2-25-15

Well, that was bracing…

This is my 3rd afternoon in the UK, and I’ve finally braved our freezing, creaking, pathetic little shower and it was every bit as bad as Matt said it would be. But, on a better note, we’re really here, we’re in our ‘terrace house’ in the little village of Wantage (which I have yet to see, but I hear is delightful) in the UK. We did it. We moved ourselves and both Schipperkes to England. It’s been about four months of planning, worrying, and working towards it, but the move has now happened and now we just have to adjust to it and get functioning in our new home.

First, things first we really need a bed, a sofa, the internet and some fucking hot water. I will take these things in any order. Immediately. Secondly, we need dressers, eating/cookware, and a few more pieces of furniture to unpack our few belongings into. At some point, we need to figure out a way to dry our clothes, get some grass growing in the ‘garden’ for the dogs, and bikes – because I can only walk and carry so many things home from the village by myself and I’m not a fan of multiple trips. So, bikes.

I departed Seattle, WA on Sunday, Feb 22nd at 3:30pm PST, I arrived in London on Monday, the 23rd at just about noon. I have absolutely no idea how many hours happened in between those times, but I know I only slept for a few of them. I did however watch a lot of tv I didn’t care about, seriously contemplate stealing a really nice airline blanket (you go, Icelandair), and listen to the Fifty Shades of Grey soundtrack multiple times (still haven’t seen the movie, but I like the soundtrack a lot, even if they are trying a bit hard with the Sinatra). Upon being dropped off at my door by Kannan, my private driver – yeah, that’s right, we’re that fancy – also, we had no other option because I had 300lbs of luggage with me and no way in hell was I going to be able to navigate the bus and train system by myself with them – anyways. I started unpacking my luggage and trying to keep myself busy while waiting for Matt to come home from his first day at the new job. It was all going pretty well until I stepped outside to talk to the woman and child who were crouched in front of our porch. Turns out it was the landlord, we had a nice chat, the dogs were quiet throughout, we made tentative plans to talk more this weekend about our concerns about the place, then she left. Then I tried to go back in the house… Turns out we have what is known as a ‘Yale’ lock. It locks automatically upon the door shutting. I tried running after the landlord, then I tried breaking into the back garden, then I tried to continue not crying. My cellphone was inside, along with my coat, my shoes, and I don’t have any contact information memorized yet. So, that happened. Next, I knocked on a neighbor’s door and was taken in by our neighbor, Greg, a proper older woman who lives two doors down and who just happened to have formerly worked at RAL and was able to call and let Matt know he needed to come home and rescue his wife. She fed me coffee and biscuits and we had a fairly nice conversation while we waited for Matt to arrive, all in all – for being locked out my house on my first day in a new country while horrifically exhausted – I got off pretty easy.

Yesterday was less eventful, I read and slept a lot, I’ve been so tired that I haven’t taken the Melatonin supplement at night the way I should have, so I sleep two hours at night and then am wide awake and miserable the rest of them, I will have to do better tonight. I imagine the move will start to feel a little better for both of us when we figure out the kinks in this house (we really need hot water) and once we get a bed, sleeping on the floor, well, it sucks…

Observations: It is really lovely here, super idyllic, at least the parts I saw of the drive.

More to come.

– alaina