Bob & Betty go British

Hoorah for Broadband

Normal operations have resumed. We have our broadband. We have our ADSL wireless modem router. We are sitting in front of the television, a computer on each lap, and browsing the internet independently. Along with the purchase of our rice cooker we can now safely say that it's just like home! It's been rather stressful not having a permanent internet connection. Having it at work is a help but the lunch hour isn't really enough time to browse far and wide. I managed to find a "free" dial-up (so last century) connection which did cost us a couple of pounds in phone calls, but did tide us over for the last week. It was so very slow and the new broadband is so fast.

So to the last week. It's been hot. Yes, it has been slowly heating up over the last week only to culminate in a horrible sticky day of 30 degrees which thankfully produced a storm over night to cool things down. It's not that outside is very hot. It's just that there is no airconditioning or ventilation in buildings, buses, trains or tube and it just makes you feel hotter than you should. Our unit isn't much better. It doesn't have a cross draft so it's difficult to cool it down and we can't sleep with the windows open because it's too noisy. Sorry, just practising my whinging pom :-)

Robert and I have both been sick. I had the virus late last week and Robert came down with it on Sunday. He's now at the annoying cough stage. It was just the usual run of the mill virus - runny nose, sore throat, aches and pains. Still, it came and went very quickly which is good.

One thing I can be excited about is the joy of living in a country with a local Amazon. Robert ordered our ADSL wireless modem router on Thursday at lunch time, it was dispatched at 1am on Friday and by lunch time it had arrived at my work in Covent Garden. Now that's service for you! Even more exciting is the fact that delivery was free!!! There was much mirth and merriment when I announced to my colleagues that my router had arrived. You see they call it a rooter (spelt phoenetically for clarity) and when those who had lived in Australia explained why not everyone uses the word rooter, we had a good giggle. It's so nice to be able to pass on some of that culture from the colonies.

Speaking of the colonies, we spent Saturday night at the local pub with Matt and Mel and a whole bunch of ex-pat friends. Matt and Mel are about to move to a South Eastern suburb at the end of June and wanted to farewell the local pubs of Putney. We had a very pleasant evening in the beer garden.

I apologise for not having any further pictures or tourist-type information. We have been trying to get our place sorted (yes ok, i'll take some pictures of Putney for next time). After all a rice cooker and a router are essentials for living. We've been working out where all the supermarkets are and adding to our pantry. We've also got a pop-up mesh laundry thingy, a new toilet brush and a wooden spoon. Like I said, all those essentials that make life more pleasant. Robert has been hard at work looking for cars and motorbikes. We spent Saturday trapsing around the place checking out the local motorcycle dealers. We didn't see anything particularly good. However, they are relatively cheap which is good. You can get cheap second hand cars too. Robert thinks having an old banger to get out of the city could be cheaper in the long run than hiring a car each time we need it. Still, we'll see what happens when we start looking at those 500 pound cars... Robert has standards you know.

So from the land of heatwaves and bungled police raids I leave you until my next crazed rant.

posted by Elisabeth @ 8:58 PM