Getting to know you (again)!

Right, I'll throw in my story.

Guess I'm one of the old timers? I've been in the UK since 2000 just four months after my husband, Richard, and I met online. This was back in the day when a one-way airline ticket wouldn't get you detained at the airport and fiance visas could be obtained in Amsterdam. Fun, fun!

I have two older boys, one of whom is in the States and the other is here. Richard has a daughter, who's 12, from his former marriage who lives with us half the week and then there's our monkey, Nicholas, who's eight.

Richard is a musician - harpsichord, organ, clavichord, trains choirs and runs a side business teaching residential sacred music courses in cathedrals around the UK.

I'm pretty much a glorified desk jockey. Well, if you need BS6920 testing I'm your contact, otherwise I'm sure most people would find my job pretty repetitive.

We're in Berkshire, just outside of Reading, which was host to a few expats but I have no idea anymore. I used to spend quite a bit of time on the forum but haven't been around in a while. I may disappear again, who knows? And like that, poof. I'm gone.

PS: Page 9 rules. Yeah, baby, yeah!

Yay Reinadeluz!  Glad to see you scored yourself a veterinarian job at last! 

Right, I'll throw in my story.... Guess I'm one of the old timers?

Hello stranger Old Timer! 

I like reading everyone's stories. It's almost like we should all be in a book or something. Everyone's stories inspire me to keep going and do well and be better, so, thanks to everyone for sharing!

Yay Reinadeluz!  Glad to see you scored yourself a veterinarian job at last! 

Thanks Mrs. R! :-D :-D I'm pretty pleased to be employed finally, if still terribly overwhelmed by the whole thing!!

Hi, I'm a fulltime laundress. I live in a little house in a little town in Gloucestershire with dirty laundry, hanging-on-the-line laundry, draped-over-radiators laundry, waiting-to-be-ironed laundry, and waiting-to-be-put-away laundry.

I also live with my English husband, dual-citizen son and daughter, and four guinea pigs.

I'm originally an Iowa girl but I've lived in Oakland California and Atlanta Georgia too.  I met my husband in Atlanta and our children were born there.  We moved to England in 2005 when our kids were still in primary school.  They're growing up fast!

I've been a preschool and kindergarten teacher, a nanny, a tutor, a swimming teacher, a lifeguard, and a bookstore clerk - but not in that order.  I still spend a lot of my time with children.  I also like to read, go for walks in the countryside, and make literary pilgrimages. 

Hi, I'm a fulltime laundress. I live in a little house in a little town in Gloucestershire with dirty laundry, hanging-on-the-line laundry, draped-over-radiators laundry, waiting-to-be-ironed laundry, and waiting-to-be-put-away laundry.

Wow!  This is my life too, just swap West Yorkshire for Gloucestershire...heavy on the waiting-to-be-ironed laundry, and the waiting-to-be-put-away laundry...such that those piles are just kind of permanent fixtures around our house.  (They get shoved into the spare bedroom or up under the rafters when guests turn up!)

 

Wow!  This is my life too, just swap West Yorkshire for Gloucestershire...heavy on the waiting-to-be-ironed laundry, and the waiting-to-be-put-away laundry...such that those piles are just kind of permanent fixtures around our house.  (They get shoved into the spare bedroom or up under the rafters when guests turn up!)

 

Why empty a basket of clean laundry when you can just take the clothes straight out of it to wear?  I've often thought we could dispense with dressers entirely if we just had enough laundry baskets.  It would be easier, but perhaps not more attractive. 

Why empty a basket of clean laundry when you can just take the clothes straight out of it to wear?  I've often thought we could dispense with dressers entirely if we just had enough laundry baskets.  It would be easier, but perhaps not more attractive. 

Yes, we have thought about getting some dressers , but that is still on the 'to do / things we still need for the house' list...aka 'we can't be a*sed to do that yet list'.  I really just need more laundry baskets! 

According to all the road signs, it's actually H'fth.

Hello - I'm the token Englishwoman, married to an Englishman,  no US connections, have lived in Leeds for over 30 years now in house with only one mixer tap and no tumble dryer, three children all grown up and living away from home (although one's just returned!).

Went on another US expats website some years ago to try and promote a Philip Glass opera that my son's youth opera group were performing, stayed on the site because I was quite intrigued by the comments (especially as I work with foreign students). I left that site when they started charging and moved to this one, met Mrs Robinson and discovered that we shared opinions on the significant things in life, literature, poetry, religion, politics, food, drink  and the avoidance of housework. I post occasionally to refute or confirm assumptions about strange habits/behaviour of the English 

That's a great story HME 

Why empty a basket of clean laundry when you can just take the clothes straight out of it to wear?  I've often thought we could dispense with dressers entirely if we just had enough laundry baskets.  It would be easier, but perhaps not more attractive. 

Ah yes, we do this. Especially since the girls have been born. Our house is just one pile of laundry. If its on the kitchen floor next to the washer, that's to be cleaned. If it's on the dining room table then that's to be folded. If it's on the bedroom couch then that's to be put away. The couch is where I look for clothes to wear as well. Jon complains about it all the time but if he was really bothered then he'd get his lazy butt up and do something about it.

My friend was always complaining that her son used the tumble drier as a wardrobe. He would wash his one workshirt in the evening, put it in the tumble drier and take it out the next morning!

Hi, I'm a Media Analyst. I live right outside of London in a little village in Harpenden. Its actually the childhood home of my husband so its really nice seeing him loving "home", seeing the last few decades both of us traveled a lot. But back to how I got here:


I visited a few times with high school back in the late 90's and then become a student college exchange student in Aug 2002. I loved it so much I switched my Film and Video degree over to a uni in south London and stayed. I  then moved in to Iceland for work, packed it all up but found myself back in London a year later. In 2007 I had the opportunity to move back to Pennsylvania and cover the Election and work in broadcast news.

So my Husband (boyfriend at the time) moved back and it was definitely a culture shock. Working on american news stories day in and day out.. having to get a car, health insurance and the lot I was very overwhelmed with how invested I needed to be. Also my boyfriend was traveling between Iceland, London and Harrisburg... it was a very interesting time.  He proposed, we had an amazing wedding last year and Election coverage came to an end.  We toyed with whether to stay or move back to the UK (it was mainly me begging to come back in the end) and we headed over in December 2009, about a year ago.

I have to say I am a UK loving Expat, I have been through more visa processes than you can shake a stick at (student, work, student, work, spousal).

Work wise I have been lucky but I start a new role next month and seems I will have to spend quite a bit of time in NYC, Turkey, Spain and Australia... let the traveling begin