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Category Archives: English Thing I Miss

English Things I Miss, Part 2: On Biscuits, and Such

I had pancakes for breakfast yesterday and I took it totally for granted. God, how quickly we forget the hard times.
Back in the day, (when I was living on nothing but beer and chicken-flavored potato chips), finding any kind of American baked good was like a treasure hunt.
I was reminded of this when I visited [...]

Stephen Fry and the Perfect Rant

Thanks to my husband, I got the chance to listen to the ultimate rant on America… from my favorite Brit, Stephen Fry. He has a fantastic podcast called Stephen Fry’s Podgrams. Some are scripted, others are extemporaneous. That  is major.
Fry came to America for his BBC series Stephen Fry’s America, now available on DVD. No [...]

The Bacon Fat on the Counter

I did the dishes. But I left the Presto Power Crisp full of bacon fat on the counter.
It’s not that I’m not interested in cleaning it– I scrubbed WAY more disgusting pans at The Passage in the London, where burning oatmeal in the bottom of a pot the size of the Queen’s bathtub seemed to [...]

Inside the Bell Tower

I took this photo in May of 2007, which of course seems like about two weeks ago. We’ve been in this small state for almost two and half years and I see how time gets compressed–I’ve erased the afternoons and the mornings and the evenings and all that remains is the back and forth motion [...]

Spring, in Wings

By this time of year in London, I’d be stir crazy and ready for the end of winter’s short grey days.
One big difference between Connecticut and London, in winter most especially, is LATITUDE.
Stratford is on the 41 degree parallel and London is at 51 degrees. In terms of quantity of sunlight, that makes Stratford about [...]

American Things I Love: Stacy and Bryan

Or, The Continuing Saga of the Toast Rack

In a new series I am offering, English Things I Miss, I recently I opined about the great mystery of the toast rack. A mainstay of the British Bed and Breakfast, I found this piece of kitchenware a great and strange object. It is one of the first [...]

The Gauntlet

I love flying out of small airports… There is nothing better than the 15 foot walk from entryway to checkin. Don’t get me wrong — I still reminisce about the Heathrow days, when long security lines snaked around the coffee shops and purse boutiques, and that was even before you the entered security rope maze. [...]

English Things I Miss, Part 1: The Toast Rack

Here’s a new, non-regular segment for you that perhaps will help me cope with the grieving process of no longer living in London: English Things I Miss, subtitle, Though Not Necessarily So Much That I Would Move Back to the God-Forsaken Land of Clouds and Complaining.
First English Thing I Miss:
The Toast Rack
It might seem random [...]