Walker's Cajun Squirrel Crisps

Just when I start thinking that maybe I've run out of supermarket amusements, another one presents itself.

We were wandering though a BP station when we stumbled across these Walker's Cajun Squirrel flavored crisps (American: Chips). Having no self- preservation instinct, I insisted that we buy them immediately and investigate.

Upon closer inspection of the bag, we determined that the squirrel chips contain not squirrel, but "Squirrel Seasoning", whatever that is. I gather it's the rodent- equivalent of Cheez. The chips are also suitable for vegetarians, which was a bit of a disappointment.




Moving on, it was time for the eating of the Squirrel Chips.
They look pretty ordinary, not like they're packed full of squirrel-y seasoning.


And how were they?

They're pretty good. I'm not sure if that's squirrel favor we were savoring, but whatever it was, we liked it.
Here's my bro digging into them before catching his flight home:


Walker's currently has a contest on for a new crisp flavor, among the contenders is this Cajun Squirrel, Fish & Chips, Chili & Chocolate, and a few others. One can read up and vote here.

Edinburgh

My baby brother came to visit for his university spring break so we headed up to Edinburgh for a few days. The city itself is really beautiful. The architecture is remarkable, the people are friendly....





...and the haggis for tourists is abundant, sometimes presented unconventionally.






Day I:
We checked into our hotel and mostly just learned our way around. We also got a book to help us organize the next few days. Lunch consisted of my brother’s first haggis in Scotland at The White Hart.

The center of Edinburgh is very walkable, and we made our way through the old and new town by walking around the Prince's Street Gardens, which used to be the north loch, a manmade lake.
While wandering, we stopped into a fish & chip shop (The Clamshell) that sold Deep Fried Pizza, which was high on my brother’s to do list.
For dinner, we found a local spot called Howie’s, which I’d recommend.


Day II:

We started off the day at Edinburgh Castle, which stands on a hill overlooking the city center. The castle’s history is extensive, from its time as a defence fort to when its prison held prisoners of war during WWII. Wandering around the castle, audio guide and all, took us about 2.5 hours.


I think our trip may have been no match for these visiting schoolchildren, who were all dressed up for castle life as princes, princesses and jesters.





For lunch we headed to Oink, which had caught our eye the night before with its roast pig displayed in the window. The sandwiches were every bit as good as anticipated. We went with the Pork Roll with a bit of haggis and chilli sauce, as recommended by the guy who served us.




Edinburgh was bit colder than I had planned on, so after lunch, we went on a trek in search of polar fleece. Most of the shopping is in the New Town, and we found quite a few places well equpped to sell me some extra layers.

Fleece acquired, we headed up to the Royal Mile, had a deep fried Mars Bar (my first and Kiely's second), and decided to walk the length of it. This street is called The Royal Mile because it connects the one mile separating the Castle and Holyrood House, which is the Queen’s residence in Edinburgh.

Along the Royal Mile, we stopped in at The People's Story Museum, or as my brother called it, “The Museum of the Poor”. The exhibits were intended to provide insight to practical life in Edinburgh from the 16th century to the present.
We then wandered back up the mile, with stops for refreshments, and headed to the Mary King's Close Tour.

A Close is a narrow street, and a number of these streets are visible from the Royal Mile. A number of them served as small neighbourhoods, with housing available several stories underground. The tour took us through one of these, Mary King's Close. The lower levels of which consisted of small, one room apartments which often held up to ten people. While the close was not underground, it was so narrow and surrounded by 12 story buildings, it might as well have been.

After this tour, we took a bit of chillout time, and then went to dinner at the Royal McGregor which came highly recommended by friends back in London. Its signage promised the best haggis in town, so naturally, we had to give it a go. The presentation wasn’t what I expected, as it was much more artistic than I expected from a pub, and it was really tasty. An older, Scottish couple at the next table told us that we should be eating it with Drambuie, so next time, we’ll get it right.

A bit of wandering brought us to the Scotsman's Lounge, which was a lot like a townie Bar, complete with flies, indifferent bartender, and Dire Straits on the jukebox. The pictures in the website make it look much cozier than it actually was, but it did the trick.When the live music started, we decided it was time to go and headed back to the Bow Bar for a bit before calling it a night.


Day III:

This was our Edinburgh Pass day. I didn't take a lot of pictures on day 3, as most exhibits did not allow photography.

We started off at the Surgeon’s Hall Museum, which was closed until noon, despite the Pass’ guide saying it opened at ten. We headed to the Camera Obscura to kill some time.

A Camera Obscura is basically a mirror and some lenses that are used to project an image onto a table. The tour consisted of seeing the camera used and a quick tour of Edinburgh from the camera. The rest of the exhibit consisted of optical illusions, holograms, etc. Had I paid £9 to get in, I’d be sorely disappointed, but as something to do on the prepaid pass, it was fine.

We had lunch at Deacon Brodie’s on the Royal Mile and then headed down past the University to the Surgeon’s Hall Museum. I particularly enjoyed this museum, which not only covered the history of Surgery in Scotland and of the Medical College but also included a collection of samples and of medical equipment.

After viewing all that fun, we headed back up to the Royal Mile for another battered Mars Bar and headed down towards Holyrood House.
Unfortunately, the Edinburgh Pass only gets you into the art gallery at the palace, and such was closed in preparation for a new exhibit. Regardless, we went to the Palace, which included a free audio guide.



The palace was impressive, and the exhibit included several rooms used for state events as well as the former chambers of the King and Queen, specifically that of Mary Queen of Scots. The ruins of the Abbey which was once adjacent were also worth a view.

Across the street from the Palace is the new home of the Scottish Parliament, which is open to the public. You can enter the main chamber with a free ticket, and we observed a debate during our visit.

After this, we headed back up the mile and to our hotel for a bit of refresh time and headed out to dinner at Indigo Yard before calling it a night.

Day IV:

There was sleeping in, a full breakfast, and then we headed to the airport using our return passes from the Edinburgh pass. If you don’t get the pass, the airport bus costs £6 and takes about 25 minutes to get you into town.

Photography Class Assignment I

Assignment I:
- Shoot in the area the size of a football pitch and note what we've done and why. If possible, we are to visit the chosen location at different times of day to work in different lighting conditions.
- No photoshopping.
- Film students were told to use black and white film. (I'm not sure if that applies to digital but will submit mine in black and white.)

Easy enough, eh?

First things first: The Chosen Location
I headed over to Trafalgar Square. It's an open space, which is good for light, and it always has people in it.

Unfortunately, I happened to pick a day with stereotypical London weather. I suppose I'll have to prove that we do have sunshine here in a later post.

1. Depth of Field Comparisons - afternoon

f3









f22












2. Depth of Field Comparisons - Nighttime

f4.5








f29













Otherwise I just played around (here are some of my favorites)

Daytime:





























and at nightime:
Picasso images are being projected onto the main building of the National Gallery to promote a Picasso exhibition
I've including the color shot at the top, so you can see it in all its glory, but black and white ones follow.

More Fun with Food: Stagg Chili

Even before we moved to London, my husband made many a reference to Stagg Chili. He still does.

Most of the time, these mentions have come when I am out of town, and he is regaling me with tales of his home alone status and accompanying chili-laden man diet.

I've lived in England for over a year now, but even back in New York, I had always assumed that the, "Stagg" in Stagg Chili was actually, "Stag", and that this was all just a funny reference to some form of bachelor chow. This assumption was further supported by the fact that bachelor party is termed a, "Stag Do" here.


Today, I came home from work, went in the kitchen, and discovered that Stagg/Stag Chili IS real.

I was shocked. There it was on the counter, full of promise, offering an, "Authentic American" recipe, and, "shaped minced beef".

I don't know why minced beef would need shaping. It makes me a bit nervous. Still and so, the back of the can claims a legendary taste experience awaits me inside of this can.

Unfortunately, I'm unable to report on how the chili actually tastes. It was made quite clear that it is not for me and that there will be no sharing.

No Saltines means Salticrax!

Recovering from a recent bout of food poisoning, I asked for a box of Saltines or something like what we call Saltines back in the US.

I was presented with a box of Salticrax!

They're denser than Saltines, which makes them less therapeutic on a very upset stomach; however, the name Salticrax is too funny to go uncredited.

The score is:
Saltines: 1
Salticrax!: 1

Next Houseguest gets a Dalek Cake

That's right. Next houseguest means a Dalek-shaped cake will be consumed at our house.

It may not be your birthday according to your driver's license, but it will be here in Southwest London. I can't promise that there won't be hats, candles, and a pinata; however, I'll try to keep it reasonable for your sake.

I spotted this at the M&S right after my birthday. Now we need a good reason to eat it, and, "Wednesday" simply won't do.

The next birthday in our apartment is the cat's, and that's not until the end of March. That's is just entirely too long for us to wait to have this cake in our living room. Besides, the kitty doesn't like cake!

I recognize that you could go somewhere warm and sunny, but why would you want to do that when you could come to England in late winter? I can offer you drizzle, overcast skies, and a balmy 13 C. We'll even throw in an umbrella to shield you from the elements.

Rome II

Sunday:

Sunday was a less ambitious day. We mostly just wandered around to the city.

One of the thngs I like to do most when travelling is to try to get a sense of how people live in the place I'm visiting. Thus, places like supermarkets and pharmacies are always on the agenda, in addition to strolling around some more residential areas.



We started out by heading to the Spanish Steps in search of breakfast
and had a good laugh at the Expensive! store ...



Then, we wandered over the the Trevi Fountain, which was much bigger than I expected. There are buildings closely built all around it, which made getting a full picture of it difficult, especially as it was surrounded by other tourists. I gave up, concluding that a postcard might be a better way to get a reasonable picture of it.



Then went to the Trastevere, which is a very popular neighborhood for going out and people watching. We had some delicious pizza, after which we walked along the Tibor River (left).

We pretty much just wandered around for the rest of the day. How else do you think I managed to eat so much gelato?



Monday:

Our final day kicked off with a trip to No. 3 on the list, the Colosseum. We walked to the Colosseum via the Roman Forum. We didn't actually go in, we only walked by.


The Colosseum was smaller than I had envisaged. I was surprised to learn that a number of it's exterior decorations were removed and used for St. Peter's; that this structure was regarded as junk during the Renaissance.


After our wander around the Colosseum, we had some lunch and did a bit more wandering. Around three, we did what English people do when they have an hour to kill, we went to a pub before meeting our car to the airport.

Snow comes to London

It began with a few flurries, and 19 hours later, the snow is still falling, with occasional breaks.

I haven't actually been outside in the snow yet; although, the news reports leave me to believe that London may only have one plow, as many things are closed.

There are no trains. When I called my dentist's to cancel my appointment, there was no answer. I hear my office is empty. The mail never arrived, and while the grocery delivery I scheduled for tonight hasn't been cancelled yet, I'm not expecting it to make it.

It's a bit boggling to see a city shut down by 6-8 inches of snow. Then again, it hasn't snowed this much in 18 years.

Rome I

I've been slacking lately, or maybe just working too much. Regardless, this posting is long overdue and is going to be more brief than I would have liked.

Rome is wonderful. It's a big museum with a population of over 3.5 million.

In deciding what I wanted to see and do (besides eating) on this trip, I kept the list short. The trip was only for three and a half days, and the guidebook made it abundantly clear that it would take me over a month, just to see all of the museums.

The Short List:
1. The Sistine Chapel
2. Raphael's The School Of Athens at the Vatican Museum's Raphael Room
3. The Colosseum
...with everything else being gravy.

Friday We arrived in the afternoon and in the evening we mostly focused on the wandering around and eating.

This bridge is covered in beautiful sculptures.


We also made it to the Pantheon
Its ceiling is particularly famous.


Saturday
In the morning, we set off to the Vatican Museum.
The museum, much like an Ikea, is laid out such that visitors must walk through everything, rather than just heading to the items your looking for. In the case of Ikea, it's to make you think that you really need a furry, white rug (Thanks, Adam!) in a moment of weakness, whereas at the Vatican, it's unavoidable due to the floorplan.

The Raphael Room and the Sistine Chapel are towards the end of the mighty journey, so we decided to bolt through the entire museum in an effort to beat the crowds some of whom were asking if this room of maps with a painted ceiling was the Sistine Chapel.

This plan worked well. When we finished repeating the cycle on round two, the Sistine Chapel was 3x as packed as it had been an hour earlier. I've no pictures of either. Photography is not allowed in the Chapel, and to be fair, it has been thoroughly photographed by people far more skilled with a camera than I.



We wandered around the Vatican afterwards, which is considered a seperate country from Italy. It even has it's own post office with Vatican-issued stamps.
St. Peter's was also a good visit. It's sublime. The sort of faith that leads to the creation of monuments such as this is alien to me.

Following lunch, we headed to the Castello San Angelo. The views from the roof are beautiful and it has a nice cafe from which we enjoyed the sun. I took the first picture on this entry from the roof. (Unfortuantely, I didn't notice the dirt on my lens until later in the day, so expect to see that spot a bit more.)

Rome: Eats

I had the privilege of spending last weekend in Rome.

High on the agenda were:

• Eating
• Vatican Galleries, including the Sistine Chapel
• The Colosseum

I recognize that lumping together what is frequently regarded as a Wonder of the Medieval Age, one of the most famous sets of Renaissance frescoes, and my constant need to eat something may seem a bit odd, but I have my priorities, starting with food.

(You can enlarge the picture of all the eats and a bit of the Largo di Torre Argentina by selecting on it)

1. Meat & Cheese Plate
2. Spagetti Carbonara: Carbonara is a bacony, egg yolky sauce. It's a typical Roman dish. Prior to having it in Rome, I had always found it presented with a cream sauce, rather than one that was yolky. The real deal is superior, by far.
3. Tartufo: gelato covered in mousse. The chocolate one (tartufo nero) was all chocolate, where as the white one (tartufo blanco) contained coffee flavored gelato.
4. Room Service Breakfast: not impressive, but it had a lot to compete with outside
5. Gelato to go #1: Nutella
6. Spagetti Bolognese: Another local dish, it was much less meaty than versions I've had in Italian restaurants in other countries.
7. Gelato to go #2: Pistachio
8. Prociutto & Melon
9. Saltimbocca: Veal wrapped in prociutto. I was so blinded by the prociutto goodness that not did I I forget the name of the dish, but I ate 2/3 of it before I was reminded to take a picture of it, thus the duplicate.
10. Deceptive Roll #1: This roll looks like it's full of squishy goodness, but it was hollow!
11. Gelato to go #3: Tutti Frutti Siciliano: My least favorite, it tasted like Christmas fruitcake. I managed to trade it for my husband's cup of Chocoloso, which consisted of cream flavored gelato with white chocolate cookie pieces. Fortunately, his eyes were bigger than his stomach, so he didn't mind. That, and he didn't want me to get violent.
12. Club Sandwich: This had eggs in it, and it made for a delicious breakfast.
13. Gelato/ Sorbetto to go #4: Coconut
14. Pizza: This was fantastic pizza. Thin crust, fresh cheese, beautiful tomatoes; that the restaurant brought me a bottle of wine rather than a glass had upsides and downsides.
15. Bread: to absorb the wine
16. Gelato to go #5: Hazelnut
17. Rice Ball & Fried Mozzarella: The rice ball was interesting with plenty of tomatoes and mushrooms. The mozzarella just reinforced my conclusion that fried cheese is a Platonic ideal food; specifically, that all foods may be improved through the addition of cheese and/or frying.
18. Carbonara #2: So much better than Carbonara 1!
19. Gelato to go #6: Strachiatelli: Likely misspelled, this is sweet cream flavored gelato with chocolate pieces.
20. Yogurt
21. Croissant
22. Pollo alla Romana & Spinach (this included decptive roll #2, which is not in the picture): A local dish of Chicken with peppers and tomatoes.
23. Gelato to go #7: Panna Cotta - definitely one of the best
24. White chocolate thingy
25. Airport caprese sandwich: If you look closely, you might note the absence of a piece of mozzarella, aka: The One That Got Away (TOTGA). Having learned that the flight was delayed, I settled down with the sandwich, only to have TOTGA fly out of my sandwich when I zealously dug in. *sigh*
26. Airport Pastry: I will find out what this one is called. It's basically a thin ribbon filo dough cocooning a tasty custard center. This is worth looking at, if anything because it's so precise and simple. It's beautiful and tasty too.

Missing: Bathroom Electrical Socket

In another case of Health & Safety zeal, English bathrooms may only have electrical outlets that connect through an isolating transformer rather than directly to the main, like other outlets.

Even the light switches are outside of the bathroom, which makes my habit of turning off lights especially fun for others.

Don't get me wrong, I recognize that risk created by a collaborative effort uniting my bathroom sink and 220v of direct current could result in a very brief pyrotechnics display worthy of a KISS show.

I do not want my obituary to credit a, "Sonicare-related episode" or a, "freak hairstyling accident" for my untimely death. I just want to dry my hair in there.

Eventually, the siren song of the opportunity to blow dry under the unforgiving lights of my bathroom was simply too much to resist. I went in.

So, to get around this obstacle, I added a gang socket (American: short extention cord with lots of outlets) into the mix, which I plugged into the outlet in the hallway within my apartment. Bear in mind that the bathroom where I want to pursue my walk on the wild side/hairdrying is accessible from the bedroom; however, the closest outlet is actually in the hallway. I gather that not only can there not be regular sockets in the bathroom but there can't be any nearby.

The extension cord added to the fun by adding yet another event to the obstacle course I lovingly call home in the early morning. It provided my husband with a much-needed agility test that I'm sure he enjoyed much more than he said he did at the time. I felt it was the least I could do given that he had mastered the occasional minefield that is the cat and his indigestion.

Hair dried, I disassembled the rig, and retired it. Perhaps the Health & Safety culture is wearing off on me, but realistically, it's laziness teamed with the acceptance of my lack of hairdryer skills.

Electrifying Taste: Office Yogurt

After the flapjack incident, I went back to the snackbar on my floor at work for more because I'm a glutton for punishment.

I spotted some fruit yogurt (made by Stapleton Farm), purchased it, and went back to my desk.

It wasn't until I was half way through it that I actually read the packaging:

"25% fruit gives electrifying taste!"

Electrifying taste doesn't sound delicious. It sounds scary and being American, that says a lot.

The US is really the land of the superlative. People will describe a latte as, "Awesome!" Every movie trailer includes the term, "Riveting!" Hell, we invented Monster Trucks!

The UK is much more subtle. An exquisite meal will be recalled with compliments such as, "Rather nice". A very good show might muster a, "Quite good" or maybe a, "Brilliant". In TV adverts, A snack cake company's slogan describes their products as, "Exceedingly good".

I wonder what the target market is for fruit yogurt with electrifying taste. Given that I did buy and eat it, it might be yours truly.

Signage: Unattended Children

One of the best signs, ever.

This was posted in a barbershop window near Smithfield Market.

Humps for 680 Yards

In the last twelve months, signs promising humps ahead, such as the one pictured, have become a very common sighting.

The humps are, in fact, everywhere. Disappointingly, they're just what Americans call speedbumps; although, the English also call them Sleeping Policemen. My cycle route to work is laden with them, which can make for a miserable commute after a late night out.

The Flapjack

This morning, I embarked on a mission to brave the flapjack.

It has been there all along at the snackbar on the floor of my office , but I've held back, as while it looks like it could be a delicious cookie, it could also go horribly wrong.

It started out well. The flapjack is a lot like a very dense and buttery oatmeal cookie that has been made in the style of dessert bars, which are sliced inside the pan.

I had planned to take a picture of the flapjack outside of its packaging, but I was too enthralled while eating it to stop and take a picture. I also realized that someone might pop in and catch me trying to take a reasonable picture of a bisected flapjack and have yet another reason to think I'm a bit odd.

Then it all went wrong.

I finished the flapjack and cast the wrapper to the corner of my desk, where I'm saving garbage to build a nest for the apocalypse. Shortly after, my eyes wandered over to the wrapper while on a call, and I flipped the wrapper over to check out the nutritional information...

Expiration: 23 November 2008 (Apologies, the picture from my Blackberry is a bit blurry.)

What to do?

I felt OK... but, then again, my husband does proudly tell strangers that I could (and would, probably) eat a bowl of change.

Should I tell the canteen that they're selling expired food?
-Yes: It's the right thing to do.
-No: I could allow other people the choice to have a possible sick day due to the snack bar's silent threat. I might steal another's opportunity for joy, to be had only by making one's new graduates eat a snack with a not lengthy enough shelf life.

Then I forgot about it; something shiny got my attention, or possibly it was just work. I took the secret home with me, seemingly unscarred by my snack.

Now, I have concerns that my consumption of this expired flapjack may have affected my experience, requiring me to repeat the experiment and eat another; only this time, a fresh one.

More to follow.

Today's Weather: Very Cold & Dull

There's a candor to the BBC's weather forecast that is above and beyond any I have ever experienced from a news program.

Today's forecast promised weather that was not just cold but, "Very cold and dull".

Happy New Year!