Wallace and Gromit

We have some famous neighbors here in Bristol. Not only do they live here, the animation studio where their cartoons as well as Chicken Run and a couple of others I didn't recognize is just down the street by the harbour. I love Wallace and Gromit!

Gavin's First Day

Gavin just left for his first day of work. I walked with him to the train station to see him off. Good luck Gavin!!

It's weird to think that it was about 11:30 pm in Utah when we took off for the train station here.

I took pictures of him, just like the first day of school. And, yes, I do plan on meeting him at the train station to walk home with him. :)

Poll

Gavin and I have a bet on who will pick up an English accent first, so vote on who you think will be first.

Cheers from Across the Pond

We made it!! We are here in Bristol, finally. It feels weird to be here now.

The journey here went pretty smoothly, especially compared to the extremely stressful and busy days prior to our leaving. We both made our flights (we had to fly separately), both flights went very well, we got through customs well, and were able to meet up at Heathrow without any trouble (we landed in different terminals).

Jasmine wanted to come on the trip with us, but we told her she was better off at Michelle's.

We rented a car at Heathrow and drove it to Bristol. Gavin quite enjoyed driving on the left side of the road.

I didn't enjoy his driving so much.

Please excuse how awful I look. I was going on 24 hours with no sleep. :)

It was pretty crazy to drive on the left side. We keep thinking cars are going to hit us. It wasn't so bad on the "motorway", but on the city streets, it's pretty intense.

We are staying at a hotel while we are out here. Just call me Eloise! Out hotel room comes with tea and biscuits.

Here is the view of the city from our hotel room.

A crazy intersection. There aren't a lot of street lights, but there are a lot of round-abouts. Sometimes, the round-abouts are so big, there are street lights within them.

We ate at a place called Giraffe, for Gavin. The food was really good.

The taxi cabs here are so cute. They are all the same type of car.

This is the St. Mary Redcliife church. It was built around the medieval times. When we walked by, it was playing church bells to call people to church.

This was in the city center area.

This was an old church in Castle Park. It was bombed during a war in the 1940s, I think.

Inside the church.

So far, we really like it out here. We spent some time figuring out exactly where Gavin will be working and how best to get there. We found some missionaries while we were walking around and found out where church is.

Some odd things we've discovered:

The escalators, as in which side goes up and which side goes down, is switched, just like driving on the roads. We keep trying to get on the wrong escalator.

Everyone we talk to does a little double take as soon as we start speaking. We've been asked if we are from the states several times already.

We stare blankly for a second when we ask how much something is while we try and figure out how many dollars it is.

The money looks and feels fake, but the coins are pretty cool.

The stores close around 6:00 here because most people spend the evening in a pub.

A yield sign is "give way"

The speed limit is just a number posted on the side of the road. Took us a little bit to figure out what the numbers on the side meant.

There are some weird commercials here. Some really weird ones.

It's a really smart idea to pack some clothes you will need in your carry on. Gavin forgot to pack most of his dress shirts in in suit cases, but has a couple that he put in his carry on just in case his luggage got lost.

That's all for now. Gavin starts work tomorrow, so send him some good luck vibes! He'll do great, I have no doubt.

Privacy Please

I debated what I wanted to do with the blog.  With our other blog, I'm very careful with what I put on there.  My rule of thumb is if I don't want the general public to be able to see it, then it shouldn't go on the blog.  I never talk about vacations before hand, I'm careful with pictures of our house and the neighborhood, etc, etc.  I don't want to make it too easy for a stalker to find us.  I didn't feel comfortable with the idea of posting our travels on our blog while we were still traveling. 

I'm always surprised what information I can find on peoples blog.  Addresses, naked pictures of kids, schedules including vacations and lots more.  While it's nice to see what my friends are up to, if someone untrust worthy came across that, you just made their job that much easier.  While the chances of that happening are slim,  I would rather not take the chance.

After going through all of the options, I decided that creating a seperate private blog that's just for family and a few friends was the best option.  That way I can still blog about it as it is happening and I feel better that I'm not annoucing to the world to come rob our house or something. This blog will eventually go public, so all of our friends can see it, but for now it's private. 

The only thing I would ask is keep that in mind if you link this blog on your own.  Be careful as what you link it as.  Try to name it as something generic that doesn't announce we aren't in the country right now.  In return, I will do my best to keep this as updated as possible.  Deal?  :)

Our Next Crazy Adventure

Most of the family knows why we are going to be in the UK, but there are some friends invited to this blog that don't have the slightest clue as to what is happening.  :)

Gavin was offered a chance to do some contract work with the Ministry of Defense through his work.  It's going to be very similar (we think) to the work he currently does with the Navy here in DC.  Some sort of coordination stuff. 

So off we go to the UK!  Gavin first mentioned the possibility of this a couple of months ago.  The UK client was talking about how they needed someone like Gavin to come do the same thing Gavin was doing here.  Several people put their name into the mix, including Gavin.  He didn't really think he would get it and he didn't want it as nearly as much as some of the other people but Gavin got offered the position because he's amazing at what he does. 

It's been a little bit of a test of faith for us.  Getting details on the trip has been painful.  At first, we were just told that the position could last from anywhere from 1-6 months.  That's about all the information we had to make the decision with.  We finally got his official start date just a couple of weeks ago and we still don't know exactly when we will be back home.  We have a rough idea, but no set date.  We feel good about this decision.

This is going to be an amazing opportunity for Gavin's career.  I'm so proud of all of the hard work Gavin does and to see that he is getting recognition for what an amazing engineer, hard worker, and great guy he is.  I know that he is going to do a wonderful job with his work in the UK. 

Last year, on our other blog, I talked about of first year in DC and how I hoped the next year would bring new, crazy adventures for us.  It took a little longer than a year, but we're off on the next adventure!  Wish us luck!

New Blog

Hopefully, everyone is able to get to the new blog without any problems.  Let me know that you made it or if you know anyone who is having problems getting in.