Datchet Days

The other day while we were out, we spent part of our journey observing cars and writing down the different makes. In general it seems as if there are hardly any junkers here; most of the cars on the road seem new or in very good condition. Most of the cars are small. There are a few SUV types on the road, but no where near the quantity that there are in the states. Gas stations are called filling stations, and one fills up with petrol *not* gas. Many of the makes of cars we have in the states are here (though the steering wheel is on the right): Daihatsu, Bentley, Jaguar, Ford, Nissan, Honda, Jeep, Toyota, Mercedes, Volvo, Volkswagon, Alfa Romeo, Mazda, Peugeot, Fiat, Chevrolet, Porsche, Subaru, Mitsubishi, BMW, Daewoo, Audi, and Suzuki. There are several here though that we do not generally see in the states: Seat (See - aht), Vauxhall, Rover, Citroen, MG, Renault, Opel, Aston Martin, Lotus, Mini and Smart Cars. The Mini and the Smart Car shown here are my two favorite small cars.
|

Today we changed from GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) to BST (British Summer Time). This means that for the next week we are an hour later in time difference than we have been from the rest of the states. Next week the US will change to Day Light Savings time and we will be back to the regular time differences.

British Summer Time starts at 1 am (GMT) on the morning of the day after the third Saturday in March and ends at 1 am (GMT) on the day after the fourth Saturday in October. The start of British Summer Time was linked to Europe's change starting in 2002. Previously they had delayed changing if the third Saturday was the day before Easter.
|

Today is "Mothering Sunday" here in the UK. It's basically the same thing as Mother's Day in the states, except for the change of day and slight change of name. The church service this morning was celebrating Mothers, and there were mentions of breakfasts in bed and lunches out for mothers. At the end of the service the kids were given flowers to give to their mothers.
|

Even the paper is different sizes. Forget letter size. No such thing here. Closest bet is A4, which is 8.27" by 11.69". No three ring binders, either. You can get two ring or four.

So, all the new documents I've created during our time here are set up to print on A4 paper. What fun when we get back to the states and I've got to go through and reformat them all for letter size.
|

In Datchet, there is a small tea shop, run by the Ecumenical Parish Council. It's called The Bridge and is run by volunteers from all the Parish churches. They serve tea and coffee, scones, cakes, cookies as well as sandwiches and soup.

Last year I was recruited to work as a "fill in" person. I would go in on days when a regular worker couldn't make it. Just recently I was asked if I'd like to have a regularly scheduled afternoon to work. I've just begun taking the kids with me as helpers, since there is no other person free to work with me on Thursday afternoons.

It is an enjoyable way to spend a couple of hours a week. People are almost always friendly and once they hear me talk, they inevitably ask me where I'm from. I must be beginning to blend a bit though, because when I first started they always said "Oh! You're from the states. Where?" and now they just say with a quizzical look "You aren't from here, are you?"
|

Here's a little movie of Philip juggling. It needs work, as you'll see. But, it's short. You'll need Quicktime to view it.

David Wollin taught him and gave him the juggling balls, and Aaron Lerma gave him some pointers recently.
|

Well, here's a comforting similarity: ants in the kitchen. Must be an ant season here. We don't generally have problems with any bugs in the house except spiders and pill bugs. The last couple of weeks the kitchen has been the scene of many little marching armies of ants, all drudging along single file in search of a stray crumb. Naturally they've marched up into the cabinet and found the honey jar. (Always a good spot to find a bit of honey dripping down the side.) Strangely they've even found their way into the refrigerator. They don't last too long in there though! We've put out the ant traps, but haven't seen much slowing down of the ant traffic. We had them for a while last year, and they eventually went away. In the mean time, we're working really hard on those honey drips and the crumbs.
|

Sunday March 7, 03:45 AM

James Bond is too tall to be a modern spy

LONDON (Reuters) - James Bond, Britain's most famous fictional secret agent, would be feeling rather shaken and stirred to learn he would be too tall to be a real modern day spy in the country's domestic spy agency.

New guidelines for MI5 -- the domestic intelligence service -- stipulate that people applying to be field agents should be no taller than 5ft 11ins (1.8 m) so they don't stand out, the Sunday Telegraph reported.

That would rule out all the actors to have starred as the suave, unflappable Bond who worked for MI5's sister foreign spy agency MI6 in the 007 movies. Bond stars Sean Connery, George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton and Pierce Brosnan are all 6ft (1.83m) or taller, the paper said.

"You should be able to blend into the background. Applicants would ideally be no taller than 5ft 11ins for men and 5ft 8ins (1.73 m) for women," the application form reads.

The government is recruiting 1,000 new spies over the next few years to MI5 to bring the service's numbers up to 3,000.

But there was some good news for Bond -- the paper said his employers, MI6, had not yet imposed a height restriction.
|

By chance I heard that there is a Costco in Reading. Last week as we were getting ready to go out running errands, I decided that I would check it out while we were out. So, before we set out, I looked for their web page so I could find out exactly where it is located. Bad news. Remember years ago when Sam's Clubs opened up you could only get a membership if you met certain criteria? (Government employee, teacher, etc?) To get a membership at Costco here, you need to be a teacher, or a postal worker or one of several other things that I am not. Figures. I wonder if they'd let me in with a US Costco club membership?
|