It’s the time of year when I torture myself the most as an expat. I imagine in some alternative universe, there is still a version of me who never actually left New York City all those years ago and is now enjoying a long hot stretch of predictable sticky summer. Here in the UK I check my weather app on the phone most mornings to see if it’s an umbrella or a sunglasses day, as the reports seem to change daily. Then I can’t help but scroll down to the weather in NewYork to see what that other me, in an alternative life, would have been enjoying today. No surprises there, it’s usually hotter!
I’m not going to pretend that over the years I have come to prefer the British summer, or the somewhat lack of it that it feels like at times. The weather here is rarely as reliable as those long hot summers back in the USA. However, I have learned that there are ways to get the most out of a British summer, and dare I say, even enjoy the advantages of being an expat in Britain during this time of year.
But first, the disadvantages.Yes, the weather here can be very unpredictable. I have a dear Danish friend who will often exclaim to me in exasperation “Britain is the only country in the world where you can have all four seasons in one day!” Okay, this may be a bit of an exaggeration, but if you have been here for a little while, I think you’ll know where she is coming from. But if you are new to the UK, there are a few things us longer-term expats have learned about surviving the British summer. I have been asking a few friends from my Midlands American Expat group, The North American Connection, for some of their favourite tips. Very much in line with my Danish friend’s sentiment, Kerianne, who is originally from upstate New York, advises
Jephson Gardens, Royal Leamington Spa
on how you should dress for a typical summer’s day here. “Layers, layers, layers! Also, accept that on most days you can either wear shorts or a short sleeve top but not both. ”Edwina, one of our honourary British members says “Always keep sunglasses and an umbrella in the car”. According to my friend Becky, originally from California, you should “always have a back-up plan for a barbeque and a marquee or tarp in case of showers. Pimms and lemonade help in any situation!”
For me, these are the advantages. Rain or shine, there are so many absolutely stunning parts of Britain to explore and discover and summer is one of the best times to do this when the temperatures are going to be at least slightly, although most likely, quite a bit warmer, than any other time of the year. Growing up in New York City, I spent my summers down on Rockaway Beach, Queens (remember the famous Ramones song?). I don’t mean to be unfaithful to my beloved Rockaway, but the scenery I have discovered on this side of the
The coastline near Polzeath, Cornwall
Atlantic coast knocks socks off of Rockaway’s. Although, I’m sure many of the readers from the Atlantic East coast will quite rightly tell me that there are far nicer beaches than Rockaway, I have come to love parts of the British coastline. My favourite places here include Polzeath in Cornwall. This beach was also a favourite of Britain’s former prime minister, David Cameron and his wife who would often spend summer breaks there. Fantastic for body boarding and surfing or taking the short boat ride from Rock over to Padstow where you can enjoy numerous seafood restaurants or a cold glass of wine at an outdoor table of one of the many cafés and watch the sailing boats out at sea. I also adore Morfa Nefyn in deepest North Wales with it’s rugged cliffs and coastline. According to a newspaper article in the Daily Mail in 2013, it also boasts the third best beach pub in the world! The Ty Cock Inn is reasonably priced and the waiting staff will bring your food and drink right out to you on your beach blanket while you enjoy views over unspoilt beaches and mountains in the distance.
If you are not near a coast or don’t have the time to get to one, then wherever you are in Britain, it seems that you are not too far from a stunning park which you can stroll through or picnic in whilst enjoying vastly beautiful lawns and flower displays. The park in my own adopted home town of Royal Leamington Spa, Jephson Gardens, boasts lovely fountains and a boat hire down the River Leam.
And of course there are the numerous stately homes you can visit with their wonderful gardens, including Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire (where Winston Churchill was born). Not forgetting the must see places such as stunning Kew Gardens just thirty minutes from central
London and the beautiful gardens of Hampton Court Palace in Richmond upon Thames.
When you have enough of exploring the beauty that the British countryside and coastlines have to offer, the other huge advantage of being an expat in Britain is, of course, the close proximity we are to other countries and cultures. A short plane ride, or boat, or tunnel and drive can take you to some gorgeous places in the Mediterranean where you can enjoy the typical hot summer. For example, the chic South of France, the amazing Amalfi Coast of Italy, the stunning Greek Islands where the Mama Mia movie sequel is currently being filmed. This, and more, just an hour or two’s flight from a British Airport. It’s perfect if you just want to get away even for a couple of summer days. That’s something you can’t do when you’re living in the USA!
But back to Britain and doing your best to enjoy the summertime here. The best tip I can give you is this; if the sun is shining outside your window on a summer’s day, if at all possible, just get out there. You’ll notice that Britain’s inhabitants do not take for granted the luxury of a beautiful summer’s day, or what they quaintly refer to as a heatwave (that’s anything over 80 degrees for more than a few days, folks!). When that happens, it’s pretty magical here. Whatever cares people have, they seem to vanish whilst the sun is gloriously shining. Notice how everyone appears to be smiling and upbeat, convivial to all around them. So while a part of my heart may always long for hot and sticky New York City when it’s a cool or rainy day here and I’m reaching for that weather app, I have truly come to believe that when the sun is shining here on a summer’s day in Britain, there is no other place in the world that I would rather be.
Image 1: Karen Storey enjoy a summer's evening at Polzeath, Cornwall
I can no longer count the number of flights that I have boarded in my life. Today, unfortunately, has been another of far too many examples, where I am going to arrive with great delay. Though some of you might be part of the lucky crowd, I guess most of you have already had the same annoying experience. At least this time my ticket was a real bargain. Many flights that I have been on before have cost two or three times as much and I nonetheless suffered from the same bad outcome. In other words, I cannot confirm any strong link between the price I paid, and the value of the good I received for it.
It is part of our everyday life that we make decisions about the goods and services we want, and the prices we are happy to pay for them. For example, we perform some quick mental math that, if buying one bottle of wine for £10 versus buying two bottles on a “buy one, get one free” offer, the latter purchase is twice as good as the former. In the world of investment management, relating price information to fundamental data is called valuation.
When you hear that US equities are expensive, or that emerging markets are cheap, someone has looked at the respective current prices for all securities that are components of market indices and compared them with data released by the companies that make up the respective index. Data such as earnings, book values or dividends are used to calculate price earnings (P/E) multiples, price to book ratios or dividend yields (dividends divided by price). Is this the same as value investing? Yes and No!
Though the same ratios are considered, the decision is taken with respect to an individual stock, not a market. Is Apple expensive? Is Tesco cheap? Value investing is broadly understood to be a stock selection exercise, not a market timing one. Benjamin Graham has been one of the earliest, widely known investors (his 1949 book “The Intelligent Investor”is an evergreen hit), whom put value investing at the very centre of his investment decision making process. These days the most commonly quoted name, when asked for an example of a value investor, is Warren Buffet. Over the next few paragraphs I will look at the rationale for value investing from two different angles, a risk based argument and a behavioural based point of view.
Everybody knows that buying something cheap and selling it for a higher price creates a profit. So why are we not all Warren Buffets and Benjamin Grahams? It turns out that the really tricky part lies within determining the true intrinsic value of a company that its security price is supposed to reflect. An investor is buying the expectation of all profits that will be generated and all dividends that will be paid in the future. Now, looking into the future is not a simple task by any means, like weather forecasts illustrate to us on a regular basis. This is where financial theory is attempting to help.
A gentleman by the name of Eugene Fama developed a theoretical framework in 1970 known as the Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH). It assumes that investors, at all times, have access to all available information about a company and its security; and that they have homogenous expectations and act rationally. And so according to the theory, the current price is the best possible predictor of the future, and financial markets are completely efficient. The practical implications of EMH are wonderful. Investors cannot outsmart the market, and the best way to invest is not to attempt to beat the market but instead invest passively at the lowest possible cost. The model is brilliant and earned Eugene Fama a Nobel Prize in 2013. Now, hundreds of billions of dollars are passively tracking various equity and fixed income market indices.
In 1977, the EMH was tested with P/E ratio data. To avoid that the test outcome is not just reflecting the fortune or misfortune of a single company and its correct or incorrect pricing, researchers analyse groups containing dozens of securities that exhibit very similar characteristics. The results of the test showed that the group of stocks with the lowest P/E ratios outperformed groups of securities with higher P/E ratios and, most importantly, also the market. The value premium was born and because applying the EMH would not lead one to expect to be able to generate such premium, the term ‘value anomaly’ also became part of the admittedly sometimes confusing and overwhelming, financial vocabulary.
Many academics then joined the search for an explanation of this anomaly. From Eugene Fama’s point of view, you can only earn an additional premium over the market premium for value stocks, if there is an additional risk. In his work with Ken French, published in 1993, he observed that prices of value stocks move together and he argues the reason to be a common macro risk factor. Often this risk is argued to be financial distress.
Finance at the end of the day is a social, and not a hard science like physics. It is therefore very possible that financial markets work differently than modelled in the EMH. The same year the Nobel Prize committee announced Fama to be one of the winners for Economics, Robert Shiller also won that prize. He argues that markets are inefficient and predictable. Shiller is arguably the biggest name in the section of academic finance called behavioural finance. He does not believe that investors act as rationally as assumed in the EMH. Many of his thoughts are captured in his famous book “Irrational Exuberance”. You might have heard about some of the terms coming out of behavioural finance such as “herding”, “overconfidence” or “overreaction to news”. Financial market bubbles like the Technology/Media/ Telecommunication (TMT) stock prize bubble are prime examples of market participants’ behaviour leading prices of whole market segments away from a defendable argument of future company fundamentals.
It is therefore entirely reasonable to also search for the explanation of the value anomaly by looking at investor behaviour, and in 1994 academics provided evidence in support of this alternative thesis. Later, other authors became more specific, making the case that growth stocks, or non-value stocks, underperform value stocks because they are overvalued due to ill-motivated Wall Street analysts and the impact of financial media.
This is a good time to stop and take stock: Why am I telling you all of this? For starters, I hope some readers have learned something new. It also allows me to share some of my own conclusions.
1) Value investing is very intuitive to understand as we perform similar mental accounting regularly in our daily lives
2) Even on a Nobel Prize winning level, people disagree in the way they attempt to model the real world. Finance at the end of the day is not a hard science
3) The continued existence of the value premium can be argued very well from two different angles. Such strong, theoretical rationale is critical for any decision to pursue value investing
4) Eugene Fama and Ken French researched other return premia that they believe are likely to be the result of investors being compensated for an additional risk. Once you allow yourself to broaden your search for other return premia, by also looking for anomalies that are a result of investor behaviour, which is the Shiller school of thought, the opportunity set broadens even further.
Helge Kostka, Chief Investment Officer
Prior to joining MASECO Private Wealth, Helge helped to establish and grow the presence of Research Affiliates in Europe over the last 4 years. He began his career at Deutsche Bank in 1995, serving in a number of investment roles, including as head of qualitative alpha selection and head of portfolio engineering. Helge started at Aviva Investors in 2009, initially heading up the product specialist team in the areas of investment solutions, equity, and multi- asset and later establishing the respective
product management function.
Helge holds a bachelor’s degree in finance and accounting from Hogeschool, Utrecht, the Netherlands, and a Diplom Betriebswirt from Fachhochschule für Oekonomie und Management in Essen, Germany. Helge also graduated with an Executive MSc in risk management and investment management from EDHEC-Risk Institute.
Helge is considered an expert in Smart Beta and quantitative investing, and has spoken at various conferences around the globe. Having worked with HNW individuals as well as large institutions in different jurisdictions, his rich experience allows him to bring institutional investment practises into the private client world.
In 2016 the Financial Analysts Journal (FAJ) published Helge’s co-authored research around factor and smart beta exposures. In March 2017 CFA Institute named Helge and two co-authors as the winners of the 2016 Graham and Dodd Award of Excellence via CFA Institute; it is the first time that a Chief Investment Officer at a UK Private Wealth Management firm has received such honour.
Springtime in England is scenic and picturesque as the days become longer and the start of beautiful flowers opening in bloom. With spring and summer approaching, I look forward to a few simple indulgences such as a nice cup of early morning coffee with a scrumptious muffin, a book or magazine and definitely a bit of American comfort food.
Being an American transplanted into the British world, I am quickly learning that food and life here can be quite an adventure. I do admit that living abroad is fantastic and even so, there are times when I find myself longing for familiar situations and of course memorable foods that were a part of normal everyday American life.
I am sure that we all have our “what we miss most” lists of the things, activities, places, and people from America. I miss my family, driving on wide roads, glasses full of ice, all day Sunday shopping, mixed water taps and of course American comfort food.
I am sure that all of us Americans remember our most-loved comforting foods, those particular delicacies that trigger thoughts and signify spring break times or summer vacation events.
American mixes and cooking shortcuts have always been my back up when cooking but these are not at times as easy to locate here. I
am finding with a bit of ingenuity that simple substitutes are easily reproduced in order to refresh memories and satisfy the palette.
It was a total shock when I discovered that my English kitchen fan-assisted oven setting of 200 degree Celsius was quite different and definitely not the same 200 degrees Fahrenheit, as I was familiar to in America. Because of these differences, I began writing myself cooking notes for future reference and techniques when preparing my American recipes.
Having a few of my immediate notes at hand in the kitchen makes baking much simpler for me. My collected details take some of the guesswork out of calculating those recipes from Fahrenheit settings to my British Celsius fan-assisted oven settings. My notes include what works, as well as information to myself regarding the oven temperatures that did not really bake as productively as I expected.
I found that baking sponge cakes, muffins, and most bread recipes requiring an oven setting of 325 degrees Fahrenheit will bake nicely in a fan-assisted oven set at 160 Celsius; shorten the cooking time by approximately 10 minutes.
American recipe for a denser cake or muffin batter (i.e. blueberry muffins, fruitcake, breads or cakes with nuts, cakes heavier than a sponge type)
which required a setting of 375 degrees Fahrenheit can be baked in a fan-assisted oven at 190 degrees Celsius, also less cooking time than the initial recipe suggest. I find that the less cooking time “rule of thumb” for me is generally 10 minutes less than most instructions indicate for most of my American recipes as they were initially intended to be cooked in a Fahrenheit oven.
A simple basic table offering a quick solution: 90°C (200°F), 150–160°C (300–325°F), 180– 190°C (350–375°F), 200–230°C (400–450°F).
I have collected a list of shortcuts that work nicely for substituting some familiar American products. My list was created by trial, perseverance and determination in most instances.
British biscuits work fine for most cookie crumb crusts. One of my favourite American simple deserts specifically requires a Graham cracker crumb crust, which I have easily been able to replicate by substituting the British biscuit (cookie) Digestives. They have a similar texture when crumbled, are comparable in flavour to the graham cracker taste, and work well forming a delicious crust.
As a reminder of home, occasionally I would like the Sunday roast to include a bit of American style stuffing. My usual state side shortcut for stove top stuffing mixture is obviously not available in the shops here so I found that it was quite easy to copy.
The copy, cheating version that I find works best;
2 c breadcrumbs (dried toast works)
2 T poultry seasoning
2 crumbled chicken cubes (bullion cubes)
2-4 T butter.
Mix dry ingredients in a bowl, add 1 c boiling water to this mixture, cover and set aside for approximately 5 minutes. Uncover and fluff with a fork and it is ready. If you prefer the mixture can also be baked or prepared by microwave. Extras can also be added to ingredients such as chopped celery, onion and parsley, all sautéed in a bit of butter. These will add a bit more flavour to the stuffing mixture, depending on your own personal taste.
Thankfully, we now have online shopping offering anything from around the world that we desire. The exception to that simple buying solution is the time when you can not wait for the parcel to be delivered and then substitutes are useful. A few of my favourite American recipes call for cornmeal, which I found is not available in any of my local shops so I found an alternative.
Cornmeal substitutes: Polenta serves this purpose, and you may want to experiment with this a bit on your own. Bramata is the most common form of polenta and it seemed to be very versatile. This type of polenta is traditionally a rustic stone-milled corn flour making it moderately coarse and similar to American corn meal. Polenta can be used for a crusty breading, baking cornbread or used
as a replacement for grits, since Polenta can be cooked to a creamy consistency.
This is definitely the best of both worlds here so I will continue finding ways to combine a touch of Britain into my American food favourites.
Oh, but how lucky I am to be in the United Kingdom with all of its history and traditions. This is definitely the best of both worlds here so I will continue finding ways to combine a touch of Britain into my American food favourites.
I think that “trial and effort” are wonderfully ambitious endeavours. Remember that there are some situations in cooking when you do not have such the luxury for experimental time, so be prepared with your own back up plan. I sincerely hope that you have found a few of my private cooking tips helpful and useful for your own use. My challenge to you is to find your favourite American recipe and make it amazingly British American....
I was sitting on a plane that had just taken off from JFK, New York, back to my home in the UK and already that familiar feeling was starting within me. I could never have imagined this 30 odd years ago, when I first knew that I would be making the United Kingdom my permanent home. That this would still be happening to me after every visit to my family in America, a strange ambivalence in leaving my parents, brothers and countless cousins behind, and the home of my childhood and teenage memories. If anything, this feeling seemed to be getting stronger with the passing years. Perhaps it was the realisation that I really am not ever moving back, a thought that had lived somewhere in the recesses of my mind for so many years previously. I love my life in the UK, but on these return trips back to England it’s like that whole feeling of being American had been crammed into two weeks and was now being lost to me again. However, I have been here on this plane journey many times before. I knew that after several days, I would soon settle back into my life in the UK, the adopted home that I have come to love. It helps to have a wonderful husband who is British and a beautiful teenage daughter who is an American/British dual national. I also have a job I enjoy, (I’m a sign language interpreter) and I have very many, absolutely lovely British friends. So even as that ambivalent feeling on the flight began, I knew eventually all would be fine again, the post USA blues a distant memory. Until the following year and the next trip back home to the USA.
My British husband and I married in 2015. I had already been living here as a permanent resident for over 30 years. (I have been married before, well, more than once but that’s another story that wouldn’t possibly fit into this article!). Our trip to New York last June was the second time Richard had visited the USA with me. He was concerned after this last visit when I went into my usual maudlin few days of post USA depression. I knew it was temporary. My daughter knew too, so neither she nor I worried much about it. But it bothered Richard so he suggested I look for and join an expat group. I was incredulous at the suggestion! An expat group? I had lived in this
country for 35 years! How would someone like me benefit from joining an expat group? Wasn’t that for people who were new to the country? Also, I had plenty of British friends and felt completely integrated into the British life style. Surely these clubs were for people who just wanted to confine themselves to American culture and American people? “Besides”, I told him, “those groups are only in London. We live in Warwickshire. There won’t be anything like that for me here anyway”.
A few weeks later, I was getting past my post USA blues and my husband Richard came home with a glossy magazine that he had picked up in London, which just happened to be this one, American in Britain. “Have a look”, he said, “There are some American Women’s groups listed in here.“ I left the magazine on the table for a few days before eventually picking it up out of curiosity. When I got to the women’s clubs section, to my surprise I found that indeed the clubs listed weren’t all in London. To appease my darling husband I googled American Expat groups in Warwickshire. And there it was, The North American Connection.“A group for expats living in Birmingham, West Midlands, Staffordshire, Warwickshire and all points in between.“
So I gave it a try. I remember attending that first coffee morning last September and feeling I was finally home. I was suddenly amongst people who were just like me, they had grown up some place else, had left most of their family behind and either for long or short-term, they were here. It hit me that although I thought I had been fully integrated into the British lifestyle and culture, this was the first time in 35 years I was amongst a group of people where I one hundred percent fit. Although I love my British friends it dawned on me that there would always be things that made me feel slightly apart, something I wasn’t consciously aware of before. Was this feeling of being slightly different one of the reasons for my annual post USA blues? Very insignificant things started to come into my consciousness, like a mention from a dear British pal that they were popping over to visit their mother or brother at the weekend, something that cannot be part of my life experience in the UK without a lot of forward planning and expense. I learned that my fellow expats also shared the feeling that you didn’t completely belong in America either. An expat’s life experiences changes your perspective of the world and you can find yourself thinking and feeling very differently from old friends and family members in the USA.
After that first coffee morning with my new expat friends, I felt lighter, happy. These other
people ‘got’ me. Within weeks I found myself volunteering to become the NAC’s marketing chairperson and joining the Board. I was hooked. Then just recently, I attended my first FAWCO conference in London and I was doubly hooked. Now I was meeting women like myself from all over the UK and the rest of the world too. I have happily just become the FAWCO rep for my club.
So there you have it, my husband was actually right. Joining an expat group after 35 years in the UK has added to my life in a way I could not have predicted. Experiences like for the first time in many years, my husband, daughter and I spent Thanksgiving with a group of Americans, about 80 in total! We still had our small British family Thanksgiving celebration at home which included my lovely stepsons and their partners, but sharing the holiday again the following week with a large group of Americans was very special for me. I’m looking forward to the 4th of July celebration my club is planning. Again, it’s been many years since I’ve shared this day with lots of other Americans.
Another thing I was mistaken about - members of expat groups aren’t people who just want to mix with other Americans. A lot of the members were just like me. ‘Lifers’, American ladies settled here permanently, some with British husbands. All had British friends and friendship groups. They also enjoy mixing the cultures and traditions of both countries.
I have only been a member of my expat group since last Autumn so I haven’t been back to the USA again just yet. But I have a feeling that it may be slightly easier the next time I am sitting on that plane having just waved my family in America goodbye for another year. This time, I will be coming back home again to a little bit of America in Warwickshire and home to my new, other large American family who just happen to be living near to me right here in England.
For further information on The North American Connection visit www.naconnect.com.
For information on various Expat Clubs please visit the Expatriate Clubs page of our website.
Article by Karen Storey. Picture: Karen Storey and her friends, Jennifer, Abby and Becky
It’s official: walking is good for you- it boosts your memory, lung capacity and sense of wellbeing. It prevents cancer, cuts the risk of heart attacks by half and strokes by a third. Walking an hour a day adds up to 1000 miles in 12 months.
But those frosty winter mornings, shorter daytimes and early darkness make us all feel a little more sleepy. Resist the urge to hibernate! Instead, pull on your furry boots, pack up the waterproofs, energy bars and hip flasks and walk yourself warm. Whether you’re up for a short stroll in your lunch hour, an energetic trek at the weekend or just long for some fresh air hygge, Britain’s got an endless choice of great wintertime walks and wanders, from forest tracks to urban ambles, hilly byways to waterside towpaths.
Try the enchanting illuminated stroll through Isle of Wight’s Electric Woods, a sound and light spectacle set amidst glowing glades and trees. Witness early Spring as it’s sprung, with a fragrant walk around Sussex’s West Dean Gardens or Surrey’s Winkworth Arboretum, with its 1,000 different trees and shrubs and 10,000 snowdrops. Late spring brings the glorious British bluebell season and a chance to experience the special magic of bluebell woods. Think blue and violet perfumed floral carpets, sweeping through ancient woodlands adorned with birds, butterflies and winding paths. Try the bluebell woods of Ashridge Estate in Buckinghamshire or a guided bluebell walk on Norfolk’s famous Blickling Estate, once home
to Anne Boleyn’s family.
Whatever the season, Britain offers some of
the most exhilarating coastal walks imaginable. Sample, for instance, the stunning castle-to- castle walk along Northumberland’s coast, with an optional boat trip to seabird and seal sanctuaries of the nearby Farne Islands, or follow in the footsteps of Ross and Demelza Poldark, with a bracing stroll along Cornwall’s scenic Southwest Coast Path.
If social walking is your thing, consider joining that very British institution known as the Ramblers Association, or new kid on the block, Walk Unlimited. Both feature annual winter wanders, walking weekends and free guided walks as well as advice, training and maps galore. Walk London has seven beautiful walking routes covering 390 miles across all 33 London boroughs. Check out Walk4Life to find a UK walking group, or make use of their incredible “Walkfinder”. Here you can source over 100,000 (yes, really) walks, or create your own to suit individual wander-wishes and needs. Walk4Life also encourages GPs to ‘prescribe’ a local walk to patients using its ingenious Dr Maps prescribing pad and invite you to join one of hundreds of groups like the Wishful Walkers, BodyBlitz Walk Fit, Dog Trotters, Walking Wobblers and Clothes Optional Walking.
It’s the time of year when I torture myself the most as an expat. I imagine in some alternative universe, there is still a version of me who never actually left New York City all those years ago and is now enjoying a long hot stretch of predictable sticky summer. Here in the UK I check my weather app on the phone most mornings to see if it’s an umbrella or a sunglasses day, as the reports seem to change daily. Then I can’t help but scroll down to the weather in NewYork to see what that other me, in an alternative life, would have been enjoying today. No surprises there, it’s usually hotter!
For me, these are the advantages. Rain or shine, there are so many absolutely stunning parts of Britain to explore and discover and summer is one of the best times to do this when the temperatures are going to be at least slightly, although most likely, quite a bit warmer, than any other time of the year. Growing up in New York City, I spent my summers down on Rockaway Beach, Queens (remember the famous Ramones song?). I don’t mean to be unfaithful to my beloved Rockaway, but the scenery I have discovered on this side of the
The coastline near Polzeath, Cornwall
Atlantic coast knocks socks off of Rockaway’s. Although, I’m sure many of the readers from the Atlantic East coast will quite rightly tell me that there are far nicer beaches than Rockaway, I have come to love parts of the British coastline. My favourite places here include Polzeath in Cornwall. This beach was also a favourite of Britain’s former prime minister, David Cameron and his wife who would often spend summer breaks there. Fantastic for body boarding and surfing or taking the short boat ride from Rock over to Padstow where you can enjoy numerous seafood restaurants or a cold glass of wine at an outdoor table of one of the many cafés and watch the sailing boats out at sea. I also adore Morfa Nefyn in deepest North Wales with it’s rugged cliffs and coastline. According to a newspaper article in the Daily Mail in 2013, it also boasts the third best beach pub in the world! The Ty Cock Inn is reasonably priced and the waiting staff will bring your food and drink right out to you on your beach blanket while you enjoy views over unspoilt beaches and mountains in the distance.
If you are not near a coast or don’t have the time to get to one, then wherever you are in Britain, it seems that you are not too far from a stunning park which you can stroll through or picnic in whilst enjoying vastly beautiful lawns and flower displays. The park in my own adopted home town of Royal Leamington Spa, Jephson Gardens, boasts lovely fountains and a boat hire down the River Leam.
Springtime in England is scenic and picturesque as the days become longer and the start of beautiful flowers opening in bloom. With spring and summer approaching, I look forward to a few simple indulgences such as a nice cup of early morning coffee with a scrumptious muffin, a book or magazine and definitely a bit of American comfort food.
I think that “trial and effort” are wonderfully ambitious endeavours. Remember that there are some situations in cooking when you do not have such the luxury for experimental time, so be prepared with your own back up plan. I sincerely hope that you have found a few of my private cooking tips helpful and useful for your own use. My challenge to you is to find your favourite American recipe and make it amazingly British American....
I was sitting on a plane that had just taken off from JFK, New York, back to my home in the UK and already that familiar feeling was starting within me. I could never have imagined this 30 odd years ago, when I first knew that I would be making the United Kingdom my permanent home. That this would still be happening to me after every visit to my family in America, a strange ambivalence in leaving my parents, brothers and countless cousins behind, and the home of my childhood and teenage memories. If anything, this feeling seemed to be getting stronger with the passing years. Perhaps it was the realisation that I really am not ever moving back, a thought that had lived somewhere in the recesses of my mind for so many years previously. I love my life in the UK, but on these return trips back to England it’s like that whole feeling of being American had been crammed into two weeks and was now being lost to me again. However, I have been here on this plane journey many times before. I knew that after several days, I would soon settle back into my life in the UK, the adopted home that I have come to love. It helps to have a wonderful husband who is British and a beautiful teenage daughter who is an American/British dual national. I also have a job I enjoy, (I’m a sign language interpreter) and I have very many, absolutely lovely British friends. So even as that ambivalent feeling on the flight began, I knew eventually all would be fine again, the post USA blues a distant memory. Until the following year and the next trip back home to the USA.
It’s official: walking is good for you- it boosts your memory, lung capacity and sense of wellbeing. It prevents cancer, cuts the risk of heart attacks by half and strokes by a third. Walking an hour a day adds up to 1000 miles in 12 months.
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