T-H-E-C-A-R

The school that I will be teaching in is too far away from my home for me to get there easily. There is no public transportation services. And that means that I have 2 options: either I rent a car on a long-term basis, or I buy a car. After much research, I have discovered that not only is it less expensive to buy, but also to buy a new car rather than a used car. So, after even more research, I found the car I would buy. It is called a Toyota Aygo, and is a "micro-car." It gets more than 60mpg, and is tiny. I ordered it yesterday, and it should be here sometime in September. I'll still have to rent a car at the start of the school year, but for a lot less time than I thought. Here are some pictures of my exact specification.


The outside, which has 4 doors. There is enough space on the inside for Ashley to fit, but it will only ever fit 4 people.

The back, with the tiny trunk. It produces 106 g of carbon per kilometer, which means that I only have to pay the lowest amount of road tax each year. This is good.


The inside. Yep, the driving stuff is on the right. I have discovered that this disturbs me most when I am trying to flick the windshield wipers on, because I end up messing with the turn signal instead. My brain hasn't figured out that I need to think about which side the wipers are on yet.


And the inside from the door. This car is also nice because it has the lowest insurance rating possible, which means that the insurance on it will be low.

These pics are not of my potential car, because it has not yet been built. There is so much demand for this brand that there is a 6 week backlog. It's nothing fancy, but it is safe, inexpensive (comparatively,) and ecologically friendly. It will happily get me to work and home. Don't worry, we still intend to keep walking everywhere locally, though. Our town is so compact that it would be silly to drive. But we may well get to go and do more sightseeing when we own a car. Here's hoping.

More Photo Goodness

2009: Courtesy of Kelley

These photos were taken while out for a simple walk by the river. The day was warm and bright and sunny, and it had been hot enough that the banks of the river looked fairly dry and dead. In these, however, I think it looks really good.


There was a little old man sitting close by on a bench, feeding the ducks. This photo shoot took about an hour, and the man just kept staring at us. I suppose we were a bit more interesting than the ducks were, though if you had given Ashley the opportunity, she would have disagreed. She thinks there is nothing more interesting than ducks.

Personally, I think these photos came out as well, if not better than they would have if we had gone to a photographer. Thank you again, Kelley.

Pictures (because Kelley is good at those and I am really not, so I'll take advantage of her goodness now, kthxbai.)

Kelley is here, trying not to catch our sick-bug and snapping photos of the interesting things we are doing. She is much better at posting pictures than I am. Obviously. Just to pretend that I am not quite as bad as I actually am, I'll post a few here for you all. Not the interesting ones, of course, but only the ones of us, because there are fewer of them and all.

Day 1: B00's Birthday

Kelley arrives. B00 (not my Boo-bear, but a friend) has birthday dinner at pizza express. Then there is a pub involved. Don't worry - Amy drinks water.


Day 2: Deal Castle

We go and check out my new school, see my classroom, and meet the headteacher. Then on to Deal where we have just enough time to tour Deal castle before needing to head home so Amy can go to a dinner thing with the people she will be working with next year. It is at a casino - Amy is not impressed. And again, don't worry - Amy drinks water (though they really tried to get me to drink champagne and wine and cocktails.)



Day 3: Bodiam Castle

We all 4 brave the hour and a half trip to Bodiam castle, and have way too much fun in the stocks while we are there.

Kelley sad in the stocks.


Amy, well pleased, stealing Kelley's shoes.


Stephen in the stocks.


Amy getting herself in trouble again.

Amy finally gets put in the stocks herself.


Ashley not even pretending to be sad. She likes it, that one.



"Hey - let's put our heads in!" says Amy.

"Ash - I think we are stuck and its your fault!" "Wait a minute, this was YOUR idea!"

Again, Amy decides that she is the queen and Stephen is the king and that she could live happily in a castle. She also asks Stephen if they can build one. And again, he says no. On the way back, Kelley tries out her hands at driving on the wrong side of the road. Her thoughts? "It's absolutely nerve-wracking and not a little confusing." she says. (She did pretty well, if I may say so myself.)

Well, that's it thus far. Maybe more pics later.

The Doctor Adventure

I am sick. Ashley is too, poor thing. I think she passed it onto me, but my body apparently really enjoyed the idea of being sick, and so embraced it with both arms. She has a cough and headache and is congested. I have a sore chest, phlegm, hacking, fever, headache, clogged ears and no voice. Joy. I called the doctor this morning, and they asked me to describe my symptoms, which I did. They told me that they didn't want me to come in, that I might have the swine flu, and that the doctor would call me later. He did, listened to my symptoms, and told me that he needed to consult with some other medical entity, and that if they thought I had swine flu as well, someone would be coming to the house to examine me. Another long wait between phone calls. Then a call back: I don't have swine flu, just a chest infection. They prescribed antibiotics, which wonderful Stephen will pick up on his way home from work. Ashley, though still sick and sent home from school, is only supposed to call the doctor if she develops a fever, which she hasn't yet done.

So no work this week.

I am trying to get the fever broken, and feeling pretty pathetic and sore and sick all over, when Christi and Zach send me an email: Zach has been watching classic Sesame Street and they found a song for me. I don't think I told Christi I was sick - but the video shows that she knew someway or another. I'm posting it here for you to enjoy too.