31May2008: Day 7...one week and 51 more to go.

Today we went down to the Charles Dickens festival in Historic Rochester (meaning downtown). They had a parade of people dressed in period costumes and outfits from his novels. It was a nice day of walking around. They had bagpipe band as well. Chris filmed a bunch of it, (but I can't get it off of my video camera yet. I got a new laptop from work and it has the necessary fire wire connection, but I need to get the right cable to make it work.)

We went inside Rochester Castle and got some cool pictures...here are some. The picture of the cathedral was from the top of the castle. The small cottage is Charles Dickens summer cottage that was moved to Rochester sometime in 1973 to preserve it. It was somewhere along the river before. There is also a cool shot from the bottom of the castle looking up. It was interesting to hear all of the history that the castle had and how it was sieged and such. It was built for the Bishop of Rochester who also built Westminster. He was apparently a great architect of his day. though I can remember his name anymore. It has quite a history. All the floors are gone, but the stone remains and the walls at the top are 8 feet thick. It is incredible to think how people must have labored to built it. One of the things Chris found interesting was the well shaft that went down all floors in the center of the castle. You could drop a bucket all the way down to the well from the top most floor and bring water up. Another thing that was interesting was that they had Pigeon roosts at the top of the walls, apparently Pigeons were a food source for them.

Teri wants to go see the Tonbridge castle tomorrow, the Leeds castle is close by as well so we'll hit that up soon.

As you can see it was a beutiful day today. Very nice and not too hot. A nice day for climbing a thousand stairs carrying a 30 lbs baby!

We pushed Makenna pretty hard today and she only broke down towards the end of the day after missing her morning nap and reaching 3:00. So, we were pretty happy she made it that long. She was very good in the Castle for the most part.

30May2008 - What is is Day 6?

Ok, so hope these blogs aren't overbearinly boring as they are somewhat in the mundane, but that is life and we are hoping this will be a good record as to what we have done, even if its boring to you who may be reading this.

Here is a boring note: I got a haircut today. Cost me £13. So, that is $26. Most expensive haircut I've ever gotten, well, next to the one they gave me at my surgery last year.

Today, Teri went to a park with Makenna and our little one managed to get dirt all over her nice pink sweatshirt. She was on a slide and lost her balance and grabbed a dirty portion of the railing and managed to drag her coat along it. Teri cleaned it for the most part, but suppose that that will happen quite alot.

It was actually a nice day though and we managed to get some clothes dried on the line, there is still clothes all over the place in here trying to get the last bit of moisture out of them, but it is much better than yesterday.

Chris got out of work early and went up to Rochester downtown to the NatWest office to try to get our bank account figured out. They didn't have any checks yet or anything and he called the bank person in charge and they said they would not have anything until at least late next week. He also signed up for a credit card, so we'll see when that gets done. We're still draining our accounts back home pretty good, so we'll probably have to transfer some british funds back to the states...not sure how to do that, but we're sure the bank would love to charge us a fee to make that happen. Luckily Chris is on expenses right now so, we think we should be able to get money back for that fee.

There is a Charles Dickins festival going on in Rochester right now. Everyone is walking around in period garb and there is food and stuff for sale everywhere. It was amazing to see the castle today in the sun, but he didn't have a camera. We're going to go down there again tomorrow as it is supposed to be more going on then. We'll take some pictures and post a couple.

Many of you may know of Chris' addiction to Sam's Club, well we found a Costco here and joined. It is just like home, only, well who knows if anything is really a good deal because we just don't know the prices yet. Teri is going on the theory that if the price in pounds sterling is the same as what would be a good deal in dollars, then it is probably a good deal. Of course, that means it is really 2x the cost but its a good theory to work from. No A1 steak sauce here which is a real dissappointment, but they had these monsterous bottles of HP sauce with is like Heinz 57 Chris thinks. Anyway, we didn't get any on this trip. But, we did get a bunch of staples - not staples like a stapler...staples like soap, shampoo, and cereal...try to keep up. But, speaking of staples, this time really staples, I didn't see any there...(wierd...where on earth am I going to get staples now! If I buy them at Staples, the store this time, in non-bulk size, I will have to buy them again sometime before I die. Oh well. The sacrifices one makes for one's job! Are staples a reasonable busines expense? Wait, I have a stapler at work! I'll just pilfer some for now...oh wait...we forgot to pack the stapler. Dang it. Never mind. ...sorry for the side track, I guess I'm tired. ) So Makenna of course freaked out in the store because she wants to "Wa". What the heck is Wa! Wa! Wa!...well of course it is walk. Not just walk with us kind of walk though, walk wherever she wants to walk kind of walk. So that was pure joy. She was hungry though so, Teri went to get her some pizza and she calmed down.

She was hungry because we had left the house around 5, thinking we could get there in about 30 minutes according to the GPS. 2 hours later and we still aren't there. The traffic was really bad and we got lost so many times it wasn't funny, we just could not find the place on the GPS and it kept leading us all over creation with us blindly following. (I got so fed up of hearing it say: "turn around...when convenient", and "pass through the round about, second exit" in the nice Brit accent I picked for it. Oh if you don't know about round abouts, picture the Johnson City circle every 1000 ft. Everywhere. Really...it's amazing people don't die every second. I suppose it's efficient, but Teri mostly closes her eyes when I'm driving as it is like russian rulette if there are a lot of cars going through...ok...wait...ok...wait...ok,ok,ok,...go go go...ah! wait. BEEEP! GO!...It's nuts.) We stopped for directions and to fill up on gas and a nice guy there said we could follow him. (By the way, I haven't run into a person here that isn't willing to go out of his way to help you if you need it. Very Very nice people these Brits!) So we finally made it and Makenna was screaming for joy when she got out of that seat, literally screaming for joy. It was funny. Not so funny when she kept right on doing it into the store, but funny...before that.

So, we packed the back of the little car with bulk cheerios and 1000 lbs. of chicken and bbq sauce and headed home. We got home in less than 30 minutes. GPS' are great when you know where you are going and can judge if it is telling you something bogus because it decided Chris wanted to go back to work all on its own and he had to ignore it half way through. Teri was like: "didn't it just say third exit on the round about? This is the second one." Chris was like: "Just close your eyes. You'll be home soon." And she was.

29May2008: Day 5 - Rain central

Ok so they tell Chris at work that this area is normally the driest spot in England. If that is true then the rest of the country must be a swamp because it hasn't stopped drizzling for more than a couple hours since we got here. Teri went out with Makenna again and walked to a Library, but the children's section was down a flight of stairs and she was pushing a stroller so she decided to go to the Maidstone Museum. She managed to walk around a little bit, but it was hard to look at anything for more than a moment because Makenna was on the move constantly. They had old war memorabilia and some large paintings that were interesting, but not to Makenna of course.

bb bb fggfxdxfdd zzxz <--- Makenna says hi!

She is on my lap right now as I type and she is very nervous and quiet. She is about to go to bed and she knows it. We're not really used to this because she always used to love to go to bed, now, she doesn't resist necessarily, but she is very nervous.

Chris met with the HR person today to get a cash advance...they only pay monthly (on the 24th) and it is worked out to be expensive to pull money out of the bank at home. So, they are arranging something. We also discussed extending our time in the temporary housing here and they are ok with that. I also asked wether or when I will be changing cars. I'm sure they will need to give this thing an oil change and I wanted to see if I could get a better gas mileage car. This is a small car and it is only getting 23-25 mpg...and these gallons are 20% bigger than ours - Imperial Gallon. So, I don't want to drive this one much longer.

So we thought we would get out to Costco today, but of course I got home late so we ended going to New Orleans restaurant and got horrible service. But, Makenna really liked her pasta though she can deal with the wait for her meal, so we always have to take her for a walk. Anyway, we won't be going there again any time soon...the food was just ok. I get out of work tomorrow at 1:00 I hope, so I'm hoping to get a haircut (wasn't able to make time before we left) and get our new check book from the bank and then go to Costco.

28May2008 - Day 4 - I think

So today was another work day for Chris and he was busy all day. He received a call from the realtor and she is setting up viewings for next Tuesday. She showed us a listing yesterday for a place with a pool close to work and we were all excited about it, but apparently it is under contract now. They will let us know if it falls through. So, well, we've been looking online quite a bit as has the realtor and she has discovered the reason why Chris didn't do this on his own - there aren't many furnished places online in the price range we want. Apparently, they have no better vision than we do into this problem, so we're wondering what benefit they bring to the table aside from doing the setting up the appointments and such, but we guess that frees us from some work. Anyway, we will be looking next Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday or some such thing. So hopefully we will find something.

Teri went for another walk with Makenna today to try to find a park. She managed to find an empty field where she thought the park would be and it started raining more so she decided to return. She has been experimenting with the clothes washer and it doesn't even come close to comparing to our machine at home. This thing basically does 3 pairs of jeans max and it take 2.5 hours to complete. So we will be constantly doing clothes. Also, there is no dryer so we have to hang everything, so we have clothes draped everywhere right now trying to dry. Teri tried hanging my jeans out to dry, but it was misting and they basically got more wet. Teri is quite upset with the situation, so we will probably move from this place to another since we will likely be in temporary housing for at least another two weeks we think.

Makenna went to sleep more easily tonight, but she was very tentative about it. Almost crying when she had to go up. She misses her own room terribly. It is quite heartbreaking to see her so upset and scared. She was ok though once she got up there and Teri read her a book or two or three...

We got a cell phone for Teri from my work today. It's an old phone, but now she is connected and Chris can get a hold of her now, which is good. Chris hooked up the GPS to his phone through bluetooth today, so now he can make and receive hands free calls to people while he is in the car.

Food is becoming a problem, you don't really have large fridges here, everything is small, like half the size your would have in the US. Teri made salad and spaghetti today and she didn't have enough bowls and pans and such to do much more than that. This place is just not that well stocked.

Anyway, it is late again. We are thinking of going to Costco tomorrow which is a Sam's club type place. We can get some bulk items, but we are already going to have to rent a "lorrie" (truck) to get us out of here, or take 5 trips. Oh well.

27May2008 Day 3, First Day of Work for Chris

Ok, so I realized that I didn't do the dates right on the last two blogs...so we didn't skip a day, just getting the date right.

Makenna didn't sleep too well initially, she kept on waking up. Chris responded to one of her crying spells to find her head draped over the back of the bed. For some reason she wasn't able to get herself out of it, so we packed in more pillows and quilts to make it harder for her to get scrunched up at the top of the bed and she was fine after that.

Chris started work today at BAE Systems. He had an uneventful day of running around trying to get setup. But, he has a work cell phone now, so we are not quite as isolated. We bought a SIM card that allows us to do international calls fairly inexpensively (us is only 5pence per minute - about $.10) . They have an extra phone that we are going to borrow from work for the SIM card so Teri will be hooked up soon. We won't put the number on this blog because it is not secure, but we will send it out at some point when we know it.

We traided in our minivan for a Vauxhall Astra. Vauxhall is the European GM brand name. There are also a lot of Fords around. I really wanted a Ford Focus, but I'll have to work on that.

Teri and Makenna walked down into town and around which was quite a long walk. She noticed how much people smoke. Luckily they are not allowed to smoke in public places anymore, so that is good. You just have to walk through the fog of smoke when you are first entering into any place. We tried to go to several malls this evening to look for a jacket for Chris, but they were all closed. Everything closes down at 5:00pm or 6:00pm. It is nuts.

We went to Thomas Wyatt Beefeaters and of course we had beef, well Teri did and Chris didn't for a change. Anyway, it was pretty good and when Makenna was eating she was quite happy, but when she wasn't she was screaming at the top of her lungs. Chris had to take her out a couple of times to calm down in between courses.

Makenna still doesn't want to sleep when we first put her down and she cries so Teri lies with her for a while until she goes to sleep. She seems very nervous and is chewing the corners off of the afghan blanket Julie made for her (her favorite blanket by the way...she doesn't sleep without it - thanks Julie.) Anyway she is finally asleep now and Teri and I are going to watch a little bit of TV and then go to sleep. I forgot to photograph the house, but I'll try to remember in the morning.

Oh well, enough for today.

25May2008 Day 2 in the UK

We managed to survive the night, but Makenna woke up in the middle of the night crying, she had fallen of the bed. We had the mattress on the floor, but she was confused and scared. We ended bringing her mattress into our bedroom and Teri tried to sleep with her for a couple hours of her chatting and hitting Teri in the face. Finally, I told her to just get into her own bed and we will see how she does. Well, wouldn't you know it, the little pill fell right asleep, I mean: IMMEDIATELY. And there she slept all night. Waking me up in the morning with a Hi! and a wave. She is so cute.

I slept at least 12 hours that night, I had only gotten maybe 20 hours of sleep in the last 5 days, so it was a good recovery. Darren and Andrea showed up right at 11:00 and we went out to do some shopping and touring. We went to an "Argos" which here is like the old Service Merchandise was, catalogs and they bring the stuff down on a belt from the warehouse upstairs. We bought power converters and some nightlights and looked for a Gate to block off the stairs, but they were out. We next went to High Street and there are all sorts of small shops and pubs. Nice area to walk around, but it was windy and somewhat cold (I forgot my coat - borrowing Teri's, but its a girls coat - zipper on the wrong side...somehow I think I'm in for it though because Darren said: you don't want people at work knowing you where women's clothes!). Anyway, we looked for a gate and bought some more power converters at the equivalent of Radio Shack here.

We then went to Rochester Cathedral and Castle. Amazing! The castle is just a husk, but the Cathedral is absolutely amazing. Not quite like the Westminster Abbey (I saw this last year when I was here) with its amount of ancient statues, crypts, and busts, but just as huge and the stained glass is stunning. I need to go back during a service, but they were doing an evensong practice. I took a quick video with the camera, which I will try to post and some pictures. Well the pictures worked. I'll try the video...It is sideways, but you can here some music which is nice.

Well hopefully that will work, anyway, it was really humbling to see such an amazing place. Here is a snapshot of the Castle.

Anyway, Darren and Andrea were very gracious to show us all these things and we thank them very much.

We then went to have lunch at a local pub. It was OK, but nothing interesting. Makenna decided she had had enough with all of this, so we left quickly and headed back home. Darren showed us where I am going to start working tomorrow and also a cheaper grocery store. We bought a gate at Toy's R Us so, we were all set with purchases (I need to get a coat at some point, but not today). We got back home and immediately all of us fell asleep. Makenna wouldn't wake up later when we tried to get ready to go to dinner. Makenna loves Chinese food, though and eventually we coaxed her out of her slumber and she loved dinner. Paid the equivalent of $60 for a Chinese buffet here (they didn't even charge us for Makenna - it is going to be a while before I just don't care.)

Then home, Makenna repeating "Nuts!" again many times as I drove setting off the beeping thing: see 25May post. (Good riddance vehicle tomorrow). Makenna is all set with the sound make and nightlight and a gate keeping her from falling down the stairs and is soundly asleep right now after initially being incredibly upset, but Teri slept with her for a time and calmed her down. Let's hope she stays that way.

24May2008 Arrival In UK

It was a hectic day of running around getting ready, but we managed to get to the airport. Teri's brothers followed us up and helped us get the 7 suit cases and 7 carry ons into the airport and tagged without names and shipped off. I had no idea how we were going to get the bags around the airport once we got to London Heathrow, but it was all we could do to get what we needed into those bags, so there was no reducing. We had my video camera case, and my roller laptop bag filled up with a DVD player and numerous other electronics, Teri's carry on bag and laptop bag, Makenna's diaper bag, a bag of books and food, carseat, and stroller. We later saw someone with a suitcase roller with a car seat (with child) strapped in and we though that was a good idea, but the stroller actually turned out to be a good carrier for several of the bags, but carrying the car seat was tough. I later figured out that putting the car seat on the roller bag was the easiest way to carry that thing. Car seats are not designed for carrying at all!

Makenna did really well on the first flight (to Washington) without any problems. Teri on the other hand nearly couldn't contain her stomach after the shaking we had on our approach. I didn't even really notice it, but Teri hasn't flown as much. Makenna seemed fine as well. Aside from having troubles getting the car seat unhooked after the first flight (the captain came back and beat on for a few minutes without luck...I got it lose after she went for maintenance) the flight was uneventful. Makenna had leaked out her diaper so this was the first change of clothing for the day. Once we got to Washington Makenna did ended up throwing a fit when we tried to feed her some pizza. She has been very finicky about food recently, foods she used to love, don't meet her taste anymore. Anyway, we eventually got her settled and onto the plane to London. We had a pretty good flight, Makenna didn't fuss at all. I think she is used to being in the car seat and realizing she just isn't going to get out so she settled in very well. We noticed about 2 hours into the flight that she was completely soaked through. We had been feeding her water to keep her ears popping and we didn't think that she would blow out her diaper, but apparently so. I was on the end so, I ended up changing her in the batthroom. It had a drop down panel and she loved standing on it and looking in the mirror as I changed her. This was the second clothes change of the day, but it was also the last change of clothes we had available, so from then on we were watching her diaper loading very carefully.

We arrived at the Airport and loaded the suitcases on two carrying carts, I pushed on with about 5 bags on it and pulled one with two more and some carry-ons distributed. We made one guy laugh when he commented at our train of stroller, person, cart, person, cart and we said we thought it was enough stuff for the week we would be here. Teri, helped guide the front one, but strollers are impossible to steer with one hand!

We made it to the Hertz rental car place eventually and found a car that was about the size of a Honda civic was reserved for us. I had told them I would need a big car based on what we were taking, I guess the thought that was a big car. If you look at some of the matchbox cars they drive over here, you can see why. We then arranged for a small minivan like vehicle...ford galaxy. Sounds big right, well it really isn't and we were packed in there. There was probably enough room for another large suitcase and us to sit comfortably though. Anyway, we tried calling the agent for the house we are renting for the first couple of weeks and no answer, but I left a message trusting that they would be there one hour after we called. It was good we had bought a GPS because I would have no clue how to get around, even with the GPS I tend to take wrong turns, but the GPS then recalculates and gets you back on track. I made Teri incredibly nervous as I drove and she asked me "Aren't you nervous?", I said "I won't be until I do something stupid which almost gets us killed." Five minutes later I had almost killed us...twice.

We ended up waiting about 10minutes before the guy showed up in a driveway that is sided with brick walls which put the walls within a foot of the car door on either side. (I'll take a picture and put it up as an attachement response) We found out that the minivan has these nice beeps that come on whenever you are getting close to something. Well those beeps are really handy let me tell you...unfortunately, you are always close to something. Makenna's picked up this new thing: "beep!" "beep" "beep!". And she has really perfected the word "Nuts!" with extremely clear diction. Car says "Beep! Beep! Beep!", Dad says: "Nuts!", Makenna's say "NUTS! NUTS! NUTS!". Tuesday, work is going to give me a smaller car.

Once we got in and settled a bit into our small new home. We set out to explore the area a bit. We found a grocery store and spent the equivalent of $57 on some cereal, bread, milk, water, a couple other things and apparently air. Little did we know we had to pay for the air we breath over here, either it is that or they feed the cows and chickens here gold! I swear to you that 100 grams (5 slices) of chicken luncheon meat was the equivalent of $5.00. No joke. It is ridiculous. We went home somewhat concerned that we were going to be out of money well before I get my first paycheck in two weeks, but I'm sure we will make it. Anyhow, a person from my work, Darren and his girlfriend Andrea showed up once we got back to the house with groceries in hand as a gift, which was very nice and they told us that the grocery store we went to is the priciest in town. So, now we have plenty of groceries. They offered to take us out exploring tomorrow and we took them up on the offer. They are going to pick us up at 11:00 am and we will go.

We are without cell phones and it is amazing how much we rely on those things. We will have to get one tomorrow. Also, the power converter I bought from radio shack doesn't work, so Makenna is going to not be happy sleeping in a strange place without a sound machine, or a nightlight.

Oh well...at least we made it. Oh yeah, Makenna bumped her head a million times today (well at least 4 times) falling tripping on stuff. We picked everything up, but she still insists on tripping on the smallest of steps. The big scare for us was that we were off doing something for one minute and she was up at the top of the stairs before we caught her...incredibly steep, all wood stairs. I nearly killed myself running up them as she started to do her favorite thing now whenever we say "Makenna Stop!", which is: "hop! hop! hop!" as she stands up and bounces up and down. Ugh. She's going to kill me.