Free Movies for Health

Adobe hasn't been very giving throughout this relocation, but I think they're trying to make up for it. On top of the National Health Insurance that everyone living in the UK has access to, Adobe has us on an added coverage program with Prudential Health. I have to admit--the coverage looks pretty good. On top of the extensive health coverage through PruHealth, this program gives us 50% off of gym memberships and other discounts on concert tickets, etc. The best part though? Free weekly movie tickets for the family!! I've read through all of the fine print and it's true--we get to watch any movie, and time, and PruHealth will pay for it once a week.

Last night, I booked our movie tickets online to see Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs 2 (I even had to pick which seats we'd sit in!) and happily paid £0.00. We drove out to Reading's huge Oracle shopping centre and successfully used our free tickets.

The Oracle shopping centre with River Kennett flowing through the middle

Pre-booked seats...weird!

The theater that we were in was only 10% full, but everyone who came in made a point to check their tickets for their row and seat number. Even while there were tons of seats available around the theater, two families (who didn't know each other) remained seated right next to each other--no one wanted to break the rules of their assignment! The people of England seem to be rule followers...I like it! 

In case some barbarian takes your assigned seat, the concession stand was ready to help you mellow out:

Beeeeeer!

 I'm happy to report that we only got lost once while driving today! Stegen is really enjoying the stoplights--while you're waiting at a red, a yellow light will appear with the red to let you know that it's almost time to go. No more craning our necks to try and figure out when it's our turn!

Ready, Set...

 When we got home from our Reading trip, we got a surprise call from the Duxbury's! Here's the clan chatting with Audrey before Parker and Colin's soccer (or shall I say "football") games:

Well, we're off to check out Oxford tomorrow. It looks like they also have their own Natural History Museum and lots of things for kids to do. We'll be sure to drive by the famous University of Oxford, too!

No video by Audrey today, but in honor of "Movember", Stegen is growing his beard out. Nine days into "Movember" and the beard is looking good...hopefully it's also keeping his cheeks warm!

 

 

Welcome to George Harrison's Backyard

The Beatles' lead guitarist may have died years ago, but I'm feeling quite connected with him at the moment. We toured the little preschool that Dorian will be attending today. As I mentioned in the last post, it's part of the same campus as Audrey's primary school and set in the woods in Henley-on-Thames. It turns out, George Harrison's house (Friar Park estate), which we've driven by quite a few times now, is right behind the woods where Badgemore Primary is set. In fact, the school acquired some of its land when it was given to the county by Harrison's family! Here's the preschool's "woodlands" play area, which is used for outdoor story time and bear hunts, and used to be a part of George Harrison's backyard:

Apparently his wife still lives in the main house on the property--perhaps I'll pop in and say hello?

Anyway, the rest of the rainy day consisted of running uniform errands with Audrey and Dorian. We visited the Clarks store in Maidenhead and got to use some serious foot measuring device. Perhaps this is to distract you from how expensive their shoes are. 

As part of their uniform, the girls have to have three pairs of shoes--black Mary Jane's for the classroom, "trainers" or tennis shoes for outdoor PE, and black "plimsolls" for indoor PE. Audrey's not too happy with how the plimsolls look, but maybe they're meant to be comfortable...?

Plimsolls

We were able to pick up some school polo shirts, cardigans, and a PE shirt for Audrey also. We just need to purchase the grey pinafores, skirts, and tights this weekend to complete the look...I love it!

Well, moving date is just around the corner! Our air container is being delivered on Tuesday, but our sea container has yet to arrive in England. Since Adobe can't rent furniture for us on a short-term basis, they've allowed us to purchase a couple Aerobeds to use until our shipment arrives...how nice of them (sarcasm doesn't help much in this situation, does it?). We're very much looking forward to finally settling in and no longer living out of our suitcases!

A Place for Audrey

I feel like it's the year before my kid is going off to college--will the letter from school come in a big envelope or a small one?? Did she get in? All this hype and the reality is that she's just trying to finish learning how to read and spell fluently...geez. 

As part of the admission process for Oxfordshire County Council, we had to list 3 school preferences, with no guarantee of getting Audrey in to any of them. Since there are only three schools in Henley (well, actually 4, but one is a very religious Catholic school), I just listed the three available with the top two being the ones that were ranked highest for academics. Of course, they wrote today to tell us that Audrey was admitted to our third (and last) preferred school. The first two schools have one Year 1 class each and both are at their class size limit.

So Badgemore Primary it is! We had a visit to the school on Monday and while it's tiny (only 73 students in the entire school), set in the woods, and smells a little moist and animal-y, the staff and head teacher were so warm and welcoming, that I decided to look past all of that. The school curriculum consists of awesome topics like monarchies, the Romans, the Tudors and Stuarts, and they also learn French as a second language. Badgemore is also an accredited Forest School, meaning there's a lot of emphasis on outdoor classroom learning--total plus!

Another plus is that Badgemore has a preschool right next door and starting at age 3, children get 15 hours of free education! Riquesha, Dorian will be in school soon!! We've accepted Audrey's admittance to Badgemore, but are still putting her on the waiting list for our first 2 choices--who wouldn't want their kid going to one of those top-ranking schools? Fingers crossed, but very happy that we've gotten in to a school less than a five minute walk from home.

On another note, we took a 1 mile walk to a new park today. Audrey was such a trooper and didn't whine and complain until our mile walk back home. It still amazes me how much green space you'll find as you walk through towns and villages. There are play structures at most parks, but the fields of green are what really catch your eye. The British people must be very serious about land preservation, considering how little extra they have to work with on this small island country. Whatever their reasons are, we love it!

 

Master Dorian

Living in a country where everything is so much more expensive means that I need to do some detective work and figure out how to get the most bang for my buck (or quid, as we'd say it here). When checking on prices for the Cheeky Charlie's playspace yesterday, I noticed that "advantage" cardholders got quite a deep discount. How does one get an advantage card, you ask? Well, so did I.

Turns out, you need to live in The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead (and prove it), to get a free advantage card--giving you access to a bunch of offers/discounts and even free visits to the Windsor Castle! True, we won't be residents in this borough much longer, but I got us the cards anyway (and they're good for 2 years!).

When the nice lady at Cheeky Charlie's handed me the cards for the kids, I noticed something scary--they knew that Dorian was the one who actually called the shots in this family. Why else would they call him "Master"? Here's what the ever-trustworthy Wikipedia article taught me:

"Master was used in England for men of some rank, especially "free masters" of a trade guild and by any manual worker or servant employee addressing his employer (his master), but also generally by those lower in status to gentlemen, priests, or scholars. After its replacement in common speech by Mister, Master was retained as a form of address only for boys who have not yet entered society. By the late 19th century, etiquette dictated that men be addressed as Mister, and boys as Master."

 A little bit of research quelled my fears--maybe CCTV wasn't installed in our flat after all. Meanwhile, Audrey's back with another quick lesson!

Bonkers

As it gets closer to our move date, Stegen and I are spending the evenings perusing websites and trying to set up our utilities, cable, internet, and insurance. Back home, utilities were easy--PG&E was the place to go for gas and electric, and ACWD took care of the water. Here, there are over 15 websites (one of them is called "confused.com") for the sole purpose of helping you just compare all of your options! The number of energy providers is endless and they range from actual gas companies to grocery chains--bonkers!! 

Insurance doesn't get any easier, but is choosing an insurance company ever easy? We decided to move on to the seemingly less daunting task of setting up our cable and internet services. Come to find out, you not only have to pay your monthly bill to use the internet and watch cable TV, you're charged a "TV Licensing" fee too! Here's the blurb from the TV licensing website detailing (kind of) the reason you need a TV license:

"You need to be covered by a valid TV Licence if you watch or record TV as it's being broadcast. This includes the use of devices such as a computer, laptop, mobile phone or DVD/video recorder.
It costs £145.50 for colour and £49.00 for a black and white TV Licence."

Two hours on our computers and nothing has been settled--we are seriously "confused.com"!

**Note: No picture today! I met up with Mags and got to meet her sweet friend Rachel. We took all of the kids to an indoor play space called Cheeky Charlie's and spent the afternoon chatting. I've noticed that there's a lot less cell phone usage here than there is back in the US--at least when people are hanging out with their kids! Back home, it's rare to see people without their cell phone in hand..they're always either texting or taking pictures. Here, the parents are either engaged with their kids or with the friends that they're with (and people definitely don't use their phones while driving...it's too intense!). Before I knew it, the play date was over and I hadn't snapped any pictures. Audrey will be back with a new video tomorrow, though, so stay tuned.

Weekend Popping Into London

We took our second trip into London this Sunday and managed to only get lost a couple of times! We drove out to Hillingdon Tube station again and hopped on the Piccadilly line to South Kensington for a day at the Natural History Museum (free, again!).

I think it's pretty obvious that we loved the dinosaur exhibit the most, but actually, the entire museum was beautiful and full of interesting rooms and halls to explore. The Brits really know how to do "free museums" right--this must be why the kids here are so smart! The museum was packed with people from all walks of life--little kids gawking at the dinosaurs, couples exploring Earth's history, older folks falling asleep on benches (just kidding!), and groups of photographers doing some serious work (at least it looked scholarly!). We were even invited to the marine biology room to see a puppet show about woodland animals! The museums are so accommodating to children and the insane amounts of exposure to history and higher-level thinking (even if they're not really paying attention) will be so beneficial for Audrey and Dorian. I may still miss home, but this was a big reminder of why we agreed to uproot our lives in the first place.

And to be closer to Stegen's dream of one day owning a McLaren:

We'll take it!

 Since our kids still have a ways to go before they're tame and mellow like the other kids we see walking around, we only got to admire Harrods from its beautiful exterior. I'm sure GG and I will get to have a nice, long shopping trip when she comes to visit in a little over a week! Here's Audrey at Harrods, taking a picture with her favorite window display:

 On our drive home, I took on my usual role as GPS and guided Stegen back using Google Maps. For some reason, I've lost my ability to tell my right from my left (which is quite hazardous while trying to give directions at a busy roundabout!). Anyway, aside from dealing with me and my lack of basic, kindergarten skills ("make a right", while gesturing to the left), Stegen also had to listen to me yelp in shock a few times as cars drove by without a passenger in the front seat. Me: "Oh shoot! No one's driving that car!" Stegen: "No, once again, that guy is just driving alone..." Hey, I'm not alone with all these changes--other people need signs too:

Caution: Only works if you know your right from your left!

Another nice trip to the city in the books! We ended the last couple of days with some FaceTime with the family...Jor, I'm downloading Skype as I type this. Beware, I'll be calling you soon!

Tyler, Jessica, and cutest baby ever (Baby Max!)

Dorian chatting with Auntie "Ana" and Uncle Sean

 I hear Gwyneth Paltrow is moving to England with her kids--another potential mom-friend... In the meantime, here's another clip of "30 Seconds With Audrey." Cheers!

Bonfire Night

Tonight we got to celebrate Bonfire Night (aka Guy Fawkes night)--all around Maidenhead (and the rest of the country), there were festivals and fireworks shows! It was very reminiscent of the Fourth of July back home, but while we celebrate our independence from Great Britain, the Brits celebrate the capture of Guy Fawkes and ending his plan to blow up the Houses of Parliament.

 One of the best things about living in England has been how close everything is to each other. Because of this (and the obscene prices for parking around town), most people walk--and so do we! I can honestly say that had there been a fireworks show back home, we'd likely be driving there and even more likely to skip out on it considering how tired we were when it was due to start. There's just something about having to pack two bundled up children into a small car that makes me want to curl up into fetal position and cry. Thankfully, the show was only a 10-minute walk away--we pulled on our boots, threw on our coats and scarves, and took a nice stroll into town.

We also got the opportunity to FaceTime with my grandpa this evening. Here's Audrey saying hi to Tai Gong:

 
Other than the nighttime bonfire festivities and FaceTime chat, we spent the day running errands, getting Stegen's hair cut, and buying everyone some new shoes. I think it's worth noting that when we went to get Stegen's shoes, Dorian was having a moment (what's new?) and something crazy happened--the sales lady went cuckoo on him! She was so angry at Dorian that she hopped over our stroller to point her finger in his face and yell, "You're a naughty boy! You stop it right now or I'll lock you in your pushchair! You bad boy!" I was waiting for her to stand back and wink at me (like...mom to mom), but instead, she huffed off and definitely took the whole thing way too personally. I'm pretty sure Nanny 911 would disagree with her parenting style...of other people's children! Seriously!!

Well, in happier news, our celebrity video logger is back! Oh, I love Audrey!

(Sorry again, I don't know why these videos don't work on phones!)