Oh England, My Lionheart

So this is what we returned to the UK for. Sunday 10.14 am. 0 C (or 32 F); either way it is freezing, literally. Fortunately you can't see (or feel) the wind or the freezing rain. It even started to snow at one point. The best word to describe the conditions is 'miserable'. It was cold watching; the guy in jeans and wellies in the foreground decided to jog a couple of laps just to keep warm. Feet were wet and frozen. Hands tingling cold. It would have been even colder playing; shorts and all.

This is London Road, George's team. They beat London Colney, 2-1. George played his best game yet for them. We went straight off to watch Ollie's game afterwards.

This is Jill dancing at home in an attempt to get warm.

In contrast here is some cold US weather. This is really cold but you would never say it was miserable. It is one of my favorite winter pictures. By total coincidence, it was also taken on a Sunday morning, one minute later, at 10.15 am, but in February not November. It is 0 F. Proper cold. No grey clouds. No rain. Ski-ing not soccer. I am going to miss US winters.

Everything at Once

This week was the BIG arrival week. Hot on the heels of the car (last Friday), the container's worth of belongings arrived (it had been six weeks) and British Telecom (BT) send us 'The Hub' that enables us to get online. It feels like we have been starved since we arrived, and now been given a massive meal we can't possibly eat in one sitting. This is going to take a while to get up and runnning.

Visa Trip to UK

We had to take a trip back to UK to get our visas renewed. We stayed with Joan and Wilf for the for most of the week then drove around to Anna and Rupert's. After a relaxing Sunday with Joan and Wilf, including a very English walk on Bookham Common.....

...we had to be ready for our visa renewal process at 8am Monday outside the American Embassy. With the jet lag meant we were very late to bed but being on UK time meant we had to get up with our bodies thinking it was 2am! The visa interviews themselves went smoothly but we had to wait in the UK for our passports to be returned to us with the visa in. We took the opportunity to visit Sally and Bob, the Whites in Bath........

...and some work contacts in London before heading north to see the Handley's.

Anna's 40th birthday

I called Anna to wish her a happy 40th birthday from the canteen in Round Rock Building 5, from Dell, Austin, TX. It was quite surreal. I wanted to give her a big hug. Instead I was standing looking at hordes of hungry workers deciding on whether to get salad or panini.