The NIGHT KITCHEN is Open!

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[A Brit Abroad]

Ha haaa Jamie, I know that feeling...

Those cartoons are great SMR. I got lost in them last night when the link was up on the blog. Will check the Newsweek article too, but I must do some work today. Well, soooooon. Like now!

[Jamie]

Zim from Oz! BigSlick! Where are you guys?

[melba]

hi to all, havnt posted for a long time

i really enjoyed obama on 60minutes
thankfully cbs puts vids on an hour after the show
handy for aussie

[SMR]

There's no formal pen pal thingy.  I figured it might come about as part of the exchange, revealing our (gasp) real names & addresses...

I don't get much accomplished in normal life now that I'm a Mudflats addict, but I do get to write letters (starting on xmas cards right now) while my tot takes her bath.  If I didn't do it then it would never get done.

[SMR]

So, Jamie, are you homesick, or would you like to stay overseas forever & ever (with the occasional trip back to the US)?

[A Brit Abroad]

Hej! Look right I'm translating about right now: http://www.huntingtrophy.se/
...well, I should be anyway...

[SMR]

Welcome Melba!

Just booked a ticket for my daughter to go to Perth in May after she graduates!  Yay for her, life beginning to get fun & interesting & all that!

[SMR]

@Brit --

How did you end up in Sweden?

[Snoskred]

Hi all,

Seeing as this is the night kitchen..

What would you order if you were able to order anything in the world right now?

I'm actually cooking me a dinner of spicy bbq pepper chicken with mashed potato and it smells sooo good! But if I could order entree and dessert, I would pick me crumbed prawns (shrimp) from my favourite new place we found, and caramello cheese cake

Or maybe blueberry cheesecake..

Or watermelon sorbet..

Or green apple sorbet..

[Jamie]

@SMR -

I started to get homesick way back! But didn't push it for two reasons : 1) GWB and 2) my man is the big breadwinner with over 20 years building up his retirement points + universal healthcare. But since I was at my high school reunion this summer and seeing the very non-French comraderie here at mudflats and seeing Obama elected, well, now I'm hinting. I loved living in Italy (1992-98) but have never been really truly comfortable in France. But now that hubby sees Obama in the WH (almost) even he understands that the times they are a changin' and he has started dropping hints that he is at least thinking about it...

@Brit - yeah yeah yeah, working....

[Snoskred]

SMR - I know a bunch of bloggers over in Perth, if she'd like to make some friends via the comments sections before arriving.

Also too, another good place to meet Aussies is on the whirlpool.net.au forums

[pj]

Hey Snos,
if the cooking was right I'd like some pan-fried trout (stream), fried potatoes, scrambled eggs and strawberries (fresh)
My sons called that the "breakfast of champions" when they were young
I miss those days...grandaughters aren't interested in fishing and Nebraska has no good trout streams 

[A Brit Abroad]

Oh, Perth - that's nice. Is she going to the west coast as well? I had an entertaining weekend in Dornie when I was about her age - it involved two Scotsmen, a tame sheep, a boat and some seals... hmmm... fun and interesting and all that!

My ex-husband moved us to Sweden when I was too young to put up much of a protest - I stayed on after we divorced as it seemed a shame to leave the wonderful childcare in Sweden, and the opportunity for my son to be bilingual was a big factor too. I'm rooted here now and have a lovely Swedish Viking to keep me warm in the snow!!!

Snoskred (you would be snöskred or lavin in Swedish), right now I'd eat anything that would help unblock my sinuses... ummm... spinach and potato curry!

[Jamie]

@Brit -

Absolutely right - whenever hubby feels the slightest tingling in the sinuses or anything coming on, he takes me to the nearest restaurant that serves extremely spicy food - chinese, indian, vietnamese, thei - and blats it right out. Works for him every time!

And please do tell! Two Scotsmen, a sheep, a boat...hmmm?

[BigSlick]

I want to thank PJ for bringing this website to my attention in the Give Peace a Chance thread over in the Issues corner.

http://whitehouse2.org/

This is a VERY SUPERCOOL SITE!!!!!

   

[SMR]

Before I go off to bed I will order filet mignon with Bernaise.  I'll take some lovely potatoes on the side.  A nice starter salad.  Carrot cake for dessert.

I've been on & off a diet all summer & fall, so haven't been eating out much.  Have lots of food fantasies.  Mexican food would be nice too.

Brit -- I'm glad you've found a community in Sweden that suits, and the Viking is a nice bonus.  I was in Sweden -- 20 years ago!  My grandmother is Swedish & my grandfather Danish.  We nearly ended up in Norway, but went to Scotland instead.  Norway, though, is an oil community, so it may be that we will be there some day.

Jamie -- Sorry that you've not found France as welcoming as Italy.  I can see that.  I adored Italy, not even luke-warm toward France, but I'm sure that had a lot to do with where we were (uppity skiing village, snotty people working there).

The little village that we lived in while we were in Scotland is the home of my heart.  I found a sense of community & welcome there that I have never ever found anywhere else.  You can nurture fantasies about life in the US being welcoming, but I'm not sure that it will be all that you'd like it to be.

The pace of life is just so different here.  The things that consume our (generally speaking, not meaning our family exclusively) time are so different.  We live in a little suburb, lots of other mothers around with small children, and to put it bluntly, they kind of suck.  I go out of my way to invite their (rather bossy) children over and never a bit of reciprocity, because they are always "so busy."  When I was in Scotland we always had play dates, and our tot was the darling of her nursery & our local playgroup, so I KNOW that it's not her, it's just that nobody seems interested in making the time.  Maybe it's me, but the moms never stay when their kids are here, just bring the kids and leave them, so I guess I'm okay to leave their kids with, but not to socialize and not to invite mine over...

Generous or unselfish Americans are not the norm, at least not in my experience.  When we were in Scotland there was a HUGE American expat community (oil industry) and I pretty much avoided them like the plague.  The majority of them were awful, and I got a pretty cool reception in our little village initially, but eventually people got to know me, and I heard over & over "you're not like any other Americans I've met."  Not really what you want to hear about your countrymen/women, but I could definately see where they were coming from.  Mudflats has attracted a lot of wonderful people, but these wonderful people are the exception, not the rule.

I guess all of that means the grass isn't always greener!

Ahhhhh.  Now I get to reminisce about my trips when I was my daughter's age.  Met a drop-dead gorgeous guy while in Hawaii at the age of 19.  He was Australian, famous in the sporting world (on the cover of cereal boxes, so I'll leave his name out of this...), over there for a couple of week, as was I, nice romantic memories...  Anyway, flash forward to me at 26 or 27 and over in Australia, Gold Coast, there was a big competition for his type of thing, and wouldn't you know, not only was he there, but he won!  Of course he says "What are you doing here?" It was a strange moment.  What are the odds?  His girlfriend and child were there with him, so it wasn't a big romantic reunion, but the times I had when I was young -- wow, my daughter's adventures start soon...

Thanks for the offers of contacts for my daughter while in Oz, but she's going over to stay with friends we made in Scotland.  We have several there (Perth is a big oil place), so she is hooked up with the partying & carrying on.  Sigh.  Hopefully she will stay out of big trouble.

Well, time for me to go to bed, have to get up in 4 hours!

goodnight all!

[Sirenoftitan]

Morning All.

Have just read the Newsweek article about the Rapture.   There are some peculiar people in this world.  No doubt La Palin will cover this in her 'book' - perhaps there'll be opportunities for colouring-in.....

[pj]

sweetest of dreams...or...have a grand day; whichever is appropriate
this ol' lady is gonna try and move the dog over so there's enough room for me to crawl under the sheets...blasted animals, you'd think they ran my household 

[Jamie]

@SMR -

Sorry I missed you before you headed off to bed. Would like to continue the discussion of "the grass isn't always greener..." When I was back home in Fla this summer I went to my 30th high school reunion and met and remet people I haven't seen for 30 years. Talk about a blast from the past! And those who still lived in the area were mostly very warm and very social - doing stuff together, meeting up for drinks, dropping over to swim in each others pools. I assume it is like that all year around. It was the first time I remember ever having a social life in that town!

I also avoid expat communities (women's clubs, coffee clatches, foreign schools) here in Europe - one usually just finds a lot of people (women) who have no desire to assimilate, who want to recreate a "Little America" in Europe, and usually just spend their time complaining about their husbands! But the French are very class-oriented and tend to hang with either people they have grown up with or who are just like them. They shy away from us because we are unclassable! My husband climbed up the social scale - which confuses them totally - and married outside the box to boot. So they just don't know what to do with us! And anyway, we have little in common with people he knows through work. We have a some friends who are "different" as well either by their history or personality and choices. But mostly, much to our sons' chagrin, we spend our time together, hubby and me.

[Jamie]

@pj -

I hate to say it, but those animals.... take a look at mine. He's small, but thinks he's huge!