All Greek'd Up

Tonight I went out to a Greek restaurant here in Birmingham named Zorba's to eat with my wife and children. I found them on the Internet and decided that we would give it a shot.

The exterior of the restaurant was beautiful and stood out from the buildings around it like a rose blossoming from a crack on the sidewalk of Birmingham. I cannot recall seeing any shopfront like it in all of the 4 years I have been in Birmingham. Perhaps it was due to the lighting showcasing the shop in the night but it was very impressive.

Too bad that was the best the place had to offer.

The interior was better than average but slightly conflicting between traditional Greek and Victorian era architecture. In the main dining room it had Victorian style chandeliers and other ceiling fixtures but ostentatious Greek art and drawings on the walls. In a side dining room that we ate in the decor was cool and very much in tune with the outside of the restaurant but the white Xmas lights flashing kind of made it look a little tacky.


We were given menus and took out time looking over them as we waited for our drinks. The starter menu was more expansive than the main course for some reason and when I think of Greek food I am sorry but lasagna and rigatoni are not up there at the top. We ended up ordering 4 starters and just nibbling on them between us.

We ordered one of my favorite salads named Caprese, an assortment of Greek sauces including Tzaziki and hummus, and a few other dishes. None of them were particularly any good and only the sauces and fresh pita bread with Haloumi cheese was really any good. A plate of Calamari rings tasted like something I could buy frozen from the supermarket and cook at home on my own. In fact most of the starters were like that.

I think they over-charged me as well. I guess the moral of the experience can be summed up in 3 words.

Book, judge and cover.

UK vs USA universities

As promised.

So there are a few world-class universities here in the UK and a great deal of very good ones. Virtually all of them are in England as is to be expected as the majority of the population is in England.

Here in the UK education is only compulsory up to the age of 16 at the moment all though there is talk of bumping that up to 18. In America when you apply for universities fresh from high school your grade point average (GPA) and your Standard aptitude test (SAT) scores are basically what universities look at. In the UK the students take what is known as A levels in certain subjects which the universities here look for.

So in America you apply in your senior year (12Th grade when typically students are 17 or 18) of high school for the universities you would like to go to and they send acceptance letters in the spring I believe.

Here in the UK the students take their A levels and apply but through a computer system named UCAS. Apparently it is the only way to do it. You pay £17 and get to apply for up to 5 programs.

And then the differences are much greater.

In the UK bachelors degrees are typically 3 years and not 4 as they are in America and that is because the whole approach and methodology to attaining the degree is polar opposite.

In American universities you have to achieve 120 credits in order to attain your bachelors degree in any given subject with each course being worth 3 credits. Simple math tells you that 120 credits divided by four years of school is 30 credits per year with each class being worth 3 credits equals 10 courses per academic school year.

Those courses you take are structured into subjects and you are entirely free to choose what courses you want to take BUT you do need to attain a certain amount of your 120 needed to graduate from a variety of subjects. For example you may need 12 of those credits to be English and 9 to be in Math even though you are pursuing a History degree.

In England if you are taking a degree program in History then ALL of your courses are generally to do with history.

In my eyes this is better. Your knowledge level and understanding in that specific subject will be far superior in practically all instances than someone who takes a 4 years degree in the same subject at an American university as they do not focus solely on the degree that will named on your shiny piece of paper.

3 years of history based classes to attain a history degree or.... 4 years of history, math, science, English, PE, and a foreign language to attain a History degree????

Seems like an easy choice to me.

Visit day at B'ham Uni

This morning I had an appointment at Birmingham University's School of Education for one of their many 'visit days'.

Overall it was a waste of time with the exception of actually being able to meet the head of the program I am very interested in and the head admissions guy for the School of Education and put a face to the emails. These two individuals were a tremendous source of guidance and insight and I really look forward to hopefully working with the head of the program starting in the next academic school year.


The reason why I found it a waste of time other than them though is that the majority of people at this 'visit day' were all teenagers and the table of events was obviously more geared towards their needs. I am what is called a 'mature student' here in the UK and I am not in need of looking for the on-campus dorm that is closest to the local watering hole and the like. So while I did take a quick tour of some of the beautiful university grounds I still ended up waiting almost 3 hours to speak with the head of the program.


Indeed it was worth it in the end though, as she outlined what I needed to do to be accepted into her program. As all of my qualifications are American based and I have not been in school since people were doing the Macarena she requested some supplemental work from myself to assist her in making a sound judgement on my application.

Fair enough. She asked for 1500 words on 'Why Education is Important."

Quite the broad subject title, yes, I know.

Perhaps tomorrow I will outline the differences between a UK and American degree program.

Feeling the 'Crunch'

A week ago or so I wrote how I tried to do my part for the UK economy and get myself a new Land Rover but was rebuffed at every turn.

So I was forced to 'settle' for helping France or Germany's economies as Mercedes, Volkswagen and Citroen treated me the way that I have come to expect them to. That being salesmen trying to sell me a car. Land Rover seem to think that cars are meant to sit in showrooms and seaports or something.


So after agreeing to prices and options the next step is for the dealership to acquire finance on our behalf. Less than 2 years ago when we bought our last new car the 0% finance was approved over the phone at the dealership in about 15 minutes but of course we are in a severe recession and banks are tighter with credit than a frog's butt underwater even though governments are trying to create circumstances and incentives for them not to be like that.

But it seems they can't help themselves.

Even though my wife has a long and perfect credit history and I have a short and perfect one we were still turned down at every dealership we went to. We are utterly amazed. Even the car manufacturer that we bought a new car from in 2007 and paid on time every month for 17 months before paying off the total sum turned us down... WTF!!

So, I made an appointment with a manager of the dealership that we had bought a car from before and explained to him the situation. He is currently trying speaking with the higher ups at the finance company trying to get this sorted.

I sort of feel bad for the dealerships all around the country. I saw in the news a few days ago that new car sales in February were down almost 22% from February 2008. And that in late January it was reported that 300,000 people were turned down for car loans in the UK for a 6 month period in late 2008.

So there are a whole bunch of us out here looking to spend our money but not able to because the banks and finance companies want to hoard their cash and not loan it out. Hence putting pressure on the car manufactures who are begging governments around the world for tax-payers money...


What can be done to get the bankers to stop being afraid like George Bush at an Iraqi shoe factory?

Dad's 1st Visit

It is said that most Americans do not have a passport and an even greater amount never leave America's borders. With recent legislation in America making the old past-time of traveling to Canada, Mexico and certain Caribbean Island nations with a driving license or birth certificate now extinct more passports are being issued than ever before to American citizens. Yet it is unknown how many actually utilize them to travel outside of North America.


Whether most Americans not leaving their continent is an admirable or detestable situation is indeed debatable on many levels. It is understandable to believe that North America has so many different cultural treasures and great vacation spots that a person could spend a week vacation every year for 20 years easily exploring the continent and not going to the same place twice.

At the same time there are so many other cultures and environments on 6 other continents that have so much to offer and explore that it seems a shame to limit oneself to one continent.

In late February 2006 my father made his first trip outside of North America to come and visit my family and I in Birmingham for about 9 days. My dad is a typical American man in his 50's with a slight resemblance to Liverpool Football Club manager Rafa Benítez and getting him to actually apply for a passport was a huge step. At this point I had actually been living in Europe for almost 7 years and it amazes me that it took this long for my dad to get a passport and get on a plane. In fact, that more of my family has not taken advantage of me living in Europe to come and visit me leaves me incredulous. If I was in their shoes I would have been over at every opportunity. But I digress.


My Dad flew on KLM from Boston to Amsterdam and then after a small layover a short leg of Amsterdam to Birmingham. He didn't much take to Birmingham in those first few days. He wasn't too thrilled with the food nor the trash that people around here seem to religiously throw wherever they please in Birmingham. The only food he actually liked while he was here was Nando's.


I had booked us a flight from London Luton airport to to Grenoble airport in the French Alps on Easyjet while he was here in Europe so that we could go visit my son in France. The flight wasn't until late morning but we were catching a coach from Birmingham to London Luton at 6.45AM leaving us plenty of time to get stuck in traffic on the M1. As I only lived about maximum 10 minutes from the coach station we went outside to the car at around 6.15-6.20ish to have my wife drive us to the station.

Unfortunately the car decided that it didn't want to start. It was actually a very cold night out but I never had the problem with the car prior to that. We tried push-starting the car for about 5 minutes before we gave up and I called a friend to drive us to the station but of course we had missed our coach by then.

The next best option was a 7.30AM bus heading to central London. Luton airport is not actually in London. I would estimate it to be around 40 minutes drive north on the M1 from central London with decent traffic. I was actually hoping that the coach driver would drop us near the airport but I didn't have the nerve to ask.

By the time we got to London it was around 10.30AM and now we had to find a way to back track through the city and up the M1. It wasn't looking good. If we missed this flight my dad wouldn't have another chance to fly to France to see my son. I asked a black cab how much it would cost me to get to Luton and he quoted me "around £120". I found a private taxi and he told me he could get me there in time for £75 and we were off. He drove like a mad man through the city in his Ford Galaxy minivan and even stopped on the way for some gas before dropping us off at the airport with literally only a few minutes to spare.


We checked in and hurried to the gate to board the aircraft. After landing at St George airport we passed through immigration and boarded a bus for centre of Grenoble. I had booked a hotel nearby to where my son was staying and we had an excellent time having fun with my oldest son.

My dad loved France. He found the atmosphere and the environment of Grenoble to be extraordinary not to mention the great food. I think while he obviously wanted to spend time with his granddaughter in Birmingham he really hated to fly back to the UK.

The morning of his flight to Amsterdam continental Europe was having some terrible weather. His flight to Amsterdam was delayed a day and then when he did make it out to Amsterdam the next morning he got stuck there for another day before getting flown to Newark airport and then on to Boston.

I guess he didn't have that bad of time here in Birmingham though because he did end up returning about 2 years later. He still insisted on flying to France though.

BBC2 wants me to grow my own drugs!

Last night I caught a show on BBC2 starring an ethnobotanist named James Wong entitled "Grow Your Own Drugs".

I found it very fascinating as I believe that in many (and perhaps most) cases nature possesses the remedy to that which ails us more so than the pharmaceutical companies would like us to know. If we know that a certain plant that we can grow ourselves will act to sooth eczema for example then why would we purchase their creams and pills?

Anyway I was particularly interested in a method Wong showed to help insomniacs like myself as I have built up a resistance to OTC sleeping medication. What would he suggest that I could grow myself or extract from a common natural source to aid me in falling asleep?


Well, quite simple really. Hops. Yes the same hops used in beer.

Apparently on the hop plant their is a yellow dust that aides in inducing sleep.

As not to have your bedroom smelling like hops Wong suggested adding a few handfuls of dried lavender to a breathable mesh bag that you lay on your pillow when you desire to go to sleep.

I am trying to source the ingredients over the net as I write this and will write how it pans out for me in the near future.

Here is his recipe from the BBC2 website:

HOPS PILLOW FOR INSOMNIA

For a pillow about 32 x 23 cm:
4 handfuls dried hops flowers
4 handfuls dried lavender flowers
1. To dry the hops and lavender yourself, tie them in bunches and hang upside down in a well-ventilated space out of direct sunlight for 2 weeks. Alternatively, place in a low oven (about 100C) for 30 minutes or so until dry and crispy. Strip the flowers off the larger or harder stalks.
2. Put equal handfuls of dried hops and lavender flowers into a cotton pillowcase, and seal the end.

USE: Place the pillow under or beside your head to induce sleep.

UPDATE HERE!!

Can't get over Land Rover!

I have a good friend here in Birmingham who works as an engineer for Jaguar/Land Rover and he says that it is very likely that he will be one of the 3000 people working for them to get the axe here in the UK. When he told me this a week or so ago I was absolutely dumbfounded.

Admittedly Jaguars and Land Rovers are not 'popular' cars in a world gone 'eco' nuts but they are British cars (Or at least they used to be.) and support the economy of this country. As someone who does not believe that human beings are to blame for the so called 'global warming' (Or is it climate change now, Al Bore?) not to mention needing a 7-seater vehicle I am in the market for a Land Rover Discovery 3.

I have looked at other vehicles such as the Mercedes R320, the Volkswagen Touran and the Citroen C4 Grand Picasso but would have loved to get the Discovery 3.

So, I looked online and found 3 Land Rover dealers in my area and took a ride to the closest one to take a test-drive and get some literature on the truck. Upon arriving to the dealership I walked inside and started to look around at all the different vehicles available including the 2 different versions of the Discovery 3. After a few minutes I was asked by some woman if I had been helped yet to which I informed her that I had not been.


She told me that she would get someone right out to help me as I looked at the interior of one of the Discovery models.

A minute or so later a man walks out and asks me some general questions as to what I am looking for. He then asked me a few questions that I have never been asked before at a dealership in the UK or any other country for that matter.

"Are you a resident of the country?"

"Do you have a full UK driving licence?"

"What kind of car are you driving now?"

It seemed to me that he was trying to get rid of me so that he could go back and sit in his office before going home in 50 minutes when the clock struck 6PM. Once he realized that I was not here to waste his time he sat me down and took some information from me to get a price for the truck.

After leaving me outside on the sales floor for about 20 minutes he comes out and shows me what he can offer me the truck for. I told him that was all very well but when was I going to be able to take the truck for a spin?

He looks at his watch. It is now approaching 5.35PM. He says to me well we don't actually have a manual for you to test-drive. There are only a few automatics. To his frustration I told him that that was not a problem.


He went to get the dealer plates and make a photocopy of my licence and then took me to the back of the dealership where the trucks were parked.

"Oops. I grabbed the wrong keys." By the time he comes back it is slightly past 5.40PM and we get into the truck. I pull out and test-drive the very comfortable and sturdy Discovery 3 for only about 10 minutes as the dealership is beginning to shutdown.

I park the truck back in its place and we sat there having some small chat about how I liked it.

He then gives me his card and we part ways.

As I did not like the way the salesman had treated me I had no intention of returning to give him my business. But I had taken my literature, received a quote and test drove the vehicle.

The next day I called the other 2 Land Rover dealers in the area and spoke with some salesmen and told them what I was looking for. I was told by each dealership that they would look up some numbers and get back to me.

To this day both of them have not. I even called them both back a week later and told the receptionist that I had already called and given my information to a salesman but had not had a call back.

I tried to give my money to Land Rover and they didn't seem to want it. And that is a shame because my friend and many others may lose their jobs because this company doesn't have enough cash-flow. I am not silly enough to think that I would save a few jobs at Land Rover/Jaguar if I had bought a Discovery 3 but the troubling part is that if this has happened to me I am sure it has happened to others too.

Oh, well. I really don't mind a German car I guess...