Breaking News up here in Seaton Carew! You really can’t get much closer to the story than I am, as I live only a few doors down from where the Darwins lived while he was hiding out in a bedsit adjoining their seafront home.

This morning as I took my dog for his morning walk I noticed a couple news crews parked along the sea front here. Immediately, I wondered if it might be related to John Darwin, as news crews in Seaton Carew and John Darwin always seem to go hand in hand.

I then opened up the daily local newspaper and saw that it is reported he was quietly released from Moorland open prison in Doncaster sometime in the last few days, some sources even claiming he was slipped out a side door. Prison officials aren’t revealing much about his release, which comes about half way through his six and a half year sentence.

Local news sources are claiming he stayed at a hotel here in Seaton Carew and some locals are claiming they’ve seen him out and about here, but nothing has been confirmed yet.

It is also claimed that his wife Anne, who was given a longer sentence, will be released sometime in the next six weeks.

I’ll update as I learn more! 

Dispatches from the North: John Darwin Released from Prison is a post from: Anglotopia.net

BBC One’s Question Time is visiting Hartlepool this week, and even better- I’m going to be in the audience!!!

Following last week’s Question Time they mentioned the next stop was going to be Hartlepool so I went online and applied to be part of the audience. I got the call yesterday that I was selected! I had to submit one question in advance and then tomorrow when I go I have to bring another question. Both questions have to relate to the week’s news. I am really excited to be a part of this, it is one of those once in a lifetime things. I love watching the show so I’m so excited to be a part of it.

Be sure to watch on BBC One at 10:35 PM tomorrow night! I’ll write a full follow up post next week and tell you all about the experience.

Dispatches from the North: BBC Question Time is coming to Hartlepool! is a post from: Anglotopia.net

Through my involvement with Hartlepool’s local radio station Radio Hartlepool I’ve also become connected to a local charity called Red Dreams that supports young musicians in the town. I volunteer for Red Dreams as a vocal coach and also have the privilege of being exposed to the music and creativity this newest generation of muscians from the North East have to offer. I’m so impressed by the talent of the young people of this town, there must be something in the water.

With this summer’s biggest music festival Glastonbury now passed, Hartlepool and Red Dreams are looking forward to our own home-grown music festival, Pitch Invasion, on the 21st and 22nd August at Seaton Carew Cricket Club. Pitch Invasion features a few tribute headliners and dozens of local bands and acoustic acts.

Here are just a few of the top bands and singer/songwriters and other musical acts that I’ve heard through my involvment with Red Dreams. You can check out more songs at Red Dreams’ MySpace Music Page and check out some great performance videos on their YouTube Channel.

Rayne

Rayne is one of the North East’s biggest up-and-coming bands, having made it to the final of Live and Unsigned at the O2 Arena on July 10th. I saw Rayne perform at a recent awards show for Red Dreams, and I was really impressed with them. They played a couple covers, but their original song “Against the Natural Order” was my favorite of their set. Check out their music at their MySpace page.

Up!Down!Strange!

Up!Down!Strange! made the town’s headlines a few months ago when they beat out thousands of bands nationwide and made it to the finals to compete for a spot at Glastonbury. These young lads also made it to the semi-finals of this year’s UK Songwriter Contest for their original song Cliffs of Fiction. Check out their music at their MySpace page.

Chloe Gibson

Chloe Gibson is by far the most talented teenager I’ve ever had the pleasure of seeing perform. Chloe is only 13 and writes and performs her own music. I see very big things in Chloe’s future. She has already been awarded a semi-final ranking in the UK Songwriter Contest (again, at 13!) for her original song “Breathing and Beating” and also won the solo artist Rising Star award at the Red Dreams Music Awards which was an award chosen by a leading UK record label. She is definitely the one act to watch coming out of Hartlepool. Check out her music at her MySpace page.

Samantha Durnan Band

Samantha Durnan is a very talented and versatile female artist from Teesside. Samantha does acoustic gigs on her own, but also performs with a band of very talented musicians. The Samantha Durnan Band has a very sophisticated and deep sound, with Samantha’s vocals and acoustic guitar at the forefront. Check out Samantha’s MySpace page to hear their music.

Lost State of Dance

Lost State of Dance (or LSD for short) is an innovative indie/techno group. They’ve got a very creative and versatile style and a great mix of male and female vocals as well as a range of both live instruments and electronic sounds without slipping too far into the pop or electronic genre. Check out their music here on their Myspace Page.

I could go on and on, this really only scratched the surface of the great young bands coming out of the North East! I’ll be sure to do another North East Music Round Up again and feature some more great local artists.

Dispatches from the North: North East England Music Roundup is a post from: Anglotopia.net

From time to time I like to share a bit of local news from up here. Might seem insignificant when stacked up next to big stories coming out from the major national newspapers, but the point of this site is to help Anglophiles feel a bit more connected to life in Britain, so I hope my “small town” news updates are a welcome addition.

Back in August the IOC finally voted to open up the sport of boxing to women for the summer games (see the BBC article here), with the inaugural matches to take place at the London 2012 Olympic Summer Games. I can’t believe it has taken this long for this sport to become recognized as an Olympic Event, but I’m thrilled the door has finally opened to bring the sport of women’s boxing to the Olympic arena.

Since the announcement was made in August, the area has been abuzz with rumors about Hartlepudlians representing Team GB at that first event in the London games. This is a boxing town, and the local female boxers have a great following. Two local girls were named in the top twelve back in January and this week the national team has been whittled down from those twelve to the “magnificent seven” with both female boxers from Hartlepool making the cut. Savannah Marshall, age 18, is a contender for the middleweight under 75kg class and Amanda Coulson, age 27, is vying for a spot in the lightweight under 60kg class. No, the last name is no coincidence, Amanda is my husband’s cousin so we are very excited and thanks to Jonathan’s link last week I have already put in my interest for tickets to London 2012.

Hartlepool's own Amanda Coulson

Since the announcement was made last year, the local boxers have both set their sights on making the team. It would be so special for the town if two of our girls represented Team GB in the first ever women’s boxing event, and it is made even more special that they could be involved in marking this historic event on home turf here in Britain. In the coming months both girls will train hard and fight for their spots on the final national team roster. I wish both of them luck and hope they make the final team in 2012 and do this town proud. Watch this space for updates!

Dispatches from the North: Hartlepool Fights its Way to London 2012 is a post from: Anglotopia.net

I was reading the local paper the Hartlepool Mail last week and came across this fascinating story. Anyone who has seen Titanic (which is just about everyone in the world, right?) knows that Liverpool and Southamptom were major shipping and transport hubs in the late 19th and early 20th century. What many people don’t know is that Hartlepool also used to be one of Britain’s biggest shipping ports. This story from the Hartlepool Mail reports the discovery of a century-old diary detailing a journey from Hartlepool to New York in 1881:

The journal was written in 1881 by a William Shirley Day who was setting out on a journey on the Elpis ship from West Hartlepool to New York in the USA.

The iron steam ship was built at the town’s William Gray and Co shipyard in 1878 for Ropner and Company.

It was launched in 1879, but reported missing at sea in 1903. Chris, a 56-year-old teacher and keen historian who lives in Reading, said the diary covers a journey from Hartlepool to New York and then overland to Texas.

Photo of the discovered diary from the Hartlepool Mail

To read the full story “From Pools to New York in 1881″ in the Hartlepool Mail, click here

It reminded me of a story I heard from a friend of mine, Fred. Fred is soon approaching his 85th birthday and has lived in Hartlepool his whole life. Before I passed my driving test in October Fred used to give me rides to choir practice and during these rides he would always tell me the most fascinating stories from his life. One that sticks in my mind was a story he told me about when he was working for one of Hartlepool’s shipping companies. As a young man he worked in the records office of the shipping company and his job was to run from ship to ship collecting fees.

He told me an interesting tale about going through some old record books from the late 20s and early 30s while at work one day and he discovered that during prohibition in the United States that this Hartlepool-based shipping company had a fleet of ships in the Great Lakes, all which had been aprehended and seized in the act of bootlegging and bringing alcohol illegally from Canada to locations all over the Great Lakes. It is amazing that he remembered this one detail from perusing record books so long ago and that at the time it was interesting enough for him to remember it, not knowing that one day he would meet a young lady from the very place those ships were operating in. Being from the Great Lakes region I grew up hearing tales of bootlegging all throughout the region and the unique role that Metro Detroit and Chicago played in the prohibition era and Fred’s story really brought those local legends full circle for me.

I would love to do some research and find out more about the transport routes between Hartlepool and America and also about other links between the Hartlepool shipping industry and the US. Sadly, I think much like this story many of the details were probably written down in old ledgers that are long since lost and these stories may only live on in the oral tradition of Fred’s generation.

Dispatches from the North: A Journey from Hartlepool to America is a post from: Anglotopia.net

Hartlepool was chosen to be the final port for the 2010 Tall Ships Races this summer from August 7-10. The town has been organizing the event for the past two years and now that we are finally in 2010, preparations have shifted into high gear.

From the Official Hartlepool Tall Ships 2010 Website:

The Tall Ships’ Races are an internationally acclaimed annual competition organised by Sail Training International and held every summer in European waters. Each year between 70 and 100 vessels from 15-20 countries, crewed by some 5-6,000 young people from over 30 countries worldwide take part in this unique event that combines four days of activities in each port with racing or cruising-in-company between ports. The main aim of the event is to provide an opportunity for young people to develop their personal skills in a challenging and memorable sail-training environment and hence at least 50% of a Tall Ship’s crew must be aged 15-25.

This is a coup for Hartlepool as traditionally the final port for the race is a higher profile coastal European city. It is a great honor for Hartlepool to be chosen to host final ceremonies for this event, for a town this size it is like getting the Olympics. The four day festival is set to be the largest event the town has ever staged and I am really excited as all the ships will parade right in front of my flat and I will have the best front row seat to see them all coming in. I will be sure to give a full report here on Anglotopia as the race unfolds this summer.

The festivities couldn’t come at a better time for Hartlepool which has been hit very hard by the recession and was identified as a “hot spot” for unemployment. Hartlepool is expected to have around a million visitors throughout the four-day festival. Every hotel in the town and surrounding area is booked solid and it should be a great economic boost for all of the local businesses. Hopefully the influx of visitors will pump some much needed cashflow into the local economy.

The event should also attract visitors from all over the UK and it will be a great chance for Hartlepool to demonstrate how much the town has changed in the past decade. The hub of activity will be at the Hartlepool Marina, which until quite recently was the location of the docks. The formerly industrial area underwent a £60 million renovation and now houses the town’s best restaurants, shops and luxury flats all surrounding the lovely marina with amazing views out to sea. My little village of Seaton Carew is connected to the Hartlepool Marina via a wide promenade that runs along the seaside, so it is an ideal place for a stroll along the sea and to watch the ships come in. In the past Hartlepool has had a reputation around the UK as being a bit scruffy, so it will be a great chance to show off how the town has developed and attract some domestic tourism and alter attitudes many other Brits have toward our town.

As the event approaches I will be sure to post more updates here on Anglotopia about festivities and entertainment that are being organized for this exciting event.

Dispatches from the North: The Tall Ships are coming to Hartlepool! is a post from: Anglotopia.net

I am getting all things ready for my trip to London, its quite exciting and I will be getting there and back via Britain’s fantastic train system. I find that Brits complain about the transit here quite a bit, but kind of like the weather its not nearly as bad as they make it out to be. In Chicago there was no use even trying to pay attention to the CTA train times since the el never came at those times, they just came whenever they pleased. In Britain things are usually on time, and when they aren’t the train stations always have great updates on any delays so you know what to expect and can plan accordingly. Also, I grew up outside of Detroit which has virtually no reliable public transit so anything is a step up from that really.

Tomorrow I have the privilege of traveling to London on the Grand Central line. They are very nice, comfortable and fast trains that are outfitted with comfy seats, tables and electrical outlets for plugging in things like laptops for a long journey. Also, the biggest benefit I get is that the Grand Central train goes direct to London with no need to switch trains. I think that is probably the one thing about train travel in Britain that can be a pain in the bum, if you can’t get a direct train to somewhere, often times the connecting train schedules don’t match up well and you end up waiting for 45 minutes at the station for the next leg of your trip. I am really fortunate that I don’t have to switch trains so I get directly from Hartlepool to London King’s Cross in about 3 1/2 hours. It is such a lovely way to travel, and unlike flying into London it drops me right off in the heart of everything. Its also very convenient for continental travel as I can take Grand Central to King’s Cross and then walk the short distance to the St. Pancras international terminal to catch the Eurostar. My husband and I did this for our honeymoon (and traveled first class on the Eurostar which was amazing) and it is one of the most pleasant international travel experiences I have ever had. No showing up 3 hours early for a flight, the security and customs lines were short and fast, and boarding on the Eurostar was simple and expertly organized. Its really the best way to travel to mainland Europe.

We also have small National Express trains up here, which are pretty much the complete opposite of the Grand Central trains. They are tiny two-car trains, very noisy, pretty cramped and uncomfortable and a bit rickety. However, the view riding along the North Sea coast from Hartlepool through Sunderland and up to Newcastle is truly amazing and the whole journey round trip is only £7. The train chugs along a rail that runs right along the cliffs of the coast and you see the most beautiful vistas out to sea and of the coastline on the way. Newcastle also has its own underground metro system which can get your where you need to go between Newcastle, Gateshead and Sunderland and also links up with Newcastle airport which is very convenient. For travellers wishing to see the North East without a car I think flying into Newcastle and taking advantage of all of the train links to York as well as up to Edinburgh via Newcastle Central Station is really an excellent and economical way to see this part of the country.

I am also lucky enough to have an HM Forces Rail Card which gives me discounts on rail tickets for being a military spouse. Sometimes I only get about a pound off, but for this trip the combination of the HM Forces Rail Card plus purchasing my tickets on thetrainline.com gave me almost 50% off the retail price of my train tickets down to London, which on the Grand Central line can be pretty expensive. Thetrainline.com is a great site for purchasing discounted rail tickets, including London tube passes and Eurostar tickets. I even used their online chat help feature to make sure I was purchasing the right fare and they were really helpful with assisting me in selecting the tickets I needed. Just to be clear, they didn’t pay me to write this, in fact they probably don’t know I exist. I really do love their site enough to write about it.

For more information about rail travel in Britain check out these sites:

Traveline A bit of a clunky site, but it is great for journey planning because all train and bus lines are linked together on this site

The Train Line The cheapest place to purchase your rail tickets, use the other listed sites to research and plan your journey, then buy your tickets here!

National Rail Route information and timetables as well as great guides to the stations so you can check out what type of facilities the stations have. If you want a station with parking, a passenger lounge, dining facilities, or a manned information desk you can find out here.

Grand Central For route information and other specifics about the Grand Central lines.

Eurostar Chunnel it to continental Europe!

Dispatches from the North: Riding the Rails in Britain is a post from: Anglotopia.net

Last year I wrote a post on my blog Anglophile’s Digest about Poppy Day, I had actually forgotten about what I had written, but when I was going back to check out what I had written about last year I decided to repost it here. As I have mentioned before, my husband is in the Royal Navy so Poppy Day is really important to him and both of our families.

Today is Armistice Day. I didn’t realize until now that this is the one non-religious holiday that America and Britain share. In America, Veteran’s Day is also commemorated on the day of the Armistice. Having experienced both holidays in both countries I am sad to say that America’s observation pales in comparison to the honor which the British bestow upon their veterans on this day. If you asked the average American civilian what date Veteran’s Day is, if they aren’t looking at a November calendar chances are they couldn’t tell you. I am sure this morning when everyone turned the page on their day to day desk calendar, more than one office worker turned to a coworker and commented “Hey, did you know today is Veteran’s Day?” I find it sad that Americans need a small italicized reminder on their calendar or date book to remember such an important day in our history. By contrast, if you asked a British citizen what date Armistice or “Poppy Day” falls on they will quickly answer “the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month”.

For about a month leading up to Poppy Day, everyone wears a paper poppy on their lapel. The proceeds go to the British Legion and one of the most amazing things is that every single television personality makes the poppy a permanent part of their wardrobe for the month leading up to Armistice Day. Even the contestants on The X Factor (Britain’s version of American Idol) wear a poppy on their outfits on stage. I guess it could be compared to the American flag lapel pin, no Member of Parliament would be caught dead without one pinned to their suit.

I suppose here both World Wars quite literally hit closer to home. The British isles were heavily bombed by the Germans and there are still reminders everywhere of the death and destruction. Here in the North, one of the biggest reminders is the depressed economy.

Before the World Wars, Hartlepool was a major English port and a hub of industry with several dozen shipping companies calling the port of Hartlepool home, accounting for nearly 250 ships. Hartlepool’s position as a major British port made it a strategic target for the Germans. On the morning of December 16, 1914 Hartlepool became the first town in Britain to be bombed by the Germans. On this day over 1000 shells rained down on Hartlepool from German ships. Guns on the Heugh (pronounced “Yuff”) Gun Battery in Hartlepool fired back around 150 shells with more accuracy than the German ships and initiated the first and only land to sea attack from the British mainland and severely damaged the attacking ships. Despite this contribution, World War I and the following Depression crippled the once robust Hartlepool shipping industry only to be revived again during World War II. Yet again, this prosperity made Hartlepool a prime target for the Nazi forces and Hartlepool was raided from the air 43 times during the course of World War II. This once and for all cut off the Hartlepool shipping industry and it has never recovered since.

Hartlepool’s story is similar to many other British towns, which is maybe the reason that Armistice Day and honoring their veterans is such a hallowed tradition here. Particularly in the working class towns of the North where the economic effects of war are still relevant decades later, these stories still hit close to home and in many cases the people who lived through them are still around to remember.

I am sitting here in my front room, I live in an old Victorian home on the sea front that was converted to flats. I imagine that the residents of this house would have had a front row seat for that first bombing in 1914. As I sit here I can see the peninsula of the Headland much as it would have looked back then. Although it is a misty day I can see a few cargo ships out to sea, but I have seen naval ships out here as well and ships of war look much different from the merchant ships the residents of this house would have been used to seeing from their front windows. I can only imagine what it would have felt like for whoever who sat right here and watched the shells being launched from the German ships onto the Headland from this distance, far enough away that the falling shells probably didn’t make much sound to penetrate the quiet of that early December morning, but close enough to see the flashes and smoke. It must have been horrific to watch.

A plaque at the Headland War Memorial with the names of the men killed in the December 16th Bombardment of Hartlepool. A Remembrance Day service is held at this memorial every year on the Sunday before the Armistice.

If you had by chance forgotten that it is Veteran’s Day, please take a moment to reflect and to remember the veterans who fought for their countries and to protect their loved ones and families back home. I will leave you with the poem (written by a Canadian soldier in WWI) that was the inspiration for making the poppy the symbol for remembering those who give their lives for their country.

In Flanders Fields

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.

— Lt.-Col. John McCrae (1872 – 1918)

Dispatches from the North: Lest We Forget is a post from: Anglotopia.net

Maybe delicacy is an inappropriate word. As with most “local delicacies” like Italian Beef in Chicago or Clam Rolls in coastal Massachusetts, “Parmo” is fast food. You can get a Parmo at pretty much every pizza place and fish and chip shop in the Teesside area.

Parmo is a term that has been shortened over time, the original name was Parmesan Escalope and now it is just called a Parmesan or colloquially, Parmo. It is kind of like the delinquent nephew of veal or chicken Paragiana in Italian cuisine. It is a piece of chicken or pork beat down until it is as thin as possible and about the size of a small dinner plate. It is then breaded, fried and covered in béchamel sauce and melted cheese and served with chips and a bit of salad on the side. Here in Teesside we like to put garlic sauce on everything, its kind of a cross between garlic mayonnaise and ranch dressing, so its usually served with a side of garlic sauce (because two layers of fatty topping just aren’t enough). Funny enough, although its called a Parmesan, there isn’t actually even a gram of Parmesan cheese in a Parmo, leave it up to Teessiders.

Photo from Wikipedia by Karl Bomersbach

When I first moved here I thought that Parmo was an English thing, but I just recently discovered that its actually a very local thing that can pretty much only be found in Hartlepool and Middlesbrough and the adjacent towns. There is really nothing like it anywhere else and its totally unique to this area.

The thing I find the most unique about this dish is that it hasn’t taken the same path as most of your local fast food favorites. Most of these unique local foods usually start out in a greasy spoon or roadside stand and now we are seeing these types of foods showing up on fine dining menus with a gourmet twist. Its all the rage these days to take something like macaroni and cheese with gourmet ingredients, add a little bit of luxury with some lobster tail or filet mignon and put it on a plate next to some kind of foam or puree and charge $40 for it. Parmo is the exact opposite though, it is an adaptation that took a fine dining dish off the fancy plate and transformed it into an inexpensive, fast food dish served in a pizza box and best consumed after a night of drinking. It is kind of a rare thing for a dish to actually regress from fine dining to pizza shops and burger stands.

I am sure you are probably not jumping out of your seat to come visit Teesside and sample a Parmo, after all you can always go to an Italian restaurant and order a chicken or veal Parmigiana and get something that is similar and probably better quality. However, Parmo is set to make its national debut and soon it could be available outside of our little corner of this island. Earlier this year, Asda (part of the Wal-Mart conglomerate) began selling Parmos in their Teesside supermarkets. It has been so successful that they are considering rolling out the product in other areas of the country. Still, even with the convenience Asda version available in supermarkets, nothing will ever be as authentic as a greasy, saucy and cheesy parmo from a Teesside shop. Maybe some day Parmo will come to respresent British street food the way chip butties and bacon sarnies do, but for now it remains Teesside’s shining beacon of culinary innovation (sort of).

Dispatches from the North: Parmo- Teesside’s Local Delicacy is a post from: Anglotopia.net

This is my last retrospective, luckily these four weeks “off” have replenished my reservoir of interesting and even death-defying tales. Every year during the first week of August the Hartlepool Carnival takes place at the Headland which is culminated with the Carnival Parade. Below I relate my first experience with this parade.

Last weekend was the Hartlepool carnival which was culminated with a “parade”. I use the term parade very loosely. First of all, there wasn’t really any theme to speak of. Usually when there is a parade I expect there to be an occassion or theme like “Thanksgiving” or “Independence Day” or even “The Red Wings won the Stanley Cup… AGAIN!” It doesn’t really matter what the theme is, I just like know that there is some theme or purpose for the parade. This was not the case with Hartlepool’s carnival parade. I think the only theme I might have been able to draw, since it was the only recurring costume was The Canoe Man:

If I never mentioned it before, there was a big story this year that made international headlines when a man from Hartlepool faked his own death in an insurance scam. John Darwin, now know as “The Canoe Man” was a neighbour of ours, living just a few doors down from us here on the sea front. In 2002 John Darwin was out canoeing one day in the sea (its actually more like kayaking) and he never returned. His body was never found after the Coast Guard searched for him and he was pronounced dead and his wife was awarded his life insurance money. For the past 5 years John Darwin has been living in a “secret room” in their home, but his act was up when he and his wife tried to purchase some property in Panama. When he realized the police were getting close to discovering his scheme he stumbled into a London police station claiming amnesia and no knowledge of the past 5 years but the police saw through his act and he was arrested. He and his wife were recently sentenced to 6 years in prison for their scheme.

In true English spirit, instead of sweeping this man under the rug or trying to keep it on the hush while the story blew over, the people of Hartlepool have embraced the Canoe Man and he is the butt of every joke and quite possibly the only theme that could be found in the parade.

Back to the parade, it can best be described as a bunch of drunk people dressed in Halloween costumes wandering aimlessly down a street lined with children. There were only two floats, one with the local beauty pageant winners and another that had an Easter theme- in August. The only thing I could think was that maybe they didn’t disassemble their Easter parade float and decided to recycle it for this parade. The only other theme, which is thoroughly English, was “men dressed as women”. We have a hula girl…

Her Majesty the Queen…

and of course, Amy Winehouse…

Mr. Winehouse was probably my favorite because right before this photo was taken he walked off the street, through the crowd and into the pub across the street and emerged with a pint of lager. I think it pretty much summed up the whole spirit of the parade. Other than the photos I have posted here, people pretty much wore whatever costumes they had and entered themselves into the parade. There was a troupe of Elvises, the characters from the Wizard of Oz, zombies, and numerous other random costumes with no relationship whatsoever to each other.

Well, that was my first experience with an English “parade” but I have to believe that there are better parades to be seen in England.

This year I didn’t bother to go to the parade, although I did hear from my driving instructor that it started about 3 hours late. I have found that my attitude toward this parade is shared by most people and people avoid going to it, or at least they avoid going to it sober.

I mentioned that I believed there must be better examples of parades in England but as it turns out, parades are more of an American thing. At least the candy-throwing, float-towing and band-marching parade I as an American am used to. However I have found that whether on a large scale or a small scale, Brits are experts when it comes to military parades. This year I watched in wonder as hundreds of horses marched in time and a mounted band played challenging military march music, The Trouping of the Colour was one of the most impressive “parades” I have ever seen. The American parade is less about skill and more about organization, but The Trouping of the Colour is the epitome of both.

But Brits don’t even need all the resources of the Royal Family to put on a solemn military parade. This year on the anniversary of D-Day the surviving WWII veterans in Hartlepool marched through the town square. They were a small group, with nothing but a small boom box to play the music they marched to, but they organized and carried out this parade on their own in such a moving way. It was sad how few people came to see their little parade. My husband and I were among only about 20 spectators but the men and women still marched along paying no notice to how many people they were marching before.

Dispatches from the North: Retrospective Part IV is a post from: Anglotopia.net

Here is your third installment of my look back at the past year. On Saturday I celebrated my one year anniversary here in the UK and it has been such an amazing year.

Here is an excerpt from an Anglophile’s Digest post from last October:

Ahhh yes, Ye Olde British Tradition- drinking. This weekend Jason and I went for “a night out” together. I mostly went for his benefit, as I have begun to find the pub culture a bit boring. I promise to explain later.

I put “a night out” in quotations because here, a night out is far more specific a term than it is in America. In the States, if you tell someone you are going for a night out it could mean a whole spectrum of things. It could mean that you are going for dinner and a movie or that you are going to get dressed up and see a play or that you and some friends are going to go out and have a rowdy time. The possibilities of what a night out in America can mean are endless.

In England, “a night out” means that you are going to drink in at least one pub and plan on drinking for the duration of the evening. More specifically in Hartlepool, the qualifications for a night out are even more stringent.

First of all, there seems to be an unwritten dress code. It could be an instinctual thing, some kind of genetic code that is only strong in the blue-blooded English and not those of us who have been tainted with German or even (gasp!) Scottish blood. I say this because I obviously always miss the memo. The dress code isn’t usually the same from one night to the next, or from one weekend to the next. It is mostly a female thing since most men have two or three “night out” shirts that they rotate. I never seem to get it right but luckily my style is understated enough that my faux pas go unnoticed.

Women always seem to be dressed the same. Saturday night, most of the night-outers were wearing leopard print and/or sequins although there was a sect of people wearing sweater dresses and leggings. There are usually only two or three different variations of outfits and then if you go out the next weekend thinking you are onto the pattern, they have changed the encryption again and everyone is wearing two or three completely different styles.

Secondly, there is a strict itinerary that everyone follows, but everyone takes a different shift. I think it might be something where upon turning 18 the new crop of drinkers is given their itinerary and this remains with them until death.

The intinerary goes like this: You always begin in the same pub and after having no more than two drinks you move on to the next pub. Repeat this until closing time. The order in which you proceed to the pubs is always the same. Like clockwork, you see the same groups of people leaving as you enter the pub and then continue to see familiar faces as you finish your round and the next shift arrives and then the whole cycle starts again.

For this reason, I find pub culture in this town very boring. I never meet new people since my group is always on the move, I never get the chance to settle in before moving on to the next place (there are very few tables and chairs in the pubs in which to settle) and I am usually uncomfortable from trekking from “the top end” of town to “the bottom end” while dressed up more than I would like to be. It is normal (but thankfully not mandatory) for women to wear cocktail dresses out, and for the younger and wilder crowd the equivalent of what you would wear to a bachelor or bachelorette party.

Coming from the cozy and quiet “come as you are” pubs of Chicago this all seems like too much trouble for me. I prefer to stroll down the street in a t-shirt and jeans, park myself at the bar and have a lively conversation with my dear friend the bartender. The bartenders here are more like the cashiers at a fast food restaurant. You give them your order which had better be one of the things they see on the touch screen in front of them, they quickly bring it to you, you pay, you walk away drink in hand, end of transaction.

Also, despite the “shaken not stirred” stereotype about the English, in my experience no bartender in England is capable of making a cocktail that doesn’t give you the recipe in it’s name. Basically, if it isn’t a Jack Daniels and Diet Coke or a vodka and Red Bull they can’t make it and God save you if you order something else and they actually give it a try. The vast majority of people drink lager, usually Fosters, Carling or Kronenbourg. Second to lager is cider, Strongbow being the most popular but there are several brands. After that are ales which is basically any dark beer like Guinness. Never fear if you prefer a fruity cocktail because Britain’s solution for having poorly trained bartenders is to bottle everything under the sun. You can get a wide array of cocktails in a bottle and this fourth category of drinks is called “alchypops”. Even though the option is there, drinking a premade screwdriver out of a bottle just doesn’t do it for me. That basically covers the options you have when you go out, although I have found there is usually a refrigerator behind the bar stocked with things like Corona and other more “exotic” drinks that are more to my liking.

It isn’t all bad because one thing about all the moving around is that you have more opportunity of running into people you know, and we almost always do. Still, the malarkey I described above is precisely what is implied when someone asks if you are going for “a night out”, and I am always expected to know what this means and follow suit to fulfill all of the night out qualifications.

Now that I have friends who find the “night out” just as boring as I do my weekends are much better. We tend to frequent the social clubs where cover bands play or the one live music venue here. Sometimes we even opt for the “girly night in” where we order a takeaway and watch a movie or play a board game. Since I have made my own friends I have only been out for the traditional night out a couple times and I don’t miss it.

Also, as if by fate the closest pub within walking distance is a new place that is an American themed bar. They have a bar with comfy stools, ESPN on the TV above the bar, Coors Light on tap and a menu of American bar food and cocktails. To top it off, the proprietor loves to stand behind the bar and have a chat. Its a small place but it feels like home and my husband loves it too.

Dispatches from the North: Retrospective Part III is a post from: Anglotopia.net

Tower Bridge, Westminster Abbey, York Minster, London Eye, Stonehenge, the list goes on. There are far too many important structures in Britain to even begin to list here. Britain probably has more iconic sights crammed onto one island than any other country in the world. One of the lesser known structures is the Angel of North, not because she is any less important I think there is just too much good competition in Britain and she often gets lost in the shuffle. When she was first built there was a lot of controversy and she wasn’t accepted by all Northerners, but since she has become the symbol of Northern England. Because she was built in Hartlepool before being assembled onsite in Gateshead I thought it was only appropriate that I should share some facts about her. 

Photo from Flickr

• She is 66 feet tall and weighs 200 tons. At 178 feet, The Angel of the North’s wingspan is greater than the height of the Statue of Liberty. 
• The sculpture is anchored to rock 20 meters below the surface by 600 tons of concrete. She can withstand winds of up to 100 MPH. 
• The wings are angled 3.5 degrees forward. The artist designed the wings this way to create a feeling of embrace.
• She was designed by English scultpor Antony Gormley who has also designed several other structures around England, including Another Place near Liverpool. Another Place is an installation of 100 iron figures spread out over 2 miles on Crosby Beach which are submerged and revealed as the tide comes in and out. 
• Production on the structure began in 1994 at Hartlepool Steel Fabrications. It was built in three parts the body in one, and each wing separately.
• She was assembled in 1998 on top of a hill in Gateshead with the A1 motorway running alongside. The A1 is a main artery and is the primary route back and forth between the “North” and the “South”.  Around 90,000 motorists pass by the Angel of the North every day. 
• The Angel of the North is built on the former site of a colliery. The artist Gormley commented “The hill top site is important and has the feeling of being a megalithic mound. When you think of the mining that was done underneath the site, there is a poetic resonance. Men worked beneath the surface in the dark. Now in the light, there is a celebration and visibility of this industry.”
• She may look like a rusty airplane but she is actually made of an incredibly sophisticated steel alloy called Corten. This material reacts in a special way to weathering, and poor weather actually continuously regenerates a protective layer which dramatically slows the corrosion. This material isn’t the prettiest, but actually as the structure ages the surface is supposed to become smoother and shinier. Essentially, it will appear to age in reverse.

I think this quote from Antony Gormley really sums up what the Angel of the North means to the people she watches over. â€œPeople are always asking why an angel? The only response I can give is that no-one has ever seen one and we need to keep imagining them. The angel has three functions – firstly a historic one to remind us that below this site coal miners worked in the dark for two hundred years, secondly to grasp hold of the future expressing our transition from the industrial to the information age, and lastly to be a focus for our hopes and fears.”

(Many of the facts and figures posted above were found on Wikipedia and angelofthenorth.co.uk)

Dispatches from the North: Angel of the North is a post from: Anglotopia.net

I have known for a couple of weeks now that I wanted to write a post about social clubs, but I am having a difficult time describing the atmosphere of a social club because there is just nothing like it in the US. A social club is like a marriage of an American Legion club and your local dive bar. The drinks are cheap, the clientele are mostly regulars who have their usual spot, and there is always and I mean ALWAYS bingo. Social clubs are not dark and dingy like a regular bar, the lights are usually blazing and everyone sits around low tables that are just large enough to hold your drink and scratch off your bingo card. 

I went with some friends a few weeks ago to go see a “club band” at a local social club. I was fully expecting the band to be mediocre and for most people to just casually listen while carrying on with their talking because that is what I am used to when I go see a band at a bar. This cover band was actually fantastic and very professonal, the lead singer could sing like Steve Perry and the guitarist looked like Bret Michaels and they had a great sound system. It was like going to a regular rock concert, expect everyone was quietly sitting around their tables and watching like it was any other night in the social club.

The thing that struck me is that the people in the social club looked like they could be going anywhere. In the US it seems like if you go to a concert, the audience is usually dressed like the band. If you go to a country concert the crowd will be a sea of cowboy hats and belt buckles. If you go to a hard rock concert there is going to be a high concentration of leather. But here in the social club, even though the band sounded and dressed like hardcore rockers, the audience looked like they could have been the patrons of any casual dive bar. 

Then the first act ended and they turned up the lights for a game of bingo. I tried to imagine this happening in the US, I tried to visualize going to see a hard rocking band and then breaking up and turning the lights on for a game of bingo and it is absolutely unimaginable. I think someone would be chased out of the bar for even suggesting bingo.

I was utterly confused and feeling out of my element, I was loving the music but the whole environment was just throwing me off. As everyone around us enjoyed their game of bingo I explained some of my thoughts to my friend and told her I found it strange that everyone just sat around and sang along but nobody got up to enjoy the music. Then she explained to me that nobody is allowed to get up and dance during the first half. I have since heard many different reasons as to why this is, but it seems that the social club is only licensed for people to get up and dance during the second half and it would be too expensive to meet health and safety regulations to allow dancing during the whole show. It has just become an understood rule now that you only dance during the second half. Then sure enough after the game of bingo was over, the band started again and immediately the dance floor filled. I was flabbergasted, I just couldn’t imagine going to see a good band and enjoying the music and only getting up to dance for the second half. 

There are so many things about social clubs that fascinate, puzzle and delight me. Its a great alternative to the regular “night out” here in Hartlepool where every night club is playing the same dance and pop music and you keep seeing the same people in the same clothes and never get a chance to sit and actually enjoy time with your friends. Now if only I could just get more into bingo…

Dispatches from the North: And Bingo was its Name-o is a post from: Anglotopia.net

My husband’s uncle Colin is a taxi driver here in Hartlepool and I remember the first time I met him I thought he looked like he might have just been released from prison. Since this first meeting I have gotten to know him and I have found he is an incredibly sweet and caring man, and he’s a handy guy to have around because I know I will always have a safe ride home. Still, Colin stows a hammer under his seat just in case a situation arises in his cab and he is definitely a man I would never want to cross. To be honest I can think of very few of my English acquaintances that I would ever mess with, and I can hold my own in a fight. The English do not share in the American love affair with being victimized, they are quite simply a nation of scrappy people.

You would think that this scrappy-ness would make me feel more vulnerable, but its really quite the opposite. Although England has its share of bar brawls, for the most part violent crime is altogether different here. I feel incredibly safe here because I think criminals are more wary of attacking random people since more often than not they could be in for a good beating if they chose the wrong person to mess with. There are obviously isolated incidents, and violent crime is much more common in cities like London where there are more foreigners and tourists than there are tough English natives. Still, in general, unprovoked violence seems to be far more rare in most of Britain than it is in the US.

Perhaps it is the gun culture that has made Americans so soft. Maybe it is the suburban culture, which is pretty much nonexistent in Britain. It could be any number of things, but I think when it comes down to it, the British people avoid being on the losing end of any situation. It is simply un-British to be a victim. Think about the fact that the British empire is one that never really “fell”, sure it shrunk significantly but it didn’t make Great Britain any less powerful as a nation and there are still over fifty nations in the Commonwealth. Even the Roman emperor Hadrian was so spent after occupying England that he decided to quite literally draw the line at Scotland and call it a day. The English are just downright hearty and resourceful and can get themselves out of almost any situation.

The British are often accused of being too polite because they don’t complain, but I don’t think the British get enough credit in this area. Certainly complaining is not looked upon favorably here, but this is quite mistakenly viewed as a weakness. The truth is that the British don’t complain because they take responsibility for themselves. If a situation needs to be rectified they will always do everything they can to handle it quietly on their own before they resort to making a lot of noise and calling their lawyers.

Whether the fight is verbal or physical, the British make formidable opponents. I would never want to be caught on the wrong end of the wrath of a disgruntled Brit and plan to avoid such a situation as much as my in-your-face American personality will allow me.

Dispatches from the North: The Scrappiest Nation on Earth is a post from: Anglotopia.net

There seemed to be a strong response to my discussion of language and accents last week so I decided to expound on that a bit more. When I moved here I realized that I had two choices. I could either try and most likely fail to pick up the local dialect as quickly as possible or else I could be obnoxiously (and hopefully endearingly) American and be myself in every possible situation. In the past I have met Americans who have moved to England and immediately picked up the accent and dialect and almost denying they were ever American. It is certainly their prerogative to speak and act how they would like but I have found it isn’t well accepted by the British.

I worked for an international company in Chicago that also had a main office in London. The Chicago office was the corporate headquarters so we often had gatherings of our international staff. On one such occasion new associates from around the world were brought to Chicago for an orientation session. There was a girl there visiting from the London office who came into the office with the strangest accent, and saying things like “I believe you call it an elevator over here” but none of us could place where she was from and what her story was.

We asked one of the British associates also visiting our office at the time where she was from. He immediately started laughing hysterically and informed us that she was born in Florida and she had lived in London for less than a year. It was clear from his reaction that he and the other British associates didn’t take too well to what can only be called an impersonation. This made an impression on me as something I wanted to avoid at all costs.

Being in a similar position myself, I can understand how this can happen. There is always pressure to conform but there is still always a choice. London is a much more cosmopolitan place than the Northeast, so up here I think the influence is even stronger since there are so few foreigners here and the accents are stronger are more varied.

I have worked some of the local dialect into my everyday language only in cases where the local term has completely replaced its proper English counterpart and it would be an issue with people understanding what I am saying. For example, here a woman’s bangs are called fringe. The word bangs has no meaning to them, imagine my embarrassment when I told my mother in law “I like your bangs” and she had no idea what I was talking about. In general, most of the local slang I simply refuse to say. These words don’t sound the same when I say them and they just don’t feel natural coming out of my mouth. Here is a very abridged dictionary of some of the local dialect that I am reluctant to adopt.

Sampling of the English Northeastern Dialect:

Bairn (bearn): a baby or young child

Bait: a packed lunch

Canny: good

Chewing: sassing or talking back

Chocker (choo-ka): crowded or busy “The town was chocker last night.”

Chuddy (choo-dee): chewing gum, the pronunciation of the “u” vowel rhymes with the the “oo” vowel in book (if you are American)

Cuppa: a cup of tea, when asking for tea “cup” is always specified in order to avoid confusion with the evening meal. You would never ask “I’d like some tea” or a Northerner will think you are asking for food instead of a drink.

Dead: very as in “That Chinese take away was dead nice”

Dinner: lunch or the mid-day meal

Dut (dood): woolly winter hat

Geordie (Jor-dee): a “Tynesider” mostly from Newcastle-Upon-Tyne but can refer to anyone who lives in a town on the River Tyne. Southerners often call anyone from the North East a Geordie but this irritates the non-Tynesiders.

Git: fool, usually this is a harmless teasing word as in “Have you been on the couch all day you lazy git”  If it is meant as an insult it is “get”

Lager-top: a pint of lager with a splash of lemonade. Similar to a shandy, but with less lemonade. Note: lemonade in Britain is lemon soda like Sprite, not a still drink like in the US.

Mam (mehm): mother, the Northern equivalent of mum with an indescribable vowel sound in the middle, but I have done my best to relate the pronunciation

Me: my as in “I left me coat at home so I’m freezing.”

Minging (ming-en): dirty, soiled or smelly

Nowt: nothing as in “I need to get some cash cause I’ve got nowt on me.”

Our _____: A prefix when speaking about a family relation, as in “I called our Michael and told him about the Sunday dinner at mam’s.”

Oway: come on as in “Oway, we don’t want to be late.” When really frustrated it can be enunciated “Ow-way” and sometimes “Ha-way”

Owt: anything as in “Are you doing owt for Valentine’s Day?”

Pavement: sidewalk

Poorly (poo-lee): sick or ill

Purse: a woman’s wallet, does not refer to a handbag

Summit: something as in “You should buy yourself summit nice for the wedding.”

Tab: cigarette, this term seems to be isolated only to Hartlepool instead of the common “fag” in the rest of England

Tarah(Tuh-rah): goodbye

Tea: dinner or the evening meal, only a meal eaten late at night is called supper

Ther: they

Us: me, peculiarly this is interchangeable as a both a singular and plural pronoun, I have also heard “we” used as a singular pronoun

Watch what you’re doin’: take care, its a friendly goodbye as in “Tarah, watch what you’re doin”

Yous: you, usually but not always referring to a group “When are yous going to the beach?”

This is a very limited list, I left out most of the things that many Americans have heard before and tried to put in things that are pretty unique to the Northeast. The accent itself is different from the British accents most Americans are familiar with. For example, words like book, look, and hook with an “oo” in the middle are pronounced the way the word “boo” is. The long o vowel is also very strong and heavily emphasized, sometimes sounding more like an “aw” sound than a long o. There are many other unique nuances to the local accent, but it is difficult to describe accents in writing.

Thanks for reading! Tarah, Watch what you’re doin!

Dispatches From the North: A Guide to the Northeast England Dialect is a post from: Anglotopia.net

I was unsure what to write about this week since there seem to be so many things going on, and none of them related to one another. Last week started with many in the construction and manufacturing trades going on strike, my father-in-law was on strike from his construction job and my brother-in-law had to cross picket lines to go to his management job at a local power plant. The uproar is over a contract at an oil refinery that would give thousands of British jobs to Italian workers. Workers across the country, and especially here in the North East want Gordon Brown to do something to secure British jobs for domestic workers and it’s a pretty hairy situation. I won’t comment further on this since I feel in some ways I am very much in the middle of this situation.

Also this week we had a short blast of wintry weather. We did not get the lovely 6 inches of snow that those Londoners got, what we got was a blast of snow and ice that was mixed with gale force winds. We got the worst of it right here on the coast where the wind was coming directly from the east so powerful it was continuously shaking my flat for nearly 24 hours straight. We didn’t get any accumulated snow because there was too much seawater being blown in and the snow wasn’t falling, it was being blown horizontally and in some cases what appeared to be upwards. I hope the Londoners enjoyed their little frosty frolics, up here we had real problems. Further inland all of the snow that flew past us was dumped on the rest of the North East.

Lastly, this week I had the privilege of taking a short trip to the Lake District, which relative to Hartlepool is clear on the other side of the country. I live in the narrowest part of the country so that is about a 2 hour drive. The Lake District is in Cumbria and it is considered by many to be the most beautiful part of England. It was home to a few notable Brits like William Wordsworth and Beatrix Potter, and the whole region is littered with Wordsworth and Potter attractions and memorabilia. The Lake District is similar to the lochs in Scotland but it is much greener in my opinion. The highlands and lochs of Scotland are all shades of grey and blue and purple, but the hills or “fells” of the Lake District are definitively green.

I did meet a few new people while I was there are found their impression of my Widwestern homeland quite amusing. When I told them I was raised in the Detroit area they responded with associations like “Motown” and “The Motor City” and then when I told them I spent my pre-Britain years in Chicago they all immediately cited a peculiar association. Jerry Springer. Everywhere I go people will either comment “I have been to the airport once” or else they mention Jerry Springer. The Chicago tourism board obviously has some work to do.

Another thing that I become increasingly aware of when I travel around this country is how ugly my Midwestern accent really is. It is difficult to like the way I sound when I meet new people with new accents. Upon first meeting me, most Brits mistake me for a Canadian which when I think about it is actually quite clever. Most Americans can’t tell the difference between an English or Australian accent or an Irish or Scottish accent and most have not even heard of a Geordie accent. It is quite impressive that Brits recognize my accent as Canadian, which in truth isn’t far off at all.

My trip to the Lake District was such a wonderful getaway and I do agree that as far as I have seen it is the most beautiful place in England. On the one day that the fog (sort of) cleared we took a beautiful cruise on Windermere, England’s largest lake. It was so peaceful and I couldn’t put my camera down for very long because every stretch of the lakeshore was magnificent. There was so much to do in the Lake District and I definitely want to go back again and explore a bit more. 

Dispatches from the North: A Holiday in the Lake District is a post from: Anglotopia.net

I should start with a disclaimer that I am not a football/soccer fan. I believe in two fundamental principles when it comes to sports. First, there should be a lot of scoring. Watching things almost happen is not my idea of a good time.

Second, and most importantly, someone should always win. When I watch a game I need to know that there will be an outcome otherwise it is a waste of time. For these two reasons football and I are not friends.

This weekend Hartlepool United played an FA Cup football match. The FA Cup is a series aside from the regular league games where all of the leagues in England are thrown into the mix together. There is a larger pool of lower league teams, so often the FA Cup games aren’t that out of the ordinary. However, because the matches are randomly drawn, every once in awhile there will be an interesting match-up and such was the case this weekend. Hartlepool United was paired up with one of the biggest teams in the Premiership, West Ham United. The Premiership is the top league and includes the best known teams like Manchester United, Arsenal and Chelsea.

This was a very exciting event for Hartlepudlians, especially because it was a home game. I would liken it to if the Minor League Baseball team the Lansing Lugnuts were to play the New York Yankees at Oldsmobile Park in Lansing, Michigan.

In its 100 year history Hartlepool United has never played West Ham so I decided since this was kind of a once in a lifetime event I would set aside my feelings about football and go to the game. I don’t have a very good track record with going to football games. The last time I went to a game I literally fell asleep and it is something I will never live down. This time around my husband was so excited about the game that I got into it as well.  I even wore one o the commemorative  scarves and a monkey hanger wooly hat!

Like so many other things in England, the day of a big football game follows a very predictable pattern. Upon waking in the morning a good football fan will always have a full English breakfast (or a “full English” for short) which consists of eggs, sausage, bacon, baked beans (preferrably Heinz baked beans), grilled mushrooms, a grilled tomato, black pudding and toast. There are many places in town to get a full English, but I decided to make a full English at home for my husband and I, but without the black pudding because I refuse to eat it. 

For others, they kill two birds with one stone and head to the pub for their full English. The second part of the pre-game ritual is go to the pub and start drinking, so it is a popular option for many of the football fans to get their breakfast at the pub before they start drinking. On this day, after we had our breakfast at home we headed to the pub at 10:30 AM in preparation for a 12:40 start. 

At the game, in order to occupy themselves the fans like to make up chants. American cheerleaders have nothing on Hartlepool football fans. They can make up a clever chant on the spot and everyone catches on quickly. I tried my best to get some video footage of the chanting, but sadly of the 10 minutes of video I got on my camera there was barely 30 seconds worth of clean language. 

In the end, Hartlepool was defeated by West Ham  but they played well and still did their town proud. It was a wonderful day to be in Hartlepool and it was great to go out and be a part of the festivities.

Dispatches from the North: Experiencing a bit of the FA Cup is a post from: Anglotopia.net

I have been a resident of the UK for nearly 6 months, and although in comparison to my first weeks here I have definitely come very far, I still have so many things to assimilate to.

Thinking back to my very first day here, I felt thrust right into the thick of it. After our wedding my husband was deployed to the Middle East for 7 months so I remained in Chicago for the duration of his deployment. When I arrived here he had been away from our flat for those 7 months so there wasn’t a scrap of food in the house. So although there was no “bachelor food” for me to dispose of when I arrived, we had to grocery shop that very first day. This inaugural grocery-shopping trip was such a nightmare for me that I actually cried on the way home from the supermarket.

Even now six months after this first fateful trip to ASDA (an English supermarket owned by Wal-Mart) I still find myself not being able to find some ingredient I am looking for. I love cooking and make most things from scratch, so finding the ingredients I needed at the supermarket was at first like solving a riddle. It was so overwhelming to attempt to describe ingredients to an ASDA employee. If you had to, how would you describe something like chicken broth or Jello to someone? That was my greatest challenge and frustration and to a certain extent it still is. Every week there seems to be at least one item that has a different name or that I just can’t find because it isn’t kept in the place I would expect.

In time, the grocery shopping got a little better and in those first few weeks there were many things that felt foreign to me. I had expected to feel like I was on vacation for the first few months, but as soon as I touched down and became a resident of the UK the tests began and I never felt like I was on vacation. Not only was I new to the country, but I was also a newlywed learning to live with my husband for the first time. There is something about moving to a new place and establishing a home that lends a sense of urgency to settling, so I had to learn quickly.

Below I have summed up my top ten favorite things about Britain, some are big things and others are just lovely little things that amuse me. I could just as easily make a list of my top ten gripes about Britain, but for now I will just stick with the positive.

My Top Ten Favorite Things About Britain

10. British Cuisine

Regardless of the cuisine, you can order chips and brown gravy at any food establishment in the North. It doesn’t matter if it is Thai or Chinese food, they will have chips and gravy on the menu and usually burgers as well. I don’t actually order these things when I am getting ethnic food (although my husband does) but I find this so endearingly British.

9. Winter in Britain

The grass is green in the winter. I didn’t believe it at first, I figured like all grass I was familiar with that it would get brown and shrivel up until Spring. I was very wrong. As I sit here the grass outside is very green.

8. Local Accents

The Hartlepudlian accent is so strange and varied from what you probably think of when you think of a British accent that I doubt I will ever pick it up and my friends at home in Michigan will never have cause to compare me to my fellow Michigander, Madonna (or “Her Madgesty” as she is known here).

7. British Fauna

There are no skunks in Britain. I think this one is pretty self-explanatory.

6. BBC Beats C-SPAN Anyday

Unlike watching C-SPAN, watching a session of Parliament is actually quite amusing. The entertainment value falls somewhere between WWE Wrestlemania and a Colin Firth movie. It is always a spectacle in suits.

5. British Coastline

The entire coastline of Britain is breathtaking. The picturesque scenery certainly doesn’t end at the sea, but because I live on the coast it is something I have the privilege  of enjoying every day.

4. British Yellow Journalism

British journalism is fantastic. British journalists don’t try to be diplomatic and it seems that there are never any “off limits” questions. They educate themselves on all angles of the subject and regardless of whom they are interviewing, they won’t allow their interview subject to spin the truth without a challenge.

3. British Healthcare

The National Heath Service (aka, free healthcare). I still haven’t gotten used to the concept of this. The American healthcare system trained me to be reluctant about going to the doctor for fear of receiving a huge bill I couldn’t afford and now I keep forgetting that it is okay to go to the doctor.

2. British Commercials

The commercials (or adverts) are actually funny. Lately its seems like the vast majority of American commercials are trying so hard to be clever that they miss the mark completely and leave people wondering how it is relevant. British advertising is at the same time clever, relevant and entertaining.

1. Europe

Britain’s proximity to continental Europe. Taking the Eurostar train to Paris for my honeymoon was such a wonderful experience. I can’t wait to explore the rest of Europe!

Thank you for reading, and please feel free to leave any questions in the comments section if you have any questions about life in the North!

Dispatches from the North: My British Journey Begins… is a post from: Anglotopia.net

Hello, fellow Anglophiles!

My name is Lisa Coulson and I was born and raised in the suburbs of Detroit, Michigan. My search for a job outside of the automotive industry led me to Chicago, Illinois where one night in an English pub I met my husband – a sailor in the British Royal Navy from the Northeastern town of Hartlepool just outside of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne. Three years, one wedding and a UK spouse visa later it is was July 2008 and I made Hartlepool my permanent home.

I have been amazed by the stereotypes that are proving to be untrue, as well as the many things about British culture I never heard about before I lived here. My main goal through this blog is to give my readers insight into British life and culture from the perspective of an American.

Also, I would love for my readers to learn that there is so much more to Great Britain than London and so much more to the British people than tea and crumpets and Manchester United. As I “learn to be British” I will share my photos, experiences and discoveries with you. I hope you enjoy living vicariously through my quest to integrate myself into British culture and make this place my home.

Let me start by telling you a little about this strange and fascinating place called Hartlepool. Hartlepudlians as they are known, are some of the warmest and most outgoing people I have met and it has made adjusting to life here much easier.

Hartlepool is famous for two things, The Canoe Man and a very unfortunate monkey. Most recently, John “The Canoe Man” Darwin and his wife Ann made international headlines when John Darwin faked his death in a staged canoeing accident in the North Sea in order to commit insurance fraud. After living in a hidden apartment in their home for 5 years he wandered into a London police station last year claiming amnesia. John and Ann lived in the same area of Hartlepool as I do which is a seaside resort area called Seaton Carew, they actually lived only a few doors down from where I live now. The area is now often referred to as “Seaton Canoe” in honor of its most famous former resident and canoeing has become an increasingly popular water sport here.

Hartlepudlians are known among the British as “monkey-hangers”, a name they take great pride in. The legend goes that during the Napoleonic Wars a French ship wrecked off the coast of Hartlepool. On board this ship was a monkey that was dressed in a French sailor’s uniform. This monkey washed ashore with the wreckage of the ship and the fishermen on the beach had never seen a monkey before and mistook it for a French spy. The monkey obviously did not speak English and after interrogating the monkey and getting nowhere, they hung the monkey. The local football team Hartlepool United F.C. adopted the character from this legend and made H‘Angus the Monkey their team mascot. In 2002 Hartlepool made international headlines when Stuart Drummond, the man in the monkey suit, ran for the mayor of the town as H’Angus the Monkey on a platform that included “bananas for all schoolchildren”- and he won the election. He was re-elected by a landslide in 2005.

These two famous tales of Hartlepool demonstrate one of the most important and endearing characteristics about the British people. By and large, the British do not take themselves too seriously. It shows in everything from the local folklore to television advertisements and stand-up comedy. I think this really flies in the face of the uptight image many Americans have of the British people. I hope as you continue to read my column you will learn new fascinating things about British culture. I still learn new things every day and I can’t wait to share those things with you. 

Dispatches from the North: My Anglophile Story is a post from: Anglotopia.net

Great News for Anglotopia!

I’d like to take a moment to introduce you to Lisa Coulson, our new American Expat Blogger.

Lisa lives in the north of England in Hartlepool. She’s married to an Englishman and is a consummate Anglophile, living the Anglophile dream.

Lisa is going to blog weekly, on Wednesdays, about the trials and tribulations of living in the north of England. She hopes to paint a picture of Britain that isn’t as focused on London, as most things are. We’re going to call is Dispatches from the North.

Lisa is also already a successful Ex-pat blogger and runs her own more personal blog about living in England. You can check that out here.

I’m looking forward to her weekly dispatches from across the pond.

Her first post will go live shortly where Lisa will introduce herself to all of us.

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Introducing our Ex-Pat Correspondent on the Ground is a post from: Anglotopia.net