Playing pool with the locals

We went down to a village called Long Melford to see an antique shop whose business hours were listed on their website as 10:00am to closing time. Apparently that means 5:00 pm in the English country side. Which means we had about 5 minutes to look before they politely told us to get out.

So we wandered down the very picturesque main street and then ducked into a pub called the George and dragon. The promise of coffee for Ben and a pint for me (and some shelter from the East Anglia winds) was irresistible.

We watched some locals play pool and then Ben's offer to buy them a game led to him getting trounced twice. But I think it was amusing to the locals. We'll try the antique thing again tomorrow.

My office

So this is where I'll be living for the next three years. Yep, my office. I already have a general court martial next week. Just direct of two of the witnesses and the script but it's still going to be two days of sitting in court.

The new place

So the other place I'll be living is in a place called 2 The Old Flint Cottages. It's 400 years old.

The picture above is the master. Our bed will fit in the room. But will it fit up the stairs?

No closet but there is this little room that's going be my closet.

There are closets in the two other rooms. But they are kind of awkward. 

It's like we live in the land of I Love Lucy where guest rooms are stocked with twin size beds.

And also random sinks.

And I have to say... I love the bath tubs here. They are awesome.

Nice view from the guest room.

This is the entryway. The weird opening is where the boiler used to be. Don't know what we're going to do with that space yet.

This is what sold me on this place. 

That's a whole bunch of cabinets.

Now these shelves look like they're the perfect place to put some vintage Pyrex.

This is the living room. It's a little long and narrow.

And this is the dining room. Those are some antique chairs we bought on the equivalent of craigslist. Ben's going to refinish them.

And this is the outside. We're going to fence in the front yard so the dogs have a place to run around. 

Hopefully I'll have some time to post pictures when we get some furniture in there.

The Great East Anglia Scavenger Hunt

We left Houston on December 17th. Both sets of parents very nicely agreed to take our luggage, our dogs, and us down to Houston which is where the only flight (apparently) that could take more than one dog at a time was flying out of.

Oh you poor, poor puppies... they have no idea they have 14 hours in a crate ahead of them.

We arrived in England on the 18th. Two neurotic dogs in tow. 

We were determined NOT to sleep until the evening to try to cut down on jet lag. 

Which meant when my sponsor asked if we wanted to go meet the office, I said "sure". 

Who cares if my hair was a mess (it was) or that we were so tired we were having to ask people to repeat things, or that we hadn't eaten anything for about seven hours and were starving. 

Ben calls it "Extreme traveling with Carrie".  

Everyone was really nice and the deputy of the office sent us on our merry way telling me not to come back to the office until I'd gone to newcomers' orientation, passed my driving test, found a place to live, and some transportation etc.

Thus, as my friend Chris pointed out, we have embarked on a scavenger hunt of East Anglia. 

I would like to point out that scavenger hunts by Texas law are considered hazing. 

Because we had to attend the newcomers session the next day - where we did indeed both pass our driving test -  we weren't able to really start house hunting until Friday. 

Which is when we discovered that pretty much every letting agency (the agencies that actually LET you into the houses to see them)* are closed for a two week holiday. We managed to finagle two showings - one Friday and one Monday but everyone else either didn't return my calls/emails or phoned to say that they were pretty much closed until after the new year. 

* That is NOT why they are called letting agencies. They don't say "rent" over here. They say "let" instead.

So, we've been stalking rightmove.co.uk and zoopla.co.uk. I'm pretty sure I've looked at every posting within a 20 mile radius of the base. Twice. 

Today we were at odds and ends trying to figure what to do with our time since it was Boxing Day so everything British was still closed.

We went to get Bitey and Barky (Ben's name for Lucy and Fank) registered at the vet clinic at Feltwell which is another base about twenty minutes from here. Since we were out already, the sun was shining (a rare occurrence here lately) we decided to go look at the outside of some of the houses we're interested in. 

It's a little bit like wedding cake shopping when you can't taste the cake or dress shopping when you can't try on the dress.

Our absolute favorite place (based on the pictures and our visit to the little village where it sits) backs up to a river.

That's right. It has a river! I don't feel that I can put too many exclamation marks at the end of that sentence.

With my luck it's either already let, they won't allow dogs, or it's only a short term lease (or all three).

This Baptist Church is right across the street. We're not Baptist, but I might consider it if it means we only have to walk across the street on Sunday mornings. 

This house is a door or two down the way.

Notice the grass coming up over the side of the house - I think it has a hobbit hole!

... and also some very energy efficient solar panels. There's probably a joke about Lord Sauron and global warming in there somewhere that I am just not nerdy enough to make.

Anyway. That's the house we want (not he hobbit hole house, the one that backs up to a river). I'm trying not to get my hopes up. 

Nope, that's a total lie. I keep looking at pictures of the inside and thinking about what kind of rugs we'd need and comparing the floor plan to the pictures to figure out which room our bed would fit the best in and what kind of furniture we'd need to buy.

I'll be very disappointed when we find out it was let the day we were in newcomers orientation...

Mom keeps bugging us to go check our mail. 

Mom, I promise if you're reading this, I will go and get the code for it tomorrow. There IS something in the box, but I can't tell what it is. Those little windows are tiny.

But this post wouldn't be complete if I didn't leave you with a little bit of Star Wars weirdness. 

This was in the post office. 

My sister is spiderwoman

Before going off to COT (that's commissioned officer training), I was lucky enough to go on a family vacation to Colorado.

We drove (well, a few people flew) but I forget how wide open the skies of West Texas are.

The wind farms were especially cool. You can't tell from this picture, but we passed a flatbed truck along the way carrying one of those wind blades. It was as long as one whole block of the town we were stopped in.

Texas has nice (apparently snake infested) rest stops. there were warning signs all over the place to watch for rattlers.

The first leg of the trip to Amarillo, it was just my sister Ginnie and me in the car. 

But we joined up with the rest of the family and on Saturday we stopped at this cool little park in Dallam Texas.

The kids had a blast playing on some very old fashioned playground equipment.

(the merry-go-round AKA the vomitron)

Because I only had a week before I would be flying back to Dallas, we ended up cramming in a bunch of stuff into three days.

(hiking to Alberta Falls)

Ziplining (that's a word right?)

I really enjoyed the rock climbing...

from this angle, it looks kind of impressive

from this angle, not so much.

But Ginnie was amazing. She was a regular spider woman. 

She has sticky fingers. And I mean that in a nice not a she-steals kind of way.

The next day was white water rafting and the day after that was home for a bit more packing and a road trip to Alabama. 

Which brings us to today. Tomorrow is the beginning of COT. I don't know how much time I'll actually have to post things, but if you're wondering what COT is like, I like this blogger's posts.

If his posts are any indication of what COT will be like, that rock climbing excursion should be helpful. I just wish I had Ginnie's fingers. 

we're going to England (let's hope this doesn't jinx it)

I originally started this blog to document my adventure as a Foreign Service Officer. Way back when, I had passed all the tests and cleared the security clearance with a single bound and I was all set to be pulled off the list of eligible hires and shipped off to Timbuktu. But I waited and waited and it never happened. Then I was selected as an alternate for their internship program and was never called up for that either.

I went to India; learned Hindi - all in the hopes of getting into the State Department

So to make a long story short, when my dad suggested the Air Force JAG I began thinking, "hey, this might actually be just what I need." I mean, it's the opportunity to serve my country, to travel and granted there's no guarantee they'll send me overseas, at least we'll make it out of Texas*.

So I commenced the application process last February (which is nearly as lengthy as the State Department process BTW). I found out in April that I was accepted and was just cleared medically last week.

But I decided not to post about it because I didn't want to jinx it. I know, that sounds really superstitious, but I hated having to go back after the fact and say "just kidding - guess the State Department didn't want me after all."

They say there's no turning back once you get your assignment. Well, yesterday I got mine. We're going to England! Mildenhall is the name of the base and it's about 30 minutes outside of Cambridge. I feel like I'm tempting fate a little by posting this now considering I don't have all my official paperwork yet, but I'm so excited, I can't hold it in.

I LOVE England. I can hardly believe my luck - who might just go by the name of Mike at JAX.

But I'm so grateful for this opportunity - both the opportunity to serve as a JAG and the opportunity to live in England. And I'm grateful for a spouse that is just as excited for this opportunity as I am.


*I love Texas and we'll probably end up here some day, but in the meantime, I've spent almost all of my 30+ years living here and I need to get out before I start saying y'all.

I think it's weird...

I think it's weird that people keep following my Pyrex Pinterest board. It's just old Pyrex patterns I like. But it's the most followed board that I have. I have 149 followers compared with the 104 I have for my "Cute or Funny" board or my "Recipes to try" board that has 116 followers or even my DIY board that has 118 followers.

Is that weird or is it just me?

Spell check

Why does spell check not recognize this word?

Hey, smell this

Ben: Hey, can you smell something for me
Me: Um, I don't think so. That sounds like a poor life choice for me.
Ben: Come on, I just need you to smell my hand and tell me what it smells like.
Me: Fine, but I really hate this game.
I take a whiff and wrinkle my nose.
Me: Ugh! What is that? It smells like motor oil.
Ben: Well, I'm not sure but Frank (the dog) chased a small creature into the woods.
Me: You mean it's skunk.
Ben: Well, it's hard to tell because it was really dark. And it was pretty slow moving.

Yeah, it was a skunk.

I'll give Ben credit. He did look up the proper way to treat skunk (not tomato juice apparently). And he stood out in the backyard hosing down the dog with the hose and Dawn dish washing detergent on a rather chilly night.

Ben says that the skunk needs to rethink its defense mechanisms. Apparently when Frank discovered this small creature not only ran but also sprayed out this intriguing fragrance, he thought he was having the best day ever. He wasn't even embarrassed that he stank.

The only down side as far as Frank is concerned is that he had a rather cold and lengthy bath. Several cold and lengthy baths. He still kind of smells like skunk.

Heavy Metal and Dress Shopping

This past Sunday I got to attend the Christmas program for my church (that's Naga Christian Fellowship). We met in an auditorium and there was a choir and Christmas carols.

We also had a visiting pastor who was actually from St. Louis (kind of).

Then we had a chai break and the real party started. By which I mean, We had three hours of college students singing, dancing, and acting their hearts out.

Acts included bollywood style performances, beautiful solos, 

And this heavy metal band which did a cover of Metallica's Sandman.

no, I'm not kidding. Really... it was the third to last act and I really couldn't stop laughing. Not because they were bad-I mean heavy metal isn't my favorite, or anything but they did a decent take on the old classic - but because I had been there since 1:30, it was almost 7:00 and it was just too surreal.

Did I also mention I got roped into singing? So I like Karaoke. If you're my friend, you probably already know that about me. I've always said that I like it because I like singing into a microphone. Let me amend that. I like it because it's singing into a microphone, you get music, you get the words in front of you, and they tell you when to sing said words. It's way harder singing a capella in front of five hundred people with two people singing harmony. Aghh! 

I only screwed it up a little bit at the end. Because I sang the wrong words and laughed (just a little bit). But it was only slightly humiliating.

The REALLY embarrassing part happened a couple of days later.

Yesterday in fact. I was trying to find a dress for a wedding I'm attending here. I went to one of the fancy shops up on Rajpur road because they actually have readymade clothes AND dressing rooms. 

I walked into this particular American style store (I say American because the logos on the t-shirts had logos from lobster fishing places in Mane) and was met with three sales guys*. I took a couple of dresses to the dressing room and tried them on with no problems. Until I got to the last one. And the zipper got stuck.

There was no way I was going to ask one of the guys out front to help me get unstuck and I was seriously considering just buying the dress and wearing it home when I heard the voice of a female outside. What a relief!

So I stuck my head out and identified said woman and asked her for her help. She very nicely obliged and helped me get unstuck. As she was working on the recalcitrant zipper, she says "Did you sing at the Naga Christmas party on Sunday?" 

Yes, yes I did. And now Assu (that's her name) you have seen me in two embarrassing situations. 

It's a good thing the people in my life love me for me and not because I'm so smooth. because I'm not. I'm like the opposite of smooth. And here, I stand out like a sore thumb. So you know how when something embarrassing happened to you in junior high and your mom said "don't worry, no one's going to remember". 

Well, here, they remember. And because I stand out like a sore thumb, they remember it was me and not just some random person. Yesterday I was told by a shopkeeper that they had seen me driving my scooter around town... he remembered me because I am the only white girl who drives a scooter around town. He's not the only one to tell me that.

I sometimes wonder if I'm known as "that gori menace who drives a scooter" here in Dehradun. It's like that guy in college who always wore neon yellow goggles to class. 

*side note - if you work in sales, it is very annoying to the customer if, when they enter your store to look at merchandise, you immediately walk over, stand in front of them and say "yes madam" blocking what that customer is trying to look at. Seriously, every single store I walk into, this happens to me. Move out of the way people!

Happy Birthday Aure - more adventures in cooking

November 28th was Aureila's birthday. Aurelia is from Spain and this is the first time she's been out of the country without her family. 

So we decided to throw her a little party.

By we, I mean me and the Yemeni's.

They are so sweet! I put them to work chopping vegetables, while me and Neelang attempted to filet fish. That's really difficult to do without a filet knife.

Then I made hollandaise sauce.

Because on my birthday, I always have hollandaise sauce and I feel that all people should get to eat a bunch of butter on their birthday.

Everyone at the hostel likes fish. We don't really have it unless one of us goes out to buy it but it's apparently EVERYONE's favorite food. So the fish was made short work of as was the chocolate cake we brought home from a place called "The sugar Box".