Current Updates

Lord willing, we will move in tomorrow. I called and they set up our telephone service right over the phone. I was almost shocked with the number of steps setting up other things have taken, in particular credit checks to start services. They check your credit not by a SSN but just by name and address. Since we've got no credit history, we've been told that we can't get cell phone contracts yet. When the UK debit card that comes with the bank account arrives, they said that should provide enough verification of credit-worthiness. In the US it may not, but since the banks don't just accept somebody off the street here, having a debit card shows that you've jumped through the requisite hoops for them to talk with you. For the cell phones we'll still have to put down an extra deposit. We should have basic phone service tomorrow and our US cell phones work over here (at $1.50 a minute or so), so we should be covered adequately.

Last night E and I went out and threw a football around. We needed to do something American! Afterwards, we watched Scooby Doo on the tv downstairs. Many of the channels are from the US or the UK channels at least have lots of US shows. Later the boys went to take a bath, but we couldn't get any hot water to come out, which didn't seem to surprise us since the building we're staying in has parts that are at least 400 years old. So we improvised and used the electric tea kettles that are in every room to boil water and pour into the tub. It took about 6 kettles, but fortunately they heat quickly. Oh, and for those who don't know what an "electric shower" is (H mentioned it a day or two ago). Since only baths were plumbed in older buildings, the work around to add a shower without getting into the wall is to have a pipe only from the cold water up through an electric unit to the shower head. This unit heats water on demand and has a variable temperature control. The water pressure is typically not that great, but it's much better than just a bath for us showerphiles.