A lesson in traditions

Saturday 17^th December

An early start lined up for the next few days, filled with plenty of activities to keep me occupied.

First off, we’d run out of firewood, the accompanying sight to a remarkable TV, so Chrissy assigned Greg and me to get some more. Since Greg had a truck, we’d be able to pick up a lot. After getting lost again, we made it to pioneer Blvd. (ironically there are 4 of them in Whittier and we only needed one [sort of like who wants to be a millionaire]). We stuffed the truck with a ‘quarter cord’ and headed back.

As we pulled up, Chrissy was chatting with one of the neighbors, Lisa. While me and Greg unloaded the truck, we saved a quarter of the quarter to give to Lisa and her family, who I’d be introduced to on Sunday. Manual labor over, we settled down for an afternoon of football. It’s simple: I’m on vacation now, so I don’t need to work as hard :p.

Unfortunately the day’s labor wasn’t over, since we had to deliver a gift off for one of Chrissie’s many relations. While they were just leaving while we dropped it off, we bumped into Chrissie’s old neighbors, Eric and Annette, who have a son Connor who had a brain tumor as a baby and is doing remarkably well since he’s now 15. Also had a daughter Taylor, but I barely caught a glimpse before she went to town with friends.

Our evening plans were to head 20 mins down the road to a wine and cheese party. We weren’t expecting a lot, so we caught a bite to eat. Since it was less than 48 hrs before my flight home, we experienced a British pub with traditional ales and food. Nothing beats a brilliant attempt at fish and chips with a proper pint or 2.

My next port of sophistication was the wine and cheese party. While my parents have had a small attempt at something like this before, this was a lot better. There was a total of 11 different cheeses, some well-known and some local. Most were creamy blues and mature cheddars and each cheese would have a local or well-known wine that perfectly complements it.

During the night I met some more of Chrissie’s friends, one of which included Bob, a self-employed marketing consultant. He was so impressed with my accent; he even wanted me to record his voicemail. I also met Dana who worked as a teacher at the local elementary school. We had a huge discussion about the differences in the schooling systems. Although I can’t remember the names one of the couples was an assistant District Attorney and a County Court Judge. We left the party at half 10 before anyone got too drunk to drive.