New Place

I’m blogging from the window seat of our new house, rental house that is. Yes, we’re settled for at least the next year in a new place. It’s a furnished place which has been really great, allowing us to accumulate big ticket items slowly instead of all at once.


I knew once we took a look at the kitchen, this was the place. It’s close to mountains and the views are beautiful. As I drink my morning coffee and stare out the window or sit on the couch and stare out the window as the sun goes down, I feel like I’m on vacation just a little bit every day and who doesn’t want that?

Moving Madness

We’ve hit the point in the moving process where we are:


1. Selling off the big items.

2. Packing up the items to ship and then pulling them out of the boxes to use because it’s too soon.

3. Getting rid of inconsequential things.

4. Sitting amongst filth.

We had a four-day weekend here for Easter and besides doing some things for the move, I also wanted to do something fun. Yesterday my internal monologue was so negative that I laughed as I thought of my friend B who, if she could hear me would have said, “You want a little cheese with that whine?” I set out to walking in a nearby wood with a map and H’s phone which has GPS and ended up on such a windy narrow road that for the first time in my life, I was car sick while driving. I didn’t think that was possible. It was Easter Sunday, the sun was making a brief appearance, lots of families were out for a country walk stopping to take pictures of the horses, etc. and I was just annoyed by the whole thing. After a nap the sun was shining bright in the early evening so I ventured out again, but stuck close to home.

I will miss living close to these beautiful houses, which I will never in all my life be able to afford!

Settling In

Not much has been happening here. I’m adjusting to a new job with the same company and we are all settling in to the new house. It’s unanimous, we love it. Last Sunday A and I left the house early to go to our favourite pick your own farm. We picked some tayberries and raspberries. I was planning to make some homemade sorbet to take to our old neighbors. It started sprinkling as we were picking and then it really started coming down. I was standing there in the freezing rain in disbelief that this was July!

As you can see I did make sorbet and I did try to take it to the old neighbours but they weren’t in. I was kind of glad because it was a little on the tangy side. H said I needed to warn them before they tried it!

We are in the process of planning our trip to Scotland next week. Can't wait!

You Never Know

A came running down the stairs when we were moving in to say, "In my bathroom I have one of those mirrors on an arm!" You never know what's going to make her happy.

The New Place

The house we moved into has a finished attic that the owner used as an office. It has a ½ bath attached. It reminds me a bit of our house in St. Louise because H and I had a room in the very upstairs that was away from the rest of the house. We gave A this room thinking maybe all of her bathroom stuff would move out of our way! She loves it. When we started moving in she came down the stairs and jokingly said, “This time I’m the queen of the castle”. Was that ever in question?

At dinner Monday night A was asking us if someone was going to pick her up from school Tuesday. H played serious and said to A that no, we wouldn’t be picking her up. She got all anxious as she tends to do and said that she didn’t know how to walk to the new place from school. H just smiled and said, “Yeah, we know”. It took her a moment to get the joke.

The only difficult part of the move is that the refrigerator stopped working the day we moved in. The new fridge arrives today.

Moving House - Again

My buddy K in the U.S. moved last weekend. It’s funny that we find ourselves moving at the same time because she and I left St. Louis around the same time two years ago for greener pastures. For her, the move is significant. It’s definitely the next chapter, owning her first home and having her first child. I’ve been thinking about her as we have planned for our move, which had a different feel. H asked me why I was so annoyed with having to move. It was inevitable, we had no choice, but I was digging in my heels. I started a new job last week with the same company so this move was that extra bit of change that was about to push me over the edge. I took Monday through Wednesday off to help with the move, and I just didn’t feel like I should be taking the time at that moment either.

Funny though, as soon as we arrived to pick up the keys from the owner on Monday and I walked into the house, I felt completely different about it. The space is brighter and more open. I could see us having people over for brunch in this house. As I sit here in the new living room drinking my morning coffee, it feels like home.

P.S. I was asking folks at work for a moving company recommendation to help with the big stuff. When they talk about moving things from house to house they call that a removal which kept throwing me. Yes, remove the stuff from one house but I do want it at the new!

House Hunting

We have to be out of our house the first week of August. The letting agent has been really committed to keeping us as a client so after just looking at a few places, we settled on renting a house in the neighboring village where A’s school is located. When we went to look at the house that we are now planning to rent, we met the family who owns it. As we talked about where their kids and our kid went to school they said that they specifically moved into this county in order to get their children into the grammar schools. The father looked at us and said, “Mission accomplished” with a smile. It was just another subtle hint about how important the school selection is.

I am trying to be positive about the move but dread moving for the third time in three years. The kitchen has one unit that’s a washing machine and a dryer combined. I’m sure I’ll be posting about how (un)effective that is!

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

Lots going on that’s making me nervous. H is graduating in a few weeks so job hunting is starting. Work is changing in some unexpected ways making look for signs of what was there when I got here and Monday I got a call from our letting agent telling me that while we are wonderful tenants, the homeowner, because of change in family situation, needs the house back in two months. Since our year lease ends this week, she has every right to do this but it is totally unexpected as we were digging up a garden plot in the backyard and settling in. H keeps saying we need to think about the positive in this but all I can think about is the expense and the pain of moving. I’ve decided that the only change I truly enjoy is change that I personally initiate and sometimes that’s not even my cup of tea, LOL.

The positive – the weather has been stunning and I’ve been doing a lot of walking. With the sun so bright, the fields I walk through look unreal, a fluorescent green I’ve only ever seen in the crayon box.

Family Without A Country

Downers come up here and there that make me pause and think, if I would have known that BEFORE we accepted the offer to move to the UK, would I have passed on the opportunity?

Finding out that getting financing for a car was not going to happen because we haven’t lived here for three years was a bit of a setback. Our U.S. bank will not offer us financing either since we no longer have a U.S. address. We have decided to keep going along without a car for a bit longer in hopes of saving and just buying something outright. I was irritated for a few weeks but now I am moving on.

Before H left the U.S. he got a letter from the university he had been attending in St. Louis encouraging him to come back because he was close to finishing his computer science/math degree. I felt sick when I saw the letter in the mail because I know it is difficult when you are at the end of a program to transfer to another school and feared that he would have to repeat a lot of classes at the school that he transferred to. I never dreamed after lots of research the amount that can be transferred is much lower than expected and that he could not get UK resident tuition rates because again, we haven’t lived here for three years. This answer has been standard at every educational institution and it triples the cost. For cryin out loud I pay taxes here!

Internet Arrives Today!

The birds will be singing after our home internet service is set up today. I have to go to Spain for work tomorrow and A said to me with internet arriving, "Mom, we probably won't leave the house while you're gone". Nice to know I won't be missed. :)

It will be interesting to see how things change with the integration of the internet back in our lives.

What the Outlets Look Like

All of the outlets have switches on them. You don't see this very often in America.

Pics of the House

My friend M in Atlanta has been asking to see pics of the house. As she commented, "Are you waiting for the IKEA boxes to be cleared away before you send some pics?" So true!

Here are a couple of pics, warts and all. The first is what will be our dining room/computer room. Note the IKEA boxes stacked to the right and all of the cables, etc. on the mantle of the fireplace. I was sitting at the dining room table when I took this. The kitchen is behind me. The other pic is the kitchen. The door that is open to the left leads to a washer and dryer and a 1/2 bath that has the tiniest sink that I have ever seen. I'll have to post a picture. To the right in the kitchen is a door to the backyard.

The Size of our Refrigerator

My dad was asking me about this so I thought I would post this picture. A is standing in front of our fridge and she is about 5'5" so while it isn't as small as some European refrigerators, it is also not as big as the "American Style" appliances some of the electronics stores are now selling here.

Yes, We Are Americans

We skimped on furniture but invested in a good television. I rationalized this by the fact that we will only have one television, two less than we had in Missouri. When the electronics company called and left a message to say that they were delivering the television on Thursday, the guy said at the beginning of the message, “Wow that’s quite an accent”. Funny, I have been focusing so much on everyone else’s accents that I didn’t even think about what I might sound like to others. Of course I had to play my voicemail message to see if I was particularly nasally Midwestern when I recorded it, but actually I think I sound pretty respectable.

The television arrived Thursday. A has been saving her money for about a year for a Nintendo Wii which she got yesterday. Suddenly instead of reading the copy of Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities I checked out from the library, I want to sit on the couch and watch music videos with A. Just when I thought my television addiction had faded, it’s back in full force.

Another IKEA Trip

Tuesday we went back to pick up a few more things and as H said, “Are you sure there is nothing else we need because I don’t want to be back in the store for a very long time”. Me neither. Since we were in London, we went down to the theatre ticket sales booths to see if we could find cheap tickets to a play since it was a weeknight. No luck on the tickets so we walked around a bit and came back home. We were discussing how this week is the same week last year that we visited England and tried to decide if this was the right move for us. Who knew it would be so long in the making.

Television License

So I was told that everyone who has a television in the UK must buy a television license. I hadn’t looked into the details of this. One night when I was watching something at the B&B on BBC One I commented on the lack of commercials and someone said, “That’s what the television license pays for”. We headed to our council to let them know we have arrived so they can start sending us a bill as well. In the U.S. I guess this would be equivalent to city tax which pays for garbage, etc. Did I mention I feel like I’m hemorrhaging money? We thought we would ask there where we pay our television license. This question sent the three council employees into a state, well they didn’t know they just paid with their debit card. They never said WHO they paid with their debit card. The woman said that three times until I said, “We aren’t from the UK. We’ve never had to buy a television license before”. Finally they understood that this was a foreign concept to us and told us to go online and search for tv license and we would find the necessary information. I did and £139.00 later (close to $300) we are the proud owners of a “colour” television license.

I thought about asking the family if they would mind going vintage for a black and white license at the fraction of the cost but I would run the risk of mutiny.

Will We Die Without Internet???

We have been relying on the public library for internet but it was down Tuesday. It seems like setting up services takes a mighty long time or we are just very impatient. We ordered internet on Monday and it won't be installed until the 2nd of July.

Monday was a Bad Day

On Monday we did nothing but some errands and waited for another IKEA delivery. A actually said at one point she hated this place because the day was filled with nothing but waiting for things. H chalks it up to television and internet withdrawal. She is moody as heck and having been a single parent for the past ten months, he has little patience for it.

Putting Together the Furniture

To quote A, “there’s a bed in here somewhere, we just have to find it”. Well, we sat and watched H do his magic.

What Our Days Are Like...

Here is an idea of what our days have been like since the family’s arrival in the UK.

Wednesday – They arrive about 8:30am. Our first shipment from IKEA arrives at about 9:30am. H puts together our bed, which is the first bed with an actual headboard that we have ever had in our eighteen years of marriage. Some things have just never seemed important. We walk to our High Street (town centre) which is a little over a mile away to get food and back. With jet lag this does them in so most of the rest of the day is sleeping.

Thursday I go into work for a quick meeting. When I get back they are finally moving due to their schedules being severely out of whack. We take the tube to IKEA and we spend over three hours in a store. H and I have NEVER been shopping for that long. We are all completely wiped out by the time it is over. If you have never been to IKEA before, you get to walk through all the pretty showrooms and write down what you want to buy but THEN you have to go pick it all out of the warehouse and put it on trolleys. It was a good thing there was three of us because that’s how many trolleys we had full of flat-packed boxes of furniture. Most of the furniture requires assembly so as we were stacking things up I was thinking about the number of projects H just bought for himself.

We went and got them library cards Friday morning and used the internet and then we went to Hemel Hempstead on the bus in the afternoon. Without a car we are getting a lot of (needed) exercise getting to public transportation. Here we look at televisions and walk around some stores pricing various items. Now that we are all here we need to stop converting everything in U.S. dollars because it just scares us!

I recently read this book called Longitude by Dava Sobel and since we have no television or internet, H read it after me. After reading this book we were both interested in seeing the clocks that were created to solve the longitude problem. They are housed at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich which is also the prime meridian point. So Saturday we went there. While this should have been a nice outing, it wasn’t. At some point each of us was in a bad mood, never at the same time thank goodness. I can’t speak for the others but I just feel exhausted. While I felt a bit settled into English life, setting up house has made me feel like a foreigner once again. More about the Royal Observatory later...

Sunday we needed the internet. Since the library was closed I suggested we go to Starbucks which I thought offered free internet. Well, they don’t and the prices were ridiculous. As we walked down the street we noticed a local coffee shop did, but after we made our purchases, we found out that it was down this particular day. We traveled to my office instead so A could email her “best-ies” as she calls them, and we could shop for a television and internet package. We also did some internet grocery shopping. With a £4.75 delivery charge (a little over $9.00), this is a good deal for us since getting a taxi back from the store would be a lot more expensive. We also don’t have the impulse purchase temptation.

So it’s now Monday and it’s 6:30am. Our purchases from our Thursday IKEA trip will arrive today along with our groceries. We have a list of other things to do today. I can’t wait until we are a little more settled.