Here we are on the “London Eye” overlooking London (my first attempt at live blogging with my iPhone)
What I did on my summer vacation
Hi there and welcome back! It’s been an interesting summer for us, but I’m starting to get organized again so henceforth I will bring an update and a summer retrospective.
Since June 1st we’ve lived in four different houses and slept in (by my count) 12 different beds. It’s been a very interesting time and we’ve enjoyed the closeness of being together as a family, but it’s also felt quite disjointed, not to mention the adjustment to living in a new country. So we’re all looking forward to the start of the school year, when everything else also seems to start up again – it will be nice to have more of a routine and consistency again.
I have managed to download and organize our photos from the past three months, so we have pictures! You can find these and many more pictures at our Picasa photo album, which I’ve recently updated.
The view from our cabin in Tofino
MacKenzie Beach at Tofino
The view on the Duffy Lake Road from Lillooet to Whistler
After the game at Safeco Field
Our house for the next year
With the flamingos at Bristol Zoo Gardens
Connie & Heidi on the Zooropia elevated ropes course
Camping with friends at Thetford Forest
Lots of Lego models featuring cities in Europe
Before we left for England, we did a few smaller trips. We went to Tofino on Vancouver Island for a few nights, which was really nice – great weather and possibly our favourite beach. Rachel and I stayed here on our honeymoon, so it was nice to come back this time with the girls.
Then the girls went camping at Whistler with my parents while Rachel and I did a little driving trip from Vancouver to Hope, up the Fraser canyon to Lillooet, back along the Duffy Lake road to Whistler, and then back home again. We highly recommend that drive – the stretch of road between Whistler and Lillooet is especially nice and quintessentially Canadian.
We also did a little trip to Seattle and went to a Mariners game. After the game the kids (and parents) got to run the bases and it was worth waiting the extra half hour to walk on the field.
And then, a few days later we bid goodbye to Canada and headed over to the UK to stay with Rachel’s family for a couple of weeks.
We moved into the house we’re renting on July 31st – below is a picture of us at the house before we went inside for the first time. The house is furnished so we have the basics, but it’s still taken a bit of time to stock the shelves again and pick up little things that we chose not to bring (or forgot to bring).
We visited the Bristol Zoo Gardens, which apparently is the 6th oldest zoo in the world. They have a very cool elevated ropes course that you can do (for an extra fee, of course), so Connie and Heidi gave it a go.
We’ve also been to the beach at Weston-super-Mare (sorry, no pics) – if the forested mountains of the Duffy Lake Road are quintessentially Canadian, then the seafront at Weston-super-Mare is quintessentially English. Fish and chips, donkey rides on the beach, a huge pier (closed for repairs), tacky gift shops – it’s got it all.
We also enjoyed a few days camping with our old friends from Norwich, the Snells and Pointers. We were at Thetford Forest and although our streak of camping without rain was broken (6 consecutive camping trips without rain, prior to that), we had a fantastic time.
The most difficult thing about moving somewhere new is that the very thing you most want is what you don’t have – close friends. It was great to spend time with friends who we’ve known for years, and even though they’re not living close to us in Bristol, it is nice to know that we have friends here that we can look forward to spending some time with again.
Last week we had a day out at Legoland, which was also good fun. A large number of theme park rides and a huge number of Lego models. By far the best part was the kids driving school where the 5-12 year-olds can drive electric cars on an open course (ie. no tracks). It features flagrant traffic violations of all sorts, driving on the wrong side, head-on collisions, rear-enders, and the occasional smart one who follows all the directions properly.
So there we are. Most kids are back in school today, but our girls don’t start until Monday. So they effectively begin the year with a 5-day weekend. Go figure.
Moved in and life takes over
So, my intention was to do up a fancy “we’re here” post, put on some pictures, and make it all cool and funny and stuff. Sadly this isn’t going to happen right away. So I thought it would be better to post something than nothing at all – so welcome the glory of plain black text.
Pictures will follow.
Right. So we moved in on July 31st. The house is great – the girls are sharing the biggest bedroom, large enough to fit all of their toys and stuffed animals. Rachel and I, conversely, have the smallest bedroom – large enough for a bed and a small bookcase. No closet or dressers – that would be too decadent.
I have an office, which also doubles as the guest room. I have to say that it’s made a huge difference to my psychologically to have an office with a desk and places for things to go. After living out of suitcases and boxes for two months, it’s great to unpack and put things away. I’m sure that as I get older I will become increasingly obsessive compulsive, especially in the department of putting things away.
Somewhat oddly, the house has as many bathrooms as bedrooms (three); that is, if you include the closet toilet downstairs and the laundry room/bathroom upstairs. Regardless, it’s an English luxury to have more than one bathroom in your house, so I feel blessed.
We soon settled in and started to unpack – it was always bound to be an exercise in wondering why we brought certain things and left other things behind. We’ve since supplemented most of what we need, so we’re pretty much good to go.
The other element of busyness is my business – work has ramped up at the moment so I’m pushing hard to get some stuff completed for the end of the month. The timing isn’t the best, with summer and all that, but weeks of uneven schedules have lead to this time where more knuckling down is required.
So we’re all doing pretty well; getting used to our surroundings and trying to make the most of the summer before school starts again in September. Next week we’re off camping for a few days, albeit with limited camping supplies. We also have Heidi’s birthday coming up on Saturday, with a planned trip to the Bristol Zoo (apparently the 6th oldest zoo in the world).
Well I’ll sign off for now. We miss everyone back in Canada and we appreciate the comments and communication that we get from all of you. We do have a phone now – you can call us at +44 117 330 1284. If you are planning to call, don’t forget that we’re 8 hours ahead of Vancouver time.
The “English” life
I know you heard some stuff about England from Mike so now it is time to hear some stuff from me, Connie Ruth Goetz. I am 9 years old and my birthday is on October 29th, 2000. I was just at my new school, Henleaze Junior School the other day visiting for the whole day and had a great time. Most of the school work (well actually all of it) was on LAPTOPS! Now I know that it feels pretty weird but it is true! Mukmuk (my stuffed Vancouver Island marmot) just said to me that he is hungry which means that I am also hungry right now! Which also means that it is time to have a eating break. See you soon!
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Step One: Stuff Arrives
Our stuff has arrived
Today I went to Bristol in the morning to oversee the arrival of our worldly goods. These boxes had quite the journey – by train from Port Coquitlam to Montreal, boat to Liverpool, and then truck to Bristol.
And now all 36 boxes are settled nicely in our new living room. Unfortunately, we won’t be able to join them until Saturday, since our landlords still need to do a bit of work on the hardwood floors.
I took the train from Devon up to Bristol, and on the way back my intended train was delayed by almost an hour. These days, the train stations have fancy computerized voices that announce the trains in the station; a kind of modernized version of your answering machine saying “the time is now ..seven… thirty…… three” in that awkward, stilted fashion. So here was the computer relaying the following message about my train: “I’m sorry to inform you that the 12:44 service to Plymouth is delayed by 55 (five-five) minutes. I am extremely sorry about the delay to this service”.
I can’t say I felt a great deal of remorsefulness from this computer-generated message – at least HAL on 2001 showed a bit of electronic emotion. Perhaps, if the computer had worked a little harder, or maybe shown some more initiative, my train wouldn’t have been quite so late. Alas, this was not the case – it turns out the train was delayed due to animals on the track near Sheffield.
No Government
This doesn’t have much to do with anything related to us; it’s just a clip I liked and emphasizes why the BBC is great. The link below is an excerpt from the BBC’s program “The Now Show”, about dreaming of life with no nasty government regulation to get in the way. It’s under two minutes long.
Posted in England vs Canada, Mike
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Two Days in Bristol
We’ve come back from a quick two-day visit to Bristol, where we’ve finally had a chance to see a bit of what the next 12 months will be like.
We went to see the house we’ll be living in; it’s bigger than it looked in the pictures and we can start to imagine living there now. I’ll post some pictures up in a couple of weeks. The house is not far from some shops, so we sampled the local coffee shop, bakery, and greengrocer.
On Wednesday the girls visited the school that they’ll be attending next week (schools in England are only just finishing now, since they have more breaks throughout the year). It was hard for Rachel and I to drop them off and leave – I remember my first day at a new school when I was Connie’s age. All day Rachel and I were nervous about how the girls would be, but by the end of the day when we saw them again they were very happy, and wished they could come back again tomorrow. Go figure. So it’s great that the school has received thumbs up; that will help things in the summer.
Now we’re back at Rachel’s parents again, and we’ll be here until next Friday when we finally move in.
Other bits:
- The jet lag has more or less passed by now – I’m no longer waking up at 3:30 am ready to start the day.
- Connie had her ears pierced today for the first time; an early present for her 10th birthday
- Over the past two weeks I’ve attended various sporting events which I find interesting to contrast: July 10: BC Lions vs Saskatchewan Roughriders, attendance 20,000; July 11: Seattle Mariners vs. New York Yankees, attendance 40,000; July 18: Newton Tracey Cricket Club vs Nomansland (yes, there’s a village here called Nomansland), attendance 8; July 19: Barnstaple Town FC vs Donacaster Rovers, attendance 400. I seem to have developed an eclectic mix of sporting interests, with varying degrees of popularity
Family Portrait
This is what we're typically like
We took some family pictures with Chris’s camera the day before we left for England. Connie and Heidi always want to do a “silly” picture, and this one seemed quite true to life, at least to me.
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Made it
Well we’re here in England.
It was nearly a 24-hour journey from when we left my parent’s home in Coquitlam and arrived at Rachel’s parent’s home in Devon, and we stayed up for about 31 hours with only a few short naps in between.
But after a few “please kill me now” moments yesterday, a good night’s sleep and some nice sunshine has restored the optimism. It was also nice to see all the family yesterday as well.
The girls are doing well – somewhat surprisingly there were no tears as we left. We talk about missing people and things (they seem to miss our minivan more than I would have expected), but they’re also excited about things to look forward to. This includes buying some fudge at Rolly’s Fudge Pantry in Barnstaple today. Woo!
Posted in Update
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