Category Archives: England

Expat Life: Thanksgiving

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This year we celebrated our first American Thanksgiving, a proper feast with other people for the first time in three years.  As Thanksgiving lands on my birthday every 5,6, or 11 years I was happy to do without it our first year in England.  However, as an ex-pat sometimes there are cultural traditions from ‘home’ that you forget you really do miss. It was not until we started preparing for this year’s feast that I found the memories of past Thanksgivings all coming back. I have celebrated so many Thanksgivings in Europe growing up in England, Germany, and Italy and this years was another one for the memory book. A big thank you to my amazing friends and hosts for this wonderful feast!

We celebrated with my American expat friend who is married to an English guy, their kids, and two other English families. It was a really fun experience.  We started off with mulled cider and an array of canapes, had our Thanksgiving dinner, played a Thanksgiving themed quiz, shared what we were thankful for on the back of leaves, and finished with desserts.  The kids even put together a ‘haunted house’ for us to explore during our evening together.  I think the best part was the conversation and experiencing the cultural differences.  For example one of the dishes was a jello salad with cherry cola, creme cheese, pineapples, bing cherries, and walnuts. I had never  had it before but found it very delicious. The whole ‘salad’ description was a bit off putting to the English crowd, as well as it being served with the rest of the main courses and side dishes when it was really a ‘pudding’ (which is the english word for ‘dessert’). This really reminded me about getting teased in the US for loving to eat ‘beans on toast’ which is a cultural norm food here in the UK. There was also talk about beer as the hosts managed to find Coors Light beer. While I normally would not drink this in the states, it seemed only fitting for an ex-pat Thanksgiving in England.

We split up all the dishes between the families and everyone brought their part to the Thanksgiving dinner.  I brought my apple pie made with coconut oil which you can find the recipe for on yesterday’s post.

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*photography belongs to Bonnie Rose Photography © 2007 – 2013 All Rights Reserved | www.bonnie-rose.co.uk 

The Lock Inn Cafe – Bradford on Avon

LockInnCafe_BradfordOnAvon

ACR |Travel Tip:  Sometimes you do not have to travel far to feel like you are getting away.  Even ‘playing tourist’ in your own backyard can be a fun way to see the world with eyes renewed. While you are dreaming up your next vacation, fuel your wanderlust by sharing the close destinations near to where you live!

This week for Travel Tuesday I wanted to share a nearby town to Bath, called Bradford on Avon.  It is a lovely place to visit if you are coming to Bath for a visit and quite a number of great places to see within the town.  I am looking forward to sharing my favourite spots in Bradford on Avon with you and I begin with a walk down to the canal.  You can walk, ride bikes, or even float down the canal in a canoe or kayak.  This is something my family took adavantage of along the canals near our home outside of Bath this past summer.  You never know what you might find or who you will run into when visiting the canals. Though I secretly hope to run into Johnny Depp’s character from Chocolat.

We were surprised upon finding one of the cutest cafes along the canal in Bradford on Avon and stopped in one evening just for desserts.  At the Lock Inn Cafe you have a vast array of choices of where you can choose to sit and eat.  Perhaps the picnic tables out front or nestled inside the pub.  There are also many great places to choose from outside that can either be great for soaking up the rays of sun, or when you need a little shelter from the rain and cold.  What could be more romantic than sitting in the cafe’s own canal boat for a dinner for two?  My boys chose one of the cute cabins that holds one table each and we were glad to find that heating was also provided to keep us all toasty.

We rested our feet and enjoyed a pot of tea as you do when you are living in England.  We each chose a different dessert and then we shared them in twos.  Despite the cold the boys opted for ice cream and my husband and I chose a crumble and spotted dick both covered in warm sweet custard. While the desserts were simply lovely, the Lock Inn Cafe has a wonderful array of foods for any time of the day. Which means we will just have to go back to the canal to try out some of their other menu favourites when we are next in Bradford on Avon.

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3. Linkup goes live every Tuesday after 9 am GMT.
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* Photography by Bonnie Rose Photography © 2007 – 2013 All Rights Reserved | www.bonnie-rose.co.uk

Bath Mozart Fest, Bath England

Bath Mozart Fest I
This weekend it was my husband’s birthday and we were ready to celebrate! The Bath Mozart Fest this year was going on from the 8th to the 16th of November.  My husband had already taken the boys the previous weekend to hear the choir at the Bath Abbey, while I was away for the day at the London Bloggers Tea.  They had such a great time that he wanted to go back for their last night on the day before his birthday.  The night’s performance was by the Hallé, held at the Forum close to the Bath train station.
The Hallé
Sir Mark Elder – Conductor
Jamie Phillips – Assistant Conductor
Alina Ibragimova – Violin
Mozart
Symphony No 38 in D major
K 504 Prague
Mandelssohn
Violin Concerto in E minor Op 64
Elgar
Engima Variations Op 36
The Hallé, founded in 1858, performs over seventy concerts a year in The Bridgewater Hall in Manchester and makes over forty appearances annually throughout the rest of Britain. This was our first time seeing them and I could not have chosen a better venue than the Forum in Bath.  Even with our seats at the top it is still a intimate enough venue that you can see the expressions on the musicians faces on the stage below.  I love listening to classical music at home but seeing it live is a whole another experience.  Watching the musicians play to me is like watching an orchestrated dance and it capturing my visual attention, my ears, my heart, and soul. Alina Ibragimova was captivating during the Mandelssohn on the violin.  The music and the way she played gave me the chills. I have to add that she performs on an Anselmo Bellosio violin of c. 1775, provided by Gerog von Opel.  The fact that she can play such music so well on an instrument older than the United States was exquisite. I know my lovely iPhone photographs cannot truly capture the evening we experienced but I hope you enjoy hearing about our past weekend here in Bath, England.
photo(6) Bath Mozart FestBath Mozart Fest Bath Mozart FestBath Mozart FestBath Mozart Fest
Bath Mozart Fest | www.bathmozartfest.org.uk
The Hallé | www.halle.co.uk
Alina Ibragimova | www.alinaibragimova.com
Bath Forum | www.bathforum.co.uk
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*photography belongs to Bonnie Rose Photography © 2007 – 2013 All Rights Reserved | www.bonnie-rose.co.uk

 

Horrible Histories Spies – Imperial War Museum, London

It is Tuesday and so you know what that means: Travel Tuesday! I have really enjoyed looking through all the links up this past week.  I was homesick by by Louisa with her P is for the Perfect Pacentro, learning about how Kate’s Dad Lives in Kenya, and having my wanderlust fueled further by Lindsey’s travels to Thailand.  I cannot wait to see where you are all sharing travels and stories of wanderlust from this week!  You all make this link up so much fun and inspiring! 
For Travel Tuesday I take you to the Imperial War Museum in London, England.  We had the opportunity to visit this summer with my family.  The reason for our going was to visit the limited time Horrible Histories Spies exhibit that was going on at the museum.  My boys love the Horrible Histories television programme and so we left it as a surprise until we arrived at the IWM. 

Horrible Histories is a British children’s television series based on the Terry Deary book series of the same name. It aims to provide entertainment while also informing its audience about history, thereby making a stereotypically boring topic fun – Wikipedia 

The exhibit was very hands on and geared towards kids and the child in all of us.  In fact I am not sure who had more fun: my sons or all of the adults.  The boys got a special new Horrible Histories book and a special stamp sheet that they could use through out their experience at the museum.  In different stations they could get an embossed stamp to signify they had completed that part of the journey. 
In typical Horrible Histories fashion they were able to provide the truth of spies with real artifacts coupled with gruesome tales and sometimes disgusting things you as an adult would not really want to know.  They had pictures and videos and many interactive areas where they could engage with computers to learn more about spies through out history. 
Of course at the gifts shop they had every gag spy item imaginable as well as their book series for purchase.  They even had quite a bit of books and films for the adults in the fiction and non fiction genres of war and spies.  
One of the most fun activities we enjoyed was becoming spies and making our own faux passports to fit our secret cover identity.  We then had to memorize our cover story and get questioned by the passport control to see if we could stay in the country.  It was all quite fun and the whole family was entertained. 
The Imperial War Museum is a great museum to visit when you are in London, England.  After we visited the Horrible Histories Spies exhibit (and had a break for tea, of course) we went to see other areas of the museum.  They have a pretty impressive area about war and spies geared more for adults though my children had almost as much fun as before.  Even if you have young children like mine I would recommend taking them because we found it to be a great home education resource.  It opened up dialog for more conversations about history, war, and spies.  My boys were most impressed with all the artifacts they had that spies really used in this part of the museum.
Here were some favourite captures taken from the day:
More on Horrible Histories
Want to know a little more about what Horrible Histories is all about? I definitely recommend checking out their website below and you can find plenty skits and songs on youtube as well. My family’s favourite is the RAF song as we have history with the USAF and the RAF. It definitely brings in a lot of memories of my dad and I think he would have thought this song was so hilarious. I think you will too so I have shared it below. 

horriblehistories.co.uk/
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Share your Travel stories and wanderlust addictions.
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1. Share a post about travel! From road trips to trips abroad and from past travels to dream vacations. You can write about travel tips and tricks, favorite places to stay, or anything in between! Just make it about traveling somewhere!
2. Grab the lovely button. If you run into trouble, just make sure to mention Bonnie in a link! 😉 
3. Linkup goes live every Tuesday at 9 am GMT.
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5. Please only one linked up post per blogger. Save other posts for future linkups!
6. The First Tuesday of every month will be a themed prompt if you want to join in!

The Cosy Club in Bath, England

 This monday my husband had a vacation day off from work and so we had a rare day date while the boys were both at school.  Since we needed to go into town to run some errands we look forward to going somewhere nice for lunch.  We have both come here once before with other friends and this was our first time here together. I was looking forward to tea and cake, but we got swayed by the delicious looking options on the lunch menu.  Just another excuse to return for a heavenly slice of victoria sponge cake.  My favourite thing about being at the Cosy Club is the interior design and atmosphere inside.  Like the mix of grey concrete ceilings with sparkly chandeliers, the collage of art and mirrors on the walls,  the mix of primary colour choices with damask wall textures. It is a great place to stop in after a busy day of errands, shopping, or sightseeing in the heart of Bath. 

“Think gents club meets village hall meets cricket pavilion. 
Quirky, eccentric and playful the Cosy Club 
offers casual dining, drinking and lounging.”
Unit R4, Southgate Shopping Centre, 
Southgate St, Bath BA1 1AP
01225 464161
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* Photography by Bonnie Rose Photography © 2007 – 2013 All Rights Reserved | http://www.bonnie-rose.co.uk 


Bonfire Night, Batheaston 2013

Saturday night we had our first round of Fireworks in the heart of Bath, England in preparation for Bonfire Night 2013. Last night on (Remember, Remember…) the 5th of November we celebrated in typical English fashion with a Bonfire, fireworks, warm food and mulled wine. The USA has their firework displays for their Independence Day from England in 1776 and the UK burns effigies of Guy Fawkes, a man who failed the Gunpowder plot of 1605. After celebrating Bonfire Night last year in Lewes, I honestly favour the UK holiday. If you are ever going to be in England for Bonfire night I highly recommend heading to Lewes for it is the biggest celebrated Fifth November Event in the world. In fact there are six different bonfire society’s all celebrating the Fifth in various parts of the town. Each has their own processions, traditions, costumes, fire sites and fireworks.
My History with Bonfire Night
When we lived in England, when I was a young girl, I loved going to Bonfire night.  Even when we moved away from England my dad will still take me to celebrate it.  I have fond memories of when we lived in Italy and getting together with the RAF families to set fire to the Guy and watch the bonfire burn.  When we moved to England in 2011, this was one of anticipated ‘firsts’ that I wanted to experience with my husband and sons. There was a bonfire society near where my kids went to school that year and the school was involved in the procession. This meant we got to hold up banners and march all around the town of Lindfield, waving to the crowds of people watching.  I even got to hold a flaming torch which was probably the most exciting part of that night for me.  As we were part of the procession we got a prime location to watch the bonfire and fireworks from later that evening as well.  It was our first Bonfire Night together as a family in England and a very memorable one indeed.

I hope you enjoyed our photos from Bonfire night last night.  I did not blog in the month of November last year and so I have not yet shared photos from Lewes on ACR.  Will be sharing those soon, so please check back.

Q: Did you celebrate Bonfire Night last night?
* Photography belongs to Bonnie Rose Photography © 2007 – 2013 All Rights Reserved | http://www.bonnie-rose.co.uk 


Portobello Road Market & Notting Hill

Travel Tuesday is here and since it is our first Tuesday of the month it means our themed post! November’s prompt is ‘relationships’.  I love solo travel but I just as much appreciate the relationships I have when I travel with family and friends.  On a recent trip to London with my visiting family we made the rush from where we were in Wales to get to the Portobello Road market.  We were not sure we would make it in time and I am so glad that we did because we had a great time!  While we were out I spotted with my camera this couple enjoying their relationship with a passionate kiss in the middle of Notting Hill.  I had to recreate this romantic gesture with my husband and have shared the pair of kissing photos below.  
I hope you will love the rest of these…there were just so many things to photograph and my eyes were on sensory overload.  I loved all the silver and found the antiques and old cameras my favourite things to look at in the market. My sister, a level II sommelier enjoyed all the smells of the food stalls like the lush varieties of mushrooms.  Even my sons found some interesting things to purchase while they were out exploring.  If you have seen Notting Hill, the travel bookshop was in the blue ‘Notting Hill’ store front you see in the photographs.  I definitely recommend making the point to go to this market when you are next in London and venture into Notting Hill.  Much thanks again to my friend Lauren for letting us stay at your place while we were in town. 

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Share your Travel stories and wanderlust addictions.
HERE IS HOW IT WORKS:
1. Share a post about travel! From road trips to trips abroad and from past travels to dream vacations. You can write about travel tips and tricks, favorite places to stay, or anything in between! Just make it about traveling somewhere!
2. Grab the lovely button. If you run into trouble, just make sure to mention Bonnie in a link! 😉 
3. Linkup goes live every Tuesday at 9 am GMT.
4. Hop around and meet new travel loving bloggers! Link up will be open for a few days, make sure to check back to visit some of the newer travel posts!
5. Please only one linked up post per blogger. Save other posts for future linkups!
6. The First Tuesday of every month will be a themed prompt if you want to join in!