"when you come to these 3rd world countries"

As of today it's two weeks since I've arrived in Manchester - or make that Wilmslow. Obviously been a bit busy; so even if I had internet access this whole time I doubt I would have posted. I did manage to journal - well like once or twice.

I do feel the need to capture a few highlights just so that I can have a history of sorts.

Arrived with D on September 20th - Wednesday afternoon. Our first stop from the airport was our new house, where we waited for ten minutes before the letting agent came over to let us in. We basically dropped off five suitcases, did a quick walk through of the house, packed a small overnight bag and headed to the Didsbury House Hotel in Didsbury.

The next couple of days consisted of cabbing it to the infamous John Lewis department store and buying basics for the house. We were constantly on the go, by the time evening came we collapsed - after a glass of wine of course.

By Friday we were in our house and enjoyed our first home cooked meal and sleeping on our new air mattress. By Sunday night we had purchased the majority of our furniture - the living room furniture though won't arrive until November - or maybe December. However still quite pleased that we got the house set up in four days.

Monday - first day in the office. Rather low key - fine by me.

D spent most of his days exploring parts of Manchester and picking up stuff for the house.

Over the week-end we explored Manchester together. Unfortunately I started thinking of the inevitable - D's departure coming up on Tuesday. We'd been through so much together - how could he leave me???

Monday - my driving lesson! Wasn't nearly as bad as I thought. Drove home in my newly rented black VW Golf. That night we decided to go out to dinner for D's last night. On the way out as I was switching on the outside light - a fuse blew and all the downstairs lights went out. We ventured down to the cellar to the fuse box; tried everything but couldn't get it to come back on. Screw it - we went out anyway. The upstairs lights still worked, the heat still worked, all the electrical outlets worked; I'd call the letting agent in the morning.

Tuesday 4:00am - D departed.

Tuesday 9:00am - the letting agent finally opens up, and Yann sent over a guy from the office (James) to take a look. It was clear Yann thought I was an idiot and didn't know how to flip the switch from the breaker box. James came over and guess what - he couldn't figure it out either.

Tuesday night - came home around 7:30pm - no lights and now no heat on first floor, plus the fridge was off. I was tired, upset, and missed D. So, I went upstairs to our bedroom and had myself a good short cry and then stopped so I could deal with the situation. I sent an angry email to Yann and to the landlord (just in case he might be checking I wanted to let him know how this situation was being handled) - thankfully I had his email address. Later I sent a note to my two lovely sisters - one of which told me to "pull up" and reminded me there others that are worse off. (what a B she can be - no matter how true her comments were). The landlord called and profusely apologized. An hour later, while talking to D on the phone, the freaking house alarm went off! I told D to hang on and I called Barry - the landlord back. He walked me through what to do and just when I thought it was all okay - it went off again. F! Finally got it to go off. Called D back to explain - of course he was all worried. Decided I'd take a hot shower and put on my sweats and long sleeved shirt and get under the blankets. Got in the shower and had hot water for maybe 30 seconds. Oh well, I got under the blankets. Barry called back and offered to come out to the house; said no, and agreed that he would come out first thing in the morning.

Wednesday - this morning. Barry arrived at 7:30am - got the hot water to come back, the outlets working again but still no lights. He left.

At 9:15 - I called Yann and right or wrong I simply let him have it. I was so upset.

Phil, the electrician called me at 9:30ish and told me the reason he didn't call me on Tuesday was that Yann didn't give him my correct number (instead he gave him his own number - brilliant that Yann is). Phil showed up at 10:30 found a new breaker box hidden under a cover and just like that flipped that little damn switch and everything was back to normal.

This morning around 8, before everything was workingl I sent a note off to my mgmt team at work explaining that at that time I had no hot water, that I was losing more electricity, no fridge, etc. One of the guy's - Danny responded, "when you come to these 3rd world countries....".

Brilliant.

am I really here?

I arrived last Thursday with D. It doesn't seem like we're on the other side of the world.

Two more days...

Bags are packed. I'm so going to be over my weight limit with all my luggage. Thankfully I have a great boss and she's fine with it.

It doesn't feel like I'm really moving away. Since D is staying at home with the cats our house in Portland still looks as it always does. The only thing that's different is less clothes in the closets. I'm sure I'd feel different if our house was packed up too. I'm glad I'm able to take baby steps.

I was going to get so much work done yesterday; ended up not doing even half of it. Instead we ended going over to friends new condo and then we all went out to dinner - Irving St. Kitchen (which was really good). But, that was six hours of not doing anything on my list! Oh well, I'm learning that not everything on my list really has to get done. More fun to be with friends. If I forget anything I can get it overthere.

That's it for today. It's 8, I want to chill with my sweety, hold little juju and have a glass of wine.

Packing

I have three and a half suitcases to pack whatever I want to take with me. It's 3:15; we're meeting friends at 5:30. I'm giving myself 90 minutes to pack. Let's see if I can do it.

Here's my list: clothes, shoes, yoga mat, books, and a few small personal things.

Stateside

Five days before departing to Manchester; or as D like's to say, "we're moving north of London".

This morning my passport with my brand new UK visa arrived. What a freakin' pain that process was. I won't to go into details, however I will say that the LA Consulate sucks.

Okay, so I'm starting this blog as I want to document and share, with at least a few of you, this adventure I'm taking over to the UK. First off though, I need to make something very clear - I'm not a writer. So don't be expecting any great prose from me. I do love to talk and so my writing seems to be more of running monologue of my thoughts.

Tonight I took my last led primary class (ashtanga yoga) with J. I'm seriously going to miss him and this class in particular. Doing a simple led class on Friday evening brings nice closure to whatever kind of week I've had. It's the only day that I practice in the evening. Which means I get to enjoy that little extra bit of flexibility that happens when practicing at 6:30pm and not 6am. Plus it gives me a jolt of energy for a Friday night - it's those backbends at the end of class.

Enough of yoga talk.

My aim for my remaining days in PDX is not to be thinking 'my last this' or 'last that'; too emotionally draining. Rather I'm just going to stay in the moment - or at least try. Tomorrow morning will be my last farmer's market.