First Days as UK Resident

Here is a a little report on my first handful of days as a UK resident - things have DEFINITELY been interesting.

I arrived at Heathrow after about 13 hours of travelling. It seemed like longer, but was honestly not too bad of a flight. At least I wasn't wrestling 3 children the whole way across the ocean (sorry, Andrea).

For the first couple of days, I stayed at a bed & breakfast place with a truly delightful couple named Anne & Martin. They are an Irish couple that have lived in the UK for quite some time. Their place was on this funny little road of sorts called Rosemary Lane that ran through this little village called Thorpe. On my third day there, Sunday, I ended up helping out by receiving the B&B's arriving guests so that Anne & Martin could go see their horse run for the last race of the season. Quite an amusing set of circumstances, really.

Last night I moved into my "permanent" temporary place (for the summer) in Windsor. Windsor and all the surrounding areas are just beautiful with the Thames running through town.

Now, upon arriving on Friday and traveling to the B&B, I thoroughly discovered that mass transit was simply NOT going to accommodate my coming and going around town. Their simply are not enough bus stops, so I would have ended up walking hours each day just to get to the closest one and then spent even more time on a bus. AND with all the sprinkles from day to day, I'd probably show up at work soaked on average. In general, not a good plan.

So, at the recommendation of Anne & Martin, I ended up "hiring" (renting) a car for a bit and am looking into buying a cheap little car from a place in town.

Driving is wild. First, of course, their is the whole "other side of the road" bit of things. AND THEN there is the fact that manual transmissions are pretty much the way things go around here, typically, especially if you want to save on petrol (gas) and not pay more for the vehicle itself. And while I HAVE driven a standard before, I was by NO means truly comfortable driving them. But after about 3 days of getting about, that is actually getting pretty easy. I still kill the engine from time to time, but much less then usual.

The most interesting realization about the roads is really how efficient they are. In the US, we start and stop all the time as we go through intersections. Well, over hear roads are designed with all these roundabouts and modified roundabouts and such. In sort, the result is that you can drive and drive without ever having to stop. It is really truly interesting. The roads ARE a bit skinnier then I am used to, but I am also driving a car the size of a thimble (ok, not THAT small).

And, btw, just for amusement value, the car I am looking at purchasing is a 1999 Vauxhall Corsa. It is a "3 door" (2 doors plus hatch) manual transmission car that is pretty basic (manual windows, tape player, etc...) - but it will work, get me around, and only likely cost around £110 a month for a 2 year loan. Anyhow, it will work and I don't (of course) really need anything fancy.

So, there is the run down so far. Now, this week I have some big challenges to tackle. I am working on getting a stinking bank account opened which is made difficult due to requirement of being able to prove where I live. That is typically proven with a utility bill or whatnot - which of course I don't have. I THINK I have a plan for dealing with that (USAA to the rescue). And once I have a bank account open, I should easily be able to get the car bought (from what the car people tell me). And then things will progressively get simpler.

Unfortunately, the place I am staying does NOT have internet access, which makes lots of things more complicated. I think, however, that a bit of exploring of the local area this evening will result in an internet cafe or coffee shop or SOME place for evening internet usage. And, of course, on lunch and in the evening, I am welcome to use the web at the office to research the various local parts of this complicated puzzle.

Anyhow, there we go. TTYL.