This is our "Travel Journal". I haven't written in a while, but hopefully I can start doing it every day.
The Ford Four: Trip to England
Wednesday, 1 April 2009 (Starting at 11:00)
We are driving to Miami from Melbourne, Florida. We are both very excited but I’m pretty sure I will be blowing chunks any minute. We are on our way to catch a plane to England. Neither of us has ever been there and now we are going there to live! The boys have no clue what is going on. Cyan is saying that he wants to go home (Gm’s house) to eat hot dogs, and Robert is sleeping, as usual. I am reading a book to keep my mind off what we are actually doing; I get really sucked in to the books I read so it makes it easy.
We rented a car, so when we get to Miami we look for the rental return. It’s about a mile off site from the airport, go figure. It’s about 2:00 PM; we have 3 hours until take off. We finally get to the rental car return and we have so much luggage that we get to take a shuttle to the airport alone. Luckily, we are able to check our bags on the curb where the shuttle has dropped us off. All we have to do now is get through security! Security is easy, went a lot better than I expected.
We are now at the terminal. Only an hour until boarding, not much will happen between now and then.
Finally, it’s 5PM and we are on the plane ready to take off. Cyan wants to be a pain in the butt, and Jeffery tells me to calm down. I’m so nervous and can barely stand it. We each get our own T.V. it’s very convenient. I turn on a movie for Cyan and Jeffery is entertaining Robert. The pressure change gets to Robert and I have to feed him during take off, he falls asleep but the Captain comes over the intercom (which is the loudest intercom EVER) and wakes him up. So now, we are watching a movie for Robert.
inner comes around 6:00. It’s a choice between Chicken Marsala and Lasagna. I choose the chicken and Jeffery the Lasagna. It’s not bad food, actually pretty good. Cyan, of course, wants hot dogs and therefore doesn’t eat his chicken but eats the roll. Jeffery and I have a splash of vodka in our cranberry juice, obviously not going to be enough but what can ya do? Cyan is now playing a video game; hopefully he’ll fall asleep soon.
Cyan is finally asleep and Robert is close. Of course, I have no idea what the present location time is, but I know that in Miami it’s around 9:00 PM. Hopefully I’ll get some sleep too! Right now, I’m watching Marley and Me; it’s a good movie.
Thursday, 2 April 2009
I did fall asleep. We are only an hour away from London, I’m not sure of present location, but it’s 5:30 AM in London. Breakfast is being served; first class must be getting eggs and bacon, because all I got was a crescent roll but I smell something more. Cyan and Robert are still asleep and I see that Jeffery is just waking up. They keep moving our landing time later and later. Courtney and Jake will be at the airport at 7:15.
We have finally landed at 7:20; the walk to baggage claim has to be about a mile. It was dreadful in heels. Jeffery has noticed that our stroller frame got bent from being put in with the baggage; that sucks. 7:45 and we are standing in line at immigration; I guess that’s what it’s called. We get out of there fast because we have kids, nice. After we retrieve are baggage we start walking around the airport searching for the coffee shop where Courtney said she’d meet us. We find it, but we don’t see Courtney. We get out the computer to find some Internet so we can get her number to call her, but here she comes down the stairs next to us! She tells us that she and Jake got caught in traffic and they apologize, we tell them no worries, because we have also just arrived.
After loading our things into their cars, we are ready to get “home”. The drive is close to 2 hours, but it’s not a bad ride. The English way of driving isn’t so bad on the freeway. We are getting close and are now on a two-way road, HOLY CROW! It’s shocking to think you are about to have a head on collision when in all reality that’s the other person’s side of the road. This will definitely take some getting used too. When driving on base, everyone must show his or her ID’s always; much different. We are at lodging and the line is very long, so Cyan and I go to the “toilet” to change our clothes. When we come out Jeffery is signing the papers to get our room.
The room is bigger than either of us has expected. There are 2 rooms, Cyan’s has 2 twin beds and the master has a queen. There is also a high chair and playpen for Robert. Jake says that we are going to be spoiled with this big refrigerator, because we will probably not have a big one in our place. Even better the kitchen is full size; all in all it’s a nice place. Jeffery and Robert get changed and we take a walk with the Parkers (Courtney and Jake). They take us to the ‘club’ to eat, then we go to the post office, housing office, get a cell phone, and Jake called the rental car place. No rentals today, possibly tomorrow. The Parkers show us some important places on base, and now we are back in our room to nap. Everyone is sleeping, Cyan comes in to wake me up, and then Robert wakes up. Jeffery is still sleeping. I have slept only 2 hours in the last 30+ hours. We are all very exhausted. They boys and I are watching television, because we are too tired to do anything else. About an hour later, I go in to wake up Jeffery. It’s taking all his power to get out of bed. We walk downstairs to let Cyan play on the playground, but it’s so cold. I guess our blood thinned out while we were in Florida.
It’s now 9:00 PM London time, and I am turning on Cyan’s Mickey Mouse Movie. Robert is sleeping in his playpen and Jeffery and I are watching the Da Vinci Code.
Friday, 3 April 2009
We get up around 8:30, we are supposed to get our rental car this morning. Before we do, we have to get food. I’m so hungry that I have a migraine and feel very sick. We walk to the store, buy stuff for breakfast, lunch and dinner tonight. It cost about $60. Everything seems to be cheaper here food-wise on base and all. The commissary is very small. There’s not much to choose from. I am making pepper bellies, or Frito chili pie. It tastes okay, but it has done its job of taking away my headache, with the help of Advil.
The Parkers call to ask us if we have insurance, of course we don’t because we no longer have a car. Now Jeffery is on the phone with USAA trying to get us insurance. It is taking a long time. We are pretty sure it is a toll free number. The phone numbers are confusing here. About 1:30 he finally gets us insurance and we get a rental car. It’s a Honda Accord Aerodeck (I think), gross. We made double reservations. The Parker’s reserved us a “Rover”. No not a Land Rover but a better looking and newer car than the Accord. Unfortunately, Jeff got insurance for the Accord and he doesn’t want to call USAA again. Still not totally sure that’s a toll free number.
We have decided to walk around and explore the base. The first place we stop is the park across the street. There are some pretty cool toys there. Jeffery asks if I want to ‘test drive’ the car, so I do that around the loop in the parking lot. It’s awkward and I’m sure that I drove on the wrong side of the road. After the test drive, we walk to the Bob Hope Community Center. It’s an amazing place. There are computers and wireless throughout the building. They have the most amazing play place for kids. It is like what they have at a McDonalds. Jeffery says it reminds him of “Dimples”. Cyan is having so much fun. Robert likes it too. Cyan keeps doing this crazy belly flop onto a big ball. It looks dangerous and makes us a little nervous so we made him quit. Now there’s a little boy that keeps pushing Cyan around then they roll around on the floor and wrestle. I think I just saw Cyan punch that boy in the head! Finally, Cyan has had enough; he just said he doesn’t want to play anymore. I think it’s time to leave; I’m ready to go to Lakenheath and see if they have a couch.
RAF Lakenheath is only about 10-15 minutes away. Jeffery and I don’t think the base is as pretty as RAF Mildenhall. The only great thing about RAF Lakenheath is the Exchange and Commissary is much bigger than RAF Mildenhall. RAF Lakenheath doesn’t have furniture at the Base Exchange. There’s another base close that has furniture, or so we have been told. The hospital that we will use in the future is here at RAF Lakenheath, there’s even an Emergency Room.
We are driving home, because we are quite hungry. I am going to make pork chops and potatoes like we did at Gm’s. They are amazing. I have already put the food in the oven, which by the way, the temperature is in Celsius and I’m totally confused, thank God for a converter on the computer. The boys, (Jeffery, Cyan and Robert) are all wrestling in the living room. They are going to break something, probably a bone, if they aren’t careful.
I just finished cleaning up after dinner. It wasn’t a bad mess. Cyan actually ate his pork chop, but he wouldn’t eat the potatoes. Not much I can do about that. Jeffery is trying to get Cyan settled down for bed. It’s pretty late here, about 10:30. I don’t feel that tired, but I think we are going to force ourselves to go to bed pretty soon. We have many things planned for the weekend. Like going to London, probably Sunday. Tomorrow we are going to have dinner with the Parkers. They are really nice people and we are glad we met them. There is one thing about England that I dislike; they are called “Round-a-bouts”. They are the world’s worst!
I was just cleaning off the desk and found a funny paper under the phone. It’s a form for a bomb threat. It tells you what questions to ask if someone calls your phone and threatens a bomb. They want you to write down the exact wording of the threat, and then ask some questions, there are even spaces to write the answer. I’m pretty sure the person calling will give you all the information that you want, right?
Saturday, 4 April 2009
It was late when we woke up, probably about 10:00. I made breakfast, definitely not as good as Gm and Gp’s, but it was edible. We are now getting ready to leave. We are sitting in the playroom again; fortunately that little boy is not here to torture my Cyan. Robert seems to be having fun in the padded portion of the room. Looks like we’ll be here for a while. I am emailing this to our family. Hopefully they will like it.
I have been playing Hide and Seek with Cyan in this playroom. All the other children have joined and are wearing me out. I am glad that there are kids here that Cyan can play with, and we have even met some really nice moms. We are now leaving to go eat lunch, and then off to look at cars. Should be interesting driving around trying to find the place.
So, we are sort of lost. But we found a house that we really like. I will call them tomorrow to find out some info on and schedule a meeting. We finally find the car lot, too little too late. We’ll go there some other time. We are on our way home to get ready for dinner with the Parkers and some other people from the squadron. We make it to the Parker’s; we meet many people that I will probably become friends with. One couple have a little boy Cyan’s age, they are really enjoying each other. We have just finished with dinner, they guys are going to play poker; the ladies are drinking wine and chit chatting. Jeffery asks me to help him play poker, I say okay but kind of take over. I do pretty well at first, but I lost. It was a lot of fun. Time to go home; we say our goodbyes and thanks and head out the door. Cyan and Robert are still wide-awake; it’s 11:00. We are finally home, time to get to bed. There are more exciting adventures tomorrow.
Sunday, 5 April 2009
Waking up is so difficult. We thought we were coming here to enjoy the gloomy days, but yesterday and today the sun has been shining bright at 6:00 AM. I was convinced we were coming to a place where the sun very rarely shines. Breakfast is awful without salt and pepper. Time to get ready to leave once again.
We’ve decided to wait until we are settled to go to London; we have a lot to learn about the rules of the country before we venture off too far. We are sitting in the play area again; I think this will have to be a daily ritual. Cyan is having a lot of fun. But we are not going to be able to stay, we are going car hunting again.
We are on our way to the car lot here in Mildenhall. There are some nice cars, but they stink like cigarettes, cats, etc. We found an older VW Golf, it’s not a bad price and it doesn’t stink. We are going to go to Lakenheath and see if we can find something better. There’s another car lot close to the last one we were just at, there’s another VW Golf, but it’s newer, orange and prettier. Jeffery says that it smells okay too. I really want this one. We get to Lakenheath and we don’t see anything we like, so we decided to just try to get the orange Golf.
Instead of going home, we are on our way to Bury St. Edmunds. It’s a good thing we have the GPS because otherwise, we may never make it home. We are driving around Bury looking for a place to park. It seems that it would be a good idea to come back early in the morning before everyone else gets here. We also don’t have any GBP; US dollars would be no good here. We decide to go home until we can make a day trip.
We are sitting at home; Cyan just turned the T.V. on and LOST is on. I can’t believe it, I missed it last Wednesday because we were on our way here, but I guess in England it comes on a little later in the week! Not much exciting can happen from here on out, so Good Night!
I say nothing exciting can happen then something happens. After our shower, Cyan is in the toilet part of the bathroom with me and there’s a towel warmer; it gets VERY hot. He accidentally touches it with his forearm. Poor baby, he screams like a little girl. It doesn’t look too bad right now; we’ll see what it looks like in the morning. *Don’t worry, I put an ice cold rag on it for quite a while*
Monday, 6 April 2009
Today is Jeffery’s first day of work; not really work, more like a check in. The cell phone wakened me. It was a rental agent telling me that the viewing for a house in Ely was canceled because it was already taken, bummer. After that I called about the house we found on Fairey Fox Drive, it too was taken. I guess we’ll keep looking.
Cyan’s arm looks awful, but I think he will live. We are on our way for today’s errands. Right now we are sitting in the parking lot waiting for Jeffery to get Cyan’s shot records. Thank goodness he was able to get them. Now we are going to fill out paperwork to have Cyan go to daycare while at briefings for the next two days.
Not much else happened today. Cyan has a spot at daycare reserved for tomorrow; hopefully he’ll have fun!
Thursday, 9 April 2009
The last few days have been a bit stressful. We have been looking at houses, not many, but as many as we could find in our price range and that were still available. We have decided on renting the house in Red Lodge. It’s brand new, has 3 floors, 4 bathrooms and bedrooms and a closed in backyard. The only bad thing about the whole house is the kitchen is fairly small, but I’ll live. I really expected as much. I fell in love with it as soon as we saw it, Jeffery’s not as enthusiastic about it, but he likes it. It doesn’t have a fireplace and he wanted one. But I think he likes it. We are going to be able to move in on Wednesday or Thursday; I’m so excited. I have been decorating this house in my dreams.
We have also bought a car. I’m not sure if Jeffery wants me to advertise what kind of car it is, so I’ll let him tell about it. I will tell you that it’s an awesome car and we paid £1250. That’s about $1838.oo, so that’s not too bad, right? I really like the car, it will take some getting use too. It’s a 5 speed, and I thought that it would be difficult, but it’s not bad. I am very much okay with the driving on the left side of the road. At first, it’s a total shock and you think you will NEVER get used to it; but now, when I think about the way we drive back home, I get really mixed up and think it’s a bit weird. I know, I know, we’ve only been here a week, but there have been LOTS of changes for us, and we have to learn to adapt quickly.
Speaking of driving, Jeffery and I took our driving test today. We both passed, we were allowed to miss 6 and we both missed 2. I don’t know if they were the same ones, but we are equal when it comes to driving. I’m starting to get used to where we are and where we are going, although, I think I would be a complete hermit if I didn’t have the GPS!
Right now, it’s about 9:00 PM, Cyan is watching Mickey Mouse, Jeffery and Robert are in the living room watching Australia, and I am lying in bed writing about our lives as American Englishmen! :P I’m sure there are other things (like cleaning the kitchen) I could be doing, but I am worn out. We are all definitely ready for the weekend. So, I better go do some sort of cleaning, more later.
Sunday, 12 April 2009 (Easter Sunday)
An update on the last few days; Friday we did the insurance things. It was more complicated than either of us wanted, but there’s just not much we could do about it. Yesterday, we took a trip to Cambridge. It was cold and rainy, (I know, something I should get used too right?). My shoes and socks got soaked, so Jeffery bought me new socks and some rain boots. They are cute and snug. We went through a museum, it was pretty neat; Jeffery wants to go back so we can finish. Today we drove through Thetford and Norwich (Norwich looks like it has some pretty good shops). We stopped in Great Yarmouth, and they had a nice shopping area. We got to see the beach on the East side of the country; it was pretty.
Monday, 3 August 2009
It's already August?!?! Oh, how times fly! Some things we have learned living in England: You think the cable company sucks in America, you have NO IDEA!! Driving on the left hand side of the road is not that bad, once you get used to it. People in England are ALWAYS in a rush, even if they are right on time. Paying rent in Sterling is more work than it's worth.
Cyan gets to start school this coming year if he goes to an England school. So he will! haha
Almost two weeks ago, we found out I have P.I.D (Pelvic Inflammatory Disease). I have a Dr. appointment on Thursday, we'll see if it went away.
Not much else it going on right now, I really just need to go clean up!
