LondonCrackers

Driven to Distraction

2009-08-27T16:04:00.003+01:00

I am now determinedly pursuing my UK driving license. I've been reading The Highway Code, studying a testing CD, and making a concerted effort to "get it right" when I'm motoring along the country roads. Driving in the UK does not come easily to me. US driving didn't come easily to me, either. I had to retake the maneuverability portion of the test after hours of practice one gray Sunday afternoon in the high school parking lot. Even as an adult, I still keep my hands at two and ten and get sweaty palms when driving in high-traffic areas. And I am not looking forward to taking the test again as an adult.

So taking my bloated American mini-van on narrow roads with cars parked on both sides and compact vehicles careening toward me takes a bit of courage to begin with, a sat-nav for moral support during, and a cup of tea or a glass of Chardonnay at the journey's end. But I'm getting better. I now stay on the correct side of the road all the time. The children can now talk while I drive. I still don't always talk back. I may turn the radio on during a journey sometime soon.

But I did something remarkable today: I parked the mini-van in my driveway. Let me explain. My driveway is about one foot wider than the van with concrete posts on either side. Cars line both sides of the road in front, so most of the time only one car can pass at a time. And they pass by frequently.

So when I returned from today's journey and could find no easily accessible street parking anywhere on the block, I gritted my teeth and said, "Right. Most Brits would back into a driveway this size -- surely I can do this." So I folded in the left-hand mirror, kept the left side within six inches of the post, and maneuvered my way in. Without being directed by anyone AND without scratching it on the fence posts.

Even my children are proud of me!

Geocaching

2009-08-22T17:31:00.003+01:00

Today we went exploring Cookham, a town north of Maidenhead, thanks to our new interest in geocaching. For those who haven't heard of it, geocaching involves using a GPS device, a sat-nav works well, to find a container that someone has hidden. Usually, there is a log to sign and small items to trade, which adds to the fun of actually finding what you are looking for. If you are interested, you can get started with geocaching.com and find hidden treasures throughout the world.

Since we are novices, we have been staying close to home and trying to combine a geocaching activity with something we were already doing. So today's hike took us past a 17th century inn, a church that's been around since before the Norman Conquest (and a newly-wed couple), a sarsen stone, and one specific telephone pole in order to solve a puzzle that would lead us to a cache that would give us the coordinates for the final cache that was holding the goodies. Well, we solved the puzzle, but we didn't find the cache holding the secret coordinates. Pretty disappointing. Still was a warm, sunny day with my favorite people.

License to Drive

2009-08-21T16:56:00.003+01:00

Mark and I are now on our way to being licensed drivers here in the UK -- none too soon, since we have to be fully licensed by the middle of November. We how have our hard-won provisional licenses. Since no one here has known us for more than two years, we had to go to our local DVLA (think DMV) in Oxford to apply in person. Driving in Oxford is not for the faint of heart; a native British friend said that she'd gladly drive in London any day, but even she takes advantage of the park and ride plan in Oxford. She wasn't kidding. We managed to get two tickets within ten minutes of each other for driving in the bus lanes.

Anyway, we are now looking for some good driving lessons (more for me than Mark-- I'm terrible at parallel parking) and studying the highway code to get ready for our theory and hazard perception tests. The theory test is about the same as in the US, except it uses UK laws. However, the hazard perception test is new to me. Basically, you are shown film clips that show a hazard forming, and you have to click a button as soon as you recognize the hazard. I bought a CD to help me prepare for this part, but I still need to install it on the computer. I'll have to do that this evening.

We'll always have Paris

2009-05-31T09:02:00.005+01:00

Last week, we took the Eurostar under the Chunnel to meet my folks for a few days in Paris. (I also took the opportunity to meet some remote co-workers at the Amazon.fr office.) We had a wonderful time, and finally managed to edit most of the footage down to the following four segments:

Bus Tour

One thing that's worth doing in any big city is hopping onto one of those open-top buses and getting a quick introduction to what all's available, where things are in relation to each other, and what looks interesting enough to merit a closer visit on foot. The following is set to the credits score from the Bourne trilogy, which featured many a high-speed chase through the streets of Paris:

Be Our Guest

This is kind of a parody of all the pictures (and slides...endless slides!) that my Dad used to bring home from my parents' trips to Europe, in which my Mom nearly always happened to be snacking on some local delicacy. Since Paris is synonymous with ~~gross~~fine cuisine, it seemed appropiate to document some of the highlights as we chewed our way across the capital:

Eiffel Tower

Well, you can hardly come to town and not visit this emblematic icon. Although we walked by and under it enroute to other stops, we didn't go up the elevator until our final morning in the city, before dragging our luggage back to the Gare du Nord. Note that, while it is fairly straightforward going up the tower, there are two elevators coming back down; the one we took terminates about halfway down, leaving you to navigate the stairs for the rest!

Lourve

We allocated one full day to exploring the famous musée of Paris, dutifully stopping to verify all the plot twists in Dan Brown's factually-challenged bestseller:

Of course, there is so much more to be said about Paris, and France and Europe in general, but that'll have to wait for another time :-)

A Poke in the Eye

2009-05-31T08:57:00.002+01:00

My parents arranged to meet a few of their college buddies from Capital over in Europe for a reunion tour, so got to spend a few days with us at the beginning and end of the trip. One thing we got to do was finally take a ride up into that big wheeley-thing that decorates the Thames pier:

aka "Football"

2009-05-31T08:47:00.002+01:00

Christopher has always been the more sports-minded of our kids, and adapted to England quickly enough by joining both his school's ~~soccer~~football team, as well as their cricket club! These are a few short snaps from his first official game:

Lyme Regis

2009-04-19T20:18:00.005+01:00

DailyMotion allows me to use my original audio track, but the video quality is rather poor, even with "HQ" enabled:

Conversely, YouTube forced me to change the audiotrack (still processing, as the current version is silent), but clearly provides the best video quality:

I suppose that if this is the worst I have to complain about, I should count myself pretty fortunate :-)

YouTube Hrmm

2009-04-19T19:28:00.002+01:00

It took some time to upload the second and much-longer video from our Easter vacation to YouTube, and when it finally was posted, I was startled to see that YouTube had automatically deleted the audio track. At Laura's request, I had set this episode to Yes' "Roundabout," a fitting pun on the dozens of roadside roundabouts we circled while driving through the English countryside. However, apparently Google has a spankin' new algorithm which actually listens for, and recognizes, popular tunes which may appear in your video, and refuses to play them until you can demonstrate copyright holder approval.

A similar warning had come up when I uploaded Stonehenge, but with a fairly light restriction that still allows the movie to be played in America, Britain, and a lengthy list of other net-centric nations. Even so, I assumed the detection was made against metadata, as I had not only titled the post to match the song, but had even listed "Spinal Tap" as a keyword. However, in the second vid, I hadn't mentioned group, album or track (although it's possible QuickTime .mov files retain some of the MP3 metadata, which I was lapse in not purging).

Anyway, the long and short of it is that I'm heeding the recommendation of this post to simply switch to an alternate video host for potentially litigious clips. Annoying, and in my mind, counter-productive, because frankly some of these 60's- and 70's-era bands could use a little modern publicity!

Stonehenge

2009-04-19T18:06:00.004+01:00

The kids got two weeks off from school for the Easter holidays, and we decided that we'd been "playing it safe" (keeping close to Maidenhead and it's immediate rail-accessible environs) long enough, so decided to strike out into the verdant verge for a 4day camping trip along England's "Jurassic Coast", down around Lyme Regis on the southern Atlantic coastline.

There are a lot of interesting points to visit between Berkshire and Dorset, but one that had long topped our hitlist was Stonehenge. A lot of the locals here shrug, "but it's just a bunch of rocks," typically to go on about how Avebury is both larger and less commercialized, if you go in for that sort of thing.

But that's not it at all. Stonehenge is more than a pile of rocks: it's a center of myth, legend, and folklore dating to before the time of wallpaper screensavers and forwarded emails with 3MB attachments showing precariously perched kittens and dancing babies. It's the primordial lodestone, a keynode of ley lines whose ferric poles pull at our cultural consciousness. Not to even get started about Seekers, Aspirants, Ovates, and your new-agey Hierophants!

"And their legacy remains...hewn, into the living rock of Stonehenge."

Hello! Goodbye.

2009-04-07T15:39:00.002+01:00

Tuesday I interviewed for a teacher assisting position at Chris's school and got it! It is the perfect way to learn the local school system and school culture. I'll be working in a year four classroom just down the hallway from Chris. So, after Easter I'll be saying hello to lots of new people.

Unfortunately, I have to say good-bye to Narcoossee Community School a bit more permanently than before. Originally, I had taken a leave of absence from the school, but that leave is now nearing expiration and I need to let them know if I am returning or not. Since I'm not going to commute across an ocean, I guess I have to say that I am not coming back. Sounds like a door closing with resounding finality.

Brown looks to Bezos

2009-03-10T15:37:00.005Z

Wow...how often does working on a retail website give you the opportunity to influence public policy?

People in England will get more online powers to rate GPs, police, childcare and councils, Gordon Brown has said. He said it was wrong that consumer websites such as Amazon...had "higher standards of transparency" than those for public services.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7934042.stm

Takeaway: always do your best...you never know who may be watching!

Walking clubs

2009-03-10T13:40:00.003Z

Going for a walk in England has been surprisingly different from walking in the United States. Of course, you still have to pick up one foot, move it forward, set it down, pick up the other foot, move it forward, set it down, and repeat as often as needed to get to your destination. Some things don't change when you cross an ocean. The difference is where you walk. In the US, typically I would go walking along residential streets or on the bike/pedestrian path beside the main road. In the England, people typically go walking over public paths (such as the Green Way) that lead you over open fields and natural areas. Sometimes these paths cross private lands that have a public right of way, which means the public has a right to free passage across private land, provided the public doesn't damage the private land in any way. This means that, even though we live close to the center of town, we have wide open natural areas very close at hand.

I've recently been on organized walks with two different groups. The advantage to these groups is that someone usually knows where he/she is going, has a map, and has probably been over the territory before. For me, this avoids the possibility of having to call the emergency rescue people on my cell phone. With the Thames Valley American Women's Club, I enjoyed a hike that included Hellfire Caves, the family (I forget which one) mausoleum, a lovely old church, and green rolling hills as far as the eye could see. We traveled along several rights of way, one of which took us through a pasture past some rather puzzled horses. Our leader also goes geo-caching, so we searched for and found a cache near the mausoleum. The box of treasure was hidden under some fallen branches, so it really took some digging through leaves -- which I would never have done in Florida, the home of fire ants, poisonous snakes, cockroaches, and every other creepy creature imaginable.

The second trip out and about was with the Wesley Walkers from the Methodist church. On this trip, I was the distantly youngest person; most of my fellow hikers were old enough to be my parents! But this did not slow any of them down. We crossed stiles and trudged through muddy fields over a four or five mile trail. Sometimes the trail resembled a slightly shorter path through the grassy fields, so I was glad someone had a map on this trip. Happily, this walk ended at a nearby pub!

Time on my Hands

2009-02-26T11:31:00.005Z

Since we moved into our house in early December, we emplaced our furniture around a variety of holiday decorations, including a Christmas tree. After those decorations came down (eventually :-), we determined there was a distinct gap in the dining room where the tree had once gone, and which none of our existing furniture adequately resolved.

Therefore, our Valentine's Day gift to the family was a grandfather clock, which filled the space marvelously without breaking the bank (trust us to find a pressboard grandfather clock!)

Oh, and for your BBC English lesson of the day, particle board is called "chipboard" in the UK :-)

Poster Boy

2009-02-26T09:25:00.003Z

When the ladies at church heard that I was "good with computers", one of them promptly decided that I would make a suitable graphic artist to replace the fellow who used to generate posters for their monthly "Arts Café" -- after all, he did the work on computers, and I worked with computers...right? Anyway, I was able to produce a couple of sample designs for this month's gig ("the best that PowerPoint provides!"), and it's actually kinda cool to see them posted up around town:

Shool Shedules

2009-02-26T07:26:00.008Z

Yes, I have heard some people call pronounce "school" as "shool" or "shole", rather than the American "skool" :-) But pronunciation wasn't the only educational surprise -- not by a long shot!

One of Jonathan's greatest transitions has been adapting to the Desborough academic calendar. Even though he's in his 8th year (what Americans would call 7th grade (Brits count Kindergarten...but note that 6th year has nothing to do with the crucially important 6th form, which doesn't kick-in until his 12th year...you got all that?)...anyway, even though he's only 13, his diary (that's calendar here) looks a lot like a typical day in college:

Mon: P.E., history, VoTech, English, maths
Tue: religion, art, English, science, Spanish
Wed: music, science, maths, VoTech, Spanish
Thr: computers, geography, Spanish, P.E., English
Fri: science, Spanish, maths, geography, English

But that's just for week "A"! In week "B", he goes to VoTech on Tuesday, history on Wednesday, German on Thursday, and drama and "social education" on Friday! So that's a total of 15 different subjects (including two foreign languages), in which classes continually change positions from day-to-day both physically and temporally (e.g., science occurs in period 1, 2, 4 or 5 on different days).

Being understandably bewildered by all of this, and often unsure of just where he was to be at any given time, Jonathan took to carrying his materials for all possible subjects with him every day (they don't have lockers or any personal storage areas), adding a 10-kilo rucksack to his worries.

Fortunately, after a month of accommodation, it seems we're gradually adapting to the educational climate, figuring out what needs to be packed when, comprehending their homework, discipline, and reporting policies, etc. It's been quite an adaptation, and probably hardest for Jonathan, whose school seems to have one leg very firmly planted in the "grammar-school" tradition of England's past (versus modern "comprehensive" schools, which are structured very similarly to the American institution).

Oxford

2009-02-25T19:45:00.002Z

Saturday dawned bright and beautiful, so we thought it would be a good day to finally take the train up to Oxford. I take trains running "to" Oxford just about every day (I come home each evening on the Paddington-to-Oxford line), but typically get off after one or two stops.

We packed our usual rucksack of sandwiches and snacks, then headed up for the great explore:

Pancake Day

2009-02-25T19:33:00.003Z

In many parts of the world, Tuesday was Mardi Gras -- the big party before Lent begins and we all have to focus on being better people. In the Maidenhead and the rest of the United Kingdom, Pancake Day was celebrated. Why pancakes? Well, the tradition is that butter, eggs, sugar, and other tasty ingredients are forbidden during Lent, so people had to use up these ingredients before confession time on Tuesday (Shrove Tuesday) to prepare for Ash Wednesday. The legend is that one woman was so involved in making her pancakes that she didn't realize it was time for the church service. She hurried to church but forgot she still had the frying pan -- complete with pancake -- still in her hand. And so we have Pancake Day! (For US people, these pancakes will look a lot more like crepes than the type of thing that you get at IHOP, Denny's, or Waffle House. Even so, I bought a ham and cheese filled pancake at the booth before the race. Still delicious.)

On Pancake Day, many towns have Pancake Races. In Maidenhead, teams of two from local businesses had relay races down King Street. The first participant had to flip the pancake twice while running and hand off the skillet to a second participant, who also had to run and flip the pancake twice. If the pancake flipped out of the pan, the runner had to pick up the pancake before continuing. Fancy dress was optional, but one team earned an award for coming dressed as a sword-wielding pirate and a construction worker in a hardhat. Fifteen teams entered this year, including the defending champions from Saisbury's, a local grocery store and sponsor of the event. Unfortunately for them, on one flip, the pancake flopped out of the pan, and one of the Wargraves' teams sprinted to victory.

Shevanigans

2009-02-25T19:21:00.002Z

So the takeaway is: don't ship a US vehicle to England...it's just not worth the fuss!

This was the tally of things which were "wrong" with our 2004 Ford Freestar and had to be physically repaired or replaced before it could be legally driven in the U.K.:

Front position lamps are a colour other than white
Offside headlamp aim too high (welcome to the U.K...aim low! yuk yuk)
No rear fog lamp system fitted
Rear indicators area colour other than amber
Front position lamps do not show steady light with indicators/hazards activated
Rear stop lamps do not show steady light when indicators/hazards are activated (e.g., they flash...isn't that what you'd want hazards to do?)
Front indicators do not meet the required angles of visibility (side repeaters required)

That last one was interesting...they ended up drilling holes in both sides of the van and mounting 6-bulb LED star projectors that shine every which way. And I'd wondered how they would do the license plate, since British license numbers are rather longer than US versions, and I doubted a wide plate would fit within the beveled recess on our bumper. Their solution was simplicity itself: turn on word-wrap! The final plates (fore and aft) ended up being two lines high, fitting both legal and physical requirements.

Sadly, none of this was cheap...or fast...or convenient...or to be honest, pleasant in any respect, or even necessary at the end of the day (since after four months' time in country, we've learned to get by quite well using public transport). By the time all was said and done, I'd have been about as happy to roll the thing off the cliffs of Dover and have done with it.

Snow Day!

2009-02-02T13:41:00.005Z

The kids have missed school before due to plenty of Hurricane Days, but this is the first time we've ever had school called off on account of snow!

Seeing

2009-01-25T15:57:00.000Z

I was invited to the arts group that is sponsored by the church we’ve been attending, so I gladly went along. I took along some small projects I’d been working on and some ideas for a story I’d been needing to get on paper. When I arrived, I found women working on paintings and drawings (not writing or crafting). They all smiled and nodded at me politely, but one friend asked if I wouldn’t like to try some drawing. Well, why not? This whole trip is supposed to be about trying new things.

When I arrived, one lady was studying a piece of wood with moss and lichen growing on it with a magnifying glass. She had picked up the wood on a trip to Scotland and was delighted to find so many beautiful things in one place. Then other ladies gathered around, equally amazed at the blooms and interesting textures. Then my friend set me up with drawing pencils, paper, and a mug, and instructed me to “draw what you see, not what you think is there.” A zen moment, if I ever heard one. After an hour and a half of “drawing you see” I felt relaxed and happy that I took the time to see the wonders around me.

We've made our bed, now we can lie on it.

2009-01-25T15:13:00.001Z

Every move has a few glitches, so international moves have to have at least twice as many … right? Our major furniture glitch was that the box springs for the queen-sized bed didn’t fit up the stairs and that the headboard came apart in transit. Mark and I “roughed it” with the mattress on the floor for a month and stored the box springs in the entry hall while we debated how best to repair the damage. We tried waiting for the moving company to come up with something (“We’ll take 90 days to process your claim; meanwhile, don’t do anything with the remaining pieces, or we’ll revoke your claim.”) or we could do something about it ourselves. Mark said the headboard was an easy fix – just use some L-brackets and wood glue to attach the shelf part to the part that actually holds the frame for the mattress. If it doesn’t work, we’re not out much on our fifteen-year-old headboard that is made from pressboard and very shiny veneer. After we lined up the two pieces of headboard, the gluing and bracketing went fairly quickly and yielded a headboard that was likely more solid than the first. Whew, one down, one to go.

The bigger question was how to get the box springs up the stairs. First, Mark peeled back the gray stuff on the bottom side to see the guts of our box springs. Yes, there are actual metal springs – and a wood frame – in there. So Mark sawed through the wooden frame, then we bent the box springs in half like a soft taco. Folding saved a lot of cutting and repair work over cutting! We tied up the taco with rope from the shed, then shoved the whole mess up the stairs. We untied it carefully, expecting it to spring open like a Jack-in-the box. It didn’t, but it stayed bent. We positioned people at both ends, while Mark installed metal braces to stabilize the sawn-through frame. Now we have a whole headboard, a bed-frame, the box springs on the second floor, and a mattress on top of it all. And it didn’t fall apart in the middle of the night!

Bonus: We have tons of extra space in the entry hall!

Indian Cooking, So Far

2009-01-25T15:10:00.000Z

Mark surprised me with an Indian cookbook for Christmas and said, “Please!!” So I leafed through the book to find something that was A) easy and B) not too objectionable to our kids. The oven-fried chilli chicken legs were a hit, so I moved on a few pages and tried chicken with peppercorns and shredded ginger. Wow! Chris came downstairs as I was cooking and exclaimed, “Wow, that smells GOOD!” It was. No leftovers. Complete success.

Special Note: Chris is developing a new character class for Dungeons and Dragons: the cook. After all, a cook uses a mortar and pestle to prepare spell components/ ingredients. Of course, we all know that chicken noodle soup has special healing properties. And who doesn’t feel better for having had a cup of hot cocoa with whipped cream and sprinkles? Definitely magical.

Double Vision

2009-01-25T10:52:00.004Z

Having lived all my life in traditional "detached" houses -- specifically, comparatively sprawling American ranch-style homes, with a good-sized yard wrapping around from front to back and a comfortable 20–30' separating you from your closest neighbors to the sides -- I'd kind of wondered what it would be like living in "terraced" (what the English call rowhouses or townhouses) or "semi-detached" (Americans would call these duplexes) homes.

What kind of special relationship do you develop with your wall/yard-mates? Does a feeling of camaraderie evolve from listening to the same creaking pipes every night? Joined at the housing hip like Siamese twins, sharing all the same housing woes, do you grow a unique social bond that none else could ever understand?

In reality, we've found the converse to be true. When a single structure is split into two logical homes, the wall between becomes a major architectural feature. Since there can never be any windows or doors in the separating wall, and connections between rooms (betwixt the "fore" and "aft" of the house) must generally run parallel to it, it is the opposing wall which receives the lion's share of broad, panoramic windows, if any of England's limited supply of natural lighting is to be captured and retained within.

And directly across from these many wide windows sits...the similarly-adorned external side of the house next-door! So the right-half of one duplex has all these huge windows, facing directly against the glassy surface of the left-half of the neighboring duplex; meaning that the family you really get to know quite well is not the one with whom you're sharing heat (side-stacked houses make for great insulation in winter), but sharing light...an interesting distinction.

(BTW, feel free to click on the above graphic...the source site is pretty funny :-)

Geotagging

2009-01-25T10:45:00.003Z

Blogger.com has introduced a new "geotagging" facility in beta, allowing posts to be linked to coordinates in Google Maps. (Of course, nothing was stopping people from manually creating per-post links, but this is better integrated into the editor and display templates.) Anyway, you can scroll back and find new "Location:" footers below many of our recent video posts. Kinda cool.

(Also, I don't know, but since Google owns both Blogger.com and YouTube, I would assume that automatic integration of such posts and videos into Google Earth isn't far off!)

By the Thames

2009-01-23T00:20:00.006Z

A short clip of Mom & Dad walking down by the Thames as it flows past Maidenhead's eastern shore...and a special treat for any fans of EPCOT's fantastic Impressions de France :-) (By the way, that's pronounced "tems", don'cha'no!)

Bringing the Van Home

2009-01-22T20:57:00.004Z

This morning I hopped a train to Reading, and would have switched for Southampton except the lines were all snarled due to some malf upstream. Anyway, they advised that folks feeling adventurous could try the line to Basingstoke and figure it out from there, so I did. Disembarking at the Basingstoke platform, an older gent asked if I knew the way to Southampton; I told him that's where I was going, and would be happy to have a buddy in my search. That worked out well for him, as he'd just got off a plane from Sydney (Australia), and had a bad back, and was towing about 50lb in luggage. Anyway, we found the right train, and were in Southampton by late morning.

There's a free bus that runs from Southampton Central to downtown and then the docks. I had no idea where I was going except "1mi past Dock 4 gate". I managed to find a sign pointing toward Dock 4, which proved to be a goodly walk, then the gate-guard assured me that my shipper's berth was indeed another mile down on the left. I found my way to the shipper's office, paid the miscellaneous customs & handling fees (£162.50 in cash, exact change is appreciated thank you very much). Finally, then went and found my van, which was apparently emplaced with a bunch of military vehicles as "it was one of those big American jobs".

They said they'd needed to jump-start the battery, but otherwise it seemed to be ship-shape, so to speak. And so...I was off!

But where to? Honestly, I have no idea where I went after that; fortunately, I didn't need to :-) For Christmas, I bought Laura a Garmin Nuvi, and boy did it work a treat. I'd thought to unpack it back at our house in Maidenhead, which it promptly registered as "home"; so when I stuck it to the windscreen in the van and plugged it into the cigarette lighter, it helpfully prompted "would you like to go home?" "Heck yeah," I replied, and off we went.

So what's it like for an American, driving their first time in England? Not nearly as awkward as I'd feared. Frankly, there are a lot of cars on the road; and that's a GOOD thing, as it means there's nearly always someone else right in front of you. Just do like they do, and you tend to be fine. (I had read The Official Highway Code back-to-back on the train down, just in case anyone takes me literally.)

Driving on the left really isn't that big a deal. Most of the roads I was on had two or even three lanes of traffic going in my direction; so it was easy to just stay in the left-most of those, which is where I spent most of my time in the US anyway (okay, I wasn't the most "fuel-efficient" driver when ripping up the Florida Turnpike in my Eclipse!). Staying in the left-lane, you tend to notice a lot of folks passing you on the right, which instinctively feels rude (not something genteel folk would do in America, if we had a gentry), but that's just them so you ignore it.

The one bit that will definitely take a bit of getting used to is the roundabouts. We have roundabouts in the US -- they've made quite an inroad in Central Florida just in the last 15 years -- but between the left-right switch, the multiple lanes, the 3-7 exits which seem to spurt off in seemingly random directions, and that bloody Nuvi hissing in your ear "No, fool, I said the fourth exit -- the fourth, are you deaf as well as blind?!?" (at least, that's how it came to sound after the third, patronizing "recalculating...")...anyway, where was I? And that's just how it feels to whirl around one of those bloody roundabouts.

I did stop for petrol before leaving Southampton (you have to ship your vehicle nigh-empty, so she was thirsty she was), and plunked in 80 litres of...what, I don't know...liquid gold, must've been at those prices. I winced and just handed over my debt card.

But enough of my drivel...drive it yourself!

Winding through Windsor

2009-01-22T20:53:00.003Z

Pete & Judy on a leisurely tour through the Queen's weekend villa...

Walking through Westminster

2009-01-22T19:04:00.004Z

For the record, I firmly protest Mark's choice in music for this one! By the way, you can read more about the Buxton Memorial on Wikipedia.

Walking to Ellington

2009-01-22T16:56:00.004Z

When Mark's dad Pete was in town last week, he walked Christopher to school at Ellington Primary one morning. We thought Christopher's classmates back in Narcoossee might like to see how Chris gets to school these days :-)

(Chris writing)

For one, don't do the actions to this song. This is me walking to school, yes walking! It's actually pretty relaxing to walk calmly and without worry along Cookham rd. and it beats being bored sitting in a hot van.

Van Pick-Up

2009-01-21T18:22:00.005Z

Tomorrow I'll try to head down to Southampton and pick up our wayward van.

I've got the Single Vehicle Assessment (SVA) appointment scheduled, which is a necessary inspection for all left-hand drive vehicles in the UK, and purportedly you're allowed to drive a foreign-registered vehicle within the UK from the port-of-arrival to the SVA test. I'm also paid-up for one year's auto insurance through Swindon, and have been reading up on the local "rules of the road", so hopefully the journey back will be as uneventful as possible!

As far as getting down to Southampton, it looks like there are frequent trains running between there and Reading. It's a snap to get to Reading from Maidenhead, so ideally I should be able to get down there in maybe 90 for £15 or so. We'll see how it goes!

Warhammer!

2009-01-20T22:21:00.003Z

Christopher's 10th birthday was last night, and beneath a small stack of books and manga (Rurouni Kenshin, Return to Labyrinth, and The Pirate King...bonus points if you immediately thought of Kristy McNichol :-) he found a Warhammer starter set!

The boys have been playing AD&D for a couple years now, but we never got into the tabletop stuff. However, there seems to be a pretty active gaming club here in Maidenhead, with lots of kids Christopher and Jonathan's age participating, so I figured it was time to break out the paints and glue!

London Zoo

2009-01-20T22:12:00.002Z

This was shot by my Dad when he and my Mom took Jonathan into Regent's Park to see the London Zoo. Videophiles will be glad to see that I'm trying some better encoding options when exporting from iMovie :-)

Connected!!!

2009-01-20T20:53:00.003Z

Yes! At long last, we are connected!

The Tiscali guy came today and hooked us up for broadband, digital TV, and phone. You actually get all three services here over a single phone line -- TV is just bytes over the wire, after all.

I actually looked around a bit, and have yet to figure out where the wifi signal's coming from. I don't think the set-top box is the source...no antennae anyway...but who knows. There's so much stuff buried under our staircase that one more router down there could remain lost for months.

Anyway, it will be a lot easier to maintain this blog in the future with an actual internet connection :-)

Now I'm going to have to figure out what's wrong with our desktop PC. The kids were using it last week, when something started to smoke, and then the monitor power cut out. We were running a US monitor off UK power using one of those 25-watt converters, and I'm pretty sure there's no way that a 17" LCD, cheap pair of speakers, and 500GB external USB drive could pull 25 watts...but clearly, something overheated, and I hadn't bothered trying to isolate which component, since personally I have little use for a standalone PC anymore :-) Now that it's networked, tho...

My parents are here this week, so the moment the TV was hooked up, they've monopolized it watching the Obama Inaugeration on CNN; yes, we come all this way just to watch US news on a US channel :-P

Those who know me know that this is the first time we have ever paid for "real TV", having survived for 15 years in St. Cloud on just an antenna. The kids are stunned at having actual channels that don't fuzz-over with static the moment a cloud forms. Ah well, they've put up with a lot in this relocation, and I figured they deserved a treat.

Running Up That Hill

2009-01-13T18:29:00.003Z

(NHS seems to be a topic of considerable interest, so I'll post the following episode even though it wasn't particularly newsworthy.)

Friday I was invited to a follow-up test at Wexham hospital, just to make sure I was still doing well after our little incident Christmas Night. It was actually kinda fun: they covered me with more electrodes, then did the "rising treadmill" thing, where every minute or so the belt would accelerate, while the angle would simultaneously increase. The way to play the game was simply to hold your position without slipping off and having your face ripped off by the speeding mat.

It was just like this training montage from Rocky IV (skip to the 3min mark), except of course I looked much, much better than that wuss Dolph Lundgren :-)

Anyway, I'd have to call it another NHS success story. I thought it was cool that my hospital-assigned doctor took the initiative to schedule additional testing for me, to the point of setting up the appointment, mailing me the information, etc.

From what I remember in America, most of the time they'd just TELL YOU that you needed to schedule such-and-such with these-and-those, and leave it up to you to figure out how to make that appointment (usually getting kicked around a phone-tag loop, in which multiple offices each claim they're not the ones responsible for that test), having your insurance carrier refuse the test as unnecessary, etc.

By way of example, last year about this time, I had to pay $400 for an "optional" test for Jonathan out of my pocket, because insurance felt it wasn't worthwhile -- and then the test revealed a potentially critical and hitherto undiagnosed result! So actually seeing the hospital take on all these chores, and doing it well, without even being asked, was actually quite impressive.

Once again, from the moment I walked in, to the moment I walked out, there was no paperwork, no signatures, no forms -- they took care of everything. And as to the "lengthy waits" I've heard about: I arrived at 9.50am for a 10am appointment; seeing I was ready, they called my name at 9.55am; the test was done by 10.20am; and I was outside by the bus-stop by 10.25am. As before, the only cost to me was bus fare back to work (£2.30, IIRC).

My Objectivist friends are convinced I'm losing my soul; but based on my own personal observations (something Rand seemed to prize), NHS appears to be working pretty well.

(BTW, title is an allusion to a Kate Bush track :-)

Cars Ahoy

2009-01-12T18:28:00.009Z

It doesn't look like an alien spacecraft, does it?

Still, you'd think it must be from the reception it receives from U.K. auto insurers.

Like America, there are dozens of companies more than happy to sell you a car insurance policy. And all of them have curiously-similar online quote request websites, where they walk you through page after page of questions about yourself, your driving history, your spouse / other drivers, etc...and then at the very end, they ask for the make & model of the car. And then they uniformly barf, because apparently there is no such vehicle as a "Ford Freestar" registered anywhere in the known universe. "Are you sure it's not a FreeStyle?" one agent helpfully suggested.

It was enough to make me re-check the title and make sure I hadn't misremembered the name. But no, there it is in black and white. While there are all manner of foreign cars visible tooling around greater London (including a fair number of Ford minivans), apparently most of them belong to families with an established "Mutual Recognition Certificate" establishing UK equivalence. Once you step outside of the "pre-approved catalogue", you might as well be trying to license a moon-lander; and insurance companies, as you may have heard, do not like to take on unassessed risks! Therefore, "sorry, we're not able to offer a policy on that vehicle type at the present time..."

Does this just mean that I've been trying run-of-the-mill domestic policies, and need to enlarge my horizons a bit to cover imports? Not really -- I got rebuffed from Adrian Flux, an "import specialist" that claims to specialize in covering outmarket American cars!

Anyway, we finally got a usable quote from Swinton, and will hopefully get a competitive bid tomorrow from Hyperformance. I can't say that reviews of either company really fill me with confidence, but I don't seem to have a lot of options here. (Apparently our choices will widen somewhat after we exchange our US driver's licenses for full UK permits; I knew we had a year to do that, so hadn't fast-tracked it earlier, a possible mistake.)

To backtrack a bit, we got a letter in the mail this weekend that our van was due to be delivered at the dock in Southampton next Monday (Jan 19), so I (admittedly belatedly) started trying to figure out what I needed to do to pick it up and make it road-worthy. We'd been told (and visually seen) that many people import left-handed drive vehicles to the UK from America, France, Germany, etc, so didn't expect this to be a huge hassle.

However, as is ever the case in such things, there are a number of potential Catch-22's in the process, so sequence is everything. It appears that this is the basic process we will need to undertake:

(1) order an "import pack" from the DVLA

(2) get insurance before the vehicle arrives; two sources recommended CallConnection, a free service in which you explain your situation, and they recommend insurers who meet your needs

(3) using the forms and information contained in the import pack, assemble the following application:

a completed V55/5 form (something like this)
your insurance certificate, obtained in step #2
proof of identity, e.g. passport
proof of residency, e.g. UK phone or utility bill
cheque for £55 payable to DVLA Swansea
US car title
shipping invoice, e.g. from 2wglobal.com
(a Certificate of Conformity would go here, but Freestars don't have one)
(a Mutual Recognition Certificate would go here...)
a completed C104A from HM Revenue & Customs (Excise)
a MOT (Ministry of Transport) certificate, which in our case will need to be an SVA (Single Vehicle Approval), performed by VOSA (Vehicle and Operator Services Agency).

That last bullet will be the interesting one. VOSA only has a dozen sites around England, but one is pretty close, while another is right there in Southampton (near the docks, one would assume). I wrote to VOSA to see what would be involved in getting the vehicle from the dock to the Southampton facility, if we need an appointment, etc.

Note that the DVLA has a turnaround time of 7-10 days to process a registration application and send you a tax disc, so we probably won't get to actually drive our van until sometime next month. That somewhat begs the question as to how we're supposed to get it from the docks, to the inspection, to our home; it's possible that hiring a lorry or a tow-truck may be involved :-( Alternately, we could probably rent storage for it down in Southampton for the duration, so I need to see what that might cost.

Finally, even after your tax disc arrives, you don't get your official registration certificate for another few weeks; I'm assuming that you're able to drive without having the official registration in-hand, but that's another thing we'll have to look into :-(

Towards the day when we finally do get to sit in the driver's seat, I picked up a copy of this on the way to work, and it seems very nicely done:

Film Friday

2009-01-09T13:30:00.006Z

Biking to Cookham:

Natural History Museum:

More:

Scott and Train.mov - Uncle Scott watching an "express" train whiz by from the Maidenhead platform

Marbles.mov - The completed marble machine that Chris got Jonathan for Christmas, and which Uncle Scott got to start and Mark got to finish :-)

Uniform.mov - Jonathan trying on his Desborough uniform (sans House tie)

The Flipside of Diversity

2009-01-07T18:40:00.005Z

Another US expat blogger had an interesting experience in London this weekend:

...suddenly a group of police officers in their bright yellow jackets appeared out of nowhere. They were running towards me and the ten or so other people standing outside the tube. They were screaming “Run! Move!”...

...An old woman standing near me was confused and a policewoman grabbed her arm and screamed that there was a mob coming and that if she didn’t move quickly, she’d be trampled....the policewoman started yelling “You’re almost there! Keep running! You’ll be safe soon!"...

...They were moving very quickly and chanting. One group walked by screaming “Down with Israel!” over and over again. At this, the pregnant woman standing next to me in the park started to cry...

http://www.anglofille.com/2009/01/05/the-accidental-protestor

We, um, haven't encountered that aspect of London just yet, but it's nice to know we have more to look forward to :-/

Starting School (Christopher Edition)

2009-01-07T18:19:00.001Z

Christopher started school yesterday, at Ellington Primary. (They don't appear to have a website, or I'd link it!) It's a small "council" school (what Americans would call a "public school"), with about 200 students (about the size of Trinity in Kissimmee). It's only about 5min walk from our house, so Chris should be able to make the daily trek by himself with no problem.

Like many English schools, Ellington is arranged into "Houses". Like many Americans, I had assumed that the Houses in J.K. Rowling's Hogwarts were just another fictional convention, like the moving staircases and talking pictures; or at least some artifact drawn out of boarding-school history, like the castle itself and suits of armor adorning its halls.

Not so! Apparently the concept of "Houses" is a very common one in English schools, even in otherwise perfectly unremarkable primary institutions like Ellington. Like Hogwarts, Ellington is divided into four houses, each with an animal mascot and themed colors.

Christopher elected to join Falcon (blue), with the announcement that "Kite, Kestrel, and Eagle are going DOWN!" He was disappointed that, on his first day, his House didn't win any team points, a matter of some urgency as apparently Eagle has amounted a rather strong lead. No worries -- they have a whole term to earn back that ground :-)

Starting School (Jonathan Edition)

2009-01-07T18:13:00.003Z

Jonathan was supposed to start school today, but apparently some more paperwork cropped up which needs to be sorted before he can begin classes. Laura is trying to work those issues out today, with the hope that he can begin later this week, or in the worst case, early next.

Desborough (desborough.co.uk) is also divided into four houses, apparently named for the various houses of royalty (Windsor, and I assume Stuart, etc...I'm afraid I didn't listen to the British History audiobooks quite as assiduously as Laura in the run-up to this venture!) Like Hogwarts, each has their own House tie, whether red, blue, green, or yellow.

Desborough is a bit further than Ellington, so Jonathan's facing a rather longer walk; but the school is just a bit past the train station, so hopefully I will be able to walk with him some or all of the way many mornings. Jonathan's already met one like-aged boy who lives two doors down from us and makes the same walk each morning, so at least he needn't trudge it alone.

Rx Redux

2009-01-07T18:10:00.002Z

This week was the first time we tried to get a refill on some of the medication we brought along from the U.S. Desiring to postpone this as far as possible, we had hit up our Florida doctors and pharmacists for "vacation allowances"...basically, letting us stock up on as many doses as they'd give us. However, nothing lasts forever, and last week Jonathan's Flovent (asthma) inhaler ran out. So, it was time to give NHS another test...

...which turned out to go quite well. Since Jonathan was expected to start school at 8.40am, the local "surgery" (all doctor's offices are called "surgeries" here, rather disconcertingly at first take) conveniently scheduled our appointment for 7.55am, a bit before they normally receive patients. Jonathan and I arrived at 7.45am, and they cheerfully let us in from the cold.

The G.P. was exceedingly cordial, and simply asked what was needed. Laura had dropped off copies of Jonathan's medical records a week or so prior, so perhaps he had already reviewed Jonathan's history; or maybe they are always this receptive. Anyway, I showed him the printout our St. Cloud pharmacist had produced with our two-year prescription history, and indicated the units we needed renewed.

"Flovent," he repeated thoughtfully. "Floooooovent," rolling the sound around his tongue like a novel sweet. "Don't think we carry that one, but let's have a look." So saying, he pulled down a mammoth tome of international drug data, and peered through the densely printed index until he declared "Ah-hah!...so that's what it is. Yes, I think we can offer a comparable equivalent...but at 100µ...let's see, convert that and carry the three...yes, this ought to do it!"

With a flourish, he presented the newly translated prescription, ready for delivery to the neighborhood ~~pharmacist alchemist~~ chemist. There was no fee for the visit, nor, I'm told, do kids need to pay for prescriptions: NHS putting our taxes to work, in a convenience I'm admittingly coming to enjoy.

(Yes, it's nice to have a "choice" in picking your doctors and providers in America, but so far the default selections have been more than adequate in the U.K.; and let's face it, NOBODY likes figuring out and paying medical bills, especially as you know they tend to over-charge, with the expectation that receiving insurance companies will winnow down the approved bill anyway. Taking me out of that rather ugly loop is a frank relief. Now the ghost of Ayn Rand, as embodied by the vitriolic spirit of Neal Boortz, can jump down my throat and tell me how I'm giving all my hard-won freedoms away for a bit of convenience...)

Gift of Frustration

2009-01-07T17:52:00.005Z

I'm not big on puzzles; while I enjoy racing the kids to complete word-searches upside down on the back of restaurant children's menus, I'm generally not one for crosswords and the like. However, my Mom got me cautiously interested in Sudoku, and I've found the elegant and free iTouch versions (I use this) a good way to kill time on the train.

Therefore, for Christmas Christopher picked me up a paperback of advanced puzzles, and one cold evening I decided to rate myself by picking the very last puzzle in the book (ranked "7 sweat droplets" on their sliding scale). Frustratingly, the logic rules which had led me to an eventual elegant solution in previous puzzles broke down in this case, and I finally ground down to a point where it seemed the only path forward was an iterative brute-force attack (i.e., combinatorial permutations).

Unwilling to admit defeat, but also reluctant to proceed with a manual assault (puzzles are supposed to be fun, not tedious), I compromised by writing a C++ program to solve it for me. As long as I write the program, that counts, right? Anyway, I posted it to my website because, upon reflection, it's been quite awhile since I flowed some source back to the community. Admittedly, this isn't SourceForge, and I doubt the world exactly needed one more Sudoku app, but there you go:

You Can't Get [That] From Here!

2009-01-07T17:44:00.003Z

As family members are lining up to fly over and avail themselves of our guest bedroom, we're beginning to standardize our "rental rates" for boarding and tour services! The following are considered acceptable payment-in-kind in our new world of quid-quo-pro barter :-)

1 6pk original Kraft Macaronni & Cheese (Easy-Mac not accepted!)
1 box authentic cornmeal
1 can Libby's Pumpkin
1 can JIF creamy peanut butter (accept no substitutes!)

I'm sure this list will grow as we find new things that are hard to replace or acquire in the UK :-)

What's Cooking

2009-01-07T17:42:00.003Z

One of the Christmas presents I got for ~~myself~~Laura this year was a copy of Anjum Anand's Indian Food Made Easy. Although Laura rifled through the list of ingredients with some trepidation ("garam masala?"), her first few dishes have come out simply awesome.

Jonathan remains dubious about this new direction in family cuisine, but Christopher has become an instant convert :-) If the cable TV ever gets installed, we'll have to try the TV series as well...

Britain By Bicycle

2009-01-07T17:34:00.003Z

Some of the things the kids most looked forward to receiving, as part of the furniture shipment from the U.S., were the family bicycles. (Technically, three old bikes; we gave away Christopher's old bike before leaving Florida, promoted him to Jonathan's old bike, then got Jonathan a new bike in the U.K. for his birthday.)

Although they honestly hadn't seen much use of late in Kissimmee ("Neptune bike path? Seen it"), our new Maidenhead world of public transport and people-power prompted a significant and soul-searching re-evaluation of the magic inherent in those six deceptively simple machines:

wheel-and-axle: keeps you rolling even when you're not pedaling!
lever: 6" arm between the pedals and the chain-axle makes for a soft, easy push
gears: smoothly scale your effort to the terrain
pulley: effortlessly transfers power from pedals to drivewheel
screw: threaded cap keeps the air in your tyres
inclined plane: makes skate-parks go fast!

We had our first family bike-outting this weekend, when we took the Green Way nature path up to Cookham, the next town to the north. It was only a couple of miles, including some rather muddy terrain (which had turned to a frozen January slush), which was more than made up for by the gorgeous scenery (videos to come!)

The main obstacles we encountered were some truly odd welded-steel gates, which had holes cut-out in the shape of a bicycle's cross-section, presumably to allow you to (with much effort and swearing) wiggle a bicycle through, yet block the average sheep or goat; humans were provided an equally bizarre twisting staircase of steel plates which might be climbed with some difficulty.

I don't know if, as with beds and shoes, U.K. bikes just naturally come in different sizes than the American counterparts, but there was no way my bike was going to fit through those little keyholes, so I ended up just tossing it over each new fence. If that wasn't enough, one pedal fell off on the final approach to Cookham; finger-tightening the nut didn't hold it; and although I had thought ahead far enough to pack the correct-sized wrench, I didn't think to make it a socket-wrench that could reach into beveled enclosures :-(

Anyway, the venture provided for a good ride out, some great scenery, and a pleasant enough walk back. We let the kids lead on the return leg, with the result that we came home by a rather different approach than the trip out, including an unplanned detour past Christopher's new school (which I had wanted to see anyway!)

NHS

2009-01-05T19:43:00.003Z

(actually written late Dec...still no internet!)

This week I had my first encounter with National Health Services as I attempted to register the family with the local surgery (office). When I picked up the forms Friday, the receptionist checked to see that our address was within the area the doctors served and sent me on my way with four forms so that we could all register.

When I returned Monday with three completed forms (Mark is still working on his) the receptionist checked the packet over and pointed out several areas that I needed to correct. After I had made the corrections, she proceeded to cross out the spaces where I had written in our previous doctors. I was a bit alarmed, but she explained that that space was for people moving within the UK. I felt a bit relieved and asked her when our previous doctors would be contacted. She responded that they typically don’t contact doctors from other countries to get the records for new patients, but all the records for UK patients are kept in a national database, so they are easy to access.

I was shocked. My American doctors said that I would be charged $1.00 per page up to a certain number of pages to have my records handed to me so that I could give them to the new doctor in the UK. They had blithely stated that they would fax them for free when requested, no exceptions, and no, the office manager cannot discuss this with you because she is in a meeting (yeah, right). I felt caught between bureaucracies. My US doctor wouldn’t give me my records without charging an exorbitant fee, but the UK doctor wouldn’t even ask for my records – and some of the people I was trying to register have some pre-existing conditions that require treatment. Doctors out there: Can you fix this!?

The receptionist did give me an appointment within the next two weeks and made certain that I had an adequate supply of my medication. She took the packets of information that my boys’ doctors had generated and said she would scan the information. (One doctor copied all the essential information for free; the other charged $20.00 for the complete records on both boys. So doctors, I know you can solve this problem if you care at all about continuity of care for your patients.)

If you are an American planning to emigrate to the UK, please explain this situation to your doctor and get at least a summary of conditions that he/she is treating you for currently and any significant history.

Happy [6mo] Birthday, LondonCrackers!

2009-01-05T19:10:00.006Z

Our first post went live July 5th, 2008 -- exactly 6 months ago today! Wow, a lot has happened in those six months!

left General Dynamics
- (we still think about you Judd, Scott, Doug, Sandy, Richard, Iveto, Don, Phil, Chau, Andrew, Alan, Amit, Gene, Dick, Jason, John, Eduardo, Dan, and all the other 5th-floor regulars!)
discovered my work permit was going to take a month or more longer than expected
accepted a short-term contract at Symvionics
found out Amazon wanted me to fly out to Seattle for a few months
left Symvionics...sorry Dan :-(
flew to Seattle
15min into Seattle induction, my work permit got approved, but elected to stay anyway for training
spent a few weeks with the TCC systems crew
- (shout-out to Graham, Geoffrey, Charlotte, Mani, Adam, Kent, Rod, and the team)
family registered our biometrics and received entry clearance visas
flew home to pack
shipped our belongings to the UK via shipping container
moved in with my parents until we could ship ourselves to the UK!
shipped our van
flew to England, somehow losing a PSP on the way :-(
moved into our temporary flat
rented out our house in Florida
obtained UK bank accounts, mobile phones, etc
started work at Slough
- (hello Nic, Ben, Tara, Jo, Hugues, Phil, Josef, Sergei, Miroslav, Al, Chris, Guy, Simon, Christian, Jim, Andrzej, Karthik, and all the rest!)
stumbled into High Street Methodist by sheer coincidence
had two birthdays and Thanksgiving in our flat
found a house to let
moved into our new home & unpacked all those boxes...and boxes...
rapid-prototyped an Innovation Week project
spent 3 days packaging Christmas gifts at an Amazon Fulfillment Centre
signed the kids up for local schools
found time for Christmas
ran NHS through its paces (definitely NOT on the original schedule!)
hosted our first company (my brother) for a week

That was a pretty tight to-do list for any 6mo period. It's been fun chronicling our many [mis]adventures through the website so far, and we look forward to many new episodes to come :-)

In that time, we've had readers from a staggering 2830 countries: US and UK obviously, but also Antigua, Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Japan, Jordan, Malaysia, Mauritius, Morocco, New Caledonia, Norway, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Slovakia, South Africa, South Korea, Switzerland, and Turkey! We are deeply honored at your interest, and hope to continue to generate many more anecdotes (some informing, others merely amusing in their inanity) for your appraisal :-)

Trivial Pursuits

2009-01-02T10:24:00.009Z

Our family celebrated New Year's by playing one of our favourite board-games: Trivial Pursuit, Extreme Geek Edition:

You play by taking one deck of questions apiece from other Trivia Pursuit editions (Harry Potter, Star Wars, and Lord of the Rings in this case). Each move, you have to roll two dice: one to determine movement, and another to decide which type of question you'll receive. In this instance, we used a d8 for movement and d6 for category:

1-2: Harry Potter
3-4: Star Wars
5-6: Lord of the Rings

It's actually quite confusing as you try to swap the contents of 16 books and movies in and out of memory, especially as the films differed from the canonical text, and even some of the movies changed between theatrical, extended DVD, and "special edition" versions. It gets even better as you work your way through stocks of sherry and Hobgoblin, and you find yourself blinking at questions like, "Which Jedi Knight of Gondor drew forth the lightsaber Anduril from the Sorting Hat to slay the Rancor Nagini?"

ModCons

2008-12-31T18:08:00.003Z

It's a small thing I suppose, but one minor accomplishment for today is that we finally got our British Telecomm landline phone activated. That's a key step, because it means I could finally place an order for Tiscali broadband and television. To actually have internet access at home again...now that's a way to "ring in" the new year!

Poll Results: Crisps

2008-12-31T17:51:00.005Z

This was the final tally in our last poll:

50% of you were right -- "Eggroll & Dumpling" is not an actual flavor, and is an allusion to one of Laura's favorite shows. However, all the rest are valid, and obtainable at your local Tesco's!

Amazon Holiday Cheer

2008-12-30T10:59:00.006Z

Sounds like Amazon had a good holiday:

SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 26, 2008--Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) today announced the 2008 holiday season finished as its best ever, with over 6.3 million items ordered worldwide on the peak day, Dec. 15, which is a record-breaking 72.9 items per second... (more)

73 items/sec...that's about 260,000/hr. I was packing boxes on Dec 15, averaging maybe 40 items/hr, so I must have had about 6,000 virtual brethren working alongside me, building CWF-54 and Pack-A's at those long tables. Sometimes it's neat to be part of something big!

One Candle

2008-12-30T09:52:00.006Z

One of the many ways in which High Street Methodist welcomed us into their community was asking our family to perform the liturgy, reading, and lighting of the advent candle on Christmas Day. Laura led the responsive reading, I read from Isaiah (you say eye-say-uh, they say eyes-eye-uh), Jonathan completed the liturgy, and Christopher lit the candle (manfully sucking it up when he burned his palm :-)

Isaiah (however pronounced) is fun to read aloud, because it was "written" to be delivered viva voce with appropriate oratorial flair. Give it a try!

The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light;

those who lived in a land of deep darkness—
 on them
    light
has shined.

You have multiplied the nation,
you have  increased its joy;

they rejoice before you
  as with joy at the harvest,                  
  as people exult when dividing plunder.
             
For the yoke of their burden,
        and
    the bar across their shoulders,
    the rod of their oppressor,

you have
          broken
as on the day of Midian.

For all
       the boots of the tramping warriors
and all
       the garments rolled in blood
shall
   be
   burned
as fuel for the fire.

For a child
      has been born for us,
    a son
      given to us;

        authority rests
      upon his shoulders;

and he is named Wonderful Counselor,
                Mighty God,
                Everlasting Father,
                Prince of Peace.

His authority shall  grow   continually,
and there shall be endless peace
    for the throne of David
    and his kingdom.

  He will establish
      and uphold it
     with justice
 and with righteousness
from this time
          onward
      and forevermore.

The zeal
  of the Lord of hosts
  will do this.

Is.9:2-7 NRSV

Monkey: Journey to the West

2008-12-29T12:53:00.007Z

There's no point in going to London if you never see any of their spectacular live shows, right? Spurred on by my brother Scott's visit this week, we decided we needed to go view something theatrical. When I checked lastminute.com, we found some discount tickets for something called "Monkey" at only £10 per seat. I vaguely remembered seeing some posters for the show scattered around London, and decided to lookup some reviews on the web. It sounded sufficiently mind-blowing and kid-friendly to be worth a try, so Saturday night we headed out to The O2 (cough, "Millenium Dome" my co-worker fiercely asserts) to give it a go.

Wow, what a trip! The reviews I found online used a lot of phrases like "impenetrable" and "incomprehensible", but Jonathan, Christopher and I understood it instantly -- this was basically an operatic re-telling of the same ancient Chinese "Monkey King" legend which served as the basis for the hit manga/anime Dragonball, as well as theatrical movies like the recent "Forbidden Kingdom."

If you're familiar with Dragonball, rest comfortable knowing that featured characters in the musical (under different names), included Son Goku (complete with tail, flying nimbus, and extending staff), Oolong, Piccolo, Roshi, and Shenlong, and that among the missions Goku had to accomplish was finding a magic fan to extinguish a flaming mountain (c.f. episode 7, "Furaipan Yama no Gyūmaō").

The entire show was spoken/sung in Mandarin Chinese, with typically head-scratching subtitles displayed on large side monitors. The presentation was basically similar to a Cirque du Soleil, with climbing ribbons, lots of high-wire flying, martial arts and swordplay, and a large backscreen where animated footage was used for cut-scenes and to interplay with the live action on-stage.

This didn't take place in the Dome's mammoth central arena; we were in an off-shoot around back, which was actually very cozy as it meant that even cheap seats were quite close to the stage. All told, it was an awesome sight, highly recommended if you have a bent for subtitled anime opera (and who doesn't?!?)

Subplot: actually getting to the O2 from the Tower of London proved rather a story in itself, as the Jubilee Tube line was down. We ended up walking to the London Bridge tube station, taking National Rail to Greenwich, then riding the DLR (Docklands Light Railroad) up to Canary Wharf, which was quite interesting but not where we were supposed to be; so back on the DLR down to Cutty Sark, and finally a double-decker bus up to the O2. Coming home we attempted to reverse our steps, but ended up riding the bus all the way to Waterloo (and thence on to Paddington via Bakerloo). Happily we had a wonderful and piping hot Thai dinner before the show, which helped ward off the chill during our many wanderings!

Special Investigative Report: NHS

2008-12-29T11:13:00.006Z

I know that one of my friends in the States has a particular interest in anything our family can share about NHS, the UK's National Health System (yes mec, I'm talking to you!), especially as America seems strongly headed toward nationalized healthcare ourselves. Therefore, as a special investigative report, I cleverly engineered a chance to "go underground" and experience the full spectrum of NHS services. Gads, the efforts to which I will go to please my readers :-)

I won't go into the boring details of my specific malady, as there's nothing so tiresome as listening to someone else run on about their physical ailments; suffice to say that the greatest pain came at checkout when they ripped off the electrodes, taking with them a goodly portion of my chest hair -- yeooch!

Thinking Christmas night to be an ideal time to catch their responders unaware, we dialed 999 at 1am on Boxing Day, in the wee hours of Christmas Night. Impressively, an initial responder arrived within a few minutes, who began subjecting me to all manner of questions, pokings and proddings. After establishing that mine was no clever ruse, he radioed for an ambulance whilst we tried to force him to accept a cup of tea. His greatest laugh was when I tried to shove a handful of Amazon insurance papers at him; chuckling, he waved it all away, saying "You're in Britain now, mate -- there's no need for that lot!"

The ambulance driver and paramedic were a pair of women who repeated his questions, efficiently downselecting my symptoms into a coded category. Executing the associated protocol, they stuck me with an IV, popped me some pills, then bustled me into their flashing wagon. As the Maidenhead hospital is not equipped for nighttime emergencies, they whisked me off to the larger Wexham Park in northern Slough -- still in my checkered PJ's and slippers, thank you very much!

After being wheelchaired in, I was parked on a bed and subjected to the usual litany of doctors, stethoscopes, X-Rays, yada-yada-yada. You're all familiar with this part of the story, whether on the receiving end or accompanying a family member. So the question is, how is it different in the UK?

For my part, it went exceedingly well; I had no complaints at all, and was quite pleased with the quality and quantity of professional care and friendly service I received. All the doctors seemed highly competent, the nurses friendly and merry, the staff helpful and prompt. The physical layout and contents of a British ER was comfortingly identical to the US version -- it was pretty much all the same equipment from the same manufacturers, with all the same abbreviations glowing green on the readouts. For better or worse, given our many experiences with Jonathan, I felt instantly at home. As far as the medical care goes, there were no surprises or disappointments at all -- I could have been in a slightly more careworn version of Osceola Regional or Arnold Palmer as far as that went.

Not that there were no changes at all -- this was Slough, after all! Far and away, the most interesting part of the whole experience were the panoply of colorful characters who similarly decided to avail themselves of the emergency services on Christmas night. I was in ER or the neighboring observation ward for the better part of 14 hours, so given the high turnover such a wing sees overnight, I got to see quite a few fellow convalescents flow by, including...

an inebriated football fan of indeterminate nationality, escorted in by an exasperated woman constable, who declared, "He seems to be afraid his willy's going to fall off -- he hasn't let it go since we picked him up!"
the sweetly sad type of dementia, where an elderly lady needed to be reminded how she fell and hurt her arm, promptly forgetting the whole thing again every three minutes. "Oh dearie dear, dear me...I am hopeless, aren't I? Now...who are you, and what have you done to my bedroom?"
the freakishly disturbing type of dementia, in which an unseen female, possibly in her teens or possibly in her 70's, kept shrieking "keep them ON! keep them ON!"...every ten seconds...all night. The staff appeared not to even hear it, to the point I began wondering if I was the person hearing voices in my head!

And finally, the biggest change of all was the remarkable absence of paperwork. They asked my name and street, and that was it. I didn't yet have a home phone number, to which they just shrugged and said that didn't matter; they didn't bother taking down my mobile or work number. I didn't remember my NI (like US SSN), but that's okay 'cause they never asked for it. Although Amazon provides supplementary private insurance, they never asked for that either. Even at checkout, I didn't have to sign a single form. Basically, it was just "oh you don't feel well? 'ere, we'll take complete care of you, and when you're done, feel free to walk out with a friendly wave, and it doesn't really matter to us who you are or where you came from."

Between the paramedics, ambulance, tests, night in ER, and physician consultations, I can't see such a episode occurring in the US without the bill reaching $5k-15k, which would then be kicked around between various agencies and payers to squabble over line-items for the next 120 days, probably with a final deductible of a few hundred finally landing with the actual patient. It really felt weird walking out of the hospital without a signature, like some accountant was going to come barreling out and rugby-tackle me with a pen. At the end of the day, the only thing I paid for was the £15 taxi fare back home, and I don't even resent that because once the cabbie realized I was new to the area, he took me on a same-rate backroads route where he could point out all the interesting places I couldn't easily see by rail.

What did I take away from all this? Well, I'm sure to feel slightly less resentful when paying our UK taxes this year, as we've already gotten some clear value out of them. If this is be the dank hell into which Democrats plan to drag the US, I can't say as it seems so very terrible from the inside. We'll see what new observations repeat ventures warrant.

Oh, and hospital lunch on Boxing Day? Roast beef, mashed potatoes with gravy, peas, carrots, cauliflower, Yorkshire pudding, apple pie and cream, and piping hot tea!

Movie Monday

2008-12-29T11:08:00.006Z

That has such better assonance than "Picture Monday", don't you think? And besides, it gives us a chance to play with the most-excellent new Flip camcorder my parents sent us for Christmas! The only editing software I had onhand was the iMovie freeware that came on my Macbook...okay for starters, but I can already see where I'll want to explore more powerful offerings later.

Because we found continuous-shot walkthroughs helpful ourselves when trying to remotely visualize distances and "ground truth" before our move, we started with this single-shot recording of a walk from High Street Methodist back to our house:

[UPDATE] YouTube apparently doesn't like 14min videos, so I'll just link this one directly for now :-)

A couple days later, we took my brother Scott on a 16,000-step hike (per our 2008 pickle present!) through London, including this tour through the Tower of London and across Tower Bridge:

Finally, I'm including the following video which we did not take, but which I found on YouTube, documenting Maidenhead's Christmas Light Switch-On from Jonathan's birthday; heck, we might even appear in some of the crowd shots :-)

NPC Roster

2008-12-24T13:38:00.004Z

When designing a campaign, one of the interesting tasks for an AD&D Dungeon Master was populating his make-believe world with a wide range of "Non-Player Characters", made-up personalities with whom the players would chance to interact, yet not actually control. These would act as sources of legend, rumor, or mirth, stimulating the story along, and frequently to be found in pubs, dark alleys, and as I am lately to discover, rail platforms.

One of the things I most enjoy about London is the huge and immensely diverse cast of characters with whom we are sharing this storied kingdom. You pass them on the streets, exchanging directional queries ("Do you know the way to Bridge Street?" "Er, by the river?"), trying to decipher bus schedules ("Does this tram stop in Iver?" "I think so..."), jousting with trolleys at Tesco, and strolling their pets through the park.

However, my absolute favorite venue for people-watching has to be rail platforms and the serpentine multiverses which call alongside. Following are some of the most reliably entertaining NPCs I have had the pleasure to encounter during my daily commute:

The Hippie – Dressed in shaggy jeans and T-shirt, looking like a wandering child of Woodstock. Long hair, often in braids or dreadlocks. Threadbare rucksack mandatory. Usually found traveling in pairs, communicating within their group with lots of "dude, that was awesome" and "do you think your mom could pick us up at the station?"

The Punk – hair green, blue, or crimson, standing straight up in mohawk spikes. Cheap leather accouterments, usually with feeble efforts at chains or at least an exposed key ring. Mild sneer, made less threatening as he clearly hasn't spent enough time studying his surroundings to have formed a clear objection to them yet.

The Businessman (Traditional) – white shirt, tie, vest or sweater, suit-coat, scarf, then overcoat atop that. Holding a briefcase and/or folded copy of the Financial Times. Face firmly set in rather grim, stoic determination, with sadly dead eyes staring sightlessly past bleak vistas that have long ceased to excite.

The Very British Lady – smartly dressed, hair coiffed and possibly topped with a knitted woolen bonnet. Often clasping a neatly packed shopping bag from one of Windsor's nattier outlets. Stands with such good posture it hurts to watch, swiveling her neck to peer in an attitude of wide-eyed perpetual astonishment at all of the very un-British vagrants they have allowed onto the Queen's train. Indicates disapproval (and rather a lot of that) by miming shock, a visual vernacular that seemed quaintly anachronistic at first, but which affectation wore quickly once I found myself the recipient of that aghast appraisal.

The Schoolboys (and girls) – dressed uniformly in their suits or skirts and school ties. Usually travel in groups of three or more, though often a lone straggler can be found dashing across a platform in hopes of avoiding a truant slip. Groups huddle inwards out of reflex, wisely avoiding contact with the adult world. Slips of conversation emerge from the throng: "did you revise for...?" "Have we an exam on...?" "Did you see what she...?" Students travel by rail alone at a surprisingly young age; there are no yellow school buses here, so most families must arrange their own transport, and the "by application only" basis of most county schools means it's not unusual for a child to travel 10mi or more to school each day, often in a combination of foot, bus, and rail.

The Yob (qv) – usually encountered in groups of 4 or more, often balanced sets of males and females (though generally like-with-like, not arm-in-arm). Loud; it seems important to these young people that they be seen to have something to laugh at, or about, at all times. They must be visibly enjoying themselves, and look for opportunities to show their disregard for convention, even furtively scouting out their fellow travelers in hopes of discerning what might be found appropriately upsetting. Beware as the bumping, gyrating swirl of their laughing pack-play can "accidentally" jostle nearby bystanders, providing openings for a theft of opportunity.

The City Girl – these twentysomething Sarah Jessica Parker wannabes are taking everything the big city has to offer, and then some. They travel in virtual packs, a distributed network of endnodes connected by the omnipresent mobiles which seem glued to their cheeks: "so I said..." "and I'm thinking about breaking up with him because, you know..." "but I ended up going home with..." From what I can tell, it's all one long, ongoing call, like Bilbo's Road or Stephenson's Drums, to which they temporally connect and suspend in a continuous ethereal joining of the jaw. One must be careful not to listen too closely, or you may find yourself drawn into the ongoing saga like so many daytime soaps: if you find yourself nodding agreement that she really should ditch Randy, he's too moody and besides David really is so much better for her now that he's finally over Lisa, then you probably need to go spend some time in the vestibule with your head out the window.

The Geek – can't seem to put his damn laptop away (oops, I'm typing this on a train!) Often wearing a trademark ThinkGeek T-shirt with an inpenetrable locution involving some combination of "root", dragons, and too many zeros and ones. Facial hair may be kept in a neat goatee, fashionably disheveled, or in an external USB fannypack, but must be producible on demand. Not limited to laptops, qualifying toys includes mobile devices such as Blackberrys and iPhones, if-and-only-if such use is accompanied by foolish grin, muted snorkles, and held at a range not greater than 6" from the user's face.

The Flower Lady – okay, I've only met one of these, but I've seen her three times and it left enough of an impression to make the list. In my mind I caller her Molly Weasley, because that appears to be her inspiration: a somewhat short and dumpy matron, with flaming orange hair, dressed in layer upon improbable layer of pleats, skirts, sweaters, shawls, scarves, coats, and hat...all in some shade (but never the same tone twice!) of orange, red, yellow, or brown; many decorated with a contrasting print in periwinkle, lavender or lime. On a grey winter day, you can see her for miles, and I applaud her one-woman determination to bring a splash of colour into these dull days.

The Bicyclist – the trouble lies less in seeing these pests than in tripping over them. An amazing number of people bring bicycles onto the train, which clog the vestibules, guard the gates and generally make a nuisance of themselves. I'm better disposed toward the intriguing folding bikes which many commuters collapse into little packages scarcely larger than a briefcase. Note that Bicyclist is more of a subclass, to continue D&D nomenclature, often found combined with Hippie and, surprisingly, Businessman.

The Traveler – easy to hear these crashing along stairwells and squeezing through narrow carriage aisles ("excuse me...so sorry..."), with their oversize luggage in tow as they try to make their way to or from Heathrow using our miracle of modern public transport. Often to be seen looking lost on arrival, trying to find the local bus terminus, or humping up and down stairwells in search of the proper platform ("does this train go to Paddington?") The most you can do to ease their pain is help carry the luggage up a staircase or proffer them a seat on a crowded car.

The Businessman (Modern) – a new update on a dated original, these have absorbed all the worst innovations of the American model. Rather than treating travel as an unpleasant but unavoidable necessity of the daily grind, to be silently suffered as in the past, these rail warriors take their office with them, joining international conference calls on the go: "look, we've gotta move on this or we lose the fish...tell Simon to wake up Tokyo and tell them if we don't have that contract signed by morning NYC, we'll have to go with Dubai on the 15K from Lisbon." Rather like City Girl in this respect, they seem utterly oblivious to the fact that their loud chatter is permeating a crowded chamber; possibly in recognition that we listeners honestly don't have anything better to do than passively pay witness to their executive acumen.

Naturally this is not a complete catalogue; I have left out minor subcategories such as The Ascot Snob, The Enamoured Lovebirds, The Shy Guy, The Shopping Mum, The On-The-Wrong-Train Guy (common sad story there), and other colourful characters. Still, hopefully this will give you enough material to begin designing your own grand campaign :-)

"Psst...buddy! I hear there's a warlock looking to assemble a team of steely-eyed commuters and go after the dragon's horde in the Warren of Deserted Platforms beneath Paddington!"

Secure Deposit

2008-12-22T11:26:00.004Z

"But it's my money...and I wants it!"

So went the refrain in my head today while negotiating with our US bank on two issues: a durable power-of-attorney so my father could withdraw funds from our American account to pay Florida bills (property taxes, renter's insurance, etc); and a wire transfer to move some cash over to our UK bank, taking advantage of the unseasonably low dollar-to-sterling exchange rate.

"But it's my money...and I wants it!"

Not good enough for our US bank, I'm afraid. Not that we went into this completely blind, mind you. Back in July, we paid a US attorney to draw up a power-of-attorney (and various other documents, wills and the like) before we left. However, apparently the boilerplate wasn't quite exacting enough for our bank to accept, whose legal counsel deemed it "deficient." So they sent us a new power-of-attorney form to fill out -- well enough. However, the new form has to be witnessed by a registered Florida notary, and expects signatories to have US Social Security Numbers and the like -- obviously not credentials you're likely to find off Maidenhead High Street!

So, I put that aside for the moment, and decided to concentrate on the wire transfer. I had written to our US bank the week prior, and they had assured me that while the transfer had to originate from their side (I couldn't "pull" the money from my local Barclays), it could be arranged completely via phone and fax. So I called them up this evening and said...well, you know the refrain by now. Turns out there was a slight detail missing from my earlier instructions: the transfer could be arranged by telephone...as long as the call originates from my home phone in Florida -- which they confirm by the simple expedient of offering to hang up and ring you back.

Well, now hold on a minute, I cautioned, and launched back into my story that we had already moved to the UK, and that number was now either disconnected or transferred to our Florida tenants. Oh dear, came the response, I'll have to check with my manager on that. So another 20min of back-and-forth, as we tried to establish a means of confirming my identity. She said one workaround would be for me to log into their website and used my authenticated access to change my residential address to our new home in the UK.

So I logged in and navigated to the appropriate screen...then growled back for clarification. "What state field should I use, AFPO or Virgin Islands?" Oh, well, just leave state for the time being and just update the country. "The only country listed in the drop-down is, um...United States." Oh, ah, just update your telephone number then, that will be enough. "Okay...um, it rejected UK phone numbers as having too many digits." Er, just, um, truncate it then, and tell me what the missing ones are.

So, we finally agreed on an authentication scheme, I passed (thank heavens), and then we were all set to dive into the fascinating world of international faxes. Not that there's anything fundamentally difficult about punching in an international number (001-area-xxx-yyyy for UK-to-US, 011-44-xxxxx-yyyyy for US-to-UK); it's just that many businesses seem to configure their fax machines to reject international dialing unless a supervisory code is entered first, meaning you need to find the appropriate authority...which gets dicey as US and UK banking hours have a pretty thin overlap, so at least one side is probably working early/late in an otherwise empty office.

To cut a tedious story mercifully short, I think the wire went through. At least, I'll watch my accounts over the next few days and hopefully see the balances changing. Next week we'll prowl High Street for a local notary, bringing along a stack of documents to prove we are who we claim to be.

Their Barbaric Yoβ

2008-12-22T11:20:00.003Z

One of the new words we learned our first few weeks here was "yob", as in "one who acts in a yobbish manner;" where "yobbism" appears to include a wide range of obnoxious behaviours, such as littering (flytipping), smoking and intoxication, or supporting Liverpool. Generally, Maidenhead is comparatively free of these stains on the social fabric, but I've found that one danger of working late in Slough is that I might have to wend my way home through a train network infested with yobs (heading to a night out, going home, or just loitering endlessly inbetwixt, I couldn't say).

These tend to be 15-to-25 years of age. Girls do a lot of squealing and screaming, ignoring the fact that the person they're shouting at is only 5' away. This is particularly striking in an otherwise empty shopping mall (often used as shortcuts from pedestrian streets to rail), where wincing bystanders can at least experience some truly intense multipath echolocation. Boys do their share of shouting too, although often in a grunting, slurred chant that I have come to associate with (forgive me, sport fans) the local tradition of "football".

It is an odd dialect which I can only analyze through phonics, as I have absolutely no idea what anyone is saying, and only assume it to be a variant of English because that's where I'm standing. The language is not with a certain musical savoire: delivered in a rhythmic sing-song, these calls are filled with rolling low tones designed to carry for distance, like the lonesome wail of a lovelorn humpback, punctuated by strident barks to signal greeting, warning, accolade, or a summons for ale.

As a xenolinguist, I would be endlessly fascinated; as a commuter, I just want to get to bed.

Picture Monday

2008-12-22T10:53:00.004Z

I guess we end up taking most of our pictures over the weekend, when we're able to do some things as a family (in the daytime!) Plus, until we get internet access at home, I end up uploading them from work on Monday morning. Maybe we should just make a tradition of "Picture Mondays"?

We had a specific reader request for "more shots of the house" (possibly by people trying to decide whether we could comfortably "put them up" for a cheap jaunt through London :-), so here you go:

http://zieg.com/pics/england/2008-12-21/

Eragor and Friend

2008-12-17T08:03:00.005Z

Part of Jonathan's homeschooling this month included a creative writing assignment in which he was to write a story. He worked very hard on his tale, and is justifiably proud of the result; I know I couldn't write this well in 7th-grade! So if you have a mind, click on through to enter the world of Eragor...

Pics Round Three

2008-12-15T07:52:00.006Z

We actually have a slightly better excuse for not posting more pics until now -- we somehow managed to lose the USB cable which connects our camera to the computer; even when moving out of the flat we never figured out what happened to it! Anyway, I knew I had a couple of spares in the tangle of cords and technical oddments coming over in the furniture shipment, so those were some of the things we looked for when sorting through all the new arrivals this weekend :-)

But you don't want to hear more words from me...you want PIXELS! So go get 'em:

http://zieg.com/pics/england/2008-12-14/

Furniture Arrival

2008-12-15T07:44:00.004Z

So on Wednesday afternoon we received the keys to our new house, but we weren't quite ready to move out of our comfortably furnished flat because our household belongs were still in customs. Fortunately, they were all delivered on Friday, which filled-out the new home rather well. I wasn't home to witness the delivery, which is a shame because it appears they did a fantastic job.

All the major furniture items were brought in (through a 27" doorframe, I have no idea how), correctly reassembled, attractively positioned in appropriate locations, and then all the boxes unpacked with the contents arrayed in neat little stacks throughout the house. I really was astonished at how well everything fit, and how convincingly the contents of a Florida ranch-style house from the '80s could be uploaded into a British semi-detached two-storey from the '40's, and still manage to look like they'd been purchased for the site. Of course, it helped that when we previewed various houses, we had our furnishings in mind, so the colours and styles mostly agreed; still, it was a welcome surprise to find the empty house so quickly transformed into a liveable "home".

So did everything make it across intact? Well no, not quite. Apparently the headboard to our master bedroom suite cracked in shipping, and the associated box springs has no chance of making it up the stairwell (meaning it's currently lodged in our entrance hall where it looms rather agressively over would-be callers by). We're still exploring options of whether I can fix the bed, or saw the box springs in half and reassemble upstairs, or whether we just scrap the lot and order a new bed (surely what my father will recommend upon reading this); but even so, considering the risk of moving so many goods so far through time and space, I think we can live with these few minor complications.

As it is, we're all enormously pleased to be wearing something other than what got packed into those few suitcases more than FIVE WEEKS ago :-) Come to think of it, today was the first day someone else decided to share our "peww" at church...maybe a connection there? Those suitcases also proved their worth when it came time to truck our few belongings over from our temporary flat; apparently we've managed to acquire a few things in our weeks overseas (darn you Forbidden Planet!!!), causing Laura, the kids, and I to make something like a combined 20 trips from flat to house and back, rolling one of our multi-hued suitcases in tow :-) Naturally, English weather being eager to showcase the full spectrum of greys of which it is capable in winter, yesterday's chill was accentuated with an icy drizzle which persisted throughout "the day", as they rather euphemistically call it hereabouts.

As they say, "Home is where the heat is!" Or in our case, a steaming pot of tea for Laura, mug of hot cocoa for Christopher, and mug of mulled wine for Mark :-)

And the best part was when the kids realized that, after all that trucking and walking, the new house has "no TV, no internet, and no phone?!? We want to go back to the apartment! Waaaaahhhh..."

Manga By Moonlight

2008-12-15T07:41:00.004Z

We had planned to take a trip into London last weekend to take the kids through the British Museum (after the requisite stop at King's Cross platform 9 3/4, of course :-) As it happens, another Amazon American expat in my group lives in London, and happens to have a 9yr-old godson deeply into anime & manga. Therefore, she offered to meet us near the museum and give us a walking tour of the Soho manga market.

We had a really wonderful time, led by our trusty guide. This was the first time Laura had the chance to meet one of my Amazon co-workers, and it was nice that she was able to connect with part of my distributed team. It was also nice to have London explained to us by someone who actually lives within its boroughs, yet hails from the midwest and was able to express its many twists and contradictions from an American perspective.

Undoubtedly the biggest discovery of our expedition was Forbidden Planet, a comic-book "megastore" whose multi-story reaches rivaled many big-box wholesale selections. There was a whole room of Doctor Who books & videos, and another room upstairs of Doctor Who toys. There was a room for Dungeons and Dragons; a room for manga; a room for anime; a room for Marvel and another for DC. There were whole rooms in the basement and most of the ground floor which I never even saw, though I spent an hour trying to drink it all in. My best comparison would be a geek's version of The Book Loft in the German Village, Columbus Ohio (although these rooms weren't connected by that establishment's network of narrow, twisting staircases!) It was the kind of place where I probably could have dropped £5,000 in an afternoon, and just gotten started. *sigh* Anyway, we limited ourselves to only a couple books at each shop we visited that afternoon, which is a good thing or we'd have to put the van in hock.

In summary, another jaw-dropping, mind-wrenching weekend in London :-) (Oh, and at the museum we saw lots of Egyptian mummies, Assyrian statuary, Roman temples, Celtic weaponry, yada-yada-yada...but then you knew all that! :-)

Christmas at Amazon

2008-12-15T07:41:00.001Z

It turns out that Christmas is a rather fun time to join Amazon, especially in the U.K. There have been lots of neat activities scheduled around the workday, which help make it an even more enjoyable place to build a career. For instance, last week I got to contribute as a member of the department Quiz Team. About eighteen different teams competed in this annual event, with entrance fees and drink proceeds going to benefit a local charity. Each team comprised eight members, and teams came from all corners of the company: Catalog Logic (us), Human Resources, Business Development, etc. The quiz format was 10 sets of five related questions; a given question group might pertain to 80's television, or 90's pop tunes, or English sport (I didn't do very well at those!), or Amazon company history, etc. I was thrilled that at least two questions touched on personal interests of mine, including Gatchaman and Airwolf :-) Our team ended up dead in the middle of the pack, but even so it was a fun evening and a good way to get to know more of my new co-workers.

Another charity fundraiser held the week before involved raffle tickets for some donated items, and our family won a variety-pack of DVDs! Of course, we haven't been able to watch most of them yet, because they're all Region 2 and we don't yet have a PAL/Reg-2 TV & DVD player setup, but at least the kids got a kick out of watching Pirates of the Caribbean 3 before we moved out of our flat :-) There was also a department contest where individuals were encouraged to create and decorate "faeries" for the department Christmas tree. I haven't researched this topic yet, and ended up not contributing (I was embroiled in my Innovation Week project at the time), but "faeries" seem to either refer to Christmas tree ornaments in general, or to the topmost spire traditionally reserved for an angel or star -- I'm not sure which. Anyway, many people brought in hand-crafted faeries displaying the creator's skill (or lack thereof!) with Elmer's glue, pipe-cleaners, styrofoam, and glitter; then some "independent" ladies came down from another department to judge the efforts. It was another fun interlude between rounds of ticket-resolving and fire-fighting :-)

Most companies I've been at host some sort of department Christmas dinner for the staff, and Amazon was no exception. This year the team reserved a room at the pub of a local inn (just outside Maidenhead, in fact). After a round of Guinness, we sat down to appetizers (mushroom gratin, soup, etc), main dish (turkey with all the fixings, salmon, roast pork, or vegan), and dessert (Christmas pudding, crumble, or cheesecake). Every place setting came with a traditional Christmas cracker (see our logo!), which when pulled would pop with a mild pyrotechnic, revealing a silly paper party hat, plastic child's toy, and sheet of jokes, riddles or fortunes. We had a very fun time at our table, where I got to sit with a young woman from Turkey, a gentlemen from Slovakia, another man from Russia, a friend from Canada who'd served as a Westminister choirboy, and a pair of recently-engaged lovebirds. It was a good meal, but the wonderful companionship made for a truly memorable outing.

The final story I can share about Christmas at Amazon has yet to unfold. Q4 represents a rather hectic time for Amazon's server farms, so for risk mitigation they don't normally make a lot of production code changes once the Christmas rush has begun. (It would be nice if someone explained that to Chancellor Darling and his last-minute VAT reduction! :-) Rather, what really needs getting done is: packing and wrapping boxes! Lots and LOTS of boxes. So many Amazonians, regardless of normal profession or expertise, get a chance to spend a rotation in the warehouses or fulfillment centers where the "important work" really transpires. My shift is scheduled for this week, so hopefully I'll have a fun time reliving memories of those summers spent working for the Osceola School District warehouse back in the '80s. At least, I REMEMBER it as a fun time...memories don't ever lie, do they?

Innovation Week

2008-12-15T07:40:00.001Z

One of the things that's been keeping me (Mark) busy the last week or so was the arrival of Innovation Week at Amazon. At least within Retail Catalog, each year the team takes a break from regularly-scheduled development to try to produce something truly new and clever. Each team-member is given the chance to write up a short proposal describing their idea (including business/customer benefits), summarize the solution to be attempted, and explain how it can be reasonably accomplished and brought to a functioning prototype in one week's time. Some people pair-up, such as a business analyst working with a computer programmer, while others go at it alone. Also, there's usually an overall theme guiding (but not cramping) proposals each year, such as "Customer Satisfaction" or "Quality Assurance".

I had a rather fun proposal which kept me quite occupied for the week, and I was happy to be able to write up a successful report in which all promised goals were met. Many of the other engineers on the floor seemed to get into the spirit of things as well; it's nice that Amazon provides such opportunities for staff at all levels of the hierarchy to directly recommend, implement, and evaluate new directions for the company. Successful companies such as Amazon hire a lot of bright people, and it's important to leverage that investment by giving everyone a chance to channel their creative energies and focus directly towards company goals. People often deliver their best work when working on a project in which they were directly involved in suggesting and planning, so this really is an efficient way to harvest all that brainpower under contract.

Sunday Roast

2008-12-15T07:39:00.001Z

Two weeks ago, we were invited by Jean and Bill, two of our new friends from High Street Methodist, to dinner at their home after church. This was our first introduction to the English custom of "Sunday Roast," and may I say were were quite taken by it! Apparently the British don't need to celebrate Thanksgiving once a year, because they get to do it EVERY WEEK! The table was decked out with roast chicken, stuffing, sausages, bacon, roast potatoes, roast parsnips, Brussels sprouts, carrots, swede (sp?), Yorkshire puddings, gravy, sherry plus your choice of white or red wine, coffee, and last but not least blackberry crumble. And this is two weeks after the fact, so I'm surely forgetting a few sides. WOW! What a magnificent feast...and this is apparently a regular custom -- one we may have to bring back to America someday :-)

Besides sumptious dinner, Jean and Bill were extremely pleasant and articulate hosts. Both received their degrees at Oxford: she in theology (she ministers at a local parish) and he in mechanical engineering. It turned out that he had worked on many British aircraft, both commercial and military, so we had some interesting room for discussion. Jean is a governor at a council school, so provided a wealth of information regarding local school options, enrollment and assessment procedures, etc.

Our boys enjoyed the day as well. Christopher beat everyone at checkers (they call it "draughts" here), repeated the trick at Connect-4, and finally taught Jean how to play Mexican Train with dominoes. Jonathan found some Tolkien in their copious library and curled up in a cozy chair to get down with some Hobbits.

All told, it was a wonderful day, and we are truly grateful to have found such a warm welcome by the community at High Street Methodist.

"...we now return to our previously scheduled broadcast."

2008-12-15T07:38:00.003Z

First an apology for not writing much the last two weeks. It's been busy, but that's no excuse -- it's the "busi-ness" about which you want to hear! More to the point, we'll be bereft of home internet access for probably a good month while all the utilities and account nonsense get moved over. Nonetheless, we must keep our journal up-to-date, or we'll never remember all the wonderful things we're experiencing on this venture...so on with the show!

Unbelievable!

2008-12-04T15:28:00.004Z

That is the only way to describe today. Unbelievably frustrating, unbelievably funny, unbelievably reaffirming of the reasons we came here in the first place. So this is how the day went.

The postman rang the flat this morning to say that he had a package that wouldn't fit in the postbox. I usually love packages, but this package said that we had filled out the wrong forms to get the boys into school, the schools we wanted to enroll them in were full, and would we please start the process over again. So I spent the morning and early afternoon calling around to primary schools to see if any nearby schools had space for Christopher in their fifth year classes. After calling four schools, only one had space available and scheduled a tour for Friday morning. There is one more close by to call, so I'll take care of that later. Jonathan will need to enroll in Desborough School, which is all boys, and I'll be scheduling a tour as soon as someone calls me back! I'll fill out another form and turn that in tomorrow with all the associated passports, work permits, etc. at Maidenhead Town Hall. Unbelievably frustrating!

After dealing with all that, I was feeling a bit dejected and still had to go to the grocery store. Since we did get some of our things, including baking pans and a cookbook yesterday, I decided to bake a cake. Gingerbread seemed nice and seasonal and had a short list of ingredients, so that sounded wonderful. I made the list and off I went to Sainsbury's. I had trouble finding the baking powder and baking soda, but the helpful were able to direct me. However, they not only couldn't find the molasses, they didn't even know what it was! I tried describing it as something that might be found with syrup and was thick and sweet like honey, but it was nowhere to be found. One stocker was undeterred -- he took our hunting expedition to the experts at the store bakery. They should know what to put into gingerbread! And they do, but it's not what the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook says should go into gingerbread. I explained to the baker that I was trying to bake my first cake in the UK and that I was using an American cookbook. He asked when I was going to return to the store and offered to bring me some recipes from his own cookbook at home. Unbelievably wonderful and welcoming!

Of course, I then had to trek home with the groceries in the pull-along cart. Even though it was 4:30 PM, the skies were dark, but I enjoyed the walk through the park back to the flat. As I was on my way to my door, I finally met the neighbors across the hallway. They are a lovely Indian/Australian/English couple who invited us to tea or coffee at the weekend and offered to help us with anything. Even though lots of people say the British people are very reserved and polite, but not very quick to offer friendship, they weren't describing any of the people I encountered today. Unbelievably reaffirming of the reasons that we came across the ocean in the first place!

Betjeman's Revenge

2008-12-02T09:17:00.003Z

Well, perhaps the good poet had the last laugh after all, as yesterday explosions rocked the Slough trading estate he so despised:

Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service spokeswoman Nicole Targett said: "It was quite an explosion. Metal panels were blown out across the road into the car park opposite and the force smashed windows of other premises nearby."
"The sound of the explosion was heard for miles around.
Puneet Jindle, who works near the estate, said: "I'm located in Windsor, a few miles away, but we still heard the bang and saw a plume of smoke coming from Slough."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/berkshire/7758293.stm

Recursive Blogging

2008-11-30T14:09:00.003Z

This was a good article on the essence of expatriate blogging:

http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/feb2005/tc20050225_7015_tc024.htm

And apropos to nothing, a neat chart on where UK taxes go:

http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-files/Guardian/documents/2008/09/12/13.09.08.Public.spending.pdf

Google Through Time

2008-11-29T19:30:00.006Z

Ever wonder what headlines were running on Google News in 1200 A.D.? Fortunately you can now pull old headlines out of their archives, which (thanks to the Google physics-suspension field which also levitates their stock to such lofty levels) actually predate the invention of TCP/IP by a millenia or so.

Here's a search of the news archives relating to Maidenhead, which you'll find actually was founded around 1200 A.D.:

http://news.google.co.uk/archivesearch?q=maidenhead&hl=en&ned=uk&sa=N&lnav=m&scoring=t

Big Birthday Celebration

2008-11-29T19:19:00.004Z

Today we celebrated Jonathan's birthday with lights, fireworks, and an entire street festival complete with stilt walkers. O yeah, it was also the big "Switch On" of all the Christmas lights in Maidenhead. The actual decorations have been up for about two weeks, but they weren't turned on until the official opening ceremonies tonight.

Before we went to the official countdown, the whole family shivered into Marks & Spencer to pick up a new winter coat for Jonathan. He found a very well-insulated jacket with hood that he refused to take off; the cashier just pulled the bar code close and scanned the jacket, taking Jonathan with it! He didn't complain. Before I had finished paying for the jacket, Mark turned up at the check out with a new hat, which he needed, and a bottle of port, which perhaps he did not. Jonathan then passed his old blue fleece jacket on to Christopher, so everyone was better prepared to face the evening chill.

While waiting until six o'clock for the lighting of all the decorations, we listened to big band jazz (love the American import!), shivered along with everyone, and ate roasted chestnuts. The big band belted out jazz standards and Christmas songs just as merrily as any I'd ever heard. I hoped that the chestnuts would live up to all the press that they get in Christmas songs (you know, "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire," and all the rest), but these nuts were not crunchy as I'd hoped. They were soft and sort of mealy, like "a baked baby potato," according to Mark. I'm not sure I liked eating them, but they were nice and warm in our hands!

And finally the moment came! Santa Claus (Yes, they called him Santa Claus -- another American import, I suppose) stepped onto the balcony of Maidenhead Town Hall with two children who had won a coloring contest. The announcer started the countdown, and Santa and the children pushed down the big plunger that turned on all the lights in town. Then the fireworks exploded from the roof of town hall. I was surprised they would have fireworks like that so close to the crowds, but I guess the neighboring roofs were damp from recent drizzle and the air was cold, so no one was concerned about a fire hazard. The entire crowd oohed and aahed with the explosions, hisses, and crackles.

Then we marched onward to KFC to celebrate Jonathan's thirteenth birthday. Well, we shuffled and tried to keep from getting separated on our way to KFC, truth be told. Fortunately, Mark is currently moving slower, so it was easier for the rest of us to keep up. The line snaked out the door to the dark sidewalk outside. We strained our necks to check the menu board for our favorite chicken in large, greasy, crispy quantities. Although the chicken was exactly where we expected it, the biscuits were missing! I didn't expect them to be called biscuits because that's the term used for cookies (sweet biscuits) or crackers (savoury biscuits). But there was not a single bread-like item on the menu. Also, there was no macaroni and cheese or mashed potatoes. I know, I can't expect everyone in the UK to adjust to my desires, but I have certain expectations for KFC! We recovered from our disappointment quickly enough to enjoy our hot, greasy chicken.

YouTube ToYou

2008-11-28T22:39:00.005Z

Cute little compilation of scenes around Maidenhead:

hattip: davidburbage.wordpress.com

Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?

2008-11-28T20:09:00.007Z

I wasn't really surprised at the number of panhandlers we've encountered around London. After all, southeast England is remarkably overpopulated, especially with recent immigrants who've come seeking work (yes, I appreciate the irony). So there was nothing unexpected about being approached once or twice a day by mothers beseeching "money for the baby", men crouched under subways asking "spare change, gov'nor?" and the like.

However, it did occur to me this week that, "hey, doesn't this country have 'council care'? Don't the British provide free housing, free food, free health-care, and a [comparative] wealth of other support services for the poor, aged, and disabled?" Well, yes, a co-worker explained, but there is apparently a gap in the system. In order to receive public assistance, applicants need to have a documented residence address; the truly homeless fall through the cracks and are reduced to direct begging.

So that makes sense. And I admit I have trouble turning away a woman with a tiny child in her arms, as many seem to. But I also remember those [again, comparatively] huge taxes they ax from my take-home, and wonder if some of that could not count as a tangible moral credit for the day.

It's hard to balance these questions honestly in one's mind, especially on the spur-of-the-moment, when you have to admit it is quite chilly out, and you know you do have a few quid clinking about in your pocket, but dynamic determination of whether those can legitimately be considered "spare" would require an on-the-spot analysis in Excel that still doesn't run on your iPod. And what are you doing moralizing when you've got a bloody iPod in your pocket, eh?

(Although I confess to being rather taken aback by the begger who rejected a Canadian dollar which had somehow made its way into my pocket, and demanded that I change it for proper British currency...)

Shopping for Thanksgiving

2008-11-28T19:27:00.004Z

If I were back in the USA, I'd be knee-deep in Thanksgiving leftovers (not a bad place to be) or battling my way through bargain shoppers at the mall. Of course, only American-ex-pats celebrate Thanksgiving, but dinner shopping was more difficult than I thought. To start with, I didn't see a single fresh turkey at my local Sainsbury's because any sensible local would know that turkey is for Christmas -- not the odd Thursday in November. The boys reminded me that they would really would prefer roasted chicken with stuffing. Ah well, it IS still a bird and less leftovers because we have fewer people eating them.

Cranberries! Yes, cranberries are available in the produce department, but I didn't see any of the canned cranberry sauce of past years. Again, the boys reminded me that they really didn't like cranberries, and Mark admitted that he really just tolerated them in honor of the day.

Then I looked around for a frozen pumpkin pie, giving in to the fact that I don't really have the right equipment to make a homemade pie. I couldn't find a single pumpkin pie, cake, muffin, cookie, tart... nothing! Pumpkin pie is one of my favorite parts of the meal, even if we usually have to wait about three hours for the rest of the meal to digest before we can even look at the first slice. In the end, I settled for toffee cheesecake, which was absolutely delicious, and comes in a lovely fall caramel color. Of course, the next time I see a can of Libby's pumpkin on either side of the ocean, I'm going to grab it!

Practice Safe Shopping

2008-11-28T16:19:00.005Z

One of the neat things about working in the defense industry was that I knew many of the projects I worked on would help save lives.* I admit that I really didn't think working at Amazon would provide quite that same perk. However, reading today's news makes you wonder if e-commerce doesn't offer long-term public safety benefits as well:

Witnesses said the surging throngs of shoppers knocked the man down. He fell and was stepped on. As he gasped for air, shoppers ran over and around him.

"He was bum-rushed by 200 people," said Jimmy Overby, 43, a co-worker. "They took the doors off the hinges. He was trampled and killed in front of me. They took me down too...I literally had to fight people off my back."

Jessica Keyes was among the shoppers. She told the Daily News she saw a woman knocked down just a few feet from the dying worker.

"When the paramedics came, she said 'I'm pregnant,'" Keyes said.

Paramedics treated the woman inside the store and then, according to Keys, told the woman: "There's nothing we can do. The baby is gone."

Now I've shopped at Wal-Mart thousands of times, and am perfectly aware from personal experience that this story is in no way reflective of that company in particular, nor American consumers in general. But I also admit that, reading such things from overseas and without the context of first-hand experience in America, I can see how some people develop an unfortunately biased view of our nation :-(

* For those who think this is an oxymoron:

it is called the Defense Department for a reason
better equipment helps keep our own soldiers alive longer
when weapon delivery can be made more accurate (through improved sensors, guidance systems, fire control, battle command & communications, etc), the military can (and does) use smaller and fewer munitions to engage the same strategic target, which (besides being cheaper) directly results in reduced "collateral" civilian casualties

Double-Takes, Take II

2008-11-28T16:14:00.002Z

Let's see, more oddments that just kind of creep up on you:

When they use the word "Asian" over here, they're not referring to China, Japan, or southeast Asia (Vietnam, etc), the usual referents in the U.S. Instead they seem to mean India and Pakistan, the two Asian nations with whom Britian has had the most extensive political, cultural, and economic exchange.

TV programme times don't align. If you look at TV listings in the U.S., shows pretty much line up on the hour and half-hour boundaries, forming neat little columns. They don't do that here -- shows start and end all over the place, creating jagged stairsteps in the listings. You don't much notice sitting on a single channel, but if you try hopping channels, you find there's no way to catch the start of programme "Y" without missing the end of programme "X".

Most people know that when they say "chips" over here, they're referring to what Americans call "french fries". However, I hadn't fully grokked the difference between British chips and American fries. Yes, the British versions are thicker and heavier (what we'd call "steak fries"), but that isn't where the difference ends. The surface "skin" of British chips is considerably tougher and chewier than the lightly crisped shell to which Yanks are accustomed. Eating a single British chip can be an absorbing experience, requiring muscle, teeth, and tongue working together in combination; these aren't the throwaway light frills of American fast-food that practically melt in your mouth and serve as little more than a vessel for salt and ketchup. My understanding is that the difference results from being fried twice: once in hot oil to seal the surface, then again at a lower-temperature to thoroughly cook the contents.

I already knew that British paper (A4) was slightly longer and narrower than American "letter"-sized. However, I didn't appreciate that their envelopes differed as well. Rather than the elaborate and somewhat exacting tripart fold required to slide a document into an American business envelope, British versions only require a single half-fold; as their paper is longer to start with, this yields an envelope which is considerably taller and more square in aspect ratio, rather like a Hallmark greeting card. This provides comfortably more room to write addresses, and the once-folded contents make for a slimmer package overall.

At least some organizations over here (e.g., National Rail) use the abbreviation DMR to stand for December. I don't know if this was due to a conflict with Dec, or what the story is (although I'm sure it adds confusion at their DMR stop). Maybe next fall will find me puzzling over SMR, OTR, and NMR :-)

Tumble Trouble

2008-11-27T19:57:00.002Z

This morning we had the chance to walk through our new home with the current tenants and their estate agent. The nominal purpose was to go through the owner's furnishings and determine what household goods we might put to good use, versus those that we already had enroute from the States. However, Laura and the other mom, as well as our kids and one of their two boys, hit it off so well you'd think a full-blown tea social was in force! In fact, after a bit the estate agent gave up trying to keep is on-topic and left us to sort it out :-)

Unfortunately, I got a bit too into the swing of things and in a moment of distraction took a tumble down the stairs :-( I don't THINK my ankle's fractured, but it's swollen enough to make it hard to get around. I'm sitting with an ice pack now, so we'll see what the morning brings.

Sent from my iPod :-)

Sunday Services

2008-11-24T12:33:00.004Z

This Sunday we thought we'd try going to one of the area churches, since we'd spent most of last Sunday sleeping off the time change :-) We haven't done any proper research regarding regional denominations, except that there's a C-of-E across from our new house, a Catholic church and school behind us, and a lovely little Methodist church downtown past which we walk several times a day. Since we'll surely visit the C-of-E later, we thought we'd start with the Methodists since we're always passing by.

This turned out to be a truly serendipitous turn, as we had an absolutely delightful time and met a number of helpful new friends. However, the highlight of the morning was surely Minister Philip Morse, who proved a trip and a half. He was a right old codger, wispy white hair and watery blue eyes conjuring an elderly John Gielgud peering whimsically over his spectacles like a mischevious Oxford don. He had Jonathan and Laura in stitches from the get-go, especially during the christening of a young boy. Typical of his eccentricities, Rev. Morse seemingly regarded the front pews as a free-for-all "splash zone" during the doctrinaire sprinkling, an effect that he achieved by cupping a handful of bless'd water from the basin and then sweeping it up past the bemused child's face, reserving the greater part for the guests and family adorning the front rows :-)

Belying his frail appearance and aged stoop, he decided to "wake up" the congregation by incorporating a full video of The Traveling Wilburys' Handle With Care into his sermon. When afterward he told me that he'd really wanted to use The Who, and I suggested that next time he could play Quadrophenia, he gripped my arm with such excitement I thought he was going to drag us back to the vicarage to go through his stack of old LP's right then and there :-)

After the service, a throng of helpful church ladies swooped down on us as soon as they realized we were "from out of town," and it turned out nearly all of them were current or former teachers, board members, or "school marms" (whatever that is). They interviewed Jonathan and Christopher on the spot, then suggested a list of appropriate schools by location and age level. Honestly we would have been pressed to find a more helpful group to help us sort through the maze of available schooling options.

The church diary (British for "calendar") is just packed with little teas, scout meetings, bake sales, sewing events, and basically everything you might imagine occupies the denizens of a village parish -- all of which will prove wonderful opportunities for us to get to know more families, especially ones with children, as we continue to try to make new friends and contacts in the area.

All told, a bright and wonderful morning, in spite of the chill and damp (it was a two-umbrella walk to the chapel).

Pics Round Two

2008-11-22T21:48:00.003Z

2nd round of pics posted. Some are from last week's jaunt to Regent's Park and the Pier, others from today's venture down to Windsor; basically, whatever rubbish I found when I shook out my camera this evening :-)

http://zieg.com/pics/england/2008-11-22/

Home Schooling in Maidenhead

2008-11-22T09:53:00.003Z

With home schooling, you hear people say that it's faster because you can focus on 1 kid instead of waiting for 20 other kids to catch up. So far, that has not been our experience with it. It took until 5:00PM to get it all done yesterday. We are working on making it go faster. P.E. is going to the park for a half hour. All in all, I like it better than regular school. And at English schools make you wear tuxedoes as your uniforms . . . .

Snow in Berkshire?

2008-11-22T08:27:00.004Z

It seems possible! This was from yesterday's Telegraph:

Last month, snow was seen in London for the first time since 1934, but brought chaos to Hertfordshire, Hampshire and Surrey.
Thousands of homes in St Albans and Hemel Hempstead lost power and hundreds of trees in Hertfordshire were brought down by the weight of snow.
Two lorries collided on the M40 in freezing conditions, killing one of the drivers and closing the carriageway, while planes were diverted from Luton airport for two hours to allow snow to be cleared from the runway.

Also, we've proof that it has snowed in Maidenhead before, though I'm unclear on how regularly this occurs :-)

The Tough Coughs up Dough in Slough

2008-11-21T21:47:00.006Z

We named this blog after London, because everyone knows where that is. However, the capital of Berkshire, as well as the town where I commute to work every day, is actually called Slough. Most American audiences won't be familiar with the city (unless they're fans of the original UK version of The Office). However, when you mention it to someone in England, you are wont to receive a concealed flicker of displeased recognition, as though they were working out how to politely disengage after you'd just announced that you had the pox.

Without doubt, the most legendary expression of this national distaste is embodied in John Betjeman's infamous poesy, Slough ("Come, friendly bombs...").

Showing admirable pluck, the Slough Borough Council schools recently (2006) held a competition asking local students to write a rejoinder to the bitter and somewhat unwarranted tirade, and I must say I find the winning entry to be a much more authentic and accurate description of the town as a whole:

Horrible bombs don’t fall on Slough,
Because it’s fit for humans now,
This town’s much better, and how,
Old poem die a death!
Sikhs, Muslims and Christians too,
All are welcome and so are you,
All come here to live life anew,
One town, one breath.
A centre of learning you can see,
With a library and university,
A life’s training for you and me,
Work hard, get paid.
Ice skating, swimming and fitness places,
Playgrounds, parks and open spaces,
Children laughing, smiling faces,
Getting together, friendships made.
Queensmere, Observatory and High Street,
Cafes, restaurants where you can eat,
See a film at the cinema for a treat
Brand new Tesco open now.
Trains from Reading, London and many more,
Cars and taxis along the M4
Buses drop you at your door,
Climb aboard and come to Slough.
Joanna Okolotowicz
Montem Primary School
http://www.slough.gov.uk/news/articles/archive/11558.aspx

I haven't been able to tell if the Heart of Slough project is still considered on-course, or if its funding and schedule have already been impacted by the global financial situation. It would be nice to be here for the opening of that proposed new library!

(BTW, if the title of this post left you mired in confusion, it's a reference to a Dr. Seuss book :-)

Fireworks for Jonathan!

2008-11-21T21:16:00.005Z

It sounds like Jonathan's birthday will be quite the celebration in Maidenhead!

The countdown to this year's Christmas lights switch-on event in Maidenhead on November 29 is reaching its climax. Preparations have been finalised for the big event, in what is shaping up to be a feast of festive entertainment.

Festivities start with a traditional Farmers Market during the day in the High Street until 5pm and a classical fun-fair by Traylens in the High Street and St Ives Road until 8pm.

The finale to the day's celebrations will be a sparkling pyrotechnics display high above Maidenhead, to cap off the festive extravaganza in the town centre.

http://www.maidenhead-advertiser.co.uk

Miscellaneous Changes

2008-11-21T20:21:00.010Z

Today marks our first full week in England, so what are some other miscellaneous differences we've observed?

Wall switches go down to turn lights on, up to turn them off.

You simply cannot buy a gallon of milk in England; the largest size appears to be 2qt.

Tesco's sells eggs by the 6pk or the 15, but not by the dozen. I can't explain why this freaked me out so much, or why it seemed to suggest such a sinister rupture in the foundations of the universe, but it did. Somehow, at a very fundamental level, I guess I assumed that eggs were magically produced by the dozen -- that this is how they were made. Breaking that divine arrangement seemed to me a bewildering structural repinning of the cosmos from which I have not yet fully recovered. Oh, and they're all brown. Apparently America hordes the entire world's supply of pristine white shells for its own consumption. (We have not yet established how this will impact coloring eggs for Easter!)

The water in London is hard as rock. Okay, so we have hard water many places in America, so what's the big deal? Well here it comes out of the tap nice and clean, with only the slightest sharpness when drunk straight from a glass; however, when you boil it, so as perhaps to make tea, the heat causes all those microscopic particulates to glom together into worrying large clumps known hereabouts as floaty bits that can turn your crystal cup of Earl Grey into a murky brown soup swirling with malign portent -- and that before you add the milk! One of the first things we procured was a filtered pitcher to keep in the fridge :-)

Light-bulbs are pinned, not screwed, so don't bother bringing any over.

We'd noticed right away the interesting custom of having a power-switch directly on every outlet jack, something which seemed curious but innocuous on first glance. We've since learned it has to do with the considerably higher voltage used here (220v to US's 110v). With that much power surging through a line, if it were to short-out or ground through some spilled water, you'd be toasted right proper. Therefore, they have to take considerably more care with their outlets than people do in America, where a handyman's slip with a screwdriver may yield a surprised yelp, but little lasting damage. This is also why there are commonly no outlets at all in bathrooms, where the chance of appliances falling into tubs or toilets is considered too great to risk. In fact, many bathrooms don't even have wall-mounted light switches inside the room, as a wet hand could slap against it and generate a shock!

They have a lot of firedoors here...you have to go through multiple doors (heavy ones too) to get in and out of stairwells, etc. It's almost like they had some kind of major fire in the recent past and are still uptight about it.

Keys to Madness

2008-11-21T19:54:00.005Z

This will primarily be of interest to other computer programmers, as I don't know many other people who make such heavy use of the non-letter keys festooned about the periphery of a standard computer keyboard. However, for a US-trained programmer making their living on Perl and shell command-lines, this was a startling adjustment:

If you don't see it, compare the location of the following symbols between your keyboard and the one shown above: |, \, @, ", #, etc. If it was just a case of learning a new arrangement, I could probably adjust, but since I brought my work laptop with me from the US, it would mean that they keys would move depending on whether I was docked or not -- clearly a recipe for confusion.

Fortunately, my new best-bud Brian of the IT department found an old US keyboard hiding on a shelf somewhere, and I was moving back at speed by the next morning. Still, it's something to be aware of when using other people's computers, public kiosks, etc.

Cracked Stone, Mouldy Beams, and Creeping Vines

2008-11-19T18:31:00.007Z

This morning Laura and the boys visited another gaggle of houses (what is the correct collective noun? 'neighborhood' only works when they're physically congruent). They did find one brand-new terrace in Burnham which was very nice, but "new" isn't really what we came here for.

There are plenty of brand-new houses in Florida, with fresh-laid lawns, unpocked pavement, and gleaming with their first coat of builder's paint. Orlando is positively exploding with whitewashed woodframe vinyl-wrapped "new". In contrast, a large part of England's appeal lies in the fact that so much of it is palpably, tangibly old. Weathered stone showing the scars of wind and frost from The Great Storm of naught-'6; chipped and crevased floor planks first hewn in the days of William the Named, and once used to keel a Scottish fishing trawler; crumbling and clotted earth, pebbled with the broken oddments of millenia (rivet from an early ironwork here, bit of cracked collar from a aged family foxhound there).

All of which feeds into the excitement I felt regarding the home which we probably selected this afternoon: it is positively dripping with historic and esoteric bits. A pond teaming with goldfish (apparently they sink to the bottom and hibernate through the winter freeze...who knew fish could hibernate?). A tangled burst of garden leading to a greenhouse in back (where Laura can talk to the plants!) Best of all, an old country church across the street, complete with ringing bell tower and -- directly facing us -- an ancient chapel cemetary, the very manifestation of antiquity, eschatology, and man's ultimate end expressed in a tired patch of withered grass before a pitted and sunken chunk of chiseled stone.

THAT'S the house I came 5,000 miles for! I hoped for it when I first saw the agent's web listing; I knew it when we walked around the neighborhood last night; and I told it to the broker when we went back for a final walk-through this afternoon.

Spackle, paint, and plaster be damned; give me cracked stone, moldy beams, and creeping vines any day!

Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn!

Location, Location, Location!

2008-11-19T10:26:00.001Z

If you haven't seen Phil and Kirstie's eponymous property show on telly, it can be quite fun. In fact, Laura and I made heavy use of a copy of their 2007 "Britain's Best and Worst" special that we found on the internet. Anyway, it's finally time for our family to jump into the housing rat-race, so Laura and the kids spent 8 hours yesterday touring a prodigious 15 homes in our target area.

She said they found 2-3 they quite liked, many others that were "adequate", and only a few that genuinely turned them off. As one of their favorites was only 5min from our temporary housing, last night we walked back to have a look at it as a family, and I shared their enthusiasm for the home and the neighborhood. No certainties yet, as they have yet another roster to walk-thru this morning, but hopefully firm news on that front will be forthcoming.

Coincidentally, we received word yesterday that our airfreight shipment was likely to be delivered next week, and the seafreight could soon follow by early December. Those are actually considerable improvements upon the schedule we were initially given (of 6-8wks and 2-4mo, respectively), so definitely something to feel good about.

In truth, other than the nerve-inducing but essentially innocuous 2mo slip in my work permit processing (perfectly understandable as I applied during the summertime rush, and only two weeks before the biggest set of rule-changes in UK immigration in 50 years), we really haven't encountered any major snags in this process at all. Rather remarkable really, when you consider the amazing selection of potential fail-points, opportunities for miscommunication or misfiled forms, etc. We truly have been blessed, both by providence and the phenomenal help and expertise of all those who helped guide us in this venture.

Fun With Trains

2008-11-19T10:25:00.003Z

This morning I thought to bring an extra passport-sized photo the rail station ticket booth, and so was able to get a 7-day pass for £13.30 instead of a daily for £3.40, getting about a weekday and a half for free (plus weekends). So that went well.

Somewhat less salubrious was that the platform screens were on the blink, so you couldn't tell which train was stopping where. No problems, I just hopped about the eastbound 8.06am, same as I rode Monday morning.

PROBLEM! Turns out that the Paddington Express was running 10min late this morning, so the carriage into which I so confidently leapt proved a high-speed lockbox for the 25min sprint into London. D'oh! Since something similar had happened when I came over to interview, I knew the drill -- chase down a staffer by the Paddington through-gates, explain the situation, and he kindly pointed me to platform 11 where I was able to hop a ride back toward Slough.

Not that platform 11 is particularly well-advertised, mind you. It may not be protected by Dobby-level magic -- or it may be, I can't be sure -- but I and another tardy commuter ran up and down several flights of stairs and down back alleyways to find it. We got there 3 minutes late, but fortunately this train was likewise 10min behind -- sometimes two wrongs DO make a right :-)

First Day at Work

2008-11-17T20:16:00.004Z

Today was my first day of work at Amazon's Slough office, which went fairly well as such things go: got all my paperwork filed, met the team members, etc. On the flip-side, still didn't have a phone or computer by the days' end, after planning this arrival for what -- 5 months? Some things never change :-)

This was also my first experience with my projected "morning commute" -- a walk to the rail station in my town, followed by a short rail ride into Slough, followed by a second walk to Amazon's offices. Of course, the first walk will change when we find permanent housing, but this morning was a decent dress-rehearsal.

One thing I noted right off: it's COLD in the pre-dawn morning, and that light drizzle doesn't help matters any! The best I can say is that it's a brisk speed-walk that wakes you up and makes you want to get to work, where it's warm!

By way of contrast, the evening walk-in-reverse is a much calmer and quieter saunter. For one thing, you're not jostling with hundreds of other rush-hour commuters trying to jam into the same train; while everyone tends to start between 7am-9am, people wander home at a much wider range of times, lessening the crush. Also, it's considerably warmer, since there's only been a few hours of darkness rather than the 16hrs+ leading up to morning.

In both respects, I was surprised to find the morning commute not greatly dissimilar than that to which I was accustomed in Orlando: both took about 40min all told, both cost a chunk of my first hour's pay (tolls and gas in Florida, RailCard in England), both found me rushing in the morning and relaxed in the evening. The main difference was that it was more comfortable in the car, but I get more exercise this way; also, I like the fact that I can text and play with my iTouch on the train, which was a rather dicey proposition when driving. And I suppose there's some abstract moral superiority about managing my carbon footprint, if I went for that sort of thing :-P

Another observation from all the walking we've done these last few days: you really end up appreciating dinner when it finally comes! A hot plate of chicken or lamb tastes ever-so-sweet when you really had to work to get it :-) As it is, the kids have to trek across town to the grocery store, pack a few day's food into a handful of cloth bags, then CARRY them back home. That whole chicken and bottled water gets heavy, yo! Once you've done that in the cold and the rain, and you finally settle down to a hot sizzling platter of meat and veg -- OH! -- that's not something you can take for granted.

This stands out in my mind because I remember too many sumptious meals back in the US where, as I progressed through the various courses laid out before me, I really had to stop and try to remember exactly what work I'd done that day to justify such a scrumptious feast. After all, I'd drive to work; take the lift up to the 5th floor; probably break for a nice lunch around noon; drive back home; and do little more than twiddle my fingers atop a plastic tray in the meanwhile. Not that such worries ever actually stopped me from enjoying my life of leisure, but it did prompt me to wonder if I and my family weren't missing something in our sheltered existence of ease.

Now I'm sure some of my friends and family are thinking that there were easier ways to explore my urge for authentic, genuine living without actually moving to another country; but, well, when was I ever content to do things the usual way? And after all, wasn't avoiding "ease" part of the problem after all?

Not that our move was in any way especially arduous when you consider what your own ancestors had to undertake in order to replant your family tree across continents. Where they had to step onto a creaky, leaky wooden vessel and brave a storm-ridden voyage before risky winds and uncertain currents, we were able to simply fall asleep over one continent and awaken 5,000 miles away -- how much work is THAT?

All of which leads me to my point, which is [maximum post length exceeded]

...And On To London!

2008-11-16T19:06:00.002Z

Figuring we'd gotten our feet wet yesterday by exploring Maidenhead (and only scratching the surface at that), we thought Sunday would be a nice low-traffic day to introduce the boys to The City.

We took the train in from Maidenhead to Paddington. For a full-day RailCard (good for round-trip rail to London, all Underground zones, and all street busses), it was £13 each for Laura and I, plus £1 apiece for the boys. I think it'll get cheaper when we apply for the "Family Card", which provides discounts for adults traveling in the company of a child; plus many days it'll just be Laura taking the kids into town while I'm at work, which looks to be about £15 for an off-peak day-trip.

Anyway, once we got into town (about 25min), we walked along Edgware Road for awhile, just looking at the shops and getting a feel for the other pedestrians. Then we took the Tube up to Regency Park, where we had lunch (we'd packed PB&J's -- the guidebook lied, they DO sell peanut butter in England!). We enjoyed throwing some crusts to some extremely corpulent pigeons, and a pair of fat little squirrels that would literally walk up and eat out of your hands.

We picked up a bus into Camden, a neat little town that was doing a good business for a Sunday. From there we hopped the Tube down to the south side of London Bridge. We hiked back over the Thames across the bridge, and wandered around the banking district for a bit. (Not entirely intentionally, but it never hurt anyone to get a little lost once in awhile. In the rain. In November.)

Once we were properly oriented, we made our way over to the Tower of London, which none of us had ever seen. We were too late for the full tour, but it was neat skirting the battlements and looking in on a real keep. Finally we walked west through town to a working Tube stop (somewhat rare on a Sunday), made our way back to Paddington, and thence over rail to Maidenhead. The whole tour ran for about eight hours, and made for a pretty good introduction to the area and how to get around it.

(Note: Laura feels that I've left out some of the uglier bits of the trip -- alright, so maybe we got lost A FEW times, and maybe all those stops weren't entirely deliberate -- but I'm trying to put a happy face on what was undoubtedly a profoundly educational experience for us all :-)

YouTube Scrapings

2008-11-16T09:58:00.005Z

We don't currently have a video camera, so don't anticipate posting many videos, but some simple searches on YouTube found numerous existing snippets of life in the Maidenhead / Slough area. Following are a handful for your viewing pleasure. While the quality is generally pretty poor, they nonetheless provide some sense of what it's like around here :-)

youtube.com/view_play_list?p=5ADC59A5D689567B

In particular, this one takes you on an almost exact walk from the Slough rail station to Amazon's offices in Patriot Court (the video starts as some kids are cutting through the Queensland mall to High Street, and ends right at the corner where you'd turn south 1 block to Patriot Court):

First round of pics

2008-11-15T19:43:00.005Z

For convenience (mine), I'll be posting photos to:

zieg.com/pics/england

First batch uploaded...

Day Two

2008-11-15T13:50:00.005Z

We kicked off the morning by watching some Saturday morning cartoons (yes, they have Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh here too!), then headed down to MacDonald's for a familiar and kid-friendly breakfast.

Next we had a 10am appointment with Barclays to setup a UK bank account. They normally ask for the last 3 month's original bank statements, but unfortunately ours somehow got packed in the shipping crate. Happily, they gave us the benefit of the doubt after seeing the reams of HSMP documentation we brought along in a backpack. We populated the account with some traveler's cheques we'd obtained in the US, after hearing that cashier's checks and even institutional wires can take days or weeks to clear between nations. So now we've got a bank account established, which is a prerequisite for many other accounts and subscriptions in the UK. It'll be even better in a week when we get our cheques and debit cards in the mail!

After that we went looking for cell phones. Unfortunately, cell providers are apparently NOT as trusting as banks -- maybe that's why there's currently a banking credit crunch, but telecomms seem alive and well? Anyway, they said we wouldn't be able to get proper mobile accounts until we'd been in the area a few months, so for the time being we just picked up some cheap(ish) PAYG (pay as you go) phones. They're a bit pricy on a per-minute basis, so we won't be using them heavily until we get the normal accounts. I doubt our selection was optimal, but we needed something quickly, and we can refund these toward the final phones in a couple months, so there shouldn't be much harm done.

While Laura and Christopher were taking a break, Jonathan and I watched a street musician playing some Irish jigs on his guitar and harmonica. Jonathan threw him a quid, and then we watched a little girl dance to the music for awhile. All this occured on a nice stone-paved pedestrian shopping district off-limits to cars, such as you just don't find much anymore in America. It was really a lovely morning: the sky was grey and a bit overcast, but the air was brisk and lively. There were dozens of other families out shopping, which generated a happy buzz of children's voices.

Finally we went looking for a supermarket. Our temporary housing has a surprisingly nice kitchen, but didn't come stocked with food. After some roaming (found the library!) we came across a Tesco Metro, which was more than adequate in loading us down with bags to carry back to our flat. We'll need to look into one of those little rolling carts I see other people using!

Interesting things we've learned so far:

Maidenhead has beautiful subways (pedestrian underpasses) decorated in tile mosaics...very nice!
Aer Lingus plays classical music during taxiing, loading, and pretty much any time they're not actually in the air
Doors in England often don't have doorknobs
Electrical outlets in England each have their own power switch right on the outlet
Many English TV channels don't run for 24hrs; if you tune in too early for an evening station, or too late for a morning frequency, you just get a notice listing their operating hours
Always bring recent original bank statements with you (in your carry-on) when moving...duh!
It can be good to have your luggage temporarily misplaced
Most clocks in the UK run on "military time" (24hr)
If people drive on the left side of the street, it makes sense to walk on the right
England has combo washer-dryers that use the same chamber (no moving wet laundry!)
English (European?) toilets have a little button for No.1, and a bigger button for No.2

More to come!

Day One

2008-11-15T07:58:00.003Z

Yesterday was our first day in the UK. We flew in on Aer Lingus, which proved to be a perfectly capable carrier. My only nit might be that they didn't have per-seat individual TV screens, which are pretty handy for long-haul transatlantic flights; however, we'd brought along a full complements of iPods and laptops which kept us more than occupied for the crossing. Regrettably, neither Laura nor I were able to sleep very well on the flight, although the kids each curled up and sacked-out (we were lucky enough to have two empty seats in our row).

We transfered in Dublin for the final 1hr leg to Heathrow, which was pleasantly uneventful. The only real hitch in the flights was that our meticulously weighed-and-balanced suitcases didn't arrive in London with us. We really had no cause for complaint, as we hadn't exactly looked forward to lugging 375lbs of luggage, plus 60lbs of carry-on, through Heathrow; our hired taxi driver heaved a similar sigh of relief at finding us so unencumbered.

Our driver took us to Maidenhead, where we were able to find our lodgings without too much trouble. Unfortunately, the apartment complex didn't have an onsite office, so I had to find a working phone to call our agent to meet us with the keys; fortunately a kindly manager at a local phone store allowed me to call from his desk. In 30min or so, our property agent met us, showed us up to our flat, and gave us a helpful orientation to the area. It turned out we didn't think to ask all the right questions -- it later took awhile to figure out how the phone worked (hello GoTalk), which I needed in order to get the DSL modem working, and we're still eyeing the unfamiliar knobs on the oven and shower with dubious apprehension.

While Laura waited for the luggage to arrive, the kids and I took a walk down High Street in search of supper. We picked up some brochures for banks and cell phones, then bought some carry-out at the West Cornwall Pasty shoppe...hmm, steak and stilton!

Finally, it was time to crash hard, as we were all wobbly with exhaustion and had absolutely no idea what time it was (my laptop was still in Seattle time, the iPods were Orlando, and for some reason our apartment stove thought it was in Novobirsk.)

So far this morning, only Christopher and I are up. He found some familiar cartoons on the telly, and I'm...well, talking to you :-) Probably time to go hunt for some breakfast, so...more to come!

THANK YOU

2008-11-14T19:54:00.008Z

This morning the four of us finally arrived in the UK, and are set to begin this grand adventure which arguably entered planning as early as 2005. However, before we lift our gaze to the bright and exciting vista before us, we need to take a long and appreciative look at the long and convoluted path which got us here.

In particular, we wish to send a sincere and heartfelt "shout out" to the many friends, family, co-workers, and often complete strangers who carried and supported us so far down that road. To put it bluntly, this proved a mammoth undertaking with intertwined complexities far beyond anything we had initially scoped, and to which our own meager resources would have quickly proved disastrously and ludicrously inadequate. Like King Yertle of yore, we gained this rare clime upon the backs of dozens of willing, self-sacrificial supporters who gave freely of their time and energy to push us over each of the interminable obstacles that cropped up to block our way.

I would especially like to thank the following friends, without whom we could never have achieved this long-sought goal:

Stacey Jones of the Capital University Registrar's office, who flexibly fielded some decidedly odd verification requests from the UK;
Emily Roebke of our credit union, who risked carpel tunnel by tirelessly signing her way through reams of evidentiary bank statements;
Becky Hopper, Cliff Willis, Scott Nix, and Doug Esham of General Dynamics, who wrestled willingly with contentious corporate policies in order to generate the documentation required by the UK Home Office;
Ashley Flemming of fastUKpermit, who saved me from my own laziness by making me re-sign and re-scan every document again...and again...and again, until each was perfect :-)
Rachel Siegel of Intercontinental Visa Service, who helped get our entry clearance visas turned-around in record time;
Evelith Garcia, Suzanne Rummel, Tom Phelps, and the sixth-grade team of Narcoossee Community School, as well as the many teachers who contributed texts and resources for our "home schooling" experiment;
Natalie Leask of Sterling Relocation for helping with our Maidenhead housing search;
Cristina Santiago of DAS Auto Shippers for helping to get our van overseas;
Tracey Kinsella, Hannah Welsh, and Kim Anderson of Amazon for helping with my relocation and hiring details;
Viola Bernatovic of BridgeStreet for helping to arrange our temporary housing in Maidenhead;
Doctors Ahmed and Quinonez for helping to pull together patient records for overseas delivery;

And most especially:

Elisa Guillermo-Portillo, who helped coordinate all aspects of the relocation from Graebel, graciously saving us from own ignorance;
Pamela Norring, who has helped send countless Amazonians on missions throughout the world, sharing her broad experience in international transfers, sympathizing with the many unexpected frustrations incurred, and providing a gratifying well of resiliance and determination to succeed;
Ben Ellis and Nic Rutterford of Amazon.co.uk, for being willing to take on (and realize) considerable schedule risk in order to accommodate the meandering timetableof a wayward Yank who could never quite determine when he might manage to report to work;
our friends John, Lara, and Harry Zielinsky, who accepted a new canine companion into their household to the considerable relief of our boys; and finally,
my parents Pete & Judy Zieg, who helped refine our relocation plans by constructively criticizing them with such passion that you almost felt they wanted us to fail :-), yet nonetheless allowed us to crash in their house for a week after our own home had been packed and released to the renters.

This has been a collective effort from start to finish, and we sincerely thank all those who helped to make it happen!

Tier-1 Visas

2008-11-14T19:36:00.004Z

So it took something like five months to get my HSMP work permit (one month of documentation-gathering, followed by four months of processing by the Home Office). I had honestly thought that, once the work permit was in hand, all the risky (and costly) approvals would be in place.

Little did I realize that the entry clearance visa can be nearly as complicated to obtain, and surprisingly more expensive! While only the family "wage-earner" requires a work permit (which conveniently authorizes the dependent spouse and children to work as well), every family member requires their own entry clearance visa.

Oddly, many of the documentation requirements already established by the work permit application have to be repeated for the visas; fortunately, such overlap means that most of the hard work is already done, although financial records may need updated with current statements. We were fortunate that my employer was willing to help expedite the processing turnaround, which was then completed within just a couple of days.

Anyway, not a major obstacle, just one we hadn't fully appreciated and accounted for in our initial planning -- so be sure to research it in full if you plan to attempt something similar :-) Note that to obtain your visas, you'll need to FedEx your original passports the responsible consulate along with your application -- a somewhat nervous procedure.

Also, I'm unsure of how the appropriate consulate is determined -- the visa4uk.fco.gov.uk website somehow "decided" that ours was to be issued via Chicago (vs Los Angelas, which we had been led to expect), so pay close attention to where your application needs to be submitted. Also note that the "estimated" date of arrival in the UK ends up being an enforced minimum, so estimate an early date versus a later one if you expect your schedule may change.

Finally, note that any errors in the application process can cause your application to be rejected without reimbursement -- a potentially hefty sum if multiple family members are involved -- so it may be worth retaining a service to make sure everything goes right the first time.

10 years of amazon.co.uk

2008-10-15T16:10:00.003+01:00

The Sun has published a feature on Amazon.co.uk's 10th anniversary, providing some interesting trivia about best-selling titles, highest-traffic days, and other corner cases. I appreciated that they remembered to share credit "with a certain boy wizard":

“Our millions of customers have made this all possible but there’s definitely one person we couldn’t have done it without — Harry Potter.”

HSMP Approved!

2008-10-07T03:18:00.004+01:00

Well, it took a little longer than we'd hoped, but (kind of like having a baby), once it's here, you forget all the doubts and worries, and you're just happy to have it :-) For the record, we submitted our HSMP application Jun 16, 2008, and received our letter of approval Oct 6, 2008, a turnaround of exactly 16 weeks.

No Panacea

2008-09-03T03:14:00.003+01:00

This was less than encouraging:

Britain is the worst country in the Western world in which to be a child, according to a recent UNICEF report....the childhood that many British parents give to their offspring is so awful that it is hard to conceive of worse, at least on a mass scale.

Nearly 40 percent of teachers have taken time off to recover from violent incidents at students’ hands. About a quarter of British teachers have been assaulted by their students over the last year.

The British, never fond of children, have lost all knowledge or intuition about how to raise them; as a consequence, they now fear them, perhaps the most terrible augury possible for a society. The signs of this fear are unmistakable on the faces of the elderly in public places. An involuntary look of distaste, even barely controlled terror, crosses their faces if a group of young teens approaches; then they try to look as if they are not really there, hoping to avoid trouble.

Written by a cynical pessimist with a chip on his shoulder? Possibly, but supported by this BBC article:

British people are the least likely in Europe to be "have-a-go heroes" and get involved if they witness a crime, research from a think tank claims.
The public policy group Reform says that Britons have become "passive bystanders" in the fight against crime.

London by Night

2008-08-30T02:47:00.003+01:00

Some really gorgeous pictures of London taken from the air, at night.