Everyone's excited for Christmas. The kids wrote a letter to Santa (who we're not calling Father Christmas - it's Santa and that's, that. Although Liam has just decided he would like to use both names). When we went to the post office to send it to Canada, the man next to us thought it was ludicrous to think Santa lived in Canada. I tried to set him straight, but he wasn't havin' it. His loss.
The kids also watch their videos that Santa sent each of them each night and Gemma yells at the screen throughout most of it when she sees photos of her or Liam.
The kids and I met up with Mark in Manchester one day when he didn't get called into work. I was quite proud of myself getting on and off the train with the pram on our own - with help from kind strangers:) It was the coldest day of the year at that point at about -5C, so still not too bad. We strolled through the lovely Christmas Markets - a definite must! We tried mulled wine and bought a few gifts. It really put us into the Christmas spirit!
A garden centre in a nearby town, Hazel Grove, has a steam engine that you can go for rides on and at Christmas they have a Santa's Grotto (Santa's Village). So we took a bus to Hazel Grove to do the do. It was surprisingly busy for the first weekend of the Grotto (still November) and even more surprising was that people reserved tables at the cafe for lunch - AT A GARDEN CENTRE! We got there just in time before things got nutty and had a bite to eat before the train ride and grotto. The train was great and it actually runs on coal - Liam LOVED this! Visiting Santa here was a different experience - each family went one at a time through the cave-like grotto to see Santa in his private little room - I know, it sounds creepy, but it wasn't. It's actually less intimidating for the kids because mum and dad go in too. Then there was no photo, but you could take one yourself. Liam and Gemma liked it and got pretty good presents for visiting - cars, which went over very well, and a big teddy bear.
New Mills had it's Annual Tree Lighting night, 'Lights On' on the last Monday in November - again the community really came out to celebrate together - again with a bouncy castle - they love these here! The main street in town was closed for the rides and festivities. The tree at town hall was lit and a local choir sung carols. Free mulled wine and mince pies for everyone... with a small donation:) The festivities went on into the evening with rides for the bigger kids. A real good turnout for a Monday night.
The kids have been doing lots of Christmas crafts at home and at the Children's Centre to decorate and personalize the house and tree. The tree - we were wondering where we would be able to buy a tree - we've seen some sold at pub fronts during off hours and also at garden centres. The small garden store in New Mills had lovely trees so we walked over and picked one up. Well, Mark picked it up and got lots of 'that bloke's crazy harcore' looks on the way home. He said if he couldn't chop it down himself this year, he was going to carry it all the way home! Then I reminded him that for the past two years, we got Ikea trees:) Trees are smaller here and are more pricey due to the lack of supply. Ours is an English grown fir and is holding up quite well considering our tree holder doesn't hold water! I tried to MacGiver something, but it's not cuttin' it. The woman who sold us the tree advised us to water it a bit when we got home if we could and mentioned that most people don't water. It's not as dry here as in Canada so we're hoping for the best - it only needs to last another 2 weeks! Please tree gods, be kind.
We've been baking, decorating and eating lots of cookies and treats. Liam helps out a lot in the kitchen and does most of the mixing. Gemma is still at the 'will eat all and any ingredients' stage so she just watches for now and pretends to mix with her empty bowl and spoon .
The recession is still loud and clear here bringing deals for Christmas and grocery shopping. The shops and supermarkets are really busy too making it quite challenging to go shopping with two little ones.
There are lots of outdoor decorations and lights up around town and something we noticed was that lots of people have trees and Hanukkah candles up. I asked my Mummy neighbours and they do it just because they like the candles, not because they celebrate Festivus/Christmakah. I had the same Mummy neighbours and their kids over for tea, gingerbread cake (thank you milk calendar), and cookies to see each other before the Christmas craziness begins. It was great to see them, but we couldn't hear much with 6 kids 6 and under running amuck. Yowzers!
We are so looking forward to having Mark's brother, Paul and his family over for Christmas. They arrive at exactly our half-way mark on our stay in the UK. It's going to be great to see everyone together again, just before they move to Malaysia for 2yrs for Paul to work there - talk about one-(or two)-upping us on the adventure - LOL. After Christmas we will all head over to Prague for another little holiday together - we're totally tagging along on their trip since we couldn't decide what to do. We're glad to see them for longer as they won't be in Guelph when we get back.
There are a few things we miss from home this Christmas, besides family, friends and our dog:
1. The Tim Horton's Christmas cup (although Starbucks has filled the void - and so have the Gingerbread lattes)
2. The Festive Special - Greggs bakery shop (the closest thing to Timmers here) has a Festive Pasty, not bad, but it doesn't come with chocolate Lindt balls.
3. Maple. I'm not sure why we've decided we miss this now - maybe it's the frozen maple lollies rolled on snow you can get. But we're thinking about getting maple krispy kremes from Selfridges - we know it won't be the same as a Canadian Maple, but it'll do.
Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and all the best for 2011 Everyone!
The Nicholson Family
Photos: Facebook
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
UK Winter Wonderland
Hi Family and Friends!
I must apologize to the 4 or 5 people that actually read this for the tardiness of the update - all of my online time was totally consumed by locating a certain toy for a certain boy. Thank goodness Toys R Us restocked this toy or we would have had a very disappointed 3yr old on Christmas morning.
Well it was pretty surprising to get snow here in England in the last week! We were excited to be in our 'element'. The first day we really only got a dusting, but the day after we got a full-on 6" or so. Liam and Mummy made a little snowman the first day and a big 'snowball' the second. Then he and Daddy made a train - it was 'Percy'. Gemma looks so funny in Liam's old snow suit. It's so big on her and, like all little ones in snow suits, she can't move at all once in, and ends up just rolling around on the ground. Poor thing:)
It was hilarious - and sometimes a bit scary - to watch the British get around in the snow - especially getting up the hill that 'T' intersects our street at our house. A few times I thought our stone fence was going to get knocked over. One man got a garden shovel out from his car boot (trunk) to create two tracks in the snow on the road all the way up the hill for him to drive through. It's not just that the cars and tires aren't made for this - it's the drivers too - they just aren't used to this. Mark saw a Subaru have trouble getting up a driveway on a hill and they are, as we know because we have one, all-wheel drive.
Most people don't have proper snow/ice/frost brushes here and everyone seems to have their own way to clear their car. I've seen the following:
1. Spray the frost with water
2. Pour water on the frost
3. Clear snow with dust pan brushes (kept in the car)
4. Cover the entire car or just the wind screen (wind shield) with proper cover, blanket, bed sheet or tarp.
5. Scrape the frost off with an Ontario Health Card - this was Mark :) Don't worry - the health card is useless here anyway and is our 'away from Ontario for more than 7 months' card which expires shortly after we return in 2011.
Avis car hire (rental) now provides a card like scraper that is about twice the size of a health card so we use that now. And while I'm on rentals - my new favourite car to rent in the Peugeot 207 - cheapest class to rent, it has isobars for our child car seats and it fits our pram (stroller) comfortably in the back.
Lots of businesses and services were cancelled even for us and our area didn't get the big storm (like northern England and Scotland). We didn't even get the post one day! Mark usually gets to work in Manchester on the train and hasn't had any trouble due to the snow/ice and the only trouble I've had are people not shovelling or salting the pavement (sidewalk) so I end up walking the pram on the road.
Mark's been working 2-3 days per week regularly at 2 schools. The students all like Mark and tell other students that he is safe (good/cool) and to treat him properly. Not bad for a supply teacher in England where the kids are notoriously terrible. He also has no shame in pulling out the Canadian card and talking about Canada, Drake and Justin Beiber, as needed. One girl started crying when he told her he'd been to Stratford before (where the Beib's from). It's apparently the worst time to be a substitute in England since the new government announced major cuts in October - although most education cuts don't take place until April or August (end of terms), if Head Masters/Teachers (Principals) don't manage their budgets they'll be fired. So they are trying to get by with their internal staff they have if they are short a teacher. Most of Mark's work is on-call, so he finds out the morning of if he'll be working and where. He goes to Manchester each morning by train and waits for a call at the Starbucks at Piccadilly Station whilst enjoying a filtered coffee and his book.
Filtered coffee is something we miss. Most coffee's here are pressed or are made from espresso (americano style), which tastes good (sometimes too strong), but how can the random coffee grind be better? But I digress.
We had a family trip to London in mid-November to see England play France in a friendly football match at Wembley Stadium. England lost 2-1, and the game wasn't that great, but it was really amazing to be in such a huge stadium for us 'fanners' - there were over 85,000 people in attendance! It was Gemma's first sporting event and she really enjoyed it. The game didn't start until 8pm so we weren't sure how the kids would be considering they are both usually asleep by 8:30! They both stayed up for the entire match, we didn't even have to leave early like we did at Toronto FC games with Liam! Gemma was so excited, clapping and 'hooraying' throughout! She enjoyed taking part in 'the wave'. Liam loves any opportunity to yell and cheer, but started yelling out his cars' names towards the end of the match. We took the train from New Mills to Manchester to London and stayed overnight in a hotel near the stadium area. We walked to the stadium, taking Gemma in the carrier and fearing for the safety of our pram in the hotel - not because it was dodgy, but just because it was London, and it could have stood to be a bit less dodgy. We stored it in an awkward place within the room just in case but it was waiting for us when we returned with our two sleepy kids.
England has been treating Liam well - he gained 5-6lbs in the first 3 months we were here - must be all the chips and beans! He's also gotten a couple inches taller. Each night we see what 'his numbers' are on the scale at the house which measures in stone: 1 stone = 14lbs. So he tells us if he's 2-2 or 2-3 (for 2 stone, 3 lbs). We've been prepping him for Nursery (preschool) where he'll go for afternoons in the new year with all the different 'English' words they'll be using, such as:
nappy = diaper
toilet = potty
wee = pee
bottom = bum
(yes, we're still toilet training!)
sledge = sled
dinner = lunch
tea = dinner
football = soccer
jumper = sweater
plaster = bandage
beanie = toque (actually, I just thought of that one and will have to tell Liam)
He and Gemma are still having lots of fun at the Children's Centre and Liam has embraced the new words to the Hokie Pokie - the Hokie Dokie. It's totally different and I had to get Mark to teach us the song so we could properly participate and avoid the fit of tears we had one week. There's running into the centre, knees bending, arms stretching and rawh, rawh, rawhing!
Other mum's have been commenting on how much Gemma is progressing! She is so pleased to be standing at the sand box and also doing her own artwork (without too much help from mum) at 'Messy Play', and clambering about at 'Healthy Active Tots'. This week she climbed up the two steps to the little slide and once down (with mum's help) she tried to climb up the slide - the little adventuress. I took both kids to be weighed at the walk-in Baby Clinic held each Monday at the Urgent Care Centre and Gemma almost weighed 15lbs. When we've weighed her at home she has been 1 stone 2lbs = 16lbs, but it's quite difficult to get an accurate weight because she's so light. In England she falls into the 0.4th percentile and in Canada she is in the 3rd. So English kids a tad larger than Canadian kids - I know Gemma's tiny, but I thought the clothes sizes here were big! She can feed herself quite well with a fork or spoon and is trying to stand by herself and walk, but is not quite there yet.
Gemma was poorly (sick) at the end of October and missed out on trick or treating. We took her to the urgent care clinic to get assessed and she got anti-biotics and an oral steroid (things she's had before in Canada). But we didn't have to get a prescription and take it to the chemist (pharmacist) because the Dr. had all the meds in the clinic AND kids under 16 get free medications! I mean, I know it's not that different from Canada if you have a drug plan, but it what a great system! The Dr. also gave us a bottle of paracetamol, which wikipedia told me is the same as Tylenol. Gemma also got her jabs (immunization shots) so she's caught up for English kids. I tried to get her a chicken pox vaccine, but they don't have it here. I'm going to keep trying because one of our friends said she knew someone whose child was imuno-compromised and got one. The NHS sends letters with appointments already scheduled for children's immunization shots, through the local health visitor's office. They also send reminder letters to adults for recommended check ups, but appointments aren't already made for those. Both kids also got their flu jabs since they fall into a priority group, having to use inhalers.
I (Krystal) got my first English haircut & colour. Did you know bangs are called fringe here? I didn't get any, but they were discussed. I was pleased to have received a great recommendation from a mum friend on where to go - a great salon with no ego and reasonable prices.
I've also discovered Tesco has one of the best loyalty programs out there. When I finally got around to check out their online grocery shopping and delivery service, I happily found that they have tracked all of my in-store purchases and keep them in 'my favourites'. It was like having my very own Krystal aisle.
I've had to keep up with 'my shows' online on random websites since they aren't to date here on regular tv and I can't access them on the North American websites since they know I'm in the UK and I'm not supposed to be watching new Glee's right now. Urg, that interweb and its smarts.
We drove to Birmingham to visit with Mark's Aunty Margaret, Uncle David and cousins for a visit - had a great pub lunch. Liam and Mason ran around the pub's Funky Forest indoor jungle gym, while Gemma and Evie played side by side in their high chairs. Then a few weeks later, we enjoyed having Rog, Hayley and Evie for an overnight visit. We went for a rainy but lovely walk along the snowy Sett Valley Trail in New Mills - Liam in his new sledge. We had a yummy dinner and stuck into some mulled wine, mince pies and X-Factor after the kids were asleep.
A getting sorted for Christmas blog to be up soon - for real this time.
Photos: Facebook
Keep warm everyone,
The Nicholson Family
Random UK Commentary:
1. The Brits love their comedians - they have so many quiz shows and weekly news shows on the tele with a panel of comedians commenting on current issues. Mark's fave is Mock the Week.
2. They also love their reality shows. The most popular ones (like X-Factor, the new Idol) air on Saturday nights! We told Mark's cousin the only thing that's really on tv on weekends in North America is sports.
3. England hasn't been recycling for very long and each county is different. Derbyshire has been taking food waste separately now since April and are quite proud of themselves. They have separate bins for waste, food & cardboard, bottles & tin, and paper but we have to take plastics and cartons to community drop-off points - usually found at grocery stores. I'm all for being 'green' but c'mon, that's a pain.
4. We would like to congratulate British Telecom for entering the 1990's with the introduction of personalized voice mail on landlines and a beeping ringtone to alert you of a voice mail. WOW!
5. Packaging here is all about the resealable tab (on coffee, pasta, rice, anything in a bag, really) which more often than not, is shite and either ends up ripping the bag or just ripping off. Then you need a clip otherwise your rice is going to fall all over the floor. So now Liam and Mummy are obsessed with clips - they're on everything.
I must apologize to the 4 or 5 people that actually read this for the tardiness of the update - all of my online time was totally consumed by locating a certain toy for a certain boy. Thank goodness Toys R Us restocked this toy or we would have had a very disappointed 3yr old on Christmas morning.
Well it was pretty surprising to get snow here in England in the last week! We were excited to be in our 'element'. The first day we really only got a dusting, but the day after we got a full-on 6" or so. Liam and Mummy made a little snowman the first day and a big 'snowball' the second. Then he and Daddy made a train - it was 'Percy'. Gemma looks so funny in Liam's old snow suit. It's so big on her and, like all little ones in snow suits, she can't move at all once in, and ends up just rolling around on the ground. Poor thing:)
It was hilarious - and sometimes a bit scary - to watch the British get around in the snow - especially getting up the hill that 'T' intersects our street at our house. A few times I thought our stone fence was going to get knocked over. One man got a garden shovel out from his car boot (trunk) to create two tracks in the snow on the road all the way up the hill for him to drive through. It's not just that the cars and tires aren't made for this - it's the drivers too - they just aren't used to this. Mark saw a Subaru have trouble getting up a driveway on a hill and they are, as we know because we have one, all-wheel drive.
Most people don't have proper snow/ice/frost brushes here and everyone seems to have their own way to clear their car. I've seen the following:
1. Spray the frost with water
2. Pour water on the frost
3. Clear snow with dust pan brushes (kept in the car)
4. Cover the entire car or just the wind screen (wind shield) with proper cover, blanket, bed sheet or tarp.
5. Scrape the frost off with an Ontario Health Card - this was Mark :) Don't worry - the health card is useless here anyway and is our 'away from Ontario for more than 7 months' card which expires shortly after we return in 2011.
Avis car hire (rental) now provides a card like scraper that is about twice the size of a health card so we use that now. And while I'm on rentals - my new favourite car to rent in the Peugeot 207 - cheapest class to rent, it has isobars for our child car seats and it fits our pram (stroller) comfortably in the back.
Lots of businesses and services were cancelled even for us and our area didn't get the big storm (like northern England and Scotland). We didn't even get the post one day! Mark usually gets to work in Manchester on the train and hasn't had any trouble due to the snow/ice and the only trouble I've had are people not shovelling or salting the pavement (sidewalk) so I end up walking the pram on the road.
Mark's been working 2-3 days per week regularly at 2 schools. The students all like Mark and tell other students that he is safe (good/cool) and to treat him properly. Not bad for a supply teacher in England where the kids are notoriously terrible. He also has no shame in pulling out the Canadian card and talking about Canada, Drake and Justin Beiber, as needed. One girl started crying when he told her he'd been to Stratford before (where the Beib's from). It's apparently the worst time to be a substitute in England since the new government announced major cuts in October - although most education cuts don't take place until April or August (end of terms), if Head Masters/Teachers (Principals) don't manage their budgets they'll be fired. So they are trying to get by with their internal staff they have if they are short a teacher. Most of Mark's work is on-call, so he finds out the morning of if he'll be working and where. He goes to Manchester each morning by train and waits for a call at the Starbucks at Piccadilly Station whilst enjoying a filtered coffee and his book.
Filtered coffee is something we miss. Most coffee's here are pressed or are made from espresso (americano style), which tastes good (sometimes too strong), but how can the random coffee grind be better? But I digress.
We had a family trip to London in mid-November to see England play France in a friendly football match at Wembley Stadium. England lost 2-1, and the game wasn't that great, but it was really amazing to be in such a huge stadium for us 'fanners' - there were over 85,000 people in attendance! It was Gemma's first sporting event and she really enjoyed it. The game didn't start until 8pm so we weren't sure how the kids would be considering they are both usually asleep by 8:30! They both stayed up for the entire match, we didn't even have to leave early like we did at Toronto FC games with Liam! Gemma was so excited, clapping and 'hooraying' throughout! She enjoyed taking part in 'the wave'. Liam loves any opportunity to yell and cheer, but started yelling out his cars' names towards the end of the match. We took the train from New Mills to Manchester to London and stayed overnight in a hotel near the stadium area. We walked to the stadium, taking Gemma in the carrier and fearing for the safety of our pram in the hotel - not because it was dodgy, but just because it was London, and it could have stood to be a bit less dodgy. We stored it in an awkward place within the room just in case but it was waiting for us when we returned with our two sleepy kids.
England has been treating Liam well - he gained 5-6lbs in the first 3 months we were here - must be all the chips and beans! He's also gotten a couple inches taller. Each night we see what 'his numbers' are on the scale at the house which measures in stone: 1 stone = 14lbs. So he tells us if he's 2-2 or 2-3 (for 2 stone, 3 lbs). We've been prepping him for Nursery (preschool) where he'll go for afternoons in the new year with all the different 'English' words they'll be using, such as:
nappy = diaper
toilet = potty
wee = pee
bottom = bum
(yes, we're still toilet training!)
sledge = sled
dinner = lunch
tea = dinner
football = soccer
jumper = sweater
plaster = bandage
beanie = toque (actually, I just thought of that one and will have to tell Liam)
He and Gemma are still having lots of fun at the Children's Centre and Liam has embraced the new words to the Hokie Pokie - the Hokie Dokie. It's totally different and I had to get Mark to teach us the song so we could properly participate and avoid the fit of tears we had one week. There's running into the centre, knees bending, arms stretching and rawh, rawh, rawhing!
Other mum's have been commenting on how much Gemma is progressing! She is so pleased to be standing at the sand box and also doing her own artwork (without too much help from mum) at 'Messy Play', and clambering about at 'Healthy Active Tots'. This week she climbed up the two steps to the little slide and once down (with mum's help) she tried to climb up the slide - the little adventuress. I took both kids to be weighed at the walk-in Baby Clinic held each Monday at the Urgent Care Centre and Gemma almost weighed 15lbs. When we've weighed her at home she has been 1 stone 2lbs = 16lbs, but it's quite difficult to get an accurate weight because she's so light. In England she falls into the 0.4th percentile and in Canada she is in the 3rd. So English kids a tad larger than Canadian kids - I know Gemma's tiny, but I thought the clothes sizes here were big! She can feed herself quite well with a fork or spoon and is trying to stand by herself and walk, but is not quite there yet.
Gemma was poorly (sick) at the end of October and missed out on trick or treating. We took her to the urgent care clinic to get assessed and she got anti-biotics and an oral steroid (things she's had before in Canada). But we didn't have to get a prescription and take it to the chemist (pharmacist) because the Dr. had all the meds in the clinic AND kids under 16 get free medications! I mean, I know it's not that different from Canada if you have a drug plan, but it what a great system! The Dr. also gave us a bottle of paracetamol, which wikipedia told me is the same as Tylenol. Gemma also got her jabs (immunization shots) so she's caught up for English kids. I tried to get her a chicken pox vaccine, but they don't have it here. I'm going to keep trying because one of our friends said she knew someone whose child was imuno-compromised and got one. The NHS sends letters with appointments already scheduled for children's immunization shots, through the local health visitor's office. They also send reminder letters to adults for recommended check ups, but appointments aren't already made for those. Both kids also got their flu jabs since they fall into a priority group, having to use inhalers.
I (Krystal) got my first English haircut & colour. Did you know bangs are called fringe here? I didn't get any, but they were discussed. I was pleased to have received a great recommendation from a mum friend on where to go - a great salon with no ego and reasonable prices.
I've also discovered Tesco has one of the best loyalty programs out there. When I finally got around to check out their online grocery shopping and delivery service, I happily found that they have tracked all of my in-store purchases and keep them in 'my favourites'. It was like having my very own Krystal aisle.
I've had to keep up with 'my shows' online on random websites since they aren't to date here on regular tv and I can't access them on the North American websites since they know I'm in the UK and I'm not supposed to be watching new Glee's right now. Urg, that interweb and its smarts.
We drove to Birmingham to visit with Mark's Aunty Margaret, Uncle David and cousins for a visit - had a great pub lunch. Liam and Mason ran around the pub's Funky Forest indoor jungle gym, while Gemma and Evie played side by side in their high chairs. Then a few weeks later, we enjoyed having Rog, Hayley and Evie for an overnight visit. We went for a rainy but lovely walk along the snowy Sett Valley Trail in New Mills - Liam in his new sledge. We had a yummy dinner and stuck into some mulled wine, mince pies and X-Factor after the kids were asleep.
A getting sorted for Christmas blog to be up soon - for real this time.
Photos: Facebook
Keep warm everyone,
The Nicholson Family
Random UK Commentary:
1. The Brits love their comedians - they have so many quiz shows and weekly news shows on the tele with a panel of comedians commenting on current issues. Mark's fave is Mock the Week.
2. They also love their reality shows. The most popular ones (like X-Factor, the new Idol) air on Saturday nights! We told Mark's cousin the only thing that's really on tv on weekends in North America is sports.
3. England hasn't been recycling for very long and each county is different. Derbyshire has been taking food waste separately now since April and are quite proud of themselves. They have separate bins for waste, food & cardboard, bottles & tin, and paper but we have to take plastics and cartons to community drop-off points - usually found at grocery stores. I'm all for being 'green' but c'mon, that's a pain.
4. We would like to congratulate British Telecom for entering the 1990's with the introduction of personalized voice mail on landlines and a beeping ringtone to alert you of a voice mail. WOW!
5. Packaging here is all about the resealable tab (on coffee, pasta, rice, anything in a bag, really) which more often than not, is shite and either ends up ripping the bag or just ripping off. Then you need a clip otherwise your rice is going to fall all over the floor. So now Liam and Mummy are obsessed with clips - they're on everything.
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Halloween + Guy Fawkes Night = Fire Cracker Craziness!
We weren't sure what Halloween would be like in England now. When Mark lived here Halloween didn't exist. Not too long after he moved when he was 10, his friend Andy mentioned that England was starting to participate in Halloween but not everyone was ready for Trick or Treaters (ie. giving out biscuits and whatever they could find in the kitchen). We noticed shops decorated their windows and stores were selling sweets (candy) and fancy dress (costumes) in preparation for the ghoulish night, but we still weren't totally convinced. It didn't help that no one decorated their house near us and when I placed some decorations up on the actual day (mostly Liam's and Gemma's artwork) locals looked on in amazement - as in, 'decorating your house - how fun and creative'.
Stores were selling out of pumpkins, but not the halloween carving pumpkins we're used to - only the small cooking pumpkins are sold here (at least at shops) and they classify them as medium and large - even though there really isn't much difference between them and they are all small!
Pizza ordered (for the first time, which will be a huge surprise to our Toronto neighbours!), pumpkins carved and all dressed up with our sweets bowl ready for potential kids, we still weren't sure about trick or treating so I texted our neighbour mum friend just to double check. Thankfully the doorbell rang and we opened the door to two girls dressed up as witches, holding out bags for sweets and cheerfully exclaiming "trick or treat"! Thank God, because we had just finally got Liam to put on his "Woody" from Toy Story costume after telling him that no one would give him candy if he didn't wear his costume.
Since Gemma was poorly (not feeling well) she stayed at home with Daddy and gave out chocolates in her Pretty Witch costume while Mummy took Liam out around the neighbourhood. It was a beautiful evening - quite warm and dry - we didn't even need a coat! It was quite dark already since we had changed the clocks back that day (one week earlier than Canada). We left at 6 o'clock and I thought we would have enough time to do all the houses by 7. I failed to consider the number of steps we would have to walk up and down because of all the hills. Many homes either have several steps up or down to the front door. Our home doesn't have any steps so I totally didn't even think of this. I was EXHAUSTED because not only did I have to walk up and down these steps, I had to pick Liam up for some of them too. I also had to ask two different sets of trick or treaters (the two girls that came to our house and some other mums) how to tell which homes are participating because as mentioned earlier, not everyone decorates - some didn't even have a pumpkin!!!!! The Blasphemy! Liam and I decided that if the lights were on, but the curtains were shut then they weren't playing Halloween, but if the lights were on and you could see into their house, then we should check if they were playing. Some homes also had notices on their doors supplied by local Derbyshire police stating they were not participating.
Liam did really well and said "turkey treat" and "happy halloween" at each house. We got home at about 7:20 with a bag of sweets - no crisps (chips), very little chocolates, but lots of actual candy (jellies, lollies, rockets). Liam is used to getting larger sized candy, like bags of chips and cheezies, so he thought his bag wasn't full enough to stop trick or treating. I was surprised that people weren't giving out crisps because people eat them here all the time - most of the crisps at the supermarket are large bags full of the small bags. The locals are also very loyal to the candy manufacturer Swizzels Matlow that's made in New Mills.
All in all, Halloween was a great success!
The following weekend was Guy Fawkes Night, also called Bonfire Night on November 5th, celebrating a dude (Guy Fawkes) who got caught guarding 36 barrels of gunpowder before he could blow up the House of Lords parliament buildings and assassinate the King in 1605. Basically towns put together ginormous, amazing bonfires, and fire works. New Mills had a huge bonfire in High Lea Park on the Saturday, the day after Guy Fawkes with bbq, treacle toffee, candy floss and remembrance day poppy stands and of course, a bouncy castle. We got all bundled up and walked over to the park with the rest of the locals. The bonfire was really amazing, especially considering the town is only of about 10,000 people. Liam liked the fire truck that was on-hand, just in case. The fireworks that followed were great too however Gemma didn't quite think so and got upset at the loud, bangy ones so we made our exit a bit early, but still admired the fireworks as we walked home.
Fire crackers had been on sale in shops for about a month prior to Guy Fawkes and every other night or so we would hear one or two go off randomly. On both Halloween and Guy Fawkes weekends it was just nutty - fireworks everywhere and all night - and we could see them from our house on a hill which was great fun until the kids were asleep and we feared they would wake up. Luckily our neighbour right next door to us did theirs before bedtime. We don't think there are many regulations for lighting fire crackers here - at least not in the country.
Upon returning home from Guy Fawkes one of our neighbours from up the farm lane came by to invite us to their bonfire the following weekend! We had known they turned one of the stables into a micro-brewery and they have six different beers brewing so we just had to go. We even raced back from a family visit in Birmingham (about 2.5hrs away) to get there. They had the 3-B's: Bbq, Beer & Bonfire. The fire wasn't nearly as large as the town's but still quite impressive. They were also lighting paper lanterns and letting them go up in the sky. We were like - this would not be allowed in Canada! Some of the lanterns were very close to hitting the house and the large tree right beside the house as they went up. And they flew around forever and went far away. Apparently they are just more of a nuisance when finding them in a farm field as opposed to being a real fire hazard. And of course, there were fireworks! It was actually just one fire cracker that went on and on. Parts of it were quite loud, but this time Gemma kept her cool. It helped that we were getting a brewery tour at the time so we weren't as close. We met some of our other neighbours' family members and there was another 3yr old boy running around for Liam.
Halloween photos are already on Facebook. Guy Fawkes photos to come.
Another update to come soon with photos from November.
Cheers,
The Nicholson Family
Fire crackers had been on sale in shops for about a month prior to Guy Fawkes and every other night or so we would hear one or two go off randomly. On both Halloween and Guy Fawkes weekends it was just nutty - fireworks everywhere and all night - and we could see them from our house on a hill which was great fun until the kids were asleep and we feared they would wake up. Luckily our neighbour right next door to us did theirs before bedtime. We don't think there are many regulations for lighting fire crackers here - at least not in the country.
Upon returning home from Guy Fawkes one of our neighbours from up the farm lane came by to invite us to their bonfire the following weekend! We had known they turned one of the stables into a micro-brewery and they have six different beers brewing so we just had to go. We even raced back from a family visit in Birmingham (about 2.5hrs away) to get there. They had the 3-B's: Bbq, Beer & Bonfire. The fire wasn't nearly as large as the town's but still quite impressive. They were also lighting paper lanterns and letting them go up in the sky. We were like - this would not be allowed in Canada! Some of the lanterns were very close to hitting the house and the large tree right beside the house as they went up. And they flew around forever and went far away. Apparently they are just more of a nuisance when finding them in a farm field as opposed to being a real fire hazard. And of course, there were fireworks! It was actually just one fire cracker that went on and on. Parts of it were quite loud, but this time Gemma kept her cool. It helped that we were getting a brewery tour at the time so we weren't as close. We met some of our other neighbours' family members and there was another 3yr old boy running around for Liam.
Halloween photos are already on Facebook. Guy Fawkes photos to come.
Another update to come soon with photos from November.
Cheers,
The Nicholson Family
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Scotland's NOT Shite...
...as the show "Little Britain" and the movie "Trainspotting" may have you believe.
We embarked on our two-night trip to Edinburgh, Scotland early on the Monday morning of the half-term in October - I know, I know - another late blog post. Our first of three trains was to leave New Mills station at 10am. We took our pram (stroller), a large ruck sack (back pack) and one small luggage for all four of us. From our house, it is about a 20 minute walk to the station so we were thrilled when it was super sunny and the air was crisp. We even stopped off at the bakery for a take-away coffee for the ride.
Being 'foreign', we didn't anticipate just how reee-diculously busy these trains would be during half-term. Our first train was to Manchester and we weren't able to get any seats, but it's really only a 30 minute ride, so no big deal. At Piccadilly station, we were to catch a train headed to Blackpool, but only take it to Preston. Well, we navigated our pram through the station and downstairs to the platform only to find that a million other people were to catch the same connection. It wasn't looking good - there were just too many people and I really wasn't sure we were going to get on with our pram. We had told Liam before we left our house that it was going to be really important to stick together at the train stations, but Mum and Dad should have walked the talk. Mark suggested that he and Gemma (in the pram) go to the next set of doors to get on and Liam and I get on through the doors we were standing in front of. Liam and I got on and started to try to navigate our way to the doors where Mark and Gemma were going to be getting on when the porter outside said that the doors would be closing momentarily. I panickly (I may have just made that word up) looked outside someones window to see if Mark was standing outside the train and sure enough I saw him panickly knocking on the trains windows to find us inside. I think Liam and I pushed aside an older lady so we could get out - like good Canucks, we said sorry just in case. Luckily we made it out in time but I had vivid flashbacks of when I got on the subway at St. Andrew station in Toronto and Mark didn't. This would have been WAY worse. So after that incident, we firmly reminded ourselves that we always need to stick together. We managed to get the next train to Preston leaving just 10 minutes later with a slew of others who also didn't get on the earlier train and even got seats for the 45 minute ride.
We were certain we wouldn't make our connection to Edinburgh because of the new later train and that it was running late, but it seems all the trains were running late and we actually made it. We would have had to wait an hour for the next one, which in hindsight, we should have probably done because we couldn't get seats on this train either. We ended up standing in the corridor where the toilet is with 5-10 others (depending on the stops), plus luggage (theirs and ours), plus our pram for the entire 2.5 hrs! At least Gemma had a seat. It actually went by fairly quickly and the other people with us were quite pleasant. I took Gemma over to a temporarily empty first-class seat to breastfeed her for 20 minutes, but other than that it was the toilet carriage.
Finally in Edinburgh, at about 2:30, we got off the train and walked a mere 5 minutes to our hotel, The Jury's Inn. It was a large enough room for us - we got a double, Liam got a twin and Gemma got an infant cot (supplied by the hotel). We got ourselves sorted and ventured into the city.
Scottish weather is the butt of many jokes in the UK - it actually didn't rain as much as it was supposed to. We also had a few sunny moments however it was mostly grey, making it difficult to take photos with our point and shoot - between the sky and the buildings, it was really grey.
The architecture and layout of Edinburgh are both brilliant (everyone says this here, 'brill' for short). The buildings all show their character and ornate details well with age, and there are lots of tiny alleys in between them linking the streets to each other. Some of the alleys lead to patios for restaurants and pubs. On our first afternoon, we walked to Edinburgh Castle to check it out for the next day and to see what there was to see on the way. Lots of wool, tartans, Gaelic and medieval heritage, scotch, pubs (some of which don't allow families because they are not licensed - like Toronto was at one point with the smoking law).
On our full day in Edinburgh, we went to the Castle first - good call - it got wicked busy shortly after we got in with major queues (line ups). There are great views of the city from the castle (when you can see them through all the grey:)) The castle was used as a fortress throughout history and sits on an extinct volcano. Liam enjoyed the canons. We also went through one of the museums inside the castle and saw the armour used in the past and present. We thought the soldiers may interest Liam - there was a statue of a horse that he liked.
We spent the rest of the day walking around the city - the old and the new. It's kinda like Montreal but Edinburgh's new city is like Montreal's old city. We tried to get Liam to have a nap at the hotel in the afternoon, but it was not going to happen. He ended up falling asleep whilst on his stroller seat and fell off right onto the pavement! (Don't worry, pavement here means sidewalk) Others were startled, but we started to laugh knowing that he had probably just fallen asleep:) Awesome parenting moment, we know.
This city is great for walkers - everything is really close together - train, hotels, city and sights. There were tons of tourists in Edinburgh - and not just Brits off on half-term - everyone. It was strange for us as we have gotten really used to being the only internationals both in our small town of New Mills and even in Manchester.
On our last night we went to a large restaurant and we were the model family - we could tell that young couples near us were watching, noticing how cute and well behaved our kids were and even wished for kids like ours... until Gemma banged her mouth against the table and screamed bloody murder forcing Mum to leave with her, without Dad or Liam or the pram! She screamed pretty much the entire walk back to the hotel. I think we ended up being really effective birth control for some of those young couples that evening! Gemma was fine (thank you dye-free grape infant Tylenol) and we actually went for a late evening walk around the hotel area with both kids and the pram before bedtime.
Only Disappointments: No one just walking down the street wearing a kilt like it's a pair of jeans and Mark forgot to order haggis.
Our trains back were not as busy as on our way there. We only had 2 trains and seats booked for the long train to Manchester. Unfortunately, Gemma fought her nap for most of the ride and accidentally pulled the emergency alarm (whilst with Mark), but what's a trip without some train drama?
Will post soon on Halloween and Guy Fawkes night!
The Nicholson Family.
Photos: Facebook
We embarked on our two-night trip to Edinburgh, Scotland early on the Monday morning of the half-term in October - I know, I know - another late blog post. Our first of three trains was to leave New Mills station at 10am. We took our pram (stroller), a large ruck sack (back pack) and one small luggage for all four of us. From our house, it is about a 20 minute walk to the station so we were thrilled when it was super sunny and the air was crisp. We even stopped off at the bakery for a take-away coffee for the ride.
Being 'foreign', we didn't anticipate just how reee-diculously busy these trains would be during half-term. Our first train was to Manchester and we weren't able to get any seats, but it's really only a 30 minute ride, so no big deal. At Piccadilly station, we were to catch a train headed to Blackpool, but only take it to Preston. Well, we navigated our pram through the station and downstairs to the platform only to find that a million other people were to catch the same connection. It wasn't looking good - there were just too many people and I really wasn't sure we were going to get on with our pram. We had told Liam before we left our house that it was going to be really important to stick together at the train stations, but Mum and Dad should have walked the talk. Mark suggested that he and Gemma (in the pram) go to the next set of doors to get on and Liam and I get on through the doors we were standing in front of. Liam and I got on and started to try to navigate our way to the doors where Mark and Gemma were going to be getting on when the porter outside said that the doors would be closing momentarily. I panickly (I may have just made that word up) looked outside someones window to see if Mark was standing outside the train and sure enough I saw him panickly knocking on the trains windows to find us inside. I think Liam and I pushed aside an older lady so we could get out - like good Canucks, we said sorry just in case. Luckily we made it out in time but I had vivid flashbacks of when I got on the subway at St. Andrew station in Toronto and Mark didn't. This would have been WAY worse. So after that incident, we firmly reminded ourselves that we always need to stick together. We managed to get the next train to Preston leaving just 10 minutes later with a slew of others who also didn't get on the earlier train and even got seats for the 45 minute ride.
We were certain we wouldn't make our connection to Edinburgh because of the new later train and that it was running late, but it seems all the trains were running late and we actually made it. We would have had to wait an hour for the next one, which in hindsight, we should have probably done because we couldn't get seats on this train either. We ended up standing in the corridor where the toilet is with 5-10 others (depending on the stops), plus luggage (theirs and ours), plus our pram for the entire 2.5 hrs! At least Gemma had a seat. It actually went by fairly quickly and the other people with us were quite pleasant. I took Gemma over to a temporarily empty first-class seat to breastfeed her for 20 minutes, but other than that it was the toilet carriage.
Finally in Edinburgh, at about 2:30, we got off the train and walked a mere 5 minutes to our hotel, The Jury's Inn. It was a large enough room for us - we got a double, Liam got a twin and Gemma got an infant cot (supplied by the hotel). We got ourselves sorted and ventured into the city.
Scottish weather is the butt of many jokes in the UK - it actually didn't rain as much as it was supposed to. We also had a few sunny moments however it was mostly grey, making it difficult to take photos with our point and shoot - between the sky and the buildings, it was really grey.
The architecture and layout of Edinburgh are both brilliant (everyone says this here, 'brill' for short). The buildings all show their character and ornate details well with age, and there are lots of tiny alleys in between them linking the streets to each other. Some of the alleys lead to patios for restaurants and pubs. On our first afternoon, we walked to Edinburgh Castle to check it out for the next day and to see what there was to see on the way. Lots of wool, tartans, Gaelic and medieval heritage, scotch, pubs (some of which don't allow families because they are not licensed - like Toronto was at one point with the smoking law).
On our full day in Edinburgh, we went to the Castle first - good call - it got wicked busy shortly after we got in with major queues (line ups). There are great views of the city from the castle (when you can see them through all the grey:)) The castle was used as a fortress throughout history and sits on an extinct volcano. Liam enjoyed the canons. We also went through one of the museums inside the castle and saw the armour used in the past and present. We thought the soldiers may interest Liam - there was a statue of a horse that he liked.
We spent the rest of the day walking around the city - the old and the new. It's kinda like Montreal but Edinburgh's new city is like Montreal's old city. We tried to get Liam to have a nap at the hotel in the afternoon, but it was not going to happen. He ended up falling asleep whilst on his stroller seat and fell off right onto the pavement! (Don't worry, pavement here means sidewalk) Others were startled, but we started to laugh knowing that he had probably just fallen asleep:) Awesome parenting moment, we know.
This city is great for walkers - everything is really close together - train, hotels, city and sights. There were tons of tourists in Edinburgh - and not just Brits off on half-term - everyone. It was strange for us as we have gotten really used to being the only internationals both in our small town of New Mills and even in Manchester.
On our last night we went to a large restaurant and we were the model family - we could tell that young couples near us were watching, noticing how cute and well behaved our kids were and even wished for kids like ours... until Gemma banged her mouth against the table and screamed bloody murder forcing Mum to leave with her, without Dad or Liam or the pram! She screamed pretty much the entire walk back to the hotel. I think we ended up being really effective birth control for some of those young couples that evening! Gemma was fine (thank you dye-free grape infant Tylenol) and we actually went for a late evening walk around the hotel area with both kids and the pram before bedtime.
Only Disappointments: No one just walking down the street wearing a kilt like it's a pair of jeans and Mark forgot to order haggis.
Our trains back were not as busy as on our way there. We only had 2 trains and seats booked for the long train to Manchester. Unfortunately, Gemma fought her nap for most of the ride and accidentally pulled the emergency alarm (whilst with Mark), but what's a trip without some train drama?
Will post soon on Halloween and Guy Fawkes night!
The Nicholson Family.
Photos: Facebook
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Canuck Thanksgiving, Big Boy & Jungle Monkey
Hello Again Family and Friends!
Hope everyone had a super Thanksgiving.
It's been a whole month since we have blogged and two months since we arrived - we can hardly believe it! It has gone by so quickly. So far no one is homesick - well maybe Liam, but he misses living in Toronto and our dog, OD, who is staying with Great-Gramma Bernice and Grampa Ross.
We've been settling in to real life in the UK now that Mark has finally started to work. 'Finally' because there was une petite miscommunication at the agency as to when Mark was available for work. He got a 4-day gig at one school - the Barlow - a Roman Catholic high school (of all things) which he enjoyed. His first day was ridiculously terrible as he was covering for a teacher who had already been away for 2 weeks (swearing, sending kids to the office - really nothing new for Mark), but the other days were much better and only one broken beaker (a science beaker, not a nose;)). Upon receiving his schedule on the last day there he was like - What's 'RE'? - wait for it - Religion! Of all people to teach religion :) He has worked at another school minutes from Old Trafford - the stadium where Manchester United play. Hopefully he will catch a glimpse of Michael Owen for me one of these times.
We celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving with some of our English friends at our UK home with turkey and all the works. We really wanted to do it up proper since last year's Thanksgiving really sucked with Gemma being sick - read: pre-stuffed, frozen turkey from a box - actually, quite tasty.
It wasn't easy getting all the ingredients - I had to buy a pumpkin and actually carve it, cook it and puree it for my pie - tasted awesome - and it was the first bite of pumpkin pie for our English guests who also all enjoyed it. I had done that once before to get the full culinary experience, but I definitely prefer to just buy a can of plain pumpkin. We also couldn't find molasses and settled for black treacle, which did the job. The butcher was surprised when I requested a turkey. He said they didn't start taking orders until November and I thought we were screwed, but he had misheard that I wanted one in October (not December). I couldn't get a fresh one, but we got a freshly frozen turkey and it was delish! We also figured out our English oven for roasting- it's a 2-door with a grill on top and a fan assisted oven on the bottom. The fan is supposed to reduce cooking time, but we haven't found that to be true yet. We tested the oven with roast beef before we cooked the bird. We also just place the meat directly on the oven tray with an oven pan beneath it. It's a lot messier than using a roasting dish.
It was a true Thanksgiving with WAY too much food for 5 adults, a pre-schooler and a baby - 11.5lb turkey, stuffing, turnip (called swede here), mashed potatos, green beans, carrots, 2 salads, cranberry sauce, homemade apple and pumpkin pies (including the crust) and a small birthday cake for Liam. Our guests thought we were expecting the entire village to come over. We brought our A-games to the table. We thought Gemma was going to love seeing all that yummy food all at once, but she had a tongue-biting incident which took her out. She made a quick comeback and really got into her leftovers though. She loves turkey, gravy and pie and is not opposed to getting a little messy. Dawn's brocolli-bacon-cheese salad recipe was also a hit with the Brits.
We realized that English people don't seem to have tea and coffee with their dessert (which they call pudding), but after when dinner (which they call tea) is all over. Why wouldn't you have tea, at the end of 'tea'? We're still learning the ways of the UK. We let it go even though it was Canadian Thanksgiving :) It was a true Thanksgiving with a triptofan buzz and tons of leftovers that we shared with Andy. We enjoyed making all the food ourselves, but it will be nice when we are back in Canada next year and we can go to someone else's house and just bring a salad.
Liam is now a big boy and turned a whopping 3 years old on 14th October (how dates are written in the UK)! We had a small family party with balloons of his favourite characters - Lightning McQueen and Thomas the Tank Engine. Gemma also got an In the Night Garden balloon. Liam helped make his chocolate cake, but Mum decorated it with fancy icing and handmade Lightning, Thomas and Roary the Racing Car icing characters - yes, I was up 'till midnight! During the day, Liam enjoyed a Messy Play session at the Children's Centre and his birthday song video from his cousin Ella over Facebook. Gotta love that webternet.
Liam's cooking group has come to an end with great success. He made pizza, muffins and berry-filled flapjacks (like oat bars) and received a certificate at the end. He is always looking to help out in the kitchen. Whether it's measuring, plopping eggs in a bowl or mixing - he's up for it. He actually helped make the stuffing and the apple pie for Thanksgiving!
Afgter a successful free trial day, we signed Liam up for 6 weeks of Little Kickers football training. The kit (uniform) cost 16 quid and the 6 weeks cost 34 quid. Not bad. He loves it and there are usually only 5 boys in the class. At the free day there were a few girls, but way more boys and Mark commented that there would be more girls if we were in Canada. Speaking of which, Little Kickers is an international franchise and there is one located in Toronto at Avenue and Eglinton, just minutes from our old house - we had no idea, and yes, we feel rather silly.
It seems kids here, at least in Derbyshire, can't do city run recreational activity at the Leisure Centre until they reach age 4. Not even swimming lessons! This is crazy to us since even Gemma has already had swimming lessons in Toronto. Thank goodness for Messy Play.
Liam and Dad found a new way to use all the crab apples on the ground - crab apple hockey. Someone walking by thought they were playing golf - Uh, no.
Some mums have been asking if Liam would be going to Nursery (pre-school) since he's 3. Apparently, beginning the term following when kids turn 3, they get 3hrs a day at Nursery for free. A week after we learned this, a mum at our cooking group just happened to tell me that the New Mills Nursery in town was having an Open Day for new children and parents to check things out. So we all went - Liam had a great time playing in the sand pit and meeting the teachers. We filled out the application on the Wednesday and received acceptance by post on Saturday! We couldn't believe how fast it all happened! Day Cares in Canada should take note - read: 2yr waiting lists and ridiculous fees. Liam will begin his afternoon Nursery class in mid-January - for FREE! How exciting!
Gemma is developing quickly now - in the past month she has started to pull herself up to standing, just started to climb up the stairs and is now officially cruising (walking while holding onto furniture)! She had been working on the stairs for a while and was struggling because she was too short to get her knee up the step:) Once she did one stair all by herself, she was determined to keep going and climbed the entire staircase in one go! She's also still working on more teeth - poor thing! Plus we'll be out of infant Tylenol soon.
We found a great indoor play gym in New Mills called Jungle Monkey that also has a cafe with yummy food and drinks for all ages. It's seriously awesome - I've never been to a place like this in Toronto or Guelph, so I'm not sure if there is one. Our friends Ben and Charlie came for a visit with their mum Erin and Nana Jenny and we all went for an afternoon. Ben and Liam had a fun time together, Charlie had a great nap and Gemma was doing really well until she had a cucumber incident and threw up all over mummy - hey, it happens.
4. Unfortunately - Seeing GINORMOUS spiders (sorry Mom: really big beasties). They are so SO big! Even Mark doesn't like 'em.
What You May Not Know:
1. It's very common to have a very small under the counter fridge in the kitchen (like using a bar fridge as the main fridge) and to have a washer and dryer in the kitchen or garage (see below).
2. There are no basements in England (at least none that we've come across).
Thank goodness our house has a second "American" fridge in a separate laundry room. We still miss our brand new full-size steam washer and dryer in Guelph though:)
Hope everyone had a super Thanksgiving.
It's been a whole month since we have blogged and two months since we arrived - we can hardly believe it! It has gone by so quickly. So far no one is homesick - well maybe Liam, but he misses living in Toronto and our dog, OD, who is staying with Great-Gramma Bernice and Grampa Ross.
We've been settling in to real life in the UK now that Mark has finally started to work. 'Finally' because there was une petite miscommunication at the agency as to when Mark was available for work. He got a 4-day gig at one school - the Barlow - a Roman Catholic high school (of all things) which he enjoyed. His first day was ridiculously terrible as he was covering for a teacher who had already been away for 2 weeks (swearing, sending kids to the office - really nothing new for Mark), but the other days were much better and only one broken beaker (a science beaker, not a nose;)). Upon receiving his schedule on the last day there he was like - What's 'RE'? - wait for it - Religion! Of all people to teach religion :) He has worked at another school minutes from Old Trafford - the stadium where Manchester United play. Hopefully he will catch a glimpse of Michael Owen for me one of these times.
We celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving with some of our English friends at our UK home with turkey and all the works. We really wanted to do it up proper since last year's Thanksgiving really sucked with Gemma being sick - read: pre-stuffed, frozen turkey from a box - actually, quite tasty.
It wasn't easy getting all the ingredients - I had to buy a pumpkin and actually carve it, cook it and puree it for my pie - tasted awesome - and it was the first bite of pumpkin pie for our English guests who also all enjoyed it. I had done that once before to get the full culinary experience, but I definitely prefer to just buy a can of plain pumpkin. We also couldn't find molasses and settled for black treacle, which did the job. The butcher was surprised when I requested a turkey. He said they didn't start taking orders until November and I thought we were screwed, but he had misheard that I wanted one in October (not December). I couldn't get a fresh one, but we got a freshly frozen turkey and it was delish! We also figured out our English oven for roasting- it's a 2-door with a grill on top and a fan assisted oven on the bottom. The fan is supposed to reduce cooking time, but we haven't found that to be true yet. We tested the oven with roast beef before we cooked the bird. We also just place the meat directly on the oven tray with an oven pan beneath it. It's a lot messier than using a roasting dish.
It was a true Thanksgiving with WAY too much food for 5 adults, a pre-schooler and a baby - 11.5lb turkey, stuffing, turnip (called swede here), mashed potatos, green beans, carrots, 2 salads, cranberry sauce, homemade apple and pumpkin pies (including the crust) and a small birthday cake for Liam. Our guests thought we were expecting the entire village to come over. We brought our A-games to the table. We thought Gemma was going to love seeing all that yummy food all at once, but she had a tongue-biting incident which took her out. She made a quick comeback and really got into her leftovers though. She loves turkey, gravy and pie and is not opposed to getting a little messy. Dawn's brocolli-bacon-cheese salad recipe was also a hit with the Brits.
We realized that English people don't seem to have tea and coffee with their dessert (which they call pudding), but after when dinner (which they call tea) is all over. Why wouldn't you have tea, at the end of 'tea'? We're still learning the ways of the UK. We let it go even though it was Canadian Thanksgiving :) It was a true Thanksgiving with a triptofan buzz and tons of leftovers that we shared with Andy. We enjoyed making all the food ourselves, but it will be nice when we are back in Canada next year and we can go to someone else's house and just bring a salad.
Liam is now a big boy and turned a whopping 3 years old on 14th October (how dates are written in the UK)! We had a small family party with balloons of his favourite characters - Lightning McQueen and Thomas the Tank Engine. Gemma also got an In the Night Garden balloon. Liam helped make his chocolate cake, but Mum decorated it with fancy icing and handmade Lightning, Thomas and Roary the Racing Car icing characters - yes, I was up 'till midnight! During the day, Liam enjoyed a Messy Play session at the Children's Centre and his birthday song video from his cousin Ella over Facebook. Gotta love that webternet.
Liam's cooking group has come to an end with great success. He made pizza, muffins and berry-filled flapjacks (like oat bars) and received a certificate at the end. He is always looking to help out in the kitchen. Whether it's measuring, plopping eggs in a bowl or mixing - he's up for it. He actually helped make the stuffing and the apple pie for Thanksgiving!
Afgter a successful free trial day, we signed Liam up for 6 weeks of Little Kickers football training. The kit (uniform) cost 16 quid and the 6 weeks cost 34 quid. Not bad. He loves it and there are usually only 5 boys in the class. At the free day there were a few girls, but way more boys and Mark commented that there would be more girls if we were in Canada. Speaking of which, Little Kickers is an international franchise and there is one located in Toronto at Avenue and Eglinton, just minutes from our old house - we had no idea, and yes, we feel rather silly.
It seems kids here, at least in Derbyshire, can't do city run recreational activity at the Leisure Centre until they reach age 4. Not even swimming lessons! This is crazy to us since even Gemma has already had swimming lessons in Toronto. Thank goodness for Messy Play.
Liam and Dad found a new way to use all the crab apples on the ground - crab apple hockey. Someone walking by thought they were playing golf - Uh, no.
Some mums have been asking if Liam would be going to Nursery (pre-school) since he's 3. Apparently, beginning the term following when kids turn 3, they get 3hrs a day at Nursery for free. A week after we learned this, a mum at our cooking group just happened to tell me that the New Mills Nursery in town was having an Open Day for new children and parents to check things out. So we all went - Liam had a great time playing in the sand pit and meeting the teachers. We filled out the application on the Wednesday and received acceptance by post on Saturday! We couldn't believe how fast it all happened! Day Cares in Canada should take note - read: 2yr waiting lists and ridiculous fees. Liam will begin his afternoon Nursery class in mid-January - for FREE! How exciting!
Gemma is developing quickly now - in the past month she has started to pull herself up to standing, just started to climb up the stairs and is now officially cruising (walking while holding onto furniture)! She had been working on the stairs for a while and was struggling because she was too short to get her knee up the step:) Once she did one stair all by herself, she was determined to keep going and climbed the entire staircase in one go! She's also still working on more teeth - poor thing! Plus we'll be out of infant Tylenol soon.
We found a great indoor play gym in New Mills called Jungle Monkey that also has a cafe with yummy food and drinks for all ages. It's seriously awesome - I've never been to a place like this in Toronto or Guelph, so I'm not sure if there is one. Our friends Ben and Charlie came for a visit with their mum Erin and Nana Jenny and we all went for an afternoon. Ben and Liam had a fun time together, Charlie had a great nap and Gemma was doing really well until she had a cucumber incident and threw up all over mummy - hey, it happens.
Mark bought a new bike! It's a hybrid (road/mountain) and is perfect for this landscape. He even may bring it back to Canada upping his bike count to 3. He has officially joined the Goyt Valley Striders running club and bought a head lamp as the runs are in the dark on trails (he didn't bring his from home). The first run was pretty epic - they ran up a crazy fell int he dark for almost 2hrs (Mark didn't have his head lamp yet!). Usually the runs aren't so hardcore, but it had been a nice day and the group wanted to take advantage of the conditions. They meet Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, but people are not obligated to go to each run. The group meets in the neighbouring village, Whaley Bridge, and carpools to the run location together. Mark was happy to get in one of the many Land Rovers driven in the area.
I'm really enjoying being off with the kids and am embracing domestic bliss. It's so nice now that Gemma is on a good healthy run to be able to go to playgroups, have fun outside and do normal things like make dinner, er... tea. New Mills is a far cry from Yonge and Eglinton in Toronto, but there are, in fact, some similarities - everyone walks here! There are so many mums pushing prams into town and you can get all your basics right in New Mills. Now, there's no Grazie (our old fave local Italian restaurant), but there is a really good Indian place in town we got delivery from.
We had a lovely visit with Grampa Jim and Grandma Anne who are visiting relatives nearby in Matlock for 2 weeks. We went for a walk along the Sett Valley Trail to the Torrs and walked over to the Pack Horse for a pub dinner. Mark used his head lamp on the walk home in the dark. They went with Liam and Mark to Little Kickers the next day to see Liams big kicks. It was great to visit with family from home.
Weather has been surprisingly sunny for the most part, except for a couple of days of hail! One time Liam, Mum and Gemma were walking to the car and took cover under the Tesco walkway cover (usually used for rain) and the other time we were at home and took some photos and video! English people keep warning us about the winter here and how it gets cold and it snows - we're like - WE'RE CANADIAN, we think we'll be alright. Don't you think we live in igloos anyway? We're really curious to find out exactly what kind of winter England has in store for us - Bring It.
After 5 whole days of hard work, it's already half-term for Mark. Half term is like March Break but in October. We are heading off to Scotland for 2 nights in Edinburgh by train - 4hrs. Bring on the hagis (for Mark)!
We'll try to update the blog more often to avoid writing novels like this, but we've got two kids in diapers, Liam is being potty trained and is moving towards no naps and Gemma is transitioning from 2 naps to 1 - nuff said.
Happy Winter Everyone!
(We've heard Ontario had its first snowfall already.)
The Nicholson Family
Photos: facebook
Things We've Noticed:
1. It seems like every toddler is on a leash here! Just because the harness/leash contraptions are only 12 quid at Boots doesn't mean you should buy one!
2. The UK seems to be becoming more "American". There are coffee chains all over the place (including Starbucks) and so many people drive everywhere. Trains are still busy, but there are are just too many people in such a small country for everyone to have a car. The roads are narrow as it is without a row of parked cars on each side.
Things We've Gotten Used To:
1. Walking on the left side of the pavement (sidewalk) whilst people pass.
2. The coins: except for the 1p and the 2 pounds, the sizes don't match the Canadian sizes at all so searching for change has taken a little longer than it should (yes, I've been the annoying person in line searching through change):
1p = penny (1c)
2p = a thin looney (1$) but copper
5p = dime (10c)
10p = quarter (25c)
20p = nickle (5c) but with 7 flat edges
1pound = nickle but thicker and bronze
2pounds = twooney (2$) and is even silver and bronze but in reverse
4. Unfortunately - Seeing GINORMOUS spiders (sorry Mom: really big beasties). They are so SO big! Even Mark doesn't like 'em.
What You May Not Know:
1. It's very common to have a very small under the counter fridge in the kitchen (like using a bar fridge as the main fridge) and to have a washer and dryer in the kitchen or garage (see below).
2. There are no basements in England (at least none that we've come across).
Thank goodness our house has a second "American" fridge in a separate laundry room. We still miss our brand new full-size steam washer and dryer in Guelph though:)
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Liam's Getting an Accent
Day 22: Liam gets an accent!
Only on certain words and mostly "Roar-eh the Racing Cah" Roary the Racing Car and "Pahk" Park.
We are busy balancing living and vacationing in our country village setting as Mark will start working as a supply teacher next week. We've had a few chillax days where we've been lazy and not done much of anything and that's okay since we have so much time here.
Krystal and Liam enjoyed a playdate with two of our neighbours just up the lane beside our house. New Mills is very community oriented - it's quite a small town with about 10,000 people so on the walk into town you end up seeing someone you know, which is great!
We all registered at our local Medical Clinic and got our National Health Service (NHS) numbers. Everyone received our cards in the post except for Mark as they are trying to retrieve his number from 1988 - yowsers! Mark and Gemma have even been to see the doctor - Mark for his inhaler (puffer means something totally different here - hey-oh!) and both Gemma and Liam caught a respitory virus so we took Gemma in to see if she needed any antibiotics or oral steroid as she has had in the past, which she didn't. In fact, she got on fine with only her inhalers and was all sorted out in just over a week. We were even able to go on some day trips - this is a huge milestone for us! At the clinic you can check in using a touchscreen and your name is displayed on the large screens around the waiting room when the doctor is ready to see you. Medical clinics seem to be common here where you are assigned a doctor (even has this info on your NHS paper card), but because the government mandates that doctors see patients within 48hrs of requiring one you may not always get your assigned doctor. Otherwise, there are Urgent Care Centres (like a walk-in clinic) if you need in sooner - there's one right next to our medical clinic, as well as a dentist and a Boots Pharmacy! We can walk all the way there on the Sett Valley Trail too!
Krystal and Liam signed up for a 6wk Kids Can Cook group through the local Children's Centre. There are only four kids per class and it was booked up until mid-April, but someone 'just happened to' cancel thier spot for this next run and we got in! Last week was (messy) sandwiches and this week was biscuits. Did you know it's quite common to measure ingredients by actually weighing them with a scale and using utensil spoons? Thank goodness we found measuring cups and spoons at Tesco as there weren't any at the house we're renting! We saw the scale in the cupboard and were like - uh, no. It is fun using the scale with Liam in the cooking group though :)
We've gone to our first FA Cup match (soccer) - New Mills AFC v Harrogate. Sadly, the New Mills Millers have been knocked out of the Cup, but we will hopefully make it to another home game during regular league play. The team has been around pre 1890 - the exact year is unknown. Liam was asleep for the first quarter of the match, but after he woke up and had some chips he was right into it. He also started cheering for Liverpool and Toronto, but other than that, he was right into it ;)
We joined the locals in the New Mills Festival Lantern Procession in the Torrs (gorge area) where people show off handmade lanterns constructed in festival workshops, brought their own from home or just brought themselves (we opted for this option). It was an amazing walk in the evening on the trail and over their Millennium Bridge with all the lanterns and fire sculptures - we think most of New Mills was there. There was a pub at the end of the trail and people were having pints outside on the street before finishing on recreation grounds where a stage was set up for a local band that reminded us of Arcade Fire (lots of people and instruments). Gemma slept through the walk but woke up just in time to ooh and aah at the fireworks display. Liam stayed awake the entire time and even had a hot dog at the end at about 9pm!
We took the kids to Thomas Land (yes, Thomas the Tank Engine). It's part of a larger theme park called Drayton Manor and is approx. 1.5hr drive towards Birmingham. As we entered Thomas Land, the Sir Topham Hat (formerly known as The Fat Controller) was performing a song right at the entrance and we thought Liam was going to poop himself - well, he is in diapers still, so it's always a possibility. Thomas Land was AWESOME! We may have been the only parents there who knew all the words to the songs that were playing at the different rides but, then again, we are big kids ourselves. Some of the rides were crazy and we couldn't believe Liam was allowed to go on them provided he was with a parent - he can't even go in the balls room at Ikea! There were only two rides that he wasn't tall enough for. Mummy had to go on with him for most of them as Daddy was throwing up in his mouth a bit just watching us! Liam was super cute and waived goodbye to each train character before we left. The highlight was, of couse, being pulled by the Thomas the Tank Engine and riding in his coaches Annie and Clarabel.
To expereience full British country living we went to the Sheep Dog Trials in Hayfield - a neighbouring village. They have market stalls, a bouncy castle, dog and horse shows and a 5 mile fell race that's believed to have the longest standing record, since 1977. Mark took a stab at it but no records were broken this year. A solid effort landed him 26th place out of over 200 racers in his first fell race. A fell is a really, REALLY big hill and it's like a rocky trail race. We were lucky we went the day we did as the show was cancelled the following day due to bad weather (too much rain, even for England).
Mark's Race Photo (#119)
Since we've arrived in England everyone we know and meet has told us that we must go to Blackpool to see the Illuminations - they light up the sea side street with tons of lights and displays. It's a pretty big deal here and British pop star Robbie Williams switched on the lights earlier in September to launch the event. It's been going on for years - Mark went as a young lad. We drove up for an afternoon at the beach as it was a sunny 20 degrees, the tide was way out and the sand was perfect for castles and race tracks. We walked around the tourist area, went to Pizza Hut for dinner, played very badly at a darts booth and finally drove along the promenade to see the lights (they started 10 minutes late, which is a long time with two tired kids). The displays were impressive and seemed to go on forever. We tried to think of a good comparison - it's like Jersey Shore (at least what it seems like on MTV) or The Ex, the beach and Niagara Falls (without the falls) all rolled into one flashy spectacle. And I guess it wouldn't be a proper night out in Blackpool without someone throwing up so Gemma stepped up and got car sick about halfway through the display - awesome.
Disclaimer: We really only went to the touristy part of Blackpool and we're sure the rest of the city is lovely where 40yr old men don't openly brag about how many drugs they did the weekend before while walking along the street.
We drove 2hrs to Rubery, a suburb of Birmingham to go to a family christening - Mark's cousin's daughter, Evie. We unintensionally skipped the church part after getting caught in M6 traffic as well as getting lost trying to find the church due to a misinformed sat nav (GPS) but made it to the after party at the local Legion. There were loads of people, balloons, a disco ball, beer and tunes (Bon Jovi... oh yeah!) - just the way God intended Christening parties to be.
Best Quote:
"Bring in your pram. This is Blackpool - it'll get nicked."
Blackpool Darts Booth Guy
Runner Up:
"Are you the Foriegn Lady?"
Neighbour's Mum
Happy Autumn Everyone,
The Nicholson Family
Photos: Facebook
What We're Still Getting Used To:
Only on certain words and mostly "Roar-eh the Racing Cah" Roary the Racing Car and "Pahk" Park.
We are busy balancing living and vacationing in our country village setting as Mark will start working as a supply teacher next week. We've had a few chillax days where we've been lazy and not done much of anything and that's okay since we have so much time here.
Krystal and Liam enjoyed a playdate with two of our neighbours just up the lane beside our house. New Mills is very community oriented - it's quite a small town with about 10,000 people so on the walk into town you end up seeing someone you know, which is great!
We all registered at our local Medical Clinic and got our National Health Service (NHS) numbers. Everyone received our cards in the post except for Mark as they are trying to retrieve his number from 1988 - yowsers! Mark and Gemma have even been to see the doctor - Mark for his inhaler (puffer means something totally different here - hey-oh!) and both Gemma and Liam caught a respitory virus so we took Gemma in to see if she needed any antibiotics or oral steroid as she has had in the past, which she didn't. In fact, she got on fine with only her inhalers and was all sorted out in just over a week. We were even able to go on some day trips - this is a huge milestone for us! At the clinic you can check in using a touchscreen and your name is displayed on the large screens around the waiting room when the doctor is ready to see you. Medical clinics seem to be common here where you are assigned a doctor (even has this info on your NHS paper card), but because the government mandates that doctors see patients within 48hrs of requiring one you may not always get your assigned doctor. Otherwise, there are Urgent Care Centres (like a walk-in clinic) if you need in sooner - there's one right next to our medical clinic, as well as a dentist and a Boots Pharmacy! We can walk all the way there on the Sett Valley Trail too!
Krystal and Liam signed up for a 6wk Kids Can Cook group through the local Children's Centre. There are only four kids per class and it was booked up until mid-April, but someone 'just happened to' cancel thier spot for this next run and we got in! Last week was (messy) sandwiches and this week was biscuits. Did you know it's quite common to measure ingredients by actually weighing them with a scale and using utensil spoons? Thank goodness we found measuring cups and spoons at Tesco as there weren't any at the house we're renting! We saw the scale in the cupboard and were like - uh, no. It is fun using the scale with Liam in the cooking group though :)
We've gone to our first FA Cup match (soccer) - New Mills AFC v Harrogate. Sadly, the New Mills Millers have been knocked out of the Cup, but we will hopefully make it to another home game during regular league play. The team has been around pre 1890 - the exact year is unknown. Liam was asleep for the first quarter of the match, but after he woke up and had some chips he was right into it. He also started cheering for Liverpool and Toronto, but other than that, he was right into it ;)
We joined the locals in the New Mills Festival Lantern Procession in the Torrs (gorge area) where people show off handmade lanterns constructed in festival workshops, brought their own from home or just brought themselves (we opted for this option). It was an amazing walk in the evening on the trail and over their Millennium Bridge with all the lanterns and fire sculptures - we think most of New Mills was there. There was a pub at the end of the trail and people were having pints outside on the street before finishing on recreation grounds where a stage was set up for a local band that reminded us of Arcade Fire (lots of people and instruments). Gemma slept through the walk but woke up just in time to ooh and aah at the fireworks display. Liam stayed awake the entire time and even had a hot dog at the end at about 9pm!
We took the kids to Thomas Land (yes, Thomas the Tank Engine). It's part of a larger theme park called Drayton Manor and is approx. 1.5hr drive towards Birmingham. As we entered Thomas Land, the Sir Topham Hat (formerly known as The Fat Controller) was performing a song right at the entrance and we thought Liam was going to poop himself - well, he is in diapers still, so it's always a possibility. Thomas Land was AWESOME! We may have been the only parents there who knew all the words to the songs that were playing at the different rides but, then again, we are big kids ourselves. Some of the rides were crazy and we couldn't believe Liam was allowed to go on them provided he was with a parent - he can't even go in the balls room at Ikea! There were only two rides that he wasn't tall enough for. Mummy had to go on with him for most of them as Daddy was throwing up in his mouth a bit just watching us! Liam was super cute and waived goodbye to each train character before we left. The highlight was, of couse, being pulled by the Thomas the Tank Engine and riding in his coaches Annie and Clarabel.
To expereience full British country living we went to the Sheep Dog Trials in Hayfield - a neighbouring village. They have market stalls, a bouncy castle, dog and horse shows and a 5 mile fell race that's believed to have the longest standing record, since 1977. Mark took a stab at it but no records were broken this year. A solid effort landed him 26th place out of over 200 racers in his first fell race. A fell is a really, REALLY big hill and it's like a rocky trail race. We were lucky we went the day we did as the show was cancelled the following day due to bad weather (too much rain, even for England).
Mark's Race Photo (#119)
Since we've arrived in England everyone we know and meet has told us that we must go to Blackpool to see the Illuminations - they light up the sea side street with tons of lights and displays. It's a pretty big deal here and British pop star Robbie Williams switched on the lights earlier in September to launch the event. It's been going on for years - Mark went as a young lad. We drove up for an afternoon at the beach as it was a sunny 20 degrees, the tide was way out and the sand was perfect for castles and race tracks. We walked around the tourist area, went to Pizza Hut for dinner, played very badly at a darts booth and finally drove along the promenade to see the lights (they started 10 minutes late, which is a long time with two tired kids). The displays were impressive and seemed to go on forever. We tried to think of a good comparison - it's like Jersey Shore (at least what it seems like on MTV) or The Ex, the beach and Niagara Falls (without the falls) all rolled into one flashy spectacle. And I guess it wouldn't be a proper night out in Blackpool without someone throwing up so Gemma stepped up and got car sick about halfway through the display - awesome.
Disclaimer: We really only went to the touristy part of Blackpool and we're sure the rest of the city is lovely where 40yr old men don't openly brag about how many drugs they did the weekend before while walking along the street.
We drove 2hrs to Rubery, a suburb of Birmingham to go to a family christening - Mark's cousin's daughter, Evie. We unintensionally skipped the church part after getting caught in M6 traffic as well as getting lost trying to find the church due to a misinformed sat nav (GPS) but made it to the after party at the local Legion. There were loads of people, balloons, a disco ball, beer and tunes (Bon Jovi... oh yeah!) - just the way God intended Christening parties to be.
Best Quote:
"Bring in your pram. This is Blackpool - it'll get nicked."
Blackpool Darts Booth Guy
Runner Up:
"Are you the Foriegn Lady?"
Neighbour's Mum
Happy Autumn Everyone,
The Nicholson Family
Photos: Facebook
What We're Still Getting Used To:
- The Weather in the Peak District: It could be sunny, blue skies and literally 10 mintues later, the heavens will part and it will be torrentially raining. I've learned to always, ALWAYS bring the stroller rain cover, everyone's rain coat and the brolley (umbrella). I also thing we're the only people who regularly wear sunglasses because people here don't mind squinting for a few minutes.
- Driving in the Peak District: These roads were made for horses. They are narrow and curvy and there's sometimes barely enough room for two lanes - let alone when cars are already parked on one side or both. Mark works up a sweat during most drives.
- Walking in the Peak District: The hills here are so ridiculous, they're ridonkulous! Mums and Dads here are superstars for givin 'er with their prams up these bad boys! I'm going to come back with awesome calf muscles and buns of steel!
- Picking up eggs at the grocery store from the non-refridgerated section - are they really that fresh?
- Seeing very young kids sitting in car seats in the front passenger seat. There are warnings to not place a rear-facing child in the front seat while the air bag is activated - if it's deactivated though, it's okay - crazy!
What We Can't Get Enough Of:
- Cornish Pasties from our local bakery.
- Regularly hearing roosters and seeing horses walking along our road.
- Driving past many farm fields with animals on the way out of town.
- Fell running - this one's just Mark's.
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Our First 3wks in our New UK Home
Hi Family and Friends!
Our first 3 wks in our new UK home have quickly gone by! We have all settled in quite nicely, adjusted to our new time zone with some very late nights and our village/rural setting (this isn't Toronto), and have been to 3 different Tesco grocery stores already!
On our 2nd night here, we went to Alicia and Mike's (friend's whose house we're renting) big party celebrating their birthday's, retirement and health. It was loads of fun and we got to meet and hang out with our new neighbours! Liam also had fun meeting the other kids and dancing to the band!
The next day we caught up with our friends in Leigh (Mark's hometown) and had a wonderfully sunny day in the back garden and park. Liam and Gemma played with their new friends Olivia, Ben and Charlie. This was the 2nd time Liam and Ben have played together as they met for the first time last year. There was a minor curb incident on our exit from Leigh, but nothing a new tyre and rim can't fix (yep, that's how tire is spelled here).
Our first week was VERY wet! Liam is quite observant at his young age and noted "it rains a lot in England"! We still managed to walk into our new town, New Mills, go for a few walks, a big hike, and walk through the fields to our new local pub, The Packhorse - been around since the 16th or 17th century - no one can quite remember.
The second week was lovely and sunny so we headed for the beach... in Wales! Just one night was all we needed to build sandcastles, watch the sunset whilst on The Great Orme (old coal mine) and take a tram ride, which Liam loved.
Gemma managed to get her 4th tooth and start crawling in our first week here too! She is already trying to pull herself up to standing and is crawling all over us! Liam loves it however is not too into her reaching for his cars now :)
Mark's gone for lots of good runs in both England and Wales and isn't getting too lost on the trails. He plans to join the Goyt Fell Running club.
Krystal has made friends with some other mums and dads in the neighbourhood and has found loads of children's groups and activities right in the village! Today we went to our first playgroup, Messy Play, at the local Children's Centre - walking distance. Both Liam and Gemma enjoyed it and made the room more messy than themselves (just how Mum and Dad like it).
September is New Mills Festival month and we are excited to do as the locals do.
Until next time,
The Nicholson Family
Photos: Facebook
Some Highlights of our arrival:
Our first 3 wks in our new UK home have quickly gone by! We have all settled in quite nicely, adjusted to our new time zone with some very late nights and our village/rural setting (this isn't Toronto), and have been to 3 different Tesco grocery stores already!
On our 2nd night here, we went to Alicia and Mike's (friend's whose house we're renting) big party celebrating their birthday's, retirement and health. It was loads of fun and we got to meet and hang out with our new neighbours! Liam also had fun meeting the other kids and dancing to the band!
The next day we caught up with our friends in Leigh (Mark's hometown) and had a wonderfully sunny day in the back garden and park. Liam and Gemma played with their new friends Olivia, Ben and Charlie. This was the 2nd time Liam and Ben have played together as they met for the first time last year. There was a minor curb incident on our exit from Leigh, but nothing a new tyre and rim can't fix (yep, that's how tire is spelled here).
Our first week was VERY wet! Liam is quite observant at his young age and noted "it rains a lot in England"! We still managed to walk into our new town, New Mills, go for a few walks, a big hike, and walk through the fields to our new local pub, The Packhorse - been around since the 16th or 17th century - no one can quite remember.
The second week was lovely and sunny so we headed for the beach... in Wales! Just one night was all we needed to build sandcastles, watch the sunset whilst on The Great Orme (old coal mine) and take a tram ride, which Liam loved.
Gemma managed to get her 4th tooth and start crawling in our first week here too! She is already trying to pull herself up to standing and is crawling all over us! Liam loves it however is not too into her reaching for his cars now :)
Mark's gone for lots of good runs in both England and Wales and isn't getting too lost on the trails. He plans to join the Goyt Fell Running club.
Krystal has made friends with some other mums and dads in the neighbourhood and has found loads of children's groups and activities right in the village! Today we went to our first playgroup, Messy Play, at the local Children's Centre - walking distance. Both Liam and Gemma enjoyed it and made the room more messy than themselves (just how Mum and Dad like it).
September is New Mills Festival month and we are excited to do as the locals do.
Until next time,
The Nicholson Family
Photos: Facebook
Some Highlights of our arrival:
- Getting here with all our luggage and getting a deal on the weight overage (see Lowlight #1)
- Getting a super care package from The Key Family
- Walking to our new park
- Watching horses trot by our house on the road
- Giving others directions to the town centre in week two
- Visiting Chatsworth House and Lyme Park
- Finding our nearest Toys R Us, Tesco's & Boots (like Shoppers)
- Getting up our new mobile phones (we feel very connected now!)
- Watching Yo Gabba Gabba with English accents - very funny!
- Figuring out our Sky cable for the tele - built in PVR (perfect for kids shows)!
- Realizing how many words we say are totally different here - did you know zucchini is called courgettes here? How tres francais for a country that invented English.
- Figuring out how to sort our garbage - who knew there was a more confusing system than Guelph?
Lowlights:
- Having to pay 245 quid (bucks, but in GBP) for luggage overage
- Finding out it is way more difficult to find a Lightning McQueen potty seat than anticipated and settling for rocket ships
- Finding out there are no Baby Mum Mums in England - the poor baby's here don't know what they're missing
Who Knew?:
- The post (mail) is delivered on Saturdays
- Garbage is still collected on bank holidays
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