Wednesday, January 26, 2011

A Man's Home is His Castle

If a man's home is his castle, what is a woman's home called?  It could be; her office, her sanctuary, her creative outlet, her job, her hobby, her art museum,  it is certainly the place where she takes care of and protects her family.  I'm not sure John realized why I was freaking out about not having a house in England.  What does a woman do when her office, sanctuary, creative outlet, job, hobby and art museum is missing?  She flails about not knowing what to do and she becomes agitated at not being able to care for and protect her family.

We finally found a place to live.  Well, we've actually found many places to live but we got this one before it was rented to someone else.  To say that I looked at 1,000 houses would not be an exaggeration.  "Which one is it?" you might ask, well, click on the link and take a look...

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/property-17772678.html
ya better hurry though, the property agents take them off line once they are rented.

The housing market in England is terrible.  Their banks aren't lending money so everyone is renting instead of buying.  Anything with a good price in a good area is snapped up before you can say bugger!  (Which, by the way, is my new favorite English term!)

Finding a house is one more thing to check off the to do list.  I told my friend Allison the other day that as soon as I check one thing off, I add ten more!   Hopefully that is going to stop.

Mine and the kids visas came today...whew!  We didn't realize that we all needed visas till last week.  I figured we had passports and we weren't working over there so we didn't need them, WRONG!  If you are relocating to another country for an extended period of time, you need a visa.  For $400 you too can have a tiny little stamp in your passport that says you are allowed in the country :) (That's $400 for each of us, 400 x 5 = $2,000).  Somebody came up with a great money making scheme there!



Well, I'm off now to scratch something else off the list.  Let's see what's left, YIKES, I have to do my taxes! 

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Much Ado...

I shall start my first post to give a little background on how this trip came about.  John's company, d-Wise, decided to open a subsidiary in the UK.  He asked how I felt about spending 6 months in England, I said, "sounds fantastic," who wouldn't say that?  Of course I didn't think we would really be doing it.  One phone call led to another, a contract was signed, and we are 3 weeks from beginning our adventure across the pond.

There are a lot of details one must think about when moving to England for 5 months.  Yes, I know it started out as 6, but the longer it takes to get things organized, the shorter the time becomes.  The kids needed passports, we all needed visas, plane tickets, suitcases, a list of what to pack and what to buy once we get there.  We decided to not enroll the kids in school and that I would home school them (she laughs hysterically as that thought becomes reality).  We have to find a house, car, furniture, everyday items that you need to set up a house, foster homes for the dog, cat and bird (thank you family for taking them in), and do all of this while still living your life here at home.

I don't want to sound ungrateful for the opportunity that I have been given.  I am extremely lucky to be given this chance to live abroad.  Everyone else is very excited for us and knows we will have a great time.  I just haven't gotten to that state yet.  I'm scrambling around gathering information, materials, house hunting, making sure the kids are ok with this, dotting t's and crossing i's...wait, well you know what I mean.  When I can actually stop and think about what we are doing, I get very excited.  I want to see the Globe Theater, Buckingham Palace, get into Royal Wedding Mania, drink tea and eat biscuits.  I love fish and chips, not sure about bangers and mash (don't really know what they are) and I can learn to like beer, at least for 5 months!

So, I guess when it all comes down to it, is it much ado about nothing?  Will it all fall into place and really be like an extended vacation?  Will I have that nervous breakdown that I have been threatening for weeks now?  Time will tell...so please keep reading because I can't wait to see what happens next!