Odds & Ends

We’ve been pretty chill lately.

I made us a fancy afternoon tea.

Kim threw her back out when we put our canoe away.

Luckily before that we managed to have a lovely paddle around our lake.

I love being nosy and looking at the back of people’s houses.

We visited the Saville Dam one weekend.

Which has a beautiful little turret over looking a reservoir.

I discovered an arcade chain called Dave & Busters.

Luckily it still had the same air hockey game as Kim and I liked playing in Great Yarmouth in England so that was great.

The weather is a lot less hot and humid thankfully and all the neighbours have their Halloween decorations up. We’re away over Halloween sadly so we won’t get to see all the little kid’s outfits.

4th July/Coventryfest

A few weeks ago it was Coventryfest which is the town’s celebration for 4th July but is on the weekend a few days early. We went down to our beachy area that morning at the lake for a swim and people were already reserving the picnic benches at the beach by leaving things out then driving off to return later! We left the beach just as it was starting to get busy and when we came back for the fireworks it was absolutely packed. Our beach is shared by about 3 streets but usually it’s pretty empty. All the boats were out on the lake with their lights shining across the water, waiting for the fireworks to start.

I wasn’t sure what to expect but it was a really good display, we sat in our fold out chairs with wine, liberally covered in bug repellent and saw what $10,000 worth of fireworks looked like.

That weekend we browsed the flea market my friend tipped us off about at the drive in movie theater.

There was a lot of random things including probably every Fisher Price toy and Barbie Kim and I had ever owned, bizarre junk, china, old Americana.

It just went on and on, we enjoyed having a good browse but settled on some plants.

On Independence Day I got the day off from work which was nice, we went to visit the in-laws and have a little swim in the pool and a cookout.

I got introduced to the world of competitive eating… a yearly hot dog eating contest they said, that sounds funny I thought… ew. Turns out watching a man eat 74 hot dogs in 10 minutes is not pleasant to watch. See in background – hot dog hats!

Then I got introduced to bull riding, I thought this might be a bit cruel but from what I could see the bulls looked well cared for and didn’t get hurt… the riders however, they got bucked and trampled on and run at which was quite entertaining. One poor man got trampled in such a way that made me wonder if he was still fertile afterwards but I suppose that’s what you get for riding a bull? Perhaps it’s natural selection. When a rider comes off they have rodeo clowns that try to distract the bull away from goring the guy that fell off. All the riders have a ranking but the bulls also have a ranking on their difficulty level. They each have a funny name like Buckeyed-Bill or Heart Break Kid. So I enjoyed that.

We got out in the canoe again which was beautiful, we’re getting the hang of it.

The weather has been making it difficult though because it’s either blistering heat or chucking it down with rain alternately so not ideal! Lucky we live in an age of air conditioning.

June Days

It’s already June, can you believe it? We’ve had the chance to work on our home a little more. We had some particularly crappy windows in the house. They were all mismatched windows from different improvements the previous owners had made, some had wooden frames that would swell and were hard to open, some wouldn’t shut fully, half were missing screens and one had this crack across it the previous owner had repaired with sellotape. Brilliant.

So we got all of the old windows ripped out and replaced and now we actually you know… can use them as functioning windows. Joy. I’m hoping this will also mean there won’t be ice on the inside of the windows when winter comes back around.

Despite the cost of our new windows we still couldn’t resist visiting Whole Foods again, I did manage to resist this candle though, very difficult…

Although Whole Foods is the grocery store of my dreams, I do think we will have to return to Stop & Shop (The USA has to be the only country that needs to put how to use instructions in the title of their stores) because there was a distinct lack of stupid news magazines. Instead they had hippy magazines.

The Coventry Farmers Market is open again so we’ve popped in a couple of Sundays.

We took the canoe out on Coventry Lake ( which is actually called Wangumbaug only no one seems sure of how to pronounce that) for it’s maiden voyage.

We also raided Ocean State Job Lot (which is a bit like B&M in the UK) for some rocking chairs which I put together. Why is it when you get furniture to put together, the pre-drilled holes are always misaligned? They seem fine but if they begin to creak even slightly I’m super gluing those suckers together.

We also got a little fire pit which has been a nice addition, no more improvements for the time being until the credit card is paid off!

 

 

Taming Of The Shrew

Last week we got 11 inches of snow and it was about -20 C… not fun. However, I did get two snow days off of work so that made shoveling the driveway less laborious because after instead of having to go to work I got to hibernate inside.

Unfortunately we weren’t the only ones feeling the cold because we noticed some mice must have come into our house through a gap in a kitchen cupboard. We inspected and sure enough they’d nibbled through an entire packet of Kim’s sweets. The kitties were extremely interested and began patrols at once.

Kim’s had a bad cold and has been feeling rotten so we stocked up on the cold meds. Did a spot of reading whilst waiting in line.

All the lake has been frozen over and we have been at the mercy of the snow ploughs although thankfully they’ve been good to us and not taken out our mailbox.

So whilst the snow has walled us in the house I had ordered some wire wool and expanding foam to keep the mice out… when Mr Barclay cat manages to catch a live shrew inside our house next to our boiler which I then had to attempt to rescue and put outside (only it was pretty stunned so I think it probably died anyway!). Since the shrew was captured the cat’s haven’t been patrolling as much and there aren’t anymore signs of life.

All the same, I have been hunting out all the possible gaps in the house, including this horrible area next to our boiler we’ve never really investigated which was full of tiny gaps (one presumes straight through to the crawl space?).

I found all sorts down there, bricks, bits of plaster, an ear plug, a receipt from a liquor store and bits of newspaper from 1982 (which, from the quantity of crap I found in the gap, makes sense to be the last date it was cleaned!).

And underneath all the rubbish some pretty sizable gaps.

So that’s been my thrilling January so far, taking down Christmas stuff, freezing, rescuing half dead shrews and then blocking them out. Fun times. The upside to the cold weather is that we’ve really been getting our moneys worth from our Movie Passes and been to the movies a lot. Next week I start my new job role (at the same company) and going up to 40 hours so that’ll be good… hopefully no more snow for just now.

Snow Comes To Coventry

So this Saturday we were all geared up to take a trip to New York City until we woke up to…

There was about 3 or 4 inches in the end, we took a little walk down to the lake which was all chilly.

We took the cats out for a little exploration.

They didn’t stay out long…

Kim’s cat bunny acted like we were torturing her and hid under the steps in our garden.

We’ve been getting ready for Christmas, I’ve done two secret Santa’s and a grab bag for work so far. I hadn’t done a grab bag before, you buy a random gift and wrap it and take it there then when you’re ready everyone picks a number. When your number is called you pick a gift and unwrap it then you choose whether to keep it or steal a gift that someone else before you has unwrapped. After the last person goes the first person gets to choose to steal or keep their gift so getting number 1 is the best. I wasn’t sure what to take so I got a bag of miniatures (which the Americans call ‘nippers’).

Kim’s Auntie Linda sent us a wreath she made in the post which was nice and it lights up, that side of Kim’s family is very good with crafts. She also sent this little candle thing which wizzed round and is very fun to fiddle with.

We’ve set up the fish tank all ready for our new arrivals. I just labelled the Christmas cards so hopefully they’ll get to the UK in time, we got some of those cheesy photo cards the Americans love because I think they’re funny. I only have a few more presents to buy so that’s a relief!

The Driving Test & Coventry Christmas In The Village

I spent two nights last week taking an 8 hour drug and alcohol course that was mandatory before I was allowed to take my practical driving test. I had passed my written test fine (it was much easier than the UK test) so this course was the last step. It cost $140 (ugh) and was run in a little class room full of teenagers with blue hair… and me. It was run by a rootin tootin sort of American man who kept saying “veehickle” and gave such tips as “do not wear sunglasses at night” and “if a pedestrian crosses the road in a place that is not a crossing, you are still not allowed to run them down” – well thanks so much. There were endless videos that had funky dance music and featured grinning actors saying “Hey I’m Scott and I am here to teach you the rules of the road!”. It was extremely painful.

Finally yesterday I was able to take my practical driving test – what a difference to the UK! It lasted 15 minutes, I had a very friendly tester who was thrilled I was from the UK as he kept a list of different countries he had tested people from and he didn’t have the UK yet so he could check that one off. We literally just drove round the block in a long loop and I had to reverse into a bay and that was it. My brother Oliver kept saying how easy the test was and I thought surely not but there we are – easy!

Last Sunday we parked up and walked into town because they had a Christmas event down Main Street in Coventry with places you could buy different things and crafts, bake sales etc.

Kim got her annual spiced apple and we browsed.

One of the stalls sold pet things and we bought Barclay a catnip pumpkin pie (Bunny doesn’t care for catnip too much). Bar immediately sniffed out his gift.

And unwrapped it himself. Guess he doesn’t know Santa is watching…

Mum’s Visit & Line Dancing

Autumn (or fall) is truly upon on us now and we are still being plagued by bloody leaves everywhere but my Mum enjoyed getting some good photos of the colours and the lake by our house. I think my plan of action will be to wait until more of the leaves have fallen off the trees until I rake again because last time I raked the next day they were all back!

Also in other news my green card FINALLY turned up which is good because the stamp visa in my passport expired and I couldn’t leave the country because I wouldn’t be allowed back in. I mean we haven’t planned to go abroad anywhere yet but it’s nice to have the freedom!

So that was a relief. My Mum was still visiting so we took a couple of trips out and about to hibachi (where I got more delicious tuna) and the four story mall in Providence. We also finally went to the Nathan Hale State Forest in Coventry which we live right by but we hadn’t got round to walking in because there are no trail maps! It was very pretty though there were signs up that said hunting allowed so I don’t know if that means you might get shot at during a nice leisurely walk?

One night we went to Cadillac Ranch for some line dancing which was so funny. None of us were that good at it but we soldiered on.

My favourite thing to do was watch this guy dance, he seemed to know all the steps but he just wanted to do his own thing and the lady showing everyone how to do the dances seemed annoyed.

 

My job is still going good. I was pretty confused the other day when the nice ladies upstairs brought me a cake… mainly because it wasn’t my birthday. Somehow they’d gotten confused and thought it was my birthday.

So one of the ladies made a quick adjustment and now we have some tasty cake at work for a few days. Also that night Kim’s parents threw a party for us at a nice Italian restaurant to celebrate our wedding so we have extra cake!

The last day of my mum’s visit Kim had to go back to work so my mum and I took a trip to Lighthouse Point Park in East Haven. We weren’t really sure what it was going to be like but it was a lovely area and there was a little walk we went on, we got some nice snaps and we found a ladies handbag in the sand so we handed that in. Someone had a wedding on so people were arriving dressed up to a large glass building that had a carousel in it.

After our nice beachy walk we got coffee and drove back.

But not before stopping at Buckland Hills Mall in Manchester for some Taco Bell. Taco Bell is like Mexican food McDonalds and none of Kim’s family likes it but my Mum and I are obsessed.

My mum’s flight back to London the next day wasn’t until the evening so we had brunch at IHOP and we were all so stuffed.

And then it was back to Boston for my Mum’s flight home.

Nathan Hale & The Week

The Saturday before last we went for a historical talk and walk at the Nathan Hale Homestead, we live right by the homestead in Coventry and it’s where they hold the Farmers Market each Sunday so we thought we’d check it out. The Nathan Hale Homestead is where the Connecticut state hero’s family had a big farm house and grew up and there’s the Nathan Hale State Forest on site.

Now I didn’t know much about Nathan Hale apart from that he was a spy for the revolution and he was captured by the British and hung. Turns out that’s not exactly true… our guide told us on his first ‘spy trip’ to New York his ‘disguise’ was that he told people he was Dutch (despite not knowing any Dutch when pressed… not very smart for a place originally called New Amsterdam) and that he went into a tavern, bumped into the head of British intelligence there who suspected something wasn’t quite right, he then bought Nathan drinks for at least 5 hours (yet no alarm bells were ringing?) and tricked Nathan into revealing he was a spy by pretending to be a spy himself (OMG me too!).

He then convinced Nathan to come to where he was staying (which was coincidentally full of English officers – still no alarm bells) because they were throwing a party in his honour. Then Hale preceded to tell all of the officers he was a spy whilst circulating round the party, our guide said the records say the English officers thought it was a shame they had to hang him the next day because he was so nice. And then the building was surrounded and they ‘captured’ him and hung him the next day. Sad yes… but what an idiot (despite going to Yale) and he never even passed one bit of information to the revolution. Why on earth he’s the state hero I have no idea. Someone on the tour asked before this story if Nathan Hale was a good spy and the guide looked awkward and said “errrrrrr….” so there you have it, the story of the state hero. It was a great tour though.

Later in the week we went to the Big E which I had to put in a separate post because I had so many photos. Then last Friday we went to see Swan Lake at the Bushnell in Hartford which was very good, there were lots of people leaping about with feathers etc.

So that was good, then we spent the weekend doing ‘yard work’, mooching about the garden center buying wheelbarrows and other boring things like that. I raked so many leaves up although I don’t know why I bothered because they’re all already back.

We tested out the heating too because it’s starting to get a little more chilly, luckily Kim’s mum bought us matching fleece PJs last Christmas so we were all set. In other exciting Christmas related news Santa has agreed to buy me a fish this year, only I said I didn’t want to clean the fish so Santa said that Santa would also clean the fish. Huzzah!

We just finished up a bit more gardening and Kim succeeded in locking us out of the house so I had to jimmy open a window with the garden spade (our windows need replacing anyway…) so I’ve also ordered a keysafe online… domestic bliss.

Weekly Goings On

I've had quite a bit-y week this week. We finished off decorating the upstairs bedroom.

We borrowed a plaster draw sheet from Kim's Dad which was the most annoying thing known to man because it kept sticking to the underside of my bare feet (and it is HOT here) as I painted so in the end I pulled it up with annoyance – next time we're just using newspaper.

This cupboard was a pain to paint as well. I'm not entirely sure what's even in the cupboard because there's just boarding behind it and behind that is insulation… a mystery cupboard.

But everything is sort of done, there's a couple of speckled patches I need to go over with a brush.

It's meant to be a sort of mauve but my half brother thoughtfully termed it liverwurst (I can only assume out of jealousy).

We browsed the farmers market last week (we avoided it this week as it's theme is 'child friendly') and the theme was corn (or as I now call it – maize). We picked up some hummus and baklava from a Lebanese baker and got a nice quiche from another stall.

They were giving out free grilled corn and you could pick toppings.

Kim and I had coconut milk and scallions which was so good. I picked up more corn at the grocery store. I really want to try Indian corn some time with all the different colours in them.

There was music at the market too and it was quite atmospheric country markety type music until the guy started singing songs from frozen… then we slowly started edging away.

I took a trip back to the hardware store for more paint for the lounge, we've been going there a lot for bits and bobs. You order the paint and they mix the colour for you there so you can't pick a can off shelf. When I asked for a can I was told it was called a gallon, and when I went looking for white spirit I was told it was called mineral spirits and we wouldn't need it as the paint washes off with water… not sure how reassuring that is… anyway I like to browse the gardening section when the paint is being mixed because they get a lot of huge butterflies visiting.

Imagine my surprise when I saw this little thing, I really couldn't figure out what it was because it looked like a little bird but then it was more like a large beetle. You get to the point as an adult I think where there's rarely an animal you haven't seen on tv and can't identify but I was stumped. Turns out it's a hummingbird moth that mimics hummingbirds, I'd never even heard of it! And nor had Kim even though she's lived here most of her life.

So that's been my week, I had a job interview Friday and I have another one Monday, even though I'm still waiting on my licence to go through I thought I may as well start applying. Job applications are so dull to fill out, I like the ones where you can just send in your resume.

Life in America is still a novelty to me, I still enjoy chuckling to myself when I see different signs and inspecting things in stores. The weathers been good most days and we've swam a lot in the lake which has been nice.

I Passed!

A lot of you know that in England I worked as a registered nurse and that Kim is a registered nurse in America, however neither qualifications translate to the other country annoyingly. When we looked at moving to the USA at first I started the long long very long process of getting my qualifications compared to USA qualifications. In the USA nursing is a four year degree that covers adults, children, mental health, learning disabilities and midwifery and once you graduate you have to take a test called NCLEX. In the UK it’s 3 years and you pick a specialty (I chose adult). So as you can imagine I’d probably be short a few hours of tuition and placements in comparison, I don’t fancy going back to university so I played it safe and decided to request to be a licensed practical nurse instead of a registered nurse and the state said that I could. The NCLEX test is reallly hard, it’s an adaptive multiple choice test so some answers are right, but some answers are more right. The computer also decides which question you take next based on the answer to the last question – so I had a lot of studying to do. I’m a pretty lazy student so I’ve been procrastinating.

I got a few cake mixes to make, I’ve been running errands including a disastrous trip to the Bank of America to open a new account for me. We got assigned to a poor fresh faced young ginger guy who was just out of college and a little nervous and was still in training. It was so complicated because none of the bank staff seemed to have much experience of UK documents and they were really confused so I felt really sorry for the guy training because we were the worst people to start with as we had 3 new accounts, Kim’s name change, change of address, ordering new cards and cheques… it was endless.

We went for a movie date to see Dunkirk which was such a good movie I’d really recommend it.

Did you know they don’t sell sweet popcorn in most US cinemas? I usually like half sweet half salted mixed. They just have salted and a pump of butter you can put on top of it – yeuch.

It’s been hot again mostly this week so we bought new floaties to swim in the lake with (Kim’s is the unicorn).

Eventually though 2 days ago it was time to take my NCLEX, it was a very strict exam taken on a computer in complete silence, I had to show photo ID, get my photo taken, scan the veins of both palms 4 times, I was video recorded at all times, I couldn’t take anything into the exam – you’re not even allowed to take scrap paper or a tissue! I had to pat myself down and roll up my sleeves before I could go in and show my ears under my long hair to prove I didn’t have any ear pieces!

I had 5 hours to take the exam and there would be between 75-205 questions (depending on how you answered), I only took an hour and got about 80 questions or so – so I was thinking this probably wasn’t a great sign. Then there is a 2 day wait to get your results. Kim bought a fondue set so I could console myself with cheese.

Yesterday we had a storm with torrential rain and even some hail and I was perfectly happy inside until I got the life frightened out of me with a weather warning. Apparently they just get sent out automatically to everyone’s phones but I didn’t know that so a little siren started going off from my phone and I was quite confused.

After the storm there was a lovely mist over the lake.

The house across the street is getting renovated, in the neighbour’s front garden is an apple tree and we’d been finding little apple cores and assuming it was squirrels or rabbits or something.

Until we spotted this little fellow this morning, our very own groundhog and his wife (I like to assume they’re married). I love all the wildlife near our house.

Finally after the long wait I got my results this morning that I passed, I am SO glad I don’t have to retake the NCLEX although I have up to 6 weeks to wait for my licence I can at least start looking for jobs and no more studying yayyyy. I have a lucky streak with exams of winging it so I guess it saw me through again.