Our first rugby match. . .

Caterpillar sponsors the local professional rugby team, the Leicester Tigers, and Keith was able to get 7 free tickets.  Since we had some extras, Keith asked a friend from church/school.  He came and brought his two sons, one of which is one of Maggie's current loves.  She played it cool. . .didn't say a word to him the whole afternoon! :)

It rained a little bit, but by the time we were in our seats, all was clear. . a little chilly, but not too bad.  We had pretty good seats, so the girls got a up-close-and-personal introduction to the game.  And the Tigers were victorious!

The entrance gates.  It was kind of refreshing because getting into the stadium wasn't a huge production--we just walked in.

My new favorite name for a stand.

Caterpillar funded the construction of one of the stands.

Seriously.  Ouch!

Another shot of the CAT stands.

We were teasing Maggie about her "first date". . .she acted bothered, but she's the one who picked out her outfit!

Odds & Ends (Bits & Bobs). . .

I need a break from catching up on posts about our holidays, so I thought I would instead catch up on some random things that I have noticed.

Brand-name Longing:

• I miss Crest dental products!  There are plenty of brands I know to choose from; Colgate & Aquafresh are available--and Sensodyne--and they are all right, but something about them seems to say "I am just not quite as good as Crest."  Don't get me wrong, Amazon is just as easy to use here as it is in the States, but I wish I could just grab my Crest Pro-Health toothpaste at the store.
• No Secret deodorant..

Observations on Christmas:

• There were no packages of holiday wrapping boxes to be found--you know the ones that come flat and in varied sizes?  And stores (at least the ones that I frequent) weren't passing them out along with your purchase.  Although I realize it's a better idea to create less waste from the presents, some things are hard to wrap with paper, and gift bags can be slightly anti-climatic on Christmas morning.
• In the part of the country we live in, the selection in the stores isn't very good, even at Christmas.  BUT, online shopping is HUGE here; shipping is really fast and usually free.  Easy to do when the whole country is the size of Oregon!!  And much less stressful to do things that way, too!
• Just a general comment--nothing to do with US v UK. . it stinks when Christmas Eve/Christmas fall on Saturday & Sunday.
• The first Christmas card of the season for us came from CEFCU--our bank in the States.  Ironically, the second one was for a previous tenant and it wished them safe travels in their trip to the United States!

Road sign:

In Kiddie-Land:

• There are no pop-up baby wipes; I can't get refills for those handy Huggies plastic boxes.  I can only get them in the 64 count diaper bag size.  Right now on Amazon.co.uk, a plastic box of wipes is either 7 or 14 pounds  ($10-$21)
• The kids come home from school and they have played "tig" not "tag"
• Old MacDonald is "Old MAC Donald" not "Old McDonald"-the same for McDonald's as well.
• It's not the "Itsy-Bitsy Spider" here. . it's the "Eensy-Weensy Spider"
• For "Ring Around the Rosey". . .the words we are singing here are "Ring-a Ring o' Roses, a pocket full of posies, a tishoo, a tishoo, we all fall down"  There are a lot of variations of this song; its origin is Old English, so I assume we are closer to the original here.  There is actually speculation that it originally referred to the Black Plague somehow. . but since Wikipedia is blacked out, I guess I will have to wait to find out! :)
• The "Hokey-Pokey" is the "Hokey-Cokey" in Great Britain.  

In the Kitchen:

• I couldn't believe how salty everything was when we went home for Christmas!!  I know that British food is stereotypically bland and that American food is stereotypically unhealthy, but this time the stereotype might hold!!  My lips and fingertips were chapped the first couple of days home from the food and drink.  To be fair, though, I did have more than one margarita. . and there is probably something to be said about living on an island. . it might be just a tad more dry in Chicago in the winter.
• I don't know if this is an American v British thing or if it's just me, but I noticed at church that the coffee mugs are put away in the cabinet right-side up.  I have always put them away upside-down.  When we went on holiday, they were right-side up at the apartment we stayed in:

• The fans on my microwave oven and my stove that run for what seems like hours after I have turned them off are starting to wear on my nerves!  However, I am enjoying having a stove (hob) on my counter-tops separate from the (double) oven.  The only trouble is having to Google the Celsius to Fahrenheit conversion every time I go to make something from the US!

 At the Market:

• Eggs are brown and can be found in the regular aisles of the market. . not refrigerated, although they suggest doing that when you get home.  Having never lived on a farm, I had a lot of trouble with this at first.  And speaking of eggs, here's something you don't regularly see:

• I have to say. . .this one makes me smile!  The top box is a normal size box of Kleenex, and then of course you have the more masculine version:

Isle of Wight--Exploring the island. . .

The Isle of Wight is only twenty-three miles by thirteen miles, and it has a ton of stuff that we could have done.  Carisbrooke Castle (where we were staying) is in the middle of the island, so nothing was too far away.  We decided to go and explore; our only plan was to head to the west side of the island to Alum Bay because we hoped to get a little beach time.   When we went to Dover, it was Charlotte's first time at the beach. . .and it was pebbles.  We had to find some sand for that girl!!

Driving on the island is quite scenic:

The rocks at the end of the ridge are The Needles at Alum Bay.  The bay is named after the alum that was once mined there, and the cliff walls are full of multi-colored sands.  The girls had a lot of fun finding all the different colors. . .but we still hadn't found a sandy beach.  Maggie especially like skipping stones into the water.

Above and below is the view of the ground that Maggie and I had on the chair-lift down to the beach.  Keith, Hannah, and Charlotte are on the stairs (he's wearing bright orange).

I had to take this picture. . Keith was a perfect match to the bright orange rocks!

ROCKS AGAIN?

 

Luckily, Colwell Bay was just a few miles north along the shore line--with a real, sandy beach!!  We thought it was just a beach, but like everything here, there is a history.  Soldiers were once encamped here, fearing an invasion by Napoleon.

 

The sun was bright and beautiful, but it seemed no where near warm enough for full-on sunbathing!!  Guess this guy disagreed. . .

We had a nice couple of hours playing in the sand. . I can't wait until the spring and summer when we can go to the beach again.  But I am pretty sure that the temperature will still feel too cold for swimming to us!!

Catching up with Kara. . .

I feel very fortunate to have been able to keep in touch with one of my dearest friends from college, Kara.  In an odd twist of fate, her husband is currently stationed at the US Air Force Base in Ramstein, Germany.  They will be living there for roughly the same time frame that we will be living here in the UK.

We are still about 9 1/2 hours apart by car--which is actually farther apart than we were when I was in Tennessee and she was in Arkansas.  (Luckily, puddle-jumper flights are really affordable here!) We have talked about many different things we can do together and places in Europe that we can meet up.  In October--Columbus Day weekend--we got our first chance. . .at Disneyland Paris!   Kara was taking a bus day-trip with some other Air Force Wives, so I decided to meet her there.

I took the train down the night before; did a little shopping at Disney Village... had a hotel room to myself (with a bed and a bunk bed).  I was able to watch Medium and Simpsons (kind of--it was in French), read without interruption, sleep in. . it was fabulous!

Sunday morning, I met up with Kara and the other girls. . .IN THE RAIN! And rain it did. . pretty much all day!  But without kids to worry about, it really wasn't a big deal.  It was great to get to see Kara and ride some rides. . soak up some Disney Magic. . have a beer or two in the middle of the afternoon!!  I can't wait until we can get together again!

Kara and me in front of Le Chateau de la Belle au Bois Dormant!!

Kyriad at Disneyland Paris (just outside the resort) was my hotel for Saturday evening.

It was cool to see Disney all dolled up for Halloween.