Living in England

So I thougt maybe I'd post a blog that was less complaining and more informative. If you've been playing along at home (and this may just be addressed to my mom for all I know!), then you already know the difficulties we've encountered getting settled in. But you don't know much about where we live (unless, again, mom is the only reader. In which case, she has a pretty good idea since she lived here herself about 25 years ago. Hi, mom!)

RAF Mildenhall is in a rural area of England in East Anglia. We're about two hours north of London. Cambridge is about 30-45 minutes away. We haven't really explored there yet. We went once with one of Tom's coworkers, and frankly, I'm terrified to drive there. Maybe we'll catch the train, if we can figure out where the station is in our town.

We live in a town called Thetford, about a half hour from the base. That is to say, its' a half hour if you don't get stuck behind a slow lorrie (semi-truck.) The road to the bast is a single carraigeway (one lane on each side) with almost no lights. It's windy and narrow, as are most roads here. The national speed limit on most roads is 60 mph, which is entirely too fast for some of these curvy roads, if you asked me.

The water heater in our house is only on at certain times, and we haven't figured out how to change that yet. So we have to make sure to shower first thing in the morning or remember to turn out the hot water heater about a half hour before we plan to shower.

We have a garage behind our house. (It's not attached.) The garages here are too small for cars, really. I mean, you could squeeze your car in one, but then you can't open your doors to get in or out. So most people (including us!) use them for storage. Which is handy, because there are no closets and very little storage at all in the houses.

Almost every British national we have met has been so friendly. And of course, I'm enamoured with how they end every converesation with, "Cheers!" or "Brilliant!" So far the only exception to the friendliness has been in dealing with customer service over the phone, which is on par with phone customer service in the US!

The dogs are adjusting well. We haven't seen too many dogs in our neighborhood yet, except for a few big ones. Our landlord decided to lay gravel in our backyard instead of sod because he didn't want the dogs digging up the grass or tracking in a lot of mud. However, the Z's are a little scared of the gravel and seem to think that they will sink into it like quicksand! So far Zoey has taken to going to the bathroom on the sidewalk. Just as well, I guess. Easier to spot and pick up.

Okay, Tommy is ready to go home. Hoping to get internet at home in a couple of weeks! If you have any questions about what it's like here, let me know!