Adventuring Abroad: Moving House & A Muddy Walk in Town

We "moved house" in early January to a new place, as our previous landlord sold our house due to changing tax laws in England. According to what we've learned, there is a major housing problem in this country -- housing is extremely expensive, and much of the housing that is available is owned by landlords. That means most young people either live with their parents or rent a home; it is very difficult to buy a house. (Paul also tells me that a lot of properties are the house only -- the land is still owned by aristocratic types, in many situations.) All this to say that the government is now imposing heavier taxes on second, third, etc. homes -- to discourage landlords from owning excessive homes and furthering the problem.

We found a new house in a village closer to Cambridge, which I am excited about! When we first moved her, many of our friends we knew lived near Huntingdon, so that's where centered our search for housing. I also wanted to live in a town that was walkable, since I wasn't sure how comfortable I would be with driving over here. After living here for a year, I am quite comfortable with driving on the left side of the road (and love roundabouts! so much faster than traffic lights!) and do it nearly every day. So we expanded our search area toward Cambridge, where we now have many friends, and to smaller villages as well. We ended up finding a home in a village of about 800 residents, about 6 miles away from Cambridge.

We absolutely love our new house, and the moving process went quite smoothly. Moving companies are called "removals" here -- which is a bit disconcerting -- and are a bit expensive. However, we decided several years back that spending money on moving companies is always worth it -- and we aren't getting any younger ;) We did all our own packing and that was tiring enough! Our sweet friends Monica & Tim (and their girls) watched Charlotte on the day of our move, which was so fantastic. She had a much better time with them! Our removals team was an enjoyable group of 4 young chaps, who I will remember for counting "One, two, free" before lifting furniture, being absolutely ecstatic over Gatorade, and for laughing at our ergonomic snow shovel ("What did you bring that to England for?? I've never seen more than an inch of snow here.").

After settling in, we spent one weekend day exploring a local public footpath. We knew it would be muddy and wore our wellie boots! Charlotte LOVES stomping in muddy puddles, and this was surely the high point of her day, if not week. I had some laundry to do afterwards -- but always worth it for a good muddy time.