Kathleen, Queen of the Desert

Spotted dick is a traditional British pudding made from mutton fat mixed with other ingredients, such as baking soda, flour, molasses, corn syrup, or nutmeg. You add raisins or dry fruit to this dough and you have “spots.” The dish is steamed or boiled and served with a custard sauce.

Pouring custard over my awkwardly named dessert

Like Scottish haggis, Spotted Dick is kind of a joke food, especially to Americans. Like haggis, you can also find Spotted Dick in a can (Heinz),making it  a not infrequent gag gift (again, especially for Americans). Unlike haggis, though, in this American opinion, Spotted Dick is really good.

Why such an unappetizing name, then? “Dick” has been described as an abbreviation for dictionary, a policeman, an apron, a riding whip, a corruption of the “ding” in pudding or “dough,” a referral to the German dich (“thick or viscous”), and, lest we avoid it, male genitalia. Americans will usually most certainly turn up their noses at ordering something with that last meaning. After all, at least US restaurants offering Rocky Mountain oysters have the decency to label bulls’ testicles “oysters.”

But, the Spotted Dick I ordered recently was really just a sweet little spice cake with lots of raisins. As I happen to really like spice cake and raisins, I was enthusiastic about this dish at the friendly King Edward Restaurant by the sea. The waitress took my order with nary a smirk. (Continued)

One might ask if breakfasting at Starbucks when abroad is really traveling. I ask that myself when I enter one. Believe me, there are plenty of reasons not to enter one. Number one for skipping an English Starbucks is that they don’t have scones, at least not I the English Starbucks I’ve been in so far. But, despite this sconelessness, here are my reasons for frequenting this American franchise.

10. Like it or not, Starbucks is usually there. In London and Paris, certainly. In smaller big cities, yes.

9. Counter people are friendly. This is a big plus in famously snooty Paris, where ordering a café au lait at a small bistro can be an exercise in indifference.

8. It’s open early. Many Americans like an early start to our day, our lunch, and our dinner, yet, for instance, some of the coffee shops in Bath didn’t open till 10 a.m. 10 a.m.! That’s really late for Americans—even Americans on vacation. On this trip in the UK, the Starbucks open at 7:30 a.m. By American standards, that’s still kind of late. (Continued)

The Royal Crescent, Bath, Somerset

Jane Austen’s family spent time and rented rooms and floors of rooms from time to time in Bath, Somerset, England. The refurbished Roman baths provided entertainment and a promise of healing any and all ills, while the Royal Crescent and other stone “terraces” (apartment complexes) provided high-status accommodations where the Austen family could promenade in the parks and along the walks and pathways.

But, though Jane’s family enjoyed pride and status for some years, her clergyman father George died in 1805, and the family suddenly couldn’t afford to live in nice apartments or rooms at the top of the hill.

Their first descent from their hilltop residence was to

Their final descent was to some rooms on Trim Street, a block-long street (more of a lane, really) down by the railway station and the Avon River, where I walked on a recent Monday afternoon. Even in 2014, Trim looked industrial and rather grim. (Continued)

I think we’re the only guests in this hotel. We do hear other people from time to time, but they only seem to  stay one night at a time. And for some UNKNOWN REASON these people are housed right next door to us. Why the staff can’t put at least one room between us and these nightlies, I do not know. There was the guy with a bad cough, the two girls who arrived at 2 a.m. and talked loudly till 4, and last night the guy who yakked on his phone. On our last night, it would be great if everybody else on our floor had already checked out.

Last fall when we booked this room, we must have been looking only at price and location, because otherwise this is a tired old dump. The basics are here–beds, carpeting, toilet, shower, hook on the bathroom door. But modern amenities are absent. (Continued)