Wednesday update

So sadly we have not yet found the cable for the camera, but we will look for it again after dinner, which is a pity because we have some nice pics to show you.

Its been a busy week so far, but we have managed to buy ourselves a little runaround car (ok its a skedonk but it will do!). Its a Seat (pronounced diesel station wagon which makes me giggle, because everytime I have ever pointed at a station wagon Sam would blurt out "Datsun!!" at the top of her voice, in reference to those grubby old Datsun station wagons of the 70s and 80s. Seriously I could have been pointing at a Rolls Royce station wagon and she would have done the same. But as we need wheels, and this Seat Cordoba was cheap, she has agreed to suspend her outbursts for our car, but can't promise she won't continue to shout "Datsun!!" at every other station wagon she sees. Which means on Mud Island, she is going to be saying it a lot! People here do love there diesel station wagons!

We went shopping at the large Tesco's in Ryde, which sells everything under the sun, kind of like a mix between Game and Pick n Pay. It also has a Costa coffee, so we had a cup there before getting on with the shopping. The other day I had a moan about the silly speed restrictions (see here). Worse than the speeding however, is the idea in the UK that its ok to charge a million rand for a cup of coffee (even more for a mug of coffee) and then not offer a re-fill. We have found ourselves missing the Mugg and Bean a lot, almost as much as friends and family! We have also been to Yarmouth for breakfast, a very pretty part of Isle of Wight, and got pleasantly lost on the way, as I put "Main Street" into the GPS. Except that the main street in any English town is referred to as the "High Street". So when we arrived at our destination according to the GPS, we were out in the sticks so to speak, on a very rural farm road, with only a few lazy sheep and a cow or two for company. Luckily the Island is only about as wide as Lonehill, so it was not difficult to find our way to the main town centre.

We have still to get car insurance, but that is worth a post of its own, when I have finished beating my head up against the wall bureaucracy that we face and I can look back and think it funny, until then lets just say it is yet to be sorted out.

Yesterday we took the hired car back to Heathrow and spent a few hours in London, before travelling down past Guildford and Winchester with Conan and crossing back over to the Isle on the hover craft. As each day goes by we are feeling more and more settled, even my work stuff seems to be lining up, so we are happy about that. Tomorrow we will have been in the UK for a week, its amazing how quickly it has gone by! It has been made a bit easier however by the glorious spring weather that we are having here. There was not a cloud in the sky here today, and we walked down to the Cowes high street in t-shirts. Ok so its not 33 degrees like Durban, but it is really very pleasant. Rain is forecast for the weekend but thats ok, because the other thing we have to get used to is cleaning our own home, so let it rain on Saturday, that way we don't have to feel like we are missing out!