England

Feb 4th, updated Feb 15^th, April 5^th

We were in a hotel for three nights and then moved into our house when temporary furniture was delivered.  Our shipment was delayed and not supposed to arrive and be out of customs until the end of January. Two days after we had the temp furniture we received a call asking when we wanted delivery of our shipment. It was out of customs. We had it delivered on the 20th and now have most of it set up.  We have a walk in closet, which is very unusual, but it just has one rack to hang clothes. Not enough for us. No coat closets, no linen closets as they are taxed as another room. None of the other bedrooms has a closet. People here buy closets as a piece of furniture.

We got 4 inches of snow Sat. night Feb 4th.  They don’t know what to do with it and most people don’t have snow shovels or chains. Even though its relatively flat we’ve been told slight hills cause major problems when it snows as they don’t have snow tires. It was supposed to warm up but didn’t and we got another 2 inches of snow on the 8^th. It then got cold. Temps with lows of 13 and highs of 29.  Yesterday it finally warmed up to 43 and today the snow is all gone.  It was pretty, but no one shoveled the narrow sidewalks and they had turned to ice.

We just got internet after 3 weeks, so I’m getting to emails.  John bought me a new computer. It didn’t get delivered before we left and he thought ESCO could just send it. Because it has a battery it couldn’t be shipped.  We had to wait until someone was coming over and they carried it for us. We’ve just got it up and running.

I don’t have a car yet so when John’s not home I’m limited to the village which is 3 pubs, library, two small groceries, town hall, two churches, school, and a post office.  Sidewalks are about 3 feet wide and right on the street, no space to park. It’s a little unnerving being that close to cars doing 30 to 40 mph. We bought a ford fiesta for me on Saturday, Feb 11th It’s very basic but will be perfect on these narrow roads.

Our house is new, but was not quite finished.  There were no mirrors or TP holders anywhere in the house. The only way I could see myself was to go to the car and use the mirror or look in the dark window before the sun came up. The hot water was turned off. We were getting hot water but only from an emergency source.  The house is heated by hot water radiators and we were having trouble getting it warm.  The fireplace has a wood stove insert but has no stove pipe or glass in the doors. There are two laundry spaces: one upstairs in its own room and one in the backdoor entry way.  We had the washer installed upstairs, but the downstairs plumbing had the connection for the washer and it was never plugged. So when John used that sink all the water drained into the cupboard under the sink. A mess. The washer, dryer and refrigerator are on the same circuit. Yes we have a dryer. For the first week I had to open a window to throw the exhaust vent out when I used it.  The land lord finally came and drilled a hole in the brick wall for the vent. When the dryer gets to the end of its cycle, the circuit breaker pops. We got up one morning and discovered the frig was off. Now when I'm washing I listen for it to trip. 

They have no garbage disposals which takes some getting used to again. All of the drains are on the outside of the houses.  So far nothing has frozen but I’m not sure why.  The oven controls are set for Celsius, so I have a conversion chart by the oven.  Ovens don’t fit most of my cookie sheets. I thought they would, but they are about an inch too small.  Everything is small. Bought the biggest microwave we could find and it fits a 9x9 pan. Can’t find a coffee pot or a fry pan/ griddle. But can’t find any pancake mix or maple syrup so it may not matter. Have found maple syrup. We weren’t looking in the correct Isle. It’s an ice cream topping here. All the coffee we've seen is instant. No Starbucks here. Actually found one in London at Knightsbridge station.  They don’t have any cornmeal. Have tried 4 different grocery chains.  They also don’t have the variety of spices we can get. I couldn’t bring my spices and there are some I can’t replace.  In general they don’t have the wide variety of food choices we have, and all the quantities are small.  Costco sizes here are like our regular grocery instead of the giant sizes we get at home from Costco. Yes they do have Costco.

The prices here are similar to home. Apples are L1.49, but that L1. 49 is $2.30.  Anything but food has a Value Added Tax (VAT) of 20%. Costco has the prices on the shelves and in small writing underneath has the cost after the VAT which is 20% higher.  It's how they pay for their health care and welfare.  Unemployed are entitled to an income of 26,000L a year or about $39,000. The national government is trying to turn benefits over to the local governments. Thinking they can better keep track of people really needing it and those just enjoying a good income. As a result we pay village taxes of 200L ($310) a month. This includes garbage service but not any other utilities. There are a lot of articles here asking." Doesn't the US see that the socialist economy isn't working and why is the US trying to copy Britain's mistakes?"  Interesting looking at our country from someone else's eyes.

We’re getting use to driving on the wrong side of the road. It’s not too bad. The narrow roads are the biggest challenge. Especially as they can park in the middle of the lane if they want. At most intersections they have round-abouts.  They are much nicer than traffic lights and keep everyone moving. We are getting the hang of how to enter and exit without getting honked at. J

At church the hymnals are just words, no music. I recognized a song yesterday and was excited I'd really get to sing. They used different music!

Celiacs get food mailed to them as a health prescription, so there are not a lot of bakeries (I’ve found none) and the choice of flours doesn't exist. They have a basic flour mix for everything. To get a whole wheat type flour, we would add teff, or sorghum, or montina, they add carob powder to color it brown. I bought some raisin bread for breakfast. It had orange and anise flavoring almost a fruitcake taste.

Getting the banking up and running has been a challenge. Even when we went in person to the bank and gave them our local mailing address, they mailed pins numbers and checks to Portland.  We have since removed all references to Portland.  They blocked my debit card so one day it just was refused.  We thought we'd reached our limit, but since it didn't work a week later we called and they thought it was used too much and had blocked it.  They had called the Portland number to get authorization from us.  To get any questions answered about your account you need a sorting code, account number, birthday, telephone access code. Of course you're not supposed to write anything down, but we kept forgetting one or more of the codes and then couldn't do anything.  Credit cards and debit cards have a pin. Credit cards used on the internet have a special security code. Yeah another to remember.  We are trying to make them all the same but different people want different amounts of numbers and letters and capitals.

The people are nice and helpful.  When they find out we've moved here, they look at us in wonder and 98% will say "Why!"  They all want to move to the US.  

John likes work and the people he is working with. His commute has never been more than half an hour on bad days and most times 15 to 20 minutes. If he leaves by 7am he makes the 15 miles to work in 40 minutes. If he leaves at 7:15 it can take an hour. He has tried different routes but hasn't found anything shorter than 40 minutes. He has since reduced it to 30 min because of familiarity with the roads.

We are amazed at the red tape and legal issues we keep running into.  We received a letter on Tuesday that stated our safety registration for all gas operated items in the house had expired on 3/31. We needed to cease using them until an inspection could be made as to their safety and a new certificate could be issued. If we continued in their use we were breaking the law.  So with the temperature going to freezing we were expected to turn off the hot water, furnace, and not cook on the stove.  I called and was told they would get back to me that day. Still haven’t heard.

John called to get the gas bills changed to our name.  They had no listing for our house, even though our land lord read the meter when we moved in and called in the numbers to them. John said that we would pay for any gas use from Jan. 17^th.  He was told it must have been another gas company and to check with them. His reply was there is no other gas company, and she said she would get back to him.  When she returned she agreed they were the gas company. But as no account existed, he couldn’t pay the back amounts.  A new account was started and all the gas from January was free. Heck of a way to run a company.

We had water on the bathroom floor that shouldn’t have been there. In checking it out, we discovered that it was leaking into the living room ceiling and had leaked into the walk in closet that shared a wall. We had to take out the carpet and dry it, the pad and the floor.  A plumber came and hopefully fixed the leak. We are letting the sealant set before we try the shower again.  With 4 options for showers we don’t have to use that one. 

We have a nice walk in closet, now that it’s dry again, but their idea of how to use it is a single, portable rack along one wall.  We have purchased a closet system from Ikea and this weekend hope to get it up. Then we can get rid of the shipping hanger boxes we are still using to get space for cloths.

Amazon is alive and well in the UK.  I purchased a used Bernina sewing machine.  I got a good buy because the seller wouldn’t ship it and she lived near us, about 50 miles away.  Most people in England think this is the middle of nowhere. We picked it up and had a nice outing in Lincoln.  It has a beautiful cathedral, and castle. However the castle has no Keep (no building that we think of as the castle.) It has a beautiful medieval wall, dungeon, and entrances, but was always used as a prison not a living space.

Our goal is to find a real castle.  We have joined the national trust which allows us free entry to all the properties they protect. It’s over 700 in our region. Sir Isaac Newton’s home is one near us.  So far we haven’t seen any because they don’t open until March and we spent March in Australia.

We’ve also gone to York which at one time was the second largest town in England. Between Roman and Viking occupation it is fascinating and I’m sure we will go there many times.

Getting use to the school holidays around here so we can avoid crowds.  There is a winter holiday week the second week of Feb. and now there is a week off for Easter. John gets Good Friday and Easter Monday off too, national holidays. We aren’t going to go anywhere unless it’s a day trip as we’ve been advised that most things are booked way in advance and will be crowded.

April 16^th

he weather was warm here while we were in Australia, and has turned cold since our arrival back. This week nighttime temperatures have been at or below freezing, rain and cold winds during the day. Feels like Feb rather than April. 

I have 4 small garden beds that I was looking forward to planting, but am finding the builder left rocks, cement pieces, brick pieces all over and covered them with about 2 inches of nice soil. So the nice beds are turning into a pain. I'm sure we'll get it sorted as they say and get something planted.  The cold weather doesn't make me want to go buy plants right now anyway.

We've been trying to get out each weekend and see properties around our area. Most of them didn't open until the end of March so we haven't been to a lot yet.  We joined the National Trust which allows us to get into properties they own for free. There are about 3000 in the UK. So far we've been to 3. A 1700's house and grounds with the original furniture still intact, a 1400's castle with moat and all the internal features you think of as being in a castle, and a 16th century castle which was basically just the surrounding wall.

It’s amazing how old everything is.  The land around us has been reclaimed from the sea and farmed for over 1000 years.  We sit 9 feet below sea level and are on a high spot for the area.

They have some big supermarkets like Fred Meyers, but you get better produce and meat if you go to the produce store and the local butcher. .

May 4^th-6^th   We took the overnight ferry from Hull to Bruges, Belgium. It’s an old city about 10 miles from the coast that used to be a major port for that part of Europe. As such it has been concurred by everyone at different times, so a lot of history and architecture in the town. It’s known for its chocolate and lace now. We visited a church that was a hospital run by nuns and brothers for over 800 years, a chocolate museum that has amazing Mayan artifacts, and took a boat tour in the town’s cannels that were a major part of the city’s transportation and connect to the sea.  The chocolate tour we thought would just be unusual, but was surprising. The Mayan artifacts were too numerous to count and puzzling as to how this private company came by them they didn’t say. Obviously they were some of the first traders of chocolate and brought the artifacts back with them over the years. They had chocolate cups that had been chemically tested and the results proved that they were used to drink hot chocolate. In Mayan choco means hot and alte means water so chocolate really means hot water! The Europeans sure got language of natives confused.

The ferry was fun to do. They are amazingly efficient. The rooms are just big enough for two narrow bunk beds, a bath with sink, toilet and shower that used the same floor as the whole bathroom in a very tight space. Going over was a little rough, we had a cabin surrounded on three sides and someone connected to us snored all night! With the noise of the ship, the banging of the waves, and the snoring some but not a lot of good sleep was had. Coming back, we had very calm water an end room and only the narrow beds prevented a wonderful night’s sleep.

May 11^th -  13^th  We went to Whitby for the weekend and a Celiac walk along the coast. It was a beautiful sunny day and had a great 6 mile walk with about 20 people. We stayed at a vacation lodge that helped sponsor the weekend.  It is a vacation company that offers walking weeks for people. The come and each day a leader takes them on a walk varying from 6 to 25 miles. We were amazed at the people coming for a week of walking 25 miles each day. Walking was the hotels main focus but now they offer country dancing, singing, and in some places bicycling weeks.

                                                                           

We drove along the coast through the Yorkshire moors home. They have very few beaches but mostly high cliffs with waves breaking on rocks at the base of the cliff.

 May 22^nd  They had a gluten free food fair about an hour from here, which is close, so we went. Very small about 12 vendors: 3 large companies, 5people selling mixes, sausages, flours, sauces, noodles, and the rest selling already made cakes and desserts. To get the food from the big companies you have to be prescribed it by your doctor, so newly diagnosed and very ill. It was frustrating because some is nice but I can’t get.

 Visited a workhouse for the poor like those of Charles Dickens time. The poor were segregated by sex, and adults and children separated. Men and woman were further separated into able bodied poor, classified as lazy poor, and poor through no fault of their own, old, ill, mentally slow.  The able bodied were worked hard to convince them they didn’t want to stay poor and thus stay there.  However no way was given to them to allow them to leave. They were not paid for their work, or given and training.  The children were given a basic education for half of the day and then they worked the other half. No help finding a job. They could leave at any time but were on their own to find work and housing. Their belief was you were poor because you were lazy. It wasn’t until they speculated that the economic situation might account for lack of jobs and the resulting able-bodied poor that they closed the work houses. It was used until 1977!

 

Village life- We live about 15 miles from John’s work in a farming community. There are tractors daily going down the roads to different fields.  We also get a lot of horse riders walking down the main streets.  We’ve been walking around the village in the evening to get to know the area and get some exercise.  There are public footpath signs all over and you see stiles going over farmers fences but until yesterday we hadn’t taken any foot paths that disappeared in the distance because we didn’t know where we’d come out. The foot paths start often as a narrow alley between houses and then empties into a field. At that point you wonder now where do I go? Last night we took a narrow path near the center of the village between two houses. It was just wide enough for one person. It emptied onto a road in a farmer’s field. They grow a lot of rapeseed here. We were between two fields of it growing about 6 feet high. We walked down the road and all we could see was a plowed field ahead. In the distance was someone else walking so we walked to him and asked where the footpath goes. It was the farmer who owned the field. He was very nice and we talked for quite a while. His son is a farm manager in Colusa CA where John’s cousin has a rice farm. John asked why he had a strip the size of half a football field (cut length wise) not cultivated. His reply was the modern machinery makes it too small to deal with and the town council wouldn’t let him move the foot path over so he could make one large field of the area. Foot paths must stay where they have historically been. As we continued on we crossed several farmers field diagonally that they plow and plant and then people just walk through. Crazy system.