It’s been… one week

Over the last week all the mammals have all basically settled into their new enclosure – and as temperatures hit 30C/90F, we’re happy the current enclosure has air conditioning.

I spent the week at work, which was something of a return to the familiar as I’ve been visiting this office and these teams several times a year since joining Amazon.  I have a desk and all the trimmings and a new notebook with a UK layout keyboard – which is sending my brain into fits each morning when the return and shift keys are the wrong shape, and a couple other commonly used keys are in the wrong spots.

Dawnise did a bunch of grocery shopping (you forget all the stuff you need when you have none of the stuff you need) – and we managed to cook in our kitchen – which was clearly made more to look at than to actually cook in.  We managed to make a reasonable approximation of Mexican food – complete and accurate, aside from re-fried beans (surely they exist, but not at the local Tesco). She looked at more flats, wandered through Borough Market, and generally enjoyed that this time we moved to a country where we mostly speak the language.

We’ve made a lease offer on a flat* – and assuming they don’t discover anything unacceptable about us during the so-called “referencing” process we expect to move (again) in the middle of July.  We’ll have a guest bedroom, reservations on a first-ask-first-served basis.

Week after next we’re heading to Spain for a few days for a friends’ wedding – they were awesome about leaving the invite open around our move uncertainty – and we’re looking forward to celebrating with them.

Today we’re going to find some brunch, head to a birthday picnic this afternoon (here’s hoping we can find some shade so Dawnise doesn’t burn to a crisp) and are having dinner tonight with a colleague and his partner.

We continue to marvel at how willing the Brits are to tolerate a completely stupid laundry system (oh. my. god. becky. the dryer is soooo worthless!), stress about finding food for the cats that Ivan isn’t allergic to and that they’ll both eat (we brought some from the states, but it won’t last forever), and be confounded at the seeming lack of pet supply stores in this part of London.  It’s hard to tell if Amazon and other online retailers are filling a critical need, or if they’ve driven all the local shops into insolvency.

Until next time,
…Dan & Dawnise

* top floor of this building

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