Because the UK has too many good stories to keep to ourselves

(Image Credit: BBC)
If Will had brought his camera phone to the ORS Reception last spring, this is the photo he would have taken.
This week: Happy 60th Birthday Prince Charles! + Other headlines from across the pond

Charles celebrates 60th birthday
Wonky fruit!
The last days of paradise

A real update is coming soon. We promise. November has been busy.

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Remembrance Sunday

(Image Credit: Wikipedia)
In Flanders Fields
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

- Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae,
Canadian Expeditionary Force, World War I

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SMB: Morning Glory Breakfast Cookies

No, this isn't a bad 90s cereal ad.
Cookies for breakfast?!? Yes, cookies for breakfast. Now that we're adults, and in charge of our own lives, we can eat whatever we want for breakfast. Even cookies. Hah!
To be fair, though, these morning glory cookies (a cookie-based variation on the morning glory muffin) are probably as healthy (if not more so) as numerous other things one eats for breakfast (i.e. bacon + eggs, chocolate frosted sugar bombs cereal, coffee...etc). So really, if you think about it, eating cookies for breakfast is not as rebellious -or unhealthy- an act as first thought.

Morning Glory Breakfast Cookies
3/4 unsalted butter*
1 cup soft brown sugar*
1/4 cup sugar*
1/4 cup honey
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp oil + 1 tbsp water (or 1 egg)
3/4 cup plain all-purpose flour
1/4 cup wheat germ
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp all spice
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1 cup old fashioned oats
1/2 cup chopped nuts (walnuts, almonds, etc)
1/2 cup sultanas/raisins
1/4 cup crystallised ginger, chopped
1/4 cup dried fruit, chopped

Preheat oven to 180 C/350 F
Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, all spice, and ground ginger in a small bowl and set aside.
Cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and . Blend well.
Gradually add dry mixture to wet mixture.
Add the oats, nuts, and dried fruit. Mix until well combined.
Scoop out onto prepared baking sheets, spacing about 5cm/2 in apart.
Bake for 15-18 minutes, less if cookies are smaller. When cookies are done, remove baking sheet from oven and let cool 5 minutes.
Transfer cookies to cooling rack and let cool further.

Makes 16 large cookies.

Cookies for breakfast: Will approved.
*Notes*
1. Ok, I ( Jackie) used olive oil instead of butter to make the cookies healthier (I often do this). Somewhere around 4-5 tbsp (I think). I tend to play it by ear when it comes to baking substitutions (maybe not the best idea, but it always turns out fine). I plan on continuing to re-tool this recipe, so at some point there will be a solid measurement here.
2. I used all the sugar recommended this time, but found the cookies to be a tad sweet for the morning with all the dried fruit added. In the future, I plan on using less/substituting the sugar with...something. Watch this space.
3. This is a great cleaning out the cupboards recipe. For example: I needed to use up the rest my crystallised ginger (whose "use by date" was the other day), hence why it appears in the recipe. You could easily swap it for some other dried fruit or nuts that have been living in your pantry for far too long.
4. Really, the main point here is to share that we ate cookies for breakfast (and you could too...).

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Happy Guy Fawkes Day//Bonfire Night!

(Image credit: Corbis)
Remember, remember the Fifth of November,
The Gunpowder Treason and Plot,
I can think of no reason
Why the Gunpowder Treason
Should ever be forgot.
Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes, t'was his intent
To blow up the King and Parli'ment.
Three-score barrels of powder below
To prove old England's overthrow;
By God's providence he was catch'd
With a dark lantern and burning match.
Holloa boys, holloa boys, let the bells ring.
Holloa boys, holloa boys, God save the King!

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It's Election Day!

"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."
Unless you’ve been lucky enough to be living under a rock—or, perhaps, in Europe—then you are most distinctly aware that today is Election Day in the United States. All the hype of the past two years has been leading inexorably (and excruciatingly) up to this day. What have we seen? What have we learned? While the media has tried (and, to a large measure, succeeded) to convince the general public that there is grand historical significance to this election, it has proven to be little more than the negativity circus that we have become accustomed to in our advertising and marketing fuelled age.

Mercifully, we Americans abroad have been spared a large amount of the campaign ads; unless we’ve been watching football. Instead, we have been educated on how closely followed and interested a large number of Europeans are in the American elections. Suffice to say, there has been more coverage on the BBC of the American elections than there has been of any manoeuvring in Parliament. It also goes without saying that the majority of Europeans are for Barack Obama, regardless of what they know about him or not. We’ve continued to learn about how Europeans see politics and how much this contrasts with American politics. In America (unless we’re Unionists or ignorant) we vote for the individual. In Europe, however, it is the party that is elected. Hence, most Europeans support Barack Obama not because he is eloquent or educated, but because he represents the opposition, the Democrats. Similarly, most do not like John McCain because he is a Republican. In our “shrinking world” it is the simple miscommunications or communication disconnects like these that get lost in the ever-accelerating and increasing mix of ideas of the Internet. Will these be addressed by our generation?

While it would be foolish to speak about how historical an election this is or is not, it is historical in a personal perspective. For the first time in his life, Will voted. The joke is that it took him leaving the country to finally get the motivation to vote. In seriousness, not having to deal with all the circus surrounding the campaigns (which Will disagrees with on principle) made it easier to make a decision and to educate oneself. Jackie voted absentee, as well; just another joy of being an expatriate. So while all of you are being inundated with exit polls and “educated punditry,” just remember: we aren’t.

We hope that you have been able to make a carefully considered, objective, and reasonably passion-free decision and that you have exercised your democratic responsibility responsibly. We also pray that whoever is elected will live out the oath of office with all the seriousness and servitude that it demands; remembering that they are to preserve, protect, and—above all other things—defend, not the nation, but the Constitution. One must, logically and inevitably, lead to the other.

And no, we’re not telling you who we voted for.

This is Will's president.

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