Marie's Web Log

Finally, back on internet. It took 10 days to get connected with the cable people - better than with British Telecom, who told us we would have to wait until Oct. 18! Customer service not being their strong point...

I had typed a whole long entry, but then somehow lost it. So I will try to do the condensed version. All our furniture and stuff arrived, thanks to Ian's brilliant organization. We are in a four-year-old house on a small estate across the road from the army barracks (tonight I went to get something from the car and heard, in addition to church bells from the Cathedral in the city centre, the sound of an army officer yelling "one, two, one, two, march.") Storage space is at a premium in English houses, so we are finding it a challenge to fit everything in.

Ian has been to a few events at university, and starts his courses next week. Not sure what Amelia and I will be doing. Amelia started a new stage yesterday - she decided she did not want to nap, and expressed this by screaming loudly and banging on the bedroom door. She did the same thing at bedtime. We decided she needs a longer bedtime routine, but we mourn the loss of naps. We depend on that few hours of break time during the day. I am going to find it hard when Ian is busy with his courses. Amelia tends to cling to me when I'm around and spends a lot of time hanging on to my legs, which can get quite irritating! She is getting to be very aware of things and understands most of what we say to her. Her new phrase is "all gone."

Some of the adjustment has been quite hard, as we knew it would be. We keep referring to Mississauga as home, as in "this fridge is much smaller than the one we had at home." We don't know many people here and miss our friends. It's a little hard to get used to living in a rented place - we're not supposed to hang things on the walls, and of course we can't paint, which is tough for me, as those of you who saw our multi-hued, picture-festooned walls in our Mississauga house will know!

All for now - more soon...

Posted by marie at 05:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tuesday, September 14

Finally - thanks to the technical know-how of our web guy, Bob - this web log is up and running. We've been in England for just over two weeks now, at Ian's parents' house in Hereford. Ian is driving back down to Exeter tomorrow to sign the papers for the house we will be renting there. It's small compared to what we had in Mississauga, but it does have a third (albeit tiny) bedroom and a garden with space for Amelia to run around in.

Amelia is doing very well. She is now much more comfortable around her grandparents, and can even be left playing with them for short periods. She has learned to say "granny," "piggy," and "peeky-bee," which is her version of peekaboo.

First impressions of being back in England: when did it become the land of overwhelming choice? I remember when we went to Canada 12 years ago, we thought there were too many options for everything - you couldn't go out for dinner without being asked which of five kinds of salad and ten kinds of salad dressing you would like. Now it's like that here. Millions of choices of mobile phones, washing machines, utility providers... it's all a bit much.

Other things - phone bills have come down since we lived here. Property is still outrageously expensive. So is petrol. Most small shops have signs saying, "No more than two unaccompanied juveniles allowed on the premises at once." Sometimes this is preceded by the heading, "Polite Notice." Most town centres and many other areas are monitored by cctv. Someone living on the council estate near here has the strange habit of setting off fireworks every weekend.

And finally - why don't they have the following items here: screen doors and screens for windows (to keep out the flies and wasps), basements, heating that doesn't have to be turned off at night, more automatic cars?

More soon...

Posted by marie at 04:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)