Sorry people

Sof:

Sorry that we haven't been keeping up with the blog so much. I have been busy in Canada, and Paul bored at home, so there has been reasons......(!)

I have to confess that my alcohol tolerance is certainly getting much higher since I moved over here - and here i was worrying that the food would be the issue I got a bigger gut!! haha! Beer gut more like it! I experienced a Canadian night out with Becca and her mates on Sat eve -what fun! We had a fun 'sexy' photo shoot - well, I attempted! I found it funnier to climb up the skirting - profile picture - but check out my calves!!! Woah! Running is kinda good me thinks. I drank SO VERY MUCH. Oh My God. Seriously. I could not believe it. Hangover from HELL the next day. And Becca thought it would be fun to go ice skating the next day......ergh!! The clubs in Canada aren't so very different from the UK - especially the one I went to - me in a dance club?? HAHA!!! The music was fucking terrible - only Bon Jovi was the concession to alternative! My 'big-box-little-box' drew blank looks, BUT I got LOTS of attention....and NO it wasn't cause of my huge tits, it was my accent!! Wow - did it draw the men! They accused me often of faking it - how funny is that? - and they just lapped it up! But I was a good girl - I didn't give my home DC number to any of them, although it was tempting! Can you imagine Paul getting a call the next day? HAHA!

The ice skating that we went to was in a local national trust type park, and they have created a open air ice skating rink on a pond. All the family come on over and skate - it seems a rite of passage to ice skate in Canada - even 2 year olds are more competent than most Brits - amazing!

I have also been introduced to lots of Becca's friends, which is really nice as I am living a Canadian life. Montreal wine is real nice.......

We went for a manicure yesterday and lunch, which was my birthday present to Becca for her birthday last year - I know, 10 months too late, but better late than never! We are taking Georgia for a pedicure this afternoon - me and B included, for G's birthday in Jan - only 1 month late this time!! I can't believe how much of a girl I am turning into. Don't worry, dear readers, the farting and swearing will never stop.....and you'll never persuade me to wear heels regularly, nor like pink. Or have children. Nah......I like using Daisy as presentation of the child I would have! She is amazingly cute, and as B and I are so alike, in parenting and just personality, I reckon we would have similar kids.....nothing to do with the father, nothing at all!

So, I am leaving here tomorrow - to drive to Buffalo (1 hour) fly to Baltimore via Philadelphia (4 cheesy hours) then a train to DC (1 hour) then Metro to Dunn Loring (30 min) the hopefully spot Paul waiting for me. We have no mobiles, so the boy will have to keep an eye on transport links and hope for the best. I reckon I'll be there 4-430. We'll see. Just like old times!

Will endeavour to keep you up to date soon - our stuff gets here the day after tomorrow, so will be busy!

Love you all xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Blame Canada!

Sof: Bonjour - salut!

I'm writing from cold, cold, but no snow, Canada! I travelled back with the Munro's in their Dodge mini van. You should be proud of me - in the back with 1 small bundle of pure energy, and 1 larger bundle of pure energy!! I now know all the words and songs to a Dora Episode (the one with Daisy's party - barn, rain forest, Daisy's party!) and how long it takes to do any kinda road trip with small children - how many times do they need to pee pee and poo poo?? BLIMEY!!!
BUT it was great fun - I got to see some of the classic American rest stops. We have discovered that Sheetz have the best restrooms (over here if you say toilet, they think you need to poo and consider that rude. They don't understand 'loo' so you just have to say bathroom or restroom). Some of them were 'I've married my father and had children with my mother' type affairs - ergh. Real strange. Becca and I can be right bitches on occasion! We had one MAJOR tantrum, to which the adults all ignored and sang to 'Living La Vida Loca' instead. Good times!

So the trip took all day. I got treated to a Swiss Chalet......weird chicken sauce (I swear Dave'll eat anything) and with all the chicken tenders came plum sauce - seriously?? IT WAS SUGAR FLAVOURED PLUM SAUCE COLOURED DIP!!

SO to a comfy bed for me!

I have to say, Paul didn't really explain why they cancelled President's Parade... it was cause of all the huge fuck off icicles hanging from the roofs that could skewer an arm off when they fell. And boy, did they fall. They had shut some sidewalks off so they could manually knock them down. Amazing. It could actually kill you. We did get a parade though - Becca and Dave paraded round the Visitors centre for Daisy....we found it funny, but Daisy didn't.

Old Town Alexandria is so gorgeous. I think I may have to come back in warmer weather to check out all the boutiques - with Becca of course!

So back to the land of Maple Syrup. My birthday was a fun affair. Waking up at 10 and having a happy birthday sung by Daisy and Becca with a fab Hello Kitty card and a chocolate red rose. We stayed in PJ's til 12ish, then showered and fetched Georgia from School. Chatted to various family members - thanks all! Got treated to a Tim Hortons chili in a tub - Tim Horton is a HUGE Canadian coffee chain (like Starbucks). All the Canadians drink in these chains - much to the disgust of Starbucks and the delight of me! Tim Horton was a huge ice hockey player, who died in a car crash at 40. These Canadians are extremely patriotic so only use this chain. There are some donut ones in America too (he started with a donut shop!).

We then went shopping for a dress for me to wear on our night out clubbing on Saturday. I think it was then that B realised just how large my boobies are - haha! Squeezing into some of these affairs brought tears of laughter to her and tears of pain to me! I don't think a dress fits when you can't actually breathe! We finally found 2, so bought both to choose from on Sat!

The evening was a delight - Jack Astors bar/grill whatever. Dave pointed out the lady bar servers were wearing hot pants....wonder why he noticed first?! The Munro's had secretly bought me an ice cream cake from Baskin Robbins (yum!) and it was brought out with sparklers on top. The 2 servers then proceeded to make me stand up, assume the pose of 'I'm a little teapot' and dance whilst they sang the tune! Hilarious! No protests of 'I'm a quiet, docile Brit' would stop them. After playing 'pass the sweet' we retired home to wine and sofa.

As much as I really miss Paul (and sweetheart - I really do) I am having a ball. The kids are such fun (NO - I AM NOT INSPIRED TO HAVE MY OWN), and I love being a fake auntie. Wonder what being a real auntie would feel like? I have one of my closest friends with me, and my blues are gone for good! I am CRAP at Scrabble, and Trivial pursuit (I blame the fact the the pursuit is an OLD one and I am much to young to know the answers!). I am officially a Pirate (I think it's the accent) and my parrot is called Polly...Pauly....whichever shivers yer timbers!

xxx

President Solo!

PAUL:

Well its been action packed..kinda.

Sof and I had one night alone following my return from Florida before our first house guests arrived. That's right Chez Brycock is open for business. Saturday morning brought the delights of the Munro clan fresh from a 12 hour drive from Toronto. They drove through the night sharing the load and were therefore able to maintain some sort of awakitude during the whole of Saturday.

We spent the day catching up..me on my sleep from my week away and Sof chatting incessantly with the Munrods. We had always planned to go out for a meal that night and the Munros had spent some time in the area and knew of a microbrewery nearby. We loaded up and headed over to experience the wonders of the Dogfish head inn in West Falls Church.

The place served up some pretty potent fare. Beers ranging from a modest 4% up to a mind splattering 18%+ (so high they served it in a brandy glass). Some were good and some pretty minging to be honest. The good ones were purchased in bulk by the Munros at the end of the night and the food was great too! A selection of burgers sandwiches and other gorgeous offerings filled us up (inevitably).

Sunday we chose to nurse our swollen heads at home but then stepped up to go out shopping at our local Wegmans (a high class Sainsburys) and then head off to Georgetown in the centre of DC. Georgetown is the location of the only known Hello Kitty supplier in the area so Sof was homing in from the moment we parked the car. Completely by surprise we found ourselves enjoying coffee and Hot chocolate 10 yards from the shop. Sof heroically caved in to peer pressure and visited the shop only to not buy anything??? What a hero. The trip home exposed the wonders of the Sat Nav. It tells you to take a left and immediately next "at the next opportunity do a U-turn" bloody marvellous. The trip home sparked our hunger safe in the knowledge Ribs and steak awaited us at home. Dave and I popped out to a more local microbrewery to pick up a couple of Growlers (Vast roman vases filled with 2 litres of locally brewed beer which you can refill for about 1/4 of the price of 1/5 litre at the same pub (sweet).

We had managed to eat enough at the Wegmans that the ribs were not ritually burned that night and we settled on just a steak. The bloody things are so thick I just couldn't get the kids ones to cook all the way through. I did however manage to provide Rare steaks for all who wanted them.

Monday brought a different challenge. We had always planned to attend the Presidents day (George Washingtons Birthday - a Bank holiday) parade in Alexandria. Couple of options to get there...Metro - likely to be packed...drive to Alexandria and park - gonna be heaving, or, and this is genius, combine the two. We drove to a metro two stops away and caught the metro in one stop and then planned to catch a connecting bus to the parade (are you still following this).

To be fair it all went quite smoothly until the connecting bus didn't show. So we rolled up our trousers and hiked it a whole 2 miles through snow to where the parade was gloriously waiting for us.

Or maybe not....

Because the snow was melting on the roof of the tall buildings it had been cancelled for safety reasons...pooh!

We took the opportunity to visit a couple of museums (a really old tavern where George Washington ate and an old apothecary which was outstanding).

Waited for another bus that was also never going to come...pooh and walked back the the metro. Knackered we then prepared the ribs in a quite gorgeous honey garlic glaze and I said my farewells to them all. I was back to work on Tuesday and Sof was off to sunny! Canada for a week with the Munros. she got there safe and has since celebrated her birthday by buying a new dress (spendthrift). I'll let you know how my first solo week in office goes when I have managed to complete it (don't want to jinx it but is going good so far)

speak soon peeps!

Little Mr Sunshine (state)

Paul,

Returning from my first out of DC meeting turned out to be a bit more difficult than I thought. Mind you getting there was just as tough!

....Dateline Sunday....Paul is due to fly at 12 noon...Airport closed....flight understandably cancelled.... I had no issues with this and spent the day with Sof and watched the Superbowl at some locals house. You already know that! The flight out on Monday was relatively uneventful apart from some spectacular turbulence over Georgia..bugger! Trying to get to my hotel also quite easy apart from the GPS locating the satellite immediately after had made the wrong turn on to the highway in the opposite direction. Added about 20 mins to the journey so not too catastrophic. The hotel seemed to be quite biz are really. Separate spurs containing ten rooms right next to a beach! Cocoa beach in fact! The meeting itself was pretty decent, picked up some decent pointers on what I actually do here.

The best bit had to be watching the Atlas rocket launch. Our meeting was particularly close to the launch area up at Cape Canaveral so we got some people to keep an eye on the launch countdown on their phones and all ran out to watch the take off when it actually happened. Blimey it was great, the shape of the rocket was clearly visible...cracking.

The return was slightly more problematic. Getting to he airport after another huge snow dump at DC I knew the chances of not getting back home were quite high. However, the airline kept telling me that it was on time and despite an earlier flight having a delay mine was on target to leave. Arriving at the gate after check in I saw the delayed flight take off so I knew that I could at least land at the airport...things were looking quite sunny. But I hadn't counted on fate!

It appeared that snow was not my problem this time. "Mechanical problems in the cockpit", not words you really want to hear where planes are concerned (in my opinion up there with "wings a bit loose"). The panic set in as the poor airline guy had to announce the flight being cancelled. All the people who had been stranded at Orlando whilst the snow had blockaded DC could see another night in Florida on the horizon. This time it wasn't an act of god keeping them in country but the airplane being unable to fly. So we got $10 for an evening meal, $5 for breakfast and a free night at a hotel (incidentally much nicer than my hotel for the previous few days).

Getting a new flight seemed quite easy too. As soon as the cancellation was called I called up US Airways and re booked on to the first flight the following morning (7.20am). Unfortunately they had no courtesy buses free at the hotel near my flight time so I had 4 hours sleep at the hotel before having to catch the bus at 4:30 to the airport. Landed....did a full days work....drove home in massive traffic jam....16 hour working day....never again.

Seems that the gods are against me being lucky in travel.

Still Becca, Dave , Georgia , Daisy here now and Sof happy I'm back. all is right with the world. Sof off to Canada on Tuesday so I am keeping the home fires burning. She is only doing it to spite me I know but I think I will probably beat her for time on travel over the 3 year span out here.

Toodle pip

Highs and lows

Sof:
I think I should make it my motto to never write a blog when I'm feeling low. And, yeah, this week has def been a low one for me. Combination of no land line, no husband, no company apart from cats, no stuff and unable to get out due to bad weather. There is only so much Internet and cleaning one can do!! I do try to be positive, as you all know, but this is actually quite hard. At least I have got through the worst of it now - there is so much happening from now on, that i should never have to repeat this week again.For those who believe - Thank the Lord!

Paul is now in DC (I'm eagerly awaiting his arrival home). His flight got cancelled last night so he had another night in Orlando. Because of that when he arrived in DC he had to go straight to work! But at least he has picked up our car and the other 'presents' that Dave has left us! Yay!

I have managed to fix Jacobs Liverpool curtains so they can now go in his room - he will be happy! And I have attempted to sort out the numerous lamps in the upstairs room. Americans seem to despise having ceiling lights for some weird reason, so I've tried to have a lamp that is workable from the light switch, and a lamp by the bedside!

I had a surprise phone call from my good friend, Vix. It's always nice to hear peoples voices - you really do get sick of the American accent and always having to speak slowly - which for me is near on impossible!! haha!!

Becca, Dave, Georgia and Daisy arrive tomorrow morning from Canada. VERY EXCITED! They are a couple of days earlier than when I thought, but that is great. I can't wait to go back to Canada with them too! I wonder what treats they'll have in store for my birthday (selfish me, I know!)

I also found a Hello Kitty waffle maker - yes, it does waffles in the correct shapes - for $20 - bargain! I'm gonna have to sneak that one in the house at some point.....
Bank of America also do a HK credit card, which I will apply fro in a year or so. Want to make sure I get some credit history so I wont get turned down!

I've also managed to connect to a private network jobbie things, which means I can watch BBC i-player and other UK TV on the Internet - oh the joys of British TV!! Haha! AT present, we have got it so we can watch Being Human - was most annoyed when the new series started up the same week that we moved out here! And I could even watch Neighbours if I wanted to....

On the snow front - and yes, I am as sick of writing about it as you are hearing it - I spent over 3 hours shovelling the drive and an access route out to the road. When the weather is bad here, they have a law which states that if you must park your car on the road (pavement) then you must park it on the even numbered side, so the ploughs can plough a straight route through. We live on the even side. Which means we have to dig twice as far out to get to the road!I had a little bit of help from next door, Chris, but I was on my own for the majority....phew! I ended up in a t-shirt only in 0 degrees! They say we may have more at the weekend - again, those who believe - please pray we don't!

I've not much more to say on the whole US front now. As I've only been inside with my own musings and DC 101. Excellent station.

I'm sure we'll update you soon - well, maybe Paul will when I'm in Canada! Thanks to those who have said they enjoy this blog. Was in two minds to begin with, but (and I'll speak for Paul) we are both glad we started it and can allow people to be nosey!

Love you all. Thanks for the support - you know who you are.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

SNOMG II

Yes, people, it is snowing AGAIN! It is 10am, I am sat in bed with breakfast and cats, minus a husband. IT is a veritable blizzard this time - windy. I honesty thought there was a tornado outside my window 15 minutes ago (they do have them out here! I'm supposed to find a safe room to hide in cos of the amount of trees behind us!).

This was hilarious. It is not anymore! It is currently at about 7" on top of the 26" already there (although that has melted a little due to the past two glorious days!). I am measuring it from my wooden veranda - I cleared the rest of it off yesterday in anticipation of today. I didn't want it collapsing on me through weight of snow! That took me 50m to clear around the 2 3rds that was left. We cleared an escape route prior to this, as American houses are not the safest when it comes to their electrical wiring........and the house is made of wood.....and how would a fire engine get here anyway in the snow??!!

SO i am in bed with my eye on Dirk and Jane's house over the road, because when they decide to go out and shovel, that is when I will go out and shovel! I swear this is penance for not bringing my running gear with me!

As Paul is in Florida, enjoying himself with dinner out and bowling, his work colleague ....OMG......I can NOT see out of my window due to wind and snow......scary! Anyway, his colleague Iain and his wife, Alison, very kindly offered to take me shopping, to pick up a few bits before the storm and to reduce the cabin fever that has been setting in slowly. I have never met them before, so it was especially nice! We drove out to a new supermarket, Harris Teeters, and I added another loyalty card fob to my keyring. The drive out was amazing. The huge mounds of snow, twice Paul's height, the idiocy of the ploughs, not clearing corners properly leading to cars having to enter the road in the middle, NO SIDEWALKS anywhere! All pedestrians I saw were walking on the road, as there was no way you would have even gotten onto the sidewalks like we did on Sunday. Paul will not be able to walk to the metro until it clears, and i suspect that will take a good few weeks. We saw lots of pockets of snow when we first came out here left from the December storms!

So back to the exciting trip - I can tell you are all at the edge of your seats! I picked up the essentials - milk, bread, beans, beer...Paul would be proud! Seriously though, I kinda thought that if i was gonna be stuck here by myself, I want a drink......have you noticed I am enjoying the drink a bit more these days??!!
They stopped off for a coffee too. They are officially my first guests I have provided sustenance for - the Italian in me went wild! We had to leave the car at the top of the road as our road was still impassable for a 2 wheel drive, so they helped me down with my bags. I did feel guilty afterwards, as I thought maybe I shouldn't have picked up so much, but I had honestly forgotten that we couldn't get to my doorstep and had to walk!

I hope I haven't scared them off too much. I made a big booboo by saying that I don't but the heating on all the time here, even though we get it paid for, as I am conscience of the environment, to which it then transpired that Alison always has her heating on, regardless! ENGAGE BRAIN BEFORE MOUTH SOF!! I suppose people will either love me or hate me.

SO I am getting rather good at 2 suit Spider Solitaire (Dad - you should give it a go), and I actually cooked myself a proper meal last night (most people should know that when Paul is away, I live on tuna/pasta or toast) - veggie taco sauce with rice and natural yogurt. With ice cream, and oreos for dessert. Peanut butter and chocolate ice cream. Divine.

Ha - I love it - i just saw a snow plough go by - the first one since Saturday - clearing the road! What a stupid waste of time!

I apologise for the amount of snow news. I hope that you haven't fallen asleep yet................................HELLO!!

Feedback is desirable at all times. Please...........

xxxx

Superbowl, super beer and super people!

I tell you, there is nothing more satisfying that dancing to Pappilon (Editors) whist sweeping/dancing on a shiny hard wood floor. Magic......

Thanks to everyone for making sure that we hadn't died of starvation during the SNOMG! Much appreciated. Luckily, we do have provisions, and a snow shovel, and even more luckily, we have 2 legs and feet. Amazing where you can go when you put one in front of the other. Not sure these Americans have yet got the hang of this.......

.......which was definitely the case when we decided to go for a walk! It was BEAUTIFUL!! The snow was diamond white, the sun a shining, blue sky, and warm. Paul wanted a beer. Typical man wants to go and spend time in a dark place when nature is at its nigh!! But at least we had to walk somewhere. I was thinking I may of seized up due to the shovelling - trust me, I never even knew i had those back muscles, even with all the running/exercise I've done in my life! So we go a walking. It was fine until we got to the end of our sidewalk.....to a barrier of 27" snow! So yes, we had to wade through the snow to the road in order to be able to continue walking. We have pictures of our escapades, however we can't upload them onto here, as the files are far too big and will slow this already slow machine down further! At the top of the road we meet a some lovely ladies, one a social worker just returned from a 2 year stint in Canterbury! We get chatting - they are singlehandly shovelling the road so they can get their cars out for work tomorrow! We had a chat and then they invited us round later to watch the Superbowl (BIG thing over here - pansies in stuffing and tight trousers. RUGBY ALL THE WAY!!).

WOW

Can you IMAGINE an American couple walking around in Clifton, meeting some Brits for 3 minutes who then invite them round to watch the final in the FA cup......

??

NO!!

We were super pleased and slightly dazed. So with promises to come over later (with cheesy puffs and beer) we continued our walk to the pub. It makes me laugh thinking about it - it was MENTAL!! So funny. The snow ploughs had decided to clear the roads, but they ploughed the snow ONTO the sidewalks, which meant we couldn't get to them! They were taller than Paul! So we had to walk on the main road in the slush with cars shooting by - scary! We did decide to do one safer detour, which was again fun wading through ass high snow. We eventually arrived at the Sweet Water Tavern. These guys brew their own beer - and what beer it was - super fine! I had a half liter (that;s how they spell it here) of a 9.97% stout. Red cheeks ahoy! The barmaid was nice (Nicky) and she was super chatty. The atmosphere was great. We discovered that for a down payment of $15 (about GBP9.60) you can purchase a glass 2 liter jug of whatever beer you want, and then you can refill this for a max of $8.50. Considering my half liter cost $5 alone - BARGAIN!! I know my Dad will be happy when he arrives! Let us know if you want us to bring a few in before you visit! We can also get dirt cheap booze for your visit too - GBP7.50 for a liter of Bombay Sapphire gin - whoop whoop!

We ventured back - me weaving slightly - and met the lovely ladies again, who again said we should come round. I don't need to be asked twice - reticent English my ass!

This was also the first time we let the puss cats out. I kinda figured that they couldn't go too far as the snow was way too deep, so we could contain them on the veranda. Bless, they didn't like the snow but were curious. I don't think we'll have many problems when they finally do go out.

So off we trudge to the house up the end. 4 ladies house share together. It was so much fun! Watching the Superbowl with Americans was ideal. We 'rooted' for the Saints, and they won! Fab. Learnt lots about American vs English culture. As Kerry (social worker) had just returned from the UK it was good to compare and be understood. She frequently said - you won't be understood if you say that phrase - it doesn't translate!! Like "have you sorted the hummus" = blank looks. "have you fixed the hummus" = "why yes we have - it is lovely!"

I can tell we are going have some problems......

So we have made some new friends, and I have made a new running friend. Kerry is about my size, and runs at about the same speed. She has done many more races than I, but she hasn't run since Nov, like me, and is keen to get back into it! YAY! So I'm just waiting for my gear to get here now!

I really appreciate our neighbours making this transition so easy for us. They are so helpful, so informative and so generous. I am already thinking that it will be hard to leave, and we are only 3 weeks in!

So I will leave you now. Paul has gone to Florida, his flight being rescheduled. It is only about 14 in temp, so I'm not too bothered......!! He'll return on Thursday eve. I have scheduled a week of cleaning to stop the boredom. Love it!

So pip pip. Til the next time.....

DC 101 ROCKS!!

Snowpocalypse!

PAUL:
Well we survived the SNOWMAGEDDON! (my personal favorite is SNOMG). To be honest it has been not much more than a snonnoyance. My flight to Orlando got cancelled today so following a bit of re-organising I am now going Monday afternoon. This means I shall get to watch the Superbowl with Sof tonight. The enthusiasm Sof has for this is positively boundless.

The snow started on Friday and we thought we would see the cool headedness of the Americans kick in. Unfortunately the DC area is traditionally recognised as being the panic centre of the universe when it comes to snow and this was starting early. The federal agencies had already said go home early from work and we had decided to drop our hire car back a day early so we wouldn't get charged if we couldn't get it back on time. We left the airport at 11am to head off to the centre of DC on the metro.

Using Sofia's 'SatNav' brain we were off to buy some tickets for an evening with Kevin Smith at a synagogue somewhere within the DC diamond. Sof was positive that we had to get off at Chinatown (No Hello Kitty intent she swears). Once off the Metro SOf lost the ability to remember more than one of the street names that the synagogue was on. This meant that we now had the option to walk the entire east-west stretch of DC to find the place hoping it would "stand out if we passed it".

Extremely fortunately for Sof and in no way due to her navigational skills. it did stand out and we managed to get our tickets. And still it snowed!

We picked up some lunch from a potbelly's sandwich shop I loved it Sof said it was too hot. Ha! And still it snowed.

The journey back from DC was a bit fraught. Every worker in the state was leaving work early cause of the snow and each metro was packed to overflowing. My previous experience with a packed metro gave me a sense of foreboding. As Obi Wan said "I have a bad feeling about this" Luckily the driver had a bit of a sense of humour and organised the metro into two teams to see who could allow passengers on and off the train more successfully. I can hereby let you know that the Right side of the train was officially better.

Once home we set about watching the snow build up. And blimey did it keep coming. The Friday night was okay but by Saturday it was getting Snowpocalyptic!!! We had three trips outside in to the driveway and pavement to do some shovelling. Once again very grateful to the neighbour with the snow plough as he did part of the sidewalk for us. That saved about two hours of digging. It kept snowing until 7pm Sat night by which time it had reached a buttock high 26 inches for us.

I stepped out to do the last dig out of the day and returned back to a bottle of beer and some BBQ ribs (+ the leftovers from our previous nights pizza). Feet up and time for a film (watched the Da Vinci Code). Now we are spending our Sunday marvelling at the depth of the snow and then having to look away as the sun is too bloody dazzling off the snow. Worst snowfall in 70 years.

Welcome to DC Brycocks

The Strangers in the Night

Here are some of the things we find strange so far:

~ The way they can't decipher a word unless you say it EXACTLY the way they want to hear it - eg pitta bread. It MUST be pronounced peeta!

~ The pavement is the road. "walk on the pavement please" means go play on the road!

~ Their obsession with weight and calories! Even beer is advertised with the calorie content!

~ Moralistic sitcoms. I want to laugh at a sitcom, not be told how to raise a family and deal with conflict. Suppose this is why we love Buffy!!

~ The lack of mop buckets!! And HobBrite (TM) - mother!! Bring some over!!

~ The way the snow plough will plough all the snow off the road - ONTO THE SIDEWALK!! Completely restricting pedestrian access! Bastards!

~ The apparent frequent power cuts and water supply cuts during summer. Where are we living again??

By all means - we are not moaning! In fact, we are totally loving it out here - 2 weeks today! People are so lovely - Sof went out for dinner with the spouses association on Thur eve which was a success. They are mainly much older women, but it was a laugh. They were real friendly and invited her to various events. Paul has managed to find a semi lift share, and with that comes a new friend who has invited us to dinner already!

Our stuff is still in the UK - so not best pleased! Especially when the Embassy asked for the stuff they lent us back! Thank goodness they agreed to an extension until our stuff arrives....Paul had a whip round at his work place, so we have a few extra essentials in case they do take our bits back.

We are currently in a 'severe weather warning/state of emergency' here. Predicted 26" snow. It is pretty amazing out there really - snowing since 10am and still going. We had to drop the hire car off one day early as we probably wouldn't have been able to get there tomorrow! That meant a trudge back from the Metro (via picking up tickets to see Kevin Smith in April - an evening with...) which took about 45 minutes. This was in bad weather, so really hoping we can cut this down to 30 minutes in good weather! Else our visitors will have a few problems.

We ordered pizza tonight - thru the Internet and had it delivered. We are so living it up! Paul is hoping to still be able to get to Florida on Sunday, we'll have to keep an eye out on the airport/weather status.

The cats are still really wanting to chase them darn squirrels! I can just see it - calling the fire brigade to get Chaos out of the trees! Considering the amount of trees and squirrels, I reckon they'll be coming out every hour! We've been looking at toilet training the cats too - using the toilet. You can get some expensive kits, or you can homemake things! So we are in the process of changing to flushable litter and then the training will begin. After that, we were thinking of teaching them to speak.....I'll keep you all updated!

xx

Do the STOMP!

PAUL:
Well, knackered doesn't quite cut it! The snow started Tuesday night so I knew it was gonna be tough come Wed morning. Sof has already displayed a complete reluctance to get behind the wheel when there are flakes in the air. As a result I had a choice, take the car (2 wheel drive) out in extremely deep snow or brave the walk. I chose to walk and will not make that call again in a hurry.

The metro is about 1.5 miles from our house and not being too sure about the buses in the area I figured on about 35 mins to make it to the train. Unfortunately to keep the trousers from getting totally wet I put on the super boots (around 1kg per foot) The snow was about 4-5 inches deep and the bloomin American refuse to clear anything that a non motorised vehicle needs to travel on. Seriously 1.5 miles having to lift each foot 10 cms off the ground to make each step will kill even the most hardened lazy bugger. I can confirm that I fit that bill.

1hour and 15 mins later I arrived a sweaty mass at the metro to find that a metro train had broken down blocking the line I needed. 20 mins after that they had cleared the line but the platform was heaving. Having managed to sardine myself in to the carriage we travelled two more stations down the line with yet more people somehow pushing themselves on to the train (they need those Beijing guys with White gloves who shoehorn the commuters on to the metros here). The next stop was my next Nemesis. Trying to close the doors on a clearly overcrowded train failed. The driver kept on telling us to let the doors close but to no avail. At this point he shut the train down and told everyone to get off. That would have been fine but he shut the door and bloody well drove off leaving one full trains worth and about half a trains worth who were on the platform already looking on incredulous...BASTARDO! The next half an hour was spent trying to shuffle on to one of the following trains that were also packed, blimey it was fun.

I have thus learnt that in similar cases I shall hide under a seat until the driver shuts the door and gets the funk out of there.

Very kindly a colleague gave me a lift home so was saved the ordeal in reverse. So 4 days in office and one catastrophic trip has occurred. hope that I can improve my 25% record over the coming weeks. Still of to the embassy tomorrow so additional metro journeys required. Be sure to watch this space if the experience is repeated.

SNOW HUMPH! more coming this weekend too!

Feel the burn!

Sof:
Yesterday was a day of constant pain.....every move, turn and laugh hurt. Why? BLOODY PILATES!! I had sooooo forgotten what it feels like the day after! But - no pain, no gain - right? RIGHT!! (I had to keep telling myself this after the half marathon too!!)

SO we went looking for cars yesterday. We found a nice 'shift stick' (manual) with low mileage (65K !!) but we don't want to spend too much. We tried to wangle it down to about....hang on.....this computer doesn't have a pound sign!!! How typically American! Anyhow, we wanted to wangle it down to less that 3K, but he wasn't having any of it. So instead of spending more than we want to, we decided to leave it and look again Friday. Paul hasn't yet been paid in $ yet, he was paid in pounds into the British account, so we have a semi cash flow problem at present!! SO that also added to the inability to purchase said car......
We also decided to wait until we put Dave's car thru the garage - I don't wanna commit large sums of money if Dave's car only cost 1k to fix....and I don't want 2 cars! SO we will see. We'll go out again Friday to take a look to see how much things cost, just incase!

Driving into DC was a breeze - I tell you, it was super easy to get to the bank! And the bank people are SO NICE!! I have NEVER experienced anything like it - they fall over BACKWARDS to help you - for example, I took a cheque in to cash (they cash 1 English cheque a month and pay you the dollars the next day - handy!), but Paul needed to sign the back. I offered to take it out (he was waiting in the car) and she screamed (yes, screamed) "hell, no - I'll go out and see him" leaving me baffled on the front desk....super nice, I tell you!

However, the niceness has to be given a badness, and that was a 90 minute drive OUT of DC! OK, so we were driving in rush hour, and we later discovered that the Washington Capitals (ice hockey team) were playing so EVERYONE was trying to get home in time! And it also started snowing again.....

SO we arrive home to pissed off cats - we had been out all day- and watched one of my fave episodes of Star Trek (where they all de-evolve) and decided to go out for dinner! Just to piss off the cats even more.....

Sports bar here we come (Grevey's - u can check it out on the web).....and upon being seated in a booth, we discovered all the booths had their own personal TV's to watch the ice hockey or basket ball game - in fact any sport you wanted! We watched the Caps, and I had a Taco salad (which was more cheese and meet and tortilla than lettuce!) and Paul had a burger - yum! Portion sizes are still huge - I don't think we would have normally finished it, but we hadn't had any lunch, so we were starvin marvin! It was a great atmosphere - will def take any guests who would like to go....and Neil - ice hockey season starts in Oct, so u'll be here for it when you come!

I wish I could put up pictures - we were greeted by the most amazing sight waking up this morning - the snow had come again, and it is BEAUTIFUL outside our back yard - the trees are covered in snow, and it is so picturesque. What was not picturesque was the sight of me huffing and puffing clearing the sidewalk (yes - sidewalk - pavement over here means the road) and drive. Paul walked into work today....it took him 2.5 hours - I'll let him tell you all about that later! Lovely!

So I will now leave you - I have laundry and cleaning to do. The joys of being a house wife!!

xx

Success and Failures

Sof:
The snow stopped around midnight, Saturday. Shovelling resumed once again Sunday morning.....or should I say, Paul resumed shovelling.....and met further neighbours! How wonderful! Luckily is was a beautiful day, so the paths quickly melted where people had cleared them. We decided to go for a walk round the local area....and met 0 people!! Apart from some kid sledging!

Because of the snow, we could see where everyone had been walking, so we managed to find the short cut out to the main road through the hospital - success! That will definitely cut around 15 minutes off the walking time! We then had a look for the shortcut to I50 (that's a road), but were unsuccessful! We found lots of beautiful woods, calf deep snow, deer tracks and a water reservoir, but no shortcut. Never mind, we have loadsa time for further walking. Maybe I can set the visitors off to see who can find it first!!

Upon return to Brycock Mansions, we were greeting by the most calls we have had yet. For around 2 hours the telephone and computer did not stop! It was fantastic to chat to Blighty, espec when we can have proper 2 way conversations (thanks Neil for the eternal mindpoloroids of you with that microphone), and it was fab showing Paul's mum around the house. It's only my mum left to get Skype!

We are still on the hunt for a car.....I seriously want a Honda, but we don't want to spend too much. Luckily we get Paul's predecessors minivan (ford windstar) as he is getting the head gasket sorted and we'll pay the difference for the price, but for an everyday run around? This thing will eat around 16 miles to the gallon....hmmmmm...might as well buy a hummer!!! HA! Can you imagine ME in a hummer?? It was bad enough me picking up a gun to go clay pigeon shooting (which I loved and was particularly good at, strangely). But looking at the Chrysler convertibles (oh yes!) they do around 19 miles to the gallon!! hmmmmmm. And having the minivan would be great for when people come to stay, which at the moment is averaging every 2 months (how exciting!!). Thoughts on a postcard please!

So bringing you to the present, I had my first outing today, to a Pilate's class with Alice. It was really hard (I am so de-conditioned) and I've never messed about with balls and hoops before, but it was fun! The poor instructor probably wondered who the hell I was, attempting to use my 'core'! What core??!! At least I know it won't take long to build it all up again. A further date has been booked for this Friday!

On a negative note, my hands are really suffering (chapped and itchy) and my lip split earlier - well painful! My filling is loose, which is making my tooth real sensitive and my net curtains didn't come out white.

On a positive note, I fixed the dishwasher(hammer and screwdriver combo), Alice gave me some tips on reducing static electricity, I've discovered the trash and recycling days and items and my husband returns in about 20 minutes.

Love it!