Last weekend we went to the movie theatre to see Mel Gibson's Apocalypto. It was actually quite good in spite of (or perhaps because of) all the gore. Definitely one to see in the theatre. The predictable story alone would not be enough to keep your attention on the small screen. You need the immersive experience that only a movie theatre can provide.
Anyway, there are quite a few films coming out this year that we are looking forward to.
The Fountain - It's getting a lot of mixed reviews and was even booed by critics at the Venice Film Festival, but that only makes me want to see it even more. The long-running production was shrouded in secrecy for various reasons. We'll soon get the chance to see what that was about.
Black Book - Paul Verhoeven hasn't put out a film in a while, which is enough reason to go see it, even though it's a movie about the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands.
Transformers - Only because I used to play with Transformers as a kid and I watched the animated series. Just curious how they'll do as live action, though I don't have high hopes for it.
Blades of Glory - Will Ferrell and Jon Heder (Napoleon Dynamite) star in a movie set in the world of professional figure skating. Should be frickin' hilarious!
Sunshine - From Danny Boyle, the director of Trainspotting and 28 Days Later, this one's about a mission to re-ignite the sun because it is about to die (destroying all life on Earth, of course). Great concept and definitely one to see in the theatre.
Grind House - Robert Rodgriguez and Quentin Tarantino teaming up to do another stylistic, push-the-envelope venture. Will at least be interesting from a filmmaking point of view.
Fast Food Nation - Really curious how they have turned this expose-of-the-fast-food-industry book into a feature film.
Ocean's 13 - Really liked the first one, ambivalent about the second one, keeping fingers crossed for the third one.
Live Free or Die Hard - The Die Hard franchise is a classic. Though Bruce is getting on in the years, it'll be entertaining to see the return of John McClane.
The Bourne Ultimatum - Again, really loved the first one, a bit disappointed with the second one, but love the Jason Bourne character (and Matt Damon brings him to life brilliantly). I'm reading the book right now even though that will surely set up a bit of disappointment, as it did with the first two because they diverge quite a bit from what happens in the books. Reading the synopsis of this adaptation, seems like that will be the case again.
I Am Legend - A great concept: the last man on Earth, after a virus turns everyone else into vampires, tries to survive while finding a cure. Just read the book over Christmas (timeless, despite being published in 1956).
The Golden Age - Only because a large portion of it was shot in Winchester Cathedral.
The Golden Compass - The first installment of the adaptation of Philip Pullman's fantastically enthralling trilogy "His Dark Materials". High hopes for this one.
Hot Fuzz - Another one from the guys who made Shaun of the Dead (one of our favorite Brit comedies... a spoof on zombie films). This one is about a London police officer who's commander transfers him to a small, crimeless village because he is so good at his job that he was making all the other officers look bad. It turns into a satire of British police and over-the-top American cops'n'robbers movies. We saw the preview last weekend and it looks hilarious!
For Your Consideration - The (allegedly) final installment from Christopher Guest and his usual team (Spinal Tap, Waiting For Guffman, Best In Show, and A Mighty Wind). We're big fans of these "mock-umentary" films - Waiting For Guffman is my personal favorite. This one tackles the subject of The Oscars.
300 - This flic has been getting hype since early last year, mainly because of its very stylistic look achieved mostly with CGI. We recently saw a preview for it and it looks like it's going to be a wild ride. Definitely one to catch in a movie theatre!
Shooter - Another one we saw the trailer for recently. Sort of a cross between The Fugitive and a JFK dramatization told from Lee Harvey Oswald's perspective. Looks like a good, tense action movie.
Sunday, January 28
Wednesday, January 24
Winchester is #1
Go to this link:
Best & Worst
Notice that Winchester is listed as #1. Click on the link to watch the video. Feeling proud to have lived there!
Best & Worst
Notice that Winchester is listed as #1. Click on the link to watch the video. Feeling proud to have lived there!
Saturday, January 20
Upcoming in 2007
Even before we found out that we had to move, we have had a few things on the books for this year, particularly during the first quarter.
* Moving to Canford Cliffs sometime between February 7th and March 7th.
* K is going to an Investigative Research seminar at the BBC in London on February 27th and March 15th where she'll learn espionage-like research skills.
* Flying to Boston in April to go to the PCA/ACA National Conference. We will both be presenting a paper on Friday. Bournemouth University is fully funding K's trip and AIB is paying for my airfare. The conference is three days. After that, we're flying out to Oregon to visit K's family and perhaps downsize our storage room. Coming back to the UK towards the end of April.
* Taking a weekend trip to a non-Western country for our anniversary on June 10th. We're considering Malta.
* I'm planning on volunteering at CAMRA's Great British Beer Festival in London during the second week of August. It's 4-5 days, but they put you in accomodation for the duration.
* My mother is meant to be coming for a visit at some point in February, March, or April, but the dates are not set yet.
* Moving to Canford Cliffs sometime between February 7th and March 7th.
* K is going to an Investigative Research seminar at the BBC in London on February 27th and March 15th where she'll learn espionage-like research skills.
* Flying to Boston in April to go to the PCA/ACA National Conference. We will both be presenting a paper on Friday. Bournemouth University is fully funding K's trip and AIB is paying for my airfare. The conference is three days. After that, we're flying out to Oregon to visit K's family and perhaps downsize our storage room. Coming back to the UK towards the end of April.
* Taking a weekend trip to a non-Western country for our anniversary on June 10th. We're considering Malta.
* I'm planning on volunteering at CAMRA's Great British Beer Festival in London during the second week of August. It's 4-5 days, but they put you in accomodation for the duration.
* My mother is meant to be coming for a visit at some point in February, March, or April, but the dates are not set yet.
Thursday, January 18
Canford Cliffs apartment
Today I viewed the apartment that K found last week. She was a bit nervous about what I would think, but I'm happy to say that I liked it. It's got some character and it's not a place where old people would go to die. There's a gas stove, garage, and gas radiator heat. Also a nice garden around back. Seems to be a cozy little place. Being a natural realist/pessimist, I'm still a bit paranoid about the rent being so cheap, especially for that area. The estate agent told me it should probably go for about £100 more, but it is cheap because the guy who owns it is friends with the manager of the estate agency and he decided he just wanted to offer it at a reasonable price so that it stays rented and is taken care of. Fair enough.
Anyway, we've paid the deposit and agency fees. Now we're just waiting for them to do the credit check and what not. Hopefully, we'll hear from them soon.
Anyway, we've paid the deposit and agency fees. Now we're just waiting for them to do the credit check and what not. Hopefully, we'll hear from them soon.
Sunday, January 14
New place
It's been a stressful week (mostly for K) sifting through apartment listings, making appointments, and viewing properties. K viewed 10 apartments of quality varying from "total crap" to "really nice". I only viewed two and I haven't even seen the one we decided to go for.
We went through 3 periods of thinking we had found a suitable place and it wasn't until the 3rd time that we settled on one. The first was a brand new, purpose-built top-floor flat for £695 pcm. While it was really nice, it was just way too small. The second possible winner was a sizable two-bedroom in an older building for £700. K was fairly happy with it, but when I saw it, I was less than enthused. It had the same type of ridiculous boiler that we had in Winchester, everything was electric (water, stove, heating), the heating consisted of "storage heaters" (radiators with thermal bricks inside that get heated over night using the off-peak electricity and then release their energy during the course of the day), and the vibe of the building, as I sensed it, was one of a place where old people wait to die. I know that sounds terrible, but that's how I felt.
K found the third one this past Friday. It's in Canford Cliffs (which we've been told is very posh), about 5 minutes from the ocean and is actually cheaper than the one we're in now (£695). She initially thought the flat would be "total crap", judging by the pebble-dash, turquoise-painted exterior. However, she was pleasantly surprised by it and has me completely convinced. We paid the agency fees yesterday morning (a stinging £306 that we won't get back). While we were sitting with the estate agent, someone called requesting a viewing of the flat. She informed them that it had just gone off the market. Phew! We're booked in for another viewing this Thursday so I can see it and we can decide if we need to get rid of any furniture. Not sure when we'll move in. It's technically available on March 1st, but that's because the couple living there had to give two months notice because they're breaking their lease (they're splitting up... a lot of that going around!). However, we might be able to work out a sooner date than that.
It's a relief to have found a place to move into. Now K can get back to work on her PhD.
We went through 3 periods of thinking we had found a suitable place and it wasn't until the 3rd time that we settled on one. The first was a brand new, purpose-built top-floor flat for £695 pcm. While it was really nice, it was just way too small. The second possible winner was a sizable two-bedroom in an older building for £700. K was fairly happy with it, but when I saw it, I was less than enthused. It had the same type of ridiculous boiler that we had in Winchester, everything was electric (water, stove, heating), the heating consisted of "storage heaters" (radiators with thermal bricks inside that get heated over night using the off-peak electricity and then release their energy during the course of the day), and the vibe of the building, as I sensed it, was one of a place where old people wait to die. I know that sounds terrible, but that's how I felt.
K found the third one this past Friday. It's in Canford Cliffs (which we've been told is very posh), about 5 minutes from the ocean and is actually cheaper than the one we're in now (£695). She initially thought the flat would be "total crap", judging by the pebble-dash, turquoise-painted exterior. However, she was pleasantly surprised by it and has me completely convinced. We paid the agency fees yesterday morning (a stinging £306 that we won't get back). While we were sitting with the estate agent, someone called requesting a viewing of the flat. She informed them that it had just gone off the market. Phew! We're booked in for another viewing this Thursday so I can see it and we can decide if we need to get rid of any furniture. Not sure when we'll move in. It's technically available on March 1st, but that's because the couple living there had to give two months notice because they're breaking their lease (they're splitting up... a lot of that going around!). However, we might be able to work out a sooner date than that.
It's a relief to have found a place to move into. Now K can get back to work on her PhD.
Friday, January 5
Well, it was nice living at #3 Kingsgate...
Our landlady just told us we have to move out by March 7th because she is going to move into this apartment. That's the contractually-obliged two month notice that a landlord has to give to a tenant. She and her partner, who co-owned this place, are splitting up. Both of us had an inkling that something like this could possibly happen. A couple of months ago, we got the idea that perhaps their relationship was going down the shitter (don't quite remember how we got that idea because we rarely hear from either of them). Anyway...
K called me at work after she had spoken to the landlady. At first, I thought, "Oh... not too bad... maybe we can find a smaller, cheaper place that perhaps allows pets." But during my bike-ride home this afternoon, I thought about it and got progressively more pissed off. I'm now officially quite irate about the whole thing, as is K, though she also feels physically ill about it. We had planned to stay in this apartment at least until K finished her PhD. And we had just gotten this place settled and nested to our liking. AND we really love it here! Now we have to go through all of the headaches and expenses of moving AGAIN! Things like:
- Finding another apartment
- Paying the first month's rent plus deposit and estate agent fees
- Buying a refrigerator, if there is none in the new place
- Changing all of our utilities
- Re-directing our mail (£23.25 for 6 months)
- Changing the address on subscriptions, deliveries, accounts, etc.
- PACKING
- Cleaning the hell out of this place so we get our full deposit
- Hiring a moving van
- UNPACKING
- Re-nesting/settling
- Getting used to a new apartment, neighborhood, and commute
And all of this during a time when K has to focus on her PhD and both of us have to write a presentation for the ACA/PCA Conference in Boston this coming April. We have half-in-mind to just say "Fuck it" and move back to the US right now.
K called me at work after she had spoken to the landlady. At first, I thought, "Oh... not too bad... maybe we can find a smaller, cheaper place that perhaps allows pets." But during my bike-ride home this afternoon, I thought about it and got progressively more pissed off. I'm now officially quite irate about the whole thing, as is K, though she also feels physically ill about it. We had planned to stay in this apartment at least until K finished her PhD. And we had just gotten this place settled and nested to our liking. AND we really love it here! Now we have to go through all of the headaches and expenses of moving AGAIN! Things like:
- Finding another apartment
- Paying the first month's rent plus deposit and estate agent fees
- Buying a refrigerator, if there is none in the new place
- Changing all of our utilities
- Re-directing our mail (£23.25 for 6 months)
- Changing the address on subscriptions, deliveries, accounts, etc.
- PACKING
- Cleaning the hell out of this place so we get our full deposit
- Hiring a moving van
- UNPACKING
- Re-nesting/settling
- Getting used to a new apartment, neighborhood, and commute
And all of this during a time when K has to focus on her PhD and both of us have to write a presentation for the ACA/PCA Conference in Boston this coming April. We have half-in-mind to just say "Fuck it" and move back to the US right now.
Grrrrrrrrowl!!
Tuesday, January 2
US Imports
Some things we brought back from the US (aside from our Xmas presents):
- Jif Peanut Butter... because not only can you get it in a HUGE jar, but it's also PROPER peanut butter. Not this flacid, wallpaper paste you commonly find over here (like Sunpat, no wonder most Brits we meet "don't like peanut butter" if that's what they have to go by).
- Some parts to upgrade my banjo... namely a Stockwell Moon Bridge, a Remo Renaissance head, and a no-knot tailpiece.
- Mojo Criollo marinade... a luscious Cuban concoction of sour oranges, garlic, pepper, and some herbs and spices that is oh-so-delicious!
- Clothing from Old Navy and The Gap... clothing is cheaper in the US and then you add on the savings from using a UK credit card at the tasty exchange-rate of $1.90+ per pound and you've got yourself a nice little shopping spree. Plus, it's too hard to find clothes in the UK that will fit my 6'4" frame.
- Aunt Jemima Whole Wheat Pancake Mix... because those are just so damn good and you CANNOT make them from scratch and have them taste the same, no matter what you do!
And somewhat related, I applied for a I-131 Travel Document that will allow me to stay out of the US for up to 2 years without incurring the spanking from US Immigration that I got on December 13th, 2006. It cost us $170 and cannot be renewed (if you need to extend it, you have to apply for another one).
- Jif Peanut Butter... because not only can you get it in a HUGE jar, but it's also PROPER peanut butter. Not this flacid, wallpaper paste you commonly find over here (like Sunpat, no wonder most Brits we meet "don't like peanut butter" if that's what they have to go by).
- Some parts to upgrade my banjo... namely a Stockwell Moon Bridge, a Remo Renaissance head, and a no-knot tailpiece.
- Mojo Criollo marinade... a luscious Cuban concoction of sour oranges, garlic, pepper, and some herbs and spices that is oh-so-delicious!
- Clothing from Old Navy and The Gap... clothing is cheaper in the US and then you add on the savings from using a UK credit card at the tasty exchange-rate of $1.90+ per pound and you've got yourself a nice little shopping spree. Plus, it's too hard to find clothes in the UK that will fit my 6'4" frame.
- Aunt Jemima Whole Wheat Pancake Mix... because those are just so damn good and you CANNOT make them from scratch and have them taste the same, no matter what you do!
And somewhat related, I applied for a I-131 Travel Document that will allow me to stay out of the US for up to 2 years without incurring the spanking from US Immigration that I got on December 13th, 2006. It cost us $170 and cannot be renewed (if you need to extend it, you have to apply for another one).
Monday, January 1
MMVII
[MMVII = 2007, if you haven't guessed already]
As predicted, last night we barely lasted into the evening. By 7pm, we were out cold. However, I woke up in the middle of the night when someone texted me happy new year. The time-stamp was 9:31pm, so I thought "Oh, the networks must have been overloaded so the text didn't get through until now." Then I looked at the clock. It actually was 9:31pm! Sheesh! Crawled back in bed to try to sleep through the night.
At around 11:00, we woke up again when there were some huge fireworks blasts nearby. We were too awake to fall back asleep so we decided to get up to watch TV for a bit, just in time to catch the fireworks show in central London on BBC1. It was quite spectacular, even on television. There were also tons of fireworks going off in the neighborhoods around us, though we couldn't really see them. After the fireworks, we each took an Excedrin PM and watched some of the cheesy New Year's TV specials while we waited for the drowsiness to kick until about 1:30. There was a bottle of cheap Cava in the fridge, which we had planned to open, but it's still in there now. We'll probably open it tonight instead.
Both of us slept like rocks in a frozen pond until about noon, though I woke up around 11:30 and stayed in bed to read for a while. It was quite sunny and beautiful this morning. We did our "Sunday morning ritual" of breakfast and a newspaper for a couple of hours, then looked through our 2006 year planner to transfer birthdays and other dates into our 2007 book. All the while, clouds rolled in and now it is stormy and dusky. What happened to the nice sunshine?
The post-vacation blues seems to be lifting already. The great panacea of rest, resumption of routine, and listening to a stream of A Prairie Home Companion seems to be working. We'll try to stay up to a more reasonable bed time tonight and, hopefully, tomorrow we will be mostly normalized. Looking forward to putting the new head, bridge, and tailpiece (purchased from Zepp Country Music in the US) on my banjo, but first, it's time to uphold our yearly tradition of reflecting on the year that has passed.
---
2006 was a year of...
...Englishness... Obviously, the longer we live here, the more we learn about this society. We're learning the vocabulary, pronounciation, customs (such as Pancake Day), and work ethic of this island. And we're making more friends. For example, we spent a weekend in a cozy, English cottage in the Cotswolds and had a nice picnic in a London park followed by avant garde performance art. We got wrapped up in World Cup fever, rooting for England, Sweden, and France to varying degrees. A colleague from UEA and Newsfilm Online moved down to Bournemouth in August, so we have a friend down here, too. In November, he went to see Neko Case in Bristol with us.
...Birds... We joined the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. This spring, while we were still in Winchester, we watched a lot of birds, a swan nest in a nearby stream. The swan mother stayed on the nest for what seemed like an eternity, but finally the eggs hatched. Lots of the locals flocked to view the chicks, but one night the entire swan family disappeared. We still don't know what happened to them.
...Prosperity (for lack of a better word)... As we've done every year since 2003, we once again uprooted and moved to another city. "uprooted" is perhaps the wrong word since we consider ourselves to be potted plants by now (for ease of replanting). K retained her job at Bournemouth University, but R traded his employment at Newsfilm Online for a job as a Technician Demonstrator at the Arts Institute at Bournemouth with a slightly higher pay-rate and a much more fulfilling and interesting job. Since we were then both working in Bournemouth, we decided to leave our beloved Winchester to move down South. We found a great apartment in Westbourne which we moved into in July after a bit of financial wrangling with our former landlord. This apartment is at least 10 times nicer than the one in Winchester and probably 100 times nicer than the one in Norwich, a welcomed upward trend in our life. Our finances have stabilized and our quality of life is much higher, therefore: prosperity!
...Banjos... R had been wanting to learn to play the banjo for a while, so he decided to go ahead and get one to celebrate landing the new job. He's having fun playing it, trying to learn the Clawhammer style.
...House-sitting... In July, right after we moved into our apartment in Bournemouth, we followed through with our agreement to house-sit for my former boss while he and his family were in Puglia, Italy. We looked after their cottage, two Jack Russells, and two dressage horses. Though it was a lot of work and the bed we slept in was quite uncomfortable, we had a wonderful time.
...Crop Circles... Well, actually the lack of crop circles. We met up with Suzanne Taylor while she was here, but unfortunately, there weren't any good crop circles for us to see during that time. However, we went to a fascinating lecture on the subject.
...DVLA... That's where British residents go to get there driver's licences. And that's where R went to get his license. Someone with a foreign license can only drive legally in the UK for one year and since we're both way past that mark and because AIB requested that R get a UK license so he could drive the college vehicles, he decided to go through the trials of getting a British license. He passed his theory test without too much trouble. Then he just had to take the driving test, but before that, he took a few driving lessons. Though he was a bit worried about actually being able to pass the test, R came through it with only 6 minor errors and walked away with a test pass certificate. R is now carrying an authentic UK driver's license alongside my US license.
...Mo(u)ld... When we first realized that we had been moving forward/upward in our lives, having just moved into a much nicer apartment, we assumed that our days of battling mold were over. However, as autumn fell into place, we discovered that this was not the case. The mold spores reared their ugly heads in various corners, on a few window sills, and on the things stored under our bed. Thankfully, it's not as bad as it was in Norwich or Winchester, but it's there, nonetheless. There was even mold inside the wall-safe in our apartment (our passports and the wallet filled with US dollars smelled strongly of mold). Then, while we were in Florida, we found out that our bodies are impregnated with mold, no joke, but more about that in a future blog post.
...Training... In September, R started taking some martial arts classes at a nearby gym. He has been learning Panantukan (Filipino Boxing), Jeet Kun Do, and Kali. Quite enjoyable and usually a good work-out. R has learned many ways to kill people.
...Scholarship... K has been trucking along on her post-9/11 PhD at Bournemouth University while working as a researcher for the Center for Excellence in Media Practice (CEMP). However, some things changed at CEMP, opening up an opportunity for K to go full-time with the PhD while still making the same amount of money as if she was still working full-time. An opportunity that could not be passed up, so as of December 1st, she has been a full-time PhD student. She will still work for CEMP about 4-5 days per month. This means she will be able to finish her PhD much faster (she's optimistically shooting for the summer of 2008).
...Planning... Related to finishing the PhD, we have an impending decision about what to do afterwards. Will we continue living in England (or even somewhere else in Europe)? Or will we move back to the US? Right now, we're strongly leaning towards moving back to the US, but R still maintains that anything is possible. However, we have made a list of places in the US that we are interested to settle down in. K has been ordering publicity material from the State tourist boards, so we have a few maps hanging on the walls in the office. At the moment, our top four are Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Idaho. Elsewhere on our list: New England, Virginia, and Florida. A great resource for making decisions like this: Money.com.
...Family... K was finally introduced to Sweden. We visited the Swedish side of R's family, at least the ones who were in town during Easter, staying with his cousin and his partner on an idyllic, little island near Stockholm. It was a lovely, peaceful trip. Then in December, R's father came to visit us in Bournemouth. And a week later, we flew to Florida for a long Christmas holiday with R's family.
Happy New Year!
As predicted, last night we barely lasted into the evening. By 7pm, we were out cold. However, I woke up in the middle of the night when someone texted me happy new year. The time-stamp was 9:31pm, so I thought "Oh, the networks must have been overloaded so the text didn't get through until now." Then I looked at the clock. It actually was 9:31pm! Sheesh! Crawled back in bed to try to sleep through the night.
At around 11:00, we woke up again when there were some huge fireworks blasts nearby. We were too awake to fall back asleep so we decided to get up to watch TV for a bit, just in time to catch the fireworks show in central London on BBC1. It was quite spectacular, even on television. There were also tons of fireworks going off in the neighborhoods around us, though we couldn't really see them. After the fireworks, we each took an Excedrin PM and watched some of the cheesy New Year's TV specials while we waited for the drowsiness to kick until about 1:30. There was a bottle of cheap Cava in the fridge, which we had planned to open, but it's still in there now. We'll probably open it tonight instead.
Both of us slept like rocks in a frozen pond until about noon, though I woke up around 11:30 and stayed in bed to read for a while. It was quite sunny and beautiful this morning. We did our "Sunday morning ritual" of breakfast and a newspaper for a couple of hours, then looked through our 2006 year planner to transfer birthdays and other dates into our 2007 book. All the while, clouds rolled in and now it is stormy and dusky. What happened to the nice sunshine?
The post-vacation blues seems to be lifting already. The great panacea of rest, resumption of routine, and listening to a stream of A Prairie Home Companion seems to be working. We'll try to stay up to a more reasonable bed time tonight and, hopefully, tomorrow we will be mostly normalized. Looking forward to putting the new head, bridge, and tailpiece (purchased from Zepp Country Music in the US) on my banjo, but first, it's time to uphold our yearly tradition of reflecting on the year that has passed.
---
2006 was a year of...
...Englishness... Obviously, the longer we live here, the more we learn about this society. We're learning the vocabulary, pronounciation, customs (such as Pancake Day), and work ethic of this island. And we're making more friends. For example, we spent a weekend in a cozy, English cottage in the Cotswolds and had a nice picnic in a London park followed by avant garde performance art. We got wrapped up in World Cup fever, rooting for England, Sweden, and France to varying degrees. A colleague from UEA and Newsfilm Online moved down to Bournemouth in August, so we have a friend down here, too. In November, he went to see Neko Case in Bristol with us.
...Birds... We joined the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. This spring, while we were still in Winchester, we watched a lot of birds, a swan nest in a nearby stream. The swan mother stayed on the nest for what seemed like an eternity, but finally the eggs hatched. Lots of the locals flocked to view the chicks, but one night the entire swan family disappeared. We still don't know what happened to them.
...Prosperity (for lack of a better word)... As we've done every year since 2003, we once again uprooted and moved to another city. "uprooted" is perhaps the wrong word since we consider ourselves to be potted plants by now (for ease of replanting). K retained her job at Bournemouth University, but R traded his employment at Newsfilm Online for a job as a Technician Demonstrator at the Arts Institute at Bournemouth with a slightly higher pay-rate and a much more fulfilling and interesting job. Since we were then both working in Bournemouth, we decided to leave our beloved Winchester to move down South. We found a great apartment in Westbourne which we moved into in July after a bit of financial wrangling with our former landlord. This apartment is at least 10 times nicer than the one in Winchester and probably 100 times nicer than the one in Norwich, a welcomed upward trend in our life. Our finances have stabilized and our quality of life is much higher, therefore: prosperity!
...Banjos... R had been wanting to learn to play the banjo for a while, so he decided to go ahead and get one to celebrate landing the new job. He's having fun playing it, trying to learn the Clawhammer style.
...House-sitting... In July, right after we moved into our apartment in Bournemouth, we followed through with our agreement to house-sit for my former boss while he and his family were in Puglia, Italy. We looked after their cottage, two Jack Russells, and two dressage horses. Though it was a lot of work and the bed we slept in was quite uncomfortable, we had a wonderful time.
...Crop Circles... Well, actually the lack of crop circles. We met up with Suzanne Taylor while she was here, but unfortunately, there weren't any good crop circles for us to see during that time. However, we went to a fascinating lecture on the subject.
...DVLA... That's where British residents go to get there driver's licences. And that's where R went to get his license. Someone with a foreign license can only drive legally in the UK for one year and since we're both way past that mark and because AIB requested that R get a UK license so he could drive the college vehicles, he decided to go through the trials of getting a British license. He passed his theory test without too much trouble. Then he just had to take the driving test, but before that, he took a few driving lessons. Though he was a bit worried about actually being able to pass the test, R came through it with only 6 minor errors and walked away with a test pass certificate. R is now carrying an authentic UK driver's license alongside my US license.
...Mo(u)ld... When we first realized that we had been moving forward/upward in our lives, having just moved into a much nicer apartment, we assumed that our days of battling mold were over. However, as autumn fell into place, we discovered that this was not the case. The mold spores reared their ugly heads in various corners, on a few window sills, and on the things stored under our bed. Thankfully, it's not as bad as it was in Norwich or Winchester, but it's there, nonetheless. There was even mold inside the wall-safe in our apartment (our passports and the wallet filled with US dollars smelled strongly of mold). Then, while we were in Florida, we found out that our bodies are impregnated with mold, no joke, but more about that in a future blog post.
...Training... In September, R started taking some martial arts classes at a nearby gym. He has been learning Panantukan (Filipino Boxing), Jeet Kun Do, and Kali. Quite enjoyable and usually a good work-out. R has learned many ways to kill people.
...Scholarship... K has been trucking along on her post-9/11 PhD at Bournemouth University while working as a researcher for the Center for Excellence in Media Practice (CEMP). However, some things changed at CEMP, opening up an opportunity for K to go full-time with the PhD while still making the same amount of money as if she was still working full-time. An opportunity that could not be passed up, so as of December 1st, she has been a full-time PhD student. She will still work for CEMP about 4-5 days per month. This means she will be able to finish her PhD much faster (she's optimistically shooting for the summer of 2008).
...Planning... Related to finishing the PhD, we have an impending decision about what to do afterwards. Will we continue living in England (or even somewhere else in Europe)? Or will we move back to the US? Right now, we're strongly leaning towards moving back to the US, but R still maintains that anything is possible. However, we have made a list of places in the US that we are interested to settle down in. K has been ordering publicity material from the State tourist boards, so we have a few maps hanging on the walls in the office. At the moment, our top four are Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Idaho. Elsewhere on our list: New England, Virginia, and Florida. A great resource for making decisions like this: Money.com.
...Family... K was finally introduced to Sweden. We visited the Swedish side of R's family, at least the ones who were in town during Easter, staying with his cousin and his partner on an idyllic, little island near Stockholm. It was a lovely, peaceful trip. Then in December, R's father came to visit us in Bournemouth. And a week later, we flew to Florida for a long Christmas holiday with R's family.
Happy New Year!
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