General Update

Sorry I haven't been updating that much recently. The cold we caught in Munich really hung around for a long time. G's mom (he says I should write "mum", but this is my blog, so I will use my terminology, thank you very much) is away right now, visiting Wales and Ireland, so fortunately she's avoided us and our illness for the most part.

Lena had her second set of shots this past Thursday. They affected her more this time than the first. She was pretty grouchy all of Thursday and Friday but seemed better today. I showed the nurse the information I found about the Meningitis vaccine and Pneumococcal vaccine not to be given at the same time. She read it and just said that she hadn't experienced anyone having problems getting both at the same time. Good to know that in her vast clinical research, it's okay. I'm still not going to get them at the same time and will bring Lena to get the Pneumococcal in 2 weeks, so they won't be given at the same time.

In other news, we are house-hunting. We've decided we're going to try and buy something rather than rent. If housing prices continue to rise at their current rate; after 2 years we'll be better off owning rather than having rented that entire time. Of course, there's no guarantees that prices will go up, but as the Germans say, "No risk, no fun". Not that losing a big chunk of money on declining house prices would be fun, hahaha, no. We're looking mainly in Maidenhead, because as much as we like Cookham, it's too expensive for what we want. On average, for a 3 bedroom place, it's about 50 000 to 100 000 pounds more than buying in Maidenhead. That's a big lot of money for the luxury of village life. Heck, for that kind of money, we can get a taxi to take us down to Cookham and back every time we want to visit. And we could drink very expensive cognac on each trip too. So it's likely Maidenhead for us, unless someone out there really wants us to stay in Cookham and makes us an offer we can't refuse. (no horse heads in beds, please)

We've looked at around 10 places so far. We looked at this amount so that we had a base to know what the standards are. Being new to the country, nevermind the area, we needed to get that base so we would know when there was something good at a good price. Now that we have that base, we can now start to be a bit discerning and actually start choosing. Stay tuned for more on the topic in the future.

Finally, does anyone know where I can buy plain vinegar in England? Not malt vinegar, not pickling vinegar, not white wine vinegar, not red wine vinegar, not cider vinegar, not balsamic vinegar. Just plain vinegar. I want it for cleaning around the house and helping with the laundry and for the life of me, I haven't found it in any shop. My kingdom for some vinegar!