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)
Wednesday, 18 July 2007
Friday, 6 July 2007
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!
{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 bedI 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.
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.
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!!
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!
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….
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….
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