Photos of our home ...

Yeh, yeh, tell it to someone who cares ...

Especially for those who haven't been bugging us for photos of our home, here they are. You can choose between a slideshow if you want the quick version or scan between the photos (with captions) at your own pace.

Enjoy!
Malcolm

The Commute ...

My normal commute to work involves walking past one house to get to Connecticut Avenue; crossing the six lanes of traffic on Connecticut; walking about 200 metres down to the bus stop; waiting for 0 - 5 minutes for the bus; generally getting a seat but sometimes standing for the 10 minute ride to Friendship Heights metro station; walking down into the station; usually getting onto the train within 1 - 2 minutes; usually sitting for the 20 minutes ride into Metro Central station; and the 5 block walk up to the corner of L and 14th Streets. Forty minutes is typical but has been down to thirty minutes on a good day.

Coming home is usually a bit slower as tend to be more in peak period - I tend to leave fairly early to get to work to miss the worst of the commute. However yesterday it took me eighty minutes to get home thanks to the poor state of the Washington train system. The red line which we are on seems to be suffering a range of breakdowns at the moment. The farce yesterday involved:

• waiting 10 minutes for the first train
• by which stage the platform was so crowded that I couldn't get on the train
• so I waited another 5 minutes for the next one
• which was a totally empty train that just cruised through
• so I pushed onto the next train which was another 5 minutes away
• where I stood packed in with the other sheep to the next station at Farragut North where even more packed into the train
• until the driver told us that the train was now out of service so we all had to get off
• so I hopped on a train going the other way and went two stations backwards to Chinatown
• where I ran up the escalators and then down another up escalator to get on a train going the right way
• which sat at the station for another 5 minutes
• before slowly making its way again
• and got crowded at Farragut North as all those who were unloaded with me tried to get on
• and I finally made it to Friendship Heights station an hour after entering Metro Central
• and then waited 10 minutes for a bus home ...

Did I mention that it was also mid thirties Celsius and very humid? Was so impressed!!

Malcolm

Getting a Maryland drivers' licence ...

Just back from passing my Maryland drivers' testing. Went out to DMV yesterday arvo and Donna couldn't produce two docs that they were happy with as evidence of living in Maryland. Between mail going to the Embassy and accounts just in my name (which was a mistake in hindsight but easier at the time), only the lease was acceptable to them. So she has to wait until I have my licence and can sign a declaration in front of them to effect that she lives in Maryland.

As we were there, decided I might as well do the theory test as was told that the waiting time was as good as it ever gets. This involved waiting on cold uncomfortable steel chairs for 75 minutes, spending 20 minutes with a guy who copied all my documents etc; lining up for another 10 minutes for a free computer in the testing room; and then completing the 15 minute test in 4 minutes. No, it wasn't that onerous! Did get a question wrong by reading too much into it. Apparently blind people don't just look like everyone else - I should recognise them by their white canes or dogs!

Then told to join another line which was apparently the line to go and do the driving test. Not having a car with us made that the 'do not pass go' part of that attempt. We were hopefully that a Dept of State letter we have would give us an exemption from the physical test. Apparently Virginia does this but of course this wasn't the case in Maryland. Was then told that I had to do the driving test in the next 24 hours or else would have to make an appointment. The next available appointment being on July 18.

So rented a car last night and drove out to be first in line this morning. They don't test on the road like in Oz. Just get taken into a compound about the size of a housing block. Have to follow the lanes, stop signs, arrows etc. Major parts were the reverse park, the 'turnaround' (multi=point turn within a rectangular area to get the car pointing back towards the entrance) and then reverse a fair distance back up the road in a straight line. Only lost six points for 3 minor infringements out of the 16 I was allowed to lose so that was a pass too. Back inside for short lining up (for a change!), paid my $45 and now have a drivers' licence number and the licence will be in the mail shortly.

Next hurdle is arranging insurance and we can then buy a car. Talk about ridiculous ...


Malcolm

Seeing a doctor ...

We have full health cover here but have been told to find a doctor who is accepting new patients and get onto their books by going for a checkup now. Donna can go into the details of how hard it has been to find a doctor who accepts our health insurance company, sees both kids and adults and is in a reasonable location from home. Anyway we finally had our first appointments on Thursday 21 June 2007.

Full details to come ...

Malcolm

Why US car manufacturers are in trouble ...

We rented a Ford Taurus on the weekend. It was a half price weekend rental which basically worked out at $64 for two days rental and the same again for the insurance ...

Acquired a GPS navigator before we left Oz and bought the US / Canada maps for it. This took all the headaches out of getting around, leaving me to concentrate on keeping the 'passenger in the gutter'. Think because I've had four weeks of walking around, it wasn't that hard driving on the wrong side of the road. Even managed roundabouts (locally known as turning circles) ok.

Can see why American car manufacturers are in trouble if this (admittedly base level) Ford was typical. Worst car I've driven for years - it had features like massive big round hinges on the trunk lid that cut right down into the luggage space. Couldn't believe three speed auto, no ABS, no remote locking and no CD player in a fairly new car - only done 16000 miles, although feels more like 116000. Latter could be because of all the potholes and rough roads around here - shocking. The base level Falcon (from the same company!) would put this thing to shame.

Though thinking back, did had some problems working out where the right side of the car was. The road lanes here are fairly narrow and car felt awfully wide at times!!

Malcolm

School's in!

Today (Monday 4 June 2007) was Olivia's first day at Rosemary Hills Elementary School. She will do the last two weeks of this school year back in kindergarten, go into the long summer break and then start year 1 again in late August.

What is a bit strange to us is that the each school here has details on the Montgomery County website which includes a breakdown of students and staff by racial / ethnic origin and the percentages on various support programs etc.

There have been two visits to the International Student Centre to get Olivia enrolled, vaccinated, etc. Then there was another visit last week to the school for some more admin and a short tour of the school.

We drove over this morning in our rental car to have Olivia there at 8.30am. School is normally from 9.00 to 3.30. Her teacher, Mrs Skolnick, met us in the office and took us all down to the classroom. This is one of eight kindergartens in a school of 517 students that covers pre-kindergarten (but only for those from low incomes) to year 2. Rosemary Hills is know as the rainbow school as it deliberately brings together kids from a variety of social and ethnic backgrounds. Or to quote the school: 'Because students attending Rosemary Hills come from a multitude of culturally diverse backgrounds, our school is often called "The Rainbow School."'

While all the kids go to the canteen to eat their lunches, most in Mrs Skolnick's class take theirs. Which was lucky as Olivia told us last night that she didn't like most of what was on offer on the menu! There's basically two choices per day. Not having vegemite and not having Australian cheeses limits Olivia's options dramatically. Luckily Donna had packed her lunch so we were covered both ways. They run an account system for the kids so they don't have to take money each day if they are buying their lunch. Unlike Oz, the kids go straight through to lunchtime, although the teacher apparently put out some cheese biscuits in the morning for them to eat.

It doesn't seem that they did much today in the way of structured learning. Although this is hard to tell from Olivia's descriptions, it does fit with there only being two weeks left in the school year. Today was also day 28 of the 28 day gestation period of the duck eggs which have been developing in an incubator in the classroom. Apparently they didn't hatch. When I asked Olivia why, she asked me if she turned up on time. I told her, no the doctor had to encourage her out. 'Well that's just like the ducks, we don't just all come out at the same time you know.' Guess I've been told ...

We were also a bit nervous about her coming home on the big yellow school bus by herself. But it was all a bit of an anticlimax, a bit like going into the classroom this morning. She just went in, remembered to come back and give Donna a kiss and then just went. Her teacher helped her onto the right bus tonight and the driver made sure she got off at the right stop. But Olivia tells me that she knew when to get off as she knew it was the last stop.

Ms Cool has it all under control and we didn't see even a hint of the tears we were expecting! She also has a new best friend, albeit that she can't remember her name tonight but that's normal for Olivia when she meets new kids ...

She also seems to be a fair bit in front of her class. While that would seem reasonable given she has had a term of year 1, the papers here have had a lot of coverage on the teaching of reading in kindergartens in schools here and the tests that the kids have to pass. Her teacher was impressed at how much she was reading around the classroom this morning so I suspect the local reading test is fairly low level. Think our task will be to ensure she keeps up with reading, writing and arithmetic so she is up with her peers in Australia when we get back next year.

Malcolm

Moving to our home!

We finally moved into our new home on 31 May 2007. Well, that was the date that our rental furniture turned up. Well, the date that most of it turned up. Had the usual things that were broken, rugs that were the wrong size, things that went onto back order, things that were missing kind of story.

Anyway, there was enough here that we moved in on Saturday 2 June. With our new 'beds in a bag' and new towels etc. We spent around $500 last weekend on these so we could survive by 'camping' in our house while waiting for our international inventory to arrive from Australia. So with these and some plastic cups / plates / bowls / cutlery we are ready to wait it out.

Comcast were fantastic and were here on the afternoon of 31 May as arranged to hookup two tvs and put a wireless network in for Internet access, not to mention the phones are now working. The remote controls didn't turn up with either rental tv. This caused a problem with one which we can't tune into channel 3 without the remote. Yes, channel 3 is the Comcast channel so that tv is effectively just a heap of plastic etc sitting in the corner.

Our Australian inventory seems to have been just sitting forgotten in Sydney since it was picked up in Canberra. At least until we called to see what happened to it. After the local contact telling me he had never heard of us, he did an excellent job of pushing things through. Still don't understand why the various promises that it was to be on various flights didn't end up being true for well over a week. Could it be that the guys in Oz were telling porkies?? Things were eventually delivered on Wednesday 6 June. Mostly arrived ok although they managed to slash the rear tyre / tube on the Anthem while trying to unwrap it. Was unimpressed at how the bikes were packed. Anthem was treated like a Repco. My requests for the shocks to be covered were ignored, handlebars were loosened, pedals were turned inside out just asking to rub against the rear shock, etc. LBS here in Bethesda will pack bikes for $35 which I'll be paying before ours go back.

Since then we've had various sagas with rug sizes, wrong sized glass for the coffee table, replacement tvs as couldn't find remotes etc until we basically had everything here on Friday 15 June. Although we're sure there's either a box missing or half a box wasn't unpacked. Lots of little kitchen etc things that we know we packed are missing. We had three boxes with duplicate numbers so possible that one with a duplicate number was lost. But more likely one semi-unpacked box was used to store the paper from unwrapped items. Will see if we can get some compensation but suspect we'll struggle due to lack of documentation of what we shipped and we had to sign off that all the boxes etc arrived. See what happens ...

Malcolm

Nanaimo

On Tuesday 29 May, I flew up to Nanaimo on Vancouver Island for a Canada Revenue agriculture conference on Wednesday and Thursday.

Day started with beingunceremoniously dumped back to economy by United, who were too poor in customer service to come out and actually tell me. When challenged, I was told that I should contact customer service who will 'probably' refund me the difference. This is typical of 'service' in the States. It is either brillant or, more often than not, woeful. Comes down to whether there's potentially a tip involved or the person's job is so secure that they don't give a damn. I know there are fantastic exceptions, but there are way too many that seem to want to prove this as a rule.

Anyway, had a fantastic few days in a wonderful small town. Typical was my taxi driver, resplendent in his red Hawaiian shirt. Told me he would pick me up on Thursday and he did. Then gave me his phone numbers to call for local advice on where to stay, rent a car, etc when I brought the family back next time. Should also mention that the airport makes Hobart's look international. One gate in and one gate out. My taxi driver knew the flight timetables (they obviously change so much!) so he knew which flight I would be leaving on.

Should also mention the flight attendant on Air Canada Jazz on the 20 minute flight over to Nanaimo from Vancouver. Thought he was the world's biggest joker and loved laughing at his own jokes. Sad but true was his motto for Air Canada: we're not happy until you're not happy. While waiting for the (late) flight, they called for two passengers to volunteer for the next flight, as they were overbooked, in return for flight credits, lunch, etc. After selling what a great deal it was to the two women who accepted, they then worked out that they weren't overbooked at all and just put them on the flight with no compensation!

Backdrop to the town is a mountain that is eerily reminiscent of Mt Wellington. While the foreview is a wonderful harbour, protected by a range of islands, with the Coastal Ranges (I think) in the background which ring Vancouver. Flying into Vancouver was impressive - beautiful city with fantastic geographical setting.

Anyone remember 'The Beachcombers' & "Relic'? Well it was shot at Gibsons which is the town framed by the view across Nanaimo harbour back towards BC. Those shots of floating logs were exactly what I saw flying into Vancouver.

My Canadian hosts were wonderful and I came back with offers to visit Toronto and Price Edward Island amongst others. Getting back to BC and Vancouver Island is also something I'd like to do in the future. Had some great meals out, was introduced to hockey (although supporting the Senators in the Stanley Cup finals wasn't such a great thing) and we spent the final night by catching a ferry over to Protection Island for dinner at the Dinghy Dock Pub. According to the teenage girl who was rather depressed at growing up on the Island where 'there's nothing to do', there's about 250 people live on the island.

Week could only have been improved by having more time (pity about having to work and give a presentation etc!) and having a mountain bike with me! There's a few good looking trails out the back of town that would have loved to explore. Also noted how much closer the Canadians are to Australians in their outlook on life. Much different to the States. Major surprise for me was the expectation of separate bills everywhere we went - from your own tab at a table in a pub to the Dinghy Dock Pub. Not providing this was seen as bad service and the Canadians would just get up and leave. Can't see that being provided by any eating establishments down under!

Malcolm