Eurovision 2008

Oh my sweet holy pickles, batman...

A year ago (or a little over that actually) I moved from the USA to the United Kingdom. I arrived on a Friday, wandered around like a lost foreigner for a day. And the next evening on Saturday night I caught the last hour or so of the Eurovision Song Contest. Considering the bizarre nature of the contest, it would have to be one of the most comical things to run into on television less then 48 hours into my immigration experience.

For those who are unaware, the Eurovision Song Contest is a massive cross-continental music competition that takes place annually in Europe. This year is the 53rd instance of the contest, having began in 1956 with 7 contestants: Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Italy and Switzerland. Since then it has grown to dozens of countries including 2 semi-final shows and a finals.

Well, this year my wife and I are going to watch perhaps some of the semi-finals and most of the finals. And I am going to have to throw my support behind Ireland and their singing turkey... :)

Roundabout Fun

Those who know me well know that I am a huge fan of Google Maps.

Well, toward the end of the day today I was pumping some addresses into Google Maps (uk) to see what it thought the best route home was. While looking about, I noticed how clearly you can see the funny little roundabouts everywhere. I also realized that the roundabout truly is the fundamental building block of the British road system. Truly brilliant!

Here is your basic everyday roundabout in the Chertsey area. Nothing fancy, one lane, simple stuff, 4 ways on and off. Perhaps 75-85% 0r so of our American intersections could be replaced with these.

And then we have the Crooked Billet Roundabout and this roundabout in Old Windsor. Neither are particularly complicated, but they are fun in that they each have 3 routes in and out, making them more of a "triangleabout" of sorts. Good fun... :)

For more craziness, however, here's the slightly more insane Runnymede Roundabout. It circles about in 2 lanes and provides for access in 5 different directions. That one is a little more fun to get in and out of, especially when traffic is heavy. Here is another one of those in Windsor.

And then here is a roundabout that can only be described to be shaped like a peanut. To the new driver in the UK, that's confusing just because of the way it goes around. Still fun, though.

And, lastly, the pinnacle of the roundabouts I have encountered so far - here are some roundabouts used to get on and off of the M4 Motorway and the M25 Motorway. These British use roundabouts for everything!

The crazy thing is, they work really well and just take a bit to get accustomed to. Do watch the signs, however. And always remember that if you miss your exit, you can always just go AROUND again...... :D

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.

Introduction

Ladies & gentlemen, I'd like to introduce myself. My name is Paul and I am a United States citizen that decided, for some silly reason, that it would be a great adventure to relocate to the United Kingdom, to "work abroad".

That idea arose late one evening after a marine aquarium society meeting while chatting with some friends. And hear I am - 6 months later - just starting up at my new job in the UK. I am excited to be working as a BI consultant for Aspective, Ltd out of Staines, England.

And I decided that it might be fun to blog up my experiences. Perhaps something useful will arise for others by my sharing of this process here.

More to follow soon about my first couple 0f days as a United Kingdom resident.