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Monday, June 24, 2013

She will need to study assiduously


The box opening has continued at a frenetic rate and the house is now clear of full cartons.

Unfortunately – quite a few were consigned to the basement unopened because they were marked with self-evident titles such as ‘books’ - and were not considered to be worthy of close examination.

However – we are missing some items which we would like to see again so will have to go exploring. I expect that the movers meant to write ‘books and other things’ on the cartons but lost interest. We shall see.

We are still looking for coffee that suits our taste.  We have tried many different brands and are (I hope) finally getting close with some beans from Julian Coffee Roasters.  

70% of the coffee shelves in supermarkets are stocked with Starbucks so there is clearly something I am missing - although I must admit that we do visit Starbucks simply because it is very difficult to find espresso coffee in many other places – in fact in any other places.

The car registration process went so smoothly it made my head spin. I had a vast array of documents and passports and was able to satisfy every request by the very nice young man at the counter.

The next major task is Cate’s license but she is showing a marked lack of interest in the Indiana Driver’s Manual  - which she will need to study assiduously if she is to achieve legitimacy on the roads of Indiana.

11 comments:

  1. We learned the hard way about boxes that were not marked with exactly what was inside - the garage for the second car we never had was piled with boxes that we often had to go scratching around in trying to find a missing piece of something.
    We also learned the hard way about passing a learners licence in a new country without at least buying the book before writing the test !!! To be fair, in South Africa you booked your learners licence and had to wait at least 4-6months before you could sit the test - here we walked it and they said we could sit the test and when we both failed asked if we had the book ! We both laughed and said we didn't even know there was a book we just wanted to book our test !! Good luck to Cate when she eventually gets to sit it !
    Have the best day !
    Me

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  2. Congratulations, no more boxes to tumble over in the middle of the night is quite an achievement! You both can now go back to knitting toy kangaroos and sipping mint juleps on the porch during those long midsummer evenings.

    Poor Cate! I had a hard time going back from metrics to the imperial system of measurements: How close can you park to fire hydrants? In feet, please! I had to learn it by hard because I had no "feeling" for distances in feet.

    Americans who move to Austria are lucky, all they need to do to get an Austrian drivers license is ask for one.

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  3. Oh dear, I *tumble over the ****dest things, will never learn to do it by heart, I'm afraid. ;-)

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  4. Now, to more serious matters: What do you think of opinions like this one:
    "She should start knitting a new cricket team because Australia are going to need a new one after the two ashes series this year."

    From the comments section of a British daily (starts with G).

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  5. Me: This is the price you pay for letting others pack your things. I will make sure Cate studies before going for her test.

    Merisi: Yes I am having great difficulties with feet and yards! I think the Guardian is right - it has all the signs of being a massacre.

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  6. We rarely move, and the last time it was about 25 feet to the house neXt door, so I have no concepts of moving things in boxes, and dealing with their labels. ActuaLLy, today I moved back to the old south house as the air conditioner compressor failed. But the electrician has failed to show up so we can get the central HVAC unit going. At least Cooper and I are cool again with it reaching 104 today and s'pposed to get to 106 tomorrow.

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  7. We all know who's following certain events from up there with glee, don't we? xxx

    Regarding measurements, I remember being absolutely lost when somebody mentioned, like, twelve feet. How far, to the moon and back or just around the corner?

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  8. I was amused by the predicament of Merisi, with no feeling for distances in feet, having to learn "by hard". And I'm reminded of a story. A village lad in the backwoods of Britain didn't master reading too well. After a glass too many, he saw a sign for a podiatrist, and imagined that the lady was surely a prostitute. He dashed upstairs to her consulting room, unzipped his trousers and flashed his massive organ: "Please, lady, take care of that!" The chiropodist screamed: "That's not a foot!" The village lad corrected her immediately: "No, but it's every bit of eleven and a half bloody inches!"

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  9. Merisi: I am having more difficulty that I thought I would - but the weird thing is that they us metric weights for medications.

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  10. esb: Take my advice and stay where you are.

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  11. Measurements:
    My heart still stops when I see the price of one liter of gasoline times four. Not needing a car for everyday task is sweet comfort, though.

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