First day of school

University of Reading classes started today!

Weekend discovering Caversham

Discovered a huge park behind our house with excellent views of Reading. Eiffel, who arrives on Saturday, will LOVE it.

Perfect spot for photos.

. 

Driving on the left

Timidly testing it out, with the theory being, 'give way to everybody else'.  Having a car will save 3 hours a day in commuting to school using the bus.  Plus, we've been spending about $10 a day on bus passes.  Happy to have wheels!

Newest driver in town should be required to have one of the orange 'L' (learner) stickers all new drivers here have on the hood.

First day of school

The kids are off to Micklands Primary School.

Uniforms!

First of TWO double-decker buses needed to get to school (four each day, 8 for Mum).  Mum will be learning to drive sooner than expected!

Bus stop #2

By all reports, it was a great first day!

One week in

It's been nearly a week since we landed and a lot has happened:

The kids have a school, Micklands Primary and start on Wednesday 26 September.  It's been 13 weeks since they left Dilworth, so it's high time to start again.  They found the 'Friendship Bench', a place where you sit when you are lonely and need a friend. 

Connor was nearly eaten by a T-rex at London's Museum of Natural History, by far the best museum we've ever seen.

We've made great new friends.  Hope has already had a gymnastics class and Connor a violin group lesson.  They both jumped right in!

After seeing loads of signs like this one, Connor finally asked, "Why are there so many toilets around here?"  Guess we need a refresher on dipthongs vs. long vowel sounds.  

A few weeks before arriving, we heard about a new building in London that was reflecting sunlight into the surrounding neighborhood, causing enough heat to melt plastic parts of cars.  We spent time learning about it, so the kids were super exciting when the spotted it towering over us.  Fortunately, the temperature has cooled so we didn't melt!

Allen has learned to drive on the left...and done a great job of it! It's been lots of roundabouts (sometimes around more than once), map consulting, and several u-turns, but no accidents, no blue lights, no other drivers upset by his driving. Hopefully no tickets will arrive in the mail!

Connor turned into an old man, reading a paper on the train. 

The kids each had a drink at Kensington Palace. 

And, we've taken loads of pictures in front, mostly in front of old places.  You can see our favorite photos here:

But, we don't yet have beds (due tomorrow) or the shipment (stuck in customs).  Although we have managed to figure out the stove, oven, microwave and washer (there is no dryer...), though most  required consulting of the manual.   

Overall, we're having a great time, the kids have been very good, and we are fully functional.  Most importantly, we have been strongly supported and welcomed by new friends, though we miss our old friends and family.  We can't wait for the visits to start.

We've made it!- with pictures

The Holloways are finally back online with internet, UK phone, text, US number, and power to laptops (which had sadly died...).  It seems that our connectivity problems might just have been solved...even surfing with a US IP address!

The past few days have been a whirlwind of novel events.  Everyone is doing well and seems to be handling the transition gracefully.  Except for one momentary lapse Tuesday afternoon and occasional mild over excitement, the children have done really great.

The big events include arriving at our new home, driving to London Ikea, meeting new friends, furniture gathering, a playdate for Connor and gymnastics class for Hope.

We arrived to our home mid-day with only our airplane luggage.  It's small, but perfect for our year here.  Fortunately, a new friend, Melina arrived with the most awesome care package.  It included many goodies such as dishes, flatware, British foods, but none more important than the blow up mattresses, pillows, and comforter.  And her GPS was really handy for the drive into London.  Considering the bed delivery has been postponed until mid-October, the blow-up mattresses have been very well appreciated.  Later Tuesday, we met her two children, who are nearly the same ages as Hope and Connor and have become instant buddies.

Allen rented a really large van for furniture pickup, most of which we bought through our version of Craigslist, Gumtree.  It's been great to pay so little for furniture, especially considering we won't have it that long.  Tuesday night he drove out to Thatchum, a village 30 minutes away.  It look him a hour and he declared that he turned around 10 times (yes, we opted not to ride with him for the first drive).  He actually did great with driving, even in London- quite impressive!
We befriended the cute couple (Deb and Gary) who sold us our dining table and chairs.  The little old man gave Connor a toy lory and Deb cleaned off her sewing table on the spot to sell us when the first table was too small).  What a nice way to meet nice people...and get inexpensive furniture.

The Ikea run was quite an adventure- see below for pictures.
Now really only need a sofa, beds, photos of friends and family, and the shipment (which is stuck in customs longer than normal...NOT happy about that) to feel complete.  We are making progress!

It's really cold and rainy- I know, not surprisingly, but we only brought a few pieces of long pants and tops each (the bags we packed many weeks ago when it was really warm).  The shipment contains our winter clothes so we are getting anxious to have it.

Here are a few pictures from the past few days.  We've been so busy we didn't take many- we will try to be better about that. 

Double happy, triple sad

On the plane, Connor declared that he feels "double happy, triple sad" about our trip.  He's triple sad to leave Charlotte, friends, and family.  But, he's double happy for our adventure.  

We've had uneventful flights with some sleep and are now heading to Reading.  

The adventure begins! At weight with no repacking needed! Amazing!

We Are Off!

Thank you, friends and family for all your help to get us across the pond.  Preparing for this trip has truly taken the 'whole village': babysitting, loaning cars, caring for our dog, loaning us a house, buying supplies, goodbye hugs, any most importantly, many, many prayers!  You all are the best, we love you dearly and will see you very soon. 

Contact information:
Allen:  holloway.allen@gmail.com
Ellen:  ellenholloway@speechgarden.org

Mountain Day Trip

Allen's officially finished with his job!  We are using our final week to visit some of our favorite places.  

 

Poor Ruby! (our minivan)

To prepare for the move, we sold our last car.  The kids were sad to see 'Ruby' go (named by the kids based on a cartoon character, despite the fact she's blue instead of red).  We've lived in her for five years and totally trashed her inside and out.  Allen did a nice job of cleaning her, but our wear and tear still shows...

The new owners declared they wouldn't be replacing the back bumper, which has a large dent from a shopping cart incident (the cart was unharmed), citing that they are terrible drivers. 

They know themselves, since they wrecked her driving her home from the sale.  Now she has dents in the back AND front bumpers! 

Poor Ruby...she was better off with us!

Family Barn Party

Many thanks to Meredith, Paul and all our family for an evening of fun and food before our departure.  We love you all and will miss you very much!