Catching up...

We've been a bit incommunicado for a while...lots has been going on, but nothing really out of the ordinary. We've both been working full time, Kevin on the trains (more on that in another post) and me at a local temp job.

Manchestah
2 weekends ago, we drove up to Manchester to visit Kevin's cousin Nuala and her family. It was nearly a two-hour drive, but a fairly easy one. We arrived about 3:30 in the afternoon and just hung out with them and had tea and scones (so English!). Kevin's other cousins Breda and Siobhan were there as well, along with his Aunt Kathleen and Uncle Jimmy. Siobhan told us that we have to pronounce the name of the city where Nuala lives as "Manchestah" which I just think is funny for some reason...probably because we sound kind of silly saying it that way as we don't really have the English-accent thing going.

4th of July
For the first time in 8 years, we didn't have a party, for obvious reasons. Kevin's brother said that he had a nice time, though, with our tenants, but couldn't understand why we weren't there. And how come the tenants seemed so confused when he appeared on the doorstep with beer and chips. It was just a regular work day for us, although we did go to Peter & Hayley's house for pizza that evening. I was tempted to walk around work that day singing "Yankee Doodle" but managed to keep a lid on it.

Rain, rain, rain
It has basically been raining here since May. When we arrived in April, the weather was gorgeous for almost the entire month. I think it rained maybe twice, and then it was a brief shower. Ever since then, it's been raining almost every day. Rainfall records are being broken every week all over the UK and there has been severe flooding in many towns. People here keep saying to us that they don't remember a summer like this in recent history. Most of the time, by now it should be somewhat warm and drier, with the occasional shower. But we've had moments of torrential rain and a few thunderstorms here and there. I'm at the point now when people ask me why we're here, I just say, "For the weather, of course."

Little big band concert
Last Saturday night, we went to the local theatre here in Ashby for a concert by the Ashby Big Band. They played lots of standards, Glenn Miller, Count Basie, etc. It was a gorgeous little theatre! They had rows of chairs set up behind tables and even a bar. So you could get a drink and listen to the music. The band had about 20 members and they really were fantastic. We had been by the theatre many times, but had not yet gone to an event. There is an Arts and Music festival coming up in Ashby in 2 weeks' time, so we're going to try to get to some of those events as well.