Not a manic Monday

Today we did less than expected.  We met with RR Global Mobility people to iron out details and ask any questions.  We were going to open a bank account but you need a permenant address so we have to wait until we have signed paperwork on a house.  House hunting is Wednesday so in the meantime we continue to exchange money at the usury rate of 1.67.  It is a little tough turning in $200 and getting 119 GBP (Great Britian Pounds) and 68 pence back.  Gotta love the weak American dollar.  

Lori's first ride, or "hired" car as the Global Mobility person called the rental car.  A Peugeot 508 SW, auotomatic transmission but a boat by UK standards.  So we go back to the Avis location...

And Lori gets a manual Ford Focus TDCi.  Much smaller which she likes.  Surprisingly she said left handed shifting  wasn't very difficult.  It must be true as she didn't grind any gears today.

Today's Kevin Coleman pic.  The tap handle didn't say cider on it so I was a little surprised when I saw the glass but it was okay.  Interestingly the bartender asked if I wanted ice in the drinks (Lori ordered a Diet Coke) and I said yes not thinking that she would put ice in my beer.  As you can see I was wrong.  Either she has waited on Americans that prefer cold beer before or the American cold beer preference is widely known. 

Today's Dana Johnson pic.  We ate lunch at Walkabout, an Australian restaurant.  I ordered the Kangaroo meat salad.  Described as a generous bowl of greens on the menu I was expecting a larger portion.  Obviously American generous is different that Brit generous.  The kangaroo meat was very good.  Lori would not try the kangaroo.  The salad was very good.  The salad dressing is mayo, not a normal US option but it tasted good with the meat. 

So for the rest of the afternoon we shopped around downtown and picked up a couple of items for the kids.  (No spoliers kids - you have to wait for us to get home to find out what we picked up.)  We have seen a LOT of clothing stores for Kalle over here, I am not excited.  We have also seen a few gaming stores for Karl but he will be forced to just drool on the games as we are bringing our gaming systems with us.  (Grandparents and aunts/uncles can expect a video game specific Christmas and birthday list from Karl.)  The US and Europe gaming systems have different region codes so you can't play British purchased games on US consoles.  

Weather has been very good here.  All of my three days so far has been mostly sunny and borderline no jacket/light jacket weather.  Mornings have been 14-15 degrees C (57-59 degrees F) and get up to 19-20 degrees C (66-68 degrees F).  We have been warned not to expect this type of weather, everyone seems to be surprised at how nice it has been.

We have seen a lot more American influences here then I expected.  American music, current (Lady Gaga) and old (Beach Boys) is blared all over the downtown area.  American TV shows are on the tele although the hotel tele programming is sparce at best.  One of the people we discussed American - Great Britian differences with did say that British TV carries a lot of American shows.  I find it interesting because American TV adapts British shows instead of broadcasting them as is like they do over here.

And no Mountain Dew over here.  I may have to cancel the secondment.  On the positive side I guess I will finally kick my MD addiction.

Thanks for listening,
Jay