Just Another Home

One of big perks of being in England is there's a lot to see, and it's a relatively small country.  Just England (not including Wales and Scotland) is actually smaller than the state of Georgia (about 130,000 sq. km compared to 153,000 sq. km).  This means for us there's plenty of places for great day trips within an hour or so from us, which is especially good when you have three children under the age of seven.

Without it really being a goal, we've slowly made seeing "stately homes" one of the things we've enjoyed doing on weekends or holidays.  They're impressive, there are a lot of them, and you can see them fairly cheaply.  Many are under the care of the English Heritage society, which we have joined as annual members so we can get free/discounted prices.  And as a family that enjoys movies, an added bonus is that many of them have been used in some of our favorite films.

When I discovered that ALL of the houses used as exterior shots for Wayne Manor in the Batman movies were within a 1.5 radius from us, that necessitated a trip with a couple of the Club guys on a "Wayne Manor tour" back in January.   They loved it, to say the least.  We couldn't get to the one used in the Tim Burton movie since it didn't open for the public until the Spring, but we did get to a Les Miserables house instead.  The first Wayne Manor we got to (seen below) is actually private property on a country club golf course.  Which is a fun story for another day.

So enjoy a picture from each of the stately homes we've visited so far. 

Mentmore Towers in Mentmore, Buckinghamshire.  Private residence, so couldn't go in this one.
Was Wayne Manor in Batman Begins.

Boughton House in Kettering, Northamptonshire. Was Marius' family estate at the end of Les Miserables.  Didn't get a chance to go inside this one: it was still closed when we stopped by.

Wollaton Hall in Nottingham.  Was Wayne Manor in The Dark Knight Rises.

Wrest Park in Silsoe, Bedfordshire.  One of the closest estates to us, and one we've gone twice to so far.

The Hatfield House in Hatfield, Hertfordshire.  Has been used in a lot of movies, including Tomb Raider, Sherlock Holmes, Batman, The King's Speech, and Shakespeare in Love.  It's still the residential home of the
Marquess and Marchioness of Salisbury.

Audley End in Saffron Walden, Essex.  The amazing thing about this one is that the house is a third of its original size.  The family got in debt with the king, and ended up demolishing a large portion in the 1700's due to cost of upkeep.  (Here we're with our friends the Wallers, who live in London.)

The Chatsworth House in the Peak District.  Easily the largest and most spectacular of the houses we've seen.  It's still the home of Duke and Duchess of Devonshire, and has been passed down through 16 generations.  Was "Mr. Darcy's estate" in the Kiera Knightly Pride & Prejudice movie.

Lyme Park in Disley in the Peak District.  Was used as Mr. Darcy's estate in the BBC Colin Firth
miniseries version of Pride & Prejudice.   

Shifting Vocabulary

I thought that since I'm around Americans on base far more often than being around Brits, my daily vocabulary probably wouldn't change much.

I was wrong.

So far, "Hiya" has (unwittingly) more often than not replaced "hello" or "hi" as my choice word of greeting.  We're all calling them bins more frequently than trash cans.   I find that "Cheers" works much more efficiently as a thank you / see you later / goodbye / end of conversation than anything else.  I find myself saying I'm "going to the toilet" more often than going to the bathroom.

But these all pale in comparison to the boys' language.  Yesterday was the last day of school, so now they're on holiday (not "on summer break").  They eat school dinners instead of school lunches. The black-and-white striped African animal is a ZEH-bra, not ZEE-bra.  They put on their trainers, not their tennis shoes.  It's taken some getting used to that the boys have picked up from school playing "It" (instead of "Tag").  When they tag each other they say "I it you! You're it!" (and no, it's not Cockney.)  The worst part is "base" is called "ti-ti".  I mean c'mon, seriously?  

I'm still getting used to certain other phrases.  If you go to a food place, they ask "Can I help?" instead of "May I take your order?".   If you go to a shopping establishment, they typically ask "You all right?" (which ironically sounds like "Y'all right?").  It took awhile for us to figure out that "tea" is typically the dinner meal, not the stereotypical 4pm British tea.  And I had to laugh out loud when the boys' football (= soccer) coach warned them before a penalty kick: "Watch out, boys: the kick could go anywhere.  Could catch you in the face, or in the Jacobs, so cover up."

Eli the other day was excitedly telling me about one of our veggies that was almost ripened in our tiny greenhouse:  "Dad! You won't believe it!  We have one toe-MAY-toe... or... toe-MAH-toe.... I'm not sure how to say it... anyway, it's almost ready!"  I  replied with: "Yep, sometimes we say a word one way and your friends say it another, but that's okay."   Eli nodded wistfully "Yeah, it's kinda confusing sometimes."

All this with only ten months here.  It's going to be a fun and funny vocabularic ride!