UK Letter Home April/May/June 2004

Welcome to the April/May/June Edition of UKBound.

Seth is doing great. He is a real cheeky munkey and has gone from crawling commando (that's what they call it - belly crawling - no, not the other commando) to crawling on his feet and knees. He also climbing up the stairs. We had to move the cat food from the kitchen floor to the stairs, but he's now getting into that as well. Seth has also gone from pulling the cats over, by grabbing onto their fur and yanking, to an almost uncoordinated pet. Jack is such a great cat with Seth. Jack just stands there as Seth attacks him. Not the brightest cat, but definitely one of the gentlest. Solo is a wee bit smarter and keeps within 5 feet of Seth. Seth has cornered Solo a couple of times, but Solo always gets away.

Kim is still working weekends. Her office is getting a little busier, so that's keeping the place jumping. There has been a little administrative shuffle, but nothing major. The people that she works with are nice, so that's a definate bonus. She works close to the airport, so when Seth and I pick her up, we always get to watch the planes taking off. Not a big deal for you and me, but Seth really likes it.

In January it was announced that our department and teams were being "business aligned". Well, we've moved desks and I have a little more defined role, however, our teams still split and rejoined the new structure. It is a total pain, as I have to do my old job and my new job, while trying unsuccessfully to cross train into my future job. The people I directly work with are no longer sitting next to me, so it makes it harder to talk about queries. Oh ya, and during all this, I have been through another two managers. I think I'm up to 16 managers in 4 years now. June 12th was my 4th year work anniversary. No biggie. It doesn't seem like 4 years at work, but personally (ie: outside of work) we have accomplished quite a bit.

After a lot of sweating and red tape, we finally received our permanent residency in April. This means that we can live and work in the UK as long as we like as long as we don't leave for more than two years at a time. In another year we can apply for citizenship, so we'll be applying for that as well. Once we have UK citizenship, we will be able to work pretty much anywhere in Europe, so it gives us a lot more options. Don't worry tho, for the next wee bit we'll be staying put. It wasn't cheap to apply for it, but at least now we can't get kicked out of the country. I was amazed that my work didn't ask if we had our extension, as working without a visa is a really big no-no, especially for a big bank.

In May, we took a little trip to Romney Sands. It's about 30 miles from Dover along the south coast. There are beautiful beaches in Romney Sands. The first couple of days, it was really foggy. The beach is like at White Rock - the water is really shallow, and the water goes out for a ways. The first time we went to the beach, we wondered along but couldn't actually see the water. Over the course of the week, the fog receded, and we were left with a beautiful beach. We had a day trip to Canterbury, and visited the cathedral. Quite a nice town, with a lot of posh private schools.

In June, I gave Kim and Seth a birthday trip to Costa Dorado. I actually gave the tickets to her a day before her birthday. Her birthday was on the Sunday, and we left early Monday morning. Since she works on the weekend, that would have only given her Sunday night to get ready. Kim would have killed me, so I surprised her early. When we left Glasgow, it was wet (what a surprise), rainy (what a surprise) and when we touched down, it was cloudy, but warm. We spent the week on the beach, a day trip to Barcelona, and the rest of the time in the town of Salou. We'd love to go again as the town was really nice and the people were really friendly. The place is totally family oriented, so taking Seth was fine. I don't think he's ever had his cheeks pinched or head rubbed by total strangers in such a short period of time.

We have been doing some home improvements and garden reno's. Our front yard was very unplanned mini-forest thanks to the previous owners. I've managed to dig it all out, and we now have a wee garden there now. You'd never know the pain and toil we went through, but it looks much better. Even the neighbours have commented on the improvement.

The website now has our Christmas trip to Lands End. It is really hard to write descriptions about a hundred monkeys, but I hope I made it work. Same place, same address.

The car is still running fine. In July I have to get it MOT'd, taxed and insured. Ca-ching and wah. We've put about 9,000 miles on it in a year. Not that much in CDN terms, but you have to remember that those miles are only holiday miles and weekend miles. It's an older car, and they are really strict about what goes on the road, safety wise. I'm hoping that we'll be able to keep the car for another couple of years, but I'm not going to hold my breath. Chicken wire, bailing wire and duct tape just doesn't do it in the UK.

I guess that's about it for this issue.

Brian, Kim, wee Seth and the moggies.