The Willimers in America

Househunting

Today we took the biggest step on the journey towards making our American adventure a permanent undertaking. Bright and early, we got up to meet a realtor (that's estate agent to you, mate!) and start looking at some houses.

Funnily enough, the first one we looked at is just around the corner from where we live now, has been empty and on the market for at least 12 months, and we (kind of) fell in love with it straight away. There are some issues with the inspection that need sorting out, but it's just what we were looking for - still in Tom's school catchment area, in excellent condition, enough room for Linda to have a stamping workshop, and - most importantly - not too big. So many houses around here are just obscenely huge - they call them 'McMansions' - and quite apart from the cost we couldn't afford, we often struggle to wonder how anyone keeps these things clean, and how on earth people can afford enough furniture to prevent them feeling like empty warehouses.

This house was manageable, had some interesting corners and different levels, and enough potential for us to think about remodeling in the future.

In coming weeks we will discover how to buy a house the American way, and probably have lots to say about the differences between here and the U.K.

Happy Birthday, Linda

Linda's birthday always falls too quickly after Christmas and right in the path of Valentine's Day, so I'm always struggling for inspiration on how to celebrate at least one (if not all three) events. This year, with a weekend between the 7th and the 14th, I offered to throw a dinner party, to which she could invite a few friends. We probably haven't done enough entertaining since we've been here, and we've definitely got out of the habit of 'cooking a meal', which we did all the time in England, as opposed to 'heating things up' which is all to easy here - not necessarily cans and packets, but simply missing out on the art of peeling, chopping, slicing, mixing and seasoning.

So with military precision, and armed with a handful of "Jamie's" (and one faithful old "Delia") I spent Friday afternoon and all day Saturday cooking (with a short break to watch Spurs beat West Brom in the FA Cup). After the garlic-based hors d'ouerves, we had Tuscan Tomato Soup with garlic, Chicken en Croute stuffed with mushrooms and garlic, Baked Onions with pancetta and parmesan/garlic stuffing and Ratatouille (with garlic, of course). Luckily I decided not to put garlic in the desserts. Although the food was wonderful Linda and I were troubled by the feeling that our guests may have been overloaded with garlic - in fact that wasn't the only feeling we were troubled by....

Actually, what was a little disconcerting was that everyone got up at the dot of 11 o'clock, said their goodbyes and left. I had for some reason completely forgotten the importance of babysitters (particularly keeping a good one you find by not being too late home) and had not done a good job on timing (40 minutes between soup and main course !) but there was something else going on here. We know that Americans like to eat early - we've been caught standing outside Red Lobster at 5.20pm being told there is a 40 minute wait for a table - but I guess there is a corollary to this - Americans don't like to stay out late. Visions of sitting around with a glass of wine and the cheeseboard till the early hours, maybe even breaking out a board game, look like they will become a distant memory of overseas...

Philly Auto Show

Thomas has become very interested in cars - so much so that the idea of going to a car show got him as excited as I was. My friend Ryan had raised the idea as a big group trip from work, but come the day it was just down to me and Tom to carry the flag.

Once February Fun (Cartoon Capers, Legomania and Grade 2 Basketball) was out of the way, we hopped in the car with a typical boys picnic (with a large proportion of Cadbury's chocolate) and hit Route 95 South to Philadelphia.

Here, Tom poses with a whole variety of different Corvette's, his current favourite.

We had a fantastic day, unashamedly wallowing in the shallow end of car appreciation "Wow - that looks so cool" - "Man, look how much that one costs" that even Tom's ADHD meltdown couldn't completely take the gloss off - except that it happened just before we got to the Ferrari's.