Category Archives: Getting started

Getting started

The big birthday, the big rodeo and being tourists – part one

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Imagine the scene: vrooming down The Strand in Galveston, a sparkling, shiny, all chrome and leather black Harley Davidson bulked up with panniers and a wide black saddle, sat astride by an aging hippy with droopy grey moustache, long grey hair straying out from under his bandana, his head helmetless, wrap-around sunglasses on and music blaring out from his built in bike speaker system. What do you imagine he was playing –  Born to be Wild? Highway to Hell perhaps?

No, it was Girls Just Want to Have Fun – the original squeaky Cindy Lauper version. Many questions remain unanswered about that fleeting glimpse of daftness which we witnessed while being tourists on the coast.

We’ve had visitors. First to arrive for a whirlwind visit was cousin Joyce. This marked another first for me – driving to the airport on my own to collect her as Maurice was away. And I managed! The thought of doing it was much scarier than the actuality of it and once the sweaty palms dried up a bit, I was fine.

Joyce stayed for a brief but packed weekend. We walked in the park while it was dry then visited NASA on the cold and very wet Sunday. Lunch was spent in Galveston with barely a view in the low cloud before heading back to the house to relax for the evening.

Joyce’s visit

Joyce left on the Monday and once again I drove to the airport. It was lovely to see her and I think she appreciated her very brief glimpse of what Houston has to offer. Hopefully she’ll have better weather the next time.

The rest of the week passed uneventfully until the next visitors. Maurice’s girls plus one boyfriend, arrived on the following Saturday, very late due an inevitable flight delay. This was the start of our holiday week and we became temporary tourists.

After a leisurely start on Sunday we ventured down town to Maurice’s office to survey the views from the high rises.  It was a lovely day so the views were amazing and it was good to see where Maurice works.

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We had a traditional South Shields lunch of panachalty, made with the heart stopping ingredients bought from the British Isles (the shop up the road at Rice Village) and the British Isles (the country) by the girls who squirreled a couple of tins of corned beef in their luggage.  It was much appreciated as the start of the ‘big birthday’ celebrations.

A walk was obligatory after this feast and we headed over to Hermann Park to work off the calories. The weather had really improved and the park was crowded with day trippers enjoying the sun at the start of the local ‘Spring Break’ for the schools here.

After a bit of r and r at home, we set out for a wee ‘imbibement’ in the bars of Rice Village – which were quite busy for a Sunday evening. The girls and Leigh were still in a state of mild culture shock. Leigh especially – this was his first ever trip abroad so Houston was proving to be a tad different from Aberdeen. It was wonderful to see Houston through his eyes – everything so new, fresh and huge!

Monday had been trailered as a showery day, but actually brightened up and it was decided that half would go to NASA and I would give it a miss this time and visit Kemah boardwalk with Sarah.  We headed out for a bay tour on a pleasant hour long cruise and wandered around the boardwalk area, passing the time until we got the call that the others were ready to leave NASA.

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Then on to another tourist first for the girls and Leigh – Hooters for a late lunch. It had to be done I guess. This was a slightly disappointing Hooters.  All attention was perfectly adequate, as was the food, but the service was without a smile rather than with one….

We headed to Galveston on the coast to take in the sights – ageing hippy on Harley being but one. Another was a very cute English Bulldog puppy called Lola who lolled at our feet and at 10 weeks old,, obeyed her owner’s instruction to ‘sit’ most perfectly! We all wanted to take her home.

Back to the house for some zeds and then another trip to Rice Village pubs. This was St Patrick’s Day eve so unsurprisingly the bars were quiet.

We had thought about a visit to San Antonio on St Patrick’s Day, the Tuesday, but the weather was so unpredictable we decided to stay closer to home.  I got on with a few chores and the others eventually decided on a gun club! This proved to be an impromptu hit (pardon the pun) and they all came back a few hours later quite gun drunk and ready to take on the world.  T-shirts with guns had been purchased and many, many photos and video clips taken of various poses with guns. Oh dear. Becky even picked up an admirer who proclaimed her the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. A few texts and ‘whatsapps’ followed but she firmly but politely advised him of her relationship status. He’ll get over it.  Here’s hoping he’s not a mad stalker type since he knows how to wield a fair few guns it would appear.

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Now, being as this was actual St Patrick’s Day, we had to go up to Rice Village again to the bars. But it was absolutely jumping. The place had come alive with parties, greenery everywhere, crowds of people sporting green t-shirts, hats, beads, and all manner of St Patrick’s Day paraphenalia. We were not prepared for just how busy it would be, and were glad we managed to find a seat in the Ginger Man which seemed less mad than everywhere else. Music of various genres swirled around outside, for once drowning out the noise of the grackles squawking, or they may have all shipped out for the night to bother another neighbourhood. Rap mingled with Irish and with folk rock and generally it was extremely noisy.

We had a great night, picked up a few St Patrick’s Day souvenirs for ourselves and generally had a fun time.

The next day was the BIG BIRTHDAY! To be continued… in Part Two.

Getting started

Home alone

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It’s been a week of firsts.

Maurice went to work in the Chevron office in Houston  and I was left at home alone for the first time since we arrived.

It was strange being left behind in the apartment all by myself. I pottered around for while and then set off to walk to the nearby TJ Max which is basically TK Max – with a J instead of a K – strangely.

While shopping, Maurice called to arrange for us to meet up with Matt, our realtor guy, again. He came to the apartment mid afternoon to collect me and we met Maurice at another property to view.

The property was very nice, a spacious modern house in a lovely street, but in a gated complex which provided very little outside space and a cramped feel at the sides and front of the house. We did not rule it out – the area was certainly a good one. This was the ‘Medical Center’ as it is so close to all the hospitals in Houston. I imagine many of the residents around here will work in these hospitals, although I think the consultants will be living in the mansions we saw when we were practising driving the other day. Outrageous palatial homes with huge grounds and ornate features which line the desirable boulevards of Memorial Drive and River Oaks.

We checked out another property in West University. It was ok, had a spacious feel, plenty room for us, although the kitchen was pretty tiny, but the garden was flooded and plumbing problems were in the process of being fixed.  We didn’t think this was for us.

Then we went back to Buffalo Speedway, also in West U, and re-visited a lovely house with a pool. We decided to go ahead and apply to become tenants with some modifications to the original proposal. Just had to wait and see if we would be accepted.

The next day I visited the gym in the apartment complex for the first time. Not a bad wee facility, all the machines you need and tvs to watch too – with rather macho ‘Dave’ style tv channels chosen. I was the only one there.

After my gentle work out, I had a go on one of the massage chairs available. This felt rather like being in a car wash for humans, without the water. I was poked, squeezed and vibrated from all sides in an unpredictable sequence of electrically controlled undulations that successfully removed any stiffness from my muscles. Very strange.

Buffalo speedway
Our new home?

Later that day we heard that we had successfully secured the house on Buffalo Speedway! So just the paper work and money to sort out now.

Wednesday passed pretty much like the other two days home alone, this time I walked to the Galleria and rummaged around in a few of the huge choice of stores, really just to get out and get some exercise.

When Maurice came home, we set off to see a car that he had spotted for sale online – a 2011 Nissan Sentra. A tad more sensible than the Corvette. And before we knew it, he’d bought it. Spurred on by a young sales guy who said another customer was interested and coming along ‘any time now’ to buy, and a reduction of $500, Maurice said yes – and initialled what can only be described as a scrap of paper with a handwritten note on it saying – ‘I will buy this car if you reduce it by $500’. I thought it was all a made up wee story about the other customer – but then he arrived and even said to us – ‘you beat me to it’! So he wasn’t fictitious he was a real person.

The dealers make it very tempting and easy to commit to buy, then hit you with the usual array of paper work. It’s not a whole lot different to buying in the UK but different enough to feel quite alien, when you don’t know all the legalities. A very lovely lady called Becky guided us through the finance and then that was that. We couldn’t drive it away, but everything had been put in place.

Maurice works a 9 day fortnight and this first Friday was the planned ‘TDO’ or tenth day off so, a four day week for him to start the year nice and gently. Thursday was his last work day this week. I went to the gym again and braved some more ambitious settings of the massage chair – the ‘relax’ setting I found to be far from that – and watched some more bloke tv about trains braving the elements in Alaska through all weathers. The train hitting a dog on the track was a low point.

We had a ‘date night’ at a local Galleria hostelry in the evening to mark the start of the weekend.

Then Friday was a very busy day!

We had all the finances to sort out for the car and the house and were panicking slightly about how to get much needed funds over from the UK accounts to the US in the most economic way. I happen-chanced upon a recommendation on the Martin Lewis Money Expert website which proved very fortuitous and we managed to navigate our way to a reasonably smooth money transfer. After an initial delay when I thought we had signed over all our worldly goods to a total stranger, a confirmation popped through and we could breathe again. Phew.

A morning of emailing, phoning, transferring and confirming passed in a flash. Later than intended we set off for Maurice to get a hair cut and to buy a satnav for our new car.

The barber was ‘Mike’s’ although precisely who Mike was remains a mystery as the establishment was entirely staffed by Latino women who spoke in Spanish, very fast, and in a screechingly high pitch and volume up at max. Only one apparently occupied to actually cut hair, although there were half a dozen barber’s chairs lined up in this pretty basic shop, each with a plaque above, hanging at various jaunty angles and proclaiming that the named individual was a ‘certified cosmetician in the state of Texas’. A tv in the corner was showing a Spanish game show of some kind and one of the ‘cosmeticians’ was riveted to it. It appeared to be quite an amusing programme as the regular, deafening squeals of laughter testified.

The hair was cut – looks ok and only cost $6 plus tip. Can’t complain about that. But don’t think Mike’s will be for me, certified or not.

Best Buy is a bit like Comet (RIP) but of course bigger, like all things Texan. We selected a cheap satnav and spotted some good bargains for future reference in the fridge and tv sections too. Here’s hoping Best Buy doesn’t suffer the same fate as Comet, or at least, not until after we have bagged some bargains.

World Market was next door. Liked the selection of furniture and accessories in here and not too pricey either. Another place to keep in mind when we need to start getting ‘stuff’.

After lunch at a Thai cafe we headed back to the apartment before going out to collect our new car. By this time it was nearly rush hour and I was not confident about driving alone so we took a cab to the dealership, got the keys and drove our first owned US car back home. It is a lovely roomy car – very comfy and of course, automatic. You get a lot more car for your buck over here, that’s for sure. This one will be Maurice’s work ‘mule’ and will do very nicely.

It was Friday night so we popped around the corner to an Argentinian restaurant and lounge for a beer and a wine or two. There was a guy playing flamenco guitar there which was lovely and the place had a great atmosphere. We didn’t eat here but the menu looked good – a possible for another night.

Saturday was baltic. Absolutely freezing – well nearly. And at one point, colder than Aberdeen.

We had elected to complete a 6 hour Driver’s Ed programme to help us pass the theory test which was set at the end of the day. We were a collection of nationalities, a group of around 15 mainly Chevron employees, it appeared. We went through the driving manual section by section and heard some colourful driving tales from our teacher Mrs Bo-something (she didn’t give us her first name – strangely). Her husband was there too – but in an unknown capacity other than being called upon to answer a question relating to school buses, and her mother was the secretary for the day, her father having passed away some 9 months prior. Quite the family affair.

I was left feeling, I never wanted to ever, ever risk driving in Texas ever, ever, ever.

We both passed the test – a two part test of regulations knowledge and traffic sign identification. So we can now progress to the practical test once we have been resident in Texas for 30 days. I will book some lessons to get my confidence up, that is definite. Once I am behind the wheel I’m not too bad, but moving between lanes is still a bit scary and certainly driving on the Freeway is not my idea of fun. I guess I will get used to it.

So, a new car, a new house, a first haircut in the US, a load of new experiences from ‘driver’s ed’ to massage chair.

First impressions from our first 2 weeks: it may just be because we are ‘aliens’ but imho this is a bureaucratic country (or maybe it’s this state), soooo much paper work. And the form designs will never win any plain English awards – legal terms of obscure origin appear preferable to the everyday alternatives. But everyone we have met has been really helpful and friendly. It is just a tad concerning when the driver’s ed teacher tells you she owns a gun ‘there are some crazy people out there’ and keeps it handy ‘especially for over this holiday period…’

At least there is some familiar cold and miserable weather.  Beginning to feel at home.

Getting started

Cars, trains and flying saucers…Phil Dunphy and Gustavo

Driving the wrong way and heading towards a train which has dazzling headlights on and is sounding its horn, in a thunderstorm is not to be recommended…more of that later.

We awoke pretty early on New Year’s Day and had a leisurely start to 2015. The weather was not great – again – so we decided to go for a drive and take an external look at the houses we have selected to view tomorrow.

First we ventured to a couple slightly to the north of where we are currently in an area called Rice Military. These were relatively new build houses, looked smart, but had very little land space to speak of and were in an area that looked a bit random – lovely one minute, shabby the next. We drove around and felt that perhaps one had potential.

We then headed south and drove to an older property that looked drab and shabby from the outside – very brown. However, on the plus side the neighbourhood was wonderful. Maurice had a squint through the windows and confirmed that the inside looked pretty run down. Shame really.

We drove past another couple in this area which were more promising and took note of these for our visits the next day.

Then we drove to the Lexus car dealership which was open on New Year’s Day.

Well, it’s all very tempting. Firstly the dealership was amazing. Not a bit like Arnold Clark! It had it’s own little cafeteria with free eats as well as coffee and tea. The salesman, Ken, was extremely helpful and not a bit pushy. I don’t know if there is a subtle shift in sales technique over here of if it is just how it has always been but the emphasis is on making the customer relaxed and happy. Very low key, very effective. We checked out a couple of options but didn’t get to the test drive stage – hopefully that will follow. I was impressed though.

We were going to go to CarMax but saved that delight for another day, heading back to Sage for some lunch across the road at a Mexican restaurant. This was an interesting place – the experience was not unlike visiting Los Pollos Hermanos – maybe slightly more upmarket to this. And I would not have been surprised if the top man there was called Gustavo.

The rest of New Year’s Day passed…

On the Friday we were up to meet Matt our realtor. I hope he doesn’t mind that I think he looks identical to Phil Dunphy – only a good deal younger. He is a lovely helpful guy.

We had researched a few more promising places to visit and set off with Matt in his Jeep. The first we visited was the very drab brown house. It was equally drab and run down inside. A great place to buy and make over, but not to rent. But the area was fantastic. We checked out 2 more in this area, one with a pool which we were both taken with. It was a bit old fashioned and the pool was both a plus and a minus as the cost reflected it, but it quickly became our preferred choice.

Then there was another very brown house. On the inside this time. All on one floor, very dingy and very brown. Again, such a shame as a bit of TLC would have this place very desirable.

We were getting a feel for the area and what you could – or indeed couldn’t – get for your money. This is your AB15 equivalent in Houston. Your West End of Glasgow or your Morningside of Edinburgh. Lovely but pricey.

We discussed with Matt the pros and cons of this area as opposed to the lovely larger houses elsewhere and both of us feel that location has it over house size. There are only the 2 of us so provided our house has enough space for the odd visitor then we can be more practical.

Then we saw Plumb Street. A lovely little house in an amazing street. The house is perhaps not so little, but the kitchen is tiny, the rooms smallish by US standards and it is a curious shape and layout. Most odd is the huge room in the loft which is shelved on both sides from floor to lie in ceiling. We are very curious to learn what went on in this room with so much shelving.

Anyway, it quickly became our number 1 choice both due to location and price.

We went up to the Heights area to visit another we had identified previously, so that Matt could show us a newer house with all mod cons.

It was lovely but too big really for our needs. The ground area round about was miniscule. So we set about putting in an application for Plumb. A bit of paperwork to complete – and we are still waiting to hear…fingers crossed.

One of Maurice’s old Harley buddies, and former neighbour of ours, was in town on a lay over with his job – he works for BA. So we made contact and headed into the downtown area to meet him for a drink on the Friday night. But meantime the heavens had opened and we were treated to a major Houston thunderstorm. Rivers of water ran alongside the roads and pavements. Maurice drove – windscreen washers set at full speed couldn’t cope with the combination of torrential rain and spray from the other traffic.

We were glad to get into town in one piece. Parking proved a challenge but we eventually just parked at Paul’s hotel, met him there and crossed the road to the Flying Saucer pub which was pretty busy on a Friday evening. A couple of hours of chat and beer pleasantly followed.

I was the designated driver for going home having stuck to Perrier.

My condition had been to stay off the Freeways – I know you can do this – but even though the satnav was programmed thus, I found myself hurtling on to 59 North or whatever, and wanted off again immediately.  Coming off was a mistake.

We got lost in the dark one way system of downtown which also has the added peril of the metrorail.

This is a tramway system – the rails for these pop up in unlikely places and you are left puzzling over if you are allowed to drive there or not. I figured not when I was faced down by a large tram with its headlights on heading towards me – I was apparently going the wrong direction on a one way tram line/street. A sharp turn right and I pulled in to the side of the road to both calm down and to get our bearings.

I decided to brave the freeways. I was relieved to come on to the 8 lane highway which seemed so preferable to a warren of one way dark streets. I navigated home with the help of satnav and Maurice who remained remarkably calm throughout this whole experience – must have been the Lawnmower beer.

I needed a few vinos when I got home.

The next day, Saturday, had a bit of a strange feel about it. One of those in between days when it is hard to figure out what day  of the week it actually is.

Our mission today was to look at used cars at CarMax.

This is a supermarket for cars – mega, mega huge with a confusing choice of options. Maurice had seen a Mustang he was keen on (I’m not) and so we sat down with the ever-so-helpful sales person to look at the deal. One thing about CarMax – you get what you pay for and there is no negotiating involved. What you see is what you get which does make things straightforward.

We do need to buy a car before 12 January or pay for additional rental costs ourselves. Chevron pay for 2 weeks and give you that time to get sorted.

We also checked out the VW Tiguan and Maurice kept salivating over the Corvette in the showroom – a truly ridiculous car that he would love and I would hate.

Onwards from there we stopped by The Burger Palace for a lovely lunch before heading home.

After a short break we headed out to the Galleria where I had been the day before, to give Maurice an idea of how close we were and what was there.

He did think that over $2000 for a skimpy jacket in Neiman Marcus was ridiculous and I thought $500 for a really uninspiring work style skirt was completely overpriced.

We won’t be shopping there routinely.

Sunday was a lovely day. We headed to Hermann Park for a walk and a wee trip on the kiddie train.

The Hermann Park Express
The Hermann Park Express

We tested out routes from our preferred house on Plumb to the office and Maurice practiced driving to Smith St for the start of work tomorrow. I practiced driving too – with less success but still – I managed, albeit it always nearly ends in divorce or tears or both! We lunched at the quiet Thai restaurant near Randalls and then chilled for the evening so that Maurice could be rested for his big day tomorrow.

Can’t believe we have done so much in such a short space of time. We know (roughly) where we would like to live, we have options on cars – just need to choose and get Maurice to remain sensible, and we are beginning to quite like Houston.

That could now all change – we really can’t take the house on Plumb – they only want to lease for 6 months which is no use so back to the drawing board…