ex Great Britain?

Coincidence or a sign?

Our son pointed out the license plate of our rental car says "XGB"...

Christmas

in a hotelroom...

She's getting to that age...

This weekend I was telling my 12 year old daughter to put some balls in the tree... She shaked her head and said: "Ornaments, mommy...not balls." Her charming dad, who was lounging in front of the tv, picked up on this and responded: "Yeah, throw some testicles in there, won't you?" At that precise moment my 11 year old son walked in looking confused...but he, wisely, decided not to comment...

Oh, is this blog getting inappropriate now? I hope not, because I still need to get something of my chest relating to 'marital merriment'...I'll save that for later.

Preparing for Halloween!

-Getting ready for our favorite Holiday!-

A Friends' Boost

"Seeing my friends, seeing how well they’re doing, and the amazing progress their kids have made, was very gratifying...-continue-..."

While we just got the news that we are being kicked out of our house for the THIRD time in two years in this miserable country...it seems that we at least did something right...

I think our Dutch friend in the US said it wisely, and it made me grin: "...you learn from whatever life throws at you (some of it, I am sure, is stuff I throw at myself)".
If we learned one thing from this whole experience it is that we need to take the red flag warnings along the way, of whatever decision we are about to make, a bit more seriously. A couple of months ago I felt I was fighting my intuition about moving into this house. So I can blame myself, but really we couldn't have known that the development company was planning to flatten this lot so quickly! I still doubt that bulldozers will already show up in December, so we are trying to reason with the 'big guys' to let us stay untill Summer....

We will see what the outcome will be. I've thought very strongly about moving back early to the US with the kids...but seeing how well they do in school, I refuse to leave just yet...

Thanks friend...

A Little Souvenir...

~From the One-Dollar Store~

Summer in America...

Country Village, Bothell, WA

A glimpse of Mount Rainier

Seattle, WA

Remember 'Twin Peaks'?

Snoqualmie Falls, WA

I call this "Scene from the Stepford Wives"

mmmm, devilled eggs...

Ballooning in WA State

Shelter Island, San Diego, CA

San Diego, CA

Shamu, in SeaWorld San Diego, CA

Back Again!

Wow, my last post was back in Aprill!
And what was going on in the mean time? Mostly vacation! I know, I'm spoilt rotten currently, but I'm taking advantage of the fact that I wasn't tied down by work, and that we had the opportunities to travel....Enjoy it while it lasts...yes?

We escaped the UK just in time to avoid the storms and floods, to enjoy the sun in Seattle and San Diego. After that it was time to drive to Holland to visit some family.....and on the way there and the way back my son retrieved me from the eighties and kept me awake with Linkin Park. Hey, it stuck! I'm a fan now!

After a visit from a Dutch/American friend it was time to explore a little of the Highlands up north. Beautiful..... One afternoon we sat at the water at Ballachulish and it just hit me how quiet it was! Just no sound....no cars....it made me want to move to the country; am I getting old?

Pictures will follow...

Holland Day

Nederlandse Edammer Kaas

No "fish & chips" here!

Het is het wachten wel waard

Het bier valt niet aan te slepen

Spring is in the Air!

Along the Grand Union Canal

Watch a Movie - Save a Planet

After watching 'An Inconvenient Truth', we feel even more quilty than we already did about our big polluting Explorer.
I realize there are plenty of opinions about this film, and along with it opinions about Mr. Al Gore, so I'll just keep it short and end with a quote. And yes one more thing: Once we are in the position we will obtain that hybrid car.....

"In 39 years, I have never written these words in a movie review, but here they are: You owe it to yourself to see this film. If you do not, and you have grandchildren, you should explain to them why you decided not to." -Roger Ebert

Before the Frost

The Magnolia in our front yard just a week ago..... Now the flowers are yellow and falling of.

"The Money Pit"

Yesterday morning, after the gashob got delivered (!), I noticed a puddle of water in the livingroom. Looking up, we concluded the water came trough a crack in the doorpost, from the upperfloor where the shower was located.
Immediately my imagination ran wild: Moldy rotten floors under the vinyl; bursting pipes in the walls; contracters coming in to break away pieces of wall and ceiling..... I took a chair and checked the rest of the ceiling to see if there was any dampness. In my mind I saw the bathtub crashing down to the floor beneath...
Ever saw the hilarious 1986 movie "The Money Pit" with Tom Hanks and Shelley Long? Yesterday I had to think about Tom Hanks cracking after they filled up the bathtub, it seemed to be the last straw for him.
It made me feel better to think about that scene, luckily this house is not our own little money pit, but we are dependent on the infamous management company to get on top of this and I have lost all faith in that. The plumber who came out to install the gashob took a look at the leak for us, and suggested we not shower for a while, or take very short showers, untill he got approval and a time to come in an fix it.
HaHaHAAAHaHa

(Almost) Two Weeks After the Move

- Still no gas hob
- Electric gates not working
- No inspection report
- No contract
- etc.

In short: a lot of promises, and no results.
I just typed up a 4 page report of just the chain of events starting January 20th, when I first responded to the ad of the house we moved into about two weeks ago. On Januray 22nd I first viewed the house, and already noted the missing control knobs of the gashob. The real estate person indicated to me that this issue should be fixed before moving in because of safety issues. It is now already March.

If you ever have to deal with Howarth Homes regarding property management, Run! Run as fast as you can!

You may have heard what the definition of Insanity is? It is when you keep trying the same thing but expecting different results.
I had to think about this, every time the aftersales manager promises to call me, and I actually expect her to call! Or when she says I can expect the inspection report in the mail the following day, and I actually walk up to the mailbox hopefully! What am I thinking? If they didn't follow trough on their promises yesterday or last month, why would I expect today things will be any different?

I have to conclude now that just because I'm dependable and honest (most of the time anyway), doesnt mean I can expect the same from others. But the thing is, I still do, I still trust people to call when they say they will. Maybe I am becoming insane.....

Eclipse

~By Martin~

Settling In

On Sunday Martin was unloading the company van at the house. When he wanted to drive off, the electric gates would not open, they did not react to the remotes or the phones inside.
He just grabbed his toolbox from the garage and loosened the bolts and together we hauled the heavy iron gates out, and they still stand to the side of house.
"It's getting better all the time", I thought....but we kept working and everything is now hauled over.
The house we left behind is cleaner than it's ever been, since I hired some professional cleaners. To bad we have to leave it behind, as the new house still has a sticky kitchen and cobwebs everywhere, but I guess that is how it goes usually.
Still waiting on the gashob to be replaced though, so microwave dinners every night!
But we're getting there, and if everything that needs fixing will be fixed, we believe this place might not be as bad as we suspected last week.
It's been an emotional rollercoaster these last two weeks, and I'm still recovering from the sleepless nights, but as I said to Martin "If we can make it here, we can make it anywhere". 'Here' being England...

Here we go again...

Well, we've retrieved the keys this morning, and starting packing later this afternoon.
We don't have much confidence in how the property is going to be managed, especially after finding out this morning that items still remain unrepaired after several promises. Now the gas inspector has put a tag on the gashob, to let us know that it is unsafe to use it. Untill this is going to be replaced, I won't do much cooking I imagine.
We'll have to chase them up next week...
I heard today from a British friend that people here are not good in returning phone calls and hardly know what the term "confirmation" means....Oh brother, I wouldn't expect those kind of attitudes over here.....

After a poweroutage at our house here today, I'm really starting to wonder if we are receiving 'signs' from the universe, warnings perhaps?

The Nightmare Continues....

- House still not ready
- Unprofessional "inspector" - friend of the owner
- Promises not kept
- being lied to by the managing company over whether the carpets had been cleaned
- Real estate agency not taking any phone calls

I thought we pretty much had seen it all after all our moves.....but this is the worst yet......

I'm so done with this...

Moving Nightmares

I think we are moving this weekend, I think, but I'm not so sure.
A removal company has been booked for Monday, and the cleaners come in on Wednesday to 'ensure' we get our deposit back.
We put in an offer for our 'new' rental house last month and yesterday we were supposed to sign the contracts, but the contracts hadn't been returned from the owner. We came to inspect the house anyway to make sure the items had been fixed that we had requested and to check if the house had been cleaned. Well, the gashob still had no knobs on it and the fridge stank of the milk and mandarins gone very bad.....there was a big bottle of bleach on the windowsill, but no further indication of cleaning activities. This, while the owner had promised that the work would have been done.
So, I'm not so sure the house will be ready by tomorrow, and we are not signing a contract before it will......still, the move is all planned for next week.

An inspection by an independent company had not been arranged for either, and we not plan to pay for a deposit without an itemized report. This, because when we move out, the owners might claim that the items broken are due to our fault and refuse to pay the deposit back. When moving out of Amersham we learned how anal those inspections are. When during move-in the inspector forgets to note a fault that's there, the tenant will have to pay for it later.
House inspections are a serieus thing in Britain. One inspector warned us, some landlords will on purpuse hang white curtains etc. and upon finding stains during moving out they will hold the deposit and use it for redecorating their home. Nasty business in my opinion.
It looks like renters are still treated as a lower class citizens, no matter how much rent they pay.

I'm wondering if we are just very unlucky or if we just make the wrong decisions consistently, I'm starting to doubt myself. When we moved from the USA to a rental in Amersham, the owner decided to come back and live in the house, after only 6 months. Now we have lived in the current house for just a year, and we heard through word of mouth that the owner of this house is planning to sell the place. So we start looking, and here we are.....lease is ending whitin 2 weeks time, and the new landlord sounds not very promising.

This is going to be our 8th place to live in our 12.5 years of marriage, not counting the temporary arrangements, and it's certainly not going to be our last.

Well, I'll start packing and hopefully we are going to obtain the keys this weekend.

~sigh~

The Year of the Pig!

- Chinese New Year in London, February 18.

Snow Day

Im Memoriam

~A~
1972-2007

I knew you only as a boy
Both to young
To make sense
Of growing up

Only later we began
To understand
Just a little
Enough

Our pasts
Haunting us
Still trying to make sense
Still trying to find meaning

I am waiting
For confidence
Life experience
Something

So we could talk
Explain
And share
And maybe laugh

I should’ve known
That we can’t depend
On time
That life won’t always go on

There is no tomorrow
I’ll just have to remember
You as I once knew you
Barely a man

Passionate about music
Life with its gardens
And children
And yes, possibilities

“Oant tsjen”