Thu, March 30

Today we got some good news on the job front. Nothing to sing and dance about. But after nearly 75 job applications between us, someone finally got back to us to arrange an interview. In fact, Dawn now has two lined up. Both are for PA positions, one in the city and one at a local university. Paul has an interview with a local software company, too. So keep your fingers crossed.

Wed, March 29

Today we decided to relax a little. The last month or more we have been busting a gut selling our house in Cedar Dr, dealing with the trip over to London, getting the flat comfortable so we can live in it, and of course now we're looking for work. So we popped up to the local CineWorld movie theatre and watched "Inside Man" with Denzel Washington, Jodie Foster and Clive Owen. This complex has about 16 different auditoriums, so we were delighted to see that the one we saw our film in was almost twice as big as the ones we're used to from the AMC in Oldsmar. As for the film, it was pretty good. Well worth the £4 each we paid for the early bird tickets.

Tues, March 28

Today we had a ride down to the West End to see if we could get some work clothes. We both picked up an Oyster Card so we could travel on the London Transport system at a slightly discounted rate. While in Oxford Street, we popped into Marks & Spencer and Debenhams before finally stiking gold in British Home Stores. There Paul picked up a jacket for £20, plus a pair of trousers and tie. Dawn picked up a couple of blouses, a skirt and trousers. All together it came to just a little over £100.

Sun, March 26

Today was Mother's Day in England and Paul was able to carry out one his goals. Over the seven years we lived in America, he had roses delivered to his dad's flat so that his dad could take them and lay them on his mother's grave on every birthday of hers, every wedding anniversary, every anniversary of her passing and every Mother's Day. Well this year Paul was able to take the flowers himself, along with his dad and brother George. While there, he noticed something very aptly worded on a headstone: "Memories are the golden chains that link us to those we love until we see them again."

Fri, March 24

Well Paul finally gave into the temptation to get some Fish & Chips. Tonight he drove over to George's Fish Bar in Enfield to get some of his much-needed fix. What he did not expect was to have to get to the end of a line that had about 25 people in it. However, the wait was worth it for him. Check out the delight on his face when he got home with the fare!

Fri, March 24

We finally got a replacement carrier for Tiny. Now we can take her out with us in the car when we're away from the house for a while. It will also allow us to take her to the vet around the corner (Village Vet).

Thu, March 23

Yesterday, we took a drive outside the M25 to visit some real estate offices (realtors) to get on their mailing list for properties that we hope to be able to afford once we get a job, and when our current lease expires in September. We also met with a financial advisor to discuss our mortgage situation.

Today, we took a drive back to Wood Green (see photo) so we could find some work clothes for Dawn. Dawn has already applied for over 20 jobs and needed to have some work clothes should she get an interview. We thought that we would have our stuff from Florida within 6 weeks. However, we found out last week that it hasn't even left New York yet, so we won't see the clothes we've shipped for another month at least.

Tues, March 21

After we'd been to the cemetary, we headed to North Finchley to visit a building society to discuss our position regarding getting a mortgage in 6 months. While we were there, we picked up a pair of shoes for Dawn for work (should she get an interview), popped into a couple of high street shops, and dropped into another Wetherspoons (The Tally Ho) for lunch. See above!

Tues, March 21

Today we drove over to Finchley so Paul could visit his mum's grave. We had already planned to go on Mother's Day (this coming Sunday) with Paul's dad. But, seeing as it had been nearly 5 years since we'd been, we felt it would be better if we went on our own first.

Sun, March 19

Today we picked up Paul's dad and George and took them down to Rainham to visit Paul's brother Phillip and his wife Jean. This was the first time Paul's dad and George had seen their house, and the first time we had met Jean. Phil and Jean decided against cooking for us and took us to the Albion for dinner. We had typical pub fair and spent a good few hours chatting. We had a good time, and are looking forward to seeing more of our family over the coming weeks and months.

Sat, March 18

Today Paul got a mini-cab to the car dealership where we bought our new car and collected it. Once he got home, we just stayed indoors and spent the day with Tiny. We had left her on her own the last few days and would be out most of Sunday, so we just wanted to help her have a nice day with us for a change.

Fri, March 17

Today we left early to drive around the M25 (London's orbital road) to return our hire car to AVIS. It went pretty well (apart from snow flurries), and we returned the car well in time not to be charged an additional day. However, the train ride home didn't go so smoothly. We already knew that we had to change twice (at Victoria and Finsbury Park stations), and that the journey would take us around an hour and a half. Unfortunately though, a few minutes before our train arrived the train station was closed and all trains passing through Gatwick were delayed due to fatality on the line in the Purley area. We eventually made it home, but the journey took over twice as long.

Thur, March 16

After popping down Chapel Market (where we froze our butts off), we dropped by Paul's dad's flat to collect his dad and brother George and brought them back to see our flat in Winchmore Hill. Paul then made dinner for us: salmon patties with green beans and cauliflower covered in home-made cheese sauce. Paul's dad brought a nice bottle of wine, which helped wash it down, and we finished the night off with a bakewell tart each.

Thur, March 16

Today Dawn was in hog heaven after she was able to pop into a Pie & Mash shop at Chapel Street in Islington. She'd waited nearly 5 years for one of her favourite all time meals, and felt that the wait was certainly worth it.

Wed, March 15

Back on the road again today. Had a ride up to Crews Hill to pick up some stuff for Tiny from the Jollye's Pet Superstore. We also dropped into Enfield Town and did some more shopping at Marks & Spencer, Waitrose, WH Smith and best of all Phones 4U where we picked up two cell phones for just £25 each with no contract and really cheap calling rates. We also popped into a post office to mail our CarMax check to our bank in Dunedin. Oh yea, we also dropped into one of our old haunts from when we lived in Enfield over 7 years ago - Moon Under Water. Check out the photo and see if you can guess why?

Tue, March 14

Today was relatively quiet compared to the last week, despite us being out of the flat most of the day. First we dropped by our local recycling center to get rid of all the boxes and trash we had accumulated before popping into the local Barclays Bank to change our address on our checking account, then did some more shopping at Argos, B&Q and Morrisons.

Mon, March 13

What a day. This morning we headed out to the local shopping center in Wood Green to pick up some more odds and ends (sheets, blanket, ironing board, and television stand). However, the journey didn't turn out exactly as planned. After buying most of the above at the local Argos store, we were informed that we could not return to our car as someone had fallen to their death from an upper floor of the car park into the high street. Consequently, the street and car parks were cordoned off by the police. So we headed to a local pub for lunch until we could get into the car park.

This afternoon we headed over to a local car showroom in Enfield and sorted out a car for us. We had hoped to buy a new one with a 0%apr deal over 4 years. However, seeing as didn't have jobs, that didn't go down well. Instead we were able to pick up a three year old 5 door 1.6 6v Vauxhall Astra that only had 3500 miles on it. The dealer had to sort out some odds and ends, so we wouldn't be able to collect it until Saturday.

Sun, March 12

Today we drove up to Holloway to see Paul's dad and brother George for the first time since 2001. They both looked really well, especially Paul's dad who will be 78 this year. We then drove down to the Coronet where we all enjoyed a roast beef dinner each. To our disbelief and pleasure, the meal came with a beer or soft drink each and only cost £21.85 for the four of us. Now that's a bargain. When we got home, Paul called his brother Phillip who lives in East London and made plans to take his dad and George over to visit him and his wife next week.

Sat, March 11

Today Dawn left the house for the first time. After the major ordeal Tiny had been through the last week or so, we didn't want to leave her on her own too soon. Anyway, we dropped into loads of shops including Woolworths, Argos, PC World, Comet & Currys. However, Morrisons was our favourite. Our local grocery store had more meat, fish and produce than we could ever get at our local Publix back in Dunedin, and best of all at such affordable prices. We were both like kids in a candy store. In between our trips to the shops, Paul watched his football team Spurs live on television. Shame about the result, though.

Fri, March 10

A busy day for us. Paul first left the house at 6.30am to get a phone as we could not call our family to tell them we had arrived safely yesterday. He was then in and out most of the morning picking up a computer, television, coffee maker, and other electrical bits and pieces we needed. However, the good news was that by the end of the day we had satellite television installed and had access to the Internet.

Thu, March 9

What a stressful couple of days. Yesterday morning we took Tiny to our vet so she could inject some fluids to help Tiny with the long flight. Then we drove to Orlando where we had to leave Tiny with Virgin Atlantic, drop off our car at CarMax, and then catch our flight home. Needless to say, leaving Tiny was the hardest part of everything we have had to do. On the flight home, we got very little sleep worrying about her. This was made worse with all the noise on take-off, and worse than normal turbulance.

We arrived at Gatwick about 8.45am this morning and after getting through customs and immigration, picked up a hire car (a huge 2lit Passat estate) and headed to cargo to collect Tiny. Unfortunately we had to wait an extra couple of hours while they dealt with the paperwork. However, Virgin Atlantic could not have been better with Tiny. They really put her welfare first.

Once we collected Tiny, we drove to our new home in North London, collecting the keys on the way from the real estate office.

We've been through a lot over the last three months with selling our business and house in Florida, and dealing with Tiny's immigration. However, now that we're home, we both feel that it was really worth it.

NEW BLOG

We will bring this upto date for the last few days, but in the meantime you can check out our new home at: www.beverleyclose.blogspot.com

Tue, March 7

Today was a busy day running errands. Without listing everything we had to get done, we made another trip to the vet so Tiny could have her last shots before leaving, stopped by the post office to collect the last of our mail, dropped in on our accountant to pick up our 2005 tax return (and mail it out with a nice check for the IRS), and Dawn spent all afternoon getting the car cleaned and getting a quote from CarMax for the sale of the car.

Mon, March 6

Yesterday we had a teary departure from St. Augustine as Dawn and Kelly said their goodbyes. Brady and Jim had popped by a little earlier before setting out on their drive back to Flowery Branch. We on the otherhand drove back to the gulf coast and booked into the Knights Inn in Palm Harbor, right on our favourite road, US Hwy 19.

As for today, this was the 1st in four traumatic and stressful days for the three of us. First we had to drive to our vet (Diane Perry) to pick up Tiny's papers. We needed to get them signed, etc before we could take them to the USDA in Gainesville, FL (120 miles away) so they could endorse them and approve for us to take Tiny out of the country. If the drive to Gainesville wasn't bad enough, while we were at the vet's, one couple had to bring in their 17 year old cat to be put down, and another cat needed a leg amputated. It certainly put our ordeal into perspective.

As for the USDA office, Dawn was in and out in less than six minutes. But at least we had the paperwork approved, and had passed another of our objectives.

Sat, March 4

Yesterday we set out for and arrived at Kelly's (Dawn's sister) house in St. Augustine, FL so we could spend a couple of days with Kelly and Michaela, Brady and Jim, plus Kelly's eldest son Matthew and his girlfiend, Amy.

We arrived shortly after lunch time yesterday. Dawn drove over to meet Brady & Jim for lunch while I stayed in the house with Tiny. Kelly dropped by for lunch to see me. Friday evening, Dawn, Kelly, Michaela, Brady and Jim popped out to a local bar/grille for something to eat. Again I stayed behind with Tiny. Matt and Amy arrived while they were gone. When the others returned, we chatted for a while until Brady & Jim left for their hotel.

Today was all about Michaela, as it was her 8th birthday. Six of her friends, plus her dad (Walt) turned up for her party and everyone had a great time. It was certainly a day we will remember for a long, long time.

Thu, March 2

After spending Tuesday night at John & Phyllis' house, we set out for Ocala with Tiny to take a couple of days rest on our own. All of our plans to visit family and friends in GA & SC had been ruined thanks to the late closing Tues and our having to vacate the house suddenly. The whole last two weeks had been such an ordeal that we needed to rest and try and help prepare Tiny for the biggest ordeal of her life, spending her first night apart from us and having to be cooped up in the cargo hold in a carrier on the 9 hour flight to London.