Nellie's spelling

I take absolutely no responsibility for the spelling errors in the lyrics quoted previously.

Nellie the Elephant

A snippet of this song has just been played on BBC4 again (see Saturday, 24 Sept post)!

So it seems a good idea that we all learn the words (yes, I am easily amused).

To Bombay
A travelling circus came
They brought an intelegent elephant
and Nellie was her name

One dark night she slipt her iron chain,
and of she ran to Hindustan
and was never seen again

oooooooooooooooooo...
Nellie the elephant packed her trunk
and said goodbye to the circus
off she road with a trumety trump
trump trump trump

Nellie the elephant packed her trunk
and trumbled of to the jungle
of she road with a thrumety trump
trump trump trump

Night by night she danced to the circus band
When Nellie was leading the big parade
she looked so proud and grand

No more tricks for Nellie to perform
They taught her how to take a bow
and she tooked to crowd by storm

oooooooooooooooooo...
Nellie the elephant packed her trunk
and said goodbye to the circus
off she road with a trumpety trump
trump trump trump

Nellie the elephant packed her trunk
and trumbled off to the jungle
off she road with a thrumety trump
trump trump trump

The head of the herd was calling
far far away they meet one night
in silver light on the road to Mandaley

oooooooooooooooooo...
Nellie the elephant packed her trunk
and said goodbye to the circus
off she road with a trumpety trump
trump trump trump

Nellie the elephant packed her trunk
and trumbled off to the jungle
off she road with a thrumety trump
trump trump trump

Lactose withdrawal

Goodbye, self-control! Today, I think I have drunk about 2 litres of milk -- been cutting back on milk consumption because a) cannot buy in gallon size and b) is about $5.00 per gallon when one buys it 2 litres at a time :) But this mental block is overcome and, mercy, was that milk fabulous!

Yesterday, went for Sunday lunch at the Tatham's house in Llanishen (Graham is my Rotary counselor, remember). Had parsnips for the first time -- they are kind of like carrots, just a little sweeter.

Llanishen is about 2 miles north of Cathays, where I live. While everyone else rested, Jane (Graham's wife) and I walked down into the village center and ---through the churchyard of St. Isan. The village isn't a separate municipality anymore, just an area of the blended city of Cardiff.





Jane does not like to drive and takes the train into town, about 8 minutes. The train station is a five minute walk from their house and up until a few years ago, when the station-master retired, one bought a ticket at the station house -- also where the station master lived. One third of the station house is empty and boarded up now; the rest has been converted into rented flats. From the platform, the sea is just visible when looking south through the arch toward the city.

In addition to being a day of milk consumption, today was also the day that I actually became a Cardiff University student. Am enrolled in three modules (courses): Phonology, Research Methods and Language Description. Tomorrow there will be a luncheon for the School of English, Philosophy and Communication and some introductory lectures.

Show Me the Way to Amarillo...

So very happy to have email back finally! Feel like limb re-attached to self :) Blood beginning to circulate again.

Glad to hear that Shreveport is relatively intact (and that some of my friends have handguns, loaded, and other items in survival kit. have absolutely no idea what movie is being referred tom for the record.). Hope Shreveport survives you, too! hee hee.

Went to Queen's Street tonight and one of the dance songs was "Show Me the Way to Amarillo" -- also, lots of music that made me feel at home. Sadly, no Def Leopard (so sorry, Lisa R. -- will try to remedy this situation before your visit), and, yes, I did request it.

Is this the way to Amarillo

every night I've been hugging my pillow

dreaming dreams of Amarillo

and sweet Marie who waits for me

show me the way to Amarillo

I've been weeping like a willow

crying over Amarillo

and sweet Marie who waits for me

Is now misting rain and walked back to house (20 minutes) in it. Lovely :) People liked my Louisiana accent tonight ("where are you from?") -- quite amused with ability to entertain others, even away from home.

darn that Rita

Going to have a proper English breakfast now (yum!) to calm self from issue of being disconnected from email since the Centenary server is down.

It is 8 degrees C.

Prince of Wales and Smart Cars

Perhaps am back to semi-normal internal daily clock -- it is 8.30 on Saturday and am brightly awake and busily blogging. Rest of house (except for guest, Jimmi) is still asleep.

Guess what I see outside my window this morning when unpinning (very complex fastening system) curtain to let streaming sun in -- a Smart car! Saw one the other night and think is quite toyish; but I still think I want one :) It's like a car for a squirrel. Would be brave enough to drive one here since space in streets is limited and not ripping one's side mirrors off is Smart Idea, but on I-20 would be terrified as self-soundtrack played in my head of Flight of the Valkyries, while jeeps and 4-Runners zoomed past guffawing with evil laughter.

This afternoon, going to first theatre event of year -- The Mikado. Should be quite fun and entertaining as (I am slightly ashamed to admit) have never seen any Gilbert and Sullivan.

Almost forgot (again) -- a week and one day ago, was Owain Glyndwr Day. On September 16th, 1404 Glyndwr declared himself Prince of Wales and later established an all-Wales parliament. This act of rebellion was sparked off by a land dispute and led to an uprising against the harsh English rulers of the time in Wales and the king himself. The flag of Owain Glydwr (yellow and red Four Lions Rampant) was flown over the east battlements of Cardiff Castle all last week -- this is rather funny since he broke through the west gate of this castle over 600 years ago.

To celebrate this, (not really -- just trying to sound intellectual) was reason for going to Prince of Wales pub last week.

The song "Nellie the Elephant" has just been played on the radio. Okay.

This pictures (from L to R): Andrew, Clare, Maurizio, Jeff, Omar, Jimmi and moi.

dental floss and the daily paper

Dental floss is called dental tape here and although not overtly available and rather dear, pricewise, one can locate some if one looks hard enough. But dental tape is a lovely cost when compared to accoutrements for bike -- things cost the same in pounds as in dollars, but this is deceptive......and slightly terrifying!

And my new puzzle that I have conquered is the Codewords crossword puzzle -- this involves a crossword puzzle with absolutely NO word clues. All the letters are coded with a number 1-26, they give you three of the letter/number codes and you have to figure out the rest. It took me three pints of Brains (the local brew) bitter, but I finally got it all! Whew -- that is some work.

Since Jimmi is knitting like the wind (aren't you all proud?), today we went out to buy her knitting needles of her own and some yarn.

*************

Am now quite alarmed since just received email that Centenary is closing until Tuesday! What, what!?! Definitely hope that persons of import will call/IM/email/skype me with updated with current (and safe) positions in Attack of Hurricane Rita. BBC news reports that New Orleans is filling up with water once again. Rita expected to "lash" Texas for 16 hours! In this time zone, potential terrorist captured at Manchester airport by use of Tazer gun. Generally in nervous mood right now.

my first knitting student!

Perhaps this can count as my first official Act of Goodwill for my Ambassadorial year -- Jimmi (our houseguest until the end of the week) learned to knit tonight and has done fabulously even though she thought she was too clumsy to learn :) Knitting instruction helped me block out the "reality" we had going on in the background with "Supernanny" --- aaaarrggghhh! Can I never escape the blister that is modern mass entertainment? Knit 2 tog 3 times, yo 6 times, knit 2 tog 3.......

This is Jimmi knitting while Maurizio helps with the yarn.

Elf-Spotting.

Elves in Wales? Who knew? Not quite like Train Spotting, but still am so terribly sorry, all you lovely people, not to have been braver and actually photographed the man in the tunnel dressed like an elf and playing the flute.... He had a tape player for backup and the flute was plastic (of course). Promise to do better next time, kids!

Just returned from lunch with James (Graham's son). Saw the craziest shoe shop with the wildest Goth boots ever! Must return for photo (if of course it ever becomes possible for me to post photos anywhere on the internet). Hate technology at the moment.

Rode bike up my hill on return home -- much easier on the way out. Am now more fully aware of my lack of healthful athleticism. Ate 10 crisps (chips) of the flavor "Oven Roasted Chicken and Thyme." Now resting in preparation to return to the streets (on my bike, of course). Must go and purchase more accessories -- bike lock, back fender so as to prevent mud stripe up back in bad weather, more? Maybe I ought to do some situps on my huge yoga ball, but seem to have packed stopper in a very safe place and therefore am unable to inflate it. Vexation.

Graham collected me for my first meeting with the Llandaff Rotary Club last evening and we went to the Radyr Golf Club, about a 15 minute drive from my house. Lovely time and everyone was quite friendly -- sadly the charity walk originally scheduled for this Sunday has been postponed until Oct 16. The speaker for the evening was a His Majesty's former Deputy Lefttenant (not exactly sure of the title) -- men in tights, you know. Although he did not wear any for the speech last night. Is a branching off from the historical duties of the Sheriff (Shire Reeve -- thank you British History class for allowing me to be a less ignorant American! Even though the cheese course is new to me.).

Put desposit down on new bike yesterday.....still considering if should really get this bike or not, but leaning towards having mode of transportation that will take me further afield than my little feet can toddle me. This bike was only 9 GPB more than a used bike whose tires appeared about to disintegrate at any moment, so...... hoorah!

Maurizio is quite frustrated with my finding of good deals on things and so he went shopping with Jimmi and me yesterday. My major purchase was some yarn. big shock. However, in my defense, have shown remarkable level of self-control by waiting entire week before buying first yarn. Also, have my first knitting student -- Jimmi is going to learn to knit today :)

Crafting things in Cardiff -- after painting blue (with silver accents) lampshade last week, painted my standing mirror same yesterday. Now am out of things to paint. Housemates say I should open a shop.

Must go now and collect bike and beg someone to assemble it for me.

Blister #1 -- my first birthday pressie

A blister in the sun?

Yesterday Maurizio and Jimmi (our houseguest until her residence hall is open) and I walked to the "super" Tesco store, about 20 minutes from our house. Except for the lovely walk through the edge of Bute Park, along the River Taff, this activity was a bit like going to Wal-mart without the comfort of a car and personal radio to get through the crowds. And we ALL know how much I adore the Wal of the Mart....... main difference here was the lack of unsatisfactory parents beating their children with a three-pack of tube socks. Other than that, it was Walton-ish utter chaos. Then, all three of us were separated and that was fairly comical since, by this point, I had made the brilliant decision to add two (count them, 2) 5 lb. weight balls to my carry basket for purchase. Good times, good times! Lurched to totally opposite end of store to get a rolling basket. Lazy Americans. Basket had a wonky wheel. Of course. It wouldn't have been mine if it didn't :)

After all the fun of S.T., guess what! We had to walk back home -- again, remember the weight balls. The return walk is also UP-hill. Balls of fun!!!! HA-ha. So very tired.....must eat chocolate.

5.30ish -- Jimmi, Maurizio, Clare and I WALKED to movie theatre at high rate of speed since we were potentially late for a movie. Another cool thing is the unlimited movie card that can be purchased for 9.99 and lets one see as many movies as desired within a month! Met Omar, Andrew and Jeff at movie -- barely made it in for start :)

8.00ish -- exited movie and went for chips (french fries) at a kebob shop. My new food item to try was a battered sausage -- low carb is not going so well here. Scarfed food as group activity, went for goodbye beer (with the other American, Jeff, since he is leaving for Paris) at the Prince of Wales. This is an old theatre that has been converted into a nicer pub. Very dramatic windows and stairs. Loved it!

11.00 -- bedtime -- noted first evidence of blister evolution. Tried to call people in the later (or is it earlier?) time zones to no avail. Sleep.

St. Fagan's

Graham and Jane collected me from having Saturday coffee/brunch with James at Hoffi Coffee around the corner from my house and were quite amused by my simplistic enjoyment of the excursion :) St. Fagan's is a museum of Welsh life and is a completely interactive experience -- they have hay harvesting, and sheep and cows and spinning demonstrations! It is a great outing for families (and people like self) and I heard people speaking Welsh to their children! Buildings from all over Wales have been donated to this museum and were marked and then reassembled on this site to provide examples of how life was in different periods.

One terrace of six houses, moves forward 50 years or so at a time as you move from house to house -- very interesting to see how material things become more and more a part of everyday life as history moves forward.

Mining companies built Workman's Institutes for miners to have access to education and entertainment after working. Library and class rooms and a theatre. Children as young as 14 worked in the mines! Graham's grandfather and great-grandfather worked in mines in the north of England.

Beautiful gardens and a fortified castle on the other side of the park. Greenhouses have grapes growing along the roof supports and other plants on the floor -- very nifty :) I pricked my finger picking a sprig of hawthorn from a hedgerow.

Graham and Jane are quite personable and good fun to visit! Graham thinks he is going to teach me to drive...... At least the car is automatic.


7.30 -- dinner party at the Hobbit Hole! Hiroko made fried rice, Jimmi and I made salad, Clare brought spicy chicken wings and Omar made pasta with salmon cream sauce. Ate much earlier than the night before. We're getting the furniture arranged in the best way for entertaining -- a good thing that we have such a large space downstairs!

Before the fog overtakes me....

Day 4 -- Friday.

Gasoline protests on the main highways -- small herd of lorries (i think this means big trucks....maybe 18-wheelers?) and other cars drove 15 mph all day in protest of high prices. Regular gasoline is 93-ish pence per litre -- my calculation is that this is nearly $8.00 a gallon! eek! Yet another reason not to be overeager to drive backwards anytime soon.

Since Susan went to Oxford for the day, I toodled about and found all sorts of lovely second-hand shops to look for necessary house items. Bought four books. oops :) Tried to open bank account without success -- apparently they don't believe me that I actually live here. Must figure out way to prove this.

Went on huge sanitation spree in room before discovering a small biosystem in the filter area of vacuum. ick. Cleaner (noun) is now cleaner (adjective)!

Met landlord, who was rather alarmed that I was painting a lampshade blue in the kitchen. Until I explained that it was actually mine from an earlier purchase :)

Susan returned just in time to leave with Omar, Maurizio and me for a dinner party with some friends of theirs! This turned out to be quite international -- 2 Chinese (Tommy and Clare), 2 Italians (Omar and Maurizio), 3 Americans (Jeff, Susan, moi), and 1 Brit (Andrew -- from Cornwall). Lateness was blamed on the Americans, since it is usually apparently blamed on the Italians. But lateness was nothing to the fact that the proper food wasn't ready until 10.30! Gnawing hand off!

Group insistence that Susan and I not flake out at 12.30, when dinner party through. Walked downtown for short outing, which turned into long outing. Our leaders, who have been here longer, were quite disappointed that we didn't get to see any fights -- this is apparently a regular Cardiff occurrence. hmmmm. :) Don't worry, y'all -- won't be fighting with random Welsh people.

The Hobbit Hole

Day 3 (aka, Thursday).

Susan and I got up to misting rain (as darkly predicted by Karsten) and departed for more errands before we were to meet Graham's son, James for lunch and a bit of City Orientation. However, everyone should be proud to note my cunning purchase of a second set of keys to my room and house! V.g. idea.

It is quaint to walk in the rain while doing busy things, but I have an idea this amusement may fade :)

Walked to the Student Union in great time -- it is about 15 minutes from my front door. James showed us through where we would have used computers had we not had the good fortune of figuring out that a wireless signal is coming from somewhere around my house, so that is quite convenient until we get ours set up at the house once Fabiana arrives! The pub in the Student Union is quite large; there is also a large pool hall, as well as a concert hall. Naturally, I don't know much about local music yet, but apparently a lot of big name acts come to the University.

James took us to lunch at the Yard and a crayfish sandwich is on the menu! The Yard is very wood-and-metal sleek architecture and decor. Cool place. James has just completed an MA and is certified to teach secondary students -- he is currently waiting to hear back from a possible position at a school just north of our neighborhood. The three of us (susan, james and i) discussed the horrors of high school students and comparisons between the mental capacity of a potato vs. that of the average student.

Walked, walked, walked -- until I finally had to cut it short for a rest before my feet just arbitrarily disconnected themselves....

The door to our house is in a flat wall (no garden entrance like a lot of the houses in a terrace set-up like this) and opens right onto the side walk (aka, pavement). Apparently, James and his friends refer to these houses -- there is a Bridge House North and a Bridge House South -- as the Hobbit Holes! He had never been in one before, so after finding all this out, we analyzed the aspects of the house as fitting the profile -- it really works.

Some funny observations so far:

• the pub at the bottom of the hill is about a 30-second walk from my front door.
• the pub over the hill the other way and down is about 40-seconds.
• we have a clothes washer in our kitchen and it is also a dryer!!!!! who knew?
• there are two different kinds of light bulbs -- the screw kind and others that are smooth with little frankenstein prongs.
• if you purchase the wrong kind of light bulb, it doesn't work.
• there are Discount Cards at the pubs (like grocery stores at home), but these are for beer! (which is helpful since a pint is 2.60 regular price = $5.00.)

The transition to Cardiff is made!

And Cardiff has given me a lovely sunny welcome, too, despite warnings from predictors of nothing but rain in Wales.

Susan (my travelling companion from Dallas through London to Cardiff with the ultimate destination of Belfast for the Fall semester from Centenary) was lovely to have along as a luggage lackey on the train as I packed entirely too many black shirts and sweaters and boots and for another unexpected reason that will be explained below.

So after getting from the train station to my new abode in Cathays (where I met my first housemate, Hiroko -- another Rotary Scholar from Japan), it became slightly clearer the things that one takes for granted in everyday life at home -- little things like pillow cases and salt and lightbulbs and windex. So we went out shopping on the first of several excursions over the past two and a half days.

After a couple of beers at the pub, which handily happens to be a mere 45 second walk from my front door, we came back to the house and proceeded to move every piece of furniture in my room (those of you who know me well are not surprised by this, nor should anyone be alarmed to hear that there is one item of furniture placed on a diagonal.....).

A completely exhausted Susan then retired to one of my future housemate's empty room and I proceeded to unpack; meet my Rotary counselor and his wife -- who brought a very nice "settling in" gift with things like a TV. DVD player, iron, dishes, etc.; tidy things up; arrange my new bedding; and generally nest while on my adrenyline high.

A nice shower later, I had just gone to the kitchen to heat my shoulder reliever in the microwave when.............. I heard the horrid sound of my door dragging across the carpet (meaning it had escaped from the highly technical ROCK doorstop)
and clicking locked. My reasonable next thought was how to successfully cat-burlge my way into my room since a screwdriver had been part of the Rotary care package. However, the hinges are on the inside, the doorknob is not one that turns in the American way, and my window is on the second level from a street that goes alongside our house and is also above a tunnel. hmmmm.......

Not really much to do in this situation, so FORTUNATELY the twin bed in the guest room next to mine was free and FORTUNATELY had linens on it since one of Hiroko's friends is staying here for a couple of weeks, although she happened to be gone to London at the time! So I quite literally crashed into her bed -- this is around 9.00 pm.

To make the situation further full of giggles, there was the fact that I had been watching Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban before being so rudely ejected from my living quarters. At approximately midnight, I awoke to the sound of the beginning trailer of the movie on a 30-second loop. For those uninitiated souls, there is a shrunken head who cackles at, oh, about 23-second intervals. You may now imagine my shoulders tensing in gleeful anticipation of each cackle. Teeth were also grinding by this point. Until I decided that the only course of action was to further pillage this other poor girl's room and turn her radio to the classical station and borrow a book to read myself cross-eyed.

End Tuesday.

Begin Wednesday.

The first task of the day was to borrow clothes from Susan (yet another reason she is useful and kind) for the walk to the pay phone to call the estate agent with a plea for help. Then walked to the estate agents' office to borrow a ball of about 59 keys in the hopes that one would allow me to re-enter my life without having to call a locksmith. This was all successful, so other than a little sweat, Susan and I were ready to be collected by Graham, my Rotary counselor for an afternoon around Cardiff!

Graham and his wife, Jane, took us to lunch in a little pub on the other side of Caerphilly Mountain (which is the northern border of the city of Cardiff). Both Susan and I had to duck our heads because the ceilings were so low :) After, they drove us through Caerphilly and some other suburbs of Cardiff for about 7 hours -- this also included tea and an evening bayside beer on the docks. It was wonderful to be driven around, too, as my arms ached from the Hauling of the Luggage and my calves were suffering from walking more on Tuesday than in the previous 6 months!

End Wednesday, exhausted but happy to be in my own room!