BBC Radio 4

When we lived in the US I listened to NPR a lot, and even though I still catch some of my favorite programs via Podcast, I have turned into a total BBC Radio 4 junkie. I have a radio in the kitchen and if I am in there, Radio 4 is on. I even time my cooking to listen to The Archers at 7:03 every night (except Saturday).

In the US I listened to NPR when driving but driving here is so intense that only in the last few months have I become relaxed enough to have the radio on.

Listen to BBC Radio Online or by Podcast

Radio Podcasts are not restricted by location as BBC TV is – just go into iTunes and subscribe or go to the Radio 4 website to listen online or download podcasts.

BBC Radio 4: Listen online, download podcasts, read about their shows.

Quiz Shows are an Excuse for Comedy

Many British comedy shows, on TV and Radio, are presented in a quiz show format. My favorite Radio 4 show is Friday Night Comedy – The News Quiz which is a group of comedians talking about the week’s news events. But listen closely, they are on teams and the host Sandi Toksvig is keeping score. No one really cares about the scores but the winner is declared at the end.

My favorite BBC Radio 4 Shows

• Friday Night Comedy – Comedy related to the week’s new events. There are two formats: The News Quiz and The Now Show.
• Just a Minute – Panelists have to talk on a topic without repetition or hesitation. Way more interesting than it sounds.
• Broadcasting House – Sunday morning news show.
• Desert Island Discs – Interviews based on picking music they would want if stranded on a desert island.

BBC iPlayer

One of the many things that I like about living in England is the television. The BBC produces great dramas, comedies and news shows. Every household pays a TV license  (£145.50 per year) which pays for the BBC, so you have public ownership of the part of the media.There are four BBC channels, creatively named One, Two, Three and Four. People tell me that each has a different “flavor” of show, but I have not figured it out yet.

There are other channels that are not part of the BBC – ITV, Channel Four, Channel 5 (not to be confused with BBC Four and BBC Five).

Most of the British TV channels have websites where you can watch the shows if you missed them when they were broadcast. But, you can’t watch them online if you don’t live in the United Kingdom. Unless you use a VPN.

Use a VPN to Watch British TV in the US

The British TV websites check your location by your IP address and block their online programs if you are coming onto the internet from a location outside of the United Kingdom. The same happens if you are in the UK and want to watch US programs online. A message pops up telling you that programs are not available in your area.

There is a simple solution – run a VPN (Virtual Private Network) on your computer. This lets you go onto the Internet through one of their gateways, giving you a IP address from the location you choose and “fooling” the TV websites. This works for any websites that check your location before delivering content.

I use WiTopia Personal VPN Basic for $49.99/year. The software is easy to install. When you want to be online with a different IP location, you start their software and choose the city to login from. I login to Los Angeles to watch the Daily Show online. When in the US I login to London to watch the BBC iPlayer. There are other VPNs available, and some are free, but I have been happy with WiTopia.

The VPN does not affect how your computer works. You go online through your Internet provider and then login to your VPN to change your IP address. Watch the shows on your computer or connect your computer to your TV set with an HDMI cable.

Websites for British TV

• BBC iPlayer – Watch shows online (streaming) or download iPlayer software which lets you download shows to your computer and keep them for a limited time (so you can watch offline).
• Channel 4 OD (On Demand) – They show a lot of US series on this channel but they also produce British series. The real estate show Location, Location, Location is on Channel Four.
• ITV Player – You can watch some of the really crappy British TV on ITV, but they also produced the very popular (and somewhat crappy but still very watchable) Downton Abbey.
• Channel 5 Demand5 – More crappy British TV.

Great Shows to Watch

Most shows are available online for a week or two after they are broadcast in the UK.

• BBC One is currently showing Birdsong, a two part drama based on the book by Sebastian Faulks.
• On BBC Four we are nearing the end of Borgen, a Danish drama (English subtitles) by the people who brought The Killing. You can still watch this online. It is a great political drama. Click the Episode Guide to see the shows available online.
• Channel 4 OD is showing The Fabulous Baker Brothers, an excellent cooking show featuring the owner of our local Hobbs Bakery!

Follow Slow Europe on Facebook – I post when good shows are broadcast.

This Is Not How It Should Be

Eventually media companies will stop blocking online visitors from other countries. It is kind of crazy that we have to do this to get access.

How We Watch TV in The UK

Cable TV is not as available here as it is in the US. Some larger cities have it but most of us use Freeview or subscribe to SKY TV.

• Freeview comes either through your antenna or a satellite and, as the name implies, is free. No monthy fee. You receive all the BBC channels, ITV, Channel 4,Channel 5 and more.
• Sky TV is owned by Rupert Murdoch. If you subscribe to SKY, they put a satellite on your roof and give you an SKY box with a digital recorder (similar to Comcast in the US but not as good as TIVO). Their SKY Atlantic channel gets all the US HBO and Showtime series – but we see them with commericials! The shows arrive here six months to a year after they broadcast in the US.

Just Days After the States

I have seen this in advertisements for US TV shows. For example “Watch House just days after the States”. Most good US TV shows get here eventually but some of the really popular ones arrive almost immediately. In March we will be watching the new season of Mad Men “just days after the states”.

Painswick, Queen of the Cotswolds

We spent much of this year looking at houses for rent. We had not intended to stay longer than a year in the first cottage we rented, but we ended up staying a year and a half because we could not find something that we liked better.

I came to England with a North American sensibility towards housing. It did not matter that I had stayed in many vacation rentals on many vacations. I did not understand housing here – how people live, what you can expect in a house and a location, the types of places available. It took me six months of looking at rental houses to figure it out.

We found a good rental and moved in October. We are in a new village (Painswick), a new valley (Painswick Valley) and a very different type of house (in a converted mill complex beside the river). All this change and we are only 10 miles north of where we lived before. The views are not as good, but the walking trails are better. We are further from Bath, but closer to Cheltenham.

View of Painswick from our favorite walking trail

Renting a house in the Cotswolds is all about compromise. Okay, I barely fit into the shower and I have to walk up two flights of stairs from the front door to the bedroom, but I have a parking space! I live with the constant noise of a waterfall that 100 years ago drove the machinery in the mill, but I am a mile from the nearest busy road (not that I could hear the traffic anyway, over that waterfall). My neighbors are an inch away on both sides, but I have a lovely garden that gets the sun!

We moved from a furnished rental to an unfurnished house. This explains why I have not been writing any blog posts – I have been shopping. We have a household of furniture now, but it is a bit sparse, which is nice and makes it easier to clean. We went for a combination of Ikea (cheap), John Lewis (expensive), antiques (well priced compared to the US), used furniture (good value) and charity shop things (cheap). Our walls are decorated with paintings and interesting framed things loaned by a friend. On these dreary winter days we sit in a living room with thick stone walls, windows on three sides and a gas fireplace. Very comfortable. When the weather clears, we put on our boots and walk out through the fields and woods.

I have a lot more to say about what I learned during this search and will be posting more in the new year.

But for now – Happy New Year!! – can you believe it will be 2012?

Most days we had breakfast at the farmhouse. Some mornings Chris got up early and buzzed out to the nearest bakery for croissants! I made coffee the first morning but it was so bad that Chris was forced to take over and we had good coffee every morning after that. (In my defence, I think I just measured wrong.) Every morning we went somewhere, did something, had a nice lunch sitting outside (except one day when it rained – we ate inside), did something else, then went back to the lovely farmhouse. In the evening we made dinner together. One night we went out for pizza. Considering that we were one foodie (Chris) and two fussey eaters (I am a vegetarian and Steve is sort of but not quite), we all ate very well, and had some very good wine.

We did not consult any restaurant lists or look for recommendations. We planned what we wanted to do each day and when it was around 1pm we stopped and looked at a few restaurant menus, then chose what suited us best. Click on the first photo and walk your way through our week of lunches.

Our Schedule

Friday – Morning coffee and croissant in Condom, lunch in Condom in a restaurant near the church.
Saturday – Lunch in Montreal near Seviac Roman Villa.
Sunday – Lunch in Vic Fezensac between searches for Roman Towers.
Monday – Lunch on a rainy day in Eauze.
Tuesday – Mid-morning coffee and lunch at the market in Fleurance. Pizza for dinner in Condom.
Wednesday – Our last day was hot so we stayed close to home. Lunch on the patio. Dinner on the patio.

How fast a week goes! And we did a lot more than just eat.

We spent the week at Au Chicot, a beautiful farmhouse in the countryside near Condom. The house is beautiful and spacious. The views are stunning. The location is very good – just 10 mins drive into Condom (we loved this town) and close to many other interesting towns and sites. Highly recommended.

Fragrance Free Please

British Airways are considering pumping fragrance into the cabins on their planes to replicate the experience customers have when walking into expensive department stores. I sneeze and then get a headache when I walk through the perfume section of expensive department stores and I don’t want to spend 10 hours on a flight having that same experience. British Airways already use scents in their Executive Lounge in Heathrow and want to put this fragrance on the planes as part of their “Make Flying Special” marketing campaign.

Instead why don’t we “Make Flying Special” with better air circulation and air filters? There is no need to add potentially harmful chemicals to the air we breathe when flying.

Fragrances are a long way from natural flower essences. They are created in a lab and use a variety of chemicals to project the scent and make it last. Manufactures do not have to list the chemicals used and very little testing has been done to determine their affects on people. I have listed articles below with more information about fragrances.

Many people are affected by these chemical fragrances. Symptoms range from the ones that I get (sneezing, headache, metalic taste in my mouth) to asthma attacks or feeling very ill or losing the ability to think clearly (brain fog). A recent study indicates that many Americans are sensitive to fragrances: “… 30.5% of the general population reported scented products on others irritating, 19% reported adverse health effects from air fresheners, and 10.9% reported irritation by scented laundry products vented outside”. (Study by Caress SM, Steinemann AC, link is below.)

Everyone who knows Steve and I know how we struggle with this. We keep our home fragrance-free. We ask anyone visiting to not wear perfume or scented hair products. When possible we travel with our own sheets and pillow cases to avoid breathing in that “fresh, clean smell” – which is just a bunch of chemicals mixed with laundry soap.

When flying I pay extra on British Airways to book seats ahead of time so that we are sitting in a row of two – so we won’t have someone possibly wearing perfume sitting beside us. I guess I can save that money now because the cabin will be wearing perfume!

I fly British Airways several times a year, between the US and England and within Europe. I am pleading with you British Airways – don’t do this – for the health of the airline staff and passengers. We do not need fragrances on airplanes and many of us don’t want it.

How to Tell British Airways That You Don’t Want This

Please help me talk British Airways out of doing this!

• Tweet them @British_Airways . I have tweeted about this. You could retweet me – @PaulineK .
• Post on the British Airways Executive Club page on Facebook. I have a post about this issue there and you could add a comment.
• Email them from the British Airways website (click the Email Us tab)
• Post a comment on this blog post.
• Post a comment on articles listed below.

Articles About British Airways Introducing Scents

• Smell the BA not the BO, British Airways to Introduce Signature Scent on Flights, Jaunted, August 24 2011
• Fragrance of flight planned to improve cabin experience, The Independent, August 25 2011
• Airomatherapy, BA jets to smell like posh Stores, The Sun, August 23 2011

Articles About Fragrances

• Why Go Fragrance Free? , Cleaner Indoor Air Campaign – Pamphlet about the health affects of the chemicals used to create fragrances and why we are better off avoiding them.
• Hazards are hiding in fragranced consumer products by Dr. Anne Steinemann, February 10 2011 – Article about the toxic chemicals in fragrances.
• Prevalence of fragrance sensitivity in the American population, Caress SM, Steinemann AC., March 2009 – Research that found than many Americans are sensitive to the chemicals in fragrances. “… 30.5% of the general population reported scented products on others irritating, 19% reported adverse health effects from air fresheners, and 10.9% reported irritation by scented laundry products vented outside.”

Websites About Fragrances and Indoor Air Quality

• Environmental Working Group on Facebook
• The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics
• Cleaner Indoor Air

Spring at Ozleworth

Last year in England it was sunny and warm – even hot on some days – from mid-May to mid-September. Our rain jackets never left the boot of our car. I wore short sleeves all summer long. It rained for a few days in July, but we were traveling in France and missed it. For us it was the perfect British Summer.

But people said it was not a good summer. The school holiday schedule is different here than in the US. In the US students have a long summer break. School lets out in May or June and starts again in August or September (differs by region). In England schools have week-long mid-term breaks throughout the year at seemingly random times. One week I hear the laugher and footsteps of children walking down our hillside to the local school; the next week the mornings are silent. The summer break is August. Hence, August is the summer.

If we get two weeks of not-perfect sunny days in August, it is declared a bad summer. After last summer I read in the newspaper “the promised barbeque summer never happened!” I don’t barbeque, but it sure seemed like a barbeque summer to me!

This year summer started in March with a couple of weeks of sun and warmth. We spent many days hiking. On the warm days we headed to the woods for shade, as we do in summer, but the leaves were not out on the trees yet!

Bluebells in Woodchester Park

The weather changed to typical cool and wet for the first week of April when we were conveniently visiting Boulder and Santa Fe in the US (where we had 70 degree temps one day and snow the next – Rocky Mountain weather).

We returned to three more wonderful weeks of summer. Bluebells and Ransoms (Garlic flowers) bloomed in April, a month ahead of time. Farmers complained that their crops were not getting enough rain. A drought was declared in southern England.

This perfect weather lined up with a longer than usual mid-term break. They combined the long Easter weekend which came late this year (holidays on Friday and Monday) with the Royal Wedding (everyone got a day off for the Royal Wedding – no separation of Royal Family and State here) and the first May Bank Holiday (May has two Bank Holidays - one at the start, one at the end). People could take an 11-day holiday by combining these holidays and taking three days off work.

The people who decided to holiday in Britain got summer-like weather and avoided the crowded airports. Those who flew south to Spain, France or Italy has worse weather than we had here. A small victory for English weather.

I said “If this is all the summer we get this year, that will be okay”. But I didn’t mean it.

May started out good. We spent a hot and sunny week on the east Devon coast. After that it turned cool and wet. Followed by June which was cool and wet. And now we are half way through a cool and wet July. Is this the very British summer?

Blossoms Along the Cotswold Canal

We had visitors from Santa Fe in June who dressed in layers of sweaters and jackets and sometimes even wore ear muffs when we were out hiking. We had to cut back on the number of hikes because they didn’t want their travel clothes to be covered in mud.

In July we had a visitor from Portland, Oregon who is used to rain, so we hiked in the rain and through the mud. We did a four night mini-break with her to the Dorset coast and had good weather – we even went swimming in the sea! But after that the bad weather returned.

I am not complaining. It is just that when you have visitors, you notice the weather more because every day you want to be out and about.

Bad weather is not rain all day. Instead it is very changeable weather – sunny one minute, clouds rolling in and drizzle the next, sometimes a sudden strong downpour. Very nice, sunny days come along. There is an underlying warmth so even on the bad days all you need is a light jacket. When the day looks good, we go out hiking. When it looks dismal, we stay in and work.

I kind of like this weather. But I am looking forward to August and hoping for a barbeque summer.

Adam and a Cat

I was one of the judges of the European Experiences photo contest. People who have been on their tours sent in photos showing their experiences. Here are the 10 winners.

My friends Kathy and Charley Wood, who run European Experiences, are celebrating five years of doing small group tours of France, Italy, England and Austria. They do a great job – as is shown by these beautiful photos.

If you don’t want to spend days and weeks organizing every detail yourself, but do want to have a well planned trip to a special part of Europe, I recommend looking at Slow Travel Tours, a group of like-minded people who run small group tours. These are not tours by the busload, in a pack of people following someone holding up an umbrella, seeing someone’s idea of the “must sees”, but instead are intimate groups experiencing Europe in a special way.

This was my favorite photo by Sally from Washington, May 2010. Sally writes: “More than the fabulous places, our trip to France let us experience real life in the Luberon. This photo, entitled Relax, is actually a member of our group (Adam) sharing a sunny perch with a French feline. Animals help us to realize that no matter what corner of the world we may find ourselves in, we can always find something in common with the lives we cross paths with.”

In January the typical English winter weather arrived – overcast, drizzle, rain – bleak. We are both working on a new website project, so have been spending our time coding instead of hiking for the last several months. In contrast to the “best summer of my life” where we were out hiking all day long, now my life takes place in this cottage, with occasional outings for groceries and walks.

Even the cat is cabin bound. On cold days he goes outside for two minutes, then comes back into the house howling. Then he races up and down the stairs, in and out of rooms (this is a big cottage on three levels, so lots of running space), howling. Finally he settles down under a radiator and sleeps for 12 hours.

We had an exciting short break planned in Rome for the end of January, but we both came down with a flu and had to cancel at the very last minute (the morning we were supposed to be driving to Bristol airport). So instead of walking the Archaeological sites of Rome and Lazio, dropping into cafes for a quick coffee, having lovely long dinners together, we were both in bed exhausted and queasy.

Now we are recovering, the days are getting longer, the weather is mild, the sun is hitting our northern slope neighborhood and yesterday when walking in Woodchester Park, we came across a hillside of snowdrops. Spring is in the air.

See the Snowdrops

Snowdrops in Sapperton, Feb 2008

In England the Snowdrops arrive in February to tell us that Spring is just around the corner. Many estates and park areas open up on February weekends. Here is a list of places to see Snowdrops throughout England – Great British Gardens – Snowdrops 2011.

This week we have garden enthusiast friends visiting (W+R) and will be heading out to the Painswick Rococo Gardens who are famous for their Snowdrops. We visited these gardens last summer and they are lovely.

I hope to also visit Colesbourne Park, north of Cirencester and Rodmarton Manor, south of Cirencester.

I think the Snowdrops are going to yank me out of my winter malaise and get me thinking about the wonderful spring and summer ahead of us.

Hey, the sun is out! Gotta go …

Photos

See more photos of Snowdrops in Painswick Rococo Gardens on Cotswolder.

We were here in the Cotswolds four winters ago. January was cold and it snowed once, but it melted the next day. In February we had spring-like weather. We were test-driving England in winter and it passed.

However, each winter since has been cold and snowy. This country is not prepared for snow. It seems like people hope these three cold winters are coincidence and not a change in weather patterns.

The snow falls and much of it does not get cleared up. The temperatures never go above freezing in December and the snow does not melt away. The main roads are plowed and gritted but the side roads are not. The local government (council) have barrels of grit (a mixture of dirt and salt) throughout the neighborhoods and people use this on the lanes. Home and shop owners do not shovel the sidewalks (pavement*) and walking in town is difficult.

Many people live in old stone cottages or brick row houses (terraces). We don’t have garages – we are lucky if we have a parking spot – so cars sitting outside are covered in ice and snow. Cars are parked in odd places along the lanes because they can’t get up their driveways.

Last week Heathrow airport, the busiest in the world, could not cope with the snow and cancelled flights for several days. Trains to Europe and within England were shut down. Drivers had problems on the motorways.

This bad weather changed the Christmas season this year. Concerts were canceled. People did not do the usual Christmas shopping. When we got a day with milder weather and clear roads, the towns and parking lots were packed. We made it to the Cirencester Christmas Market but did not make it to the one in Bath. I wanted to visit some of the other market towns to see their lights and decorations, but we only took the car out when absolutely necessary.

We live down a mile of narrow lanes, ending with the very steep and very narrow lane that we are on. It takes us 30 minutes to get the snow and ice off the car and get it warmed up. We don’t need to go out often and can walk into town to get groceries, so for most of the month the car sits in our parking spot. The doors froze shut, so now I open and close them once a day.

I stopped telling people that “we are from Boulder and Santa Fe and are used to real snow and this is nothing” when we got our car stuck in our lane and had to be pushed out by three people who happened to be walking by. I blame the steep lane and the gravity force-field that grabbed our car and dragged it sideways down the hill. We don’t have snow tires or even a snow shovel, although we are on the waiting list for a snow shovel at Brutons in Nailsworth (fabulous locally owned hardware store).

Our cottage has a very good heating system but it broke down at the beginning of the cold snap (is this a cold snap when it has been going over four weeks?). Our neighbor gave us some electric heaters and the boiler was repaired two days later. There is a lovely cast iron fireplace in our cottage living room. We drove to a wood yard in the Toadsmoor Valley near Stroud and filled the car trunk (the boot) with cut wood for about £20. The cottage keeps warm and we keep bundled up. I put on wool long underwear when we go outside.

Buddy (our cat) spends most of the day sleeping on the floor under the radiator. He goes outside but comes back in after a couple of minutes howling loudly in frustration. He races around the house, up and down the two flights of stairs, in and out of the rooms. Then collapses under the radiator or sits on my desk staring at me, as if I control the weather.

Am I complaining about this winter? A bit. Maybe this is the price we pay for that perfect summer that stretched from May to September. I am happy to be past the shortest day of the year. It is pitch black at 4:30pm now and the sun does not hit our house or garden on our north-facing slope. All the neighbors complain to each other about this. Every day I look across the valley to Amberley which seems to sit in never-ending sunshine. I keep watching for houses to rent in Amberley – none so far.

So, here we are, spending the winter in England again – this is our third English winter. This time we have been here for almost eight months. I miss all my “stuff” back in our house in Boulder. When I am scraping the ice off the car, I think about the garage and the four wheel drive car that we have there. When I start a new knitting project and have to purchase needles, I think about all my knitting things in a box back in Boulder. I bought a few household things in the winter sales today, building our nest here.

We are settling in. We know many of our neighbors – we all live close together on this hillside, almost literally on top of each other. People are very friendly and helpful. There is a sense of “we are all in this together” which makes daily life here very pleasant. Once people admit that winters have returned to England (like they were 30 years ago), they will take it on and deal with it well, as they do everything else. But then again, I am not buying snow tires – maybe it won’t snow again!

Happy Holidays

We had a lovely Christmas and I hope you did too. Christmas day was cold with daytime temps well below freezing but the sun was out. Our friends in Stroud took us on a wonderful walk through woods and farmer’s fields. We had views over the Golden Valley towards Rodborough and Selsley and back to Stroud. It felt more like a Colorado or Northern New Mexico winter with cold, crisp air, blue skies and fields of deep dry snow.

A day of snow followed by days of warmer temps are in the forecast for next week. Maybe this was our winter. The snow drops should be blooming soon and the days are getting longer.

* Yes, the British term for sidewalk is pavement. Makes no sense to me. Isn’t the road also pavement?

Photos

Open space behind our house in Boulder

The week before the scheduled flight I started to crave Boulder and Santa Fe. I wanted to walk around Wonderland Lake, sit in my living room full of light from the big windows, get takeout Chinese food from the place beside Lucky’s Market in North Boulder. I wanted to breathe in that crisp morning air in Santa Fe, walk in the Ponderosa Pines on the mountain trails, get nachos from the drive-thru at Bumblebee. I wanted to go into the closet where I have all my things stored and root around in the boxes pulling out the things I want here. I even wanted to drive our old 4 Runner down I-25 along the Front Range despite having done that trip countless times in the past year.

We spent a few days thinking we would take the scheduled flight back and have a weekend in Boulder, but there was a Buffs game and all the hotels were booked. Then we thought we would reschedule to go back in November.

When planning a trip, one of the things I like to do is spend time visualizing what the trip will be like, to see if my itinerary works. We talk through every detail of the itinerary, thinking about how much time we want in each place, picturing what our days will be like. We did this for a trip to Boulder in November and could not convince ourselves it would be worth the effort. So I phoned British Airways, changed our flights to return in April and coughed up the change fee ($250 each).

Cows on Minchinhampton Commons

So, the decision is made. We won’t go back to the US until the spring and it will probably be a short visit to Boulder and Santa Fe. Then we will return to England for the summer. It has been an emotional time for me, these past few weeks. I love it here and want to stay forever, but who knows how I will feel in a year? So we take it in six months chunks. We can rent this cottage until next spring. We may need to find a different rental then, but there are lots of lovely places for rent in this area. We could take the opportunity to move to a different part of England or even to another country in Europe.

If I ever doubt my choice of spending a year here, I drive (or walk) up to Minchinhampton Common, my current “favorite place in the whole world”. Wide open spaces (like New Mexico and Colorado), big blue sky (with a few more clouds), fresh cool winds. The 600 acre commons is full of cows, cars, golfers (there is a golf course in one corner), walkers, runners, people flying kites, sometimes an ice cream truck – and there is plenty of space for everyone. It is heaven up there. The cows are still roaming free but soon they will be sent back to their barns for the winter and the commons will seem empty.

What I really want is to have parallel lives, to not have to make a choice, to experience everything. Having to do this serially takes time and patience.