Day Four...

Today it's cold - well - it's 22 degrees out there and it feels cold to us already! Once up, we went to the pool as the boys still wanted a swim.  Steve did some work and I went for a run.  We had made contact with a realtor over here and she had sent us through a list of houses to rent. 

We shortlisted six and decided that we would do a drive by (probably not the best term here) to see what they were like.

We grabbed a quick lunch at the local deli and then set off.  Unfortunately, I didn't think to take photos of the places but I will do so today.  Needless to say they are all huge! As I keep telling Steve, who is very excited by the prospect of a huge house, we do not have the furniture to fill a big house, nor do I want to pay to cool/heat a big house and I am certainly not going to clean 5 bathrooms!

Mind you I have rather fallen in love with the prospect of having 5 acres of land! I could see Rudy and I enjoying that! Comes complete with stables so maybe I need to get into horse riding!!!

Anyway, we have crossed a couple of places off our list now and we will be meeting Jacqui our realtor this afternoon for a proper look.

After house shopping we went retail shopping and then headed back to the hotel for another swim (it had finally warmed up a bit) and I even got a bit of colour on my face.

We decided to have dinner early as Tom in particular is getting quite tired.

Here is William and his pizza - we have got smart now and only order slices rather than the whole thing!

I am continually amazed at how much food is a focus over here! I have never seen so many food joints - it really is no wonder that so many Americans are obese!

Anyway, we headed back to the hotel and Steve and  watched a film and then bed.

Tom is asleep but he does look like he's pretending to be a zombie!!!

Here is a random picture of a cricket that was outside our room window - 17 floors up!

Well, it's Monday morning as I write this and we are due to look at houses this afternoon and we are also going to see the Texas Rangers play tonight.  Tomorrow is our last day here and we are having lunch with another expat who Steve will be working with.  The sun is streaming through our hotel room window so I guess it will be hot today.  The weather is certainly changable here.  Will post house photos and ball game photos later.  Love to you all, Bxxxx

Sorry Day three here...

Steve's bit -

So, we've all heard of the myths regarding the average Americans ability to drive in the rain, well today it rained hard.  We found ourselves on I 114 TX and within 30 seconds saw two different accidents; a Volvo span in the fast lane and a Ford 150 in the slow lane, both not able to drive home due to stupidity -  his freaked Bex out a bit.  I guess it is a combination of lack of rain and concrete highways (which turn into skid pans when raining) caused both.  Any thought of slowing down or changing how you drive appears to be second on the agenda to that - most important call! - thank god it's stopped raining.

- end of Steve's bit.

Breakfast was at a diner and the boys had hot cinneman rolls for the first time - very happy indeed!

We then headed back to Southlake to do a drive by of a couple of schools which took us past some ridiculously huge houses - I mean how many turret's can you have before it becomes obscene!!!

That is someone's house! We thought it may be a church but actually there was a basket ball hoop in the 'backyard'.

Having looked at these massive houses we decided to go and try and find Southlake town square which was quite frankly the nicest place we have been.  Got lots of fantastic stores (Gap, Origins, Brooks brothers - see photos below- Apple, etc, etc).

(steve comment - we are going to live here! forget the rest.  Wife happy and kids full of icecream)

Anyhoo, we ate icecream and had a good look around the shops and then it was back to the hotel and a nap for me.  We are now back in the M bar (seems to be a habit) and need to head out for dinner - will take a photo of the stupidly huge pizza my boys are about to eat.  Me...I'm having a salad! Miss you all and thanks for your comments - you know who you are - Bxxxx

Day two and three...It's been busy!!!!

Yesterday we started the day with a bit of pool time and I went for a 10 mile bike ride (in the air conditioned gym).  Feeling the fat already - amazing how not eating nimble bread can make a difference.

At 11 we headed off to Plano and a school called Wyatt Elementary.  Lisa, if you read this they certainly remembered you and wondered when you would be back!  Seemed like a fab school and what a fantastic area.

Next we needed to head back towards Grapevine for our visit to Hill school.  We took a few wrong turns which meant we had to fast food lunch and so we did Micky D's in it's home country.  Can't say it was better then in old blighty but hey.

Then once we had done that we made it to the school with plenty of time to watch the kids out playing.  William was horrified by the khaki shorts and decided that based on looks only it was not for him.

I have to say the private schools over here are certainly different.  Don't get me wrong, I am sure they are great but they seem a little intense! We (well, Steve) had to fill out numerous forms about the boys behaviour etc and then we were met by Michael and Tyler (two lovely older pupils with extremely firm handshakes) who were to be our guides for the day. 

Within 5 minutes they were telling us of stories about getting 'Saturday school detention' due to having an untucked shirts and I can tell you the boys faces were a picture!

Their library had an indoor tube slide and massive chess set and was like something you would find at Hogworths. 

We had the tour and met lots of school pets - a tortoise called Bella, a parakeet called Flocker and two hedgehogs - yet to be named!

We met the head of the school whose office looked like a fairy tale office.  She was incredibly lovely - and proud owner of 8 dogs who took us through the school philosophy and also where to live.  We were due to do the 'Friday Celebration' but we spoke for so long we missed it but the boys got popcorn anyway!

We then left the school and needed some retail therapy so went back to the Grapevine Mall where we all had success at Gap and Banana Republic.

Finally, last night, we went to a local Japanese restaurant where we had a meal that was seriously below Waga's standard but you live and you learn!

Back to hotel, bed and sleep...

Dallas - Day one...

It was an early start today and we have managed to fit in quite a bit.  We started off by driving to the school we were visiting so we knew where it was. We then needed some breakfast (pizza at 6am seemed a long time ago).  We stopped off at a shopping outlet in Southlake that had the most amazing farmer market/supermarket.  I am amazed at the things you can buy here but was especially pleased to see they had a whole section with English and European cheeses.

Next we took a trip over to Grapevine and had a walk around some of the shops in the old main street.  Steve and I decided it reminded us a bit of New Zealand - slightly out of date but quaint all the same.

Here are some photos including the boys sitting next to some dodgy guy!

We then decided to go to the Grapevine Mills outlet Mall which is roughly the size of Basingstoke or even bigger - it was totally mental! Steve and I now are the proud owners of new converse sneakers.  Mine were about £19 a real bargain. 

We had to rush off as our meeting with the school was coming up and as usual we were running late.  However, the one thing that does surprise me about Dallas and the areas we are looking at are that they are all really close together - well, I guess that is all relative.  They are a fair way away but the highway system here that runs like spaghetti junction is amazingly efficient at getting you around.

The other funny thing I have noticed is that no one is on the streets.  Everywhere seems to be deserted but that is because it is so hot - well, not according to the locals - they think this is cold (early 30 degrees).

Here are some photos of us on the highway.

We met with the school which was lovely but very small.  The boys seemed to like it but we have more yet to see.

Having not seen any houses we were reliably informed of where to find the Burbs.  Seems like they did a lot of building in the 1990's!

They are all big and boxy just like Sue Ellen's shoulder pads!

After discovering the Burbs we headed off to Grapevine lake as that was nearby - some huge, huge houses there!  Here's the lake...

At this point we needed to head back to the hotel and give the kids lunch (it was only 4:30pm).  We have had a bit of a giggle today over a few signs we have seen.  Here are Steve's favourites:

Here was the one that made me wonder...

Shame we will be missing that one!!!

Once we got back we headed off to the M bar for some light snacks (not sure this is possible in the USA) and a game of pool.

Then quickly from game of pool to swimming pool - nobody was in the pool as apparently we are having a cold snap....  27-31 Degrees C.... lol.

Finally here are some random pictures of school buses as I think they are so typical of America.

Just heading off to dinner  Will post more tomorrow!

Bxxx

Arrived in Dallas (posted by Steve)

We have arrived...

After a monotonous 10 hour flight, punctuated by the frequent 'jack in the boxing' of senior citizens (I'm told its to do with DVT but I'm not totally convinced).

We got thru custom's and the boys were a real hit with the home land security police who said they were very polite (proud parents :-) ) and picked up our HUGE hire car - Cadillac SRX.

Then drove the 6miles to the Omni Mandalay hotel.  This is the first time I have driven in the States so only one near miss and one wrong turn wasn't bad - not a view shared by Bex.

We were all very tired but knew we had to stay up as late as possible to stave off jet lag so we went to a local Italian Restaurant.  We ordered pizza for me, calamari for Tom, a sub for William and some seafoody thing for Bex.  The first surprise came with the pizza - it was a lot bigger in real life !  In fact it could easily have fed the entire family.  Then came the rest of the food hmmmm.... imagine a table heaving with food. We doggy bagged the Pizza and headed back to the hotel and we were all asleep by 9:30.

As expected we woke quite early and this is a picture of William at 6:00 this morning eating the left over pizza.  Crickey we are posh!

On today's agenda is a visit to a very nice private school in Southlake and perhaps a drive thru Grapevine.

We are about to leave and launch ourselves back into Dallas traffic - wish me luck

Steve

See you Rudy...be good with your girfriend!

Leaving on a jet plane...

Our bags are packed and we're ready to go...

Finally sitting down with a G and T nightcap.  The bags are packed and the rooms cleared ready to be painted in boring neutral colours.  I have packed plenty of books and am hanging out for 10 hours of flight to Dallas - sad but true - it's rare for me to do nothing for 10 hours.  The boys are in bed and are sharing Tom's room tonight as the orange/blue colour scheme in William's room is about to be changed so it's dust sheet city in there.

Rudy knows something is up and is keeping close - if only he knew that he's about to spend the week with his lovely girlfriend, Toula.  I hope Freya doesn't get any early morning visits from Rudy looking for the cat!!! Thanks guys for having him.

Thank you all for your well wishes for this week.  I am nervous and excited all at the same time - this had better be good! Still managed to do some retail therapy tonight courtesy of Juliet and Caroline at a pampered chef party.

Laura, I hope you have managed to think of something other than Vodka and that you are sitting in Weird Fish comfort.

Very excited to see I have four followers already! It's like taking a head count of friends - please more join up!!! 

That's all for now folks.  Will post again from the airport.  Hopefully that hurricane in the US will pass us by.

Bxxxxx

The visit...

Not long now until we set off for our visit to Dallas.  There is so much to do tomorrow but hopefully we will get it done.  Lots happening here whilst we are on our visit including having lots of painting done.  Still hasn't sunk in yet! The boys are so excited about flying out and I know I will be too once I am on the plane. We will be keeping a photo/video diary (thanks new Kodak mini). It will be an experience and hopefully a good one! Can't wait for the American hospitality and the lovley hotel (http://www.omnihotels.com/FindAHotel/DallasMandalay.aspx). Looking forward to sharing all our experiences with everyone and most importantly keeping in touch! Love to you all, Bex