Stop the Presses - Sunshine

It is truly hard to believe but we had nearly a full day of sunshine.

Much like California, there is no need to watch the weather news. Everyday is exactly the same, but the opposite of California. It is partly cloudy, with light showers throughout the day, and with a few minutes of sunshine in the early afternoon. I am officially pasty white. D.A.

Finally, a house!!!!

6 weeks after leaving our lovely home in Dallas, we have finally found a place here to lease. woo hoo! I am so excited about having more space so that we can all sit in one room at the same time, or better yet have our own little space away from everyone. Either way, it will be a good thing. It is a great house and has several elements on our wish list. The papers were signed on Friday. We get the keys on Monday and our air and sea containers will be delivered on Tues and Wed. Busy week. The wonderful thing is that the packers will unpack everything and haul off all the packing materials. This will ensure that we will actually be unpacked before next year. My two favorite parts are that it is a 20 min walk to the kids school and that it has a huge conservatory (pronounced "conservatree" here in the UK). For those who don't know what that is, it is a glass room attached to the house, window walls and glass ceiling to ensure you get the maximum of the very scarce sunlight. It looks like something from Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory. There is a beautiful yard, so I think I will be spending all my extra time in the conservatory. We are trying to get the TV, phone and broadband figured out. We hear it takes about 4 weeks for them to come out to set things up, so we will be living in a nice, quiet house for a while - just put your ear to the ground and hear the whining about no TV. I'm sure the sound waves will be carried over the ocean water.
This weekend we went into the city to see Mary Poppins for B's birthday. It was a great show and we really enjoyed ourselves. There is one weird, scary scene where the toys come to life and have a loud courtroom session, but it was over soon enough as not to ruin the show. The leads were very similar to Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke, so it was fun to watch. Bicycle rick shaw's were all over the place and all ringing their bells when the show was out. It was quite a spectacle. The red lanterns were hanging all down the streets for Chinese New Year. Another new site for kids who have never seen Chinatown.
Sunday afternoon fun was walking through the woods around town. The kids loved it. There are tons of people walking and riding horses through the woods. It was pouring down rain and we were running through the mud. I just cant wait to do all that muddy laundry in my 5 shirt maximum washing machine. Others riding their bikes on the path were covered in mud - in their hair, helmets, shirts, coats etc. That activity might have to wait til next week - US style washer and dryer in new house - cant beat it.

newest observations about UK

I know people are basically the same everywhere, but it is funny how we come up with different solutions for the same issues.
1st item: I cant find cupcakes here. I went to a bakery to order some for B to take to school for birthday celebration. And no, they don't make cupcakes and didn't even act like they knew what I was talking about. I asked another US mom, "nope, don't have cupcakes here unless you make them yourselves" (not possible in our temporary apt.). I asked local realtor, she said ask for Fairy cakes with butter cream and I might get something like what I want. I have a feeling they will be more like petite fours, which are great, but not what a young girl wants to take to school.
Also all birthday cakes I've seen are made with that smooth fondant icing - which looks cool, but tastes bad. It's weird with all the US families living around here that you cant get just regular ole grocery store basic white cake with sprinkles birthday cake. I tried to talk B into taking rice crispy squares, but that isn't the same as a gooey cupcake.
next item, front door handles. None of the houses have front door knobs! When you go out the door, it locks like a hotel room behind you and you must have a key to reenter. The front of the door has a keyhole and that is all. No knob to turn, isn't that weird. We asked the realtor and she said for safety reasons, no front door would ever have a door knob. I mean we lock our doors in US too, but knob is a basic something to hold onto as you push door open. I know some blog in the future will be about me getting locked out of the house, I can already see it.
funny side note, when looking at a house this morning that we are trying to move into, DA picked up a little remote thing to figure out what it was for and just like a kid who has to press all the buttons, he set off the panic alarm. You have to have key to turn it off. Luckily the realtor found a key. It was a nice, relaxing tour of the house. DA then turned around 5 min. later and got locked out of the house - hence the lesson on the front door knobs.

Last observation - TRASH. I know there are millions of people who live here, but they do not under any circumstances want you to have trash or want to deal with your trash. On the entire High Street in our town, I think there is 1 "litter bin". In our apt. there is a trash can in each room and bedroom about size of Big Gulp at 7-11. Kitchen has one trash can with one bag. They only take out trash once a week, so one bag full of trash per week is all you are allowed. In the very busy, public train station, there aren't ANY trash cans. You eat somewhere, and there is no where to throw your cup or any trash away! none! Businesses don't want to handle your trash and there aren't any public trash cans. DA said in the lunchroom at his office, there are 7 choices of recyclable cans and no basic trash cans. and talk on the news is that they want to start taxing people based on weight of their garbage. Restrooms - no paper towels, so no trash can. They are totally into the global warming thing and I guess this is an extension of that. It's funny, while traveling in Paris, one of my thoughts while walking around all the beautiful sites was "hey, they actually have public trash cans here!" that proves how scarce they are in UK.
I mean of all the crazy comforts of home to miss - the lowly trash can!

Paris in the winter time!

Well, forget settling in, we decide to go on vacation. We pack from our suitcases which we have now been living out of for 5 weeks. My poor kids look like they never change clothes, but really they do. Since they are wearing their uniform pants from home of which they had a few pair of same pants, in each photo it looks like: same pants, 1 of 5 shirts, same coat, same shoes. I laugh at our pictures - they all look exactly the same. I digress - we went to Paris over the mid term school break. It was a fun trip. Since many of you have been there and know the basics, I'll just fill you in on a few funny things.

- to start our journey off with a bang, L gets on the train and no more than 15 minutes later is throwing up while standing in the middle of a commuter packed train. Just what every commuter wants to deal with. It wasnt pretty, but he recovered and we continued on.

- Eurostar train ride to Paris was nice, except when your son has just been sick in the other train, it isnt a good situation for a 2.5 hr trip to be flying down the track in seats that face backwards. Actually, He made the trip ok other than getting mad at me for asking him how he was feeling over and over.

-15 minutes in Paris, I am stuck in the turnstile entering the Metro. It was a funny sight. Tried to take my suitcase through turnstile, not understanding that the little slide-through on the side was for luggage. I thought I couldn't read French signs, come to find out, it was a very legible picture that DA read just fine. There is about 1 foot between the turnstile and a gate you push through. Bag was tangled up and I missed the 2 second window to push through gate - it's a timed thing. I was stuck between the two. Had to crawl on my knees back under turnstile and go back to ticket counter cause my ticket wouldnt work again since I hadn't actually come out through the exit. Yes, I embarrassed my fellow Americans (and children), but finally got through.

- you know the tiny apartment we were leaving behind in Surrey, well we hadn't seen anything yet. The hotel room was TINY. We could sit forward on the toilet, but you could touch the toilet from the bed and touch every wall too. room was about 2 feet bigger than a double size bed. Kids had to stay in separate (and not connecting) room. B not too sure about that. L loved it.

- shock to the children - all TV shows are in French! And once again, only 4 channels.

- shock to the parents - you have to pay a fee everyday the TV is turned on. Lovely.

- another shock - all the statues, and there are hundreds of statues in Paris, are of naked people. Come on. I know Napoleon didnt go to war wearing his armour while naked. that is crazy. but statue after statue after statue - naked men and women. Interesting trip when your 11! B even got an education.

- under no circumstances should you walk your family from the beautiful Sacre-Cour church to the Moulin Rouge. It is through a red light district. didnt really realize what the Moulin Rouge was, I guess. more education for the kids.

- Night time boat trip down the Seine River at night to see the city of lights, beautiful! But B missed it, she fell sound asleep after 5 minutes. had to walk about 1/2 mile to metro and take 3 trains to return to hotel. DA had to carry her the whole way back. Next time, we'll go during the daylight hours.

-tried to go to restaraunt on Valentine's evening for dessert and coffee. We had eaten earlier in the day expecting large crowds at dinner. We were actually told they would not serve us after we had already been seated at the table. It was 8:30pm and 6 tables out of 50 were full, but they were going to be "too busy" to allow us to just have dessert. Hope their dinner crowd finally arrived. In case you're wondering, we enjoyed our candy bar dessert and water just fine in our hotel room. So much for fine French Cuisine!

-yes, the snow globe you searched for in every cheap souvenir shop for hours will break when dropped. We made a wonderful deposit of glitter in the Louvre metro station. Surprise, surprise there was another souvenir shop just above ground that happened to have an exact snow globe to replace it. Tears dried and for only 5 euro!

- and finally to cap off our journey, the local train to our town was out of service for the day, so they put us on a BUS. We knew we were in trouble when what normally is 3 minutes on the train takes us 40 minutes on bus. After 1 hour and only 3 stops met (ours was #10). we hopped off and hailed a cab. No matter what the cost! We only had Euro in our pockets, but thanks to our shiny new ATM card, we could get money from ATM and pay the cab driver. Whew.

-Think that's it? not yet. perfect week finished with B deciding she would run away so she could go back home. She even packed a map in her bag so she could find her way. I think it was too soon for her to go on vacation!

The kids in front of Notre Dame.

Logan having a conversation at the Louvre.

The kids just before going to the top of the Eiffel Tower.

B in front of the Arc de Triomphe

Finally, I can buy something!

Yes, you heard right, I can now shop like the Brits! Our PIN number arrived so we can officially use our debit card. After 3.5 weeks of suffering through transaction fees, conversion charges, no we dont accept your card, no you cant get that much cash, your card doesnt have a chip and so forth - I can walk up to the cash register and pay without a hassle. I want to throw a party I'm so relieved.
It was so funny, we went to dinner last night and the waiter actually asked "how did you get a Barclay's card?" You know it's hard to get a card when the waiter is even surprised we have one! It does make life much easier. I will quit complaining about it. Now, we're just waiting on the check book .....

New Sight of the day - London Towing Service

Today, we saw the funniest thing. You know at home there are various towing services. Either they hook on and pull your car down the road, or if your really lucky or really wrecked they load your car on a flatbed and tow away. All these choices occur with "hook it on and pull it" machinery. Well today we witnessed a car needing to be towed. It was parked along the road with cars in front, behind and across the street. Only room for one lane down the middle. The tow truck was tightly squeezed down the middle lane and was having to PICK THE CAR UP from beside the truck and then move it over onto the flatbed. Literally picking the car up like a crane without bumping the cars parked 6" in front or behind it. For those Dallas readers, looks like the bulk trash crane that comes around once a month. DA and I got such a kick out of it. And fortunately, It Wasnt Our Car!

Choices, choices, choices.

As part of our "package" we get to select our car from specific lines. They really are wonderful selections - one of the bright spots of the move. We've toured the BMW dealership, Mini Cooper dealership, Toyota, and Lexus just to name a few. We observed all the cars on the road to see how many people can ride in them and how well they fit into the parking spaces. We also test drove an Audi for a couple of days. We want to make just the right choice since we only plan on getting one car (the 2nd one will be on our tab). Well, we have come to a decision...... drum roll please........ a VW minivan. Yes, you heard right. We gave up a brand new BMW to have room to cart you people around when you come visit, so by golly, you'd better come visit!!! My personal preference would be a brand new mini cooper, but the kids would not do well downsizing from their own row of seats in a suburban to a 1' wide seat, no leg room, sporty mini cooper. I had dreams of looking like Cherize Theron driving through Europe in The Italian Job, but I know, keep dreamin'.

I promise, we are not normally this out of it!

The kids have been at school 11 days. DA has been at work 12 days. I'm sure these folks are wondering what is wrong with us. Here is the rundown:
Tardy to school: at least 4 times
sent to nurses office: 1 time each
sent home from nurses office; 1 time
calls from school administration: several. We paid cash for their lunch money and it was misplaced. School took it very seriously, they found it, had been applied toward field trip deposit.
calls from nurse: several. I promise I filled out the nurses papers twice and turned them back in!
calls/emails to transportation: several. Yes, we want to ride bus, no cant ride bus - sick, yes we will ride, no we wont - makes the kids sick every time.
call to make other transportation arrangements; I was sick and couldnt drive to pick the kids up. We dont know anyone to help us out. DA had to come home from Canary Wharf - about 2 hr trip due to midday train schedule. He was about 1 hr late picking them up from school. had to make calls to teacher and secretaries at the different schools. fun, fun! We tried to arrange a taxi to bring them home, but couldnt find one in time.
runs to school where I hit the curb driving: every day! It is now the family joke.
Late to work: 3 days.
Leave early from work: 2 days
handle calls from distressed wife ; everyday. WHY DONT WE HAVE A BANK ACCOUNT? actually we now have an account, but surprise, surprise my name is not on the account so I cant access it. Also got a ATM card, but no PIN number yet, so cant use it yet either. After 2.5 weeks of this, I am going crazy!

At home, these things wouldnt have happened in one year, well ok, maybe the tardies, but that is all. I'm sure the school thinks we are a little crazy. they all know our names by now. They are probably thinking "That poor family- they need lots of help." and the sad thing is, we do.

Windsor Castle visit and other weekend fun

Sunday we made it to church on time - thanks to the Tomtom GPS we bought last night. It really helped. Although we still made a couple of wrong turns (DA was driving, thank you). It takes a little bit to understand the directions, like "turn right at the rotary 3rd exit". The church folks were nice and we even met a few people who attended ACU and another who went to college in DA's hometown. 2 or 3 American families there. It seems they mainly see Military families from US.

The church is on a different schedule, so we were all off. They dont begin church til 11:00, when we normally are already at the restuarant in Dallas. Since we had driven 30 miles and were in the same town as the local Costco, I HAD to go to Costco after church. I needed to find PB and grape jelly before driving over to Windsor to see the castle. We spent a little longer at the store than we planned (1st time that's EVER happened!) Found Skippy PB, but no grape jelly. What is the deal with that?!

and then hurried quickly to Windsor only to arrive at 3:10. Guess what, in Feb. they let the last group in at 3:00. Me and DA were bummed. The kids mainly wanted to go in the souvenier shops. Didnt see any fancy guards, only Bobbi's with automatic rifles. The lovely attached photo is about all we saw of the castle. We will go back, it's not that far from where we live, and Legoland is nearby which the kids will bug us to death to go to when it opens. The sun was shining so we enjoyed walking around town of Windsor, but it was very cold. Brinley is freezing in the photo. We keep telling her to take her coat and she just wont catch on that she will get cold walking from place to place. The town is charming, but I can see from the 100's of benches that it would be packed during the warm weather.

The Superbowl is actually on tv tonight on a channel that we get in the apartment, so we get a little taste of home and DA gets to watch Peyton play. No fancy, funny Superbowl commercials though.

We are still waiting to hear about a house. We have a offer on one and an inquiry on another. Hopefully that will get squared away this week. 3 weeks down of living out of our suitcases, so we would like to get into a permanent place soon.

Let the Socializing begin

This weekend should be fun.
Today I met another mom walking around the track. She was from Aledo outside of Ft. Worth. She had actually lived in both Dallas and Memphis so we had lots to talk about. I told her I had visited Aledo for some very important High School football games watching the Wylie Bulldogs. Her kids are younger so she didnt share my enthusiasm for it.
Today I joined several 5th grade moms for lunch. I'd never met a one of them, but I got an email about lunch, so I just looked for the big group. We went to a Nepalise restuarant???? called Sherpa Kitchen. That was interesting. Sherpa's are known as the real climbers that guide other climbers up Mt. Everest. I wondered if this was some sort of protein rich mountain climbing, no-oxygen needing, no-cold feeling food. Turns out, it is alot like Indian food. Same spice in everything similar to curry. Pretty good. If you come visit us, I'll take you there. The "mums" were very nice and helpful. There were 8 of us there and none were American or British. I am glad I went. They gave me alot of scoop about the Middle school.
B has her first birthday party tonight and I think all of her class mates are attending. It's at a indoor swimming park about 20 miles away, and I have NO IDEA how long it will take to get there with Friday night traffic and all. I told DA to get home early so I wont have to navigate and drive. Spent about 2 hrs studying the map to get there.
Saturday's lunch is with one of DA's coworkers. They live in the little town we would like to move to, so they are going to give us the low down. Also we will be looking at another house, the first offer may have fallen through due to landlord not wanting a 2 year lease.
Sunday, we will try to make it to church on time. Apparently we need to get a "tomtom" GPS. that is what all the expats have. It would certainly help getting us to church.
The kid's winter break starts Feb 9 for a week. DA's boss said we could go travel a few days since NO ONE is in the office that week. Must be a very common winter break with all the schools. We tried to sign up for a 4 day Italy trip, but it was full. The travel agency suggested Bejing, China instead (ha - who would have ever suggested China for sping break in Dallas). It is a full week trip, so we cant do that. Of course the kids would rather go to Legoland, instead of ...oh, say..Stonehenge, but Legoland isnt open til March. We'll see what we can figure out. If we must tour Wales, then so be it ;)

Critical Grocery Error

Today I decided to go grocery shopping and drive my car to the store for the distinct purpose of buying more groceries and having a car in which to carry them. The store was in the next town. I had driven through the town, but had not stopped there. The first clue that I was in unfamiliar territory was when I turned into the exit. Driving on the left hand side of road means the entrance is on the LEFT! I almost ran into one lady. Then I walked in the door after picking up a cart in the parking lot (free cart this time, so I was grabbing one) and all I see is an elevator and a flight of stairs. I ask another lady walking in if I take was to the cart onto the elevator, "yes..." she replied as she flew down the stairs. Fortunately there were only 2 floors and I came out in the middle of the store - free carts were already there, so I looked like a newby (again) coming down with an empty cart instead of going up with a full cart. I proceeded to shop to my hearts content. Bought snacks and dinner while keeping in mind that all the fresh and prepared food is only good today and tomorrow. (It definitely affects what quantity you buy). I bought a few large bottles of water, couple of Sprites, 8 pk of small waters, etc. Lots of heavy items to transport in my car. Happy as I could be that I wouldnt be carting them through the mall and down the block to walk home from the local grocery. Even picked up my favorite American magazine. I check out with my unpopular American ATM card which requires swiping and signing (they only want you to have a CHIP and PIN card, I apologized again for having the bad kind of card. In fact some places will not accept a swipe and sign card, which is such a bummer when I'm trying to buy something and actually find what I want.)
I check in with the parking lot attendant because there are signs posted everywhere that you must show your Waitrose receipt to leave the parking lot. I cant find the exit, so he directs me and could care less about seeing my receipt. I navigate my way out of town and drive back home without any wrong turns, only to realize that in all my happiness of using the car for this trip that I now have to park in the car park (garage) and carry my HEAVY 7 bags up 2 flights of stairs, down the block, around the corner, find key for exterior door, up 4 more flights of stairs, find other key for apt. door and then reverse and do it all again for the next load. happiness bubble burst!

Lesson learned: drink tap water!