Day at the Park

People walk everywhere here so decided today to do the same. We walked to our neighborhood pub, then to the village of Boxmoor, then to the playground.

The village is very small and not has thriving with business as some we have seen. It has several hair salons, real estate offices, frame shop, general store, liquor store and fish shop which appears to only be open few hours a day, and another pub. The sign on front says there has been a pub on this site since 1765. I love all the old houses. Everywhere you look there is something interesting.

The playground is at the end of a huge moor as they call it. There are footpaths that connect throughout the city of Hemel Hempstead. There is sign up that shows the paths and history along the way. Their is a canal that runs along the edge of the moor that goes all the way to Birmingham which is quite far. Lady at the park told me you could rent canal boats to take for ride.

Girls had bit of hard time with this teeter totter in that they did not have enough weight to hold it down so they both got on one side and I got on the other.














At first this thing did not look like much but when they got on it they realized it was to spin around. This was probably their favorite.










This slide was great and quite high.








They could climb this in all sorts of ways.

You can see in the background some of the houses and the moor in this one.



It was another fun day.

Our Air Shipment Arrives!

Our shipment arrived in fine shape.

Anna and Lauren had great time with the extra paper and boxes.

Here is link to the pictures. Let me know if it does not work.
http://picasaweb.google.com/jakesjag/AirShipmentArrives02?authkey=k34mMcV0iQU

They expect the rest of our household to arrive Dec. 3. Living in hotel is going OK but looking forward to being in the house.

Marilyn

Visited Winnie the Pooh 100 Aker Woods

One of the parks close by has several hiking trails including one for Winnie the Poohs 100 Akre Woods. It was so much fun to spend time here.

http://picasaweb.google.com/jakesjag/HikeAt100AkreWoodInHertfordshire?authkey=ZPzOPqvgmuk

Almost a Week in England

We are coming on a week here in England.

First thing I had to overcome was the driving and am well on my way. When we were here in July, I was very uncomfortable driving. When Stan went into office Friday, the girls and I spent most of the day in the car. We had heard about some villages in area behind hotel so started there and just kept going. At one point I followed a student driver car for several miles to see how they handled the roundabouts.

It also helped that we got with the rental car a gadget that gives us directions. We just enter the address, postal code, or some things like the hotel, are preprogrammed into it, and it directs us with voice and pictures to where we want to go. That makes it so much easier.

I still think I may take some driving lessons to learn exactly what to do on roundabouts and reading the street signs.

Today we went to library by our house to get library cards - even Anna and Lauren got their first library cards. They are so proud. We also had lunch at our neighborhood pub. Turns out own has dog that is their too which Lauren loves.

I took more pictures of the house. What I find most interesting is that their are no open rooms, each room has its own door. This was tradition years ago from what I understand so they would not have to heat all the rooms. This house is only 3 years old though. Also house has coils in floor so floor is heated.

I like the house and grounds a lot. The kitchen is the largest room in the house with lots of storage and wonderful gas stove. Only problem is, again as many had told me, it is too narrow for our size cookie sheets and pans.

I am worried how we are going to get furniture up and down the stairs which are narrow and sharp turns. Moving in day should be interesting.

Stan has been in Shanghai this week.

Here is link to new pictures of house and our neighborhood pub.
http://picasaweb.google.com/jakesjag/PicturesFromHouse?authkey=iDk5PidQfDw

First Day in England

We arrived in England just fine - tired but all our luggage and Simba arrived.

We arrived about 7:30 in the morning. By the time we got through customs, picked up Simba and got to hotel via taxi it was about 11:00. We had showers then went for lunch in hotel. I was suggesting to Stan we should go ahead and rent the car. We could not reach the car rental place by phone so there was some time while we tried to figure out what to do. I layed down and was asleep before my head hit the pillow! Slept for 3 hours! Stan took the girls swimming in the indoor pool.

I have tried to put link of time and weather on this site with no success. There must be a way to do it and will continue to research it so you will always know what time and weather is here. It has been perfect weather to me with high of 60 degrees and partly cloudy. It gets down to the 40's at night. Supposed to be like that for the rest of the week.

Today we met with landlord at our house. I took camera and tape measure and used neither. There was someone from company who looks over the house and documents any problems or potential problems. He took us around inside and out to point out any problems. The landlord was there too showing us details of how things work. He and his wife lived in house next door and then built this one to live in so they know the house and the neighbors. It was great to talk with them.

I love the house and the neighborhood. We are up a little bit of hill and tucked back in end of street. The garage is bit smaller then ours but also has great loft or attic area as does the house. The kitchen is huge with plenty of storage. Landlord was on phone when he saw me looking bit startled. He knew I was looking for dishwasher and walked over to open the door.

Another interesting thing is that each room has seperate door that closes - even the living room. I had seen people talk about this on groups I am on. They do it to help with heating. However in this house he put coil heating throughout the floor too. Because they also like cooler house, they would just turn this on and it keeps the house pretty warm.

The rooms are small but they have made good use of storage. I wish I had sold off more furniture. I asked about garage sales and he said they really don't do that in this area. There is huge flea market in spring that everyone attends. It is good we did sell our living room furniture.

The back yard or garden as they call it is so nice. There is a stone patio area outside the living room area. Steps on either side go up to grassy area across the top. It is just wonderful.

I am so sorry I did not take pictures. I was just soaking it all in.

There are several pubs close by. Pubs in England are more about eating then drinking. They are also where neighbors meet. Landlord told us about the best one close to us and knew one of our neighbors stopped there every day after walking his dogs. Again I wished I had taken pictures because it is everything you think of in a British pub.

Afterwards we stopped at ASDA owned by Walmart to pick up some swimming goggles for Lauren. Also found a magazine on Hertfordshire the county we are living in. Great information about all the little villages in area.

The firs 24 hours have gone very well. I think I will enjoy our time in England.