the city with St Paul's Cathedral straight ahead. We had our lunch sitting on the steps of the cathedral--it was a lovely day, sunny and warm. We watched with interest as a newly-wed couple came over with their photographer (maybe we are in their photos?)! Other people around us were quite interested as well.


The church was holding a service and so we nipped in and had a seat, looking around at the ceilings, walls, mosaics, and carvings.


We walked along the Thames and chatted about my grandparents, whom I didn't know very well before they died. I learned more about how they met, what their dreams were and what they regretted. We also talked about Walt's and my dreams and about his upcoming trip to Congo to do an educational mission.

In other news, the recent nice weather means my salad is actually growing well! I am so excited that I have not failed (yet) with my garden adventures. My box of salad is planted in three quarters. The bottom right section ist he most prolific at the moment--it's mixed salad leaves. Above that is spinach, and in the top left I am (trying) to grow rocket (or arugula to some).


And nearby I have this round pot of radishes. (Dad, should I thin them out a bit?)

sprouts

I am trying to grow a few things this spring. When I signed up for the Food Up Front project, the form asked if I had any gardening experience. I answered, "I have killed a few houseplants." Here are the tomato seedlings I have on my windowsill. They are still very small but they are growing.


And I "planted" some cress seeds in a tray with some moist paper towel. The sprouts are growing, too, but they are still just specks in this photo.

very nice weather

The lovely summery day today made my cycle into work for a revision session quite enjoyable. Afterwards Sarah came over for lunch and then we went out for her to practice with her new clip pedals. She went up and down the street for about twenty minutes and then we headed over to the park. It seems she is a much faster learner than me and she has all but mastered the shoes and pedals today. We plan on Monday (which is a bank holiday) to go for a longer ride to Kingston.

My salad leaf seeds that I planted a couple of weeks ago are now tiny sprouts. A few radish sprouts are also poking up through the soil of the pot.

Our friends Mot and Ness have begun their cycling adventure today, flying out to Sardinia tonight for a six month-ish sojourn around the Mediterranean. (You may have seen a picture of them ignoring me eating a giant mushroom recently.) I hope they have a great journey! Also, you have left a pair of your cycling glasses here and may need to get a new pair before I see you again.

Ant and Justin are out watching Iron Man at the cinema tonight so I have blitzed the flat (washing up, laundry, hoovering, tidying around, mopping floors, cleaning the bathroom). What is it about spring weather that makes us want to clean?

food fight, anyone?

Our online shopping arrived today. I love buying the value priced vegetables because they are cheaper only because they are oddly shaped. Every week we get a big box of mushrooms. Sometimes they are all minuscule, other times they look like three-headed monsters. And today there was the mother of all mushrooms! I have never seen an edible fungus this big!

good day

A few things have made for a good day. The newspaper activity I planned for today seemed to go well. I gave each pair of students a page from a newspaper (either The Independent or The Local Guardian, a free paper that's put through my letter box every fortnight). They had their first lesson about mean, median, mode, and range and so I asked them to list the lengths of 25 words. For example, the first five words in this paragraph have lengths 1, 3, 6, 4, 4. Then I asked them to find the averages and the range for their data.

Tomorrow we will talk about how a tally chart makes this process much more streamlined and easier. We'll learn about how to find the averages from the frequency table and compare the results from the two newspapers.

One unforeseen snag which I will certainly avoid next time was the somewhat adult content in the free paper. Oops!

After work I went to my kickboxing class. It was miserable out and Sarah and I were both feeling really unmotivated. But we went anyway and I'm so glad we did. I always find the press ups quite hard and today we had to do partner assisted elevated press ups! Sarah had to hold my knees against her thighs while she stood behind me with her knees bent. I was scared but in the end (amazingly!) managed to do twenty. I was only able to lower my upper body slightly each time, but still I consider this a success!

And I had a nice treat to look forward to when I got home. Ant ordered us Thai food and I really enjoyed half my prawn pad thai. I have saved the other half for lunch tomorrow. Yum.

brief school update

I don't write about school much.... But recently reading the blog of another teacher has inspired me a bit. I am struggling at the moment with knowing how I fit in the maths department at my school and thinking about how I need improve and develop as a teacher. I wish I was a bit more innovative in lessons; I have become a "starter and a worksheet" type of teacher over the last two years. Here is one attempt to get a bit more participation into my lessons. After the students recorded this data for us, we used it to make tally charts and draw bar charts.

Later this week I am planning another data exercise where students will record in a tally chart the lengths of words in a newspaper and we will calculate some statistics. Data handling seems like an easier strand to teach interactively, now I just need to develop a few other ideas.

not much going on

I haven't been blogging much lately.... It just feels that my life is not too exciting at the moment. I have been working hard: I did an extra revision session on Saturday, for example. I stay until closing each work day evening (5:45 when the bells ring and the building is locked).

On Friday night we hosted our church house group. I have really enjoyed the fellowship. The questions on the studies are quite in depth, even the "welcome" questions are things like "What have you been praying about lately?" The questions are are designed to make us feel more comfortable over time talking about spiritual issues, and I think we're enjoying the challenge.

On Saturday Ant and I went to visit his uncle and family who were over in the UK for a holiday. It was brilliant to see Ant's three cousins again (we last saw them at Christmas in New Jersey). We also got to meet the friends they were staying with, one of whom is a maths teacher, which always makes conversation flow easily.

On Sunday we went out again! (This was a much more social weekend than most for us!) We went bowling with Ant's friend Natalie for her birthday. We played two games--Ant was the top scorer of the six of us both times, and I improved from 66 to 84, which was enough to make me content.

Well, Monday has returned and we are back to the grind. Ant is on a course this week which means he maddeningly gets up much later than me. Grrrr. I will be tiptoeing around in the mornings while he snoozes.

twenties party

Here are a couple of pictures from before Easter. Ant and I were invited with Matt and Bree to attend a twenties party as a going away get together for some friends. I have never been a big fan of fancy dress, but I got into the spirit with this one, with a little help from Helen and Bree. And then I kitted Ant out as well. :)

round up

And now, a few random items from my week off: the new exercise I've been trying, some food talk, but first, I have managed to finish the first part (just over 200 pages) of The Idiot by Dostoevsky, which I blogged about last week. I have to say that I am enjoying it so far. I was expecting it to be a gruelling, though edifying, read, but I seem to be getting through it alright. One fear has not materialised: from my limited experience of serious Russian novels, I was concerned that it would have a terrifyingly confusing cast of characters, with multiple names for each, in Russian fashion. But I have made it through the first part without getting too mystified.

On the back of the book is says that the main character, Prince Myshkin, "is perhaps the most appealing of all Dostoevsky's heroes. Gentle, saintly, foolish, and kind, Myshkin is... the pure idealised Christian." I have been very curious to find out what Dostoevsky thought was true goodness. So far I have seen that Prince Myshkin is honest in everything. He is thought of as a bit of an idiot (a bit soft in the head) because his truth-speaking seems reckless to others. He believes in others' goodness, respecting even a "colourful" woman that the others want to chastise; he ends up proposing to her! She thanks him, saying, "No one has ever spoken to me like this before. They've always been trying to buy me." But she refuses, saying she would ruin him. "I was imagining someone like you, kind and honest and good and silly as you," she declares, but then excuses herself to run off with a rogue, more fitting for her, she says.

In other news, Ant and I had our downstairs neighbours over for dinner last night. Not many people know their neighbours in London. We talk to ours because of things like sharing the front and back garden, and plumbing oddities (their water tank is in our loft, turning off their water turns ours off, etc). One night a couple of weeks ago we all ended up chatting outside as we arrived home from work and we invited them for a meal. It was interesting to talk with new people. We found a few common topics: both Ant and the gent work for banks and both the lady and I are public sector workers.

I splashed out on ingredients for the food: proper parmesan cheese that had to be grated, for example. Very middle class! We ate lamb burgers, which I have made twice now with Sonya's recipe. Lamb is not something I know how to cook because I have never really eaten it much. But the lamb burger recipe is so interesting: lamb mince, green onions, feta, an egg, mint, and cumin. They are served with a granary bun, feta, spinach and red onions which have been marinated in balsamic vinegar! Wow-ee. True fancy stuff. I served it with a homemade Caesar salad and cranberry banana bread for pudding.

The new exercise I have been trying for the last four weeks is kickboxing and self defence*. Sarah really wanted to try it out so we went along to a women's beginners class. So far we have discovered that we are both as uncoordinated as we thought, but we are really enjoying it. This Tuesday Sarah was away on a trip and I had to go by myself--which was almost as nerve-wracking as the first time we went. But I managed to find partners at the appropriate times and also have a quick chat with one girl as the class finished.

Yesterday was the last real day of my holiday, since I went to work today to run revision classes and photocopy next week's worksheets. So yesterday I had my holiday treat, a Swedish massage and steam room session. So wonderful! An hour long massage (for the not too extortionate price of £30) was just what I needed.

* I just learned today that "defence" is the British spelling of the word "defense". I didn't realise this was a difference. Did you?

journey to citizenship

I am one step closer to my British citizenship. I took the Life in the UK test today. I had an hour's journey to get to the test centre (one in north Lodond that had openings on a day I could attend) and then the whole process took an hour and a half, of which I was answering test questions for six minutes. The test is a 45 minute, multiple choice test with 24 questions. I have been studying and doing practice tests for about two weeks, learning about the UK population (lots of statistics), immigration patterns, governance, laws, employment, and daily life. Here are some sample questions--try them and then check the answers in the comments. Let me know how you did!

1. What is the purpose of the Council of Europe?
(a) To create a single market for members of the Council
(b) To create new European regulations and directives
(c) To debate proposals, decisions and expenditure of the European Commission
(d) To develop conventions which focus on human rights, democracy, education, the environment, health and education

2. Why did large numbers of Jewish people come to Britain during 1880-1910?
(a) To escape famine
(b) To escape racist attacks
(c) To invade and sieve land
(d) To work in textile factories

3. Which is the largest ethnic minority in the UK?
(a) Black Caribbean
(b) Indian
(c) Black African
(d) Pakistani

4. What percentage of the workforce is women?
(a) 15%
(b) 35%
(c) 45%
(d) 51%

5. Where is the Cockney dialect spoken?
(a) Cornwall
(b) Liverpool
(c) London
(d) Tyneside

6. What is the name of the ministerial position that is responsible for legal affairs?
(a) Chancellor of the Exchequer
(b) Foreign Secretary
(c) Home Secretary
(d) Lord Chancellor

7. In which elections can European citizens vote? Choose two answers from below.
(a) European elections
(b) local elections
(c) national elections
(d) elections to the House of Lords

8. Which one of the following parliaments or assemblies does not use proportional representation?
(a) House of Commons
(b) Northern Ireland Assembly
(c) Welsh Assembly
(d) Scottish Assembly

pics from the couch

I have been snacking on fruit on the couch. This is a picture Ant took a few days ago.

Today when I came home Ant was awake enough to give me a little head rub. Mmmm. (I'm wearing a new necklace I bought today.)

time off

Ant has been so sick the last few days and so I have spent some of my time off looking after him. Poor man, he has been in such pain and is now off work for the third day.

I have also been studying for the Life in the UK test, which I will be taking on Monday. It is one of the requirements for my British citizenship, which I hope to acquire before the summer. I already have indefinite leave to remain, but gaining citizenship will allow me to leave the country for a longer period and return with all the same rights. Ant and I can already be approved for a mortgage but this will lower the risk to the bank still further. On Monday I was studying the ethnicities statistics. The test is multiple choice and quite detailed, it seems. I doubt that many Britons would be able to pass the test without studying as I am doing.

I have finally started reading The Idiot by Dostoevsky. I have been thinking about it since before Christmas. My interest started from reading the Philip Yancey book, Soul Survivor, which I bought and blogged about in December. Yancey write about how Tolstoy and Dostoevsky jointly helped him understand more about how the Christian life can work. Tolstoy devoted some of the best years of his life to an austere existence, freeing his serfs and living like a peasant in an effort to follow Jesus' teachings (Luke 18:22) to "give away everything and you will have treasure in heaven". Tolstoy was utterly disheartened by his inablilty to live up to Jesus' instructions, finding his shortcomings unbearable. Yancey found his ideals and his reverence for God inspiring.

Dostoevsky and Tolstoy lived at the same time and read each other's work. Dostoevsky was arrested for being part of a liberal group judged to be treasonous. He spent eight months in jail and then was dragged out to be executed in a public square. At the last minute the death orders were changed into time in a Siberian labour camp. Dostoevsky was hugely changed by the gift of continued life. He endured his years of hard labour and diligently read a New Testament he had been given. His later work is a surge of joy at life. I wanted to read some Dostoevsky because I heard that he explored goodness the way other novelists explore evil. Yancey says that he learned from Dostoevsky that the gospel of grace filters into the world through love. "To follow Jesus, I learned, does not mean to solve every human problem--Christ himself did not attempt that--but rather to respond as he did, against all reason to dispense grace and love to those who deserve it least." Tolstoy wrote about absolute ideals and Dostoevsky wrote about absolute grace. I'll let you know how I get on with The Idiot. I have read 60 pages of the 660 that comprise the book.

In other news, I have slowly been becoming a bit more green. I have been gradually replacing all the cleaning products in the flat with ecological ones; now our waste water is safer and cleaner. And I have made myself a pledge never to take another plastic bag at a shop again. I have bought a few canvas shopping bags and I have put one in each handbag. I made a resolution a few weeks ago that if I found myself at a shop without a way to carry my shopping home that I would buy a reusable bag. The last one I had to buy at Sainsburys cost me £5; this is a costly enough mistake that it motivates me not to make that error again. Today I had the first real troublesome incident and I realised it was time to make my pledge a reality. I was at the shop near the station picking up some supplies for Ant and I for tonight; I had no shopping bag in which to get it home. I declined a bag and the owner looked at me a bit funny. I ended up cramming two cartons of soup and a two litre jug of milk into my already bulging handbag and ended up carrying the two litre bottle of lemonade and the loaf of bread in my hands. This was not a huge issue in the end since I only had a few minutes to walk but I felt good that I had saved a plastic bag. Plastic bags are a becoming a more talked about issue in the UK lately, and around the world.

spring?

Last night I started typing this post and I wrote:

I think that with the change to British Summer Time that spring has really come. On my cycle home on Friday I snapped this picture of a tree flowering. I wish I knew what kind of tree it is since I think it is gorgeous and I would love to have one. If I ever owned a piece of ground to plant it in, that is. Does anyone know what the name of this tree is?

Today I woke up for church and it was snowing (the second time this year, the first being on Easter Sunday). It snowed steadily for several hours, although it hasn't stayed. The snow collected on car rooftops, but just melted on the ground.

Over my week off I hope it warms up again because I want to go on some London city walks and do some cycling.

early night?

I am heading to get ready for bed now in a desperate attempt to get a bit more sleep. We have both been a bit overtired recently and I am feeling the stress at work. It's a really busy time, revising for exams that are in May. There's a lot of pressure for the students to perform well and a lot of pressure on me to make it happen.

Ant and I ran into our neighbours as we were coming home today and we have arranged to have them over for dinner next week. That will be quite unusual; London is not exactly a friendly neighbourhood place.

And it is also getting much nicer outside. British Summer Time started yesterday, so technically it is summer now. Sarah and I cycled home from work together (half way home until our paths divide) and we talked about maybe doing some longer weekend rides over the next few months. We want to go to Europe again this summer.

awareness

Ant Stumbled Upon a really interesting advert today that is an awareness test. Go watch the advert now, and then come back to read this post.

No, really. Go take the test--it will take only 30 seconds and then come back and finish reading.

The theme of the advert really resonates with me--I wish everyone was more aware on the roads. But it also reminded me of a discussion we were having at our house group meeting a couple of Fridays ago. We were praying together that we would be more aware of what God is doing around us. I want to be able to notice what God is doing in the people around me and join in on his plan. How do I learn to pay more attention? Or maybe just wanting to notice is an effective step, like wanting to notice the ball passes in the awareness test.

happy Easter

It's snowing for the first time this year--on Easter Sunday. Amazing! Yesterday I went out prayer walking and handing out Easter leaflets in the shopping area near our church. I had some interesting (although short) conversations with some of the people I met. It was hailing and sleeting which made the hour a little less welcoming. On Friday we went to the service at the church, an interesting time in which we moved from scene to scene around the sanctuary, listening to dramatic readings, songs, and singing a few things. Then we all went out to the town hall to meet people from the other churches for the walk of witness. It was exceptionally windy and the man carrying the very large cross in front of the group had a difficult time keeping it upright. It's been a really nice, relaxing weekend so far and we still have one day to go. :)

report writing

I have a set of reports due this week--for a year group in which I teach two groups. I teach a top set and a bottom set. The top set are an enviable group--they are quite hard workers and I never have any difficulty motivating them in lessons. Also since they are progressing well their reports will be easier to write. I'll use a standard paragraph and add details of progress and grades for each child. The reports I write for the bottom set will be more challenging. It's a very diverse class with several students still learning their times tables. I'll probably spend twice the time writing that set of reports, commenting on progress, effort in class, consistency of homework, neatness, contributions in lessons, and general attitude.

Ryan has made very good progress in maths. He works consistently well in lessons and always put maximum effort into his classwork. His work is well presented and he takes notes that will be valuable for use before tests and exams. He asks and answers questions in class; this is certainly something I would encourage him to maintain. His homework is regularly completed to a high standard and handed in on time. This has allowed him to consolidate our classwork topics. He is always pleasant and polite. He works well with his peers and I’ve enjoyed teaching him this year.