"Same procedure as last year, Miss Sophie?"

Our end-of-year blog tradition: the year that was.

2007 was a year of…

Relocation, Relocation – It was a bumpy start to the year when we found out that we had to move out of our apartment due to the landlady needing to take it over. We were given two months to find somewhere else. After K’s arduous search and one failed attempt at an apartment in Canford Cliffs (due to the death of the landlord and an ensuing legal case), we ended up getting the top floor apartment in the same building, which we moved into on February 26^th. It’s a nicer apartment in many respects, the various gripes we have with the plumbing, heating, and garage, notwithstanding. The view is its one saving grace.

Professional Development – In January, K transitioned from a full-time staff position to full-time doctoral researcher (researching/writing her PhD on post-9/11 American media and culture). In doing this, she took over the post (and accompanying bursary) vacated by another researcher. As soon as this transition took place, the speed of her PhD research trebled. She has progressed at lightning speed and will have a finished draft by March with the following draft for submission done by July.

There was also considerable improvement in R’s new career in the educational sector. After a year as a Technician Demonstrator for the film school down here, he was promoted to Teacher Technician, a similar role but involving more contact time with students and also moving onto the academic ladder (faculty, as opposed to staff).

Additionally, both K and R presented papers at the ACA/PCA Annual Conference in April, held in Boston, MA.

Travel – Quite a few trips ‘abroad’ throughout the year. After the conference in April, we continued west to Oregon for a two-week vacation in Eugene and Baker City. Then in June, K and R hopped on a cheap flight to Dublin for a long weekend celebrating their 3-year wedding anniversary. In July, K flew back to Oregon to spend time with her sister in Portland and to sniff around for a potential investment property. During this time, R spent five days in London volunteering for the Great British Beer Festival. The final trip of the year was to Denmark to “hygge” the Christmas and New Year season with R’s aunt, cousins, and grandmother.

Whinging – Was it at all obvious that our patience with England was wearing thin? Though Project: Expatriated only touched the surface, we spent a fairly large portion of our time complaining (whinging) about living here. We are foreigners and we are grateful for the opportunities and the quite comfortable life we have been having here, but the cultural differences sometimes drove us to exasperated, angry outbursts. Sometimes one just can’t help oneself! It has been a cathartic process, despite a fair amount of guilt from criticising the country that we are currently calling home. We will try to be less grumpy this year.

Weak US Dollar – The steady decline in value of the $ during the past couple of years has been a boon for us, particularly this year because the British £ has steadily been worth about two times as much as the dollar.

Fitness – R continued with his Filipino martial arts classes (and yoga at home on Sundays) at the Minnesota Kali Group gym in Parkstone, upgrading to an “unlimited” membership so he was able to go 3-4 times per week. As a lark, he made a successful attempt at attaining a 1^st degree level in Kali/Panantukan, just barely passing with a 70%.

K continues to run and do yoga at home and at the yoga studio around the corner.

Less Blogging - We haven't been as prolific here this year as we have in the past. This is mainly because the pace of our lives has picked up a bit. K is looking at her computer all day, so she doesn't want to look at it to write a blog, too. R has a very busy job that makes him just want to relax when he gets home. So, you get lazy about writing blog entries. Can't promise it will be much better this year, but we'll do our best. There will very likely be a lot of things to talk about.

Belgian (Liège) Waffles - One of our favorite treats when living in Belgium were the Belgian waffles. When we were in Dublin, there was a stall at a market selling them. We each had one, which invogarted our lust for these golden beauties. When we got back to England, we bought a Belgian waffle iron and I started testing recipes. We've made several batches this past year and I'm getting pretty damn close. The main thing holding me back is the difficulty in finding pearl sugar here.

The West Wing – We had started watching this show at the end of 2006 on Sundays when they started airing it from Episode 1, Season 1 on More4. We were immediately hooked, but when we missed a couple of episodes over that Christmas, we got started getting the DVDs from Lovefilm (like Netflix in the US). One of the best shows on television! We finally got to the end (Season 7) this past November, a sad day indeed. If only we could have Jed Bartlett for president (and then his successor)! We learned a lot about US politics and elections (very convenient at the moment). What we didn’t quite expect (or at least R didn’t) was that it would ignite a newfound sense of civic duty, something we hope to begin by November.

Making Plans – Towards the close of 2007, we started really thinking about our future. Our future careers. Our future in England/Europe. Just last week, we set in motion our new plan. A plan that we don’t quite want to make public yet for various reasons, but will do so in due course. It will not be the same procedure as last year, James!* Stay tuned!

*This line and the title of this blog entry are a reference to a short film that is traditionally aired in Denmark and Sweden (probably other countries, too) on New Year's Eve at twenty to midnight.