Furry Friday

Hampton has found a new favourite place in the new flat.  I guess its the first time that she has ever been able to get under the bed, now she might as well live there.

The first time she crawled under there Kristen and I were literally running around the flat screaming for her.  We thought that she had somehow gotten out or fell down a well or something.  Now if you don't see here you can bet she is under the bed.

Yeah don't ask......I was stuck at the shoulderblades.  Kristen apparently had time to take a picture before rescuing me.

Bread

I guess its the little things that you take for granted when you do not have any dietary restrictions. I on the other hand am very aware of the little things. I found myself standing in the bakery at Tesco today just staring at the bread. Longingly dreaming about a slice of white, or loaf of French. I wasn't even near the donuts, and cookies, and cakes. I felt a bit like someone trying to quit smoking who had gotten a wiff of second hand smoke and was loving it. Just kinda stood there and breathed in the bready goodness. Pretty sad when you think about it...in my world Bread is a treat!!

Is this a sign??

Was standing waiting for the bus a couple of days ago, and this just kinda popped up into my eye. Not sure if I would consider it a sign, or that it really means anything but the chances have to be pretty low that I would stumble upon a place like this.

Look at this picture first and see if you can figure it out (double click to enlarge)

In case you couldn't see it, I highlighted below.

The Biggest Difference

People always ask what is like living here and what the biggest differences are vs. leaving in Tulsa. I am not sure how long it took to figure it out, but I am sure now that its people. Not the way that people are but just how many of them are out there.

I am pretty sure that except for the most extreme circumstances we are pretty much immune by now. Its funny though when people visit and have issues with what we would consider just a normal situation. I would say if you can get to where you are going and touch or be touched by less than 5 people then its not crowded. If you don't believe me.....

This isn't even rush hour. Just imagine what the train is like if the platform is this crowded. Just look how people don't even seem bothered. Just standing there reading their paper or ipad like there is nobody else around. Like I talked about before I just don't understand how nobody thinks this is an issue.

Initials

Here is your little history lesson for the day.  If you walk around London, or I guess the entire UK, you will see all over the place............initials. 

King Edward VII

This is the royal cypher, pretty much the monogram of the king or queen (depending on the time).  Essentially anything that is associated with the government ends up getting the cypher on it.  Here it is always the same, the first letter of the first name followed by R for rex or regina (latin for king and queen).  The use of a royal cypher in the UK dates back to the early Tudors, and after Henry VIII the R was added.  They don’t go back and change all of them when the king or queen dies, so you can walk around and see how old things are simply by the initials on them. 

Queen Elizabeth II

King George IV

Heaven/Hell

We went out and about today to pick up a few things for the new flat, and explore a little bit.  For some reason it didn’t have any pans, so trying to cook eggs in a pot has proved a bit difficult.  Also we can’t seem to find a place to put all of our stuff so we we’re looking for a few storage containers.  We stumbled across this outdoor market.

I would have usually been really excited, and spent all of my lunch money on candy.  Funny how a month ago this would have been my heaven, but now it was a yeast filled hell.  Still, just checking out the good stuff was fun.  I will admit that I had a few samples as we went around, but that was just to try to make the stall owners not feel self conscious and embarrassed.

The pie meister is supposed to be really good.  Not sure I can get my mind around the whole meat sitting out all day thing.  Anyway will have to wait for another day.

Not to be outdone by the cookies and pie's this guy was sitting nearby with what was apparently his pet parrot.  The cafe was roped off, as you can see, and all along the rope everyone was pointing and staring.  I felt a bit bad about taking his picture, but when you are weird enough to take your parrot out for coffee, you gotta know people are going to be pointing and staring.

Somehow we ended up not finding what we were looking for, and ended up buying more stuff with no place to put it.  Kristen bought a giant owl to put in the garden in Tulsa.  He looks kinda good in front of the fireplace here though.  

Our New Place

This is our new place..............

Much cooler than the old flat, but alot less storage, so are going to have to be a bit inventive.  Trying to figure out just how we can make a desk out of boxes right now.  And good thing we upgraded our refrigerator.  Its being used to store cups and water bottles.

Here are the stairs that are impossibly steep.  Guarantee that by the time we move away I fall down these at least 4 times.

And just down the road is the Ferrarri dealer, in case anyone runs into a couple hundred thousand dollars that is just burning a hole in their pocket. 

Worst part of the flat though I call it the scalper.   The ceiling gets lower before the stairs start to go down.  There is about 6 inches of the hall that I figure is about 74 inchs from the floor.  If I have shoes on and I don’t duck a bit before going down the stairs I smash my head on the ceiling.  There is dent right in the middle, which I can guarantee is from either me or someone else smashing their head into the wall, but either way ouch. 

Hampton doesn’t get as much grass time here, but have found a couple of trees which seem to take care of things, she seems happy!