UK Bound - 2008 September

Afternoon everyone

Seems like it's been a while since I updated our website. It's not my fault, as we've been quite busy (and our internet's been down, and the power's been out, and the UK got flooded, and there's been sunspots).

We've been in Bournemouth just over a year now. Seems more like home every day, but we're still learning our way around town. Last year, we had season's tickets to "Falmer Palmers", which is a theme farm. Basically a farmer had an idea that opening up his farm and have slides and pedal tractors would be a good way to bring in income. It really seems to have paid off for him, as he's dedicated about 5 acres to the play centre, and now he has his own Austin Martin. Nice for some. We were thinking about renewing our membership, but instead got a year to Paultins, which is a theme park about 30 miles from here. They have the normal rides, but also have a rollercoaster which Seth has been on a couple times, and really enjoys it. No more kiddie rides for him!

In the summer, we took a little trip to Stockholm. It was a really good trip and we had fabolus weather -- it was the hotest summer that they've had in over 20 years. For our entire week, we only had one day where it rained, and even that was just as we were going home. We took several tours, including the double decker bus tour, harbour boat tour, and a trip out to their forest. There were a lot of interesting buildings and ships, but since were not from around there, we didn't get as much of the history tours as the locals would. I'd definately recommend going there, but as like Vegas, bring lots of money.

On the job fronts, Kim has been made team leader for half of her floor, and is learning how to deal with all of the office politics. Some days, it's good, other days, not as good. For me, I have been in my team for about a year now. I'm now team leader for our day to day activities, plus doing my own job, plus doing the guys job that quit, plus doing a bunch of other duties as well. Another note - you've probably heard that some banks are in trouble including Northern Rock, Merril Lynch, Leham Brothers, Halifax, Bear Stearns, Morgan Stanley, Fanny May, Freddie Mac -- well, so far (this was written in September) our bank seems to be doing OK. Let's read this in a month and see if I'm working at ASDA. We're still doing a lot of oursoucing to India. Fingers crossed.

One of Kim's Christmas pressies was driving lessons. A couple months ago, we got a Honda, and after a little practice, Kim is driving to work every day. We both took a week off to take care of Seth and Alex (Seth's friend) and Kim was driving them all over the county. We're both pleased that she can now drive on both sides of the road.

A couple weeks ago, we had an airshow at the beach. Totally fantastic venu spread over 4 days. Seth, Alex (Seth's friend) and I went on a Friday, and Kim, Seth and I went again on the Sunday. Probably the best two exhibits were the wingwalkers on biplanes and the Eurofighter -- my ears are still ringing from that one.

Seth has started Year 1 at yet another school. His last school was closed by the govt/city council due to a couple bad reports and decreased enrollment. It's a shame, because it was close to my work, and he had a good after school care. The other problem is that due to the bad reports, everbody has been going to other schools, and the school closest to us now doesn't have any places for Seth. He has seemed to settle into his new school, but we knew he would -- he's that type of easy going boy.

Today after lunch, we went to the beach. It's still warm enough weather to build of sandcastles (although you-know-who would rather jump on them after they've been painstakenly built). The only problem is you-know-who said he wasn't going into the water and would stay clean, but he didn't and as a result, our car has about 20lbs of sand in it. Oh well, I'm sure the sand will come out of the leather eventually.

Anyway, that's enough about us. Let us know what you've been up to.

All the best.

Brian, Kim and wee (err, small) Seth.