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Welcome to the Anglotopia Podcast Quarantine Edition. It's been a while since we had a podcast.
Yeah. These are our new face masks that we're selling in the Anglotopia shop made by a British company. This one is a map of London. And this one is obviously Union Jack. And we have plenty. So if you would like one, go to store. at Anglotopia.net. We'll also put a link in the show notes. And it just helps keep you safe and keeps you, let everyone know you're an Anglophile as well.
And you help keep others safe. And they're machine washable, which is really nice.
Yeah, they're reusable and washable. And they're really well made. They're made by Splash Maps, which we used to offer their products a few years ago. They made, they're really high quality. So we've been very pleased with them. So, but yeah, this is, we're at the end of May now. We've been in quarantine since early March. Strange times. Indiana has started to open up.
And so we're not really in quarantine anymore here. We're kind of still keeping the house isolated because we live in the middle of nowhere, so we can do that. And so we're just trying to keep our distance from everybody. You know, we've, yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. So we figured we'd start with a little bit of an update. Yeah, we've, just on how we're doing and how Inglotopia is doing.
Yeah, we had to, we had to stop the podcast because we, at one point, we had our, uh, Jackie's sister staying with us. And we've got the kids home because they're not in school. And so there was just too much to, a lot of, a lot of, a lot of noise, especially with three adults working from home. Yes. Um, it's, uh, it was just, there was too much to even think about recording a podcast. Yes, but, um, the sister has since left and we miss her dearly.
She lives somewhere a little more urban and, um, it was nice for her to be able to kind of come out to the country and, um, you know, less populated, a nice outdoor space, you know, that kind of thing. And so, um, that was really helpful. So why don't we start with, like, personal updates? Because maybe people want to know, maybe people don't want to know, maybe people don't want to know if you don't Yeah, we're always fast forward.
Yeah, we're always fast forward. We're able to record this today because there's nobody here. Yeah. The kids are, the kids went to their grandparents who, they stayed, luckily, they stayed healthy the whole time.
Yeah, everyone's been really isolated. So they were able to go there for the weekend, which was. Bliss. Bliss.
Yeah, they, they love their grandparents' house. Our son, that's his happy place.
They're very rural and they have a little poppy farm, so. Yeah. The kids love it there. So, but this personal updates, let's see, the last time we recorded a podcast was January, I think.
Yeah, like January at the beginning of February. It's snowed that day. I remember it's snowed that day.
While doing Anglotopia, too. But I'm now doing, it's now a side hustle again. I'm doing it on the nights and then the weekends. I'm working for. I don't think they would mind if I mention them because they're an online company. I'm working for Black Knight in Ireland. They're Ireland's biggest web host and domain registrar. And they, I've been... Sorry. My phones are ringing.
So I'm heading up international marketing communications there, and that's keeping me busy during the days. And Jackie had started a new job.
I can do much. Fine. Thanks. So really interesting for me. I made a really big career transition at the very beginning of March. And I worked for the company in their office for a total of like four days. And then Chicago was quarantined. And I worked from home for them for a couple of weeks. And was really excited to do the job and was really looking forward to it. And then really without notice, I was furloughed until September.
That's the plan as of now. I haven't heard if that date changed or not changed. And so, like many Americans and many people globally, I am officially out of work right now. And just trying to kind of navigate what that looks like and trying to, you know, file for better. that I'm entitled to. And that's been a lot. It's, it's, um, I know that I'm not alone in this and that, you know, there are millions of Americans and listeners globally who, who have been in this spot.
And we're really thankful, um, to the fans of Anglotopia, to the people who have bought masks. Um, you know, they say when you support a small business, you're, you know, you're helping pay for ballet lessons for somebody's, you know, you know, kids. or you're, but you guys are literally helping us keep food on our table right now. So really from the bottom of my heart, and I'll try not to get too, like, too emotional about it, but from the bottom of our heart, thank you so much for your purchase of the masks.
They are, literally, they're keeping food on our table and, you know, filling a gap where my income would be.
Yeah, so we're very lucky that we were able to do the masks, and that was, yeah. So, another. enough about us. Yeah, because that's, that's not why you're listening to their Anglotopia podcast. Let's talk about Britain.
Well, I was going to do a couple of Anglotopia updates. Oh, okay. So, the magazine, we had to suspend production.
Because the printer wasn't printing. But they have resumed printing, and we have not finished the magazine. So we will be submitting into the printer. very soon. So we hope to have it done by the end of the month.
We're also not sure if there's a backlog for printing them too. So we're working with the printer to...
It's still a fluid situation. To try and get that to you guys as soon as possible. We're trying to get the magazine out as soon as we can. And we're very grateful that we actually can continue the magazine. We were worried that we wouldn't be able to. So we're just, we're very glad that it's going to go to press. And then, as you saw, we're selling the face mask now on our online store, link in the show notes and they're really comfortable too yeah they're more comfortable than the n95 one we had
i know we're selling them so that's a little biased and i've been making like cotton ones at home kind of giving them out as i see people who have a need but honestly they're really comfortable i don't get that suffocating feeling in them and i really like that and then i really like that and then the big news
that big news and um is that i have a book coming out uh actually the book by the time you've listened to this the book will have already come out technically yeah monday right yeah this is not going out before monday june 1st so uh the book is this is this is 90% of what it looks like um this was the proof um it's a hard cover um adventures in Anglotopia
Uh, it's called subtitle, The Makings of an Anglophile. And it's, I've always wanted to write a proper book, um, about Britain ever since I started Anglotopia. And a few years ago, I finally kind of latched onto the idea that I wanted to do. Um, and the number one question I get asked by everybody. is why am I such an anglophile? Why do I love Britain so much? And I never really had a good answer for it.
It was just, it's something I've always had a love for that I never really had a good explanation of why. Why am I this unusual?
And, uh, so the goal of the book was to answer that question. and it's sort of it took three years to write and get to press it was a long process and all there will be a link in the show notes to the article where I talk about the process of writing the book for those who are interested I don't know not many people will be but um it was it was a long process and it's a process that took me from indiana to Britain and back a couple times yeah um and the spine of Britain yeah when we did the lands into jonah groats drive and and it's, each chapter is sort of a capsule of a bit of British culture that I love or interests me coupled with experiences that I've had and that we've had together in 20 years of travel around Britain.
So it's part travel memoir, part cultural exploration, part, you know, appreciation of British history. Um, and it's 300 pages. It comes out in hardcover on June 1st. they there will be an ebook version as well available on all the ebook platforms um you can buy it from any bookstore um i mean you're you'll have to order it from your local independent bookstore because they won't stock it which is a good thing you just give them the title or the i sb in number which will be in the show notes and they can order a copy for you you you can order on amazon you can order it from barns and noble you can order it from um uh all the independent bookstore websites what's it called um there will be links in the show notes um you can get in all the Kindle you can get on ibooks and everywhere it's everywhere except audio there isn't an audio version um so it's available now um i were very very pleased how the book did in pre in the preorder phase um i sold enough books in the preorder phase to make what I went through to write the book worth it and my goal books are books are different than the other things we do because there's royalties and they take a long time to actually get so my goal with the book is that is to use the royalty money to hopefully go to England in 2021 when it's safe to do so when it's safe to do so assuming international travel resumes um it's just it's been almost it will be by then it'll be almost three years since we've been to of Britain and i miss it dearly so the goal of the book is to tell my anglophile story hopefully give you feel interesting vignettes about britain and to hopefully uh use the royalties to go back um now like i said it's available everywhere uh with links if you go to adventures and Anglotopia.com it will tell you everywhere you can buy the book um and if you buy it directly from us i will sign it and inscribe it um so that's a enough about Anglotopia's updates now to the meat of the podcast which is your idea okay so um the the
idea for this episode came about as we were talking about our favorite things to do in britain and a beautiful british summer um and i know we've done a british summer um podcast before so we are going to do since it's quarantine since some of us are still in quarantine and or in various various states of quarantine we are going to do how to do to staycation britain style so how do um create a british vacation as best you can at home so we've kind of put our thinking caps on and um we've even been really lucky to kind of find some of these experiences and tips firsthand just doing them ourselves um while you know either you know well pretty much while being home i mean we really haven't done
anything british related outside of the house yeah just because we all can't go there right now doesn't mean we still can't have british experiences at home and this is something that we had to do in the years and we couldn't travel and you know we we like to say we think of britain as our second home and we miss it when we're not there so we try to incorporate the things we've experienced and done there in our home life so that we don't feel as disconnected from it and so so so we thought it'd be fun to give you some ideas and how you can have a nice british summer at home or or or you know a british
vacation weekend and if you take enough of these experiences and and tips and tricks and put them all together hopefully it feels a little bit like a british vacation so yeah so let's start with food okay like right because i don't know about you but one of my favorite things to do just in general is eat and one of my most favorite things to do when we're in britain is eat like that whole and i know we've done a whole thing on british food um you've probably link in the show notes to british food but one of the amazing things about british britain is its cuisine so um there are lots of different ways that you can do british food at home so you can get yourself a good british cookbook um i've got a couple that i really like the national trust it's a
puts out a beautiful cookbook i don't know where it is um i think it's on your desk no i put it somewhere did you put it away i wonder if it's is it on the table next to you you can tell we used it recently um but what i really like about the national trust cookbook is that you so you'll have to put a link to it but um is that you can find like the ingredients aren't so bizarre that you can't find them um another really fun one that i've not i've made recipes from but i don't have a copy of and i would love to have a copy is the fortnum and mason cookbook sorry that's our dog grommet a leaf blew through the yard and now he has to bark about it um so a good british cookbook pick a couple recipes if you can order groceries order your groceries you know or if you've got to go out socially distance be safe um and get what you need and then i guess another aspect would be tea well yeah tea absolutely tea having a tea party yeah why not oh my gosh so much fun you know get yourself a nice pot like a lemon cake yes oh my god yes dude how have we not done that our victoria sponge yes i will say this about british baking british baking british baking is very different than american baking and any of you who are fans of the great british bake off if you've ever tried to bake like something and going off a british recipe i'm sure you're you're sitting there going mm-hmm yeah british baking completely different than american baking like totally different but a challenge and a fun one so yeah you could do a tea party that's a really fun one nice big pot of tea some cucumber sandwiches yummy um how about ordering british food so like if you're
not about if you're not about baking you're like no well we actually entered into a new partnership with uh british corner shop which is um they're an online british grocery store they're based in britain and they they're selling usp is that they ship worldwide affordably and they literally have stock almost everything that a british grocery store with stock and they stock waitrose goods now so they we just actually did an order a few weeks ago we were so homesick yeah we were low on biscuits and um proper biscuits and you know some very some marmalade and bread and that's the thing is british bread is so deliciously wonderful it is different from american bread it's very different from american bread and it's huge and it's big and it's rich and it's lovely like a slice is bigger than my hand and you cannot find it here the closest approximation is the is the is the bread that you can get at whole foods i think it's like the 365 brand yeah the whole food yeah and so we ordered a couple loaves of british bread and so we had british white sandwich toasted toasted bread it's the designed for toasting which which for our american toaster was just like it's too big for the toaster it's funny um and so like we had had i had my favorite breakfast when we travel is just scrambled eggs and marmalade toast and i finally had it at home and it was like being transported to england and it was so good so like so at the british corner shop you can order pretty much anything that you miss why you
bought me pickle and we bought clotted cream yeah and we could find clotted cream here locally but we wanted to order british clotted cream um what else did we get oh we got some tea some new tea yeah um
um we and then the big thing which we'll seek into the into the into the thing we did a couple a couple nights ago yeah um i bought you can buy nando's sauces oh my god you guys now i know oh my god nandoes is not british but having a cheeky nandoes is a very british thing to do and it's one of
our favorite like we've been out all night um in the neighborhood we stay in there's a nando's that's open really really late and it's it's um well we could just share where it's in soho it's spice and it's so much
fun yeah spicy chicken and the chunky chips it's so good and um we've been able to actually have that experience here because we have nando's in chicago now and it's it's it's it's 90% as good as it is in britain yeah um but yeah like she said chicago is still is still in lockdown you can get it to go but we're not going to drive an hour and a half to go get chicken to go and it doesn't feel like the most socially yeah it doesn't feel like a smart thing to do anyway we want to respect right so it's been it's been a good four or five months since we've had nandoes not to mention that we haven't had a you know had the british version since we traveled there for dinner tonight now i'm hungry i'm thinking about nandoz so we bought the sauces from british corner shop yes we bought a marinade we bought the marinade and so you put the chicken in the bag with the sauce no no
just no i mean i didn't put it in a bag i just put it in a bag i just put it in a dish to thaw and then then i poured a lot of the marinade on top and i just let it kind of thaw and like mingle with all
that nandoz-y goodness oh my god it was so we got we got um so you she grilled the chicken like they would at nandoes we had so good guys we had corn on the cob and like you would add nandoes and then well that's his favorite and then the whole food steak fries are like the closest thing that's the 365 yeah the whole food's 365 steak fries they're like the closest you can get to a british chunky chip here that we found that we found at least and so we got a we cooked a bag of those and then we also bought the nando's uh spice fry spice from british corner shop and so we had ourselves a very homemade british nando's dinner it was oh it was divine like i happen to have like
merit like when we go to nandoes we always get the marinated olives to start yum i happen to have those in the house um and then we and then i i love their cucumber salad my mouth watering thinking about it sorry um but it's got pickled red onion in it and i don't have pickled red onion so it's literally cucumber tomato and red onion and it's you know like an italian vinaigrette guys like i ate the whole bowl i
eat the whole bowl so as you can see we're making ourselves very hungry and uh food is a great way to rekindle those memories of your trips and then i think that's a good segue
well can i say too that it's not just food it's also drink yeah like there are some like i know cocktails are really a thing right now so if you do um look on how to make a pims cup i was actually going to make one today for our video because it's quarantine right it's quarantine so um but i was missing two ingredients so my favorite pims and it's the pims cup the first pims cup that i ever had was a bottle of pims and obviously you want to like make enough for yourself you're not going to use a whole bottle a sparkling lemonade or lemonade or you can use sprite i've heard so please do not send me letters i know that this is not the traditional way to make it put the recipe in the show notes yeah uh strawberry mint um lime and cute strawberry mint orange and cucumber it's so good good it's like summer in a class or genotic yeah plain old gin and tonic um you can throw a slice of orange orange and rosemary a british friend um recommended it to me sprig of rosemary slice of orange in there sounds a little odd guys
absolutely delicious yeah you could have a pint too yeah you could have absolutely you could have a you should have it at room temperature like a proper well you're yeah i don't i don't drink beer so it's
not something i would do no but there are lots of great british cocktails and if you can't you know if you're stuck at home and you can't go or maybe you just choose not to go out right now which is okay too um you know maybe maybe some fun british cocktails is that's a really fun way to kind of stay vacation um but you know you don't necessarily have to do it with alcohol either i i mean i do know that there are mocktails out there if if you know you don't drink alcohol that's okay um or there's tea or there's lots of things there's lots of great british drinks lots and lots of tea yeah lots of tea
um why don't we talk about some of our travel memories oh summer travel memories yeah because so yeah we've been several times in the summer season um i think the first time we went was in 2010 on the trip that we like to forget that we actually don't write about i haven't written about that was when um i went over for a job interview and read about this in the book and uh it was a whole it was a work trip and so i we didn't we weren't there for Anglotopia but she was just pregnant with our son yes and so we found out like less than a week yeah and so we traveled and it was early
july and i was very very ill from being yeah she had she had hyper emesis but we didn't know that yet
no it was bad guys it was really bad they got much worse after we got home um so we were there at the week of july which is the height of british summer yes and it was hot we were in
london we were in london we were right by the angel tube station no it was old street old street that's
right and we stayed in a flat from somebody we knew who was out of town and it was who was very gracious
and just said hey come crash in my flat yeah i'm not gonna be there we paid her but but still i mean
uh but it was a it was in a beautiful old georgian building yeah a brick terrace brick it was beautiful but it was a friggin oven in july and it's more of an oven if you're pregnant and you're with a woman who's pregnant and who is like heaving constantly it was not good guys it was not good so that was that was that was our introduction to british summer and it didn't go very well
but the weather was beautiful there we did it was and we did do like we thankfully i kind of had a break in in the illness for a couple of days um and we were able to kind of go out and you know and gosh we where was the pub that we went we met someone um a gent
that you knew and he took us to oh the georgian in um in suffolk in suffolk yeah it's incredible this coaching in still open in london beautiful setting it's actually owned by the national trust oh i didn't know that yeah it's owned by the national trust they run it as a as a pub so like you can't eat there but you can drink there yeah and we met it we met a guy who used to write for engletopia and had had a lovely visit and it was a very the whole trip was very brutishy summary but we didn't really know that because we were kind of in our own little world because i was trying to get a job
um and honestly i was so ill she was so ill we were and we didn't we didn't have time to sightsee or
anything because i was um the company i was interviewing with had me come in the office for the week and like do interviews do a little work and like get an idea and um i don't want to give a spoiler for the book but i did get the job but we had to turn it down because she was so ill that was yeah i could not do a transatlantic move and a pregnancy
all in one go so we had decided to wait well and we had had such difficulties starting a family that it was
just it couldn't i remember we had a we had a lovely dinner with our friends we did and we did we had a great dinner at the at the skyline restaurant i don't know if it's still there yeah i read i read somewhere
that they said that the the center where that all is is going to be close to like
yeah 2020 2021 at the national theater of dinner you know these do what you need to do but but it was it was it was a very brief um we came home and we were so in our own in the world so then then a baby came then the baby came uh you know eight months later yep um and then you were back for the royal wedding which was uh that was in april that wasn't really summer but it's warm um that was right after he was born yeah he was like six weeks old the weather was beautiful i wouldn't call it summer though okay fair enough um but then we went back but then we went back um british summer in 2012 um for the diamond jubilee yeah that was an incredible trip that was proper summer we were there over may and june amazing and we really because the diamond jubilee was going on and there was an atmosphere in the air that was like peak british summer like you got the reunion jack bunting everywhere there was celebrations there was lots of tea and cakes and there was all the celebrations that were going on in london um we we we so many cream teas you guys we did so many cream
teas like i practically had to be rolled onto the plane and the first part of the trip we traveled
around oxford sure yeah went to bath uh we did summer set and then down to door
and then to london william learned how to walk on that trip he did i had video of him at terminal five walking well he learned at the old swan and minster right he like they had a it's really sweet and it's so very british they have the front of the hotel is really beautiful it looks like it's kind of like a manor house is that would you describe it's old oxford farmhouse beautiful and a really pretty gate and like they had cobblestones like up to the door and like he just got up one day and just off he went like back and forth i was just like oh my god and now and now he's
mowing our lawn yeah by choice on under supervision he's nine years old and he wants to earn a computer so he's mowing the lawn for that yeah but yeah and i all my biggest memory from that trip was on the one hand it was great it was lovely to experience britain like that it was also hot and we was
very we were not prepared for that for that heat no because it gets really crazy hot in chicago it does
is it like it never gets as hot in England as it does here but it used to but the past
couple of years they've had some pretty significant heat waves still this doesn't get 105 like it does
here but so we we had a real hard time our son was horribly jet lagged for the first half of the trip and that was misery wow and there's a reason why he hasn't been back no we took him back like once when he was two yeah yeah yeah but the then um it was just so hot because those old build old stone buildings they just absorbed the heat and then the heat doesn't leave at night and we were just so hot most most the places we stayed were not air conditioned yeah and then i think by the time we stayed at up down cottage on that phase of the trip things yeah the heat had finally started the heat had broken and the cottage was cool and we were able to open windows we started to sleep yeah and so then we you know and we and we did summary things you know we went to castles and stately homes we did a canal
property we did the canal boat ride that was amazing um like there's a really go go do one of
yeah there's a video on the Anglotopia channel or you can see that he'll have to he'll link i'll link to it and it just it we had been to england so many times already at that point in our travel career but we had always gone in the winter in the bumper months so we we never really experienced it when it's in full bloom and it's so beautiful like when we went to starhead
that was incredible yeah one of my favorite memories is we were staying at a guest house or like a B&B or I don't know what you want to call it in bath and it was not it was a B&B it was not it was not the best experience we will not we will not name in shame no absolutely not but um uh so it was like a Sunday afternoon and it was it was blisteringly hot still this is one of my favorite our memories and along the river avon right yeah that runs through bath ha ha ha yay jackey gets
the parade gardens yeah something like that yeah i think it's the parade gardens
we we had like done our shopping in our sight seeing and it was just it was so hot and it was late afternoon and we were like we don't want to go back to the to the to the b and b like what are we going to do and we like kind of wandered into the parade gardens and they had you have to pay to get into which we were like okay that's fine you know um but they had a um a gazebo like a big one like an old old one and it had a brass band playing summer music playing summer and people had picnic blankets out
there was a stand selling tea and it was amazing it was we sat down and read the sunday papers
we did and and and we you know it wasn't and you know william could toddle around there were kids toddling around and i just remember it was one of those it was very relaxed very comfortable everybody was just really happy to be there the music was nice it was peak british summer it was great yes a river went like it was amazing yeah it was a fun memory yeah that was a really really good we had a great time that afternoon and even william had a good time i mean he wasn't you know he was he was what like maybe one and a half but you know yeah and then we went to london
for the diamond jubilee stuff yeah uh and then the weather had like we started in british summer
then we ended in british autumn yeah oh my gosh the day of the jubilee the weather was crazy it was so cold
and rainy and the poor the poor queen out there on her boat like we were just yeah so that was the end of our british summer memory for that trip um yeah so then the next time we were there over the summer
i think well same trip um we did oxford two in that trip remember we started in oxford
and we like oxford in the summer we were there for a day but oxford in the summer was beautiful it was beautiful when is oxford not beautiful i mean i gotta be honest we didn't enjoy it i enjoyed it um yes when's i think the next time we were there in the summer they can't hear you if you put your hand over your mouth yeah sorry um um um um uh no i mean i guess it well okay i went to oxford the oxford the oxford summer course that was in 2016 yeah something the 2016 2017 yeah something like that i yeah so i went um i partnered with an advertiser we had at the time um to do one of their oxford summer courses at worster college or wooster college i keep yeah get it right come i still can't get it right right so many years later and that was in july and uh oxford in july not jet lagged i was there for two for i was in oxford for a week and it was glorious i mean i was home with kids she stayed home with the kids thank you you're welcome the thank you's no problem um and it was heavenly it was hot um but thankfully it's a trend here it wasn't too hot um and then so i was in oxford for a week
week but you kind of talk about why it's so amazing okay well like what about it i'd say the number one
reason and it's amazing is in july the day is so incredibly long yeah more sunlight yeah i mean than chicago at least the sun comes up at like at like four or five eight m and it doesn't go down until like 10 30 11 p.m. because they're way north because they're much further north than than Chicago than Chicago as their most of North America is and so you have these beautiful long golden summer days and it's just it's amazing and you like you like you like i say in my book that uh the British at summertime is like peak Britishness it's like when they're at their happiest because they just it's it has it can Britain can be or dreary rainy place the rest of the year so you know the British you kind of live for the three months in the weather can be great like Chicago like Chicago does and the the long summer days were great like because in the mornings we would have two lectures for our course the afternoon we'd usually have a tour of some kind or an activity and then by three or four p.m.
we were done we still had six or seven hours of daylight to do stuff guys no joke he would send me
these pictures walking around oxford so gorgeous like yeah not like getting my world's smallest violin out here but he would like i would have kids like melting down and he'd be like oh had the most glorious dinner by the river tonight and i'm like screw you bastard hey watch a language that's going to have to be a beep but yeah that happened true story story
yeah and so like oxford the golden stone of oxford just looks so good in the summer it looks good all you yeah i mean yeah i mean yeah i love my favorite thing to do in my work computer is i keep the oxford live webcam going 24 seven and it's beautiful in golden year round but in july and august it's great and so then like like even like one day i went for a long walk i went and found jr tokens great rave and walked walked to a famous pub and had a pub dinner by the river and saw ruin and like there was still sunlight at the end of the day it was exhausting but it was glorious but i think
we've gotten slightly off topic here because we're supposed to be talking about staycations how do you so how would you translate those amazing experiences let's say because we've we've gotten letters from so many people who have had to cancel their trip unfortunately because it's just it's not safe to travel right now so how would you translate those experiences to home i mean because he can't be there and that's unfortunate so uh okay well movies let's talk about movies then well what about your you you you had just mentioned your cam um your oxford cam yeah there are lots
of what live webcams um i'll put some links in the show notes the oxford webcams my favorite guys he's got it on his computer all the time and then there are some other ones that show like the coastal areas um there's a chap down in devon um that runs four webcams um one of them is of the famous dollish uh seafront where the train is and then they also have one where it's tin myth i think yeah i think so and you can see all the boats bobbing in the water it's they're gorgeous and gorgeous hopefully next year we'll have Anglotopia will have its own live webcam somewhere but i don't want to reveal more because it's still it's early stage is a planning yeah um and so yeah that's a good way you know if you just want to relax
uh hear the sound of the birds Anglotopia's got something yeah uh we've got if you go to Anglotopia
tv we've got a few videos of english summer where you pick the video and then it will just play in a loop
forever until you close the window so for example you could do maybe a um uh a canal boat ride while while having a high tea at home that's a very british thing to do right yeah i don't have that video oh sorry folks but maybe listen to the birds yeah there's a there's one of the ones
is up down cottage in the summer and it's on a loop you can hear the birds you can see the greenery
brew a cup of tea i you know i think even even sitting outside or having tea like if you have an outdoor space like a deck or a patio where you can sit and have a nice cup of tea i feel like that's a
very british thing to do it seems counterintuitive intuitive to drink hot tea on a hot day but it actually is very soothing it is so why don't we
why don't we talk about british movies because that's a really great way to british daycation
yeah and we've actually done that fairly recently we have lots of british movies guys there are several british movies either take place in the summer or have bits of them that take place in the summer that like really evoke that feeling that you get in a british summer um
that kind of give you a sense of being there uh one of them is a more recent one um it's the movie on chuzzle beach it's a very good movie uh that came out two years ago i think trigger warning though
we should definitely give a trigger warning for that movie um without going into it do a little research it's definitely um there are some adult themes in it
yeah i think that's a good way but there's a big chunk in the movie that takes place in the english summertime when um the boy and the girl main characters are sort of courting each other and um she walks through the woods in the summer to the cricket ground where he's doing the grass and they go to the cottage where he lives and it just perfectly like it has a feeling of english summer yes when you watch it from the sounds from the look from the way they filmed it um um it really i really felt like i was sitting there in an english summer um absolutely another one
uh is the film tamar drew yeah that's a great one too bit the the most recent adaptation of it
it right well it's a it's a modern adaptation of far from the madding crowd but like with a very modern twist it's based on a graphic novel um it was so good it's always it's a fun one to watch it's been out for 10 years now and it's it's a fun one and a big chunk of the movie takes
place in the summer and and again quintessential really really british yeah you've golden hues
endorse it and whatnot and it very very much evokes summertime um what else far from the madden crowd the actual yeah that that's that came yeah that came out a couple years ago as well that with kerry
mulligan is that kary mulligan yes yeah very very talk about golden sunlight yeah such a good even in the winter
in that one they really played out the doors at the doorset there well there is nowhere on earth
that has that that that seemed color of golden sunlight that i've ever been we haven't watched this one lately but the movie about time love that that that's a great movie such a great movie the big chunks of that
movie take place in the british summer and yes because then the house is on the coast and cornwall and it's
gorgeous gorgeous well and just in general you've got like classics you've got like classics you've got like about a boy you've got um that's more of a christmas movie well it kind of is but it doesn't have to be british summer it's a very london movie um you've got the one with the bookshop with hugh grant and julia nodding hill notting hill you've got i mean and i know that i'm pulling some really old ones out here so like there are more recent really great british movies but there are lots of british movies out there and you could do a british movie athon and maybe a british movie a movie athon and a british theme dinner like yeah i mean that or or read a good british book a book set in britain that's always fun too what about the movie atonement oh
great british summer movie yeah there is a lot of it's a dark movie but it's a dark movie but the summer bits in that sumptuous or some yeah that's the word i would use sumptuous um the heat too it looks hot yeah you feel the heat off the screen so you know he means temperature heat so brew a cup of tea or make a roast and watch a british movie uh yeah speaking of roast that's a good thing to do if you want to have a feeling of britishness is make a sunday roast like which seems counterintuitive to do in the summer but but we i mean we do it a little less in the summer we do it more than winter months but but having a nice sunday roast with you know like a beef roast with potatoes and duck fat and honestly most of the like it used to be that
you couldn't find those ingredients here but you know more often than not you you you actually can find them and there's british corner shop and um you know one of the things that we forgot to mention too is we
ordered meat pies oh yeah not from british corner shop though no unfortunately we ordered them from well fortunately i mean well we ordered them from pie society we want to we want to we want to spread our support around yeah we're them from pie society i was still employed at the time too so yeah we haven't had meat pies in a while now um pie society out of georgia they're they make delicious
meat pies so we did that like really early on in quarantine yeah um there's a there's a pub locally we'll put a link in the show notes yeah um there's a pub locally there's an i it's an irish pub pub but they do a meat pie and they're at least in our area they're really hard to find a good meat pie um um and they had to close because of quarantine and and obviously we couldn't go out because of quarantine so this was a good like meat in the middle i will say they because it was still really chilly here when we started quarantine like it snowed till the middle of may um which is really unusual but we were able to um yeah we were able to you know have these amazing meat pies and they were just oh they were so good there may or may not be sauceed
rolls hidden in the back of the freezer i don't know dibs yeah so um and then i guess the next thing you could do on your british vacation is to is to plan your eventual british summer trip well wait a minute
though you could also learn a british sport yeah or watch british sport i mean yeah those the sports are
going to be starting up again soon it's a big time to learn the rules of cricket i was going to
say cricket you could learn the rules of soccer soccer is soccer is really fun to watch i will say yeah i'm not a huge tv sports fan and there's not really any tv sport on right now but yeah
they're going to be starting up and it's a good time to learn the rules because it's not it's fun it's not just the fun of watching the sports it's um experiencing the cultural significance of them you know like english summertime cricket is not just about the cricket it's about the it's about the you know the social aspect of it and and and you know going to a local cricket ground and you know having you know it's it's very culturally important rather who doesn't really matter who wins the cricket kit for good no no but you could you know
you if if you're in an area that it's safe to do so and and it you're legally allowed to do so things like you know picking up a soccer ball and kicking around a soccer ball or you know you know you know tennis tennis is a you know Wimbledon they're not doing Wimbledon this year but you know now's a good enough time to to learn if you you know if you have a partner or a friend where it's safe to you know for you guys to be together um it's a night it's a great thing to do um lots of just outdoor fun British sport that is really low contact golf um we don't really think of it as a British sport but I mean exactly well yes so i mean there's lots of great sport that you can learn the rules of now or if you're able to that you can like you can do it so why don't we okay here's a fun one why don't we talk about if you were going to do a staycation afternoon or evening or day what would what would your day look like you go first okay so i would probably do british breakfast um we're going to assume that maybe i've done a little bit of an order a grocery order um so it's probably oh yummy um probably like toast and jam and then i think i'd probably do something outside maybe like if i'm more urban like and i'm allowed to i would take a walk and maybe if it's warm and you've got flowers like admire the gardens um you know walking through the neighborhood um you know like the Chelsea Flower Show kind of thing come back you know maybe watch a movie or or bake something British and then um definitely or read something British and then like late afternoon like two or three o'clock it's time for tea so you know tea with um scones with clotted cream and jam if you can't if you can't find clotted cream um you know these are really interesting times you can use whipped cream it's not the same it's not it's not it's definitely not the same i know that but you know we're just kind of having to make do so if you can't find it it's still really nice um and cucumber sandwiches and cornation chicken uh salad sandwiches yummy um so i'd probably do that and then i think i'd probably kept my evening off by you know um some sort of british dinner and probably a good British cocktail or two it's quarantine um and probably some good British movies I think that's probably how I would spend my my British vacation day sounds good to me are you coming along for my
yeah I just I'll hang out with her that day okay um why don't we we need to wrap it up because we have to go get our kids yes we do so why don't we end with each of our favorite British summer memory
we'll think another while i'm talking okay okay so my favorite british summer memory is um it's from when i went for oxford um i when i was planning the trip there uh i saw that somebody we follow um they're called the battle proms concerts and their outdoor concerts usually held in the grounds of a stately home that have british prom summery music you know the kind of stuff they would play at the last night of the proms and the thing that's that that is their USP their unique selling point is that they have a spitfire so they have you know British summary music a spitfire on a grounds of stately home okay i'm like totally there so there was going to be there's going to be one at blenham palace when i was in oxford and i was like i couldn't book the ticket fast enough when i found that out yeah um but best laid plans uh i think i think i write about this in the book um british weather folks yeah bro british summer is beautiful and wonderful it could also be october in british summer as well and so uh what it's a trend here when i arrived at my b and b andb it was pouring down rain and um the rain didn't stop but the british are really good at adapting to living in the climate they live in they live in
they're hearty so they're just like we they're they're they're used to it and carry on they are used to it
whereas here let's say our outdoor summer concert up at ravinia if there was rain they would
have canceled it well like torrential rain like that yeah it would have been done the british however
they are not going to let a little rain get in the way of their nice summer day out so even though it rained all day the concert was not canceled and i was like okay well i'm just still determined to go if it's not canceled and so um the hotel i was staying and was within walking distance to the palace ground so i just walked in the rain and then i stood with my umbrella in the rain for 20 minutes while i waited for the shuttle bus that they were providing to take you to where the concert actually was and i put my chair out i have my umbrella and it was cold it was like 50 degrees celsius or 50 degrees Fahrenheit which i was going to say yeah i don't know how what that is in Celsius my my brain doesn't doesn't do metric doesn't do metric yet um so i sat there and the rain continued and the the band rehearsed um more people arrived there was tea people had pick people had tents people had their chairs out like they were prepared i didn't even bring a coat with me to i wasn't with them guys i mean i was going in july and it was when i looked when i was in oxford it was hot the whole time so i i didn't waste face in my suitcase for a coat i needed a coat because i by the time it was near the start of the concert i was already soaked all the way through even with an umbrella and i didn't have a coat and then the temperature dropped into the 40s yeah and so then the shivering started and um yeah so then they so they started the concert anyway it did the first half of the concert and it was great it was everything i hoped it would be but then the news came that the spitfire was canceled something else was canceled and then and like i was soaked all the way through and i was like i am throwing in the towel i did the i did a sod and walk back to to to to my hotel had a hot bath had a hot bath and it took be quite a while to stop shivered only a little hypothermia in july in england and uh but it was i have pictures as i'll link to at the show notes but a beast huddled with my umbrella in the rain i i laughed when i got those texts i was just like what are you doing like and what while there was great suffering while i was enduring this i looked back upon it with like oh i'm sure you'd do it again in a heartbeat i would do it again in a heartbeat absolutely but i would never go to england july without a jacket a waterproof jacket at least yeah i prepared so well for this concert i'd arranged to buy a collapsible chair to take and like all the things i needed for the concert i brought snacks but i didn't think to bring a coat because it's england in july but now i know england
july means probably bring a coat yeah um okay so i think one of my favorite memories um is actually from the trip we don't talk about oh yeah yeah um so john was going to work every day and i was kind of hold up in this flat um nice very nice flat but there was a primary school across the street and um you had to have we had to have the windows open in the flat or the wise it was just like you wouldn't get a breeze through there and it was just like it's really hot and i was very ill and it was like they're kids like they're lovely but they're loud kids and actually the kids were actually really rude yeah it was laura the flies over there like rude foul mouth kids too and like they would like they would they would heckle people who walked by yeah it was like these were were some tough kids but anyway that's not the memory so one morning i woke up and i felt like it was probably like one of my best days there and i think we were either meeting our friends for dinner or like we had to meet work you had to meet your work chats for dinner or something yeah and so i had to be in like central london um and i remember i went in a little early i took the tube in and um i had been like kind of researching online like how to like curb the nausea and one of the things that it had said was like eat like not eat constantly but little little nibbles through the day and i was like okay and i was really nervous because i was like uh you know i'm i'm what like 15 minute two ride back to the to the to the flat so if this goes really poorly like this could go really poorly um not that i couldn't have taken a cap too i guess but um yeah so i got off and i decided to i had i had quite a bit of time i think a couple of hours and i came i wanted to come in early like get my bearings and i got off the two station and i thought it would be nice to wander around herods because there was air conditioning and i was like i was like it already like an oven roasting pregnant just and so i got into herrids and was very crowded but it was cool um and i like started to get that sick feeling again and i was like okay well you need to probably eat and so i went over to the food hall and let me tell you that that that that could be just like a circus of horrors when you're newly pregnant with a newly pregnant like nose because your sense of smell is just like so i quickly grabbed a sandwich and i grabbed what ended up i found out on that trip ended up being kind of a not a cure-all but it definitely helped um i found a a vitamin water like we have them here they're made by coca-cola i don't think there's actually any health benefit in them i don't know i'm not a doctor but um so i grabbed i grabbed grabbed that and i grabbed a sandwich and a bag of crisps and then i was just like like i couldn't be in the store anymore i needed fresh air and so i took my little picnic and i walked to hide park and i walked all the way up to the serpentine and it was a long walk but i felt that the more that i walked the better i felt so um i walked and then finally i sat down um to eat my sandwich and or kind of pick at my sandwich and i sat under a tree um and it was nice and shady and it was beautiful and there were other people in the park and i was able to eat and it didn't make me sick um which you know was amazing um and i remember um kind of embarrassing i don't think i've ever even told you um um i i laid back on my bag because i you know had my bag with me and i actually fell asleep in the park under a tree like crazy pregnant lady fallen asleep um but it was amazing like i had had a meal there i watch and i feel like hide park like you watch all of london passed through the park and almost the whole world passed through the park because you you have tourists and like there was a view of the serpentine and there were people with little paddle boats and it was just it was so beautiful and it was so hot but under the shade of that tree it was like with the breeze and finally a full stomach like that was it like i was i was down i was out so and i it was great because i managed to have a meal somewhere really beautiful have a little rest and we got up i got up and um and and and i remember learning that you can't get a cab in the park lesson learned you have to go out to the ring road to get a cab and and i i met you for dinners with i don't remember who we went to dinner with that potential boss yeah maybe i don't know but that that was a great memory that was i was really i mean london's
pretty safe but i was also very lucky that british summer sounds so nice i can't wait till we can do it
again i can't either but that being said like if you've had to cancel your travel plans um hopefully this gives you some ideas of if you want to how you can kind of staycation at home
and try to remember that this will all be over eventually yeah it will pass it will pass and we'll all be able to go again and yeah experience that we love about britain and ever anywhere else that we wish to travel to and and think about what that it means all the more right i think that i think uh absence definitely makes the heart grow fonder well and and not only does absence make the heart grow fonder i think there are life experiences that make i'll talk about myself okay there are life
experiences that you go through and it makes the colors a little brighter the flavor is a little richer the noises is a little more robust and it's learning to appreciate and really kind of savor those amazing experiences that you have and and and to take the leap like if you've been afraid to travel and you've never wanted to travel you know when after a while when things come back to normal or whatever our new normal is going to look like make the leap make the leap have the experience when it's safe
to do so yeah because that's that's that's really what's helped us get through all of this is the nice memories that we have and that we you know it's it was weird like we hadn't gone for a couple years anyway and we were really missing it and but there was that idea that you could always get on an airplane and go if you could yeah if you had the means if you had the means which we didn't but but you could always like you know I could always go to the airport and there are like four or five flights from O'Hare a day to London and you could always go there and so it's it's such a shift in thought knowing that you can't go there and I know when we do finally get to go that we will savor every moment all the more because we know that it could be taken away again and it's just you take it for granted that this is that the society we live in and the international travel and so open and so open we really all took it for granted and oh I think that's a generalization though and I think that you know when so when it comes back I think we'll save it all a lot more yeah I think so I think
that you know as a species we're all really living through an event so but I think that's a good place to to end it yeah and you know just be kind to each other right now and and kind to yourself and then hold on to your dreams yeah keep dreaming keep dreaming hold on to Britain hold on to Britain and um a nice cup of tea right we'll make it all better and buy my book you'll feel really good yeah hey that's a good British thing to read that's a good British thing to read on
your perfect British summer day is my new beautiful new book your staycation day adventures are
an Anglotopia guys it was really good and I'm not just saying that because I'm his wife thank you no it really was and there were things in there that we've been together for a long time there were things in there that I didn't know and I was yeah and could I just say for the record and then we'll just like I'm so proud of you in writing that book that was just that was a lot that was a lot and that's more than 20 years worth of travel that's went into writing that book I mean yeah most of it but not all of it and that's okay you know sometimes it's venturing out on
your own that makes the most unique minutes she's the best part of the book so no I'm not
no people don't want to see that sorry guys sorry all right well that's it from
Anglotopia for now I don't know when we'll do another podcast that we'll do one as soon as
we can we'll definitely try because we've got kids at home and dogs and it's a little nuts right now but it's nuts for everybody exactly that's right that's right we're all in this together
