Spring!

PS These flowers really are this bright. I didn't do any editing of the photos, they are straight out of the camera. On the blog they don't look as bright, click on each picture to enlarge and see how bright they really are!

Shopping for a car

We've been test driving some cars since we got here. We'll definitely be needing a car. If you live in London I guess you can just use the trains, but we'll be quite a bit out of the city and you're often not close to a train station and buses aren't as regular as we were used to in Switzerland. That's one thing I will miss about Switzerland, how you could easily get anywhere with public transport.

The first car we both wanted to try was a Mini. We wanted to try that when we were looking at cars in Switzerland already but realized then that it will be too small for us. So we never actually got in one then. This time we said we've just got to try it.

By the time we got our licenses converted to British ones we've seen so many Minis on the road here that it really wasn't anything special anymore. I have never been to a country where so many people own Minis. But we still wanted to try it just for fun anyway. I sat in the back when we went for the test drive and I was surprised to find that there was enough space for two people at the back. But it just didn't wow me at all. I was quite disappointed. I was expecting something more. I don't know what exactly and I can't really say what was wrong about it but it just didn't do it for me.

Then we were at a Honda garage one day, even though Andre said he's never actually been interested in Honda. The salesman convinced Andre to test drive a diesel one, it's a Honda Civic.

Andre was not convinced that a diesel car will give him the sporty feel he was looking for. But we were both very impressed with this car. The inside looked really nice too which is important to me! So this one was a possibility.

Andre has always wanted a Subaru. I did not like the look of the car at all. But I agreed to give it a chance. If it was anything like his Chev Lumina he had in Cape Town I would like it.

The lovely Lumina

It was not the same.

Firstly the inside looked very very old. Like these designers haven't seen the inside of any other more modern cars since 1970. It was very plain inside and I won't say anything else incase someone reading this might be offended. Sure, the very newest ones are better looking but not anything near our budget.

So I said to Andre if he asks my opinion it's a definite no. I never liked the hole in the bonnet, the fin thing on the back and the inside was just... yes I said I won't say more. Maybe the car is able to go fast and has a lot of power but the salesman didn't take us on any roads to show off the car and try and convince the wife. So no, we were not going to get this one. I said to Andre he can buy it but I'm not going to like it. 

Next up was the Audi A3. I have always liked the look of this one but never actually driven in one. So we found one in our budget and went to look. It was not in very good condition so we didn't even take it on a test drive. At the same garage Andre sat in a Mercedes (decided he's not old enough for that yet) and a Porsche (we agreed it would be fun but we need more space, e.g. for passengers). And okay, this last one was a thousand or two over the budget, but you know, it would have been fun!

Opposite this last garage we saw a BMW garage. So while we're there we might as well have a look. We're walking around looking at prices and it's all way more than we want to spend and Andre is saying how he's had his BMW now anyway and wants something different.

Then we spotted this one:

It's the shape Andre has always liked, the older shape. Of course I would like the newer more expensive shape but luckily in this case Andre liked the cheaper model! And it was even a thousand less than we were willing to spend. It's a 525i Sport.

A very helpful salesman let us take it for a test drive. Andre was very impressed with it. It's got loads of space, a huge boot (trunk) and it has a sports pack which means it's more sporty which makes Andre  even happier. 

We left there to think about it and I agreed that this car has no negative points. There's no reason we should not buy this car. It is older than Andre would normally be interested in - 2002 model - but has only done 40 000 miles and has been so well looked after. It is still in perfect condition, no scratches, no damage inside and the leather seats still look like new, not worn out like leather seats get with time. It only had one owner who obviously took good care of it.

Anyway so we leave to think about it. At least over night. We knew at that price and condition it won't be available for long. A few hours later Andre sent the salesman an email to ask him to just send through all the details of the car. The salesman does but says there is now someone else interested in the car and busy sorting out finance to buy it. The first one to put down a deposit will get it.

So Andre's usual long and careful thinking he does before buying anything had to be rushed quite a bit and he eventually called the guy and said he wants to put down the deposit! He got his money in before the other guy did and yesterday when we went to collect the car we heard that there were actually two people there at the same time wanting to buy the car. 

So I guess it was meant to be for us.

I'm glad we've now got a car. Now we've just got to find a house or flat too.

California in the UK

Fisrtly, an update on the last post: After a week we received an email this morning from our medical insurance in Switzerland. They are now sorting out the cancelation for us. Apparently they did receive our notice to cancel and sent the papers to their head office. Head office said they never received it so just helped themselves to some more of our money! They will give the money back soon they say..

It is still unbelievably sunny here. So on Sunday we packed a picnic lunch and went to a nearby park called California Country Park here in Finchampstead.

No, the park was not named after the American state. It was actually named in 1761 which is apparently 15 years before the state, California, in America was named. 

A long long time ago people did coach trips from London to this park and it became such a popular destination that they started a caravan park so people could stay over. Which is now an hour train ride must have taken them much much longer!

We saw this mommy duck with her 10 babies and I'm sure we'll be back for Andre to do some more bird photography here.

Of course we had to have a braai (BBQ) this weekend with such stunning weather!

(That's me doing a pedicure there in the background!)

One last Swiss issue

Leaving Switzerland went very smoothly. As long as you followed the rules of course and did everything the correct way. I found out that a month before you leave you can get a "Webzugsmeldung" from your Gemeinde. This piece of paper says that you are leaving Switzerland on the date you tell them you will be leaving and it states where you are moving to, in our case England. Very simple.

Then you can send copies of this piece of paper to end all services like household and medical insurance and internet subscription, etc. You then don't have to give the usual three month notice because they will not charge you if you are no longer going to be in the country. And they even return any extra money you have paid in advance very quickly into your account. 

Cablecom (internet) and Winterthur (where we had our household insurance) quickly got back to us confirming the cancelations. Sana24, our medical insurance, didn't get back to us. Silly of us, we assumed they got our letter of cancelation and everything will be fine. We should have phoned them to confirm and I kept saying we must but we never did. Now I just noticed they have debited Andre's account for another month's subscription. Annoying! 

I have to now try and fix it from here. I don't have any of our insurance papers with me as the file is packed in a box and the website does not give an email address so I have filled out the contact sheet and hope they will reply. Luckily I still have a copy of the original letter I sent them. 

Let's hope this gets sorted out quickly and easily.

Back in England...

I have just registered with a website called mysupermarket. Here you can shop for groceries online and compare prices of different grocery stores. So that's what I'm doing now, seeing which store will be the best to shop at. Exciting stuff!

Fishing

This past weekend we went fishing. Well the guys fished and the girls relaxed by the lake. We drove to Albury where there are some lakes for trout fishing. 



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It was nice and sunny out. Unfortunately Andre didn't catch anything, but his friend did and we had some rainbow trout for dinner. I had a try with the rod too, but didn't like it much that Andre was telling what to do so I gave it back to him and carried on reading my book. We had a picnic lunch there too. It's really lovely there with benches and lots of grass to sit on. But still quite some mud and our wellies came in handy again.

Wellie shopping

I thought it was time to remove the raindrops from my blog and put up a new spring background and picture. The weather has really started to improve. No rain over the weekend, just sunshine! I still can't really call it hot or even warm but I will call it mild instead of cold now. It is amazing what a bit of sunshine can do.

But we did still need wellies. Where we're staying with friends at the moment there is a lot of forest area and lovely walks to do. But up until now we had to stick to tarred roads as I didn't bring any appropriate shoes for mud. 

I discovered a website where you can order your wellies online. But there's no way I can buy shoes online without trying them on first (I don't know how you do it Simóne!) even if it is only wellies. So on Friday André and I went to the warehouse after they said it's okay for us to come by. Good thing too because I would have had to send back so many pairs and still wouldn't have had the right wellies by now. 

I must have tried on at least seven different pairs. Different sizes and different designs. I did feel rather bad for making the lady run around the warehouse finding what I wanted. Since it's not a shop there's nothing on display. We sat in the little office choosing what we liked off the website and then she goes off to fetch it. Then I either don't like the shade of pink or the type of flowers... And I have to try it in one size bigger or smaller just to be sure I've got the  right size. Eventually we walked out with four pairs of wellies: a pair each for Andre and I and then for our friends too. 

And here you can see what I mean by needing wellies to go for a walk over here... it really is muddy!

Did you know you can even get wellies with a wedge heel? I didn't! Check them out here.

Facebook friends, excuse the repeat of some pictures. I know some blog readers are not on facebook so I add a few fb pictures for those who has not seen them yet. If you're not my facebook friend yet and I know you, join me there to see the rest of our pictures.

A day out in London

Are you keeping up with my blog? I seem to be writing every day now! Lots of new things to write about.

Yesterday we had a day at home recovering from our very very long day out the day before. We left home at 10 in the morning and got home at 11 that night. But I must add that it takes an hour with the train to get to London from where we're staying and we don't plan to live much closer to the city at the moment. I will miss being able to go into town for a night out. In Switzerland it took us only 15 minutes with the train to Zürich and we didn't live in the city then either.

We were in the UK 18months ago for a few days holiday and Andre showed me some of the sights in London then. So this time I said, let's just walk and see what we see. I didn't want to have to search for places and follow maps. So we just walked. And walked. And walked.

We first went to meet a friend who we stayed with last time we were here. We had coffee together and chatted for a bit until he had to get back to work. Then Andre and I went to Hamleys, a huge toy store, since we were right there.

We wanted to have sushi for lunch and while searching for a sushi restaurant we happened to walk through China Town.

A little way from that we found a sushi restaurant that looked nice and shared a light lunch.

Then we headed to the German embassy. I have to go there next month to renew my passport so I wanted to make sure I know where to go. It was easy to find and right by Hyde Park. So afterwards we bought ice creams and strolled trough the park. It was my first time in Hyde Park and it was really beautiful. Especially since it was such a perfect sunny day. Even warm at times!

At this stage I was getting a bit tired and kept trying to head over to a bench for a rest. I even suggested sitting on the grass for a while, but Andre wanted to go take pictures here and there and everywhere and then remembered about a shop selling rollerblades so off we went again!

We didn't do any shopping. Andre just bought a TinTin book at this shop:

He has started a TinTin collection.

By this time it was home time for the working people in London and we decided not to get squashed on the trains and instead wait until after rush hour. I had to sit down so we decided to stay in town for dinner and go to Brick Lane for curry. Which meant a little bit more walking and a train ride.

Brick Lane is an area where I assume also many Indian people live. There you will find one curry house (restaurant) after another and they all have someone standing outside each door trying to get you inside by offering specials on meals or a free beer etc. It was impossible to pick one. We walked down the road for a bit and then just picked one randomly. The curry was great. You don't have to go to Brick Lane to get the best curry but it was an interesting experience. Here is a website with more info and a quote from this website:

Brick Lane is a street in the East End of London, site of a Sunday market, heart of the city's Bangladeshi community, former heart of the city's Jewish community, and before that, of its Huguenot community. The 'curry houses' of Brick Lane are known for their cheap and cheerful food, and for allowing customers to bring their own beer (often the curry house itself will not sell alcohol as most are run by Muslims).

The end of Easter weekend

I'm getting a lot of blogging done since we've moved to England. Same as when we just moved to Switzerland a year ago. See, I'm not working yet. I like not working. I really really do. I can be a housewife anytime. But I wont. I've got no reason (yet) to stay at home so I'll soon go out and make us some money. I'm just waiting to see where we will be living so I can try and hopefully get a job as close to home as possible. But since I'm not working yet I get to do a lot of blogging.

Yesterday we went to London and my feet still hurt from all the walking! But before I tell you all about that, here are some more Easter weekend photos.

We had relaxing times at home. Well at our friends' lovely home. The guys sneaked out a few times to inspect the garden...

See Andre hiding above?

We went for a walk in a nearby forest. It's a huge place and you can go cycling too. There were so many families out. A great place for kids to just go wild. They also have an interactive science centre. The lady at the reception desk explained that it's ideal for kids between 5 and 12 years old. As soon as we find a kid that age we're going too.

And then there's this for the older kids. Or the grown-ups who still like to be kids occasionally. It's called "Go Ape!" I think we'll be back for this. I will be following on the ground and taking the pictures. I have no desire to be that high up.

We came home and the guys cooked dinner. They made a roast with lots of veg AND Yorkshire pudding.

It was my first time having yorkshire pudding and I liked it. A lot!

Butcheries and Burford

On Saturday we visited two butcheries, the first one in a town which won this award a very long time ago. Before I was born!

Then we went to this one.

We'll definitely be back. It was a great shop. Vegetables, so many different kinds of meat like pigeon, rabbit and things like that. A huge turkey- dead. A stuffed fox- not for sale. And fresh seafood too.

After the food shopping our friends took us to Burford. It's a very pretty town. I'm not going to say much about it, you can see for yourself, although the pictures don't show nearly how pretty it really was.

We had lunch at this pub. Delicious.

The flowers outside the windows were so pretty. I think Andre was focusing on the mermaid here though! He took all the pictures on Saturday.

Easter weekend

Here's what we did on Friday:

We had lots of fun playing the game 30 Seconds.

We discovered that I need to brush up a bit (quite a bit) on my general knowledge.

Andre told me I need to subscribe to a news feed so I can read the news daily and know what's happening.

I will be doing that. Reading about local and international news. Then try playing this game with me in a few months time!

Last night we also played cards and I was reminded that I'm not much good at that either. Two years ago we played this card game and for some reason that no one can remember anymore I was labeled a cheater at games. I can't remember any cheating. If I do I'm not much good at that either since I'm still losing! In this other game the loser was the donkey.

I was the donkey for many rounds.

The donkey has to do all the work like deal and get drinks and whatever else.

And of course the winner of the round gets to be the queen (or king) and wear the crown. And boss the donkey around. And sit in the best seat. And gets the best cards. Know that game? It's fun. It's not the one we played last night though.

Anyway, back to the Easter weekend. We took a lovely drive yesterday and visited the cutest little town. I like cute, old little towns. Very pretty. But I'll tell you about that next time. Too many photos for one post.