Sun, Jul 30

Today we celebrated the 10th anniversary of the very first email between us, an email that ended with the words, "We'll chat some more" and which led us down a path neither one of us expected, or was even looking for.

After exchanging cards, Paul went out for a morning run in preparation for his charity run in October. The rest of the day we spent with Tiny, until we went to Bombay Spice, a local Indian restaurant, for an anniversary meal. It turned out to be a great choice, as we enjoyed the best Indian meal we'd ever had. We'll definately be going back there again.

Sat, Jul 29

Today we picked Paul's dad and brother George up and headed to Hertford for a few hours, stopping on the way in Hoddesdon to drop off some papers with our mortgage broker so he could hopefully finalise our mortgage application. In Hertford we picked up some fruit and veg, plus a couple of odds and ends in the street market, before stopping at the Duncombe Arms for a pub lunch.

As always, Paul brought his camera and took plenty of photos. The above collage shows (clockwise from top left): fruit & veg stand in street market, 230-year-old doorway in Fore Street, alfresco dining outside Cafe Rouge in Parliament Square, and Hertford Castle.

Fri, Jul 28

It was another sweltering week here in London. On Monday, Paul completed his 3-month probation at work, although it went totally unnoticed by the management. On Wednesday, Dawn got home late as she had to drop by Turnmills (a bar/club/restaurant around the corner from her workplace) with some colleagues. Dawn and the other members of the Christmas Party Committee needed to check it out before arranging the deposit. On Thursday, Paul spent all day on the phones in the Communications Centre at work because the guy he started as Helpdesk Manager called in sick. Friday saw the two of us drop by Kinks for our haircut with Mel, before picking up some Chinese from Peking, Peking on the way home. Still no more progress on buying the house in Hertford. Our solicitors are still waiting on paperwork from the seller's solicitors. And the mortgage company is still waiting on paperwork from our broker, and additional bank statements from us.

Sun, Jul 23

On Saturday we had a ride up to see Paul's dad and brother George for a couple of hours. We couldn't stay too long as we needed to drop into Argos on the way back, and meet our landlord to pay the rent. As it turned out, he never made it and will have to come over later this week.

Then on Sunday we drove over to Hackney to pick Paul's daughter Hayley up and bring her back to our flat. The three of us just idled away the time chatting before ordering a not-so-enjoyable pizza from around the corner from us. Don't mistake the smiles on our faces for excitement over the food. We certainly won't be going back to them for pizza again. And seeing as this was the first pizza we'd had since leaving Florida, it was hugely disappointing after being so spoiled by Bambino's in Dunedin!

Fri, Jul 21

What a week. Monday started badly with Paul having to work late, so late that Dawn got home before him for once and had to order some take-out so we could have some dinner. Then, for three days running we had to endure the hot and humid weather. On Friday we received a letter from our mortgage broker to inform us that they couldn't process our mortgage application until they receive yet another copy of our bank statement. A bank statement, we'll add, that we will not see from our bank until the 1st week in August.

However, the week wasn't all bad. Brady and Jim's birthday present for Dawn arrived...grits and cornmeal. Needless to say, Dawn has had grits for breakfast the last three days.

Wed, Jul 19

Today broke the record for the hottest day in July on record with temperatures reaching 97 degrees. Yes, we know it was quite common to hit the 90s while we were in Florida. But, we don't have air conditioning here. In fact, Paul had to drop into a local electrical store to pick up a tower fan so we could cool down a little. However, that was nothing compared to the heat Dawn had to endure on the train ride home, where the temperature must have been over 110 degrees. In the picture you can see Dawn making the most of the fan.

Sun, Jul 16

Today was Dawn's birthday and she certainly had one to remember. She started the day opening cards and three gifts from Paul and Tiny: a book called 'Hertford's Past in Pictures', a DVD of the movie 'Sense and Sensibility' with Hugh Grant, and a DVD of the Eagles album 'Hell Freezes Over.'

For lunch we drove over to Hackney to pick up Paul's daughter Hayley, who also gave Dawn another birthday card, before heading over to Holloway to pick up Paul's Dad and brother George. We then headed to Islington where we grabbed a burger each with some chips at Fine Burger Co, before popping next door into Waterstone's bookstore where Dawn used some of her birthday money to buy 8 paperback books. They were on sale 3 for the price of 2, so Paul picked one up by Frank Bruno to make it 9 so she could get a third one free.

To round off the day, Dawn got a call from her sister Kelly in Florida and mom Brady in Georgia to wish her many happy returns.

Sat, Jul 15

This evening we headed out to the West End of London so Dawn could enjoy an early birthday dinner, and see Patrick Swayze in Guys and Dolls at the Piccadilly Theatre. Unfortunately, Mr Swayze was a no show as he hadn't been feeling well. We knew this earlier in the week, but enjoyed the musical all the same. As we did the Thai dinner at the Malaysia Kopi Tiam earlier in the evening.

For the second night running, after Paul's late night phonecall from his office the previous evening, we didn't call it a night until well after midnight.

Fri, Jul 14

Another stressful week for the two of us again. This time it was the house move that kept our nails finely trimmed. On Monday, Paul spoke to our mortgage broker and found out that the paperwork he rushed to Hoddesdon on Friday had only just gone out in the mail. On Tuesday, we waited all day for the news the mortgage application had been approved, only to find out shortly before 4pm that the paperwork had still not arrived at the lender's. Finally, around 4pm on Wednesday, after Paul had called the broker yet again, we got the good news that the application had been approved pending surveys. This meant that our lawyer should have been able to authorise these by Friday. However, when we got home on Friday, we had received yet more forms in the mail (this time from the lawyer) that needed to be filled out and returned before they could proceed. All these delays meant that we had lost over a week after making the initial mortgage application on the 4th of the month.

As for work, Paul once again got several late night phone calls from the office. The best of all being around 10.20pm Friday night. The controller at the office in Hertford had locked himself out. This meant Paul had to get dressed and make the 30 mile round trip to let the controller back in. Here's hoping the weekend goes more smoothly.

On a much lighter note, we had a nature show outside our living room window one morning this week. Three foxes were playing with a shoe just feet from our windowsill. Check out some of the photos above.

Sat, Jul 8

Today we drove up to Hackney to meet Paul's daughter Hayley. We picked her up outside the Argos store at the top of her road, then had a ride over to Islington to one of the many Starbucks there, so the three of us could catch up with how things have been. This was the first time we'd seen Hayley since she had stayed with us spring three years ago in Dunedin, FL. To say Paul was thrilled to see her again would be an understatement.

We then had a ride up to Holloway and walked down to The Landseer pub to enjoy some home-made pub food with Paul's dad and brother George. We then had a ride up to Crews Hill for Tiny's monthly cat stuff run.

Fri, Jul 7

The stress continues. Now it has been compounded by our house-hunting. Tuesday Paul met with our mortgage broker and completed the mortgage application. The advisor assured us that we would not have a problem, as we had already received a mortgage certificate. However, come Friday the formality took a strange twist. Paul got a telephone call from the broker's assistant to inform us that the building society would not accept Dawn's US passport or UK residence visa as proof of indentity. Hopefully they'll be happy with the only piece of paper that we have that should be acceptable to them, a tax code notification from the Inland Revenue. Check this space next weekend to see whether our application has been successful, or whether our dream move has been well and truly derailed.

On the work front, Paul is now receiving phone calls late at night from his controllers at the office. Friday night he got a call at 11.45pm, because a security officer could not set the alarm at one of the client's sites.

Sun, Jul 2

Today Dawn enjoyed her second day at home as part of her chilling-out weekend. Partly so that Paul could watch England's World Cup Final Quarter-Final match with Portugal, and partly so that we could spend some time with Tiny after we had left her on her own for the last few weekends.

Paul meanwhile drove up to Holloway and collected his dad and brother George and brought them back to the house for dinner. Paul made some ham with roast potatoes, corn and peas, which we downed with some wine, and Vienetta and coffee for dessert.

Sat, Jul 1

This week was one hectic and stressful week for the two of us. It all started to go wrong on Monday when one of Paul's controllers at work failed to turn up for work, and after a fire near Kings Cross railway station resulted in Dawn having to change her route to and from work for a couple of days.

Paul's week went from bad to worse after he had a meeting with his bosses. However, despite all what was said, he wasn't given complete backing. By Friday he was arriving for work earlier and earlier, resulting in just one single visit to the gym.

Dawn, on the other hand, was forced to ride on a London bus on her own for the very first time. She had to catch it on Tuesday night after she had to get the Tube to Southgate instead of her regular train to Winchmore Hill. Ordinarily Paul would have picked her up at Southgate. However, he was over an hour later getting out from work that night. In fact, Dawn even arrived home before he did! Normally Paul arrives an hour to ninety minutes before Dawn.