House news, interviews, job, music

It's been a busy week.

We woke Monday morning to the news that we had an offer on our London house. It's only been on the market ten weeks, and that includes the deadest time of the year over the Winter Holiday period, but it felt like an eternity to us, so we were very happy to accept the offer.

That enabled us to contact our broker in Eugene regarding the house we have seen and like very much. We had approached the owners with a potential contract to lock us in for four months, i.e if our house got an offer in the next four months we would buy their house, with a small amount on deposit to shown our goodwill.

Understandably that was too risky for the owners, who already had another offer on the table, but with different strings attached. Our call (via our broker) came through just in time, the husband was about to accept their other offer and was literally standing outside their lawyer's office with his hand on the doorhandle.

Maybe that bit of synchronicity triggered some extra luck for us, because the next morning I got a call for a job interview from one of the local retailers. With an hour to shave and dress smartly, I went through two interviews, then a drug test, and was offered a job starting next week with a day's orientation. Our lovely broker and another local friend acted as my references, and they both talked me up a storm which undoubtedly helped my case.

For now the job is only as a part-time Sales Associate, but it's my first experience of work in the US, it's some dollars coming in, and it doesn't require me to sit on my rear for eight hours a day destroying my eyesight at a computer screen and knackering my hearing talking on the phone. It should also give me experience dealing with the Great American Public.

On Wednesday Beth got called for an interview with the University of Oregon. The interview was scheduled for Thursday afternoon, so we had some time to upgrade her interview outfit, and get some work clothes for me.

Thursday was a beautiful sunny day. Beth got ready for her interview and I planned to take a bike ride while she was gone. Off went Beth in the car, and I lay down for a little rest before setting off. By the time I woke she was back, so no bike ride happened. It was still a nice day though, so we had a walk round the apartment complex instead. In the evening we went to a music session at a friend's house, this time a beautiful house designed by the owner and built by her son, right near the Willamette River. Neither of us had had much time for music practise, so I fumbled my way through a couple of jigs when it was my turn to lead, and mostly we passed and just played along with what we could.

Just as we were leaving one of my fellow fiddlers, known as Chico, handed me a business card and asked if he could pick my brains sometime about Morris Dancing. I'd been meaning to get in touch with the Eugene Folkdance Society as I'd heard that they tried to start a Morris side last year but it got shelved. Now here was someone seeking me out for my Morris Expertise! Well, four years playing and dancing doesn't really make me an expert, but it does make me the most experienced Morris Dancer in Eugene.

Finally Friday rolled around, and we went with our Broker to see the house that we are making an offer on, and talk again with the family. We had another viewing, measured a few rooms, determined a few paint colors, and went through the necessary paperwork. We now have a schedule, our own house sale should close on 19th February, we close this end on 15th March and they rent the house back from us for a month while they finish moving out. We move in on 15th April.



While all this has been going on we've also been integrating a stray kitten into our lives. There are several cats we've seen wandering around the complex, but this little creature has been returning to our door every night for about ten days. Returning because we feed her, of course, but we're feeding her because she seems to be abandoned. The mother cat has been around a couple of times and rounded her up, but she keeps coming back. In another week or so we'll be taking her to Lane County Animal Services for registration, shots, and neutering, and after a couple more weeks we can formally adopt her. On Monday she would let us touch her if her mother was next to her, by Thursday she was playing with a toy and coming inside to visit, though she still runs to the door and meows if we close it.



Elbie, the cat we brought from London, is generally accepting of her, either ignoring her or staring at her, but never mean to her. We say her, it's just a guess at present. We called her Clockwork Ghost from the way she flitted about beneath cars and in the shadows, Ghost for short.


New job, new house, new kitten, our shipping soon to arrive in the US, and when we've sold our house, a new car to be thought about. Lots going on, no wonder I'm exhausted.

Oregon Rain

There are many web forums dedicated to helping people move around, from country to country or within the US, with information and discussion on various topics. We found these very useful for Visa information, but I've mostly given up reading them now as they're full of tales of woe, or moaning about various aspects of life in the place being moved from or moved to. One thing that always gets a lot of flak is the weather in the Northwest.

It rains in Oregon, OK? Oddly enough it rains pretty much everywhere, and where it doesn't people wish it did. Somehow though, Oregon and Washington seem to come in for more complaining than other states, or maybe I'm just noticing it more.

The mean annual rainfall in Eugene is much the same as it was back in London, ditto the temperature. In Eugene though, we get wetter Winters and dryer Summers. It's rained a lot in the last few weeks but no more than I would expect in London, and to me at least, it's been less inconvenient. Much of the rain falls at night, all of it falls outdoors, and we've had several dry, warm and sunny days even in December and January. We keep tabs on the weather in London, and this Winter there's been an unusually heavy fall of snow across the UK, which is pretty for a couple of days and then a nuisance until it's all melted and the flood waters have receded.

We also get more daylight hours here than in London, being seven degrees further South, and I did find Winter in London a particularly dismal affair, sometimes not needing to draw the curtains for days on end as it was so dark, and when outside, schlocking about with head down against the rain, coat drawn up around the ears against the cold, and feet constantly cold and damp from the rain, splashes and puddles.

Masybe I'm painting a slightly worse picture of London than it really is, but I'm certainly not missing the weather there, or disliking the weather here.

No Tax to Pay?

Most states carry a sales tax of between 2.9% (Colorado) and 8.25% (California), and sometimes there are County sales taxes or City sales taxes on top. Generally you can add about 6% to the shelf price for anything you buy except a few basic foods.

Oregon is one of only five US states that do not impose any form of general sales tax on the sale or use of tangible personal property within the state. (Alaska, Delaware, Hawaii, New Hampshire, Oregon).

In practise this makes shopping a lot simpler, as the price you see on the shelf matches the price at the till. Why the sales taxes aren't incorporated into the shelf price in other states is beyond me, but they aren't, so you get that nasty and confusing sting at the till.

For an Englishman, used to seeing the price you pay, that makes life much simpler, and as we've been in shopping mode the last six weeks it's also made life quite a bit cheaper. We'll be having another big bout of shopping when we have a house to furnish, but meantime it's still a daily blessing to be able to tot up your purchases as you go along.

Oregon Driving License & Green Card

Today I passed my Oregon Driving Test practical, and am now a fully licensed US driver. Now that we're both fully licensed in Oregon our joint car insurance has dropped about $22 a month.

In theory it wasn't a big deal, because I was driving legally on my UK license anyway, and there's no specified date when that is no longer accepted. In practise, it's a huge deal to me, and one of the hurdles I felt I had to jump to be at home in the US. A driving license is often used as photo ID, so before this I had to carry my passport everywhere.

I did a written theory test a couple of weeks ago, but failed my first practical last week, because I rolled through a red light when turning right. It's one of the differences between UK driving and US driving that catch me out occasionally.

Most States allow you to turn right on a red light if it is safe to do so (i.e. the way is clear and there's no vehicle coming along from the left) but you still have to stop first, because it's a red light. They allow this turn except where the don't, and not all states allow it, so that's nice and clear.

America has a lot more types of intersection than the UK: Four-way stops, two-way stops, traffic light-controlled junctions, junctions with warning lights but no controls, junctions with stop lights but no controls, and probably others I can't remember. There are also a bunch more speed limits posted around town compared to the UK: 55 on the Beltline Highway, 45 on some major roads, dropping to 35 in shopping areas, 25 in residential districts, 20 in business districts and school zones (during school hours). It can be a full time job just remembering what the current limit is. Don't go by the other drivers, they're often breaking the limit anyway.

The second good news today was the arrival of my Green Card. This is the offical confirmation of my right to live and work in the USA, so I no longer need to carry my Visa (which was in my passport). It's like a credit card, with a somewhat distorted picture of me and my right index fingerprint. There's also a bunch of numbers and letters, I'm sure they're important too.


So a double red letter day, and we're eating out tonight to celebrate, probably at Applebees which was the first restaurant we visited when we came over last June.

American TV part 2: Cop Shows

It's no longer enough to watch actors playing cops. Columbo, Starsky & Hutch, Inspector Morse, Frost, Inspector Wexford, Wycliffe. Yadda yadda, seen that. We need a new twist, an angle, a gimmick....a shtick.

So we now have a generation of Cop shows where the central character is not a cop, but works with the cops each week to solve the crime.

The Mentalist - the central character is an expert in "reading" people, he's an ex conman and hypnotist.
Medium - the central character communicates with the dead. Very handy for solving murders.
Castle - the central character is a crime novelist.
Monk - the central character has Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. last time I checked he was working as a butler.

Some of these shows are pretty good, I really enjoy The Mentalist because there's a lot of humor in it, and my wife is a fan of Medium. I'm just worried what's going to happen when they apply the same "when is a cop not a cop?" shtick to hospital dramas.

American TV part 1: Adverts

We don't get cable or satellite, so my observations on American TV are based solely on the terrestrial channels, mostly ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox and OPB (Oregon Public Broadcasting).

Adverts. We got them in the UK on most channels (not the BBC), and they'd crop up every 15 minutes, so in a 1/2 hour show you'd get adverts at the beginning, middle, and end. We countered this by recording everything we wanted to see and fast forwarding through the ads. The show would actually cover about 25 minutes of the half hour. In an hour or longer show, they might space the breaks further apart but run longer ad breaks.

In the US you get an advert break before a show, then right after the opening credits, a couple of times during, and right before the closing credits, so a 1/2 hour show would have about 21 minutes of actual show.

Perhaps that's not so bad considering we're paying nothing for our viewing. In the US once you've bought the set and the aerial, the actual viewing s free, compared to the UK TV license at a current 142.50 GBP a year.

However if we DID get cable or satellite TV, those extra channels also carry adverts, so you're paying at least $30 a month for the channels, and you still have to watch the ads. Hmmm.


For the ads themselves, there are a heck of a lot of Medical ads, mostly pushing some prescription drug, and urging the viewer to badger their doctor into prescribing the miracle cure. The funniest or perhaps scariest part is the list of possible side effects each drug has, read at lightning speed, and including many things worse than the original problem, including sleeplessness, skin rashes, blindess, severe chest pains, vomiting, hair loss, death, and other delights.

Then there are the beer ads. Bud Light give their adverts titles, which as an Advertising insider I know is so they can be named in award ceremonies (yes, advertisers give themselves awards for their wonderful work).

Pick-up Truck ads are great. There are three major competing pick-up trucks currently being advertised, the Ford F-150, the GMC Sierra 1500, and the Dodge Ram. All are pushed as the best truck of course, for different reasons. The Ford is smart, the Sierra is powerful, and the Ram is... I forget, but anyway, you really need one to go down to the store for your groceries. Well you must, because that's what I see them being used for. The Sierra can tow a Californian Redwood, but I usually see them in parking lots. They have to park a lot, because they only get 12-15 mpg.

Ther are other car ads too, Toyota pushing reliability and fuel efficiency, Ford pushing reliability and fuel efficiency, and Nissan pushing reliability and fuel efficiency.

Perhaps the best adverts are the local ones. Because the channels are National, but audiences are local, you often get adverts for local businesses, from mattress suppliers to bars and restaurants, from Realtors (i.e. Estate Agents) to Dentists. It's actually quite educational. For now.

I want to ride my Bicycle

I've been cycling as a main means of travel since I was seven years old, when the 1973 Oil Crisis pushed the price of petrol in the UK so high that my brothers and I started cycling to school every day instead of being given a lift by car.

One of the reasons Beth and I chose Eugene for our new home is that it rates in the top ten cities in the US for cycling. There are miles of cycle paths, some alongside roads, but also many dedicated paths that take you away from the noise and danger and along creeks and waterways, through parks, and into a more healthy, safe and pleasant environment.



After three weeks in the country I invested in a new road bicycle, as nice as anything I've owned in London, and started to explore. The first area I discovered was the Wet Prarie, a unique environment which is wetland in the rainy season, and prairie in the dry season. Sadly only 0.5% of the original Wet Prairie remains; like the Redwood forests it was almost destroyed by the advance of the white man, but the area that remains is now protected and managed.

I cycled six miles the first day I had my bike, another six the second, and twelve on my third trip. Cycling here is much easier than in London. The paths are wider, so if you come up behind a pedestrian you can go round, not ding madly at your bell and then stop with a squeal of brakes when they fail to react. The paths are smoother, with no obstructing dog dirt and broken glass that make cycling in London such a joy. The hills, at least the ones I currently need to negotiate, are flatter, barely noticeable. We are in a valley, and only entering the South Hills area takes you up any severe incline.

If you are cycling on a bike path beside a road, it isn't constantly blocked by parked cars and traffic lights. My average speed in London was around 8-10 mph. Here it's been 12-15 mph, with no extra effort involved.

In London the cyclist is an outcast. Roads are for cars, and cyclists are squeezed into the gutter, with, if lucky, a thin white line to designate the area they are permitted to try to negotiate their way between buses, parked cars, tree branches, parked cars, car doors being opened by careless or blind drivers, parked cars and pedestrians who like to hover near the road in case they feel a fit of suicidal blues. Too many cyclists are killed every year on London roads, especially female cyclists killed by lorry drivers who do not see them. Oh, and the ever present dog dirt and broken glass, did I mention that? Occasionally one can ride on towpaths, but the pedestrian, and along canals the fisherman with his necessary tangle of rods and paraphernalia, make progress stuttering at best.

Bicycle theft is a problem in Eugene, as it is in London, and as it will be anywhere where bicycles congregate, so I invested about $100 in a big D-lock and cable, and I can chain up my bike anywhere. All stores and Malls have bicycle racks, and they are common along bike paths at places where you might want to pause and take in the scenery. London is improving, but bike racks in London are magnets for bike thieves.

Overall then, I'm enjoying using a bicycle again. It won't be necessary for shopping trips and other chores unless I want to cycle, but it's a nice alternative, and a great way to explore the quieter hidden corners of this city and its environs, and get a little exercise along the way.

Benefits of a recliner

New Build?

On Christmas Day we went to look at a site where we could potentially buy a plot and build a new home on the eastern edge of Eugene. We've viewed the house plans and it's within our budget, but until the house is built it's so hard to be sure exactly what you're getting for your money. There are no houses in the development at all at the moment, but all the roads are down and services are plumbed into each plot.

Our feeling now we were standing on the site was that despite the beautiful location the size of the plot might not leave much garden, so your neighbours could be looking right into your windows, and the noise from the I5 down in the valley, noticeable even on Christmas Day, could be intrusive.

With a new build on the back burner, we took a fresh look (online) at the 40 or so currently available houses that fit our search criteria, and selecting five possibles, drove round to take a look. Now we're living in Eugene it is of course much easier to view possible houses as soon as they are listed, and you can only tell so much from an online listing.




Of the chosen five we very quickly three rejected from an on-site inspection due to non-existant gardens or undesireable neighbourhoods, but this one did take our fancy, and we happened to catch the lady of the house for a chat. The house is on a cul-de-sac, backs onto a creek, and is at the current northwest corner of the city, so it's a quiet location, but still only ten minutes drive from all the shopping areas.

The house is about 2,500 square feet in the main building, but also had a third garage with a spare room above, so it's plenty big enough for us. We're having a look inside tomorrow, at the owner's invitation, and she is aware that we aren't in a position to buy until our London house is sold, but the house has been on the market for several months with only one other person showing interest so we may be lucky.

Herding Cat

Christmas Eve about 9:15pm, the cat decided it needed a sniff of the air. We've been slowly re-acclimatising Elbie to the outdoors for the last week, taking him first on a lead, and then as he doesn't go far or fast, just following him to be sure he doesn't get lost.

Beth escorted Elbie out, and I waited a few minutes to put on a hat and coat. I didn't bother with shoes, having my slippers on, as he wouldn't normally stay out for long in this freezing fog.

So, following Beth, we met up at a corner of a parking lot at the edge of the complex. Elbie was sniffing in the undergrowth as usual, then suddenly dived under the six foot tall boundary fence which had a 4" gap at the bottom. Nuts. I could see him through the gaps in the fence, but he was having far too much fun sniffing around and wouldn't come when called. Slowly he got further away, totally ignoring us.

Beth went back to the apartmenbt for cat treats, as Elbie can sometimes be enticed by the crumpling noise of the packet. She came back in minutes, which I had spent watching a black splodge slowly recede into the dark and fog, sniffing happily, until it vanished.

Beth followed the fence line which lead her away from the suspected cat location, while I head home for a flashlight, shoes and a mobile phone. Returning to the point where LB had gone under the fence there was still no sign of him, so I boosted myself over the fence and followed the line I thought LB might have taken. This lead me along the southern edge of a grassy field, (while Beth was making her way along the northern edge) and eventually to a corner next to a locked gate, and a couple of small trailers parked there. I use my flashlight to check under the trailers, then boosted myself over the chained gate, into a parking lot with two sheds, one of them up on blocks, and while I was checking the sheds Beth approached across a parking lot from the north, having walked rounds three sides of the fenced-in field.

There was still no sign of the cat. Our shoes were damp now, and we were not far from a road with occasional traffic. Beth headed towards the road, to follow it round to the south, while I scouted back north along the fence, still using the flashlight to check dark corners for a black cat. Nothing.

I passed through another parking lot, this time with cars and apartments round it. By this time it had become clear that if the cat was to be found by us it would be a miracle, and he'd have to return under his own steam, of be found by someone reading the nametag on his collar, which thankfully we had put on him a couple of days before.

Damp-footed and annoyed, I returned to the apartment, to discover LB sitting patiently on the mat outside, and very happy to be let back in again. I rang Beth, whio was only a couple of minutes behind me, and we were all home again in time for The Mentalist at 10pm, which turned out to be a repeat.

So we are now happy to let him wander unwatched if he wants to, as we know he can find his way home. Today he hasn't bothered to go more than a couple of yards from the door, so maybe he got a little rattled by the experience too.

Limescale

As all Londoners know, limescale from tapwater is a curse.

One spot of water left to dry leaves a small spot of white dusty scale. Kettles clog with limescale and have to be periodically de-scaled, pipes furr up so washing machines, central heating systems, baths, irons, showers and taps, all accumulate crustings of yellowish gunk, either visibly where they can be dealt with at enormous fuss and expense, or invisibly, where you hope they won't destroy your property before its time.

In Eugene, no limescale. Not one iota. After two weeks using the shower, kettle, and all the other situations where water meets heat or indeed just air-drying, not one spot of limescale to be seen.

It's an unplanned boon, but one that every day I count as a small blessing.

Trash

In London we had to keep all our rubbish for up to a week before it could be put out for collection, and separated food waste, plastic, cardboard/paper/tin cans/glass, and garden waste, into different receptacles. Anything that didn't fit into those categories went in a general black plastic bag.

As we lacked a garage, all the rubbish bags, boxes and bins would sit outside the back door in all weathers, so it was usually wet through by the time we were ready to carry it dripping through the house to the front door. The rubbish was collected once a week on a Tuesday sometiem between 6am and 5pm, but by three different crews at three different times, so we had to put it all out either last thing Monday night, or first thing Tuesday morning.

We would frequently come home to find something left behind, and always, but always, mess strewn across the road due to bursting bags and lazy dustmen. There might be a road sweeper round later in the week, but not reliably, so usually I would pick up the largest pieces of litter and put them back in our bins for the next week.


In our apartment complex in Eugene, we have the benefit of dumpsters located in each of the parking lots, so although we've generated a huge amount of trash recently, mostly cardboard boxes from new purchases, we don't have a huge pile waiting to be collected stacked outside the door. We keep a small plastic shopping bag for putting small items in as they are generated, and tie this shut and put it in the dumpsters as necessary. Cardboard and plastics are recycled, and they go in a separate dumpster.

My favorite thing by far, however, is recycling drinks cans and bottles. In Oregon, and many other states, cans and bottles carry a 5c deposit, so when you have finished your drink you wash out the receptacle, store it in a plastic bag, and when you have enough you take them to a recycling centre. These are located at most big stores, so there's no need to go hunting for one, and you don't need to take the cans back to the particular store you bought them at.

You feed the cans and bottles into recycling machines one at a time, and when you're done you get a receipt totalling 5c each item, to use against purchases in that store. There are washbasins and paper towels provided so you don't have to go away with sticky hands. This is the sort of convenience that the US is great at providing, and the UK doesn't seem to see the need for.

It also guarantees that there is almost no litter on the streets, as throwing away a drinks can is throwing away money.

Our First Eugene Session (as residents)

On Thursday evening we went to a music session at a local friend's house. A session, for those not into Traditional or Folk music, is an informal gathering of musicians for the purpose of playing together. There are sometimes listeners who are not musicians, but they are a side issue. This is not really a performance, and not a practise, though new tunes are picked up at sessions, so that a common repertoire becomes established.

Our friend P holds these monthly, and we had attended one back in June so we already knew a few of the musicians, and our host. Sessions can be a little intimidating until you find your feet, partly because you usually find you're not as fluent at your own tunes as you thought, and partly because you won't know many of the favourite local tunes. Both problems are fixed by practise, and the latter of course requires attendance so you know what tunes are likely to come up.

The common practise at this session (and another we went to in June) is to go round in a circle with each player starting a tune, or set of tunes, of their choice. In one evening the circle may go round 3-5 times, so a good plan is to have 8-10 tunes, in maybe 5 sets, that you are absolutely comfortable playing. I ought to have that and plenty more, but lack of recent practise and playing time severely limited my options when it came to my turn to lead a tune. I had my Fiddle as my main instrument, and Melodeon too which I played one set on, and Beth was on Whistle and Concertina.

We enjoyed ourselves, and the other musicians enjoyed having new members, and this session will be a regular social event for us. There are others on in the city, and we will be seeking these out too. The focus of a session we can enjoy together, and get home from easily and quickly, will (hopefully) encourage more practise from both of us.

I like Driving in my Car

On Wednesday, delayed a day because of the wi-fi installation problems, we drove 47 miles up to Corvallis to check out a second-hand car we hoped to buy.

Beth had been searching online for a station wagon, under $8,000 with less than 80,000 miles on the clock, and located a 2002 Mercury Sable at a dealership called Power. We wanted a station wagon partly because Beth has owned one before, a Ford Taurus very like the Sable (in all but name, they're the same model both made by Ford), and partly so we would have plenty of trunk space should we need it.

We got there in pouring rain, and located our salesman Frank. The other salesmen looked like he'd just stolen their candy.

We spent about 20 minutes going over the car minutely, noting dings and small dents, checking catches, aerial, tyres, fluids and other things, before taking it for a 30 mile testdrive with Frank in the back guiding us. Partway we changed drivers (Beth to me) so we could both get a feel for the car. One rattle developed while I drove, which proved to be the rear numberplate coming loose at one corner.

Beth had checked this car thoroughly online beforehand, including the Blue Book price, and service history (via Carfax), so armed with this knowledge we went into Frank's office to negotiate. Long and short, we knocked $700 off the sale price, getting plates & registration included(these normally add about $236), and a couple of things fixed too (new bigger wipers, trunk window hydraulic replaced, all fluids topped up).

Beth, again the US expert, had arranged insurance so that if we liked it we could drive it home that day. As a result we drove home separately, now proud owners of our own wheels. We need to go back in 2-3 weeks to get our own plates attached, and also the hydraulic window bar fitted as it wasn't in stock.

Beth had a good drive home in the new car and we decided to return the hire car a week early, since two cars at this time is an unnecessary luxury, so on Thursday afternoon we returned the Budget Rent-a-Car, a Pontiac G3, and saved about $280 on our expected rental costs.

The Clubhouse

A few times in the past week I've referred to "The Clubhouse", so I thought I'd show you a few pictures of what I've been talking about.



The clubhouse is the only single-storey building in the complex, and the site of the rental office, so if you have any problems or comments this is the place to go.



The hallway, with doors through the back to other apartments. There is a pool (not open in the winter) and a hot tub out back.



To the left of the front door is the gym, with machines open for use by any residents, and TVs to watch while you work out. We haven't used these yet, but we plan to.



To the right is the TV lounge, with a huge TV with cable access, and a kitchen out back. The TV is on a 1st come 1st served basis, but as most residents have cable in their apartments it's usually free. Here I watched the Monday Night Football game.



At the rear of the building is the rental office, and a layout of tables and chairs, used by staff and residents. There is free but unsecured wi-fi access throughout the building, but we now have secure access in our apartment so we won't use this much now.



There is also an internet room, with three computers with internet access and a printer, free for residents to use but not abuse. We haven't got a printer at home, so this has been very useful if we need to print receipts, maps etc.



Finally there's a racquetball court, similar to a Squash court in the UK. The racquet has a larger head and shorter handle than a squash racquet, but otherwise the game works the same. There are also restrooms with lockers and water fountains which I haven't bothered to show.

Supersize Me

One great benefit of moving to the USA is the ability to buy food in larger quantities. Without a car in London, we were limited to buying only what we could carry in our arms, or sometimes loaded onto a packhorse bicycle.

Not only do we now have a car to carry the shopping home in, but the package sizes are generally larger, conferring a great saving through bulk buying. Many American foods are sold in larger sizes regularly, such as milk in 1 gallon bottles (3.78 litres), and cereal in 400+ gramme boxes. Potato chips (crisps) regularly come in packs weighing 10-15 oz, up to ten regular English servings in one bag.

On top of that, we have the opportunity to buy frequently used food and household items in big boxes, such as 48 toilet rolls (the biggest UK size is at best 12 rolls), or three 44oz (1.25kg) bottles of Heinz Tomato Ketchup in one pack.

Buying in bulk means financial savings, and fewer shopping trips. It also means more food in the apartment, and the opportunity to stuff oneself stupid. It's all too easy to sit down with a 15 oz bag of chips and not rise until the bag is empty.

Monday 11th Dec - The Cable Guy

Today we were tidying up a few loose ends. Beth took her written driving test to transfer her Washington driving license to an Oregon one. To transfer a license within the US there's a 35 question multiple-choice test, and you need to score 80% (28/35). Beth being Beth scored 34. I'll be happy to scrape the 28 when it's my turn, but I can't take the test until I have my social security number, which should arrive sometime early January, and I'll have to do a physical driving test too.

Beth also registered to vote in Oregon, and there's a big vote coming up in January.

We bought a cell phone at Fred Meyer so we could make a few urgent calls, as our T-Mobile phones won't show up till Wednesday at the earliest. Then back to the apartment to wait for The Cable Guy. He turned up a bit late, and then, not through any fault of his own, couldn't get the connections right after a couple of hours work, and someone's coming back tomorrow to finish up. This is a little frustrating, but he offered a $25 refund for the inconvenience, and that pays for the first month's connectivity.

A bit later than planned, we drove to a friend's house in pouring rain to collect a couple of boxes we left here in July. He's actually the friend of a friend, and it was very nice of him to hold these for us. He hosts a music session in his house once a month, and we'll be seeing him again Thursday evening for that.

There was just time for me to grab a Carl Jr's burger (wouldn't bother again) on the way home (Beth driving) before settling onto the clubhouse sofa to watch the Monday Night Football game, Cardinals vs 49ers. Three hours later I abandon the game with ten minutes still to play, as the Cards have turned the ball over six times and there's not time left for them to come back and win.

Sunday = Football Day

I've been a fan of (American) football, and specifically the Philadelphia Eagles, since I first saw a Redskins vs. Eagles game in 1984 while at university, and one thing I've been looking forward to is being able to watch games on TV as they happen, rather than listening on the radio or watching a game I recorded during the night. On the west coast we're 3 hours behind the east coast, so 1pm kickoffs start at 10am here, and the Sunday Night Game coverage starts around 4pm.

Before a day of slouching in my recliner, cat on lap, the only exercise I got was walking to the clubhouse for an early morning Skype chat with my parents in England, 8 hours ahead. My wife went out shopping as I settled in for an eye-watering marathon.

I'm now watching the Eagles at the Giants, so no time to type any more!

Mattress Hunt

Saturday, I learn that a recliner is comfy for a couple hours nap but maybe not the whole night. I've also had the cat on my lap most of the night, nice for him, but restricting for me.

We have the u-Haul van until 3pm, so our plan for today is to source two mattresses and then use the truck to collect them before returning it. Unfortunately there had been freezing rain overnight, and the sidewalk outside the flat was a skating rink, the roads not much better, so we decided to delay our start until 10am to allow a chance for some thawing. Meantime we did some online stuff, and discovered that Beth's credit card had been blocked AGAIN, "for unusual activity". Once was OK, as she hadn't used it for ages, and not in Oregon at all, but a second time, after we had visited a branch to sort it out, was trying. We phoned from the clubhouse, and sorted that out again, this time with the casual mention that if this happens again we will be taking our business elsewhere.

10am we set out in our hire car to PetSmart, to get a cat tree for Elbie. He hasn't had one before, but we wanted give him the chance to sit and look out the window. They had a goodly selection, and we wedged one into the back of the car, and as we were close by we went back to CostCo for a proper look around, possibly for side tables and a TV stand.

Nothing much there for us in the furniture way, but we bought some food basics, including 8 tins of Clam Chowder for which I am developing a taste after first trying it in Boston in the summer of 2006. Also 3 huge bottles of Heinz Ketchup, a huge pack of paper napkins and two bottles of Parmesan cheese. Purchases of this magnitude are impossible for most people in the UK.


Then off to Sleep Country to source mattresses. Unfortunately they don't carry stock, and we would have to go to their Springfield branch to get at least one mattress, though they did have one they would sell us on the spot. We consider this, but head off to Mattress Mania on West 11th Ave to see if they had anything in stock.

No. They don't have any stock space at all, so after a quick glance through the window we got back in the car and headed home to collect the van to drive to Springfield. On the way, further up West 11th, we spotted American Mattress Manufacturing, and diving in quickly discovered that this was the place for us, they had a huge amount of stock of both beds and mattresses, and after trying a few mattresses we bought two, ready to be collected in an hour or so.

Back to the apartment complex to collect the van, and I took it back to AMM to collect our mattresses. For now we are getting two twins, as we have bedframes being shipped over from the UK that they will go on, eventually for spare bedrooms. When we have bought a house we will be getting a King size bed with all the trimmings.

Mattresses unloaded (it's good to have a strong wife who can share the carrying), and we have an hour for a late lunch before returning the van to u-Haul. I highly recommend them, it cost us just $70 for the van for the day, including $15 of gas we put in. When we haveb to move into the house we'll get a big u-Haul for the job, and possibly rope in a couple of friends to help lift and shift.

After returning the van we stopped off at the Post Office for Beth to send a package, then to Wal-Mart to get two floor lamps (we call them standard lamps in England), a couple of cheap side tables to use with our recliners, and a TV stand. The TV stand we chose is a cheap $24 design of plywood and plastic, but works very well for our current situation. We'll get an even bigger TV when we have a house, and use this one in ther bedroom, though as I've had the same 21" TV for over 17 years the 32" seems pretty big, but we are now in the land of big.

Home at last, we assemble the lamps and TV stand, stand the tables up, and then realise we have no bulbs for the lamps. D'oh, I go to Target to get those, then have a drive towards Toys'R'Us for a look at their shelves, but fog has descended, darkness has fallen, and I can't find the store! Giving up on that I stop by at Albertson's, our nearest food store, and stock up on further food items and some Oregon Ducks caps and a t-shirt.

Home after 7pm, we watch "It's a Wonderful Life" on TV, or most of it, because we're both too tired to see the end. By 9:30pm Beth is rolled up in her bedding on her new mattress, and within the hour I joined her.

D+2 - Friday - Uhaul and Recliners

We slept until 6am this time, though the floor was a little hard on my hips and backside, so early mattress acquisition was desireable.

We went up to the clubhouse to get online, and ordered the T-Mobile phones and booked a U-Haul van for 3pm. Then Beth discovered that her credit card that we had bought everything with was blocked "for unusual activity", i.e. we'd actually used it. That meant we couldn't get started on shopping until we'd been to the Bank of America (or called them on our non-existant phones) to sort that out problem, but we were planning a Bank visit anyway at 9am, so it wasn't a big deal.

Off to the Bank then, and after they unlocked the card we also sorted out Bank accounts (checking and Savings) for me, and a joint checking account. That was all very quick and easy, and I was impressed with their efficiency. I walked out with a temporary debit card I could use, something I haven't encountered in the UK, and very convenient, especially considering our current needs.

Then off to CostCo, a discount warehouse where you have to be a member (for $50 a year) to shop, but you can buy in bulk a great prices, and they also sell TVs, various furniture and other stuff, and also food and clothes. We decided to become Executive Members, an extra $50 fee, but you get the $50 and more back at the end of the year if you spend enough. We may well buy a big 50" TV here when we get our house, which would be more than enough to get the cashback. Beth also ordered an American Express card linked to CostCo (the only credit card the accept) which confers other perks. Havinggot our membership sorted out we had a look round but didn't buy much, as we planned to return another day.

Back to Fred Meyer to order a second recliner for Beth. The sales assistant had been a bit too pushy the first time, and put Beth off, but we decided that having two matching recliners would be better, so we ordered a second to be colelcted that afternoon, then got a 32" LCD TV, an Oregon Ducks T-Shirt for me (they are in the Rose Bowl 1st Jan 2010 - GO DUCKS!), and soe foodstuffs, before heading back to the apartment to set up the TV.

Now this may seem foolish, but I hadn't realised the TV needed a separate aerial, I had assumed it was all included, so I would have to go back to FM to get that. We also discovered two packages missed while we were out, one left at the Leasing Office and the other mysteriously not, so I would have to go to the FedEx centre in Springfield after 5pm to collect it, or wait for a redelivery on Monday. The FedEx package was my laptop, so I determined to collect it.

We collected the second package, a replica Philadelphia Eagles Helmet for me (for display, not use), went back to FM and got a Digital Aerial for the TV, and finally home to get it all set up. This provides us with about a dozen channels, the main ones CBS, ABC, NBC and Fox, plus a few local stations.

After some lunch we went to u-Haul to collect a van, and then back to FM for the third time today to collect the two recliners and a flat packed table. Home again to set them up, and dispose of acres of cardboard packing. It had started to rain, and it was interesting manouvering the boxed chairs into the house, but we got them set up OK, and now each had somewhere comfy to sit, and a TV to watch. WE did not yet have beds to sleep on, just bedding, but we decided to leave the mattress hunt until Saturday.

Beth had a job interview lined up now, that she had arranged before we left the UK, so she drove off in the increasing rain and encroaching dark, while I went off in the van to collect my laptop.

Well it's a simple drive to Springfield in good weather and daylight, but a tense one in an unfamiliar van, with freezing rain lashing down and in the dark. The Beltline highway was my route for 90% of the way, and I saw a couple of crashed cars that had obviously fallen foul of the poor conditions. I drove slowly, peering through the murk to see mty way, and not unnaturally missed my turn the first time and had an interesting 15 minutes navigating the backstreets of Springfield before, more by luck than judgement, happening across the FedEx office. I collected my package with a polite enquiry as to why it wasn't left at the office (and not a very satisfactory answer), then hauled myself back into the van to carry my new toy home.

Beth arrived home from her interview, which went well and she has a second interview next week. We watched a bit of TV, but were too tired now to have much interest, and collaped again, Beth in her bedding, me rolled up in my comforter in my recliner.

D +1 - outfitting the flat

After waking at 3:30am, Beth and I were both jet-lagged, so we chatted until 6am when breakfast was available. It was freezing outside, and we had to warm the car before loading up and setting out. Waffles and syrup plus a cup of tea for me and OJ for Beth, and we were ready to hit the road around 7am.

Elbie the cat miowed intermittently on the drive down I5 to Eugene, but seemed tired and sleepy and much of the time was silent. I slept a bit too, and Beth did all the driving. We arrived around 11am, finding our way to the apartment complex easily, and meeting C. who ran us through the paperwork. I've never signed and initialed so many sheets of paper before, but after about an hour we were in our new apartment and able to release Elbie. He hid behind the tumble dryer while we unpacked a little and planned our first shopping trip, to get a better litter tray and various cat essentials to make him more comfortable.

We have never needed a litter tray for Elbie before, as he had a cat flap and outdoor access anytime he wanted, but before we went out this time he managed to christen our makeshift one. When we got back about an hour later with a brand new litterbox with lid plus "Scoop Away" kitty litter, we couldn't find him anywhere in the flat. A panicked search ensued for about ten minutes, until B discovered him inside the tumble dryer. There was a cat-sized hole in the back of the machine (for no obvious reason), and he'd tucked himself in there and got stuck because of his cat collar. I had to pull the machine out gently, ease him out and remove the collar (not necessary indoors anyway), and then we shut the doors on the utility closet.

With his new litter tray he really went to town; he must've been holding back the floodgates for a couple of days. My fears of Elbie littering round the flat were immediately banished, and we concluded that he had been trained to use a litter tray by his previous owners.

Cat now more settled and comfortable, we set out again to get some basics for ourselves. First plan was to open a bank account for me so I could have financial independence (my US funds were being held in one of B's saving accounts), so we stopped off at a Bank of America, but they were too busy and slow, and we had a lot to do in a few hours, so we abandoned that until the next day. An odd aside, the bank teller, when she saw our address, gave a gasp of astonishment. It turnes out she is our upstairs neighbour, her address being just one digit different to ours. Small world, or at least, small city.

Next stop was T-Mobil, but we were foiled again, as they didn't have the (cheap) phones we wanted, so we determined to order online instead, and to out up with a few days delay to get the right phones.

We moved on to Fred Meyer, one of the big department stores in the Pacific Northwest, and purchased bedding and towels, a comfy armchair (bought with a gift of money from my aunt), various foodstuffs, dining table and 2 chairs (flatpacked), and a shower curtain and rings. The table and armchair we couldn't take immediately as the car was too small, so we arranged to collect them the next day. Everything else we crammed into the car, and as Beth was now very tired I drove home.

We barely had the strength to munch our meagre rations before Beth slipped into unconsciousness, and I soon joined her after a stroll round the block. During the stroll I bumped into our upstairs neighbours, the bank teller D and her husband, so we chatted for a while, until the shivering of their small dog reminded us all that it was well below freezing. I dived back inside, rolled myself up in my new comforter, and drifted into a dreamless sleep.

D-Day - Arrival in the USA

Yesterday was the big move day. We woke around 5:30am and spent 4 hours doing last minute cleaning and tidying, filling about six black bin bags with junk we didn't want to carry or leave in the house. We had a slight bit of cat-juggling, as we wanted Elbie to have a chance to do his morning sniffs and perambulation, but be sure he was available when we needed to leave.

A minicab came at 9:30 to take us to the airport, via the Animal Quarantine Centre for our cat Elbie. He miowed quietly and regularly in the cab, but settled done, and we handed him over to the cat courier around 10:15. On to Terminal 5 for the humans and their luggage, we got our boarding passes quickly but couldn't check in our luggage as we were an hour too early. Lots of walking/standing space but very few seats is my main impression of the terminal.

Time to check luggage, and a minor hiccup occurs, our bags are too heavy. However we have a bigger checked allowance because we had upgraded our seats, so I nipped to a luggage shop and got a small duffel bag for £25, into which we loaded our excess weight so all 3 bags came under the limits. Phew.

On through security, the usual queues but no problem. At this point we have one carry on suitcase apiece, plus an instrument each (fiddle and bag of concertinas), and B has a laptop as well. I also have my melodeon in my carry on suitcase as well, as it's by far the most valuable small and easily broken item I have.

Still no boarding gate announcement, so we go to Boots (the Chemist) to buy some sandwiches and drinks, using the last of my loyalty card points. We sit and munch these on a couple of seats under the announcement board (design note - you can't see the board while sitting), and read books. After about an hour we have a boarding gate, A10, and move to the next stage.

I had hoped to get some duty-free Jameson's Irish Whiskey for one of our Eugene friends who had been storing some boxes for us, but they don't have Jameson's, just Scottish brands so we skip that and wait for our boarding announcement. It comes and everybody piles forward and onto a bus...

A bus? Yes, despite the swanky new British Airways terminal building, we still have to pile onto a cattle truck to drive several minutes to the plane. The good news is we get right next to the exit door, so when we arrive on the tarmac and walk to the plane, B and I are first up the boarding stairs and into our seats, so we can stuff our overhead bins full before other greedies get there. We are flying World Traveller Plus, slightly bigger seats and slightly smarmier service with a doubled baggage allowance.

So we settle into our slightly bigger seats and play with the footrests and back recliners while the plane fills, but there's a hold-up because someone has taken a funny turn, and we're delayed an hour before actual takeoff. 1st Class get drinks served during this time, but our section do not, so we read, listen to iPods etc.

We're off, the wheels lift off the ground. We have left UK soil. When will I be back?

The flight is smooth, we sleep in snatches and miss bits of the films because they're on a fixed loop, unlike Virgin Airlines where you can pause and change choices at any time. Never mind. I watch some GI Joe action movie on a screen not much bigger than my iPod screen, the guy in the seat in front lurching about like a beached whale joggling the screen frequently. Not the most edifying in-flight entertainment, but at least I have a footrest and an iPod. I finish my book and give it to B to read.

We arrive at Seattle-Tacoma airport on time (4:10pm local time, midnight:ten London time) thanks to good tailwinds, grab our baggage and shuffle off to immigration. They announced on the plane that there were three different sections, US Citizens, visitors, and US Residents, Green Card Holders and immigrants, but that was misleading. We get steered towards the right section, and I'm clutching a sealed big brown manilla envelope with my details. This is the big moment, we are first in the queue again (woo hoo) and Officer Anderson is quick, polite and efficient, a nice change from some previous experiences. In about 30 minutes I am processed, visa endorsed, fingerprints taken etc. they have our new apartment address (we had used my BIL's in Texas previously), and we're off to collect our checked bags. I should receive my Social Security Number in about 3 weeks (equivalent to a National Insurance Number in the UK), my green card not for six months, but the stamped Visa serves the place of both for now.

Due to checking in early at Heathrow our bags are ready on the conveyor belt, so we grab them and pass though customs in minutes. Then we have to put them on another conveyor belt to get to them main part of the airport while we board a train. At the other end there is slight confusion as to where to get our bags again, but we soon locate the correct baggage carousel. The carousel isn't moving yet, so we head off to the car rental desks to get that sorted while we wait. Second small hiccup of the day occurs here. The normal Budget Rental desk is closed and has been moved to a different location on a different floor, so we split up temporarily, B going to organise the car while I got back to the carousel to ensure our bags aren't stolen. We arrange to meet at the carousel.

However the bags arrive in seconds, so I stupidly decide to try to drag them to where I think B may have gone. I can only explain this madness by pleading tiredness from the flight, eagerness to be moving after ten hours of butt-numbing stillness, and my innate level of stupidity at messing up carefully arranged plans. So I start dragging four wheeled suitcases, two shoulder duffel bags (one filled with concertinas), a long fiddle case (with just one shoulder strap) and the plastic bag from Boots with my overcoat and a few munchies in. I left B her laptop bag at least. I manage to get to the car parks via an elevator, but have no idea where the Budget desk is located, and I realise B has probably done and gone back to the carousel where I am waiting. Oh no, I'm not there anymore am I?

So, t-shirt soaked with sweat but outside temperature hovering around freezing, I drag the landtrain back towards the carousel (using the elevator again, which mercifully was empty both times), just in time to see a puzzled B looking all round for me or the bags. I shout pleadingly, but she doesn't hear me and starts walking away, faster than I can drag the cases. Panic, I stop, cup my hands into a cone and shout her name again. Mercy, she hears me and comes back, still looking puzzled. I disguise my stupidity with bad temper, and she heads off to the information desk to find out where we collect the cat.

Given a few minutes to cool down mentally and physically, I manage to summon a smile for B when she returns, and we wheel and lug our worldly goods off to the rental car, which B has upgraded to a mid-size or we wouldn't get everything in. It's a good choice, a Pontiac which we haven't driven before, and we put down the back seat and load up. I put on a fresh t-shirt, and then my fleece and overcoat, and put the car heater on max, because it is now below freezing.

We set off into the dark Washington State evening, and soon find Menzies Aviation where the cat E is waiting quietly for us in his carrier. Quietly, that is, until he hears our voices (first time in 17 hours), and I comfort him with finger through his cage bars while B sorts the paperwork. We need $35 cash to pay, and fortunately I have $36 in my wallet from our last trip so all is well and we claim our prize and load up again.

As we head south on Interstate 5 Elbie is miowing again quietly, not really distress, just confusion and reminding us that he's not 100% contented, so we drive for only an hour before deciding to stop the night. Quality Inn accept pets ($15 extra), so we check in there, unload bags into our room via nearest fire escape door, and release the caged beast. In fact he's happy to be back with us, and wanders round the room as cats do checking the new arrangements, before finding a lap to sit on and start purring. We order Pizza Hut Pizza delivered to our room (we'd prefer Papa John's but it's not available here), have a swift much, quick scan of the cable TV channels, and collapse into bed around 9:30pm.

I wake at 1:30, 2:30 and 3:30, finally deciding to stop fighting jet lag, and get up and shower. D+1 has started.

D -1 Last day in London

We had various small jobs to complete today.

First, put on last clothes wash and hang it out to dry, then visit the local council office to get our Council tax exemption registered (for leaving the house unoccupied we pay less tax until it is sold). Next we visited the Estate Agent and reduced the house price (we always thought it was a little high, and we've had no offers yet after a month on the market). Then a short walk to a London Underground station to get the £3 each deposit back on several Oyster cards. These are credit card size passes that you use on buses and tube trains, and we had accumulated half a dozen spares over the years.

On to my parents house, with sandwiches, to say goodbye and show them how to work several electrical items we were giving them, mostly digital radios and digital TV tuners that won't work in the US.

Back home via an ATM to get some cash for the airport taxi in the morning, then a quick whizz round with the vacuum, clean the bathroom and kitchen again, and I collapse for an hour or so while industrious wife puts a last coat of oil on the new kitchen work surfaces and starts going through last minute paperwork.

I get in the washing (it hadn't dried much outdoors but you have to try), put it in the tumble dryer, take down the old washing lines in the garden and add them to the growing pile of junk my parents will be disposing of after we have gone.

Join wife on paperwork sorting, and we take the opportunity to upgrade our plane seats. It's a ten hour flight so we figure it's worth it for £100 each. Check through papers we're leaving with the house, papers we need on the flight, papers we need when we arrive, insurance papers, papers, papers.

It starts raining heavily.

Off to our favourite Sushi restaurant for a delicious supper (no washing up, wahay!), stopping on the way at the local library to take a photocopy of my UK driving license (just in case) and back home to say goodbye to our neighbours who are keeping an eye on the house for us. Long chat about our flight, the cat's flight, relative size of the city of Eugene to the borough of Ealing (half the population, twice the urban area) and the use of Skype.

Drag heavy suitcases downstairs ready for the morning, and pack the last few items including just dry clothes.

Update Blog.

Phew, usually the last day before the start of a journey I get a bit antsy, but I didn't really have the time today. I'll have to wake up at 5am to get it done tomorrow.

Wife

I knew my wife was a pretty amazing person before I married her, but getting through the whole emigration process would have been impossible without her. Not merely because I wouldn't have qualified for a spousal visa unless I was married to an American Citizen, or had her to sponsor my application, but because she is fantastic at finding information on the internet, filling in forms, planning and organising.

The Visa process is immensely complicated, requiring a string of forms, certificates, affidavits, photographs, financial statements and goodness knows what else. I have mostly taken a back seat while my wife put together the various packages required and sent them off, got me to the interview and answered their questions with me, and ensured that we were always four steps ahead of the process.

So a big thank you to my wife for being more than just a calming influence, but a leading light in my life.

Toast

In one of those "life could be a little bit better in tiny ways" moments, I burnt my toast this morning. Not because I had the toaster set too high, but because the pre-sliced bread was bigger than the toaster, so I had to turn the slices and do them twice. That was too much for a partly toasted and pre-heated slice, and I had some scraping to do.

Is it too much to ask designers of toasters to make them the right size to fit standard bread slices, or the breadmakers to make loaves in dimensions that fits a standard toaster?

My days are filled with moments life this, where poor design leads to poor results.

Yesterday I was driving a hire car, a Vauxall Astra, and it was a lovely, almost brand new vehicle, but one design feature frustrated me. The indicator lever, rather than having an up (indicate right), middle (no signal) and down (indicate left) position, was designed so that after flicking up (right) or down (left) it returned to the centre position.

That's fine if your turn will cancel the indicator, but if you're driving on the interstate (or in this case, the motorway) and are just changing lanes, then you need to cancel the indicator yourself after changing lanes. How do you do this? Obviously you have to flick the lever in the other direction. Normally, i.e. on every make of car I have ever driven before, across two continents and six countries, in 25 years of driving, this returns the lever to the centre, non-indicating setting. On this whizzy new design of Astra however, if you flick too far you end up indicating back the other way, so it looks like you're changing back to the lane you just left.

Someone must have designed this new style of indicator, and no doubt got an award, but apparently never actually drove the car to try it. At least 60% of the time I tried to cancel an indicator I ended up indicating the other way, and often when trying to cancel that wrong indicator I'd end up indicating again the way I'd just turned. I'm not a bad driver usually, I have never had an accident, but I came pretty close a few times with this stupid indicator switch.

If anyone from Vauxhall (or General Motors, or any other car manufacturer) should happen to read this, I will not be purchasing one of your car models if it has this kind of indicator, no matter how new and shiny and well laid out the rest of the controls are, because it's stupid and it doesn't work.

Well honestly. While we're on the subject of car design, drinks holders the driver can reach are a good idea, even in the UK. 'nuff said.

Oh, and to the toaster manufacturers of North America, I will be taking a loaf of bread to aid my toaster purchase decision in a week or so, and if the bread won't fit your toaster, I won't be buying one. You have been warned.

D-10 Stocks

For months we've been trying to calculate how much we need to keep in the house, in terms of cleaning products, food, toilet paper etc.

With just 10 days to go, it's fair to say I won't be using the six or seven tubes of toothpaste I seem have stocked up, and our last bottle of washing-up liquid has been purchased. Soap, shampoo, shaving items, all have been counted and the excess packed and stored for shipping to the US. As there's a cost involved we've tried to minimise our stocks, and a lot has been thrown out.

I't's rather thrilling to know that this is the last pot of Marmite I'll be buying for the forseeable (I won't be eating Marmite in the US), and even the pound of butter in the fridge will probably see us through.

I've laid out the clothes I'll be wearing for the next 10 days, ready to wear, then wash and pack, in the knowledge that once it's in the suitcase it won't need to come out again. As we've been living out of our suitcases for months that's quite a relief.

Of course in another 12 days we'll be out at Winco or Costco or Target stocking up again, but the difference will be that we'll have a car to carry everything back from the store, and won't worry about having to be tidy at home.

It's all good.

Dublin

Just back from a wet and windy week in Dublin. My wife and I wanted to get away from the house for a while now it's almost stripped bare, and leave it free for viewings.

Dublin is very easy and cheap to fly to from London at the moment, and for accommodation we rented a one-bedroom apartment in Christchurch Halls. The apartment was very comfortable, but lacked the Wi-Fi access we had booked it for, so slightly disappointing but overall good value.

During our trip the West of Ireland and the North-West of England suffered massive rainfall and flooding, with many businesses and houses flooded to a depth of several feet. Heartbreaking and mostly unpredicatable and unavoidable, though building at least 20-30 feet higher than the nearest river would seem a good idea. Dublin got a share of the rain but really nothing in comparison, and probably no more than Eugene would get this time of year normally, the difference being that we had to walk everywhere in it.

The Euro is unfortunately strong at the moment, and prices are already high for eating out, so we alternated with sandwiches or eating in to reduce the food bill. With limited luggage space we bought only a few souvenirs, mostly books in Irish for my wife to read, which are hard to obtain even in Dublin.


We now have just two weeks before the big day. Our Estate agent managed to get in eight or so viewings while we were away, but no offers on the house yet.

With the house almost bare, and due to be even barer in a couple of days as the last few things we can't carry with us go into storage, we've a few outings and a party lined up to keep us amused, and packing and re-packing of suitcases. After the storage unit is emptied on Monday, the contents being collected for shipping, we'll be sitting on the futon or bed reading books, watching TV and playing Nintendo DS for amusement in the evenings.

Nets & Bulbs

Net curtains are a feature of most English suburban houses that appear to be missing from the American scene. Nets are thin white lacy curtains that you hang permanently inside a window, to prevent the neighbours from seeing your goings-on.

Their success in this regard is limited, they cut down vision but do not prevent it, especially at night if you forget to draw the real curtains. However their success in collecting dirt and dust is legendary, and I've recently washed all our net curtains, changing their colour from grey to off-white.

I shan't miss these ugly things in America, and am looking forward to blinds, which do the combined job of nets and regular curtains better than either, and are easier to clean and less bulky.


In this house we have six different types of light bulbs. In England the bayonet fitting used to be universal, but we now also use screw fittings, and thanks to the peculiarities of this house we have 100W big spotlights in the kitchen and bathroom, plus a small fluorescent tube over the hob, 60W smaller spotlights in the stairwell, a 60W screw-fitting regular bulb in a standard lamp, and 12W and 20W energy-saving bayonet-fitting light bulbs in ceiling lights in the bedrooms and through lounge respectively.

I don't know if US houses have to deal with this huge variety. We've actually cut down by getting rid of all our table lamps, which would add a couple more types, but I'm hoping we can reduce a little. Of course, we'll also have more space to store spare bulbs, which currently reside in the cupboard under the stairs.

D -28

Only 28 days till we fly out, pick up our hire car and drive down to Eugene to settle into our rented apartment.

My wife has stopped working so we have some time together to finish the last few bits of clearing and packing, and have a short break in Dublin to get away from things for a while.

I'm now thinking everytime I go shopping that it might be my box of teabags, jar of Marmite or packet of Digestive Biscuits that I buy in the UK. Of course I can get all those things in the US at a price, but it won't be quite the same. We're also organising a few things to ease our arrival, like a US laptop and cell phones, which we're ordering online and timing to hopefully be there when we arrive.

We're also anticipating a necessary but delightful shopping spree in the US, getting the necessaries for apartment comfort, and filling a proper freezer for the first time. We've never had the luxury of buying in bulk, so shops like Winco and Costco will be getting our business soon.

Our house in London is now officially taking viewings, and should appear on our estate Agent's website in the next day or two. There's so little left in it that all the rooms appear very spacious, and we're hoping for lots of interest in the next month.

D -38

Things have been moving quickly, and it's now 38 days until we fly to the US to being the new phase of our lives in Eugene.

The house is still in minor chaos, mainly because we now have the entire kitchen ripped out, and the new units (in pieces in boxes) and old appliances are standing in the back of the through lounge, waiting for the kitchen intallers to start work tomorrow.

The three bedrooms also have a lesser degree of junk piled up, as we sort through our remaining piles of possessions, making the familiar keep/sell/give/ throw decisions.

The next week will see the kitchen fill up with units and appliances, thus emptying the through lounge, which should then be the site for the few remaining boxes of items for shipping. If all goes well, in a week's time we will be ready for the house to officially go to market, and it will be as empty of traces of us as we can make it while still living in it.

Apartment

We've just had the excellent news that we're approved for an apartment in Eugene, starting mid-December.

The location is a recently built complex, and not owned by the evil Umbrella Corporation. OK, they're not really evil, but they are devilishly difficult to communicate with and get information out of unless you already live in Eugene.

The manageress has been wonderful at communication via email, and has recently dealt with another couple coming from England, so she understood the difficulties we had to overcome, and helped enormously. Needless to say this greatly helped her get our business.

Now we have a date we can start arranging flights, shipping for our possessions, car hire, cat transport etc. so lots of things that have been up in the air are now getting nailed down more securely.

Halloween

Not too long until Halloween, and although we'll be too late for this year, I'm looking forward to Halloween experiences in Eugene, and in years to come watching my nephew E in Friendswood TX doing the rounds.

In the UK there are attempts by some shops (Marks & Spencer and a few card shops mainly) to muscle in on Halloween and make a few extra sales, but generally Halloween is considered a US thing, and it's a bit of a damp squib. There may be occasional parties (we won't get invited), and we may get a few children calling at the door for candy, but frankly we're all a bit embarrassed, and glad when it's over.

In the last few years my wife and I carved and put out pumpkin lanterns to show our US credentials, and we usually get a few groups of kids but just a smattering, and we end up with bowls of uneaten candy that get thrown away six months later. We did get an egg thrown at our window once by a kid who came round about five days too early, with no costume, and that somewhat diminished our enthusiasm.

Carpets

Last Saturday we had three new bedroom carpets to be fitted.

We start the day by empting our master bedroom into the bathroom next door (not quite en-suite but nearly), everything except the bedframe, and then ripping up the old carpet. To my knowledge it's been down 16 years, but might not have been new when I moved in. With the aid of a Stanley knife we cut the old carpet into small sections and carry them out to the back yard, with bits of perished rubber backing dusting our footprints. Then we screw down a couple of creaky floorboards, and soon the fitters arrive.

They chug the new underlay and carpets upstairs (no mean task with our cramped Victorian staircase) and start with the hammering and cutting. All goes well for a while, then the lead fitter Sam calls us to say we have to remove the bedroom door as the new underlay won't fit underneath. No biggie, two minutes with a screwdriver and we add that door to the bathroom exiles, and also remove another door upstairs for the same purpose.

All goes well for a while, then we hear a cry from the back room "I can hear something under the floorboards". Wife and I glance at each other in consternation, then fight our way upstairs, wondering if it's a mouse, a cat, or worse.

By one of those 1-in-1000 chances, an old flooring nail has gone through a central heating pipe, and we have a delightful new fountain gracing our back bedroom. In fact the quick thinking fitter has got the old board up and his thumb sealing the hole like the boy with the dyke. It's not the fitter's fault, it's a very old nail that was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Curses.

I take over thumb duties to free up the fitter to continue work elsewhere, while wife runs to the DIY shop round the corner to get something to seal the hole. They send her back with two-part putty, but we didn't think we could get it to stick. By this time I'm shaking with the effort of sealing the hole (turning off the mains water didn't stop the fountain) so wife takes over hole-minding duties, while I run back and get some wet-seal tape and a jubilee clip.

Back with the tape, we do a proper cowboy job and wrap a yard or two of tape round the pinprick hole, but it still leaks. Then we discover the tape has a backing strip, so we rip that off and try again. Eventually we bandage the pipe enough that there's no dripping, and look at each other folornly. OK, no need now for an emergency plumber we think, we'll get it sorted on Monday.

The carpet fitters are done with two rooms, and offer to come back to finish this one when we've got the leak sorted. They head off to their van, then come back sheepishly and explain thay their battery is flat because they left the radio and the hazard lights on. Wife, self and #2 fitter give the van a push start, and happily the engine catches and they're away.

Back in the house, we congratulate ourselves on having two bedrooms with carpets, and we put the master bedroom back to rights and clear some of the downstairs area by moving things into the top front bedroom.

House more or less restored, we continue with our weekend chores, but alas an hour or two later, checking on the punctured pipe my wife discovers it's dripping again. Curses. Maybe I shouldn't have put on a load of clothes washing and turned the heating back on.

More tape, fresh towels, mugs and sponges to catch the drips, wife camps out happily to babysit the pipe while I surf the net for a 24 hour plumber. It's now about 6pm on a Saturday, prime costs time.

First plumber takes my details, then says they can't call until tomorrow. Not very helpful. Second plumber answers the phone in an indistinct way, sounds like he doesn't know a compression joint from a compression fracture, so I hang up. Third plumber, this is better, he sounds professional and gives me his prices (£150 an hour including taxes) but can't be here for a couple of hours. OK, that's as good as we can hope for. Back to wife to break the news, she's happy to babysit the pipe for two hours, and I bring her a book, cushions and some snacks.

I should mention at this point that I was suffering from a cold, and it was getting steadily worse as the day progressed. Wife had it the previous weekend, so now it was my turn. I'm exhausted, feverish and shaky, so I get to sit downstairs and watch TV while wife sits in a bare room watching a pipe under the floorboards. What a gem I married.

Around 8:00pm the plumbers call to say they're on their way, and at 8:20 they arrive. They quickly drain down the central heating system.

<<< Aside : In most UK homes a boiler heats water which then circulates through the house via a sealed loop of pipes and radiators. The water in the system requires occasional topping up, and the radiators need occasional bleeding to release trapped wind. The radiators aren't very efficient at warming the air passing near them as you can imagine, and as the hot air rises to the ceiling first, it can take a long time to get a room warm. I prefer the US system of heating the air directly and pumping that into the rooms via a floor level vent. >>>

With the system drained they quickly cut out the damaged pipe section and put in a new piece, refill the central heating system, and bleeed the radiators. By 9:30 everythign is done, we pay them, and they head off. Nice guys, we'd use them again, but hope we never have to.

Now we have a fixed pipe, but a manky old Victorian floorboard split lengthways to cover it up. We resolve to buy a new plank the next day, tidy up what we can, and I head to bed with a fever of 101.5 F.

The next day my fever has dropped to a mere 99.5 F, so we do our familial duties and have lunch with my parents, then pick up a new floorboard on the way home. The floorboard isn't quite the same width as the old one, but it doesn't matter too much, there are other gaps and once the underlay is down you can't tell.

Approved

On Thursday we had the long awaited and slightly dreaded visa interview at the US Embassy in London. As the title says, we were approved.

That's a big weight off our minds, because although I never really thought we could be rejected, until it's in the bag you never know. We can now file away all the myriad paperwork we had to collect.

We now have three more weeks to get our house ready to put on the market, and then we shall see what we shall see.

Magnolia

We're freshening up the walls in our house prior to putting it on the market, and after worrying ourselves for weeks about what paint colours to pick, the estate agent recommended Magnolia.

My wife and I are not big on noticing wall colours anyway, so this suits us. I can get put off by a bad shade, but the walls of our master bedroom have been greeny-grey for 15 years, and it mever bothered me enough to repaint them. I did so this weekend, and it has transformed the room, sort of.

It's odd the paint manufacturers have developed thousands of different shades, but the standard is still the same... Magnolia.

I guess that's why it's the only colour other than white that comes in ten litre tubs.

Morris

Yesterday was my last day as a Morris Man, a full day tour arranged by the Yateley Morris Men, with eight different men's sides in attendance.

If you have no idea what a Morris Man is, I can recommend this short article by one of our novices, Simon: http://uk.geocities.com/springgrovemorris/JoiningASide.html

or for a slightly more tongue-in-cheek view, try to see "Morris: A Life With Bells On".
http://www.morrismovie.com/

For four years I've been a member of Spring Grove and Off-Spring Morris, based in the Royal Borough of Kingston-upon-Thames. I joined in the Autumn of 2005 because I was looking for a musical outlet where I could play my recently acquired Melodeon. I had until then been spending Monday nights at an English Folk Music evening class in Chiswick, but the Chiswick Council decided to double their fees overnight. About the same time, I spotted an advert for musicians to play for Morris Dancing, so I made my way along and joined the Spring Grove team.

That first Autumn I was one of three musicians playing for the side, and as I wasn't very adept on the melodeon I also took my fiddle along. Big mistake as far as learning the melodeon went, because now I was the side's only fiddler, and a fiddle plus a melodeon sounds better than two melodeons. I also was encouraged to dance, so I ended up with three different roles, fiddler, melodeonist and dancer. Overall the three complimented each other and kept me busy, but required three times the work.

However by the the 2007-2008 Season I was finding the travel increasingly difficult and tiring, as I am actually quite a way from Kingston and I was getting home very late on a Monday night, so I restricted myself to turning out with the side when I could, but not attending practise as I had for the previous 3 years.

In place of Morris practise on Monday evenings, I rejoined my English folk music group, who had by now relocated, ironically to a pub back room five minutes walk from my house. Most of my old friends were still playing there, and I was soon up to speed on the favourite tunes. We play occasionally for Country Dances, so I get my musical fix locally, and the fun of playing for dancing.

So it's farewell to Morris, at least for now. There is a Morris side in Portland, but that's too far for regular attendance, and I don't really want to hang onto my old hobbies when I'm in the USA, I want to develop new interests and make new friends.

Conkers

As this is (hopefully) my last Autumn in England, at least for some time to come, I am taking more notice of the changes of season than usual. Certainly it hasn't escaped my notice, especially on my cycle rides, that it's conker season again.

Conkers are the seeds of the Horse Chestnut tree, of which we have a large number in Ealing. They grow on the tree in a spiky yellow ball, and around this time of year they drop down like shrapnel. The seed plus spiky ball weighs several ounces, so it's wise to wear a hat while out and about. The seed itself is chestnut-coloured (suprise) with a white patch on one side, and used to be much prized by schoolboys for conker fights. These are probably now banned for health and safety reasons.

Once when I was about 11 I went round with a friend collecting conkers, with a vague idea of having a massive conker battle later. We packed the biggest, shiniest conkers into my bicycle saddlebag, and off home we went. The conkers then laid forgotten in the dark until I next had need of the bag, when I discovered a grey mould had enveloped them, rendering both the conkers and the saddlebag no longer fit for their intended purposes.

I'm sure there's some lesson to be learnt there, if only by squirrels.

Medical

OK, I had my medical yesterday, so here's the story.

We got our Visa Application Approval Confirmation letter on 20th Aug, but until Tuesday had heard nothing further, so I rang the extortion line to ask if they had sent anything yet. Yes, they sent it on Fri 4th Sept, so it should arrive soon (it hasn't shown yet).

I also asked for my case number and was given it, so that allowed us to put in the next set of paperwork today (B. has had it ready for weeks) and book the medical without waiting for their next letter.

So I immediately rang the medical office for an appointment and was told to name a date, so I said today (well, yesterday I said tomorrow, but you get my drift), and was offered 8:55am. Living in London that suited me. Early start = less chance of a long wait.

So bright and early I turned up at 4 Bentick Mansions near Bond Street tube station, after walking right past it a couple of times, because I was desperate for the loo and none of the local shops or cafes have one.

At reception I handed over my passport (which I got back after they photocopied it), my immunisation records, a completed questionnaire (do you use hard drugs, that sort of thing), and a British-size passport photo. They will accept either Brit or American size, so I chose Brit as I had more of them spare (I was carrying a couple of each to be safe). My immunisation record comprised the results of a blood test I'd had done by my GP in mid-July, and the jabs I'd had done to cover things I thought I needed but probably didn't (and at a cost).

Waited maybe ten minutes, one other guy was there before me, and while I waited I was asked to complete another questionnaire and sign a form agreeing to a blood test. I also had time to peruse the celebrity-chasing magazines. Who on earth reads these things?

Then I was called by the nurse, and she said my GP's blood test sheet didn't show anything about Measles and Mumps, though I had immunity to Rubella (Chicken Pox) so didn't need that. Thanks GP surgery for not reading my letter explaining what I needed to show I had - I'm pretty sure I've had both those diseases already, and could have had the jab cheaper from the GP if required.

However they would do a MMR jab for £35, so I had that done immediately. I could have gone back to my GP, but we want to get all our ducks in a row so it wasn't worth fussing over the difference. Barely felt the needle, but I'm warned I may feel a little feverish in 5 days. The nurse was chatty and pleasant, asking about where I was moving to and saying she always meets people off to lovely places (i.e. anywhere that isn't the UK) while she has to stay in London.

Back to the waiting room for another five or so minutes, and there's a lot more people there now. I discover there's a beachwear edition of the celebrity mag, but I'm called very quickly for the X-ray.

X-ray man also very nice and chatty. He weighs me but with shoes and clothes on so they're not massively concerned - I'm about 10 pounds overweight by my GP's assessment. I strip off my T-shirt and make like a chicken in front of the X-ray plate, shoulders up and forward to spread the shoulder blades (the X-Ray man tells me how), and holding an x-ray proof sheet over my backside rather awkwardly. Bingo that's done and back to the waiting room, remembering to put on my T-shirt.

Barely time to pick up the beachwear issue again before I'm called again, this time by the doctor.
The doctor is a lovely American woman, mid-twenties to thirties, asks me all the questions I've already answered on the questionnaire, twice, but in a bit more detail, and a couple of new ones (Have I ever been arrested? How does that affect my medical condition?). I do a quick sight test wearing my glasses, 2nd from bottom line one way with right eye and backwards with the left, no problems.

Now it's time for the genital examination...

I wasn't quite sure what to expect but the Doctor asked me to step behind a curtain, drop my trousers and boxers, and put my hands on my hips. Deep Breath, stand proud, I tell myself, everyone has to do this so let's get it over with. With a dramatic swish she pulls back the curtain and asks me to cough. I do, and she pulls the curtain across again and tells me to get dressed. That's it? A cursory glance at the family jewels as they jiggle? Apparently so.

She asks me to lie down on the paper-covered gurney and listens to my lungs and other internals, from various angles, and now it's blood test time. I'm used to needles from doing blood donations for over 25 years so it was really no bother, I barely felt it. She explains that she uses a size 18 needle (I don't think these match knitting needle sizes) because it damages the red blood cells less, and gets a better result.

She puts a plaster and a cotton ball on the dribbling bloody hole and asks me to hold my arm up for 5 minutes and apply pressure with my other thumb (or was it a finger, I forget) while she checks the blood there and then. Mine's red and drippy.

She does a blood pressure test (I think I was 120/85, anyway it was healthy enough), but apparently there's a bit more blood leak than she expected from my needle hole, so she puts a fresh plaster on, lump of cotton wool, and straps it round with medical tape, telling me to keep pressure on and my arm straight for 10 minutes, and to go back to the waiting room. She also says that the tests are fine, she has my mobile number if she needs to call me but 99% chance she won't, and the results will be with the US Embassy around Tuesday next week.

So back to the waiting room and that magazine (I'm really worried about Victoria Beckham's weight loss, and need to re-check Kelly Brook's beach photos) but almost immediately I'm called to pay the bill (now I'll never know if Jordan gets that 4th boob-job).

I leave the building lighter in wallet, but also in spirit.

Visa Stage 2

Nearly three weeks after the first letter confirming we're still waiting for the next packet of information to arrive. Last week we noticed that on the letter (but not on the envelope) they had B's address wrong...

So we emailed the Embassy, and should get a response in the next couple of days - if we don't we'll have to ring them on their very expensive phone line.

There have been postal strikes in various areas of the country for weeks, but these shouldn't hold something up for three weeks, and my wife's address and my address, though actually the same, might not be the same on the US Embassy computers, so one being wrong does not necessarily mean they're both wrong. It's an annoyance we didn't need, and no doubt stems from someone carelessly entering information from the wrong part of the original form.

Grrr.

Update: So worried were we that I rang the US Embassy to check progress. The form we are waiting for was only sent last Friday, 2 weeks after the previous letter was received, so it's not lost in the post and should arrive any day now. The address on their computer system is correct, and the lady at the Embassy had no idea where the wrong address on the letter came from. I also confirmed our case number, so we don't even have to wait for this letter to arrive, we can complete the two DS-23o forms and send them in immediately.

Phew.

Update 2: Having got our case number over the phone, I am now able to book my medical, so never being one to wait for the iron to cool, I rang the medical people (with a little nudging and a lot of helpful lookups from B.) and now have my medical scheduled for 8:55am tomorrow! As we planned ahead and I got all my shots done July this should be a breeze, though one never knows. After that it's just the interview itself we have to wait for.

Many people have the medical and final interview on the same day, but they are travelling from further afield - I've only got to travel about ten stops on the tube.