November News

Nov 1, Thursday: Connected!
Whooooeee, we have broadband – not sure yet how to set up our wireless router (pronounced rooter) that we brought from Seattle, but at least we can read email whenever we want.

Nov 2, Friday: Bedford Auction
I had heard about the Auction – a good place to buy and sell everything from
plants to refrigerators. You view the items on Friday night and can either put in a closed bid or come to the Saturday morning auction. So, I headed over to see if there would be anything that we could use in the flat. Whoa! There were rooms filled with stuff – lots of junk, some good things, and an incredible variety of just about everything! It was overwhelming, and I don’t think I could handle it. I’d rather go to thrift stores, which are everywhere here and pay a bit more, perhaps than stand around all Saturday morning for a bargain.

We decided we’d go to a pub on Friday nights to find a good local place to hang out. As it turns out, pubs don’t serve food on Friday night, just drinks. We ended up waiting in a long line for Fred’s Fish & Chips. We took our meal, wrapped in paper cones, to The Ship, a pub just off Mill Street for Stellas on tap – not quite ready for the dark pub brew!

Nov 3, Saturday: Topsy Turvey

On our way to Costco and IKEA, we drove to Carlton to go to Emmaus, a rehabilitation center for homeless men and women. There’s a great furniture thrift store, and I was hoping to find some type of desk. We found the perfect piece, it’s an oak secretary desk – just what I wanted, and bonus, Den likes it as well. We made arrangements to have it delivered.

On our way to Carlton, we drove through Turvey – now, this is what everyone imagines an English village would look like. It was absolutely perfect – mossy stone church, small cobbled lanes, houses covered with ivy, doors framed with climbing roses. We’ll come back when we have more time to explore.

Emmanuel and Annette Ochola invited us over for dinner. Emmanual is from Nigeria, where he took his medical school training, and Annette is from the Netherlands, who met Emmanual during a semester exchange in medical school. They have two delightful daughters (who were ready for bed when we arrived at 7:00pm!). We had a lovely evening – it was nice to talk have an evening of conversation and good food.

Nov 4, Sunday: Another Day Shopping
We drove to Milton Keynes to see this new city – it’s a planned community built in 1967, and as far as I can tell, it’s pretty much one big shopping center! There’s lots of glass and fancy looking buildings. We walked around this huge indoor shopping center, had a cup of coffee, and had had about enough.

One more visit to IKEA for lamps, and to Tesco to get a microwave. I think we’ve got all the basic essentials, at least I hope so – I’m tired of shopping!

Nov 5, Monday: Bicycles on Guy Fawkes Day

Den is off on Monday mornings – which means he doesn’t have to be at work until 2:30 or so. Den has been checking out bikes and had decided to get a folding bike, and so we both got the same one – it’s been a while since I’ve been on a bike, but it will be great to have a wider-ranging territory than what I can do on foot. We took our credit card and bought two bikes, helmets, locks, and some other biking paraphernalia. Den finally got to buy something he wants, instead of all this kitchen crapola!

I went to Goldings to get keys made for the side gate, s we can put the bikes in the back shed. These keys are “skeleton” keys – big old things that look like keys to a castle. (Unfortunately, I’m going to need to take them back as the copies don’t quite work!)