In Answer To Your Questions

I started this blog as a way to keep friends and family back home informed of our comings and goings.  Some of my former bloggy pals (whom I've never met in real life but FEEL like I know them well) have joined the adventure and need some of the back-story.

In December Murph was offered an opportunity to join the UK office of his company.  His job will remain, for the most part, the same.  However his territory now includes western Europe, Sweden, Norway, Finland,... and well you get the point.

We will be letting a flat, paid for by the company, that we were able to choose.  It is in the town of Windsor and is literally in the shadow of Windsor Castle!  It is currently occupied and we won't move in until mid-March.  We are growing weary of the hotel (Murph is now on week four!) and are working on moving to a short-term let ASAP.

I continue to work, remotely, at my former job.  I believe some of you know that I was looking to make a change last spring but this and that and the organization made some changes to keep me around and so I am still with them.  I'll continue to write grants and do the reports, handle much of the marketing and plan to be back in the States for my event on March 1st.  Let's just say e-mail and remote desktop access are a wondrous thing!

So welcome Jenn, Violet, Green Girl and anyone else who happens to find me!

Laundry, How I love It

In true Murphy fashion we've already been to some great pubs; The Swan, Farriers Arms and St George and Dragon to name a few. More on those later because I have to tell you about the hotel laundry.

 You leave things to be cleaned in the morning and they are returned in the afternoon.



Nicely Bagged





Neatly folded and wrapped in tissue

  

Socks, undies and t-shirts


   
 

Dress shirts on hangers





Wait - What's this?



Yeah baby, that's how I roll in the UK!






Who Knew?

So we're staying in a hotel in Reading, UK.  We're looking at flats in Windsor and have narrowed it down to a few choices.  We are looking forward to being settled and enjoying all that Europe has to offer.  In the meantime, as Murph and I are both working, the days are full  and "tourist status" is not exactly where we're situated at the moment. 

Nevertheless I am trying to soak up the local flavor.  Because it was within walking distance of the hotel, I visited that venerable and quintessentially English establishment:

COSTCO!

From the guy checking your card as you enter to the guy checking your receipt as you exit it exactly the same as the US!

Stacks of clothes.

Towers of  dry goods

At check out members on one side, carts on the other .

And please notice the menu board at the top of the last picture. They even have the famous Costco Hot Dog.

What you probably can’t read is the item second from the left – steak and kidney pie. Don’t think that would play Stateside!

So there you have it.  All the cultural wonders England has to offer can be found here!

Cheers!
Karen and Murph

Crazy From the Start

Wikipedia defines Mid-Life Crisis thusly: "Midlife crisis is a term coined in 1965 by Elliott Jaques and used in Western societies to describe a period of dramatic self-doubt that is felt by some individuals in the "middle years" or middle age of life, as a result of sensing the passing of their own youth and the imminence of their old age. A midlife crisis is experienced by many people during the midlife transition when they realize that life may be more than halfway over." At (very) nearly fifty-six and forty-nine years of age Murph and I are deeply into "middle age".  While my children will be quick to assure you that I will live for fucking EVER out of pure spite assure me I will live a good long life, any way you look at it I'm at least half way through my stay here.  As for Murph? Well let's just say "zip-a-dee-do-dah" and leave it at that. Additionally, it has been medically determined that falling levels of testosterone (Murph) and estrogen (me) indicate our bodies are falling to shit not what they used to be.   These are the same hormones that in appropriate levels keep you for losing both your memory and your sanity. Falling levels?  Not so much.    Nevertheless, our psyches were over-ruling our bodies and screaming "Before you fall completely apart do something extraordinary for the love of all that is holy"! This internal struggle between mind and body caused us to ponder the possibilities.  We considered our options:   A: Take up say knitting and/or shuffle board   OR   B: Spend our retirement savings on a red Corvette/52' Speed Boat/Cruise around the world   OR   C: Move to a new and different place   Ladies and gentlemen?  We opted for "C".   And so we find ourselves (temporarily) in a hotel in Reading, Berkshire, England just west of London.  We are working with letting agents and trying to figure our just where we should live for the next twelve months.   Won't you join us on our most excellent adventure?   Kindest regards, Karen and Murph