Our Home for the Next 17 Months

We are settling in to what will be our home for the next 17 months or so.  We have a car due to the size of our area (a stick-shift Vauxhall station wagon).  Paul, due to some perverse genetic mutation, or perhaps just from being a guy, actually prefers a stick shift for driving in England, where the roundabouts require constant shifting.  An interesting detail about driving we learned last week:  a US driver’s license will do for 12 months, but after that we have to have English licenses, which involve mandatory lessons, expensive tests, and perhaps a 6-month effort to acquire.  This requirement seems to be safety-related until one learns it doesn’t apply to Canadians driving here.  One may perhaps be pardoned for suspecting that it’s related to an incident that occurred in the colonies in 1776.

Our House (blue door, on right)

Our house is quite nice, about 12.5 ft wide inside, two storeys (English for stories), two bedrooms, a washing-machine hookup in the kitchen, and a fenced back yard.  It was unfurnished (that includes nothing in the kitchen but an oven and hob), so we’ve done some shopping [understatement] and still have a lot to do.  We ate our first home-cooked meal here today, on a table consisting of two upside-down suitcase and a microwave box. Translation:  we have some pots and pans, dishes and silverware now; we do not have any furniture except a small chest and two patio chairs loaned to us by the Andrews family and two air mattresses we bought the first night (in retrospect, we should have also bought blankets and figured out how to turn on the heat the first night). We are trying to scout out used furniture stores, but they are widely scattered so shopping takes a long time.  Thank goodness for GPS!  And with church / mission responsibilities starting this week, we are hoping we can find something quickly.

Our Back Yard

Our address is

12 Quob Farm Close

West End, Southampton

England SO30 3HE

We have an inexpensive cell phone issued by the mission, the number of which is 07800 61 5397.  I believe to call from the US you precede it by 011 44 and drop the first 0 of the English number.

The church members here have been wonderful.  The Andrews, a local couple who have been working with the Young Single Adult center here, have fed us, showed us the stores and charity shops we are and will be frequenting for furniture; given us furniture and a refrigerator and dishes; helped us get established in every way, even offering us space in their home until we get settled (which we declined because we wanted to rough it just a little); and introduced us to church members.  Everyone we have met has been very gracious and kind.