In response to my post about the London Cheese Shop (no, not the Monty Python Cheese Shop, they actually have cheese, including Cheddar, and they weren't playing a bloody bazouki), my sister posted info on the name of the shop and their web link, and my Pa then found a US purveyor.
Elizabeth:
The shop is Neal's Yard Dairy - the cheeses are locally produced English ones with the names of the farmers on them! Here's the website:
http://www.nealsyarddairy.co.uk/thecheeses.html#
David tried the Montgomery Cheddar, if you click the link you can see more pictures.
Me dear ol' Pa:
Not only that -- I went to the website and found that they retail in the USA via select fromageries. Voila! Montgomery cheddar!
http://www.bedfordcheeseshop.com/catalog/?id=33
Friday, August 24, 2007
Thursday, August 23, 2007
I come bearing gifts (and cradle)
Well, I'm on the Heathrow Express on my way back to the airport after a very quick but fulfilling, wonderful visit with my little sister, Elizabeth, and her husband Henrik.
Elizabeth is 6 months pregnant, and I brought two huge bags full of goodies for her -- receiving blankets, clothes and more clothes, cloth diapers and woolen diaper wraps, and The Cradle. My Mom gave me this cradle when we had my first child. It was the same cradle I slept in as a kid, and now it is time to pass it on.
This is a wooden cradle with iron framing. We got it into a Huge duffle bag; the other stuff was put into a Very Big Suitcase. Both maximum size and maximum weight. I bought a roller especially for the duffle bag (get this - at SFO they had me pack the roller because security would be concerned I might use it as a weapon).
This all went great, with one hitch. The Barbican Tube station near where Elizabeth lives has three flights of stairs and no elevator. Gads!
But I made it, and the expecting couple were very touched and happy to receive all these gifts. It was wonderful handing this off, and handing off Linda's and my blessings for them and their baby.
Elizabeth is 6 months pregnant, and I brought two huge bags full of goodies for her -- receiving blankets, clothes and more clothes, cloth diapers and woolen diaper wraps, and The Cradle. My Mom gave me this cradle when we had my first child. It was the same cradle I slept in as a kid, and now it is time to pass it on.
This is a wooden cradle with iron framing. We got it into a Huge duffle bag; the other stuff was put into a Very Big Suitcase. Both maximum size and maximum weight. I bought a roller especially for the duffle bag (get this - at SFO they had me pack the roller because security would be concerned I might use it as a weapon).
This all went great, with one hitch. The Barbican Tube station near where Elizabeth lives has three flights of stairs and no elevator. Gads!
But I made it, and the expecting couple were very touched and happy to receive all these gifts. It was wonderful handing this off, and handing off Linda's and my blessings for them and their baby.
Gastronomic Heaven in London
During my quick day-trip to London on the way to Prague, Elizabeth and Henrik took me out to a wonderful trip on the town. They took me on my favorite kind of bus, a London double-decker (top deck of course), to an open market area that is usually completely packed, but today it was quite mellow and peaceful.
Our first stop was a great little tea shoppe where we had fruit scones with clotted cream and jam, little tea cakes, and incredible, delicious tea (I'm still on a buzz).
Then we wandered next door to a wonderful cheese shop, full of cheeses made by local British cheese "artisans." They had the infamous Stinking Bishop from Wallace and Gromit.
Henrik had me taste one of the cheddars. Wow! Incredible. Nice smooth fore-taste, and then an everlasting tingling sour/nutty after-taste. Never had anything like, nor do I expect to ever find anything like this in the USA.
I loved the atmosphere of the shop, with its full rounds of cheese and the "cheese waterfall" that kept the shop nice and moist.
Then, round the corner to a sweet little coffee shop. I really liked the communal wood table that people shared -- you just don't see that in the USA, and I wish we'd see more.
My cappucino was perfect, better than almost any I could find in the Bay Area, which is supposed to have pretty darn good coffee. There was also a hand-made chocolate truffle that was astonishingly good.
So if anyone says British food is bad, tasteless and dull, they should check out London these days. It is quite a change from some of my first visits to London since I was a kid were just ghastly.
One last thing to notice: those little clips hanging below the table at the coffee shop.
What are those for? Obvious, says Elizabeth: to hang your purse from, so they won't get stolen. Now that's a cool idea...
Our first stop was a great little tea shoppe where we had fruit scones with clotted cream and jam, little tea cakes, and incredible, delicious tea (I'm still on a buzz).
Then we wandered next door to a wonderful cheese shop, full of cheeses made by local British cheese "artisans." They had the infamous Stinking Bishop from Wallace and Gromit.
Henrik had me taste one of the cheddars. Wow! Incredible. Nice smooth fore-taste, and then an everlasting tingling sour/nutty after-taste. Never had anything like, nor do I expect to ever find anything like this in the USA.
I loved the atmosphere of the shop, with its full rounds of cheese and the "cheese waterfall" that kept the shop nice and moist.
 |  |  |
Then, round the corner to a sweet little coffee shop. I really liked the communal wood table that people shared -- you just don't see that in the USA, and I wish we'd see more.
My cappucino was perfect, better than almost any I could find in the Bay Area, which is supposed to have pretty darn good coffee. There was also a hand-made chocolate truffle that was astonishingly good.
So if anyone says British food is bad, tasteless and dull, they should check out London these days. It is quite a change from some of my first visits to London since I was a kid were just ghastly.
One last thing to notice: those little clips hanging below the table at the coffee shop.
What are those for? Obvious, says Elizabeth: to hang your purse from, so they won't get stolen. Now that's a cool idea...
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Family Reunion
Ariel and I had a wonderful time at the family reunion. Thanks to everyone for putting this on!
Here are the photos I took from the trip.
A nice trip to Calistoga
A few weeks ago our family spent a nice simple weekend in Calistoga. We stayed at a wonderful place called the Calistoga Spa Hot Springs (the link seems to be down right now). Kitchenette inside, barbecue outside, three pools (one kiddie warm, one cold, one adult warm) and a big hot tub. All water is naturally heated by the springs.
Just down the way is a great coffee shop called the Calistoga Roastery, yummy coffee and pastry, fun place to hang out. Besides swimming, swimming, swimming, the only other thing we really did was go to a playground and visit the Petrified Forest, really cool petrified redwoods about fifteen minutes out of town.
We skipped the Old Faithful Geyser - we saw it last time, and it costs a lot of money, and really there isn't much to see.
But I would have to say the highlight of the visit was when we discovered the fire house, and Michael was allowed to go in and visit all of the fire trucks. My goodness, was he in heaven. He wandered amongst them and climbed up them, round and round and round, for a good half hour.
Here's a cute video of him in the fire house
You can go here to see all the photos from our visit.
Just down the way is a great coffee shop called the Calistoga Roastery, yummy coffee and pastry, fun place to hang out. Besides swimming, swimming, swimming, the only other thing we really did was go to a playground and visit the Petrified Forest, really cool petrified redwoods about fifteen minutes out of town.
We skipped the Old Faithful Geyser - we saw it last time, and it costs a lot of money, and really there isn't much to see.
But I would have to say the highlight of the visit was when we discovered the fire house, and Michael was allowed to go in and visit all of the fire trucks. My goodness, was he in heaven. He wandered amongst them and climbed up them, round and round and round, for a good half hour.
Here's a cute video of him in the fire house
You can go here to see all the photos from our visit.
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
A Memory on Henry Street
I have a very strong memory from when I was a toddler of being sent to the store across the street on our apartment in Berkeley to the co-op (I personally would never send a little tyke alone to the store like that, but, hey, this is now and that was then).
I now find myself back in Berkeley again. Over the years I've been here, I've gone along Henry Street many times, and finally found our old place. The most recent time I had my cell phone with me, with its camera, and took a snap. For those of you who shared that time with me, here's the photo.
The co-op is now an Andronico's, but other than that, things seem about the same. Here's a satellite image of the spot.
By the way, I did this with the new MyMaps feature of Google Maps, which lets me annotate my own personal map and save it. Pretty nice!
I now find myself back in Berkeley again. Over the years I've been here, I've gone along Henry Street many times, and finally found our old place. The most recent time I had my cell phone with me, with its camera, and took a snap. For those of you who shared that time with me, here's the photo.
The co-op is now an Andronico's, but other than that, things seem about the same. Here's a satellite image of the spot.
By the way, I did this with the new MyMaps feature of Google Maps, which lets me annotate my own personal map and save it. Pretty nice!
Monday, August 6, 2007
Heading off to London and Prague
Work is sending me off to Prague in a few weeks, and I have been able to finaigle a stopover in London to see sister Elizabeth, hubby Henrik and Little Package in Belly. I'll be maxing out my luggage allowance so I can bring a huge stack of kiddie clothes from Linda.
My itinerary is from hell, but it's what I had to do to get this in: leave SFO at 1pm on Tuesday, arrive in Heathrow at 10:30 the next morning, zip over to Elizabeth's, hang out, leave Heathrow at 9pm, arrive in Prague at midnight, hotel at 1am. Go to work for two days, then leave Prague at 7am Saturday morning, change in Heathrow at 11am, back on Saturday morning at 1pm. Gads. Hopefully I'll have a chance to see Prague, although it may be through very sagging eyes and wobbly legs.
My itinerary is from hell, but it's what I had to do to get this in: leave SFO at 1pm on Tuesday, arrive in Heathrow at 10:30 the next morning, zip over to Elizabeth's, hang out, leave Heathrow at 9pm, arrive in Prague at midnight, hotel at 1am. Go to work for two days, then leave Prague at 7am Saturday morning, change in Heathrow at 11am, back on Saturday morning at 1pm. Gads. Hopefully I'll have a chance to see Prague, although it may be through very sagging eyes and wobbly legs.
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