Well, I have made the move from the US to the UK ... and have been withholding posting here until I got a bit grounded in the UK life. Enclosed are some of my updates to my friends in the US. I will break this up into two messages, as the site is not letting me post everything in one message -- that's what I get for being too wordy ...
Jan 6 -
Two days ago I discovered that though my electric range has four burners, only the two on the left actually serve the purpose of cooking. The other two on the right, though they shine this really nifty light, seem to only be warmers, that shut off as soon as the temperature reaches, let's say, 120 F. [That, by the way, was trip number 1 to the manual for the range].
So, the only thing that works in the oven is the light. Actually, ironically enough, that is the only thing that I want to shut OFF in this whole apartment. There are two knobs. The left one -- and I am just going to ask you to now insert the word "supposedly" in the next sentences as appropriate for the sake of not being repetitive in my writing -- controls the type of cooking I want: conventional, grill, bottom element only, turbo fan (I am actually quoting from the manual), defrost, conventional elements and fan, etc. The right knob controls the temperature -- in Celsius. [I was actually on my way to trying to figure out what 350 F worked out to be in Celsius, but -- HA! -- ended up not needing to.]
In the middle of the oven -- between the two knobs -- and this is where it get's tricky -- there are a series of buttons with drawings on top of them that, again, according to the manual, control the timer ... with a twist. Not only does it control the alarm, but actually the cooking ... as in, this oven -- once someone can figure out how to turn it on and make it cook/bake/grill/turbo-whatever -- will shut off by itself. What a great feature.
So, I took the manual, and walked through it step by step. Set the temperature to like 250 C -- which is a lot in F -- and still nothing. At the beginning I was making the change, getting things out of the fridge to prepare the chicken, and then would check the pre-heating process two minutes later. By the end of the experiment, I was sitting on the kitchen floor, manual on lap, oven door wide open, hand about 2 inches from the top grill, head a third in the way in the oven, looking around. (I am not in the market for doing any PSA's)
The chicken, for those interested, is back in the fridge. I bought it yesterday, froze it, and then this afternoon defrost half of it. I figure I have one more attempt at the defrosted half before it goes bad ... although the second half -- ah yes, the second half ... that's where the money's at.
On related travel news, however, I am happy to say -- although this might be about 40 minutes premature, since it is still going through its cycles -- that I have managed to wash a load of clothes. That was simple -- in comparison. The manual for that was very clear. I think the trick is to have a manual that is one language all the way through -- and that only applies to one specific appliance model. Otherwise, it gets confusing: the Brits get to learn about the model A456, only the French get to enjoy the benefits of model B760, and the Dutch are the only ones who know how to operate my oven.
Other things that I think are amuzing and will make you read through -- if you are still reading:
- Switches for outlets. All outlets in the UK are 240V. Not only the washer/dryer like in the US, but all of them throughout the house. I am hoping never to find out the downside of that. (Not sure what the upside of having that much voltage, but I never hope to find the downside). I think because of that, all outlets come with switches. Meaning that, once you plug something into an outlet, you MUST REMEMBER TO TURN THE OUTLET ON -- emphasis not for you, but rather for me ... as I have, on more times than I would like to count on these short days, said the words, "Why won't this thing start charg-- oh. My bad."
- This story I will call, "What came first: the sheets or the tupperware?" So this one is from my first few hours in the apartment. All I wanted to do after I got here on Saturday evening was to go to sleep. I had been traveling since Friday evening, had a cold, spent an extra two hours on a layover in Brussels (which almost made me have to wait until Monday to get my keys from the rental office) ... and I was just tired. I had brought with me two suitcases and one box, in addition to the one suitcase and one box that I had brought over in early December. All I wanted to do was to get my sheets, my blanket, my towel, and my pajamas so I could go to sleep. But first, I had to get some heat on the apartment, for all of the windows had been left cracked open for ventilation, and it was about 40 F in the apartment. An hour later, I had some of the units running, but the heat was not going anywhere. Must get my _two_ blankets. The first blanked was easy -- it was in a plastic bag, easy enough. For me to get my second blanket, I had to dig all the way to the bottom of the second box -- which meant that I had to put the stuff in the box somewhere. I wanted to put it on the twin bed -- but the twin bed was filled with bedding that the apartment owner left behind. So, I had to find a place for the bedding (the floor). As I started getting the stuff out of the box, I started thinking, "Well, since I am taking this stuff out, let me be organized about it and try to sort it out." Twenty minutes later, I was not getting anywhere with the sorting, and reminded myself, "Must sleep." Okay, got to the blanket, but now needed to get to the sheets. The sheets were on the bottom of suitcase 1. On top of the sheets were all of my dress shirts and dress pants that I would need for work. On top of the dress clothes there were some hangers I had packed. So, it made perfect sense to get the clothes that were a bit wrinkled and try to put them on the hangers and in the closet so they would have a chance to unwrinkle. Did that and that felt pretty good -- a bit of my OCD coming out -- and then decided to see what else was in the suitcase. Started putting that stuff away. Thirty minutes later caught myself again, and decided that I wanted to go to bed. So, now I wanted to go to bed -- but much of the stuff that I had piled out of the suitcase was now sitting on the bed --
-- for your sake and mine I will stop.
I was in bed by 9:30. Slept until 11:30 on Sunday.
(for second half, see mesage titled "First Five Weeks -- Part II")
