Best Buys

One of the hardest things about packing up to move was deciding "What stays, what goes."  We knew houses in England would be smaller than what we're used to, and have little to no closet space.  We ended up filling a 5'x10' storage shed all the way up, and farmed out a fair amount of belongings to friends and family to "host" our stuff for a few years.  (And yes, you know us, we did create a spreadsheet to track it all...)

The flip side of this was figuring out: "What do we need to buy for over there?"  We knew we'd have to buy all new electronics due to the different voltage system, so some of our early purchases included a TV, blu-ray player, mixer, lamp, and space heater.  Folks looking out for us over here gave us their old microwave, refrigerator, washer, and dryer, saving us a good number of ££.

That's our base chapel in the background!

But there are two things in particular I've been so glad I bought.  One is my car, a navy blue 1997 Ford Focus, UK spec with manual transmission  (The Focus over here is the size of the Fiesta back in the States). I love it not because it drives superbly well or has any special features.  Indeed, there's really nothing special about it, unless you include the cassette tape deck that works some of the time.  I love it because (a) it's a really small car, which is super handy to have driving and parking on British roads, (b) it gets good gas mileage, and (c) it was a really cheap: I spent all of £900 (about $1,400) on it. That's value, folks.

My favorite purchase by far though has been my heavyweight Marmot rain jacket I picked up from REI before we moved.  I've never owned one before because I've never needed one in the South.  Here in England the weather changes constantly, and almost assuredly at some point in the day it'll be cold and/or rainy and/or windy.  It's been SO great to have a coat that I can stay dry in and not freeze!  (And occasionally look suave in as well, as seen in to the left, from our Winter Blitz trip to Austria).  You can't underestimate the value of a good warm raincoat in England!