A quiet week

Sorry for the lack of posts this week, there hasn't been much exciting to note! Paul worked all week (except for a half-day Tuesday, see below), and Charlotte and I didn't get out much due to cold, wind, hail (!), & snow. In fact, we woke up this morning to a solid inch of snow outside... not quite the same as Blizzard 2015 that hit the East Coast of the US this week, but it was a wintry wonderland nonetheless.

View out the door of the Old Dairy (Paul had already left, leaving the non-snowy space & tracks!)

We did find out that our applications were approved for renting "House #3." Hooray! We went to the housing office at Alconbury on Tuesday (Paul took a half-day so we could run these errands). Since the government pays for our housing here, they have to do an inspection and review the lease before we sign anything. They called the letting agency and arranged to do the inspection on Wednesday morning. On Wednesday, I missed a call from the housing office guy (seems like people call when I'm putting Charlotte down for a nap, doesn't fail!) then couldn't get a hold of him. Paul did speak with him later in the day, and found out there are a few repairs that need to be made before we sign the lease -- no smoke detectors in the house (!!!), window blinds not up to code (there is a certain level of child safety feature required, which these do not have), and some exposed wiring on a couple of light fixtures. It sounds like the landlord was going to work to fix these issues over the weekend, so the housing office can re-inspect on Monday. We are hoping things are all fixed up, so we can set a date to sign the lease and move in later in the week.

Charlotte and I had a battle of the wills yesterday, in that she wanted to wake up at 5:15 am (ummm nope) and I was Mean Mama and didn't get her out of her crib. She cried on and off till 5:50 am, with a few reassurances from me. When she fell back asleep, I was (of course) awake until she woke up again at 7 am, then we snoozed together in my bed until 8:30. This apparently threw her sleep schedule off enough that she REFUSED to nap at all until 2:15 pm... skipped her morning nap entirely. My attempts to have her take said morning nap were met with banshee screams for almost an hour. My nerves = fried. But she slept in until 7:15 this morning without a peep (yay!) and took 2 solid naps. Hoping Thursday was just an anomaly. Maybe she's teething, I can always blame teething, right?

Other than that, she's been showing off her language comprehension skills with pointing out her body parts, her zipper, various items of clothing, getting books/balls/diapers when we ask her where they are. She has enjoyed playing with a dustpan/broom and carrying around our shoes a lot. I made her a "fort" with our suitcases and she has showed occasional interest when we point it out to her, but not as big a hit as I thought it might be.

Supervised banana eating

Here's my awesome dust pan

Let me sweep your leg, mom.

Suitcase fort! Reading my library book

Trying to find my belly button under my clothes

We don't have any big plans for the weekend, except hitting up the base library at some point (since last Sunday I already finished The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert, which I enjoyed) and maybe meeting baby Gus, our friends' little guy who finally decided to join us!

Day trip to St. Albans

On Saturday 1/24, we loaded up the car and drove about 1 hour toward the area northwest of London to visit the city of St Albans. I had seen a few recommendations about the city online, so we did a little research about the top sites and where to park. We parked in a garage of an outdoor shopping mall -- we were both on high alert as we tried to navigate a parking garage appropriately. Paul eased the car into a tight little spot quite well :)

After walking through the shopping area, we came out onto the Market Square, where they have several blocks of stalls selling food, clothing, decorations, etc. After casually strolling through, we found the tourist information center. The woman working there gave us a town map and gave us advice about where to have lunch, what to see, etc. We found out it was "Resident's Weekend" -- meaning a lot of places were open & free to local residents that aren't normally so. She implied that we should just "pretend" to be residents and it worked at the one place at which we would normally have had to pay a nominal fee.

We set off toward St Albans Cathedral & Abbey, down a narrow high street (the common term for a main street) lined with cute shops. After stopping for a few pictures, we headed down toward Verulamium Park, which is situated on top of the old Roman town named Verulamium. It was a really lovely walk between a lake and a flowing (manmade?) stream, with lots of ducks, geese, and swans paddling about. The lake was partially frozen over, with gulls standing on the ice. Many families were feeding the birds, and there were lots of strollers with bundled babies about.

The west entrance of St Alban's Cathedral

Birds at Verulamium Park

Swan & duck

More birds sitting on the iced-over pond

Upon recommendation, we ate at the "Inn on the Park." It was a nice, very family-friendly spot, with excellent food. I had a jacket potato (baked potato) with chili, and Paul had a burger and soup. Charlotte chowed down off both our plates, as well as some pre-packed snacks! There were tables inside (which I would have preferred, it was pretty chilly even in the sunshine and sheltered from the breeze) but they were all full so we sat outside. Charlotte was enthralled by some dogs ("woouh!") outside, and we enjoyed eavesdropping on British families. One particularly naughty girl kept stomping in puddles in her normal shoes, drawing the ire of her mother -- "Lola, you haven't even got your Wellie Boots on!"

Sitting outside at the Inn on the Park

Next, we had a little more time before the 2 pm Cathedral tour, so we were able to walk over to the site of the old Roman theater. It was excavated in 1935, and is the only known Roman amphitheater to have been built in England. This is the site we were able to get in for free, which was nice. It wasn't super stroller-friendly, so Paul made a wider loop around the site than Charlotte & I did.

Finally, we headed back across the park toward the cathedral for the 2 pm tour. It lasted an hour, and we made it through about 50 minutes of it before Charlotte's lack of a good nap caught up with us and she started to make a fuss. We ducked out of the tour at that point. The tour guide was excellent, and reviewed lots of interesting details about the varied architecture in the building. Construction started in 1077! Because of various problems over the years, the left side of the church has a more Romanesque style, and the left side of the church has 2 different styles of Gothic architecture. The church also has the longest nave in all of England.

Looking down the nave toward the altar

This ceiling (refinished) was originally put in during the War of the Roses, where the warring houses were symbolized by white and red roses, respectively. Since the war wasn't over, the designer used both red and white roses in the design -- just to be on the safe side.

Lovely stained glass from the rose window in the transept

Adventures in Laundry

A few days after we arrived at the Old Dairy, I noted that it was time to do a little laundry. I opened up the kitchen cabinet that houses the washer/dryer combination. 

Yes, I said in the kitchen cabinet. It's next to the mini-fridge cabinet!

Yes, I said washer/dryer combination. I had never seen such a thing.

I foolishly thought, "Well, I've been doing laundry on some level since I went to college... this should be simple." We had already purchased some detergent. Then I looked at the array of buttons and knobs.

Um. What? I wasn't overly startled by the temperatures listed in Celsius, although I wasn't really sure what constituted "hot" vs "warm" vs "cold." After staring for awhile, I figured the "cotton" symbol probably meant natural fibers, and the "beaker" symbol probably meant synthetics. The "speeding clock" would appear to mean a fast cycle? Beyond that, I was lost. How do you turn the dryer part on? After several failed attempts to find a manual for the machine online, I ended up calling Jennie, the proprietor of the Old Dairy, and she sent over another worker to help us out. Unfortunately, he didn't know much more than I did, but together we figured out that the 40* C settings would probably be fine for most loads of wash, and that pushing the "sunshine" button several times would start a drying cycle after the wash. OK. 

Well, we found out that even on the "quick" setting, the wash cycle takes about 2 hours to complete, then the drying cycle lasts as long as you tell it. After trial and error, with frequent need to re-dry clothing, I have mostly figured out how to get clean clothes :) The machine sounds a bit like it's going to take flight when it starts the spin cycle (over 1000 rpm). No major mishaps until last night, when I washed a load of red/pink garments.

After staring aghast at Charlotte's adorable 1st Birthday onesie, I *think* what happened is that my purple sports bra (which I have washed many times before!) was up against the onesie when the spin cycle started, and dye started flinging onto the onesie at whatever speed 1000 rpm produces. Surprisingly, of the entire load, only an old pair of socks was also affected. Since the load had been on a wash + dry cycle, I figured the stain was set in, but Paul encouraged me to put it in the washer again just in case. This morning, I woke to find this!

I am amazed! I guess 1000 rpm gets stains out pretty well too :)

Needless to say, I'm hoping for a more familiar washer and separate tumble dryer to grace our new place once we move in! And if you made it this far through a post about laundry, well done. :-P

These boots are made for walking...

Charlotte and I took a 1.9 mile walk around the fields today! It was cool and overcast but not too breezy. I felt like going a little further, but Charlotte was getting a little restless in the pack, so we headed home. I took a few pictures as promised!

Bundling up... again fascinated by mittens

The field is a runway for the small airstrip at our cottage. The small arrow sign at the bottom indicates the direction of the public footpath.

Looking across the runway (you can see the orange windsock along the tree line, right of center).

Turning off the tractor path; the path heads along the edge of the field straight ahead.

An owl box in the tree.

Sunbeams breaking through the clouds

Me and my walking buddy (13 months old today!)

Walking paths, Grafham Water and another pub!

Over here in England, it has been seasonably chilly. We have smiled at the extensive weather forecasts that basically indicate continued periods of sun and rain and "COLD" temperatures of ... -1* Celsius ;) . It has been plenty warm enough to be outside in coat, scarf, and gloves! Charlotte and I have been trying to make a habit of going for a walk through the fields around our holiday cottage after her morning nap. I load her into the Ergo (as backpack... a challenging task by myself when Paul is at work!), pull my new waterproof boots on, and we head out. The fields are frosty in the shadowed areas, with a crust of ice on the puddles in the tractor ruts. There are a wonderful number of "public footpaths" around, which I remember taking advantage of when I studied abroad here as well. They are hiking/walking paths all over the country, which cross private land and occasionally through pastures with grazing animals! I remember feeling very self conscious the first time I walked past sheep and cows in 2003, and realizing that in the US this would be considered trespassing and that one *could* be shot at for doing so. Here, it is perfectly normal (and no one has weapons supposedly). We walked about a mile yesterday and 1.5 miles today. It is great to get fresh air and move my legs! I will try to remember to bring my camera with me tomorrow to capture the experience :)

On Sunday, Paul, Charlotte, and I drove to Grafham Water, a large local lake where there are several playgrounds, a sailing school, and a walking/biking path that encircles the lake (about 10 miles around, according to the website). We grabbed lunch at a small restaurant/cafe right at one of the parking lots, which was quite tasty, then walked in the chilly weather. It was colder than I had expected by the water, and the path will be more appropriate to take our jogging stroller on when it arrives with our household goods. It was a bit bumpy for the umbrella stroller! It was a nice outing though, and we put Charlotte on the swings briefly before heading home.

On Monday night, we went to another local pub with Jerome, Erin, and Erin's mom. This time we went to The Cock In Hemingford Grey. They are known for their Bangers and Mash (bangers are sausages), and I really enjoyed their sausages with horseradish/mustard mashed potatoes with a cider. We shared a Sticky Toffee Pudding for dessert -- so good! We will definitely be back, although they typically don't allow children under 5 at dinner. When Erin made the reservation though, they were happy to accommodate Charlotte since they aren't busy on Mondays. They even set her a place with a spoon only, and then brought her a biscotti for dessert. She was well behaved and even said her new word for everyone. It's "chicken." She says mama, dada, baba (bye bye), uh oh, and chicken ("tikkn"). Hilarious! She even laughs after she says it. Love this little girl! 

Our first venture to Cambridge

Today was our first "free" weekend day with nothing planned to do, so we planned to head into Cambridge! We went after Charlotte's morning nap. While she was eating breakfast, we looked outside and saw the surprise of snow falling! A rare occurrence around here, they say. Paul got a few pictures.

At the recommendation of friends, and our close friend Rick Steves (ha), we used the Park & Ride system. You park the car, pay a £1 parking fee, and purchase roundtrip tickets for only £2.50 per adult for the bus into town. Then you don't have to worry about driving around narrow Cambridge and trying to find a place to park. We weren't sure, but once we saw Cambridge's layout, we were glad to not be dealing with driving there! The bus driver on the way there was super nice, and [I assume upon hearing our accents] gave us lots of information about which stop to get off, how to get back on, the way to various colleges, etc. So kind! I was happy that we could just leave Charlotte in the "pram" on the bus since there were no wheelchair users on our bus at the time.

Not so sure about this.

I have mittens on.

 We wandered around Cambridge without worrying about looking at the map -- just wanting to get a feel of the town. We walked past a few of the colleges but didn't go in today -- saw Magdalene College, Trinity College, and passed by Kings College Chapel as well. We came upon some picturesque alleys, but felt a little overwhelmed on the full streets with all the pedestrians & bicyclists. We agreed that we will be wary of coming to the city on a nice Saturday during the warmer months -- I'm sure the place is mobbed! We grabbed a quick bite to eat and warm up at one point (just take & go sandwich & drink). My favorite part was walking along the River Cam at the end of our afternoon -- very picturesque, even in the wintertime. It wasn't hard to decline the people trying to sell tickets for punting in the river... way too chilly for that. We had a nice time just walking around -- looking forward to taking a tour another time!

The Social Life

This may be more for journal purposes than of general interest, but I wanted to write about some of the places we've eaten & spending time with friends.

Last Saturday night, we went out to dinner at the pub in Broughton, which is near Jerome & Erin's house. We went with the Schmidts, the Meisters, and 2 other couples, as well as Erin's mom who is visiting and hoping to be able to help out once their little guy decides to make an appearance! The pub is The Crown Inn (http://www.thecrowninnrestaurant.co.uk/our-galleries#). All the website's pictures are taken during the day, but we were there long after dark (at 7:30 pm, we had last seen the sun approximately 3 hours prior). It is a snug, warm pub with soft lighting and amazing food. We each had a pint and a delicious entree -- I had a mushroom & chestnut pie (think "pot pie" style) and Paul had a pistachio-encrusted white fish (cod or haddock, can't recall). Charlotte behaved pretty well with constant flow of Cheerios, but started getting tired and I had to walk her around a couple of times toward the end of the night. We then packed up and headed over to Jerome's to watch part of the Ravens/Patriots playoff game (started at 9:30 pm here). I tried to get Charlotte to go to sleep, but no dice, so we headed out before halftime to get the kiddo to bed!

On Monday night, we ventured out on our own to The Coach House in nearby Potton. It was a bit of a challenging drive down unfamiliar, wet, and windy roads after dark, but Paul did a nice job and we arrived without incident. The place had been recommended to us by both the Meisters and the owners of the cottages where we are staying, with promises of delicious steaks! We went and both ordered steaks -- and were not disappointed! (http://www.coachhousepotton.co.uk) Charlotte has been declining beef and chicken so she wasn't much into the steak, but she did love the potatoes and bread -- carb girl. My steak came with a pink peppercorn sauce, and Paul's came with a bleu cheese type sauce -- both were excellent! This restaurant had a dark, quiet, study-like vibe as well, and Paul kept remarking on the amazing music playlist they had on. We heard a great mix of music, from Ray Charles to Biz Markie to a cover of "Big Yellow Taxi" to an unedited version of C. Lo Green's hit song.

Finally, last night, Erin & Jerome invited us over for dinner & a board game. Jerome had cooked a delicious Beef Bourguignon and peas and sourdough bread. They spoiled us by sending us home with leftovers! We played the game "Eggheads" which is a trivia game based on a TV show of the same name (which Paul & I haven't seen yet). We had a great time, especially with the categories that we knew nothing about, such as British politics and sports.

Otherwise, we have been eating fairly well at home, although with far too many "Hamburger Helper" type meals. We shopped for some fresh produce Thursday at the Tesco, so we had a delicious salad with chicken, feta, bell pepper, and tomatoes when we got home tonight. It's good to get some veggies in!

House Hunters answer

Those of you who guessed House # 3 were correct! We put in our applications for renting the place on Monday, and now we sit back and wait. Hopefully we will be found to be worthy tenants and the place will be ours. Once we find out the good news (hopefully), we will determine a move-in date.

We might use the lower level "study" as a guest room, and anticipate using the smallest room upstairs as a storage/closet room as the owners did. We love the kitchen and the sunroom so much! I was concerned about not having closet space, but we can borrow freestanding wardrobe from the air force base. This will decrease the living space upstairs, but when we thought about it -- we will spend much more time on the lower level, where there is tons of space and light. Really hoping we get it!

We lengthened our temporary housing at the Old Dairy by another week -- we will see if we need to lengthen it any more. While I enjoy living here, I'm hoping we will get to be living in St Neots sooner than later, to allow me and Charlotte more freedom to get out of the house! With the cold, wet weather in a rural area, it's a challenge to find places to walk that keep my feet somewhat dry :) One day, I did take Charlotte out in the Ergo (as backpack) on a walk through the fields around the Old Dairy. We were limited by the wetness in the fields -- I *intelligently* packed my insulated boots in the household goods shipment, so I'll see them in March probably. Darn. I might cave and buy some wellies before then!

In the market for some tapes...

Since the government does not reimburse for a rental car, it has been a pretty high priority for us to find a car to purchase over here. Besides, as I mentioned before, our rental car wasn't exactly a road worthy vehicle and we were definitely ready to turn it in at the end of the week rental term.

Based on friends' recommendations, we drove to the Lakenheath/Mildenhall area on Saturday. On our way there, we stopped to see how McDonald's breakfasts are here -- an important item of concern for one of us (I'll let you guess who). Happy to report the Sausage & Egg biscuits taste very similar to those back stateside, although my resident expert declared that the sausage is somewhat less spicy. We both enjoyed it, and I especially enjoyed that they gave us a drink carrier for our 2 drinks (never seen one with less than 4 spots before). It's the little things!

Anyway, back to what I was saying. There are 4 RAF bases in the area: 2 around Huntingdon (Molesworth & Alconbury), where we are primarily based, and 2 others located about 45 minutes to an hour east of here (Lakenheath & Mildenhall). Each of the bases has different amenities, which was confusing to hear about before we arrived. Now that we've toured around each of them, it's much easier to organize in my mind.

- Molesworth: Good for checking the mail, getting gas.
- Alconbury: Getting gas, using the commissary for American food/dry goods (but it a smaller and older store), going to the library (haven't done yet, but will soon!), accessing the housing office, and a few other things.
- Mildenhall: Base exchange is good for home goods, outdoor/sporting goods, kids' toys.
- Lakenheath: Excellent commissary, large base exchange with clothing and a good-sized food court.

So it would appear we will probably head up toward Mildenhall/Lakenheath about once or twice per month, mostly for a large commissary shop. Otherwise we'll make do closer to our new place.

Besides exploring the two bases, we went to a car lot called Air Force Auto Sales. They are very used to working with Americans, and appear to have fair prices on British spec cars. It's also a nice place to purchase a car because they will buy it back when we PCS back to the States (at a depreciated value of course, but it's something we won't have to worry about when we head home). They will also take care of the yearly  required inspection for us (through a 3rd party) and have a warranty program where they will cover partial cost of any major repairs if we bring it to them for regular inspections.

When we arrived, we found out that the main salesperson (the place does rentals & sales) was out for most of the day, but another fellow helped us out a lot and showed us the cars in the lot that fit what we were looking for. We wanted a pretty basic car with an automatic transmission -- I'm comfortable driving stick, but Paul is not, and we wanted a car we both would be equally comfortable driving. They have a lot of cars that are considered luxury cars back in the US -- Audis, BMWs, Lexus (Lexii?) -- but we were conscious of the fact that these are older cars and we might have to do repairs... and the luxury cars are notoriously expensive to repair. We ended up considering a couple of Hondas, and settled on a 2003 Honda Accord with a hatchback (don't think these were made or available in the States) and just under 50,000 miles on it. Not bad! It has a tape deck, which is hilarious. We didn't bring any tapes with us, darn it. Paul took it for a test drive while Charlotte and I got out of the cold wind and relaxed in the car with a book and a snack of Cheerios & apple juice. We laughed when Kristen & Mike showed up at the place for their car's monthly inspection!

Since the salesperson was out of the office, we arranged to return on Monday after dropping off our rental car. (The drop-off location was very near to the car lot, and the fellow who helped us out on Saturday came and picked us up.) After discussing all the details of the purchase, they set us up with a courtesy car to use until our new "to us" car is available on Thursday (it's pending inspection right now). Now we're in a Ford Mondeo station wagon (which they term "estate cars") until then. It has functioning headlights ("headlamps") and, although the check engine light is also on in this car, we have been reassured that it is only an O2 sensor problem so we're good to go :) I'm starting to wonder if every car in the UK's engine light is on. Hopefully our Accord's won't be on!

Here's a picture of a typical drive through Cambridgeshire. We've been very surprised to see how green the fields are, even though the leaves are off the trees/hedges.

House 3

The third house we looked at was in the town of St. Neot's. The house was just around the corner from a large local grocery store, and within walking distance (3/4 mile) to the town center and a local park.

The front of the house, with 2 car garage.

As you enter, there is a good-sized study on the right side.

The "cloak room" next to the study.

Entry foyer, with front door behind you.

Kitchen with gas stovetop, large ovens, integrated dishwasher, lots of cabinet space.

The long cabinets in the back right are the fridge/freezer. The door on the right leads to the utility room.

The utility room -- has a washer/dryer combo in it currently, somewhat small.

Large "conservatory"/sunroom.

Backyard has a palm tree (?!) and raised garden boxes.

Looking from living room toward conservatory (separated by sliding glass door).

Looking other way in living room.

The "bedroom" at the top of the steps! It is smaller than 8' x 7' and the previous owners were using it as dressing room/closet space, as none of the bedrooms have proper closets in them.

2nd bedroom

Family bathroom

3rd bedroom, which prior owners used as a study but would work as a nursery size-wise.

4th bedroom

Master bath with shower/toilet/sink.

Our little lady liked the height of the windowsills in the conservatory. I have to brag that she has continued to be a great little trooper throughout this whole process! She seemed to like checking out the houses with us. 

Anyway, that's it! At the end of the day, the realtor called and told us one of the houses would be shown 3 more times the next day, one of which was a 2nd viewing. We decided we couldn't pass it up. Which one did we choose??? Guess in the comments section (no fair if you already know, Mom & Dad!) and I'll tell you later :)