The Americanized Emily

Lauren and Emily

Several years on, she is supporting USA in the Women's World Cup and is applying for citizenship. I think the Americanization of Emily is complete.

Who Watches the Watchmen?

Well, I will, for a start.

Nooooooooooooo!

I just found out that Billy Bragg played at Duke last night. He was practically on our doorstep and we didn't even know! I took a look at his website and it turns out that he's not back in the USA until March 2009. Even then, he's only going to Austin, Texas and New York City. Is there no justice in the world?

You can read about the gig on Akma's blog.

My attempt to cheer myself up (or does it just rub salt into the wound?) is to incessantly YouTube some of my favourites. Mark, unfortunately, is inconsolable. The first clip is one of Kate Nash singing Foundations that segues into her singing A New England with Billy Bragg. The second clip is an old video of Sexuality that includes Johnny Marr, Phill Jupitus and the late, great, Kirsty MacColl (who was excellent when I saw her live at The Junction in Cambridge (UK) all those years ago).

Miley Cyrus in Paris

My sister, her family and my mother went to Paris for a short break earlier this week. My niece said that she saw Miley Cyrus on the Eurostar platform as they got off the train in Paris and were walking just behind her.

She said:

She walked along our platform with us when we got off the Eurostar in Paris. And no one noticed it was her, except me... And I kept staring cus I wasn't sure, so she smiled to me. And then when we got off the platform and all the paparazzi were taking photos and whatnot and my ma was stood RIGHT behind her and just went "Omg, who the hell IS she?!" Ahahahhaha. She just wanted to get out and got proppa annoyed. I was like "Ma, shes famous".

Emily did a quick bit of googling and found a good picture. My mum is the woman with the red scarf. You can also see a bit of my nephew (mainly his right ear). She also found a good video. If you know my mum, my sister or any of my sister's family, watch the video and see if you can spot them (it's quite easy because they are standing right behind Ms Cyrus).

And to think that we forked out $150 each to go and see her in Greensboro!

Killer Roadtrip

The Killers are undertaking a US tour. They are coming to all the states that border NC, but are not coming to NC! The tour includes Myrtle Beach, South Carolina (about 3.5 hrs drive); Fairfax, Virginia (about 4.5 hrs drive); Atlanta, Georgia (6.5 hrs drive); Nashville, Tennessee (8.5 hrs drive). The problem is that the Myrtle Beach gig is on a Wednesday night, the Fairfax gig is on a Thursday night and the Atlanta gig is on a Friday night (and too far to drive to after school finishes).

This has narrowed down our options somewhat, so we bought our tickets for the Nashville venue. Even though it's the farthest away, it is on a Saturday night.

So here's the plan -- Emily and Lauren finish school at 3pm on Friday. We jump in the car and drive about 5.5 hours to a motel in the Smoky Mountains (about an hour past Asheville). On the Saturday, we drive through the Smoky Mountains National Park to Tennessee (something I'd like to do anyway), then on to Nashville. We see The Killers at the Grand Ole Opry, stay the night in a motel in Nashville, then head home on the Sunday.

It's a long way to drive, and a drive that we wouldn't have to do if The Killers had just thought to schedule their Myrtle Beach gig for the Saturday, but I think that the drive will be beautifully scenic and that it will be well worth it to see The Killers live.

We don't yet have their latest album, so we'll have to buy this and get up to speed before the gig. In the meantime, here's a few YouTubes to help us get excited:

Brittany 2008

Le Cosquer

We stayed in a nice little complex called Le Cosquer near St. Connec that consisted of a farmhouse, a few gites, a swimming pool and a games room. We (minus Lauren) stayed in the farmhouse. My sister and her family (and Lauren) stayed in the neighbouring gite. I'd never before stayed anywhere like it because the property was bought and renovated by an English couple. They renovated it with Brits in mind, even to the extent of fitting British plug points. In addition, everyone staying there was British. One had to leave the property before one could feel that one was in France.

Pontivy

This is a small town where we visited the market and small chateau.

Lac de Guerlédan

We parked our cars at a picnic site just outside Mur de Bretagne and walked around the lake to Caurel. We were aiming for Beau Rivage, but didn't quite manage to make it. Four hours and one ankle-injury later we gave up and settled for a pint in a nice hotel bar in Caurel instead.

Josselin

This is a nice, picturesque town. I would have liked to have visited its large chateau, but we ran out of time. The chateau was closing by the time we got around to it. Ditto with the central church's tall tower from which one is reputed to be able to see for miles around.

Carnac

A great day out by the seaside. We had a seafood platter to die for -- it was so fresh that I had to battle one of my clams for the right to eat it. We had blazing sunshine all day, even though Le Cosquer had had non-stop rain that day.

Feast of the Assumption

This is a public holiday in France, so everyone had the day off work. The festivities involved a big fete at the lakeside (at the aforementioned picnic ground near Mur De Bretagne). I was hoping to catch some traditional Breton costumed dancing, but unfortunately I didn't manage to.

In the evening, we ate at a small restaurant where the staff were good natured enough to put up with our feeble attempts to speak French. Upon noticing that we were English (not difficult to do), they immediately offered us fish and chips. It took a little persuasion to get them to show us their menus so that we could order whatever we liked. I had some delicious seafood in cheese sauce and some escargots in garlic, herbs and olive oil.

Nantes

We spent a few hours in Nantes before heading back to Nantes Atlantique to catch our flight back to Old Blighty. It would have been nice to be able to visit the cathedral there, but we didn't have time (again).

The Olympics Thus Far

Thus far, Great Britain (as an aside, if anyone knows why we're referred to as "Great Britain" instead of the "United Kingdom", even though the GB team includes Northern Ireland, I'd be interested to know?) are doing pretty well in the 2008 Olympics, as are the USA (our "home from home"). Today we finished in third place on the medals table, with the USA in second place and China taking the lead. Doing well in these games is all the more important this time around for Brits because it's a warm-up for when Britain hosts the games in 2012. It'd be nice if in 2012 we could have the added bonus of getting a fair number of medals too.

However, even with Team GB doing well, I still find myself asking the same questions that I often ask. How does the number of medals won relate to the population sizes or wealth of the participating countries? I also find myself wondering about how the types of events that a country is likely to compete in and/or do well in are affected by its wealth and/or cultural influences.

It seems that I'm not the only one to have wondered at the first question. A light-hearted Los Angeles Times article drops the USA's position from second to 40th and China to 73rd by taking into account the population size. For more analysis, you could start by taking a look at these articles:

Harder, better, faster, stronger
Economic Briefing Paper: Modelling Olympic Performance
Bill Mitchell's Alternative Olympic Games Medal Tally - 2008

Mamma Mia!: The Movie

Yesterday we went to see the Mamma Mia! film and thoroughly enjoyed every second of it. I won't bother reviewing it, because Mark Kermode's review is spot on. Despite all it's flaws, it's the ultimate feel-good movie.

Mark's written a couple of Mamma Mia! posts too:
Pre Mamma Mia: An Abba fan's anxieties
Post Mamma Mia: An Abba Fan's Delight

Obama Practices Looking-Off-Into-Future Pose

The Onion are running a War for the White House section during this presidential campaign. It's worth a look now and again. The latest "headline" is the laugh-out-loud article entitled Obama Practices Looking-Off-Into-Future Pose, which includes an interactive graphic that explains to us lay-people "The Science of Inspirational Poses". Very funny.

The Roommates

They played this video about evangelism in church this morning -- very funny.

Eastern Fence Lizard

Here's a shot of a small Eastern Fence Lizard that was basking on our front steps. The photo was taken by Emily, using her phone.

April Snow

Normally we go to England twice a year -- once at Christmas and once in the Summer. This year, we went in April too. Mark had a conference in Oxford, so we decided that it would be nice for us to all go. We spent a few days with Mark's family, then visited friends in Birmingham. Mark then went off to his conference, while the rest of us visited some of my family. We met up at Heathrow at the end of the stay so that we could travel home together. There was quite a lot of snow for a few days. Snow in March/April is not unusual, but it doesn't usually fall in such copious amounts.

The vacation's Theme Song is Heartbeat, by Scouting for Girls. They've disabled embedding, so I'm afraid that you'll have to click the link to see/hear it.

I didn't take many pictures, but heres a few shots of the snow:

Snowfall at NightThe Morning After

Lauren Sweeps Snow off the Car

April Fools

The media (at least in the UK) have a long-standing tradition of perpetrating April Fool jokes on the 1st of April every year.

This year's big hit on YouTube was the BBC's footage of a newly discovered species of flying penguins.

Here's the "making of" video:

As a bonus, here's an all-time classic -- the spaghetti harvest:

And for all you Yanks, here's a more recent US take on the spaghetti harvest:

Talent Show

Here's Lauren dancing at her school's talent show last Thursday. It was a talent show, not contest and was a nice family night out with a very laid-back atmosphere. There were about 45 or so acts, of which Lauren was about act 15. She choreographed the dance herself and practised in her bedroom.

A Song for Europe

It's that time of year again. Here's the song that will be representing the UK in the Eurovision Song Contest this year:

Will this song do well? I doubt it.

Politically, we don't stand a chance:

1. Many of the Eastern European countries just vote for each other
2. Some of the countries aren't even in Europe (I don't know what this has to do with it, but I'm just saying it anyway.)
3. Most of Europe still haven't forgiven us for siding with Bush over Iraq

To stand a chance of winning, the UK entry has to come up with a song that is able to gain people's votes in spite of these obstacles. I doubt that this song has what it takes. My prediction is that this is good enough to prevent the "nil points" humiliation. I reckon that this will come in at about 25-30 points.

The Passion Première

Mark set off for London today. I drove him to the airport (RDU) and dropped him off at lunch time (about 1:30pm). From there he flies to Charlotte, then on to Gatwick. In London, he will just about have time to have lunch with an old friend, go to his hotel and freshen up, attend the Première of The Passion (a BBC/HBO mini-series that he's the historical consultant for) and get a night's sleep before getting back on a plane and returning home by Friday evening. The girls and I are going to pick him up.

I haven't watched it from beginning to end, but what I have seen has been really quite good. I don't want to give away any spoilers, but I don't think that I'm revealing too much if I say that it has what can be described as a rather Harry-Potter-esque ending ;-).

You can read about Mark's madcap flyby visit to London in his blog.
You can read about The Passion at its BBC website (Mark's article).

Primary Top Trumps

Although we can't vote, we've been following the various Caucuses and Primaries the best we can. It's been quite educational as we have to keep googling/asking people to explain various aspects of US politics to us.

At the moment, it seems that McCain is now the runaway favourite for the Republicans. Huckabee (who apparently has a degree or some other qualification in "Miracles") is trailing behind. Even though he now can't win even with a clean sweep from now on, he's sticking with it. He probably reckons that McCain is so old that he could croak or have a major health scare that would put Huckabee in the lead. Paul is just wasting his money (unless he's waiting for McCain and Huckabee to kick the bucket).

On the Democrat side, although they seemed neck-and-neck on Super (Shrove) Tuesday, Obama seems to be taking the lead against Clinton, who at one stage had to supplement her campaign funds with $5 million of her own money. I don't think there's that much between them on the policy front, but Obama seems to be more charismatic. Obama's main cards seem to be the "I'm the embodiment of the American dream" card and the "I'll be the first black president" card. Clinton has the "I've been campaigning for improvements in health care etc. for years now and would really relish the opportunity to get something done" and the "first female president" cards.

But, which are the trump cards?

At present, it seems that Obama's effervescence and having risen up through the ranks from an non-privileged background have the edge. However, unless one of them starts to streak ahead, the decision for who is to be the Democratic Presidential candidate may have to go to the super-delegates.

Let me leave you with these YouTubes. The first is a Will-i-am video that puts some of Obama's words to music. The second is a minute and a half spoof of the first video that puts some of McCain's words to music. I first came across the latter video on Here's the Thing.

GreenCard Update

Mark and I now have our greencards, but Emily and Lauren's birth certificates are not acceptable to the USCIS because they don't have their parents' names on them. We've got until the end of this month to produce adequate certificates, so I've had to order some especially from the UK's General Register Office at £26 (about $50) each (including p&p). Here's Mark's account.

SuperBowl

Last Sunday was SuperBowl Sunday -- the day of the 42nd NFL Championship game (sort of the American equivalent to the FA Cup Final). For the first time ever, we were invited to a friend's house for a "SuperBowl Party". This involved watching the game, whilst eating chilli and tacos (very nice) and huge quantities of crisps (chips). The game was New England Patriots vs. New York Giants. Our hosts were supporting the Patriots, so, by default, we were too.

I dare say that the game was quite a good introduction to American football because it was very close. The title was up for grabs until the last minute or so. It was rather funny at the end when there was one second left on the clock and the field was flooded with reporters, photographers, fans etc..., but the officials were adamant that that the final second needed to be played before the Giants could be awarded the title. Great fun. Another highlight was when one of the players had to run off the pitch within a given time otherwise ... actually, even though our hosts explained it at the time, I really can't remember why he had to run off the pitch and find myself wondering whether I understood it in the first place. Anyway, it was questionable whether he'd managed it, so they had to refer to camera shots to determine the outcome. It was such a close call that there was even discussion about what the the rules had to say about if his foot had left the ground but was still over the pitch and whether or not this constituted having managed to leave the pitch. I think the upshot is that he just about made it.

Our team didn't win, but you can't have everything.

Groundhog Day

On Saturday, Punxsutawney Phil predicted six more weeks of winter. This mau well be true up in Pennsylvania, but down here in NC, it's sunny, warm and very dry as we weather through the worst drought in 118 years. The photo of our reservoir shows how low the water levels are. Now that it's winter, we get the odd mild sprinkling of rain, but it's not nearly enough to replenish the supplies.


The Drought in NC
Our Local Reservoir