Hey Lesfaye, Thanks for asking. We are finally here!! We arrived just this last wednesday a.m. and have been having a grand time just checking things out. We found our temporary accomodations on a great site, www.sabbaticalhomes.com and are a bit outside of the city, in Acton. It is a nice house and we have 3 bedrooms. We are watching two very cute kitties and they are just getting to know us.
Actually a good transition since our permanent place appears pretty small. We showed the kids their school and checked out the location of our next flat on our first day.
We are all still pretty tired. This morning Jeremy and I didn't get up until 10:00! The kids don't want to wake up until the afternoon!
We have an orientation at their school on monday morning. Maybe we'll get back on a normal schedule.
We have been walking all over London and getting home rather late. We did a walk around Covent Garden one day and another day we walked the waterfront. Today we went to Portobello Market for a few hours and then home for an easy day.
When do you come to the UK, Lesfaye?
I'll keep everyone posted. I was so crazy and busy before we left the US we couldn't follow through on a GTG that Pokey tried to organize for us. Our house does look amazing, though. We cleaned and threw away so much stuff, it is amazing. We have been almost 17 years in our house with five children. We have a family from Holland coming to live in our house and we hope they like it.
Okay, we are off to an after dinner walk. Just the two of us as the kids are happily watching British t.v.
Take care, Brenda
Posts: 466 | Location: suburb west of Boston | Registered: 27 May 2005
Welcome back, Brenda - you have had the full gamut of London British summer weather to greet you from unpleasantly humid to - well, it can't really make its mind up today !
Tell your children that there is nothing on British television in the summer (repeats and more repeats)- they assume that everyone goes away for the whole school summer hols (actually, we are away for most of it ) - and it will get better in the autumn !!
Best of wishes to you all in settling in and hope to meet up again at some point
Posts: 928 | Location: London, UK | Registered: 20 September 2006
Hi Brenda, oh that's so great your getting settled in London, so happy for you and your family. Can't wait to hear about all of your adventures...it must be such a relief to have your house all cleared out and in good hands.
As far as our move things are not good for us leaving at the moment, this housing nightmare had put a real crimp in our plans which we are pretty down about...
We are putting our house on the market next month but will not be holding our breath for a sale. You never know we might get lucky here in Seattle but there are tons of houses for sale at the moment.
We are in a popular area so we wait and cross our fingers if it doesn't happen in the next few months we will try again in the spring .
We have a lovely holiday to look forward to in December for our 25th wedding anniversary in the Mexican Caribbean, which is a bright spot!
Take care and hope to see you there before you leave! Keep in touch!
Posts: 1375 | Location: Seattle - next is Isla Mujeres,MX in December, then its Paris in March, then hopefully England! | Registered: 02 May 2005
Great hearing from you Brenda! How exciting for all of you. Please keep us posted. Are you going to Blog? Please please please!!!!! I'm sure Kim would help you start up your blog
Hey BJ and the Gang! Welcome to this side of the pond!! Sounds like you are off to a great start.
We are in London now, so I can so relate to your long days. We have been seeing theater almost every night ( loved King Lear at the Globe and we got in a sold out matinee for free!) so doing those long walks and long days too.
Wishing you are the very best on your sabbatical adventure!
Oh, I just wrote out a whole reply and somehow it got lost. Drat! We are having a little bit of tech issues here. Somehow we can't find the wireless network we had since we arrived. It just disappeared yesterday.
Luckily there are only reruns on t.v. as the television here has just decided to turn off every little bit. Once it turns off it needs a long time to get ready to go on again otherwise it just goes off and on. Weird.
WT, how did you pull off free tickets to a sold out matinee to King Lear!! We really want to see it but we don't think we can stand for that long for the cheap seats. What is your secret, can you tell????
Lesfaye, that is stinky about the real estate market, but the right buyer will come along and it will turn out to be the right time, that's what I think. We'll be thinking of you and hoping you get here while we are here. You'll have so much fun in the sun later in the year and what a nice thing to look forward to-sounds romantic!
Panda, let's get together after the kids start school when we are bit more settled. Are you on holiday soon??
Pokey, I think I will try to learn how to blog after we move into our next flat. Once I get a handle on this internet thing and I'm not sharing a computer anymore.
Okay, my daughter wants to check in with her friends so I'll sign off.
More later.... Brenda
Posts: 466 | Location: suburb west of Boston | Registered: 27 May 2005
Panda, let's get together after the kids start school when we are bit more settled. Are you on holiday soon??
We're house (and menagerie) sitting for friends in a lovely house in the Chilterns (about 20 miles north of London), back home for a week (and exam results ) then off to Sardinia for the last part of August (and hoping for some sun at last!)
My two go back to school in the first/second week of September - as does most of the London school population- watch for a surge in traffic !!
Posts: 928 | Location: London, UK | Registered: 20 September 2006
At risk of butting in here....Panda and Brenda - if you two are having a GTG in September can you squeeze me in too please?
Would love to escape to the city (if I can) and hoping to get up there for a night some time in the next month or so. It would be great to meet up for lunch or coffee.
A GTG sounds great! Anybody have any preferences about dates and times? Should we do that here or post in GTG forum?
Boy, the summer here is pretty funny. The first day we arrived was the only day that stayed sunny and nice the whole day. Of course I have all my fall and winter things coming in a box in a few weeks....I may just call my mom and ask her to send a fleece separately out of that box!
We are still having a great time...did manage to make an afternoon at Kew Gardens the other day. Beautiful place.
Brenda
Posts: 466 | Location: suburb west of Boston | Registered: 27 May 2005
) - and it will get better in the autumn !!
.
) then off to Sardinia for the last part of August (and hoping for some sun at last!)
