Saturday, August 28th

Greetings everyone!

Kyle and I have been in Sheffield for exactly one week today, and I think we've made pretty good use of our time.  Since our last post, we've had two trips into the downtown-equivalent of Sheffield to wander around, find some items we can't find in town near us, and to buy a large map of Europe.  To get into town, we take a bus that comes right near the house, and it's about a 15 minute ride in.  It's not super cheap (about £8 round trip total), so we'll be limiting our bus rides into town to once a week at most. 

Since our last post, we've also had some very enjoyable outings with friends.  On Thursday, our family friend Sue came to pick us up and take us to a few places, including a delightful coffee shop that is close to The Glen, which was Grandma's care facility.  It was nice to pass by The Glen; Kyle and I will be making a visit there soon to see our friends who work there.  Anyways, we had a great time with Sue and it was helpful to get a bit more oriented to Sheffield.  Yesterday, we went out with our neighbor, and long-time family friend, Peter to look for a second-hand bike for me to use.  Peter's family has lent us a bike for Kyle to use, so we just need one for me.  Our search of the four major bike shops around town was fruitless; the only shop that had any second-hand bikes only had two, and the cheapest was £150.  We've not discovered a resource like Craigslist for Sheffield, but we're hoping we can learn about more options for less expensive items as we get to know more people in town.  Anyways, our outings with friends has been a nice time wandering around town, as well as valuable time with people we enjoy!

Today we finally started some work on the house.  Given that that is the reason we're in Sheffield, we figured it was about time.  We removed a lot of unusable old tupperware and storage containers from both of the big kitchen pantries, pulled some empty glass jars from some of the pantry shelves (Grandma made home-made marmalade every year, so she would keep any empty glass jars, and the collection grew quite large!), and got rid of all of the out-dated food in the house.  There were lots of canned goods, dried fruit, baking goods, and lots of tea that had definitely passed its prime (expiration dates ranged from 1990 to 2009).  So, we are sending these items to the big pantry in the sky!

When we're not planning our next plan of attack for another area of the house, we've been putting a lot of thought into travel plans.  We're tentatively planning several weeks of travel through Western Europe soon, so we're gathering all the information we need for that.  We purchased a huge map of Europe (since the map I used when traveling in 2005 is safely packed in the depths of our garage in Portland; doh!) and checked out a few travel books from the library.  While we're putting most of our effort into Western European plans, I also want to do some traveling in Ireland and Scotland, so we're keeping an eye out for information on those destinations as well. 

Perhaps not surprisingly, this is the time that we are hoping to exploit our connections with all of you.  If you have any pearls of wisdom regarding travel destinations, must-see items, transport, or anything, let us know.  And, since we are hoping to set the world record for cheapest travelers ever (Uncle Scott, you've met your match in Kyle Heacock), please let us know if you know of anyone in this part of the world who would be willing to host this goofy couple!

OK, going to close out with a few pictures for your enjoyment.  Peace out friends!

Us on the bus to town.  Kyle is just so excited.

Kyle enjoying a beer in town, while trying to figure out how to get the camera away from me.

Breakfast & Beers from 10am?  Yes please.

Me in town with the ferris wheel beyond.  How odd that Sheffield has a ferris wheel...

Mr. Heacock with the ferris wheel in the background. 

Look what we found!

Me on a walk into town.  Had to get this picture quickly since I didn't want to be that jackass taking a picture of herself in front of many observers. 

Wednesday, August 25th

Hello Everyone!

It's Wednesday morning, and I thought I'd let you all know what we've been up to.  While we've not done anything too wild, we've kept ourselves busy and had a few little adventures...

On Monday evening, we decided to go out for a drink.  We walked down to a pub near the house, which was a totally traditional British pub--well-stocked with beer and whiskey, very casual, with unusual decor such as ceramic boots lining the walls and small chandeliers hanging from the cielings.  Kyle enjoyed his first beer in England (a glass of Stella), while my first drink was less successful.  I ordered a vodka martini, and the bartender didn't know how to make it!  I had to tell him it was vodka and vermouth, then I had to ask for a few olives.  I was totally surprised (hello, James Bond, shaken not stirred?!), but now I know to ask for wine or whiskey next time!  While the bartender was super nice, there weren't many people there and we decided to split.  We are planning to go there next when they have a quiz night in a few weeks, just to confirm how little British trivia we know.

After that, we wandered to another pub nearby, which my uncle frequents when he's in Sheffield when a football (soccer, of course) match is on.  We really liked this place!  Kyle tried some darker British beer (with a strange name like Black Lamb, Hair of the Lamb, or something like that) and was reminded that a lot of the beer here will not be served as cold as we're used to in the US.  Instead of a martini, I ordered the safer vodka/tonic*(see note below) and was impressed by the generous portion of vodka.  Good thing we were walking!  We stayed in time to watch the beginning of the evening's football match (it was Monday Night Football, so the place was pretty hoppin'), then ambled home for dinner.

Yesterday, Tuesday, was a pretty quiet day.  We wandered around town a bit more and did some work on the house.  The excitement for the day was Kyle driving the car that we have in Sheffield.  When we arrived to the house on Saturday, we found the car had a flat tire (tyre in England!).  Kyle reinflated it and made an appointment at the local tire place to get it repaired.  He drove us down there, they fixed it, and he drove us back.  Kyle did a great job!  It's a very weird feeling to drive on the other side of the car and on the other side of the street, and I was totally impressed (although not surprised) that he did such a fantastic job.  He said afterwards that it was pretty nerve-wracking and quickly took a nap after getting home.  He earned it.  In the evening, we found a walking route that we really liked, and our goal is to find more.  This neighborhood, and Sheffield in general, is so nice that we want to make sure to take advantage as much as we can. 

*As a quick note to anyone who cares, I was not partaking in the sampling of beers because I have to maintain a gluten-free diet due to a thyroid condition I have.  Essentially, anything tasty and good such as beer and pizza has gluten (wheat) in it.  This restriction will certainly make eating and drinking in England and Europe interesting!

OK, enough babble for now, and onto some pictures. These are of things that few of you will care about, so I promise to get better at taking pictures of things that are actually interesting. 

Kyle making himself breakfast on Tuesday.  Many of you were actually interested in what we're eating (you weirdos), so Kyle made himself some eggs and bacon.  I made myself a soft boiled egg (the eggs in England are far superior to those in the US!) and...

...green drink!  It had banana, raspberries from the garden, an orange, spinach, British sweetheart cabbage, British spring greens, spinach, flax seed powder, and Xango juice (a fruit juice). 

Kyle is excited to be at #45!  (That's the house number)

Us on our way into town.  You'd be able to see town behind us, but our big fat faces are in the way.  You can tell it's sunny out; we're not normally squinty.

View of town on our route

Us waiting patiently at the tyre place.  I think Kyle is relieved he drove so well!

Monday, August 23rd 2010

Welcome to our very first blog post!  While we haven't too much to post currently, we wanted to start this blog as a way to keep everyone informed about how we're spending our time while in England and around Europe.  I suppose we'll abstain from describing our mundane breakfasts or what doing the laundry was like, and instead focus on the exciting stuff.  Oh, and it may not surprise you that I, Jillian, will be doing most (if not all) of our updates. 

So, as a quick wrap up of the past few weeks...
-I came back to Portland on July 27th (our 3rd wedding anniversary!) after being in Sheffield for Grandma's funeral.
-Kyle did awesome work getting our house packed up and ready for our property management guy to get the house rented out.  We were moved out of the house by the first week of August and we were staying with our friends Blake and Tricia on the other side of town. 
-I had my last day of work on August 9th.
-We spent the remaining time in Portland repacking things to bring to Sheffield and got everything condensed down to three bags each.  We also decided that we own too much junk.
-On August 20th, we boarded our first flight on our way to England!

Since we arrived in Sheffield (the town where we are living in Grandma's house, which is in Northern England and approximately 3 hours by car from London), we've been trying to get ourselves oriented.  Our bags decided not to join us for the final leg of the trip, so we didn't have any unpacking to do for the first 24 hours.  Instead, we slept at odd times, made fun of the goofy British TV commercials, and started familiarizing ourselves with the contents of the booze cabinet. 

It is now Monday afternoon (we arrived Saturday afternoon), and we've unpacked most of our junk, become a bit more settled in the house, and wandered into town to do some grocery shopping.  I still have some visa issues to sort out before finalizing the details of my employment, so we're just going to enjoy our time in a new place and make some preliminary travel plans.  I'd like to explore more of Sheffield, take a weekend trip to London, and do a whiskey tour in Scotland.  Our big travel plans will take shape shortly, but those are the short trips I'm scheming now. 

Kyle seems to be adjusting reasonably well to life in Sheffield.  (Since he's upstairs napping and I'm doing this post, I can talk about him all I want!).  He's understandably irked by the bathing situation (only have a bath and a poorly set up shower at the moment) and by the wild carpet in the house (see picture), but seems excited for this adventure.  He had two cups of tea today when we were visiting with our neighbor friends up the street!  He seems happy that we can walk to so many places and is of course excited to tackle the giant project that is getting this house organized.  And, he's here with his super-cool wife, so how could he not be happy?

We miss everyone in the US, but we are excited to have this opportunity to travel and learn.  It's hard to be away from family and friends, but we're looking forward to creating new friendships here in Sheffield.  I think that's it for now--keep in touch everyone!

Jillian

The house keys with a shape that made Kyle giggle.

Our makeshift double bed--just pushed the two twin beds together!  Please ignore Kyle napping in the far bed.

Me and the hydrangeas in the front garden.  Please ignore floppy hair due to muggy weather!

Our haul from the first big shopping trip.  I'm so glad Kyle carried the big backpack the way home!

A shot of the crazy carpet in the house.