Ireland's Call

Ireland's Call - video

Right now we're at Yardley Court waiting for the packers to arrive ahead of the move tomorrow. The phone company managed to cut us off yesterday a full 24 hours ahead of schedule just as I was trying to sort out services at Porter Lane. It took a long time working out what companies could provide the services we required and it may be a few days before we come back on the net although our phone number should remain the same.

OK now that's out of the way I'll fill you in on what I did in the UK last week apart from work. Kitty and I went to Demuth's, a veggie restaurant, for dinner on Monday night. Kitty gave me a brilliant homemade card and a couple of birthday presents. On Tuesday I picked up Catherine and took her to the Indian restaurant across the road from the hotel, and after dinner led her and a group of Americans into the real countryside for a pub crawl.

On Wednesday I met up with Lawrie who had arranged to stay in the hotel as he was working in the area. We had dinner at the same Indian restaurant across the road, one of the few things I miss about the UK, and then sat in the restaurant bar watching the England Germany football match. We exchanged birthday and Christmas presents; I hadn't given Lawrie his birthday present from May this year.

On Thursday I met up with Kitty again and after running a few errands we met up with Sybil for dinner and got more birthday presents as well as a birthday cake! On the way back we stopped of in Sainsbury's to do a bit off shopping for things that are difficult or expensive to get in the US; daddies sauce, marzipan, bisto, tea bags and chocolate. I also took the opportunity to sample some new quorn products; pork pie, party egg and sausage roll!

Now for the fun bit! I had a bit of a panic about the bag being too heavy so I transferred a few items to my back pack just in case, but when I got to the airport the bag was well within the limit so I transferred them back and headed to check-in with cake in hand. When I got to security I realised I had left the marzipan in my backpack and had to go back to check-in. At last, after the cake was x-rayed, I had a quick cup of tea and boarded the plane.

Mid-way through dinner I felt the plane slow, start to descend and then a short while later decelerate and descend rapidly. After a few minutes the pilot informed us that the over-temperature alarm for the undercarriage brakes had come on but could be a spurious alarm. The plane turned around and when it had slowed enough they lowered the undercarriage to see if they could spot the cause, plus if there was a fire it might get extinguished by the airflow. As the results were inconclusive and to play it safe we overflew Shannon airport so the control tower could look at our undercarriage. Again the results were inconclusive so we landed at Dublin airport with the fire service standing by. After a few hours, and some uncertainty over whether we would return to Heathrow for a new plane and even a new crew due to the delay, the cabin crew bought some sandwiches and crisps for our journey on to Dulles.

We were all very tired when we arrived and as I stood at baggage claim after breezing through security I suddenly realized I had left the cake on the plane! The ground crew were kind enough to fetch the cake for me and after queueing for an abnormally long time to get through customs I met up with my driver for the trip home. Even though it was late I ordered pizza and, as it had been my birthday for some time (GMT) I had a glass or two of scotch and then went to bed; aaaaah!

Don't Leave Home

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HiYBAyI7ys

What a week! First off the Embassy neglected to book a ticket for me to fly to the UK on Monday for some meetings. I'll spare you the gory details which included me travelling to and then back from the airport but the end result was that I ended up staying in DC. Not a happy bunny!

Tuesday was a Memorial Day which was a day off for us lucky civil servants. The next day at work I cancel and amend hotel and car bookings, booking a flight for the second week of meetings; oh and for good measure I get a hard time for the booking failure. On top of this we're trying to sort out a new house to live in plus both of us trying to do some real work.

I had an awful night's (lack of) sleep on Wednesday evening which contributed to the medium bike accident I had on the way to work. My right wrist and head took the impact and I went to the Emergency Department of our local hospital. The helmet did it's job and I got a small bruise and abrasion on my forehead but my wrist hurt like hell when I moved it. The x-ray results were inconclusive so they put my wrist in a temporary splint and referred me to a orthopaedic consultant or bone doctor as we call them in the USA. After a relatively quick visit to the consultant the verdict was that there were no fractures just soft tissue damage so I got a slightly more comfortable wrist splint with instructions to take it easy

We had a small visitor in the house which I spotted scampering out from behind the TV! We tried trapping the mouse using Hershey's "chocolate" but unsurprisingly even though he was an American mouse and probably very hungry he wouldn't take the bait. In the end Helen and I herded him into a plastic box and I evicted him back into the garden. He was quite a brazen little thing and after trying to grab him without squeezing him he started scampering up my arm; I hope he doesn't get bullied by the squirrels.

Talking of squirrels the removal man came round to work out what volume of belongings he had to transport a few blocks to our new house and he was happy to transport our squirrels if we packed them. After an emotional discussion Helen and I agreed that it would be best to make a clean break and make friends with some new squirrels. It looks like our moving date will be 26 Nov and we will set up mail forwarding and hope to keep the same phone number; we'll keep you posted!

This time the Embassy came through and I flew to the UK from Dulles on Sunday evening and I sat in the lounge at Paddington tapping away at my laptop waiting for my train to Bath. I'm in the hotel now and will have to head off soon as I have a dinner date with an eighteen year old Girl - Kitty.

Autumn Leaves

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EnAD_KULFBo

After loads of trudging around and seeing some truly awful houses we've found a suitable house a few blocks away from where we live now. It is now up to the Embassy to finalise a contract with the realtor and arrange a moving in date and all the fun that entails. In the meantime I'm off to the UK for two weeks of meetings.

After toying with some frosty, then cold and damp weather we've hit some very mild weather. I know it is autumn because there are loads of leaves on the ground and it is dark for part of my ride to and from work. It can be awkward riding home on the bike path against the traffic because their headlights tend to blind me. Add to this that when the path is covered in leaves it looks just like the bits that are not path which are covered in leaves, runners and walkers wearing this season's colour (black) and the odd bike ninja is can be a bit sketchy. It is wrong however that I should be raking leaves in shorts and a singlet and sweating!

That's about it for this week; oh yeah I almost forgot there was this election thingy too you might have heard something about it.

Some Candy Talking

Fresh earth
Originally uploaded by d_j_critchley

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZX9pfb-IgM

Dang, we were doing so well with the blog and then we failed to post for over a month! We've got some big updates for you though.

Firstly at the end of September we travelled up to Massachusetts for Lee, who works with Dave, and Kelly's wedding. The weather was abysmal but the wedding and the reception were at the same venue so it wasn't an issue. The wedding itself was great (and short) and we danced quite sanely as well as like maniacs. It was also a good opportunity to see the giant chair in Gardiner http://www.flickr.com/photos/11463478@N00/2889740511/in/photostream/ but the whale watching in Boston was cancelled due to the high sea state. The drive back home in the wet weather wasn't too demanding but we saw two cars on their roofs.

Sybil & Helen arrived for a fortnight stay and we did loads of walking, saw loads of wildlife, and plenty of sights. Midway through their stay Helen skived off to Houston for a conference and took part in a 3rd in her age group in a 5k race.

I took Helen to our second gig of the year in at Tiffany's Tavern in Alexandria; a five piece Bluegrass band which seemed to be comprised mainly of pensioners.

last year we missed Halloween at home so this year we went the whole hog by decorating the yard, carving pumpkins and buy loads of candy. The kids who called trick or treating had all dressed up and a lot of the costumes and make up , ranging from cute to scary, were great. They were also very polite albeit more focused on the candy than dialogue and we had to force most of them to take more than one piece.

The on piece annoying news is that our landlord is facing foreclosure, not annoying in itself but it does mean we have to move house. We have spent most of the last week worrying about moving and looking for something pleasant in the area We have found a couple of promising prospects it just depends on the Embassy getting their act in gear.