Little Wet Dog Photography

And so the story begins…

Have been having some problems with my maillists so some people are receiving twice. If you receive twice, let me know. I have created a maillist for only UK updates. Thus you can know what is going on. I will also post pictures on Crimsoncave.com but not for awhile. I haven’t yet “explored” so haven’t taken any pictures. You’ll notice my email today and going foward will very much be dribble and babble. This is because I live alone with no one to talk to. I’ll be venturing off to work and to see friends and family. But mostly its just me, the laptop and the hum of the refridgerator in the background. Ben is working on setting me up with a blog page so that I do have to email everyone with updates. However, in the meanwhile, you are stuck with my ramblings in email format. May the patience be with you.

Day 1, Saturday, Feb 3rd, 2006 - Landed safely on Saturday afternoon into London. Taxi driver got lost in Basingstoke. Turns out my temp apartment is off of the main road but you have to take side roads to get to it. No biggie. We found our way here. Now the big question is going to be if I can find my way home. You see, i’ll have a taxi take me to work on Monday then I pick up the car there on Monday. Then I will attempt to drive home on the left side of the road. Yikes. I should really stop off at a grocery store to get some food. I tried walking left today, for about 15 minutes. Then got tired and went home and took a nap. So after about 3 hours Ben and I connected online. Using Skype and the video cam I bought in Hong Kong for $15 I was able to see him and Sunday causing havoc in the townhouse. They couldn’t see me though as I have yet to acquire a camera for myself. And since my work lap top is a piece of something my microphone only worked when the screen and comput er was held at a certain angle. Breathe. Patience my deary. Anyway, so technology really is picking up these days. I was able to get online without problems at my new temp apartment. Though if I move to a perm place for 5 months i’ll have to pay for internet on my own. Yet another incentive to stay in temp housing for the remainder of the trip. Its a quiet little neighborhood and within a 20 minute walk to downtown Basingstoke. Not too much excitement, but then again I am not that exciting of a lassy either. Talked to my mom also, but given that it’s $.99 per minute on the cell phone we kept it really short. I’ll have to get set up for long distance calling here so I can dial out to the US for about $.03 a minute which I assume isn’t that bad.

Day 2, Sunday, Feb 4th, 2006 - Woke up late today around 1pm local time. Actually I woke up at 7am (1am your time) and then went back to sleep. Just wanted to rest up before I begin my next 6 months working here. I think I have slept about 15 hours in the past 2 days. So although in clumps it works out to be about 2 nights sleep. I have been living off of the complimentary cereal and milk provided and the dry zipped food which was supposed to be used for camping. Since we didn’t spend any time really camping last year (6 hours at a campfire doesn’t count) we had many portions left over. I’ll definitly have to make a trip to the store tomorrow. I tried to walk there today, but it was a brisk 40 degrees (I say that with a smirk knowing that chicago is -25 with wind chill). So I walked right today (opposite of yesterday) and was dumped off near the main road. Rather than fight traffic and attempt to get lost I turned around and went home. I have more dry food left in my luggage a nd probably should learn my directions on how to get home tomorrow. So rather than bore you with the details of the color of my socks (red, black, and grey) I will bid you a-du for today. Once I am more settled and have started to do things that are actually worth the effort to read I will send more. Mostly, just wanted to let you know that I am safe. If you want to chat online sometime, I got my AIM going on this computer.