Coming to you LIVE from Bedford, Bedfordshire

It's odd being in a Shire.

So not that much more has happened since our last post, although I have finally uploaded the rest of our pics from Japan so go check that out! Joe started work yesterday and it looks like it's going to be fun - Joe described it as a good balance between the fun of games development and the well paying but souless pure IT work :D It's good and casual, he was overdressed in a nice shirt and jeans yesterday, which he's happy about (back to scruffy jeans and tshirts) and he doesn't have to get to work until 10 if he so chooses. Still needs to do an 8 hour day, but yay for optional sleep ins!

I'm still job hunting; had an interview on Sunday but the position was a little too high pressure and demanding for my tastes. 10 hour days with sporadic breaks and two weekends a month doesn't really sound like a good arrangement to me. So I have continued to scour the online job adverts for interesting roles.. Hopefully something good will come up soon. Although my objections to being a lady of leisure are as yet reasonably few :)

We're moving into our flat on Thursday, a day later than we thought but still good. I'm oddly excited about the prospect of making house - there's a bunch of charity shops in town and a reasonably well priced homeware store so that will be my project while Joe is at work. How very domestic..

I think once the house is set up I'll put a lot more effort into job hunting. I'll sadly need to do some shopping (sob) and get some more dressy type clothes for interviews, I currently have a wardrobe designed for travelling comfort :D

Bedford is a pretty nice place. There's a few pics of the area on the online album, it has a nice river (tis a bit brown but oh well) and nice shops. Observed a bit of unnecessary chav violence the other day, which was a bit scary. We were sitting at a cafe (a rubbish cafe unfortunately) eating some hamburgers and had just enjoyed a fantastic performance from a three year old (he climbed up on a park bench and belted out a song, when finished yelled 'shall i sing it again mum??' ) when there was a bunch of shouting from across the street. Two gentlemen (read: chavs) yelling at each other, one smashed a bottle on the ground, the other retreated and they walked away from each other.. Five minutes later the one who retreated returned with some mates, and headed towards where the first fellow had gone.

A bit scary but apparently a rare happening, at least during the day. I think we'll avoid central town on Saturday night :)

Anyways here's a list of wee observations I have made in my first week of being in the UK :D

Every house, business, building is made of red bricks. I don't understand. Lucky brickmaker.

The news here is awesome - I heard the word 'cockup' used on prime time news, what the hell

The money is annoying. I finally worked out the pattern for how to tell what money I'm holding. Two and one pound coins - gold. Fifty and twenty pence - silver, seven sided. Ten and five pence - silver, round. One and two - bronze, round. However, ten and two pence are bigger than twenty, and fives are the smallest. I have been standing at shop counters looking confused, and finally just handing over a twenty and getting yet more confusing change. Grrr

I love London tube station names. Such as: Old Street, Bank, Borough, Temple, Monument.. It's like they're the only ones in the city :D Surely there's more than one Temple? Or Monument? Other names are just funny, like Elephant and Castle, Canada Water, West Ham, Mudchute, Cockfosters... Teehee :D

Kisses