Newsy Email

First Week — Well, So Far

I’m not the writer, but I am trying because you all are counting on me to produce something ...

So John finished his training in McLean last Tuesday, picked me up and we went to the airport. He returned the rental car while I watched the 7 bags.

The late flight wasn’t full, so we got a window seat and an aisle one, with no one in the space in the middle. YAY. I slept a little then they served dinner. Its midnight when they serve dinner. John thinks he got about 4 hours of sleep, I got maybe an hour.

When we landed and got our luggage, we found out the UK had stopped doing this long line for non UK residents, which saved us an hour. Huge! We went to the rental car place where John showed off his "packing gene” - getting all bags and us in a tiny subcompact car. Whew!

We drove to Oundle, after stopping to add air to a low tire. We got there in time to do the school pickup with Jenny. Then we took our bags to the Talbot Hotel for 2 nights. They gave us the Mary Queen of Scotts room, which is at the very top of the hotel, 3 stories up…and yes, we lugged all bags up. No “lift”. The room was a lovely suite, with super uneven floors. The hotel was built in 1622. Can you even imagine it??

Then we had dinner with the Beavers, went back to our room and crashed.

But wait—we decided to stop off in town and see 2 “letting agents” and made appointments to see 3 houses on Thursday.

We saw 1 house in the morning and 2 in the afternoon. Chose the first one and let the agents know which rental we chose. Then the tire that was low became flat. So John called the rental company, who sent someone out to patch the tire where a screw had pierced it. Then he drove to Peterborough to 2 places to find a replacement tire. We didn’t have to pay for any of it, but it was a whole lot of time.

Friday we did paperwork, set up the final Brit banking appointment for Monday, and went down to London by train to get the last part of our visa paperwork inland. Then we moved our stuff from the Talbot Hotel to the Bespoke Apartments- until our rental house is ready and our furniture arrives. Then shopped for a bit of groceries. Joined the beavers for homemade pizza dinner. Yum.

Saturday we kind of crashed and rested, out for good dinner at a local Oundle spot called Dexters.

On Sunday, we went to Kingsgate Community Church in Peterborough. Jen was singing on stage for the last time, John had finished with his guitar the week before. After lunch at the apartment, we joined everyone in the village and surrounds for the Remembrance Parade and wreath laying on the village circle. It was very special, and cold, and windy! Their Moto is "lest we forget”. It was moving.

Sunday night we figured out how to work the combo washer, dryer. It took about 9 hours, then we pulled out the drying rack to finish. Using the dishwasher was a little easier, I admit.

Monday- today, we drove to Peterborough, a cathedral city, to finish the paperwork for the Brit bank account. We also had a light lunch in town, since the appointment took about 2 hours. Then we went on the afternoon school run, and John Beavers went too, since he was off work for veterans day.