New Backyard

Catch me if you can!

Cambridge Winter Ale Festival

Since we've arrived in England, Jason and I have enjoyed trying out the local beers.  Even though beer hasn't really ever been my libation of choice (I do love my wine), I appreciate things that are locally produced and have been made with great attention to detail. It's actually quite fun to taste the flavors in each sip, just like I would typically do with wine. Anyways, a few weekends ago we spent a Friday night at the Cambridge Winter Ale Festival, a seasonal event that is put on by the University Social Club.

 There were two floors, each with a full wall of Cask Ales. Cask ale, often referred to in pubs as "real ale," is basically unfiltered and unpasteurized beer that is conditioned and served from a cask without the addition of carbon dioxide pressure that you would typically find in keg beer (thanks Wikipedia). We've personally found that most real ales are served at room temperature, although I've heard that's a myth.

My favorite was The English Ale - which was first brewed to celebrate the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. What can I say? I'm not ashamed of my infatuation with William and Kate. 

It was also interesting to see the variety of people that came to the festival...students, professors, and locals of all ages. 

And new friends!

There was also an international section. If you look closely, you will see representation from our very own PNW! 

We finished the night at one of Cambridge's most famous pubs - The Eagle. 

Turns out it isn't just famous for it's ambience and rustic decor, but actually for something pretty substantial.

Cheers!

IKEA

Imagine a trip to Walmart and Target the day after Thanksgiving. Or better yet, a trip to Costco the day before Thanksgiving. Yeah, both are not fun, which is why I try to avoid those kinds of shopping experiences at all costs. That's basically how I felt after spending 5 hours in a British Ikea on a Sunday.  Oh and btw, American children are not the only ones who are misbehaved.

When in Rome...

I now fully understand the value of Ikea's "flat-packed" boxes. For places like this, where there isn't a single SUV to be found in the parking lot.

From the car to the temporary holding area of the cottage until we move. Dexter's guarding (or waiting for dinner).

Wine, anyone?!?

Ely (Eee - lee)

Ely is yet another charming market town, about 15 miles north of Cambridge. It has one of the most popular cathedrals in all of the UK.

 

I was ecstatic to have finally found the idyllic English countryside I have been waiting for.

Fira and Dexter were pretty excited too. They even posed for a family picture.

Aren't they cute???

The cathedral has actually been part of popular culture - The Other Boleyn Girl and parts of The King's Speech were filmed there.

There was a lovely walking path along the river with houseboats and swans (Dexter barked at them). 

A short walk up the hill to get to the center of town. 

Perhaps my favorite part of all of Ely was the tea room.

Jason even enjoyed it too. Pictured below, looking a little extra gingaaa.

The owners of the tea room live on the second floor - it wasn't until about 10 years ago they converted the bottom floor of their home into the restaurant.

Jason had a chocolate tea and I had a citrus mango green tea.

We stayed until they closed!

Watch the left!

Driving in the UK has certainly been a sharp learning curve. If Jason got a pound for every time I screamed "watch the left" while being a passenger in the car, he could probably buy a whole case of Jaffa Cakes. Nothing against his driving but more due to the nature of driving on the left side of the road. You would think the natural tendency would be to go to the right in order to be in the lane you're used to, but I think the tendency is actually to hug the left side of road because you're so frightened by oncoming traffic (and end up freaking out the person sitting in the front passenger's seat).

Overall, I have to say Jason has done a great job adapting to the new way of driving. It was super challenging in the beginning operating a stick shift with his left hand, but once we transitioned to our more permanent automatic car it's been much easier. Round-a-bouts are still tricky, and there are TONS of them! They essentially serve the same purpose of intersections with stoplights in the US. Luckily, if you turn left into a round-a-bout and you miss your turn off to the correct motorway, you can just keep driving around and around until you gather yourself and figure out where you need to go. But you have to remember to yield give way to the cars coming on your right.

Jason was required to take a British driving test a week after we arrived, which he proudly scored 100% on. The officer administrating the test even thought he cheated. No, he's just one of those people who can annoyingly memorize things from text books and doesn't have to study that much. Anyways...throughout the process of learning the material, there were some British driving laws that were particularly interesting:

• There is a national speed limit of 60 mph, even on two-lane, undivided, dark roads in the middle of nowhere. Scary!
• British vehicles have rear fog lights that need to be turned off when it's not foggy so you don't "dazzle" other drivers
• Just because there's a crosswalk doesn't necessarily mean the pedestrian has the right of way. There are only certain zebra-like crosswalks in which the pedestrians have the right of way.
• Semi-trucks, aka lorry trucks, feel it's their role to flash their brights on the motorway to tell you when they think it's safe to pass or change lanes. So you're constantly getting "dazzled" by lorry trucks.
• You can get a drunk driving ticket even for intent. For example, if the police officer sees you even walking toward a car with a set of keys (and they suspect you've been drinking) they can ticket you, even if it's not your car.
• The streets in towns and villages are called carriage-ways as they were originally meant for horse-drawn carriages. 
• The presence of street lights indicates you've entered a town or village, which also indicates the speed limit goes down to 30mph.
• Even though the metric system is used for mostly everything, distances and speed limits are still listed in miles and mph.
• Lastly, I discovered our auto insurance policy doesn't even cover accidents from uninsured motorists because it apparently isn't an issue in the UK.

When we went to pick up our permanent car, I had my opportunity to try out the whole driving thing for about 45 miles. This was definitely an adventure. And we all know that driving a vehicle is not exactly one of my strong suits. Good thing I won't be providing home-based therapy services in the UK. Cheers!

British Dog Food

I think it's safe to say the pups are eating the filet mignon of dog food (and costing us a pretty penny). Before our move, I researched the possibility of the dogs staying on their same food that I typically buy at Mud Bay. No dice. After checking out Amazon UK and many other online pet supply sites in the UK, I quickly discovered there is limited accessibility to US sold pet foods (even though Fira and Dexter's particular food is manufactured in British Columbia). Since we give them grain free duck food to accommodate Dexter's allergies, we were also limited on selection. Anyways, I researched quite a bit and read a ton of reviews. I finally settled on Lily's Kitchen Goose and Duck Feast with Berries for their wet food and James Wellbeloved Duck and Rice for their dry. Both are very highly regarded in the UK and can easily be ordered from Amazon UK. Luckily, the food arrived a few days after we did.

A closer look at the "composition" was fascinating - botanical herbs? milk thistle? rosehips? dandelion root? Seriously, I can't make this stuff up. The dogs might be traumatized by a cross-Atlantic move but at least they are eating well!

Day trip to Bury

We decided on Bury as our first official outing with the dogs. We couldn't fathom leaving them at the cottage after everything they've been through the last month. I think we also wanted to prove to ourselves that we can actually take them exploring with us and that we won't let them keep us from fulfilling our wanderlust. Besides, there are miles and miles of new places for them to sniff...

"Bury"as the locals call it, properly called Bury St Edmunds, is a historic market town in Suffolk, about a 30 minutes drive east of Cambridge. It's known for its medieval architecture and the beautiful Cathedral and Abbey gardens adjacent to the town center. 

We parked in an extended stay lot a short walk away from the town center. I was desperately in need of a coffee and was excited to try something local. I popped into the first cafe we spotted while Jason was on doggy-duty.

While waiting for our drinks, I could hear Dexter barking at something...turns out it was a British police officer. Good thing the officer thought he was cute. Next stop was a walk through the gardens with lots of sniffing for the pups and people watching for me. 

After our long walk, we decided it was time to put Fira and Dexter back in the car while we explored the rest of the town. I'm sure some of you are thinking, you left your dogs in the car?!?! But keep in mind we are still working out the kinks and figuring out what's best for them. We could tell they were ready to settle down and rest. And we would never, ever have left them in the car if it was summer. 

The day continued with touring the inside of the Cathedral...

Strolling through the town and browsing the shops...

Followed by a charming pub on a quiet side street. 

Before we secured our house in Cambridge, we contemplated living in Bury, but ultimately decided that it may not provide enough opportunities for us initially. I could definitely see us living here eventually. 

It was a successful first outing with the dogs and a great day overall. When we got back to the car, we snuck up on them and saw they were sound asleep!