House Hunting

House hunting is different in the UK, even renting versus buying. Homes are listed sometimes by two different agents at once. From what I have learned, it is quite common to work with many different agents. Here we look at the house, a relationship with an agent is a nice perk, but certainly not necessary.

I have looked for all the homes on a central website that all the agencies seem to use, it is called Rightmove.co.uk. It has ben helpful, for sure. The problem seems to be that homes go faster then they are put onto the site! There were two homes that we were interested in seeing, pictures never did get posted and when I inquired about them, they were already "let".

So, today is the day that I am making a decision about a home. I thought had it down to two, I had viewed one and loved it! I found two issues, the laundry was located outside in a little out building and it was a bit further away from school and work then I really wished it to be.

Then a third house worked it's way into running. Yesterday an agent that has been very persistent in trying to get me to look and his properties had his assistant talk to me about a property that had just come available. I have to admit I was very skeptical about it, but the location was pretty convenient and his assistant told me that the picture did not do it justice. So, I relented. I had the time before viewing the last home on my list. So, I looked at it and it has some very good positives, so good that I am having trouble making the decision!

I did view the last house and it is very nice as well. But really the other two have it beat, for many reasons.

So, now I am getting ready to head out and meet Super Handsome. He is going to look at the house that I saw this morning. He has only seen pictures of the other home. So, I know, one way or another we will make a decision today! :)

Starbucks with no free internet!

Tuesday, I managed to go back to the Starbucks (see my Facebook page) and I got my Crème brûlée machiaciato latte and a skinny lemon poppy seed muffin. Unfortunately, I did not have my camera. I wished that I did, only because they offered so many different choices. They had sandwiches and some bento style lunches, along with the cookies, muffins and breakfast sandwiches. The only thing that they had in the case was some of the pastries and sweets. The sandwiches and lunches were all in a plastic wrapper or container.


Well, the latte was good. I had forgotten that they do not sweeten it and you have to sweeten it yourself. So, that was a little bit of a shock. The muffin was really good, lemon poppy seed muffins are one of my favs! I am not sure what made it skinny though, it had a nice layer of frosting on the top....


If you planned on eating in, they served you in a Starbucks mug. I choose take away as my time was kind of short. I sat down and tried to connect to the internet, to be disappointed to find that both unlocked connections were for paying customers.


Free internet can be found in some restaurants. McDonalds has it and we have found some of the nicer taverns offer it as well. Many times, in places where there are a lot of shops you can find an internet "hot spot". The ones that I have found all tend to be run by the same company called BT Hot Zone. They have them all over. It seems that you have to pay to use it. I have honestly not examined it closely as I really am not that interested in paying for the internet zones. I miss having my iPhone at my finger tips and all, but honestly I can deal without it. As my friend Katy Brown told me, I can get my mid-1990's on!

Cars, or Lack Of....

So, a car, a car, a car... one of the next goals.  If only Super Handsome would have listened to me last week!

Last week he told me to find a car and lease it.  Ok, sure.  One thing that I knew before we moved here was that financing in the UK was notoriously hard to obtain!  Someone did not believe me or must not have remembered reading about it.  I told him last week that we just needed to go and find a decent, inexpensive car and charge it.  Then we would deal with the bill on the other end.

Well, that idea did not sit well with him.  So, I let it go.  He was working with his work to find something for himself anyway.  Well, Tuesday (11/10/11), he suggested that go and lease a car.  Really?  Because anything I had found on the internet suggested that leases were only available for 36 months, and then there was that whole credit issue....  So, I went to Volkswagen, Audi and Ford and they all told me the same thing: the financing agencies would not even look at us.  In the UK, it does not matter if your credit rating is the highest ever in the US (over 800), they won't consider your history there, because you are here, period.  Ford told me that sometimes they can do something for people when they produce 3 months of bank statements, but the last person that had tried to purchase a car was refused.  They all suggested that we ask his company to lease a car and pay them or go to a contract hire place.

I relayed the message to Super Handsome, and guess what we are going to do this weekend?  Oh, yeah.  What I said earlier, go and charge it.

School

So, the boys have been in school now 4 days.  They started the last week of term, which means that they will have the next two weeks off.  No joke!  The schools here go 7-8 weeks and work the kids pretty hard, then they take a week or two off for holiday (or vacation).

So far it has been a great experience for them.  Except for Cian who is having the hardest time.  He is very tired in the morning and has decided that he does want to go to school anywhere.  Yesterday, he forgot his blazer.  Since we were early, he stood with me on the playground and had tears about forgetting the blazer, being tired and just having to go to school.  Poor little guy is just have a rough go!  We had tears again this morning, Sean was here to help deal with them.  He is having a hard time understanding what people are saying to him and is to shy to ask them to repeat it.

Colin is having a great time.  Yesterday, at the end of the day he was walking out of school with a bunch of the guys.  He is really enjoying the experience and when Cian was complaining about school, Colin told him that this was a really good school.  I think that the small size has really helped.

Mark is settling in as well.  I think that the attention has waned some.  Though he was divorced once and married twice Wednesday.  Today he apparently has to make a decision between two girls!  Oh my!  Also on Tuesday the kids asked him to do a silly dance.  He finally complied and then they ended up joining in!  Ok, whatever, as long as they are having fun.  :)  Mark was also invited to a birthday party tomorrow evening.

Monday, the boys went in school pants, but no tops.  Monday afternoon we had an appointment with the school store to buy what they needed.  Cian and Liam were the first appointments at 14:00 and they went the full hour!  Colin and Mark went next and they were longer!   We needed shirts, ties, blazers, jumpers(sweaters), their PE kit (I am not joking!) which consists of their Rugby clothes, whites (for regular PE) and a track suit, that they ALL needed!  Cian and Liam got book bags and a satchel for their PE kit.  Liam also got an outdoor coat.  We got as much as we could from the second hard store, but that was that a big bill!  Sheeish!

Tuesday, I spent some time talking to both Liam and Cian's teachers after school.  Cian is out of school first, and so, while I was waiting for Liam I talked with his teacher.  She told me that sometimes they have trouble  understanding each other.   But she works with him and they try and use other words if they can't understand each other.  She ended up giving me work for him to do over holiday for him to do to catch up.  She showed me his book bag which is more like a portfolio case and he had a Star Wars book in it for free reading along with his homework, etc.  I found out that she is a big SciFi fan!  Cian was well matched with his teacher, she not only has similar taste in genre, she seems very patient and caring.

Liam is doing very well.  He is well liked by all the kids and his teacher.  He is having problems remembering names though.  He is not the only one, they all are having that issue.  I caught up with his teacher at the end of school on Tuesday as I was trying to figure out the dismissal routine.  She gave Liam some work to do over holiday as well.  I am going to ask for work for all them over the holiday.  It's not like we can take a holiday right now!  Hopefully we will be spending the time settling in our new home.

All in all, they seem to be settled in well.  And I think that we have a house.  I will post details when we are confirmed!

Trouser's not Pants....

So, in case you have not heard, the boys are going to be starting school on Monday.  They will be attending St. Nicholas school, it is located in Harlow.

Monday we visited the school and had a tour from the headmaster, Mr. Knight.  Wednesday the boys went for a "taster" day.  What a day that ended up being!

When I arrived to pick them up in the afternoon, the school secretary had some very interesting things to tell me!  Colin and Mark had to take placement exams in the morning.  Apparently when Mark was taking his exam, the girls started tapping on the window and calling "Hello" (really it would be 'ello, as the British don't always pronounce their "h" sounds well).  Much to the chagrin of the secretary, she had to shoo the girls away and then keep watch so they would not come back!  

Liam and Cian joined her in her office after they finished with school.  She mentioned to me that when they saw each other they gave each other a big hug.  I should mention that I really like the school secretary.  Her name is Mrs. Bradley and she shared with me that she has 3 boys, her boys are older then ours.  She is the ONLY mother that I have talked to that has said something about girls being not as easy and I did not get offended.  Probably because she has all boys as well!

When the kids got into the car, I heard the verdicts.  Colin loved the school.  Mark had a hard time with all the attention.  Liam enjoyed the school.  Cian, well, he just wants to stay at home with me and not attend any school at all!  The older two boys were paired up with buddies and Liam and Cian had small classes and they seemed to do well.

Colin had a great time playing football (remember it is soccer here!).  He scored three goals when he played and was well pleased with how nice everyone was to him.  He talked to many of the kids but did not seem to remember many names.  We found out later that one of the boys was Andrew, and he is from Scotland.

 Mark was asked to tell the class about himself in forms, which was first thing in the morning.  He told the kids that he had three other brothers and no sisters.  The girls were apparently sorry and several offered to be his sister and one said that we could adopt her!  Then he had the girls knocking at the window while he was testing and the later, he had at least 8 girls ask if they could be his girlfriend and he got at least one marriage proposal.  LOL!  I told him next time to say that his mother won't allow it.

Liam enjoyed his day as well.  He met a boy named Harry and played giant Connect 4 with him.  Cian did not really have anything memorable that he wanted to tell me about his day.  He did get to swim in the pool for lessons as part of his PE, he did enjoy swimming and the water was warm because the pool is heated.

Colin and Mark are a head in math.  We also found out that Liam and Cian are actually a bit behind in English.  The school and the teachers are not worried though, they feel that it will be easy to catch them up.  Oh!  One thing that I should mention.  The boys do not have grades, they are in years.  Colin is in year 10, Mark is in year 8, Liam is year 4 and Cian is year 2.  In England, all the years go by age and the cut off is September 1.

So, the boys were excited to go and I met with the school on Friday and received the official offer to have them attend.  They will start on Monday and be getting their uniforms ordered that day as well.  I won't bore you with the details of what they look like....

Today (Saturday) we attended the school's open day.  We went so that Sean could see the school.  It was also very helpful because we ended up talking to all the teachers.  They were all very friendly and wanted to know about us and tell us about their classes.  We had a very nice tour guide, his name was Stuart.  He is Colin's age.  Interesting fact about Stewart?  David Beckham is his neighbor!  Poor Stewart ended up spending the whole open day with us as the teachers were very interested in speaking with us!

We learned a lot of great things about the school and I know that Sean really agrees with me that this is a great place for them to be.  Some of those interesting things?  In the UK, the kids have the option to do double science or triple science.  What that means is that they take the sciences (biology, chemistry and physics) 2 or 3 of them, all of the concurrently.  They do this from the 7th year to the 11th year.  Colin can specialize and he has chosen to take the triple science course.

Another interesting thing that we learned from Mrs. Bradley?  Sean mentioned to her that we would try and pick up some pants for the boys at the store before Monday.  She instantly corrected him, and informed him ever so politely that is was trousers.  Pants in England are panties and for girls, trousers is the correct word for the situation.  She also warned Sean to let the boys know as well as they may get some giggles and laughter or even teasing if they use the wrong terminology!

So, tomorrow, we are off to buy TROUSER's!

Why My GPS is a Crabby, Bossy Hag

Don't get me wrong, I am glad that I have a GPS right now.  Generally, though I have never been a fan and I have resisted getting one for a long time.  I live in Indiana for goodness sake!  I have never really needed one, and in the past, I have just used Mapquest or Google maps.  I am luckily enough to generally be able to look at the directions and be able to drive places.  I also have a fairly good memory if I have been somewhere before.  In England, it is a total different story.

I have always disliked the GPS when I have ridden with them in the past and I finally figured out why as yesterday I was told endlessly where to go ALL day.  It is the voice, her voice.  Let me digress why.  I love the British accent.  It was a total plus in moving here getting to listen to it all the time, and I adapt easily and I have already started to pick up the intonation. (When I lived in Kentucky I started to pick up the southern accent as well) The British have a lilt to their speech and intonate their voices higher in pitch in their sentences and words, especially toward the end.  I associate that with politeness and as everyone that I have encountered talk that way and seem so polite and courteous.  Well, my GPS?  We have it on the British speak, and it has always bothered me.  I now know why.  Her voice is monotonous and flat. She sounds bossy and naggy.  Who wants to drive around in a car with a crabby, bossy, nagging GPS?  Apparently I do if I want to know where to go and how to get there!

My GPS apparently likes to sight see as well, or at least wants me to take the most circuitous route possible.  Which, honestly, it is not all the bossy, naggy hags' fault.  Sometimes it is my fault because I can't understand what she is saying and I miss turns or exits.  Roads and such as not always as well marked as she may think!  I am convinced that she sometimes directs me to the wrong exit on the round about on purpose, just so she can make me turn around in the next round about.  Secretly, I think that she is laughing at me and is taking immense joy in sending me in circles.  I think that she knows that I hate her....

New Definition of Torture

We have been in a hotel since we had arrived last Thursday, September 28.  It was a nice hotel, a Marriot.  We got free breakfast, it was warm, we had a nice TV with more then 4 channels, and may I mention that it was WARM, the staff was helpful, ever so polite and nice ("Yes, Mrs. Beary.  How may I assist you?").  We had connecting rooms, but no real living space.  Which at times can be annoying, but really, how often were we really there all together?

We had discussed changing to a different hotel because we had talked about living up in Bishop's Stortford, which is a town north of where Sean works in Harlow.  The hotel was south of both points, so at first, it looked like I was going to do lots of driving.  But, as I dove into the housing and school situation, it became apparent that there was no way we would be living in Bishop's Stortford.

Sean had other co-workers that had been in the area for about 4 months and they lived in temporary housing.  Sean was bound and determined that we were going to move there, come **** or high water.  Despite, anything that I said.  So, I shut up, packed up and we arrived last night.

I am not exactly sure where we are, to be honest.  We arrived in the dark, after a late dinner.  We were on a winding little horse cart of a road and on our first try we turned into the wrong place.  We finally found the place and was directed by a helpful, soon to be neighbor where to go to check in and Sean paid.  I do know that when I looked out the bedroom window this morning I saw horses.  Then when I looked out the living area window I saw the cars, a couple of other cottages, round hay bales and a tractor.

We walked in and it seemed ok, except for the gas like smell in the kitchen/living area.  I pointed it out to Sean and was instantly told to shut up.  Really?  Because the smell of gas IS great, right?  Oh, but we do have a self catering kitchen (because it is in my wildest dream to cook right now), a TV with 6?  channels and washer/dryer combo though, ooooo, celebration.  Oh and the bathroom... can I mention the bathroom?  It smells, much like the bathroom did in the hotel that we stayed in while we went to Milan.  It is not quite like a port a potty, but has a definite eau de poo smell and about that washer/dryer combo?  I think that I may finally understand why my English friend Carly mentions ironings so much on Facebook.  All the clothes came out wrinkly and not completely dry.  I might add that I took them out right away and put them on a drying rack.  ( I just wanted to go to a laundry mat, but Sean insisted that was not going to happen.)

So, we all got ready for bed and shut out the lights.  One thing that became apparent was that the road was very close.  We could hear cars race by occasionally all night.  I say race because remember last night I described the road as a little horse cart?  Where we are is a little curvy area on the small narrow road.  I wonder how fast those cars are really going because it sure sounds fast.

So, as morning came upon us, I start hearing a cow, mooing.  It was also freezing cold!  Ok, where am I really?  As I was looking around this morning I found the receipt, the name of the place that we are staying?  Delmond Barns, great.  So, here I sit, freezing and smelling gas, sipping hot tea.  We are wandering around with blankets wrapped around us and the warmest clothes that we have on our bodies.  Guess this is going to push me to make a fast decision on a home!  Brrrrr!  But hey, on the plus side I have free internet!