Received our first care package today! Thanks Nan! She sent us soda crackers, kraft dinner, macaroni, chez whiz, molasses, and onion soup mix. Yay! Normal food! Well, if you can call Chez Whiz and KD normal! But who cares, it takes like home and that's all that matters. I was so excited. I'm gonna bake me some ginger cookies with the molasses! Sweet!
Oh, the oven. Let me tell you about our wonderful LITTLE oven. Firstly, the oven/stove are called the cooker and/or hob here. You may be able to cook a small chicken leg in this thing. I believe our BBQ will actually hold more. Secondly, it's in Celsius. This is interesting. It's like driving a car in Canada in Miles without the KM gauge - how do you know how fast you're going? How do I know what heat to put this thing on if my recipe is in Fahrenheit? Thank God for Daws Hill! On our In Clearance they provided us with a handy dandy book of various things that are different from Canada and what the equivalent is here. Fabulous! In this book is a conversion between Celcius and Farenheit. I'm off to the races...
Now for some baking. Third observation, the cookie sheet will NOT fit in the oven. Not sideways, frontways (that a word?), upside down, I don't think it would even fit if it was folded. No problem. I'll use the pizza pans. Fourth observation which I had observed before but must put this into perspective for you...the oven does not have an element on the top and the bottom, no it's on the sides! Well! What a brilliant idea! I can bake and have the sides of everything black and the top and bottom doughy! This inventor was a genius. Sure enough, cookies begin to burn on the sides and are not cooking on the bottom. So I'll rotate the pan every few minutes as these cookies are suppose to bake for only 7. 10 minutes later and several rotations, it's time to take the cookies out as they are getting too dark. In this instance, black does not mean cooked. They are totally doughy on the bottom. So that's how we'll eat'em I guess. Yum! What a fantastic experience. I can't wait for the next adventure. The unfortunate thing is I love to bake and now that love may quickly fade.
After several doughy cookies and glasses of milk, it's time for bed.
Monday, 30 April 2007
Sunday, 29 April 2007
Touring The Lizard & Porthleven
It took a long time to get in gear today. I am too old to be out until stupid o'clock in the morning and getting little sleep. Once on the go, we headed down to the Lizard and the Lizard Peninsula. It is the most southerly point of England and is about 20 minutes from here. Another beautiful place. It once again feels like the end of the world, overlooking the Atlantic ocean.
We took a short drive through Porthleven which is about 8 minutes from here and it is also on the coast. Very neat little town. We'll definitely be back to check it out and take pictures. Porthleven is very popular with surfers. Apparently, we will be doing a learn to surf day this summer. I'm scared already! 
Just before Porthleven is a small area called The Loe which leads to Loe Pool which is Cornwall's largest fresh water lake. http://www.westcountrywalks.com/wcornwall/southcoast/loepool/loepool-01.php Keith and I walked some of the foot path until we reached a small beach (as seen in the pictures). We thought this was Loe Pool at the time. I am now learning, by reading the article in the above link, that it is further and much more impressive. This will be another returning point to discover. 
There is no shortage of natural beauty here - between the richest green of trees, rolling hills and fields, the mass variety of colorful flowers I've never seen before, the rugged coast lines and of course the Atlantic Ocean. The pictures I take will never do the scenery justice. You have to visit and see for yourself just how amazingly beautiful it is here.
Saturday, 28 April 2007
Our First Friends (aka Mates)
Keith and I ran to the B&Q (UK Home Depot) today and picked up a ton of extension cords (aka extension leads), plug adapters (all large 3 prong plugs - ours don't fit), and light bulbs. We brought all of our Canadian lamps (6) with us and in order to operate them here (different electricity) we had to get new bulbs and plug adapters. Not really having a clue about electricity (thank God Keith does or I'm sure I would have exploded all the lamps by now and burnt down the house) apparently our lamps are within the voltage limits here so we don't need a transformer to plug the lamps into. Good thing because they are expensive and weigh more than I do! The military provides us with 3 transformers so we use those to power our small appliances like our blender, mixer, bread machine, etc. One lamp Keith had to actually rewire, because of course the light bulbs here are different. Like everything else really. They have a narrow bottom, unlike our Canadian bulbs with a wide bottom (no technical terms here!). And they don't screw in, they somewhat snap into place. Anyway, it was a good learning experience and if you ever need a lamp rewired, I'm your lady! If you want your house burnt down that is. So that was my electricity tutorial for the day.
Early evening some of the crew Keith is on course with came over for a BBQ and drinks. These are all British Royal Navy guys who live at the base for the time being and are about our age. I met Mike, Simon (aka Blue), Kevin, and Matt (??) - can't remember the poor guys' first name. These guys are a riot. Their mission was to show us the Helston night life. We first went to the Blue Anchor which is a traditional old British pub - small, low ceilings, with lots of character. It is the popular pub for the older locals. This pub also brews its own beer and they are reknowned for their beer called Spingo. I had been warned by a few people in the past weeks to go to the Blue Anchor, but don't drink the Spingo. What does Mike order us all, but the Spingo! We figured we had to try it, even though I'm not a beer drinker! It wasn't as bad as I am been warned, it just tasted like strong beer to me and I made it through about 2 fingers (which apparently is the amount in your glass that is about 2 fingers wide - wrap two fingers around your glass and that's about it). Dad, Keith & I will be taking you for a Spingo when you visit! Next, we headed to the classiest bar (just across the street) in Helston; Big T's. For those of you who have been to the Palace in Halifax, well Big T's is its twin, just on a much smaller scale. Even better, they smoke on the dance floor here! I haven't seen this in years and was quite thrown back by it. It's strange enough to be in a restaurant and someone is smoking next to you (very normal here), but on a dance floor was a surprise. Despite the shadiness of the bar we hung around and danced the night away. These guys love to dance - Yay! And the music was just like at home. We cleared out of there at 2:30am - who'da thought you could dance in Helston until the wee hours of the morning! Kevin couldn't make it home so he crashed on the futon for the night. All in all, we had a great night! I have a feeling there will be more of those to come. Keith will have a great time on course with these guys - no shortage of fun and laughter.
Something else I learned today is that "Fancy Dress Parties" are very popular here, especially at the Ward Room. My first thought was get dressed up (like for a mess dinner), but no fancy dress means costume! Apparantly, they have quite a few costume parties throughout the year. Not sure why, but it could be interesting. I also learned that the Brits use many of our crude slang terms and was given the run down of some traditional drinking games. I am now much more educated than I started out to be today! Haha.
Early evening some of the crew Keith is on course with came over for a BBQ and drinks. These are all British Royal Navy guys who live at the base for the time being and are about our age. I met Mike, Simon (aka Blue), Kevin, and Matt (??) - can't remember the poor guys' first name. These guys are a riot. Their mission was to show us the Helston night life. We first went to the Blue Anchor which is a traditional old British pub - small, low ceilings, with lots of character. It is the popular pub for the older locals. This pub also brews its own beer and they are reknowned for their beer called Spingo. I had been warned by a few people in the past weeks to go to the Blue Anchor, but don't drink the Spingo. What does Mike order us all, but the Spingo! We figured we had to try it, even though I'm not a beer drinker! It wasn't as bad as I am been warned, it just tasted like strong beer to me and I made it through about 2 fingers (which apparently is the amount in your glass that is about 2 fingers wide - wrap two fingers around your glass and that's about it). Dad, Keith & I will be taking you for a Spingo when you visit! Next, we headed to the classiest bar (just across the street) in Helston; Big T's. For those of you who have been to the Palace in Halifax, well Big T's is its twin, just on a much smaller scale. Even better, they smoke on the dance floor here! I haven't seen this in years and was quite thrown back by it. It's strange enough to be in a restaurant and someone is smoking next to you (very normal here), but on a dance floor was a surprise. Despite the shadiness of the bar we hung around and danced the night away. These guys love to dance - Yay! And the music was just like at home. We cleared out of there at 2:30am - who'da thought you could dance in Helston until the wee hours of the morning! Kevin couldn't make it home so he crashed on the futon for the night. All in all, we had a great night! I have a feeling there will be more of those to come. Keith will have a great time on course with these guys - no shortage of fun and laughter.
Something else I learned today is that "Fancy Dress Parties" are very popular here, especially at the Ward Room. My first thought was get dressed up (like for a mess dinner), but no fancy dress means costume! Apparantly, they have quite a few costume parties throughout the year. Not sure why, but it could be interesting. I also learned that the Brits use many of our crude slang terms and was given the run down of some traditional drinking games. I am now much more educated than I started out to be today! Haha.
Friday, 27 April 2007
Kyle's Wings Parade
Today is Kyle's Wings Parade in Winnipeg! Congrats Kyle! Wish we could be there to celebrate with you. Chris will be presenting Kyle with his wings and then Kyle is finally off to home again where Paulette patiently awaits!
We were thinking of going to Chumleigh for the weekend to help Dale & Lauren get settled, but their shipment isn't arriving until Tuesday. We'll probably stick around here, finish up the reorganizing of the house, and do some touring in this neck of the woods as there's so much to see. Keith will be glad to finish up another long week and will be happy to do anything as long as he has a beer in his hand.
Keith finished work early around 1pm and we did some more reorganzing over the afternoon and evening. Pretty quiet night. However, I did spend almost an hour on the webcam with Dad and even had a drink with him! Matthew popped into his place near the end of the convo so I got to see him too.
On a side note, completely off topic - the Brits spell tires with a 'y' = tyres. Bizarre. They also seem to replace the 'z' in words that end with 'ize' with an 's' = 'ise' so organize to us is organise to them. Just another oddity I have discovered. I could have an entire blog just for their oddities! Haha.
We were thinking of going to Chumleigh for the weekend to help Dale & Lauren get settled, but their shipment isn't arriving until Tuesday. We'll probably stick around here, finish up the reorganizing of the house, and do some touring in this neck of the woods as there's so much to see. Keith will be glad to finish up another long week and will be happy to do anything as long as he has a beer in his hand.
Keith finished work early around 1pm and we did some more reorganzing over the afternoon and evening. Pretty quiet night. However, I did spend almost an hour on the webcam with Dad and even had a drink with him! Matthew popped into his place near the end of the convo so I got to see him too.
On a side note, completely off topic - the Brits spell tires with a 'y' = tyres. Bizarre. They also seem to replace the 'z' in words that end with 'ize' with an 's' = 'ise' so organize to us is organise to them. Just another oddity I have discovered. I could have an entire blog just for their oddities! Haha.
Thursday, 26 April 2007
Gabby Haze...
Talk, talk, talk....that's about sums up my day. Booked an interview/appointment for May 10th to get set up with a National Insurance Number (NIN) - it's like our SIN. Spoke to a few people at placement agencies about jobs and went to the Military Family Recource Center (MFRC) to meet the Administrator (she's a great resource for what Helston has to offer). Jumped in the car and went for a little cruise on my own to see what else is around. Pretty quiet evening otherwise.
Wednesday, 25 April 2007
Happy Birthday Chris!
Spent the day unpacking the last of the boxes. Still some rearranging to do, but we'll get there. Today is Chris Spearin's birthday so Keith & I went to dinner with him, his house mate and her boyfriend at The Warehouse in Falmouth. Ate so much we almost exploded. Good times as always! Chris is now on his way to Winnipeg for Kyle's Wings parade on Friday!
Tuesday, 24 April 2007
Sea Shipment Arrived!
At 8:30am this morning I saw the truck with our sea container pull up in front of our house. It's here! Woohoo! I was like a kid at Christmas. The movers arrived at 9:30am and started the unload. They finished at 12:30pm and I was left in disarray. Boxes everywhere. I started with the kitchen and proved to myself how much of a girl I am. It was the most exciting part of the unpack. I was elated to see measuring cups, mixing bowls, cooking utensils, you name it. I swear it was like opening gifts at Xmas because I was ripping the paper off and trying to guess what things were. You really have a new appreciation for your belongings (no matter what they are) when you haven't had the luxury of them for a month.
Enough proving to you all that I have lost my mind...we have the bulk of the unpacking complete. Still a bit disorganized but I think we'll finish tomorrow. And a key point...we didn't kill each other.
Enough proving to you all that I have lost my mind...we have the bulk of the unpacking complete. Still a bit disorganized but I think we'll finish tomorrow. And a key point...we didn't kill each other.
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