Progress

I have been unpacking boxes for two days. Progress has been made. I have two rooms in order, and in the process, destroyed the others.

Allie has found a new perch that keeps her out of the way of me unpacking boxes and getting stepped on. Mind you, she also sleeps in every chair, on the beds, and so on.

The kitchen is actually a kitchen, which is nice. Except that I have figured out that both the cooker [the oven] and the dishwasher do not work.

Kind of hard put everything away and clean the old dust off without the dishwasher. The cooker can wait. It's hot outside!

The girls and I took a break and walked into the Village for supplies and there are several hundred people out sun bathing on the Commons. Yesterday, when we walked through, a couple shared some pate' and turkey with the girls, so of course today they were looking for handouts. Had to put them back on the leads. They needed stay focused on the walk!

A Week in London

Another eventful week in my life in London. We week began with moving. The movers showed up on Tuesday. There were two small men and one small truck. Sigh. At some point, they seemed to have lost their will to pack. And after a while, I lost my will to wait and carried on loading the "left behind" items in my car. The movers loaded and unloaded the truck three times. And I loaded and unloaded my car three times for a total of 11 times for me. Yowza! Time to get rid of some stuff!

I had a truck come on Thursday and pick up the futon, two end tables and two area rugs. My new place is much smaller than the other. I am busting at the seams.

Speaking of seams, the closets are freakishly small! I added a clothes bar to two closets, but I still have stuff resting on the bed, waiting for a [new] home. And once again, my bedroom furniture [dresser and master's chest] can't make it up the stairs. They are resting in the dining room. Guess I will need to switch around where I have my nickers stored! They'll be a little out of place next to the fine china! And by the way, the reason I have so many white shirts is because that colour does not fade! And everything fades in the laundry here.

Thanks to my friend, Pam, we have tackled unpacking the kitchen. My goal is to get the place "livable" this weekend so that when Mary Therese comes we can at least move freely around the house.

On Friday, our office headed to Hyde Park for a friendly game of cricket. Since I went to the 20-20 tournament at Lords I knew enough to be dangerous. We played 10 rounders. We had two teams: IT versus everyone else!

Our team won the toss, so we batted second [this is the best]. I did not bowl [pitch], but I did bat and I scored three runs! Couple of things I learned. Firstly, the softball stance does not protect the wicket; you've got to stand in front of it. Secondly, the softball swing turns the bat over putting the flat side [the easier side to hit] facing the wrong way, so somehow you have to accept the vertical holding of the bat. Thirdly, you've got to run fast to get to the crease [batter's box].

The other great part about playing in the parks here in London is that you can picnic! We had a spread of food [Scotch eggs, pork pies, vegetables, dips, breads] and drinks [beer and wine]. It was a beautiful day. And after, we headed to the pub! A great way to finish the week!

Moving again ...

A fun fact I realized this week. I got Misty in 1999. We moved to Louisville in 2001. I bought a house and we lived in it for 6 years before we moved to the UK. [Stay with me]. We had 2 residences in Minneapolis, 2 in Louisville, and now 3 in the UK ... which means we've moved 7 times in the 10 years I've had her. We are pros.

Even pros get tired. This is my girl after 5 loads to the new place today.

Our mission this weekend was to "move the clothes". Unfortunately, the amount of clothes I own does not co-incide with the amount of closet space in a house [here]. Consequently, 2 of my 3 moves are all about maximizing the closets [read: add another clothes bar]. I'm still trying to finish that in this place.

In the meantime, the girls and I packed up the [ugly] car with "stuff" from the bedrooms and bathrooms, and moved as many of the clothes I could ... though, I had no place put them, as I am still sorting the closets.

Now for every trip that I made, the girls had to come. Allie had the front seat, and I left the floor boards in the back seat [seats were all removed] for the Misty girl. How sad is it that they are "used to this". Our moves are no different than the trips we made to the Home Depot. Having said that, over here the Home Depot is called the B&Q ... and we've made two trips this weekend.

Sigh. The movers show up on Tuesday. Dang! I want to be done!!!

Misty Update

Okay well, good news and bad news.


Bad news: the tumor on Misty's ear came back a malignant melanoma. Basically, this means a few things. Firstly, it's typically aggressive. Secondly, if it re-occurs, it will be locally [same spot], the lymph nodes, or the lungs. And thirdly, there won't be anything to do to stop it.
So today, she had her stitches out. Her ear looks great. She does not have any other immediate concerns. It's just now a process of monitoring. So of course, we spent time on the Commons. Lots of dogs and the opportunity to wade through the pond [the vet asked me why she was wet; um, have you been on the Commons ???]

Anyway, we carry forward. She is healthy and happy for now. She recovered extremely well. She remains active. And this weekend, we have to move again, so we are busy. We will be within 100 ft of the Commons in our new place [versus a 15 minute walk]. so this will be to the benefit of the girls.


Thanks for all of the good energy.
T.

British Summer

When Heidi was in town, on Friday we took the train down to Brighton, which is on the South coast of England. I had never been to Brighton, but I am familiar with British coastal towns and their [extreme] popularity. My plan for going down on Friday was to miss the hoards of people that would be there on the weekend. That assumption was correct AND it didn't hurt that the weather was cold. I was wearing shorts on principle alone. Then I had on a long shirt, a jean jacket and a Gore-tex jacket. And just to be safe, I stopped in the shoppe at the train station and bought a brolly [umbrella].

[Btw, to the left, that small yellow and red cluster on the "beach"... life guard station.]

So, we're off the train, through the town and to the beach. I use the term "beach" lightly as there is no sand. Just miles of round rocks. Not easy to walk on, especially in sandles. Of course, when we got there, it began to rain, so we took a few quick photos and then ducked into a pub under the broadway for fish n' chips. You must have fish n' chips when at the beach. About the time we finished our lunch, the sun came out and we returned to our journey.

We headed down to the pier. The pier is full of games, ice cream shoppes, and rides. We walked to the end and bought an ice cream. You must have ice cream when at the beach. We headed back towards shore. We got to the end, turned right and continued down the beach. Once we got to the end, I suggested we go up to the top of the Broadway for a different view.

Once we turned around, this is the cloud that what waiting for us:

Yeah. We got soaked.

By the way, this was int he paper yesterday. this is what it's supposed to look like [and what I was avoiding]:

Misty Update

For those of you that have me as a friend on Facebook, you know that this week I had to take Misty in to have a tumor removed from her left ear.

She had a small tumor there about the size of the end of my pinky for the last couple of years. Week before last, it grew and burst. [It is really gross.] She had one last fall on her hip that the same thing happened and the vet drained it and I had to bathe in salt water a few times a day until it closed up. He didn't want to remove it because she is old and being on anesthetic is risky.

This time, however, it was going to end up being a bigger problem trying to avoid infections as there isn't a lot of skin there.

So Tuesday, I worked from home and took Misty into the vet for surgery. I dropped her off at 830 and they thought she would be on the table about 11:00 and finished at 1130 ... but don't panic if it's later. [Yeah, right]. It was after 100 when the vet called and said that she had survived the surgery and was in recovery. Step 1: complete. I picked her up at 400.

They've sent the tumor off for a biopsy, so I am now waiting for those results [Step 2: unknown].

In the meantime, the vet is very happy with her progress; in particular because he was able to remove the tumor and not crease the ear [it's still prone or upright, and not flopped over].

The first night was rough. She was drugged, disoriented, and clearly uncomfortable. We had a sleep over in the living room ... this was after she slid down the stairs trying to follow me to the kitchen. Not good.

She's on pain killers and an anti-inflammatory, penicillin, and she's getting lots of treats and attention. I only put the collar on her when I leave for work. She hates it.

I took her in on Thursday for her post-op. I drove to the Village [she can't walk that far yet] and before I knew it, she and Allie were half-way across the Commons ... in the lake ... wrestling with a Husky puppy. Dang! Stitches!!!

Needless to say, I'm supposed to keep her quiet-er. Stitches come out on the 15th. Fingers are crossed on the biopsy.

Croydon Summer Festival, 1-2 Aug

This weekend, I went to Croydon [another suburb of London on the South side] to participate in a summer festival.

To get there I just needed to take the tram from Wimbledon to Croydon. Of course, I didn't do that. I took the overland train from Wimbledon to Croydon and what I didn't realise is that Wimbledon ... zone 3 ... to Croydon ... drops you in zone 6, so when I got to Croydon, my train ticket wouldn't let me out of the turnstiles. I went over to the window to buy a zone 6 ticket and instead, I GOT a ticket!!! 20 pounds for a 3 pound ride. Rats!

http://www.croydonsummerfestival.org/

They had a nice line-up of music. I heard Candi Lane, R&B artist. She sang "Young Hearts Run Free" in the 70's. She has a great voice.

On a side stage, I say Latin Dub Sound System. They were good. Hadn't it not been for the rain, there would have been lots of room to salsa. And it was quite obvious that a LOT of people at the festival do NOT know how to Salsa.

But the main reason I was there was to see The Proclaimers! I love these guys. They are Scottish brothers, Craig and Charlie Reid formed. Their first big hit was "Letter From America". My favourite is "I’m Gonna Be (500 miles)" and "I’m On My Way". These guys still have it!

The Proclaimers - (I'm gonna be) 500 miles! Live Acoustic

Now of course by the time The Proclaimers were on stage, it was raining ... sideways. It was raining so hard that the umbrella was leaking! I had my Goretex jacket on, but really needed my Goretex pants! Yow-za!

Most people were just happy [drunk], soaked, and dancing in the rain in their Wellington's! This is literally, a favourite English past time in the summer. To be wet, drunk, and dancing in boots.