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Posted on

17th February 2008

A journey to work NY style

Tuesday of this week we had lot’s of snow again and the temperature dropped to below freezing. I spent the day at the office and then prepared for the long hike on Wednesday. I left the office at 9am on Wednesday with Rob one of our sales guys and we drove across Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Hampshire, We got to the client site at 3.30pm, after a lengthy meeting we booked into the same hotel that Toni and I stayed in 15 months ago when we visited Boston for leaf peeping and quilting material.

A little visitor in our garden

While I was away we had a little visit from some of the local deer. I traveled back on the Thursday retracing our route and arrived home at 6.30pm totally exhausted! Saturday morning we left the house at 6.45am and 8.15am we were buying our lift pass at Belleayre! not a bad life lovely blue skies, plenty of snow and so close to home. The only downside at all was the temperature; it was about -10 degrees. We skied all day and left at 3.30am.

On Sunday morning we drove over to Beacon and cleared the apartment. Then off to Poughkeepsie to do some shopping, bought some additional furniture for the lounge, some lamps and for all our American guests, we bought a coffee machine and beans grinder. So Ruth we are ready and waiting! You will be our very first guest

Posted on

10th February 2008

Our House at Sunrise
It has been the longest gap ever for writing my blog – but I have some good excuses !! after NY I flew straight to California and stayed there for 2 weeks, before flying to Mexico and getting very sick with Flu, then off to Vegas for 4 days and back to Newburgh for one day before flying back to California for another 3 days.
I am so glad this new job is less travelling.
Ok lets backtrack a little, New York City for 3 days at the retail show conference. This was very busy we had back to back interviews with press and clients from 7 till 7 every day. Everyone wanted to know about the acquistion but as it was not closing till the 7th February, I could say very little.


Epicor stand at the show

Drove back to the flat on the Tuesday evening and then into the office on the Wednesday before driving to Newark to fly to Irvine California. Left it quite tight on the timing and made my life even more difficult by leaving my laptop in the office, luckily it was only about 30 mins for me to turn around and get it and get back to the spot where I realised I did not have it.

Spent all day Thursday in a budget meeting and then the rest of the time preparing for a conference the following week. On the Friday I flew to Mexico and alongside over 60 other people I was completly knocked out by a bad dose of flu. Rob arrived late that Friday evening minus his suitcases again!. The cases arrived late on the Saturday – I spent nearly all of my time in Mexico in bed, getting up on the Monday for a massage and facial and then leaving Tuesday morning to fly to Vegas ( after Rob spent an hour trying to find his passport). One of the only brightspots in the whole trip was eating a few meals with Paul and Robyn, we had such a good laugh.

Sunrise taken by Rob at Cabos Mexico – the reflection is the infinity pool

Even in Vegas I spent most of Tuesday and Wednesday sleeping, quick trip out that evening to go meet Fliss and Roy for dinner then back in my room and back to sleep by 8.30. Toni arrived on Thursday just in time to dump her bags and come with us to Fliss and Roy’s wedding. It was very nice. We all piled into a limo to go to the “little white church” They were married by a Hawiian chief in full regalia.
.. Limo to the Stratoshphere for dinner where we had a lovely view of the city lights and then off to see the Penn and Teller show.
Roy Fliss and the “Chief”
On the Friday we went for a walk up the strip and I finally managed to see the dancing fountains at the Bellagio. Lunchtime Gary’s sister came to pick us all up and took us back to her house for lunch. Rob has not seen her for 20 plus years but she was talking to us as if it was yesterday, lovely woman and I am sure we will keep in touch in the future. Jayne works as a dealer in the Rio as well as buying and selling property in the area.
View from the Stratosphere at night
On the way back from Jayne’s we called in at the Mandalay Bay hotel to see the aquarium as you can see from the pictures below, it was very impressive. The Shark reef was very good as well, you were in a perspex tunnel so you got a very good view of the them.
Fish at the Mandalay Bay

Toni and I at the Forum

That evening we walked down the strip again and went to Caesers palace to have a look at the forum and also eat dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. Sataurday we flew back to Newark. Toni was flying standby and had problems so she eventually flew into JFK and got to Beacon at 3.30 in the morning. We drove to the station to get her and then all had a lie in the next morning before going to one of the local diners for brunch. We then drove up to the house so that Toni could see it. Before dragging round some of the local shops for bits and pieces to enable us to move in. Monday morning we went and hired a truck for Rob and I went off to work. Toni helped Rob over the house for a few hours and then flew back to the UK.

Rob and his Truck !

On Tuesday I flew to California again. The container from the UK arrived as did our new giant bed, washer and dryer, Telephone , cable, internet, mattress, guy to talk about the garden and a few other things. needless to say rob was kept pretty busy till I flew back late on Thursday. Off to the office on Friday and then spent my first night in our new home. It is pitch black here at night as there are no street lights and also it is very quite no noise at all except for the occaisional bird or other wild animal. Saturday and Sunday we have had snow and on Sunday we had our first power cut, no electricity for about 3 hours. Phew finally up to date! I will make sure I do not leave it so long next time

Posted on

12th January 2008

Completing on a house US style – Take one small room about 6ft by 9ft add 3 lawyers (one for me, one for seller, one for mortgage company) one deed writer, one realtor and 2 builders and then sit there for nearly 2 hours signing some 26 documents and 6 cheques. Amazing !
But I got through it all and we are now the proud owners of 4.5 acres of prime US real estate :-). We will be open to guests from mid February.
Rob is going to build a website and put a calendar on it so that you can see available dates – we would love to see you all. It is a great base to go and visit the local beauty spots and also spend time in the the big apple or go spend your dollars at the nearby outlet mall ( this paragraph has been sponsored by the Hudson Valley Tourist Board)
Last Tuesday I drove to Harrisburg Pennsylvania, well actually Mike Jones drove, but I sat next to him – it took 3.5 hours and the scenery did not vary – just lots of bare trees and rock it has to be some of the drabbest scenery I have seen in the US — it did not improve on the 3.5 hours drive from Harrisburg to Pittsburgh (pictured above) Got to Pittsburgh at about 5.30 just in time to go and visit the second customer of the day and then out to dinner with them. Fell into bed at about 9.30 pm bone tired. The weather was the only bright spot on the day it has been really surprising it was 60 plus degrees and bright blue skies.
Walked to meet the final customer of the trip early the next morning, unfortunately the temperature had dropped 25degrees and there were winds gusting up to 50mph brrrrr……… Thank goodness we were not driving back to Newburgh – although having said that our flight was delayed for 2 hours because of the high winds which meant we were driving back from Newark to Newburgh in peak hour traffic.
I have had people out at the house this week quoting for water filtration, we have high sulphur content in the well and I figured that people would not appreciate me going into the office smelling of rotten eggs. Also someone out to measure up for blinds for the windows. It is amazing how all these things add up – I forgot tht moving into a new house is usually more work than buying old.
Sunday I am off to New York — I am at a trade show for 2 days and have about 8 meetings with different analysts and trade reporters as well as many meeting with clients and new prospects. If you know how to search press releases in google you should see my name coming up a few times over the next few weeks. Back home on Wednesday then off to Irvine, Los Cabos and Las Vegas. So glad I am not travelling so much with this new job!
Rob got his visa on Wednesday and all of our worldly goods were packed into a container which will hopefully be here early February. We have also had 2 families over to look at renting the house this week which is pretty impressive as we only put it with an agent on Tuesday.
Posted on

2nd January 2008

On behalf of my husband and I …….. OK enough of that nonsense! for the avid readers of this blog, sorry for the gap in posting (that means you Mum)

As most of you will be aware, I flew back to the US on Sunday we had delays because of engine issues and I arrived back at my flat at 2 am in the morning — spent a full day in the office and then slept my way through the new year and most of yesterday. But at least it means I am fully refreshed now.

I took pictures of the house on the 22ND just before my return to the UK — It looks lovely doesn’t it.

I left for the airport shortly after taking this picture and the SatNav took me yet another route. At least I got back on time. Went shopping with Sarah Peter Alana and Rob on the Saturday, last minute Christmas presents or in my case all of them as I had done very little in the US. Nice lazy day on Sunday, more shopping on Monday and an early night ready for Christmas day.

We drove down to the New Forest to meet Sue, Malcolm and the rest of the Quinn Family. Lunch was a lot of fun and the food was really good. The pub had plenty of atmosphere so the whole experience was truly Christmas.

We left there late afternoon and drove over to see Mum and Dad Fox and the Grossett Family, Home by 10pm and packed the car ready for the boxing day adventure. Up early and over to Theale to collect Sarah and Alana then a quick drive down to Wales. First stop Mum and Mikes, greeted as always with a nice cup of tea. David and Nada came over to say “hi” to Alana and Sarah. Alana is a little sweetie she just sleeps through all the hugs and cuddles as she gets passed around the family members. Sarah is a sweetie as well letting it all go on without getting over protective.

The three girls went over to visit the Beasley’s and spent a few hours there with visits from family members and neighbours and then picked Rob up and went to visit Aunt Hazel and all her family. it was really lovely to see Angus Bennett and their respective families as well as the Senior Ruddles. Dropped Sarah back home in Theale at about 10 pm. Thursday we just relaxed and also most of Friday. Rob and I were on babysitting duties on Friday evening.We called up to see Bev and Bobby and they had some lovely clothes for Sarah and a beautiful wedding album for us – Thanks both ( shame you could not come to the wedding I am sure you would have enjoyed it.)

So to Saturday — at the hairdressers by 8.30, Toni arrived with a bottle of Champagne to get the day off to a good start, we were running a little late with my hair so it was a mad dash back to the house to get my make up on, get dressed and help with Alana so that Peter and Sarah could finish off as well. Off to the register office on time, the assistant had a great sense of humour opened the door when we arrived and announced they were closed on Saturday’s !!! the chief registrar had also married Charles and Camilla and Elton John and David so we are keeping the right company. It was the service that we wanted it to be, close family and friends and lovely reading by Toni and a unsolicited one by the Registrar lots of smiles and hugs. We all trooped around to Jonathon’s for lunch and spent a lazy 3 hours eating drinking and chatting. Back to the house for a freshen up and then off to Southampton for the party. It was lovely to see so many people there, it must have been about 70 of them.

Thank you so much, we knew we gave you very short notice but we were thrilled that so many were able to come. The wedding cake was really great if a little unusual and we all danced the night away till about 11pm.

Posted on

December 20th 2007

So I obviously survived the snow and the drive home ( my first ever in real snow) we had 8″ over night and it was a fun morning trying to dig the car out so I could get back to work. They obviously clear the roads very quickly here so they were fine on the Friday.

Saturday morning was a bright clear day although the temperature had dropped to 20 degree Fahrenheit which is minus 7 in real money !! Had an early breakfast at one of the local diners it was just me and all the guys off night shift from snow plough duty so I caused a little bit of a stir. I heard one guy had a British accent and as he was paying his bill the same time as me I asked how long he had been over here. He said he came over in 1968!! so please don’t expect me to lose my accent anytime soon. His observations on the people and the area were the same as mine. they really are a very open hearted generous bunch and like nothing more than to either feed you or try and do something for you . Later drove around looking for a mall to at least start my Christmas shopping and eventually settled for one in Newburgh. Stuck it out till at least four and then took a drive to a very pretty town called Cold Spring —

It is full of little antique shops, restaurants and gifts shops and is really nice to walk around. The only downside was the cold — when there is no wind you really do not realise just how cold it is until you are out in it for about 15 mins and then you suddenly realise you; are to the bone cold!

I decided to pick up a take away pizza from a really nice Italian place they have there and headed home with no plans to do anything on the Sunday as the forecast was for more snow and freezing ice. Sundays forecast was accurate so spent the day reading and sorting the place out for my last week before coming back to the UK. Monday morning I had to be in the office for 6.15 as we had some big announcements to make. But first I had to chip away the 4″ of ice on my car windows. Made it into work on time and what a day it was – wall to wall meetings – we had to tell all the staff that I was taking over as GM from the 1st January and at the same time announce that we had put in to buy another company that will grow our retail team from 350 to 900 employees. I know my future is safe but do not yet know what my role will be when the acquisition completes ( although I have a very good idea 🙂 )

The rest of the week has been as normal as you can expect – no major news, just looking forward to flying back on Friday and seeing everyone. I have to say it is really pretty when you drive around out here, although the picture below is a little extreme most of them are very tastefully decorated and the towns look really lovely. See you all soon XXX

Posted on

13th December 2007

It has been a few days since my last blog and such a lot has happened. Monday was really great, spent the day at Sarah’s flat on granny duty as you can see it was all go, go, go!
We took a walk to the surgery to get Alana registered, I carried Alana in the baby pouch which I am sure I enjoyed far more than she did. We seemed to cause issues at the surgery because Alana did not wait to be born at the hospital it seemed to confuse everyone and they were not sure how to get a NHS number. Problem was eventually resolved and home we went for some more quality cuddling time.

Tuesday we collected Toni and drove up to London ready to see Crowded House in concert. Got there early and went into Kensington for a very nice Thai meal. Great seats at the concert and Crowded House were really excellent. The only black spot on the entire evening was that they decided to close the M4 so our journey home took nearly 2 hours and we got to bed at 12.45. Only just in time for us to get up again at 5 so that Rob could run me to the airport.
Caught the 9am flight back to Newark and then picked up my super cool new car! It is an Acura MDX technical, basically a 4 X 4 with lots of really great gadgets, drove back to the office and then off home for a well deserved sleep.
Thursday – well I guess I get to see how my new car copes with the Snow, it started snowing at 9.30 and we are forecast to get 12″ today.
This is my new car in the car park at work and it is only 11am. More news to follow soon
Posted on

8th December 2007

So the long a awaited event is finally here !!! after a long trip back to New York from Seattle , snowing, minus 2 degrees and windy I got back to the apartment at 8pm. Awoke on Thursday morning to a text from Sarah,” I think I might be having contractions mum !!!” ran round the kitchen like a headless chicken, burst into tears racked with guilt that I was not there holding her hand then had a cup of tea calmed down and rang for a more detailed update.

No panic just very mild contractions and pretty far apart. Drove to work, arranged a flight back to the UK and rang for regular updates. At 5pm UK time spoke to Cindy (Peters Mother), Sarah was still having contractions but quite light and irregular, left the office to go home and pack and at 5.30 UK time got a text to ring Sarah urgently. Cindy answered absolutely over the moon, we have a granddaughter, born on the hall floor, paramedics only just got there in time. Mother and daughter doing very well, 7lb 4oz and called Alana.

Drove to the airport floating on air, put a deposit on a new car on the way, Acura MDX Tech, and found my new social security number had arrived — what a day !!!

Landed at Heathrow at 6.30am, Rob drove me straight over to see Sarah and Alana, got to cuddle the baby for about 6 hours, Sarah is doing a marvellous job and makes a great mother.

Went shopping with Toni on Saturday, a really rainy windy day in Windsor. Managed to find a nice outfit for the wedding. Rob and I went to see the Golden Compass this evening, it was really good. Things are all progressing nicely for the wedding – thanks to Ruth and the rest of Rob’s family.

Posted on

3rd December 2007


I am officially Sleepless and in Seattle! what a week I have had. Rob travelled back to the UK on Tuesday and on Thursday I drove to Newark so that I could get home for the weekend. Managed to miss the junction on the way and had fun trying to find the airport so I was running a little late by the time I got there. Thought everything turned out OK until I realised later that I had left my apartment keys in the returned hire car!

Arrived in the UK early Friday morning and had a few hours sleep before going into town to transfer the money over for the new house. We then went to the registrar office and booked a slot for the wedding – Yes it’s official we are getting married on 29Th December, more information on the party that evening to follow. Rob and I then went looking for a wedding ring and after finding the one we wanted, off to meet Toni for a coffee and a chat.

On Saturday off to take Sarah and Peter out to lunch, Sarah’s bump is huge now I am sure she should have some scaffolding to help support the weight. We then drove down to Southampton and spent a few hours with Sue, Malcolm and Patrick they are all looking really well. Off to Rob’s mums and a quick chat with them and also Tom and Jill who were down for the weekend and then the main event! Ruth’s 40Th birthday party( sorry Ruth but not many people read this anyway !!)

Great time there with all the family and then a drive back to pick up Sarah and back to the house. Spent Sunday packing and then Toni came and picked me up so that I could fly to Seattle. Trip was very uneventful until I landed as Seattle. There was a customs guy waiting at the plane door for me eek! seems that someone had entered my passport number into the system wrongly and so it set off alerts when I checked in. It took about 30 Min’s to sort it out and then everything was OK although he did warn me that I may get issues for my next few trips.

Seattle has gale force winds and torrential rain – and there is heavy snow forecast for NY state on Tuesday – so I will change my flight to the Wednesday if possible.

Anyway I think that is enough surprise, celebrations and scares for one week XX

Posted on

25th November 2007

Wow!! what a fantastic weekend. Rob got a chance to see the house on Saturday morning, luckily he loves it as much as I do. After walking around the garden for a while we drove over to New Paltz via route 7 which is very scenic with lots of farms, vineyards and orchards along the way. We had lunch down at the bottom end of the town on a nice boardwalk that has lots of craft shops and a few cafes. Drove back over to Pine Bush to shop at Hanafords ( local Supermarket) and then off to the apartment to cook tea and watch TV.
Sunday we joined a hiking group at the Mohonk Preserve. They were a really nice bunch and we chatted to many of them. There were about 26 of us and we went on a 7 mile organised hike up to Castle point and then back down via the blueberry trail – The picture above is lake Minnewaska, you can see we had beautiful blue sky’s and fabulous scenery although it was very cold and we saw plenty of stalactites attached to the rocks and some ice pools on the pathways. There are over 200 members in the hiking club and they have different walks every weekend on both Saturday and Sunday. They also arrange lots of social events. We are both looking forward to walking with them again.
We drove back via Barnes and Nobel for a Starbucks and bought a few more magazines (we are looking for furniture and electrical stuff for the house) Went to Home Depot and Kohls then back home for Pasta.
Posted on

23rd November 2007

On Tuesday of this week we drove from Beacon to La Guardia to catch the flight to Atlanta. It was actually much easier than I thought it would be and took us about 1 hour 45 even with rush hour traffic.
Arrived in Atlanta and a car took us out to Paul and Robyn’s house, It is a lovely trip out there and the house is just amazing. We had a really great time on the Tuesday. Wednesday we drove to downtown Atlanta so that I could go to the Immigration and get my US status sorted at last I am officially here. We then had a look around and there is an area call Atlanta underground that has vintage cars like the one in the picture and lots of little stalls and gift shops. We also walked around centennial park which was built to celebrate the Olympics.
We went for a walk in the woods around the property when we got back and saw a family of deer and some eagles flying overhead. Nice to see come animals that are not just lying on the side of the roads as road kill.
The children arrived back with their grandparents and the boys went down to play pool in the basement. It has been a really relaxing day.
Woke up Thanksgiving morning and the food began! we had bagels and danish and french toast strata for breakfast. Appetizers all morning and then sat down to lunch at 1pm. There were 6 children and 10 adults. The food was fantastic and I had my first ever piece of pumpkin pie. After lunch the adults played word games and the children played outside. In the evening we moved down to the basement and played pool, video arcade games and just relaxed and chatted. Paul and Rob watched the “300” movie on a 60″ movie screen. Today has been a really great day, everyone has been friendly and relaxed and we have had so much fun. I really feel we are going to enjoy this move.
Today we have had a lazy morning we will be heading out for lunch later and then flying back to New York. Off to show Rob the new house tomorrow.