Christmas in the Village

This Christmas I decided to stay in the UK so that I could rest! It's been a long year with a lot of lost weekends to work, so being able to sleep in everyday for a week was very appealing. And I wanted to see how Christmas is done on this side of the pond.

How do you like this outfit? It's a Scottish tweed coat [very warm] and Irish Gor-tex walking boots. I look like I belong on the Commons!

Since the Brits don't have American Thanksgiving to tell them when to kick-off the holiday season, it was interesting to see how the momentum was built. It was around the week before Thanksgiving when the radio station that I listen to in the morning started to talk about playing Christmas songs. Mostly because one of the DJs' wanted it to be Christmas soon. There was one played, and then I didn't really hear any Christmas songs until around the 15th of December. On Christmas Eve all day, every third song was a non-Christmas song played. On Christmas Day, every 5th song played WAS a Christmas song. I guess they wore the records out the day before!

In the Village, the shop owners all declared the first Sunday in December [6th] as the shopping kick-off. They offered discounts and extra hours for that Sunday only.

Father Christmas [aka Santa] arrived in the Village the same day ... on horseback! He was having a hard time holding the horse steady as he waved and yelled, "Happy Christmas".

That's another interesting thing, the expression is "Happy Christmas", not Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays. In fact, I was at an open house on Christmas Eve and when one of the guests was leaving, I got a kiss on two cheeks and as I responded to the Happy Christmas with a "Happy Holidays" ... I got, "Yeah, that's right. You are an American." I have not seen any evidence of Hanukkah. I didn't hear any dreidel songs, and haven't spotted a menorah anywhere. I saw on Facebook that Kwanza began yesterday in the States in the South. That's not here either.

So for Christmas Eve, I went to a friend's open house; and then came home, let a fire and fell asleep watching a Christmas movie [there is going to be a theme here].

On Christmas Day, I got up and made a pumpkin pie, and then opened presents! I got a box from my parents, a box from Heidi, and a box from Judy and Joanna in Austin. I had a few things from work. And then I ordered some stuff on-line. I saved it all until Christmas morning. Allie and I took a walk on the Commons and then we drove to Ramu's house for Christmas dinner. Natalie and Reise and their two kids, Jewel and Jess joined us. We had a great time. Jewel made friends with Allie by sharing her bag of cheese puffs with her. I came home, lit a fire and fell asleep watching a Christmas movie.

On Boxing Day, it was sunny out, so I decided it was time to figure out how to get to Richmond Park. It butts up against Wimbledon Park and it's twice the size, but you have to cross the A4 to get there. It was always too far for Misty to travel, and it never occurred to me to drive there, of course!

It is a gorgeous park! And very different from Wimbledon. Wimbledon is more wooded and you can get lost in the trees. Richmond is massive and you can get lost in the size!

There were herds of red and fallow deer roam freely within much of the park.

Richmond Park supports a large population of what are believed to be Ring-necked or Rose-ringed Parakeets. These bred from birds that escaped or were freed from captivity. They frequent my back yard!

During King Edward's (1272-1307) reign the area was known as the Manor of Sheen. The name was changed to Richmond during Henry VII's reign. In 1625 Charles I brought his court to Richmond Palace to escape the plague in London and turned it into a park for red and fallow deer. His decision, in 1637, to enclose the land was not popular with the local residents, but he did allow pedestrians the right of way. Richmond remains the smallest National Park in the UK. Almost three times as large as New York City's Central Park, it is Britain's largest urban walled park, and the largest of the Royal Parks in London

In 1847 Pembroke Lodge became the home of the then Prime Minister, Lord John Russel. It is now a popular restaurant with glorious views across the Thames Valley. Who knew?

At the end of Boxing Day, I was invited to visit my neighbors, two doors over, for a drink. Yvonne and Stuart have two dogs who wanted equal time on my lap. It was nice to share a single malt and learn a little about my neighbors and land lord. Stuart hunts birds and brought me a pheasant a couple of weekends ago. I had to learn how to clean the bird! Last night I learned the Stuart worked for Humana when it was a hospital company! Small world!

Benidorm, Spain Half Marathon

On Friday, 27 November, I flew to Alicante, Spain and then made my way to Benidorm for the weekend to participate in my second half-marathon this fall.

Benidorm is on the South Eastern coast of Spain ... and it is not very Spanish, from what I understand. It's actually, very British. It is a favourite spot for pensioners [retirees] to either spend the winter or move to after retirement. About every 10 feet there is a British pub serving a full English breakfast or beers! It's kind of like I imagine Destin, FL which is where it seems nearly everyone from Louisville goes, or so it seems.

It's only a two-hour flight and it's on the Mediterranean Sea so it is easy to see why it's a favourite place for Brits to escape.

I flew in on Friday, early, with my friend / co-worker, Ramu, and we spent the day exploring Benidorm. There is very little architecture that looks Spanish, or at least how I envisioned it. There are a lot of apartment-like high rises.

We sought out some non-British food ... grilled lobster, paella [chorizo, pancetta, rice, clams, prawns and squid], pancetta and cheese, and of course, Spanish wine. We had the red wine Rioja, which if you are Spanish is pronounced something like "ree-OH-ha" with a sort of hard "ha" ... like you have a fur ball. But if you're British, it's just "ree-AK-ka". When I first moved to London, it took me forever to figure what kind of red wine we were drinking when I was out with colleagues. I thought they were ordering a particular vineyard, not a region of Spain!

In the afternoon, the rains came in, so we found a pub ... it was Irish, not British ... with some live music and spent the afternoon shouting out requests for the Grateful Dead, Counting Crows, and Pink Floyd. The two guitarists would just say, "Hey English! What do you want to hear?"

Anyway, needless to say, there was a bit too much Rioja on Friday so Saturday morning I had a lie in [I slept in]. Another fellow Humana worker, Mercer, joined us on Saturday. The longest distance he had run in preparation for our race was a 10k [6.2 miles]. We were going to run a 21k [13.1] miles. We found the Town Hall and picked up our registration packets. The race seemed to be well organised and a "big deal" as they were setting up for it.

We had a great [filling] breakfast at a Belgium restaurant. Omlets! Then off to explore the village and beach and look for a new set of I-Pod head phones for Mercer. We never did find the head phones. We did criss-cross the Village and explore the full length of the beach.

Okay, and check this out. This place is called the American Bar. It's on the beach. There is a guy in there playing the electric guitar and singing. He's British. And there are as many mobility carts parked out front as Harley's!

Benidorm recognises siesta ... a short nap after the midday meal when the weather is warm. The weather wasn't that warm, about 22C [70F] degrees. Needless to say by 2 o'clock, most shops were closed ... even on a Saturday. We went where every other Brit was, to the pub! We went back to the shops after 4 o'clock, which is when the shops would normally re-open. Nope. They never came back!

We did find a pub called the Cafe Kentucky Rock. It stole the Harley logo, more or less. Had a live "band" [one guy singing with an electric guitar and synthesiser]. They didn't serve wine. You could smoke [holy cow!]. And there was rock paraphernalia around like if you were at a Hard Rock Cafe'. Most interesting "translation" of Elvis Presley's song, "I Can't Help Falling In Love With You". "Can't" doesn't translate. It's "cannot", so there was an extra syllable in every line which had to go somewhere. It was amusing!

Sunday morning was the run. It started at 10:30. As none of us were fluent in Spanish, we really had no idea what the announcers were talking about and basically had to follow the crowd to line up for the start. We figured out that we were supposed to line up by our race number, more-or-less, and that there couldn't have been more than 3,000 participants, which is a nice size.

The start was a bit odd in that we were lined up in gated areas. All I could think of was that it wouldn't pass the Fire Marshall's test in the States. When the gun went off to start the race, we took off under a banner and over the chip-reader [we wear chips on our shoes to keep our time and a few times during the race, you have to run over a mat that reads your chip] and down a red carpet. As we passed, lots of supporters were shouting and there were fireworks and confetti being blown into the air. It was pretty cool!

All-in-all, the race was flat [yay]! We basically ran up and down the sea-coast, going up into the Village to turn directions and go back the other way. Two things struck me as we ran:

Firstly, I was running along the Mediterranean Sea [!] and that the average age of this race had to be about 45!

Secondly, we were running on the roadway. The boardwalk between the road and the beach was occupied by some supporters, but mostly pensioners that lived there and it occurred to me ... everyone running with me was hoping not to be one of them in the near future.

The town turned out in big style to show support. I was amazed at how many people lined the streets, but then everything was closed, so I guess you either watch the race or TV, but it was too early for football [soccer] to be on.

I ended up finishing with a time of 1:53:08. Ramu was just behind me. This was five minutes faster than our Dublin time. I lost him by a few strides at the last turn as we were approaching the red carpet to the finish line. And just as we got on the carpet, the guy running next to me tripped and did a face-plant on the carpet! I totally dodged to the left to avoid being knocked down with him. Ramu said it looked pretty funny! Anyway, I was 21st in my age rank and 92nd in my gender finish. And I'm not sure how, but Mercer finished 5 minutes ahead of me. I lost him at the start. Had I known he was ahead of me ...

So, it was a good run. Ramu and Mercer are busy looking for the next one. I told them I was out until the daylight returns. We are nearing the shortest day / winter solstice, and days are too short for training. I hate running in the dark. And the rain. I'll start again in April.