Hi Everyone
Yesterday was July 4th / Independence Day here in the US. A day that is celebrated with much fanfare & patriotism. There were celebrations happening all over Dallas. We decided to get into the spirit of things & went along to the Frisco Freedom Festival. Frisco is one of areas where we may buy a house. It started at 4: 00p.m. with a Party in the Plaza which included homegrown singers, dancers and bands. There was also a children's expo (jumping castles, face painting etc) and food stalls from many of the local fast food outlets. Across the road from the Plaza is the Pizza Hut Park Stadium & at 5: 30p.m. we went there to watch a soccer match between FC Dallas & Chivas USA. Not the most exciting match but this is probably also because we weren't supporting a particular team. It would have been really nice if it had been an American Football match. We got sunburnt this late in the day. This was followed by a really great concert featuring Clay Aiken & the Philharmonic Orchestra. For those who don't know, Clay Aiken came second in the American Idols show a few years back & has gone on to be really successful. The evening ended with a spectacular fireworks display that was reported to be the biggest in North Texas. It was certainly as good as anything you see at Disney World. Independence Day is traditionally celebrated with fireworks.
Another exciting event we attended was the Police concert at the American Airlines Concert hall. The Police (a rock band) & particularly Sting (lead singer) have been Murray's all time favourites. He was in his element & loved every minute of it. I'm not really a loud music person but I really enjoyed it. Over the years I've heard the their songs played so many times that it was great seeing them live. From time to time Murray gets offered tickets at work for concerts. sporting events etc. We would like to go & see an American football match & an ice hockey match sometime.
Last week we heard that Kelly has been accepted at SMU. We are very proud of her as she has been awarded a SMU Distinguished Scholars Merit Scholarship. This is based on her school results for the last 2 years, school participation & achievements & her SAT results. If she maintains a SMU Grade Point Average (GPA) of 3.0 she can have the scholarship for all 4 years. We don't really understand exactly how the GPA works as it's not just your marks, its also affected by other things e.g. the number of courses / hours you take. Kelly will start in the Fall semester - late August.
Murray was telling a colleague that I thought clothes were really expensive here but apparently you have to know where to shop. There is a strip mall called Premium Outlets not far from where we're staying. It must have nearly 100 shops selling all kinds of clothes & shoes including the popular brands e,g. Nike, Billabong, Guess, Polo, Gap etc & some really expensive brands. They aren't factory shops selling rejects.They sell last seasons clothes or surplus clothes from this season. The prices are so much cheaper than at the shops in the regular malls. We all really need to get some more clothes as most of ours are in the container & we will only see them when we eventually buy & move into a house. One thing that is considerably cheaper here is cars. We now have 3 of them.
We all eventually found recommended places to have our hair cut - another scaringly expensive thing. Kelly & I went to the Paul Mitchell Training School. You have your hair done by someone who is qualified but hasn't completed the 'hours requirement' needed to graduate. It was still a little daunting but certainly a lot cheaper than normal salons. Murray & Shaun were totally ripped off. They paid $23 for a cut & then had to give a $5 tip........ $28 EACH! Work that out. They certainly wont be going back there. Shaun came back looking like a Marine - fortunately his hair grows fast.
We have continued going to Stonebriar Community church & are really enjoying the services. Last week we were blessed again by the most amazing worship music. The 60 voice choir sang again & both them & the congregation were accompanied by a Baroque Ensemble (harpsichord, flute, clarinet & bassoon) at one stage & a Brass Quintet (2 trumpets, trombone, tuba & timpani) at another point. Between Murray & Shaun they knew all the instruments. We haven't decided yet if this is the right place for us as a family so please continue to pray that God will guide us very definitely.
Shaun is well & truely into his university work now. Even though he thoroughly enjoys what he's doing & is really good at it, I think it must be really frustrating. He's doing some huge programming assignment & it seems to continually go back & forth between "it's not working" to "sorted it out". I quess that's the nature of the work. Murray is enjoying his new job & even though he's working as hard as ever he always makes time for family. We really need each others support at the moment - some days more than others. I can't wait to get into our own home but the house hunting still goes on. So much to see but very little that fits the requirements.
I must end off & sort out supper. Hope you're all keeping well.
Love to all
Heather
Thursday, July 5, 2007
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Yup... It's Another Update
Hi Everyone
Murray & I have just returned from another adventure to the shops. We shopped off at the Bank of America so we could apply for cheques & my debit card. Yesterday Murray wanted to pay for Shaun's car by doing an Internet transfer. We found it strange (or should I say different) that they don't do this. They wanted a cheque or 'check' as it's spelt here. Fortunately he had been issued with some temporary cheques which they were happy to accept. Our credit cards also arrived 2 days ago which is a great relief. We have not wanted to use our SA credit cards unless absolutely necessary so we have been working mainly with cash. I'm not used to carrying so much cash as I tended to use my credit card as much as possible in SA. On more than one occassions they've rung up my goods & I've suddenly wondered whether I had enough cash. Our credit & debit cards get posted to us - again different.
We did some more checking of cell phones this morning as things work so differently & we haven't had much help over the phone. Firstly we have to make sure the phone covers all the bands used here, in SA & ideally in the UK. We also have to make sure that the phones we choose a not 'locked' so that you can only use them on that network. We have to use T Mobile because they will give us contracts without a credit history. The phones must also be quad band. On top of this Shaun & Kelly have all sorts of other things that they think their phones should do. I'm the easy one. We have found out that T Mobile will only unlock quad band Nokia & Motorola phones after 30 days. Hopefully some dscisions can now be made.
We also went to several shops to try & buy a transformer so that I can use my SA sewing machine & overlocker. We were unsuccessful but we did get the name & address of a shop that definitely sells them. This will have to wait for another day. We had a fun experience going to 2 supermarkets that we hadn't been to before - 'Whole Foods' which sells a lot of organic food & generally food for the more health conscious person & 'Central Market' which is similiar but more like a market. The variety of fresh fruit & vegs was amazing & not too badly priced. The butchery sections were wonderful but a bit pricy. These 2 shops had been recommeded as people thought we might find some of the items there that we couldn't find in the normal supermarkets. They didn't really help in that regard but it was interesting.
Last Sunday we went back to Stonebriar Community Church in the pouring rain. The service was very different to the previous week. Their worship band was toned down & generally the service was more formal - we sang mainly hymns. They had the church's 60 voice choir singing - absolutely wonderful. Chuck Swindoll gave an a challenging but encouraging Father's Day sermon.We haven't decided yet whether we'll go back there tomorrow or try another church on the short list. Please pray that God will guide us to the right church.
Being part of a church, getting involved & getting to know peolpe will make such a difference to our settling in process.
Some of you may have heard that Kelly is back in Johannesburg for almost 3 weeks. She is staying with her best friend Kaylee & her family. I know that this goes against all the advice we've been given about not going back for at least 2 years but sometimes mother's aren't as strong as that. She has been really miserable & tearful at times. She is such a socialable character & misses her friends tremendously. She worked really hard for her SAT exams which kept her busy but now that's over she is so bored. She has very few of her possessions here (still coming in container), she can't work, she hasn't had any opportunities to make friends yet (youth activities at churches close for the summer) & she still has almost 2 months to get though before university starts. So we used some of Murray's air miles & sent her home - wise or unwise, time will tell.
Murray & I are going out again tomorrow afternoon to look at houses - some we're going back to look at for a second time & others we haven't seen before. We really need to settle on something. We fell in love with one house which we could literally walk into & not have to do a thing. It had everything we needed and a fair bit of grass in the back garden for the dogs BUT we then discovered that the road that it backs onto is going to become a 4 lane road next year & possibly 6 lanes at some point in the future. Lots of the houses have wall paper or very brightly painted walls. Even though we realise that we will have to do some painting etc, we don't want to have to do anything major because again everything is different, even terminolgy. We were told that one of the houses we're interested in is having some work done on it, such as hand scraped wooden floors put down, granite kitchen surfaces put in & some skip trowell work done. Do you have any idea what skip trowell work is? I thought it was something done in the garden but it is paintwork.
Cody & Jasmine seem quite happy & settled at their very fancy kennels. While Kelly was writing her SAT exam for 4 hours, Shaun & I went out to the kennels to take some more medicine for Cody. It's miles away & Shaun made me drive to get some experience on freeways. I was a nervous wreck by the time we got there - there were freeways joining in all over & ones splitting off. If you weren't in the right lane who knows where you'd end up. You can have 5 freeways going across above you. Anyway we could've seen the dogs if we wanted to but the general recommendation is that you shouldn't as its too unsettling for them. I really miss them.
Driving on the right hand side of the road is almost second nature now. The 2 hire cars we have are automatic so it makes things easier but Shaun wanted a manual car so he's now learning to change gears with his right hand. The dealer who sold us the car was surprised that Shaun knew how to use gears.
Well I must end off. Thanks again to eveyone for the news. Our Internet wasn't working for over a week due to faulty cables, the modem etc but we're up & running again.
Bye for now
Heahther
Murray & I have just returned from another adventure to the shops. We shopped off at the Bank of America so we could apply for cheques & my debit card. Yesterday Murray wanted to pay for Shaun's car by doing an Internet transfer. We found it strange (or should I say different) that they don't do this. They wanted a cheque or 'check' as it's spelt here. Fortunately he had been issued with some temporary cheques which they were happy to accept. Our credit cards also arrived 2 days ago which is a great relief. We have not wanted to use our SA credit cards unless absolutely necessary so we have been working mainly with cash. I'm not used to carrying so much cash as I tended to use my credit card as much as possible in SA. On more than one occassions they've rung up my goods & I've suddenly wondered whether I had enough cash. Our credit & debit cards get posted to us - again different.
We did some more checking of cell phones this morning as things work so differently & we haven't had much help over the phone. Firstly we have to make sure the phone covers all the bands used here, in SA & ideally in the UK. We also have to make sure that the phones we choose a not 'locked' so that you can only use them on that network. We have to use T Mobile because they will give us contracts without a credit history. The phones must also be quad band. On top of this Shaun & Kelly have all sorts of other things that they think their phones should do. I'm the easy one. We have found out that T Mobile will only unlock quad band Nokia & Motorola phones after 30 days. Hopefully some dscisions can now be made.
We also went to several shops to try & buy a transformer so that I can use my SA sewing machine & overlocker. We were unsuccessful but we did get the name & address of a shop that definitely sells them. This will have to wait for another day. We had a fun experience going to 2 supermarkets that we hadn't been to before - 'Whole Foods' which sells a lot of organic food & generally food for the more health conscious person & 'Central Market' which is similiar but more like a market. The variety of fresh fruit & vegs was amazing & not too badly priced. The butchery sections were wonderful but a bit pricy. These 2 shops had been recommeded as people thought we might find some of the items there that we couldn't find in the normal supermarkets. They didn't really help in that regard but it was interesting.
Last Sunday we went back to Stonebriar Community Church in the pouring rain. The service was very different to the previous week. Their worship band was toned down & generally the service was more formal - we sang mainly hymns. They had the church's 60 voice choir singing - absolutely wonderful. Chuck Swindoll gave an a challenging but encouraging Father's Day sermon.We haven't decided yet whether we'll go back there tomorrow or try another church on the short list. Please pray that God will guide us to the right church.
Being part of a church, getting involved & getting to know peolpe will make such a difference to our settling in process.
Some of you may have heard that Kelly is back in Johannesburg for almost 3 weeks. She is staying with her best friend Kaylee & her family. I know that this goes against all the advice we've been given about not going back for at least 2 years but sometimes mother's aren't as strong as that. She has been really miserable & tearful at times. She is such a socialable character & misses her friends tremendously. She worked really hard for her SAT exams which kept her busy but now that's over she is so bored. She has very few of her possessions here (still coming in container), she can't work, she hasn't had any opportunities to make friends yet (youth activities at churches close for the summer) & she still has almost 2 months to get though before university starts. So we used some of Murray's air miles & sent her home - wise or unwise, time will tell.
Murray & I are going out again tomorrow afternoon to look at houses - some we're going back to look at for a second time & others we haven't seen before. We really need to settle on something. We fell in love with one house which we could literally walk into & not have to do a thing. It had everything we needed and a fair bit of grass in the back garden for the dogs BUT we then discovered that the road that it backs onto is going to become a 4 lane road next year & possibly 6 lanes at some point in the future. Lots of the houses have wall paper or very brightly painted walls. Even though we realise that we will have to do some painting etc, we don't want to have to do anything major because again everything is different, even terminolgy. We were told that one of the houses we're interested in is having some work done on it, such as hand scraped wooden floors put down, granite kitchen surfaces put in & some skip trowell work done. Do you have any idea what skip trowell work is? I thought it was something done in the garden but it is paintwork.
Cody & Jasmine seem quite happy & settled at their very fancy kennels. While Kelly was writing her SAT exam for 4 hours, Shaun & I went out to the kennels to take some more medicine for Cody. It's miles away & Shaun made me drive to get some experience on freeways. I was a nervous wreck by the time we got there - there were freeways joining in all over & ones splitting off. If you weren't in the right lane who knows where you'd end up. You can have 5 freeways going across above you. Anyway we could've seen the dogs if we wanted to but the general recommendation is that you shouldn't as its too unsettling for them. I really miss them.
Driving on the right hand side of the road is almost second nature now. The 2 hire cars we have are automatic so it makes things easier but Shaun wanted a manual car so he's now learning to change gears with his right hand. The dealer who sold us the car was surprised that Shaun knew how to use gears.
Well I must end off. Thanks again to eveyone for the news. Our Internet wasn't working for over a week due to faulty cables, the modem etc but we're up & running again.
Bye for now
Heahther
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
The Sunday Update (Okay, a little late...)
Another update from my mom.
--Shaun
--Shaun
----------------------------------------
Hi everyone
Another week in
I’m really trying to view everyday as an adventure & to not get annoyed, frustrated or critical when things are different from SA. – They’re not wrong, just different. You get so used to a certain way of life that change can be very uncomfortable. I’ve also become very aware, when speaking to people, of not continually comparing things in the
I have spent most of this past week either going out with our realtor to look at houses or going though reams of houses that she has emailed to me so that I can short list those that I like. Every house has a detailed description, photos, virtual tour & list of all the info & statistics that you might want to know. Again I have seen some lovely houses but so few have grass in the back garden. When a house is described as having ‘large back yard grass’, it could be the size of an average home swimming pool or single garage. Kelly has come with me quite a bit & is very vocal about what is acceptable or not. She has fallen in love with one house, which I must admit is really nice but we’ll see.
Today we went to the
On Friday evening we were all taken to dinner by one of
It’s really strange not having an evening service but that seems to be the norm here. I think we’re probably going to go for a bite to eat. Thanks to everyone that’s written to us. It’s been really great getting news from home – any news is good. I will try & write personally to each of you as soon as possible. Unfortunately every time I think of trying to skype someone, you would all be sleeping. I’ll have to get more organized. Most nights I come home from looking at houses between 6:00 & 7:00p.m. & after being in & out of the really hot weather, I’m exhausted.
Well I must end off. Love you all.
Heather
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Another Update
Another update from my mom...
Shaun
-------------------------------
Hi Everyone
Well, it’s hard to believe that we’ve been here for almost 2 weeks. I must apologise for not writing more often. We’ve been out & about a lot & when we’re home there’s still great competition to use the computer as our air freighted goods have still not been delivered. They have been in
It has still been raining quite a lot however when it’s not raining it’s really hot already. Even though we had air conditioning in our home in SA it’s still quite an adjustment living with it all the time. Everyone turns the air conditioning up so much that it’s freezing inside. You need an overcoat to go to the shops, church etc even though it’s boiling outside. Kelly & I have spent quite a lot of time this week going out with a realtor (estate agent).
Today we went to the
Shaun & I have found driving on the RHS of the road not as daunting as it first seemed. However it does require your full attention especially when tuning left – you have to remember to go across to the far side of the road & watch the cars coming from the left. You instinctively look for cars coming from the right. (That might sound a bit confusing.) Kelly hasn’t driven yet as she is too young to drive a hire car. We’re even having to pay a premium for Shaun to drive as he’s under 25. Seems strange as teenagers can get their drivers licenses at 16. Hopefully we’ll buy 1 or 2 cars soon.
Shaun & esp. Kelly are really missing their friends so we’ve had some family movie watching. Last night we hired ‘Freedom Writers’. It was really good & is a movie worth watching. We’ve also been to the cinema to watch ‘Pirates of the
Well that’s all for now. Missing you all.
Lots of love
Heather
P.S. For those of you who want to leave a message on the blog and don’t know how to do it, I will explain. At the bottom of each post, the number of comments will be shown. Click that link and enter your comment in the box that appears on the right-hand side. Then click “Publish your comment” comment to add your comment to the post. That’s all there is to it.
Cheers
Shaun
Saturday, June 2, 2007
Classes, Driving and Other Stuffs
So my Dad hired another car on Tuesday and I had to drive it back home. It was little weird driving on the wrong side of the road (or the right depending on how you look at it). But frankly, because the car was an automatic it wasn't very difficult to get used to. On Thursday and Friday I drove all the way to varsity without any trouble. The two most difficult things to remember are to look left first and, to a lesser extent, avoiding turning into the wrong lane. My mom had her first go it this morning when we went to pick up some groceries and she agrees that it is not particularly difficult. Oh, and I also find myself trying to change into second with my left hand when pulling off. At least my ability to drive manual cars had become somewhat automatic (excuse the pun).
As you have probably guessed by my comments above, I also started varsity this week. One of my classes was cancelled, because the lecturer was stuck in Nashville due to some heavy storms. My other class was quite long, but at least I only have to go in once a week for each class. It's also pretty far to drive to get to varsity.The traffic is generally always flowing, it just the distance and speed limits that drag the journey out. On the upside, there are plenty of lanes on the freeway (about 4 on average) and they are making it even wider.
Strangely enough, I am missing Oros. Yes, I know that sounds weird, but I used to drink litres of it every day. Carbonated drinks and fruit juices are more the norm here. Most of them come in zero calorie versions, but despite that fact, there is only so much super sweet, carbonated stuff I can drink. There are almost no mix-a-drink concentrates here. Koolade (spelling??) and Tang are pretty disgusting, either because they are too sweet or because they just taste nasty. We finally found some proper concentrated stuff today and we will try it out later.
Other than that there isn't much else for me to report. If I think of something else I'll add it, otherwise I am sure my mom will have more to say.
Signing off for now...
Shaun
As you have probably guessed by my comments above, I also started varsity this week. One of my classes was cancelled, because the lecturer was stuck in Nashville due to some heavy storms. My other class was quite long, but at least I only have to go in once a week for each class. It's also pretty far to drive to get to varsity.The traffic is generally always flowing, it just the distance and speed limits that drag the journey out. On the upside, there are plenty of lanes on the freeway (about 4 on average) and they are making it even wider.
Strangely enough, I am missing Oros. Yes, I know that sounds weird, but I used to drink litres of it every day. Carbonated drinks and fruit juices are more the norm here. Most of them come in zero calorie versions, but despite that fact, there is only so much super sweet, carbonated stuff I can drink. There are almost no mix-a-drink concentrates here. Koolade (spelling??) and Tang are pretty disgusting, either because they are too sweet or because they just taste nasty. We finally found some proper concentrated stuff today and we will try it out later.
Other than that there isn't much else for me to report. If I think of something else I'll add it, otherwise I am sure my mom will have more to say.
Signing off for now...
Shaun
Monday, May 28, 2007
Monday update
Today is Memorial Day & thus a public holiday. It's a day to remember all those, especially military personal, that have died protecting the country. We have had a fairly leisurely day, sleeping in a little & then going to the shops again. It really is quite fun going to the supermarkets as long as you don't convert all the prices to rands. That can be a little scary. We're re battling to find cold drink for Shaun & Kelly. There are no cordials or Oros equivalents - nothing that you can buy & then add water to. All cold drinks are sold ready to drink. This makes them really pricey. Kelly usually drinks a lot of water but I must admit the water here tastes strange but I guess we'll get used to it. We did find some good old Kool Aid & Tang. Saw Ceres fruit juice for about R18 a litre. We needed some presstik - it's called poster putty! Due to different names, packaging & generally just not knowing the shops, shopping is fairly time consuming - fortunately it's still a novelty.
I spent most of the afternoon ironing - not exactly my favourite job. I enquired about where I could have some ironing done & received a very strange look. Haven't quite worked out why. Probably if you tumble dry things you don't need to iron them. Had our favourite stuffed crust pizza delivered from Pizza Hut tonight - really good. From tomorrow I start cooking meals. The kitchen is equipped with a fairly basic selection of utensils & dishes so this might be a challenge. Another challenge is washing dishes. There is a double sink but no draining board/area. Presumably everything goes in the dishwasher. I can't remember if the houses are the same.
Yesterday we attended the Hunter's Glen Baptist church. According to the website it was meant to have an attendance of 14000. They were probably only about 200 to 300 people there so the church was fairly empty. This could have been because it was the Memorial Day weekend & people went away. It was a beautiful church with the most amazing stain glass windows. I don't think we'll be going back there. It was extremely conservative. We sang mainly hymns, some of which I don't think I've sung since I was a child at Bulwer Road. The congregation consisted of old people & young couples with small children - no people our age or youth. They managed to fit 2 baptism, communion, worship & the sermon into 1 hour. There was a fair bit of patriotism in the service but that's probably understandable seeing it was memorial weekend. On the way home we were discussing the service & Shaun who is usually not critical by nature summed it up when he said, " It was just plain wishy washy!"
Our air freighted goods apparently only arrived in Dallas yesterday. They will still take 48 hours to get though customs, 24 hours to be delivered & probably nothing would happen today as its a public holiday, so we only expect them at the end of the week. It is still raining quite a bit but even though its overcast most of the time, it's still quite light after 8:00pm.
Cheers for now.
Heather
I spent most of the afternoon ironing - not exactly my favourite job. I enquired about where I could have some ironing done & received a very strange look. Haven't quite worked out why. Probably if you tumble dry things you don't need to iron them. Had our favourite stuffed crust pizza delivered from Pizza Hut tonight - really good. From tomorrow I start cooking meals. The kitchen is equipped with a fairly basic selection of utensils & dishes so this might be a challenge. Another challenge is washing dishes. There is a double sink but no draining board/area. Presumably everything goes in the dishwasher. I can't remember if the houses are the same.
Yesterday we attended the Hunter's Glen Baptist church. According to the website it was meant to have an attendance of 14000. They were probably only about 200 to 300 people there so the church was fairly empty. This could have been because it was the Memorial Day weekend & people went away. It was a beautiful church with the most amazing stain glass windows. I don't think we'll be going back there. It was extremely conservative. We sang mainly hymns, some of which I don't think I've sung since I was a child at Bulwer Road. The congregation consisted of old people & young couples with small children - no people our age or youth. They managed to fit 2 baptism, communion, worship & the sermon into 1 hour. There was a fair bit of patriotism in the service but that's probably understandable seeing it was memorial weekend. On the way home we were discussing the service & Shaun who is usually not critical by nature summed it up when he said, " It was just plain wishy washy!"
Our air freighted goods apparently only arrived in Dallas yesterday. They will still take 48 hours to get though customs, 24 hours to be delivered & probably nothing would happen today as its a public holiday, so we only expect them at the end of the week. It is still raining quite a bit but even though its overcast most of the time, it's still quite light after 8:00pm.
Cheers for now.
Heather
My mom's mail
My mom sent this as an e-mail to some friends and family yesterday. If you didn't get it or want to read it, check out below.
--Shaun
Hi Everyone
Sorry that I’ve taken sooo… long to let you know that we’re alive & well. When we’ve been at ‘home’ there’s been great competition for the use of Murray’s laptop. With
Murray trying to keep up with what’s happening at work, researching various things on the internet e.g. cars, cell phones etc, Shaun & Kelly contacting friends on Face Book & emailing,
I haven’t had a chance to use the laptop. We’re been told that our air freighted goods should arrive tomorrow, so we’ll have our other computers & the stuff we need to Skype.
I have to admit that the last few days in Johannesburg were very tiring & emotional with all the farewells. This was followed by a very emotional farewell at the airport. Even though I’d said it would be easier not to have to do more farewells at the airport, a number of Shaun & Kelly’s close friends came. In retrospect this was great, even though it was hard. Thanks too to all the McLeans for coming, despite what I said. Colin & Lleane thanks also for all the amazing help you gave us during the last few weeks – we really appreciate it. We will always treasure your friendship. Murray, Kelly & I fell asleep before supper was served & only woke just before landing – so much for enjoying the luxury of flying business class. However we did appreciate the flat beds.
On arriving at Heathrow, we went to the Virgin Lounge which is wonderful. We showered & had a great breakfast. I even had my hair blow dried in their salon at no extra charge. We then had a day time flight to Washington. We had to go through immigration there – even though everything went well, it still took a fair length of time as it was our first entrance into the country as temporary residents. They really are very thorough. We arrived in Dallas at about 7.00p.m. on Tuesday evening – we’re 7 hours behind SA at the moment. Some of you know that Shaun took our 6 hard drives in his cabin bag as he was worried about them being damaged. No one even queried them at any of the security checks.
We’re staying in a really nice furnished apartment. It has 3 bedrooms, a study, 3 bathrooms, a large lounge / dining room, kitchen, laundry & verandah. It’s part of a huge complex of over 400 apartments. There’s a communal area with a games room, mini theatre, fully equipped gym, business centre, numerous pools, hot tubs, miniature golf, golf course etc. Everything is air conditioned. & people don’t seem to ever open windows. I have to open our door onto the verandah to get fresh air. I don’t like this closed in feeling. It hasn’t been very hot but it has been quite humid. This apparently is due to the rain we’ve been having. May is Dallas’ rainy month and then they don’t get much for the rest on the year.
We’ve seem to have spent the last four days traveling around in the car. We only have 1 hire car a present and Murray is the only one signed up to drive it. Hopefully we’ll get another car early next week. We’ve spent a lot of time getting lost, especially when Shaun’s not with us. He has an amazing sense of direction & seems to understand the useless navigation system in the car. Yesterday Murray bought 2 Garmins, which even I must say are far superior navigation systems. Dallas isn’t an easy city to drive around – it seems to consist of a mass of freeways. We’ve been out to SMU (Southern Methodist University) 3 times for various reasons. Shaun had to prove he was in the country by the 24th, he‘s had meetings with various staff members & lecturers on subject selection etc and Kelly needed to find out about courses. Shaun will only do 2 subjects this summer as it is shorter than a normal semester. He starts next week Wed & his lectures will all be on Wed & Thurs evenings. We bought this big fat book for Kelly to study from for her SAT exams. It also has advice on the exams & some trial exams at the back which she says don’t look too difficult. This should keep her busy for a while. She’s the most unsettled at the moment. She’s really missing her friends & especially Bruce. Both Shaun & Kelly were chuffed when they found out that the last day of exams for the fall semester is the 15th Dec and the first day of the spring semester is the 15th Jan. At this stage they want to go back to SA for the whole month however this could change as they settle down.
We’ve been to look at cars for all of us at various dealerships. This has been quite a time consuming & frustrating exercise. The sales people aren’t exactly the most enthusiastic bunch. Murray gets a hire car for 45 days so we’ll probably sort out Shaun & Kelly first. Kelly & I will share her car until she starts varsity on the 27th Aug. Most of the cars here are very old fashioned looking. We’ve also looked at cell phones & need to make some final decisions about them. Probably the most fascinating thing for me has been going to the various supermarkets. Target is probably the most similar to our Pick n Pay but you seem to have to buy most things in huge packs or sizes. The variety of brands (for most things) is amazing. Today we did some shopping at Tom Thumb. What a lovely supermarket. I’d love to always shop there but it is more pricy, probably equivalent to Woolworths or Buxton’s Spar but bigger & with more variety. Trying to find equivalents of what I would normally buy takes quite a while. I’ve had the whole family searching the aisles for things. I got really frustrated when I couldn’t buy an Omo equivalent. I do a fair bit of hand washing but obviously nobody here does. Murray was really pleased when he found some chutney ay Tom Thumb – they even had Nando’s sauces Another frustration, which I knew about, is the fact that everything is tumble dried. Nobody hangs washing out to dry. We eventually managed to buy some rather mini clothes horses.
Dallas is looking so much nicer than in December. Everything is green & it even looks pretty. Well that’s our news for now. Tomorrow we’re going to go to Hunter’s Glen Baptist church which is fairly close by. Will keep you posted on how it goes. Missing you all.
With lots of love
Heather.
--Shaun
Hi Everyone
Sorry that I’ve taken sooo… long to let you know that we’re alive & well. When we’ve been at ‘home’ there’s been great competition for the use of Murray’s laptop. With
Murray trying to keep up with what’s happening at work, researching various things on the internet e.g. cars, cell phones etc, Shaun & Kelly contacting friends on Face Book & emailing,
I haven’t had a chance to use the laptop. We’re been told that our air freighted goods should arrive tomorrow, so we’ll have our other computers & the stuff we need to Skype.
I have to admit that the last few days in Johannesburg were very tiring & emotional with all the farewells. This was followed by a very emotional farewell at the airport. Even though I’d said it would be easier not to have to do more farewells at the airport, a number of Shaun & Kelly’s close friends came. In retrospect this was great, even though it was hard. Thanks too to all the McLeans for coming, despite what I said. Colin & Lleane thanks also for all the amazing help you gave us during the last few weeks – we really appreciate it. We will always treasure your friendship. Murray, Kelly & I fell asleep before supper was served & only woke just before landing – so much for enjoying the luxury of flying business class. However we did appreciate the flat beds.
On arriving at Heathrow, we went to the Virgin Lounge which is wonderful. We showered & had a great breakfast. I even had my hair blow dried in their salon at no extra charge. We then had a day time flight to Washington. We had to go through immigration there – even though everything went well, it still took a fair length of time as it was our first entrance into the country as temporary residents. They really are very thorough. We arrived in Dallas at about 7.00p.m. on Tuesday evening – we’re 7 hours behind SA at the moment. Some of you know that Shaun took our 6 hard drives in his cabin bag as he was worried about them being damaged. No one even queried them at any of the security checks.
We’re staying in a really nice furnished apartment. It has 3 bedrooms, a study, 3 bathrooms, a large lounge / dining room, kitchen, laundry & verandah. It’s part of a huge complex of over 400 apartments. There’s a communal area with a games room, mini theatre, fully equipped gym, business centre, numerous pools, hot tubs, miniature golf, golf course etc. Everything is air conditioned. & people don’t seem to ever open windows. I have to open our door onto the verandah to get fresh air. I don’t like this closed in feeling. It hasn’t been very hot but it has been quite humid. This apparently is due to the rain we’ve been having. May is Dallas’ rainy month and then they don’t get much for the rest on the year.
We’ve seem to have spent the last four days traveling around in the car. We only have 1 hire car a present and Murray is the only one signed up to drive it. Hopefully we’ll get another car early next week. We’ve spent a lot of time getting lost, especially when Shaun’s not with us. He has an amazing sense of direction & seems to understand the useless navigation system in the car. Yesterday Murray bought 2 Garmins, which even I must say are far superior navigation systems. Dallas isn’t an easy city to drive around – it seems to consist of a mass of freeways. We’ve been out to SMU (Southern Methodist University) 3 times for various reasons. Shaun had to prove he was in the country by the 24th, he‘s had meetings with various staff members & lecturers on subject selection etc and Kelly needed to find out about courses. Shaun will only do 2 subjects this summer as it is shorter than a normal semester. He starts next week Wed & his lectures will all be on Wed & Thurs evenings. We bought this big fat book for Kelly to study from for her SAT exams. It also has advice on the exams & some trial exams at the back which she says don’t look too difficult. This should keep her busy for a while. She’s the most unsettled at the moment. She’s really missing her friends & especially Bruce. Both Shaun & Kelly were chuffed when they found out that the last day of exams for the fall semester is the 15th Dec and the first day of the spring semester is the 15th Jan. At this stage they want to go back to SA for the whole month however this could change as they settle down.
We’ve been to look at cars for all of us at various dealerships. This has been quite a time consuming & frustrating exercise. The sales people aren’t exactly the most enthusiastic bunch. Murray gets a hire car for 45 days so we’ll probably sort out Shaun & Kelly first. Kelly & I will share her car until she starts varsity on the 27th Aug. Most of the cars here are very old fashioned looking. We’ve also looked at cell phones & need to make some final decisions about them. Probably the most fascinating thing for me has been going to the various supermarkets. Target is probably the most similar to our Pick n Pay but you seem to have to buy most things in huge packs or sizes. The variety of brands (for most things) is amazing. Today we did some shopping at Tom Thumb. What a lovely supermarket. I’d love to always shop there but it is more pricy, probably equivalent to Woolworths or Buxton’s Spar but bigger & with more variety. Trying to find equivalents of what I would normally buy takes quite a while. I’ve had the whole family searching the aisles for things. I got really frustrated when I couldn’t buy an Omo equivalent. I do a fair bit of hand washing but obviously nobody here does. Murray was really pleased when he found some chutney ay Tom Thumb – they even had Nando’s sauces Another frustration, which I knew about, is the fact that everything is tumble dried. Nobody hangs washing out to dry. We eventually managed to buy some rather mini clothes horses.
Dallas is looking so much nicer than in December. Everything is green & it even looks pretty. Well that’s our news for now. Tomorrow we’re going to go to Hunter’s Glen Baptist church which is fairly close by. Will keep you posted on how it goes. Missing you all.
With lots of love
Heather.
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