The Wives hit the shops...

Well Hilary and I hit the shops yesterday. I think our respective husbands were waiting on the smell of burning plastic to come wafting over the greater Washington area, but we were actually terribly restrained! We did the tour of useful places - the local post office, the laundry, the wine shop and then headed over to Kingstowne Mall to find the big Safeway. This was the big Safeway which Stephen and I failed to find the other week - we found Giant instead. It turns out the Safeway is just behind Giant (we were rushing - and you would never know it was there!), and as well as Safeway there are some great homeware stores. There is TJMaxx, World Market and another one whose name escapes me now! Anyway after a reviving skinny latte we went for a wander. I was in Kerry heaven!! World Market had loads of decorative pieces from all over the world (obviously!) at really reasonable prices....AND they have a few food aisles too. I can now get Cadbury's chocolate, maltesers, Hob Nobs, McVities Digestives and salad cream....yippeee!!!! TJ Maxx was also great (just like the ones back home), they had Ralph Lauren bath sheets for a whole $8 each!! I will be dragging Stephen back here at the weekend for a good shop!

There is also a Crate & Barrell outlet just off King Street, so we had a look in there too. They had some really nice glasses and bowls and other kitcheny stuff. I think Stephen is going to be soooooo bored of shopping this weekend! Oh, and did I mention Whole Foods? Its a supermarket that I hadn't yet been in, and is really nice. Like an upmarket Waitrose. Every type of vegetable you could imagine (so this is where they hide them!) and quite a few I'd never seen before! For example did you know that carrots are not always orange? And Beetroot are not always purple? Well, there you go! You do now!!

After all that we were fairly exhausted, so we decided that a nice glass of wine might hit the spot so we popped into Chadwicks for a bit of salad and a pinot grigio. It was about 4:30 before I got home! Then after checking my e-mails and writing a post for the blog, Stephen came home and said he fancied eating out, so we wandered back along to King Street. It turns out Monday night is Steak Night at the restaurant we fancied. $10 for a HUGE steak, a mountain of fries and a small decorative salad...

Our walk into town!

Our street, looking from the top end
The park a couple of blocks from us. You can see the Potomac in the background.

A little bit further along the street. It's very pretty!

The enormous steak dinner!

Down on the Waterfront by the Torpedo Factory Arts Centre.
This is where we come to eat ice cream and drink coffee!

Wildlife

We saw our first raccoon! It was right outside, in the street, just about 20 yards from our house!! We were walking back on Saturday night after a nice meal in King Street Blues and a couple of beers in Murphy's Irish bar, and there was something standing stock still in the road. I thought at first it might have been someones dog (bit small) or a cat (too big) but when we drew level with it there was no mistaking what it was! It ran off pretty quickly - probably because I was screeching "Stephen - look! A Raccoon"!

We went for a bit of culture yesterday! We took a trip to the National Mall and went to two of the Smithsonian museums/galleries. We did Art first - the place is stuffed with paintings by Monet, Manet, Van Gogh, Turner, Whistler...a treasure trove! Even the building itself is a work of art! I was getting quite irritated though...people, rather than taking their time to admire these works of art, were doing a Whistler stop tour - nearly running from painting to painting taking pictures as they went - presumably so they could admire them later! I was irritated because they pretty much would shove you out of the way to take the picture, and also because these paintings are displayed in a temperature/humidity and light controlled atmosphere for a reason! Blasting them with a flash gun really doesn't do them much good! Philistine's!!!

We went from there across the Mall to the Air and Space Museum, which was absolutely jam packed with people!! Obviously Art isn't popular.... Anyway there are loads of fascinating items on display, including the Apollo 11 capsule (which is minuscule - you would never think it would carry 3 people!) and a lunar lander which was built for one of the later Apollo missions which never flew. All very interesting stuff!

We've got wheels....

Well, thankfully Stephen's flight was on time, and he got through immigration and customs, and despite traffic he got to the car dealership before the stroppy lady went home...so we now have a car of our own!!! There have been comments about there being a lot of photo's of Stephen hugging various new purchases, so I thought I should get in on the action! Here's a photo of me with the car....I was going to drape myself over the bonnet, but frankly it was too high for me to reach!!

The pretty white house is ours... I've put some more pictures of the inside on here as well. The den has been a staging point for the past few weeks - we'd stagger in and deposit bags and bags and bags of purchases in there ready to be taken off to their new homes round the house, so this is the first time it hasn't been full of bags and cardboard boxes!

Here's a fuller description of the layout...The den and kitchen are on the ground floor, then you go up stairs to a landing with the front door, then more stairs to the sitting room and dining room (the bay window in the photo below) on the first floor, then up more stairs to the guest bathroom, two guest bedrooms and Stephen's guitar room, then yet more stairs to the master bedroom and bathroom and giant walk in closet. The window you can see at the top of the house is our bathroom.

Me, in front of the car, in front of the house!

The kitchen

The Den, looking from the stairs

The Den, looking from the back door

Hilary, one of the QQ wives, popped round to say hello yesterday (Friday). (The lovely flowers in the kitchen are from her - I need to buy a bigger vase to support them which is why they're propped against the wall!). We had a good natter and a glass of wine whilst we did the house tour. Hilary is good fun and only lives about 3 blocks away, so I'm sure we'll see a lot of each other. We're going out to "do the tour" on Monday - all the places that she has found which are useful (like the laundry that cleans shirts for 95 cents each!), or a source of cheap items like mirrors etc. I think she was rather abandoned when she moved here last year, so makes a big effort to make sure that the newcomers like me aren't left in the same position. We're going to collaborate on putting together a Welcome Pack for the people who come over - there is no point in every new arrival rediscovering the wheel, so to speak! We all must have valuable information about the area that we can share.

Anyway, it was good to get Stephen home again - especially as he came laden with giant bars of chocolate and trashy gossip magazine!! We've had a lovely day today - typically American! We got up at 7, got ready and walked to the local coffee shop for coffee and muffins, then we drove to the Mall and collected Stephen's suits, then we dropped in at the giant Giant supermarket and did a shop, and we're off out for dinner now - which explains why the kitchen is looking so clean - basically I dust the cooker more than I use it!!

Retail therapy!

So, it didn't quite take 5 hours...it was only 3 1/2 hours! But finally we have insurance for the car! I got the first phone call from AIG at 09:00 this morning, and sent the final e-mail at about 12:30. To be honest it wasn't just the insurance I was sorting out - more the whole car delivery thing!!

We wanted to pick the car up on Saturday, but the lady from the dealership said no. It had to be Monday - Friday 9am - 4pm. As the car has been delivered to a dealership in Falls Church (which isn't exactly the dealership down the road) this is something of an issue. Stephen is busy all of next week, and the week after he's in California...if we don't pick it up this weekend then we can't really pick it up for 3 weeks. When Stephen spoke to her, the lady in the dealership basically said "that's your problem". So he phoned me. And I phoned the lady whom we've been dealing with at International Autosource to lease the car, and she phoned the dealership, who phoned Stephen back (are you following this?). Finally a compromise was reached - Stephen will collect the car tomorrow (Friday) when he gets off the flight home. Not ideal, but at least we'll have the car.

Of course this meant I had to phone back the insurance company to change the commencement date for the policy. Then the dealership lady wanted copied of various documents which I had to e-mail to her. Now I think it's all done. Stephen just has to make sure the plane is on time, rush through immigration and customs, find a taxi, get to the dealership, collect the car, overcome jet lag and drive home....

Anyway, in the middle of all this madness (at one point both home and cell phones were in use!) Morag called to see if I wanted to go out for lunch with her and the girls (and I mean children here). I was really happy to escape!!! I got changed (twice - my face powder erupted all over the first outfit when I opened it!) and eagerly leapt into the car when it pulled up. Morag picked up a rather stressed out Kerry, and delivered back a rather more chilled one!!! It's amazing what a nice lunch in Nordstroms and some retail therapy can do for a girl!! I didn't go too mad - the cards haven't melted yet! We had a really fantastic afternoon, the kids were so well behaved and we got some really nice things! We treated ourselves to a wee glass of wine when we got back to my house (I'm having another one now!) and Simon popped in too. We have also sent Stephen a shopping list for the airport tomorrow....Heat, OK, dairy milk, extra strong mints...all of lifes essentials!!

In amongst all the phone calls today I had one which nearly caused me to keel over! Any conversation which begins "Kerry Spark? This is the Virginia State Police...." is fairly heart attack inducing! I was frantically trying to think of any felonies I might have committed when he continued "I am collecting to send teddy bears to underprivileged children in the state of Virginia"...I was so relived that I wasn't about to be carted off to jail that I agreed to give them $20!!!! Besides I thought it was politic to agree....they give you a decal for the car, so if ever I'm stopped after a high speed chase down the beltway after I've ram raided Nordstroms shoe department then they might look favourably on the fact I've coughed up for their charity!!

Food, glorious food...

Okay, so even getting insurance with AIG is proving difficult! But more down to the fact that Stephen isn't here to sign forms, and is using me as an intermediary to ask them questions...He's also got me sending various bits of paperwork to the company who are getting us the car. Between these two tasks I've spent 5 hours today e-mailing and phoning, and I still don't have insurance set up!!! I'm hoping that another 5 hours tomorrow should crack it....

As I was grumpy, tired, hungry and in need of chocolate after all my efforts I took a walk to Balducci's to stock up on goodies. I was (quite) good in that I bought healthy things too! So for every naughty thing, I bought a good thing...chocolate covered nuts/raisins/other stuff (bad) and apples (good)....a tub of peanut butter cookies (bad) and a fruit salad (good)...a dark chocolate bar (bad) and a muffin....okay so it didn't quite balance out!!

As it was I could have saved myself some money and taken the chocolate covered "stuff" out of the basket. I settled down with a cuppa and the stuff to watch Changing Rooms (told you TV was bad!) and the chocolate was disgusting!! To be fair, the stuff the chocolate was covering was pretty vile....malt balls I imagined to be similar to Maltesers...they were such a disappointment! Just as well I had the cookies to take the taste away!

Have I talked about American food yet? Not so much the stuff you get in restaurants which is pretty good (but you have to check the menu cos if you're not careful everything comes with grilled cheese), but the stuff you buy in supermarkets? Some things defy belief....most cheese is plastic, some cheese comes in a can which you squirt like whipped cream. If you want non-plastic, non-whipped cheese you need a deli. There are around 20 kinds of milk (not including soy milk, or other non-dairy types). There appears to be a national shortage of vegetables (which suits Stephen!), but you can get salad. When you do get your hands on veg, then it goes off in hours....but bread lasts for weeks! Fresh herbs (or urbs as I should now call them!) are only to be got in larger supermarkets or deli supermarkets and they don't seem to have chilled ready meals anywhere (but plenty of frozen).

On the whole it's not so bad, but I'm still trying to find bread which tastes like bread (all the bread here tastes quite sweet to me). I packed Stephen off to get a pizza from Safeway last week and he came back with one the size of a wagon wheel (and I'm not talking about those itty bitty biscuits here!). And the sandwiches...I am not kidding - I saw a ready made up Sub in Safeway which was about 18" long x 4" wide and had about half a turkey, 2lbs of cheese, three lettuce and 2 jars of mayonnaise on it. It was delicious....

Who needs insurance???

I've been trying to organise car insurance in preparation for our Escape arriving. One of Stephen's (British) colleagues had said to try one particular company as they were one of the cheaper options. They have a web-site. Great, I thought, no long conversations trying to make Americans understand my accent. I can just nip onto their website, get a quote, job done....Oh, I would like to say it was that easy!!

My first problem. We don't have US drivers licenses yet. In fact we are some weeks away from getting them as it's more complicated and time consuming than was portrayed in Victoria Beckham's Coming to America show!!!.... apparently you have to send paperwork off to DMV Virginia's Head Office, they pre-approve you, then you go to the local DMV office and wait in line for several days at multiple counters to get your license!

I had already filled in several pages of questions by this point, so I wasn't going to be defeated! They have true on-line help! You can MSN messenger an agent and ask questions which is cool... I explained that we had just moved here, that we had held licenses in the UK for many years - would this do instead of having a US one. No (of course!). But Jim (the agent) suggested that I put in today's date where it said "Date License Gained". (It would allow me to get a quote, but I would need a license before they could actually insure me.) Hey, that worked! Lets move on...another few pages of questions and "Submit"...."The system cannot find your insurance rating at your current address". NOOOOOOOoooooooooooooooooooo!!

My second problem. It asked for my previous address to see if the Insurance Rating could be found there, and, you guessed it! Their system doesn't recognise anywhere outside of the US! So far this had taken the best part of an hour, and the will to live was gone!

We have an option to use AIG, and I think we will! You have to pay a membership fee, but they will insure you on a UK license and take into account the fact that you have no-claims in another country. If you go to a regular insurer you would be assumed to be a new driver with zero hours behind the wheel, and the premiums would be correspondingly high! (I eventually managed to get a quote from other on-line source that didn't ask so many stupid questions!) I don't know how Stephen's colleague managed to get a reasonable quote out of them...unless he's paying over the odds and doesn't realise...or didn't want to pay the membership fee for AIG. Believe me, if it means less grey hair for me then it's worth every cent!!

Eve has introduced me to Facebook, which is what all the youngsters are using to keep in touch with one another these days. I have 4 friends now (please sign up, please!) and I think that between that, and this, that I'm not actually going to have time to go back to work!! I'm going to have to cut down my laptop hours before I develop a hump and RSI!!!

What happens to Harry Potter?

I've just finished reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and Harry.....no, I won't tell you and spoil the end! It was very exciting though!! I sat out in the back yard today (liberally sprayed with mosquito repellent!) and read it from cover to cover. I only moved my butt to phone Mum and Stephen!

I'm currently sitting ogling George and Brad in Oceans 11 on the giant telly. They look as fabulous as ever, but annoyingly there are commercials every couple of minutes. I prefer my ogling during movies to be non-stop!! I had a quick look at the TV Guide for this week and was amused/amazed (I'm not sure which!) at Friday's highlights....Keeping up Appearances, Fawlty Towers, Waiting for God, Are Your Being Served and Last of the Summer Wine....Yes, Last of the Summer Wine...a programme no-one has watched in the UK for about 15 years!!! The good US shows like Ugly Betty and Desperate Housewives are on summer break. All the new programming begins again in the Fall after Labour Day, so the summer months are US re-runs and bad British shows!! The most excellent news is that they show Dr Who on the SciFi channel so I can still drool over the rather gorgeous David Tennant!

TV Delivery Day...Take 2

The phone went at 06:30 this morning. As we hadn't got to bed til 12:30 I wasn't too happy to hear it ring!! It was a call to say that the guys were on their way to deliver the replacement TV and would be here between 8 and 10am. Thankfully Stephen was keen to get up to sort this one out so I rolled over and went back to sleep, and he got up!! They actually arrived at 07:30 and were out of here before 8:00!! We now have a High Def TV with High Def cable channels to watch on it. Even I have to say that it's pretty damn good!!!

Before....

...ohmygod someone has supersized the TV!!

We spent the rest of the day running about to the shops, post office, Mall...Stephen is heading back to the UK on a business trip and we were stocking up on water etc for me. I can walk to the nearest Safeway, but I didn't fancy lugging bottles of water home again!!

Safely Home

I eventually got hold of Mum - stuck in a traffic jam north of Birmingham. After a lot of frantic texting back and forth with traffic updates (thank goodness I had internet!) she completed ignored my advice to find a hotel and pressed on for home!

It had got to 10:45pm UK time and I hadn't heard that she was home so I decided to phone in case she had got there and the place was under water but she didn't know how to tell us! It seemed I phoned just as she was putting her key in the lock. It took her 13 hours to drive from Edinburgh. She'd been stuck in a gridlocked traffic jam for 130-odd miles, and had ploughed on through the flooding around Leigh Sinton to get home. Apparently the last 2 miles were the worst!!

Our house is an island surrounded by a lake of water. Thankfully it's all dry and fine, but other houses round about are not so well off. The little cottage on the corner is flooded and other neighbours were taken in by a kindly old lady in Alfrick as they were stranded...

The worst thing is - it's still raining heavily!

We had Morag and Simon and the girls round for the Inaugural BBQ tonight. Shopping for it was slightly traumatic...I wanted to go to a bigger Safeway (ours is tiny) to get a better selection of produce, and Stephen had been told of one on Van Dorn. We headed off about 2:45 (which was later than we wanted) and found it was MILES away! Then because the store was huge it took ages to get round, then we hit traffic on the way home...anyway, it was 5pm when we got home and Morag and Simon were due at 6pm!! And I still had to shower. And make salad. And phone Mum to make sure that she wasn't stranded in a flood...!! But it all came together, the food was ready in time (and BBQ'd to perfection by Stephen - even the salad!!).

TV Delivery Day

I was awoken from my gentle slumber at 7:25 this morning by Stephen telling me that they were going to deliver the giant telly between 8am and 12 noon. Okay. It's time to get up then! 8am can mean anytime from 7:30 and I don't want to be caught in my jimjams!

The TV delivery men duly arrived, assembled the stand, brought in the TV, set it up, and then stood around looking at the back, pressing buttons on the remote and generally looking puzzled....I sensed something might not be quite right! It turns out the TV was a non-runner. Off they went to phone the office, and came back to say that they would deliver a replacement tomorrow. So yet another day to be spent sitting at home waiting for deliveries....

I spent some time after that catching up with paperwork. Scanning receipts to send back to the UK etc. Boring stuff, but I suppose it has to be done! I was getting to laptop hurling stage at one point when I was having difficulty transferring files, but I go there in the end and without breaking anything!

I've just heard about the terrible monsoon-like rain and flash flooding that is going on back in the UK. I'm slightly concerned as Mum was driving back from Edinburgh today, and I don't think she's going to get anywhere near home as all the roads near Leigh Sinton and Malvern (including the Motorways) are flooded. Stephen spoke to Guy who lives in the cottage next door to ours and the water was all the way up his drive and lapping at the front step of their house. Thankfully our house is higher up, so I'm hoping that we're okay. Apparently some areas had an inch of rain in an hour, and four inches over the course of the day. I've left messages for mum to call me as soon as she switches her mobile phone back on - and we'll see where in the UK she managed to get to!

The Right to Bear Arms

I have a guilty secret! Today, instead of getting up when Stephen left I went back to sleep for an hour!! Its the first time I've done this and it was so good! I was really tired this morning, and I thought well either I can get up at 7 and be grouchy all day, or I can have a kip for a bit and be slightly less grouchy!! The world should be thankful today that I went back to bed!!!

It was really hot and humid today (which didn't help my general grounchiness!). I went out to water the garden and after about 2 minutes when all I had done was unwind the hose from the reel I was "glowing" buckets.

I got a message from Stephen at lunchtime to say that Paul was taking everyone in the office out for a drink tonight, and had invited me along. So I got ready - straightened my hair, did my makeup, did it again because it had slid off as I was sweating and called a cab. By the time I got to the office my hair was curly and my makeup was dripping off my chin! The blast of freezing cold air conditioning as I opened the door to the foyer almost took my breath away!!

It was good to meet everyone again. I found the conversation when we got the bar for drinks quite fascinating! Two of the girls were saying that they were both from Texas and had guns. (One seems to go hand in hand with the other!) And we're not talking one or two guns...one of these girls and her husband had 21 guns ranging from hand guns to rifles!!! Which sparked a general conversation about who had guns - which seemed to be basically everyone!! As a Brit, I found this almost unbelieveable! I mean I know its in the constitution that you have a right to bear arms, but I was pretty shocked at the fact that so many of them did!! Remind me not to tick anyone off in the office!!

Another pretty shocking thing (and this may have been the thing that sparked the conversation)...one of the girls was going on holiday to South Africa with her husband and he was going hunting. For antelope and zebra. I couldn't believe it!!! At least she didn't say elephant and tiger, but anyway....why would you want to shoot a zebra??? Is that legal? I thought that the whole animal population in Africa was protected!

Oh, Internet, how I love thee

Now we are finally connected to the outside world I have spent today e-mailing, phoning and generally living the 21st century life! Have I mentioned that I LOVE having my Internet connection? I was lost without it! It's amazing how many things you rely on the Internet for....

Anyway, as I said it was a bit of a geeky day - e-mailing, surfing (just cos I can!) and programming phone numbers into the new cordless phone handsets. Our caller ID system is cool - it announces the name of the person calling if you have the number in the phonebook. Whereas before we gave you different ring tunes now it says "Mum Calling"....clever huh! (Well I hope it will work with international calls - otherwise all it'll ever say is "Stephen's Cell Calling"....)

Stephen's Cell called a lot today. It sent me e-mails too.... most of the time these said "Have they delivered by replacement HD box yet?". I have never known anyone nag as much!! Basically Comcast delivered us the wrong sort of HD box - for true HD quality you have to have an 8300 box (or an eighty-three-hundred box as I quickly learned to call it!) and they had delivered an 8000. I phoned them last night and Fred was supposed to make a note on the file and dispatch someone with a replacement box today. Fred was on the phone a lot this morning, so I ended up speaking to someone else only to discover that &%$£!!& Fred hadn't made any notes in my file and hadn't dispatched squat! The nice lady obviously "sensed my disappointment" and within 2 hours a lovely Rasta from Trinidad was installing the new HD box!!

I was comparing notes with the sweetie from Trinidad on how hot it is today...I had said that we'd been to the Caribbean and that it was cool compared to here just now, and he agreed. He said people are always saying to him that he should be used to the heat, but what they don't realise is that on these islands there is usually a breeze. Those Tradewinds are a fantastic thing, and we sure could use them right now... Anyway he was going back for a visit in a couple of weeks for a bit of a cool down!

The cable guy has been!!

We've had a lot of problems getting phone and internet installed (you'll read all about it in the posts below!), but Marco has been and hooked us up now! Yippee!!

I've been writing my postings off-line each day - so don't feel cheated - this is how it happened and my thoughts at the time! Becasue there are a couple of weeks worth, they won't display in one window - you'll need to go to Older Posts (there is a link somewhere on the left hand panel) to see them all.

Here are some more photos of the house....

A view of the sitting room from the stairs (look at the view!)

In the sitting room looking towards the front door

A slightly more complete view of the sitting room!

The rear of our house (masked by the tree!). You can just about see the balcony off our bedroom at the very top!

Domestic Goddess??

I watched the programme on Victoria Beckham’s move to LA last night. It was a 1 hour special (cut down from a 10 part series) and was a bit light on content! I think it showed that she has more of a sense of humour than we had given her credit for – she is well aware of her image of being a skinny, pouty woman who never eats and sent herself up quite well!

I had a busy day today – doing chores! I’m turning into some kind of deranged housewife and I was always the Undomestic Goddess!! I got up, stripped the bed, put on a washing, put away the random piles of clothes that were cluttering our bedroom, got out the ironing board, worked out how to work the iron, ironed Stephen’s shirts, tumble dried the bedding, put on another washing, cleaned the bathroom…and all before breakfast!!

I didn’t stop with that, but I won’t bore you completely with the details of my humdrum existence! I also spent some time this afternoon trying to work out how the furniture in the second guest room will fit better. I think I have it sussed now, but I’ll need to employ Stephen’s muscle power to help me move it all around. The room (although quite a good size) is an awkward shape – kind of long and narrow – but I won’t let it beat me!!

I’m just waiting on the cable guy now…..

(Tuesday 17th July)

Going down the Social…..

It is official. I have become an American!! Two things make me say this….the first is that we went to bed (and to sleep!) at 9:30 last night which has possibly never happened in my entire life!! and the second was that I wished someone “have a nice day”….it popped out!! I couldn’t stop it!! And I think I actually meant it…

We were up at 6:30 today (okay that makes it 3 things now!) in order to get to the Social Security office early and get ahead in the queue. This was a nice thought, but wasn’t to be!! Susan (our relocation agent) was running late due to a mix up with her husband over child care so we didn’t get to the office until 9:45. I was quite tickled by the sign on the door saying handguns and mobile phones were banned!!!! There were a few people (about 10 – we’re not talking hundreds!) ahead of us, so we took our number, filled in the forms and waited…and waited…and waited…and waited some more.

There were three interview windows. One wasn’t manned at all. The other two took it in turns to interview a couple of people (for sometimes nearly an hour each) and then put up a Position Closed sign. This queue was moving r.e.a.l.l.y. s.l.o.w.l.y.! Aside from a few US people who had lost their cards it seemed to be mostly Mexican, Russian and us British who were waiting. It’s just as well that these are nations who have a genetic capacity for queuing – otherwise there would have been rioting!!! You know how on the Statue of Liberty it says something about “Give us your poor and your huddled masses” well that was the contents of that office today….

Just when we were starting to get bored the floor show arrived! This homeless guy with a grudge about the way the social security office had treated him arrived and held forth at great volume about his plight. How he’d been judged fit to handle his own money, but the Social were withholding his payments, he’d been in the military, served his country, suffered a disability, how he had no place to stay and he’d been assaulted 8 times, how they owed him $600…he was actually very eloquent, and I think we all really felt for him, he was just something of a disruption to the calm of the line! Eventually the security guard came and took him through the back to speak to someone and about half hour later he came out slightly happier, disappeared for about 10 minutes and then came back again. Someone once said to me that living here is great as long as you’re reasonably wealthy and healthy, but anyone who is not struggles in the system and I take that point.

So anyway, after the distraction (he was fine, but I did have a momentary panic about who exactly checks that you don’t have a handgun, or whether it was just an honour thing about whether you use one or not!!) the office manager comes out (it was really packed now – standing room only!) and gives us her “Welcome to Monday. We’re short-staffed” speech and said that non-US people applying had to have their Birth Certificates with them…which was a little, weeny problem for us!! Susan then interrogated her (which is the best way to describe it – it wasn’t a conversation from a Birtish perspective!) and it turned out that that was their preferred method of checking our date of birth, but passports would do. Then they had a further “discussion” about the need for my marriage certificate as I was an L2 visa holder – turns out Susan was correct and I did need one. There was a lot of “I will not repeat myself ma’am” from the office manager and I had visions of us being turfed out on our ears to come back another day!!

So after a bit (okay a lot) more waiting our numbers were finally called. I collected Susan from outside the door where she was on her phone (there was a lot of power walking at this point cos you get about 10 seconds to respond to your number before they call the next in line!) and we headed to the counter. After a brief discussion on the location of our birth certificates (Susan told them she was “representing” us which kinda implied that she might be our lawyer – she didn’t elaborate!) where we swore that they were in Britain and in no way at our house here, the woman behind the counter typed the details on the form into her computer, checked a couple of spellings with us, got us to sign the typed up form and that was that! Three hours of waiting for maybe 15 minutes at the counter while she typed information we provided…no interrogation, nothing! (Incidentally – in case you wondered - I was so relieved at finally getting out of there, that it was this lady that I told to “have a nice day”…)

When I phoned Comcast to complain (it’s SOOOO not like me to complain either, is it?!) they told me that the engineer had turned up but we were out, and we had a white door. After I politely but firmly (!!) put them right on both counts they rescheduled for Tuesday evening and refunded my connection charge of $30. They better show this time! If I don’t get broadband soon I’m going to have to print this off-line version and post it to you guys! Or come up with some other ingenious communication method…a couple of soup tins and a really long bit of string perhaps? Maybe smoke signals would be better – I could try and craft pictures of the house in the smoke as it rises!!!

(Monday 16th July)

Tysons Mall here we come!

I managed to sleep last night – might have been something to do with the wine I suppose! – and so we were up early. Stephen popped down to Safeway for breakfast provisions and came back with what passes for bacon here and “Potato” sandwich rolls…which are actually made from potato! Interesting….still it let him use the new BBQ to cook the bacon so he was happy!

We went to Tyson’s Mall this morning – got there 20 minutes before it opened (this is becoming a habit) so we had to wander a bit before we could get to the shops. (Yes, shops which are not Target or Lowe’s, proper shops, with clothes and…shoes…and handbags!! Heaven!!) We were looking for trousers which Stephen could wear to work as the ones he had kept falling down!! It turns out that Stephen’s tush is smaller than the average American tush…basically his ass doesn’t block out the sun when he bends over (in fact, some say that it may emit sunlight….), but the department stores employ tailors so they can do alterations within the hour. I hope this service extends to the ladies department when I come to buy trousers and jackets – I know I have shorter arms and legs than the average American (and possibly a smaller ass too!!).

I’ve mentioned that the neighbours are “neighbourly”, well Anna and her little puppy Willy dropped round a bag of tomatoes and cucumbers which she had grown on her allotment down the round. It was our first Welcome gift (no muffin baskets so far!) and was delicious!

We stuck a couple of steaks on the BBQ for dinner tonight (I think I may be going on a protein rich diet now we have this!) and washed them down with the bottle of champagne which we bought to celebrate moving into the house and haven’t had time to open yet!!

Stephen in the back yard enjoying a glass of champagne

Stephen showing off his mosquito bite...

...anything he can do....

I seem to have become a bit ditsy since leaving work! I made arrangements to go shopping on Monday with some of the “wives” and had completely forgotten that Monday is the day we go to get our all important social security numbers! I had to phone and apologise (for the second time!) about my complete lack of brain at the moment!!!

You know how I said it was great that American companies will send someone out at 4pm on a Sunday to hook up your phone and tv…well I’m taking it all back as no-one arrived! Still no broadband….I’m bereft!

(Sunday 15th July)

Gumbo...oh!

I didn’t sleep a wink last night, thanks to my bites. Despite having lathered myself in anti-itch cream before bed they were itchy as hell. There was no way to lie which didn’t involve some of the bites being in contact with the mattress. Total nightmare!!

Stephen has taken to getting up really early, so we were both up and dressed before 7:30am. Stephen went to Balducci’s to get something for breakfast and was there 10 minutes before it opened!

BBQ assembly was the first thing on the agenda, before it got too hot to work outside. We logically (thanks to me!) worked our way through the instruction manual and didn’t have to take anything apart later to fit bits on! It only took a couple of hours to put it together…man and his missus working together in perfect harmony!

A work in progress

A proud and happy man with the finished article!

Then it was onto the TV search…we’d been told about the Giant Telly Company, or some such place, which was good for plasma and LCD’s. We’d even been told roughly where it was…which didn’t stop us driving halfway to California trying to find it! As a sop for having sat in the car like a good girl, we decided to go to the Bed, Bath & Beyond we’d passed which I’ve been looking for since we arrived. I first found this store when we were on holiday in Florida and it is fabulous! Everything you could think of for the…well…bedroom, bathroom and kitchen really!! As we were driving up to it what did we find?? Yup, the TV store. Result – both happy!!

We popped into Margaret’s about 6pm. Her house is really charming – very different in feel from ours! They were once the same, but have been remodelled over the years. Ours is quite light and fairly modern looking, and Margaret’s is very dark and traditional. I suppose they built these houses with the idea of having a basement room which would stay dark and cool in the summer – which describes her ground floor to a T! And I’ve been worrying that our Den is gloomy, and buying cream rugs to lighten up the dark brick floor!! It was a fascinating couple of hours! She had some leaflets on the area for us, and photos in a book of our houses being built. The amazing thing is the lack of woodland behind them! The ancient woodland is in fact only about 50 years old – before then it had been a Civil War fortified battery. We were asking when she had moved to DC (she’s a Texan) and she said during the 60’s. It turns out that she had worked on Capitol Hill for her Texan senator, was at JF Kennedy’s inauguration, roomed with President Lyndon Johnson’s secretary (so met and knew him) and knew First Lady “Ladybird” Johnson “quite well”. I think there was a “Texan Connection”…Ladybird Johnson died in Austin this week, which I assume was her home state.

Jim (the Scottish father of our neighbour) was spotted wandering up to our back gate, so he was invited in for a drink too. He hasn’t really lost his accent, but there is a definite twang of American in there too! I think possibly more to do with the phrasing and the rhythm of his speech….Stephen tells me that I’ve started to do that to, so please feel free to give me a kick if I ever say “Have a nice day” to you! That would be a step too far!!!!

After a couple of glasses of rather nice Virginian wine we staggered up to our “local” for something to eat. There is some ruling here that bars have to give over a certain percentage of the floor space to serving food, so every bar serves food. Southside’s serves Southern food (it still surprises me that this area is considered Southern!!) – so we went for a couple of Southern classics…Stephen had Chicken Fried Steak which is basically steak, covered in breadcrumbs and deep fried…Kentucky Fried Steak I suppose! I had Gumbo which is a chicken, shrimp, spicy sausage and vegetable stew. Nice, but not my favourite thing to have!! Should’ve had the ribs….

(Saturday 14th July)

Mosquito madness…

Oh. My. God. I have been eaten alive!! I didn’t spray for mozzies when I sat out in the garden yesterday, and I obviously should have!! Because we back onto woods I think we get mozzies all day, rather than after dusk (like the Caribbean)…and they obviously fancied a snack of sweet Scottish blood!! I have bites all up both legs and a few on my arms, a couple on my shoulder and a couple on my side and back. Basically on any flesh that was exposed even for a split second!! I am now in an agony of itchiness!!

I was chatting to Margaret (our next door neighbour) this morning and she has invited us round for drinks at the weekend “so we can get to know each other better”. All the neighbours have been very – well neighbourly – I suppose!

I spent the rest of the morning hanging about the house. We were expecting the Holy Grail to be delivered to our door this morning, so I didn’t want to stray to far away from where I could hear the door. The delivery was late, but I didn’t care! We are now in possession of patio furniture and a BBQ in a box! Stephen was a little upset by the “in a box” part of the BBQ – they were supposed to deliver one that had been assembled! But the instruction manual is only 30 pages long – how hard can it be to assemble??? We put the patio tables together in no time at all, so we were able to sit out in comfort (and doused in mosquito repellent!).

We headed down to King Street for pizza tonight. They do the most fantastic wood-fired pizza at Bertucci’s – their Sauvignon Blanc wasn’t too shabby either!! We then wandered down King Street, bought ice creams at Pop’s Ice Cream Parlour and headed down to the waterfront to sit and eat them. There are always loads of people wandering about down there – loads of kids too, so there are usually a few street entertainers doing their thing. There was a magician tonight, and someone playing the water glasses – both had quite a crowd. We popped into the Union Street Bar, but had to leave after one drink cos it was too loud. Ohmygod, I can’t believe I just wrote that. I am officially old now!!

(Friday 13th July)

Happy Birthday Simon!

Okay, so the lease was faxed and Ursula (my helpful lady at Comcast) was in. So finally we have a date for getting phone, broadband and cable hooked up. As of Sunday evening we’re back on-line!! This is one of the great things about America – there is none of this “Mon-Fri 9am – 5pm visits only” rubbish with utility companies. These guys are coming between 4-8pm on Sunday!

I had a lazy day today! I was fed-up phoning utility companies and sorting out the house so, as it was a beautiful day (cooler and less humid – about 85 degrees) I sat out in the back yard on my Stars and Stripes folding chair (wait til you see these at the first BBQ or concert back home! Tasteful? NOT!!) and read a book. It was fantastic – there were birds chirping away and our friendly squirrel was climbing the fence when he thought I wasn’t looking!

It is Simon’s 40th birthday today, so Morag organised a party a their house – drinks and curry. US curry wasn’t too bad! Less hot and spicy than UK curry, but still quite flavoursome (to use an Americanism!). Not a patch on the Anupam of course, but not bad!! We got to meet a few of Morag and Simon’s US friends too, which was great. I was tickled when Alison (their daughter) said something in her pure American accent, and one of their American friends said “Oh my gosh, she sounds so Scottish”! We had a really great night – thank you Morag!!

(Thursday 12th July)

We’re all Scots together…

I really thought getting a phone would be easy! This is America for goodness sake – everyone has a phone – often more than one line! So why it is so bleeding difficult to get one installed??? I phoned Comcast back, and the lovely helpful lady I spoke to yesterday wasn’t in, so I spoke to someone else, who told me that I had to fax a copy of my lease before they could set up service…which means that I’ll need to get Stephen to do this tomorrow – another days delay!!

One of our neighbours (Susan) was born in Scotland (but has been here since she was 6) and her parents live a couple of hours drive away. She said “When they’re next over, you’ll meet them” and true to her word she introduced her dad Jim to Stephen tonight. I was in the house so missed the introduction, but Stephen tells me that he sounds like he left Glasgow last week, rather than 30 odd years ago. You can take the man out of Glasgow, but yeh canna’ take Glesga’ oot the man!

(Wednesday 11th July)

Aaaarrrgghhhhhh! Let me speak to a person!!

Can I just say “AAARRGGHHHHHHHHH” before I begin? I phoned Verizon today to check whether our fax was still illegible, and actually got put through to a person who could verify our account!! Then to a person who could set up the phone/cable and internet package for us. So I set up the phone and the broadband and was starting on the cable when I hit a snag. Verizon are satellite “cable” not actual cable…and the house is wired for actual cable. Not much good to me then! Still at least we had phone/broadband set up… I then managed to find the cable company number…and they do a bundle package as well. So I phoned back Verizon to check some details on the broadband to compare prices and discovered that they couldn’t actually set up my account because my landlady hadn’t actually fully disconnected her line. So, I then phoned back Comcast to get bundle information and pricing, then phoned back Verizon to cancel… Each phone call to Verizon took about 20 minutes and mostly consisted of navigating the voice activated menu...
“are you calling about phone number 703……”
“No”
“Please state the phone number you are calling about”
“703…………”
“In order for us to direct your call, please state the 10 digit phone number you are calling about”
{silent scream}
“703 ………….”
“Do you want Account Information or information on new services”
“neither”
“Okay….Do you want information on cable or something else”
“Something else”
“Give a short two or three word description of how we can assist you. For example, if you want to ask about our fibre optic broadband system, say fibre optic broadband”
“Customer Service”
“You have asked for Cable packages”
“No!!!! Customer Service. Customer Service”

Eventually the system would take pity on me and put me on hold for 5 minutes then eventually connect me to a real live person!...who had about as much difficulty understanding me!!! I’ve mastered asking for “budder, wadder and tomaytoes” but I need to work on how to pronounce South Lee Street!!!!

So, basically after waiting a week for Verizon to verify us, we’re not using them and will set up a bundle with Comcast – who let you speak to a human straight away and don’t torture you with this automated system rubbish!! This has taken most of today, and I still need to phone Comcast to sort out what cable packages we want…

(Tuesday 10th July)

Home Alone

Today is the first day on my own as Stephen has gone into the office. Its actually really nice to be able to sit down and not go shopping!! We’ve been trying to get phone, broadband and cable set up with Verizon (the company our relocation agent recommended) and this has involved faxing copies of passports and visas so they can verify identities – which takes 48 hours, so with the holiday last week this was the first time I was able to phone…and got an automated message saying the fax was illegible, please fax it again! Nnnooooooooooooooo! Not another 48 hour delay!

Otherwise I spent my day re-organising the walk in closet. This room is going to be the envy of all you ladies who come visit!! It is HUGE!! When we unpacked we were just flinging things onto the rails, so a little sorting out was needed! Or run the risk of Stephen going to work in one of my blouses by mistake!! I also managed to find time to mop floors, clean 3 bathrooms and do another couple of washings (the machine holds no fear for me now!!).
After dinner we walked along to the Union Street bar and to the lovely handbag shop beside it. I’d decided that it was silly for me to be using my fantastically expensive Prada bag at the moment, cos basically I was sweating in its general proximity, and I don’t want the “hand cured by Tibetan monks” (or whatever!) leather getting dirty…so we walked into the lovely handbag shop (I’ve often admired its window display) only to find that practically the whole stock was Prada! But not the kind of Prada that comes with a certificate and a dust case, the kind of Prada that’s $40 and Made in China…so I picked two and went to pay…only to find that there was no-one manning the register, or out the back in “accessories”…in fact no-one there at all!! We waited for a couple of minutes shouting “hello, anyone there”, then left the bags on the counter with a note saying we’d be back in 20 minutes…(we’re SO honest!!). We went to the bar next door and Stephen popped back every 20 minutes or so. The second time there was another couple in there who were trying to buy a bag from him!!! (as I said – SO honest!). It wasn’t till our final attempt did we get anyone in the shop (I only hope it was the owner!). It seems the police had tried to tow his car and he had just left the shop open and unattended for well over an hour whilst he tried to sort it out!!

(Monday 9th July)

The Grail Quest continues!

Our last hope…. Sears. We’d heard that the Sears at the mall at the end of Duke St had BBQ’s so, more in hope than in expectation, we got in the car and drove up there. They had BBQ’s and some patio furniture. They also had TV’s so we were forced to look at those too!! I was a bit concerned about the giant size of the patio furniture they had available, so we drove home to measure up, decided it was absolutely huge, and drove back to discuss options with Calvin, our friendly salesman.

We decided that 2 bistro sets would be our best option – a table each so we don’t need to speak to one another – or more accurately one for sun and one for shade, and we can move them together for when people come over. By some miracle Calvin was able to order two of the tasteful mosaic sets so I was very happy! (I would have reluctantly settled for some of the naffer options if forced!). We also ordered a giant BBQ with enough grill space for 30 burgers. I hope you guys are hungry when you come and visit!!! But this grill was weeny in comparison to some on sale!! There was even one style that was like a kitchen island unit, with 3 sides – grill in the middle and chopping boards and gas rings at either side. You would need to be feeding an army to make buying that worthwhile!

I know now why the neighbours have rather scraggy looking geraniums in pots on the porches… they are the only plants which survive the heat!! My leafy green pot with pretty flowers was absolutely parched and wilting! I watered it about 4 times today, so I’ve moved it to a shadier spot in the back yard. Mind you the thermometer in the shady spot in the back yard was reading above 95 degrees at 5pm tonight, so we’ll have to see if it survives! It was HOT HOT HOT today. Walking across the parking lot to the car at the Mall was lung searing! It was in full sun and felt like turning a fan heater onto full heat and sucking in the air.

(Sunday 8th July)

The quest for the Holy Grail begins….

We started today by walking along to King Street to have a quick wander around the farmers market in Market Square, and to have breakfast in Le Madeline’s – a giant latte and a blueberry muffin – yummy yum yum!! We were sitting outside watching the world, and its dogs, wander by. (I think it might be compulsory to own a dog in Old Town. I wouldn’t be surprised to hear of a scheme whereby if you haven’t got one already they deliver the most enormous dog to your house….). A mummy bird and two chicks were hopping about round our feet feeding on crumbs – too cute for words! Unfortunately, no pictures as we forgot to pick up the camera.

Today the quest for patio furniture begins in earnest. We were given a tip-off about this place near Tysons Mall that sells really good quality sets for a good price so we went there. The only problem was that our patio here is not terribly big and our patio back home is quite large… If we wanted to take it home we would be looking at buying a completely different patio set to what we need here…and if we’re not taking it home, then there wasn’t any point buying something that would last 50 years! So we left empty handed and did a quick ¾ of an hour in Tysons Mall (which is truly enormous!) where I got to shop for clothes rather than kitchen utensils – BLISS!!

The Mall is so big that you can barely walk from one end to the other in ¾ hour so I had to content myself with one small spur. Shopping was taking ages as I had to try everything on – the good news is my dress size has dropped, but the bad news is my shoe size has gone up – a lot!! I’ve gone from a 5 to a 7!!! I found some fabled Size 0 clothes…honestly they would barely fit around my head!! (I had a giggle when I read the Washington Post last week – they were covering the Spice Girls reunion and said “Victoria ‘Posh Spice’ Beckham has gone from being an attractive brunette to a platinum blonde fashion android with the measurements to rival one of her pre-pubescent fans” For goodness sake girl, have a hamburger – might make you smile!!)

We then headed to Lowe’s, which is a DIY store – think Homebase but on steroids! They had a couple of random patio chairs, but nothing like the range you would have expected from the size of the store. It seems that the “Season” for patio furniture finished at the end of June, so we’re going to be stuck for a table and chairs all because of a few days….

We did manage to buy an ironing board though! Finally I can cross it off the list! I also go a nice planter for the front porch as ours was looking a little drab. The others in the street have containers of rather scrawny geraniums, but at least they’re colourful! I nearly came a cropper at the checkout…the ironing board was put back in the trolley rather precariously and it came crashing to the floor. Thankfully I wasn’t in the direct flight path, and no-one was hurt, but it sure made a noise!!!

From Lowe’s we went next door to….yes, you guessed it – Target!! They had a couple of matching patio chairs and a side table which would allow us to sit out and have a drink at least. Eating would be challenging though, requiring some kind of advanced yoga position to bend down to the table! We got the stuff to the car and…couldn’t fit it in the boot! Or the backseat! So a very grumpy Stephen was forced to take the stuff back to the store for a refund.

In the evening we walked into King Street for dinner, and to see the fireworks and concert marking Alexandria’s 258th birthday. Dinner was nice – we went to O’Connells, an Irish restaurant if there is such a thing! It still sold steaks and fries – not much sign of anything too Irish on the menu!! Unfortunately though the fireworks were cancelled so we grabbed a coffee from Starbucks and headed home. It’s my ambition to one day go and order something complicated from there…everyone else seems to order “Grande Dupio Raspberry mochachino, wet, extra skinny, with wings”…my “tall latte” sounds rather weak in comparison!!!

(Saturday 7th July)

Ikea here we come!

It could be put off no longer….today was Ikea day! We had pretty much exhausted the possibilities of Target (for this week anyway!) and we needed to hit the big blue and yellow store for some nice bits and pieces – rugs, lamps and kitchen utensils, pans, jugs, candles…it was a pretty big list!! I would like to say we were up and off early, but no…Stephen had to do a conference call with the UK first thing, which took about an hour and a half, during which time I ran up and down the stairs about 6 times looking for the huge bag of towels I’d bought the day before. I thought I was going nuts cos I couldn’t find them! Turns out Stephen had put them in a drawer in our room – possibly the last place I would have looked!! Then I couldn’t find any of the many sheets of passport photos I’d brought with me, which meant another 5 times up and down the stairs! Then we had to post something, so Stephen was dispatched to ask our nice neighbour next door…which took about 20 minutes. In the end I think we eventually made it out the house by about 10:30...not too good considering that we’d been up since 7am!

Ikea was everything you would expect it to be…big, inexpensive and full of arguing couples trailing tired and grumpy children!! We actually filled two trolleys full of stuff – you know the kind of thing you buy when you do to Ikea – spaghetti servers, bath mats…all the stuff that looks interesting when you’re walking round! We’d been hoping to get a tiny patio set to put on our bedroom balcony, but they had sold out. This was probably just as well as we pretty much filled the car and it would have been a bit of a squeeze to get it in!! It probably would have entailed me clinging onto the roof for the drive home!!!!

Morag and Simon had invited us down for drinks and dinner. They had also invited Chris and Memri and their two kids. Chris is an old friend of Stephen’s from Uni who has also moved to the Washington area, so there was a good bit of catching up done! After Stephen had mercilessly wound up Morag about getting some “Good home cooking” she had slaved away making salads and “pulled chicken” which is like shredded chicken in a BBQ sauce - good Southern cooking. It was delicious! Memri had brought “better than sex” chocolate cake…which was very chocolaty! I had (true to form!) brought wine!! I need to remember that the American way is to ask what the hostess needs brought…chips and dip, dessert, a salad… they will always ask and do expect to be told to bring something. I wonder if I can get away with asking people to bring Pot Roast??!!

(Friday 6th July)

Wash day blues…

The shower is plumbed back to front!! Who would £$%&!$ believe it!?! Stephen had left the shower set on whatever he had used – which was full on the ‘cold’ setting! My shower this morning was toasty!!

{Note from Stephen….. This is where I have to make a point, having turned on the shower and turning the temp controller to one maximum. I tested the water to find it was freezing. From this point I turned the temp controller to the opposite lock to find it was pouring piping hot water…… Didn’t even notice there was a hot/cold indication on the temp controller……}

We popped into the office today for a few hours. Then we popped down to Target to get an ironing board, and left with two bar stools but no board!! We’ll need to get one soon, cos all the clothes that we shipped are looking a little crushed and I’m running out of clothes to wear!!

When we got home I had to change cos I was soaked to the ankles after splashing through the puddles getting to the car in the thunder storm when we were shopping. I thought this would be a good time to investigate the washer/dryer. The shopping for detergent was fairly traumatic…my machine is a top loader, and the first detergent I picked up was for Front Loaders Only – but none of the others specified which they were for! I had visions of putting on a load of washing and coming back to find the entire house filled with bubbles!!! Anyway, it all seems to have gone without incident…all washed and put in the dryer. The only issue I have is that the machine is on the top floor beside our bedroom, and if you are sitting in the ground floor den then it’s a long way up the stairs (all 42 of them!) to check to see if the clothes are dry! Because I was being cautious I was only putting it on for 20 minutes at time in case I shrunk everything, so I had to make a few trips….I was considering taking Kendal Mint Cake with me on the 3rd trip!!!

Morag came over this afternoon with Alison and Lizzie for a look around the house (which she had viewed and okayed for us! A good choice as Morag is as fussy about things as I am!). I think Morag was relieved to learn that we loved it and that we had taken down the “this house was picked by Morag” sign!! Alison made us some lovely pictures which are now gracing the fridge, and once Lizzie got over her initial ½ hour of shyness she was dancing away and was loving being thrown in the air and generally being wound up by Stephen!

Independence Day

your bedroom

your bathroom

our bathroom

our bedroom

View from the bed

I now know how Americans can be in work for 6:30. No-one here has curtains in the bedroom! Our bedroom looks over a wood so we’re not flashing anyone – privacy isn’t the issue! But dawn breaks at about 5:30 and you all know how grumpy I get if there a lack of sleep situation!! Stephen managed to sleep until about 7:30, and I sat in bed making lists of more things we need to buy. I was despatched to go shower first (I have to get up first!) and this was when the fun began!! I was back in the bedroom a minute later to say there was no hot water in the shower! “Go and run the taps, see if hot water comes out”, so back I go. Yes. Hot water in the sink taps. Back to running the shower….still cold…after about 5 minutes I thought ‘sod it, it’s not going to get hot is it’ and braved it! Jeez-oh it was eye-wateringly cold! I leapt to the back of the cubicle and showered by inserting a body part at a time into the water, taking it back out, soaping and then putting it back in to rinse…it was washing my hair that was really, really painful!! Putting the positive spin on this, I was very invigorated!! Stephen came downstairs when I was making coffee to tell me that he had had a piping hot shower, and I had obviously warmed the pipes for him!! SO UNFAIR!!

Despite it being July 4th and a national holiday, the shops were open so we went for another 5 mile hike around Target. Paul Winstanley had told us of a bigger and better Target just down highway 1, so we had to see if this could possibly be true! And it was!! We got a load of bedding – our trolley was literally overflowing – and a Bose ipod dock (Stephen’s first gadget buy) which is great as we don’t have a TV yet and were in danger of having to actually talk to one another!!

Do you know that there are 42 stairs for the bottom floor of our house to the top floor? After unpacking boxes and carrying stray stuff up and down 4 floors of our Townhouse I can tell you – there are 42 stairs and we’re feeling every single one!! I’m thinking of writing a new book “The Target and Townhouse Fitness Plan”…honestly, I’m feeling significantly fitter now than a couple of days ago!!

There were plenty of celebrations going as its Independence Day. We toyed with the idea of going to the National Mall in DC (the grassy strip that leads from the Capitol building to the Washington monument) to see the fireworks, but decided that we were just too tired. Instead, we walked along to King Street and down to the waterfront as you can see the Capitol building in the background. It wasn’t a fantastic view of those fireworks, but there were others going off all over the Washington skyline. There were loads of people milling about and it was a really nice atmosphere.

Moving day!

Our worldy goods....

The truck arrives and Stephen takes charge....

Moving in day today! We checked out of the hotel (after humpfing 4 giant cases and 2 laptops out to the car ourselves cos the bellhop was busy!) and got down to the house in time to sweep the floor before the rental furniture arrived. Almost simultaneously our air freight arrived – delivered by two exceedingly strong ladies! These women where hefting huge boxes of clothes up our 4 flights of stairs as if they weighed nothing!! “Real” Women!!

In between deliveries we popped out to a local deli supermarket called Balducci’s to get a sandwich. I LOVE this shop – it sells Lurpak! And proper cheese!! (not plastic cheese, or squirty cheese in a can…yes, really…in a can, and it squirts…), and things like Garam Masala and Naan bread! Yippee!! I can make Indian food!!!! We were worried that our time here was going to be curry-free, but we’re sorted!!

Our third delivery of the day (our surface shipment) was scheduled for 2pm. The really nice woman from the shipping company called at 1:55 to “check that the team are with you”….erm, no!! “Oh! Give them ½ hour – they’ll definitely be there by 2:30 – must be traffic”. I phoned her back when it got to 3pm, and she went off to chase. She called me back – they were on their way – with me any minute…When she called at 4:30 to ask if the team were with me I almost didn’t have the heart to tell her that there was still no sign!! Thankfully they turned up when she was on the phone! But then she called back seconds later to say that although they were delivering the stuff, there were wooden crates on board that the crew weren’t equipped to open….and as it was July 4th the next day it would be Thursday before they could send a separate company to open the crates…..arrgghhh! Remember I was in bed with lurgy when things were sent, so I had no idea if there were crates or not! As it turned out, there were not, so heaven knows what she was talking about!!

These are big, strong guys! One of them lifted our armchair off the back of the container on his own!! He must have had his Weetabix for breakfast!! As fast as the guys were bringing the boxes in I was trying to unpack them. Which worked well for the clothes boxes, not so well for the majority of the boxes which had glassware etc in them. Each glass was encased in about 4 individually wrapped layers of paper! It was like playing pass the parcel on your own! It slowed down unpacking a great deal, and I quickly filled the bottom floor of our house with paper! Thankfully, the guys were taking away the empty boxes and wrapping, so I wasn’t lost forever in a sea of paper!! (I hope they recycle…!)

After the team left we carried on with the unwrapping and putting away until hunger and exhaustion took over. We staggered off for a pizza in our local trattatoria which is about 5 minutes walk away, then staggered back home and fell into bed.

Our first glimpse of the house

Up early again, and met Susan (our realtor) at our new house in Old Town. The house is fantastic! It’s really big, and has an absolutely fantastic outlook over woods. It’s really quiet, but only a 10 minute walk to King Street with all the bars and restaurants. After a quick look round, we headed off to open a bank account (at Chevy Chase Bank – no really!! Didn’t realise he’d gone into banking did you?? Kidding – its an area round about here which he took his name from.), then we headed off to Target to start the mammoth round of buying things for the house. Target is great – it sells everything from clothes to garden furniture! The store is huge, and I think I schlepped about 5 miles round and round the aisles! My feet certainly thought that anyway!!

We dumped that load off at the house, then went to find Safeway to stock up on the essentials – beer, wine, water and soft drinks. The nice lady on the check out gave us a Safeway members card (despite the fact that she didn’t have any application forms) which saved us around $20!

Then, we headed back to Target for round 2 of the mammoth purchasing spree…and covered another 5 miles up and down the aisles!!

As it was Stephen’s birthday I let him choose the dinner venue – so we went to the Union Street bar for drinkies, then Chadwick’s for ribs. Delicious!!! After dinner I insisted on having some say on the evening, so we went to Ben & Jerry’s for a tub of ice cream and walked along to the waterfront and sat on a bench to scoff – just like a local!!

Come fly with me. Come fly, come fly away…

Up at the crack of the middle of the night (okay, about 6am!) showered, dressed, wrestled the 4 giant cases, and 2 laptops downstairs and waited for the taxi…and waited, and waited…it turned up about 20 minutes late just as we were contemplating getting the shuttle bus. That’s a whole 20 minutes extra I could have had in bed!! Still, it got us to the terminal in good time and, after nearly mowing down Ian Botham on our way in (trolleys loaded with 2 giant cases and a laptop are difficult to steer you know!), we made our way to the Virgin check in exprecting to see a queue a mile long….no, just a couple of people. Then onto security (we had fast track thanks to Virgin! – we love Virgin!), where there was a small queue, but nothing extra-ordinary. Didn’t even have to be strip searched this time!!

The flight was fine. I don’t think Stephen and I spoke to each other the whole time!! We both spent practically the whole flight passed out (and not through drink! – although the G&T was quite strong!). When we weren’t asleep, we watched Blades of Glory which was hysterically funny (refer back to the G&T here!). I had real problems with my ears on the decent – if anyone on the flight thought there was a baby crying – there wasn’t it was me!! I was in agony!!

The Air India flight obviously got into Dulles shortly before we did. Which meant, in the current climate, that the queue to get into the country was slooooow…. Which meant that after standing in line for over an hour I had a) an overwhelming need to pee and b) biceps like Arnie from carrying the exceeding heavy laptop case!!

We loaded up 2 trolleys with the exceedingly heavy suitcases and laptops and headed off to where you catch the bus to the car hire place. This is down a slope, and I was wearing heels and there aren’t brakes on the trolleys…momentum took hold and within seconds I was hurtling down the slope, clinging onto the trolley for dear life and in no way in control! I passed Stephen on the way down doing about 40mph, my little legs doing 40 to the dozen trying to keep with the trolley which had reached critical velocity!!

After a small panic about the Compact size car that Avis tried to give us (we couldn’t fit the cases in it, so they gave us an FOC upgrade!), we hit the Beltway and made good time to the hotel, where we dumped the cases, had a quick shower and then made our way to Morag and Simon’s for our Welcome to America champagne supper!

Leaving....

After a tearful farewell with Mum, we left the house around 2:30 and headed for Heathrow. I was proud of myself – I only cried for about an hour when I left…the whole British stiff upper lip thing came into play!

We were about half way down to Heathrow when we heard that there had been some kind of terrorist attack at Glasgow airport. Thankfully no-one seemed to be injured (apart from the guy in the car which crashed into the terminal building), but (rather selfishly!) we were worried about whether we would be able to get on a plane in the morning as the security alert status was raised. We decided that early was a good thing to be, so pulled our taxi forward an hour – another early start, ggrrrrrr….

Dinner was “interesting” – the food was fine, the wine was okay, and the service was…well fine, when there was any!! For example, bread came out after our starters were finished and cleared, our coffee was reduced from double espresso’s to singles….maybe she thought that we’d had enough caffeine and would never sleep….