London, UK, Snow

February 2012

Beer Festival, London, United Kingdom

Beer is a serious matter in England and the type of beer you drink defines you in the British drinking world, particularly, if you drink a cask beer. Then you’re part of a movement in the UK to bring the ancient traditions of beer back into the modern world. You are claiming your national heritage and culture and saying, “Away with those modern carbonated beers.”

The movement is organized by CAMRA, the Campaign for Real Ale. CAMRA calls a cask beer a real ale and defines it as an ale that “has a natural taste full of flavor with a light natural carbonation (i.e fizziness) produced by the secondary fermentation that has occurred in the cask.” In other words, it’s a beer that’s naturally carbonated in a wooden barrel. There’s also a special hand pump that’s used to create more carbonation. It’s believed that a real ale should be served warm so the flavor is better appreciated.

Eric has been diligent about trying out this type of beer since we’ve been in London. And we got to do more of a sampling at the annual Beer festival organized by CAMRA. It was held in a convention hall, and craft beer makers came to present their specially crafted real ales. There were also ciders, pear ciders, and international beers featured.

It was a serious event, not at all like a sloppy drunken event you might imagine a beer festival to be. Serious tasters walked around with a beer program and made notes about each beer they sampled.

I think we might have decided that we’re not part of the real ale movement. Eric’s favorite place to sample beer was from the German beer stand.

And my favorite place was the Real Pork Scratchings booth.

Real Scratchings = freshly made pork rinds

Hampstead Heath, London, UK

We biked over to a expolore a new neighborhood, which is the kind of thing we like to do on a Sunday. It was one of the warmest days during the summer and we had heard about some swimming ponds in the park at Hampstead Heath that are open all year long. They have a few pools at opposite ends of the park that are segregated by sex. A men only pool, a women only pool, and a mixed pool. It was so hot and by the time we explored the entire park we were ready for a dip. The men only pool looked really nice and turned out to be more like a gay men only pool, but Pam and I kind of wanted to swim together so we hiked over to the mixed pool. For some reason the mixed pool was really small and it was so overcrowded that you had to wait in a long line that wasn't moving. So we decided to skip it and pick up some picnic gear to enjoy under a tree somewhere. We climbed a hill to find a great view of London. Very peaceful.

Summer Cycling, London, UK

Our first summer in London was pretty dire, even by London standards. The Guardian reported that it was the coldest summer in 18 years. So the minute the sun came out, we jumped on our bikes and took advantage of the day.

The canals and marshes by our house are some of the best bike rides in London. I tend to forget that we're in a massive, busy, smog filled city when we ride our bikes along these paths.

We discovered that we live by a forest. This is Epping Forest.

The lake at Epping Forest

Summer is blackberry season and we'd often find blackberries ready for picking in any neighborhood of London. These bushes are in the marshes in our neighborhood.

Our collected blackberries

A blackberry Clafoutis, a sort of eggy cake.

Pride in Soho, London, UK

Coming from San Francisco we were familiar with its Pride festival and wanted to see how London's version compared. It's pretty much the exact same thing. Ultra-glamorous outfits here and there, a handful of stages, but mostly blocks and blocks and blocks of drinking and partying in the streets. They were even vending those over-sized sausages. Yes, very funny. I know. Really, the only noticeable difference was the size of the event. London is so much bigger than San Francisco, and consequently the general output for everything is greater. One other notable detail, litter. The streets of London are extremely well trashed. I would say it's in fact a lack of pride, but the quantity of garbage on the street suggests a thoughtfulness, a conscious effort. To be clear, this is something we've noticed all over London any time any place. But the pride demographic isn't any different from the rest of the city. For me, thinking back about my tidy San Francisco and its thoughtful communities...pride.

Cycling the Canals, London, United Kingdom

We've been loving riding our bikes through London, and one of the best ways to get to various neighborhoods is by taking the canals. The canal itself is a neighborhood in its own right. It is home to house-boaters who cruise up and down the canal and then moor along the sides over night. I spoke to one captain who told me that all house boats are permitted to stay in one spot for no more than a week. So once a week they all switch spots.

The canal contains a series of locks (chambers with tiny dams on either side) that allow the boats to move to higher or lower parts of the canal. They operate the locks manually by hopping out of the boat and pulling the dam apart like a stubborn barn door. They open or close these locks to either empty or fill water into the chamber so that they can drive their boats in, then empty or fill the chamber depending on whether they're going up or down the canal. The boats are really skinny and two can fit in a chamber at the same time.

Micro Hotel, London, United Kingdom

We're a little late in getting this up, but we thought it was interesting enough to post. Back in January when we first arrived in London, we bounced around between various temporary accommodations while hunting for a permanent place to rent. Among these were hostels, hotels, short-term lets, and free nights arranged through couchsurfing.com (highly recommended). I've posted a video of our room at Easy Hotel. Affiliated with Easy Jet Airlines, they specialize in clean budget micro hotel rooms not dissimilar to the famed Japanese capsule accommodations. The walls seem to be made from left over 747 interior plastic paneling. And instead of feeling claustrophobic inside this tiny room, you rather feel like you're on a jet in some special quarters far superior to first class!

Arsenal, London, UK

Our campus sits right next to the stadium where Arsenal football (soccer) team plays. Tonight there was a match. It was kind of exciting riding my bike through and past to school, with vendors camped out selling food and merchandise. Excited fans headed in to get their seats. Periodically during my scriptwriting class we could hear the crowd's roar. Campus security interrupted toward the end of class to tell us the school needed to close immediately. The game wasn't going well and they expected dangerous fans in the streets shortly. We were all to head home before the game ended. This seemed an excessive precaution, but we followed instructions. Some classmates had planned to go to the pub after class but changed their minds, thinking they'd be over-crowded and uncomfortable. I zipped home and avoided the traffic, but kind of wished I'd seen what action was to spill onto the streets.
















The next week there was another game during class. No warning this time, and I had stayed late to do some work. When I left school, roads had been shut off to cars and a flood of people filled the streets channeling away from the stadium. I was able to weave through them on my bike without too much trouble. And there was no threat at all -- families and happy fans.

















The following week, another game, so Pam and I came down early before my class to leech some tailgating fun. Trailer-stand burger/sausage vendors pop up along the streets around the stadium. It's a fun atmosphere and you get to feel the excitement and energy of the event.

A New Beginning, London, United Kingdom

We have arrived in London and made short work of securing our permanent residence. February sixth is our move-in date, and we can't wait. Perfect timing because my classes begin on the seventh. It's hard to believe we are here after spending a year and a half in the tropics. But to be sure, we are here -- see proof below. The temperature change is dramatic but refreshing. Too much hot weather gets old just like anything else. Pam's already been price checking weekend Swiss snowboarding vacations. Surprisingly affordable now that we're based in Europe. We'll see.