I am Home

I am home. It’s mine and it feels good to be here. Outside, there are fireworks bursting in the sky and I can see them from my living room window. How strange, to see and hear fireworks on Halloween. I saw no evidence of trick or treaters on the sidewalks. Children were in costumes with their parents in the grocery store, and the clerks wore witches’ hats. But no door bells ringing or calls of “trick or treat”. Wonder if Em is handing out candy tonight.

I signed my contract and moved into my quarter house this morning. I have an aero bed to sleep on. It’s covered with an inexpensive duvet and 2 pillows. I found a small folding table and chairs set in a “Pound Stretcher” store...England’s version of Dollar General, I suspect. I have an electric tea kettle and a toaster. My fridge has bread, butter, marmalade (4 citrus fruit marmalade - grapefruit, lemon, orange and lime), cheese, grapes, potatoes and baby carrots. The English have the best stuff to spread on toast. I have spreads made of chicken and another of crab. They come in little jars and are very tasty. Toast is going to be my new favorite meal. I found some good organic peanut butter. The bread here surpasses that in the US. Not the angel food cake consistency we have back in the US. It’s like home baked bread. It has some real texture and taste. I love it.

In search of the things I wanted for the apartment took me all over Essex. I drove to Thurrock to visit an ASDA Living store. ASDA is the grocery store I became familiar with when I stayed at the hotel. I later learned that ASDA is part of the Walmart family of stores. I thought ASDA Living would be like Walmart. I was looking for a small table and chairs - something compact for my small living room (lounge, over here). They did not have anything like that there, but I did find a very nice clothes drying rack. I bought that and a hard anodized surface frying pan. For the table and chairs, I went back to “Pound Stretcher”. I will be looking for better furniture next weekend. There’s a very nice table with swing up leaves that stores 4 wood folding chairs inside it. That would be nice for my lounge/dining area. Economy of space is the name of the game. I will probably order a sofa bed from IKEA. No other type of sofa will fit through my front door.

On the drive back to Chelmsford, there was a paraglider in the sky decorating the sunset.
As the sun goes down in Essex, the fog rolls in. It’s beautiful and eerie. The temperature drops like a stone when the sun sets. It must drop 20 degrees.

I have no Internet yet. To entertain myself, besides writing this for my blog, I am trying out the little washer in the kitchen. It’s such a pleasure to do my own wash! I didn’t know how much I depend on being able to wash my clothes until I couldn't do it while I was at the hotel. What a relief! The hotel was good preparation in another respect. It was so small compared to hotel rooms in the US, when I moved into my little house, it seems big by comparison.

Happy Halloween!

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Next day, Sunday, November 1

I have found free wifi at McDonalds in Chelmsford. I'll be visiting Micky D's daily until I have SKY at home.
I had hoped to go to Stone Henge today, but I have decided that that's a bit ambitious. The weather is miserable anyway - raining and very windy.
I think it's a good day to go find one or two wastebins and a screwdriver. So, I am off!