Chris & Maria’s Blog

Wow, I knew it had been a while since either of us had used this blog, but I didn’t think it had been nearly half a year. Well, I’m not counting certain entries that had to be removed, of course (love you, ND).

So why now? Why dust it off after such a long time? Well, maybe I have things I want to talk about. Maybe Twitter and Facebook leave a little something to be desired in my need to be self aggrandizing. Maybe I have ADD. In actuality, it’s probably a little of all of the above. Who knows. I was just struck with the notion to look at the blog again this morning. I’ll give it, say, six weeks and see if there’s anything worth talking about at that point.

Does anyone even still read this?

We’ve been back in Tennessee for 2 days now and are both a bit run-down with sore throats. We also had to have a long doctor’s appointment (Chris) and more dental work (Maria) yesterday so it’s a of a struggle re-adjusting.

Overall we had a wonderful time in England and Ireland. Didn’t make it to Paris this time, but we’re hoping we can go back over there soon, maybe even at Christmas, so hopefully that’ll happen next time. My pictures from the trip are here and Chris’s are here and also on facebook, if you’re a friend on there.

We really made the most of our time and I don’t think I can remember everything so I’ll just list some highlights:

• The house we stayed in in Ireland was stunning – 5 bedrooms, two living rooms, games room, enormous kitchen, hot tub etc. Such a great find!
• Climbing  a mountain near Kiltealy. Chris made it the furthest!
• Huge family reunion / birthday party at my cousin’s house.
• Day trip to Dublin.
• Great day at the beach at Curracloe.
• Set tour of ‘Deathly Hallows’ at Leavesden Studios.
• Leaky meet-up in London, including delicious food in Chinatown.
• Family barbecue where Chris got to meet the rest of the family.
• Fun afternoon at Hastings with great friends.
• Catching up with an old friend and her new baby!
• Seeing the Crown Jewels at the Tower of London.
• Exploring Rochester castle and cathedral.
• Eating fish and chips several times and bringing back piles of chocolate!

And of course there were more things that we didn’t get around to doing that we wanted to, so bring on the next trip!

In what can only be the cheesiest thought I’ve had in months, I have the song “The Final Countdown” by (strangely enough) Europe, running through my head as I write this.  So to share, I went to YouTube and found the music video for your enjoyment.  Here you go. To get the full effect, play that in the background as you read this.  While they are heading to Venus, we are adding those last minute things to our bags and going over and over the house for anything we think we might need that’s not already in our bags for our trip to England.

The Retro-Moderns are taking care of the dogs.  We’ll say goodbye to the dogs later today (Maria would like to take them with us, but Ginny would certainly get us thrown out of the country and banned for life… regardless of the fact that Maria is English).  I’ve got to run around town and collect some last minute things, but there isn’t a whole lot left to do today.

We will certainly blog, Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr all of the excitement that is England and Ireland.  You just never know what kind of trouble we will get into while we’re over there, so if this is your first time to this blog then bookmark it or add the RSS to your feed.  “Strange things are afoot at the Circle K”.  

The clever countdown thingy that Chris put up over there  <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<  is down to seven and that means we only have just over a week ’til we leave for the UK. We’re both very excited and as I’m at the stage of starting to make lists and packing I thought I would list the things that I’m most looking forward to about the trip:

• Seeing and spending time with our family and friends. Although it will be a squash, we can’t wait to see our parents, sisters, brothers, nephews, granny, cousins, aunts, uncles, friends and a couple of new babies!
• A week in Ireland; it’s been at least 6 years since I last went and I’m looking forward to going back, but more importantly, to Chris’s first visit there – hope he likes it!
• A day in Paris for our 1.5 year ‘anniversary’. Although neither of us has been there before, we’re not going to exhaust ourselves by trying to see everything but will just have fun wandering, taking pictures, and taking in the atmosphere (and the pain au chocolat!)
• Which brings me to chocolate – sad that it’s on this list but it is.  American chocolate just isn’t the same for me and my mouth is watering thinking of Cadbury’s Dairy Milk, Galaxy Ripple, Yorkies, Boosts, Toffee Crisp, Lion Bars etc etc. I just hope we’ve got enough room in the suitcase to bring it all back.
• Bringing back some more of my clothes and shoes! I’m slowly getting my wardrobe back – yay!
• Spending time in London – I miss it, and again we haven’t made that many specific plans, we just want to relax and wander and see where the wind (or, more likely, rain) takes us.
• Fish and chips – I was craving this so badly the other day that we went to Long John Silver’s. You would have to pay me a LOT to eat there again. I want the traditional stuff,  wrapped in paper, smothered in salt and vinegar, and preferably eaten on the seafront.
• Hopefully seeing the coast for a day. I’d like Chris to see where my dad grew up and to experience the weird mixture of eerie desolation and faded grandeur that is the Kent coast.

Also, this is a general call out for anyone who would like us to bring them back something specific from England or Ireland to please let us know, and we’ll do our best to get it. Although you should know that space in the suitcases will be given to chocolate as a first priority.

I have no excuse.  I’m such a slacker.  Actually, I’ve just been very busy.  In addition to my day job, I’ve been doing some consulting for a local post production company.  I’ve also been busy with another business venture.

More on that as I can say, but it’s very cool stuff!  I just wanted to make a quick, short post so that you know we’ve not forgotten we have this blog.  I know you were losing sleep over that, so now you can rest.

With only two weeks left till Easter, yesterday Chris and I decided to hunt for Easter Eggs. Not those 2-inch long, not-worth-the-weightwatchers-points eggs, but a proper, big, eat-till-you-feel-sick, real chocolate Easter Egg. The type that is made with chocolate that actually tastes good – i.e. Cadbury’s, Nestle or Mars  and definitely NOT Hersheys. They’re big, huge sometimes, and come with mini bags of Quality Street inside, or two packets of Maltesers, or a couple of Snickers bars also included in the box. They have overly-bright  and overly-large packaging and, if you’re lucky, a hideous Easter Bunny moulded onto the egg itself. These are stacked high and deep on supermarket shelves in England at this time of year, there is a huge abundance of choice, and best of all, they’re so over-stocked, that you can buy all the Chocolate Buttons ones that nobody chooses for half-price the week after Easter!

We thought that World Market in West Knoxville would be our best bet, but alas, although they had some cute Easter products, nothing like what I was looking for. I did manage to find a few online, but they are expensive, as is the shipping. And a lot of the fun of Easter Eggs is the temptation of seeing them sitting on the shelf for a week or two beforehand. I did manage to find some Penguins and Milka there, though, which was cool,  and when we went to the counter to pay the lady asked whether we found what we were looking for. I explained what I’d been looking for and was met with a couple of minutes of silence and a blank stare, followed by the usual ‘I went to England once’ and a question about the Royal Lord London Mayor of Westminster’s New Year’s Day celebrations.  I’m sure it was a great party, but unfortunately, there is no such person.

So we didn’t get our Easter Eggs, and I’m consoling myself with Milka, the knowledge that my diet will be much more successful without them,  and these words of wisdom from the incomparable Bill Bryson:

“..when you move from one country to another you have to accept that there are some things that are better and some things that are worse, and there is nothing you can do about it.”

I had my “procedure” today.  While Rob (uncle/Dr.) couldn’t give me the heat or x-ray vision I asked for, he did shoot high intensity lights into my eyes and told me that I would be okay.  While it was quick, I can’t say that it was totally painless.

The first thing they did was to put drops in my eyes to contract my pupils.  After about 15 minutes, my pupils were about the size of a BB (4.5mm) or smaller.  They then put numbing drops in my eye and had me rest my chin on what looked like a slit lamp. The difference is that this one also had a laser attached.  He then pressed a lens to my cornea which, I assumed, magnified his view and/or helped focus the laser.  His assistant held the back of my head so I didn’t flinch or move.

Next was the fun part.  Once he had the spot picked out, he fired the laser.  It felt a bit like what I would imagine hot pins going into your eye would feel like.  He did this two or three times per eye.  This really didn’t take very long…just a few minutes.  I couldn’t see anything right away.  As you can imagine, my eye was watering as if my face were a garden.

It’s been several hours, and I still have some discomfort.  My eyes feel really dry and irritated (you would too if you had just got a hole burned through you with a laser) and I’ve got a slight headache.  They said I might get a headache, as it can be a result of the dilation of my pupils. All-in-all, not a bad procedure.  If it keeps me from going blind it’s worth it!  If I get fewer headaches, that’s even better.  Thanks to everyone for the well wishes!

Nope, it’s not. It is, however, something similar to acute closed-angle glaucoma. Left untreated, I could go blind. Fortunately, I have an amazing eye surgeon for an uncle and he discovered it yesterday when we went for our regular eye exam.

Next Wednesday, I will have an iridotomy to (hopefully) fix the problem. It’s a simple procedure where they shoot laser beams into your eyes. I always thought that was a bad thing to do, but I trust Rob when he says that’s what I need. On the plus side, in addition to not going blind, this may give me some relief from the headaches I get.

I’m not worried about it. It sounds painless and quick, and as I said Rob is a fantastic doctor. If you’re local to East TN, I highly recommend him.

Just wanted to wish my wonderful husband a very happy birthday – hope you like the presents, and I wonder how long before you realise this post is here.

We’ve been very quiet on the blog, as we’ve been holding our breath on the whole immigration issue.  We didn’t want to talk about it too much, as we didn’t know what we could and couldn’t legally say.  I can now give you the latest, though, as we got the letter today.

We’re approved!  Maria is now a legal permanent resident of the United States!!  Thank you, God!  I know all of you have been waiting with us, and giving us loads of prayers and good thoughts.  We can now all breathe a sigh of relief.  We’ve notified our families, and all of them are so very pleased.

Thank you, all of our friends, for the support you’ve given us during this process.  We couldn’t be happier at this moment, and we look forward to finally being able to put down some solid roots together here, and celebrating this, the holidays and the new year with as many of you as possible.