News in Early October

We are much more settled. Our clothes washer/dryer was finally delivered this week, so we're quite happy. We've got our household systems up and running, so we can do many of those things you take for granted but we haven't been able to do in months, like mopping a floor, or washing clothes and hanging them to dry. We're still working towards advanced-stage settled activities like cleaning a bathroom tub and dusting, but I'm confident we'll reach that stage very shortly.

We've also met all of our immediate neighbours (the three others in our building) and more on our street. I'm especially hoping to forge friendships with the other parents on our street.

Margo has just earned her drivers' license. Now she drives a Hyundai instead of a Vauxhall, but we only pay £100/month instead of £80/week, so it's a big improvement in our finances.

This week she had her most difficult client experience so far, absorbing many insults and threats from a woman reluctant to come to terms with her situation. Margo's supervisor is impressed with her work so far and it will probably just be a short while before she is promoted to a more senior/supervisory position.

Sarah is now telling us about many of her classmates by name. She's also earned several Humpty Dots, has her name in the Green Circle (as opposed to the Orange and Red Circles) and has even been awarded a Gold Rectangle. I'm sure the Nobel committee has taken notice already. Yesterday I helped out in her classroom on a walk through the neighbourhood (to learn about types of housing: flats, detatched, semi-detatched, bungalows, and terraced) and was given some of the wilder boys to supervise; Sarah looks quite well-behaved in comparison.

Sarah will repeat the Duckling swimming class because she's still very reluctant to get her head under water. However, she did put her face in the water today, so to honour a previous agreement with Margo, we'll have chocolate cake for dessert tonight.

I am keeping the house very clean. I also know the downtown shopping streets quite well. I'm learning the pubs but that will take more research. And perhaps a bit more even afterward.

I've recently purchased my iMac and am setting up a Java development environment on it. I've set up the Eclipse IDE and I have Tomcat and Ant configured but I'm still struggling to get my .war files properly deployed. I'm used to developing on Windows so I'm working through the hurdles of working on UNIX, such as ensuring proper permissions and remembering my case sensitivity. I've also been boning up on the Spring MVC framework and I look forward to getting more familiar with the new Java 5 language features. When I have time, I want to keep practising my Ruby and perhaps play with Rails some more. Don't worry if this is gibberish to you; it's intended for the 0.5% of the software development population to whom this remotely concerns.

I've also enjoyed having free time, though I can say that there's never enough of such a thing. I've just read a biography on Depeche Mode, and flipped through the Factory Records graphic album. I'm currently reading Jasper Fforde's The Big Over Easy, a delightful juxtaposition of modern crime writing and nursery rhymes, as well as Stephen Baxter's The Time Ships, a sequel of sorts to H.G. Well's The Time Machine, in addition to a collection of Swamp Thing comics by Alan Moore. These are all British authors whom I've read before, but it's great to read them in their native land - the references make more sense now.

I've just begun seeking work, now that we've procured an after-school daycare placement for Sarah. I have an interview Monday for a contract in Bury St. Edmunds, half an hour away by train, and am pursuing a position here in Ipswich. I (almost accidentally) posted my CV on a job-match site last week and have fielded many calls from recruiters about opportunities; unfortunately, they're all in London, which would be at least an hour and a half commute each way, and as much as I'd like to work in London, I just don't think we can coordinate our schedules with Sarah's school schedule, since Margo is already commuting half an hour away and has a fairly fixed schedule herself. I'd need to leave London by 4pm to get back to Sarah's daycare to retrieve her by 6, but I'd need to start my working day much earlier, which I'd like to avoid. I'd be sad to give up more free time, but it would be nice to be working again.

Ipswich Webcam

Want to know what our weather is like? If you're up late, watch our morning with this webcam from BBC Suffolk.

Amsterdam, Day Three

Margo left early to visit the Rijksmuseum; Sarah and I got to sleep in longer. We then had breakfast in the coffee shop downstairs.



I wanted to get some pictures of her outside but she only wanted to go back to our room:



Margo joined us back at our room. We checked out and began walking toward the train station, but we had plenty of time, so we stopped at a sidewalk cafe to get pancakes.




At the train station we were informed that due to rail maintenance, our planned train was not running, but we were given alternate directions that got us to the ferry terminal with plenty of time.

On the ferry back there was a show given by a childrens' performer.



The ferry uses jet propulsion underwater; we cruised back at 70 km/hr. This was our wake:



After a direct train from Harwich to Ipswich we made it back to our flat around 8pm. All in all we had 7-8 hours of travel each way, so we wouldn't want to do this every weekend, but this was a nice trip and we look forward to doing more.

Amsterdam, Day Two

We slept in a bit despite the garbage trucks Margo says she'd been hearing since about 6am. I got this picture from our room's window, my first view of the country in daylight.



I got dressed and strolled around a few blocks to get some more pictures and get a bit of a feel for things. Our hotel is downtown, where concentric rings of canals ripple out from the centre. You cross a canal about every two blocks.



When I first saw trolleys like this it reminded me of the ones in Portland; perhaps they're from the same manufacturer.



It's not hard to find buildings that are crooked. I later learned that this is because of the marshy foundations and the age of the buildings. Newer buildings actually lean forward a bit, intentionally. Under the gable of each building is a furniture hook for hoisting large things, so a forward-leaning building aids hoisting. I'd also read that buildings are narrow because at one time they were taxed by width.



And then there are the bikes. They are ubiquitous. There are many bike lanes, but instead of saying that every street has a bike lane, it's probably more accurate to say that bikes ride everywhere. The bikes are almost all the same style. People ride them in everyday clothes. Racks like this one seem to be every 50 feet, and they're all filled.



Back in our room, we went downstairs and had breakfast at a coffee shop next to our hotel. Strong, tasty coffee that you could stain your deck with, plus pastries and hot chocolate for Sarah.

After breakfast we split up. Sarah and Margo went on a boat tour of some canals. Margo planned to get a disposable camera but she didn't so we have no pictures to share from that. But don't worry, my trip was more interesting anyway.

When I found I could take an English language bike tour, and that it was named Mike's Bike Tours, I could not possibly pass it up. The tour met in the museum district, so I walked there and got more pictures along the way.

Much of the residential areas look like this. I like how trees line both sides.



And ah, the famous Yellow Bikes. I'd been reading about these for years and years. There have been many imitators, but I don't know if any others have lasted: Minneapolis and Portland tried it; I volunteered on a pink bike project in Olympia. They failed due to attrition of bikes. I didn't research it here, but I've read one thing that helps it work here is that you pay a coin or so to borrow a bike, and it's refunded when you return it, so that barrier to entry, plus decent bike locks, plus the ubiquity of bikes, all help reduce thefts. Oh, and I seem to remember a colleague of mine calling bike frames like these ... what was the word? Girlie? I am certain he will repent and apologize profusely upon seeing this picture.



Arriving at the museum district, I got this money shot of the Rijksmuseum ...



... and one of the Van Gogh Museum.



The tour met in front of the Rijkmuseum. An ex-Californian gave us the safety introduction, then we split into two groups; I was with the other one led by a Dutch Canadian. We walked a few blocks to their garage, where we mounted fat-tire multispeeds. The tallest rider (not me!) was designated the "ass-man" to bring up the rear, since he was most easily visible at a distance. An Aussie, he had the perfect rejoinder: "Actually, I'm more of a boob man."

In the Netherlands, they drive on the right, so at least my biking was familiar. I don't remember the exact route, but we did ride through Rembrandt Plaza, where we stopped and admired a sculpture that reproduces one of his best-known paintings. Then we rode to the River Amstel (which, with a dam, gives Amsterdam its name) where I got this shot. In the background are some skyscrapers including the Rembrandt Tower and a tower for Philips.



We later rode right through the towers; a single bike path cuts diagonally across the plaza, and there's nothing else as the car parking is all underground and no streets cross it. Here's what it looks like from Google Earth. I wished I'd had a camera mount on my bike; we saw some very neat things that I couldn't capture while riding.



We followed the river and soon we were in countryside. I think the Netherlands has the densest population in Europe so land use planning is very highly-managed. It's amazing to ride a short distance and be next to cow or sheep pastures, and then see clusters of office towers nearby. There is of course no sprawl as we know it in the States. We made a stop at a windmill for this group photo (we put all our cameras in a pile so our guide could take these).



I also wanted to mention that, not only do people not wear Lycra or Spandex or such, nobody wears a helmet either. I asked why and was told it's because there's no helmet law. There's the obvious safety reason for wearing a helmet but apparently there aren't many accidents - people ride at slower speeds and other vehicles are more aware of bikers - so there doesn't seem to be as much of a safety concern.

Next we visited a farm where we got a tour showing how they make cheese, and later on, how they make wooden shoes. I should mention that I thought the cheese was fantastic. I'd had a sandwich for lunch earlier and the cheese really stood out.



We continued on back into town past a financial district, more residences, and the Voldelpark, sort of like Amsterdam's Central Park. Then we got pints at the Leidseplein plaza.



I should write a bit about the city's famously liberal policies. Does everybody have lots of public sex and smoke lots of MJ while living in the welfare state? No. Some of the left-leaning is a reaction to the Fascism of World War II when, after signing a peace treaty with the Germans, they invaded the country anyway. To this day a German tourist asking for directions may be directed to the Holocaust Museum, and British and American tourists are a bit more appreciated. But there's also a strong pragmatism. Legal sales of cannabis provide extra taxes. Prostitutes are assured healthy working conditions. And when you grow up in a culture where soft drugs and sex are very open, there's much less to rebel against. There are much fewer teen pregnancies here, for example. Harder drugs are aggressively prosecuted, though. And many locals are embarrassed by the city's international reputation as a liberal haven, so for example there's pressure to close down coffee shops at the slightest legal infraction.

My tour broke up so I joined Margo and Sarah at our hotel. We had dinner nearby. The service was quite slow. Another thing I should mention is that Amsterdamers like to smoke. Not everyone, but there's not much in the way of non-smoking sections, so you have to pretty much expect some smoke with your meals. We then returned to our room and retired straightaway. We did hear lots of noisy people at night from our room - lots of singing, even - which is a change from the English reserve we've become used to.

Amsterdam, Day One

We just returned from a trip to Amsterdam. This is our first trip to a non-English speaking country (although, really, English is spoken everywhere in Europe so it's hardly a hardship) so we're easing into further tours. I'm breaking this into three posts since there will be a lot of writing and pictures.

Our trip started around 5.15pm Friday evening with a taxi ride to the Ipswich train station. We shared a single bag, so our luggage load was light. It took about an hour to get to Harwich by train. The station is right at the ferry terminal, so it was no walk at all to get to the ferry departure area.

The sun had nearly set by the time we boarded. The Stena Line ferry was huge and well-appointed: in the single passenger deck were packed a dining area, restaurant, fast food, shop, business lounge, wifi lounge, kids' play area, casino, coffee shop, two bars, a dance floor, and two cinemas. We had a buffet dinner right away; 18 euros, half price for Sarah. (Our first chance to spend euros! Look! My keyboard can make that symbol too: €) I enjoyed a good nosh with salmon, fried fish, stuffed chicken breast, boiled veg, roasted potatoes, some of Sarah's fries/chips (with mayonnaise on top!), stout, desserts, and port. Oooh, I'm feeling tipsy ... must be the boat. Then we camped out in seats near the play area and watched Sarah as she computer-painted and watched Tom and Jerry cartoons. We were also close to the dance floor, where I heard more US pop music than I had in years; it was the first time I'd heard anything from 50 Cent or Shakira.

The ferry ride was about four hours. We docked at Hoek van Holland and went through Customs. Again, the train station was right there. Around 12.30 we boarded a train to Amsterdam that also made stops at Rotterdam, Gouda, Der Haag (The Hague?) and the Schipol airport. We couldn't see much in the dark but I did notice larger signs and more neon than we see in the UK. Being a late Friday night, a few passengers were being really loud upstairs. Dutch sounds a lot like German, and I've heard swearing in Dutch described as being like llamas spitting, so I wouldn't disagree. It also introduced me to the local cheap, default beer. In the States, if you're not at all picky and ask for a beer, you'll get something like Coors, Pabst, Miller, Budweiser. In the UK, it's Carlsberg, Becks, and Stella Artois. In the Netherlands, it's Heineken and Grolsch.

From the train station we took a wild taxi ride to our hotel: fast starts, fast stops, high speeds, lots of lane changing with no signals. At €25 we were probably ripped off but we were tired and inexperienced. It was nearly 3am by the time we arrived. We'd reserved a standard room but staff had difficulty fitting in a sleeper bed so we were given a nearby suite at no extra charge. I took a picture later as it was given the same name as the nickname we use for Sarah when she is whining and being a drama queen.

Settling

This past week we've been getting settled. Margo's been enjoying the ability to cook again. This dinner she made was so good-looking I wanted to get a picture:



And even though our flat is furnished, we've been getting the little bits of furniture and cookware to make it homey and functional. We got a lot of it delivered in one batch from Argos, a warehouse store:



So one of my biggest duties as a manservant has been assembling kit furniture. Bookshelves, media centre, coffee table, wardrobe, computer desk.

Sarah's School

Sarah's in her third week of school now. She seems to be enjoying it. She tells me her teacher tells her that she listens well, and she's earned some positive reinforcement - stars and awards. She's also talked about some of the kids who misbehave. She knows the names of many classmates now.

Here's a picture of Sarah on her first day wearing her uniform. She also has a red sweatshirt with the school name and logo on it that she alternately wears.



I walk Sarah to and from school every day. It takes about 15 minutes each way. We get to school just before 8.45 and congregate outside her door with other parents and kids. There are many doors; each is used exclusively by one or two classes for dropoffs and pickups. This way I've gotten to meet some other parents. Then at 8.45 a staff person opens the door and Sarah disappears inside. I come back by 3.20, when teachers lead their students out in a line, and teachers help send each student off to a parent. Outside of these times, entry gates to school areas are mostly locked.

Early on Sarah had some confusion about lunches. We buy her tokens from the school office, and a drink at lunchtime costs 25 pence, so we put both in a plastic baggie with her name on it. The teacher manages the baggies and hands them out at lunchtime. The first few days Sarah returned with slips from the lunchroom about missing payments because she'd eaten or drank without paying. She's also lost her sweatshirt and sweater (both eventually returned because students' names are put on their collars) and once brought home clothes from a classmate. But these problems are decreasing as she gets used to the routine of things.

I've been making arrangements with the after-school club that's near the school. Once I start working they will pick her up after school and she can play with other kids for an extra two and a half hours instead of being stuck with a crabby Dad who just wants to read.

Brilliant, Cheers

These are the two words I've noticed myself starting to use. Brits use "brilliant" like Americans use "awesome" or "great". For example: "You mean the account is created for me, and I don't have to? That's brilliant."

And "cheers" isn't just a drinking toast. Here it's also usually the last thing you say to someone. Like if I buy a magazine, where I'd normally say "bye" or "thanks" when I leave, now I'm saying "cheers". It's also how phone conversations are often ended: "cheers, bye". Though I haven't graduated to "cheers, mate" yet.

First Impressions

I've finished my chores for today (laundry, cleaning and a bit of shopping) so now I can take some time to write.

We're pretty settled. We've got basics in place. Besides the dishes, sheets, and towels I wrote about earlier, we have some welcome extras.

I got a used Dyson vacuum cleaner for 30 pounds. I love the design. I like how the handle also houses the extension hose. And it's neat to see how it works: it creates a vortex inside this transparent cylinder; centrifugal force pushes all the dirt to the outside, where it's caught below, so you don't need bags and you don't lose suction as the dirt fills. Though the one I got seems weaker in suction than I'd expect.

I did get that Monitor Audio i-Deck. When I auditioned it, it wasn't as impressive to me as the reviews I'd read made it out to be. But it's the best-sounding iPod dock I've heard anywhere. I'd considered going up to the next step at that particular hi-fi shop: a Denon micro CD/AM/FM/DAB amplifier and a pair of bookshelf B&W speakers, but once I'd added an iPod dock, the price would have been well over three times as much as the i-Deck, and the sound wasn't that much better. I may complement it with a DAB (digital radio signals) tuner soon.

We also got a 20" LCD TV. I know, I know. TV in our house. But we wanted to learn more about the culture. We've been seeing four basic TV channels in our travels and the programming is quite excellent - it seems there's almost always something worth watching. Last night I enjoyed Ricky Gervais' Extras plus a new sketch comedy programme, That Mitchell And Webb Look, on BBC Two. We also have a very basic cable package that gets us about 70 stations and 4 megabit-per-second broadband Internet access. It took me a few phone calls to get the cable modem and wireless router working yesterday but now I can surf with Margo's laptop on the kitchen table, as I am now.

Our House

Like I mentioned earlier, we're in a three-bedroom house. I don't know if it's considered semi-detatched (usually two houses in one structure) or terraced (several houses in one long structure, usually the length of the block): we're one of four houses in a structure.

The house very bright inside. Every room has sunlight, even the bathroom. The windows are all double-pane. There's a solid front door behind a tiny foyer that's about two feet deep. We have a small yard in front enclosed by a fence, but then that's nothing unusual - I think every yard is fenced, everyplace I've seen. We have a larger yard in the back, with a wooden patio and a French door opening onto it.

Most rooms are carpeted - I want to say Berber carpeting but I'm not sure how that's defined; it's definitely not shag by any means. I think it's new. The walls are also freshly painted. We have new beds, mattresses, dressers and wardrobes. Unfortunately, they're all offgassing, so we keep our windows open when we can. We're looking forward to personalising the house with our own unique stinks.

We don't have a clothes washer/dryer yet but it should be delivered soon. This is a bit of a hardship. My new sheets were pretty itchy and smelled strongly of ... I don't know, plastic or cardboard or something. Our new towels didn't seem so absorbent. And it's a drag for me to pack my travel bag full of dirty laundry and haul it to a laundromat. I'm an adult! You're not supposed to have to use a laundromat after college.

We struggled with the controls on the electric cooker. The timer setting has to be just so for it to work. That was one of our first calls for help to our landlord, who conveniently lives a few doors up the street with his wife and children. We're also seeing that it doesn't take much to trip the circuit that the cooker is on, once it's turned on: that thing is a power hog. When I look at the meter (upstairs above the door in Sarah's room) it spins like a frisbee with the cooker on.

Our hot water comes from a gas flash-burner, so there's no water tank. You turn the hot tap on, and moments later you get hot water freshly heated. It works well in the shower but I'm adapting to it for washing dishes: you need a minimum amount of flow to get it heated, so if you're just rinsing dishes sometimes it's cold. I'd also most recently been spoiled with two sinks, a spray rinser, and a faucet handle that lets you choose hot/cold as well as on/off, so I'm adapting to get by without any of those niceties. Please play your violins for me.

Like I wrote earlier, there are no closets here, and we're still figuring out our storage needs. I think they'll be mostly solved with bookshelves, and maybe a cart for the TV and a desk for the computer. But we don't have too much stuff, so it's not a big issue yet. The bathroom was completely without racks or storage, so we got a toilet paper holder that suctions to the tile wall, and an over-the-door towel rack plus a floor-standing towel caddy, so we're getting by.

Our Neighbourhood

I won't share our address here because of security concerns, but if you email me I'll pass it on. I can also give you a Google Earth .kmz file that will let you zoom to our house from space.

Sarah and I walk to and from her school. It takes about 15 minutes each way. Her school is actually on our block, but it's a really big block. Houses ring it, as well as the Ipswich Hospital, and inside the block are many medical buildings, the primary school, the high school, a sports centre, golf driving range, and soccer (football) fields.

We have a Chinese take-out place, a bike shop, an old appliance store, and a Post Office/convenience store/toy store nearby. But we don't have any pubs or restaurants or chemists or chip shops (that I know of yet).

I think where and how we live is pretty typical. Single houses are rare, I'd guess 5% of the total housing stock; most people live in semi-detatched housing, terraced housing, or flats. And it seems most people don't have the chip shop and pub around the corner; this is more common the closer to the town centre.

Despite the high density, our neighbourhood has sort of a suburban feel. It's definitely not studded with shops like closer-in neighbourhoods (though we're only a mile or two out), but it also is friendlier to families. I've noticed several (a dozen?) kids wearing the uniform of Sarah's school on our street alone. I think some of her classmates are on our street. It's also very quiet here.

We're well-served by public transit. There's one route I use that's steps away, running every 15 minutes during the week; I can get to/from downtown in 15 minutes. I may get a bike eventually but I'm hesitant because the streets are much narrower here; also, fewer people seem to ride and the ones that do usually don't wear helmets, so it seems bike transportation isn't as accepted here, certainly not like Portland.

Ipswich

Ipswich is a medium-sized city; larger than Colchester but nothing like Birmingham or Liverpool. It's also close to Norwich (home of Bill Bryson!), Harwich, and Sanwich. (Okay, I made the last one up.)

There's a football stadium; the team is doing badly at present. There are a few towers downtown but I'm not too familiar with who's who yet. There are two main shopping streets and a large public square; I've been spending a lot of time there this past week getting supplies. There's also a nice library (I've got a library card!); art galleries; and museums I haven't seen yet. The River Orwell goes through town and there's a large shipping port and a growing waterfront area with lots of redevelopment. This is also part of a Cambridge-to-Ipswich technology corridor; maybe I'll get a piece of that action soon. The train station is just across the river from the town centre; it runs toward London in one direction (an hour and ten minutes away) and Norwich in the other.

I'm looking forward to exploring the pubs here. There's also a beer festival this weekend that I intend to take part in. (I'll go sometime Wednesday through Friday; Margo's booked us on a trip to Amsterdam for the weekend; more on that later.) You can also learn more by visiting the site of the Ipswich Borough Council.


So that's mostly where we are. I've just started looking for Java contracts in Ipswich yesterday (I applied for the only available one matching my skills) and am coordinating after-school care for Sarah that will allow me to work full days. We'll have lots more to write about soon.

Don't Try To Fill Your House In One Day

(written on Sunday)

It's Sunday evening, and I'm typing on our dinner table. Earlier Margo made us some chicken koora with rice and nan bread. I enjoyed mine with a glass of Merlot. We shared biscuits for dessert.

But it wasn't always like this. Yesterday we had the most un-fun task of moving into our house - and furnishing it on the same day. Technically, our house is furnished, but not fully furnished. There's a dining room table and chairs, a cooker, a fridge and freezer, beds, dressers and wardrobes. But since we wanted to cook, eat, bathe, and sleep with sheets, we still had a lot of work ahead of us.

Our day started as it usually has, with a nice English breakfast. Then we bid farewell to our hosts and drove to Ipswich to meet with our estate agent at 11. After we signed a very thorough letting agreement, paid up, and received keys, we popped up to the house to unload before heading back to the town centre for Sarah's swimming class at 12.30. Then we were off to an IKEA store about an hour away in Thurrock.

I like IKEA a lot. Margo and I both do. We like the low prices, the decent quality, and the modern design. I appreciate that it was one of the first major corporations to embrace sustainability. We enjoy inexpensive meals of meatballs and potatoes in gravy with lingenberries. I'd never expected a less than pleasant experience there.

It's hard to remember just where things started going sour. Probably right away when we found that the ENGELKARTEN* kids' play area was full up for the day; Sarah was crying, and we adults weren't too pleased either since we'd planned on having some quality time with our shopping carts.

* Some of the names are real, and some are made up because I can't remember them and I'm too lazy to do proper research.

A few galleries in, we decided we wanted to borrow a big, blue, biodegradable plastic bag to carry our first loose items. This didn't last long. Soon it was a shopping cart. Then a second shopping cart. With the bottoms filled too. By the time we checked out, we'd spent about five hundred pounds and only picked out one piece of furniture so far.

Maybe I'd been lucky earlier, but we had serious difficulties. I'd planned to get the THORNGEN toy chest for Sarah - with interchangeable drawers of varied heights - but they only had double drawers in stock; the only singles were display only. We noted the lot number of a TUKKA bathroom shelf, but when we got to the warehouse part, there were none to be found, despite the lack of a "temporarily oversold" note on the shelf.

We also didn't find the TACK pine chest for Sarah, so we instead got a MULLA 3-drawer chest with "pine effect" decals or whatever. When we went to check out, the salesperson informed us that we'd only picked up box 1 of 2. I went back to find a box 2 while Margo continued with checkout. But by then I couldn't find a 2 and I remembered the 1 I picked up was the last one. By the time I returned, Margo had already paid, so we couldn't easily exchange, so we had to go to customer service. And take a number. By this time we'd been there for about three hours. Sarah was nearly feral. I was ready to rip the head off the next person who so much as breathed on me. I thought I'd go back and find another MULLA to exchange for; I found one in white but there was just one box, but it was twice as heavy, so I had to walk all the way back to get a spare shopping cart, then go back and retrieve it from the warehouse shelf. By this time I realized I probably couldn't just waltz past the checkout line with a big box in my cart so I parked it and went back to customer service, where Margo suggested I check with the original salesperson to see if we could pass, and I went back and he let me through. And then, when I was ready for relief at the end of my Herculean challenges, I noticed that the original box had a sticker claiming it was a five-drawer chest, even though it was shelved in the three-chest area.

I kept wondering how we would fit all this into the tiny Vauxhall that Margo is leasing, but she kept assuring me with a cheery "it will all work out". I'm sure those are famous last words for many deceased persons, but it turns out it did all just about fit, though when we got home and unpacked, we couldn't account for my two FLUFFI down pillows; my best guess is they soundlessly dropped off one of our carts on the way through the parking lot, making us involuntary donors to the local economy.

I thought I was being clever when I took pictures of each room and brought the camera with us so we could refer to them for sizing information. But I realized I hadn't been diligent enough later that night when I realized the modern grey-patterned sheet and quilt cover I'd picked out completely clashes with the tropical blue curtains in my room. And we liked the design of the square BLINGA lamp shades to cover our hanging bulb lighting, but it wasn't until installing them that we saw they needed to be aligned with the sides of the room.

In the end, we were buying way too much in too short a time period to make considered decisions. But we did manage to furnish our house to a basic level - sheets, pillows, quilts, quilt covers, dishes, silverware, glasses, pots and pans, cooking utensils, towels, bath mat, plus other sundries.

We've still got a ways to go, though. To listen to music, I connect my iPod to Margo's laptop and play songs via iTunes. It's not really listening to music; it's more like hearing something that reminds you of a song you know.

This morning I showered knowing that I'd be using a brand-new, unwashed towel that didn't have a rack to hang on. That wasn't hard. What was hard was later when I'd lathered shaving cream on my face and realized that we didn't have a single mirror. I shaved while staring at my tiny reflection in one of the sink faucet knobs.

We still have to shop for near-necessities like a vacuum cleaner, mop and bucket, napkins, plus bookshelves, a television and hifi, and my iMac.

There's no linen closet. There's no closet at all (except the space beneath the stair) - hanging clothes go into wardrobes. I think it's typical here.

Today Margo drove back to our room in Colchester to retrieve the remaining boxes. She also went out to get a first set of groceries. Sarah and I put her chest of drawers together and continued washing all the new dishes (I look forward to washing a dish that doesn't have a label sticker on it).

Tonight's was our first normal family dinner in about two months. We're much closer to having a settled household, and we're glad to have a home again.

Connected Again

We now have a 4 megabit pipe to our house, and life is sweeter. I'll post some earlier writing and have fresh news soon.

The Oasis Is Close

We've been using libraries and Internet cafes for about a month now. Tomorrow we move into our house in Ipswich, and our broadband is installed on Thursday, so afterwards we'll have all the bandwidth we can drink, but until then, our posts may be sparse here in the desert where resources are scarce.

Getting A Life

I've been a bit too busy to write these past few days. We're each starting to get a life again. I have an Ipswich bus pass with my photo on it. I have library cards for Ipswich and Colchester. We have a family card for One rail. On Saturday, we'll have an address, with water, gas, and electricity service, plus council taxation, and I'm working on broadband and TV next. Soon we'll have a real home, neighbours, and friends. But you have to build up these little bits that make your life, and having an address is a prerequisite to many of them, so we're happy to be making progress.

Saturday is a big day. Late morning we go to our estate agent to complete our letting agreement and get keys. Sarah has her second swim class next. We'll move one load into the house afterward. We have an appointment at our bank to add me to the account (this must be done in person, with Margo and I both present, and with documented proof of our address). We also need to buy sheets, pillows, duvets and towels. At some point, Margo will drive back to Colchester to pack up the ten boxes from Portland that are still in our room. And we'll probably get groceries too. It will be busy.

Sarah had her second day in school today. On Monday we got her uniform supplies: grey skirt, red cardigan, white polo shirts, white long-sleeve shirts, black tights, black knee socks, black shoes. On Tuesday the three of us meet the head teacher and got more supplies for Sarah: a red Brittania sweatshirt; a red Brittania gym shirt; a book bag and a gym bag with the Brittania school logo on them. She spent the rest of the day at school, and I picked her up afterward. It's like meeting someone at the airport: you clear a gate, wait by the door with lots of other parents, and a stream of kids come out, except they all have matching clothes and most have short blonde hair.

How was her first day? Not bad and not great, I guess. Sarah didn't have a lot to say about it. She hasn't made any out-and-out friends yet. She's also slow to tell us what she did, saying she can't remember when we ask, but eventually revealing details.

Today I just missed the bus by seconds in the last leg of our bus-train-bus-bus journey from Colchester, so we were ten minutes late. I was more embarrassed and frustrated than Sarah was. I'm dedicated to being on time tomorrow. Afterward, I thought I'd have more free time, but there were so many errands to run: getting our gas and electricity services started, visiting the local council to set up our council tax account, doing research at the library, and shopping for Sarah: a water bottle; another skirt; black gym shorts; plimsole shoes; and finding an art smock.

I am the family manservant. I'm looking forward to a few days off - Sarah in school, no major errands to run. Once I get my iMac I'll have many happy hours configuring it and setting up a Windows partition (just for gaming). I'll also have fun shopping for a TV (will probably get a used flat panel from a secondhand store) and stereo (I'm leaning towards the Monitor Audio iDeck). (That's right, a TV ... even though we avoided getting one in Portland, we want a TV here to take in the culture more; plus the BBC and ITV programming is very good.) Then I'm sure I'll get bored and ready for contracting.

Colchester Tour

We had a rare sunny day today, so I thought I'd get some pictures of Colchester to show you where we've been living and some of the town's highlights. It's been a while since we've published any pictures, or even taken any for that matter. You can also get lots of information (and perhaps even follow the tour below) at the Visit Colchester site.



This room has been our home for the last few weeks and through the next week. It's nice to have such an ordered room, but we'll really enjoy having our own separate bedrooms soon. Guess we'll also have to adjust to making our own breakfast and changing our own towels and sheets ...

Our room is just a few minutes' walk to the town centre; here are some sights along one of the ways there.



This is a view across the A134 to the Balkerne Gate, archways cut into the Roman wall that used to surround the city. Much of the wall is still standing; it's at least a thousand years old. Behind is a tower that's an iconic part of Colchester.



This view down the A134 gives an idea of the size of the town.


Colchester Park is 32 acres right below the town centre. The Roman wall and the River Colne run through it; you can also see a small pond and boats on the left. On the horizon on the right you can see farmland beyond the edge of town.



This is Colchester Castle, the oldest of its kind in England. Colchester is also the oldest occupied city in England. The castle is part of the park.



Here's the High Street. It borders the large square of shopping streets that comprise the town centre.



And this is one of the shopping streets. This is a common pattern in English towns. In this case, imagine about 64 square city blocks (8 blocks to a side). Take out parts of the streets so that you don't have direct through traffic. Narrow the streets to one lane and pave them with bricks or stones. Then line them with hundreds of unique shops, restaurants, and pubs. Yes, hundreds, more than several malls' worth, enough to take weeks to find them all. Several shops are department stores and there are many chains, but there are also many unique, locally-owned shops. On the edges, add multi-storey parking garages. I really like it.



This is the largest of the squares inside the town centre. There are a few more. I'd call it a public square, but that's redundant as the whole town centre is public. This is a favourite spot for me as there's a Costas coffee shop/cafe (on the left) and a Virgin Megastore (on the right).

Sarah and I visit this area daily because the library and the park are all right here. We're also spoiled because our room is such a short walk away; in Ipswich we'll be at least a mile away from the town centre.

Once we settle in Ipswich, I'll take more photos and give you a tour there.

Portland

I was hoping to see more artifacts of Portland on this side of the pond, but there hasn't been much. The Gossip are high in the charts. I read an article in a Scotland paper interviewing one of Nike's designers. But I was hoping to find some Oregon beers, or even some Pinot Noirs, and haven't yet. The closest I've come is Sierra Nevada Pale Ale in bottles; the American wines available tend to be common California labels like Robert Mondavi and Gallo.

So I was very proud to read this travel article on Portland in yesterday's Guardian. Even though no one told them the Dandy Warhols are played out.

Wallpaper

I read that Oscar Wilde was once asked why America was more violent than England and he answered that in England, the wallpaper looks nicer. And like so much of Wilde's writing, it seems flippant but holds a deeper truth.

It's so tidy here. It seems that every lawn is cut and edged, every garden is tended, every fence is mended, every window is unbroken. You just don't see a nice sidewalk in one neighbourhood and no sidewalk in the next. Billboards and telephone poles don't clutter the horizon. Signs are much smaller and more tasteful. Much less real estate is devoted to cars. People's shirts are tucked in. There are fewer adverts on television: you watch The Simpsons and the opening titles run and they jump on the couch together, and then the programme starts and you think, hey, where was the commercial? It seems Americans are much more tolerant of ugliness.

A society can't have total freedom and total equality at the same time. For instance, the freedom to pass wealth on to children gives them an unfair advantage. Ensuring equal healthcare benefits removes the freedom of a competitive healthcare market. America obviously favours freedom. But inequality cultivates physical ugliness (slums and messy lawns) and social ugliness (poverty and violent crime), so I guess that's part of the trade-off.