Peugot Deux

(Mark writing) We "popped" down to St.Stephen (here it takes an hour to drive 23 miles) to pick up our 2nd car... another Peugot, but this is a small 206. Should get me to work and back just fine, and if any of you come to visit, you will find yourself behind the wheel of that fine machine if you want to take off and tour Scotland or wherever. Pretty much took the whole day, as we had some work done on our other car as well. The highlight was lunch at the London Inn Pub... good homemade food, and better desserts. I tried something called "Treacle Pudding" (inspired by Hagrid's Treacle Tart's). Basically, a pudding cake super saturated in sugar. Laura had something similar, with double cream on top and that was tasty as well. The weekend is coming, and we will be busy trying to avoid doing all of the not-so-fun put-your-house-back-together stuff that comes with a move. Should be looking good by next Christmas! M.

Move Over Paris Hilton

Here comes Miah, new doggy in flashy hand bag she'll fit into posh British society no problem. She even likes time on the Mobile (see pictures below). Up until now she has enjoyed only "boy toys" but has actually started to play with "babies", shoes, jewelry and hand bags. Although she is she still rough...and demanding. Mark figures she can starting dating at nine as he has no worries about her taking care of herself (must be the red hair). Anyway, she is talking more and uses utensils now which is a blessing and a curse....can't wait til Maggie arrives.

Maggie will be joining us on the 8th of September and we can't wait. We've missed her and England seems to be the country of dogs so I'm sure she'll be quite happy here.

Lochlan is doing great, he's adjusting well aside for a few moments which I'm happy about as he is definitely the more shy of the two. I'm hoping to start him at Little Merlins in a couple of weeks (preschool down the street). He hasn't seen many children here as block leave (vacation for everyone at the same time)was on (for 3 weeks)when we arrived. This week has been better as everyone is starting to return and he has met a few kids hid age. I've even been invited to drop round for tea by several people. Not sure if they actually just drop by or if they set something more formal up. Have to find out. Rather than that he is enjoying the blackberries in the back yard....I think I just ate about 2 cups worth that he picked for me.

Mark just returned from Daws Hill (30 km) outside London where he had to clear in. Long trip that they don't allow you to complete until you've settled in. He's enjoying his job so far and looking forward to trying surfing sometime.

We've found a sitter and managed to get out for a dinner on our own...nice place on the ocean. First time on our own in months.

Another Sunny Day and a New Car

The weather is beautiful here again today. The kids and I headed to the park and spent some time outside. Mark headed up to the place we purchased our Estate Car and found a second (much smaller) vehicle for commuting to work. It's a Peugot as well, a 2001 206. A little fart of a car that should do the trick. We are slowly getting things sorted out. We even hung some pictures in the living room...very exciting as it makes it seem more like a home...plus now we don't trip over them.

Yesterday I took the kids to the pond (although the locals call it a lake) to feed the ducks and swans. It's a beautiful little spot right in town and great for the kids. Mark took them to a beach called Church Cove not far from here in the evening to dig in the sand. Below are some pics.

Pregnancy in England

Yesterday I had my first appointment with a midwife. Must say things certainly work differently here. First of all Midwives are nurses with experience that then do 18 mos. more of Midwifery training, while Midwives at home are not trained nurses. They seem to handle all normal pregnancy and births, and if needed you are referred to a Registrar (GP) or a Consultant (Obstetrician). I will be apparently seeing a Consultant soon who will determine the path of my care.

My first appointment consisted of a visit at home by the Midwife who did all the normal things (urine testing, blood samples, Baby's heartbeat, height of fundus) but all in my living room. Miah sat beside me on the couch as she measured my belly and listened to the heart beat. Kind of neat (too bad Lochlan was sleeping).

Something else different is that during your entire pregnancy there is a book containing all your medical details that you MUST carry with you at all times. This is (from what I understand)so if you were to have a car accident (for example)they would have all pertinent details immediately. Kind of neat...kind of a pain in the tush.

Anyway, baby is healthy and everything ok so far. Kids and I went for a walk to the Surgery (doctor's office) to pick something up and to the park today. Mark is at work, the weather is nice (20°and sunny) but extrememly windy.

Mullian Cove

Laura made it back safe and sound last night. Now she has all the fun of readjusting to the new time zone (again). This morning for something to do we went on a quick trip to Mullian Cove. Very rugged there... I kept expecting to see King Arthur jump out from somewhere and start fighting a dragon...

My TV Works

Not an easy feat. In Canada, the signal is NTSC. Here it is PAL. It basically means that nothing here will work on our TV (DVDs, TV, etc) So, what to do? ... First thing , you need to buy a signal converter. I saw a bunch online for about$399 US... for that price you may as well just buy a new TV over here. However, a store in Ottawa called the "220 Volt Depot" had one listing for $299 CAD, and after a little negotiation I got that and a few conversion plugs for $250 taxes in. So I started to put it all together. My Canadian TV and DVD are powered by an inverter to get it back down to 120V. I thought it was going to be easy until I looked at the back of the DVD player and Freeview Box (see note at end on Freeview). I had never seen anything like it. It is called scart (instead of RGB, or RCA, HDMI, etc). I trucked off to the store, and found a SCART to RCA conversion cable at B&Q (basically Home Depot). So, I put the audio straight to the TV, and the video through my little signal conversion box. It didn't work. After weaving a tapestry of profanity that is still hanging over my backyard as we speak, I noticed that there is a little "in/out" switch on the scart lead. I flicked it, and bingo, we were in business.

TV here is different (what isn't?). Here, you pay $300 bucks a year for a TV licence. Then you go buy this cheap little box that picks up about 30 TV channels and 20 radio channels (Freeview). Most homes have the TV antenna in the attic so you don't see them, but that is how you get TV if you don't want to go the satellite route. BTW, if you don't pay the licence and they catch you watching TV, it is a $2000 fine (ouch!). They drive special trucks around all the time looking for people doing this (they can tell... very Big Brother).

The only funny part was that I bought a cheap $20 DVD player to play the Brit DVDs. My fancy Canadian one plays NTSC only. On the menu of my cheapy Brit model, you can pick the format, so you don't even need the signal converter box. Still need it for regular TV though.

Quick Addendum to the Day

Hi all. Yep, no posts for two weeks and now two in one day. Well, tonight after supper, Lochlan, Miah and I had about an hour to kill. We hopped in the car, drove 10 miles out to Coverack for some Cornish ice cream. After that, we trucked a few miles down the road to Kennack Sands, which is a nice quiet little cove. Sounds a bit corny, but so far, each time I have ventured out, I have been awed by the beauty here. Amazing what you can see in just an hour! Hopefully some of you will be able to come up and enjoy it too...

Made it to Helston (final stop!)

Hello all,

Sorry for the lateness of this post... we made to England safe and sound, and I have successfuly connected our computer to the internet so I am free to blog on. We arrived here about two weeks ago, and our furniture arrived around August 6th. We received an serious phone call the same day from Nova Scotia; Laura's father had contracted a serious disease called "Gullain Barre Syndrome", which affects the abilty of nerves to carry signals (including to the lungs). http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/guillain-barre-syndrome/DS00413 Laura's mother flew back to Canada immediatley, and Laura shortly after. Her father has been improving steadily albeit slowly; we are extremely optimistic for a complete recovery.


Life here in England has been going well. I have been here alone with the kids for about a week and a half now... they are able to undo pretty much everything I do so the organizing is going a bit slowly. However, as luck would have it, Teresa Gunther (of Lanigan, Sask) was up visiting her family in Ireland and England so she stopped in for a few days to help "de-disasterize" our place (many thanks!!!). Also making life a bit easier, I have already found a baby sitter to help look after the kids as I try to unpack everything... she is great with the kis (Miah already puts her arms out to her before me!).

We managed to buy a car; a Peugeot 307 SW. Like most cars here, it is a diesel, and the kids really enjoy the sun-ceiling (the whole roof basically). Here is a photo of it below:

Cars don't rust here... this car is a 2002 and when I looked under the hood it looked brand new. It gets about 60 Mpg on the highway, which is a good thing because diesel here costs about two bucks a liter.

In terms of adjusting, so far it is just the small stuff. Like when you go in the grocery store, eggs are not in the refridgerated section. And you buy "Ariel", not "Tide", (to be honest, I am pretty sure that I have been doing Laundry with fabric softener up until now... the clothes smell great but aren't so clean). Everything else is getting pretty normal... I finally don't fear for my life every time I take to the roads.

I will start to update the blog more often now. If you are interested, here are a bunch of pictures that start from our plane trip to London and end here. The beach is Praa Sands, about 3 miles away, and as nice as it is, I am told there are much nicer out there.



I hope this finds you all well. I look forward to updating the blog a bit more often in the future.

M

PS. Brucey: Cask conditioned ales and surfing lessons... see you soon!