The Joys of Flat-Pack Furniture

We are currently in the process of furnishing our home, and with that comes A LOT of flat-pack furniture! Flat-pack furniture is huge here, mainly because most of the homes have these tiny little staircases. So in general, you just order the furniture in its flat-pack boxes, get those boxes up to the room where the piece will be located, and then assemble it. Our wardrobe (which took 7 hours to construct!) can't make it out of the room now without being disassembled. The quality has been good though, and we have gotten very good with putting things together now. We even bought an electric screwdriver this weekend to help speed up the process even more. =)

To complete the furniture purchasing for our new house, we traveled to London yesterday to visit the giant of flat-pack furniture - IKEA. We spent 3 1/2 hours through that giant store and are now waiting for the final pieces of the guest room wardrobe to be delivered so we can have it all set up for guests. =) (Quick note - I almost had a mental breakdown in the final pick-up areas of IKEA when we couldn't find the parts we needed for the wardrobe! That store is so overwhelming!)

Also as a note, as a result of all of this furniture, we have generated a lot of cardboard, styrofoam, etc. Our trash and recycle pick-up is quite interesting here - each one only gets picked up once a week. As a result, we have had to visit the local Recycling Center quite often lately! It's just this huge place where you can go to take extra household "rubbish" or recyclables that don't fit into your bins.

Final pictures of the house to come soon. We can't wait to be done with the purchasing and assembling of furniture!

4th of July in the UK

Yesterday marked the 4th of July -- it was definitely ironic for us to be celebrating America's independence from England while living in England! =) We had a great day though and tried to celebrate just like we would if we were home in Florida.

We started off by going to our semi-weekly market to pick up some fruits and vegetables for the week. For lunch, we stopped by one of the market stands and got a hamburger and hot dog in honor of the day.

After lunch, we headed down to one of the local pubs for a BBQ with Brian's colleagues (some American, some British). They had a real pig roast (which I just couldn't eat!), and other 4th of July favorites with a British spin. For example, we had a curry potato salad and we had English mustard instead. (British mustard is like our mustard at home except with a kicking dash of horseradish that can clear your sinuses!)

We also played our first game of Boules, actually a French game kind of like horseshoes. Amazingly, I ended up being really good at it - my team won the girl's game!

All in all, we had a great 4th! Next up: Labor Day, but this time, we will actually be in the States... =)

Yeovil and Bath

We just got back from an awesome 5-day trip to the western side of England. We started off in Yeovil where Brian did some work stuff, and then we headed over to Bath for the weekend. Gosh, Bath was amazing! The town was in a valley of sorts so as you went up and down hills around town, you got some amazing views. We did a lot of shopping and then of course did the traditional touristy things, including:

• Bizarre Bath - a comedy walking tour through the town


• Thermae Bath Spa - a modern take on the ancient Roman baths - we got in our bathing suits to swim in a rooftop pool and experience the aromatic steam rooms


• Roman Baths - absolutely amazing to see how much of the ruins still remain!


• Tower Tour - we climbed to the top of the tower in the middle of town, including a fun stop along the way where we saw the bells and the back of the clock face

For anyone coming to England, we highly recommend visiting Bath! Check out our photos from the weekend.

Our Home in the UK

After much unpacking and many furniture deliveries, we are finally REALLY living in our house and settling in. We love the layout of our new home, especially the back patio overlooking the creek. There are a lot of ducks living back there that are fun to watch, including a mama duck with five ducklings! Here are some photos from around the house.


Some of the more interesting differences between our US home and our UK home are:

• We don't have closests in our UK home (typical for over here). As a result, we have a large wardrobe closet that we actually built inside our room. (It'll have to be taken apart before it can leave!)
• Our bathroom has the weird half-glass door as part of the shower rather than a full door or shower curtain. It doesn't seem like a big deal, but if you're not careful, you can get water EVERYWHERE!
• We don't have air conditioning, so we have our windows open every day. (And as a note, they also don't have screens on the windows so we often have flys that come in!)
• Finally, our house is now "vertical" rather than "horizontal" - we don't have much space on each floor, but we have a total of 3 different levels, including the top floor that we mentioned before for our guests. =)

We are officially ready for visitors, so let us know if you are planning to jump the pond. ;)

The Slingbox - Our Connection to American TV

I hadn't heard of this before we were planning our move overseas, so I figured a lot of other people hadn't heard of it either. I wanted to take an opportunity to tell you about the most wonderful invention: the Slingbox. Brian's friends from work were nice enough to get it for us. Basically, it is a box connected to a DVR in the States that we can tap into from our computer over here. Our wonderful friend Chris has it set up at his house for us (he can really mess with us if he wants to though because he can record shows and change the channels)! We can set our recordings, watch live TV from Florida, and do everything else you would normally do at home with your DVR.

British TV isn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be - we actually do have DVR over here too, which has been nice. (Once you've had DVR, it's very hard to go back to watching TV normally!) However, I can't imagine missing my shows from home, which is why I'm so thankful for the Slingbox. Even if England does have some of the same shows, most times they are at least a few weeks behind so you read stuff online before you have a chance to watch. But because of the Slingbox, I can watch So You Think You Can Dance, The Real Housewives, and the Food Network just like I would at home! It has been such a lifesaver, and I would recommend everyone living overseas to get one.

I do tend to skip through the commercials still though so let me know if any good shows are coming up over in the States that we need to make sure to record! =)

Cinque Terre, Italy

Brian and I just got back from a wonderful weekend in Cinque Terre, Italy, to celebrate our 4-year wedding anniversary. It's an area on the Italian Riviera made up of five little towns on the coast - we stayed in Vernazza (which actually turned out to be our favorite one luckily).

During our trip, we stayed in a little bed-and-breakfast called "Rooms by Martina." We were on the top floor with a balcony overlooking the coast - it was a great view, but it was 76 steps to get up there each time!!! The room was also the first I had ever stayed in that didn't have internet, phone, or TV. It actually ended up being a nice technology-break though. Here's a video of our view:

The weather wasn't perfect when we first arrived, but we ended up getting a lot time in the beautiful outdoors there (and hey, any weather has to be better than England, right?) ;) On our second day, we even did a 2-hour hike up a mountain - I'm not normally one for hiking, but Brian promised it would be worth it and it definitely was! I have never climbed so many steps in my life, but I also have never seen a coast from that view before.

We flew in and out of the Pisa airport so we actually made a stop by the Leaning Tower on our way home too. Here are some photos from our trip - hope you enjoy!

Furniture Deliveries and Repairs in the UK - "A Cup of Tea"

We've had a TON of deliveries and appointments lately as we have continued to set up our new house. Last week, we had a man come to check our gas lines. I had to move some dishes so he could check around our kitchen. He offered to help me dry them if I made him a cup of tea. I told him I was sorry but that I didn't have a kettle or any way to make tea yet since we weren't living in the house. Then a few days later, we had some furniture delivered. The men asked for cups of water, so I gave them some and they stood around for almost 15 minutes after they were done just chatting away! After a third similar incident, I began to wonder what was going on...

I asked someone over here who has been here for a while and was told that when people deliver items to your house or come to do repairs, it is customary to offer them a cup of tea and/or other refreshments. What?!? I am the type of person who wants the person to get in and get out as quickly as possible. I don't want to sit around and make small talk for a while! It's just such a different custom than what we do in the States.

I would like to note though that I am a quick learner and when the gentleman came yesterday to set up my phone/internet line, I did offer him refreshments. He was very nice and we got everything set up that we needed. I guess I can sit through a cup of tea every now and then... =)