Three times the charm

Well, after an eventful week I finally managed to place a foot on English soil late last night.  I had originally been scheduled to fly into London last Sunday but some storms over St Louis and Chicago soon put a stop to that.  I have to be honest here, whilst all the other passengers complained profusely about the fact their travels had been delayed I practically skipped out of the terminal with the most ridiculous smile on my face.  I'd planned to head home a week before the start of school.  I have a new job to begin and wanted to be fully adjusted to UK time with a perfectly set up classroom before thirty small people joined me.  During the summer I had wondered wether i'd made the right choice to go home a whole week early.  Nick asked if I could extend the trip but we decided it was best not as it would have cost extra and we are trying to be spend sensibly.

Sunday came and I really didn't feel ready to leave, fortunately the storms bought us some time and I was able to reschedule a new flight for Tuesday. At this point I could have rescheduled for a flight nearer the end of the week but I knew that I had a family welcome home party to attend for my sister who was returning from two months in the Outback.  I was just thrilled to give Nick a call and tell him that I would be coming back home for a night.  It might sound silly but one extra day is something really precious when time spent with someone is something that only comes every few months.

Tuesday wound round quickly and we made our second trip to Lambert St Louis International for the week.  We arrived at the car park and it was packed!  This probably should have been the first tell tale sign that something wasn't right because this airport is never packed.  After finally finding a spot we made our way into the terminal to find the longest, snaking queue of people you have ever seen waiting to check in.  As it turned out, this was my queue for United Airlines! Incase you didn't catch the news, United Airlines had some trouble this week when all of its computer systems crashed worldwide.  All flights were grounded and nobody was able to print boarding passes or check in electronically.  At one point check in attendants began writing out hand written boarding passes.  This isn't something that fills you with the most confidence when about to board a plane.

Source: United forced to give HANDWRITTEN boarding passes as computer glitch delays 200 flights and THOUSANDS of passengers

Well we waited, and waited, and gradually as the time went on I successfully managed to miss both my flight to Chicago and the connection to London.  At this point I began to get increasingly nervous when considering that if all passengers flying with United globally have been affected by the system outage how could they possibly reschedule and fit in everyones new reservations.  There was noway of rescheduling a new flight until systems were working again and no time frame on how long it would take to fix the problem. How would I get home? Luckily the systems opened that evening and after spending two hours on the phone to an agent I finally managed to convince United that I really wasn't very happy about making the only flight they had available (a two day, two stop connection to London via Washington DC and Frankfurt, Germany) and I was transfered to an alternative airline for the third and final rescheduled flight home for the week.

Well the outcome of all this had its good and bad sides! I ended up spending the maximum amount of time with Nick as possible and didn't have to pay to extend the trip, but I did miss the welcome home party which I feel terribly for considering all the effort that was put into making it just lovely! I was also left with one day to set up a classroom on a couple of hours sleep and a good dose of jet lag and Nick may have to take out a second mortgage on airport parking fees.

As one can tell from the time of posting, i've not quite made it into the time zone yet.  I should be asleep but I have some pictures to share of the beautiful house i've just left that can't wait!

I have a fetish... a Zuni fetish

Uh oh.  I think this is the start of something.  Whilst in Minnesota I came across a fetish.... Not the crazy foot kind or anything unsavory like that, but the Native American kind.   Zuni Fetishes were traditionally made by the Zuni Indians.  The carvings served a ceremonial purpose for their creators and depicted animals and icons that were important in their culture.  Today they are recognised as contemporary Native American art worldwide. Traditionally the materials used by the carvers were often indigenous to the region.  The most important material was turquoise, which is considered by the Zuni as the sacred stone.  Jet, shell (mother of pearl), coral, fish rock, jasper, pipestone, marble and organic items like fossilized ivory, bone and deer or elk antler were also frequently used.  Historically the most used stone was serpentine, a local stone found abundantly in the Zuni Mountains and in Arizona.  

In tradition, each animal is believed to have powers or qualities that may aid the owner.  The Navajo, for example, treasured and bartered for figures of horses, sheep, cattle or goats to protect their herd from disease and to ensure fertility (Cushing, 1994, Bahti's Introduction). The Zuni hunter, or "Prey brother", was required to have his fetishes (prey gods of the hunt) with a "Keeper" and practice a ceremony of worship when procuring a favorite or proper fetish to aid in a successful hunt. In the ceremony of the hunt the Keeper presented a clay pot containing the fetishes to the hunter. Facing in the direction appropriate to the chosen fetish the pot was sprinkled with medicine meal and a prayer was recited. The fetish was placed in a buckskin bag and carried by the hunter over his heart (Cushing, 1994:33). Each artist's styles are as unique as the artists themselves, and there are many whose works are highly sought after by collectors. Some collectors prefer a figure that is more realistic in appearance, while others prefer the more traditional styles that are intrinsic to Zuni belief. 

The traditional belief of the Zuni is that the least modification of the original material maintains, or heightens, the power of the fetish as a "natural concretion" (Cushing, 1994:12). A fetish may be signed by the carver, or not. Personalization by signing a piece of art traditionally violates the Zuni notion of community purpose, and the signing of artwork is a concept introduced to the Zuni by Anglo collectors at the beginning of the twentieth century (c. 1915). Often, though, a Zuni carver feels that their own unique style is readily identifiable and the fetish's style will be enough to identify the carver as surely as would any other mark. Most carvers are the recipients of a family tradition and have learned their skill from parents, grand parents, or siblings, and have passed the art to their own children as well. 

Besides being made from various stones and other materials (each material has unique properties), the contemporary fetish may carry an offering of a smaller animal or a prayer bundle of carved arrowheads with small beads of heishe. It may be adorned with a heishe necklace, feathers, etchings representing ancient petroglyphs, or an etched or inlaid heartline. These small items, although colorful to the eye, are intended to protect and feed the fetish itself (Cushing, 1994).

Oh Ebay... So the little Zuni bear above is making it's way to England as we speak.  He is approximately 1 1/16" in length and 1 1/2" in height.  It is carved from serpentine, with an abalone arrowhead overlaid with turquoise block and attached with sinew.  The eyes are inlaid with turquoise.  The carver was Wilford Cachini.

I have a beady eye on you guys below...

Traditional English Scones - When in America...

Whilst growing up I was taught a mixture of measuring systems.  Then I met an American.  I'm now stuck somewhere between using the metric and imperial system. I use millimetres, centimetres and metres to measure length from the metric system but miles from the imperial.  I use litres from the metric and pints from the imperial to measure capacity, and then milligrams, grams, kilograms stones and tons from the metric system and ounces and pounds from the imperial to measure mass.  I now recognise the temperature in celsius for the lower temperatures and fahrenheit for the higher.  I don't have much use for recognising that anything over 100f is a bit scorching in England! Then again I couldnt tell you what an average English summers day temperature is in fahrenheit.

Generally speaking i've adapted pretty well to my hybrid measuring system however I always become unstuck when it comes to translating US/UK recipes. 

Today I fancied making some scones! Here is my conversion for any Americans looking to make some traditional scones for an English tea! This recipe makes approximately 6-8 scones.

Ingredients: 

8 oz All purpose flour

2 tsp (heaped) baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

A little over 1 oz of caster sugar

1/2 a stick of butter

3/4 cup of milk (or just enough to create a firm dough)

To serve:

Butter

Jam

Cream

Method:

1. Heat oven to 350f.  Mix the flour, baking powder, salt and caster sugar in a bowl, then rub the butter with your fingertips until the mixture looks like bread crumbs.
2. Bit by bit, add the milk until you have a firm dough.  Turn out onto a floured work surface.  Pat the dough into a circle about 1 1/2 cm thick and cut out the scones with a circular cutter.
3. Put onto a non stick baking sheet and brush the tops with milk.  Bake for 12-15 minutes.  Serve with butter, or jam and cream. 

Not just a pretty face...

So! Minnesota gets my vote!  It also happened to be home to a treasure trove of thrift shops! Unfortunately due to the fact we flew in from St Louis (and Nick had packed the entire store of Ikea into our spare suitcase) we didn't have space to bring home any more finds! The pictures will have to suffice this time around. We are both in agreement that next time we need to take the van.
Let's take a peek...