February 24, 2002

Well, by far the most important event that has happened this week is this: Great Britain's women's curling team has won gold! We are so proud. We have seen the clip of the last four stones thrown at least 10 times. Shuffleboard on ice is a really exciting sport! Now if we only understood what was going on...   No really, they deserve a lot of credit as they have championed a sport that they love simply for that reason, with no hope of million dollar professional contracts. Well, I guess there is always the odd cereal box cover or something.

So what's new....well, let's start with last weekend which didn't quite make it into the last journal entry. Friday night we had a really nice dinner with another new ESRI (UK) employee and his wife at their house. They live on a ridge seemingly in the middle of nowhere (well, not really but it was pretty dark up there!). They are from Australia and have brought the whole family (3 kids) over. We can't imagine all five of them living in the corporate flat for 2-3 weeks while they found a proper house. Anyway it was a nice evening and fun to compare our immigrant notes.

from our front door.

from our bedroom.

out back.

Here are a few pics from our flat, looking out on Wolvercote Green. Click on the thumbnails to see a larger image.

The next morning we got up and drove to the Moss' house just southeast of London. (Just a reminder, Kevin Moss is Tom's brother-in-law, and we were visiting his parents). Our plan was to spend an hour or so with them and then head off to London (conveniently leaving our car at their house and taking the train from their town, Surbiton, into London). And so we did. An easy train ride into Waterloo Station, and a quick tube ride got us right where we wanted to be - at the first stop on the double-decker bus tour of London. Our plan in London was to do the tour bus and get a feel for the town, and see sites either later that day or next visit. It is one of those tours where you can get on and off as you like, but we stayed on for the whole loop and listened to the excellent commentary. We sat up top; Tom was a little cold but Toby either dressed warmer or can just handle the cold better. Anyway, a good way to get a feel for London and learn something too. For example, Oxford St. is the largest shopping street in London - 1.5 miles long - with 24 (or more) shoe stores and only 1 pub. Go figure.

We had lunch in an italian restaurant near Trafalgar Square, and then back on the bus, this time a different loop and took that all the way around. For some reason, Tom wanted to revisit Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum which he had visited at age 8. We went, and thankfully did not have to wait in the long line as we had bought our tickets on the bus. Was it worth the price (£11 each)? No, not really, but it was still kinda fun.

Off to the movies then. Why not, we both like going to the movies. Well, movies in London are more expensive than movies in Oxford or Aylesbury - about 15% more. So the £5.50 tickets elsewhere were £8.50 (that's almost $13 to most of you). What did we see? Well, remember, an unplanned movie visit is all about timing, and our timing coincided with "Shallow Hal". Hmm, cannot recommend this movie. Not at all. We were skeptical of this movie in the States, and then it seemed to get decent reviews so we took a chance. But, more importantly, we have now tried all three flavors of popcorn in the theatre, this time being toffee popcorn. Something like Cracker Jacks without the nuts, but a bit heavier on the coating. Good, but even a small bag was too much sugar for us. We're hoping the salted popcorn we had before, which had massive quantities of salt in it, was a fluke. We'll try that again. (In fact we would've tried it today as we tried to see Gosford Park, but it was sold out).

Back to Surbiton on the train and to a Thai/Malaysian dinner which was very good. We didn't arrive at the restaurant until 9:30 or so, and didn't eat our main dishes until almost 10:30 - a little late for us. But the food was good and then we had a nice walk back to the Mosses. Glad Toby remembered the way as Tom was convinced we were lost when we were just one block away.

I didn't mention the other part of our plan - to stay over at the Moss' and hang out with them on Sunday. And to do our laundry at their house. Hey, they're (practically) family, right? And, we still can't dry more than 3 light shirts in our washer/dryer in Oxford in less than 2 hours (we're working on that one, trying to call the 'help line' of the manufacturer, but it is always busy). Thanks to Frances Moss for starting our laundry for us while we were out. She was kind enough to do one load and we finished it off throughout the morning in their separate washer and dryer.

Toby and Martin took a ride to Hampton Court Palace and had a walk around and then stopped by to see Martin's parents. Tom stuck around with Frances, fixed a few electronics and helped cook a little. We stayed for lunch (really Sunday dinner), and Kevin's cousins Jane, Glenn and Graham came. A great feast by the Mosses and good company as well.

Tom's week was good - he has now commuted successfully for two weeks running. The gearstick is on the left and he has only smacked his right hand on the car door a few times while looking for the American shifter on the right. That'll stop soon and the bruises will hopefully fade quickly. Did we mention our just-big-enough garage? We're now reasonably comfortable at navigating in and out of it. Here's a picture so you get the idea -- it's smaller than it looks - you can open the car doors barely enough to squeeze in/out of the car.

The parking lot at work gets chock-a-block full, so it's good he gets their early. Actually it's not that early (8:00 a.m.), but earlier than most. Work is picking up for him as he gets involved in more things.

And, we have bought a cheap desk/computer 'workstation' so we are no longer leaning over a nightstand holding the keyboard in our lap and the mouse on a box on top of the computer. A much more comfortable computing atmosphere. Also, in theory, on Wednesday we get an ADSL connection, which is an aways-on, fairly fast connection to the internet. Much like a cable modem but over normal telephone lines, and you can use your phone at the same time. Here's hoping there are no glitches with that.

Much to our surprise, the daffodils are blooming. It is early and we hope they don't get fooled by the mild weather only to be bitten by frost soon. We've actually had a frost or two, and one morning it was very pretty looking at the grey/white frost on the fields on my way into work.

• Direct debit for bill paying is everywhere and extremely common. So far, all the bills we will get (phone, water, electricity, gas, credit card) will be paid by direct debit. Why bother writing a check?
• Speaking of water, we have no water meter. Our water bill is based on the value of the place we live. Not that I am a water waster, but there is no incentive to save (cold) water. Seems like a bad system to me. Perhaps they have so much water from all the rain that there is no issue.
• Skeleton keys revisited: key shops are happy to cut you a copy - they have hundreds of different ones in stock. A mere £4.75 will get you one. I'm still boggled by their popularity and fascinated by the selection.
• People look at Toby funny when she tells them she does not have a 'mobile' (cell phone). Everyone and their grandmother has one and uses it, often.

Well, that's it for this version. More soon as Toby will update you on her job search.