I'm very excited to be starting work on Monday! It has been good to have a few weeks to get settled into the house, but I think a few weeks was enough...here's a tip to those of you who might want to move to Washington - do it the Spring or Autumn! It has been a bit of a frustration that I've not been able to explore more than I have. It is just so hot here! You go outside and sweat in 95+ degrees and high humidity...it does make you cower inside with the aircon on!!
I weakened on Friday and allowed Stephen to call in the Fox Soccer channels. We now have about 15 further channels of sport to watch (groan)...and currently he's watching the Liverpool-Chelsea game. It was cheap though! I'm going to make all you sky subscribers jealous now...we pay $2 per month to get all the Premiership games. Yup, a whole $2! Which probably reflects how much Americans rate "soccer" as a watchable sport!!
We had a really nice day yesterday - although I'm suffering a bit for it today!! We popped along to the bank to apply for credit cards, and whilst we were chatting the guy told us that it wasn't possible to increase the daily limits on the debit cards we currently have....so either he was clueless, or the guy I spoke to on the phone was saying anything to get the annoyed Scottish lady off the phone! Anyway, credit card applications are in. As we have no credit history here we're looking forward to seeing how much (or rather how little!) our monthly credit limit will be (if in fact we're allowed to have a card!).
The banking system in the US is a little archaic. It is impossible (apparently) to set up so that the whole balance of your credit card is deducted each month. They can do a fixed amount, otherwise you have to pay by cheque. And getting people to sort out "Direct Deposit" for things like rent and car payments is really difficult! People like to have a monthly cheque! They seem very suspicious of people "messing about" with their account.
After the bank we popped down to King Street, had a look around the Farmers Market and then headed to get some breakfast. It was a bit cooler yesterday (about 80ish) so it was really pleasant to sit on a pavement table in the sunshine eating breakfast.
As it was a bit cooler we headed down to Mount Vernon, the home and final resting place of George Washington. You spend a lot of time walking around outside, so it's not a great idea to do it in the extreme heat! It was really interesting. They show the Mansion as it would have been during Washington's time, and there is a huge museum and exhibit as well as all the outbuildings, farm and the family tomb to walk round. It was interesting to see the reverential awe which overcame every American there. They absolutely heeded the instructions about not taking photos inside the Mansion! Usually these rules are there to be completely ignored...
The front of the Mansion
The back porch
The view from the back porch. The area across the river has been designated a National Park so that the view which George Washington would have enjoyed will never be spoiled.
The reason for my apathy this morning? We went out with Morag and Simon last night for drinks and dinner in Old Town. We had a fantastic night! We started off with drinks in O'Connells. Stephen and I arrived first and were shown to a high table at the bar. There was a banquette running along one side and stools on the other, so I went for the comfy option and climbed onto the banquette....only to sink down in the seat to the extent that I could barely see over the table!! I felt like Alice in Wonderland after she had been shrunk!!
And the note which Alice found said "Drink me"
So I drank ... and Morag had some too!
Stephen and Simon looking cool
We had dinner in 100 King which had a jazz band playing, and really nice food as well! We were too late to do drinks on the deck of the Charterhouse, so we headed to Chadwicks for a final couple of drinks. By the time we had wandered home, drunk lots of water and chiseled my make-up off it was about 2am before we got to bed!! And the alarm went off at 6:30...although we did have a little snooze til 8am! I managed to stay awake during breakfast, but had to have a snooze on the sofa during the West Ham game!!
Finally, I have managed to get a photo of my new "do"!
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