The Track Suit

Two nights ago, something happened that I have never experienced before.

My house got appled.

What is this you say? It's when someone throws apples at your house.

I was sitting in my living room reading, after the children were in bed, when suddenly there was a loud "Smack" on my window. I looked over and saw a big wet mark on m window. My first thought was it was a snowball, but there is no snow on the ground. I jumped up and ran outside to yell at the kids doing it, but they were gone before I got outside.

They have a word here for these children running around in adult bodies obvious products of their upbringing by parents who themselves are not worth public consumption. They are called NEDs, which stands for Non Educated Delinquent, and they have a uniform.
A tracksuit and baseball cap with headphones draped around their necks. It's usually a white track suit.

I myself have never owned a track suit, but I bought a couple for Isaac when he was a baby. I saw them on sale at Wal-Mart in America and bought them before we moved over here. There was a really cute yellow and blue one that came with a little racing car t-shirt, and a red and blue one that had a baseball t shirt. Once I moved over here Paul would get annoyed when I would dress Isaac in them, saying people here don't wear track suits unless you're a NED. It took me a while but now... but when I look around... I see them everywhere, and two nights ago they were outside my window, throwing apples at my house.

Wardrobes

I'm not a real estate expert or anything, but I am pretty sure that if a bedroom doesn't come with a closet in America it is considered an office. Bedrooms need two things really, a bed, and a place to put your clothes... most people like to spice things up with a night stand, and a desk or vanity, and maybe a chest of drawers or a dresser, but the necessities are bed... closet... so why am I telling you this??

Because the UK has wardrobes... you know what a wardrobe is... it's the secret entrance into Narnia where the winter coats are kept in the spare room. It's like a closet except you can move it around in the room or take it when you leave that residence. Some wardrobes are "built in" which means someone came and professionally measured your room and decided the best use of space would be a specific wardrobe that is now mounted to the wall, similar to kitchen cabinets.
Occasionally you even get a closet... in my house 2 out of the 5 bedrooms have closets. 1 of the closets is in my bedroom, but it's really more of an attic crawl space. I can't stand up right in it, but I keep my clothes in there anyway, because I am an American, and we keep our clothes in closets. The other closet is in my daughter Aria's room. The previous owners turned what was actually a hall closet into a bedroom closet by knocking out one of the walls in the bedroom, and sealing off the original entrance to the closet. Two of the rooms have built in wardrobes, and one room has nothing at all. I use that as my office. :) It's about the size my closet was in America... granted  I has TWO walk in closets so maybe that's an unfair comparison.

Outlets vs Plug ins

In America, we have outlets.
They look like this:

But sometimes, they look like this:

Sometimes you have to remove a child safety plug because you don't want a baby to stick their finger in the little hole and get electrocuted.That is pretty much the biggest obsticle you have when wanting to get electricity to your lamp, cell phone or appliance.

Here, in the UK, the outlets look like this:

Oh and they're not called outlets, they're called Plug Ins.

Do you see that little switch next to the plug in? that little tiny switch?? That turns the plug on and off like a light. This saves you electricity.

It doesn't save you hassle though.

I cannot tell you how many times I have plugged in my cell phone when it has died or been almost dead only to come back an hour later and discover it is still dead, or now dead because I forgot to turn the plug on!!

It makes me absuloutely furious, and then when my husband turns around and says "How long have you lived here, and you still don't remember to turn the plug in on?" It makes me want to say "How long have we been together and you still thing saying that will make things better?"

Oh and I have lived here TWO years, I lived in America where we didn't have to turn plugs on for TWENTY SEVEN years. That wins. If I'm still forgetting to turn on the plug ins after twenty seven years, then he can say that... the thing is, I very rarely forget. I remember probably 99 percent of the time, its that 1% that drives me insane.

For instance, yesterday, a Wednesday, I am in music lessons all afternoon right up until dinner time, I have no time to cook. So I always make a crock pot dinner on Wednesdays so I make it before my lessons start, and it's ready when my lessons are over... yesterday though when I said goodbye to my last lesson, my husband informs me "By the way, the crock pot has been off all day. You forgot to turn the plug in on."

AAAHHHHHHHHHRRRRRRAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHEEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


EXPLICATIVE! EXPLICATIVE! EXPLICATIVE!

I quickly stuck a steak pie in the oven and we ate an hour late.