Friday, December 16, 1988

A Quiet Day in Neston ...

Today is Beethoven's Birthday, as Schroeder from Peanuts has taught me. Had a lie-in until about 11.30 a.m., when I awoke just in time to prepare to head down to the Wheatsheaf pub for lunch, where Dave was working. Fiona, Zoe and I went, and sat at the bar talking with Dave for awhile. Fiona and Zoe left, but I remained to have some gammon. It was infinitely better than the gammon they serve back at Humberside College.

Afterwards, I came back to the Morrison's house for a bit until Dave stopped by after work. We walked to his house to wait for Fiona, and I got a chance to meet Dave's mother and grandmother. When Fiona arrived we went out and got some Chinese take-away and frantically rushed back to the Morrison's house so that Fiona and Dave could watch the Australian soap opera "Neighbours." I have yet to see two people more engrossed in that crappy show than those two! Granted, it's still better than "East Enders," a dismal soap opera. Suddenly American soap operas don't seem quite so bad by comparison.

Following that we watched the news, then Dave and I searched through Dr. Morrison's video tapes in search of his copy of Woody Allen's "Play It Again, Sam." We couldn't find it, so we settled on "Octopussy." Can't go wrong with a good ol' Bond flick.

Later, when Dr. Morrison arrived home, we all watched an excellent movie called "Someone to Watch Over Me," starring Tom Berenger. It bore some similarities to "Fatal Attraction," but I liked "Someone" better.

Following that, Dave and I played a game of Trivial Pursuit (the British edition), which I won, despite my disadvantage of not being British. Finally got to bed after reading some more of the book "Ikon."

Tuesday, September 27, 1988

Last Night in Neston

Took the day at quite a leisurely pace. Woke up late in the morning in preparation to enjoy my last full day in Neston before heading east to Hull and start my sophomore year in college. I ate breakfast, read the paper, and then I rested. I introduced Dave to a tape of my band, Yokel, a sort of jokey heavy metal power trio featuring me on bass and lead vocals, along with my friends Greg Swartz on lead guitar and Steve Benner on drums. We aren't very good, but we had a lot of fun recording "Shut Up and Listen to Our Lousy Album" in one day. Both Dave and Sean thought it was "brilliant" -- something I would have never thought to call it.

When Fiona arrived home from school, we all went out for Chinese food and ate it at home. Afterwards, Fiona went back to school and Dave went home, during which time I listened to the Beatles and did a little writing.

That evening Dave came back, and we trekked down the road a piece to the Wheatsheaf for a little socializing. There we met up with Albert, an old school mate of Dave's. We chatted for a bit about various topics, then successfully played some of the "fruit machines," where I ended up 2 pounds. When Fiona and Dr. Morrison arrived we continued to chat and I snapped a few photographs. When Zoe arrived a short time later, we started to play some games. We started with "Buzz," which is a numbers game, and then we played a word game that Dr. Morrison (pictured above at the Wheatsheaf that night) suggested.

Afterwards, the lot of us went back to the house, where we watched a few of Glen's home movies until Dr. Morrison went up to bed. Then Zoe and I challenged Albert, Dave and Fiona to a rousing game of Pictionary. We lost, but it was a darn close game (I blame the darn British rules...) We followed that up by having a chat, and then 2 a.m. rolled around, so I thought it was time to call home to say hello to Mom and my sister Angie (since it was only 9 p.m. their time). Last chance on the Morrison's dime! Dad was on a business trip to Ohio, so I'll have to catch up with him another time.

Still not tired enough to go to bed, we watched Dr. Morrison's video of Billy Connolly, titled "Billy & Albert." He is apparently a popular and quite hilarious Scottish comedian. I may have to pick some of his stuff up. Well after that I was finally ready for bed and headed up, leaving Dave and Albert in the television room. Another good night's sleep awaits...

(Pictured left: At the Wheatsheaf are Rick, Zoe, Albert, Dr. Morrison and Fiona.)

Monday, September 26, 2008

The Fantastic Chester Pub Crawl Birthday Extravaganza

Woke up at half-eight when the phone rang. It was Glen's friend Sean (pictured), curious about what plans we had for our day in the picturesque City of Chester. I was still suffering from "just woke up" and was relatively incoherent.

After that I fell back to sleep until about 10 a.m. when Fiona's boyfriend, Dave, called. Shortly after 11 a.m., Sean, Stewart, Dave and I were on our way to Chester.

I was there last night to see "The Running Man," but I didn't get to see all that much of Chester at the time. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my camera, so I was unable to get photos of town... although in light of how this day went, it was probably best I didn't have it with me. Overall, it was a fabulous day. We shopped in the morning, where I bought the new Phil Collins' "In the Air Tonight (88 Remix)" maxi- single. We then at lunch at McDonald's (a little taste of America... except the ketchup is a little sweeter, and they charge you extra for each packet. Weird.)

Over the course of the day I bought a Union Jack flag and a map of Britain (both to hang in my dorm room when I get there), a cassette of the "Buster" soundtrack (excellent!), and a blank tape. We walked and shopped for about 8 hours, including a walk along the top of the wall that surround Chester. The wall was built buy the Romans long ago... and after we pointed out that fact, our running joke became that everything in town was originally built by the Romans. ("Oh look, W.H. Smith... did you know that store was built by the Romans?")

We also visited Chester Cathedral, which was fabulous. I wished I could've stayed there all day with a skeleton key to get into all the crypts, crannies and what-have-yous that are in that place. We then left to search for some museum Dave wanted to take me to in Chester. Unfortunately, he wasn’t sure exactly where it was and we failed in our mission to find it.

Dave (pictured, right) and I finally took a break in the center of town, near the keymark clock that was covered up for repairs, and then entered the pub behind us. While we waited for Fiona and Zoe to arrive we chatted a bit, largely about political and social culture (he's also conservative like me), over a pint. Fiona and Zoe were supposed to arrive at about half six, but they missed their bus and didn't get in until half seven.

We the set off on a traditional British "pub crawl," in celebration of Fiona's 18th birthday (in two days actually... so she's technically two days away from being legal age to drink, although no one here seems to mind much.) During the course of this most festive evening, I was introduced to several British beverages, as we managed to hit, I believe, about six pubs (some of them are a bit fuzzy recollections).

There were several memorable moments during this excursion:

• I sang the sad and depressing "Happy Birthday" song to Fiona, as taught to me by my high school World Cultures teacher, Pete Sanden, who sang it to kids in class on their birthdays. It goes:

“Happy Birthday. Happy Birthday.
People dying in the streets.
Children with no food to eat. But...
Happy Birthday. Happy Birthday."

• Fiona spilled two drinks, one of which resulted in a broken glass, and the other resulting in Dave licking the spilt beverage off of the table.
  
• I accidentally knocked Zoe off of her chair... well, actually, I barely touched her and she fell back off of the "slippy" chair.
  
• Air guitaring "Hotel California" in a pub.
  
• Singing a rousing version of "Bohemian Rhapsody," and later marvelling that a Queen song was played at each of the last three pubs we were at. One more and my theory would’ve kicked in, that this is no longer a coincidence, but rather a tribute to one of the band members having died. (Fortunately, that was not the case, and Queen will continue to “rock you.”)
  
• An Englishman who was convinced that I was English, and merely impersonating an American accent.
  

Some other hazy recollections include Dave blowing up a balloon (I hope it was a balloon) while walking down the street, running through the streets of Chester to get to the next pub, something called "Thumper," and then hitting a pizza place to get some food at five after 11, since the pubs closed at 11 p.m. Although the place was ready to close in 10 minutes, we were undaunted, ordered our pizza, and forced them to stay open until 11:45, when this loud group finally left the empty restaurant and returned to the streets, no doubt causing much celebration among the staff forced to endure our lack of courtesy.

Afterward Fiona and Dave briefly disappeared, and we had no idea where they went. But as quickly as they vanished, they suddenly re-emerged and we could catch a taxi back home. When we returned, Dr. Morrison was quite amused by my current state caused by excessive alcohol consumption, especially when I then took it upon myself to pay him back the five pounds that I owed him. I walked Zoe back to her house, then returned home, where Fiona went to bed and Dave and I sat in the television room, continuing to chat until about 4 a.m. He told me stories about some kid named Philip Ingram at his school, who reminded me of someone I went to school with named Mike Sim. I told him about some kid I went to school with named Mike Sim, who reminded him of this kid he knows named Philip Ingram.

The evening ended with me acquiring from him my new "pseudonym in favor" -- Thermos Fortitude. I don't know what that meanns.

What could have been finer?

Sunday, September 25, 1988

American Movies Served British-style

I took Sunday at a leisurely pace. It was more or less a day of traditional British teenage life. I enjoyed a traditional English Sunday meal of beef, potatoes, Yorkshire puddings (kind of like a flaky biscuit), vegetables and mineral water. Quite good – I still can’t complain about the food here. Spent much of the afternoon watching the Olympics, which is quite interesting seeing it from the British perspective rather than the American focus I was used to watching.

Later, I joined Fiona, Zoe and some of their other friends to go to the movie theater to see “The Running Man” starring Arnold Schwartzenegger… a full 10 months after it was released in America! Fortunately, I had not seen it when it was released in the U.S. so it was new to me, and rather entertaining.

The theater itself was rather different that what I was used to in the U.S. First of all, it was huge. Also, the seats started a lot farther away from the screen than usual and were raised high above the floor, creating an open pit between the front seats and the screen. The set-up actually makes a lot of sense… no worries about a sore neck from sitting in the front row!

Afterwards we came home, had coffee and chatted about various things with Fiona and Dr. Morrison until the headed off to bed and I was alone. At 12:50 a.m., I began to watch the Presidential Debate. It was interesting to me but irrelevant, since I’ve long since known that George Bush was the best man for the job. I even got to shake his hand at a rally that my friend Greg Swartz and I attended in York back in August. But I watched the debate anyway to see how they fielded their questions and to make sure that George didn’t make any major gaffes. No major ones, but a few minor things that I thought he covered quite well. Michael Dukakis may have had the edge, but he didn’t win by as much as was projected or needed, which I think gives Bush the advantage. I’m sure the American people will make the right choice.

I’ve had the opportunity to observe British politics as well the past few days, most notably the emergence of a third political party. The Social Liberal Democrats, as they are known, combined people from the weak Liberal Party, the Social Democratic Party, along with various socialists and others not wanting to join the two major parties. So far, all I’ve seen from them is constant bickering. They are pulling some support from the mismanaged and Neil Kinnock-led Labour Party, which as the #2 party appears absolutely pathetic. There is no serious contender to have a remote chance of dethroning Margaret Thatcher and the powerful Conservative Party, The Tories, anytime soon. Of course, I think this is a good thing. Good night!

(Photo: View of the backyard of the Morrison's home in Neston. Their home offered a fantastic view of the River Dee. On the other side of the river is Wales.)

****

• Number One Song in Britain This Week: "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother" - The Hollies
  
• Number One Song in America This Week: "Don't Worry, Be Happy" - Bobby McFerrin

Friday, September 23, 1988

The Best Beer I've Ever Had

I didn’t wake up until 12:45 p.m. Wow, that’s the latest I’ve slept in all year (or as they say here, I had a “lie-in.”) The Morrison’s must really think I’m a bum… but I haven’t done anything like that since my wild high school summer days when I didn’t have to be at Artworks in the Camp Hill Shopping mall for work until 6 p.m.

Anyway, I took a leisure day to recover from this jet lag. At 1:30 p.m., after a shower and some food, Glen’s friends Sean, Duncan and Stewart stopped in to chat over some coffee and cakes. They wanted me to go to a night club in Liverpool with them, but I decided to take a pass because they weren’t going to be back until 3 a.m., and since I was planning a big day with the Morrisons in Liverpool the following day, I thought that might not be a good idea. So instead I opted to go to a pub with Fiona and her friend, Zoe (pictured) that evening.

Since Dr. Morrison is a general practitioner, he is occasionally on-call, whereby his patients actually call his house in an emergency. So someone has to be in at all times to answer the phone, even if Dr. Morrison steps out for awhile. I’ve learned that house calls are still quite commonplace here in Britain, which is a noticeable difference over American doctors. Fiona got her Aunt Pauline (not a blood aunt, but an “adopted” aunt) to cover the calls. We drove to Aunt Pauline’s house, picked her up, and drove back to the Morrison’s house. During the drive back we saw a rainbow, which was quite nice.

After dropping off Aunt Pauline, Fiona and I walked to pick up Zoe at her house (I’ve never heard that fascinating name before, and she was a nice and interesting person as well), then walked down the road a bit to The Wheatsheaf for a little socializing. They serve a great beer there called Whitbread’s Best Bitter. Perhaps the best beer I’ve ever had. But then, I’m 19, so admittedly I haven’t tried that many brands.

After some time at the pub, we walked Zoe back to her house, then back to the Morrison’s for some coffee with Dr. Morrison and Aunt Pauline (I have been drinking so much coffee the past few days!) I actually got to bed at a decent hour this day, in preparation for tomorrow’s trek to Liverpool.