Funny Photo Friday

Ah, parenting. I guess you pick your battles.

Clifford Tower, York

Funny Photo Friday

In the Durham Cathedral bookshop. Perhaps not funny. But random? Yes!

Gone shopping

(With plenty of other posting options, this post is a few weeks past its due date. It was supposed to have a photo from Michigan in it and that just never happened. Funny to write about Durham while no longer there. Oh well. One last one before we get to our European roadtrip. Read away!)

Other than a few years membership in a co-op where we obtained bulk goods in absurdly large quantities, my family did its grocery shopping at Huizenga's, the local grocery store on Main Street. It wasn't large by American standards, but certainly stocked almost everything a Michigander could want or need. Quite a few years ago now, it was bought by a chain, and although the name over the door changed, everything else primarily stayed the same. Then it was bought by another chain. And then that chain built a brand new store one and a half miles outside of town in one of those areas surrounded by beige look-alike 90's subdivisions with roads that curve for no reason and names like Sunset Meadows and Waverly Bluffs. And that was the end of Huizenga's. I was reminded of this fact when I saw the sad, empty building on our Christmas visit. A very small amount of interior partitioning has been done, and it looks like something strip mall-esque is on the books.

I recall feeling a nostolgic sadness when the store first closed. I fondly remembered the swans and ducks in the retaining pond next to the parking lot, the tall carts the teenagers used to carry out our groceries, and the lanky balding man, a store manager (owner even?), who always smiled through his neatly trimmed beard and said hello although I don't recall if he and my mother knew each other by name. Now, having been forced to change my shopping habits the last few years through non-car-ownership, city living, extreme budgeting, traveling, and the tiniest refridgerator you've ever seen, my sadness has grown into frustration and disbelief.

Read the rest...
Six thousand people live in my hometown of Zeeland. Yet I find it puzzling that a grocery store couldn't be supported in its lovely, walkable city center. My sister lives in downtown Zeeland and drives 5.3 miles to a grocery store that tends to be cheaper than the 1.7 mile option. I don't know that she would want to walk and then carry the food she needs to feed her family of six on a regular basis, but the option would be there. People all over the world do it daily. Speaking as someone who has lived in some drastically different places in the last few years, it's amazing what you get used to and what becomes normal.

Less you think this is solely an American dilemma, we have a similar situation here in Durham. There are two enormous grocery stores a few miles outside of Durham proper, while the one store in the city centre closed last August. Around the same time, a Tesco Express opened, Tesco being like Walmart and Express meaning a 7-11-size store jam-packed with all the essentials, all-be-they rather student-oriented ones. There is still the covered market where, along with an incredibly odd assortment of hair clips, overstocked make-up, cheap sweaters, and yarn, there still exists a butcher, a fishmonger, a cheese booth, and a green grocer. If one could find a more consistent place for bulk goods than the Weigh and Save, which has closed and reopened no less than five times since we've lived here, the city centre may provide enough to get by. As all these shops close promptly at 5pm, most employed people would have to save their shopping for the weekends.

What we do, though, is spend our £5 bus fare to the grocery stores on delivery instead. Order online and have your groceries delivered to your door. It's a fantastic luxury I thought only existed in New York. And since the food is delivered to and stored in warehouses, it's actually considered by many to be more efficient, greener one could say, than heading to the grocery store individually.

Now what's in downtown Zeeland that could provide such foodstuffs? There's a seed store, a jewelry shop, a few artsy gift shops and a floral shop. The coffee shop just closed, I hear, although the bakery, community restaurant, and diner could maybe get you by for a week if you chose to solely dine out. The lovely post office is still there and still small town-y. It just seems to me that cities exist to efficiently concentrate goods and services for those who live in them. They make things convenient. So what's with moving basic services to the peripheries of those cities and forcing everyone to transport themselves back out to find them? It all just seems silly, doesn't it?

Eastertide

Last year we showed photos of the Easter eggs we bought, so this year we thought we'd post some photos of the available options. It is simply incredible how much stuff, sweets and toys in particular, is sold for Easter here; this is only one of two aisles.

Sheesh. Just give me a package of Brach's Chicks and Rabbits, and I'm happy.

Anyway, Easter is about celebrating something else entirely, so we're going to go break open the giant Cadbury egg that's been hogging space in the boot for the last few weeks, and see if we can locate an English-speaking church! Happy Easter!

Funny Photo Friday: Wouldn't you just spend your days praying for a fire drill?

From Albert Dock in Liverpool.
OK, OK, it's probably for cargo, but still.

The Beginning of the End, kind of.

So, here is the bit where we give a final preparatory announcement, Megan is already traveling and I'm leaving in about 30 minutes for the airport, and then this final leg of what has become a 2 year plus journey starts to draw to a close. In my head the times before we left doesn't feel that far ago but it isn't until I actually say the date do i realise the length of it, Dec of 2006 was a long time ago now.

But this begins the final leg, we'll share photos and stories we run across. We'll try not to enjoy the weather, food, or culture too much, but know that if you ever want to join us for a part we'll always have a seat in the car (you may have to share the space with a tent, but the seat is still there!). Also, I just wanted to say that if meg's email communication from the last week or so is an indicator or posting may be a little spotty at times, as Internet cafes aren't always abounding. But bear with us, we'll keep things updated as best we can. That's it, hope all is well and we really think you should join us somewhere, how about Greece? Greece is nice. So it's settled then, we'll plan on seeing you (y'all) in Greece, say early May?

P.S. I've been told the car is 'rather full' and to not bring much with me. As such this little backpack is all I'm taking with for a transatlantic flight.

Funny Photo Friday: I just don't even know where to start

From the SE Asian store in Holland, Michigan.

If you can't read every comment, then zoom in and check it out. They're all class.

Movin' Movin' Movin

So things have been busy since I've returned and recently as I was preparing to hit the road and feeling stressed about the drive I was trying to figure out why. Then I started to count the places I've been to since I've been back and it turns out in the 5 weeks I am back in the States I'll drive over 2,200 miles (most of that within a fortnight!) not to mention a round trip flight to Vancouver (there go another 4,000+ miles).

Sheesh, no wonder I'm tired of driving and moving! Hopefully though it'll serve as good training for this next little adventure, or at least that's what I tell myself on my 14+ hour drive home. Thank goodness someone created NPR.

Someone

When you spend your life in close proximity with someone it is disappointing to go through major things without them. I miss her in those comical moments of reverse culture shock, when I find myself saying please for everything, when I climb into bed and under the comforter and then realise I haven't gotten into the covers (or under the top sheet, depending on your country of preference). Sometimes, I miss her in those bizarrely surreal moments of state finals in girls basketball and small town choir recitals (located in a gym with authentic worn out American flag and scoreboard in the corner!) where the scene feels too American to be true. I want someone who has been through it with me, to remind me it all really happened.

Also, I need someone to help me figure out when my mobile becomes my cell again. When do realise, authorise, and progamme change back into the pumpkins of realize, authorize, and program? When do I need to stop saying 'Cheers' as a substitute for thanks?

Some things (read: most) are just so much better with someone else around.