Catching Up at Home–and A Bit of Overseas Banking, Food Shopping and Cooking

Thursday, August 25, 2016

London

We have all become so accustomed to being cyber-connected that when traveling overseas, the biggest handicap is not having access to the internet. If I leave my London home for five minutes, I come back to a string of email that needs responding. Imagine being away for three days–the backlog is overwhelming. So, punishment for the pleasure of being in Dorset, was that most of today I was chained to my laptop.

Indeed much of my day was spent writing. I had abstracts to write for the talks I will be giving in the UK at various universities. My speaking appearance at the University of Padua in Italy was confirmed today–which meant more abstracts to write for their website and more travel arrangements to consider. I caught up with my Dorset blog–three days of recording of sightseeing and English seaside cultural lifestyle (before I forget everything I did and saw). Then there was my paper to edit and a Powerpoint presentation to plan and write for my conference appearance in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Don’t get me wrong: I am enjoying all of this work–it is, in fact, what I thrive on. But the heat!!! It is so stifling and so humid at the moment that I feel terribly uncomfortable as my laptop also gives off heat. I can understand that Brits have no air-conditioning in their homes–their temperate climate and (much milder) summers that our extreme ones in the USA do not necessitate it. But no fans???? I mean why ever not? Not only do they not have ceiling fans anywhere in their homes, but they do not even have upright pedestal fans either. I remember the first time I came to live in London in Holborn, my apartment was centrally air-conditioned. I rarely used it as I did not feel the need to live in an artificially created micro-climate. However, the first thing I did was go out and buy a little table fan from Argos for my bedside table–I had two of them and I used one bedside table to prop up the fan so that I could sleep at night. At the end of my life here in London, I had left the fan at the London home of my friend Loulou as I could not use it in the States (different voltage, different plug system).

Here too, in this Bethnal Green home, there is no AC and no fans. I feel as if I am in a boiler all day. And this time I am not going to buy one for just one month only to leave it behind when I return home. When I tried to open the windows in my bedroom (where I do most of my work), the sounds of the traffic below are so deafening and so distracting that I promptly closed them again. Not just traffic–I can hear everything any passer-by says! End result? I had to get out of the house in the afternoon for relief from the heat and although I was trying to give myself a full day at home to rest my over-worked feet and catch up on work, I did make two short trips outside. Both gave me the intense small pleasure of an air-conditioned atmosphere.

Would you believe I was so relieved from the heat in the Co-op (supermarket) that I wanted to linger in there? But I did! Having almost cleaned out my fridge before leaving for Dorset, I needed staples: bread, milk, cream, yoghurt, etc. I bought some chicken breast too, broccoli and onions and a bottle of Piri-Piri sauce: this is unknown to most people in America, but it is a result of Anglo-Portuguese fusion cuisine. Piri-piri, I believe, is chilli pepper in Portuguese, and Nando’s, a local chain of chicken restaurants, popularized a dish called Chicken Piri-Piri. Well, having had much success with my M&S bottled tikka masala paste, I figured I’d try piri-piri this time.

Back home, I got down to the basement kitchen (surprisingly cooler than my overheated bedroom two flights above) and cooked Chicken Piri-Piri and a Broccoli side dish with cumin, fennel and chilli flakes in Balsamic vinegar. That was my food sorted for the next few days. Back upstairs, I chatted with Llew for a while, then because I simply had to get out of the heat again, I took a ride in a passing bus to Bethnal Green to do a bit of overseas banking.

Not having used the ATM machine before, it was a learning experience. The machine is programmed to give only a limited amount of money and since I am trying to limit my transactions (because Chase Bank in the US charges me a fee for each one), I was annoyed at the limit. When I consulted a banking assistant, she told me that for larger sums, I could go to the teller upstairs. But would not the teller charge me a service fee? Would I not be paying double? On this side of the Atlantic and across the pond? No, she assured me. The teller’s service here were free and I would be charged the same fee in the US  regardless of the amount of my withdrawal.  Well…live and learn. I know for next time how to handle it. Needless to say, despite the irritation, the AC in the bank was a pleasure and I lingered as long as I could before I took the bus back home.

More telephonic chatter home followed–with my Dad in Bombay and folks in Connecticut. More work on my paper which I am trying to edit down to size to fit the 20 minute time limit of the conference. I have already found too much very valuable material in the British Library and feel a compulsion to reveal it all–must try to rein myself in. Work on my paper went on for the rest of the evening. I only wound up at 7.00 pm in time for a shower that I badly needed, a very late tea break (a pot of tea and a slice of coffee-walnut cake), washing and drying my dishes below, putting my food away. Then, back upstairs, I began watching ‘Making a Murderer’ on Netflix (which Llew had recommended to me very highly). I was not happy to have to watch it on my tiny laptop screen, but because there is no TV here, I have no choice. But Thank God for my Netflix account. I’d be bereft of entertainment without it.

I watched the entire first episode, then broke for dinner–my Chicken Piri is delicious (no credit to me–its all in the bottled sauce!) and the broccoli was just as tasty. Rum and Raisin Ice-cream for dessert–because the weather demanded it, and then I got ready for bed.

Nothing exciting to report today. I will still be playing catch up with email tomorrow as I still have some urgent ones that need responding.

Until tomorrow, cheerio….