Short-term Interim Stopgap

We have been in the United Kingdom for 21 days.  In some ways, it feels like months and in others ways, it feels like hours.

We made it through quarantine, which is probably a post in and of itself.  

The kids started school, which is definitely a post in and of itself.

We've made it through innumerable challenges. And, in the time of Covid, no good plan or challenge goes unpunished. And so it is with us.

We had plans to stay in our cottage, South Lodge, for about a month. In that time, we would quarantine and look for a long term (3-6 month) rental to stay in until we find a house.  Surely, we could find something in four weeks. A flat, a house, a cottage? Anything?

No, not really.

Well, realistically there were places to rent; just not any for a family of 5 and a dog. If anyone needs a 1 or 2-bedroom apartment (often in an attic) where pets are not allowed, I can point you in the right direction with ease. There are plenty of those; even some with a little green space for dogs. Every now and then there's a 3-bedroom bungalow or cottage. They are usually smaller than what we are in now and outside a livable distance to school. (We are currently 40 minutes away from the school.) Finding a large 3 bedroom or a 4 bedroom house proved to be . . . annoying, frustrating, depressing, disheartening, and a plethora of other emotions, but not completely impossible; if we were willing to waive some wants.

We found . . . you can count them on one hand . . . 2; one online and one through an agent.

Crawford

The first, we called Crawford because it was in the little village of Crawford about 20 minutes north of Moffat along the easily traveled M74. Online and around the outside, it was a great big dream come true. Five bedrooms, a cinema room, 3 full bathrooms, living room, dining room, and a beautiful kitchen with a little yard (garden) for the dog.  It was even partially furnished. Being at the north end of the village, without a house directly across the street, the view out the front looked out over a little valley full of sheep and the Clyde River. Even better, it was only 20 minutes to the school; about half the time from where we are now. It was slightly above the price range we wanted, but not impossibly too much.

We went to visit it while the kids were in school, prepared to sign, and move in this week. 

Mold & Stains

Clearly that did not happen. We knew it wasn't going to go well when we walked in the front door and the agent showing it to us, who was very friendly, said that it was her first time seeing the property and was stunned that they were allowing it to be shown. It had some issues that would take some time to deal with so it was not move-in ready. The downstairs was gorgeous. The utility room and the upstairs were filthy messes which included a massive black mold problem, a damp issue, and a horribly huge carpet stain in the master suite. 

The agent couldn't answer any of our basic questions; like, How long before it's ready? Would they be willing to come down on the price? Did it come with a dryer? (The agent, by the way, agreed with us; it wasn't worth the price in it's current state; even fixed up, it would be 200-300 less.) It struck us both as odd, so E&W later asked our realtor to look into it. Here, you have to have a "renter's number" in order to rent property to others. Our realtor found that the owner's of the property had an invalid number.

Needless to say, we kept the appointment to see the next property, Patervan Farmhouse.

The view from Patervan Farmhouse

Patervan was a little further away, in the hills outside of Moffat, on a scenic road to Edinburgh. You have to cross the River Tweed at the bottom of the drive to get to it. We'd been told about it early on as having a Broughton address, so we got out of the cottage during quarantine to quarantine in the car by driving to Broughton. It was far too far away and we were discouraged. But now, with the dream house not so dreamy, we made our way to it anyway. Luckily, it was alot further south than Broughton, making it only 25 minutes to the school. 

We drove there in the POURING rain and as we arrived, the sun came out to make the little yellow farmhouse a bright ray of sunshine. The view was spectacular.

Patervan is a "character property". It has ALOT of charm as well as 4 bedrooms, 3.5 baths, and a giant yard, not to mention a smaller fenced one, for a dog to run gloriously through. There's even a creek at the back of the house. It's owned by and was shown to us by a fabulous, take-no-crap woman named Caroline. She is converting it for her son and his family, but he won't move into it for a year or more, so she wants to rent it out in the meantime. Lucky for us. 

The Front Door at Patervan

And, yes, you read that correctly. She is currently "converting" it. It's not move-in ready. At. All. It needs flooring and paint and final touches. Our first question, "When will it be done?" was answered immediately; the end of September. In fact, she answered all our questions and was simply wonderful.  We had more faith that the farmhouse would get done before Crawford ever did.  Clearly, we leaned towards Patervan.

But that left us with a problem.  No where to live between South Lodge and Patervan. We went back to Anthony, our landlord at South Lodge, but to no avail.  He has other renters for South Lodge after the 13th. He regretfully can't switch them (or us) to another property because the other rentals on the farm are all booked. There is a two bedroom, one bathroom cottage which E&W considered long enough to suggest it to me, but I'm sure the look on my face said it all. And, if it didn't, me blurting out, "Are you *&%$@* insane?" did, but desperation makes you think funny things. The truth is, we just can't go smaller. Well, we could, but then people would go insane and others would die and that wouldn't be pretty. And I'm still wondering, who did he think would be sleeping on the couch? 

There was a final rental on the farm but it is a stunning 5-star farmhouse that rents for 3000 more than Crawford. Ouch. 

So the desperate search for a short-term interim stopgap rental began. In earnest. Coming up empty did not make us pretty people. We searched AirBnB and VRBO and other similar sites. We considered a lot of crazy ideas, like finding two smaller rentals near one another and splitting our day between them; bedrooms in one; living space in another. We got a little scared and a lot moody.  Just to not feel completely vulnerable and wiped out, we agreed a hotel would work and would be our (rather expensive and therefore final) backup plan.

Then, as I drove to school to get the kids, E&W called and said that he thought he'd found a hard-to-get holiday property that had suddenly opened up (we guess because of a cancellation). 

Aldersyde, the pinkish one with red trim

Aldersyde Holiday House. In the HEART of Moffat; literally just off the end of the public "square" (High Street), and within walking distance to the school. Bigger than where we are now, furnished, four bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, and allowed pets (even if you have to walk a distance to . . . well, walk her). Three weeks in it would cost close to the same as 2 months in Patervan Farmhouse. Horrified, wide-eyed, and thrilled, we rented it through October 8th. We wanted to give Caroline plenty of time to get the Farmhouse finished and if it's finished on time, we can take our time furnishing it. 

Because, that's right, Patervan Farmhouse is not furnished and our furniture (what was left of it after the great purge) is somewhere on the Atlantic Ocean.

Welcome to our next challenge on the game show we call Life.

The Post About Food

A lot of people have been asking about food, so let’s talk food; one of my favorite subjects so probably the first of many posts.

Food has presented PLENTY of challenges and taken A LOT of planning.

Our friend, Lee Montgomery, asked if I will be translating my own recipes or working off of what I can find here.  The answer is a bit of both; what I can find here initially and eventually translating well-known and well-loved recipes as time goes on. 

Even though I have been to the store here many times during past trips, I have never done a full shop for 5 people and a dog for a lengthy amount of time at a store I’ve never been to in a country I’ve only visited. However, I went into this knowing it would be a learning process so it hasn’t bothered me too much. I like learning new things and this is just simply a part of moving any where outside your local community. Has it been frustrating at times? Sure. But we also aren’t complete Scottish noobs.

Our first challenge was getting groceries while not permitted to go to the store because of quarantine. Luckily, we were told by friends that everyone here has their groceries delivered because of covid. Anthony, our “landlord”, let us know which stores would deliver to the Cottage. We signed up with two, Tesco’s (similar to Kroger in the US) and Morrison’s (similar to Publix). However, because nearly everyone gets deliveries, the delivery slots fill up quickly; at least a week in advance.  I had two deliveries booked before we ever left the US.  (I have to have at least £50 in the basket to book a time for a certain day. I then have up until 24 hours before delivery to change the order. I can also pick another slot and start another basket which is how I book multiple deliveries.)

The challenge after figuring out getting groceries delivered was knowing what we might need immediately versus what could wait. Sometimes it was just a guess. Related to that, but different was not knowing what was available in the kitchen at the Cottage until we got there (while having to order food before we got there).  We were told “basic necessities” by Anthony. We assumed plates, utensils, pots, and pans. But casserole dishes? Big pots for pasta? Measuring cups? How big was the refrigerator? How many days of food would it hold ? (As it turns out, a fourth the size of our old one.)

I had to plan what to eat each day, two weeks in advance. Honestly, not a big deal as I often planned a month in advance during our busy times. The challenge really was shopping in an unknown store online. Finding alternatives and substitutions is far easier when you’re standing in the store looking for what you need; especially when you don’t necessarily know the alternative term or name.

I decided to go with basic family meals, like frozen lasagna or frozen Salisbury Steak.
Except I couldn’t find any. 
So, “What’s another word for . . . ?” or “What’s the Scottish word for . . . ?” were often asked.
Sometimes I knew (biscuit instead of cookie, crisp instead of chips, chips instead of fries); sometimes I didn’t.     

Many conversations went something like this:
Me to E&W: Hey, what’s a British word or words for frozen family meal?
E&W : What to do you mean?
Me : You know, pre-made, frozen, feeds a family, not just one?
E&W : Did you try premade?
Me : Yep, tried it. Nope, wasn’t it.
E&W : Oh, do you mean “ready meals”?
A few clicks later, Me : Yes, apparently, I meant ready meals.

Then came the challenge of finding ready-meals that would feed a family of 5. There really weren’t any.  So, I had to buy in multiples. The question was how many?  Not as easy as it sounds since the UK system of measurement is a hybrid, albeit mostly metric (grams and litres), and the US is imperial (ounces and cups; and what I’m use to).  I had to trust A LOT.  If it said “Serves 2”, I bought 3.

But for other items, I had some converting to do. Luckily, I landed rather quickly on 500g equaling about 17 ounces, close enough to one pound or 2 cups to work for me. It threw me when something was in kilograms and let's just talk about litres later.

In addition to a couple ready-made meals, our first order contained A LOT of well-known favorites that we can only get in the UK. Prawn sandwiches, Jaffa Cakes, pork pies, picnic eggs (miniature Scotch eggs), sausages (amused because the package we got called them “Dinky Posh Dogs”) that we usually had for lunch.  I also tried to include enough of “home”  to help the kids know they weren’t losing all their favorites.

In addition to human food, I managed to find our dog's regular food, her favorite treats, and new food to try.

Our first delivery arrived the morning after we did (we arrived very late and had a picnic dinner on the road to the Cottage). The driver delivered baskets to our door and I retrieved the bags from the baskets and brought them into the house. He was exceptionally friendly, bemused by our quarantine, and his heavy Glaswegian accent threw me at first, but I managed to catch on fast enough.

So, on to the real question, what have we had to eat?

The first night we had pre-packaged ready-meal Fish Pie and Roasted Asparagus. The fish pie came in these little bamboo / wooden baskets that were used to cook them in. 

 

Servings here are smaller and I wish I’d gotten a third package of asparagus, but no one starved, and the fish pie was actually very good.

As an aside : Food here doesn’t have all the chemical and preservatives in it and is held, generally, to a much higher standard than in the US, so it will go off faster than food in the States. Therefore, buying for a week at a time, doesn’t make sense. I felt I was pushing it when I purchased for 4 days, but it worked. However, 3 days might be the magic number because of the build up of items over time (ie mayonnaise, butter, etc.; things you have on hand in general), that take up valuable real estate in the college fridge.

The second night we had Bangers and Mash (sausages and mashed potatoes) with Broad Beans. This was a hybrid meal. I learned to cook A LOT of easy, comfy British meals from scratch before E&W and I married; Bangers and Mash was one of them. It seemed a pretty easy recipe to cook (partially) from scratch. I bought pre-made mash because I didn’t know what the Cottage would have on hand as far as being able to actually mash the potatoes. Now that we’re passed that moment in time, it seems silly to assume a Scottish house would not have a masher. There are two.  The broad beans were good, but could have been better.  I remembered to get chicken broth/stock for the gravy, but forgot to get some to cook the broad beans in.  Still, no one went hungry.

Then we had Pasta Carbonara, another hybrid meal. I cooked part and purchased part.  I bought the sauce (because we have “white” sauce in the US; usually alfredo, but this specifically said “Carbonara” and E&W and I love carbonara). I added extra bacon, onions, and peas.

Last night we had steak pie and goose fat roasted potatoes. Both items were frozen and cooked in the oven, which is a whole 'nother thing. Instructions here give temps in 3 or 4 different ways; Celsius, fahrenheit, Gas, or Fan. I know the oven here isn't gas or Fahrenheit, so I usually cook it according to Celsius or fan settings (which are sometimes different on the same package). The Steak Pie was no longer frozen, but still cold when it was suppose to be done, so clearly my setting was wrong. I put it back in and then managed to burn to the top, which wasn't entirely my fault. The directions said it needed to be covered in tinfoil but I didn't know that having never made it before, so I didn't order any and the cottage didn't have any. I covered it with oven paper instead. It worked right up until the end. The entire top burned and I had to cut it off, but the steak filling and potatoes were really good. Sorry, I didn't get a picture.

Tonight's culinary masterpiece was frozen pizza because 3 teens wanted comfort.  It was very good as far as pizza goes. I, personally, don't care much for pizza, but tried it anyway.  It'll do for future teen comfort.

Upcoming meals include baked chicken with Brussels sprouts, baked spaghetti (requested by Helena, for which I did not order enough sauce) and tacos.  Tacos are one of Rhu's favorites and while I was able to find a familiar brand, Old El Paso, I wasn't able to find exact equivalents to what we have at home, so taco night will take on a new twist.  

And that is food . . so far. 

Well, except for the steak and haggis pies that are waiting to be eaten. By me, because pizza.

The First Post About Lollipop

I believe most people know this, but Lollipop is our fabulous dog. She's a 5-year old terrier mix.

Lolly was found on the side of the road when she was about 6 weeks old; covered in dirt and fleas. She was taken to a Rags to Riches Animal Rescue, where Peggy nursed her back to health. How we got her is a story in itself and maybe I'll tell it later, but right now A LOT of people are asking about Lollipop (aka Lolly, Poppy, Sunshine, Pillow Princess, Miss, Ma'am, Pooper, Poop da Scoop, Monster, Bug, Sweet Girl, Love Bucket, Gremlim, hound . . . the list goes on and on) and the journey she is on.

There was zero question as to whether she would move with us or not. For us, dogs are family. Leaving her would seriously be like leaving one of our children behind which was tempting (to leave a child, not the dog), but It just wasn't going to happen. However, getting her there was one of our biggest concerns about moving.

There are several options for moving a pet long distances. It is possible to make plans to transport your animal yourself by calling airlines and cargo companies, but there were so many (too many) variables that could go wrong; especially for an international move. Hugh and I both found that option to be unacceptable. So, Hugh researched pet re-locators online, narrowed it down to about 3, interviewed them all, and chose Pet Movers in Atlanta. They are literally walking us through the process, step by step, and so far, it's been worth every penny . . . and many dollars.

Many people think that there is a 6-month quarantine for pets travelling abroad.  This is no longer true for pets entering the UK. However, just like me, Lolly needed a visa or "pet passport" which allowed her to enter the UK immediately. Getting her visa, was almost as time consuming and worrisome as getting mine.

To get a pet passport, Lolly had a series of vet visits and this is where one of our glitches happened. She had to be up-to-date on all her vaccines plus the ones required by the UK. We found out 20 days to her travel date that she needed to have a rabies boost 21 days out from her travel date. We made a mad dash to the vet to update all her vaccines. Dana at Pet Movers then started working with UK customs to get her pre-accepted on arrival, 21 days to arrival instead of departure. She was approved.

Seven days from departure (it has to be within 10 days), Lolly returned to the vet where he signed off on a Health and Wellness form, confirming all vaccines required by both countries, and that she was well and healthy. The H&W form was overnighted to the USDA in Atlanta for approval, although it took 2 days to get there. The USDA then had 24 hours to overnight it back to us.

Trip number 3 to the vet occurred last Saturday morning (within 3 days of departure). She was given a tapeworm pill and the vet signed off that this was done on her Health and Wellness form. Her pet passport and pre-clearance were complete. Whew.

In the last couple of weeks, it was clear Lolly knew something was up. Items were constantly being taken from the house. She panted more often; stayed closer than normal. I often explained to her about flying in an airplane. She conversed with the squirrels and a flock of geese in our backyard about it. They laughed at her and told her dogs didn't fly. I explained again that the geese were jerks and dogs could fly, in an airplane. 

When we got the suitcases out, she really knew something was up. When I brushed off her bed to vaccum seal it in a bag and then got together her toys, leash, seatbelt, etc., she got SUPER excited that her stuff was being packed and she knew she was going too. The big blue duffel is referred to as "Lolly's suitcase".

When the packers arrived, Lolly was taken to my parents house and stayed there. She was surrounded by her Aunt Brie the Cat and usually her doggy cousins, Max and Maggie, were there during the day. She had a difficult time settling in the first night we slept there, but settled in the next night. 

Lolly rode in the car with us to Atlanta because it cost far less if we all flew out of Atlanta. A LOT less. If you're wondering how much it is to fly your dog internationally, I'll tell you that she cost as much as the 5 of us together . . and that was without the red carpet, door-to-door service.

Lolly settled into our hotel room for the night pretty easily. In fact, she seemed to be enjoying it a great deal; including the elevator and our room being on the 14th floor. She really LOVED looking out the window and enjoyed having all her people in one room.

Lolly's new "room" was delivered by Pet Movers to our hotel room. It is her travel crate. It was delivered last night so we could get her use to it. You can get them earlier, but our car was full enough. She was already crate trained, not adverse to it, and did explore it and go inside. We lined the bottom with a pet pad and a towel. Food and water bowls are attached to the door. Her "suitcase" included an extra pet pad and extra food.

Colleen meeting Lolly

This morning, we delivered her and her new crate to Animal Land where Colleen took over for us. She will look after Lolly until it is time for her to go to the airport. Lolly was confused and rightly so, but she's a Mont and a total trooper. She will be getting a bath while she waits. We figured it would keep her busy and out of the crate for a while. Once at the airport, she will board a direct flight to London Heathrow. She's the lucky one. The rest of us are flying to Miami and then London.

Lolly's flight on a freight plane will be between 8 and 9 hours long. The cabin she will be in is temperature controlled and pressurized. An attendant on the plane will check on her periodically.  She will not be medicated. Research has proven that dogs who are given tranquilizers to help them travel often have breathing problems on high altitude flights.

Once Lolly lands, she will be transferred to the animal reception center at Heathrow (HARC) where she will go through UK customs. It should take about 4 hours, but could be any where from 2 to 7. When she's done and ready to leave, they will call us. We will pick her up and begin our drive north to Scotland.

Dana, who has coordinated everything for us, has transferred 80,000 pets and animals in 16 years. She's lovely and her voice sounds just like my cousin, Jeanne, in Texas. It helped a lot and we have every confidence in her!

Those are our pet moving details for now. I'm sure I'll let everyone know how it turns out on the other end of our flights soon!

Lolly asleep in the car on the way to Atlanta

Trying to figure out being on the 14th floor of the hotel

Reassuring me she's okay

Checking out her travel crate

Meeting Groucho at Animal Land

The Post about Stuff

Today, we are dealing with stuff. 

Actually, we've been dealing with stuff since last Christmas. Off and on. 

It's one of the top questions I get when telling people we are moving overseas. 

What are you doing about all your stuff?

We are keeping about 60% or less of what we have. The rest has gone and is going. I'll talk about what we can't take and what we're keeping later.

Bea twirling in a skirt we found cleaning the storage room

In March, the kids (not being in school) and I started going through rooms in the house, one by one. We started with storage spaces because it disrupted day-to-day living the least. We would put hands on every single item in a room and place it in one of three piles: Keep, Go, or Trash. Sometimes there was an I-don't-know / can-I-just-deal-with-it-later pile and that was okay. Usually, the deal-later piles were pretty emotional and/or small. But here's the thing, those piles eventually needed to be sorted and dealt with too.

The process has been and remains exhausting, emotional, and cathartic.

Sometimes I'd spend a day dealing with emotionally provoking items, like old family photos that need to remain here or items that belonged to my grandmother. The next day, I would spend in bed or just watching tv, like a stunned little bird who just hit a window. And, the next day, I would get up and deal with stuff again.

Sometimes letting go of something was a multi-step process. We had piles and piles of crafts, science experiments, toys, games, photos, cds', DVDs, etc., to sort through. We took the craft and science experiments and put them in a box (okay, several boxes) and said, "If we don't do these in the next four weeks, it can go." We did some. We didn't do others. It is how Bea and I discovered how to make crystals grow on trees.

I started converting old VHS tapes to digital files before Christmas. I converted all our music cds to digital. Helena and I have scanned hundreds of old family photos (with hundreds more to go, but the clock is ticking) and organized them in binders. We've played games we've never played before to see if we like them. If we loved the game, it went to the ship pile. If we didn't, we offered it to neighbors. 

Yes, we game.

Let's just say our time during "lockdown" has not been dull or boring. We have always had something to do. Always.

Things that were broken were fixed, if possible, and then usually put in the "go" pile. If it couldn't be fixed it went to the go or trash pile. Sometimes someone would pick something up, another person would say "go", and the question would arise "Go to Scotland or go, as in, get rid of?" Rid off was a strong answer. Eventually, we had to define our terms better. Ship, donate, or trash.

It finally reached a point inside the house that all the different piles outweighed our comfortable living space. So, I forced three kids and a husband, to help me deal with the garage. It took a few of weeks. Sometimes I was alone out there, but generally at least one or two children would help; Bea, most often. But the others put their hard work into it as well. As a lot of stuff in the garage was Hugh's (tools, tents, and gear), he would join in on weekends. Everything in the garage went the same way. Ship, donate, or trash. Things that we were shipping went into the dining room which I had already sorted. That room became the "shipping" room.

Eventually, the garage was cleared (except for one small corner of items to ship). We then began shifting the donate piles from the house to the garage. Nothing about this process is tidy, I can tell you.

Sort Number One was complete. Sort of. Mostly. Enough to move on.

Sort Number Two commenced : the pile in the garage. 

The plan for a GIANT moving sale, the weekend before the movers came, fell apart. Not catching covid (ie being too close to too many people we don't know at all) just before traveling on two planes outweighed making money by far. So, we chose to sell the bigger items online and to give the rest away.

Deciding where things should disappear to was sometimes easy, sometimes not.  For example, we thought we would sell all the books, cds, and DVDs to McKay's, a used bookstore. We would take the money to purchase books missing from series we have. Then we realized that with covid, people were reading more and needing to exchange things more often so McKay's had become a petri dish of germs we did not need contact with. Disappointment abided and then relinquished itself to joy when we donated everything to our local library. 

Sometimes, I load up the car, ask "Who's going with me?", and whichever child volunteers gets to pick the charity.  In addition to books, we have donated 7 giant recycling bags of clothing and accessories to a church that Helena volunteered for with her Girl Scout Troop. I already know we'll have more bags to donate as we go through the next "sorting". 

Small household items were taken to Goodwill, games and puzzles offered to neighbors, old electronics went to our town's recycling center. Several carloads have gone to the dump. A fabulous friend and teacher from the kids' elementary school came and took a pile of crafts and goodies from us for the school's Destination Imagination program. Friends came by and took things they needed and wanted; often paying us even when we declined payment. Luckily, we realized early on, it wasn't about the money. It was about letting go.

If you're wondering how we've kept up with all this, I can tell you that it is definitely a process. One, as organized as I can be, I would sometimes get lost in. "Wait, what was I doing with this? Where is this suppose to go? What am I doing next?"

Finally, if you're also wondering how the kids are dealing with this, I have to say, they are storm troopers. On most days, they are standing with me, saying, "Bring it!" or "What today?" But I'll also say that this isn't all that new to them.  We moved to a far, far lesser degree 5 years ago.  When they were little, at birthdays and Christmas, I would say, "Whatcha gonna let go of so all the new stuff can come in?" and we would sort their stuff. Once a year, I would clean their closets out and insist that they help. If they outgrew it, hated it, or never wore it, it was donated. They are use to letting go because in learning to do it myself, I taught them how.

As a side note, some of the hardest boxes to go through during this, have been the clothing and baby items that at one point were deemed keepable, heirlooms, and hand-me-downs. We quickly realized that I had a strong love for little girl dresses, trains on boys clothing, and wooden toys. Helena and I organized clothes by size, debated the need to keep vs the desire to keep, the possibility of a future generation wanting to wear a certain style, the value of the item, and the emotions an item provoked. We laughed and cried a lot. We narrowed about 12 boxes down to 6.  The next day, Helena and I stayed in bed watching tv.

But I digress.

The girls sorted their rooms during the first sort entirely on their own, without being asked. Boxes of items from their rooms would appear in the hall. I tried my best to respect their decisions and usually succeeded, but on an extremely rare occasion, I would say, "Can we just keep this?" Mostly, I said, "Well done!"

Rhu is a blog post on his own. He sorts. At the rate of a sloth who needs a lot of naps.

That being said, I have stuff I need to go deal with. 

Sort Number Three has begun. Which is a post in and of itself.

The Post Where E&W is Free

As of the 14th of August, E&W (aka Hugh, Himself) is free to move about the world as he wishes.

From that date forward, he is no longer employed in the US.

While the timing was not what we would have chosen, we were well aware all along that there would be a vulnerable time in which he would not be employed.  The fact that his employer set a covid policy in March (against job changes, transfers, and new hires until 2021) only convoluted the problem. So, even though he and his bosses wanted him over in Scotland, he couldn't work over there until the new year. 

On the other hand, I have to go to Scotland during a window of opportunity given to me by the UK government. Our quandary, thanks to covid, was my date and his date no longer matched.  Those two considerations alone, however, leave out the most important part of the equation: our kids and school. So, we needed to think through everything. Again.

We sat quietly, like deer caught in headlights, and re-discussed what-the-heck we were doing. After a couple of hours of possibilities, figuring out new plans A through Z, and cons and pros (like the fact that he can move 100% with us and he won't have to come back here to work as covid numbers rise), we decided to keep our ship sailing towards Scotland.

Luckily, he was given a severance package that will last through the new year; which, coincidentally, is when the Global division of the company he worked for will be hiring again. And, in the meantime, we can concentrate on other things, like actually moving and finding someplace to live.

And not that we're counting or anything, but
11 days until the movers arrive
15 until we catch the flight

😃😭