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)