In early November our schools have a three day break and so we decided to go down to Deep Creek lake in Maryland for a small holiday. We went for the first time last year and liked it so much we went back this year.

When we lived in the UK we always went away in the October half term and I really miss that. It was the only time of the year I drank Guiness. We would go to a small peninsula in N. Wales and there was a pub right on the beach near where we stayed. You could only get to it on foot (probably just as well) and I used to love sitting outside in the late October sun with my draught Guiness.

Deep Creek lake isn't quite like that but nice all the same. We rent a lovely, lovely house right on the lake edge..you know, one of those places that is so much nicer than your own home, much better equipped and warmer.

On the way down I was driving and OH decided to give me directions from some mapquest stuff he had found in the glove box. Yes...here we go again.Unbeknown to either of us he had managed to put two pages together from two entirely separate set of instructions but both were for similar journeys. We ended up in West Virginia again! In Morgantown to be precise, slap bang in the middle of the University of West Virginia just as all the students were changing classes. We eventually managed to get away from the campus without knocking anyone over...quite an achievment given the road sense of most of the students and made our way back to Maryland. We saw some lovely scenery, West Virginia is beautiful but we added hours to our journey.

We finally arrived and the weather was glorious and the leaves were beautiful. No-one else is there at this time of year and it is so peaceful. No draught guiness from a pump but I make do with the stuff in a can and it tastes just as good sitting by the lake edge.

Last year we encountered a black bear. There we were sitting around the outside fireplace, toasting our marsmallows, waving some sparklers around.( We had just had some fireworks because it was Nov 5th). We heard some noise at the end of the driveway and assumed that it was the people across the road. At this point the dog was barking and all his hackles were up but we just carried on toasting, sparkling and drinking while the dog became more and more agitated.

The following day all our dustbins had been ransacked and the little wooden hut that housed them had been torn apart. The claw marks were huge and so we decided it had been a bear and that in future we should listen to the dog, who is the most sensible member of the family. (think Grommit)

This year we didn't meet a bear but we did meet some locals.

We went to a nearby  town which was very pretty and typically "small town USA". There was a huge antique shop with a diner at the back. The diner had two large U shaped counters which the waitress worked within.  It was really crowded, very loud and we decided to eat there. As we walked in the entire place fell silent and everyone turned around and stared at us. At that point our courage failed us and so we didn't sit at the counters, we sat in a booth instead.

The waitress came up, took a filthy cloth off the back of the booth, swiped it across the table and asked for our order. We didn't know what we wanted and had to ask for a menu which seemed to really irritate her.

It was at this point we realised the food would either be a delight or a disaster that would put us all in hospital with some terrible gastric bug.

It was neither....it was all served on an odd assortment of chipped crockery and it was OK.

My children love it down there because if they are cold I just tell them to turn the heating up, up , up  but if they are cold at home they get told to put another jumper on.

On the way home, we avoided West Virginia entirely but I decided to inflict a visit to Fort Neccessity  and General Braddock's grave on my teenagers. The dog had a lovely time and even the kids found some of it interesting.

Well the cabbage soup didn't work mainly because i didn't eat much of it.

However I have made a huge effort and gone to my Jazz class three times a week and am now 10lbs lighter.

Last weekend we went out to look at the leaves. I had read in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette (international font of all knowledge) that the trees in the very SW corner of PA are stunning in the Autumn. It is something to do with being on the border of West Virginia and there being more tree types or something.

Anyway, armed only with the tiny map cut from the newspaper (you know what's going to happen don't you?) we piled the two children, who are still unfortunate enough to live at home ,into the car and off we went. We took the dog as well.

We were OK at first as we were on I-79 and as long as you are going in the right direction you're OK.It wasn't easy to work out where we should leave the interstate but we managed and soon we were bowling along looking at all the still very green leaves.

We went through a lovely old town, all old wooden houses with wrap around porches and ended up at the half way point which was a state park. Had our picnic, walked the dog and set off again.

Youngest child is now moaning bitterly because she had a riding lesson later in the afternoon and so she wanted to turn around and head for home. Middle daughter is on her cell phone to her friend and plugged into her ipod ,oblivious to all the passing scenery.

I wanted to see this small place called Ned which the paper had mentioned. It was one of the last crossing places during the civil war, underground railway etc (I don't really know what I'm talking about) and it has a very old general store with a pressed tin ceiling and is like stepping back in time.

The map torn from the paper was very vague about the actual whereabouts of Ned and only mentioned single track gravel roads which made OH wince as he had just had new tyres on his car.

We found Ned but it was closed...the only thing there was the shop. Along the way however we passed several "houses" that even made my children stop moaning/ talking on phone etc, long enough to ask if anyone actually lived there. One was really amazing....almost overgrown with something, several really mean looking dogs chained up under the trailer, piles of tyres and beercans and an engine hanging from a tree.  The confederate flag was flying from another tree.The two people in the yard looked like they took turns wearing the family tooth.

My OH slowed down, handed me the camera and said "take a photo"!!!!!!!

I think it has made my children a bit more grateful for what they have and the  dog is endlessly grateful he doesn't have to live under a trailer

Then we got lost. We took a wrong turn and ended up heading south into West Virginia and by this time the youngest was really whining about the riding lesson.The small map was completely useless and we seemed to go through the same few small towns like it was groundhog day. People were waving in recognition.

We did eventually get back, half an hour late for the riding lesson for which we will never be forgiven.

As I type the smell of cabbage soup is wafting through the house.

I am embarking ..again... on the cabbage soup diet in an effort to loose the 20 lbs I have gained since moving to the USA.

One of the big negatives about living here, for me, is the car culture.

Disclaimer....For all of those people who love it here and for the few who think I am always negative about the US...go away now, don't read anymore., you will only get cross and I would hate to spoil your day.

Have you gone? Good.

I used to walk everywhere, did loads of dance classes (I love dancing) walked my dogs for miles along the beach etc. Now I have to go everywhere by car. I even drive the dog to the place I walk him in!Everything is so spread out that I seem to spend half my day driving, to run errands or ferry kids around and it leaves very little time for anything else. Perhaps I'm just badly organised.

There are also loads of traffic lights here and they take an eternity to change.

Where we used to live was very compact I suppose and I used to walk my children to school and take the library books back, go to the post office, buy extra fruit etc as I walked to and from school. All the time chatting to people I met on the way. I miss it and so does my waistline!

Since we have lived here I have swung between loving it  and not loving it here and at the moment I don't like it much. I really don't like the winters here in Pittsburgh. The first one was OK...it had novelty factor. Great to see lots of snow, especially on Christmas day but once was enough. Last winter was very cold and very long..it was still cold in April and I am not looking forward to this one.

We always had a holiday over the October half term which we don't do here because OH only has 10 days holiday for the whole year (used to get 6 weeks). We were lucky I suppose, we used to go to Spain for 2 weeks every summer, France for a week in the spring half term and somewhere in the UK in October, plus long weekends.We have been to Florida this year but that's it now until next summer and it seems light years away.

Autumn here is very pretty because we are surrounded by trees and when they are all yellow, red and orange it looks stunning.

The cabbage soup is simmering nicely and I am anticipating that first delightful bowl. Of course I want to be at least 10lbs lighter after just one bowl.

We are going to visit my elder daughter, who has just started college here, in two weeks and I would like to be able to fit into my jeans without feeling as though my circulation has been cut off. Plus I don't want that muffin top anymore. It seems to have a life of its own, I go one way..it swings the other.It's like something from a 1950's science fiction/ horror film...."Attack of the mutant muffin tops". I want to donate it to Posh Spice. She needs it more than me.

The down side is no wine for a while....... Luckily you can't buy it in the supermarkets here, you have to go to the Pennsylvania wine and liquor store, so I won't be tempted.

Time for the soup.

Actually it is evening, not day and the bottle of wine I opened for cooking purposes is calling to me but I felt compelled to start a blog instead. I had the vague idea that if I wrote about my life it might not seem so dull but I'm beginning to have my doubts.

We have been in the US for two years this month and during that time I have hated it, loved it, hated it and loved it again. At the moment I am on the fence. We are stuck in greencard limbo and OH's job is not panning out as we expected. We are tempted to try another part of the US but also tempted to cut our losses and head for Englands green and pleasant lands.

Just recently our old house in the UK came on the market again and sold almost instantly and I found that very unsettling...how dare they sell my house and they had changed the decor! I wanted to buy it back, which was ridiculous because we couldn't afford it now!

Yesterday my bank told me that I could no longer use the bill paying section of my on line banking account because the company they use (!!!!!) to process the payments will not allow someone without a ss# to pay bills online.

I was livid. I was told to get my OH to pay the bills but that isn't the issue. Yet again I feel like a non-person. I was ranting on at the poor guy about being treated like a second class citizen, the bank were happy to take my money, did they think I was some sort of criminal or terrorist, blah, blah, blah...when the police came running across my back garden. Without thinking I called out to OH "the police are in the garden!" and then realised that the bank were listening to me so I will probably never get full use of my online banking again.

They were looking for a lost child who was found hiding in her own house two hours later.

That's enough excitement from Pittsburgh...I need that wine.