A confession

On the way back from the library this afternoon I stopped at a shopping precinct to buy pins and parked outside the shop.  Then I decided to go to the supermarket at the other end of the precinct and, without giving it a second thought, got into the car and drove to the other end of the car park.

Help!  

First day at work...

Well, unpaid work!   

I finally started work on the oral history project today.  The first task was to work out how to use the transcription software, including how to load the files and how to make the pedal work!   No one at the library has used this software before, so it was a question of trial and error. Mission accomplished about 60 minutes later! 

I started listening to a recording of an interview with an elderly woman who used to go to an elementary school for Mexican children which is the subject of this project.  It was quite tricky to transcribe - a question of coordination of foot, hands and ears!  A lot of the time my ears got the better of me and I listened and forgot to type!  It was fascinating.  There was a lot she had forgotten about the first school she went to but not the name of the teacher who hit her with a ruler for talking in class (she hadn't been, it was the boy behind her, which adds to the sense of injustice).   

It reminded me of the teacher who banged my head against the blackboard because I had forgotten my needlework, again.  These incidents stay in the memory.  And I should know, because something similar came back to bite me once.  A boy had stayed behind in my class to help and apparently he picked up too many books at once and dropped them.  Years later, a teacher himself, he told his head and fellow teachers that I had called him clumsy and he had never forgotten it!!  The revelation came just before I was about to go into his classroom to observe him in his probationary year! 

Anyway, I successfully transcribed the first interview and will now be able to work at a faster rate when I go again on Wednesday. 

Got back home and it was 80 degrees (27C) in the house, so I've turned the air conditioning on for a while.  Now it feels like a fridge, so I'll turn it off again!

Eating out...twice in one day

I met up with a friend and her daughter for lunch today.  Lunch was her suggestion.  There were a few emails going back and forth in order to decide where to eat.  I'd have been happy with one of these laid back cafés I have found, but they didn't seem to meet with her approval so we went to one of those cafeteria style bland places that do sandwiches, soup etc.  Zero atmosphere.   But we had a good chat and my spinach, pecan and goats cheese salad with balsamic dressing was perfectly Ok. 

Later in the afternoon I was picked up by friend Carol to go with her and her husband to a flute concert.   Flutes of all sizes from piccolo to a very big contrabass flute - never seen one before.   It was a mixed programme with some enjoyable pieces, but at the end we wished we'd sat further back - the piccolo was very shrill.    Afterwards we went with other friends to eat at...you guessed it...another cafeteria type restaurant.  I had a small tortellini alfredo (I'm sure that should be 'al fredo') and a caesar salad...should that be 'Caesar'?   The company was good though.  

Greetings from Florida

Travelled a bit further back east on Wednesday night to Jacksonville, Florida to stay for a few days with cousin David and his wife, Bobby.  They recently changed to an almost vegan diet so I have been eating very healthily.   The day starts with a green smoothie - banana, orange juice, ginger and spinach.  I was cautious at first, but it's really delicious!   I got on their scales this morning and had lost a ridiculous amount of weight which can't be true.  Must be the difference in the scales. 

Sadly David has a bad cold and has been in bed most of the time but Bobby and I did a saunter round their neighbourhood yesterday morning to get some ideas for part of their front garden which looks a bit sorry for itself.  Not much inspiration elsewhere.  In this hot part of the country people go for low maintenance heat resistance plants, which tend to be green and leathery, tough springy grass and ferns.  

During the day we went and collected David and Bobby's 4 year old grandson to take him to a therapy session.  He has Down's syndrome and needs speech and physical therapy.  He never got to therapy as he fell sound asleep in the car and could not be woken, so Bobby and I cruised round for a while so that I could see some of the architecture (amazingly mixed) and also have a glimpse of the beach.  An wonderful stretch of hard white sand.  It was tempting, but I wasn't dressed for the beach or lathered in suntan cream either and the sun was very hot.   

In the evening we went to a concert by the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra which was excellent.  We had seats in the second row.  The nearest I've ever sat to an orchestra. I'm not sure about the merits of proximity, I think a view of the whole orchestra has advantages.  

Bobby found someone to take David's ticket and we picked her up en route.  She's someone that Bobby only knows slightly and it turned out to be an interesting experience.   We weren't absolutely sure she wasn't drunk or high. Bobby and I turned round in the lobby and she was being photographed by someone...mind you her red dress was pretty tight and low cut!   She had a hooting voice and began talking to people and flinging out loud remarks.  She attracted quite a lot of puzzled looks!   Turns out her ex husband is in prison and she can't leave the state of Florida because her son is on probation (although he has disappeared and she does't know where he is).  Poor woman, her life seemed very complicated. 

Sushi conversion...

There's a woman living in my road whose husband is also a Fellow of the Texas Institute of Advanced Study - we originally met in January at the crossed sabres reception.  We've tried without luck to get together since we arrived and managed it today.  We met up for a walk round Wolf Pen Creek and talked out heads off!  As the walk finished at 12.00 noon, we decided it was lunch time.  Wanda likes sushi and recommended 40Tempura on Texas Avenue.  I'm not keen on sushi but she tempted me to try the restaurant on the basis that the tempura was excellent.   Well, the menu looked so interesting that I was tempted to try two different kinds of sushi and seaweed salad. Wonderful fresh flavours and just the right amount of food...that was until we decided to round the experience off with green tea ice-cream tempura (pictured).  Delicious!  Another light lunch! 

She pointed out a shoe shop next to the parking lot.  It turned out to stock my kind of shoes so I had to buy a pair.  She also told me of small dress shops selling linen.  She's going to be my ruination!   She's a psychiatrist and probably saw right through me to the shopper within! 

George Bush Presidential Library (and glorification centre!)

Ever since we arrived we've been asked, "Have you been to the George Bush Library?"  People round here are very proud of it.  So on Saturday we thought we ought to show willing and pay a visit.  

It turns out to be a museum 'honouring' George Bush Snr's 4 years in the White House.  The presidential library is by appointment only for research purposes.  

The museum is large and charts in words and pictures his complete life history and that of all his family and then his war service, his time climbing the political ladder, his 4 years as president and the good works he has been doing since.   Lots of videos and artefacts including a reconstruction of his oval office in which you can have your picture taken.  NO! We did not!   Naturally it's sycophantic, so a bit hard to take and there's a lot of it!  But it's well done, I have to concede.  Afterwards we walked in the grounds which include a lake on the far side of which is a pretty garden and behind that, across a brook and through trees is the grave site of their daughter who died in childhood and the place where George and Barbara Bush will be buried.  I was trying to find a picture of it - a rather bare square of grass surrounded by cast iron railings with gold ornamentation - when I came across a video clip of someone being shown the future resting place of George W. Bush...an interesting tourist pursuit!   


Today (Sunday) I took Peter to the airport for the start of a week of meetings in London, Norwich, Plymouth and Liverpool.  He'll be seeing the grandsons on his travels, so I'm rather jealous...although I did skype with them today. 

I'm off to Ponte Vedra Beach, near Jacksonville, Florida to visit my cousins for three days.   To make myself feel better about Peter being away for a week I went out and bought myself 4 new items of clothing!  You know how it is.   The miracle is that I found something I liked.  Two of the items are black of course!  

PS We have a mockingbird that sits on the roof and sings the songs of every other bird.  I had no idea that's how they got the name.   Also daily visits from the cardinal bird.  An exotic looking character!  

Art lecture and lunch

If the experience of the history lecture on Wednesday was a little disheartening, Thursday's art lecture redressed the balance.  It took place at the university in the luxurious Memorial Students Centre, all polished floors and expensive seating, or more precisely, in the Forsyth Gallery in the students' centre.   It was given by a young 4th year medical student on the topic of art and medicine.  She had a good presentation of slides depicting: medicine as an art, art for medical purposes, art as medical propaganda, medicine portrayed in art, art used to train medics etc.  To quote from the blurb:

Like the artist, the medical practitioner relies on a keen eye, manual finesse, unspoken sensibility and considerable patience. Yet, the art of medicine also holds another truth. There is medicine in art. Such is readily apparent in the vast array of artworks depicting medical subjects from patients to physicians, melancholy to madness. But besides describing artistic representations of medicine, the phrase “medicine in art” captures an additional aspect of the relationship between the two fields.

Whether in the form of Rorschach inkblots or public health “propaganda” posters, art has a variety of medical applications from diagnosis to treatment, from education to prevention. Increasingly, expertise in the art of medicine not only requires the skillful demonstration of the art in medicine but also the awareness and application of the medicine in art.

Very well put together and thought provoking.   An audience of about 12 people in a small room off the gallery and intelligent observations and questions to follow.  I think I'll stick to talks at the university in future! 

Peter was waiting outside and we went for lunch in the student canteen, which boasts about  5 different food counters all serving different 'cuisine'.  I use the word lightly!   

History lecture and lunch

Yesterday was the monthly history lecture run by the City historical committee.  It was held at Aldersgate Church - a vast spread on the side of the freeway with schools, halls, meeting rooms galore attached.   The lecture and lunch cost $5 and lunch is provided by a sponsor who gets a slot before the lecture to sell their wares.   Yesterday it was a glossy young lady with a bright, scratchy voice from Senior Circle " a national, non-profit organization that makes life even better for adults 50 and better." I started to get depressed!

I sat next to Olive who turned out to be 89 and used to work in the Alumni office at Texas A&M University and who loves England and Churchill. She reverentially referred to THE FUNERAL taking place yesterday and proudly announced the fact that Margaret Thatcher once spoke in College Station.  I lowered my head in what I hoped was a gesture that could be construed to as "Please, I can't bear to talk think it"  Which was true!  Olive looked sympathetic and changed the subject. Looking around the room I saw 5 people that I knew...a very progressive lady who I had coffee with and who is sending me information about all sorts of interesting meetings and events, someone from the (ladies') book group and a group of seniors from Sit and Fit. 

Lunch was announced and we all shuffled into a line.  Salad, wraps, filled croissants, fruit and cheesecake.   We got back to our tables and everyone introduces themselves and makes conversation.   

The lecture was on Native American Prehistory in the Brazos Valley and was given an breakneck speed by a professor from the anthropology department at the university.  He talked about the archaeological evidence of the inhabitants of Brazos Valley - mammoth bone and stone tools, for example and showed how the climate and geology had influenced life style.  Apart from the fact that he called the mammoths 'elephants', it was very interesting.   Then the lecture moved on to describe the way in which the Native Americans had been pushed into Texas by neighbouring states and then virtually exterminated from Texas by Anglo Texans.   There are now three small reservations in Texas and when the lecturer described how one reservation is so far away from anywhere that the Casino makes no money, the audience laughed.  I don't get it.    The questions at the end were mixed.  "How did the Indians get guns and horses?", "Is it true they don't have to have hunting and fishing licences?", "Can Indians vote?".   He answered with politeness and patience.  

I came away feeling that I'd strayed again into the wrong territory.  Looking around the room I tried to identify anyone in what I think of as 'my age group' and realised what a subjective thing that it.  They were all definitely retired, but where are the people who have only just retired?  Doing something else I guess!   The crowd at this event was definitely different from the crowd at the concert on Tuesday night where the retired and very retired mixed with the middle aged and young.  It gives a very different feel to an event.  It's a very subtle thing but I feel I haven't quite met the right age group yet!   I think I'll stick to talks at the university.  

Free concert

Free exercise class in the morning.  This time I did Sit and Fit holding 3lb weights in each hand.  

This evening we went to a free concert.  Mostly Haydn and Schubert played by the Euclid Quartet.  Excellent!  

Then the first strawberries of the year for us and being America, they were huge!  However, they were also delicious, but not free! 

Hot Monday

Going to reach 32 degrees today!  Just got the chicken out for a BBQ..

Reception party

We have just got back from a very enjoyable two hour reception, in our honour,  given by the chair of the oceanography department and his wife, with the assistance of their two daughters.  
Lots to drink and eat and people to meet. Our hosts' next door neighbours were included and they brought us a bottle of wine from a local winery, beautifully gift wrapped.   What's noticeable here is that when you throw an assortment of people together on an occasion like this they go round and introduce themselves to each other.  They make a decided effort to be sociable.  It makes it easy to throw this kind of party...a few introductions at the beginning and then let everyone sort themselves out.    We were asked to invite any people we have met since we arrived so we invited 5 people and they immediately blended.  Every time I looked around everyone had recombined in different groupings.   Of course this happens at home in many settings, but not quite so comprehensively.  There were no cliques of friends sticking together for example. 

Standing in the garden in a temperature of 28 degrees and looking wistfully at the pool, I was amused to learn that Texans think it's much too cold for swimming yet, even though the water temperature is about 20 degrees.  Texans don't need to heat their pools, they just wait for the sun to do the work for them.   

A bit of history

Visited Calvert, Texas today.  A former cotton town which, in the past, enjoyed a period of prosperity.  The main street is wide enough to turn round a waggon with a 4 horse team and the railroad runs through.  In its heyday there were banks, hotels and saloons aplenty.  Saturday night was to be avoided apparently. 

Main street shops are an interesting mixture of ages, colours and styles.  Some derelict and some still in business.  Others in a state of transition.

We stopped for coffee and a kolache (a sweet bread bun with filling, of Czechoslovakian origin).  The owner was a mine of information and we picked up a nicely produced historic homes booklet.  She and her sister posed. 

Then off down one side of main street, in and out of the antique/junk shops and a pottery where we purchased a small pot.

Crossing over we came to Cocoamoda a restaurant and chocolate factory run by an Englishman, Ken Wilkinson.  We stopped here for lunch (Eggs Benedict) and a cup of tea.  Chef Ken popped over to our table between serving another table and selling chocolates to give us his life story.  The restaurant opens for dinner in the evening only on 2 nights a week and there is no menu in advance.  It could be interesting!   We will give it a try.  We asked him how he had fetched up in the tiny place and the answer wasn't very clear but various newspaper reports credit him with re-invigorating the town.


He has certainly attracted some press attention! 







After lunch, and armed with our guide book, we did a short tour of some of the side roads and looked at the houses.  Some wonderful buildings and some, sadly falling into disrepair.  

We decided to visit again on one of their monthly Trade Days and do the rest of the tour. 

Religion and science

I forgot to mention that last Friday we went to a lecture in the George Bush Snr Presidential Library (the money that has been lavished on buildings here is staggering, but that's another story.)

Two speakers, Gerald Gabrielse, a physicist from Harvard and a Christian and Roald Hoffman, a chemist/poet and a Jew talked about science and religion.  Well, that was how it was billed.  Gabrielse joked at the beginning that being asked to talk about religion was a sure sign his scientific career was on a downward path.

He talked about his research and matter and antimatter.  Hoffman talked about the colour indigo derived from snails and also from plants, how it was produced in ancient times and its significance as a colour and also its chemistry.   Both were fascinating speakers and the religion aspect was rather tacked on at the end. The 2.5 hours passed quickly.  No chance of dropping off to sleep as the air conditioning was turned to 'Glacial' and we haven't yet remembered to take warm clothes to wear indoors.  Questions at the end were rather off the wall..."Was the cloud that appeared when Moses received the 10 Commandments antimatter?" The speakers dealt with such questions by simply answering a different question! 

Gourmet dinner party

Well the gourmet dinner party was last night.   It works like this: the group takes it in turn to host a meal for around 12 people.  The host/hostess decide on the menu and then assign a dish to each of the guests.   A student is hired to clear up in the kitchen.   So far so good!

The hostess of this particular evening decided on a 'healthy' meal.  My dish was fauxtatoes.   Yes that's not a spelling mistake!   It's false mashed potato, made from cauliflower, onion, garlic and coconut butter.  I followed the recipe faithfully but with misgivings!  Mashed cauliflower - lovely.  But coconut butter?  It tasted OK, but only just.

We arrive at the house.  Built in 1935, the first house to be built south of the university (and therefore on open ground)  and so designated an historic house.  It's lovely.  Boarded floors, walls and ceilings all covered with paintings and art from around the world.   Painted ceilings too.  A riot of colour and visual excitement.  He is a professor in Architecture and is also a sculptor/woodcarver.  He's undertaken some interesting commissions!  The garden is a tropical jungle with bamboo and grasses, exotic leaved plants, cacti, a pond and running water.  Mozart is played through speakers around the garden.  We have champagne cocktails (kir royale) and chips and dips (the appetisers). 

Then it gets a bit strange.  The group which meets about 4 or 5 times a year, don't appear to know each other that well.   Conversation is slow to get going.  Despite the fact that they all have connections to the university, they seem an oddly assorted group and not that friendly with each other.  The chat is impersonal and generalised.   We go into dinner.  The person responsible has been in the kitchen heating up the soup.  By the time the 14th person gets theirs it is tepid.  Mushroom and tarragon with a large piece of tarragon in the bottom of the bowl which gets in the way of chasing the small amount of soup round the bowl.   Peter liked the soup.   I thought it tasted rather metallic. 

Then the salad, served as a separate course.  Kale (raw), quinoa, tangerine and almonds.  It was good.  A little Japanese, sea-weedy in flavour.  Several people left most of theirs. 

Main course next.  Chicken breast stuffed with figs, spinach and prunes in a tomato sauce with ginger, my faux potato and some tiny carrots.  The lady who brought the carrots, the hostess and I are in the kitchen serving.  The hostess removes two huge trays of chicken from the oven and then proceeds to cut each piece in half - slowly.  When a piece of chicken is on the plate she sprinkles coriander and then passes it to me for a dollop of the white stuff and I also serve the carrots as their owner is so diminutive that she cannot reach the counter comfortably.   She is sweet and twinkly, but also a little shaky.  She sprinkles more coriander on the carrots and some of it falls to the floor each time.   The plates are cold and by the time the three of us have danced round each other and little lady has wandered round the dining table with 14 plates of food, it's also a little cold.  Never mind, we all tuck in.  The chicken also tastes metallic to me but it's tender and moist.  The man next to me takes one mouthful of everything and puts his knife and fork down!!!  Several people also make very little inroad into their gourmet dinner and it ends up in the bin!  Peter and I clear our plates (war babies that we are)!   The conversation however, is warming up.  Everyone gets very heated about a student vote to prevent student dues from being used for Gay and Lesbian groups on campus.  They roll their eyes in despair about the religious right.  There are some talkative and humorous people round the table and they have to work hard to make up for the silent ones.   Dessert is strawberry tart with cream (or yoghurt).  Eyes light up!  The yoghurt doesn't get many takers.  One woman declares her body is in shock from eating so much healthy food!   

The host asks us how much we spent, does the maths and we pay up the difference.  At about 10.00 we all say goodbye and leave.  A strange but enjoyable experience! 

Mall walking...

Well, walking in the mall was not the same as walking along the marshes in Norfolk.  In fact apart from the physical act of putting one foot in front of the other, there was no earthly comparison BUT the company was very good.  Carol and I talked our way round two circuits of the mall which amounts to about 1.5 miles...not good enough really, but there's only so many times you want to pass the same shops.   Then we sat down in the very comfortable arm chairs provided by the mall and had a good natter.  Carol drove us to downtown Bryan where the old stores are now being restored and re-enlivened.  Carol introduced me to a friend of hers in the framing shop and then we went to The Village for lunch.  

After lunch Carol drove me back to College Station to pick up my car...which being parked outside a shopping mall gave me the excuse to go in.  It's no good though.  Not enough black clothing to be had! 

My friend Mary, when asked what she most notices when she spends time in England, replied "The lack of colour.  Everyone wears such dark clothes."  I must be a disappointment to her!!! 

A new experience coming up

Apparently the snake WAS a copperhead and it's venomous so I'm glad I used the zoom and didn't step nearer! 

I'm in the throes of making arrangements for a walk on Wednesday, to be followed by lunch (which will undo the good done by the walk, but what can you do!).  Carol has suggested that, as it looks as though it will rain (yes, we suffer too) we should meet at the Mall.   

I asked Bob and Mary, who were round last night, why Carol would suggest the Mall.   It turns out that because it's much too hot to walk outside for several months of the year, people use the Mall for exercise and if you're shopping you have to watch out for lycra clad ladies (probably) streaking past you!   So walking in a shopping Mall - that's going to be a new one for me!   As one of the readers of this blog said of my Sit and Fit, "I suppose it's better than nothing!"

Last night we took Bob and Mary out for dinner to celebrate their forthcoming birthdays.  Today it's the Oceanography Wives' monthly lunch date.   You'll understand why the weight loss bulletins are in abeyance! 

A good weekend

Saturday was mostly taken up with shopping.  Getting the week's groceries was fine, but trying to find something special for a birthday present was less easy and involved a lot of driving up and down and getting in and out of the car.  That's what happens when you don't know a place very well and are looking for something specific!

In the evening we went to a concert by the Brazos Valley Symphony Orchestra who played 'Nimrod' by Elgar, 'Crouching Tiger' by Tan Dun with a 17 year old cellist and some stirring drumming and Rimsky Korsakov's 'Scheherazade.  We also picked up the programme for next season and information about other musical groups.  Things to look forward to in the Autumn. 

Copperhead?

Today we've been on a 7 mile walk round Lake Somerville - well, not the whole way round, just  3.5 miles one way, picnic lunch and then 3.5 miles back.  Nice easy track near the lake side, although the lake is only visible on a couple of occasions.   Not many people to be seen; three cyclists and 5 other walkers in total, which compared to our last walk was positively crowded!   We had planned to go back to the Sam Houston Forest but the hiking trails were closed - worries about stressed trees falling down and managed 'burns' to clear dead wood and undergrowth.   It got quite hot at Lake Somerville and the humidity went up so when we arrived home we felt a bit blasted!   However, it was a good day.  Many wild flowers, a snake and leaf cutter ants at work.  The leaf cutter ants were particularly interesting as they were the speciality of our late friend Dave Stradling and we had heard a lot about them from him, but had never seen them.  

Pelicans

Pink evening primrose? 

Ant nest exit/entrance

Leaf-cutter ants

First book group meeting at Barnes and Noble

We missed the deadline for getting out flyers at Barnes and Noble, so it wasn't surprising that the first meeting of the book club was attended by Austin and me.   Never mind, we had a really good discussion about the book (The Orchardist by Amanda Coplin), chatting away non-stop for 50 minutes!   It augers well.  The next book is The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon.  I wonder how many people will turn up?  We had to find a name for the group, so have called it The Good Book Group....a bit of a double entendre there! 

Mariscos al ajillo

Tonight we recreated a dish that Peter had at Hugo's, a Mexican restaurant in Houston.   It came pretty close!  It was the first time I've bought fresh water lobster tails and tried to open the shell and butterfly the flesh as they show you on Youtube.  I wasn't very successful so our lobster was without shell, but still very delicious!

And here it is - scallops, prawns and lobster in garlic served with rice on the side!  

I give this dish 5 out of 10 for presentation as you can't see the lobster for the pile of onion!

Master Chef it ain't ...

Success!

That's better!  

Not tasted it yet (what restraint!) but it looks like a great improvement on the last attempt.  I substituted bottled water for the saline, soft local tap water and upped the yeast.  It's the same flour but this time I added sunflower seeds, poppy seeds and sesame seeds. 

Sit and fit again today.  I know it sounds ridiculous but it really is a good exercise and although it's in no way aerobic (my pulse stays low) I can feel all my muscles have had a really good tone up! 

Even more nice people...!

My young man at City Hall in College Station (not to be confused with my young man at the book shop) put me in touch with a woman called Patricia who is involved in various local historic preservation committees.  We met up for a coffee yesterday afternoon at a place called Sweet Eugene's.  I'd never heard of it and approached with no real idea what to expect.  Turned out to be a delightful coffee shop with an eccentric collection of assorted chairs and tables, a dark and cosy interior and a relaxed atmosphere - evidenced by the number of tables occupied by young people on their laptops with no evidence of consumption of refreshments in front of them.  

Over coffee Patricia and I shared interests and life stories and discovered a lot about each other in a short space of time!  She used to work on the space programme in Houston and knew all the moon landing astronauts, has lived in Greece and Turkey and now finds herself in College Station by default.  She described herself as moving over to the 'left' as she grew older and now she's involved in a number of political, historical and philosophical activities.  

Patricia was very sympathetic when I described my trials with the decades worth of microfilm  and suggested another volunteering opportunity, did a bit of phoning,  and this morning I went to the Carnegie Historic Center and met Anne who is in charge of Oral History projects.   She has asked me to work on material they have on a school for Mexican Americans which has now disappeared since integration.    But before we went into too much detail Anne whisked me off to a talk she was going to by a writer who was reading from her new book at the Brazos Valley African American Museum.  It's very salutary to go round the museum and see the indignities to which black people were subjected in Texas up until quite recent times.    Schools were not desegregated until 1966.  The writer Tayari Jones gave a spirited reading of the first chapter of her new novel and answered questions.  She had a great sense of humour!  I bought a copy of 'Silver Swallow', which she signed. 

The contacts list in my phone is gradually expanding! 

Staff of life

There are three reasons why it takes me twice as long as usual to do a weekly shop in the supermarket.   

I still don't know where everything is and a different logic is applied to the layout to the one I'm used to.  There are byways, special counters and sections  that prevent you from  cruising up and down each aisle in a methodical fashion.   In the shop I usually go to in College Station there are at least 5 quite separate places where cheese can be found...speciality and foreign cheeses, bulk cheeses (large pieces, wheels etc), everyday cheeses, cheese that has been sliced or grated and cheese in a section the criteria for which completely eludes me, though I have stood in front of it and tried to work it out!    This makes for a lot of to-ing and fro-ing....did I miss something here...oh, no, here it is again on this counter... Thinking about where I usually shop at home, I realise that there is also more that one place where you can find cheese (three in total I think), but five seems to be overdoing it!  

The second reason my progress round the aisles is delayed is because I gawp at the huge variety of products. There's a lot of processed food, I think you can buy a 'mix' for anything, and a great deal of it is not what overweight people should dream of eating and I mean OVERWEIGHT!   I know I've been going on about my weight and you'll think that I'm the pot calling the kettle black, but my problem is that I eat too much of the good stuff!  I arrived at the checkout one day with a basket which was 60% fruit and vegetables and the young man sliding the items down the belt asked "Are you having a healthy eating week?"  I won't bore you with my haughty response (!!) but he entered into a conversation about his diet and admitted that he only knows how to cook spaghetti bolognese and wished he could enlarge his repertoire.  Sadly, there's such an emphasis on 'convenience' that people are buying packets of stuff they could so easily prepare for themselves - minus the additives.   Bread here lasts forever - you just know it contains a lot of preservative. 

And thirdly,  every item comes in a bewildering number of varieties.  There is so much 'choice' that buying anything requires detailed reading of the ingredients labels to really understand what you're getting.  Avoiding added sugar is a nightmare.  Sugar creeps into practically everything and labelling is poor.  There's no standardisation so it's hard to quickly work out the number of grams of any ingredient per 100 grams for comparison purposes.  So sugar is labelled as x grams per serving and a 'serving' can be any amount that the manufacturer thinks you might eat at one go.  The serving size is given, so you have to stand there are do 'sums' in order to compare two products.   

So, to avoid the preservatives and the sugar and the wrong type of fat, etc., I decided to make my own bread.  It took some time to decide between the different types of yeast and sadly there wasn't a great variety of bread flour but I made a white loaf with unbleached flour and added sunflower seeds and sesame seeds to give it a bit of bite and flavour.  The flour is different and so is the water (it's very soft and saline) and the yeast was a bit strange but my first loaf turned out to be edible.  Not perfect - a bit heavy - but edible just the same and not a bad flavour.   Just flour, water, salt and yeast.  I'll try and vary the proportions next time and see if I can get it to rise a bit more. 

OK, rant over!  There is actually a great selection of fruit and vegetables and very helpful staff and 'baggers' who will also take your groceries to the car for you, though the 'baggers' would rather fill plastic bags than the 'bags for life' that I take with me...but that's another story! 

A weekend in Houston

Menil Collection building

We started our weekend in Houston with a picnic in the grounds of the Menil Collection, admiring the outside of the building and the trees.  The Collection is in a suburban setting and the park was clearly a neighbourhood meeting/picnic place.  

The Collection is reminiscent of the Sainsbury Centre in Norwich - the eclectic collection of a wealthy couple (surrealism, cubism, impressionism, American postwar art and some very striking Pacific Islands and African works), all beautifully displayed and lit.  

Interesting tree roots

After checking in to our hotel we took the new tram/railway system to the university district, walked several blocks admiring the mix of housing, including some very striking architect designed modernism and found Cafe Rabelais which turned out to be as authentic as a French cafe can be outside France and had a great meal! 

Next day, after contending with a scrum in the hotel's breakfast area, we went to the museum quarter - again by rail/tram - and after looking round the sculpture garden, lost ourselves in the Museum of Fine Art.  First stop was the special exhibition showing treasures from the Venice Ghetto which had been miraculously hidden and only rediscovered recently.

Sculpture garden 

Sculpture garden

The museum is well laid out, wasn't crowded and had a good selection of something by just about everyone.

I think this was one of my favourites.

When we couldn't absorb any more, we went to the Contemporary Art Museum and didn't think much was going on there!   Now we have looked it up on the web, we realise we must have gone to the wrong place so there's a treat in store next time we go to Houston. Next was the Museum of Health where we pottered for a while and then went for a walk in the park opposite and came across a wedding taking place in the rose garden. 


After a recuperative nap at the hotel we took a taxi to Hugo's, a Mexican restaurant where Peter chose well and I chose badly, but I could see that there were some delicious meals floating around.  I hope to go back there some time and have another go!

On Sunday we went to the Natural History Museum, first to the butterfly house which was very enjoyable and then round the palaeolithic gallery where there was a fine display of dinosaur bones which a small boy of our acquaintance would have enjoyed.  

Reminds me of someone...

Ditto...sorry, couldn't resist! 

The labelling and explanations were not always very clear.  These fossils were stunning, but we couldn't work out how they were formed.

 Then lunch!

And finally a trip to Bayou Bend - a house built in the 1920s which now houses a collection of American furniture.  Sadly our walk round the garden was curtailed by thunder and lightening.

And then a chance on the way back to snap this road sign which has amused us every time we pass.  We have such a childish sense of humour!