Why the British might be crazy. And why I love the British.

Tim and I spent last weekend in London. Then I was back again for work three days last week. I love London and truly enjoyed my time there. But, after five days, I have reason to believe that the British might be crazy. Here's why:

-They drive on the wrong side of the road. I feel fully justified calling this the wrong side of the road because at every intersection they have painted along the curb "Look right" and "Look left" with an arrow to keep unsuspecting foreigners from being wiped out by the oncoming taxis. Nowhere else in the world feels the need to do this...shouldn't this be a sign that they may be driving incorrectly?
- The pubs close at 11pm at night. Seriously, this is too early.
- If you order fish and chips you have the choice of peas or smashed peas. Not only are peas one of the worst vegetables ever grown, but to have them smashed? I didn't actually order fish and chips while I was there, but I'm certain that I wouldn't want my plate of fried glory ruined by peas...or even worse, smashed peas. Oh...and of course, the chips are really fries...and they're served with mayonaisse not ketchup. Crazy.
- Breakfast comes with baked beans. They pour them all over your eggs and bacon (which is really canadian bacon). Yuk. Yuk. Yuk.
-There's no rhyme or reason to the roads...there isn't a straight road in the entire city. I realize that London is a very old city...many cities are very old...but like many old cities, they've had their share of bad things happen that the lovely people of London could have used as an opportunity to build roads that go in a straight line and corners that turn at 90 degrees. But alas, this has not happened. Instead if you are in a car in London you will get sick to your stomach.
- Again with the roads, we ran into a few roads that literally are named the same thing on all four sides of the block that it covers. In addition, the numbering goes up one side (both odds and evens) and then up the other side, makes a corner and continues numbering on one side. Both Tim and I (who arrived seperately), walked around 3 of the 4 sides of a block before finding our hotel.
- Churches are merely shrines to dead royalty. I know that the seperation of church and state is a truly american cultural expirement, but it was so weird to walk into church that had less to do with God and more to do with dead rich people.

But there's a charm to London that makes it one of the great cities in the world. I believe it's the people. Here's why:
- A British person can tell you off, but will do so in a way that sounds absolutely charming and you will leave smiling. This didn't actually happen to me, but I did see some "angry" brits and they were just lovely.
- Everyone you meet will offer you tea and expect you to take it. Part of my job is going into people's homes and asking them about cleaning products. (It's more fascinating than it sounds). Every home we went into either already had the tea going or started prepping as soon as we walked in the door. I love tea, so this was like a glorious caffeine adventure. I usually only drink two cups a day. I was averaging about five while I was in London. I'm not complaining...I didn't sleep at night...but I'm not complaining.
- Again with the tea. In most places in the world when you order tea you need to specially order milk which they will bring out in a little pot accompanying the tea. In England, the milk is assumed and added without even asking. Milk with tea is my favorite way to drink tea. This made me so happy.

They might be crazy, but they're my type of crazy.

Marrons

Autumn is upon Geneva. The leaves are just starting to turn with the yellows and golds already coming out. The air is crisp and today is a lovely day with temperatures in the high 60's and a light breeze. Tim and I went to the farmer's market this morning to get our groceries for dinner tonight. Every time Tim visits he brings another suitcase of my stuff...and regardless of what fits in he brings one of my Cooking Light Annual cookbooks. Tonight we're having Roasted Chicken with Dried Plums and Shallots and Swiss Baked Potatoes (how fitting). Before leaving, I went to my new favorite website, www.translate.google.com and translated all of the vegetables into french so that I could order what I needed from the stands at the farmer's market. The market is a closterphopic's nightmare...it's packed with people ordering and pushing through to get the best produce. I tend to go the least crowded stand I can find so that my lack of French doesn't slow down the entire food-buying community of Geneva. For the first time today I ordered everything I needed in French (with a bit of pointing due to my poor pronunciation). So now I've got a kitchen full of eschallots (shallots), oignons (onions), ail (garlic), fenouil (fennel), poulet (chicken) and pommes de terre (potatoes).

On the way back from shopping we passed a little wooden cabin on a street corner (that wasn't there last week) that seemed to have large vats of something smoking. Later in the afternoon, we passed another one in a different part of town. The sign on the front said Marrons and there was a line of people waiting to purchase whatever they were selling. Naturally, I had to try it. We got to the front of the line and I pointed at the 100 gram sign (I don't know how to say 100 yet), handed over my 2.60 francs and then watched the lady scoop in some piping hot somethings into a paper cone. I pulled one of the large nut looking things out of the bag and realized what I must have ordered. These are chestusts roasted on an open fire! It seems bizarre that I could sing the song every christmas, yet have made it through my entire life without actually eating a roasted chestnut. We peeled the shells off, careful not to burn ourselves and walked to lake. The taste overall is fine...I'd much rather have a nice piece of chocolate, but still, I love that there are these little stands all over selling these things. It felt like the perfect way to enjoy a fall day...peeling and eating warm chestnuts, walking along the lake and looking at the changing trees in the parks along the lake.
So ton