So, (as the Canadians say!), we’ve been here a month. The longest that either me or Leigh have gone, out of the UK. It certainly doesn’t feel like a month, eh.
And what have we managed to get done?
We’ve met and made some new friends, faster than we thought would happen. (A real bonus if you have kids I guess, which is another reason for people with them, to get a move on and travel. The little blighters come in handy sometimes!). We’ve been to barbeques, dinners, coffee in the morning and more, with new people, only to pleased to welcome us.
The kids have settled in to school life. The teachers are friendly, pleased to see the kids, and the parents, the headmistress seems like she loves to be there, although we did get roped into the Parent/Teachers Association meetings! But they were fun so there wasn’t a real problem and that led onto Leigh and me manning the drinks stand whilst 300 kids and their parents streamed past with their pizzas.
We seem to have a handle on the food shopping, doing most of it at the famers markets, something which we enjoy doing more and more, meeting the actual people who are growing the great tasting, and in our case, organic fruit and veg. Why we didn’t do this at home amazes me and more people should do so. Forget going to the supermarkets, please, and get out to the markets, the grocery shop, the butchers and so on. It’s time to get back to this way of life. It is very hard to beat. (Check out my other blog, organicworld.blogspot.com for more info on organic food and ecological news and views.)
What are we missing? At the moment, nothing. Of course friends and family back in the UK, but other than that, actually nothing. Not even the TV. We pop to the local rental place for a couple of movies here and there, the libraries out here are totally free, so we rent books, CD’s and videos, and thanks to high speed internet, we get BBC Radio via the laptop. (Could do with my speakers though. The latest albums I have downloaded from iTunes are sadly represented through the tiny little ones on the laptop!). So we can actually listen to Wogan in the morning same as the UK! But there is such a wide variety of stuff on the BBC Radio site that you hardly need to venture anywhere else. But we do, and there are just as many great independent radio stations as well. Get in touch if you want to know where they are.
I keep asking the kids when should I book the flights home? And the response so far is the same.
“Nah, let’s stay for a bit longer!”
So we hope to see some of you out here soon. We’ve got plenty of things to show you already.
No Going Back 