Brixham, Flotsam and Jetsam

Greetings from overcast Plymouth!  I wanted you to get the full effect of my newfound blogging in all of its glory.  You'll notice my posh Rosetta Stone-turned-Skype headset.  It cost a cool 150 bucks, as it seems to be the only element of our Rosetta Stone kit that has gotten any use....I'm disgusted too, pondering all of the lovely things I could have bought with that money.  We VOWED to utilize the well-praised system with regularity but alas, the only thing we've done "regularly" over the last 6 months has been to familiarize ourselves with the finest of local Indian cuisine.

Aside --> if you love Indian as much as I do, I recommend the following places...you know, in case you're ever in Munich or, say, Plymouth:

* GOA - don't worry, I can't read it either.

* The Eastern Eye - exotic, I know.

To get this diffuse blog back on track, I have some photographs to share from our recent trip to Brixham where I exercised some of my digi-cam's color options.  To summarize Brixham, I'll quote you the Chamber of Commerce: "Big-Hearted Brixham - The Little Gem in Torbay".  Gotta love anything branded "little gem".  The site then goes on to describe Torbay as the "English Riviera"...you can judge for yourself momentarily.  Brixham (like Plymouth) is in the county of Devon, way down in the southwest of England.  Allow me to provide a visual:

Brixham is known for it's fish.  That may be it.  To be fair, it was a gorgeous drive through the country/down the coast to get there, and I did find it fantastic in a run down, rustic, coastal village kind of way.  There was something very authentic about Brixham.  It just didn't try too hard to maintain the perfect balance between beautiful and eerie.  We dined in what was the only open restaurant in February, and discovered that, aside from the summer months, dear Brixham is basically deserted save the sailors.  I mean, I always wanted to see a true sailor anyway....just wish I had.  Enough commentary - here are the pictures.

The nautical world is full of great primary color.

Still experimenting with my Blue Period.

Tide was out, but by the time we left these boats were under water.

cheeeeeeese!

Straight out of the Shire, no?!

The color accent option on my camera lets me feel all artsy fartsy.

another Rainbow Row!

Could be a greeting card.  Front: "I'm so blue",  Inside: "I miss you"

(I missed my calling didn't I)

I love the rusty canisters.  I think this is my favorite picture of the day.  It has serious layers to it.

Tide's in.

 

Brixham made us a mean cup'a joe before we left.

** I haven't figured out the best way to format the pictures that I put on here.  When I try to make them bigger, they get cut off.  I'm sure I'll stumble upon a solution at some point...

*** I failed to mention Brixham's true claim to fame: 2009 Guinness World Record for "the most pirates in one gathering" with 1,467.  Our waitress was beeming with pride.  They hope to break their record again this April 30-May 3 at the Brixham Pirate & Shanty Festival.  And we didn't see a single sailor or pirate.  I'm going back...

God Save the Queen!

**** I created this post 1 day after arriving in Plymouth; however, I'm still a noob and hit "save" instead of "post".  Of course, since I'm also spastically incosistent, I didn't notice until now, 3 weeks later, as I attempt my next post.  Read on...


We made it to England, +7 bags.  God Save the Queen!  First stop was the Marks & Spencer Simply Food in Gatwick.  It was all I could ask for and more after a long delay in Munich due to snow, naturally.  Upon arrival in Plymouth, we quickly fell in love with this beautiful, quaint, massively old coastal city.  It far exceeded our expectations, and man, Brits are just awesomely funny.

We needed serious fuel to negotiate 7 bags through the airport.  This woman on the right's all like "bloody Yanks".

Obligatory new-city smooch.

I've already sampled the fish and chips and relaxed with my new friend, the BBC - he speaks English impeccibly.  I think I'm ready to go!  Should be an adventurous week as I scour the town for suitable housing - a feat at which I've become quite skillful.  Modus operandi, you ask?  The World Wide Web, my chucks, and a map (small enough that I'd don't look like Tourist of the Year - an irrational fear of mine...more on those later).  I will readily accept any guidance the concierge will provide me, given he doesn't hate me as I've phoned him no less than 4 times since arriving a few hours ago (I am my mother after all *smiles*).

I'm enjoying life as a blogger, green though I may be.  I only wish I'd have begun sooner, in Munich.  I suppose the internet would have been fundamental in that...

Returning to the randomness that I'd like this blog to maintain, I give you a new list.  This one, of whimsical thoughts that came to me of sleep deprivation and cultural disorientation!

1.  Etta James looks decidedly like cupid.  I just don't see the naken baby with wings, I see this soulful singer.  You pickin up what I'm puttin down?

2.  Cucumbers make water taste so fresh, I can't understand why I don't drop them in a tall glass more often.

3.  I'm no professor, but hearing someone use "could have went" in a sentence makes me cringe.

4.  The difference between tissues with aloe and tissues without is like the difference between cashmere and sandpaper.  Buy the aloe-enhanced.

5. Felt is a neglected textile.  It's innumerable uses and soft durability should not to be overlooked.  In Munich there was a shop dedicated entirely to felt.  I wanted to roll around in it.

6. There is a British sitcom called "Gavin & Stacey" - download it immediately.

Law and Order SVU

I've been wanting to do this for a long time.  I bet a lot of people say that.  I really have thought about this for months now, and for months have created myriad excuses for inaction.  Today, however, is the day.  It'll be a stream of consciousness and certainly random at that.  Also, I don't think I'll let anyone read it for an undecided amount of time...until I'm ready, or confident that my spelling is good enough to not look a fool (does this thing have spell-check?).  I stared at the "New Post" tab for approximately 7* minutes occasionally lifting my digits to begin typing, then resting them again on the keys, which, not so ironically, sounds a bit like the clicking noise that comes from opening your mouth to begin speech but closing it quickly when you realize you don't know what to say.  This stalling prompted me to start my new Sling Box - slung from Dallas all the way to Munich - and watch a recorded episode of SVU until words came to me.  SVU is a bit theraputic as it reminds me of college procrastination, laying on the couch, the good ol' U.S.A., that there are crazier people out there than me, and Elliott Stabler's star role in Wet Hot American Summer - a movie I happen to think is grossly underrated. 

I digress....SVU got me-a-typin. 

Our Sling Box is sort of shite.  It cost a fortune, was difficult to install, and has the quality of an old school McNugget - you know, before the whole "white meat only" campaign.  I'm hoping it's just because we're "borrowing" the internet from our neighbors, and will resolve itself once we procure our own internet services.  But the obnoxious skipping rather reminds me of my life right now (read: college > home > Dallas > Munich > Plymouth, England?? all in 3 years time) .  But I'm on and off that soap box for hopefully the last time here, because really I have an incredibly adventurous and exciting life full of love, travel, family, new and old friends and a lot of the unknown.  And so, I think I'll make this sort of a hobby-blog...the kind where I experiment with things of style and culture and entertainment and craft and photography and design and all things aesthetically pleasing, etc.  I'm affirming that these so-called hobbies will morph into passions as all the stars align and I ride off into the sunset...he he he.  See I'm not at all sure yet what I'm meant to do in this world.  Clearly it wasn't selling baseball tickets, but I know it has to be something creative.  I've got a lot of ideas stored up, but I'm both impatient and perfecting in all that I do, and so I struggle to pin down a "calling".  I know I'll figure it out one day, and until then, this will be my little "Project Me".

*In reality, the 7 minutes was probably more like 3, or maybe even 2.5, but that's another thing about me, I'm a bit of an exaggerator...

Who doesn't love a list?  My list-making skills are attributable to my Citadel-grad Father.  Here are a few of my favorite things (sung in my best Julie Andrews) at complete random and in no particular order:

broccoli
How I Met Your Mother
bocce ball
The Reynolda Basement
southern gift shops
bottomless chips and salsa
boots
HGTV
London
Nordstroms' return policy
WWII history
bracketology
hors devours as a genre of food
Love Actually
red nail polish
interior design books
hydrangeas
Scrabble
hair accessories...the bigger the better
new runnning shoes
Blue Moon
tart fro-yo
markets (I don't discriminate)
the original 90210