We're here! And a bit of shopping.

Maggie and I have arrived! The little one fell asleep on the plane shortly after they cleared up the dinner remnants (she ate about half the chocolate cake...and nothing else). Fortunately she slept all the way through until we started landing. I, of course, was wide awake the whole way despite my best efforts. Customs was a breeze, the porters took pity on me almost as soon as we hit baggage claim, and we were through the airport in record time (time from plane to seeing Daddy: roughly 30 minutes). After a quick pub lunch and some not so quick paperwork in London we hit the road north to our new home.

The view of our parking area from the back door.

 The front of the house (most of it) from the street.

The view from one of the lounges (there are 2!!) through the rather dirty window.

Interior pictures will come later...once the boxes are gone and we actually have furniture in all the rooms. We kinda upsized from our last house.

The first night here we went down to the pub to have dinner. I think RJ wanted to prove to the owners that Maggie and I actually exist. Apparently after a month of his saying that we'd be there any day they stopped believing him. Go figure. So we had a lovely dinner (mmm....lambchops with homemade mint sauce. It was right out of one of my medieval cook books), Maggie made friends with the pub's dog and half the town (some sort of billiards tournament was happening), and at some point managed to faceplant and bloody her nose. 2 years old and she already knows how to walk out of a pub looking like she's been in a fight. What a good kid! Food was great, beer was (unsurprisingly) tasty, the ambiance was perfect, and Maggie and I were quickly fading. So home we went to sleep.

Yesterday we rested. And set up the phone, internet, computers, and TV. Looks like lounge 1 will be the multimedia room (read: TV and computer) and lounge 2 will be the library (read: all the books will be crammed in there). Now to get furniture to make that actually happen. We currently have a rocking chair (that really belongs in Maggie's room) and a computer chair to sit on. Seating is a little sparse...

Today we shopped! Sounds much grander than it was. We went into the nearest town of note (about 20 minutes away) to go grocery shopping. What a wonderful experience, hampered by a toddler that really needed a nap and so couldn't decide if she wanted to be carried, sit in the cart, or run everywhere. Fun times! I'm sure there will be lots of further posts about the treasures to be found in the grocery stores here. For now, the only thing of real note, besides an extensive and inexpensive variety of alcoholic bevvies, is the Dandelion and Burdoch pop.

It tastes like a less sweet blend of cream soda and root beer with a lovely black liquorice after taste. It's weird...but oddly tasty. It'll be even better once it's cold, I think. I couldn't wait to try it when we got home.

Anyway, that's all for now. I promise this won't be all about groceries and babies bloodying their noses. Let me get over the jet lag and get the boxes unpacked and things will pick up. Promise!