Hrrmph!

[idaho_smith]

I'm single on Valentine's day. Hrrmph!

Being able to exchange cards with Wessex-lass last year was nice. Shame about the long-distance and other impediments.

Coupled with...

•  further bone-headness from the accom-office
•  a trip on the Bute stairs infront of not one, but two tour parties of prospective UGs (Negligible damage but embarrasing)
  
• and a Trojan

Comments

[idaho_smith]

Sorry to hear your other half is squeamish with his food. I'm fairly earthy with my food. I grew up in the westCOUNTRY and have eaten wood-pigeons & pheasants that I "took" myself. I had dinner with a Vegan recently and have wondered whether her future company would be worth the dietary sacrifices...

Cornwall has many fish dishes. I hope you enjoy "stargazy" pie.
The ubiquitous Cornish Pasty is a common and tasty snack food, originating as a filling dish that could be taken down the local tin-mines at dawn and still be warm by lunchtime. For some reason it's bad luck to take one to sea.
There are local cheeses, and the westcountry as a whole is (in)famous for our alcoholic ciders! While many traditional dishes fell by the wayside during & after war-time rationing, Britain now enjoys "fusion cusine" from all over the globe (My father fondly recalls a "Tex-Mex Haggis", encountered while sailing the western Isles of Scotland!)

Hope you're prepared for the paper-trail if you're bringing pets over. We used to insist on quarantine - I don't know if that still stands.

Which Uni do you have the penultimate child enrolled in? I daresay it makes sense to keep her near home in an unfamiliar country.

[idaho_smith]

Well, it is not so much that he is squeamish, but rather the eyes bug him, as does the thought of eating baby chickens. I pointed out to him that eggs were pre-babies, but we just left off of that whole line of discussion years ago. I do enjoy getting a whole lobster sometimes just to provoke him a bit, and I will start with the eyes turned towards me and gradually turn the plate so that they are beginning to face him. It is amusing, actually.

Shevaun will most likely be attending University of Maryland on the base, if we can get all of it worked out. She will start there, get acclimated to the UK and university at the same time, and then we will see where she goes from there.

And yes, trust me, we are deeply embroiled in the PETS scheme thing. They had to be microchipped, then vaccinated against rabies (again), then several weeks later blood had to be drawn and sent to one of the two labs in this country that is approved by the UK for the testing. After they got approval of a high enough titer in their blood they were given the OK. They are free to enter the country 6 months from the date that the successful titer was drawn, but trust me that we still have to obtain licensing permission and some kind of VAT exemption. Right, so it is a messy process but we are slogging our way through it. May 20th is our golden date, so we are hoping to make our journey at that time.

Oh please...you can't leave me hanging with the stargazy pie comment.

:)

[idaho_smith]

Sorry about the delay - didn't get a notification on the comment.

Good luck with the Dogs! (& the bureaucrats)

Stargazy pie
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stargazy_pie

Note that in the UK pie and pudding are bandied about in a confusing manner.
Here's a german authors take on the issue:-
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A16350185
"Pastries in Britain can be delicious, but are not always what they seem to be. Once the German visitor has got hold of the idea that a Yorkshire pudding [side dish in a good Sunaday-roast, made from savoury pankake batter] is not sweet and is not eaten as a dessert, he may be forgiven for expecting British pork pie to be a sweet dish with a funny name. However, German visitors take note: in this case, if it says 'pork pie' this really means that it contains pork. More than one German visitor has been known to spit out the first bite of the inviting golden pastry, having anticipated a sweet filling. But beware: having got used to the fact that a pork pie is a savoury foodstuff, don't be surprised to discover that the equally savoury-sounding mince pie [eaten at Christmas] is in fact sweet [and meat-free, unless you follow a Tudor recipe!]."

Just to confuse you further. Cottage pie is stewed beef-mince under a mashed potato topping, Shepherd's pie is the same only made with lamb mince and Cumberland pie is the beef recipe with melted cheese on top. Fisherman's pie is fish and mashed potato.

Futhermore:-
Rice pudding - A custard-like dessert close to my impression of the US meaning of pudding.
A pudding (generically) - usually any dessert dish, but often a heavy cake-like thing.
Steak&kindney (or any other meaty sounding thing) pudding - again a savoury main-course dish, generaly a meat pie, only cooked in a deep pot giving a hemispherical shaped product when inverted.
Black pudding - an ancient peasants recipe - a sausage of pork fat, oatmeal and the congealed solids from cooled blood (I can't stand it).

Hope I haven't confused you - or worse spoken down to you.

Caveat emptor! If in doubt discuss the matter with the shopkeeper, waiter or a neighbour.