I like driving in my car...

...even though I am relying heavily on my sat nav and been sent to the wrong destination twice this week. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a dirty Simon Cowell talking one so

have had to make do with a normal one. The very helpful man in the store pointed out that I could set the voice to an english accent so I could understand it (?) so now I have 'Serena' to tell me off when I've gone wrong.

Now we have the car we have been able to venture out to the large store which thankfully is a bit cheaper than the one we were previously using. It's called 'Stop and Shop' and I love it mainly because it had an 'english' section in the same way it has an 'asian' and an 'italian' section. I actually stood in front it looking at the stuff and my eyes filled with tears. I never thought I'd be so happy to see a jar of Branston pickle. Icame away with Heinz Baked Beans, Heinz Tomato soup, Branston pickle, HP, Ambrosia rice pudding, jaffa cakes and two milky bars. They even had Bird's custard powder, Robinson's lemon squash, Hartley's jam, Hob Nobs and rich tea biscuits!! They also had some rather unusual stuff that I can only assume that

americans have been told that english people like - random bread making mix and spotted dick. The sad thing is that I've

not touched my jaffa cakes yet as I'm just enjoying looking at them.

Paul has been nagging me as I forgot something on my last blog which should have been mentioned. Paul did some DIY. Yes, you read that correctly. Paul did some DIY (Alex and Pete - you can now stop laughing and pick yourselves off the floor) Paul took his friend Steve to our

equivalent of Homebase and came back with four curtain poles and a drill. Paul seemed quite confident about approaching this new challenge and I just smiled politely. After this initial enthusiasm, the drill and poles stayed on the table for a couple of weeks until we finally decided to tackle the job. I must say, Paul did very well (bless) even though I was nearly sick when I was holding the (step) ladder. All four poles are very straight and haven't fallen down yet...

We had a lovely time watching the football yesterday with the NY posse. Katie kindly invited us round, Elaine made St George cupcakes and I took along the english napkins. I've also enjoyed watching Wimbledon this week (I'll cheer for Murray even if you rest of you won't) even though I've had to put up with John McEnroe's brother Patrick commentating. Is he also a tennis player, I wonder?? I must say, they were all very excited about the Queen's visit today and I found out from Roger Federer that Queen had cheese instead of strawberries and cream. I mean, at Wimbledon! Goodness me, that made them all chuckle.

Stick that, Hose!!!

Was rather nervous about my driving test this morning. My last 'lesson' with Hose was on Monday night and I swear he spent the whole hour and a half trying to catch me out and dent my confidence. At the end I asked him if he thought I'd pass and he said I could do if I had a lenient inspector as I still had issues and that's why he said I needed eight extra lessons. I was so nervous about this morning but the worst fear was that I'd fail and have to drive back with Hose being smug. And Paul had arranged for us to collect our car tomorrow so felt under no pressure at all...

I was collected at some ridiculous hour this morning and had an hour driving me around with Hose trying to confuse me again. We then arrived at the driving test location. The test location is just the side of the road in a trading estate type area. About 20-30 cars are given the same time slot and it's first come, first served to form a queue. We got there 40 minutes early and were still the 8th car in line. There was a group of inspectors who go down the line car at a time and you just keep moving along until it's your turn. They had obviously got through the 8.30 cars in good time as I only had to wait until 8.40 even though I had a 9am slot. After all my worry, I was with the inspector less than eight minutes. I needed to show left turns (only one on what I'd call a slightly busy road), right turns, a three point turn and a parallel park. At no point was I actually driving 'in traffic' as there was no cars anywhere. They score you on a point system which gets entered into a computer thing. I got 5 points for taking a left turn too wide, 5 for being away from the kerb after parallel parking and another 5 for adjusting. You can get 30 points before they fail you. The machine printed off a receipt showing all my points and I keep that with my learner permit until my proper license comes through. All rather painless in the end. Now I just can't wait for it to be Paul's turn....

We watched the footie last weekend but it's quite hard to feel the excitement over here as it's hardly mentioned. I was sooooo excited to see Steve McManaman commentating on ESPN as he is my most favourite player in the whole wide world ever and is the face on my special Liverpool mug. For rather different reasons, I was rather pleased to see David Beckham supporting his team mates. He really is a work of art. Paul is working from home tomorrow as he is off to Singapore on Saturday so will be watching again in the afternoon. Wednesday's match is in the morning here so going to watch it with my NY posse with all the little boys in their England strips. I've been getting Boy Wonder in the mood by making him listen to 'Three Lions' about ten times each day. Come on the boys!

As I will hopefully have the car, I'll be able to explore a bit more of our local area and I'm going to try and sort out our membership to the recreation park for special Garden City folk. It has three pools, a playground and cafe. If I get bored, I might tamper with the sprinklers in our garden so Eddie the sprinkler man will have to come and fix them... ;-)

And to finish, big and very special congratulations Elaine. She knows why x

Life in the 'burbs

With each day, we are settling into more of a routine and adapting to life here in sunny Garden City. I am trying to get up extra early (for me anyway) and enjoy a cuppa in the garden before Boy Wonder gets up at 7am. Admittedly, this has been helped by Paul who continues to be the earliest riser ever and wakes daily about 5.30am without an alarm, presumably due to some unusual body malfunction. Also, I am aiming to shower and dress straight away without slumming it around in my dressing gown. The fear of having one of the 'big hair' brigade from Garden City knocking on the door has certainly encouraged me to pull my finger out. However painful it is to drag myself out of bed (6am this morning!!!) I am loving the peace and quiet in the garden at that time of day.

Last Friday evening we went to the 'Belmont Festival' which was held down Seventh Avenue in GC to celebrate the Belmont Races the following day. There was lots of food stalls and music which kept Boy Wonder entertained. There was a chicken wing competition with all of the local restaurants serving their own individual chicken wings. You were given a ticket and after you had tried all of the options, you could vote for your favourite. The winner would win the trophy and the prestige of 'The best wings in Garden City' and get a sign to put in their window!! For some reason, the local firefighters were also trying out their chicken wings, so obviously I voted for them because I like firemen...

The highlight of the last week was clearly my visit from Joe and the time I spent with her and her mum (Joe - please tell your mum I will snipe her soon...) On Friday morning, I took Boy Wonder in on the train and we spent most of the morning chasing him about. That was after the most wonderful cuddle I got from Joe when we met. On Saturday, I had a free pass so I got the train into town and spent a girlie Saturday doing shops and lunch. And also lots of sitting around, drinking and chatting. Totally fab.

I had my first driving lesson on Monday night with my Spanish instructor Hose (the 'e' is meant to have an accent over it) and it was clear from quite early on that we would struggle from a slight language barrier. This didn't really matter once we got going as all he said was to turn left or right for an hour with not much else. I think I did ok (despite Hose saying that I was clearly a driver but he wanted to make me a 'fine' driver) but I do need to work on my spatial awareness on the right hand side of the car. A couple of times Hose grabbed the wheel and turned it which I thought was a slight over-reaction. It didn't matter as I can't take anybody seriously called Hose (Jane will know why!!!!) My road test is next Thursday so watch this space...

Had a lovely parcel from Carole turn up this week full of goodies, including a box of french fancies. This resulted in a rather long thread on facebook about expats being desperate for English goodies but also proved that I do really have some new friends in New York - they are not figments of my imagination that I have created so that my parents won't worry that I'm lonely!! I went into the city this morning to see my New York posse and spent the morning drinking tea while the boys all bumbled about. I've put some feelers out around here about toddler groups and stuff so will try and meet people here too. I might even make a friend with an American person...

Now the house is starting to look a bit more sorted I'll add some pics next week and of the local area. Hopefully by then, our sprinklers will be turned on so that we are not letting the rest of the road down by having straw outside instead of lush, green grass.

Officially a desperate housewife!

I had a lovely last week in Manhattan and the big move came around rather too quickly. I was just starting to get into the city way of life, helped immensely by the invites of my 'new best friends' (that's for you Elaine if you're reading!!!) Boy Wonder and his new little friend Beckett had a fab time pretending to be fireman at the Children's Museum and we also went for a lovely afternoon with the paddling pool to take the sting out of the heat. My mission is to go back into town each week and that should be easy enough as the train station is only 15 mins walk away and should be painless as long I don't attract the attention of the NYPD...

Garden City. What can I say? Well, it makes Wooburn Green look quite a 'happening' place to live. I will post some photos of the house but can't bear to take any until I've finally finished unpacking, which is taking a tad longer than I expected due to an extra pair of 'helping hands'!!!

The area is very 'Wisteria Lane', all very neat and tidy with trimmed lawns and very straight pavements. The houses are all different but seem to co-ordinate in an odd house type of way. We have one of those mailboxes with the little red flag and the postman will even collect post from inside it that you want him to post!!! How exciting is that?? Now feel the urge to post lots of stuff in my mailbox so don't be too surprise if you receive a card from across the pond. I've also had a long chat with a lovely man called Kevin who was 'Sanitation Supervisor' who very patiently explained to me the difference between garbage and rubbish and who didn't laugh at my whoops of joy at being told the household waste gets collected twice a week. We have spent most of our time in our 'yard' which we seem to share with a rather large collection of birds and a large group of squirrels who spend all day chasing each other all over the trees.

We went to the park this morning which I thought was rather lovely but got talking to people there (all very friendly) and apparently out of the five parks in Garden City it is the worst one and is having a makeover soon. One of the women referred me to the 'Garden City Welcoming Club' which I looked at online when I got back. I'm not too sure about whether to make contact as I might turn into a Stepford wife. I had a good chat with Sara about it who gave her usual good advice, which this time was to encourage me to sign up, that I should tell them I could start a book club and she would write me a reference, but most importantly I would need to have 'big hair' at all times in order to fit in. I need to give this a bit more thought. Also I have already somehow agreed to hosting an 'English' gathering for the local neighbours (they do a different country each month) so any ideas for that would be appreciated. Sara has already got in with, "Well, knowing your limitations you'll struggle without Marks and Spencer!" so anything more constructive than that please. Sad thing is, Sara knows me so well she is spot on.

Boy Wonder actually started calling me 'Mummy' yesterday which is rather cute. He has been saying 'Daddy' for a couple of weeks now so I'd been having a bit of name envy. I obviously spent too much time watching 'Deal or No Deal' over the winter as Boy Wonder now shoots, scores and then raises both arms in the air and shouts ,"Noel!!!!!" which is still funny even though he has done it about 100 times now.

Can't wait for this weekend as my lovely Joe is coming out for a visit with her mum.

And I'd like to finish by saying well done to my bro, who has got himself a job at last. Brilliant news!!