Getting settled in the Old Dairy

We are staying in the "Old Dairy" cottage, which is one of a set of 4 cottages located on a farm/airfield. We still haven't gotten to explore around outside much, as we haven't been here much during the daylight and when we have, it's been pretty cold and windy. We've barely seen anyone else around -- it's nice and quiet and we don't have any direct neighbors to our cottage. This fact was good for my sanity when Charlotte was screaming bloody murder the second night when we were trying to put her to bed (poor girl's body clock was still recovering from the travel/jet lag). Our suitcase was delivered on Monday evening, a day later than promised, but we hadn't missed our shoes too much yet (glad that was the bag that got lost, really).

View of the Old Dairy from the driveway

Our special rental car (note steering on the right)

Paul at the entry... Goof

The pond next to our cottage

We tried hard not to nap on Sunday afternoon, but it felt like a long few hours before our "sponsor" -- Kristen, American friend/coworker of Paul's -- and her husband Mike arrived to take us out to dinner. We installed C's carseat in their car (I'm getting good at this with the new carseat) and we headed to St. Neot's for dinner at a delicious Turkish restaurant. We had excellent food and didn't fall asleep at the table, and got to see our old friends from DC Jerome & Erin too. Kristen had also kindly brought us some breakfast food/snacks and her old pay-as-you-go phone to use until we find a house, at which point we can find out what cell phone company has the best coverage -- apparently very spotty for some carriers in this area -- then get phones. Kristen drives her American-spec car, so she had Paul sit in the passenger seat to get used to what it feels like in the driver's seat in a British-spec car. I was still panicking every time we came around a bend and saw a car coming at us on the right-hand-side at this point.

We came home and crashed around 10 pm, Charlotte (unfortunately) ended up sleeping in our bed with us because she seemed scared in "her" room in the crib. We caved because we were too tired to fight.  I woke up around midnight, confused with jet lag, and it took me 2 1/2 hours to get back to sleep. It gets dark around 4:30 pm here, then the sun doesn't come up again until after 8 am at this time of year. Charlotte woke up at 8:45 the first couple of days, and was wanting to stay up until at least 10 pm, but she got up at normal time of 6:45 today and went to bed at normal time too! Hopefully we're seeing progress on that front.

The next morning, Kristen came and picked us up around 9:30 am, and we went to the two RAF bases that we will frequent most often with Paul's work and for various amenities. We got a few things half-done (government red tape!) and then finished them up on Tuesday on our own. We had lunch at "Bun-D" on base -- a pita/wrap place with pretty tasty food (I may change my mind after a few months, but it's been good the few times we've eaten there so far. We don't know much about eating off-base yet). Kristen then took us to the local grocery store (Tesco) to get some essentials -- I was kind of dazed by this point and wasn't even sure what to grab. We did end up with a fair assortment of foods to get us through a couple of days. She said Tesco is the place to go for dairy, meat, and produce; the commissary on base is good for most dry goods and it's generally somewhat cheaper on base than off (prices are in dollars vs pounds).

We then went and picked up our rental car -- which felt like a shady dealing, but apparently most Americans use this company. It's a 2001 Ford Focus, British spec but automatic, with a check engine light that stays on but is *helpfully* covered with black electrical tape, one broken headlight, and a low front tire (discovered when we went to get gas on base -- where it is cheaper than off base at average American prices). Whee! After filling up the tire, it seems to drive fine -- it's functional for a week, after which hopefully we will have our own British car (on the to do list!). Paul did all of the driving the first day, then I did a little driving on base yesterday and tackled the big roads today. It seems to obvious to say, but it is very different driving on the left side -- particularly having to look left to see the rearview mirror, having the entire car on your left side and hugging the center line with the right side of the car, and having to be so careful at intersections that you are watching the correct lane for cars on both the right & left. I bumped one curb and took a roundabout a little quickly -- not too bad for my first time. Tomorrow I'll be dropping Paul off for newcomer's orientation at the base, then I'll be on my own (yikes) with Charlotte in the car. I wish I could go to the orientation too, but there's no childcare unless you're active duty military (not helpful!) and our only good friend who might be available here is 39 1/2 weeks pregnant so we won't think of burdening her with a kiddo all day :) Although it could induce labor, so there's that! (Just kidding, Erin.) Paul will just have to take notes.

Other than all of that, we've been sort of learning our way around, and looking at houses online. We have 4 appointments set up on Friday to see houses in the area -- we poked around a few of the towns today to scope them out. We'll try to update about the houses we've seen. Charlotte has been a super little trooper with us, accompanying us to various government offices with very minimal complaints despite general lack of formal naps. On Monday night when we put her to bed around 7:30, we thought we'd seen the end of her, but she woke up at 9:30 thinking "That was a great nap! Time to play/eat!" Uhhh no kid. We're exhausted!! That was a tough one.

That's about it for now! More later on driving, house-hunting, car-hunting... and hopefully some pictures too.