Christmas Bonus

Here is another funny commercial. This one is for the Christmas Bonus Lottery. I especially like the turkey running along the beach with her braids flowing behind her: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwokqKZLpPA

Anyway, I ordered my office furniture today. Yeah! I think it will take a week or two to get here. It was fun picking out what I wanted. I will be glad once I have everything together. Not much went on today. Oh, I bought some car insurance! At first they tried to tell me it would be £1900 a year, but I was able to bargain them down to £625 by agreeing to get a letter from my previous insurer saying that I have been claim-free for the past five years. Whew! It wouldn't have made a huge difference to me personally since my company is paying for my insurance, but I am glad that I was able to save them a lot of money.

Victor is still working long hours, but their busy season is over on Friday so his workload should ease up a little after that. I am so proud of how well he is doing at work and they even gave him a little shout-out in their company newsletter. Here is what it said: "Victor Yarbrough is now well on board and running the claims function previously conducted by Irina in Investigations. Victor, who comes from Cincinnati, Ohio, has made a real impact in a short period of time. " Isn't that nice? I like to brag on my man. :) Speaking of newsletters, I wrote an article for my company newsletter about relocating to a different country and it was published this month. I would post it but it is sort of long.

God is really blessing us here and we thank Him every night for allowing us the wonderful opportunity of living abroad. Please pray for us that we continue to follow the will of God and remain sensitive to His desires for us.

UK Commercials

UK commercials tickle me. I am going to start posting commercials that I think are funny, weird, or interesting. Here are a couple:

This Nutrigrain commercial is funny but borderline weird: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8567695671324387491 I FEEL GREAT!!!

Here is another one that makes me giggle: http://youtube.com/watch?v=zy9h8G2EcQ0&feature=related "Does anyone have any aqua mineral?" Hee hee

And I hate this commercial because it is supposed to be about chocolate but it is just a gorilla playing the drums. I hate it!!http://youtube.com/watch?v=TApA1fyoSdk&feature=related

The Price of Gas

Someone was asking about the price of gas here (I believe it was Daddy). Right now gas is about £1 per liter. How does that translate into US prices? Well, there are approximately 4 liters in a gallon, so that would be £4 a gallon and when you do the currency conversion, that comes out to be about $8 a gallon. So quit your crying about your $2.50/gallon gasoline! Hee hee. :)

I'm On My Way!

I finally got my internet and phone lines hooked up in the apartment--whoo hoo! My quality of life has shot up by 97% since I no longer have to trudge to the library everyday and clamor for a computer. Now I can work out of the comfort of my home. This week's tasks will include getting my home office together and ordering office furniture. Fun fun!!

So, what have we been up to? Last week I drove to Wales for a business trip. Although it was very windy, dreary, and rainy, Wales was very pretty. The hills were lush and green and there were cute little sheep everywhere. We also went down by the coast one day and it was so pretty watching the water crash up against the rocks. Anyway, the drive up was about 3 hours. I have come quite a long way with my driving. A couple of weeks ago I would have never driven farther than the grocery store or the gym, but now I'm driving to different countries. Now that's what I call progress!

This past weekend I had a team meeting in London. There are only seven of us in the UK, so this was a nice way for us all time meet face to face. We went to a medieval banquet. Basically we were down in a dungeon and the performers were dressed in medieval clothes and there was lots of loud medieval music and entertainment. I had gone to a medieval banquet in Germany last year, so I knew what to expect. We had a pretty good time, but I think two medieval banquets in one lifetime are more than enough for me!! Here are some pictures:

http://lydiaandvictor.myphotoalbum.com/view_album.php?set_albumName=album02

I went to the store on Saturday and discovered some more interesting potato chip flavors:

• Lemon Roasted Chicken with Rosemary and Thyme




• Yogurt & Green Onion




• Spare Ribs




• Roasted Red Pepper with Goat Cheese




• Heinz Tomato Ketchup




• Lamb & Mint

I need to start bringing my camera to the grocery store so that I can take pictures of the bags. I'm going to bring a few home for folks to try during the holidays!!

Speaking of the holidays, I was so bummed not be home for Thanksgiving this year. I spent the entire day thinking about what I would be doing if I was at home and wandering what my family was up to. Thankfully, I spoked to my family several times on Thanksgiving, so I felt like I was in the loop. My sister Camille also took pity on me and fulfilled my request of detailing what each person was doing in the house so that I could have a mental picture of what everyone was doing at home. Although I was sad that I wasn't at home, I took comfort in knowing that I would be home for Christmas. Yay!

Still Waiting...

This week was full of ups and downs in my quest for normalcy. While I did finally receive my check card, I had to fight with DHL in order for them to deliver it to me in a timely manner. I finally got the phone line hooked up, but only after 3 additional calls to BT and a whole lot of arguing, threatening, and crying (by any means necessary!!). Since the phone line was finally activated, I was able to call the internet company on Friday to order broadband. They said that they would send out the equipment within 5 days, but it will take up to 15 days for the internet to be activated in the apartment. WHAT??? At this point, I really don’t care—I just want to be able to work from home instead of going to the library everyday!!

Anyway, aside from my daily struggles with DHL, BT, and Citibank, the rest of the week was not too bad. I worked out 4 days this week, which is good for me because I usually start out the week with these lofty fitness goals and by Tuesday I have talked myself out of doing more than a few minutes on the treadmill and a few crunches. This week I actually did all of the workouts that I had set out to do, so I am happy about that. I also registered for the Paris marathon (April 6, 2008) so I guess I have to do it now!! I’m excited!

We also got satellite television this week, but we were disappointed to find that satellite television is nothing more than 500 channels of American reruns. L It is sort of funny because all of the shows that failed in died in the US are thriving and successful here. It was nice to watch some oldies but goodies though, like “The Goonies” and “Real World” episodes from 6 seasons ago. :)

On Saturday Victor and I tried to go to the Museum of Branding & Advertising in Notting Hill, but we couldn’t find it and of course no one we asked knew where it was, so we ended up going to a nice outdoor market that had lots of yummy fruits and vegetables and nick nacks. We bought some really good strawberries and blueberries for only £1.50 each and 5 avocados for £1. The good thing about London is that even though housing is expensive, food is really cheap! Then we went to Harrod’s to look around at the merchandise. We’ll have to go back there to shop after a couple of extra zero’s have been added to our paychecks!! After that we met up with some of Victor’s co-workers and we had dinner at a cozy little Thai restaurant, then headed home and got in around 1 am.

Victor is doing well at his job. He gets compliments from his managers all the time because he is such hard worker and he goes the extra mile to produce quality work. I am very proud of him and all that he has accomplished so far.

The other day when I was at the grocery store I noticed that the potato chips here have fancy flavors with long elaborate names. My favorites that I have tried so far are:
· Vintage Farmhouse Cheddar with Pan Fried Shallots
· Balsamic Vinegar with Olive Oil and Chili
· Thai Sweet Chili with Roasted Red Peppers
I also noticed that there are a lot of meat –flavored chips, like roast beef, pork, roasted chicken, prawns…it’s sort of weird.

Weekly Wrap-Up

Well, since I am sitting here on hold with the phone company, I figured now would be as good a time as any to write in my blog!

This was a good week. I got my new car on Tuesday and guess what—it wasn’t a stick shift afterall!! Imagine my surprise and relief when I walked outside and looked in the car and saw P, R, N, D instead of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5! Figuring out how to drive a stick has been a source of stress for me the past few days, but now all that worry is gone. Woo-hoo! Anyway, I got a cute little funky 2007 car called a Renault Magane and it is electric blue. I like the color because it is something that I wouldn’t normally pick out on my own. Also, the car didn’t come with regular keys. To start the car, you just put this card in a slot and push the start button and the engine comes to life! Neat! I like it a lot, but I will only have this car for a few months and then I will getting one of my co-worker’s cars in February when she moves back to the States since there will still be a year left on her lease. She has a Ford Focus, but it is a 2006 so it won’t be too much of a downgrade. Plus, it’s an automatic so that’s all that really matters!! If you click on the link there are some pictures of my car and the “key”, and I also threw in a picture of our street and the gym that I go to. :)

http://lydiaandvictor.myphotoalbum.com/view_album.php?set_albumName=album01

I’m serious about running this marathon in April! I worked out 5 times this week and on Wednesday I met with a trainer at the gym and he gave me a workout plan so that I will be rock-solid and in tip-top shape in no time! Anyway, Victor and I had dinner with some of the other Fellows last night and one girl said that she was going to run the marathon with me. This was after a couple of glasses of wine though, so may be she didn’t realize what she was saying. Ha! I told her that she could back out if she wanted to because I have backed out of running marathons too many times to count. I’m really going to do it this time though.

A word about British television…sometimes I giggle when I watch TV because on some shows instead of having closed captioning, they have a little man or woman standing in the corner of the screen doing sign language. I laugh everytime. One day when we first moved here Victor and I were watching TV and the man was in the corner signing away and then all of a sudden he disappeared and Victor was like, “Where did he go?” and I was like, “It must have been time for his break.” Ahahahahaha!! I crack up everytime I think about my funny joke. A lot of the commercials are funny too. I’m going to start posting some of them if I EVER get the INTERNET in my APARTMENT!!!!!! Sorry—touchy subject!

What else…oh yeah, I went to the Civic Office yesterday to pay our Council Tax, and the lady was so rude to me. L Unfortunately, customer service is not one of the UK’s strong suits. For instance, I have been waiting to get my check card from the bank for two weeks now. I called the bank a couple of days ago to let them know I had not gotten my card and they checked at it hadn’t even been sent!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was very polite and asked that it be sent rush delivery because I don’t have access to my funds and they said sure. Well, I called back today and I was told that the card was sent rush delivery yesterday but it would still take 4 business days to get to me. ???? Guess how long it takes for them to send it regular delivery? 5 DAYS!!!!! I was not lying when I said that they like to take their time doing stuff here. Oh well…and by the way, it’s been 40 minutes and I’m still on hold with the phone company…