The Pub Quiz

Although there are several pubs closer to us (which I have to admit we've never visited), The Lion is our pub of choice. Almost from our first day in the country, our neighbors, the Juggins, helped us to understand that not all pubs are "real pubs" anymore, and that The Lion is our closest "real pub."

[For the record, according to David Juggins, "real pubs" have locally brewed real ale (as opposed to international brand -- or worse, American -- lager), a friendly  neighborhood atmosphere, and do not have video games, TVs (except during extremely important football matches), or recorded music played so loudly that people can't talk.]

The Lion public house (or "pub" for short)

Most "real pubs" -- and even many of the other kind -- feature a pub quiz at least one night of the week. At The Lion quiz night is on Wednesday, and the quiz usually gets underway about 9:30 p.m. The quizmaster is Phillip Juggins, 30-year-old son of David and Kate, who began this role when he was a part-time employee at the pub in his university years, and has continued since.

Quiz teams are formed around a table, and a team may have any number of players from two or three up to a dozen or so. There is no limit, just how many can fit around a table. Each player contributes one Pound (currently about $1.55) to play. The quizmaster collects and leaves one quiz sheet for the team plus a number of numbered tickets equal to the number of paying players.

"Our" team usually consists of David Juggins, Chris (a mate of Phillip's, about the same age), Richard (slightly older, a solicitor -- that is, a lawyer who works with contracts, and unlike a barrister, does not appear in court), sometimes another Chris (who is on the staff at "the Uni" -- that is, the University of Nottingham), and whatever friend, drop-in, or odd American happens to show up.

The quiz sheet is in two parts. "Round Two" consists of questions or puzzles to be solved at the team's leisure between the twenty questions of "Round One," which are read orally over a period of about an hour.

Last week's "Round Two," as an example, consisted of parallel lists of countries and their capital cities. Some capital cities appeared without countries, other countries appeared with a blank for the capital city. The task was to correctly fill in all of the blanks. Some were obscure -- the capital of Slovenia, for example (answer: Ljubljana).

"Round One" questions run the gamut from, "What actor played the role of 'Mickey O'Neil' in the movie 'Snatch'?" (answer: Brad Pitt) to "What English football team plays its home games at Keepmoat Stadium?" (answer: The Doncaster Rovers).

Obviously, I'm not much good with most of these questions. I can sometimes contribute an answer to some uniquely American question, such as "Which U.S. state has no border that is a straight line?" (answer: Hawaii -- but I got it wrong), or "Which American President was the first to survive being shot while in office?" (answer: Ronald Regan -- but I missed that one, too). When our students occasionally attend the quiz, they are similarly helpful.

The winning team receives a gallon of ale, one pint at a time, issued as winners' tokens that can be exchanged at the bar. An imperial gallon is 20% larger than a U.S. gallon, but the pints are 20% larger, as well. Obviously these eight pints go farther with a smaller team, so our English friends are gracious to allow us to participate.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is a uniquely American (U.S. and Canadian) holiday, so Thursday of this week was just another Thursday here in the UK. In fact, because of their class schedules, students had very little enthusiasm for celebration until Friday evening. So that plan was set several weeks in advance.

We let each student invite one guest, and most did. Some were Brits, and others were other international students, including some from Germany, Portugal, Denmark, and Tanzania. Fortunately we have the church hall available to us, so we had enough space for everyone.

Guests begin to arrive.

We could have easily had 40 or more, but a number of people who usually are invited (neighbors, some professors from the university, people who do business with us, etc.) weren't able to make it. We could have invited more, but we thought it best to keep things as small as possible so that cooking abilities were not overstretched.

We managed to find a couple of small frozen turkeys in the grocery store this week, which was not a sure bet, as turkey is generally only on the British menu at Christmas. Fortunately, the Christmas stock is just starting to come in at most grocery chains now.

Preparations under way!

Some things, like pumpkin pie filling, just aren't to be found here at all (Mary and a student had to prepare un-carved pumpkins we'd been storing since Halloween in the old fashioned way.) Most of our guests had never been to a Thanksgiving before -- nor had they ever tasted things like "stuffing" or creamed corn casserole or pumpkin pie.

Students signed up to prepare various parts of the meal, and there were many exchanges of email back home, seeking Mom's special recipe for this, or Grandma's special recipe for that. Mary assigned preparation and oven times because of limited kitchen space. Everything was carefully scheduled, and everything turned out amazingly well!

Let's eat!

One of our students celebrated her 22nd birthday on Friday, and two others had 21st birthdays, either within the past couple weeks or coming up next week. Mary also had a birthday this month, so we counted that as 21 again. All of the November birthdays were recognized.

Birthdays -- everyone a 20-something

Of course, there was no football to watch after the meal (or at least no American football). But at least no one has to get up early the next morning to go Christmas shopping -- Friday is not "black" here.

Canterbury and the Sea

On Sunday we enjoyed a leisurely breakfast at the hotel, read the newspaper, then drove to Canterbury. The center of this city is still largely a Medieval town, with twisting, narrow streets and countless buildings that date back five centuries or more. But all of this is a thriving, modern, pedestrian-only shopping district.

Shop buildings do not necessarily stand straight after 500 years.

The Cathedral here is the "mother church" of England, supposedly founded by St. Augustine, and dates from the late sixth century. The present church has portions that are at least a thousand years old, it holds the grave of St. Anselm (d. 1109), and a candle burns at the spot where Thomas Becket was murdered by agents of the king, while standing at the high altar, in 1170.

A candle marks the spot where Thomas Becket was murdered.

But the building has been expanded time and again over the centuries, and parts are shrouded in scaffolding today as renovations continue. In many respects, a cathedral is never finished.

High Altar at Canterbury Cathedral

The Cathedral is very old and has some interesting ancient accents, but it is neither as large nor as grand as many others built later. We attended a choral Eucharist on Sunday morning. The Christ the King Sunday service was well attended, and the choir was excellent. The incense smell was rather intense at some points.

Medieval painting on the wall in the Chapel of St. Anselm, Canterbury Cathedral

After the service we explored the cathedral, including the crypt and side-chapels. We then visited a pastry shop we'd passed earlier and sinned boldly in chocolate.

Medieval shop doors did not anticipate people six feet tall!
(Notice long shadows -- and this is a mid-day. The sun stays low here!)

Our next destination was the seaside town of Whitstable. Described in the tour books as "an overgrown fishing village," Whitstable is a thriving shopping center and known particularly for seafood restaurants.

Mary on the beach at Whitstable

We enjoyed a mussel and prawn soup, and some lively banter with the cooks, at a kiosk near the beach. They complimented us on finding such an out of the way place not visited by many foreign tourists.

Brits picnic on the beach in November

We rushed to get back to our "pay and display" car park (parking lot) before our time expired, and began the long drive home, slowed somewhat by fog and road work (the M25 beltway around London has been nick-named, "the world's largest circular car park").

Dover

Bright and early on Saturday morning (actually, dark and early) we set off for Dover, just a little less than four hours drive. The weather was gorgeous, sunny and quite warm, especially for late November. Traffic was light, so we made good time. But there is no cruise control on the Luther car here, so a cramped accelerator foot is a hazard to a long drive!

The famous White Cliffs of Dover

Dover is on the southeast coast, the site of the famous "white cliffs" overlooking the English Channel. It is the point of England nearest to France, only 19 miles away. It is also the best harbor in the area, and that has made it highly strategic since ancient times. The Romans built a light house here in the first century AD.

Dover Castle (with random tourist who stepped into the shot)

Dover Castle was begun by Henry II in the 1160s, and periodically expanded over time. Major renovations took place in the mid-1700s and again at the time of the Napoleonic Wars. The castle site was used by the British Admiralty to monitor traffic in the Channel during World War I.

View from Dover Castle Great Tower (note WW II bunkers)

This Medieval castle is unique in that it was a strategic site into World War II and beyond. Tunnels dug into the chalk cliffs during the time of Napoleon were expanded and used as a command center during the Dunkirk evacuation and the D-Day invasion. There was even a full surgical hospital underground. In the Cold War, these same tunnels were prepared as a shelter for the aftermath of nuclear war.

Unfortunately no photos allowed in the tunnels.

After touring the castle and the tunnels, and walking along the cliffs, we finished the day with a nice meal and a relaxing evening.

Mary's Birthday

Mary celebrated her birthday in England. The students surprised her at dinner on Friday evening with flowers and with scones -- something they knew she would appreciate even more than cake!

We elected to celebrate by leaving for the weekend on a Mark & Mary trip to Dover and Canterbury, in the far southeast of England.

This was the first time we left the students overnight. Are we bad [house]parents? These are big kids, and the en loco parentis model is long gone from university life.

Also, the Juggins are close by, in case of emergency. The students will be fine.

Short Trips --- Cambridge

Once again our students are busy with their own weekend travel and events (this is a good thing!) so Mark & Mary struck out on our own for a day trip to Cambridge. The city is a treasure of Medieval charm, richly sprinkled with Georgian and Victorian architecture, and of course, a lively university life.

Unlike many other tourist towns we've visited, Cambridge does a really good job of handling cars and parking. There are several "park and ride" lots around the city where one may park for free. A shuttle then transports visitors to the city centre and back again for a reasonable fee. This is much better than the exorbitant parking fees we've encountered elsewhere.

Once in the city, as in most Medieval towns, everything is very compact and easy to navigate on foot. Bicycles, however, are everywhere, and often moving very fast among the pedestrians.

Cambridge street scene, with bikes

The unique feature of Cambridge, of course, is the university. "Town and gown" are completely intermingled. Everything is either in the business of education, or in the business of catering to a high-class student population.

We noticed immediately, from the expensive shops, the high-fashion clothing worn by students, and the prices on restaurant menus, that we were among "the beautiful people" here. As we watched students gathered in the local pub, we couldn't help but wonder which ones might be the offspring of some duke or earl!

Punting through the Backs on the River Cam

Cambridge received its name in Roman times as the place where a bridge had been built over the River Cam. It thus became the intersection of the Ermine Street -- the road the Romans built from Lundinium (London) to Eboracum (York) -- and the Ickneild Way -- the road from Venta Igenorum (Norwich) to Aquae Sulis (Bath). The shallow river is still important, forming the "Backs" of many of the colleges, and traditionally navigated by "punts," which we would call a john boat propelled by a person pushing off from the bottom with a pole. They are for tourists now, but used to serve as the delivery trucks supplying the colleges.

Mary not stepping on the grass, the quad at Clare College

On our walking tour we learned that there are 31 Colleges in Cambridge. Each College is an independent institution with its own property and income. The Colleges appoint their own staff and are responsible for selecting students, who live and receive "tuition" (that is, are tutored individually or in small groups) in their own college. [It's interesting that in the U.S. the word "tuition" refers to the fees students pay, while in the UK the same word refers to what students receive in return for their fees.]

The university is a cooperative among the colleges. Common requirements are agreed upon for admission and graduation. Classes taught in a college are open to students of any of the colleges (assuming the proper prerequisites, of course), and degrees are conferred by the university as a whole.

President's Lodge on the Queen's College quad dates from the 1500s.

Because of their origin in the cloisters of the old monasteries, the colleges are almost all built in a square, or "quad," with a green courtyard in the middle, just like the old abbeys. By tradition, no one walks on the grass except the president of the college (and of course, ironically, the groundskeeper who mows the lawn!).

King's College and its chapel viewed from the cow pasture across the Backs.

King's College is one of the most famous, and is known for its huge chapel (completed by Henry VIII) and boys' choir. The Christmas Eve service of lessons and carols is broadcast around the world from here each year. We (and at least 300 other tourists) attended Evensong here before heading home.

Land of the Mid-Day Dark

British Summer Time ended on October 30, a full week before daylight savings time ended in the U.S. The effect was immediately obvious -- it gets dark really early here!

Nottingham is at 53 degrees north latitude. For points of reference, that's as far north as Akiminski Island in Hudson Bay, the north end of Lake Winnipeg, Umnak Island in the Bering Sea off Alaska, or Barnaúl, Siberia. Only the Gulf Stream keeps Britain warmer (and wetter) than those places.

It's not exactly the Arctic Circle, or "The Land of the Midnight Sun," but we're getting up there toward where the tilt of the earth becomes noticeable.

When we arrived here in June, the sun rose at 4:39 a.m. on our first full day in the country, and set at 9:34 p.m., giving us just four and a half minutes short of 17 full hours of daylight. A long day. Decorah had just over 15 hours between sunrise and sunset that day.

On December 22, the shortest day of this year for those of us in the northern hemisphere, the sun will rise here at 8:16 a.m. and set at 3:50 p.m. for just seven hours and 34 minutes of daylight! Native Brits tell us it gets downright depressing.

By way of comparison, Minneapolis will see a sunrise at 7:48 a.m. on December 22, and a sunset at 4:34 p.m., for eight hours and 46 minutes of daylight -- a full hour and 12 minutes more. Des Moines will see nine hours and 10 minutes of sun that day -- an hour and a half+ more than Nottingham.

This week we are just slipping to fewer than nine hours of daylight each day (about what Iowa will see mid-December), with sunrise around 7:15 a.m. and the sun going down around 4:15 p.m. On cloudy, foggy days (have I mentioned that we have some of those in England?) it already gets noticeably dark around 2:30 in the afternoon, and we have to start turning on lights around the house.

By December we may be using lights at noon.

Short Trips --- Newark-on-Trent and Lincoln

Because our students appeared to be busy with other things this weekend, this weekend's Mark & Mary trip was without back seat passengers. We visited Newark, a market town about 20 miles from Nottingham, and then went on to Lincoln, a cathedral city, about another 20 miles beyond. Both have been a major population centers since Roman times.

Newark Castle ruin

It was market day in Newark, which meant that the town square was filled with tents and vendors selling everything from fruits and vegetables, to clothing, to computer and mobile phone accessories. In some ways, the concept of market day hasn't changed much in a thousand years (except for the addition of computer and mobile phone accessories).

There's a nice 14th century church in Newark -- not a cathedral, but fairly large and quite pretty. Like many churches we visit, the money changers are back in the temple. With few in attendance on Sundays, and offering plates less than full, the church makes ends meet by operating a coffee shop in one corner of the nave, and a card shop in the south transcept.

There's also a castle ruin overlooking the River Trent. Not much more than one wall remains, but if the sign is to be believed, the wall is exactly an eleventh of a mile long.

Lincoln Castle

Lincoln is built around a high hill that rises steeply out of the East Midlands plains. The Romans considered this high ground to be strategic, made it the intersection of two major roads, and built a fort there. Behind Londinium (London) and Eboracum (York), Lindum (Lincoln) was considered the third city in Roman Britain for a time.

Lincoln Cathedral

William the Conqueror built a castle there in 1068. It's seen just a few changes over the years (it was used as a debtors' prison in Victorian times), but the basic plan is unchanged from a thousand years ago. Because it was the site of a major battle in the war between King John and the Barons, one of the four existing copies of the Magna Carta resides there.

Cathedral Nave

Cathedral Quire

The cathedral is gorgeous. It's not quite equal to Salisbury, York, Wells, or Westminster Abbey, but it is definitely a very large and very beautiful church. The organist was practicing for Sunday while we were there on Saturday. It was a cloudy, foggy day (In England? What a surprise!) so the light through the stained glass windows was subdued, but still spectacular. 

The 5th of November

"Remember, remember, the Fifth of November: 

     the gunpowder treason and plot.

  I know of no reason why the gunpowder treason 

     should ever be forgot."

Today is Guy Fawkes Day in Britain. The holiday celebrates the discovery of an early 17th century "gunpower plot" by Catholics to blow up the House of Lords (along with King James I) on the opening day of Parliament, as the first step in restoring the established Church of England to Roman Catholicism.

The bonfire more than an hour after it was lighted!

Although Fawkes was just one of the conspirators, he happened to be the one they found in the crypt under old Westminster Palace in the early morning hours of 5 November 1605 with the kegs of gunpowder. Bonfires were lit across the country to celebrate that the plot was foiled and the king was saved.

To this day, on the early morning of the opening session of Parliament, they send some guy down into the basement with a lantern, looking for gunpowder. I'm sure he goes in right after the SWAT team and the bomb-sniffing dogs have finished.

The "Occupy Wall Street" (and "Occupy London") protesters have adopted the Guy Fawkes masks made popular in the 2006 sci-fi thriller, V for Vendetta. So the name of Guy Fawkes is once again associated with political descent, rebellion, and overthrowing the established order.

But for Brits today, the holiday seems to be mostly a good excuse for a few ales at the pub and a whole lot of fireworks. Our neighborhood is still popping! Stepping outside, the smoke is thick. Brits are way more into fireworks on this day than Americans are on July 4.

The City of Nottingham lights a big bonfire in a park about a mile from our house. Thousands of people turn out. We walked down to see the fireworks display, which was quite impressive.

Diwali

On Sunday our group was invited to attend a Diwali celebration at a local Hindu temple. We eagerly accepted this invitation as an opportunity to experience something new and learn more about our neighbors.

Diwali (pronounced Di-VALL-ee) is the "festival of light" -- a five-day harvest festival and beginning of the new year. It occurs at the new moon in late October or early November each year, and is celebrated across south Asia by Hindus, Jains, and some Buddhists. There are often fireworks, exchange of gifts (especially new clothes), and always lots of food. It's basically our Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's eve all at once.

Priests prostrate themselves before the altar where food was arrayed.

Although comprising just 1% of the British population overall, immigrants of Indian descent are concentrated in London, and in the urban areas of the Midlands -- Birmingham, Manchester, Leicester, and Nottingham.

Most who are in the Midlands cities are "twice moved" immigrants. They had been encouraged, in the days of the British empire in the early 20th century, to leave India and settle in east African colonies. This was an attempt to help development in places like Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania by importing a highly educated, entrepreneurial middle class. They prospered in Africa.

Priest blesses the food with lighted oil lamp.

However, when the African colonies gained independence in the 1960s, tensions between Indians and Africans came to the surface. The infamous dictator, Idi Amin, gave them 90 days to leave Uganda in 1972. Thousands fled, leaving businesses and most of their savings behind. They came here, but found it difficult to achieve the same economic status. Many highly educated professionals are now driving taxis or running small shops.

There are several Hindu sects in our neighborhood. The temple to which we were invited is one of the more conservative. During the 2-hour service, men and women sit separately, most on the floor. All of the chants, hymns, and the sermon were in Hindi. We can't say we got much out of it, but it was interesting to watch.

Arrayed in front of the room were more than 200 food dishes -- rice and curries at the bottom, "savory" items in the middle, and sweets at the top (so that one eats one's way up to heaven, or dessert!). All had been prepared on site at the temple, with women and men working all day and through the night for the previous 48 hours or more.

So after the service, the thing to do is eat! Men and women even eat on separate sides of the room (although there was more freedom to mix a bit in the middle than during the service). Everything was vegetarian, not even eggs are used, only milk. The food also contains no onion or garlic, but there were plenty of other spices, some quite hot.

Getting into the spirit of Diwali with new clothes.

Our students definitely got into the spirit of the event, especially the women, many of whom had gone shopping for Asian-style clothing. All seemed to get into the eating part! We even donated some Lutheran funds to the temple to help cover the cost of our meals, and I think we got our money's worth!