A New Year, A New Town

We like to get dogs in January; we like to move in January. Not really, I'd like to stay put for a while :) But last 3 Jan, we were headed out west to Spokane thinking that might be our next home. This 3 Jan, we were signing our lease for our home here in Ely, Cambridgeshire, UNITED KINGDOM. Still trying to wrap my head around the fact that we live in England, I guess. And that this cathedral that was built 1,000 years ago is in my backyard.

Ely Cathedral

Inside the Cathedral

I love getting to a new place and exploring. I love trying new food. Yup I was even excited to try all of the "terrible food in England." NOT. I discovered Chicken Tikka while we were still living on base and that blew me away. Every time I see Chicken Tikka on a menu now, I have a hard time looking at anything else. When we got to Ely and didn't have our household goods yet, we used that as a "good" excuse to try as many pubs and restaurants as possible, I guess. Kabobs, a burger with goat cheese (I really think we ought to just slap a slab of goat cheese on our burgers in the U.S.), wild mushroom risotto, curry, chips, chips, chips & more chips! I'm a sucker specifically for the chips at one of the several pubs within a 5 min walk from us. And pints. I've had some good beers at several of the pubs, but one of my favorite places is a place called the Liberty Belle (also a 5 min walk...awesome/no good) that always has 5-6 microbrews on tap, all Ales. Well, I'm a sucker for Ales so they got me. They also do boat tours on the river in the summer. Sunday Roasts are also a tradition here; you can get a roast at most (or many) pubs every Sunday. We enjoyed our first Sunday Roast last weekend at the Royal Standard (the place with the crack chips).

The Sunday Roast. Does this look bad to you? 

Chicken Tikka! Boom.

p.s. that chicken tikka came with basmati rice, chips, naan (a type of flat bread) and a poppadom (see Wikipedia for that one). Who needs that many carbs?! :) But YUM. I ate them all.

Now that we have our stuff I've started cooking more so we don't balloon up. Amazing, soon after sleeping well and eating better I felt like I had energy to run again. It's all so crazy how the body works :) But it is unbelievable to be able to walk everywhere....the bank, the post office (Royal Mail! Didn't think I would use this much but have already had to go a couple times), several grocery stores, the Thursday/Sunday market, the Ely Cathedral, the river, the dog parks, shopping...pubs. I only need my car to go to base. I'll come back to that.

Since cooking at home, I've discovered that grilled cheese and sloppy joes, both of which I consider to be American foods, are amazing with British cheddar. See what we can accomplish with our allies? ;-)

There are some things you just have to embrace when you get to a new place. Because you aren't new for long. Like, I wish I had a video of myself walking through town looking lost and trying to read every store sign to figure out what store/restaurant it is, then trying to decide if I should go in or just keep it in mind for later. This thought process is all going on while I'm about to walk directly into a sign or a pole or a person. Because of course I'm looking left and right and up and every way except in front of me. Then there is the night I decided I should figure out how to get to the train station before we left for London a couple days later. It was about 5:30 and already dark, but I knew the general direction so just started walking. I noticed a bunch of commuters walking toward me (you can just tell which people got off the train after a day of work or school). So I decided to follow where they were walking from and wa-la! There was the train station. So I went inside and bought my discount card/pass, and as I was about to leave I SWEAR I saw Prince Harry. I swear. It couldn't have been him but WOW. The spot in this picture is on the short walk from our place to the train station:

A walk down the river. Ellie wants that swan. 

I know. That was a random photo of my cute dog by the river.

During my first couple of trips to the different grocery stores, I was always asked if I "needed bags" by the cashier. Uumm, am I a dirt bag if I say yes??? So, they are big on their reusable bags here (and you also bag your own groceries. I honestly think this is sort of a good idea. I always feel awkward standing there while the cashier rings everything up and the baggers bag...I need a job!). So, on one of my next trips I decided to bring my reusable bags. The only ones I had were from Trader Joe's and Dillon's. Yes, a reusable bag is a reusable bag but as I walked home with my overflowing Trader Joe's bag and a new British spec toaster oven, I wondered if I screamed "newbie." :)

Now we have all of our stuff and we're getting settled. But of course there were the moments of frustration when you are still trying to figure everything out and don't have the Internet at your fingertips. Example- I realized I was getting calls but had no clue how to access my voicemail. Seems like no big deal now, but it just felt like another little tiny way I was cut off when I was trying to figure out a million things and be home for deliveries of appliances, etc. Going without most of your stuff definitely makes you realize what is a necessity vs. a luxury, and that is actually really nice. But wow...the Internet. That hurt a bit. Free WI-fi isn't a thing here. I found it at the local library, so now I'm a library member which was another small step to feeling like I belong :) Before that, I did get really used to taking screenshots of websites with information I needed for later. Gotta get creative.

I also consistently battled with two feelings for a couple weeks....there was a part of me that wanted to just get out and explore, and another that felt so hesitant. I never really figured out why I was hesitant, being that I was so excited to be here, but now I'm in the comfort zone of living in Ely so it has passed. I guess anxiety of the unknown can be sort of powerful.

Oh, there is the day I really wanted some rubbing alcohol to clean a cut. Yeah, they don't have that here. I could have gotten some huge bottle of antiseptic...but I just wanted some rubbing alcohol. Such a simple thing, right? Dave got some on base that day.

I will say, to this day, having access to base is pretty amazing. We didn't want to live on base because there are so many other cool places to live and we wanted to experience England. But when I do find myself on base about once a week, I feel....comfort.  It's where you can get a lot of things you can't find locally (Jen in Germany-don't hate;-). It's fun trying local products, but it's nice knowing you can get some rubbing alcohol if you need because everything else is new and different and you just want what you know.

Of course at the end of the day for most of January, there was the comfort of sitting on the floor of the empty living room with the dogs and drinking wine with Dave out of red Solo cups.  That's kind of how we ended our time in Kansas.

The dogs are settling in just fine.

We love it in Ely and have made some great friends. And we had a great time in London, our first trip! TBC. But here is a fun one.

Adoption Month

January is adoption month in our family. We took a chance and got Teddy in January 2008 and Ellie in January 2012.  If I wasn't logical, I'd probably get one every January :) Any chance I get for sharing these pictures again....well, I will.  Their little adoption anniversaries.  

Cutie #1

Cutie #2

If you've met Ellie, you might think she is crazy. Or maybe you have seen the snuggly side. Or maybe you think she looks sweet in pictures. Or maybe you don't (seriously though, look above). Well, she is a very sweet dog. 

Sometimes, a sweet little pain in the ass. But what sometimes is a pain is also what makes her fun.

Like Teddy, she is a rescue dog, so we aren't sure exactly how old she is. But she is at least 2 because we got her 2 years ago last Sunday :)

She was about 6-8 weeks when we got her.

She is so adventurous and playful. Sometimes I can't believe she is still so puppy-ish.  Well, anyway. Let me skip to the point of today's story.

We have this gate out back that has like a million places to secure it shut. Ok I exaggerate. Dog owners probably know where I am going with this already.  But in the cold, damp air (and especially in the dark, if I'm dealing with it at night), I get a little lazy. And the slide latch things are difficult to slide all the way in. The other day I was upstairs and looked down into the yard, and it was wide open. The dogs were outside. I knew Teddy was still there because he was whining at the door (per usual). I sprinted down the stairs and to the back door as fast as possible and by then, Ellie was just standing near the door looking around, staring at birds. Phew! Right?

The Gate

Today is a similar story, except I had been upstairs for a while and Ellie was outside. I went into our bedroom and looked down and didn't see her. I walked downstairs and didn't see her from the massive french doors and sliding glass doors in the living room. I walked around to the 3rd door where I let them in and out and could not see her anywhere. I looked at the gate. It was closed, but looked unlatched. The worst possible case; she is out, and couldn't get back in if she wanted. Panic.

I am in my slippers and white robe. I sprint outside, dash through the wet rocks and mud, open the gate and start yelling "Ellie, come!" as loud as I can down the alley. I felt fairly confident that if she was anywhere near, she would come.  But I feared she had wandered off to the river or something. 3rd time's a charm....my little Ellie came trotting down the alley toward me with her puppy trot and white socks. Felt like the biggest relief of my life in that moment. She didn't even have her collar on; I have gotten pretty (too?) comfortable leaving those off the dogs unless we are going somewhere. Her heart was pounding so hard. I am not sure if it was because she was scared, or if she thought I was mad, or both. I felt so bad. She looked so innocent.

Teddy never walked out of an open gate (found it open in Kansas a couple times). Ellie got out once in Washington, but I didn't panic quite as much because we were on base. She ended up right next door :) They are different dogs, though. Teddy doesn't know what to do without his humans. She figures she will give it a try. See what's down the alley.

But here she is while I'm blogging.

Now she is keeping my feet warm. See? Sweet :)

From time to time, especially when we were moving over here to England, Dave and I will complain about what a pain they are and we joke about getting rid of them, or just one. Whoever we are frustrated with in that moment. But on days like today those seem like awful jokes! In the bottom of my heart there was never any doubt they were coming with us. They do bring so much joy to our lives and are such great company when everything else seems uncertain.

So I don't know. I guess the point is...dogs are awesome. I CAN'T BELIEVE I ALMOST LOST MINE. Go hug yours :-p

Oh and I'm going to share this video a friend posted this morning for a little extra plug for rescue animals (although I will admit, it wasn't until they got to the dog part that I think I actually got a tear in my eye :) Click here if it doesn't display below.

CHANCE!