A mid-December tale

And the stocking was hung
from the bookcase with care,
In hopes that the fat man
soon would be there!

Until it was felled
with one mighty jump!
Someone can be quite active
when they get off their rump.


And what do we have here,
is it catnip I smell?
Can anything in life
be quite as swell...?


All these toys and balls too
oh what the joy!
Except that I'm retired and semi-active
so I probably don't need another toy.



Moving on to new challenges,
my conquering today is done.
Someone repacked the stocking,
to relive again at Xmas the fun.

And with that I'm on the road for work and then back to the US for some time off. Slocombe has a jam-packed holiday schedule of visits here in the UK, and some well deserved catnaps as well. Posting will be sporadic for the rest of the year (as if it can be any more sporadic than it currently is?)

Snow in the UK this past week

we really got hammered in my corner of Essex. schools were closed and many people were off from work.

Oh Terry...pay your bills already

Previously, I mentioned that my work phone issued by benevolent company J belonged to Terry, who makes it a habit to not pay his bills. It's been a while since I received any calls for Terry, but in the lead-up to the December hols, Terry must be having issues again. Interestingly, it's around the same time last year that I posted on this topic.

To recap:
-Terry was employed by company J in a different office. When Terry left the phone number went back into the benevolent company J pool of numbers and I was issued it in Feb 2009.

-There have been a few calls, of people seeking Terry at various times, in particular, the water company wanted him to pay his bill...or someone named Paula sent him an SMS to please go and check on her sister as she's not sure if the electricity has purposely been turned off or is having technical issues.

-Most bill collectors are polite enough when I inform them that it is a company issed phone, and here is the Company name and here is their phone number.

-The folks at Capital Finance One, however, are getting on my last nerve. I have now told them three times that it is a company issued number, and I skipped to answer the phone other times where I noticed their number. Perhaps they do not believe me, as their call center people are always very polite, but then obviously are not doing anything to stop the calls.

Further--someone named Lynn from benevolent company J called while I was in DE, and I missed the call but she left a message asking Terry to call her back. Neither Terry nor I did. It was a busy week in DE. Fortunately, she called back, looking for Terry.

'Hi, this is Lynn from benevolent company J, can I speak to Terry please?' (And it was our exchange, so I knew it was an internal person.)
'Hi Lynn, this is Heather from benevolent company J, and I've had this number since Terry left the company prior to Feb 2009. Is there something I can do for you?"
'Um. well. no. um. Thanks very much!'

So I missed a call again today--sure enough the fine folks at Capital (which is an online payday loan provider--borrow 80/repay 111, borrow 750/repay 1042.) At repayment rates like these, i can see why they can afford plenty of phone time and call centers on the other side of the world who are trying to find Terry (and their money).

Fortunately--as it's my work mobile and not a personal one, it is only on during my awake hours, and off all weekend. Unfortunately for the fine folks at Capital One, it's another call straight to voice mail.

Next, I need to do a little googling to see what I need to do to halt these folks as there are 32 more days to Christmas and I imagine Terry's money woes will only escalate...

The last of the Emirates flight posts

I thought I'd give you a peek of the food and beverage options in business class on the Really Big Plane I was on a few weeks back.

I've been easing fish back into my diet, so I pre-ordered a seafood meal. Here was the starter:

I specifically had to mention the special meal selection on the Big Plane, and the stewardess seemed annoyed. I did not have to mention on the Normal Emirates plane--they came through in advance to confirm it with me. It was another signal to me that
1. They haven't figured out the right staff/passenger ratio or serving procedures since the plane is so new or
2. They've cut back on staffing too much.

Here was the main, it was salmon.

I was starting to get a little crabby as me and a fellow passenger near me were the absolute last to be served. I was wondering if it was the 'female' prejudiced mentality like I got in Emirates...but the other person was a young male around my age. I had been warned that in addition to the female thing, I'd be double-whammied in that age is highly valued in Emirates society as well. In looking around the cabin, the other folks flying were at least 20 years older then us, many even more.

I did find it irritating, however, as they starting to clear the plates for those passengers before we were even served our mains. Did they not have enough plates and have to wash some quickly to be able to serve? As well, there was around a 50 minute gap between starter and main. And finally...to complete my rant....the bread was as hard as a rock.

However, here is the menu for your viewing:

I saw everyone else's meals as they went past, and everything did look good.

After the appalling meal service, I told them to hold the dessert, that I didn't have another hour to wait. I did enjoy something from the drinks menu, however:

Still on the agenda:

As much as the entertainment was nice, I decided to talk a walk to the back of the plane and found the business/first class bar, complete with a bartender with nothing to do:

I ended up spending the rest of the flight at the 'bar in the sky'. I have a habit that I like to ask people about their jobs, especially when they seemed to be enjoying them. This fellow very sweetly allowed me to take his photo and told me all about his work as the Sky bartender. He was a pilot in his home country of Brazil, but wanted to see the world and knew that he had to get experience with an international airline (European, American or Mid East) to someday be a pilot for one of them, and this job with Emirates came up. So for now he builds up his time as a Sky bartender, with visions to work his way up in the Emirates organization.

Interestingly, i was asking him why the bar was so empty of people? No idea, the Heathrow flights usually are, but the Birmingham flights are packed. He took the opportunity to ask me some English grammar questions. He was explaining that the flight crew is international (he introduced me to his backup bartender who was floating around on other duties, she is from Australia), but that most of the time he is dealing with people whose first language is not English, or it's a mix of British and Aussies, so he doesn't get a chance to speak so much with Americans, and in particular in trying to piece out which phrase or which slang goes with which English speaking country. Occasionally people would pop around for a drink refill and then scurry back to their movies, so he ended up being the highlight of my flight back to the UK.

Aboard the Emirates A380 back to London

After checking out the Emirates Business Lounge, it was time to board the plane. Here was a view of the plane prior to boarding. When you see the A380 in photos, it looks big, but standing next to it, you feel its sheer size and bulk.

It has an interesting layout in business class. (From my vast experience of approximately two biz flights a year!) ;-) The seats are arranged with a table setup next to them, so you don't really have a neighbor. Then, the one behind you and in front of you are reversed in the seat/table format, so you don't have a person directly in front of you.

Here's a closeup of the little table area. It holds a variety of water, fizzy drinks and juice. It also has a glass and the usual pair of sock, eye shades, and ear plugs. Here is a photo of the complimentary champagne upon boarding:

I have to say...I actually wasn't so fond of this setup, because the flight attendants seemed to only be half attentive to your drink needs, maybe due to this item. I compare this to my 'normal' Emirates biz flight over where I was on a non-A380, and the flight attendants were on top of everyone's drink order. If you took your last sip they were on the way over to refill you. In addition, they seemed to be keeping track of everyone's preferences which probably wasn't the easiest when they offer two white wines, two red wines and a full selection of everything else imaginable.

As well on this A380...I don't drink soda, so half of the stuff I didn't touch, but certainly could have done with a refill in the drink cabinet there of water or fizzy water. I drank both and left he empty bottles on the table and then had to ask for refills from someone who was hurrying down the aisle.

Because it was so big, my business seat was 23K. It was the front of the second business section, there were another 6 or 7 rows maybe behind me.

The TV entertainment thing was pretty good, as was the little footrest shelf. I'm not especially tall, but when buckled up I could not reach the remote thingy. Fortunately i could use the touchscreen one that was with the table setup, but it would go out of juice in 45 minutes and was a real beast to put back into its cradle and get out again. (Yes, I'm whining about business class amenities, I realize!) ;-)

23K on Emirates is a great seat however, as it's the bulkhead row of the section, so no one was in front of me. There was some kind of galley for the flight attendants but the toilets are a walk to the last row of this section.

Food and drink details still to come...

The Emirates business lounge in Dubai

A while back in the comments, J mentioned about someday flying business class. As I don't travel so often in business class myself, I thought I would take a few photos on the Dubai trip, so come along with me on a little virtual tour of the Air Emirates business lounge. This is not to be confused with the Emirates First Class lounge, this was just the Business lounge. ;-)

This one reminded me of the adverts where they show relaxing passengers. The view in front was the main concourse shops one level down, and further outside were some parked aircraft.


There were plenty of food and beverage stations, all serving the same menu in a self-serve buffet fashion. I originally started off with a plate of Indian food, but it was not edible, way too salty. There were plenty of other options like fresh fruit, ice cream, and cereal.


There were plenty of ways to whittle away your waiting time...worship rooms, an internet rom with painfully slow access, free newspapers and magazines, shower areas, televisions set to news channels, a discounted spa and video game areas:


And plenty of video game areas there were:

Interestingly, though, none of the executive types were playing them. ;-)

I was erring on the side of caution in taking photos as the guidebooks warn about photographing the Muslim women without first obtaining permission. As I was still on Emirates soil, I played it safe and photographed no one at a close distance, except for the sleeping Indian fellow in the first photo.

Overall, it was a mega-lounge experience and too big. The new A380s are zipping in and out of Dubai and hauling plenty of business passengers, so being in this lounge wasn't too special. I didn't spend so much time in the general airport, but it seemed to be a pleasant airport experience, with lots of space, as opposed to somewhere more cramped like Heathrow where the lounge can be a little more of an oasis of peace to preserve one's sanity.

I missed to take any photos on the outgoing lounge at Heathrow. That one was much smaller and I found the staff there to be more pleasant than at this one. At Heathrow they would operate the coffee machine for you and be generally friendly, whereas in Dubai you would be standing at a counter and have to wave someone down to get you something behind it, as they were too busy gabbing with their colleagues. I thought perhaps the Dubai thing was gender driven, but then I realized they ignored everyone equally, males plus females.

Next up, on boad the Emirates A380...

Catch 22

Do you remember those logic tests--maybe if you took the GMAT or the LSAT?

There are five students in the class. Sally's math score was higher than Bob's but lower than Billy's. Billy's match score was not the highest, and on and on. So that at the end you had to put them all in order.

Here's another sample:

• Heather's work permit expires in Feb 2012, so Heather now has to start making sure that she is receiving all paper copies of bank statements, pay statements, etc.
• Heather's passport expires in Apr 2013, so Heather will need to get a new passport prior to that event as the Home Office will not be able to place the full two year sticker into an expiring passport.
• The Home Office suggests to submit a work permit renewal at least one month in advance, so January 15.
• The Home Office will accept work permit renewals up to three months prior to expiration (so Nov 15, 2011). I.e. you may submit paperwork proof from any 12 month span in the 15 months prior to expiration.
• Heather plans to go back to the US for a December 2011 visit, roughly Dec 15-Dec 30, depending on the prices
• The Philadelphia passport office says that overseas residents must get their passport renewed in their overseas country of residence.
• The Home Office makes no guarantees on work permit processing times, but their current stats say that they are working on late Sept applications, so a 1 month lag before they open the envelope, and then a week of processing times if no issues.
• The London Embassy says to allow at least 15 working days for mailed in passport applications.
• There is no option to do in-person passport applications in London.
• Heather would prefer not to have to travel into the UK on a shiny new US passport without a shiny new UK work permit it in. She spent time a few years ago in Immigration custody in 2003, the vegetarian sandwiches were not so great.

In case you are wondering why Heather would have planned so poorly to have a work permit due in Feb? That's actually the handiwork of the Home Office. My original UK work permit application was on April 1, 2008 and was not approved until late Oct, and then I had to throw on a three month notice period to disconnect my life in DE.

So the 20,000 dollar question:

When should Heather attempt to renew her passport and work permit?

The trip back to the UK from the US

Well we're waiting here in Allentown,
for the Pennsylvania we never found
-Billy Joel

A little while back, I mentioned that I booked a 1 way back to the US, from Germany. Now all that remained was to get myself back, anytime between Dec 25th (we celebrate on Dec 24th) and Jan 3rd.

Iceland Express to Gatwick (ack!) on Dec 27th was looking like the best cost option, for 200 GBP plus 45 GBP of public transit cost, although if I could get my act together for the 25th, I'd be able to do the US holiday as well as the UK holiday (Dec 26th). However, in the end, after much gnashing of the teeth, I figured out that I could get back on a saver ticket on Dec 28th--from Allentown for a mere 52,500 miles. Trying to get back on Dec 25 included a 7 hour layover, which just got silly for a 7 hour flight. Even trying to go unrestricted coach for 55k miles was sending me via Chicago for 55k miles and 5 hours in the Windy city.

As that virtually clears out my United account, I'll be back to travels in the back of the plane for 2011 (grumble, grumble), unless I can build up my miles again on some business travel.

Allentown is a nice airport to travel from, if you ever get a chance. It's tiny, so there are never mega queues like in Philly or Newark. Parking is cheap and from where my rides are usually coming from, it's not a big deal with the traffic.

On the negative side, there are few direct options beyond Detoit to the Northwest, Florida to the South, and Canada to the North. Their international options the last time I flew through were two Canadian flights. ;-)

However...in travelling on United miles, I could only get out via Wash Dulles or Chicago, so no matter where I went through (Philly, Newark, or Allentown), it was going to shuttle me to Heathrow via Dulles. On a positive point, however...as I was relatively flexible on the time (once I realized that Dec 25 wasn't possible), I was able to get a business saver ticket back to London. So rather than being sardined in the back for the Transcon, I'll be in the front with free wine while I wing my way back in the pressurized tube, with my two free bags instead of one.

Pickling peppers from the roof terrace

For many years, I've wanted to try my hand at jarring or canning goods. While I've been able to freeze balkon grown tomatos by turning it into sauce for the past few years, with Euro freezers, there is only so much space. Plus, I didn't have much luck on the tomatos this year, the roof is just too hot. The peppers, however, seemed to enjoy it.

It took on a sense of urgency this week, as temps dropped below freezing in Essex. I brought in all of the peppers that I've grown:

It's a bit of an experiment, but I thought some whole ones and some slices would do:

An hour later, we have 11 full jars of Balkon peppers and garlic that received a mix of pickling vinegar, water, and preserving salt:

They look really nice, but the true test will be in 4-6 weeks when I crack open the first one. For now, they've been relegated to the bedroom as that is the coolest room in the house, to rest in a dark box and get ready...

The rooftop potato

Up here on the rooftop, potatoes are my bumper crop. If you invite me to a party, I'll bring something involving potatoes.

Or maybe you don't want to invite me, when this is what I bring:

It is one physical potato not two separate pieces, it appears that two may have melded together early on in the growth cycle, and then kept growing.

This weekend, I had a splendid idea of mini baked potatoes as a side dish. They always look very nice, especially as the weather cools down. For some reason, however, no one took this one.

(giggle)

Food insects in the Netherlands

On one of the drives from the UK to Germany, I had a passenger with who was able to take this picture, we were somewhere en route from the port of Hook of Holland towards DE:

In case you're also wondering about 'food insects', I had to go to their website, they sell a wide variety of crickets and items for terrariums...i.e. food for frogs, lizards, snakes, etc. On the overnight ferry, when you arrive prior to 7 AM the mind gets a little goofy. I think we spent at least 10 minutes brainstorming about what kind of 'food insects' people would be eating, and in what dishes! :-)

The accidental avocados

Here is Essex, fall has finally come to the rooftop garden. It's always a sad day to clear away the old plants and bring in the few remaining tomatoes and peppers. In some cases it's attempting to batten down the hatches for the plants that stay outside during the winter. A few prima donnas, however, do get to come inside, namely the lemon and lime plants. However, they take their chances here as well, as Slocombe kitty can be wild despite her advanced age of 12, and when a fly or spider is noticed upon a plant, the kid gloves come off!

I do have winter potatoes still going on outside, however, and I recently bought a little greenhouse thingy, so I'll try to have a few things happening during these dreary months.

As I was checking out the garden, I was trying to get the final work done to set it for the winter as I have another Crashpadder guest potentially coming next week. I was trying to look at things with 'fresh eyes' and to make everything look tiptop. One area which always looks a little 'wild' is the makeshift compost bins:

Living on the fourth floor where there is no elevator, the garbage needs to get carried down the stairs and around to the back of the building, to a locked cage that contains a dumpster. In an effort to limit my trips down there, anything that is compostable goes into my bins here. Then, they are covered with a broken terra cotta pot, or periodically I'll toss some dirt on top to aid in the degrading. As it's mainly vegetable scraps from my cooking, coffee grinds and tea bags, as it breaks down and mixes with the soil it makes a nice addition to my growing dirt. As well, it keeps me from having to bring more dirt up four flights of stairs!

As I was looking at the random items that inevitably sprout in this rich mixture of table scraps, it's easy to pick out where some green potatoes from last season have self-sprouted. As well, I see the runt tomato plants that didn't make the first round for this season. In addition, there were two thin plants that seemed to grow a head above the others.

As the balcony is a little bit isolated, I knew that whatever it was had to be something from what I was putting in there. I was curious enough (and the compost has decomposed enough as I haven't put anything in it for a few weeks...too wet and cold), so I dug them out and studied the root end. Then went to confirm with google, and sure enough: avocados:

I've brought them in for now as the wisdom of the internet is suggesting that they cannot stay outside through the freezing temps.

Most interesting, if you want to grow your own avocado, there are detailed instructions here involving water, toothpicks and getting inside the pit to get the best results.

Or my quick instructions: throw pit 'as is' into container with all other food scraps and ignore. ;-)

On closer inspection of some of the other repeated plants, I believe I have some walnut trees growing as well. I had collected some fresh walnuts last year outside, but it seems that they were wild and non-edible so I threw them in the bin as well and here they come too. So those got their own pots outside, until we see what those do as well.

I am tentatively thinking ebay for the avocado plants as internet wisdom says that they grow mighty fast to a tall height. For these small ones, the roots reached the bottom of these pots already that I replanted them into, so I can believe that one.

The frugal December trip home

Around this time last year I detailed my previous trips home from Europe to the US for the December hols.

Last year I was looking forward to flying back to the US from the UK for the first time, because it seems that there are more options for me. I ended up getting a really sweet deal on TapPortugal, although not the most direct route.

I've been playing around with the options this year, Open Skies appears to be making things easier, in particular as Newark is always an option.

Another possibility for this year is to combine two one ways. United and Iceland Express offer one way flights that are half of the roundtrip costs.

I'd recommend taking a peek at Iceland Express if you are still looking for a cheap route home. Granted they are nothing fancy--think Southwest style. However, I've taken them to Iceland a few times and they are 'cheap and cheerful' as my UK colleagues would say. So far, they were potentially my least expensive option, although all flights do include that Reykjavik connection and US landing cities are somewhat limited...

Until a further speedbump this year is that work suggested that I come back to DE again, in the third week of December when I had my heart set on December 15th to go home. Prices were not looking so hot if I stay that week in DE, by the time I could get back to the UK, prices were awful.

And then I took a step back and thought a little more.

I managed to pick up a cheap miles trip on United, one of their saver awards. For 27,500 miles and 61 USD (taxes), I will be enjoyed the almost last row as I wing it back to the US this year one way...from Frankfurt. While work will not subsidize the inflated cost of leaving later, they will allow to ship me anywhere from the office that would be an equivalent cost to sending me back to the UK. My work meetings are in Cologne, so I'll be purchasing a sale ICE ticket next week.

So after thinking my last transcontinental from DE was well behind me...I'm back.

On a positive note, I'll be able to bring back chocolate santas and hopefully get in a few Christmas markets, just like old times. Who says you can't go home?

Now, to figure out the return to the UK...

Obviously in need of spirital guidance?

It was a beautiful Sunday here in Essex, crazy warm and sunny. New friend Ian and I were out and about. We had separate shopping to do, with an appointed meeting time and place, on a small bridge in town. Plenty of people pass over this bridge, so I didn't mind that I was a few minutes early, it's a fun people watching spot with full sun.

As I was sitting there on my heels with my back against the bridge wall, I was re-arranging my backpack a bit. It was comfortable enough, so I remained there on my heels with my backpack in front of my, just waiting.

A woman of Indian descent walking by says, 'quite a beautiful day'
Heather: yes indeed.
Woman: so unexpected for fall.
Heather: yes
Woman: I'm not sure if you are from around here...or visiting?
Heather: yes, I live here.
Woman: then you would know, usually rain is quite common for this time of year.
Heather: mmmmm.
Woman: it is so wonderful that this weather is on a Sunday, when many people are off from work and can enjoy it.
Heather: yes. (secretly looking at watch, it's bang on when Ian and I were supposed to meet).
Woman: Of course, if you are of Christian faith, it makes your Sunday even more enjoyable. Are you a practicing Christian?
Heather: umm. I was raised Catholic.
Woman: Catholic. (now launches into a spiel about the coming of the end of the world.)
Heather: (thinking: this is sort of lost on me)
Woman: Have you read much of the Gospels? Have you heard the Good News?
Heather: um, no.
Woman: (begins second spiel, on the intricacies of Matthew and John)
Heather: (noticing that Ian is now 3 minutes late)

Ian thankfully shows up and the woman thanks me for the conversation and wishes me a lovely rest of my day. Interestingly, she didn't try to offer me any reading materials.

Do you remember when the Jehovah's Witness tried to convert me in Germany? That wasn't the only time actually. I think I ran into enough of them to cause them to start carrying English materials in my corner of DE, even in the tiny town of B where a woman tried to hoist the Watchtower in Turkish on me when I declined it in German. When I had to revert to German to explain that I wasn't Turkish and couldn't read German, she seemed so terribly disappointed.

I have no idea why I appear to be a magnet for those who feel called to bring the Good News. Apparently though, whatever it is transcends cultural boundaries. In particular, I think I go out a lot less than the average person, especially as I work from home. Therefore, my contact with people is probably lower than average, which makes the number of these interactions even more interesting, as I think I get more than an average number of such meetings.

Guest #3 - Biddy the horsewoman

As I came back from New friend Ian's house after guest #2, I had a request the next day from Airbnb, another of the homestay websites. I had only put the most basic details on this one, such as photos, and this was my first guest with it.

The request was from Biddy who was coming to a horse class being held at one of the farms near to my corner of Essex. It was the weekend before Dubai, but the flat was still in super clean condition so I decided to take the reservation.

Biddy wasn't here so much, really only the overnight as the horse classes were all day Saturday and Sunday. However, I came home to some lovely flowers--such a great view from my entrance upon my return:

In addition, she managed to break one of my (ultra cheap) Turkish tea glasses from Germany that I keep as wine glasses. She very graciously left a 5 pound note to pay for a replacement, which was well beyond anything I would have expected, considering they sell in six packs for below 5 EUR. However, I left her with thanks, nice feedback, and a promise of a discount the next time around if she gets a chance to come back for further horse classes.

Overall I was pleased with Airbnb, payment through the site was quick and their take appears to be lower than Crashpadder's, so I plan to fill in more details on their site to hopefully have more guests to visit.

Back from Dubai

I could probably wax on endlessly about thoughts on political or cultural Dubai, and that was only after a short one week visit. However, my purpose in going was work and then a few days on the beach. A few general thoughts:

Jumeirah beach was lovely:

However, October only begins the cooler season. Here in late Sept it was 30 C/90 F as soon as the sun rose before 7 AM and only continued upward until the sunset at 6.30 PM.

So I limited my beach time to early AM and after 3 PM. There was a pleasant breeze and the sand was soft. While you see cars in the photo and maybe 50 or so were on the beach, it didn't really seem crowded with people. In addition, there was a paved car lot next to the beach. There is a drop on the beach, so cars could only come so close, and in addition, the sand was deeper as one got closer to the water, so cars had to stay a short distance away.

The food was very international. Every chain imaginable can be found in Dubai. I saw McDonalds, Subway, TGIFridays, Pizza Express (UK), Ruby Tuesdays, and some other repeated restaurants like 'Wok Away'.

After a work week of being on the business travel and having our hosts take us to wonderful restaurants, I had to detox and eat out of the supermarket once the weekend came and I was on my own. I had asked at the hotel for the closest supermarket and was pleasantly surprised by their fresh food offerings. Everything here was packaged that morning and expired the next day and included no preservatives or chemical ingredients:

This ended up being lunch and dinner on Saturday as I had a minibar fridge in the room. From the back left: a salad with tuna, moutabal, humous, and then in the middle row were artichokes and a fava bean salad, and in front, fresh bread.

Everything together ran me about 8 GBP. Not bad for two healthy meals while on holiday.

On the frugal side, I was lucky on this trip. The flights were covered by work due to the business travel. In addition, Emirates Air was running a special deal on UK Business class tickets from the UK and issued in the UK during the 'summer season' which still includes September--two nights of a hotel on their special list was free. Utterly and completely free. So after I checked out of the work meetings, I checked into my free hotel for two nights of beach and relaxing.

From the special Emirates hotel list, I chose the Sofitel Jumeirah Beach, a five star hotel that is located outside of the city center, on the beach. Or more appropriately, across the parking lot to a public beach. In addition, the pool was down for maintenance, although there was still a deck lounge area near the pool. I had reviewed in advance online, a lot of people gave the hotel a hard time for not having a private beach, and for being across the parking lot from the beach. Considering I paid nothing to stay two nights, I have no right to complain, but I found the hotel to be lovely, parking lot and all. In addition, the hotel had free wireless throughout, which is always a big plus in my book. The biggest negative? I had only a 'side-beach view', which I knew before arriving from the literature. So I could see the beach and water while sitting on the balcony or directly in front of the doors to it, but not from the rest of the room. So I sat on the shaded balcony during those hot mid-day hours with my cool drinks from inside and my books.

I did find it interesting to be near the locals on the beach, or Middle Eastern tourists perhaps. No one gave me any hassles and someone noticed my collecting of seashells at the water and came back from snorkeling and dropped off a few for me, without a word. There were a fair number of tourists on the beach as well, they were easy to pick out by their sunburns.

While I saw their big, airconditioned mega malls, I didn't really see anything that I needed to buy. I did bring back the seashells and some sand in my shoes, however. ;-) I also tucked away the posh little extra shampoos and the like, for my occasional visitors.

While I probably wouldn't have gone on my own for holidays (primarily due to the distance of 7 hours to London), I'm glad I did get to go. As well, my liver probably appreciated the alcohol free adventure. While certain restaurants are able to sell alcohol and even the hotel had 'happy hour' where there were able to sell alcohol from 6-8 PM each night, I wasn't taking any chances in that society based on some of the stories I was hearing during the week about the government intervention into local life. In addition, I noticed that alcohol was expensive, higher than Iceland prices even which was previously the highest I've seen it, and that would have blown the frugal budget at 6 GBP for a beer. :-)

One more while I'm away - Slocombe in the window

The photo is a little tough to see, but that's Slocombe the cat on this side of the window while she is on vacation. On the other side is some other cat who is pretending to be interested in something to its left.

After another few seconds the other cat turned tail and ran. SC was mighty confused, as she was more curious than anything else about another furry being. She spent the rest of the day periodically sneaking on the counter to get to this window to peek out, wondering if the other cat came back.

Such a fierce and mighty cat she is!

(As far as inside, 12 year old lap cats go) ;-)

More from the rooftop garden - peppers

A little more pre-posting in advance while I'm away. Another winner this year on the roof was the old standby, the hot peppers:

This year I branched out a little in trying other varieties. Somehow, though, none of my scotch bonnet seeds took off, but the regular jalapenos took up the slack.

Tomatos from the garden

While I'm on the road, a little pre-posting.
Here is what I picked from the rooftop garden the night before I left:

On the road

Or rather, on the way to be in the air to Dubai. I'm rather looking forward to this trip as I just got my new law books on Friday, so I'll have a good few hours to get cracking while on the flight after I get through my work emails. Thankfully, I'm in business class since it's for work so I won't be squashed with my books.

5 AM calls rather early, but it had to be that way as Essex is on the 'wrong' side of London to get to Heathrow during the morning rush hour. So I'll be there in good time to enjoy a coffee.

Update on the crashpadder guests #1 Luisa & Peter

I've been a little busy for studying for an exam two weeks back and I'm realizing that I missed to finish the story about how it turned out with the lent out flat, and now I'm on my third guest already, so I'd better get moving.


You may recall, I had an idea to make a little spare cash, by lending out the flat. With a bit of trepidation I handed over the keys to Peter (of Luisa and Peter), as Luisa had taken a potty break on the train and then missed to get off the train as it was so crowded. However, Peter seemed harmless enough and managed to get off at the right stop with assurances that he would find Luisa again, so keys out of hand, off I went on a Friday while my corner of Essex started to heat up with incoming festival crowds.

Upon my return my flat was in absolutely pristine condition. It looked the same as when I go away to the weekend to new friend Ian's and return on Sunday, except that
1. The sheets, pillowcases and duvet cover were waiting next to the washing machine and the used towels were hanging up to dry
2. Someone left food in the fridge for me: 1 egg, some oj, candy, chocolate, doritos, salsa
3. Luisa and Peter had left a lovely card for me on the desk:






In case you're wondering about the 'funny, lovely & helpful notes' (Luisa teaches English as a second language so well written there!)--I had left little helpful post-its as their train was late. So I penned some messages, for example:

I have a collection of hotel shampoos and soaps. To make it feel more like a holiday I had set them all out in a basket, but I didn't want them to think that they couldn't use the normal ones standing in the shower, so the post-it next to them said:

• 'Use us! Pick me! No me!' (said all of the little soap and shampoo bottles). Or use the normal size ones in the shower, whichever you prefer.

Or in the kitchen, I had left a note in relation to the garbage, because the garbage area has a special key and has had all sorts of drama with people leaving it unlocked and the department of health being called out to go through any rubbish not in the dumpster, as well the key is perhaps made of sterling silver, because copies of lost ones cost 50 GBP. So the note said:

• The rubbish bin is only reachable by a series of secret handshakes and passwords and only when the moon and its comets align. Therefore, leave any garbage here or tied up on the terrace and I'll take care of it upon my return, assuming that the comets are in a good mood about getting in line!

Yeah, I amuse myself.

The big surprise to me, however, was the giftcard that was with the card. I had just assumed it was one of those little 'thank you' cards that people sometimes get over here for various promotions--like donating a marks & spencers item to oxfam gets you a 5 GBP voucher, etc. Imagine my surprise when I went to use it and found that they had put 20 GBP on it. So I will definitely be blocking the flat for their reservation next year if they come again to the festival.

In the week after the festival I've already had an inquiry for next year, someone wanting to book early, good grief.

So overall, experience #1 was a winner. :-)

packing

First for Dubai, then for a week in Germany. Fortunately it's back to the UK in between, so I'm not hauling around an extensive wardrobe.

Weather predictions for Dubai while there: above 100 F/35 C and sunny
Weather while I'll be away from the UK? around 61 F/16 C and partly cloudy, with Germany weather similar.

The blustery winds bring greetings

While it's still August in the UK, it's been crazy windy and cool. It feels like October and summer is officially over. It's been so windy that I've been keeping Slocombe the cat inside; even though she's easily over 10 pounds in her pudgy state, I could see her being picked up and wisked away in this crazy wind.

As you may recall, my mother sends greetings from heaven to my balcony on special days. With this wind I imagine she finds it easy to lauch things up. As it was her birthday today, she made sure to send somehing up, to acknowledge that I was thinking of her:
This was a catalog, and a heavy one a that, at least 100 pages, and it wasn't here yesterday. She positioned this one next to my lettuce, on the page as you see it. Apparently she sends her love through bic pens to me. Considering the paper floating around in my corner of Essex (chat line adverts, get out of debt fast, etc), this is quite impressive.

Step 1 in the massive declutter & clean-up: remove, release

As mentioned over here in The Big Declutter, things were all a flutter here this month. It seems a little amazing, I pared down everything before I left DE, and here we are all over again...with too much after only 18 months.

When I need to clean, I see extra stuff as a barrier that needs to be dusted, moved, hidden, cleaned, etc, and end the end is useless, extra work. It sorta stacks up until I have an impetus to move it, although, I think it would behoove me to do this once per year if I can't improve at it. So what moved this time?

1. ebay - I sold off the excess of items that were absolutely useless to me. What went?

• My law books from last year's course. May as well sell them while they're still fresh, and I need a whole different set for this year's course.
• Camper brand shoes that I bought secondhand. I love the idea of Camper shoes, the style, the look, they're of great quality, but somehow they just don't wear right on me.
• Clothes that I no longer need or want. In the UK we have stand-along wardrobes like in Germany, so no fixed closets. I don't like when they operate like overstuffed sausages, so there was a culling of the masses. I did an intial run through and then left the box there for two weeks as I ran into random items, in they went. The end result was a box lot.
• books - I send my already read pile to D's mom, but I know some of them won't be in her style. Most of them come from Oxfam or the like, so I'd drop them back off, if closer. For the more recent, lighter ones (less postage), I listed them for sale.
• a mirror and hardware - purchased early on, this was a DIY nightmare that required a phD in home improvement to get the hidden mirror clasps onto the wall. Sold in 'pick up only' mode to a local couple.

So how much did I get for things that were just getting in my way?
--> 37 GBP (45 EUR/57 USD) was my final profit after ebay fees etc.

2. the recycleables - the UK is not as good as Germany as far as recycling goes, at least in my corner of Essex. Paper recycling is a 20 minute walk away, plastics need to be carted along to Ian's house who has plastics recycling, and glass and cans are at least five minutes away. So I end up with full bags of these things as none of them are on my way to town, all are special trips. So mountains of items went out the door.

3. Excess packaging - I find myself squirrelling away bubble wrap and the like because it was so expensive in DE and isn't much better here. Fortunately the pile was thinned so much by the outgoing ebay packages.

4. The unsold ebay items - off to the charity shop. There's some kind of animal charity down the street that is staffed by volunteers. This one is two minutes from my house and seems to have customers who are down on their luck and can afford the 1 pound t shirts and 20 cent tea cups. It's a very nice place so any auction that didn't win found a resting place there.

Getting the things out the door put me in the right mood to get started.
Need some inspiration? There's a lot of great blogs right now who are chronicling their decluttering activities:

From close to home in the expat community G is hard at work.

Downsizing is a great read in the archive, even though his year of work is now complete.

However, his cousin has picked up the downsizing challenge in Downsizing Too.

And of course Katie in Making This Home is doing lots of clutter challenge activities as well.

How to declutter and create a beautiful space in 30 days

In case you were wondering where I've been, I've been a little, ahem, busy with the above.

Some backgound--there is perhaps an opportunity opening up that I could be in a slightly different location, for a temporary period. With that in mind, I would need to think about renting out the flat, or getting a house sitter maybe. So on that basis, I decided to give renting a test drive, to see how it would make me feel about my space and what direction to go for a longer term plan. Here comes the decluttering bit...

My space is currently very--'lived in'. Since I work from home most of the time I have a tendency to have work and career related ideas everywhere. It's been one merry-go-round after another of tests and certificates and presentations. First it was the driver's licence in Feb after a few months practice and studying, then I had another two in April that didn't happen due to the ash cloud. One of them happened three weeks ago (a pass), the other make-up is in two weeks...so 'housekeeping skills' has been low on the agenda, and this new location option gave it a boost up. So then what? I fell upon the idea that my motivation for getting the place up to snuff would come from renting it out to complete strangers.

I know some declutter sites have various ideas to motivate you like:

• Imagine that you're going to move overseas, what is really important to you? (been there, done that)
• Imagine that you suddenly die and your relatives are left to sift through your belongings. (so what would it matter than, if I'm already dead, besides, my relatives already know that I can border on slobdom.)

My motiviation-->rent the place out to total strangers for a short period, and make that period soon enough in the future that I would need to crack down and clean it up quickly, rather than a long, drawn out process.

No really.

Some background--I've had plenty of couchsurfers over, hospitality club people, etc. Granted, they're staying a night for free so expectations are lower. However, it gave me the impression that I'm comfortable to have people in my space. Shocking behavior for an only child, I realize. I believe living in Germany socialized me somewhat to more of a community lifestyle.

So there are a few sites out there, that are basically extensions of the couchsurfing idea, but that you pay to stay at someone's place, rather than staying at a hotel. I had picked up on this idea from a New York Times article on the topic.

So I chose a future date where there was an event happening in my corner of Essex and I put up an ad about 6 weeks before it. At 4 weeks before it, a young couple were in contact, and they booked up and paid via the site. So I had 30 days to get the place into tip top shape. Sidenote: I have ads on a few of the sites the Times' article mentions. In this specific instance, I used Crashpadder. If you would like further nitty gritty details of the transaction or to friend me there or view my flat description, if you have my email send me a note, or send a note to this one: phillygirl06 @ the opposite of coldmail.com.

So I broke apart the 30 days and went after the largest items first. Specifically, that was the impetus behind my recent painting mission. :-)

So many tasks I had been sitting on now had a reason to get done, and a self-imposed deadline.

So that will probably be the focus of the next few blog posts, the flurry and activity of getting things done and how they turned out in the end. No before photos were taken to protect the innocent. ;-)

From the rooftop garden: the industrious spider

Each morning when I work from home, I will often take a small coffee break around 10 ish to peek outside at what is happening in the rooftop garden. In Essex we've been having a lot of rain recently, so I take advantage of the moment to step outside as those opportunities are starting to become limited.

Specifically, I was looking at the tomato plant, to figure out if I should use the tomatoes today or tomorrow:

When I heard a buzzing out and realized that a bee or wasp was captured in a spider's web. The spider tend to build webs near my plants as they tend to attract insects.

As the insects tend to cause damage to the plants, I leave the spiders there to do their work. This was on Friday, so I imagine the spider was saying 'Woo-hoo! What a great way to start off the weekend with a big treat!'

As the wasp was stuck in the web, the spider wrapped around him, so that he was then one package. Afterwards, he brought the bounty up the web:

And a little further up:

I'm wondering if there is a family of spiders living inside my metal railing. After another 20 seconds, the wasp was fully gone from the scene.

Open mouth, insert foot

Since I work from home most of the time, I accept packages for the neighbors on my floor. Having to take the 15 minute walk to the post office package distribution office is just a hassle if you miss your delivery. We're only three total flats and with very limited shared walls, so things are quiet up here, and both sets of neighbors are very nice. One is from Italy, a beautiful doctor who speaks fluent English, the other a young couple who work in London so are almost never around.

Usually I just slip a note under the door, 'Hi, I have a package for you, stop by before 10 or tomorrow after 8 AM.'

The Italian was lamenting a few weeks back that she doesn't have a boyfriend. As she is educated, gorgeous and has only been in the UK for six months, I was telling her that it's only a matter of time. She is, however, interviewing for the position, but most only last one or two dates before being dismissed. There is one who seems to be on a trial period, so I see him repeated in the parade of men...

So the flower guy drops off a huge vase of lovely flowers and a box of chocolates for her on Tuesday. She didn't drop by that night though, but sometime she works some unsocial hours at the hospital so she's coming in at 6 AM or some ridiculous time before I'm awake. Although strangely, I didn't catch her later in the day either. Finally at 9 PM, I hear the fine Italian leather boots clomping up the stairs and into her flat.

She pops over an hour later, I hear the telltale incessant knocking...apparently in Italy you knock low, but repeatedly until the person answers. Couple that with the shouting from the hall "Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet -er' It seems the Italians are like the Germans, my name loses the 'TH' in the middle. Slocombe always heads under the bed when A comes around. With most visitors Slocombe will stand in the bedroom doorway to evaluate them, with the noise of A, she isn't taking that chance!

A is always very sweet, however.
'Ah, het-er! Do you have a package for me?'
-Ah yes A, someone must really like you! (I point to the vase of flowers on the floor)

She just blinks and looks at me.

I pause for a minute, thinking: maybe I should not have put them on the floor? It's the safest place as the table is covered with books due to painting....and they were delivered in a cardboard box, so it's the box that's on the floor, not the vase...and I always leave the cardboard boxes by the door on the floor, it's not usually an issue.

Or maybe she's just appalled that I have masking tape and paint cans and paintbrushes in a 'in progress' state here. Although it is an 'in progress' job this week....so to further along this interaction, I slide the flowers out from my flat from inside the door to just outside the door at her feet.

She now has a deer in the headlights look. I'm racking my brain to try and figure out where the problem is...is is the language? Was I too forward in what I said? Did she mistake it for something else, but what?

I realize as I hear a footstep from her flat, that the boy toy must have been in the bathroom freshening up as they're on their way out, and she was probably popping round for the package in a spare two minutes, not realizing that it was going to be flowers, and I'm further now connecting the dots--that the flowers and chocolates were from a different boy that is now poking his head out the doorway into the hall.

Oops. Fortunately he was a good sport about it.

and the painting continues

The cumbersome part, to clear the bookshelves and then move the away from the walls to get behind them is now in process. Here Slocombe surveys the room from on top of a moved bookshelf, because a cat must do such things, of course. Fortunately I had just dusted the top off or someone may have done that for me instead. ;-)

So this is low tack (read: expensive) medium blue masking tap lining the edges and they've now been down in the blue/grey colour. So the next step will be to colour inside of the lines and then to peel off the tape.

The end is in sight, for the walls, at least. The ceiling is still to come...

The painting progress continues

This wall was previously the 'delivered' new build off-white color. As the 'new build' was 2.5 years when I bought it, at over 3.5 years the walls were beginning to show their age.

The blueish grey color serves to bring more of the outside in as it matches and contrasts with the various temperaments of the sky outside.

And now, off to a hot bubble bath and an early bedtime.

In progress - painting the living room

This is what I've been up to, day two:

I'm doing the living room in a light blue/grey color. So the outlining is done on this wall, now just to fill in tomorrow night.

The frugal side of this:

The paint come from the discontinued markdown shelf at homebase. Apparently environmentally friendly paints were not a big seller. When I googled them online people seemed pleased enough with them. At half the orginal sale price, I was extremely pleased with them.

But what if you later decide that you need more of the same paint, you won't be able to get it?

To test this theory, I went to look at the bathroom and kitchen paints I purchased and used last year. Sure enough--they revamped the color offerings and my colors are not being sold there. Deeper and darker colors appear to be the new trend.

So I bought enough to make sure that I would get the room done with some left over. :-) As I'm only picking this up after work each evening until it gets dark out, it will be a project of a few days.

More photos tomorrow, with tomorrow's progress.

The painted bathroom

Do you remember, last year I mentioned about painting the kitchen with my Germany couch surfer? I had done the bathroom also around that time, but still the ceiling remained. And then, the mirror finally went up and the new one was smaller than the fitting holes left on the wall, so those were finally filled in and painted. So then I may as well do a general touch up of the walls again, so I did. ;-)

And now it is finally finished:

Heated towel rack on the right. I have a 'modern' UK bathroom (=tile rather than carpeted bathroom floor!)

In the mirror you can see the reflection of the world map shower curtain. The male visitors usually comment positively upon the sink upon seeing it, no idea why:

The sink is tiny like the rest of the bathroom...and the rest of the flat. Although I do have a bath/shower, as opposed to the 'shower only' that many new flats in this area offer. The bathroom is on a sharp triangle angle; it doesn't actually feel small because of that.

Here's a close of of 'surf's up duck', behind him is the painted wall. The little tiles were pre-existing.

The newly painted ceiling is 'milky white', so not much to see there. :-)
One thing done, a few hundred more to go...

Back to school

Over the weekend I sent in my acceptance to start a part-time masters in law in the fall. Remember the law class from last fall? It ended up going really well so I'd like to continue with it in the fall. Ironically, my local college had their funding cut so they won't offer the second year of this national course, so I had to look elsewhere. As well, while the course was interesting and practical, I have no plans to work in a law office or change careers at all, so something more academic would be a better fit now that I'm past all the intro coursework.

When I looked elsewhere, I began to get a little stuck; my local college made no differentiation on foreign vs. local tuition. Somehow, they accepted my 5+ years in the EU as authorizing me for local tuition. Not so on all of the bigger universities I was looking at, all of them were expecting to charge me as a foreign student as I have no permanent residency in the UK. But what about my documented time in DE? Not worth EU rates without an EU passport apparently. It became the difference between paying 3500 GBP and 9500 GBP which is too much when it's not work endorsed, i.e. paid, merely my personal interest. If I could have held on a few years, I could have qualified for residency and then started, but that would have pushed completion out to 10 years. Time is not on my side here... ;-)

Scholarship money? It became a catch 22 as sall of the cholarships from the US I had seen had residency requirements or that one is applying from the US, so I no longer qualified for those, even though I am still a proud US tax paying citizen.

In my quest to not pay 10k GBP, I started to look at distance learning programs, where location does not matter. In addition, I work from home most of the time, so I may as well do this from home as well. I found a few programs which really aligned with what I do professionally, so that it will supplement my current activities.

Therefore I put the envelope into the post this weekend to start a part-time two year's distance learning masters in law from a very nice university in southern england. The ironic thing is that this program is dead on with my interest area, so a perfect match. Had the local options not been so expensive, I probably would have missed it. :-)

Update from the rooftop garden - caterpillars

The great thing about this being only my second summer in the UK is that I can continue to learn what works well on the rooftop and what does not. Brussels sprouts, well, perhaps not so much the winner:


Not sure if they had those 'spot the hiding object' pictures in other places like they did in the US when I was growing up, but this one is a fine one with the nice blend of greens.

And if anyone in Essex wants to feed approximately 15 or so live caterpillars to some sort of pet like a bird, lizard, or whatever else would eat them, please let me know. I imagine they'll taste like brussel sprout leaves since they've basically demolished the two plants.



Of course, I imagine that this veritable siege of locusts, er caterpillars, is due to the fact that their natural predators, the rooftop birds stay well away, due to the every vigilant presence of Slocombe the mightly attack cat.

Good thing I still have one plant out on the back terrace. Now...how to dispose of the caterpillars, beyond throwing them in the rubbish bin. Hmm...

The delicate ecosystem that is my roof terrace

How in the heck did that make its way up four flights of stairs?
Apparently it survived the recent heat wave better than much of my garden while I was away in the US.
Obviously he is enjoying the compost pile. :-)

187 weeks

That is the amount of time until I can apply for permanent residency in the UK. Immediately after I can start the process of applying for citizenship and then a UK passport so I no longer have to stand in the mega long customs line when flying into the UK--as long as the government does not change the current rules. That would be in 3 years, 7 months, and 3 days, but who is counting?

Sunday morning at Heathrow, returning from the US:
amount of time my UK travel partner spent in the queue: 0 minutes. They had a few booths open and no UK or EU people coming through.

amount of time Heather spent in the queue: 52 minutes. They had 9 booths open for hundreds of people, many of whom had exotic passports and were subject to many minutes of questioning and having to retrive paperwork from backpacks and who were sometimes sent to the 'visitor holding pen' a little fenced in area with seats to await further immigration questioning.

My irritation is that with my work permit I usually get questioned for less than a minute. I've started to come to the desk saying 'same job, same address, left on x date from the UK' in order to save them the effort.

On that point, 1 year, 7 months, 3 days or 83 weeks until my current work permit needs to go in for renewal. The current coalition government is already seeking to change the rules to limit non-EU migration into the UK, so if you're thinking of applying for a UK work permit, time to get cracking. Migration limits are expected to by introduced from April 2011. As is currently stands, migration limits are only expected to impact new applications, meaning that currently approved migrants are excluded. They are, however, increasing the points required for renewal it appears. Fortunately I'm still in the game.

If you're bored, the consultation paperwork is here.