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!