Real Airplanes!

I must say it is really nice to be working around real airplanes again. Today on the way back from work, two Hawks in formatino flew over me on final approach, probably no more than 20 ft above the car. Tomorrow is the big international airshow, so a lot of cool aircraft are showing up.

I am a bit further ahead with learning about my job, but a lot more to learn. It will probably be a few months before I am any use... it is a bit of a penalty off the start when you aren't even familiar with the rank structure.

We had a nice night tonight. Laura and I went downtown Falmouth (thanks Sally for babysitting!) and had a sit down in a nice place on the harbour. Very pretty tonight, and very calm. Big day tomorrow... we will do our best to buy a car. Right now it is either the Peaugot (pronounced purrrrrgeot here)370 or a Ford (yes a Ford, I know, found on road dead, ha ha) Galaxy. Maybe we will even pick up a toaster for good measure. Take care all. M.

First Day at Work

So today was my first day. I found out that I am the "Merlin Depth Officer", which as I found out, is a pretty complicated job. The Brits farmed out all the heavy (depth) maintenance to Augusta Westland (AW). So AW runs the maintenance show in terms of managing the maintenance processes, and they employ a 50/50 split of military and civilian technicians. This is where it gets a bit complicated (I will write again when I have it figured out, probably next year). I look after some parts of all military techs, but not all. I look after their welfare, excluding their day to day work (leave, hr problems, etc). Now there is another group of folks, called the Merlin IPT. These are the military engineers (like an AEO shop), so I am the link between them and AW. As well, there are operational engineers (like SAMAs for you AERE types), and again I am the link between them and AW. I also moniter everything to do with the contract and staffing, and that is about all I figured out today.

All of the Brits I met have been fantastic... very friendly. The weather has finally turned around here, so the everyone went to the beach today while I was at work. Still trying to find a minivan (MPV in England), and we have narrowed the search a bit. Laura's Mom is only here until the 11th, so we have to hurry a bit on that. Hope this finds you all well. M

Sunshine!

We decided to beat the rain and headed out to The Lizard (a small quaint town)today and saw the coastline of Lizard Point. Beautiful! We had oour first meal in a real english pub which is nothing like home...the food was fantastic..homemade roast beef, chutneys, chicken nuggets (sort of ) local cheeses and casks ales (of which I only tasted). The pubs only serve food during a short period of the day during meal times, but well worth it. Finding restaurants that accomodate children has been challenging but they were great. The rest of the day was spent TRYING to find a vehicle. Something we realized is not going to be easy. Because we need a vehicle to accomodate 3 cars seats and kid stuff, it limits us as all the cars are tiny. Late afternoon the sun came out and we took the kids to the park down the street. All the kids were a bit older, hopefully it isnt a trend. Good none the less to get the kids out. Mark starts work tomorrow, finally find out whats going on (hopefully!). Thats all for now!

Here comes the weekend!

Today went quite well. We got all of our appliances delivered, and they all work fine. For Jason, who told me I might not have good luck with English customer service, yet again I found that to be the exception. They appliance guy and I drove around for an hour looking for a part that I should have had to buy to hook the clothes washer up to the sink in one of the upstairs bedrooms (3 of for bedrooms have sinks, don't ask me why). Very good service. Our phone is almost hooked up. I am pretty sure that as of tommorrow, we will be able to make unlimited calls to Canada.
The house should work out fine...Lochlan already picked out his room, and we will get in there tomorrow morning and try to get things a bit organized. This evening was nice... we went for a quick drive out to Porthleven to see the beaches. It was very beatiful... we may even get brave and go for a swim this weekend. Second priority will be finding a new car. Some are pricey (like Fords, seriously), and others cheap (like Range Rovers). In fact, we say a 2002 Range Rover, Discovery I think, that was selling for 9000 pounds. It would be a $50,000 vehicle in Canada. You don't pay sales tax on used vehicles here either, so that makes them cheaper. I will have to go to work on Monday, so we will see how that goes. Other than that, so far we are really enjoying it here. Special thanks to Keith and his toolbox that enabled us (after an hour) to switch the hinge location on the fridge doors.

Made it to Falmouth!

Well, our trip is finally over. We hopped on a train and went from London to Penzance, about five and half hours. We rented a VW Touran, and by some miracle, we managed to cram in all of our luggage without leaving anything (or anyone) behind. About another 40 minutes, and we were in Falmouth. Falmouth is a cool little touristy town, about 20 minutes from Helston (our new home). Apparently our furniture made it to the UK, and just has to clear customs, so we could be moving into our new place as soon as next Friday. They are hooking up the phone in our place tomorrow, and bringing all of the appliaces. The fridge is very small by Canadian standards, and the clothes dryer is a condenser, meaning you have to empty the holding tank by hand every few loads (instead of venting steam outdoors). We are beginning to explore the beaches and close towns, but will probably focus on picking out a new vehicle this weekend. I have to go to work on Monday, so we will see how that goes! Hope this finds all of you well.

Off to Penzance

Well, we did get a bit of a tour of London yesterday. We hopped on a double decker bus, went down through Picadilly Circus to Trafalgar Square. From there we went down to see Westminster Abby and Big Ben, and finished with a Tube ride back to the hotel. We are supposed to take a train to Penzance in a few hours, but there has been a lot of flooding in the area we will travel through, so I hope it is passable. Kids didn't truly fall asleep until 4:00 a.m. this morning, so they may take a bit longer to adjust to the time difference.

We Made It!

Just a quick note... we are all safe and sound in London, and enjoying a full english breakfast in the Hilton Exectutive Lounge... kids are crabby, so am I!

A Few Days Left in Canada

Not too much time left in Canada, and it is really flying. We are officially homeless and van-less, and all of our details are now looked after. Flying out Monday at 18:30, and that will be that.

We have been having a great time this week. On Saturday, Samer and Sandra hosted a huge going-away party. We had a great time, got to see a lot of friends and family. As always, Samer and Sandra went all out cooking things I can't pronounce (but still very tasty). Bruce's beer was a nice added touch.

A few more family events, and we will be off. Next post from England!

Uncle Clay's (and Happy Birthday Grace!)

Well, a bit too windy for skiing, but the kids did have a lot of fun in the pool! It's our niece's first birthday today, so we should have a good time.

Clay is going to show us his new jet engine lab, so we will take off for the big tour right away. Then, back to Ottawa tomorrow.

Two Weeks and Counting...

Well, most of the loose ends are tied up. A few things left to do like transfer the ownership of our van, but we can see the light (ie a Boeing 767) at the end of the tunnel. Ottawa is really nice right now, great weather, so we are trying to get out and about as much as we can before we leave. We are heading to Kingston tomorrow for our niece's first birthday, and weather permitting, maybe to slip on a plank and have Uncle Clay give us a tow or two. Then, off to Helston (ie 7 hour flight to London, 6 hour train ride to Penzance, and half an hour to our place). I am sure the kids will be screwed up for a month after that.

Our stuff is gone

The last of our stuff left the house today. Last night was a bit aggrevating because the movers, who were supposed to show up at noon, didn't make it until 7:00 p.m. Still, with 10 guys they managed to move most of the house in less than two hours.

Now that our stuff is gone, we should have a little more time on our hands. We will do the tourist thing in Ottawa, and try to see as many people as we can in the next few weeks before we go. Miah caught a cold today, so hopefully that will be over and done with... I should have know better than jumping in the ballroom at cosmic adventures with a bunch of (literally) snot-nosed kids. Busy times... Laura's Aunt Emily's tomorrow, Aunt Doris on Sunday, Clay and Ev's Wednesday, Samer's Saturday... we have never been so popular! Take care all.

Moved out!

Well, we are officially out of our house and into the hotel. The hotel is quite nice... two bedrooms, kitchen, laundry room... all we need to survive for the next three weeks in Ottawa. They are bringing a sea container today to pack up the stuff we are sending to England, and will finish packing the rest of our stuff on Thursday and Friday. Right now, we are at Les Suites (613-232-2000), room 1208.

Canada Day 2007

We had a really nice night last night... went downtown Ottawa for Canada Day celebrations with our friends Mark and Andrea Wagner. As always, there were a ton of people. We spent most of our time on parliament hill listen to Eva Avila and Toni Swift... the fireworks were great and we are really happy we went.



They are packing up our computer tomorrow, so it will be a bit harder to post anything for the next few weeks. We will still be able to get our email anywhere:

kotzersinengland@gmail.com

Hope you have a great summer,

Mark Laura, Lochlan and Miah