Further Settlement

I'm happy to report that we have settled in a little bit further:

1) Our first load of laundry is currently drying in our washer/dryer that was delivered yesterday. We have a gargantuan mound of dirty laundry to get through because nothing has been washed since we got here, since we didn't have a washer until now (due to the aformentioned problems). The funny thing is, because of the layout of this apartment, the washer has to be in our living room next to our television! There is no room for it in the kitchen (which is where the Brits normally keep the washer funnily enough). I had to drill a hole through the under-sink cabinet so the hoses could be connected to the hot & cold water outlets and the drain. It is a combo washer and condenser dryer. No vent needed as the water is vaporized, condensed and pumped out to the kitchen drain. Pretty nifty!

2) The deposit on our previous apartment (in Brussels) has been released. Now we can withdraw that reasonable sum and deposit it in our UK bank account. This is good because we end up paying about 4 euros every time we withdraw money from the ING account in Belgium. I'm not sure why, but having £ in a UK account just makes me feel more secure. It's not stuffed in our mattress, but it's at least on the same piece of land.

3) Our BMW has been completely checked over and doesn't have any serious problems. I took it to Mr. Clutch (a automotive service chain) and got the full Gold Plus check-up. Everything single thing was checked. They provided a list of what needed attention, none of it urgent and most of it things I already knew about. The only one that I'm going to take care of right away is replacing the cooling fan assembly. I'm going to do that today after I take the car in for MOT renewal (two years overdue since it was in Belgium for that period of time). After that, I'm supposed to bring the MOT and the certificate of insurance to the Post Office to pay for some other type of certificate (can't remember what it's called at the moment). Then we can officially drive the car here.

4) Kristen is making headway on the employment front. She will be meeting with an agent at Reed Recruitment Agency tomorrow about a few job openings. On top of that, she has some other applications in the pipeline which she hasn't heard back about yet.

5) We have some more furniture: a semi-heinous looking coffee table (the stand-in for that aweful lamp we had in Brussels), a shelf-unit for the closet (which is partially being used as my "cellar") and a wardrobe to cram some of our clothes. More is needed, but it's not as urgent and, frankly, we don't have much room left! Last night we had dinner with the plate on an actual table, instead of our my laps. We felt so civilized!

6) Our Solo debit cards from HSBC arrived today. They're not Mastercard/Visa debit cards, so we can only use them in places that have the "Solo" service and in ATMs to withdraw cash. This was our only option at the moment because we don't have credit in the UK. However, it is better than what we would have gotten from Lloyds. They said they could only give us a "cash account" and an ATM card because we have been here less than 3 years. HSBC gave us a current account (including a checkbook) and these Solo cards. The guy who opened the account said we would start like this and then possibly upgrade to other types of cards once they see how we maintain the account. It seems there is more than one way to interpret the new banking rules. Lloyds chose to be strict to the point of being anal, while HSBC took a more trusting approach. We chose the correct bank, I think.

7) We have a new iron and a vacuum cleaner. The carpet was looking pretty shabby until now. But we still need an ironing board, so there won't be much ironing going on at the moment.

Well, enough for now. I'm heading out to get that MOT done.

-RP-