All Moved In! For Now...

Well we've spent our first few days in our new home and it sure has been an experience! You forget about all of the basic necessities that make your day go smoothly until you don't have any! Not to mention the lack of toilet paper our first day, we didn't seem to have any hot water either. So once we moved in all 6 suitcases of belongings, we set out and found a local grocery store about 1/2 a mile away and purchased a few supplies. The rest of the afternoon was spent driving (we live in Downham Market which is about 35-40 minutes away from base) and shopping at the BX and Commissary. Purchasing cleaning supplies, food you can eat without pots and pans, and basic ironing tools- everybody wears their Blue's each Monday so we wanted to be sure we were set! Then after arriving back home, within 10 minutes we were off to Newmarket where Jonny’s sponsor and family lived. They had invited us to come over for dinner, and after a day or driving and moving and cleaning, we were ready to eat! Newmarket is about a 50 minute drive south/west of where we live in the Cambridgeshire area. It is best known over here for the horse breeding and racing that goes on. As soon as you hit city limits you see big open fields with horse training equipment. We were told that the place is usually filled with horses until about 1pm; the area is then open to the public where locals usually go for walks and play with their pets. Once we arrived, we ate some Italian Wedding Soup that they had made for us. It was pretty amazing! Once I get my cooking supplies from the movers it will probably be the first dinner I make! After we ate, they took us on a walk around their village and gave us some helpful tips about places to eat and some information about local shops.
Sunday morning was filled with SLEEP! Jonny and I slept until about 11am, so apparently Saturday’s driving wiped us out! We then proceeded back to base to pick up a few other things. There are 3 Royal Air Force bases right in the area, and they all have different supplies. For example, Lakenheath has clothing, kitchen supplies, and a “beauty department, Feltwell is all furniture, and Mildenhall is stocked with bed, bath, and outdoor supplies. So unfortunately, you cant always find everything at the same place. But they really aren’t more than 15 minutes away from each other, so it could be worse! But we have made out pretty well so far with getting situated, so we are grateful for that! We had a minor misunderstanding regarding the power converters and transformers, blew a couple fuses trying to get a borrowed vacuum to work…but I think we’ve got it straight now! =)
Yesterday Jonny headed back to base at about 5:30am for his first term airmans course again, and that left me the day to get our new home all clean! I must say, I was on a mission to get the toilets to be white! The first few days I was here, no matter where I went, none were white! I was beginning to think that toilets in the UK didn’t have the potential to do so, but I proved that wrong! We just might have the only home with clean, white toilets! Also, nobody has lived here for a few months, so that gave time for dust to build up and some bugs creep in. I sucked those up right away! And I must say after yesterday I am much braver with the spiders…I came across probably the largest one I have ever seen outside of a box…so after screeching like a 5 year old and running away, I grabbed some Raid and went at it! Still gives me the shivers thinking about it…
Then after a day of mopping, vacuuming, and scrubbing down walls, our property supervisor came over to mow the front and rear garden, and thankfully she was able to fix our hot water problem! Jonny was able to just take daily hot showers on base at the gym, I on the other hand was way over my ice cold ones!
Once Jonny came home and toured our newly sanitized house, we decided to look at the front and rear gardens. Since the weeds had grown too tall to move, we hadn't spent any time out there. Then Jonny made himself a friend…
Now funny thing is, Jonny is pretty allergic to cats. Typically being in a room with one make his eyes swell up, but for whatever reason, cats tend to be drawn to him. When we arrived at our house and stepped out of the car, this little guy was instantly right by Jonnys feet . He tried to tiptoe around it, so not to touch him, and the cat just trotted along behind him until he got inside. I’m pretty sure the cat would have followed him inside if Jonny didn’t close to door in the poor kitty’s face ;) Then after a few days of “being followed” Jonny warmed up to the cat, and I found him on the front porch where Jonny had brought him a small paper bowel of water, and was petting him on the front walkway with a leaf, and playing with him using a weed =) So that is about it, we are all settled and moved in until the rest of our belongings arrive! They are supposed to get here by August 16th ; I just hope that is actually true! It will be nice to semi-furnish our new home! We will work on the rest over the next year or so!