Day 31 (7/28/16)

Laundry day......so exciting. The washers and dryers here tend to be smaller than those in the states, so it takes longer than I am used to because of the smaller loads. Plus there is only 1 working dryer at the hotel, so I can only do 1 load at a time.  Between loads I spent time researching internet providers. We will be living in the house with just the bare minimum therefore we only need internet service (no cable or phone). Found the best deal with Virgin Media and started the order process online.  I wasn't able to finish the order because like most businesses here that have monthly charges, they require direct debit. So, I stopped the order and will finish it later.

A little while later I get a text message from Ron saying a Virgin Media representative will be at the house at 4pm to install our internet.  Apparently when I stopped the sign-up process a message went to corporate indicating our account was a priority account. So we got the royal treatment with custom install at no charge. Yay us! And to top it off, Ron started his weekend from training a day early. (He was going to surprise us, but that was spoiled by the last minute internet installation appointment.)

We had dinner at Frankie & Benny's. I had the Black & Bleu Burger, which was good although the burger had a different texture than I am used to, not bad just different. Ron had the Meatball Calzone and really liked it.

Day 30 (7/27/16)

We have been in England for 1 full month. The kids and I were up early as we had to be at the house by 8 am. Our express shipment which contains some basic necessities (pots, pans, air mattresses, towels, etc) to get us through until our household goods arrive was scheduled for delivery between 8 am and 5 pm. And I thought 4 hour utility service windows were bad. So we were prepared to hang out for the day.


The delivery arrived at 8:30 am. WooHoo!! We left the house around 10am and hung out at the hotel. I worked on some blog posts and the kids played.

For dinner we went to the Beefeater. I had the flat iron steak which was really good and cooked perfectly. Previous experience at the hotel restaurant with steak hasn't been good, they always over cook it. So, it was nice to find a place that cooked it to my liking.

Day 28 & 29 (7/25 & 26)

Day 28
We started out the day by having breakfast at a friend's house. Pancakes and real breakfast sausage. It was so good.  We hung out and helped organize the house from the move.  For dinner we headed to another Coastie family's house and had spaghetti.  Feeling a bit spoiled with the all home cooked meals after so many days of eating out.  Also feeling very grateful to have Coast Guard families open their hearts and homes to us even though they have only known us for short time.

Day 29
When you can't get good American food at local restaurants, you embrace the familiar, which for us was McDonald's today for lunch.  Headed back over to help our friend clean her former house and get the last few items out.  Dinner was homemade tacos. Yum!

Day 27 (7/24/16)

We were up early this morning to take Ron to the base. He is headed to training for the week.
The kids and I went to Boston Tea Party for breakfast. (I don't think the people here get the irony of having a cafe in England named for an event in which America was rebelling against England.) Lil Ron had the pancakes and he was very happy with them. They were much closer to American pancakes than the ones we had before. I had the eggs benedict and a latte.  It was delicious, although I am discovering that often times the yolk of poached eggs is fully cooked.  I prefer it runny.

As we were leaving breakfast we saw a street sweeper cleaning up the Barbican. I know that doesn't seem exciting, but it was so small it was cute. Tiny streets mean tiny street sweepers. LOL

Back to the hotel for awhile, then off to Jump for a couple of hours. The kids love playing there. Afterwards we headed to a friend's house for dinner. We had an all American meal of meatloaf, mac & cheese, corn & peas, and biscuits. It was sooo good.

Since Ron left that meant driving all day by myself. I did pretty well.  My only issue was getting into the wrong lane exiting the carriageway (aka freeway). In my defense, it was 3 lanes and I got into the middle lane, so not terrible.  I think the British need to adopt the color marking system we use in the states to distinguish the lanes.  Here all lanes are marked with white lines, so if exiting the carriageway to an unfamiliar 3 lane road you don't know if you have 1 or 2 lanes on your side.

Here is Google view of the intersection.

Day 26 (7/23/16)

Today we spent most of the day helping a fellow Coastie family move.  After a year of renting their landlord decided to sell the house.  Luckily a house just up the street became available. So it made moving that much easier.  And it was great to see so many local Coastie families come to help.  We do have a great support community amongst ourselves.

We had dinner at The Stable again.  It was just as good the 2nd time as it was the first time. I had the 'The Billy the Kid' pizza, which is marinated Norsworthy goats' milk cheese, caramelised* onions, field mushrooms, English spinach, fresh tomato sauce, and mozzarella. Topped with roasted hazelnuts. (*Note: the British don't use the letter z like we do in America. Any words ending in 'ize' in America are written as 'ise' in England.)

Makes my mouth water just looking at it. So Yummy!