We also wanted to put out a quick post to let you know what we're up to so it's not all nuts and bolts.
We've now fully furnished and mostly cleaned up the house so we took a little time yesterday after dinner to take a short walk around the village. Monday and Tuesday were actually really beautiful days with a lot of sun and with temperatures getting into the low 60's. I actually walked around the village in a tee shirt and flip flops. We took a quick walk up to the old church, drawn by a referee's whistle and intermitent shouting. Now that we finally have a minute to stop and breathe and relax we were really struck by what a beautiful little village we really live in. The streets are very narrow and some of the buildings must be at least more than a hundred years old. it was amazing to see the sun on the green rolling pastures dotted by sheep and criss-crossed by hedges or rock walls, to hear the song birds, and to stroll by two story brick buildings that loomed over the slim sidewalks on the narrow country lane.
We discovered a football pitch behind the church and we took a few minutes to watch an organized match between what we assumed were two local school teams. It was a really nice evening.
Of course, Lily fell asleep on the walk so we went back to the house and Taylor brought her up to her bedroom and laid down with her to get her fully asleep at the house again while I washed dishes (our dish washer still isn't working) for an hour and then folded laundry before passing out exhausted at the incredibly late hour of 9:00 p.m.
Taylor would want me to report that earlier during the day she and Lily rode the bus into Grantham and met me at work around 3:30. I took 15 minutes to walk a block down the street from the office into Grantham to the locally owned baby/toy shop to see what we might find for Lily's birthday.
We bought a crock-pot (slow cooker to the English) this weekend as well and when we got home Taylor had made a really incredible Thai Green Chicken Curry recipe that we found in an english cookbook. It wasn't anything like her specialty curry but it was very very good. The recipe actually called for sherry so you should have seen me when I waylaid a clerk in the Morrison's grocery store the other day and asked which sherry would be best for cooking. She didn't quite no what to do with me.
Wednesday 23 April 2008
TAYLOR HAS A CELL!
Hi everyone,
Taylor has a cell phone and would LOVE to hear from you! One quick note, I was off by an hour yesterday when I said when it was safe to call. Lily has been waking up at 6:30 a.m. our time so feel free to call us by 7:00 a.m. our time, that would be 11:00 p.m. at night your time. Lily is definitely asleep by 7:00 p.m. these days so please try not to call later then 11:00 a.m. in the morning your time.
Taylor's cell number is: 07530167505. To dial that number fromt the States you need to dial 011 44 07530167505. Call her today, she's waiting!
If you have any questions about what time in England it is I'll email out a conversion table I created earlier.
Taylor has a cell phone and would LOVE to hear from you! One quick note, I was off by an hour yesterday when I said when it was safe to call. Lily has been waking up at 6:30 a.m. our time so feel free to call us by 7:00 a.m. our time, that would be 11:00 p.m. at night your time. Lily is definitely asleep by 7:00 p.m. these days so please try not to call later then 11:00 a.m. in the morning your time.
Taylor's cell number is: 07530167505. To dial that number fromt the States you need to dial 011 44 07530167505. Call her today, she's waiting!
If you have any questions about what time in England it is I'll email out a conversion table I created earlier.
Tuesday 22 April 2008
Taylor has a cell phone but...
Hi Everyone,
Great news, Taylor has a cell phone... or mobile (mohb-aisle) in the Queen's English. Unfortunately, we haven't figured out the phone number yet. We just bought and now we're headed home for the evening to read the instruction book. I'll post Taylor's number here tomorrow and you can start calling her then. We wanted to be sure and have a phone so people could wish Lily a happy birthday this Sunday.
Because we were only able to get a pay as you go phone she won't be able to make calls to the states on the mobile (for that we'll have to wait until the land line gets installed on May 1st) but she can get calls on her mobile from all of you. If you'd like to call her or Lily you can start doing that tomorrow after I post the number.
Keep in mind we are 8 hours ahead of Pacific Time. Lily generally wakes up around 7ish to 8ish and goes to bed at 7 p.m. That means that safe hours to call us from the Pacific Time Zone are 11 p.m. to noon.
More coming soon!
Great news, Taylor has a cell phone... or mobile (mohb-aisle) in the Queen's English. Unfortunately, we haven't figured out the phone number yet. We just bought and now we're headed home for the evening to read the instruction book. I'll post Taylor's number here tomorrow and you can start calling her then. We wanted to be sure and have a phone so people could wish Lily a happy birthday this Sunday.
Because we were only able to get a pay as you go phone she won't be able to make calls to the states on the mobile (for that we'll have to wait until the land line gets installed on May 1st) but she can get calls on her mobile from all of you. If you'd like to call her or Lily you can start doing that tomorrow after I post the number.
Keep in mind we are 8 hours ahead of Pacific Time. Lily generally wakes up around 7ish to 8ish and goes to bed at 7 p.m. That means that safe hours to call us from the Pacific Time Zone are 11 p.m. to noon.
More coming soon!
Monday 21 April 2008
How to receive automatic updates from our blog
Hi Everyone,
If you'd like to receive automatic updates from this blog, just click "Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)" at the bottom of this page and follow the instructions.
Cheers!
If you'd like to receive automatic updates from this blog, just click "Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)" at the bottom of this page and follow the instructions.
Cheers!
1st entry
Hi everyone!
I just wanted to drop a quick line apologizing for and explaining the paucity of emails and phone calls.
Unfortunately we're not going to be able to do a whole lot of emailing or calling over the next 2 to 2 1/2 weeks. We don't have the internet at home yet. In order to get a phone in the UK you have to call British Telecom (BT), the national government service phone provider and set up a time for them to come out and turn the line on. They take anywhere from 1 -3 weeks to do that. Once you've done that, you can call them or any private provider and make an appointment to set up the internet or TV but no one will even speak to you until you've actually turned your line on with BT. We've applied for a phone line to be installed by BT but they couldn't come install it until May 1st. On May 1st, once the BT technician has been out to the house and given us a phone connection (on which we can make and receive free calls to the States!) we can call BT back and make an appointment for them to come out again and set up broadband for us. I know what you're thinking... yes... we have to make 2 seperate appointments and they have to come out twice... ahhhh beurocracy! It's enough to make me re-think my socialist tendencies!
This means that our only internet connection is at Mat's work. Now, there are some critical differences between work here and work in the States. Many things are exactly the same, but a one difference I've noticed already is that everyone works from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. They have a 37.5 hour work week here and no one comes in early, and no one stays late (except for a VERY few hardy committed work-a-holics, maybe 1 in 100 people)... (Actually, when I think about this, strike what I said earlier about socialism, Viva La Revolucion!) This presents a problem becuase the front door at work has a security alarm and it gets set around 5:00. I don't know it and if I'm here after 5:00, chances are I'm going to set it off when I leave the building and cause a lot of trouble. That means I'm only around an internet connection from about 8:15 to 5:00 (I may not be able to stay late, but someone gets here around 8:00 who knows the security code so I can come in a little early).
I just don't feel comfortable doing much personal emailing on company time and until we have an internet connection in May, there aren't too many other options.
However, I've created this blog to try and make it easier to send updates out. Go ahead and book mark the blog and check back for updates. I'll add pictures and post updates for newly added photo galleries. Taylor may actually get a mobile phone today as well. She won't be able to make calls to the States on the phone but she will be able to receive them. We'll definitely have that mobile phone by this weekend though so anyone who wants to call and wish Lily a happy birthday this Sunday will be able to do so.
We're really sorry about this and we miss you all terribly!
Mat, Taylor, and Lily
I just wanted to drop a quick line apologizing for and explaining the paucity of emails and phone calls.
Unfortunately we're not going to be able to do a whole lot of emailing or calling over the next 2 to 2 1/2 weeks. We don't have the internet at home yet. In order to get a phone in the UK you have to call British Telecom (BT), the national government service phone provider and set up a time for them to come out and turn the line on. They take anywhere from 1 -3 weeks to do that. Once you've done that, you can call them or any private provider and make an appointment to set up the internet or TV but no one will even speak to you until you've actually turned your line on with BT. We've applied for a phone line to be installed by BT but they couldn't come install it until May 1st. On May 1st, once the BT technician has been out to the house and given us a phone connection (on which we can make and receive free calls to the States!) we can call BT back and make an appointment for them to come out again and set up broadband for us. I know what you're thinking... yes... we have to make 2 seperate appointments and they have to come out twice... ahhhh beurocracy! It's enough to make me re-think my socialist tendencies!
This means that our only internet connection is at Mat's work. Now, there are some critical differences between work here and work in the States. Many things are exactly the same, but a one difference I've noticed already is that everyone works from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. They have a 37.5 hour work week here and no one comes in early, and no one stays late (except for a VERY few hardy committed work-a-holics, maybe 1 in 100 people)... (Actually, when I think about this, strike what I said earlier about socialism, Viva La Revolucion!) This presents a problem becuase the front door at work has a security alarm and it gets set around 5:00. I don't know it and if I'm here after 5:00, chances are I'm going to set it off when I leave the building and cause a lot of trouble. That means I'm only around an internet connection from about 8:15 to 5:00 (I may not be able to stay late, but someone gets here around 8:00 who knows the security code so I can come in a little early).
I just don't feel comfortable doing much personal emailing on company time and until we have an internet connection in May, there aren't too many other options.
However, I've created this blog to try and make it easier to send updates out. Go ahead and book mark the blog and check back for updates. I'll add pictures and post updates for newly added photo galleries. Taylor may actually get a mobile phone today as well. She won't be able to make calls to the States on the phone but she will be able to receive them. We'll definitely have that mobile phone by this weekend though so anyone who wants to call and wish Lily a happy birthday this Sunday will be able to do so.
We're really sorry about this and we miss you all terribly!
Mat, Taylor, and Lily
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