Mike and Meredith go Dutch!!! Part 1

Hey everyone.

So, we just got back from Amsterdam at about 1:30 today. What a trip. I'll show you the pictures and give you a sense of what we did.


So here we are on the train to Birmingham airport on Friday night. We flew out on Saturday at 7am, so we slept in the departure lounge for a few hours. (By the way, the reason I look so weird is that we had been having a discussion about how people who stand around with their mouths open are funny). Anyway, here's Birmingham Airport:

What an inviting entrance from the station.











No, we didn't take a side trip to a nuclear installation. This was the operating buttons and timer for the small monorail that takes you to the terminal. I was stoked by this.










The first one is a shot from the shuttle, and the second is the carpark. Pretty lights.






So we went into this lounge area that was closed, squeezed into a booth and crashed for a few hours. There were a few people in there, and the staff just left us alone, which was nice.

Our flight was quick and uneventful and at about 9:30 am we arrived in Amsterdam. Huge airport and, as is the case with most things there, incredibly clean and stylish.








The people are great and the coffee rules. Everything else is details.







We had to go to the tourist information place after we arrived at Central Station because it occurred to us that we had no idea how to get to our hostel. So, after waiting around, the lady there told us which tram to catch to get to the Stayokay Zeeberg.






We made our way there, got checked in and met up with Claire, who had arrived the day before. It was great to see her as she is always lots of fun and full of hilarious experiences and stories.







Also, she cuts hair....well, mine anyway. So, we spent most of the day checking out the city. Our hostel was east of the downtown core in a neighbourhood with a large Muslim community. There were a couple of huge open air markets where Meredith bought a purse and.....something else, but I'll let her tell you. It's hilarious.

Back at the hostel, we met our roommate. His name was Kwon. He was around 18-20 and from Australia. He was travelling through Europe by himself and Amsterdam was his first stop. He was actually quite remarkable because in the space of about 9 hours he managed to annoy the three of us, all for completely different reasons.

Reason 1 - Here is our room: As you can see, we had 4 bunkbeds and we claimed our three.








Then, Kwon arrived and totally took over Meredith's bed AFTER SHE HAD MADE IT UP. There's a sign that this guy still lives with his parents.






Reason 2 - we spent the evening out at a couple of bars hanging out. Claire had to go back to the room to get something and once she opened the door, he bugged her for 15 minutes to tag along. So, Claire comes back to the bar with Kwon. Meredith was totally choked, but realized that Claire had no choice. The guy was persistent. I was thinking, "Okay, well he's here. Let's make the most of it". I tried to engage him in conversation but he just kind of sat there and didn't really have anything to say. When he did talk it was just some dumb running joke about how hilarious it would be if someone peed in my beer (!). I was in kinda rough shape by this point in the evening, so I wasn't quite annoyed (yet). Meredith and I went back to the room to crash at about 11:30 because we were exhausted. Claire and (her boyfriend) Kwon showed up later.

Reason 3 - I awoke with a start at about 4:30 am and realized with horror that Kwon was snoring. Now, everyone snores a little but he was REALLY snoring....loud, phlegmy snoring. I had to clamp 2 pillows over my ears just to prevent myself from losing it. Thankfully, it was the last we had seen of him on our trip.

I'll write later to fill you in on the rest of the trip, but for the time being here are a couple of cool random photos. This is Alphonso. When I was teaching, my students bought me this stuffed animal on the last day (I told them I was a cat nut). We called him Alphonso after the supervisor, who was the bane of these kids' existence. Anyway, Alphonso sits on our mantle and judges us daily. Check out his eyes.

And this brings a smile to my face......

LOOK MOM! I MADE YORKSHIRE PUDDINGS!!!







So like I said, the story of our Amsterdam trip will be continued. I hope all of you are well, and we are missing you very much. Have a good one.

Beep, Beep!

That's the sound of the horn on the car, beeping at people as I drive by.

After 526 GBP to Doug
and 170 GBP to Alan
and 45 GBP to Adam
and 150 GBP to Will...

the car now goes!

Tires and back brakes can wait for a couple months.

Yay us.

Things are good

Hello all.

Well, I'm happy to report that this has been a largely uneventful week. The car is still in the shop (owing to now needing a gearbox refurbishment) but that's been alright because the weather up to Saturday was actually quite lovely. I didn't, as promised, put up any pictures which makes me a neglectful blogger, but we're moving on, right? Here is a picture that Mike took of Alberta when we were leaving it. I like looking at it because it reminds me of home. I've been missing Edmonton's August something fierce as it already feels like Fall here. The temperature at night has been hovering around the single digits.



Erika and Lester's visit, which Mike alluded to, did result in some pics but I didn't at the time get a chance to upload them as my phone was being strange. Now is as good a time as any to share them though. Here they are standing in front of the Hereford Library looking very cute. Awww. They're going to be flying off to Japan on Tuesday to continue developing their reputation as International People of Mystery.


Work was good this week. There were some stresses and annoyances, but another Case Manager (Colleen) joined the team, and that's excellent. Mike and I were supposed to be going out for lunch with her and her partner but the plans were contingent on whether or not the weather was good enough for them to go walking in and around the Black Mountains. Since it's not pouring today like it was yesterday it looks like we need to postpone for a couple weeks. So, we will visit the Spread Eagle for Sunday Lunch (the pub Mike's pictured in) another time. Mike's back to work aat Wyevale on Monday, which makes me sad in my heart. I really enjoyed the convenience of having one of us at home--no heading to the grocery store at 5:20 and waiting in 'queues' for 30 minutes just to buy pasta and sauce. All good things must come to an end, I suppose.

For those of you who don't know, The Book came out and I've taken a picture of it to post. I have had a couple copies on hand at work and am getting some of my colleagues to look it over and see what they think. So far the reaction has been good, which makes me feel happy.




On Tuesday I made my first ever trek to Birmingham, the seat of the Industrial Revolution. It's got a reputation for being a dirty and working class urban environment which, from what I saw, is largely deserved. I had to go to a suburb called Acocks Green and the trip was somewhat disastrous, but I came back feeling that if I can survive that I can survive most things. We're flying out of Birmingham next Saturday to go and see Claire, so it was good to get a glimpse of the metro rail map and get a sense of how to get to and from the airport.

We've heard some vague rumors about a group of Americans relocating to Hereford, which is interesting. The woman at the checkout in Morrisons felt that Mike had a right to know, or something. There have been long and convoluted arguments in the papers this week about North Americans Being Evil. I actually find myself kind of annoyed by the ferocity of some of these litanies about How England Is Good. In a Sports article today in The Guardian a writer used his musings on David Beckham as an excuse for,

The difference between here and there is the charmingly naive willingness Americans have for believing in miracles. They have a considerable hunger for grade A baloney. They buy bogus religion on TV, eat gross amounts of awful food, give credence to a president who makes Dan Quayle look like Stephen Hawking--and they buy tickets to football matches to see just one man.

I wouldn't necessarily consider myself a great defender of our south of the border neighbors but I have grown more aware of how frustrating this kind of gross generalization must be for them. Yet I find myself guilty at times of making same or similar statements about The English.

When we were in Heathrow en route back to Canada I had an encounter with an American soldier who was heading home from a tour in Iraq and Germany. He desperately wanted something to drink but only had Euro and Iraqi Dinars and the currency exchange booth was in another Terminal, which at Heathrow is like a 25-minute walk in either direction. So we traded Sterling for Euro and we stood in line together for a few minutes while we waited for the Baristas to do their magic. Nothing amazing happened--we chatted about going home and how exciting that is as a foreigner, and then we parted ways with our respective drinks in hand. He was a normal guy excited about seeing his girlfriend and family. He certainly wasn't deserving of the vitriol spewed by Kevin Mitchell today.

I guess this is me talking about missing my Nationality. I don't know. I do know that I don't like reading garbage like what Kevin Mitchell wrote and I guess I need to hold myself accountable to that. My identity is in crisis or something...I'll get over it.

I hope everyone back home is well and that you're all considering how you're going to protect the Arctic from the Russians and the Danish. Hahahaha.

((hugs)) and y'all will be getting postcards Holland in the coming weeks. Isn't that weird?

3 vehicles, 2 people, only 1 that works...

So, what a couple weeks. Somehow Billy, the Operational Manger at work, found out that I had a manageable caseload that allowed me time to think about other things, do side projects, etc. so as you can imagine that didn't last for long. Work was alright this week--the usual frustrations associated with working as a gatekeeping agent and still trying to maintain a Social Worker identity, but whatever. My own problem, right, 'cause I must've known what I was getting into...? Ha ha.

We are, as per usual, fully committed to having vehicles that don't work or break down or whatever. The Pink Polo first went to a guy named Will to deal with the clutch, brake pads and discs, oil and air filter change, distributor cap, spark plugs, etc. We paid 500 gbp for the car, so I knew it would need work. It's the equivalent of a 500CAD car. Will is one of the handy guys that helps Alan out around haying time (ie now) and Alan arranged this while we were in Edmonton. Well, one things leads to another and while Will managed to do the oil and filters and plugs alright, he also managed to tear off the seal between the gear box and the clutch, put the pads and discs on backwards, and do something to the starter as well. So, Adam the kid down the road is the mechanic for VW (wish I'd known that at the time...) and he comes and fixes the brakes and identifies the problem with the starter and the seal. But, he doesn't have the equipment necessary to fix either.

Then in comes Doug. Adam's dad gave my Doug's number, and Doug took the car to his shop on Monday July 30th. And it hasn't been seen since. I call Doug daily and say, "Hey, Doug. Meredith here. Just checking on the progress of my Pink Polo..." and Doug invariably says something along the lines of, "My mechanic's on vacation, it'll be ready in a couple days...My mechanic's sick, it'll be ready in a couple days...We're waiting for a part, it'll be ready in a couple days...., etc." Now, while it might seem the most logical course to just take the freaking thing to another mechanic, but that would be number 4 in the tale of ridiculousness and utter naiveté on my part, so at this point I'm just taking my lumps and waiting. Doug had to take off work early on Friday, but swears it'll be ready for Monday afternoon, so we'll see.

Also, Mike broke down on the A49 on his way into town just now. He is awaiting retrieval and taxi assistance as we speak. His scooter is going to head into the shop and he'll get a loaner. When that happened to me, I had a crap blue scooter loaner for 4 weeks. Hopefully his is better than mine.

Go ahead and laugh--it's alright. It's actually kind of funny. We ditched vehicles for a reason a couple years ago, so this is just a reminder that when we don't need them we shouldn't have them, or something.

Anyway, on to bigger and better things. The last few weeks have actually been alright, aside from the family stuff that's been happening. Erika and Lester were here for a week prior to their return to Edmonton--they're there now. That was wicked awesome fun, and also sad, as we won't see them now for at the very least 11 months, assuming we all return to Edmonton for June '08. Mind you, Facebook makes the world seem really tiny, doesn't it?

So, a couple weeks ago a coworker of mine named Sandra invited us over to her house for dinner and we went by and hung out in their back yard and chatted and had a really good time. Very funny people. Then, last night another coworker of mine named Ruth had us over for dinner at her place in Shelwick, which is just off the back road we use to get into town. We actually rode our bikes, which was fun, but kinda treacherous on the return as it was cloudy so it was like pitch black on the road coming home. Apparently you can get a ticket here for driving without a light on your bike, but they'd have to be able to find us on the dark country road first, right....? Ha!

Otherwise, it's no longer flooding here, and has actually been quite sunshiney. I got a totally wicked sunburn last week at work as we decided to do supervision outside on the bench in the yard behind the building, and it turned out we were back there for like 2 and a half hours. But, that doesn't matter, because now it's a awesome tan, right?

Oh, also, we locked ourselves out of our impenetrable fortress of a house on Wednesday morning. Tuesday night at like 11:30 or so, our upstairs neighbor sounded like he was having either a world-class meltdown/freakout or was getting into a fight with someone else. So, as we normally just leave our key in our front door to prevent ourselves from getting locked out, I got nervous and went and took the key out of the front door and put it on the shelf inside. Needless to say, when we went to have coffee outside in the morning, when the door slammed we both realized that the key was inside and we both just froze and said, 'shit.' There was talk of scaling the side and breaking windows and such, but in the end Saint Alan pulled through and found the spare key. We've gotta get that guy the best Christmas present in the world.

So, next weekend we're off to Ledbury to have beer and chill with another of my coworkers, Geoff. And then from the 25th to the 27th we're heading to Amsterdam to hook up with Claire and ride a canal boat. Well, I'm going on a canal boat. And then, I really can't believe it, Daniel arrives on the 14th of September. My god, that went fast. So, as of today we've been here for 111 days (less 8 back to Edmonton). *wow* Doesn't feel like it's been that long--mostly 'cause when we don't have car troubles we have work or house troubles, and between those 3 things time tends to move very quickly.

All negative stuff aside, it was an altogether good week. I enjoyed my coworkers and my job, and we had some fun. What more can we ask for right? Mid-week I will post some pics of various things we've been up to. Oh, right, we have started a Monday-night Yoga class that one of my coworkers facilitates. Right--me doing Yoga. But, it's a way to pass the time and meet people, so that's cool. Next weekend we're going to an intercultural music event in Leominster at a Moravian Church. Should be interesting--don't worry, it's not a cult.

Hope everyone at home is alright, and that your chilly weather will take a hike and return August to its full glory. Thinking of you!

(((hugs)))

Diary of a Househusband...

Greetings all. It's Friday afternoon, and I'm waiting for Meredith to get home. It's been a busy week, kind of. I'm not teaching now, for a couple of reasons. First, the problems with flooding and transportation have made it hard (and expensive) to get there and second, the lack of organization with that organization was really driving me up the wall. I just got tired of going in and no one knows which class I'm supposed to be teaching, or which room I'm supposed to be using. The level of chaos was causing me incredible stress, so I made a decision to not put myself through it. Since Meredith is working, I can look for something else without having to 'endure' a job. I've contacted a few temping agencies and I also applied for a part-time job at the Leominster Library (maybe I will get a library job after all). In the meantime, I've been a good little househusband; cooking, cleaning, and doing the laundry. I'm actually kind of enjoying it. It's been keeping me busy until I get a call about a job.

Erika and Lester were with us for a few days this week. This was the last leg of their European adventure. They are back in Edmonton now, and are off to Japan for 8 months. Exciting!! It was lots of fun to hang out with them. Hopefully they enjoy the experience.

We got some sad news this week: My uncle George passed away on Tuesday morning. He was 79. Meredith and I had begun to spend time with George and Shirley in the last couple of years, so as sad as this is, we do have some really nice memories of time spent with him. This has been a very difficult month for my family, and for the two of us as well. Between everything happening at home, Meredith's job, and my stuff, it's been REALLY hard to tell ourselves that being here is a good thing. But, we're sticking it out for now.

Well, Meredith just got home from work. I need to get going on dinner or she might trade me in for a newer model ^_^. We're having a tofurkey with potatoes and veggie gravy. Cooking is fun.

Missing all of you more than you can ever know. We're hanging in there, so you do that too.

M & M