… PUBS UP 3!

I recently received a most cryptic invitation asking me ‘whether I would like the Cheshire Cheese’. Sure! Never tried it but… Of course, when you have spent your childhood in France, you are bold about cheeses! I therefore confirmed…

Surprise! This invitation was not for a gourmet evening of Cheshire cheese; it was for a drink, or two, in one of  London's oldest pubs: Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese.

A Grade II listed public house at 145 Fleet Street, initially set up in 1538, Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese was rebuilt shortly after the Great Fire of 1666. The interior is made of flagstone floors, dark wood panelling, some considered to be original, and there is not a single right angle in the tiny rooms! The vaulted cellars are thought to belong to a 13th-century Carmelite monastery which once occupied the area. The entrance to this pub is situated in a narrow alleyway and is very discrete except for the names of all the monarchs who have reigned in England during the pub's time, written to the right of the door.

Once inside, you are literally  ‘puzzled’ with the layout as it looks like a Cluedo board where you have to stoop your head and dive down the most amazing and cramped staircase to find out all the bar rooms.

The pub oozes history and literature as the walls are covered with plaques showing famous regulars such as  Twain, Tennyson, Conan Doyle, Dr Johnson, The Rhymers' Club (a London-based poets, founded in 1890 by Yeats and Rhys) and even Voltaire! Charles Dickens was also a regular and mentioned the pub in a famous scene of 'A Tale of Two Cities': Sydney Carton invites Charles Darnay to dine in Fleet Street, ‘up a covered way, into a tavern’  for ‘a good plain dinner and good wine’.

And guess what? There used to be a ghost! The ghost of a midwife
who haunted the place until she induced the residents to dig up the bones of many dead children she had killed and buried there… At least, this is what a 1680 ballad called ‘A New Ballad of the Midwives Ghost’ tells…

Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese truly encapsulates years of London history and tales. In this month of celebrations, stories about magic and with the help of  a couple of beers, you may encounter the Spirit of Christmas in one of the tiny rooms…
Happy festive season!

Written by Florence Tilkens. Florence is Social Media and Marketing Manager at FOCUS.                                                      

For more information please visit www.focus-info.org  

Should you wish to share your expat experiences in the UK, please contact us: office@focus-info.org

Cracking Good Fun!

One of the British Christmas traditions which I have firmly adopted and highly recommend  is that of setting your Christmas table with Christmas crackers. In fact, why wait till Christmas? With the season of holiday celebrations now well and truly underway, I have already had the excitement of pulling several crackers.

Christmas crackers are a British tradition dating back to Victorian times. In the early 1850s, Tom Smith, a London confectioner, started including a motto to his sugared almond bon-bons which he sold wrapped in a twisted paper package. Many of his bon-bons were bought by men to give to women, many of the mottos were simple love poems.

So, what is this all about you may ask? For those who have not yet experienced this tradition it goes something like this:  At the end of a festive meal everyone seated at the table crosses arms and holds an end of a cracker in each hand. Once all hands are securely gripping the cracker ends there is an almighty pull against the person holding the other end in an attempt to get the larger half! Why the larger half? Well, this is where the fruits of your labour are found (after all, that sort of exertion at the end of a jovial celebration in which much food and alcohol are consumed certainly needs a reward). The snap of the crackers is quickly followed by a scramble to see what trinket is inside the winning half. A mandatory reading of the accompanying joke (typically unfunny to all those over the age of 5) and the adorning of the tissue paper crown complete the ritual.

To give you a better visual of what a cracker looks like, imagine a used a toilet or kitchen paper cardboard roll filled with a trinket (which usually winds up in the bin after a few minutes, hours or days and certainly by the New Year), a joke and a paper crown. Inside the cracker are two strips of chemically impregnated paper that react with friction so that when the cracker is pulled apart by two people, the cracker makes a bang. The roll is then covered in a pretty holiday wrapping and twisted at either end so the finished product takes the shape of an oversized sweet!


So, you get the picture now! Not excited yet? Well then I suspect you are in the market for the more ‘upscale’ luxury crackers. The options are extensive with many luxury brands stocking their own bespoke crackers. There are also themed crackers so for example for a ladies night out you may choose to have the Essie nail polish crackers. At stores like Liberty, Harrods and Selfridges you can find crackers accommodating the most indulgent budgets and fanciful tastes to match the table décor. I do wonder if the jokes get any better in these crackers! Maybe someday I’ll find out, hint, hint…

I am convinced, however, that once the tradition is established in your family you will find as much joy in pulling the less extravagant crackers and find the luxurious ones a bit over the top for their purpose! For me, it is the crossing of the arms and the snap of the cracker along with post meal photos of friends and family all sporting their paper crowns each in their own unique way that make the tradition live on in my family!

So, happy cracker shopping and don’t forget my top tip for success- it’s all in the grip!

Written by Nancy Dickinson.  Nancy is Deputy Executive Director at FOCUS.

For more information please visit www.focus-info.org

It is nearly Christmastime, and the Santa Claus fan club is in high gear!

Who else can eat cookies, deliver packages and squeeze himself down and up the chimneys of every single of the world’s several billion households in one night?

This guy.

Santa is Santa the whole world through, but there are some cultural differences when he visits different countries.

If you have children, you probably pilgrimage to Santa every holiday season. When he visits the States, where we lived until earlier this year, you will find Santa frequenting shopping centres, which always seemed an odd tradition to me since Mr. Claus obviously has no need for pre-fabricated goods.

Americans sit Santa on a king’s throne, surrounded by elves, a photographer and some wintery backdrop. By the time you reach the front of the line, you have been staring at him for hours. Close up, he just looks as tired as your child now does.

With a smile and snap of a camera, your child is pulled off Santa’s lap. Wait, I forgot to tell you about the bike and crayons and Minnie Mouse cashier that I want! 

Luckily, Santa also visits the UK, where we now live. I booked Kids 1 and 2 in for the very first time slot available at Chelsea’s Duke of York Square.

Visiting Santa in England was a surprising and very different experience. Not only was there no line - we had booked our slots online weeks prior - but Santa was chatty, jovial and happy to pause for multiple pictures, which his elves will email to you free of charge (I know. The American in me wanted to let them know just how much parents will pay for those photos...).

He looked different too, dapper. Still a hefty man, Santa wore a well-tailored suit, and there was no lycra / polyester lustre that his outfit often takes on when exposed to American shopping centre lighting. Santa, Britain looks good on you. Even his beard looked better, and when some children stared at it he offered for them to “touch it; I promise it’s real!”

Maybe the North Pole is on the GMT time zone so he’s less groggy here; maybe he is just on his best behaviour in case Prince George shows up.

More likely, Santa prefers the UK because the English give Santa his own grotto.

It’s true. The English seat Santa in a private suite, shrouded from the crowds of queuing children by mostly sound-proof doors.

No one sees Father Christmas until she enters the magical grotto. Inside, there are elves who usher you toward the big guy. Take a seat, make yourself comfortable. Santa sits on a velvet chair. A decorated evergreen nearby reminds him of home, and a plate of cookies sits half-eaten next to him.


In the grotto, you have Santa’s complete attention, and for a few precious minutes you can talk with him about Christmas logistics (first France, then England, next Scotland, Iceland and then off to the United States).

He will ask you where you will be for the holidays, and whether there will be a chimney. He will ask that you remember to blow out the fire before going to bed, since last year he burned his bum when someone forgot to put out the flames. He will also tell you that his reindeer loved the carrots you left last year, and please leave them again.

And then you sit on his lap, he will commend you for your good questions about the reindeer, and you can tell him about the bike with stabilisers that you are coveting. You can hug him, and he will give you some candy, which despite what your mother threatens you know you will finish before you arrive home.

If this is Christmas in Britain, it is certainly something we can get used to.

Written by Susan. Susan is an adventurer, former lawyer, current 'trailing' spouse and constant mother of two daughters. She writes on her blog www.SmartlyMomming.com

For more information please visit www.focus-info.org

Head, tails and blind tasting…

I was recently invited to a fundraising event in support of St Mungo’s Broadway. This event, organised by SA Law, took the form of a contest: a blind wine tasting… clearly my favourite type of contest!

After the welcome drinks, we were divided into teams and sat around tables laid with platters of cheese and crackers. We first listened to a presentation of St Mungo’s Broadway's initiatives to help the homeless and after the introductions, we started !

Believe it or not, there is a true art to taste a wine blind. It is like a puzzle where colours, aromas and tastes make up the pieces. It is a challenge which requires concentration and immerses you in remote memories.

The oenologist who had chosen the wines started to give us elementary tips: how to stick your nose in a glass of wine, to give it a couple of sniffs, swirls and sips; how to look at a wine, its viscosity, pigmentation and color which is usually the first clue to find out the variety of grape used in its production.

We were given charts with several suggestions for the country, the name, the year and the price. We started with a white wine: it was not so easy! We got the country, the year and the price right… not the region! We were then offered two glasses of sparkling wine: one was Champagne, the other was a sparkling wine processed according to the ‘Méthode Champenoise’. Our first, instinctive choice was unanimous and... correct. However, when we started to apply the techniques of smell (yeast versus fruit), sights (small bubbles versus bigger ones) and got into the intellectual – if I may call it so – approach, we ended up with the wrong result! We still got the correct price and year. The next test was not wine… We were given a small box with 4 tiny jars. Each jar contained the aroma of a common fruit we had to recognise. This was baffling: the fruits were pear, blackcurrent, raspberry and grapefruit. Though we were all familiar with these fruits, it was truly difficult to recognise them by just smelling them. The toughest was undoubtedly black current despite being one of the most popular fruit juice in the UK: Ribena!

At this point of the contest, the general atmosphere was merry, chatty and... bubbly! The last wine was a red… the toughest one! The aspect of the robe and aromas were clearly misleading… We ended up with the correct price and age but the wrong country and region. How frustrating!

This great evening was drawing to an end. We had a raffle and ended with ‘Head or Tails’ which I had never heard of.

We all left with the curious impression that we were parting from dear friends… Truly there is nothing like a wine tasting evening to make friends and enjoy the lightness of life!

Written by Florence Tilkens. Florence is Social Media and Marketing Manager at FOCUS.

For more information please visit www.focus-info.org

Should you wish to share your expat experiences in the UK, please contact us: office@focus-info.org

International women invading the Ritz!

On Monday, 10 November 2014, The Federation of International Women’s Association in London (FIWAL) hosted its Annual Presidents’ Luncheon at The Ritz Hotel. FIWAL has 33 clubs under its umbrella and every year invites all the Clubs Presidents to lunch. As FOCUS is a member club, Alessandra attended together with me as an Executive Honorary Treasurer of FIWAL.

After a very warm welcome at the door, we were escorted to the Music Room of the William Kent House (acquired in 2005 by The Ritz), and handed a fruit cocktail. Whilst I attended to my duties, checking names off the guest list, Alessandra mingled with the other guests, all fellow members of FIWAL,  also greeted FIWAL Founder members, Past Presidents and other Dignitaries – wives of the Italian, Chilean, Turkish Ambassador and Australian High Commissioner in London.

Lunch started at 12.30, Roast Halibut with Mushroom Puree or Artichoke Royal with Seasonal Vegetables, Perigord Truffle and Mushroom Veloute for the vegetarians…….yummy!!!! Over lunch, I chatted with Sophia (from Greece) and Laura (from Italy) and had a wonderful discussion about holidays and cuisine in both these countries. Alessandra sat with Benedetta (Italian) and Laura (American).


Over dessert which was a really scrumptious exotic fruit soufflé with banana ice cream, washed down with more petits fours, tea or coffee, our guest speaker, Brigid Keenan, had us all in fits of laughter as she relived some of her adventures as a diplomatic wife. Being an author and a journalist, she had used her talents and had written two books, 'Diplomatic Baggage' and ' Packing Up', based on her experiences of being a 'trailing spouse of a diplomat'.

It was such a wonderful day spent in a very special Music Room at The Ritz, with close camaraderie and fellowship of women from all cultures and countries. It was really sad to say goodbye when it was time to leave but thank you Fiwal for organising such a fantastic luncheon!

http://fiwal.org.uk/

Written by Irene Kuan. Irene is Director of Finance at FOCUS.

For more information about FOCUS visit:  www.focus-info.org

It’s a small world… of SMILEY FACES!

This week I had the privilege to be invited to attend a very Malaysian morning at the High Commission. I had been invited by my Malaysian colleague and what a delightful event it was! Arriving at their grand house on Belgrave Square, accompanied by my perpetually grinning friend, I was greeted by some of the most smiley hosts I have ever met, who directed us to their main room where we were to watch a typical show.

The event started with a Master of Ceremony who concisely explained the different cultural influences that this multi-coloured country has been through the centuries, until it became independent in 1957. An initial ‘speech’ which could have been a somehow tedious affair, ended up being anything but, thanks to this witty, understated smiling MC. He explained that even the very typical performance of music and dance we were about to see was influenced by Dutch, English, Indian, Chinese, Portuguese, Sri Lankan and Indonesian cultures; the melting pot which is this vibrant country. And so the band began to play and the dancers came in, one by one, all with colourful and beautiful smiles on their faces.

When I looked at the audience around me I noticed that, like me, they were also made up of representatives of very different and sometimes exotic countries. But what really struck me was the fact that the Malaysian smile is contagious. At the end of the performance, and after most of the audience had clapped and chanted at the lovely music we were listening to, we were all invited to join in on the stage (or should I say dance floor). For another 20 minutes most of us were having so much fun dancing with total strangers…and every single person was smiling.

As the party continued we were invited for a typical lunch, with several dishes and deserts, again influenced by very different cultures. So, different tastes, different looks, different religions, different music and instruments, all mixed up in a melting pot that defines this country: welcoming, warm and accepting of all kind of differences…with an inviting and colourful smile!



Written by Valeria Fleury. Valeria  is FOCUS Director of  Membership.

For more information about FOCUS visit:  www.focus-info.org

The 311 steps… (not exactly a Hitchcock movie !)

October is a fantastic month in London… As the summer turns into autumn, the great city’s colours dramatically change from green to copper and red and London welcomes a new guest: Fog! October is also when British schools break up for a half-term holiday and many London attractions – Natural History Museum,  the Tower of London, London Bridge - put on special family-friendly events.

My 9 year-old niece visited us for half-term and we decided to spend her last day in Tower Hill, almost a ‘time travel machine’ with its concentration of medieval, Tudor, Victorian, 20th century and futuristic samples of London. We started with the Tower of London’s amazing exhibition of over 8,000 ceramic poppies. Planted in the dry moat around the Tower, these poppies commemorate the death of each soldier from the UK, Australia and the Commonwealth killed during World War I.

When we arrived, hundreds of tourists were already there. The spectacular display, visible from all around the Tower, was baffling and was a powerful evocation of World War I’s toll on the army. 

The crowd was so thick that we did not stay for too long. After a few photos, we quickly moved to the Victorian Tower Bridge. We started with the North Tower that showed an animated video where spectators were invited to experience the story of the Bridge as part of an audience with Queen Victoria, Sir John Wolfe-Barry, the designer of Tower Bridge, and his architect Sir Horace Jones. Short and funny, the animation appealed to both adults and children and explained why the construction of a new bridge was a dire necessity for Londoners. The South Tower offered a bespoke video which depicted the construction of the bridge. Then we walked to the Bridge’s high-level West Walkway, enjoying a spectacular panoramic view of London… much better and less crowed than the Millenium Eye! We ended our visit with the Engine Rooms. The atmosphere there took us back to the Victorian era and its taste for science, progress and technological improvement, an era when steam was everything ; we even experienced a virtual bridge lift! 

We came out at dusk ; the fog had already ‘swallowed’ the Shard. A typical October evening in London! 

On our way back, we stopped in Monument Street to climb the 311 steps of the colossal doric column built to commemorate the 1666 Great Fire of London and the rebuilding of the City.  The view from the top was worth the climb: totally breathtaking… and not just because of the climb ! Funnily enough, when coming down, we were offered a certificate confirming that we had climbed the 311 steps of the Monument… We did not count  but I reckon that our muscles understood! The trip ended in the nearest pub where we discussed our afternoon full of sensations, emotions and discoveries in the great city!

Tower Bridge:  http://www.towerbridge.org.uk/TBE/EN/
The Great Fire of London: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00ft63q

Written by Florence Tilkens.  Florence is Social Media and Marketing Manager at FOCUS.

 

For more information please visit www.focus-info.org