Thursday 28 March 2013
A short break in transmission
while we go to Houston for the weekend to celebrate my 21st birthday (he!he!) and get some culture and probably a snack or two! Hasta la vista!
Sit and fit
I must learn not to be so cynical. I must write out 100 times, "I must learn not to be so cynical and condescending!"
About 10 men and women were seated in a room in the community centre facing a video screen. Age range? Difficult to tell, but at a guess from 80+ down to 65. Fitness level also very wide, from slightly fitter than me to plain doddery. A young looking event manager put on the DVD. We watched a very toned young woman in a shiny purple leotard taking us through exercises. She had a bright, breezy voice and a toothpaste smile and sat in a multicoloured studio surrounded by a reassuring selection of gaudily dressed participants...thin and young to old and grossly obese! My friends had saved me a seat in the back row, which was just as well as I found it difficult to tell my left from my right, confused by the flailing limbs of the people in front and the reversed instructions on the screen!
We were holding weights and after about 10 minutes I was feeling a bit puffed but my 80 year old friend was going strong so I pulled myself together and carried on. After the first video was over the event manager came in and put on a second - Seated dancing - similar movements again but this time to music, Viennese waltz, country and western, polka, you get the idea - and not with weights this time but waving paper plates! ¡Ay, caramba!
I would have laughed if I had time to draw breath!! It was surreal! BUT the exercises were extremely fast paced and lasted for 45 minutes, with only a short pause to take your pulse. It was very hard work! I really felt my muscles aching! Enjoy the video. You can have a good laugh imagining me at it, but I'm certainly going again next week!
About 10 men and women were seated in a room in the community centre facing a video screen. Age range? Difficult to tell, but at a guess from 80+ down to 65. Fitness level also very wide, from slightly fitter than me to plain doddery. A young looking event manager put on the DVD. We watched a very toned young woman in a shiny purple leotard taking us through exercises. She had a bright, breezy voice and a toothpaste smile and sat in a multicoloured studio surrounded by a reassuring selection of gaudily dressed participants...thin and young to old and grossly obese! My friends had saved me a seat in the back row, which was just as well as I found it difficult to tell my left from my right, confused by the flailing limbs of the people in front and the reversed instructions on the screen!
We were holding weights and after about 10 minutes I was feeling a bit puffed but my 80 year old friend was going strong so I pulled myself together and carried on. After the first video was over the event manager came in and put on a second - Seated dancing - similar movements again but this time to music, Viennese waltz, country and western, polka, you get the idea - and not with weights this time but waving paper plates! ¡Ay, caramba!
I would have laughed if I had time to draw breath!! It was surreal! BUT the exercises were extremely fast paced and lasted for 45 minutes, with only a short pause to take your pulse. It was very hard work! I really felt my muscles aching! Enjoy the video. You can have a good laugh imagining me at it, but I'm certainly going again next week!
Wednesday 27 March 2013
4.5 hours at the library...
and my eyes are tired! I wish some Texan oil billionaire would come along and pay for the library to digitise it's newspapers! I've been winding my way through the Bryan Daily Eagle for 1937 on microfilm looking for historical and significant events though I have to say that the advertisements for shoes and clothes are much more interesting. As for the cigarette ads!
Tomorrow I've been invited by a lovely couple (circa 80 years old) to go with them to a 'sit and fit' class at a community center where they have 'senior adult programmes'. Apparently you do exercises from a seated position. It's very kind of them to ask me along and who knows, it MAY be just what I've been looking for but somehow I doubt it. I don't know whether to laugh or cry, I'll let you know in graphic detail tomorrow!
Tuesday 26 March 2013
A very full day
The bad news is that I put on 0.8lbs last week. Must have been the matzo balls!
The good news is that this has been a event-full day.
Event 1.
It started with an invitation to a book group which meets over lunch. A lady I met last night invited me and she insisted that we meet up in a car park half way there. She had been attending a class on living with chronic illness and I lurked in the car park until she came out - then we went in her car to the Briarcrest Country Club where the group meets in a private room.
As an aside, the class on chronic illness is something she really enjoys. She has fybromyalgia, which is pain in the muscles and joints, and other people in the group have different conditions. It's a self-help group. They discuss their problems and how they cope with them. It sounds like a barrel of laughs to me and I only mention this to illustrate how unimaginative, callous and uncaring I am!
As another aside, my friend drove me back to the car park after the lunch which illustrates that a) there are no restrictions to leaving your car in any old parking lot and b) it was not in the direction in which she lives but people are very generous with their time and don't mind driving back and forth.
Anyway, we arrive at the country club and find the other 6 members of the group and order lunch ( a salad for me which is a bowl of lettuce, 2 slices of cucumber, three cherry tomatoes, a teaspoon full of a boursin look-alike and half an inch of bacon, crumbled....she says piously!) Other members of the group order more and also less and the two who order more also get a box to take half home in (another American phenomenon).
Anyway, again...it turns out to be a wonderful experience! They are all very well read, very interesting, very intelligent and warm and friendly, left leaning women. In addition to talking about books they have been reading they also stop now and again to throw out ideas for me - things to do around here - and I fill a page in my note book. What a find! I can't wait for next month and am so grateful to my new friend for inviting me! We are going to be reading The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver.
Event 2.
At 3.30 the mother of the woman we are renting the house from arrived to take me to a group called 'Brazos Valley Wearable Arts', Brazos being the name of the county College Station is in and Wearable Arts being any craft,knitting,sewing item that you can wear or carry about your person! There were about 15 women seated around a table in the Brazos Valley Arts Centre. Some smiled, some scowled into their crochet work. The chair person went through the routine..minutes of the last meeting, agenda, welcome. I was introduced and had to explain my craft credentials. Then it was show and tell time. Not many people had brought items they were working on. When it was my turn I held up the latest sweater I am knitting for Abe and that seemed to pass muster, just. I was asked about Downton Abbey and had to admit I hadn't been to the actual house. Murmurs of disappointment! Then a woman got up and gave a talk about her visit to Bali to look at how batik and ikat fabric is made. She had good photographs and many samples of cloth to show. She was very enthusiastic and it was an interesting talk. Afterwards a woman came over to tell me about her cousin who lives near Oxford and she gave me her contact details and said we should lunch sometime. Another woman gave me her details and offered to go with me to the good yarn store in College Station. You'll notice that I am starting to adopt Americanisms....Yarn store! Whatever next.!
A wearable arts challenge was issued for the May meeting. We have to make something to wear that has to do with where we are from. A union jack bag? I think not! Any ideas???
Event 3
When I got home, Peter, Bob and Mary were practically asleep in the sitting room. They roused themselves for a drink and then we went to dinner at Christopher's World Grille just outside College Station.
The restaurant is in an interesting old house, the setting is very elegant and the service attentive. We had delicious food and excellent wine. Bob lets slip it is my birthday and so my dessert plate comes with an iced birthday message on the plate and one candle. Little do they know how many candles short they were! When we were leaving at 9.15 the place had already emptied and the waiting staff were loitering and setting up for the next day. As we passed they told us we had been voted the table with the most interesting conversation! Bob's take on this was that just because we had English accents they were fooled into thinking we were intelligent! It's an easy mistake to make!
Home, exhausted! Bob and Mary decide they are not up to driving back to Bastrop and so they stay the night.
The good news is that this has been a event-full day.
Event 1.
It started with an invitation to a book group which meets over lunch. A lady I met last night invited me and she insisted that we meet up in a car park half way there. She had been attending a class on living with chronic illness and I lurked in the car park until she came out - then we went in her car to the Briarcrest Country Club where the group meets in a private room.
As an aside, the class on chronic illness is something she really enjoys. She has fybromyalgia, which is pain in the muscles and joints, and other people in the group have different conditions. It's a self-help group. They discuss their problems and how they cope with them. It sounds like a barrel of laughs to me and I only mention this to illustrate how unimaginative, callous and uncaring I am!
As another aside, my friend drove me back to the car park after the lunch which illustrates that a) there are no restrictions to leaving your car in any old parking lot and b) it was not in the direction in which she lives but people are very generous with their time and don't mind driving back and forth.
Anyway, we arrive at the country club and find the other 6 members of the group and order lunch ( a salad for me which is a bowl of lettuce, 2 slices of cucumber, three cherry tomatoes, a teaspoon full of a boursin look-alike and half an inch of bacon, crumbled....she says piously!) Other members of the group order more and also less and the two who order more also get a box to take half home in (another American phenomenon).
Anyway, again...it turns out to be a wonderful experience! They are all very well read, very interesting, very intelligent and warm and friendly, left leaning women. In addition to talking about books they have been reading they also stop now and again to throw out ideas for me - things to do around here - and I fill a page in my note book. What a find! I can't wait for next month and am so grateful to my new friend for inviting me! We are going to be reading The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver.
Event 2.
At 3.30 the mother of the woman we are renting the house from arrived to take me to a group called 'Brazos Valley Wearable Arts', Brazos being the name of the county College Station is in and Wearable Arts being any craft,knitting,sewing item that you can wear or carry about your person! There were about 15 women seated around a table in the Brazos Valley Arts Centre. Some smiled, some scowled into their crochet work. The chair person went through the routine..minutes of the last meeting, agenda, welcome. I was introduced and had to explain my craft credentials. Then it was show and tell time. Not many people had brought items they were working on. When it was my turn I held up the latest sweater I am knitting for Abe and that seemed to pass muster, just. I was asked about Downton Abbey and had to admit I hadn't been to the actual house. Murmurs of disappointment! Then a woman got up and gave a talk about her visit to Bali to look at how batik and ikat fabric is made. She had good photographs and many samples of cloth to show. She was very enthusiastic and it was an interesting talk. Afterwards a woman came over to tell me about her cousin who lives near Oxford and she gave me her contact details and said we should lunch sometime. Another woman gave me her details and offered to go with me to the good yarn store in College Station. You'll notice that I am starting to adopt Americanisms....Yarn store! Whatever next.!
A wearable arts challenge was issued for the May meeting. We have to make something to wear that has to do with where we are from. A union jack bag? I think not! Any ideas???
Event 3
When I got home, Peter, Bob and Mary were practically asleep in the sitting room. They roused themselves for a drink and then we went to dinner at Christopher's World Grille just outside College Station.
The restaurant is in an interesting old house, the setting is very elegant and the service attentive. We had delicious food and excellent wine. Bob lets slip it is my birthday and so my dessert plate comes with an iced birthday message on the plate and one candle. Little do they know how many candles short they were! When we were leaving at 9.15 the place had already emptied and the waiting staff were loitering and setting up for the next day. As we passed they told us we had been voted the table with the most interesting conversation! Bob's take on this was that just because we had English accents they were fooled into thinking we were intelligent! It's an easy mistake to make!
Home, exhausted! Bob and Mary decide they are not up to driving back to Bastrop and so they stay the night.
Passover
Tonight we were invited by friends of friends to go to the house of one of their friends for Seder - to celebrate the first night of Passover. It was a great treat. The service was interspersed with discussions which are endemic to all Jewish gatherings about which pages to skip in the Hagaddah (the order of service) and how to sing the songs and to what tunes. Our host Mannie was full of stories which pleasantly delayed the progress of the service. One of the guests had actually made Matzos, which was a considerable feat. There was a great buzz round the table and the meal was a marathon of Jewish food:
We felt very welcome and very much at home!
Chicken liver pate
Gefilte fish
Chicken soup with matzos balls
Chicken with roast vegetables, carrot tzimmes and matzos kugel
Tea and cake
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| The seder plate |
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| Soup and matzos balls |
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| Anticipating the meal |
Sunday 24 March 2013
A perfect day...
A perfect day out in the Sam Houston National Forest.
The sun shone, there was a light breeze, the pines
swayed and gave off their scent and the butterflies
danced round our feet.
The path was well sign posted and completely deserted!
We walked 8.4 miles!
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| Tiger swallowtail - we think Not my own photo I have to admit - they were too fast! |
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| Peter on the Lone Star Hiking Trail |
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| Ruth on the LSHT |
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| We're on the right track! |
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| Fungus |
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| Forest service road |
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| Dogwood? |
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| Heading into the Wilderness |
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| Boardwalk |
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| Mushrooms and pine cones |
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| One of the many huge fallen trees |
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| Up hill |
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| Signs of spring |
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| Swallowtail - but what sort? |
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| Spider nest? |
Saturday 23 March 2013
Grrrr!
Flame roasted vegetables on the menu and the BBQ runs out of gas! Peter's gone shopping and doesn't have a mobile phone. Grrr!
P.S. The food turned out really well, despite all the alarms!
P.S. The food turned out really well, despite all the alarms!
Friday 22 March 2013
Stay in the car!
You've seen it in the movies...the cop car comes screaming up behind, lights flashing, horn blaring, you pull over. If you're British, you politely get out of the car. "Stay in the car" the cop growls. Peter: "Oh, sorry..." "Do y'all know you are driving without your headlights on?" Peter: "Oh, sorry..." "Where are you folks from?" etc. etc. Glad it wasn't me!
Pain in the neck
I'm suffering from microfilm neck. It's what you get when you tip your head right back to look at newspapers on microfilm on a reader that's much too high, on a seat that won't go higher and there's no way to adjust your head so that you can see what you are doing through your varifocals. Ouch!
Simple Pleasures: No. 1
- Driving along in my automobile...automatic, as quiet as a whisper
- Listening to country music and peerless lines such as "..even with your hair in curlers, I still love to lay you down..."
- Ice on tap from the fridge door
- The sound of a mile long train hooting in the distance as it slowly makes its way over a crossing
- Turning right against the lights
Who would have though it
Page views for the last week from the blog statistics!Pageviews by Countries |
I know what I like
I've been thinking about yesterday's art exhibition. While we were there one of the artists came up and explained her work to us. She was exhibiting a number of pencil drawings of clothing from her grandmother's closet and representations of fine lawn handkerchiefs drawn in ink on a light table on a translucent material. When displayed against light they appeared transparent.
What had attracted the artists to this material was the tangible connection to the past, her grandmother and objects that carry with then the imprint of those that have used them. This is just a summary of her explanation which went on for longer than we'd expected...
It got me wondering about the extent to which the artist's intention is important to the viewer. Sometimes the intention is inescapable, such as when a picture carries a clear political message. The artist is saying...I want you to think about this! But in other circumstances, does it enhance our appreciation of a picture or work of art? In most cases, I don't think so.
We have three paintings by a chap called Nicholas Simington. Here's an example of another work by him in a similar vein. I like the rhythm in his work, the juxtaposition of limbs and heads, the colour, the vulnerability and the strength of his people and, above all, the ambiguity. What's going on, who are they, what's happened, what time and place do they inhabit, what are they feeling? Are they watching something, waiting for something? I like to speculate and at other times I just enjoy the surface appeal.
What had attracted the artists to this material was the tangible connection to the past, her grandmother and objects that carry with then the imprint of those that have used them. This is just a summary of her explanation which went on for longer than we'd expected...
It got me wondering about the extent to which the artist's intention is important to the viewer. Sometimes the intention is inescapable, such as when a picture carries a clear political message. The artist is saying...I want you to think about this! But in other circumstances, does it enhance our appreciation of a picture or work of art? In most cases, I don't think so.
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I've just this minute found a web page with more of his work on it and an explanation by him of his approach to his painting! It turns out that what he's trying to do is just what I've been seeing. How do I feel about that? I'm thinking about it. (Gill, don't go and buy them all, there are some I haven't seen before and want!)
Thursday 21 March 2013
Just like home...almost
A disappointing day to start with. I got smartened up and drove off to attend the Exploring History Luncheon which was about one of the first African American families to own land in College Station. There's been an archeological dig at the site of their homestead. When I arrived at the church (lots of big churches here with auditoriums, meeting rooms etc.) the car park was suspiciously empty. The nice young woman in the office was 'so, so sorry' is was yesterday. So I was annoyed with myself and annoyed with the person who gave me the duff information!
I decided to go and do my grocery shopping instead. We have a couple coming for supper on Saturday night and the menu is:
No, I didn't bring recipe books with me...it's all on t'internet!
I made some more shopping discoveries. You can buy almost any kind of dried fruit, but no sign of sultanas and the raisins came in small, expensive quantities. They don't have creme fraiche - it doesn't seem to exist - but there are acres of sour cream. Do you think that would have worked instead? I decided to go for Green yoghurt. No tender young leeks - just very big thick things - and no red chillies. About 6 different kinds of chilli but none of them red.
I collected Peter from work in the afternoon and we went to the opening of the Annual Faculty Art Exhibition, work by members of staff who work in Architecture and Fine Arts, one of whom we met recently. We saw the refreshments table and made a bee-line but all they were serving drinks wise was a very sweet fizzy apple juice. A definite contrast with our normal expectations of art show openings! The art didn't disappoint though, there was some good stuff including some very appealing pen and ink drawings of Italian hill towns and of course the usual suspects drifting around and meeting and greeting! Almost like home.
I decided to go and do my grocery shopping instead. We have a couple coming for supper on Saturday night and the menu is:
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| Nigel Slater's flash fried Moroccan chicken |
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| Jamie Oliver's marinated grilled vegetables |
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| Persian rice |
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| Ottolenghi's pears in saffron and cardamom |
No, I didn't bring recipe books with me...it's all on t'internet!
I made some more shopping discoveries. You can buy almost any kind of dried fruit, but no sign of sultanas and the raisins came in small, expensive quantities. They don't have creme fraiche - it doesn't seem to exist - but there are acres of sour cream. Do you think that would have worked instead? I decided to go for Green yoghurt. No tender young leeks - just very big thick things - and no red chillies. About 6 different kinds of chilli but none of them red.
I collected Peter from work in the afternoon and we went to the opening of the Annual Faculty Art Exhibition, work by members of staff who work in Architecture and Fine Arts, one of whom we met recently. We saw the refreshments table and made a bee-line but all they were serving drinks wise was a very sweet fizzy apple juice. A definite contrast with our normal expectations of art show openings! The art didn't disappoint though, there was some good stuff including some very appealing pen and ink drawings of Italian hill towns and of course the usual suspects drifting around and meeting and greeting! Almost like home. Wednesday 20 March 2013
Getting started on local history
I met with the Historic Records Coordinator this afternoon and I have my first assignments as a volunteer for the College Station 75th Anniversary celebration. Gulp!
1. Pulling together newspaper front pages, headlines and stories from local newspapers (The Eagle, The Battalion (Texas A&M's newspaper) and the High School newspaper) and various library archives that relate to significant dates in College Station's and America's history from 1938 to 2013. Mm! That should keep me busy for a while! I plan to make a start on Friday at the Carnegie Library in downtown Bryan. I think I'll need some kind of plan or framework otherwise this will be a completely indigestible task.
2. Skimming through the city's oral history transcriptions and picking out notable quotes and stories. Sounded simple until I took a look at the transcriptions...pages and pages of typed up notes from meetings, one to one rambling interviews that go on for 20 pages etc.etc. Might leave that one for a while!
3. I quote from the Multimedia Coordinator's email, "Writing her personal interpretation of things she finds interesting or unique about College Station and Texas, since she is fairly new to our community. I would very much like to get this perspective in order to tailor some of our materials to these type of folks." My personal interpretation! Foolhardy man! Does he not know what he might be unleashing!
I was mulling this last suggestion over with the Records Coordinator. One of the things that had struck me is that College Station has no centre or downtown area (shops are grouped in malls or retail parks with massive parking lots but these are spaced out several blocks apart along the main arteries criss-crossing College Station) and so there is no focal point or place where you might run into someone you know. This makes it hard for new comers to identify with the place or get to know people. However, it seems that here people's sense of community is very faith based. I have been struck by the number of churches and the number of people who tell you what their religious affiliation is. At the committee meeting last week, almost everyone made some reference to their church. Yes, said the Records Coordinator, it would be interesting to get your perspective on that...
The 2011 UK census showed that between 2001 and 2011 there has been a decrease in people who identify as Christian (from 71.7 per cent to 59.3 per cent) and an increase in those reporting no religion (from 14.8 per cent to 25.1 per cent). There were increases in the other main religious group categories, with the number of Muslims increasing the most (from 3.0 per cent to 4.8 per cent).
The 2009 US statistics provided by Gallup show that 50% of Texans report attending 'church' once a week, the national average was 42%. In 2012 77% of Americans identify themselves as Christian. "The United States remains a largely Christian nation; more than nine in 10 Americans who have a religious identity are affiliated with a Christian religion. There has been little change in this portrait of religious identity in the U.S. from last year."
I'm not sure how all this adds up, as calling yourself Christian and attending church are different measures, but the Texans I've met so far are certainly much more upfront in talking about their religion/church/attendance which contrasts with British reserve, but I'm not sure whether my perspective on this issue is of any interest to others.
The other cultural difference that has struck me is that the man in the street - or should I say the man/woman in the car - doesn't show much interest in being 'green' or other signs of awareness of environmental issues. You should see the number of plastic carrier bags that pour out of the supermarket doors every minute of the day! There are free shuttle buses that tour round College Station and Peter goes to and from work on the one that stops about 5 minutes from our house. We haven't yet met another member of the faculty that uses them. Shuttle bus? Never used it. Always take my car...
There's a slightly worrying expectation that I'm going to add something to this history project as an outside observer. I'm going to have to do a lot of research and careful mulling over of ideas or I'll be putting my foot in it, left, right and center (ha! ha! I meant centre).
What have I started!
1. Pulling together newspaper front pages, headlines and stories from local newspapers (The Eagle, The Battalion (Texas A&M's newspaper) and the High School newspaper) and various library archives that relate to significant dates in College Station's and America's history from 1938 to 2013. Mm! That should keep me busy for a while! I plan to make a start on Friday at the Carnegie Library in downtown Bryan. I think I'll need some kind of plan or framework otherwise this will be a completely indigestible task.
2. Skimming through the city's oral history transcriptions and picking out notable quotes and stories. Sounded simple until I took a look at the transcriptions...pages and pages of typed up notes from meetings, one to one rambling interviews that go on for 20 pages etc.etc. Might leave that one for a while!
3. I quote from the Multimedia Coordinator's email, "Writing her personal interpretation of things she finds interesting or unique about College Station and Texas, since she is fairly new to our community. I would very much like to get this perspective in order to tailor some of our materials to these type of folks." My personal interpretation! Foolhardy man! Does he not know what he might be unleashing!
I was mulling this last suggestion over with the Records Coordinator. One of the things that had struck me is that College Station has no centre or downtown area (shops are grouped in malls or retail parks with massive parking lots but these are spaced out several blocks apart along the main arteries criss-crossing College Station) and so there is no focal point or place where you might run into someone you know. This makes it hard for new comers to identify with the place or get to know people. However, it seems that here people's sense of community is very faith based. I have been struck by the number of churches and the number of people who tell you what their religious affiliation is. At the committee meeting last week, almost everyone made some reference to their church. Yes, said the Records Coordinator, it would be interesting to get your perspective on that...
The 2011 UK census showed that between 2001 and 2011 there has been a decrease in people who identify as Christian (from 71.7 per cent to 59.3 per cent) and an increase in those reporting no religion (from 14.8 per cent to 25.1 per cent). There were increases in the other main religious group categories, with the number of Muslims increasing the most (from 3.0 per cent to 4.8 per cent).
The 2009 US statistics provided by Gallup show that 50% of Texans report attending 'church' once a week, the national average was 42%. In 2012 77% of Americans identify themselves as Christian. "The United States remains a largely Christian nation; more than nine in 10 Americans who have a religious identity are affiliated with a Christian religion. There has been little change in this portrait of religious identity in the U.S. from last year."
I'm not sure how all this adds up, as calling yourself Christian and attending church are different measures, but the Texans I've met so far are certainly much more upfront in talking about their religion/church/attendance which contrasts with British reserve, but I'm not sure whether my perspective on this issue is of any interest to others.
The other cultural difference that has struck me is that the man in the street - or should I say the man/woman in the car - doesn't show much interest in being 'green' or other signs of awareness of environmental issues. You should see the number of plastic carrier bags that pour out of the supermarket doors every minute of the day! There are free shuttle buses that tour round College Station and Peter goes to and from work on the one that stops about 5 minutes from our house. We haven't yet met another member of the faculty that uses them. Shuttle bus? Never used it. Always take my car...
There's a slightly worrying expectation that I'm going to add something to this history project as an outside observer. I'm going to have to do a lot of research and careful mulling over of ideas or I'll be putting my foot in it, left, right and center (ha! ha! I meant centre).
What have I started!
Tuesday 19 March 2013
Back to walking
Weight loss this week: 2 lbs
Back to walking this morning. I tried out Lick Creek Park about 11 miles and 20 mins by car from the house. Good cinder or sandy paths through the trees, but note the warning at the bottom of the notice board "Beware of snakes"! A few dog walkers about but only passed two on my 2 mile brisk walk. Can't quite keep the motivation going to walk for longer on my own with no conversation going on! Where are my walking buddies when I need them!
The other reason for stopping after 2 miles was that I found myself back at the parking lot and as I had forgotten to take the trail map with me and was not at all sure where I was most of the time, it seemed sensible to quit while I was ahead. Will be more adventurous next time!
This afternoon I investigated Brazos Natural Foods...which turned out to be an organic grocery with very expensive produce. I know that saffron is expensive, but $10+ for a few grains in a jar! That seemed excessive. And a small bag of pine nuts, another $10. Still, they have spices and herbs in quantity and a system for helping yourself with a little scoop so you only have to buy what you need.
The 'nothing to watch on TV' situation got to me today and I spent half an hour painstakingly going through every channel on cable trying to find something worth watching. In the end I decided that I didn't understand the channels or the cable and the house owner's brother came in after work in response to an email SOS. The urgency was due to the fact that a Norwich friend has a famous niece (Lisa Vanderpump, given the game away!) who is on the US version of Strictly Come Dancing - Dancing with the Stars and I wanted to watch (misplaced loyalty!). Anyway, Justin patiently explained the numbering system and that at some point in the evening a channel called x suddenly changes to y. And KAMU is also ABC, sometimes. All very clear! He's also shown me where on the internet to find the TV listings for all the channels on the cable. So now we can be really certain we're not missing anything! They're doing Downton Abbey and Call the Midwife, Time Team and Antiques Roadshow. All old programmes of course. Still, I have managed to pin down the BBC World News. Sat down to watch Dancing with the Stars and found it was last week's round up. Still managed to see Lisa doing her foxtrot and apparently it's on again on Monday night. Would you believe it, we have exported two of the judges, the tall, avuncular Len and the short, excitable Bruno! And no awful pantomime jokes from Brucey!
The only excitement this evening was the discovery of a bright green lizard on the inside of the back door. Yours truly donned rubber gloves and chased it round the sitting room, while Peter held the door open! We must remember to close the doors and windows at night.
Monday 18 March 2013
Domestic trivia
Three loads of washing today, a pile of ironing and some cleaning. Life goes on!
This afternoon I finished a cardigan for Saul in a slightly odd pattern as I ran out of grey. When I went out for buttons the thermometer in the car read 94F/35C. There's a craft store nearby which is stocked with bits and pieces for 'projects'. There were very few actual ordinary buttons, but a solitary card of 4 just happened to be the right size and colour. I looked around at the knitting yarn - largely synthetic and technicolor (I know, American spelling!) - and at the needlepoint yarns, nothing in wool, so that particular shop won't be a source of knitting/sewing supplies.
Fixed up an appointment with College Station historic records coordinator and will see him on Wednesday to collect my tape recorder and names and addresses of unsuspecting citizens for me to interview. He invited me to an Exploring History Luncheon on Thursday which, I believe, is about one of the first African American families to purchase land in College Station. Slaves in Texas were not emancipated until late in1865 and it was clear from my meeting at City Hall that it's an uncomfortable subject. A bit like our 'don't mention the war'.
Had a Skype conversation with Rupert so we've caught up with all our offspring.
Put the car into the garage tonight to keep it cool and turned the air conditioning on in the house. We're adapting!
Fixed up an appointment with College Station historic records coordinator and will see him on Wednesday to collect my tape recorder and names and addresses of unsuspecting citizens for me to interview. He invited me to an Exploring History Luncheon on Thursday which, I believe, is about one of the first African American families to purchase land in College Station. Slaves in Texas were not emancipated until late in1865 and it was clear from my meeting at City Hall that it's an uncomfortable subject. A bit like our 'don't mention the war'.
Had a Skype conversation with Rupert so we've caught up with all our offspring.
Put the car into the garage tonight to keep it cool and turned the air conditioning on in the house. We're adapting!
Sunday 17 March 2013
Yeehaa! Rodeo time!
Saturday afternoon was spent at the Austin Rodeo with Bob and Mary showing us the ropes and translating the cultural niceties!
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First all the fun of the fair! It was busy, colourful and spread over a wide area with a huge number of rides all of which we resisted the temptation to go on. Cowards every one of us!
Then we realised we might be a mite peckish, so we changed money for more tokens and ordered some hot dogs, hamburgers and a frito pie!
The wild west show inside was a demonstration of horsemanship and lasso work on a couple of horses with magnificent manes. Then we made our way towards the stock show ring, stopping on the way to pretend to be a farmer.......and for a beer and to admire the livestock and the retail opportunities.
Then it was time for another snack!
We decided not to stop for the all night music and staggered back across the car park and home to the Duce's for a nice cup of tea, a bowl of ice cream and bed!
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After a good breakfast at Bastrop we headed back to College Station for Skyping with Simon and Tania and Nancy, Eliot and Abe. Saul was asleep and under the weather.
Then to the supermarket where all the students had returned from spring break and were busy stocking up their refrigerators. The place was heaving! We had a healthy supper of vegetable kebabs (and sausages - oops!).
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