Yesterday I drove 2 hrs south to the Great Dorset Steam Fair in the county of Dorset. I would describe the fair as a cross between the Decatur County Fair and Power of the Past multiplied by 5. But at this fair, as you can infer from its name, steam is king. Steam tractors, steam trucks, a steam train, steam pumps, a steam-powered, horse-drawn fire engine, and so on. Heck, even the "midway" of amusement rides was powered by electricity generated with steam. In addition to steam-powered machines, there was also a rather impressive heavy horse show. These are work horses pulling field tools and carts. The pictures below really tell the story...Sunday, August 31, 2008
Great Dorset Steam Fair
Yesterday I drove 2 hrs south to the Great Dorset Steam Fair in the county of Dorset. I would describe the fair as a cross between the Decatur County Fair and Power of the Past multiplied by 5. But at this fair, as you can infer from its name, steam is king. Steam tractors, steam trucks, a steam train, steam pumps, a steam-powered, horse-drawn fire engine, and so on. Heck, even the "midway" of amusement rides was powered by electricity generated with steam. In addition to steam-powered machines, there was also a rather impressive heavy horse show. These are work horses pulling field tools and carts. The pictures below really tell the story...
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Back in Bristol
It was great to see everyone while in the States the other week. The weather while I was home was brilliant... mid 70's and sunny. After landing back in the UK I wasn't even able to make it to my flat without getting rained on.
Below are responses to a few questions I recently received from a fellow blog reader. Thanks for the questions.
Q: What was it like to come back and drive in the States?
A: To be honest, I hardly noticed. I must say, it was nice to get behind the wheel of my car (despite the fact that it drove horribly). I think the hardest thing to get used to is where you position your car within your lane. When you drive from the left side of the car, as you drive down your lane your body is just left of center. Position your body similarly when driving from the right side of the car and the left side of your car is in the lane next to you. I'm sure I've upset a few people over here once or twice because of this.
Q: How is the food and do you cook?
A: The food here is nothing to write home about. If England is known for one thing, it wouldn't be the food. However, there is quite the variety of food here from many other cultures and parts of the world. Like I've said before, the best food I've had here is probably Indian curry. And no, I don't really cook. Most nights, like tonight, is just something warmed up in the oven.
Q: Are the malls and grocery stores very different?
A: Pretty much the same. Except grocery stores are missing some of the staples... like Pop Tarts. Oh, and everything seems ridiculously expensive. Because of the exchange rate everything here pretty much cost double. For example, I bought a simple pair of Nikes yesterday. They cost 60 pounds. Doesn't sound too bad until you realize that's $120. When I fist arrived here I had a tendency to convert everything from pounds to dollars. It was depressing. So I try not to think about how much things cost in terms of dollars.
Q: Do people treat you differently b/c you're an American?
A: Hard to say, but I don't think so. I can't say that I've ever been treated poorly for being American. Sometimes I wonder if people even know I'm not from around here. I suspect they do as soon as I open my mouth and they hear my American "accent".
This weekend I'm headed to the Great Dorset Steam Fair. It looks to be similar to the Decatur County's Power of the Past... only English, bigger and with steam engines. I'll be sure to take my camera and post pictures to the blog.
Take care,
ExPat
Below are responses to a few questions I recently received from a fellow blog reader. Thanks for the questions.
Q: What was it like to come back and drive in the States?
A: To be honest, I hardly noticed. I must say, it was nice to get behind the wheel of my car (despite the fact that it drove horribly). I think the hardest thing to get used to is where you position your car within your lane. When you drive from the left side of the car, as you drive down your lane your body is just left of center. Position your body similarly when driving from the right side of the car and the left side of your car is in the lane next to you. I'm sure I've upset a few people over here once or twice because of this.
Q: How is the food and do you cook?
A: The food here is nothing to write home about. If England is known for one thing, it wouldn't be the food. However, there is quite the variety of food here from many other cultures and parts of the world. Like I've said before, the best food I've had here is probably Indian curry. And no, I don't really cook. Most nights, like tonight, is just something warmed up in the oven.
Q: Are the malls and grocery stores very different?
A: Pretty much the same. Except grocery stores are missing some of the staples... like Pop Tarts. Oh, and everything seems ridiculously expensive. Because of the exchange rate everything here pretty much cost double. For example, I bought a simple pair of Nikes yesterday. They cost 60 pounds. Doesn't sound too bad until you realize that's $120. When I fist arrived here I had a tendency to convert everything from pounds to dollars. It was depressing. So I try not to think about how much things cost in terms of dollars.
Q: Do people treat you differently b/c you're an American?
A: Hard to say, but I don't think so. I can't say that I've ever been treated poorly for being American. Sometimes I wonder if people even know I'm not from around here. I suspect they do as soon as I open my mouth and they hear my American "accent".
This weekend I'm headed to the Great Dorset Steam Fair. It looks to be similar to the Decatur County's Power of the Past... only English, bigger and with steam engines. I'll be sure to take my camera and post pictures to the blog.
Take care,
ExPat
Saturday, August 9, 2008
Home for a Week
I'll be arriving in Indy the evening of Saturday, Aug. 9 for a week long business trip. Looking forward to seeing everyone. Shoot me an email or give me a call at my old Indy cell number if you have a spare evening and would like to get together.
Monday, August 4, 2008
London Air Races
This past Sunday I set off for London to watch the Red Bull London Air Races. The day actually started the night before when I realized I had not printed my race ticket which was emailed to me after purchasing online. Normally that wouldn't be a problem, but I don't have a printer. So the morning of my first stop after leaving for London was my Rolls-Royce office where I had hoped to print the ticket there. Don't worry Rolls-Royce... I didn't use any company resources because my attempt to print didn't work. Something was not working somewhere between my computer an the printer. Typical. So I set out for London with the only evidence of my having bought a ticket being an electronic version of my ticket on my iPhone.
The racing was excellent. It quickly becomes obvious that these pilots are the best of the best. They're flying over 200 mph less than 60 ft from the water routinely pulling 9-10 g's. At 10 g's a 150 lb person feels as if they weigh 1,500 lbs. Imagine being under that pressure while flying precision maneuvers only 60 ft from the ground. This is far more extreme than what a fighter pilot must withstand.
During the race the weather was classically English. You can see from the photos the overcast skies and it spit rain several times over the course of the 2 hour event. But it was the wind that concerned the pilots. Winds were reported to gust near 20 mph. This made the course that much more difficult.
The racing was excellent. It quickly becomes obvious that these pilots are the best of the best. They're flying over 200 mph less than 60 ft from the water routinely pulling 9-10 g's. At 10 g's a 150 lb person feels as if they weigh 1,500 lbs. Imagine being under that pressure while flying precision maneuvers only 60 ft from the ground. This is far more extreme than what a fighter pilot must withstand.
During the race the weather was classically English. You can see from the photos the overcast skies and it spit rain several times over the course of the 2 hour event. But it was the wind that concerned the pilots. Winds were reported to gust near 20 mph. This made the course that much more difficult.
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