April 22, 2006

Hello, all! We're still enjoying the vacation-like atmoshere here in Cheltenham. The kids toured their new school the other day and the headmaster flew the American flag in their honor. I was surprised at the emotion that instantly came over me. Just the sight of the flag flying here grabbed my throat and filled my eyes with tears. A beautiful sight no matter where you are in the world... Yesterday we spent the day driving through some of the world's most beautiful countryside. Its like Vermont on steroids. With sheep. I'm getting better at maneuvering the seemingly massive Volvo station wagon through the narrow streets. There wasn't one curb vs. tire incident, I am happy to announce. We visited a rare breed farm park. It was so much fun. We went with another family (the Shortts-Debbie, the mom grew up in IL) and some of their friends. Aidan was quite smitten with the animals particularly the rabbits, lambs (some born just hours before) and some kind of cow that looks like a woolly mammoth, but who enjoys having its neck scratched. This park reminded me of the parks we all went to as kids in the US. before anyone cared about children's safety! It wasn't for the faint of heart (Mr. Safety...my cousin, Mark, in particular) There were animals and lots of play equipment made of cement and railroad ties and moving parts with sharp edges and lots of compacted dirt to fall on. No employees around to monitor anything. I found it very nostalgic. All the parks around here are from a pre-lawsuit world. Remember the scorching, chrome slides? This morning the uniform shop DELIVERED all the uniforms we purchased the other day. I got a phone call from the owner of the shop who told me two things. First, she felt that the price we paid to have the labels sewn in everything seemed too high. I couldn't believe it! Its a standard price that is, in truth, criminal, but with every article needing labels x three meant we paid it, if not grudgingly. So she said next term she'd have them all sown in for free. Amazing! Then she said that there was far too many items for us to deal with, so she'd deliver them! Sure enough, a man delivered them to our door this morning. I'm still in disbelief at the customer service! Yesterday, a banker CAME TO THE HOUSE to fill out the forms and collect signatures from us to activate me as a joint holder on our account. Its all so old fashioned! I'm off to take our social butterfly, Siobhan, to another classmates house. She lives about 8 miles from town in a location that isn't found by the GPS and there is no reception for cell phones. The directions I have all involve turning at landmarks like churches and farm houses. Hmm. Wonder how this will work out!? Our converters and adapters blow up every time we try to plug anything in. Our US phone that we intended to us in our voice over Internet line, also blew in the process. This is delaying our ability to get our 847.223.2671 line up and running. I'll let everyone know when we get it going and then, let the excessive, free phone calling begin! love to all, T