Settling into a routine...of sorts

Finally having our own place made such a difference. The swans float past all day, and on the week-ends there are rowers, long boats, people fishing, and plenty of seagulls fighting with swans for the bread fed by locals.

Within five days of moving in, Louise and Zac arrived after their European driving holiday. They left their UK belongings with us and headed home to Australia for a couple of weddings in a couple of weeks. So - we move all the way to the other side of the world and we are still looking after the kids' things! Although, to be fair, we did leave a lot of things with my mum when we moved...swings and round-a-bouts I guess. 

The next organisational detail was to buy wheels. The buses are very handy to home and work, and run every 10 minutes. We can leave home, walk through the centre of town and get a decent coffee, then catch the bus and be at work before 7:45, but it's getting darker earlier, and there have been cold, wet days. We also want to do lots of week-end and holiday trips; public transport is much better than at home, but a car will give us lots of options. So, after hunting, test-driving and checking bank accounts, we bought Whiskey; an i30, a little bigger than our one at home. 

Our first trip was to ... the local ice-hockey game. We loaded up a few of the other Aussies working here, and headed off to watch the game. It was fabulous; hard, fast, graceful and brutal, all at the same time. I can only imagine what a high-level game would be like. We'll add that to the list being compiled: "Things to do in the UK".

We also headed out of town to nearby Burghley House at Stamford. It was so lovely to drive through the country roads, with leaves turning to autumn colours. Burghley is magnificent; an Elizabethan house, filled with astounding art collections, surrounded by sweeping grounds designed by Capability Brown, and still in use by the family who have owned it through the generations since the 1500s. Talk about seeing how the other half live. The house closes over winter, but we will be visiting throughout the year, trying to see as much of the collection as possible. This is also the venue for the annual Burghley Horse Trials, a major international event. Something else to add to the list perhaps.