Catching Up

We watched the Catonsville 4th of July Parade. For once, it wasn't an unbearably hot and humid day. It was breezy and slightly overcast.

We travelled to downtown Baltimore to watch the fireworks at Sam and Liz DiPaola's house on the harbor. The show was spectacular.

We took the Metro down to the National Zoo. Owen practiced his pole dancing or maybe he is practicing to become a whirling dervish.

We actually saw a real panda at the zoo as well.

And lastly, we went to Ocean City for the day and visited with Clan Malarkey.

Moving In Day

Our shipment arrived yesterday unexpectedly. It was scheduled for this coming Monday. I was completely asleep at 8:30 am (the joys of bigger kids!) when our very loud doorbell (which is actually a bell) clanged throughout the house. There were the movers! I had fallen asleep in my clothes the night prior, so I was dressed and didn't look too disheveled. A very funny thing though was that Craig had partaken of a draught beer from a can the evening before and the can was still on the coffee table and then I was stumbling around still half asleep for a bit. I don't know if the movers made the connection, even though I was in no way feeling the effects of a night of partying, just typical Kris in the morning.

Anyway, we have all of our familiar things but they are all in boxes. At least we have real beds and our own comfy mattresses. Finn and Owen are LOVING their own set of bunkbeds each and both opted to sleep on the top bunk of course. Evan's room looks like a palacial estate room including its own en suite sink. Our master bedroom has a bajillion boxes in it and looks like we live out of one room. There's an inequity here, wouldn't you say?

Our Temporary Living Quarters

TLQ is government-speak for "hotel". When we first arrived, we stayed at the Church Court Cottages in Prestbury, a village north of where we live now, but still within Cheltenham. The Cleeve cottage was so awesome, I could have lived there forever. Here are some photos.

Outside

The balcony off of the master suite

Upstairs landing

The Bobsey Twins relaxing in the lounge

This is called a "wet room". It's a full shower directly across from the front door where you can hose down your muddy child or dog or dog-child. I need one of these for everyday use.

The great dining hall of Clan McCarter. It would have been perfect if it was a round table.

Photos!

I am downloading my photos tonight because our biggest of the big boxes arrived in the mail today and I will add any pertinent ones to previous posts, so take a walk down memory lane with photos this time!

No matter where you live...

things remain the same. Would you like to read how British Telecommunications is a lot like Verizon? Well, our landlords were told by BT that we would just be able to assume their phone service including the phone number and remain ex-directory (unlisted). Hmmm, sound suspicious? Well, guess what?? BT said no way when I called, surprise! So then I had to contact Nigel, he had to call from out of the country to cancel the phone service (because BT wouldn't allow me to do it) and they said the account was put on hold and all I had to do was call. Well, I called as soon as the phone was disconnected and requested to reactivate the account and guess what?? BT said no way and that the number was no longer in the system. Soooo, I set up service with a completely different number, had to wait until that was activated (yesterday) and then called BT today to request a number change all the while keeping my fingers crossed that Nigel & Penny's original phone number hadn't been assigned to someone else in the meantime. Thankfully, we now have the original phone number, but the number won't be changed until Friday. So, as of Friday, our number is 01242 231 507. When you call us from the states you dial 011 44 1242 231 507.

What do you say...

when you pass gas? Well, Owen took a poll at the playground the other day after announcing that he had "farted". A child nearby said "'Farted', what does that mean?" and Owen explained. Then, a girl said, "We say, 'Poofed'." Another boy said "pass gas" and then a small child, maybe three years old chirps up and says, "We say, 'Pardon'." CLASSIC!

"Cheers" means thank-you, good-bye, & you're welcome.

When greeting someone on the street, you can say
"Morning/Afternoon/Evening" depending on the
time of day obviously instead of "Hi". "Hello" is used as well.

Some of our favourite words so far: wonky (odd, weird), stroppy (stuck-up, b****y), shuttlecock, adverse camber (a road that enters a main road that is angled opposite from the turn in the road - hard to explain, you need to see it).

We have not heard anyone say "Pip, pip, cheerio" yet and from what we are told, probably never will.

Been There, Done That

I've added a new category to left entitled, you guessed it, "Been There, Done That". We recently joined The National Trust (visit NT at http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/) which allows us to visit a bazillion historic sites and places for FREE! We have already gotten more benefit than our membership cost. So in an effort to catalog and give an overview of places we have visited, we all vote on the place we visited. If it was particularly good, it will get a 5+ rating.

Today, we visited Stonehenge (Evan and Finn's #1 request) and Lacock Abbey where portions of the first two Harry Potter movies were filmed. They were both OUTSTANDING! Impressions of Stonehenge were: smaller than we expected (but still very impressive) and surprised that it is right next to the road. The audio tour was very good.


Lacock Abbey and Village were great. The Abbey has been featured in many films including The Other Boleyn Girl, Emma, & Pride and Prejudice. We discovered that one of the three surviving reprinted (in the 1200's) copies of The Magna Carta was located at Lacock Abbey. It's also the home of the first photograph ever taken using negatives. The village was much like Williamsburg, VA, but the real deal. People dress like they are from the past, but it's actually inhabited by residents, not just existing for tourists. Getting there from Stonehenge wasn't very easy although they are not far from one another in distance.

All they need is their St. Edward's uniforms on and their house colour swim caps!

Yesterday, we visited Chedworth Roman Villa just outside of Cheltenham. It was interesting, but small. However, we just had a few hours to visit it anyway, so it fit well into our schedule. This is a picture of a pigeon mosaic from the floor of one of the baths.