I traveled to Peterborough late on the 7th by train. I took a taxi to the hotel and went next door to the Harvester to eat. The food was so-so. I had a pear ginger pudding with custard for dessert. This is not what you would think. Pudding is more like mushy bread and custard is more like pudding in America – soupy, sweet, and porridge-like.
On Monday I started working. Work went well through out the week. The highlights of working were the pubs and food. The first night we ate at the Black Horse. It was a traditional English pub – old, smelly, characters sitting at the bar. I ordered a lamb shank. It sounded very English to me. I’ve never seen a shank on a menu before. It was really good. I also had some fried cheese for a starter. It was served with jelly. An odd combination I thought, so I tried it. Surprisingly it was pretty good.
For lunch on Tuesday we had “real” fish and chips. It was the best fish and chips I’ve ever had, although the English put “brown sauce” on everything. I tried it but stuck with good ol’ American Heinz 57. Tuesday night we ate Italian in Stamford a very old neat town. I had a pear and spicy cheese salad. Delicious! Followed by lasagna. I commented on how the roof was bowed and ask if the buildings were ever inspected. The building was several hundred years old. The answer was no. I asked the waiter where the loo was. I walked upstairs to find it. As I walked across the floor, I laughed to myself. The floor dipped and leaned. There was one step that was 1 inch at one side and about 4 inches at the other. I was waiting to fall through the floor.
Wednesday night we traveled to Spalding another historicly splendid town. On the way there, we drove through a very little town to see the triangle bridge. The triangle bridge was build by monks in the 1300’s. It was an amazing piece of architecture, three entryways that merged in the center. The bridge crossed two streams. On the way out we drove past the church of the monks. Half of the church was missing save one huge window frame. I was told a bit of history about a guy name Cromwell that destroyed many of the monk outposts after the king separated from the Catholic Church. As we continued to drive, it was noted that the roads are all higher than the ground. This is because this area was once a huge bog that the Dutch drained. The roads were built on mats or on more solid ground. Therefore the road are not sinking, however the ground around it is sinking at a fast pace.
I was taken to an English pub called the White Horse. Patterns are beginning to merge. I commented on this and was told that pubs way back when didn’t put the names on the door; they put a picture. Why? Because people were illiterate, thus a picture served as the name. I was asked if I wanted a nasty English beer. “Of course”, I said. They laughed at how eager I was to try what they considered not-so-good beer. I was handed a Samuel Smith bitter. It actually wasn’t too bad. Next we moved on to the best English Indian food in town. Another new experience since I had never had Indian food before (from India not Native American – just to clarity). I had some kind of chicken tomato roll thing and then some grilled prawns. It was all very good. I washed it down with a beer from India call King-something.
After dinner we took a walking tour of the town. I saw the courthouse / jail. It was explained to me that the term “take him down” was used because the jails used to be under the courthouse and many still are in England. We saw the oldest house in town and a very nice church. It was a grand evening in the merchant town of Spalding.
I learned to eat the proper way according to the English – fork in your left hand and knife in your right. They think Charles is a fool for divorcing Diana; this could be due to the inbreeding that has dumbed the royalty down according to the locals. We had a 1000 laughs this week, a bit rare for my work week. The English have all sorts of corny jokes.
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