Pip pip! Moving to England and have questions

[cariad]

OK! The questions that are foremost in my mind right now are about the kids' schooling. I want them to stick with the languages. Our Bristol friend claims I won't find anything like the immersion programs we have here in the UK, but I have read about specialist schools that concentrate on one topic and begin in secondary school? Does anyone know about these? I remember seeing that they even had them with sports as the specialty, and if this is so I must keep this secret from Aidan forever. It will be like the time Gwyn discovered that Germany hands out university degrees in brewing.

Is anti-American sentiment strong at the moment? Boys are actually as British as they are American, even speak a British language, but I don't want them to be bullied over their uncultured mother. I don't give a rip what people think of America when it comes to me, I am used to it.

I chatted with Barnes and Noble today and can charge and use my Nook there, so no need for that question. Need to contact Apple about our iPhones. Oh, internet! Are you still on some barbaric pay-per-use system? All internet here that I know of is one monthly fee for unlimited usage. We were warned that Australia is still on pay-as-you-go internet.

By the way, with getting a decent salary and all our healthcare covered, I say go ahead and tax the living daylights out of us, Britain. We welcome it!

Oh, I have dental questions - is there dental insurance there? Kids may need braces one day. I don't play when it comes to dental problems. Actually, our other Bristol friend (the wife of the couple) is a dental hygienist, so suppose she'd know loads about that.

I will be back with much, much more.

[MaryD]

Australia is not THAT backward.  We have monthly payments for internet, too.  I don't get unlimited because I don't use that much.  I don't even use my monthly allowance.

I'm looking forward to the story of your move and wish you all the best. 

[lainiepop]

Hi when are you moving?

My husband Is a secondary school teacher as Far as i'm aware its only secondary schools that have specialisms not primary will ask him more bout It Later.

I haven't heard any anti Americanism I live in Bournemouth & am currently in Plymouth Where i was born.

No not on pay per use internet we pay monthly. We have sky tv So have a package that covers tv phone & net. my parents have a BT one that covers phone & net per mth.

Don't have dental insvrance, try to register With an NHS dentist Its cheaper. Children have Free dental care up to age 18 I had braces all free.

hope this helps!

Marie x

[RichardMEL]

Poor Cariad darling - you say England and then Australia - there's just a short distance between the two places - just ask Black Caviar !!!

I'd missed the news that you were moving - back to UK I presume?! if so.. CONGRATS if you can all be together and doing awesome!!!!

[billybags]

All of the above, but steer clear of NHS dentists, go private if you can. NHS is OK but you seem to get better looked after private. Kids who need braces and my grand children have them are sent from private to NHS for this. This is through experience. Are you looking forward to our weather?

[Poppylicious]

OK! The questions that are foremost in my mind right now are about the kids' schooling. I want them to stick with the languages. Our Bristol friend claims I won't find anything like the immersion programs we have here in the UK, but I have read about specialist schools that concentrate on one topic and begin in secondary school? Does anyone know about these? I remember seeing that they even had them with sports as the specialty, and if this is so I must keep this secret from Aidan forever. It will be like the time Gwyn discovered that Germany hands out university degrees in brewing.

Secondary schools tend to be specialist schools these days (or not even 'schools' now ... they're all becoming 'academies' [both primary and secondary] which is the governments way of privatising education).  The school in my town is a humanities specialist, but you can get sports, languages, science, performing arts etc.  Now that schools are tending to become academies I'm not sure how the specialist status still works and I suspect it certainly isn't what you think it is.  Lainiepop's hubby will be more informed; it's eight years since I worked in mainstream education, but I get the impression that a school is a school and you get the same rounded education regardless of where the most money is thrown.  With regards applying to schools I don't know how it works these days.  In my day you just went to the catchment area school and I think this is mostly what happens now.  Savvy parents will move to the area (or just rent a house in the area so the school think they live there) of the school of their choice.

Is anti-American sentiment strong at the moment? Boys are actually as British as they are American, even speak a British language, but I don't want them to be bullied over their uncultured mother. I don't give a rip what people think of America when it comes to me, I am used to it.

Not at the moment, no. The current trend is anti-Polish/Lithuanian, but people are getting bored of that now.  Not sure who will be victimised next, but I think it will be a while before we turn our attention back to you!

I chatted with Barnes and Noble today and can charge and use my Nook there, so no need for that question. Need to contact Apple about our iPhones. Oh, internet! Are you still on some barbaric pay-per-use system? All internet here that I know of is one monthly fee for unlimited usage. We were warned that Australia is still on pay-as-you-go internet.

How backward do you think we are?!  We have fibre-optic super-speed broadband here thankyouverymuch, and for a very reasonable monthly price with free (landline) evening and weekend calls; you'll just need to shop around for the best deal for you but DO NOT go with TalkTalk! We even have iEverything and Apple stores.

By the way, with getting a decent salary and all our healthcare covered, I say go ahead and tax the living daylights out of us, Britain. We welcome it!

Yep, anyone who says the NHS is free is a little silly.  We all pay our National Insurance to cover it.  Oh, but I don't, and I don't get taxed either, because I don't earn enough. *sigh*

Oh, I have dental questions - is there dental insurance there? Kids may need braces one day. I don't play when it comes to dental problems. Actually, our other Bristol friend (the wife of the couple) is a dental hygienist, so suppose she'd know loads about that.

Children are covered under the NHS for dentistry until the age of 19 (if they stay in full-time education). They also get free prescriptions for all their meds.  If you can find a decent dentist you should be fine with the NHS for the children, but you can go private/get insurance.

I will be back with much, much more.

Look forward to it!

 

[Poppylicious]

Oh, and Pip pip?!! Really?! The cool kids are all tally ho-ing these days. 

 

[cariad]

All right, all right, settle down, Brits and Aussies! 

I researched moving to Australia late last year and pretty much the first thing mentioned in every discussion I found was "you'll pay a lot more for internet than you're used to and it is not a flat rate." Yes, the latest discussion I could find via google was from 2008, so I'd hoped things had changed, but could not find the proof. Also, a few years ago here, the cellular providers tried to set data limits and switch back to only offering pay-per-use. There was much fist-shaking in AT&T's direction. At the time, I was still happily mobile-internet-free so didn't care and remember laughing at all the iPhone users. Then my parents, perhaps Steve Jobs' most adamant supporters, bought us both iPhones and put us on their plan (because there would be no way on earth that I would purchase such a plan for myself.) Anyhow, it all adds up to a non-tech-savvy person (me) not really paying attention to what is going on around here, let alone in foreign lands. No offense meant, my dears!

Secondary schools tend to be specialist schools these days (or not even 'schools' now ... they're all becoming 'academies' [both primary and secondary] which is the governments way of privatising education).  The school in my town is a humanities specialist, but you can get sports, languages, science, performing arts etc.  Now that schools are tending to become academies I'm not sure how the specialist status still works and I suspect it certainly isn't what you think it is.  Lainiepop's hubby will be more informed; it's eight years since I worked in mainstream education, but I get the impression that a school is a school and you get the same rounded education regardless of where the most money is thrown.  With regards applying to schools I don't know how it works these days.  In my day you just went to the catchment area school and I think this is mostly what happens now.  Savvy parents will move to the area (or just rent a house in the area so the school think they live there) of the school of their choice.

Ah yes, I get fliers through the mail all the time about the various 'academies' round here. I always thought that was just pretentiousness. I went to a bona fide academy so I am a bit particular about the meaning ascribed to that word.

So, I guess I'm confused now. Wikipedia said that specialist schools were akin to magnet schools. Sport would never ever qualify as a subject to 'magnetize', but most definitely a magnet school is considered superior education across much of the country and these schools will have a theme or focus on a single subject, but of course also your standard subjects. My boys did not attend a magnet school, though, but the school has their mission statement posted in the front office and they take it very serously. I've been telling Aidan that his Spanish will save him from a crap education because at his age they will always have room for a semi-fluent child. He leaves a grade 5 spot open when we leave and the school will never be able to fill it. Yes, we have the postcode pressure here, too. We were told that even with Spanish immersion in SoCal we should do our best to live in a certain zip to increase our odds. As a fallback, Gwyn is getting a month-to-month in the proper area, just to claim residency there before September 1. Public schools are so dire and scary in Milwaukee that people use friends' addresses to get their kids into the last few decent schools standing.

Also surprised at the dental news. Gee, I don't know how to say this without causing another uproar, but the famously awful British teeth have been blamed on lack of coverage for procedures considered cosmetic, like braces. My god, this will save us thousands if the boys need braces. Actually, between the two of us, Gwyn is the one who got the good teeth naturally and I am the one who needed years of traumatizing intervention. Doesn't anyone remember the Simpsons episode where Homer fights for a dental plan because he knows Lisa is going to need braces? The dentist scares them into it by bringing out 'The Big Book of British Smiles'. (*ducks* Hey, take your complaints up with Matt Groening!)

We would be getting private insurance through his work, which Gwyn never had in Britain, but his brother does. I guess this would cover dental? Here, dental is a separate benefit, as are eyes, as is anything else that the insurance company decides to slip into the policy as not-covered. It will take me time to adjust to the idea that life really can be this simple. What will I do with my time not spent on the phone being sent from the billing office to Medicare to private insurance to HR at Gwyn's job and inevitably back to the billing office?

Does anyone know of a website like greatschools.org for Britain? A site that provides assessments for every school in the country?

Thanks! Hasta luego!

[MooseMom]

Cariad, I have a question for you.  I'm drawing on my own experience which is quite different from yours, I recognize, but these sorts of things interest me.  I am interested in how you think you will feel having children who will grow up in a culture that is different from your own.

My son was born in the UK, but I brought him often to the States to visit with my parents.  We spent a LOT of money on airfare and a LOT of time on airplanes.  He became quite bi-cultural which I found to be intensely interesting because, as you know, he's mildly autistic and I really didn't anticipate this flow between cultures.  I didn't think all that much about teaching him about his American heritage as there were more important problems we were dealing with.

Once we started looking for schools, it hit me for the first time that my child was going to grow up very differently than I had and that there would be no real reference points that we would be sharing.  Instead of pictures of the 50 US states adorning the classrooms, there were pictures of the Kings and Queens of England.  He would not be learning about the Declaration of Independence or the Civil War (the American version); his grasp of history and culture would not resemble mine in the least.  We all know that culture really is handed down by the mothers, and realizing that I would not have this particular link with my son made me quite sad.  He would never sound like me nor know the things I grew up with.  Sure, I could have taught him, but to what real purpose if his home was going to be in the UK, anyway?

I know your boys are older, so the situations are not the same, but how do you think you will feel some years from now when the boys' American roots have dissolved finally away forever?  Do you think you might find that you are missing some link to them?  I feel that way sometimes, especially now that my son is working to define who he is, and that definition most definitely does not include "American".

[MooseMom]

Not at the moment, no. The current trend is anti-Polish/Lithuanian, but people are getting bored of that now.  Not sure who will be victimised next, but I think it will be a while before we turn our attention back to you!

I'm glad to hear this because when I lived there, anti-Americanism was in full voice.  Even my British then-husband got embarrassed.  It was particularly bad during the Louise Woodward case, the Ryder Cup and the Olympics.  And the Brits really have a bee in their bonnet about us calling baseball's World Series the "World Series" because only the Yanks play it.  Every damn year, they'd go on a tear about this.

I vividly remember watching a panel discussion on TV about how British comedy translates to other parts of the world...or not.  Stephen Fry said, "Americans understand comedy only on a level of black and white," or some such thing.

When I was diagnosed with fsgs, my then husband went to our GP and asked if, on my next trip to visit the US, I should get a second opinion.  The GP replied, "Well, Americans like to throw money at everything."

One weekend, we walked along the Thames in London and saw dolphins!  It was amazing!  The next day, a Monday, I was listening to Radio 5 Live like I did every day, and the talk show host said that he had heard reports of dophin sightings in the Thames and to please call in if you had actually seen them.  So, I called in and did just that.  The very next caller derisively talked about the previous "American tourist" (me, although I was no tourist) being stupid or something, and I thought, "Here we go again."

I could write a book on this topic, but I won't because I can feel my BP going up.  I enjoyed my time in the UK intellectually and would love to go back.  I was always treated politely but never warmly, and it was often made clear that I was different.  After 20 years of it, I left.  I never in my wildest dreams thought it would end that way.  I wouldn't trade my life in England for anything in the world, but it has left scars.  I hope you will find acceptance and warm welcomes wherever you go.

[cariad]

Cariad, I have a question for you.  I'm drawing on my own experience which is quite different from yours, I recognize, but these sorts of things interest me.  I am interested in how you think you will feel having children who will grow up in a culture that is different from your own.

My son was born in the UK, but I brought him often to the States to visit with my parents.  We spent a LOT of money on airfare and a LOT of time on airplanes.  He became quite bi-cultural which I found to be intensely interesting because, as you know, he's mildly autistic and I really didn't anticipate this flow between cultures.  I didn't think all that much about teaching him about his American heritage as there were more important problems we were dealing with.

Once we started looking for schools, it hit me for the first time that my child was going to grow up very differently than I had and that there would be no real reference points that we would be sharing.  Instead of pictures of the 50 US states adorning the classrooms, there were pictures of the Kings and Queens of England.  He would not be learning about the Declaration of Independence or the Civil War (the American version); his grasp of history and culture would not resemble mine in the least.  We all know that culture really is handed down by the mothers, and realizing that I would not have this particular link with my son made me quite sad.  He would never sound like me nor know the things I grew up with.  Sure, I could have taught him, but to what real purpose if his home was going to be in the UK, anyway?

I know your boys are older, so the situations are not the same, but how do you think you will feel some years from now when the boys' American roots have dissolved finally away forever?  Do you think you might find that you are missing some link to them?  I feel that way sometimes, especially now that my son is working to define who he is, and that definition most definitely does not include "American".

Oh, dear MM, you've just asked an anthropologist a cultural question. Rookie mistake, sweetie. Let me clear my schedule.... (*swoosh*) 

I don't feel I get the bulk of my identity from culture, really. I feel like my core really sits within political boundaries, social justice centered. Without offending anyone, I would compare it to being adopted or growing up gay with straight parents, I really was a loner and an outsider within my own family. I tell people (probably even said this to you once) that I never learned to be someone's child and I only learned to be a parent through my breathtakingly wise older son teaching me. I've always described Aidan as a "social genius". He can hold court with a room full of adults and charm the socks off them.  I once had a teacher grab me when Aidan was five, after he had had his turn at being interviewed by his class, and she said "It was like a press conference!" People must think I exaggerate when it comes to Aidan, I say Meet him and then tell me. He is a worldly little soul, that one. How many kids can remember the day both their parents went under the knife? Liot is profoundly smart and tremendously outgoing, but it is nothing like Aidan. He does not have that social ease. Aidan's sense of humor is sophisticated whereas Liot still will double over laughing at bathroom humor. So I guess what I'm saying is that I don't share much with my parents - neither of them went through a life-altering illness early in life nor went to prep school nor married a Brit nor had parents who were not particularly interested in them.

It's a different culture for Gwyn, too. This is often underplayed, but trust me, I'm sure you've heard what the Celts say about the English to their faces, now just imagine what they're saying about them when they're not in the room, or when speaking a language they know perfectly well no one around them can understand. The thing of it is, though, that individually, Gwyn has many English friends that he adores. Their humor is much more sarcastic, and biting, and maybe it's just Gwyn's friends, but he can insult the royal family or rant about 'the bloody English' and they don't seem to take it personally. One of G's best friends is Scottish, married to an Englishwoman. When Gwyn and I lived over there, I made some remark about my accent and she said "Oh, no, I think mine is even more reviled" or similar and she really meant it. The Celts take it as an enormous insult to be mistaken for Anglo, it is like asking an Englishman if they are Australian.

And the Brits really have a bee in their bonnet about us calling baseball's World Series the "World Series" because only the Yanks play it.

Yes, I've heard the World Series speech before, and I ask them when exactly Canada became part of the US. I seem to remember the response being "Canada plays in it, too?" I interpret the World Series term thusly: if a country has a team that can beat the top MLB team, let them show themselves. We can only hold the 'world's best baseball players' title until someone challenges it and wins. In other words, I can play semantics games too, but I find them mostly boring. I like to answer people who go off on some obsessive, nitpicky point with "What would you like me to say?" and then wait expectantly for an answer. They don't have one. I came up against a man who had barely been outside Los Angeles and his thing was the word 'American' and how we shouldn't call ourselves American. On and on he went, day after day, until I finally asked him "Why are you so uptight about this?" and he said he was scolded in Canada for calling himself American. (He also bickered with me for saying our supervisor was from Holland, saying i should call it The Netherlands. By this time I was getting exasperated at being constantly dragged into these discussions and had to point out that she always said she was from Holland. End of discussion.)

My brother-in-law thinks Stephen Fry is a gianormous, self-important, Oscar Wilde wannabe bore, and I'd be inclined to agree with him except he just comes off as a sad old pouf now. He's mellowed with age, as we do.

I don't know, maybe people over there would find it insulting to watch The Daily Show rip apart Britain whenever they get the chance.

I am not worried about my kids relating to me. We are very insular, the four of us. We speak our own Welspanglish (Spawelglish? I'll work on it....) and when we're not in that mode, we speak in private jokes. I always felt welcomed among Gwyn's friends, people would want to know about America (or Ireland! I got mistaken for Irish constantly!) and walking around I had so many strangers offer to help me. One tried to make me take his umbrella in the rain, as in keep it. Everyone I met there seemed to want to talk to me, joke with me, I have hundreds of sweet memories. I met one American there married to a Brit, she had a new baby and just seemed so very sad. She asked me if I missed Detroit.  (Misunderstanding, I'd never been there at that point, but those words hardly made sense to me then and certainly don't now!) I am sorry it was painful for you, and as I am so much older and far less flirtatious than I once was, and have so many more real-world concerns, and feel so very beaten up by life at the moment that i imagine people will seem less enchanting to me, and I to them.

I've told the boys if they call me Mum or Mummy they will be disowned. That just sets my teeth on edge. Gwyn says mam, and so shall they.

Anyhow, I've told the boys that this will just be a new adventure, to treat it as a sabbatical. As soon as we sell the house, bam, we're off to Australia. (Perhaps....)

[cassandra]

Any idea yet where abouts in England?
I came here 17 yrs ago, and found it a 'green, and pleasant country'. Still do. NHS dentists can be as good, and as bad as private one, just ask people in the neighbourhood you will end up in. And I personally love TalkTalk as internet, national, and international calling is 'nearly' cheap as chips. And what's culture anyway?
I hope all goes well.

love Cas

[cariad]

Are you looking forward to our weather?

Any idea yet where abouts in England?
I came here 17 yrs ago, and found it a 'green, and pleasant country'. Still do. NHS dentists can be as good, and as bad as private one, just ask people in the neighbourhood you will end up in. And I personally love TalkTalk as internet, national, and international calling is 'nearly' cheap as chips. And what's culture anyway?
I hope all goes well.

love Cas

Aw, thanks, Cas. What a sweet (and concise) reply. Indeed, what is culture? Ask that question in an introductory college-level anthropology course and they should grant you a full professorship. 

We'll most likely be in the Midlands, though East or West is the question. It depends on if Gwyn wants to work on the choo-choos or the cars.

Thanks everyone. Must dash now - baseball. Go Rangers!

[MooseMom]

Believe me, my question wasn't a "rookie mistake".  I haven't read your posts for several years now and learned nothing about you!  LOL!

[Poppylicious]

I could write a book on this topic, but I won't because I can feel my BP going up.  I enjoyed my time in the UK intellectually and would love to go back.  I was always treated politely but never warmly, and it was often made clear that I was different.  After 20 years of it, I left.  I never in my wildest dreams thought it would end that way.  I wouldn't trade my life in England for anything in the world, but it has left scars.

I find that really sad and I'm sorry you were made to feel different.  I'd like to think we've grown up a bit recently and are more warm and open to people from cultures different to ours.  At the FE college I work in we have such a diverse range of students; British-born Muslims, Indian Christians, Polish, Lithuanians, Filipinos, Chinese, Norwegians, French, travellers/gypsies and your usual bunch of English kids (who do make up the majority).  They learn so much from each other (without realising) and are very accepting of each other and their little non-English quirks!  I think this generation will have less hang-ups about non-English folk ... but then, they've grown up in a world which is smaller and far different to the one I grew up in. 

Of course there's always going to be people who will grumble about other nationalities/races/religions (whichever is the flavour of the day) but they're usually fueled by such monstrosities as The Daily Mail and I ignore everything that 'news'paper says.

 

And I personally love TalkTalk as internet, national, and international calling is 'nearly' cheap as chips.

We've been with them for two years but are moving back to BT because they can provide a financially better package for us right now (with faster Internet and free landline calls) ... we've also found that they have incredibly poor customer service, but that's just our own experience.

[cariad]

Believe me, my question wasn't a "rookie mistake".  I haven't read your posts for several years now and learned nothing about you!  LOL!

You've got me there!!!

MM, I've been thinking about your experience in England. It is so opposite to mine, I think it might have to do with being in London. Big cities tend to be much meaner than outlying areas. I have been to Paris and found some of the people were every bit the stereotypical arrogant, condescending louts that we hear about. One of my best American friends insists that if I had just left Paris, I would have found a world of delightful, welcoming French people. Gwyn corroborates.

I felt much more welcomed by Gwyn's friends in England than in America. I hated every second of Detroit, and this was due in large part to the hostility I felt from his friends there. They were so possessive of him, and here I was this intruder who had the nerve to marry him and expect that he would give more of his attentions to me and not them. They took it very, very poorly. We left as soon as we could. It had nothing to do with being American (about half his friends there were British, but the other half were mostly Americans) it had to do with trying to come into a group of established friends who insisted on doing that childish bullsh!t where you try to prove to the newcomer how much closer and more important you are to that person. This has been done to me several times in my life, in fact I would say that the only time it was not done to me was in England. Oh, and I seem to continually find myself in the company of people who cannot have children, and the worst of the worst of that lot lived in Detroit. When we returned to Detroit on a visit, they refused to see us because we had Aidan. I have said to Gwyn "She [for it was the wife who was the real problem] will never forgive you for having children without her permission." She was married to one of Gwyn's oldest, dearest English friends, and thankfully, they divorced shortly after that incident.

I wouldn't want to be a foreigner in America. I don't know how Gwyn stands it, to be honest. It's much worse now than when we moved back here. There is this hoard of people, as you are well aware, who look for any little excuse to delegitimise a person's right to live and work here.

Anyhow, I could spend all day at this because I do find it so fun to talk about, but I'll leave it for now.

[cariad]

Back to questions about adapting to the English life. Turning my attention to food:

Do you have CSAs [community supported agriculture] there, and if so, what are they called? In case you don't recognize the term, this is when you buy a share of your local farm, and every week, month, whatever, they divide their harvest amongst their shareholders, giving everyone a selection of fruit/veg/herbs/honey/syrup and anything else. We had a share in a meat CSA as well, and that one is year round and included eggs - the best eggs I've ever tasted.

Also, I am vegetarian, and when we were there, Gwyn's best friend (also vegetarian) lived off Marmite and chips. I cannot do this. However, the winter produce was just awful, it was such a contrast to the summer when I would start to think that perhaps England did not deserve their rather unflattering culinary reputation. To illustrate, we went to Rhodes in the Square twice, first in summer (divine!), then in winter I had the exact same dish and found it so disappointing. I have heard reports that it has got much better over the past ten years, but has it? I am assuming that most areas have their open markets and little co-ops and other off-the-beaten-path sources of food? I really prefer to buy my food as close to the source as possible. (And yes, I know this makes me sound like some insufferable snob, but over here, they are always trying to slip new chemicals into food. Now that high-fructose corn syrup has been scorned by the nation and is appearing in fewer and fewer foods, I noticed that high-maltose corn syrup has been appearing on the scene, even foods produced by once-trustworthy brands.)

Oh, and if you only watch television on your computer screen, do you still have to pay television license? That's not food related, but it just popped into my head.

[lainiepop]

Sorry Can't answer your food Qs but as Far as i'm aware yes you Still have to pay for a tv License if you watch on Computer I Looked into this when I went to uni & that Was the Case, mind you that was 12 yrs ago

[Gerald Lively]

Well Heck!
Okay, so I fell out of your bedroom window and smashed the flowers when someone knocked at the front door;  is that a reason to cut out for Jolly Ole England?  Without a note?  Was I that bad?  It was good for me!

Gerald

[billybags]

cariad, trust me you will be fine when when you come and live in England. You must have lots of misgivings but aye give us a chance. Different cities, different towns, we all have our own quirkiness. just blend in like every one else that comes to live here. You might find you enjoy it.

[cassandra]

And there you go. Never heard of CSA's but find it a brilliant idea, and am surely going to suggest it at the next Parish council meeting........ We do have Farmshops though who sell veggies, and all agri produce for a reasonable price, 'nearly straight from the ground'. I'm sure you will be pleasantly surprised by the food.

love Cas

[cariad]

Sorry Can't answer your food Qs but as Far as i'm aware yes you Still have to pay for a tv License if you watch on Computer I Looked into this when I went to uni & that Was the Case, mind you that was 12 yrs ago

Wow, they don't miss a trick. And you were ahead of your time, Marie. Watching television over the internet 12 years ago? 12 years ago I was still on dial up and it was hit or miss (mostly miss) when it came to being able to watch video.

Well Heck!
Okay, so I fell out of your bedroom window and smashed the flowers when someone knocked at the front door;  is that a reason to cut out for Jolly Ole England?  Without a note?  Was I that bad?  It was good for me!

Gerald

Excuse me IHD, I need a private word with Gerald!
  Shhhhh, what are you doing?! It's taken me years to convince these people that I'm leaving because the automotive industry has all but collapsed in the US!

cariad, trust me you will be fine when when you come and live in England. You must have lots of misgivings but aye give us a chance. Different cities, different towns, we all have our own quirkiness. just blend in like every one else that comes to live here. You might find you enjoy it.

Oh, billy, I have no doubt I will have a spectacular time in England. I am going into this with nothing but high expectations for brilliant times spent with lovely people. If I can just get the kids sorted with school and get them back into their sports, martial arts, and music, I really am not too worried about myself. I can manage with whatever's thrown my way.

And there you go. Never heard of CSA's but find it a brilliant idea, and am surely going to suggest it at the next Parish council meeting........ We do have Farmshops though who sell veggies, and all agri produce for a reasonable price, 'nearly straight from the ground'. I'm sure you will be pleasantly surprised by the food.

love Cas

Oh, wouldn't that be cool, introducing the CSA concept to England. Here is a link to the farm where we used to have a share: http://www.rareearthfarm.com/index.html They get a volunteer shareholder to host a distribution site at their home (front porch or garage) , or our local co-op hosts for one farm. There are many different ways that this can work, but the concept at ours is simple: everyone signs up for the full season and shares equally in each crop. Others allow people to only buy specific weeks or buy different size shares for different size families. They also throw two parties each year out on the farm, so everyone has a chance to see where their food grows. We never made it to that farm, but I know they have a salsa-making party in late September and maybe a Halloween party in late October? Oh, and you can get a work share instead of a paid share. My friends had a work share with them and I believe he worked on that farm 4-8 hours a week to earn his share. I would have loved to get a work share, but we stopped our CSA before I was healthy enough to give it a try. The work shares are very popular, so you need to sign up early to have that option.

Gwyn is on his way. Wave at him as he flies by tomorrow morning!

[cassandra]

I'll be waiving

                         

                               

[Poppylicious]

You need a telly licence if you're watching or recording 'live' telly shows, whether it be on the computer, on the telly, on your phone or via a games console.

You might find this site useful ... lots of info on lots of things: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/

Also, I was looking for something and found this, which made me think of you.  I don't actually agree with league tables, but you might find it useful, although I expect you've stumbled upon it already: http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/performance/

 

[jbeany]

Well, now I've learned something new.  TV licenses.  Speaking as an American, that has got to be one of the stranger uses of tax payer money I've heard of - an entire squad of people who make a living determining if you watch tv or not!   

American tax money does fund some public TV and radio - PBS and NPR - but they just take the funds out of general taxes.  I don't expect that to last much longer if the Republicans get back in office, though.