Saturday in Brighton

June 9, 2007

On Saturday, June 9, 2007 - Chuck and I visited the town of Brighton along the southern coast of England. It was about an hours drive from Portsmouth - but took about 1.5 hours because of a traffic accident on the A27. The big attraction in Brighton is what's known as the Royal Pavilion. The Royal Pavilion was created as a royal palace for King George IV so that he could rendezvous with his mistress. The outside architecture was very much Indian, while the inside was decorated in Chinese. We took a tour inside the Royal Pavilion with a guide. It was very informative. While we were in Brighton we got a taste of the colorful culture over there when we passed a nude bicycle race. Yep -- everyone was bicycling nude. I thought it was hilarious.

After our tour of the Royal Pavilion we ate lunch in a quaint little park where we had monster egg salad and ham & cheese banquettes for about £3 each. Not bad - considering the sandwich was huge. After lunch we walked along the pier in Brighton all the way to the end where there was a little amusement area - with rides. After that it was time to leave - when I realized I ran out of cash and needed to find an ATM. Of course the first one I came to rejected my American Card - but luckily we eventually found another one and made our way back to Portsmouth.

Here are pictures of the Royal Pavilion



Statue of George IV - pretty much the father of Brighton

Salisbury Cathedral and Stonehenge

On Saturday, the second of June, Tom and I made the trek up to Salisbury to visit the Cathedral there, and then to marvel at Stonehenge. Well, our journey was almost doomed from the start, for part of the M27 was closed, and we had to get off at an earlier exit. As a result, traffic was backed up and we didn't get to Salisbury for another 2 hours. It's a trip that should only have taken 45 minutes at most. I don't want anyone getting the impression that it's all roses over here. Actually, I think that was probably the only unpleasant thing we had to deal with, and even that wasn't so bad.
Anyway, once we arrived at Salisbury (Pronounced Saulsbury) we found a nice spot near the stairwell at a car park near the Cathedral. We walked down the high street (main street) where all the major stores were located, very touristy of course. Every store sells tea, and pictures of the queen, which is only for the tourists. The reason being that the citizens get to look at the queen everyday, because she's on all the money. Well, anyway we then came to an arch leading to the Cathedral and the surrounding area, called the Close.
The Close is basically a quadrangle that you would find on most Universities, kept well like a golf course green. The quadrangle has the Cathedral in the center, with pristine townhouses, almost estates on the perimeter, with a stone wall enveloping all the homes. These homes are occupied mostly by members of the clergy, however some are rented out at high prices, as can be imagined. A small number of the homes are owned by individuals unrelated to the church. We found out that there is a 9pm curfew to the Close, otherwise you have to get permission from one of the guards to be let either in or out. Talk about nice security. During the day, the Close to open to anyone, and you can find families, couples and friends cluttered together having picnics right next to the Cathedral. Below shows Tom standing in front of the West Front, which is the main entrance to the Cathedral. You can see the scaffolding on the left side. It seems everywhere we go has construction taking place.

Once you enter the Cathedral you are asked to give a donation, and then you are free to explore the grounds. I took so many photos, I really had to edit which ones I put on here, otherwise I'd be spending the entire day waiting for all of these photos to get uploaded. I also, don't want to bore anyone. The next photo is from the courtyard within the Cathedral.

After we left Salisbury Cathedral, we headed for Stonehenge. The trip should only have taken us 10 minutes, because the site is only 9 miles from Salisbury. Well, we ended up taking the long way, and it took us a half hour. Luckily we found the proper route for our return trip. Once we got to the site, we were pleasantly surprised. It's a nice site, and one not to be missed if you ever visit the UK. However, after about 10 minutes it begins to feel a little anticlimactic, and the wonder wears off. Yet, I'm glad I did it, because the countryside makes the whole visit simply breathtaking. Here's Tom near the beginning of the walking path. No, you're not allowed anywhere near the stones. Although, Tom shared with me that on June 21st, which already passed, you're allowed to stand in the center of the stones during sunrise. Apparently the sun shines through the stones right in the center, marking the summer solstice. I think it will be a different day of the month next year, to account for the leap year, but I'm not sure. Something to save for next summer!

TCBY...Chuck's second journal entry

Fair warning, this is my longest entry so far, by far. Hopefully, I'll catch up to the present soon.

29 May, 2007 (Trying the European way of dating) Tuesday

Today is Tom's first day of work at the Lockheed site in Havant. I'm going to make a sort of timeline of events of the past couple weeks, just to keep things clear in my mind. Otherwise, I'm sure too forget it.

• Week of May 6 – May 12:

This was my last week of work at The Reporter. The Wednesday of this week we drove to Long Island and stayed the night at Tom's parent's. This was due to the fact that we had to go into the city to pick up our visas at the British Consulate. It's quicker than having to do it through the mail. On the same day we went to New Jersey to sell the Honda CRV to a dealership that was prepared to offer Tom a nice deal for it. Then we made our way back to Binghamton that afternoon. I left early on the Friday of this week to help Tom out with last minute shopping. Actually, that week we were supposed to go to England for our "house finding trip," but it was too early for Lockheed to give the go ahead, so it got pushed to the next week.

• Week of May 12 – May 19:
My first trip to England (Our house/apartment finding trip) since high school. We found a great flat in Southsea near Portsmouth. We dined at some wonderful eateries, you know to get the most out of our per diem. We also spent some time scouting out the local grocery stores (One stops as they're called here) and pubs. The closest post office isn't far, which is important since we found out that almost all aspects of life revolve around the local post office. Apparently, you can't do anything around here without a post office.....or a computer. It's actually quite a problem here. So many people here are dependent upon their local post office, but the government is closing down many branches because they're deep in the red. Due mostly to people doing their business via the internet. It's rather ironic though, because people in the cities are using the internet, but the post offices are being closed in the countryside, where people are more likely to go without a computer. It's also a rather bizarre situation, since many people in the States initially thought the internet would kill the U.S. Postal Service, but turned out to really reinforce it, due to transport of online purchases. It seems to have hurt the U.K. rather than help it. However, I guess the whole thing is rather debatable, and now I find myself rambling.

• Week of May 20 – May 26:
We made our way back to the States on Saturday the 19th. The next morning, Sunday the 20th we drove to Tewksbury, Massachusetts. I wanted to visit my sister, her husband, their two kids and my mother before we left. This photo is me and Tom, with my niece and nephew, Elizabeth and Luke.


My mother graciously drove south to say goodbye, from her home in Bangor, Maine. I was impressed with her, since we were forced to change our travel arrangements at least a few times before then, due to the poor planning on Lockheed's part. However, I really can't blame them, since they are responsible for our being here, and I'm so happy to have the opportunity. A funny thing happened while there, that I must recount just for memory's sake, for it would be a shame for it to become lost among the cobwebs of my mind, quite a void really. While we were there, my sister introduced us to a new purchase of theirs, called a "Yankee Flipper." Apparently, it's a type of bird feeder that deters squirrels and other rodentia from stealing the bird food. This is how it works, apparently the post where the birds feed from is calibrated in such a way that if the weight of a squirrel were to come into contact with the post it rotates and/or revolves and throws the offending rodent to the ground. We spent several moments watching the squirrels attempt to get the food, and eventually get thrown off. Man, I'm a geek! However, I highly recommend checking out the video file on the website for the Yankee Flipper at www.yankeeflipper.com/droll/index.cfm.
Anyway, we stayed at my sister's until Tuesday morning, when we had to leave for Binghamton (more specifically Endicott) to pack up our remaining belongings and prepare for the movers to arrive on Wednesday. When they did, I found that they were quite professional and down to earth. However, we found out that they were going to be capable of finishing the packing of our ground shipment during that day. Tom and I were under the assumption that it would take two days. Tom had to go to work this day, and I stayed at the house to help with any questions the movers might have about which items should go in our air shipment or our ground shipment. There were many inquiries that I alone couldn't answer. As a result, I spent much of the day on the phone asking Tom to sort out the answers to the questions I alone couldn't provide. Also, a woman named Lisa stopped by, who works with Tom at Lockheed. She happens to live on the second floor of the house we're moving into. I met her once before, a couple years ago at a bar in the Endicott area with Tom while we were enjoying a trivia night there. Anyway, she asked Tom if it would be all right if she could drop off some laundry detergent and pack it with our ground shipment. I'm guessing detergent is quite expensive over here, as are many other items. I was looking forward to seeing her again, as she will be the only person I will know here aside from Tom. As bad luck would have it, I was in the shower when she dropped by the deliver her detergent. I had mowed our lawn earlier that day, while the movers were working, since I didn't know the next time it would get mowed by our lawn service. I tried to wait, but I started to smell quite noxious, and didn't want to offend. When I got out of the shower and got dressed, I walked downstairs and was amazed by all the detergent. There must have been 10 cartons worth. Lisa must be one laundry-making machine! As for the packing, since we found out that the ground shipment packing would only take that one day, we wanted to know if they could do the air shipment packing on Thursday. This way we could leave for Long Island and visit with Tom's parent's on Thursday night through to Saturday morning before we were to leave out of JFK airport. I asked one of the mover's, Sue, if she would be able to rush the packing of the air shipment to the next day. To her credit, Sue tried to rush it, but a complication arose between both their schedule and speeding up paperwork. As a result we had to wait until Friday morning for them to return to complete the packing of the air shipment. It turned out to be a good thing however, because we had a number of errands to get done before we were to leave. Some of these things included returning our cable box, linking our accounts at the bank, forwarding our mail at the post office, and enough time for a walk. We even stopped by our friend's, Nick and Deb's house, to see their new baby, Kathryn. She was born on the 13th of May, Mother's Day, while we were en route to Dulles airport for our apartment-finding trip. They seem to have taken to parenthood with ease, and were quite liberal with Kathryn, meaning they let us hold her as soon as we walked through the door. I'm usually apprehensive about holding babies, some kind of irrational fear that I'll drop them. However, it was an unexpected thrill of sorts. Tom held Kathryn, then had to run out to meet another friend of his, PJ, at our house to give him some of the many boxes we failed to fill with our endless supply of belongings. PJ was getting ready for his own move to the Harvard Business School. Not bad for a co-op at Lockheed Martin! Anyway, I digress, once Tom left, I held Kathryn, and it was an incomparable feeling. All that innocence and life contained in such a small package. I hate to be corny, but it humbles you to such a degree. It was exactly to same way I felt when I visited sister after she gave birth to my niece. Yet I don't recall holding my niece, but then again it was the same day as the birth, and I'm sure she had to rest. Anyway, after we left Nick and Deb's, we went to our friend Jim's house, since he was nice enough to let us stay there since our bed had been packed up the day before. We ended up having dinner at a place called "Antonio's Galleria," and a fabulous place it was, with hip decor, and even better panini. I was pleasantly surprised, I definitely recommend it to anyone reading this in the Binghamton area. Anyway, we went back to Jim's place where he introduced us to his High-Definition television. The next morning we went back to the house and supervised the packing of the air shipment. The movers showed up around 8:45, after I made a run to Dunkin Donuts to pick up some breakfast because we were living with an empty refrigerator. They finished around noon, and we were on the road for Long Island 15 minutes after they finished. While the movers we moving out, we came to the realization that we had no idea what the protocol was for tipping. We called a bunch of people to get a consensus to the problem. The majority of people we spoke to said not to worry about the tip, because the price tag was covered by Lockheed, and they were paying a lot for the service. Also, we spoke to other people from Lockheed who moved for job rotations, and said they never tipped. My sister did offer some good advice though on the subject when I consulted her, as always! She suggested the next time we hire movers over the phone, we ask what the suitable gratuity is.
Well, the drive to Long Island was rather non-eventful, except for one thing. Tom got a call from his mother when we were en route, and found out that his sister Lori had quit her job. Well, then after another call from his mother we found out that she didn't quite quit, but was fired, or a combination of the two. We got a couple more updates from Tom's mother every 20 minutes or so. It was quite a good story of how Lori employment came to end. The better story was how Lori was capable of working with such an apparent S.O.B. for such a long period of time (9 months approximately). She's going to come and visit us for a break at the end of June.
We left Saturday from JFK. Tom's father, Paul, drove us around 2:30pm to the airport. It was an emotional goodbye for the Brancato's when they dropped us off. We were scheduled for a 6:10pm departure, but didn't take off until 7:30pm, because someone's baggage arrived late, and we got in 20th place in a queue. The flight was adequate, we had more leg room than I would have anticipated being in coach. Once we landed, we got our bags, went through customs (which is much easier in London, than Dulles, because they had at least three times the customs agents working the booths) and went to Avis to collect our car. We ended up renting a 307 Peugot, and Tom drove us to the Marriot in Portsmouth. By the way, not the best cars, Peugot's, we spent over 40 quid filling the tank, which is over 80 bucks!!! God bless Tom for his driving prowess, for I am a coward when it comes to driving over here. I've actually decided that I will leave all of the driving to Tom, as it will be cheaper for insurance purposes, and I'm working from home, so I won't really need to drive. Also, our doctor is around the corner, and there are two different bus stops within a block of the apartment, so if I need transportation it's readily available. We killed the day by going to Gunwharf Quays (pronounced Keys) and watching a movie, 28 weeks later, and then we had dinner at a nice Italian restaurant called Strada.
Since Monday was a bank holiday here, we decided to go to London. We drove to the parking lot (car park, as they're called here) in Guildford, and took a train to the Victoria-Waterloo station in London. It's cheaper than getting 2 round-trip tickets to Portsmouth. We also got a network railcard, good for a year, which gets us ⅓ off train tickets. We spent the day at the Tower of London, in particular the Byward tower, White tower (the armories), and the Waterloo Block which houses the crown jewels. These two photos are first of Tom in front of the Tower of London, the next is the Tower Bridge behind me from within the Tower of London.




Then we made our way to the London Dungeon, which was exhibiting quite a long line (or queue), so we spent the rest of the rainy day at the London Eye. I would love to go again on a sunny day and get some decent shots with my camera.

We then ate at "Wagamama's" for the first time, which is a hip little Japanese noodle chain restaurant. I loved this restaurant! My sister told me they opened one in Faneuil Hall in Boston. This place was located at the Southbank Centre, next to another Strada's to my disappointment, assuming that the Strada we went to wasn't part of a chain. It was a nice experience though, because it was Tom's introduction to chopsticks, or rather he had no choice but to eat with chopsticks. I guess he could have asked for a fork, but seeing as nobody else was using a fork, I'm sure he didn't want to stick out like a sore thumb. The dessert was just as wonderful as the main course. I had coconut ice-cream with a mango sauce, Tom had a chocolate-wasabi cake. We have to go again, perhaps when Lori arrives.

Leaving Home

This is from May 26, 2007.

Chuck and I left the US on May 26, 2007. Above is a picture of our plane (American Airlines Flight 100 - JFK to London Heathrow). It would be my third trip overseas in about a month and a half -- ohhh the jet lag! It was an emotional goodbye - leaving behind our friends in upstate New York, our house (which we only lived in for 3 yrs) and our families. But it's the chance of a lifetime to live in another country that not many people could say they did. It was difficult seeing the NYC skyline disappear as we took off into the clouds. New York was my home for the past 27 years of my life - but the looking at the next three years ahead of me - living in England just seemed too exciting of an opportunity to pass up.

TCBY: Tom and Chuck's British Years....From Chuck's journal

The following is an excerpt from my journal...

May 16, 2007

Today Tom and I decided on a flat that we will move into for the next 3 years. Our county home search assistant, Jenny, was excellent beyond measure. No compliments would suffice to describe her performance. Jenny helped in more aspects than I could have expected. Tom and I actually spent time this morning thinking of questions to ask. I believe Jenny answered all of them within the first couple of minutes. She was personable and really tried to acclimatize us to the area in the little time she had available. We actually decided on the first flat we saw at Craneswater Park (which for some reason I have difficulty remembering). Tom and I saw a total of 9 properties today. However, none of the properties after Craneswater Park successfully measured up. It did come down to Craneswater Park and "Brecon House" at Gunwharf Quays. However, the flat at Gunwharf Quays had bedrooms the size of most American bathrooms. This photo is obviously the kitchen, the clothes dryer/washer and the dishwasher are hidden behind the lower drawers. We also have a refrigerator and a freezer under the cabinet to the right (out of view). Anyway, I'm babbling on. Suffice it to say, we're quite happy with the decision we've made!

Going Away Party At Jim's House

Well we finally made it to England and have received our first shipment (air shipment). So I'm back to the connected world at home. So it's time to catch up my blog on what's been going on so far. Here are pictures of the going away party that my friend Jim threw for me and Chuck. I believe it was held on May 5th, 2007.

Here's me with our good friends Nick and Deb.

Here are my good friends and coworkers - PJ, Tim, and Kyle. I'm going to miss working with them - they were a lot of fun to work with!

My friend Gary - always could be counted on to join us at Mamma Giusseppas and then a movie! He also was good for some laughs at playing Mario Golf on the Game Cube! Bite!!!!!!!

This is Kristian - like Gary always good for hanging out on the weekends.

My friend Jim - it was his B-Day party as well and was kind enough to share his day with us! Thanks, Jim!