:: The Wendy House ::

I have 2 or these that I used when I lived in the UK, wonderful engineering and design. One inherited from my Mum, one given to me by a friends Mum. Looks like every UK baby-boomer’s mum had one of these…

The Denver Channel reports that even livestock are suspected of carrying potential terrorist equipment.

The Linux symbol gets a full scan at airport security!

Bemused Wendy

Geek warning  I get over-excited about most of Peter Greenaway’s work.  You can watch a striking 4 minute piece called “Windows” online from his website:  http://petergreenaway.co.uk/windows.htm

Wendy-Not-Testing-Parachutes-From-Windows 

Charlotte, NC #13

The ‘Calvary’ church main chapel included 2 huge presentation screens either side of the main podium and an impressive looking control center on the 2nd Mezzanine. Apart from the ‘pew’ like nature of the seating this room felt more like a concert hall than any church I’d ever entered.

It wasnt clear if the Church also used a wireless network… certainly the pews were not wired…

Charlotte, NC #11

This church was ‘organized’ in 1755 by “Scottish-Irish’.  It was the first church in upper South Carolina.  The earliest building was made of logs and used as a hospital for wounded soldiers during the revolutionary war.  It was burned by the British.  Sounds like a war atrocity - burning a church/hospital.  The Church on the current site is the 4th version built in 1896 and remodeled in 1942 (Version 4 Service Pack 1).

The graveyard contains president Andrew Jackson’s father and “General R. Davie, Revolutionary Patriot and founder of the University of North Carolina, 1789″  He was also state governor and Minister to France (1799).

The graves generally faced South (head) to North (feet) with slight variations on this line.  I found this strange because Christian graves in old British churches tend to consistently face West (head) to East (feet).  A detailed description of Christian burial ritual is available at:

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03071a.htm

Excerpt:

“A man ought so to be buried”…   … ”that while his head lies to the West his feet are turned to the East, for thus he prays as it were by his very position and suggests that he is ready to hasten from the West to the East”

If anyone knows why these graves have thier feet to the North,  facing away from the church (altar),  let me know!

Some of the graves are innovately carved in styles I’ve never seen before (see picture below).  Some graves were marked very simply with a rock positioned at their head. 

Go-west Wendy

Charlotte, NC: #10

Andrew Jackson state park is actually in South Carolina, less than an hours’ drive from Charlotte. 

The park is relatively small,  including an ampitheatre.  It looked like a wonderful place to BBQ and listen to live music. 

Andrew Jackson  was the 7th US president, known as ‘Old Hickory’ 

There is some controversey about where he was born, Carolina or Tenessee.  The lady guide at the park described how every year they held a football match to decide who gets bragging rights to his birthplace for the year.  She was an actress in over 20 films including “The Patriot’  that was mainly filmed locally.  She speculated there probably were no bears left in Britain because they must have killed so many to make the uniform hats.  The actual museum,  though small was very child-friendly,  interactive,  they had examples of all the clothes used to make clothes that you could touch and example clothes that you could try-on.

She warned us about the fire-ants which were in adundance outside.  More gently and more noticable in their presence were huge bumble-bees in the air outside.  They were so big that I originally mistook them for Hornets.  Hornets are represented on Charlotte cities ‘flag’.  They were chosen becuase a British general likened being in charlotte to being in a Hornets nest.  The flag also reminds me of the Scottish national flag,  but it is not menitoned on any of the web-sites I’ve read so far.

Charlotte, NC #7

#1   Flying Saucer:  9605 N Tryon St, Charlotte, NC 28262 (no website)

Its in an unimposing Mall.  We almost missed it because you can’t see it from Tyron St.  The choice of beers is extremely impressive,  draft and bottled organised by country and ingredients.  Over 200 beers!  A large open room has the draft beer-taps behind the bar against the wall. You can see all the brewery supplied pump-handles.  The room is decorated with ‘plates’ hung from the walls and the ceiling.  This reminded me of British pub’s tendancy to line-up plates along the walls.  On a Thursday night the bar was full,  noisey with chat and laughter and a live band playing.  This was by-far the best of the 3 venues we tried.

#2   Southend Brewery: http://www.southendbrewery.com/

It has a substantial presence in a Mall,  inside there is a bar area, dining area stage and dance-floor.  It looks promising and the service is excellent.  We went there on Friday night around 10pm.  It was virtually empty,  no lively happening atmosphere.

#3   Hops:  http://www.hopsonline.com/home/openmenu.asp

This turned out to be more of a restaurant with some beers.  Polite service by young staff.  Nothing special.

All the brew houses provider ‘tasters’ where you can purchase a selection of ’small’ drinks.  The photo below is a ‘taster’ from Hops:

Wendy on the beer

Charlotte, NC #6

On Wednesday evening we went to Puckett’s Farm Equipment Co. A garage converted into a bar and venue with pool tables, music stage, and lots of NASCAR accessories.

We drove up in an Avis rented Ford Taurus. The car park was full of pick-up trucks. I was a bit scared. An old man with very few, very wonky, teeth and a substantial white beard reminiscent of ZZ-Top approached us. He asked my companion if he could ask me to dance. I tried to copy the fast-steps placed by the other girls on the dance floor. Some people had bare feet, Mr. ZZ-Top had very shiny Cuban healed cowboy boots. Everyone smiled and the girls chatted with me afterwards.

A very friendly place for a white person. I thoroughly enjoyed the evening. I’ve never seen an ‘electric washboard’ before. I was too shy to point my camera at the locals, it felt too intrusive. You’ll have to imagine this southern bar full of NASCAR, beer, and blue-grass fans..

Fast foot-shuffling Wendy

Charlotte, NC #5

This church called ‘Calvary’ is beautiful, imposing, functional and BIG.  It stands on US highway 51,  the junction of Pine-Matthews & Rae Road.  It includes playing fields (soccer, sand-pit, climbing frames etc), cemetery, book-store, chapels, security guards, café massive car parks, and probably much more than a visitor like me can find in 30 mintues!

Charlotte, NC #4

Lots of places and people here are named after the Hickory. Local by President Andrew Jackson was nick-named “Old Hickory”, Churches, roads and towns have Hickory in their name.

A good local BBQ uses Hickory wood to flavour the meat. We tried some at the “Old Hickory House”. Good wholesome tasty food!

The Hickory is a deciduous tree from the Walnut family. The Latin genus is “Carya”. This includes the “Pecan”. According to Wikipedia there are 17 types. About 12 are Native to North America. The 3 main types referred to on north American web-sites are:

• Shagbark or Scaleybark (carya ovata) - prized for smoking meats, particularly pork. The nuts are also considered very good and an extract of the bark is used to make a syrup similar to Maple syrup. This tree appears to have many names including: shagbark, bigleaf shagbark, kingnut, big shellbark, bottom shellbark, thick shellbark, and western shellbark.
• Shellbark (Carya laciniosa) - dense, strong, elastic wood used for making tool handles, athletic equipment, furniture, construction timbers, firewood, and its wood chips are utilized in the smoking of meats.
• Bitternut (carya cordiformis) – as the name implies, these nuts are not favoured by humans though they do appeal to squirrels.

Tree-hugging Wendy

(Near) Charlotte, (South) Carolina #3

This peachy water tower just outside Gaffney was easy to ’see’ and a very pleasant surprise compared to ’standard’ water towers. The transformation of ugly, functional technologies like this into humerous, aesthetically pleasing, objects shows good humour and imagination. It is difficult not to smile when you see the giant Peach. I love it!

Have you seen any bizarre or wonderful water towers?

Charlotte, NC #2

In American cities they have brightly coloured plastic or metal newspaper dispensers. These dispensers can hold anything from free ‘events’ and ‘housing’ papers through to expensive National or international newspapers.

The photograph below shows a row of them on South Tyron St. in downtown Charlotte.

Charlotte NC #1

I’m in Charlotte North Carolina for a while. I nearly missed ’seeing’ this cellular tower because of its cunning camoflage! The give-away clue is mainly that it is much taller than surrounding trees. It’s very near the University of North Carolina at Charlotte (UNCC). 

Have you seen any cunningly disguised cellular towers?

If so I’d love to hear about them, find out where they are and see pictures

Night night, Wendy

UK vacation #15

What were the first words spoken to me from an old friend that I hadn’t seen for 10 years? 
“Hello?”
“Good to see you?”
You look good?”.

No

They were:   “Why aren’t you fat?”

Quickly followed by:   “how long have you been living in America?” 

“5 years”

as we hug he queries again  “why aren’t you fat?”. 

To this Brit, and many like him, living in America is viewed as just cause for obesity. 

It’s not easy.  “I only eat when I’m hungry and no more”

Eating is so integrated in the culture of generosity and sharing in America.  Giving food is a way to show you care, accepting the food is a way of demonstrating that you appreciate the caring.  When I turn-down food Americans look personally slighted and I feel like I’ve delivered an ungracious offence.  I can’t justify the refusal by saying “I’m on a diet” because I’m not fat.   I would be fat if I accepted all the generous offers of fabulous food that are made to me.  It’s a difficult and ever-present tension between politeness and personal health.  

Wendy (eats like a ‘bird’

UK TV cooks #3: 1990’s thru now

Jamie Oliver. 

Jamie Oliver wins school food fight is the title of a March 30th item in the London Times.   The title made me giggle.  A pun where food fight could be either fighting for food or fighting with food. 

Its inspiring to think that a ‘celebrity’ chef with a passion for health and social planning can influence government school-food funding policy.  The article does point out that this could be the government playing for the popular vote in the upcoming May elections.  Disappointing that they didnt remove junk food.  They merely “introducing complicated nutritional standards” which will likely increase the cost of effective regulation. You can track his current activities on the blog on his own website: http://www.jamieoliver.com/

Jamie shot to fame in the UK with his friendly cheeky, chirpy, cockney chef’s program called “the naked chef”.  Named because of the “principle of stripping down recipes to their bare essentials”.  Hah, and we all tuned in because he was a pretty boy with a sense of humour who was good in the kitchen….