My obsessions of late.
Being a British expat I go through phases of home sickness and gratefulness for living in California. Also there is this odd feeling, akin to waking up from a dream and not knowing where you are. I sometimes feel extremely British and out of place, physically out of place, not just culturally. I look outside and see sunshine and I wonder if I'm in an alternate universe. I see American flags waving patriotically through my window and wonder if I'm on the set of an old Western and at any moment saloon doors are going to swing open, there will be a scuffle on the street in front of me...and how and why am I wearing this big old ruffled sleeved pioneer women dress?! The I think too hard about what year it could be and am I living in a time previous the 50 star flag? How could this all be, the dream turns into some sort of 'Back to the Future' replay in my mind.
I go through stints of obsession, early on in my relocation it was tea, and specifically Earl Grey. Visiting the monument in Newcastle before I left the UK I had the Earl's noble face etched in my memory. His namesake tea became my remedy for anything akin to what I described in my first paragraph, the pangs of loneliness, or the almost out of body experiences, where I analyse everything.
This moved onto a little stint at collecting British products, tea towels and magnets, British designer products and of course a 'Keep Calm and Carry on Mug'! During my most recent trip I bought a lovely little egg cup soldier, he is ceramic and supposedly a Beefeater (the ones that guard Buckingham palace without moving or flinching in any way). His red and black colours stand proud against the pretty crystal and blue china..
I haven't succumbed to watching hours of period drams..yet. I haven't been a fan of period pieces particularly. I've enjoyed books I've read, encapsulated well, either by the BBC or in film. Growing up around so much history, old buildings and story I'm sure I took much of it for granted, perhaps that's incorrect, I am part of it's history and it's fabric, I'm not an observer I am a citizen. Reading my America friends blogs about all the National Trust House visits she has taken with her young family have been interesting. Some places I visited as a child or young adult, some I know were restored by my high school friends mother who worked for the National Trust. She had tins and tins of paint and paper she would often re-decorate their own home with after she was done with one of the listed buildings that my friend has been enjoying touring. Somehow it is all very familiar, but not present.
Old British buildings that have stood out in my memory are literary houses, working museums, ceramic history buildings (such as Portmerion and Wedgwood) plus a few castles and their gardens. It's hard not to be impressed by a well kept castle and grounds, or knowing you are treading over the ground that C.S Lewis has trodden! I love that my friend can enjoy these places of wonder, places she has read about in books and wondered about in her mind. She has now lived them herself, walked their halls and gardens drawn them into herself like a blanket.
I have a similar experience living in the US, there is whale history on the East Coast that fascinates me, truly. Danish settlements and pioneer history that I find very intriguing. The mining history of California is quite absurd filling me with wonder, I have visited both the site of the largest diamond and largest gold nugget found in the US. Engineering feats of railroads and dams I find wonderfully interesting and the natural world scenery is breathtaking. As a person who loves outdoor grandeur, the USA has it in abundance. There are so many states and towns I'd like to visit whilst I live here and although I've not ventured far from California, I hope we will explore more as time goes by.
Traveling is an obsession, I love to visit new places and it helps me, I feel more like a tourist than a transplant and I like that feeling.
However, my most recent distractions has been in the form of BBC America, their blog mainly which is not intimate or personal in anyway, its wonderful cultural relief. It's the feeling that we all understand one another. Many of the topics and articles mean very little to me, but somehow reading their blog, I feel part of the club. Part of myself that had started to get lost still has a place to be itself.
I've never been a Doctor Who fan and don't plan on becoming one, but I must say there is some good British TV out there, both the IT Crowd (which my husband and I devoured) and now Sherlock, featuring Benedict Cumberbatch as a very believable Sherlock. Quite unlike Dowey Jr. pantomime, a ridiculous over acted, overly American film version of Conan Doyle's character - sorry if you liked it for what it was; an action packed film. To my delight Jen from IT crowd appears in the finale of Season 2...I do prefer her, Katherine Parkinson in comedic roles though, she has it perfectly down for comedy.
Sherlock is very modern and I thoroughly enjoy mentally visiting modern London with all it's grimy, grey, urban appeal as I sit in my cabin in the forest. Having spent much time making good memories with good friends in London it feels like I'm being given a gift..a passage back down memory lane. I may have to wait till 2014 to watch Season 3. Until then I shall have to read the rest of the Mysterious Benedict Society Series and maybe a few Conan Doyle novels!
My latest tea fetish is Yorkshire Breakfast Tea, which I happily add has been easy to come by here.
I go through stints of obsession, early on in my relocation it was tea, and specifically Earl Grey. Visiting the monument in Newcastle before I left the UK I had the Earl's noble face etched in my memory. His namesake tea became my remedy for anything akin to what I described in my first paragraph, the pangs of loneliness, or the almost out of body experiences, where I analyse everything.
This moved onto a little stint at collecting British products, tea towels and magnets, British designer products and of course a 'Keep Calm and Carry on Mug'! During my most recent trip I bought a lovely little egg cup soldier, he is ceramic and supposedly a Beefeater (the ones that guard Buckingham palace without moving or flinching in any way). His red and black colours stand proud against the pretty crystal and blue china..
I haven't succumbed to watching hours of period drams..yet. I haven't been a fan of period pieces particularly. I've enjoyed books I've read, encapsulated well, either by the BBC or in film. Growing up around so much history, old buildings and story I'm sure I took much of it for granted, perhaps that's incorrect, I am part of it's history and it's fabric, I'm not an observer I am a citizen. Reading my America friends blogs about all the National Trust House visits she has taken with her young family have been interesting. Some places I visited as a child or young adult, some I know were restored by my high school friends mother who worked for the National Trust. She had tins and tins of paint and paper she would often re-decorate their own home with after she was done with one of the listed buildings that my friend has been enjoying touring. Somehow it is all very familiar, but not present.
Old British buildings that have stood out in my memory are literary houses, working museums, ceramic history buildings (such as Portmerion and Wedgwood) plus a few castles and their gardens. It's hard not to be impressed by a well kept castle and grounds, or knowing you are treading over the ground that C.S Lewis has trodden! I love that my friend can enjoy these places of wonder, places she has read about in books and wondered about in her mind. She has now lived them herself, walked their halls and gardens drawn them into herself like a blanket.
I have a similar experience living in the US, there is whale history on the East Coast that fascinates me, truly. Danish settlements and pioneer history that I find very intriguing. The mining history of California is quite absurd filling me with wonder, I have visited both the site of the largest diamond and largest gold nugget found in the US. Engineering feats of railroads and dams I find wonderfully interesting and the natural world scenery is breathtaking. As a person who loves outdoor grandeur, the USA has it in abundance. There are so many states and towns I'd like to visit whilst I live here and although I've not ventured far from California, I hope we will explore more as time goes by.
Traveling is an obsession, I love to visit new places and it helps me, I feel more like a tourist than a transplant and I like that feeling.
However, my most recent distractions has been in the form of BBC America, their blog mainly which is not intimate or personal in anyway, its wonderful cultural relief. It's the feeling that we all understand one another. Many of the topics and articles mean very little to me, but somehow reading their blog, I feel part of the club. Part of myself that had started to get lost still has a place to be itself.
I've never been a Doctor Who fan and don't plan on becoming one, but I must say there is some good British TV out there, both the IT Crowd (which my husband and I devoured) and now Sherlock, featuring Benedict Cumberbatch as a very believable Sherlock. Quite unlike Dowey Jr. pantomime, a ridiculous over acted, overly American film version of Conan Doyle's character - sorry if you liked it for what it was; an action packed film. To my delight Jen from IT crowd appears in the finale of Season 2...I do prefer her, Katherine Parkinson in comedic roles though, she has it perfectly down for comedy.
Sherlock is very modern and I thoroughly enjoy mentally visiting modern London with all it's grimy, grey, urban appeal as I sit in my cabin in the forest. Having spent much time making good memories with good friends in London it feels like I'm being given a gift..a passage back down memory lane. I may have to wait till 2014 to watch Season 3. Until then I shall have to read the rest of the Mysterious Benedict Society Series and maybe a few Conan Doyle novels!
My latest tea fetish is Yorkshire Breakfast Tea, which I happily add has been easy to come by here.
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