The Dreaded Lurgy....

I have gone very quiet on the blog lately. There are a variety of factors playing into that bit but it mainly stems from having a very active toddler (a full-fledged two year old!), a spouse who seems to spend most of his time on airplanes these days, no family support here, my desire to attempt to continue a career outside the house which requires a terrible commute, and general life obligations and house upkeep that seem to keep me busier than I could have ever imagined right now. 

Most days I feel flat out by the time I put Crosby to bed so unfortunately the blog (among quite a few other things) have fallen out of daily or weekly activities for the moment. I hope this lapse in posting, just like my toddler's constant need of "mummy, mommy, mama, mommy," and her ever-so-repeated-and-demanding-but-others-tell-me-is-endearing-whining is short lived and will some day be a forgotten lapse because in the grand scheme of life it is a rather small time frame. One can hope. 

Today, however, I received an email from a work acquaintance that made me chuckle at life abroad here that I just had to pull myself together tonight to post the happening! 

Last week, I thought I might die. Not literally, but I got sick and I can't remember being that poorly in a long time. I got very sick very quickly and it seemed to come out of nowhere. My parents were due to arrive for a long weekend visit so timing could not have been worse. Two days prior to their arrival, I woke up and showered for work and couldn't make it past my bedroom door, I felt so miserable. A sudden raging fever hit me along with a chesty cough and aches and pains I can't remember even during childbirth. I crawled back into bed and attempted to phone in for a conference call meeting because I couldn't fathom the idea of driving to work, let alone sitting in a meeting room with others. And then that night the sickness seemed to get worse, with my fever reaching 104 degrees F (40 degrees C) and the other symptoms multiplying. I was miserable. 

Thankfully Scott was in town and he tended to Crosby, proving to be Super Dad, getting her dressed and taking her to nursery or getting things ready for the nanny to arrive at the house, along with re-routing my parents on their flight when they missed their connection and driving to the airport to collect them. He even managed to take some direction from me to bake a batch of bar cookies for my parents' visit. It was all a bit of a blur but two days into the illness I managed my way to the GP (doctor's office) and she said I had a chest and respiratory infection so she put me on a course of antibiotics to try to knock it out of my system. 

So, my parents were here and I was feeling miserable, not even wanting to surf the web or stare at the TV, just wanted to rest in the hope of feeling better. Consequently, I have fallen behind at work. An email of some immediate attention came through to me today and when I responded I began by apologizing that I had not been in touch earlier and explained that I had been unwell.

The response was the part that really made me chuckle. Frankly at first I thought it was a joke.

The email began with: "Cassie, Thanks for the note, sorry to hear about the lurgy."

Lurgy? 

I thought that was a joke of a term that I sometimes heard Scott say but I have yet to hear it by anyone here. So, when Scott came home from work tonight I asked him if he really knew of the term or if he just used it as a joke. His response was that it was an actual term and he hears people use it here, and in fact since he has caught part of my dreaded cough, he said he has been telling people to stay out of his office because he has the dreaded lurgy. 

This lead me to the world wide web for research on the term. Guess this is a British term and it is an amusing one to me! When I hear this word, it makes me think of an illness when you have a lot of phlegm, which is strange, but it's just what comes to mind, but apparently it is more general than that. According to Urban Dictionary: 

Lurgy

125 up, 48 down

Approximate British equivalent of the American playground term cooties, meaning a fictitious, yet highly infectious disease. Unlike cooties, now used by adults to refer to an general undefined infectious malady. Normally used in the form "the dreaded lurgy". The term originates from an episode of the 1950s radio comedy "The Goon Show" in which an epidemic of "The Dreaded Lurgi" was said to be about to sweep across Britain. It turned out that the lurgi was in fact a ficitious disease created by brass instrument makers who had claimed that no brass band player had ever died of the lurgi (thereby increasing sales hugely). "The Goon Show" was an anarchic and surreal radio comedy series that starred Peter Sellers, Spike Milligan and Harry Secombe. It was written by Spike Milligan and Eric Sykes. I think I've got the dreaded lurgy. He's not coming into work today, apparently he's coming down with a lurgy. I'm not quite sure what's wrong. Just some form of lurgy. Urgh. You've got the LURGY!

Traveling with an up-and-coming toddler

To say traveling with a small child is challenging could be an understatement. I can see why once babies start moving around (i.e. crawling quickly, walking, etc.) parents stay close to home. 

I think we are in the midst of the really difficult travel stage right now. I thought it was challenging before to fly with Crosby over her first year, but actually it seems fairly easy in hindsight. (always the way right??). For goodness sake, Crosby took 20 flights in her first year of life! Although by no means were we pros at traveling with an infant, but it was manageable.

We decided to travel to Barcelona at the beginning of May over the first Bank Holiday weekend for a short break. Barcelona been on our "list" of places we have wanted to see within Europe and so we decided we would go this year. My sister Carrie came over from the US for a visit to see us in early May so we decided it would be fun for all of us to go together to Barcelona for a long weekend. Perhaps after Carrie's time with us in Barcelona she is rethinking ever vacationing with us again for now though! 

The pros to the travel for this trip were: The flight was fairly short and it was direct. Plus we flew out of our local airport (20 minutes away) rather than having to drive to London first. The con of flying now is that Crosby has no desire to stay still or seated for that matter. She was 14 1/2 months old for this trip. She wanted to see everyone and everything that was going on. And she has a short attention span like most up-and-coming toddlers, so watching a DVD or ipad was not of much interest for more than about 5 minutes at a time. Additionally, she does not nap well outside of her crib so there was no nap on this travel day. This combination of such toddler-isms created one very crabby and slightly unhappy travel companion for our flight! I have known it is difficult to entertain a small child as I am with her every day, but this flight brought new challenges in hopes of occupying her. 

Standing on Dad's lap was fun for a while, but we were trying to be mindful of those passengers seated in front of us, so we didn't let Crosby stay there very long. 

Once up in the air, I pulled out the ipad and we tried to take self portraits with silly faces. As you can see, Crosby did not find this very amusing....

We tried x-ray vision photos for something different.

And the halo effect which didn't seem to phase her.

Double time! Two Moms and Crosby in a strange form too.

Meanwhile across the aisle, Aunt Carrie caught up on some zz's since Crosby wouldn't stay on her lap for very long. 

On the flight home, more self portraits, this time Crosby playing peek-a-boo with my iphone cover. Anything to keep her occupied....because of course the myriad of toys I had stuffed in my carry on bag were of no interest to her...

So, once we survived the flight and arrived in Barcelona we were looking forward to exploring the city. We made some changes on this trip from how we had been traveling pre-child. First, we rented an apartment. Finding multi-bedroom hotel rooms or suites with separate sleeping areas is really quite costly and since hotel rooms within Europe tend to be small to begin with, an apartment is a nice option. My only [small] complaint about an apartment or flat is that they tend to be self-catering and I end up having to fix breakfast. When on vacation, I do enjoy a break from cooking for everyone but at this point, having space to relax after Crosby goes to sleep or when she takes a nap is more important, especially for short breaks. We ended up renting a fantastic apartment in a very nice area of Barcelona so that worked out quite well. We all had space to spread out and most importantly Crosby had her space to sleep so the three of us didn't have to tip-toe around her crib for the evening after she went to bed. 

The other change we made was we rather quickly abandoned public transport to and from the airport. Although we may have initially tried to take public transport, hauling our suitcases, a stroller, a tired child, and three adults did not gel with the train as the best way of transport. So, we opted for a taxi and after a bit of traffic, the nice driver dropped us right around the corner from our apartment. 

Having not taken a holiday with Crosby since our trip back to the US at Christmas time, we have not traveled with her since she has been onto full solid meals three times a day. There are pros and cons to both sides of the milk only vs. food spectrum when traveling with a child but it is nice to be able to just hand her an apple slice or a cracker instead of having to stop and feed her along the way as we did before when she was not eating solid foods. 

Interestingly enough, we would always ask the restaurant if it were ok to bring a child in with us and they always happily welcomed Crosby into the restaurant but only a few restaurants actually had high chairs available! 

Luckily we packed our small collapsible high chair to bring along with us on this trip and we used it at almost every restaurant along the trip. Another item I had packed and gladly used along the way was a stash of Ella's Kitchen vegetable packets. Since we were unsure about how many vegetables and fruits we might be able to find at every meal, I packed a supply of the packets for Crosby to eat daily and they were perfect. 

Another note about traveling with a small child in Spain. Timing was an issue. Many restaurants do not open until 8 or 9 pm for dinner and that is well past Crosby's bed time, let alone her dinner time! We could not wait that long each evening to feed her. So we went the tapas route most nights. We went to a tapas bar, had lots of small plates and then later on in the evening we had snacks if were still hungry, that we had purchased from the local grocery store and kept in our kitchen at the apartment. This type of dining was a noticeable change in how we used to do our vacations but it worked alright for this trip. 

And then there was the element of sightseeing within the city. First, getting around the city was a bit of a challenge. We had a small child in a stroller and Barcelona, although modern in some ways, is old. Europe is old for that matter. Public transport is not stroller friendly. Therefore, we climbed a lot of stairs where one adult would hold the baby, and the other adult would carry the stroller. Our arms were tired after doing this multiple times each day up and down stairwells. 

Scott was able to manage sometimes on his own...

 And then sometimes Aunt Carrie was there to help too...and I carried extra bags. 

 But then as any time wore on, Crosby would wiggle her way out of her stroller straps, basically proclaiming she no longer wanted to sit in the stroller. Scott would carry her around the streets of Barcelona over his shoulder! 

We wanted Crosby to stay in her stroller as we walked into the main area of Parc Guell and she wanted none of it! Actually, this type of outburst happened quite a few times over the weekend....she would start to get very upset and then in true tantrum style, would yank her hair bow out of her hair and throw it out of the pram. 

I would notice about 5 minutes too late that her hair bow was gone. Luckily while at Parc Guell I retraced my steps and found the bow along the dirt path! It felt like I was doing a lot of back tracking to ensure we had everything with us at all times.

So, the moral of this trip was quickly realized....city breaks with an up-and-coming toddler are not going to be our cup of tea for the moment. It's a tough lesson learned since Scott & I have enjoyed a LOT of traveling since moving abroad. We suspect a pool/beach/more relaxed type holiday will be our speed for a bit. The next trip on our books will be a week in France doing just as described - a week by the pool relaxing and perhaps some very small and quick market trips in nearby towns.  We want to be able to still take advantage of having Europe on our doorstep but we know our days of exploring as we used to are gone for the moment. Perhaps when Crosby is a bit older such city breaks will be more enjoyable for all involved, but for right now they are not fun for her and consequently they are not enjoyable for us either! Travel in general just seems tough with a young one at this age so we are hopeful that with a different speed of a holiday we will still be able to get away to someplace new, relax and enjoy time together as a family. 

Where the lamb goes....

Crosby goes too....


Crosby received her beloved stuffed lamb when she was born from her grandparents in the US. In fact she received quite a few stuffed plush toys from America from various friends and family members when she was brand new, but for whatever reason the little white stuffed lamb became her security toy. She sleeps with it, she snuggles with it, she nuzzles it when she is upset, and generally it goes everywhere she goes because she feels safe with it.

Crosby & her lamb on a walk into town.

Crosby snuggling the lamb at Waitrose grocery store. 

Crosby and the lamb at afternoon tea.

Swinging at the park with the lamb in hand...

Even running around the yard with the lamb right next to her face! 

We had a small parenting failure (or miscommunication) last year when Crosby and I were traveling back to the US and the other parent (who shall remain unnamed....) did not realise the lamb was meant to go with us to the airport when he put Crosby and her belongings in the car. Regardless, the situation was able to be remedied because the lamb was born and sold in the US, so dear Gram was able to go buy another lamb before Crosby & I landed in the US and Crosby never knew the difference.


After that trip when we returned to the UK, we then had two lambs and we thought Crosby might be bothered by having two of her favourite lambs instead of just the one prized security toy, but she actually has loved having two. They have little rattles inside if them so she will sit and bang them both together to make noise, or she will carry them around - one in each hand- with great joy.


Ever since acquiring the second lamb, we have been careful to travel with both in case one gets lost (keeping one with us in a carry-on bag and one in Crosby's hands) but recently we have noticed, we have been both lambs out on errands more regularly because Crosby is asserting her very strong will and opinion about always having both in hand - and this situation is on I considered to be a small battle not worth fighting, so I have gone along with it.

Crosby looking upset because she thought Mom & Dad were leaving her at the house (but really we were just loading the car so we could all go run errands). Crosby had her two lambs in hand ready to go out on errands with us.

Well unfortunately now we are paying the price of having a favorite US-born security toy because somehow on the day when the photo above was taken, we lost a lamb along the way when running errands (at Sainsbury's grocery store I suspect). We left the house with two and somehow only had one by the evening when we had returned. Despite multiple phone calls to the store, no one has turned in Crosby's favorite little lamb. So, we are now watching her one prized lamb with all of our eyes to ensure we keep track of it before our next trip back to the US where we will purchasing another lamb from the store there! Perhaps we might even acquire a third lamb and keep one of them hidden for future good measure. It is really special that Crosby loves this little lamb so much but the trials of having a transatlantic security toy that cannot be purchased on this island where we reside makes us quite nervous at times, most especially when we have long stretches of travel ahead of us with her!

A Traveling Spouse

Scott has been working in a new role (still for the same company) since the start of this year. His new job is requiring a LOT of travel. In fact, I think he's only been in the UK for a two full weeks since the first week in January. It is the kind of travel that has allowed him to nearly reach gold status on TWO airline carriers within the first quarter of the year, and he is almost gaining status on a third carrier. I am not quite sure if those are status achievements he should be boasting about or not!

It's been an adjustment for all of us, most especially for me since during that time I have gone back to work and am trying to balance the work/mom roles while not having the daily support from my husband in a physical sense to pitch in with childcare and/or daily life tasks.

I am learning my way as a single parent during the week and dare I even say at this point now, nearly a full 3 months into it, I can say it is sometimes easier to manage certain things when Scott is away? Not major things but there are certain things that are easier - the house stays cleaner, our bed is always made, I don't have to cook full dinners every night, Crosby knows our routine and what to expect, I can sleep in the middle of the bed, and I can watch whatever I choose at night on the tv! However, these small feats are not out-weighed by the downside of having Scott gone all the time lately. I find that although the house may be clean and I have time alone at night, I find that I am doing this all alone - and I am just purely exhausted by the end of each week when Scott comes home for one or two days before the car service comes to collect him bright and early on Monday morning for his next week of work travel.

When Scott took this new job, we both knew there would be some travel involved. I am just not sure either of us thought there would be this much travel involved - and I know neither of us knew what the situation would be like with me back at work on top of it. This past weekend was a perfect example of the compression felt by both of us, by having one spouse who is not around during the week. Scott was in the office on Friday here in the UK and intended to scoot out of the office a bit early so he could catch Crosby and spend some time with us since he was due to leave early on Sunday morning. As responsibilities go, there was too much work to do in the office and he needed to finish things before leaving town so leaving work early on Friday never happened and his arrival home was after Crosby went to sleep and was even later than expected for dinner.

So, Saturday we raced around town trying to run a few errands - Scott wanted to get a gym workout in, he needed a haircut, etc. I wanted to just have a short break myself since I had been on my own for the whole week prior with Crosby, and that never really happened because Scott had priority on his to do list since he was going to be out of the country the next day. I also wanted some quality family together, knowing that we were only going to have this one day to be together, just the three of us again for a while. Too many things to make happen in a short period of time, of course sandwiched in between Crosby's naps and her meals.

There is a part to all of this traveling and long working hours that I have come to expect - most especially as part of the expat assignment - but there is a part of it that I did not expect and that is the difficulty of having good conversations with my spouse while he travels. Crosby & I can really manage fairly well on our own, although it is tiring. What I miss is the part of the night when even if Scott is home (very) late from work, we have a good 15 minute (minimally) catch up on our days and we have a partner with which to decompress. With Scott's international travel schedule, it has been difficult to get a good conversation in on the phone. His free time seems to come right as his work meetings are wrapping up, just before the dinners start, which is the time when Crosby is at her crabbiest and needs the most attention from me at this point in my day - so a focused call is difficult to manage. Or, Scott's schedule frees up after dinner which seems to be late and at that point I am half asleep because I am trying to get rest for my early start at work the next day. Or perhaps Scott has a free moment during the day - it always seems to coincide with the days that I am in the office and can't talk myself. And then of course there are those trips like the one this week, where there is a significant time difference in where Scott is and the UK, so managing a time to catch up is even more complicated! Couple these challenges with the fact that I find my husband not a good phone conversationalist to begin with and consequently, I feel like there are too many missed conversations during the week. The weekends become even more crammed with playing catch up and even still - the weekends never make up for everything in the same way as it would if Scott were home.

So here we are at the end of a 6 or 7 week solid stint of Scott having been away every week and some weekends straight in a row without a break. He is coming back just in time for his family to arrive in the UK and just in time for me to leave the UK to go on my first trip (and first nights away from Crosby) alone for a short bit. In theory, it sounded marginally like a good idea, although now that it is almost here, both of us are finding it to be a wee bit more stressful than anything else. At this point, we would both say it would just be nice to have a week away from work as a family together, or even better yet, a weekend for Scott & me away at some point too. Neither of those things are going to happen now because of other plans set forth, so we are just trying to move forward in that continuation of the "cram-everything-into-as-little-time-as-we-have-together" mode in the few hours we have as our little family of 3 before our visitors arrive.

The good news for Scott's family who is coming to visit is that they get to spend time with him, since he has arranged his travel schedule to be here while they are. The downside for me is that as soon as they leave and just after I return, his traveling commences again. And although it will be nice for him to have some extra hands to help out with Crosby while I am away, it would have been a good experience for both he & Crosby to be on their own for a week so Scott could see how the other shoe fits (since we have a nanny who comes when I work so she comes when Scott works too!). His response to this idea was something coy, reinforcing the fact that he knows how to make these things work to his advantage. (I describe his response with all my love of course). If I had my parents over every time Scott left town, I think they would live with us permanently at this point!

The only other small advantage from all of these worldly travels of Scott's is that Crosby is gaining a collection of dress up clothes and shoes from around the globe that will rival many other children's play selections some day.....

A vibrant skirt and top from India (Crosby needs a few years to grow into it)

Turkish slippers taste yummy!

The Turkish slippers are pretty cute on her little feet!

Traveling with an infant

Last week we took our first family holiday abroad. Yes, we did already go back to the US with Crosby so it wasn't her first international trip, but this last week was our first vacation where we were not going to stay with extended family, etc.

Before Crosby came along, Scott & I had been maximizing our time off of work to travel as much as we could while we have been living over here in Europe. We have grown to love traveling more than we ever thought we would. We knew our travels would not cease once we had a baby, but we did recognize that we would probably slow down a bit since traveling with an infant is not as easy as just traveling with two adults. Luckily for us, Crosby seems to be a good traveler - she is quiet on the airplane, the pressure of the flight doesn't seem to bother her too much, she doesn't have car sickness while driving on windy roads, and she seems to be interested in her new surroundings so she likes to take in the sights in new places. She is still at a good age where is "portable" and isn't eating food yet so it is a bit easier on us for now.

The one part that has changed and that is not as portable is all the GEAR that comes along with a baby. How does such a little being require so much stuff??? In reality, we do not bring that much extra "stuff" for Crosby but on this last vacation we could see the difference when we rented a car. With a car seat, stroller, baby, plus all of our luggage, we knew we would have to upgrade the size car we needed for the week.

Beyond the car seat and stroller, the other "gear" items required on this trip included: a travel cot/"pea pod" for a sleeping location (the house we rented only had one baby cot and there were two babies so we needed an extra bed for one baby - it can double as a sun shade for baby since it has UV protection), an inflatable swimming ring for the pool, baby bjorn carrier, a baby monitor, two baby bottles, bottle brush, sterilizer bags, and of course an assortment of baby clothes, burp cloths, bibs, and more.

While the gear is much greater than we have been used to for travel purposes, it is manageable and we are slowly learning what is necessary and what is not. The part of this trip that was not expected when we thought about traveling with an infant was the airport and airline issues we encountered this time around.

The day we flew to France, we went to the airport in advance of our flight and proceeded through security as we usually do. We are pros at pulling out our liquids and knowing what will set the alarms off, etc. So in advance of the scanning machine I told the security agent that I had breastmilk in a cooler - bottles for my baby. These are completely legal to bring through for flights and I have already been through three major airports (including this airport, BHX, which we were going through again!) and have never had any problems with Crosby's bottles.

After our bags and items went through the scanner, we got pulled aside for further inspection. (expected since we were traveling with milk for a baby). The security guard asked me to taste the milk. [a side note - the UK will ask you to taste breastmilk, but the US will NEVER have you taste it because since the US is such a litigious society, you could poison your own milk and then sue the airport for having them ask you to taste it! Insane.] After I tasted it and all was fine, the security agent noticed the freezer pack I had to keep the milk cool. The agent then proceeded to tell me I could not keep the freezer pack and it was considered to be a liquid so it would have to be thrown out. I questioned this response because I had already flown THREE times with this freezer pack and it was never questioned and furthermore how was I supposed to keep the milk cold for baby Crosby without it (plus it was a special pack made to keep the bottles cool)? SHE didn't care. (I really thought it was 10 times worse since the agent was a WOMAN and had to have had some compassion). She told me freezer packs were only allowed for medicine and milk was not medicine so she threw it out, in front of me. It took Scott to almost pull me away to not completely loose it over this issue. There are so many reasons I was upset about this interaction and way it was handled but I was most upset about the milk I was carrying potentially going bad before Crosby could consume it.

Fast forward to the week we returned from our trip. I was frantically searching online for information regarding the rules and regulations for taking breastmilk on an airplane. Apparently the TSA in the US has a very clearly stated policy about this topic on their website: breastmilk is considered to be in the same category as medicine, so freezer packs ARE ALLOWED. In researching this topic, many women have said it is best to print out this specific site to show to security agents if you encounter any problems when traveling. I will do so for my future trips within the US, however I could not find such information for the UK policy. Consquently I am writing a letter to the airport team to inquire about this topic. I also called Medela - the company who makes the breastpump and freezer pack - they were GREAT! I told them about my experience and they sent me a new replacement freezer pack for free and are looking into the airport guidelines for me.

As if the start to this trip didn't cause me enough of a headache with the security screening debacle, then we went to board our bmi baby flight and we surrendered the stroller and car seat at the gate to be gate checked. I inquired with the flight attendant as to when we would be able to collect the items when we landed. Her response was "at the side of the airplane when you land." Because I had a weird feeling about things, I grabbed the baby bjorn and put it in my carry on bag just in case. I was glad I did! Sure enough, we landed in France and had to board some buses and were shipped to the main terminal where we had to walk for eons to get to baggage claim....all WITHOUT our stroller for the baby! And then amazingly enough this happened AGAIN to us on the way back from France to the UK and we had the same responses from the airline staff again.

While the airline staff didn't seem to know their own policies regarding gate checked items, the airplane was also ill-equipped for babies. Unfortunately we learned the hard way that although bmi baby airplanes are always filled with families (and lots of babies!), they are not baby friendly. NO BABY CHANGE in the bathrooms. Why??? The airline attendant said to me "I know it's silly but sorry, we just don't have any." She offered me the jump seat where the flight attendants sit, which was very nice but unfortunately kept flipping up and so it was not a very secure space to change a baby.

I knew traveling with a baby would have its own set of challenges but these were not the expected kind. Needless to say, I am composing a few letters of feedback for the airport and airline to inquire about these issues encountered....

Spiders in the Car "wing" mirrors

I have expressed my discontent with the high number of spiders this country has to offer, mainly the ones I find living in my house. Today, I have seen 5 who are taking up residence in my home. Sigh. I killed the two in the kitchen (well Scott did on my behalf!) because it disgusts me to have spiders in the food preparation area. The others who are living in the corners of rooms will get to live for today....tomorrow may be a different story.

Beyond the spiders that seem to multiply in our house, I am now finding spiders living in the "wing" (side) mirrors of our cars. Maybe I wasn't as aware of this situation when we first moved here, but now it seems to be happening on every car I see in a parking lot. The spider seems to live inside the mirror area and then spins its web in between the mirror, car window and door frame. I will have to take a photo to post sometime soon. I already got angry with the spiders this morning and destroyed their webs with a stick when I pulled back home into the driveway. I know there are at least two of them in one of our cars because as I was driving today along the motorway, they BOTH crawled out onto their webs at nearly the same time. As I was looking to change lanes, I glanced in the side mirrors and saw big brown spiders crawling around out there!!! uggh. I just fear they will crawl inside my car (correction, I have already found webs inside the volvo on the passenger's side - GROSS!) - but I fear they will crawl inside while I am driving just to irritate me. 

I do not remember walking through a parking lot of cars in the US to find every other car wing mirror covered with a spider web....I am wondering is it just another UK phenomenon? I just googled the situation and was amused to find other people wonder about these spiders who reside inside their car mirrors as well.

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=670157

There were quite a few other sites I found about this topic, but I will quit my ranting about it now and will hope that someday I'll be back in a land where I do not find spiders popping out every day at me. 

ONE YEAR in the UK!

It is hard to believe how quickly and yet how slowly (at times...) the past year has gone by while living here in the UK. It has officially been one year since we arrived on this island. 

For the most part, I would say we assumed "normal" life pretty quickly and by now most things no longer feel as foreign as they did in the beginning. I will admit there are definitely things I still miss about the US and things I find strange or irritating about life over here, but there are now things about the UK that I am sure I will miss once we return to the US. 

In no random order, here are some things I still really do miss about the US: 

- Being close to our families. We are lucky enough to have had our families over here to visit, and they will return within the next year, but it is still sad at times not to see them as often as we did before. Same story with our good friends!

- Various products: unsweetened chocolate squares (no good substitutes of any kind of over here), Cheetos (terrible I know), marshmallows, cheez-its, tootsie rolls, big bags of chocolate chips (Trader Joe's semi-sweet brand to be specific), applesauce, CHEX cereal, PAM spray, and peanut butter are just a few.... and looking at this list, I realize there is nothing really healthy on there! 

- Dining out. Restaurants in our area, although charming, are not quite as prolific and of the same quality as we experienced on a regular basis in Chicago. We were spoiled with the dining options in the city of Chicago and miss our good steaks, hamburgers, deep dish pizza, sushi, and weekend brunch restaurants the most. No good substitutes over here in our area.

- Buttered movie theater popcorn. They offer "salt" or "sweet" popcorn choices at the movie theater over here and while we have not attended more than a handful of movies in the last year, I miss the kind slathered in liquid butter and topped with salt. (again, realizing another thing I miss about the US is really not that healthy!)

- Fast customer service. I suspect that by the time we move back to the US, the mediocre customer service that the US cable company will offer me will feel like lighting speed compared to the experiences I have had over here.

- Fabric Stores - i.e. Jo-Ann Fabrics or any other big chain or independent quilting/fabric shop in the US. I am sure my wallet (and Scott!) appreciates the lack of such stores over here but I could spend hours just wandering the aisles of a good fabric store. There is a story called Hobby Craft over here that is a very watered down version of a Michael's but really it doesn't even hold a candle to any type of "superstore" craft store in the US. 

- Window Screens and air-conditioning in the house. Have you seen my posts about spiders before???? I often feel like I am living at a summer camp because I see and kill so many spiders!

- Target. There is no substitute.

- Stores open past 5:30pm. I cannot wait to be back in the US where I can run out to the store at 7pm just because I would like to go shopping later in the evening. I will never take 24 hour stores for granted after living over here! 

Again, in no random order, some things I have really grown to enjoy on this side of the pond:

- Boden. I have recently discovered this online shopping outlet. I LOVE it. My poor wallet (and Scott)! I especially love it because they offer LONG options for dresses and pants which is a golden find for someone like me who is taller than most. I am even more thrilled to know that they now have a US division of their company so once we move back to the US, I will still be able to indulge in this shopping habit.

- Waitrose Grocery Store. It is really a fabulous grocery store and makes Dominicks or Jewel in Chicago look pretty dismal. They have a wonderful selection of bakery products, fresh fish, and more - although it all comes with a price!

- Percy Pigs from M&S. I am slightly addicted to these "soft gums" as they call them here. Basically they are chewy gummy candies. 

- Custard Cream Biscuits. These cookies are cheaper than buying a bottle of water. They are simple vanilla wafers with cream filling on the inside but they are served frequently with your coffee or tea, or during a meeting, and I eat them all too often as a result! They are a tasty little treat though...

- Salt & Vinegar Crisps. Salt & Vinegar seems to be a very popular flavor chip (as known by Americans) and Scott & I both really enjoy the flavor. It seems that every brand of chips offers this flavor and they are all good.

- The slower pace of life and extended amount of vacation time. It seems to be a love/hate relationship we have with the pace of life over here - it is frustrating that things move much slower than we are used to at times, but then on the flip side, it is very nice to be able to take a step back and slow down a bit. Stores physically close earlier here and everyone takes their allotted 5 weeks of yearly vacation. Such parameters have actually allowed us to spend more time together and have given us plenty of time to travel. Sometimes it feels like we are on vacation every other month. (not that we are complaining - but it is a wonder how things get done when people are on holiday so often!).  

- The access to Europe and beyond. We have been able to see so many amazing places over here that we know we never would have the opportunity to see with such ease if living in the US. 

- Scott's office being located just 2 miles away from where we live. His short commute has been a complete change from his days in Chicago when he drove for over an hour (or more) each way to and from work. He now is able to come home from work in the middle of the day for lunch, and even though he works more hours than he did in Chicago, he is actually home earlier (sometimes) than he was a year ago. 

- The weather. How could the weather be a positive when it rains so much over here, you ask?!?!? Again, compared to the weather in Chicago (mainly the winters there), a year round fall-like climate with rain really seems to be a nice improvement over digging a car out of a foot of snow in below-zero temperature! Besides, if we miss the sun in the summer months, we just can hop on a plane and head to southern France or Italy for a week. :)

Overall, we are glad to be celebrating our first year of living abroad and hope that our future time here brings as many wonderful discoveries as we have had within the first year. 

An Apple a Day...

Is said to keep the doctor away....let's hope it works because I do not want to be going to the doctor over here! 

In my opinion, one of the glaring differences in living over here has been the healthcare system, known here as NHS (national healthcare system). I will tell anyone who favors socialized medicine to come over here and live for a year and see how things work. 

It seems that because there is free healthcare for all citizens, there seems to be a lack of preventative care in general in order to save money because it is a government funded situation. 

A good friend (American family) had a baby a few months ago over here and the mom took the baby in for her first round of shots. She asked the doctor when she should plan to bring the child back for her next well child visit how often they would occur. The doctor said "Well Child visit? - Why would we need to see your child if she's well!" Right. That experience, coupled with the fact that she had this baby in a rather terrible hospital setting (I will refrain from going into that situation because I could write a novel and it wasn't even my experience!), makes all of us want to keep our American doctors so that we can visit them when we are back on a home visit. 

I am not impressed with the health care here, yes, I will admit it, and I could even be called a bit negative when talking about it. I know the resistance is partially due to the fact that we have been very lucky and fortunate with good health care insurance and access to premier doctors in the US. Living over here makes me REALLY appreciate that aspect of the US and I hope that I never need to know to what extent the US is ahead of the rest of the world as far as medical advances are concerned.  

Last week I needed to have a MRI run on my knee because I have been having bad knee pain for a few months. The results were alright and luckily it is just some fluid under my knee cap and a bit of tension on my IT band which will hopefully correct itself with a steroid injection and some PT. However, I had great anxiety about the results of this MRI because of the way the situation was handled.

First, let me share with you a photo I took of the "hospital" I visited to have this MRI scan. 

It is a house that has been converted into a "hospital." I know everything is much older in this country and so there are not as many new buildings as we are used to in the US, but it is VERY strange to walk into a hospital setting that you would otherwise consider to be a dining room or living room! It did not feel very sterile and definitely did not feel like a medical facility. The NHS hospital by us is not very clean - as they have had a diarrhea outbreak for the past three months that has been difficult to contain. Sorry to have to publish such gory details but simple steps of sterilization and cleanliness would probably help curb such issues! If we had to use the ER, I would probably drive further away just to avoid that nearest hospital because of its issues. 

Overall my experience for the MRI itself was just fine - aside from it being in a house. The machine was newer and quite fancy. I had the scan on a Monday and on Friday I thought to myself that it was odd that I had not heard the results from the doctor. Low and behold, I received a letter in the POST saying that I was scheduled for an appointment with the doctor at 5:30pm on a Wednesday the following week to discuss the results. Discuss the results in person??? I thought it MUST be TERRIBLE news if the doctor needed to see me in person! Furthermore, how did they assign me this appointment time without a call first to see if I were even available? 

As it turns out, even though I saw this private doctor and he does not see NHS patients, his practice still operates like the NHS system - sending all letters for appointments via POST and assigning you a time without your consent. Within the NHS system if you (as the patient) need to cancel an appoint, they will just re-issue you a new appointment slot with a letter/notice via post. 

For a country that recycles everything and anything possible, I find it is crazy that they waste so much time, energy and paper by posting letters for your doctor's appointment. Wouldn't a phone call work much faster and easier for all involved in scheduling???

In my situation, I ended up calling the doctor's office and explained I was not used to such letters being sent to me for appointment bookings and would prefer it if the doctor could call me with my results first and if I needed to come see something on the scan, I would be more than happy to come into the office. (I am sure they thought I was crazy for not coming in to the office!!) However, I felt that the suspense of having to wait for an in-person appointment was too much to handle. I ultimately kept thinking the worst.... I guess if I knew about such system before having my first experience with the doctor, I probably would have known it was proper protocol. Either way, I still find this health care system to be more than a bit undesirable and inefficient. Fingers crossed we really don't have to use it while we're here...

Back Up and Running....

Finally! We are back up and running with the internet, phone, AND cable in our new house! Hallelujah. It took only over three weeks to get everything installed, but at least that time is now behind us and it is amazing how stagnant it felt not having the Internet to use for a while....I guess we have REALLY become dependant upon the web - and namely GOOGLE. 

The best part about having all of our services transferred from our old house, to our new house, was the letter I received from our service provider, SKY. 

It read:

Dear Mr. XXX,

Thank you for choosing SKY again as you move homes. We understand you have re-ordered your broadband internet connection to be transferred and we expect that this service installation will be complete by the close of day on Tuesday, March 10, 2009. To check the status of your order and its progress, please log on to : www.sky.com/service and enter code XXXX. 

Sincerely,

SKY Customer service

If we do not have the internet in our house, how can we check the status of our order??? 

I love great customer service experiences such as these.

(SARCASM)

Moved but still not fully functional....

We took a short break from unpacking our belongings this past weekend and headed to Madrid for a long weekend. Scott had a business meeting there this week, so we both went early and then I returned so I could get back to work. I will post photos and recap our nice long weekend there but it may take awhile because we are now in the land of service issue purgatory with our new house. BT has not moved our phone number from our old house to our new house (already a week past when they said they would) and then SKY has cancelled our cable, tv, and Internet subscriptions because we have no current phone line from BT. Neither provider wants to take ownership as to why our services were cancelled so we are having to start a new with everything....which means we are looking at a good two to three weeks before we have any services in our house! 

I am thankfully over at a friend's house tonight to check my email although I am sure they do not want me over at their house every night to use the computer and their vonage phone to call back to the states. Hopefully we will be back up and running in the digital/Internet world soon...oh wait, I mean in due British time.....

Smash!

Our car was vandalized and broken into a few weeks ago. I was preparing to load up the car to attend my first craft show when I looked up and found the passenger's side window completely bashed in. The burglars went into our glove box and found NOTHING.....

But they left us with a big MESS!!!

On the inside of the car, glass shards were everywhere - notice the pile of glass on the floor of the passenger's side.

Initially, the window was partially smashed in, but rest was about to fall out.  

After I shut the side door, more of the glass fell out of the window...it sounded like someone was walking on candy canes as the glass fell out of the window.