Settled

From the time my stuff was delivered to getting everything sorted and settled, it took me less than a week. In large part that was due to the fact that I forced the issue by having a house warming on Friday, 4 days after delivery. The house warming went well. I made some beer brats and cheese dogs on my grill. We can check the grill off the list of things to test. It successfully held burning charcoal briquettes while simultaneously hold raw meat mere inches above those.

Even though I have only been there about a week, the new place feels like a home already. I'm sure it has a lot to do with the fact that I have all of my stuff for the first time since March, but more than that I just really like the neighborhood and set up of my place. It has everything it needs and nothing else. I wouldn't want anything bigger or smaller. It is perfectly sized for what I need it for. Not only that, but it is dead quiet. I live at the end of a dead-end street and the opposite side of the house is a bike/running trail. Yes, I can hear footsteps and music from my neighbor above, but there is no outside noise. It's almost strange how quiet it gets, but I love it.

Another thing I really like is the kitchen. For the first time, I have a convection oven. I'm still learning the ropes on that one, but the fact that I can cook a deep dish pizza in 8 minutes is awesome. It has led to a fair amount of burning, but I've already gotten the hang of it for cooking fish and other meats. I plan on testing out how well it fares with bread tomorrow at my first weekly TV-on-DVD night in the UK. Wednesdays are no longer workable due to open gym basketball night, but Tuesdays are just as good. I made a ton of chili yesterday. So much chili, in fact, that not all of it fit into the refrigerator and I had to freeze half of it. I think that marks the first time I have ever made something fresh and put it into the freezer. Hopefully it doesn't end up sitting in there for the next couple of years.


Other than organizing, cleaning, and loving my new place, I haven't really been up to much. I did have a chance to go to some friends' place for a Tour de Franzia party this past Saturday. Basically, you dress like a bicyclist and drink boxed wine. The goal is to get through all of the stages (different types) in the fastest time. Like what often happens when I plan on only having "one or two" but don't have a good reason for setting that limit for myself, I had a lot more. I don't really consider myself to be too competitive, but I do consider myself to be skilled at taking advantage of the situation. I took about 20 minutes to drink my first glass of wine and the next closest person was on their third. By the time I hit 3, most people were on 6. By the time I hit 6, most people were on 7. When all was said and done, I finished second. I think they should re-write Aesop's Tortoise and the Hare fable to cover drinking for speed. It applies.

Coming up this week, a friend from Hawaii who is now in Australia will be visiting. We are going to spend a couple of days in Northern England followed by a few days in Ireland. After that, it's back to the US for about 10 days for a conference and a wedding. This summer is flying by.

Pictures and Video of My New Flat

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I moved in. It's done. The video is post-cleaning inside, pre-yard work, and pre-delivery of all my stuff.

I am at the library now since my internet doesn't work, but I will include some updates soon. I think if I get this published I can type out the rest on my phone. Not fun, but do-able.

Flat

Things here have started to level out. I don't have my house yet, but I'm pushing for next week still. I stopped by the house today to take another look. The yard has really fallen into disrepair. The grass and bushes are very overgrown and there is garbage everywhere. I will have a project ahead of me, but that's the fun of home (or flat, I suppose, but I do have a tiny yard) ownership, right? It beats paying the £80 per month that I would have forked over at the other place for grounds maintenance fees. Mowing the grass once a week should not cost that much.

At any rate, Wednesday July 8th is what I am hoping for. I spoke to my solicitor today and he said the paperwork should be ready to sign by then, but I won't be able to move in until at least the 10th. I will pester him more on Monday and see if I can't get that changed. I would really like to move in as soon as possible. These next two months are going to be very busy.

Nothing too exciting going on here. I've been hanging out quite a bit with the same crowd. They all live within a couple of blocks, so I'm not sure what is going to happen when I move a mile and a half away. It doesn't sound far, but it's way farther than two blocks.

The only items of interest I have to add are that I went to a Medieval Faire a couple of weeks ago in Knaresborough. Not quite as exciting as I was hoping. It was more geared toward children (note the dragon), but it was free, so I can't complain there.

Not very scary. There were some people dressed up in Medieval clothing. That's pretty amusing.

This is what toilets (called a garderobe) looked like in Medieval times. There was a sloped schute would help everything roll out into the river. Midgets or children would crawl up the exit hatch to sneak into castles and prep the doors before an invasion. My question: why not put a metal rod through the middle of the schute? Another interesting tidbit: they used the garderobe to store clothing. The smell kept the moths away.

Awkward wedding photo?

I've also had two flat tires (3 if you include my flat spare tire when I pulled it out of the trunk) in three weeks. I don't think I've ever had a flat before coming here. Today I had a huge screw puncture my tire. It was about a quarter inch across. Luckily my spare tire (which was actually the tire that was flat a few weeks ago) had air this time. Unfortunately, there was no saving my tire. I had to order a new one. Although I could risk not getting a new tire, my recent experience has taught me that I should not. It's just really strange that I never had a flat before coming here. Until the day before I sold my Honda in Hawaii I didn't think that it came with a jack. Since 2001 I had been driving that car convinced that if I got a flat I was plain out of luck. Word to the wise: crafty engineering means that jacks can be stashed in a panel that looks like it should lead to your tail light. Another piece of wisdom: if you clean your car more than once every 8 years, you may discover things like that sooner than I did.

I also wanted to mention that I have been doing CrossFit for about 6 weeks now and it works. It's a fairly new fad, but a good one. It involves a lot of pull-ups and Olympic style lifts, but it's all about intensity. The intensity makes it a good cardiovascular workout. This past Wednesday night I played two hours of basketball without getting winded. Three months ago I probably wouldn't have lasted 20 minutes without being doubled over. If you hate being winded from climbing stairs but also hate running, I recommend looking into it.

Happy Independence (from the Brits, ironically) Day!