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)
Wednesday, 18 July 2007
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)
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)
“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”
“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)
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)
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)
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)
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)
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