One might think coming from Canada to a country like England would not be much of a culture difference, but things are certainly different here. Compared to Canada, most of the homes here are old – dating back hundreds of years – and heating them is a challenge. The house I am staying in, for instance, was built in the mid 1800’s. It is in original condition: tall ceilings with ornate crown moldings, large brass and crystal chandeliers, and five, yes, 5 flights of stairs! My bedroom is at the top, and the kitchen is at the bottom, in the basement.
Basement
kitchens are not unusual – built so that the heat from the kitchen rises. There
is no central forced air heat – just radiators that are programmed to be 17C
for a couple of hours in the morning, and a couple of hours in the early
evening. Other than that, the water is kept at 9C. That means it is pretty damn
cold here!
The beds
have electric blankets, as do the couches. My feet are freezing. My fingers are
cold. And my nose has not thawed out since I arrived.
Ah, my
arrival. Now there is a funny story….
I arrived
at Heathrow airport on January 1. My plan was to buy a local SIM card, rent a
car, and drive to my housesit just over an hour away. It turned out that the
SIM card shops were all closed because it was January 1. (I had hand
written down the instructions on how to get to where I was going because if I have
learned anything from my many travels, it is that things never go as planned
and you should always be prepared for a worst-case scenario).
There was a
storm going on, and the cold wind was pelting sideways so I was super glad that
I had decided to rent a car instead of taking public transport. I got my car
rented, looked at my instructions, and headed out – driving on the left side of
the road (turned out to be the easiest part of this day) and immediately into a
traffic jam of epic proportions. So there I sat, less than a half kilometer
from the airport, for what seemed like hours, though was probably closer to 30
minutes.
Then, just
down the road where I was to turn south, the road was closed due to
construction, so I was forced to continue driving east. The “detour” took me
more than an hour out of my way, through windy roads that would have been
pretty had they not been completely covered in inches of water from the storm!
As I
approached Porstmouth it became obviously clear that my handwritten
instructions were inaccurate, so before I knew it I was miles past
Porstmouth on a road that seemed to have no exits! I eventually turned around
and only by miracle did I find my way to the address I had.
The roads here
are skinny, two way, but only big enough for one small car, and the street was lined
with parked cars. There was nowhere to park. I drove around, starting to panic,
as I had to pee like a racehorse and could barely think straight as a result. Eventually I ended up stopping in the middle
of the road in front of the house and ran through the rain to the large gate
that surrounded the house. In the process, my glasses fell off and broke.
The gate
was locked and there was no bell or intercom. I had no phone to call the people
to tell them I had arrived and was standing in the pelting rain, blind, peeing
my pants.
I digress…
Another thing I found different here is the AGA – an expensive piece of kitchen equipment. It is a huge stove type thing that uses conduction and convection to move heat around the cast iron parts of the cooker. Temperatures will differ depending on where you place your food in the oven. It looks much like the old-fashioned cast-iron stoves that were heated by wood.
The two big chrome circles on top are lids. One covers a hot burner, able to bring a pot to boil very quickly, and a warm burner for well, keeping things warm. (I was tempted to sit on it!) I was told this was a good place to dry my jeans.
Another weird thing…. most people do not have clothes dryers. Electricity is so expensive, not only do people live in a refrigerator, they have to somehow dry clothes in it!
It is entirely possible I will spend the next 8 weeks in damp clothes wrapped in an electric blanket. Sigh.
On a
positive note, the city of Portsmouth is beautiful, and I have enjoyed walking
about (I think it is warmer outside than in the house), taking in its charm.
There are many green spaces, a wonderful waterfront, historic sites, and lots
of pedestrian streets with quaint shops.
Today I am
meeting up with a local woman who is taking me on a driving tour and then we
will go for lunch (fish and chips I suppose), and tomorrow I am headed to the
New Forest, established in 1079 by William the Conqueror, as a royal hunting ground, where I will
not hunt boars or deer, but rather mushrooms.
I figure if
I am going to be cold, I might as well be outdoors looking for mushrooms!
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Another adventure!
ReplyDeleteI love AGA stoves, we had one in our kitchen in Ireland. My Mother was always in the kitchen cooking , probably as it was the only place warm in the house. My Father was always warm and when the living room temperature went over 62 F he would open the windows to cool the room down. You really have to climatize to the cooler temps over there. In the winter I used to scrape Ice off the inside of my bedroom window every morning!!
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