cheers

Now, now let us say kind words about each other.
We are so pleased this person came along after all these months of waiting to sell the house.
There is stress on both sides. Usually is.
Has anyone seen the volumes of documents that have to be signed these days when buying or selling a house?
Cheers

aries

Not yet, my house is still for sale after 5 weeks, but when a sale is finally achieved, I shall book the first flight out!

jasper123

Yes Tina thanks for clearing all that up cause I do think its important, The Americans would call me and us Briddish or a Brit, over the years a lot of Americans would ask me well whats the difference between Britain and England? when I explained that Britain is made up of Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, and England, I felt that most were still confused, and when I went on and explained that Scotland has its own parliament and so they make there own laws and legislations, and that the four countries that make up Great Britain which are England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland all speak there own Language, Wales, Welsh, Scotland Gaelic, Northern Ireland also Gaelic with there own dialects, and of course England English, ------ but all countries in U.K. these days speak English as it has been taught in school as the first language for decades, but there are still more remote areas of Scotland and Northern Ireland and wales that still speak there own language and also lots of older people still do, ----- so after I have explained all that to my American friends and people I worked with then they would be totaly freaking confused ------ and before I get any backlash ---- no Im not putting Americans down or talking down to them in any way, just sayin!!!!
My Dad was born in South Wales, and his Mother and all her ancestors were all 100% Welsh going all the way back, so Im half Welsh and very proud of it too,
Talking about St Patrics day that we celebrate all over the U.S. with so much fondness, it is a huge day in America and if you aint wearing green on that day then your not cool, and the all night parties galore, really just a lot of people letting there hair down and having a lot of fun and lots of booze and beer, I know in Vegas over a million people every year come there from all over the United States to have fun on St Patrics day, all hell breaks loose
How come we in England dont celebrate St Paddys day in the same way?
Do they I wonder celebrate St Patrics day in Scotland or Wales? or in fact in Southern or Northern Ireland in the same big way as we do in the States, ---------- or even at all, Hmmmmm thats interesting Huh

Mummy in the foothills

That and cozy, the word we tried to watch for when we were buying a house here.
Cozy= rabbit hutch sized bedrooms it seemed.

J.J

Hi Denise, et al
Glad you found plenty to do for the long weekend. Do you think getting out and occupied is part of a successful transition? We did it over there and we have applied it back here too.
Our Sunday lunch was with MIL, Saturday and Monday we had country walks from home with a pub en-route.

Here's a first for a pub meal during one of our walks; we were enjoying a break for drinks in a country pub which doesn't serve food (a growing rarity in itself) and had settled for crisps when a Fish&Chip van pulled up outside. The locals bought F&C, we did too, and the landlord allows his customers to eat the F&C in the pub, seems like it is a regular event at this particular pub.
Attached is pic of the scenery from our walk.

charleygirl

Hi everyone, trying to catch up, Trotty wow I am so happy for you!
JJ love that photo.
I had Fish and Chips in the pub yesterday, the best Roast lamb for years in a very old English Pub on Sunday......toasted t cake in your honor trotty today with my mum .......and this afternoon cup a tea with a Custard tart......( 2 actually!) Custard tarts bring back memories of my child hood, my child minder used to buy them for me.
So my friends, great to be home, miss my children but they have called me and we have chatted online.

The exchange rate is a nightmare, just asked at an exchange place today $1,500 was only worth 847 pounds.

I had trouble with my debit card today, I used it yesterday but today was declined so i did spend 35 mins in line at information desk and it was very very frustrating, when I arrived there were 3 people in front of me and when i left 13 and everyone seemed okay with it except me hahaha, I politely said to the girl I feel sorry for you and I know it is not your fault but your manager needs to have more than one person on the desk, and bless her she said Oh we cant, I said Oh why, she said the desk isnt big enough for 2.... Er what about a bigger desk?
Anyway got no money ( dont want to exchange the $$$ I have at that rate)while I wait for my new pin numbers to come in the mail. Lucky I have a loving family to help me out. My brother put me on his car insurance and 20 quid bought half a tank of petrol.
My children are so far, okay and telling me they want to come to the UK in October to visit, so I said yes but save some money first. I think they will have culture shock, driving home i was shocked to see Gypsys parked up in the middle of a huge roundabout and laundry blowing in the wind.
Anyway off out now with my long time girlfriend for a lager and lime and packet of crisps......yum
Thinking of you all.

between two worlds

Hello Charleygirl, how great to hear from you! So glad you have that loving family, and lots of contact with the kids, though of course you are missing them. Great that they already want to go and visit!

Custard tarts, crisps, all that yummy stuff...enjoy!

Shocking exchange rate, oh dear.

Keep us posted.

Tina

Mallory

Great post Denise, glad you are happy. Had to laugh at the "desk" episode! Sounds like a British telly comedy!

The gypsies are becoming a big problem everywhere. In Ireland they are begging on the streets, men, women and children. In a park in Dublin we saw the police trying to move on 2 young girls and a woman. Turns out one of the young girls was begging for money for her baby, and when the police moved them on we saw it was a doll wrapped in a blanket! The police got back into the unmarked car, and were laughing with each other, they know they will just go around the corner.

Glad you missed the hurricane, you were lucky to get out before the airport was closed!

cheers

I just looked your exchange and it should have got you £917 or there abouts.
I could check for you and see where the best place is to exchange your dollars if you wish.
Did you tell the bank that you have your debit card from that you would be overseas? Maybe that is why it wouldn't work the second time. Its called artificial intelligence.
Glad you are home.
How was the border people at Heathrow?
Cheers

Celticspirit

Dublin has always been awful with gypsies. I can remember them in the sixties with fake babies sitting against the walls of department stores begging. I understand they are also on the increase in Northern Ireland. I remember when living in Newry, a NI border town......they had camps just inside NI border to have their babies in the UK for free. They littered everywhere. Now there is a show on TV that is pretty disgusting about gypsies weddings in the UK. Gross......

charleygirl

Hi Cheers thanks for the reply, well the debit card is a UK one from nat west, when I moved the states 14 years ago my friend who worked in a bank said if you ever think you maybe back, keep your account open, so I did, it had about two quid in it for all that time until i was home in March, I went to the bank, they pulled up my details brought it all up to date with my brothers address and I put a bit more money in. So I am grateful to my friend for that suggestion because it was not problem getting it updated etc. Anyway new pin number on the way and the items I purchased yesterday are not showing up, so dont know if they will or not.
I would love some help with where to get my money exchanged, I have now gotten my money (not much sadly after 23 years)from my divorce settlement into my US bank and will be wanting to bring almost all over to the UK, would love some suggestions on how to do that too.
Oh border control... so I arrived at 8.15 p.m. the lines for the Immi officers were massive, several flights had arrived at the same time, the UK EU lines equally as long at the Others, anyway I got in line feeling like crap and happened to see a sign that said Fast track if you have this sign on your passport and I thought I have that on the front........so I asked a guy who was directing people to the correct lines etc that it was all about, and I guess I have the IRIS( Iris Recognition Immigration System) in my passport, so I literally walk up to a machine slid my passport in face down and then had to look at a screen and when my imagine went from the screen remove my passport and of i went, done in less that 45 seconds......I was the only one using it at the time i was there, and i am sure that is because most people didnt even know about it. Oh and I was using my UK passport.
Thanks mallory and tina for the nice message.
The gypsies on the roundabout are from France, with very fancy SUVS and flashy and I mean flashy cars and caravans!

charleygirl

Hmm now I am wondering if it is IRIS I have because reading about it it seems we have to register for that........and so I dont think it is, will post when I know more.. but on the front of my UK passport is a symbol....okay done some research it is a Biometric passport and works on facial recognition.
http://www.identitycommissioner.org/...s.xsl/1079.htm

cheers

I would love some help with where to get my money exchanged, I have now gotten my money (not much sadly after 23 years)from my divorce settlement into my US bank and will be wanting to bring almost all over to the UK, would love some suggestions on how to do that too.


I just read that you get the best exchange rate at the British Post Offices and then someone said they did alright at Marks and Spencers.
If you are with the B of A you could use Barclays Bank.
In general don't use the banks because of their fees or exchange rates

Here is my source.

http://www.uk-yankee.com/googlesearc...ates&sa=Search

Mummy in the foothills

Your right Cheers, The Post Office and Marks and Spencers, those are the only two places my Mum uses when she wants $ to come visit and thats where my son changes his $ for £.

J.J

Hi Charleygirl,

As others have said, I have found the Post Office seems to offer the best cash exchange rate.

Isn't that just crazy with bank 'customer service' desks?
My experience was asking for some banking info. and the person said she didn't know the answer, I would have to try some other day or make an appointment.
When I asked if the Manager could help she said she is the Manager and while the regular staff would know they were not in because she had let them all go out for shopping and she was standing in !! I am no longer a customer of that bank.

On a wider scale, it is my observation that, not always but often, retail staff don't know, don't have the authority, don't care or simply can't think past the moment. It's part of the culture shock. I learned to avoid the worst.