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”

Fear

Who ever saw Bowling for Columbine from Michael Moore got a feeling of how the American media is instilling fear on viewers by the news they are presenting and how it is presented. I don't want to go into the debate if this is done on purpose (Frightened people are more likely to support the country's defense policies? Fear makes citizens gun- and pharmaceutical consumers??) or if this is just how journalism developed in the US.
Moving to the USA we immediately noticed how different the news broadcasts are from the Dutch broadcasts, in the news selection and in the presentation of it. Now we are in Britian we see a different version yet again.

Anyway, when Martin and I went out for a bite to eat in Rickmansworth, we ended up in the Caesar's Bar above the Italian restaurant La Perla. It turned out that every so often there are live perfomances from a variety of artists. Enjoying a Chianti and a tricolore dish, I noticed a lone dark bearded figure sitting in a corner. I said a silent prayer to Whoever is in charge up there to please let this not be a chosen night for a terrorist attack. I couldn't help but stare at him from time to time though. After a couple of musical performances, some okay, some less than okay, the bearded man was introduced as Scroobius Pip to do the spoken word of the night. Martin smiled at me and whispered "Good, I thought he was a suicide-bomber". The spoken word consisted of little poems and a letter from God to mankind, it was hilariously funny, and right on.

I try to be free-thinking, tolerant and all of that, but sometimes prejudices and fear get to me as well. It's like stepping on a plane after September 11, or on the tube after the bombings, you can't help yourself but look anxiously at your fellow travelers....
Events like these, and the drawn out news reports of them makes us watchful, if not fearful....It's to bad that the world has become this way.

Is it the English, her, or is it me?

- Dokkum - The Netherlands

Opening Christmas Crackers - a British tradition

Last week we loaded up the Explorer in the wee hours and hopped on the ferry to France. We spent a midweek at a Centerparcs in Heijen, where we floated lazily in the pools, drank cocktails in a jungle dome, enjoyed Dutch bitterballen while humming along with some dreadful bands in the evenings and sweated amongst some Germans in the sauna; A great way to avoid Christmas shoppers and start the Christmas break. The Dutch schools were not out yet, which meant no lines (or queues for the Brits) for the pools' slides.

Christmas was spent with family up North in Frisia, and I guess I'm going into the New Year a couple of pounds heavier. (Another thing I don't believe in: New Years Resolutions....)Slowly I'm getting back into some healthier lifestyle.....By the beginning of next week we should be done with all the junkfood we brought back from Holland.

We're back on the British Island again since last night, and I decided today that this really is not where I want to be... The neighbor brought me a package that someone left for us while we were away. I said thank you, and before I could get a neighborly chat started, she already turned and walked away. No "how was your Christmas?" or anything in that direction. Is it her or is this just typical British behavior, or maybe a trend that is seen in our western society? I mean; we share a driveway..... It's not that I'd like to have neighbors come through the backdoor and walk straight through any moment of the day, like it is in my parent's neighborhood......but some sort of neighborly friendliness, a little chat, showing some interest or concern, might be nice......
Of course, it could be that they saw me running through the house naked one too many times......Yeah, I guess that could be it.

Well, I hope all of you had a good Christmas, Hannukah, buffet and/or day off. Stay warm!

Christmas and all that

We bought our first Christmas tree the first Christmas after we had moved to the USA. And we still use that very same Christmas tree today. Before that, we were in an orthodox environment where having Christmas trees is seen as a distraction from what Christmas should be about, in the opinion of the orthodox Christians there at least.
But as a young family in a new strange country with no further family we got to develop our own little traditions. These traditions are little events the kids are expecting and looking forward to now, including the making of a yearly gingerbread house.

I'll be honest and tell you that I don't believe in Christmas. Assigning certain feelings to specific dates, may it be Easter, a birthday, or a death, is not something I believe in. I'm not a sentimental person, however I do appreciate that others are attaching values and remembrance rituals to certain days of the year.
Personally, when the page of the 24th of December falls, I am not getting sudden emotions of peace and goodwill. God knows I certainly don't get feelings of peace trying to do some shopping in the mall these days. I almost feel like we as a people are being like sheep following the other sheep, spending money on gifts that are hardly needed. All the songs of peace and movies about children deserving a Christmas experience can stir up feelings of guilt and generosity. Christians have claimed these days as theirs, while the origin of the festival most likely has nothing to do with Christianity, and we almost buy into it.

Maybe it's because of our Christian upbringing that we never made the kids believe there was something like an all knowing Santa Claus, who would watch them to see if they are good or bad. I didn't want to place believes in their heads that were later to be crushed when we would tell them that it was all a lie. Also, we didn't want them to be fearful of a God or a Dutch Sinterklaas with his book of names (isn't that ironic?), or a Santa Claus who would watch their moves. Watching movies like the Santa Claus, and The Polar Express, almost wants me to believe......Oh heck, sometimes I would love to believe the Bible from beginning to end to get some sort of comfort that "everything will be all right", but I would only be kidding myself.

Despite all of the above, I have to admit, I love the lights and the decorations; the presents under the tree; the eggnog lattes at Starbucks, so I do enjoy it with my family as long as it lasts. I'm not that stubborn...

The Gingerbread house will slowly but surely be nibbled away by Boxing Day. I guess we all have our little rituals that help to keep us going.

"You may say that I'm a dreamer"

Who knew one of our best nights out would be to the schools conducted tour.
When picking up the kids from school I would hear the big bands practicing at the Music facility, so I expected it to be good. I'm sure Martin and I were not the only ones impressed with the performances last night, what a wealth of talent! We are so happy we can offer our kids this experience, the experience of a very positive and stimulating school environment.

Lately I've been reading Robin Pascoe's books for Expat parents, after she gave a very entertaining talk at school as part of her book tour. I've learned some new terms like "Global Nomads" and "Third Culture Kids", which gives us traveling families something to call ourselves and something to identify with. So naturally I've been thinking about our lives, our kids lives. As parents we want to give the kids the best experience and preparation for their future, we also want to give them what we missed ourselves in our own childhoods. It's hard to know what is best, giving them a broader cultural understanding by moving around means having to say a lot of farewells, it also means redefining what 'home' is.....
I guess there is no good or bad way, just different choices and different experiences. We'll try to prepape the kids as best as we can and hope they'll turn out to be responsible and considerate world citizens. (And the rest they'll work out in therapy.....)

Anyway, when I heard one of the students sing John Lennons' "Imagine" last night, I could hardly hold back my tears.

"Imagine there's no countries

It isn't hard to do

Nothing to kill or die for

And no religion too

Imagine all the people Living life in peace"

Now that we stand before big choices again, opportunities that are opening in front of us, cultures to explore, people to understand, borders to cross; now that I'm already saying farewells emotionally; this song gets to have a new meaning to me.

A Week Off

Monday: Going into London



















Wednesday: Visiting Warwick Castle

















King Henry VIII, who doesn't look embarrassed to show he's got balls..... He had 6 wives and had 2 of them beheaded....
















No, this is not a Halloween decoration....



















Sunday: Getting ready for Halloween

Martin is organizing a Pumpkin Carving Contest at work.





























"Trunk or Treat"

History's Mysteries

~ Stonehenge, 2005

What puzzles me about sites like these is how they can get away with putting up a fence around it and charge for entrance, when you can see the site from miles away... I guess they have to do it to protect the site and keep it maintained. It's a shame though; the ugly fence takes away some of it's original mysterious air, and turns it into another hyped-up tourist attraction...

To Much To Little

Behind some blue screens in Black Park a short railway has appeared. Could this be a railway station or/and a movie set for a new Harry Potter movie?

Friday I made a wrong judgement call and walked to school. The rain from a passing hurricane almost hosed me of the streets, while some kind drivers gave me a washing in passing as well. You would think a country like Britain would be able to handle this much rain, but I guess this was to much in to little time, and the drains were barely coping.

Armored with umbrella I walked soaking wet up the schools drive way where water ran down in a white-water-river kind of way. The lower level of the school got slowly but surely flooded, and I thought "Goodbye Indian Summer".

Just as sudden as the rain came, just as quickly it stopped, and it was back to blue skies. We enjoyed some more sun, did some outside cleaning and took a picnic to Black Park.

It's back to grey skies today, but I'm not complaining. At least, not yet...

Something is blooming

When we left England for a vacation to America at the end of June, our patch of grass was yellow. Of course there was the 'drought'(still can't get over that one), and therefor a ban on using a waterhose.
Coming back from America, the flowers were all expired as well.
I went straight on with my vacation spree and visited Holland for a couple of weeks, where there was hardly a dry day in August. By the time September started our grass is green again, and I'm happy to see that a couple of brave flowers are appearing.
This week a headline in a paper caught my attention. Something about an "Indian Summer"...
Really not sure what to make of that, but let it come anyway!

Cooked What???

~Bath, 2006