Name that store...

Shouldn't that be "Pay"less?
T "J" Maxx?

Top up

To add more minutes to your cell phone, or mobile as they call them here, you "top-up". You can buy more minutes in a lot of places, mostly supermarkets and gas stations. I, of course, have a hard time remembering the term and have to "practice" before I go in and ask for more minutes. They do have cell phone plans that you pay monthly, but so far, I've only done the pay as you go. (Don't know too many people to call yet...although Mike does!)

Newmarket

Went to Newmarket this past weekend. It's not far from us and is known for it's horseracing. King James I back in the 1600's liked the town so well, he visited frequently. He evidently loved horses and his son had the first grandstand for racing built in Newmarket.

Although there wasn't much of a city, the country side was beautiful. There were horse farms or "Stud" farms all over but I couldn't see much as they have hedges all along the side of the road. Imagine the white picket fences of Kentucky horse farms, but replace the fences with hedges. So I didn't get much glimpses of any race horses, but that's okay as we wouldn't have wanted to hit any with our car...... too big of a fine!!!!

We will definitely have to go to a race sometime. They are pretty much over now for the season.

Brandon Park

Last Sunday Don and I went for a walk in this park. It's close to our town. It use to be an estate. In the 1800's the rich competed to see who could have the best "park-like" atmosphere in their summer homes. This one has a beautiful pond.
(Don't know if you can see the duck with her babies among the cattails)

The smell of lavender was wonderful.

Humor

Humor break:

Found this by the car today and had to take the picture, it's a cigarette package with a warning: (In case you didn't already know!)

To Let

Another word to learn: "To Let" means for rent. Ranch style homes are called cottages. 2 story houses are houses! Apartments are flats. So now you know!

Lay by's

One of the many words, I've had to learn the meanings of: "Lay by" Don't know if you can see it in the picture, but it is what we call a roadside rest. However, ours are much bigger. The blue sign with the P on it is the sign and the cars you see next to it are actually in the rest area. Yes..... right by the road. This road is also a highway or "motorway" I guess they would call it an "A" road. You can go 60 miles an hour on it. Very nerve racking. And the wide white lines between the roads is only at this rest area, normally you would only have a single white dotted line between you and the cars coming the other way. So, I have adjusted very well to driving on the "wrong side" of the road, but really wish they would widen the roads just a bit!
There are no restrooms either, but many have mobile trailers that sell food or flowers. (The essentials of all travel).

Air Force Ball

This weekend was the celebration of the 60th Anniversary of the Air Force. We helped celebrate the 50th on a rooftop gala in Egypt and now the 60th in England at the Air Force Ball in an airplane hanger.

Can't really see it but they had dancers to entertain and hired a caterer from Ramstein, Germany for the food. Nice time and met some more people.

Sat with a couple from England that were celebrating their 35th anniversary. He was an honorary deputy engineer for the base. She taught business at the "College" which is 16-18 year olds. Sounded a lot like our vocational schools. She explained that at 16, the student has several options, "college", University, or to end their education. She mentioned about 2 other options, but wasn't able to explain them well enough for me to understand! Anyway, University tract enabled them to go on to what we call college, they call University. She did say that college tract also could result in University too. (Very confusing) It all depends on their examinations of course and I've been hearing a lot about them in the news recently as their results were recently published. It seems to be a very big deal!

Lakenheath Lancers

Mike heading to school on Friday.

His Lakenheath number is one off from when he played for Carroll

They played a practice game today (Saturday). Mike is noseguard. Next week is their first real game at Heidelburg. They will travel by bus. After the game, all sweaty but happy!

Misc.

This is the manned train crossing I talked about before

Along the coast view

Don and Mike walking the beach of Cromer

Jeanne waiting for lunch in Lavenham

One of the beautiful gardens in Lavenham

Just some misc. shots that I forgot in the other posts. Enjoy. I'm done for a while! Jeanne

Lavenham

I wonder if this is the town that originated the poem?

Note the bow in the beam!

I liked this door

Right next to the door was this beautiful hanging basket.

On Wednesday, a friend and I went to the town of Lavenham. It's about 1 hour from us. It was my first road trip in my little "Clio" Renault. The town is an old Wool making town and is known now for it's crooked buildings.

Cromer

Cromer's broadwalk

Along the coast

The next city we hit on Monday was Cromer. It is an old fishing town and they have a nice "Promanade" or boardwalk.

Sheringham

Filling the engine with water

Jeanne and Mike by the passenger cars

On Monday (Labor Day) we went to the coast of England, north of us. It was sunny, but very cold by the sea. This town, Sheringham has a steam engine that operates between two cities. Didn't ride on it this time, but definitely something to do next time.

Ely Cathedral

An English lady volunteered to take our pictures in the church. Low and behold her husband had lived in New Jersey for awhile, with his job, and it was in Hackensack, New Jersey where my father lived! Small world.

Outside view from the side

Okay, these will be the last pictures of Ely. Although, if you ever go to the Cathedral, you might see a picture of us in the guide book. When we went to services this past Sunday, they were photographing for the guide book. We were told to smile like we were enjoying the service! The service was 1 1/2 hours long (Episcopalian church ....and I thought Catholic services were long!). As you can imagine, it is tough to smile that long (especially for Michael in church!)
The church is beautiful. There were even quilt patterns (Ohio stars) on the tile floors!

Haircut Dilemma

I've been looking around for a place to get my hair cut. What to you think about this shop?

Proper Tea

Found out the "Proper" way to have tea in England. They do use teabags now, but evidently don't like Lipton's tea. (Our movers appreciated the tea break, "even though it was Lipton's.")

Afternoon tea is usually served between four and five o'clock as dinner is often between 7-8 pm.
They have scones which is a bread/bisquit type with preserves on it, they also put clotted cream on top. I had a scone at the British Culture class and couldn't find the cream they were talking about. It finally dawned on me that the lump of what I thought was butter on top of the scone, was the clotted cream. I never thought of cream as coming in a solid form! (It was very good and I didn't ask how many calories was in it...I'm sure they took them all out!)

The proper way to pour tea is to put the cream(milk) in the teacup first, so as to not crack the delicate teacup. (Makes sense)

High Tea is served around six o'clock and is not only tea, but a "hearty evening meal." Supposedly Americans confuse this with afternoon tea. (Guess I won't now!)

Roadside scenes

These huts in the picture are actually pig's "Pens". Guess English pigs are not as social as American pigs....they have their own houses!

English water towers are different too..... Most of them are square and this one has cellular phone antennas on the sides. Europeans call cell phones "Handies" or "Mobiles"

This was in a town on the way to Ely. I thought I was in Holland!

Ely Market and Cathedral

Went to Ely today and stopped at this market. On Thursday they had a farmer's market with Fresh produce, flowers and such. Today they had a Craft market, which looks like they sell a little of everything. The stores are open on Sat and Sunday. But on Sunday some stores have to close earlier than others. I went to a class on Friday about English culture and they said that the larger stores can't stay open as long on Sunday. I guess they are trying to support the smaller stores.

In the background you can see the cathedral. I haven't gone in it yet. Supposedly this past week they were filming an "American" movie. Don't ask me who is in it or what movie, I'll have to investigate. Anyway, it's also where part of the movie Harry Potter was filmed.

Some interesting facts about England that I picked up on... the UK (including Ireland, Scotland and Wales) is approximately the same size as Oregon. And they have a population density of 646 people per square mile. (Total population nearly 60 million). No wonder they build house right on top of each other.

The area we are in has a lot of names that have "Fen"with them. A Fen is a swampland or marsh that has been drained and converted to farmland. Evidently Ely is an Island, but they have reclaimed a lot of the land. I would not have known it was an island.