No TV

An added bonus of meeting Rachel and Paul was that Paul decided to buy some of our stuff. This is very exciting because we don't have to go through the effort of selling it on ebay. He picked everything up last night. We weren't sure how we would adjust to losing the TV, but it's been okay because now John gets to show me all those movies he's always downloading and I never want to watch. The computer screen is a little smaller, but the company is good.

London Trip

Thursday:
John and I arrived in London, chilled out at our hotel for a little while, then had dinner with Sarah, Jesse, and Barin (friend of Sarah's who is studying at the London School of Economics).

Friday:
Stonehenge. Fatality of the train tracks that held up the trains for about an hour. Oxford. Back to London to see Barin's flat.

Today:
Back home and worn out. It was great seeing people and having more adventures around England. But I think my next "vacation" is going to be a day spent sleeping on the beach. Lots of sun and no walking.

Hope Sarah and Jesse had a good flight home!

Buzz

I was a busy little bee today, applying for jobs and...

Yeah, that was mostly it. Applying for jobs. It just took all day.

Seriously, does anyone need a librarian?

Anyway, John and I are meeting Sarah and Jesse in London tomorrow. Hooray!

Sandringham

We tried to eat breakfast at The Waffle House this morning, but they were opening late due to being lame. So we had some McDonalds instead and then started on our journey to Sandringham.

First there was a train to Ely, then a train to King's Lynn, and then a bus to Sandringham Estate. This is a home that belongs to the Queen and is where she lives for part of the year. When she isn't there, parts of the house are set up for public viewing. We also walked through a museum that had a bunch of gifts given to the royal family, taxidermied animal heads, and old cars. I especially liked the child sized cars they had. Much fancier than my Barbie Jeep.

Once we finally got back to Norwich we went to The Waffle House for dinner. Now we are all worn out!

Norwich Castle

I took Sarah and Jesse to the Norwich Castle this morning while John waited for the plumber. The plumber never came (bummer) and so John met us for the battlements tour and walking around town.

This evening we tried out the Romans game John and I bought at Hadrian's Wall. We discovered that the "long" version of the game is basically never ending, but we had fun playing it. The spirit of Julius Caesar was truly with me!

Visitors!

Sarah and Jesse arrived in Norwich today after flying into London yesterday. Unfortunately there was a small mix-up with the train schedule because of weekend rail work. So, John and I thought we were running late getting to the train station, but were actually very early. We ate lunch while we waited so it wasn't a big deal.

We gave them a preliminary tour of Norwich and tomorrow, more adventures!

To recent commenter Edward, and anyone else who may need to contact me off-blog, my e-mail address is voxfabularum@gmail.com. Thanks for reading!

Home Again

Well, John and I are back in Norwich for the final stretch. The next time we fly to Georgia it is to stay!

Our rental agency has started showing our apartment to potential renters. I'm all for this since we can get out of our lease a few days early if someone else wants to move in. But I've never lived in a place that was being shown before. Apparently some people came by when we were out of town, and another trio showed up today. The agency doesn't seem to care that we haven't done anything to prepare for these showings but I do feel a little bad that our flat isn't as neat as it could be. Good thing Sarah and Jesse's visit is forcing me to really clean.

Light

Before Danny's visit I replaced several light bulbs that had gone out. I don't know if it is a problem with the electricity or just cheap bulbs but we seem to lose lights frequently. And every time a bulb burns out it flips the breaker that all the lights in the flat are on. So we have to go find the breaker in the dark, flip it back, just to get all the lights back on minus the one that blew.

One of the light bulbs I replaced before Danny came was the one in the stairway. It dangles from a wire and is perfectly positioned so that it is too far over to reach from the top of the stairway and too far up to reach from the middle. I had to stand on a step stool at the top of the stairs, snag the cord on a broom stick, then hold onto the cord with one hand while changing the light with the other.

After Danny's visit I made another run to the store and replaced the rest of the burned out light bulbs in the flat because it is really so much nicer to have light. I wondered how long we could boast having all of our lights working.

Not long. The one light bulb in the fixture in my office that I didn't replace recently has just gone. You might not think it would be so, but it makes a big difference. It is dismal in here after the sun goes down and I had to move the bedside lamp onto my desk so I could see my guitar book.

Le sigh. I guess I'll have to go to the store again.

On Our Own Again

It was sad to see our first over-seas visitor go, but Danny is on to more adventures in London.

To fill the void I started a new blog. Am I turning into a blogoholic?

The truth is that this blog has shown me that daily blogging is good for me and I've been contemplating what to do when I am no longer the "American librarian in Norwich, England." Blogging so frequently when I am in the inherently interesting situation of living in a foreign country has not been easy. What would I talk about once I move home? So I decided to make my post-Norwich blog on a topic I feel I could speak on endlessly (who would have guessed that topic was not myself?): the spoken word.

Anyway, the new blog was meant to start after I came home from Norwich, but I have so many ideas now that I don't want to lose. And I find many opportunities here to talk about sound and sense that I don't want to pass up. Please check it out if the topic interests you. If not, you can keep reading about my Norwich adventures right here for a few more months.

Alright Yarmouth

After exhausting the most exciting parts of Norwich, I took Danny to Great Yarmouth today. He wanted to see a British coast.

So we went down to the beach and then looked for a museum to go through. I saw on the city website that they have several museums. But the website didn't exactly draw to my attention the fact that not all the museums are open in the winter.

We finally happened upon the Time and Tide museum, which was open. There we learned all about herring, and life in a coastal town.

When we stopped for chips we discovered that the pigeon mafia has nothing on the sea gull mafia. A bunch of pigeons were gathered around a child who was dropping chips on the ground. One of the sea gulls came down to investigate. Then he spread his wings out and honked loudly for his friends to come get some of these chips. They seemed to intimidate both the pigeons and the child.

More Norwich Adventures

I took Danny to the Castle today. We saw most of the exhibits in the museum and went on the battlements and dungeon tours. The tour guide this time was a different person than the one John and I had before. She said mostly different stuff so it was worth doing the tours again.

After that we met up with John and walked through the Cathedral. Then we got a pint at the Adam and Eve and went to dinner.

We had nice weather all day so walking outside was pleasant and we had a good view of the city from the battlements.

Danny

Danny is amazing at traveling. He was right on time, which means everything went as planned on each leg of his journey!

We met up around noon, had lunch, explored town, and then came home to eat Indian delivery with John.

Tomorrow, more adventures!

One More Thing

Danny, one of my friends from library school, is coming to visit us on Tuesday. I spent the day preparing for his visit by cleaning.

I scrubbed the guest bathroom, trying to get rid of live mold if not permanently ingrained mold stains. I tidied up the living room, putting away clutter that has been on the bookshelf and fireplace for months. I made my office look more like a bedroom by putting sheets on the bed and moving out a few of my things that might get in the way.

After all this, I took a break, had some lunch, and walked to the co-op with John. As we were walking back into the house I saw that John's bag had sprung a leak. John was ahead of me and he was letting the bag leak on the floor. "John!" I called out. He turned to look at me, and as he did he moved the bag towards the bed. "Not on the bed!" I yelled. But it was too late. The bag had leaked on the bed, too. John immediately saw what was going on and took the bag back outside.

Up until that point, we both thought the leak was milk. It was actually beer.

The good news is that the beer that did get on the bed didn't soak all the way through the duvet cover. Since the duvet itself will not fit in the washing machine I'm not sure what I would have done if it had gotten dirty. But the cover is in the wash, and Danny has escaped having to sleep in a bed that smells like beer.