Hello All,

We've been very busy little bees in the last week or so. I'm still sitting in Grasmere House & it is again just after breakfast, altho, being Friday I've had cereal & toast this time - Mark is still having a cooked breakfast every morning. He just can't go past the mushrooms.

Some of this might be old news for those of you who see my updates on Facebook, but...

It has been raining on & off all week & this looks likely to continue for a while. Most of the rain is just a drizzle but there have been a few impressive downpours as well & the little creek at the bottom of the garden is very full, almost flooding & the ducks have moved into the puddles in the sheep paddock as the water in said creek is flowing very fast. There are cute little lambs in the paddock. Here are some piccies of the place. Top one is our brekkie table (usually), then a pic of the hotel looking at the back from the creek. Our room is the bottom on the left. Then a pic of our patio.

These two are of the sheep paddock & creek with the cathedral in the background.

Anyway - Monday we went on the house-search & saw several interesting properties. One was a nice place in a nice location although the landlord had left all his furniture & stuff & would not allow it to be stored. The furniture was not too bad but I did object to the creepy stuffed monkey with the red eyes in one of the cupboards. It looked like all he took when he left was his clothes & his toothbrush, everything else was still there - weird!

Anyway - we found a nice place not too far from here - pics to follow. The landlord of this place wants to let it furnished so we are going together to pick furniture that will suit him & us. Then after that he has invited us back to his place for tea, & sometime in the future to stay at his country house.

We'll be moving in on 14th May.

We have also organised the phone & internet & will have the land-line number when its connected, hopefully also the 14th May.

We've also bought a car. Its a VW Passat, 2007 manual, 6-speed 140 brake horsepower, 2.0l diesel. Gunmetal grey in colour. They are much cheaper here than in Oz. (Mark here - it goes very nicely on the motor way :-)  ) Picking it up Saturday.

That all sounds simple but it has not been simple, hours & hours spent on all the above.

Couple other things we've done is to book tickets to see Penelope Keith in a play at The Chichester Festival Theatre; & Henry V at The Salisbury Playhouse. We be gettin' some kulcha!!

Today we need to register with the NHS (sort of like Medicare); find insurance for the car; & wander around Salisbury town getting acquainted. Mark starts work on Monday.

Below are some pics of the British Museum.

 The Front of British Museum with Cal

 Mark with an Assryian statue

 An Egyptian Frieze

 A 2000 year old Roman glass jar. White glass over dark blue then the white was carved away to make the picture. This is regarded as one of the top 10 items in the museum.

 A Grecian urn

Cal with another statue (there were lots of those)

Here we are...

Am currently sitting in the lounge of the Grasmere Hotel in Salisbury. It is 9.30 on Saturday morning & we have just finished a cooked English breakfast. (Saturday is cooked brekkie for me, all other days is cereal & toast. For Mark, everyday is cooked brekkie day). We will be driving around in our hired BMW today looking for a car to buy, that will not be a BMW. I can see Salisbury Cathedral from where I sit. It is also visible from the dining room & our room. That is on the ground floor. We have a back door onto a patio which leads onto a wide grassed area down to one of the rivers that meet just below this field. I'm finding it hard to believe these people when they tell me they're in drought! I'll post a piccie of how green the grass is when we can get our technology to work properly.

The first few days in London are a bit of a blur. It took about 36 hours to get door-to-door so we were pretty tired when we got in at 6.30am Wednesday morning. But we cleaned up a bit, had brekkie & then went out to get acclimatised as soon as possible. It was raining & cold & I had packed most of my warm stuff in the air freight so got wet. Have now bought an umbrella. Mark has his rain jacket but Wed morn left it in the hotel. Too tired to think straight.

We went to the National Art Gallery. LOTS of paintings from the 1600's, but we eventually found what we were looking for. Which were some of Turner's work, some Monet including one of his waterlillies, some Constable including The Hay Wain which is my favourite, Renoir, Rembrandt, & Van Gogh's Sunflowers. Went back to the hotel & slept for 3 hours, woke up, went to a great pub for dinner, then went back to the hotel to sleep again.

Thursday we went to the British Museum. Mark hadn't been before altho' I've been twice. Its very impressive - too impressive really, you get overwhelmed by the amount of stuff!! We looked at Roman, Greek & Egyptian stuff, & the Rosetta Stone, of course. Had lunch then went back to the hotel, got caught in some heavy rain, got soaked so went back to the hotel, dried off & had some more nap. Went to another pub for dinner, not so good, went back, watched some TV, Australia's Border Patrol, no less, then slept again.

Friday was the official 'march-in' at the High Commission. we went on the tube to get there & boy-oh-boy is it packed at 9am on a Friday morning!!! Still raining. Got briefed in, which took until 2pm then went back to the hotel, picked up aforementioned BMW, and Mark drove to Salisbury. Getting out of London was not fun, especially as we left the new GPS in the hire car in Adelaide (was found & James will post it sometime). Every one else in London was also trying to get out of London at the same time.

So here we are for the next 2 weeks, approximately. Car hunting today & tomorrow, house hunting on Monday. The place we were hoping to rent is off the list - the landlord wants to move his mother-in-law into it in 6 months so its no good for us.

Here are a couple of piccies of London - Mark in front of the Houses of Parliament; a horse guard; & the inside of St Margaret's church, which is next door to Westminster Cathedral but is free to get in (Westminster costs £16 ea to get in!)

Almost Gone...

Sunday afternoon, 2 days before we go. The visas finally arrived on Friday (we were getting just a bit worried!!); most of our stuff was packed & taken away Friday also; We have suitcases waiting to be packed in the loungeroom, with piles of clothes ready to go in them; Mark is rushing around doing last minute house maintenance chores; we had a farewell lunch at church today; I went to Dubbo with the kids last weekend to say goodbye to my parents; doing some last minute buying of stuff. Good grief, there's lots to be thinking about & doing for a move to another country!!!

So.. we are flying with Singapore Airlines & the plane leaves 11.40am on Tuesday, with a 6 hour stop-over in Singapore then onto London where we arrive at stupid-o-clock Wednesday morning. We have 2 days to recover (I don't handle jet-lag very well), then Friday we do our official 'march-in' at the High Commission, get a hire car & drive to Salisbury that afternoon. Saturday & Sunday we search for a car to buy, Monday we go on a house-search. 10-20 houses in a day then we pick one at the end!! Tuesday Mark has to work while I prowl around Salisbury finding the supermarket, the churches, the pubs... Then Wednesday we go back to London for the Anzac Day service. We'll move into our house as soon as its available, so some more busy times ahead. 

Also, in case you haven't heard, we are not taking Maggie, my cat. Turns out is will cost somewhere around $5 000 to get her there & back. Way too much money. So I'm going to be pet-less again :0(

Anyway.. next time I write I should have some interesting England stuff to report. We'll miss you all & don't forget - we'll have a guest room..

Au revoir