Night Train

This week flew by! We're currently sitting on a high-speed train to London--it's 8:29pm! We'll be spending two nights at a bed and breakfast with my in-laws and visiting some more of what London has to offer before they head back to California in a little over a week. 

Today was the first day in almost two months that Stegen was able to work from home. His VPN isn't quite set up yet, but he made do on his laptop and got some nice visits from Dorian at his home office.

Audrey has settled so well into school life and has made quite a few little friends. I've met many wonderful "mums" on our morning walks to school and run into them often around Henley town centre--I really enjoy small town living! 

GG has been busy walking into town during the week and getting us ready for Christmas--thank you, Mom! Here are Audrey and Dorian snuggling in the lounge.

 Turkey's are obscenely expensive here, so for Thanksgiving, we cooked up a nice, little chicken instead. The pastry shop in town made a beautiful cake for our celebration. It wasn't pumpkin pie, but it was delicious!

We hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! 

To Be, Or Not To Be...Blogging

I'm starting to get lazy with my blogging...It's a little like my many attempts to maintain a diary--I start strong, lose my way, start a new book, lose steam again, and end up with 5 diaries with an entry each. It's a good thing this blog is on one continuous page!

The last 4 days have been spent settling into the house and getting used to getting the kids ready for school (and hopefully not leave the house late and have to run uphill to Badgemore). Audrey is getting the hang of dressing herself in school uniform in the (freezing cold) mornings and changing into PE clothes (a burgundy Badgemore t-shirt, black bike shorts, and black plimsolls). She will be having her first day of Forest School this Tuesday where the kids change into their outdoor gear (warm trousers, jumpsuit, waterproof jacket, and Wellingtons aka rain boots) and go into the forest on campus to explore and learn. Dorian's preschool is in the process of building an outdoor learning area, which will include an outdoor mud kitchen, reading space, and bug hotel--he'd better get over his fear of spiders soon!

One of the main attractions in Henley-on-Thames--other than its picturesque beauty--is the wonderful River and Rowing Museum. GG, Grandpa, Dorian, and I walked to the museum this week and got to enjoy their beautiful "Wind in the Willows" exhibit, as well as their extensive collection of all things rowing. I'm very excited to experience my first Royal Regatta this summer, as the race takes place right through Henley's expanse of the River Thames. Here's my father-in-law brushing up on his trireme rowing skills:

This weekend, my in-laws rented a car for us to take a leisurely drive to Oxford and Stratford-upon-Avon--Shakespeare's hometown. The kids found another opportunity to play in the red phone booths of England:

In town centre was the home where Shakespeare was born and spent most of his early childhood. Here we are at the entrance to his beautiful home:

The best part of the tour was when Audrey and I unexpectedly walked in on three actors reenacting Romeo and Juliet--Audrey's first encounter with Shakespeare's work and she really enjoyed it. The actors would act out a scene from any Shakespeare play that the visitors asked for...Macbeth was amazing! Here's Audrey taking a picture with them after they completed their Romeo and Juliet scene:

During the tour, we learned that beds were quite a sign of wealth back in Shakespeare's time. A bed would usually cost about £8 and while that doesn't sound like much, learning that their annual pay was roughly £20 really put things into perspective. Because of this, only the rich would have beds in their homes (including William Shakespeare's family) and many would have one at the window of their downstairs living room, to show off to neighbors passing by. Here's a picture of one of the beds in the house:

If you look closely, you'll see that there is a rope coming through the side of the bed frame and also a bit under the mattress. Rather than having wooden or metal slats under the mattress as many modern beds have today, the mattresses of these beds were held up with a weave of ropes. A special wooden stick would be inserted into the holes on the sides of the bed frame and twisted to tighten the ropes and keep the mattress from sagging--hence the term "sleep tight."

As part of the tour ticket, we got to drive a mile out of town to visit Anne Hathaway's home. Anne Hathaway (not the actress) was Shakespeare's wife and lived in a beautiful cottage with her family. 

After touring around her quaint living quarters and freaking out on the thin, creaking floorboards upstairs, we made our way around her massive gardens. Stegen found his favorite quote and sculptures during our walk:

It was a nice weekend of taking in history and I'm hoping Audrey will have a deeper appreciation for Shakespeare when she gets to that unit in high school. For now, she can just enjoy the ride.

Reconnected And It Feels So Good

Short post today as I am so exhausted, my fingernails hurt. We finally got our sea shipment delivered yesterday and with the help of my awesome mother-in-law, we got all of the beds made and most of the decorations put up by the end of the day. It's starting to feel like home!

As happy as we were to have all of our things back, we were less than happy with the actual moving process with this particular crew. The men were nice enough, but after having a late start and having me make tea for them 3 times, they proceeded to tell us at 3pm that due to the EU working time directive, they'd be leaving at 5 to fulfill their required 9.5 hours of rest. At that point, the beds had been assembled, but most boxes were still packed and strewn everywhere. We all frantically jumped in and started to unload boxes so that we could get rid of all of the debris.

At 4:40, the crew stopped and the lead mover had me sign the papers. He suggested we just unpack the rest of the boxes ourselves and throw the boxes outside--no big deal. Stegen's desk was not assembled and 6 big boxes were still in his office unopened. He rushed me to sign the paperwork without a final walk-through and breezed out of the door without picking up all of the bits and pieces of debris throughout the house.

Stegen needed his desk put together immediately because we had the internet company coming the next day. Instead of the "white glove" service that we were promised, we ended up with a mess and stayed up until 1am putting the desk together and unpacking the rest of the boxes. After unpacking all of the boxes, we found that I was missing a single shoe and our Xbox 360, remotes, and Apple TV had all suddenly vanished too.

I've been in contact with the corporate side of the moving company and they are beginning a full "investigation" of the Xbox disappearance. I hope they figure things out soon--mama ain't happy!

Other than that, the house is fantastic and our things fit beautifully into it (I'll post pictures soon). Audrey is flourishing at Badgemore and we've been told that she may be taking a few of her subjects with the Year 2 students since she's performing above standard! This is the beauty of attending a school with such a small student body--the teachers have the time and resources to really get to know their students and keep them challenged. She also just found out today that she has been cast as one of the four angels in their upcoming Christmas musical. I seriously love it here.

Dorian has also been loving his preschool and always cries hysterically when I try to take him home--is he trying to tell me something?

Anyway, our internet is up and I no longer feel like a cave woman. A full night's rest on a comfy bed and I'll be back tomorrow with pictures and a smarter post!

Freedom

Well, it's official--I have three full hours of alone time every Monday and Wednesday! Dorian started his very first day of preschool at Badgemore today and not only did he love it, he flipped out when I came to take him home. Here he is huffing his big backpack up the hill with GG:

The highlight of Audrey's day was being able to buy a hot school "dinner" (otherwise known as "lunch" in America). Apparently "tea time" used to actually be a time when everyone stopped to have tea and is now more generally used to refer to dinner as we know it in the States...confusing.

Anyway, we got to spend another wonderful day exploring London. Here are some highlights:

Westminster Abbey was closed for Sunday services, but we were able to admire the beautiful display of Poppy Fields for Rememberance Day.

On our way back to Henley, we stopped at the Paddington Station pasty stand and had a warm, flaky pocket of piping hot chicken and chorizo. Whoa--it was amazing. It's also probably the reason why I'm breaking out and barely able to fit in my jeans today!

We also got to do a little shopping for the kids' Christmas gifts--this one might be a serious front-runner:

After a month and a week of not seeing our furniture, we'll be reunited tomorrow! Hallelujah!

Reunited

GG and Grandpa arrived!! GG and I walked to school to surprise Audrey and what a reunion it was:

We went out to The Three Tuns, a local pub (finally, Jor!), and had what my father-in-law has declared to be "the best pot pie...ever"--and I agree! 

After spending the night spread out on the floors of the house on AeroBeds, we woke up and made a spontaneous decision to spend the night in London. After taking the Tube to Paddington Station (we don't have a car anymore), we chatted with a train station attendant and got advice on where to look for a decent hotel. We happened upon The Cardiff Hotel, just a block away from the station--small and quaint...and expensive enough to remind us that yep, we're in London!

We had two tired kids...

...but we dropped our bags off and kept on truckin'. We took the tube to Westminster station and, since it gets dark so early, had a beautiful "night" walk around Big Ben, the London Eye, and the Parliament Building. Prior to moving, Audrey and I did a little image search of England online and she really took to a beautiful photo of Big Ben. Her excitement when we rounded the corner and saw the tall building was awesome--another reminder that we did the right thing. 

I was so happy to be able to share a piece of London with my mom all the way back in California, too. Thank you, Apple! We love you, Mom!

Even having travelled Europe before, we were all still in awe at every turn--do we really live in England now?? 

We also stumbled upon a Christmas Faire along the river past the London Eye.  £2 ($3) gets you a photo with Santa...I gotta get on this gig next winter! 

It was a long and wonderful night with my in-laws and we're getting ready to hit the streets of London again today (and hopefully get some homework done with Audrey). We're hoping to explore Westminster Abbey, The Tower of London, Picadilly Circus, and whatever else the kids can handle--they did really well yesterday, so fingers crossed! 

Our internet should be installed on Wednesday, but I'm hoping to go to Cafe Nero in Henley to update the blog on Monday. For now, thank you Cardiff Hotel for providing the Wi-Fi for today's post!

Disconnected

You never know how dependent you are on technology...until you have no internet for a week!! Our phones have sporadic service out here and internet is installed next week--waahh!

Because of our inability to connect, my blog posts may not be very consistent, but I'll try my best!

Audrey started her first day of school today. I realized when her brave face turned into a frightened and sad face that we've really asked so much of her in the past couple of months. She's had to leave family, friends, and experience the nerve-wracking first day of school twice in three months. That girl is a trooper.

It took us 7 minutes to walk to school--nice! Here's the campus from the outside:

After taking Audrey to school and walking Stegen to the train station, Dorian and I visited the local library and got our cards dialed in. 

While I was at the library, our landlord called me. He found out that we don't currently have any furniture and wanted to bring a table and chairs over so that GG and Grandpa would have a decent place to sit and have dinner. I'm still blown away by the kindness of everyone that we've encountered--it does make missing home a little less heartbreaking.

Camping in Henley

This will be a short post since we dont have internet in our new place until the 20th (waaahhhhh). We officially moved into our house today and our air shipment was delivered. Since the air container isn't big enough for any furniture and Adobe has provided nothing but two Aerobeds, we are on a weeklong camping adventure until our sea shipment clears customs.

Here we are eating dinner...on the floor.

We got to meet some of our neighbors today and I'm blown away by how kind they were. We all chatted for a while and when they found out that we had no furniture, they brought over two of their conservatory chairs for us to use. That is awesome. Thanks, Richard and Leslie!

Next week can't come soon enough! 

Skeleton Keys Galore

It's been a month since we first moved to the UK and today, we got the keys to our house! It's interesting how rental properties are handled here--the owner pays for an "inventory" when you move in, and you have to pay to have an "inventory" when you move out. This is performed by an independent inventory clerk who takes pictures of just about every aspect of the property, notes any and all defects, and sends both the landlord and the tenant a 20-page report with all of his findings. At the end of the lease, the inventory clerk performs another inspection and is the only one who can determine whether or not any money needs to be deducted out of the tenant's deposit--what a nice system! 

Anyway, we were happy to see the house again and reassured that even though we were spending way too much money, we were getting what we paid for (sorta). We got to meet the owners for a few moments on the driveway (such a sweet, old couple!), and found a special note from them in the kitchen:

We should've done this for our tenants too!

 We toured the house with the inventory clerk, and signed for our keys...our skeleton keys! Stegen got a good kick out of these:

After we finalized our walk-through, we were left to soak it all in--this is our home for the next few years! Stegen found his favorite spot (and mine!) in the beautiful conservatory. 

This will be the kids' play room

Now that we officially had a place to call home, we decided to take full advantage of our last few days with a rental car and booked it over to Costco to stock up on essentials.

Since it gets dark at 4:30pm these days and the UK seems to have something against street lights, we drove home in total, rainy darkness--scary. If that weren't scary enough, our new rental van was a manual, with gears still in the same placement as they are back home, but on your left hand side! When we finally pulled into our parking space, Stegen and I had to sit in the car for a few extra minutes to decompress. Will we ever get used to the driving??

 We have a few more errands to run before our air shipment gets delivered tomorrow...and we fully plan on doing it all before it even gets remotely dark!

I Heart Oxford

We made our way to Oxford today and what a beautiful day it was to visit! The town was bustling with Armistice Day and Remembrance Day festivities and the weather was just right. Oxford is like a mellow version of London--double decker buses were everywhere, free museums here and there, and architecture that makes your mouth drop--all without the crazy congestion of Central London's traffic. Stegen and I decided we would make it our goal to move to Oxford one day...until we found out it had been voted one of the most expensive towns in the UK. We'll just have to settle for one-off visits then!

We had initially planned a day in Oxford to visit their own (free) Museum of Natural History, but upon our arrival, we discovered that the Museum would be under renovation until February 2014. Here's the beautiful interior of the Museum as we walked through it to get to another museum:

Eating lunch in front of the museum

The Museum of Natural History may have been closed, but we were not disappointed. Signs within the museum led us to a separate wing where the Pitt Rivers Museum is housed (click if you want to see some of the exhibits!). This museum cares for the University of Oxford's anthropology and world archaeology collections--and the collections are impressive! 

On the second floor (or what they call the first floor) of the Pitt Rivers Museum

We didn't find the main entrance to the University, but I'm not sure there even is one. It seems that the University spans across the entire city of Oxford, with beautiful buildings on every corner and impressive facilities for the students. Audrey says that if she's forced to go to University, she'd like to go to Oxford--keep dreaming baby!

Entrance to the huge Oxford University park

The remainder of the day was spent running around to various Marks & Spencer stores (a nicer version of Macy's...but with a grocery department!) trying to buy the rest of Audrey's uniform. I'm realizing that I may never be able to go back to a non-uniformed school again! Too many kids are distracted during the school day because of what they're wearing or what someone else is wearing. Without these distractions, kids are on an even playing field and the only way to either stand out or be left behind is through academics--just the way it should be. I guess I have 3-5 years to enjoy this hassle-free look before I have to shell out the money to put her in private school back home...or not.

 We finished off the day with some quality FaceTime with the family (Connie, Johann, Sean, Aunt Joyce, and Uncle Chuck) and with our dear friends Will and Anne. Thanks for calling, guys! We miss all of you.