Exchange Rate

When we first arrived in the UK the exchange rate was around $1.52 to £1.00. It made figuring the cost of things relatively easy: the price in pounds was about one and a half times as much in dollars. I would look at the price of an item and figure about what it was costing me in dollars.

The exchange rate has unfortunately not stayed the same during our time here, with the pound rising in value compared to the dollar. It has wavered up and down a little, but has not been anywhere near the $1.52 to £1.00 value that we had two plus years ago.

Right now it takes $1.90 to buy £1.00. I’ve gotten to the point where I just try not to think about it anymore when shopping. (Although it is quite shocking when entering expenditures into Quicken to see that the £14 movie I bought thinking it was a cheap price cost me close to $30.00. Ironically, £14 for a new movie is a cheap price here.) There is no way we could afford to live here in the style to which we have become accustomed without Siemens paying our rent and utilities.

I sometimes wonder how people afford to live here. Even with the pound being valued so much more than the dollar, things still cost twice as much. Economics baffle me.

In the News – “The Farm”

Pig not degraded by televised sexual experience, British watchdog rules

LONDON (AFP) – In one of their more delicate rulings of recent years, British television watchdogs ruled that a pig sexually pleasured on television by a minor celebrity did not feel degraded by the experience. Dozens of viewers complained about the episode in so-called reality television show “The Farm”, in which a series of celebrities were sent to do tough work with agricultural crops and animals. The audience were treated to the sight of Rebecca Loos, the self-proclaimed ex-lover of England football captain David Beckham, stimulating the boar for 10 minutes to produce a flask of semen. Many viewers complained to the government’s Office of Communications (Ofcom) that this was “akin to bestiality”, while a leading animal charity condemned the scenes as “morbid and sordid”. But in a ruling released on Monday, Ofcom cleared broadcaster Channel Five of breaching decency standards, saying the procedure was perfectly normal. “The task performed by Rebecca Loos is one that occurs regularly on UK farms. It was properly supervised by a qualified veterinary surgeon and was carried out for a genuine purpose — to artificially inseminate the pigs on the ‘celebrity farm’,” the ruling said. It added: “We don’t believe that the scene was degrading or harmful to the boar.”

(I wavered back and forth on whether to include this story. I remember hearing about the episode when it aired, so was interested to see what had happened in the aftermath. Not much, apparently.)

Advent Carol Service

This evening marked my first Christmas-y activity for the year – an Advent Carol Service at Saint Mary’s. Both Steve and Cara would have sung in the choir this evening if Steve wasn’t in the US and Cara wasn’t sick with a cold. As it was there were less than 20 people there, but it was a nice service all the same. We had readings prophesying the coming of Christ interspersed with carols. As is usual here when singing church songs, only one of the carols was familiar to me: O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.

At the end was a blessing which I’ll pass on to anyone reading this:

Go forth into the world in peace;
be of good courage;
hold fast that which is good;
render to no man evil for evil;
strengthen the faint-hearted;
support the weak;
help the afflicted;
honour all men;
love and serve the Lord,
rejoicing in the power of the Holy Spirit.

And the blessing of God Almighty,
the Father, the son and the Holy Spirit,
be upon you, and remain with you forever.

Amen!

Thanksgiving

This year we actually had a Thanksgiving dinner! (Quite a nice change from our usual trip to the orthodontist for John and Philip.) At St. Mary’s there is another American couple, David and Kim Kenley. They called a couple of weeks ago to see if we’d like to get together for Turkey Day. We readily agreed and had a lovely time with them. We had all the traditional foods, with the addition of brussel sprouts (which people here eat for Christmas).

David’s parents Bill and Marilyn are here visiting from Florida, so we got to share the day with them as well. They introduced us to the game Rummikub, which kept us entertained for several hours. John David has a killer instinct for the game and I had to work hard if I didn’t want him playing my tiles as well as his own.

Before today I had to rearrange my usual volunteer day at the Bridge in order to be free for Thanksgiving dinner. The people I was talking to about it seemed to know of the holiday Thanksgiving, but not necessarily when it was taking place. One lady expressed disbelief that we’d eat turkey at Thanksgiving and then go and have it again at Christmas time. (She may have a point.)

In the News — British TV Poll

Baywatch’ bombs in British TV poll

LONDON (AFP) – “Baywatch” has won the dubious honour of being the worst foreign television series ever seen in Britain, according to a poll of the nation’s broadcasting executives.
At its height in the 1990s, the series — which starred the likes of David Hasselhoff and Pamela Anderson as lifeguards on a California beach — was the world’s most popular show, seen by one billion viewers in 140 countries. But respondents to the poll — conducted by Broadcast, a trade publication — felt otherwise. “The appeal to a certain demographic of a series about a muscular lifeguard and his crew of pneumatic young helpers with raging hormones was enough to sustain this show through 12 years despite a script of mind-numbing predictability: beachgoer is saved from drowning,” Broadcast said.

Second place went to “The Anna Nicole Show,” followed by “The Dukes of Hazzard”, “Wild Palms” and “Manimal”. In sixth place was “The Jerry Springer Show” — which is not only still on the air in Britain, but inspired a hit West End musical as well. Topping the list of the best offshore TV fare ever seen in Britain was “The Simpsons,” which Broadcast called the “undisputed champion” of US imports”, followed by “MASH”, “24,” “The Larry Sanders Show” and “Hill Street Blues”.

In the News — loo blockages

Luxury rolls ‘behind loo blockages’

LONDON (Press Association) — The popularity of luxury toilet tissue is putting a strain on the nation’s drains, according to a study. Thicker toilet paper and moisture wipes are being blamed for causing more bathroom blockages. Energy giant British Gas, which has a plumbing arm with 1.2 million customers, unblocked more than 35,000 toilets in the first six months of this year – a 10% increase on the same period last year. It believes modern toilet papers are partly to blame and commissioned research to find out how long it took different products to disintegrate in water. Independent scientific research firm Advantica put a number of toilet papers and moisture wipes through a series of tests. A “low price” toilet tissue from Sainsbury’s took just three minutes to break up while a recycled variety from the same supermarket lasted a minute longer. At the other end of the scale, Kandoo, moist wipes designed for children, failed to break down after five days. The same was true for moist wipes made by Andrex. Alan McLaughlin, spokesman for British Gas, said: “The explosion in luxury toilet paper is placing the UK’s toilets under considerable strain. Our tests have revealed that some paper takes hours to disintegrate. This is resulting in our plumbers being called out more often.” He added: “It seems quite clear from these results that toilet paper specifically aimed at kids might be kind to them but could be putting real strain on your pipe work and drains. Even newspaper broke down quicker.”

British Gas recently acquired Dyno Rod, the UK’s largest emergency plumbing business.

Apple London

Today marks the opening of the first Apple Store in Europe. Lucky us, it just happened to be opening in London. Philip and John got on the first train into London at 0620 this morning to get into the queue. They were hoping to be one of the first 300 in line so they could buy a “Lucky Bag” – £700 worth of loot for £250. Unfortunately, many others had the same idea and there were already 600 people in front of them by the time they got there at 0730. The end of the queue was three blocks away from the front door by then. The weather was a chilly 3C. By the time Cara and I got there around 0900 John and Philip were pretty chilly. We got to run off a queue jumper who made the mistake of trying to worm his way right into the middle of our family while we weren’t looking. Even if he hadn’t put himself there it would have been obvious – after standing there for hours you tend to become familiar with the people that are standing around you. After a few minutes of those of us around him looking at him – I finally decided it was my responsibility as the brash American to tell him to bug off. So I did. Once I started questioning his right to be there the Brits chimed in as well, but I think they might have let him stand there if I hadn’t said anything. The queue continued to get longer as we approached the 1000 opening time. I think at it’s longest point it was six blocks. As 1000 approached all the Apple Store employees came along the queue giving high fives and whooping. 1000 came and went and we inched forward. They only let small groups in at a time so the store would not be overcrowded. We stood there until about 1130 when it finally got to be our turn to go into the store. We were fortunate enough to be in the first 2000 people in the door so we got a free Apple t-shirt. Of course, the t-shirts were all the same size – extra large. But, we had a great time looking around the store at all the cool Mac products and I even bought a silver iPod Mini (couldn’t help myself – so cute). To see the photos click here: Apple Store Opening.

Stonehenge

After visiting Stonehenge again today, I got to wondering if I had ever blogged about it. A quick look at my Blogger page seems to indicate that I have not! Woeful oversight on my part.

My first visit to Stonehenge was many, many years ago. How many is many, many? Suffice it to say it was more than thirty years ago. At that time visitors could walk right up to the stones. These days vandals and taggers have ruined our chances for a close up look, but the addition of the rope barrier does make it easier to get a photo that does not have people crawling all over the stones. We are fortunate in that our English Heritage membership gets us into Stonehenge. It’s one of my favorite places to go. (Thanks to Mark and Michele for giving me an excuse to go again today!)

Here’s a link to an interesting article from English Heritage: Stonehenge Information. (Oh, and the photo is Andrew and Philip earlier this year.)

More on Remembrance Day and Poppies

In Flanders Fields
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

“In Flanders Fields” is one of the most famous poems about World War I. It was written by Canadian physician John McCrae, who died of pneumonia and meningitis while serving in a field hospital in Belgium. The poppies referred to in the poem grew in profusion in Flanders fields where war casualties had been buried; they became a symbol of Remembrance Day. It reads:

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,

In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

In Flanders fields.

God Save the Queen?

Yesterday was Remembrance Sunday (see last years post for more on the day).

The Remembrance Day service has a specific order that is followed every year, including the singing of God Save the Queen. Amazingly they expected us all to know the words! (A good opportunity to tease the curate about the fact that she neglected to announce the song number.) The song is actually in the hymnal, even if it wasn’t announced beforehand for the ignorant Americans in attendance. Here are the words, sung to the same tune as My Country ‘Tis of Thee:

GOD save our gracious Queen,
Long live our noble Queen,
God save The Queen!
Send her victorious,
Happy and glorious,
Long to reign over us,
God save The Queen!

Thy choicest gifts in store
On her be pleased to pour,
Long may she reign:
May she defend our laws,
And ever give us cause
To sing with heart and voice
God save The Queen!

Nor on this land alone,
But be God’s mercies known
From shore to shore:
Lord, make the nations see
That men should brothers be,
And form one family
The wide world o’er.

When there is a King, the words just get switched to the masculine. Just think of all the work involved in updating hymnals, changing the currency, mailboxes and so on that have some reference to the monarch on them! (And, yes, we did filtch their music for our song, not vise versa.)