Catching up

Well, it's been a couple of weeks so there's plenty to update you all on.

The reason we've not been online is because we took a trip back to the UK. Firstly was a stop in Derby to go to Raven and Robin's wedding. Annalie used to work with Raven at Rolls and the wedding gave her chance to catch up with a number of the other folks from RR.

Then we moved on to London as Annalie was in town for the Farnborough Airshow. Even though Farnborough is a fair way outside London, most of the attendees stay in town as this is the highest concentration of hotel rooms. IAE was staying in the old Conrad at Chelsea Harbour, which was like a homecoming to Annalie as she used to work in one of the buildings next door. The area hasn't changed much since she left in 2002, apart from a whole new development just next door.

The Airshow itself was a really good experience for Annalie and a relief to get a good one under the belt as it was her first air show for IAE. The announcements that were made were an air show record for the company so everyone was on a high and feeling good.

Staying in Chelsea Harbour also meant some star spotting - no, not Michael Caine, even though he lives next door! Annalie saw Deco, the Portuguese footballer, and Neil 'Doctor' Fox of Capital Radio and Popstars/Pop Idol fame. So no one really important, but we wonder if the fact that Deco was staying in Chelsea was any indicator of a potential transfer?

For the first few days of the show, Ian went off to his parents to spend some time with them and get out of Annalie's hair! He had to deliver his Dad's birthday present, which was a new camera. His Dad was really chuffed with the pressie and they went off to places like Plymouth Hoe to try it out.

When Ian came back up to London, he brought his Dad with him to go to the Airshow. The Avro Vulcan was flying at the show and as his Dad used to work with them while in the RAF, it was a real treat for him to see it in the air again. He was also really impressed with the A380 display and made sure there was video of it all.

The whole trip brought us car hire nightmares. On our way to Boston airport, there were three of us with heavy luggage and the boot (trunk) door didn't open so we had to load everything through the back doors with the seats folded flat. When we got to the UK we had a Renault Laguna with some weird automatic handbrake contraption which was no good for hill starts (as Ian found outside the church in Derby!). When we were due to leave London we'd requested a car was delivered to our hotel by 8.30am so we could take Ian's Dad to the station to catch his train. When it hadn't turned up by 8.45am, Annalie put in an annoyed call to the hire firm who said it would be with us by 9.20am, which would have just about given us enough time to get to the station. When it hadn't turned up by then, we packed him in a taxi and stayed at the hotel to wait. At 9.50am we called again to be told that the car and driver were just leaving the depot (about 10 minutes away). We took our bags downstairs to check out expecting the car to arrive shortly. It was another hour before it actually arrived, so any plans we'd had for the day were pretty much ruined as we didn't get out of London until midday.

We had made no plans at all for the weekend, so Annalie texted her friend Annie to see if she was around. She was only around on the Sunday and Monday so we decided to make a quick detour to Annalie's parents first. After the obligatory Sunday lunch at the Olde Boar's Head we headed down to Stoke to Annie's.

While we were staying in Stoke, we decided to visit one of Staffordshire's best spas for a day of pampering and well-earned r n' r. Hoar Cross Hall is pretty well-known in the region and, even though we were only at the day spa, we soon understood why. We both had packages that involved massages and paid for an additional facial each. It was a wonderfully relaxing experience that saw both of us dozing off at various points during the day!

Then it was time to return to CT. Despite our best efforts, Ian did not get upgraded to travel with Annalie in business, but then he'd already had round-trip upgrades from right down the back to premium economy.

When we got to Boston we set off in our fourth hire car of the trip! The journey turned out to be a complete nightmare. We've been amazed by the quantity of rain that can pour down at any given time in New England and upon our return there was a maniacal storm raging through Massachusetts and the visibility on the Interstate was just a few feet. The traffic slowed to around 40mph and the wipers were going full pelt, but it was something Annalie really didn't want to experience after a six and a half hour flight at 2am on her body clock. Still, she soldiered on and we managed to get through the worst of it, pretty much as soon as we reached CT!

We got back to the house and then had to run out and drop the hire car off so we ended up dropping onto the bed at about 11pm, 4am body clock time. The house had got very hot and stuffy with no ventilation while we'd been gone and was registering 88 degrees F, so we turned the central air cooling on and a fan in the bedroom. In the middle of the night, the air had cooled that much that Annalie was freezing and had to turn the fan off as well!

This weekend Ian decided to go kayaking with Andy again, this time a little closer in Deerfield River in Massachusetts. There are some photos in the kayaking album as Annalie went along for the ride, even though she didn't get in the water. It was a beautiful day so she was happy just catching some rays as she waited for the paddlers to come down the river.

Ian was doing OK until the most difficult part of the river - Zoar's Gap. At this point he went swimming, but came out unscathed. Thankfully this was towards the end of the run and they both climbed out just after this.

We've finally got to grips with the idea of renting a ski house for the winter in Killington. A couple from IAE have done this before and we've got friendly with them and are arranging the rental with them. Usually a ski house works with you buying a share in a house that someone else has rented, then you use the house as much as your share dictates, usually full, half (every other weekend) or quarter (once a month). However, Steve and Mhairi have another couple who they've shared a ski house with before so we've decided to go it alone and rent our own house for the winter. It's a bit of a commitment and quite expensive, but you only live once and we decided that we've got to make the most of the three years that we're here as when it's gone, it's gone.

Today we went over to Steve and Mhairi's to meet Dave and Camilla as we're planning on sharing a house every weekend this winter. After a lovely brunch, Dave and Camilla left to head back to Boston and the remaining four of us headed off for a game of golf. Even though Annalie didn't go swimming yesterday, it looked like she'd been for a dip fully-clothed after the heavens opened for another one of the New England storms. We had to abandon the game on the 7th hole, after both Annalie and Ian had hit their best drives of the round so far, and Steve had hit his best shot full stop! A plan has been drawn up to set up a rematch on Tuesday!

Speaking of storms, overnight we had an amazing one pass through that managed to scare Ian awake with the incredibly loud thunder. The eye must have been right over us as the lightening was virtually constant and the thunder claps were actually shaking the house they were that loud. Thankfully the weather systems tend to pass pretty quickly. Apparently there is a phrase that goes something along the lines of: "If you don't like the weather in Connecticut, just wait 10 minutes." We have to say that, based on our experience, whether you like the weather or not, it is constantly changing! And we thought it was supposed to be constantly sunny in the summer at least. But it appears that it doesn't know what it wants to do.

It's a bit like us in many ways then