A difficult choice I am glad I made

Here is today's prompt from Plinky

Share a story about a difficult choice you're glad you made.

Moving to the UK was incredibly hard, however I was able to do it in baby steps, to a point a guess.

I originally made the move to attend a Master's Course at the University of Bradford. About a month in, I met my future husband. As the year went on, many decisions had to be made revolving around our relationship in order to keep it going.

Unluckily (but a crucial cog in my decision making) my grandmother died. Before I left for Uni, I had been living with my grandmother, so not only would I be returning to no grandmother, but also to no real home. I suppose it made for the perfect excuse not to return. However, I was lucky that my future husband liked me enough to want to marry me. So we got married and we have remained in the UK. I have been here for 6 and a half years now.

I can't say that I love living here, but I guess I have gotten used to it. My preference is to return to the States, but most of that is because I miss my family and hate that they are missing seeing my son and missing seeing me be a parent. I also miss my brother and seeing his kids grow and being there for support. Something I miss allot though, is seeing my grandparents because, let's face it, we all don't appreciate grandparents until they are gone and that's a real shame.

So the choice to stay in the UK isn't exactly perfect, but it isn't necessarily set in stone and I got a loving husband, a kid, a cat, and a job out of it. Not too bad.

The trip and 29/30 weeks

rscornwall

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Mom is on the plane back to the States :(

We had a very busy 14 days.

She flew into Manchester Airport on Sept 2nd where I met her to make sure she got to Shipley.  That journey is pretty crazy after a 14+ hr journey.

We spent the next couple of days around my area of Yorkshire visiting Shipley, Saltaire, Bradford and Skipton.

On Sept 6th we made our way by train to Penzance, Cornwall which took about 9 hours.

The black line is the journey

We checked into the Hotel Penzance around 9 pm and had a yummy dinner at the fancy restaurant there.

The weather for the first 2 days was pretty iffy, sunny and misty, but we managed to wander around Penzance, going in and out of really cool galleries and shoppes.  My favourite gallery by far was the Penlee Gallery where they were showing the works of artists from the early days of the Newlyn Art Colony.

We made it to St. Ives on the last day of our stay, which turned out to be a warm and sunny day, but still not quite warm enough for a swim.  We visited more galleries and the Barbra Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Museum.  We ate Cornish ice cream, but were told to stay away from the pasties unless we wanted to be ravaged by seagulls.  We ate pasties in Penzance.

We came back to Shipley on Sept 10th in an un-airconditioned train on a very warm and sunny day.

The Saltaire festival began on the 12th and we wandered down to have a look, had Sunday lunch with Richard's parents on the 13th and visited Kirkstall Abbey on the 14th.

It was a really nice visit and I had a lot of fun, but last week when 29 weeks hit, I was instantly tired and sore and have yet to recover.  My tummy is so big and heavy, I finally had to get maternity clothes and I think I am going to live in the dress in the picture below for the next 10 weeks.

4 years!!!

Celebrating 4 years in England today.

I have gone from

To

Craziness...

How I spent "go screw yourself britain" day

From the web.

This is the first year I have not been home for the 4th of July. My friends and I have decided to call this day "Go Screw Yourself Britain" Day...so it isn't just me being mean.

Richard and I didn't do much, as an afterthought, we could have gotten a couple of fireworks as you can buy fireworks whenever you want here. The most common use for them is for Muslim and Hindu weddings. At our old house in Bradford, we got to watch large fireworks displays almost every weekend.

I did insist that we bar-b-q some hamburgers and watch some Disney American Legends cartoons which we were able to find on YouTube.

Around 11 pm, I was pleasantly surprised when I got to see a really small firework display near the city center...I assume it was some fellow Americans.

As you can see it was cloudy and a little rainy...just like it USUALLY is at home.

Richard on the bar-b-q

What's going on???

The cake from Richard's parents

Well as you may have noticed, I am not in the US, but still at home waiting for my passport...WHOOPEE!! I just decided to get my plane fare credited for whenever my passport does arrive, I am hoping soon.

On Saturday for my birthday, I took Richard to see the Transformers new movie (very cool animation, but in true Jessika style, I fell asleep...the movie is 2 and 1/2 hrs long!!! I have decided that I need a movie to be 90-100 min to not fall asleep.) We also had lunch at one of the newer Indian restaurants called Tulsi. It is a vegetarian restaurant and is very good...the weird part is that it has a bar. In Bradford it is very strange for an Indian restaurant to serve alcohol. you can usually bring your own, but they don't sell it.

On Sunday, Richard's parents came up and we went for Sunday Dinner in Shipley, but otherwise I had a very uneventful birthday day.

Richard and I have finally started a bit of gardening. We have some lettuce and tomatoes coming up and some squash and carrots on the way. At the moment everything is planted in temporary pots until we can get to the store to buy HUGE pots to put them all in. Last week I had to declare war on our back neighbour's big flowering bush that hangs over our garden. The bush is beautiful, but it was covered in aphids, so the bulbs I planted when we moved in were COVERED in aphids. So I cut the branches on my side off...and it seems to have worked. I was very proud of myself.

Miki in the garden

Miki is getting more brave outside, although she still needs the door to be open and prefers that we are outside with her. She goes to greet most of the cats, but because our fence is high, she can't figure out how to get to them, which I think is OK. Recently she has found herself a hidy-hole under the deck that she curls up in...but then I forget about her and she ends up being outside with the door closed...OH NO!! I am hoping she will find that it isn't scary to be outside without a straight shot to the inside.

I have managed to knit 2 ridiculous hats from scratch that the sprout will have to wear because they are hilarious...

Google street view

View Larger Map
Street view of my house...click on the view larger map link to see the picture.

Google street view is something that has been around in the US for a while, however it is new to the UK. I just found out that we have it in Bradford. Although this is a bit creepy, it is also cool because you can see what it is like where I live. I noticed in our window that there is a flower pot and therefore I know that this picture was taken before we moved in.

Go ahead play with it a little...it is very cool.

SNOW pt 2

PIcture from BBC News online

The BBC reporting on the snow in Huddersfield not far away from Bradford, I live in West Yorkshire.



Sunday is started snowing and when we woke up on Monday, it was still snowing. We both got up to go to work. The front page of the Metro Newspaper looked like this.. Metro

It snowed all day. I was forced to go home because there were no customers in the store. What I find sunny though, is that even though there was all this snow, not much actually accumulated. Our roofs have about 4 inches on them. The sun comes out and then hides. The snow starts and then stops...I am sure we will all be iced up for days. We'll see if I can get any good pictures later.

A New and Exciting Venture, and some other things

Everyone knows that I don't sleep very well. I started getting out of bed when this happens. Usually I refuse to let it be a time to go onto the Internet because it is too exciting for the senses, but the other night, as I was sitting on the couch knitting these really great booties, I thought to myself I should start a store on Etsy so I can sell these great booties.

I got on the Internet and went to Etsy looked around for booties like the ones I was making and found none (that is really exciting, perhaps I can fill a niche)! Now, I don't plan to really make any money from this, but it gives me incentive to make and finish items, since Christmas is over I have no people to make stuff for and these booties are so easy and fast. The Woolly Worm was born (a name I have been wanting for a business since I started spinning wool).

I haven't put anything up yet because I need to find a baby to try these on, I don't know which age these fit. I encourage people to look around Etsy there is some great things on it that people have made (although I think some people are too full of themselves and charge too much for their stuff).

One more thing:

I was watching Saturday Night Live the other night and really liked their musical guest. The Fleet Foxes remind me of a folksy Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. Their vocals are so pretty.

And another thing:
Richard and I are taking the plunge and have decided to move. We looked at two places last weekend. We are going to keep looking, but we put in our notice to our landlord so we can't back out this time.

Rabbit Stew

Richard and I have been going to the Bradford Oastler market for our meats and sometimes the vegis, but mostly for meats. They all taste better, are cheaper and are local.

For a while I have been eyeing the rabbit that seems to be pleniful at these butchers. Richard finally picked one up for me, and now I have been perusing the internet trying to fina a good recipe. Does anyone here have a good rabbit recipe? I dont know what rabbit tastes like, but I am excited to try it.

Snow, again...

This is the second stint of snow I have awoken to. It has been very cold for the past couple of weeks and so it decided to snow, however, it gets slushy really fast, so it isn't very exciting snow.
Here is a link to the article about it: BBC News

Prostitutes and Police

One of our lovely girls outside our apartment.

It has been 1 1/2 yrs in the making and the West Yorkshire Police are finally getting around to us and busting the curb crawlers buying the prostitutes outside our house.

Fire...Part 2

In case you were wondering about the fire at the mill the other day, here is an updated report which includes a video from the news.

Mill fire

Fire!!!

As I sat down to begin my 31 days of horror movies, Richard asked me, "Do you smell something burning?" I said, "Yes, I do." So, we looked outside and sure enough a building was on fire. Now, this is the 3rd building in my general vicinity to go up into flames in the past 2 years.



We got tons of pictures (300 or so) here are some good ones. The fire started around 7:30 pm and is still smouldering (it is about 9:00 am). They are in order.

All and all, I watched it for a couple of hours. Eventually, the front of the building collapsed, which was pretty cool to see. There is a whole other section that we could not see from our window, so I will have to go take a look at that.

Autumn, Fall...whatever you want to call it.

Can I hear it for Fall everyone? (A reluctant crowd of people applauds)...



So, I don't know about everyone else, but it got colder as soon as September 23 came. Fall is one of those seasons who doesn't like to mince words or fool around. It seems to be very punctual and like to crush any thoughts that Summer will stay a bit longer.

In England, they call Fall Autumn and I always get blank looks when I say Fall.Because I have started a new job, I, of course, meet and hang out with new people, meaning that once again I have to correct the Americaness of my language. It has been about 3 years since I had to do this last. For example...

• Nasty in American can mean that someone is being mean or surly, but I usually use it to describe someone being raunchy or explicit. In England nasty seems to only be used when describing someone who is being mean.

• Of course chips are french fries and crisps are chips. By now you would think I would know this, but sometimes it slips out...like the other day.

There are tons more, but I am having a hard time thinking of what they are...I will know it when I say it.

Here are somethings I am learning at work:

1. People order way too fast. There are a lot of buttons on the screen at the till and I need time to find them.

2. People are really messy eaters.

3. People get mad at you even though it isn't your fault. For example, last Friday, the stupid water people managed to cut a pipe they were working on. Consequentially, the whole retail park was without water. Now it is not my fault that we have no water. I am not trying to torture you by not letting you use our toilets because we have no water. In all actuality we are saving you money by not having any water.

4. People are truly addicted to coffee, hence why people get angry when you have no water.

5. Industrial dishwashers rock!!

6. I am going to get super fat if I keep "sampling" all the muffins.

7. I am going to go broke if I keep going into the Hobbycraft next door.

I learned all this in my 3 days of working at Costa Coffee.

I want to be able to do this, Latte art. (It seems that we can't embed vidoes from YouTube anymore, so you have to link to it yourself...sorry.)