A lazy weekend - for a change

What a novelty! A whole weekend with nothing planned! A luxury these days it seems.

First there was a trip to the gym on Saturday morning. Ian was most dismayed at his recent personal training session and has decreed himself fat and unfit (his words!). So we dutifully hit the treadmills for an hour.

We then started the fun and games of trying to narrow down a few cars that we are considering buying or leasing. First we took out the Ford Edge - a nice SUV that isn't available in the UK . We also tried the Ford Escape but it felt a bit cheap in comparison. Honda won't let us test drive without some Connecticut ID so we weren't able to take out the Element or CRV. We also hit Subara and kind of fell for the Tribeca. The dealer is doing some great lease deals at the moment, but because of our lack of US credit history, we're unlikely to be able to benefit form them. Ian still keeps going on about getting a "bad ass pick up truck" like a Dodge Ram but Annalie thinks he's having a testosterone surge at the moment. He would just need a stetson and cowboy boots to complete the look.

We checked out West Farms Mall to see what the shopping was like and also grab some lunch. Good old California Pizza Kitchen - like Pizza Express, but with more choice! We first tried this place in Singapore of all places, before checking it out in California (of course!).

While at the Mall, we tried to find Ian a pair of replacement Oakleys after he lost his last time we were here. The resulting pair (see photos) are pretty cool, and he got the glasses and a hard case for the same price as he paid for the original ("mislaid") pair! Annalie also tried valliantly to find a pair that suited, but the only ones that actually looked good were $240, so she didn't partake.

Part of our shipment has arrived, the few boxes that went by air. So Ian has started unpacking to make our proper house feel more like home. The ship carrying the rest of our gear is due to dock in New York on Friday but we can only guess as to when it will get up to Connecticut. If US Customs don't feel like inspecting it, we could have it all by the end of the following week. Fingers crossed.

There are some more pics for you to enjoy. A photo of our temporary house looks like we've got a huge abode, but it's what the Americans call a "duplex". Or a semi-detatched to the rest of us! Only difference is that we share a front door. Ours is on the right as you look at it - 56 Clinton Street.

There's also a picture of one of our pool cars, the Jeep that Ian is driving at the moment. There's a bit of car "tango" going on at the moment. Annalie is giving back her "soccer mom" Dodge Caravan tomorrow and picking up a Jeep Liberty that belonged to Neil (her predecessor). But her actual company car should also be here by the end of the week (another Jeep Liberty) so she'll have got through a few cars by mid-April!

Ian must be bored as he's started baking already. Annalie was not allowed to go to work on her first day empty-handed so he made a lemon sponge cake. And check out the picture of the carrot cake he's also made. They have tasted really good (we shouldn't be surprised) and Annalie's team at work now want to meet him to place their orders.

Also, check out some of the friendly neighbours that have been coming out to welcome us to the neighbourhood. They're pretty cute but I wonder what Bodie and Doyle would make of them...

Settling down in CT

Well, here we are, two days in and just getting our heads around the fact that we're here for good. Well, almost. Three years anyway.

The majority of our stuff is somewhere mid-Atlantic at present but we're hoping to be reunited with it sometime in the middle of April. At least when it arrives we'll be able to look forward to moving into our "proper" house. Don't get me wrong, the temporary accommodation is nice and more than adequate, but it will be nice to have our own stuff around us.

Ian's been off taking some nice pictures around the house with his new camera. There are some amazing views of Hartford from the two balconies, which you can see as the header above and in the piccies section.

We're wondering what to do with ourselves this weekend as it feels like our first weekend "off" for the whole of the year. So far it seems like 2008 has consisted of a mountain of paperwork, a lot of travelling and some fond farewells. What will we do with ourselves?

We've got a couple of company "pool" cars at the moment, like this one http://www.jeep.com/en/2008/grand_cherokee/, but when we get our long-term company car, we'll start looking at either buying or leasing another one as we won't be able to keep the Grand Cherokee forever.

Annalie's job is going steadily and she's just getting her feet under the table. The long days are bound to start pretty soon though! Ian's still not sure what he's going to do with himself during his enforced time off - oh to have the luxury!

We've joined a gym to try and make sure that the fabulous food portions here don't catch up with us. We've joined www.healthtrax.com after convincing them that Annalie works for Pratt & Whitney to get a discount! Who knows, maybe we'll come back even leaner than we left!