Gone (Gold)Fishin'

August 07, 2017

Gone (Gold)Fishin'

Things have been busy on this end, hence the delay between posts. The upside, however, is that we have much to share! The house is coming together; we still need to acquire a few things, but it's feeling more like home. We've gotten some things up on the walls, our furniture is in place, our boxes are (mostly) unpacked, and we've gotten some additional furniture to help fill up all the additional space we now have. We managed to find a secretary (that appears to be antique), a little side table that's lovely, a solid maple dining room table and six chairs, two bedside tables, and a dresser (and we got the first three all for under 100 quid total!)

Work-wise, we're starting to get more into a rhythm of work and are generally feeling more settled. I feel pretty safe in saying that we're both really enjoying life here, and neither one of us is feeling terribly homesick (at least, not yet).

All that said, there are a couple of things we have begun to miss from the United States...they're pretty much all food.

Food in Britain is generally pretty fantastic, in spite of its unearned reputation abroad as bland, a reputation gained when post-war rationing left British food underseasoned for a few years. The chicken here isn't washed in chlorine (yet). The beef isn't generally factory farmed. The pork and venison are both excellent as well. The digestives are delicious along with the tea with which they're served, and the veggies are also quite good.

What they don't have, however, are Goldfish. And canned black beans.

We'd been telling people that rent for the week was one sermon and/or one jar of peanut butter, both of us having in mind how terrible peanut butter used to be in Europe. Peanut butter has made some major strides here, and is actually quite good, but their snacks are lacking, as is their Mexican Cuisine.

We were particularly blessed last week to be on the receiving end of a visit from one Mr. Derrick Goff. It was a joy to have him here and show him around, and it was good to have a familiar face around the house.

And blessedly, he brought with him several packs of goldfish. Their baked, salty, cheesy goodness has graced our lunches the last couple of days as we've slowly savoured the first pack, and we're treasuring having something to fill the gap left by the British snack industry. We are going to share a handful with our neighbor with whom we've discussed them, but mostly we're hoarding this little bit of home.

So if you're coming over, (and you're all welcome!), we'd love it if you could find a bit of space in your bag for a little bit of orange gold(fish!)!