It’s the 4th of July – American Independence day. And we’re celebrating with them – 6 months independently living in the USA.
When we first learned we would be coming to Houston, we had mixed feelings. Having passed through once on the way home from a holiday back in 2011, we had not been well impressed. Everything seemed so spread out and finding the heart and soul of Houston seemed impossible.
Continue reading Reflecting on 6 months in Houston – Happy Independence Day
The things they don’t tell you. Like getting your tax affairs in order is not that straightforward. Particularly since HMRC helpfully advise phoning them ‘between 8 and 10 am – it’s quieter then’. That would be GMT so very quiet for me – I’m asleep in bed.
I tried a couple of times to get hold of HMRC before I came home to Aberdeen for my wee visit and gave up. I could only phone in the afternoon GMT and so it was not a quiet time. In fact: “All of our operators are busy just now. Goodbye” and that was that. The automated person at the other end hangs up on you. It’s one way of dealing with their busy times I guess.
So I tried to call them in the afternoon (GMT), first thing in the morning for me, the day after the election. I figured it might be quiet on a Friday afternoon and especially so the Friday after much of the UK had stayed up late to watch the results come in. I was right. I made considerable progress in that I did not get the automated message and then “Goodbye’. In fact I eventually got through! I kept them on the line for around 45 minutes or so to make sure I got all my questions answered and the technical expert I finally spoke to was exceptionally helpful. So was the PAYE guy but he was no expert on leaving the country.
I now have to download and print off a mountain of paperwork. It appears the option of online only goes so far and really the old fashioned way is preferred. And then I send it somewhere snail mail. Oh well, nothing else for it. Put in the pile of ‘things to do’ that I can’t really be bothered doing…
Only just back from my trip to Europe and I had another visitor in the shape of Jill’s husband Nick. He was over for OTC (Offshore Technology Conference) and I spent a very convivial 24 hours in his company. I got tickets for the baseball game at Minute Maid park from Debbie, my driving instructor, and so we set off not expecting too much. Both of us had been to a baseball game before and had therefore some pre-conceived ideas about what might be in store. It might be kindest to say we were not huge baseball fans – that is until then.
Firstly we had great seats. Ok so they were kind of high up on the third level so my vertigo was challenged. But we were right at the front so had a totally uninterrupted view and were right above the diamond part of the field where all the action takes place.
The roof was off Minute Maid (it’s retractable so is usually on in hot weather) – which made for a lovely summer evening in the sun with a deliciously cold beer or two. And we had two experts next to us, two older guys very much like Statler and Waldorf from the Muppets, except these guys were friendly and happy to answer what must have seemed like really dumb questions about baseball. Like what exactly do all those numbers on the scoreboard mean?
The Astros were stupendous. They ran home run after home run, they caught balls in far flung corners of the field and just kept winning. We stayed nearly to the end and to our credit we lingered longer than Statler and Waldorf! The Astros beat the Mariners by some margin – I still have not a clue what all the numbers mean though.
We followed the game with a meal at Pappasitos at the Hilton. Which was full of young girls who had attended a volleyball tournament at the nearby exhibition centre. Many short skirts were in evidence, the place was heaving and we were probably the oldest there.
The night was completed with a nightcap or three back at Rice Village, (we even spun the ‘shot wheel of fortune’) and we had the headaches the next day to remind us.
With OTC in town, I attended a lunch for RGU alumni. There are a fair few in Houston. This was held in a very nice restaurant and coinciding with OTC allowed any visiting alumni the opportunity to attend. It was very well supported and the Principal came along and schmoozed with the assembled graduates. Most of the attendees appeared to be from an Engineering background, although there were a number of non-techies like myself there too. It felt sort of warm and fuzzy to be with a group of people with RGU in common, albeit from different eras and disciplines. Aberdeen was a big connector too, and in true village fashion, you found that only a degree or two separated you from first hand connections and friends. It was reassuringly familiar in what can be a strange city. The hum of conversation continued well after lunch.
I also rose at the crack of dawn the next day to attend the Energy Voice Breakfast which was held at the Hilton in the Galleria that is booked out by half of the population of Aberdeen for the duration of OTC. RGU were one of the sponsors and provided our own expert speaker. I got there way too early – the tickets had the wrong start time printed on them – so had a chance to peruse the Press and Journal. Complimentary copies were laid out in reception and so it was a chance to catch up with news from home.
A story which caught my eye was one about how the mouth of the Don had been trashed by revellers during the May holiday weekend. There were pictures of a trail of devastation left behind.
It should not be shocking but it really made me angry. I hate pointless littering and the mindset that goes with it. The attitude that someone else will clear up after them, the lazy, careless, selfish attitude that I just can’t abide. I have been known to write to the Evening Excuse and send in pictures myself on just such a subject. Why does a lovely day bring out the worst in folk?
It’s the same over here – our lovely ducks are getting a few plastic bags and bottles floating by their island after Cinco de Mayo and a long weekend of festivities. Here’s hoping they don’t get caught up in the debris and meet their demise. Does that explain why 21 ducklings are now 6…?
Very little time to do the blog this week so you’ll be pleased to know it is short!
I have been struck by how those that sell us ‘stuff’ over here can package and market so effectively – the stores are just full of those-things-we never-thought-we-needed-and-now-want.
The latest of these was a little package I picked up and showed to Maurice when we were shopping in our local Randall’s – very like Waitrose and actually Safeway.
The little package contained 4 gorgeously tiny little plastic containers with different coloured lids. So handy. So cute. But the look on Maurice’s face said it all – what on earth do you need those for?
He didn’t get it did he? It’s not about what you need over here – it’s about what you want.
I wanted those cute little plastic containers that would really not be used – too tiny for leftovers, and too unnecessary for knick knacks – which otherwise come in the containers they were actually sold in.
Maurice would rather wash out an old coffee tin for his guitar gadgets – ‘this will be handy’ he says.
Said tin is accumulating rust and still in the kitchen, nowhere near guitars.
Anyone who has ever flown courtesy of a US airline will be familiar with Sky Mall. The glossy brochure you get in your seat pocket is packed full of highly unnecessary but nevertheless desirable gizmos, gadgets and bonkers accessories – many for your pets. Obviously there is cat clothing, but also folding stairs for your dog to use to get up on the sofa or your bed. And also any number of variations on the garden gnome theme as well as glow-in-the-dark toilet seats.
This is clearly a society with too much wealth to spend on absolute rubbish. But you get addicted to wanting this garbage. It pulls you in until before you know it, you really, really NEED this stuff.
The masters of spin are the ad men. I have spoken before about the advertisements on TV here – interrupting your viewing enjoyment at every turn. Sometimes you do actually enjoy the ad – well, only if Matthew McConaughey is in it. And now I want a Lincoln.
Oh, before I forget, did I mention I passed my Texas Driving test?
This road ‘test’ is all of 10 minutes long. I wondered if I was actually going to do a left turn – and I think I only did 2. It is therefore much more understandable why the general standard of driving over here is so dire. You can drive on a probationer licence without any ‘L’ plates denoting your apprentice status. You can phone, text, drink, eat your dinner (many do) and generally move around lanes in whatever haphazard way takes your fancy. You honk your horn at will when someone takes more than a nano second at a junction. You don’t ever ever bother to let someone in to the line of traffic in front of you if you can help it. And don’t look at anyone lest they take a road rage hairy canary and reach for their gun.
Anyway, back to consumerism.
We need to ‘buy’ medical services and have done a search for doctors and Maurice recently also visited the dentist.
The dentist appointment here is a very different affair from at home. The dentist himself appears to be ‘working on’ a number of patients at once in conveyor belt fashion, so you may get left for long periods in your chair, in a slightly downward tilted position with implements and instruments hanging out of your mouth while you endeavour to keep your mouth open.
Maurice’s experience was not pleasant and has not ended. Oh and it’s not cheap. $2900 apparently for his root canal treatment – all paid by the insurance company.
Mad Men started its final run here last night. It gives a great insight into the rise and rise of the consumer society and is wonderfully evocative of the early 70s, when I was last living in the US…
Ok that’s all folks. The ducklings are in Hermann Park and I have to go and visit them.
Won’t have much time for TV and musings in the next 3 weeks – visits from family and then a trip to Europe and home beckon so I’ll ‘see’ you in May when I imagine the weather will be ramping up a few degrees.
The big day had arrived!
So we had a leisurely start to the day with a very hearty and unhealthy breakfast to help the hangovers out of the way. I had been the designated driver so was perfectly fine, though tired, and became chief breakfast cook. The husband was delighted with his presents and overwhelmed and touched by his many cards and good wishes from back home.
We ventured over to Hermann Park again so that we could have a ‘cruise’ on the lake in the pedalos. The sun had come out and we enjoyed the warmth on the lake and the occasional spray from the fountain to cool us down. Ice creams and smoothies followed and a walk back home to get ready for our early birthday meal booked for the evening.
We signed up and tried Uber for the first time. What a grand concept this is. You call your car only 5 minutes or so before you wish to travel as there are always cars nearby. Your credit card details are stored and automatically debited for the amount of your fare and there is no need to tip at all. Our driver arrived promptly, chatted on the way there and had just qualified as a doctor. He was Uber driving to pay his fees and would soon be heading to Oklahoma to take up a position – hopefully qualifying in Orthopedics eventually. The fare is also incredibly cheap.
A lovely if rather pricey meal was partaken in Prego’s of Rice Village and then we headed to a different pub for a few beers before calling another Uber to take us home. The manager of Bar 55 was very chatty and enlightened us to a few more Texan essentials. He was ‘Persian’ by way of Austria, rather unusually, and now lives and works in Houston.
A melting pot of cultures, Houston does seem to draw an amazing mix of people from all over the world. Readily available employment, plentiful housing and an economy boosted by the major oil and gas industry, despite the recent oil price downturn, makes Texas unique in the US. A combination of available land and lending regulations have kept housing prices comparatively low and helped Texas avoid the real estate depression that dragged down many other state economies. It has natural advantages over other US states: cheap and plentiful land, a location that enables international immigration and trade and abundant natural resources. The cost of living is considerably lower than the US average. Housing, which represents roughly one-third of a typical household’s spending, is particularly inexpensive.
Thursday was Rodeo day! The visitors started the day with yet another extreme breakfast – courtesy of Leigh who was in head chef mode. We travelled to the Cypress Retail Outlet village in the morning for some retail therapy and headed back to base before our Rodeo experience. Our chosen mode of transport today was the metrorail and this was ideal, dropping us at the entrance to the NRG stadium where the Rodeo takes place. As well as all the fun of the fair, the Rodeo is an immense version of the Royal Highland Show, Texan style with the added spectacle of all the cowboy skills in an amazing multi-discipline competition. Each day is also topped off with first class entertainment from a country superstar and tonight we would see Blake Shelton of US version of the Voice fame!
Our seats were at the top of a cliff. No, seriously, they were as high up as you can go at the very back row of the NRG. Row T in section 639 was vertiginously placed, at a height I did not think I would reach. I had to be led to my seat and I did not look down – well, only at my feet – until I sat down. Oh dear God this was high up. But the view was stupendous. We could see everything very clearly – although binoculars would have been helpful.
New to Rodeo, I was not sure how I felt about the rough treatment of the animals in the stadium. However, I quickly realised that they did not seem too bothered, and any discomfort they felt was very short lived. Unlike the discomfort felt by the cowboys doing bareback bronco riding or worse, bull riding.
There is an irony about being advised not to walk up the escalator for ‘safety reasons’ in the NRG then watching young lads taking a beating from the back of a young horse or bull like you have never seen anyone withstand before. How do they do it? They must be made of elastic.
Aspiring teenage cowboys and girls take part in the Calf Scramble where calves are released to a group of youngsters who then try to catch and contain them. The main method employed appeared to be to catch their tails.
But for me the most unusual and somewhat baffling event was the Mutton Bustin’. This consists of wrapping a five or six-year old child around a sheep, to which he/she holds on for dear life, releasing said sheep and seeing how long the kid can stay wrapped around the sheep. This is close to that ‘a’ word – however most of the children emerged smiling and happy if a little bruised from their experience. They did wear helmets – which looked particularly necessary as a few stray mutton legs flayed in the direction of a child as they slid to the ground, inevitably, at the end of the run.
The main act started with a bang and being above the stage meant that the fireworks and light show looked all the more spectacular. I’ve been to some great gigs with light shows in my time – but this has to be one of the most amazing for the angle we watched from if nothing else. Blake Shelton was a fitting end to a great evening with a rollicking repertoire of oldies finishing with Footloose which got everyone dancing – well – in their seats at least. I certainly could not stand up.
And over in flash – the girls’ visit was at their last day. Our last tourist trip was to Twin Peaks. We are ‘lucky’ enough to have one locally and the place did not disappoint particulary Leigh and Maurice who admired the view inside. It was full of men on an early weekend drinking session and others out for lunch. The girls and I were definitely in the minority of mainly male customers. Our hostess and waitress were perfectly pleasant, if a little under-dressed, and the food was pretty good too.
Off to the airport and we said our goodbyes. Maurice was a bit down after their departure so it was good that we had yet another gig that evening. This was all the better as it was both unexpected and free. Miller Outdoor Theater in Hermann Park puts on all manner of shows over 9 months of the year for free. You queue up on the morning of the performance for your tickets and you get a seat under cover. If you don’t want to do that, there’s the grassy hill to sit on behind the covered area with a great view of the stage. Blankets to one side and camping chairs to the other to allow all to get the best view possible.
I had queued up that morning for tickets before anyone was up and was rewarded with great seats to see the Spencer Davis Group. I had convivial conversation with the others in the line, all of a certain age, who could actually remember the Spencer Davis Group.
So we set off around 7.15 for the park and took our seats along with the other mainly grey haired audience. It did not disappoint. The old numbers were interspersed with a good few unknown ones, all very bluesy and right up our street.
Our third gig in a row came the following evening when we set off for the Rodeo once again.The weather had taken a turn for the worse with torrential rain so we Ubered to the NRG for the princely sum of around $5.00. This time Brad Paisley was the main act and once again we were treated to a feast of cowboy skills. The finals of some of the events were taking place so the stakes, and the prize money, were high. Another Calf Scramble, another Mutton Bustin this time with a wee girl taking the honours, confidently chatting away to the commentator after her event like a seasoned performer.
The star performance though was the winner of the Barrel Racing – a pure speed event where a woman/girl rides her horse as fast as possible around three barrels and back out again. The winner has won several years on the trot (!) and is 57 years young! Find out more about Nancy and see her ride.
Brad Paisley was pure class and wonderful with his fans. Our seats were a bit nearer the action, still on the 6th level though so we had spectacular views of the lights and fireworks. Paisley treated his fans to a walkabout by the ringside, shaking hands taking selfies and even a short video for one lucky fan, while all the time singing and playing his gee-tarr.
Back down to earth again today (Sunday) and Maurice has toothache. A search for a suitable dentist has started. This will be a challenge.
Google has provided 3043 search results within 10 miles of our address….
Right – got your attention with my unashamed ‘click-bait’ headline!!!
So I lied.
Well – a little bit. There was Rock ‘n Roll – and the drugs – if you count my boring regular prescription for very minor health complaint.
But sadly, no sex – what do you take me for? My husband was away…
So this week I went to see Fleetwood Mac for the second time in less than 2 years. The first time was in Glasgow shortly after the Hydro opened and it was amazing. We had seats in the fourth row and could almost touch Lindsay Buckingham – and a lot of women would very much like to touch him – even at 65 (there’s the sex!) The day we saw them in Glasgow was Lindsay’s 64th birthday. He still plays like he absolutely loves it and his passion and skill are apparent for all to revel in.
This time I was accompanied by Erna in place of Maurice and we had seats relatively near the back of the Toyota Centre ‘floor’. So not such great seats but Christine McVie has returned and I was determined I would see the entire team in action. It lived up to expectation. They all really seem like they are having a great time – well, apart from John McVie who is the ‘quiet one’. This was their 60th gig of this tour. It was wonderful to hear some of the old classics they had to skip before because Chris McVie was not there to add her unique rendition. I last saw Christine McVie when she was with Chicken Shack…umpty tum years ago. We had sneaked into the gig in the Music Hall using old tickets from one of my mother’s coffee mornings! In the days when tickets were only printed bright green and in one shape and size, I have to assume. She is an amazing 71 years old!! Good grief.
I feel very fortunate to have lived in this era when fantastic rock music has developed and been played. I happened to watch Led Zeppelin in the O2 on TV this week – that’s one gig I really really wish I’d been to but alas did not have that opportunity. Will they play again? Many oldies but goodies are coming to Houston in the coming months including the Who and Bob Dylan. Got tickets for the Who but not Dylan – yet…
We do like our live music and this month have a fair few gigs lined up. It is Rodeo time in Houston! And there are excellent, mainly country, acts playing at the venue. We also go to see Joshua Radin next Friday evening so I’ll report back on that.
Being as I was out on the town on Tuesday night, I decided I needed some hair treatment prior so managed to get an appointment with a salon nearby.
My first hair-doo in Houston.
And hairdressers are most definitely the same the world over. Non-stop chit chat. My ‘Texas approved cosmetician’ was Tina, originally from Vietnam. Very slim and pretty with immaculately coiffured long hair with a touch of colour and curls, she was of indeterminate age – but probably somewhere in the 50s though really looked in her 40s. She’s been here for many years – however still has a very strong Vietnamese accent. Now, a Vietnamese accent speaking in a sort of Texan drawl is very tricky for a born and bred Aberdonian to comprehend. I found myself nodding and smiling appreciatively in a random fashion, hoping that the reaction was the correct response to the previous paraphrase. I did learn an awful lot about Tina in a very short period of time. She had been married to a Vietnamese gentleman who sadly died. Or perhaps not so sadly as she proclaimed Vietnamese men to be ‘bad men’ ‘ not nice at all’. Apparently ‘they are ok at first but after 2 years they are horrible’. So sweeping aside her sweeping generalisations – I enquired if she had married again? Oh yes. She replied that she had married ‘ah choo’. I was a bit puzzled till I realised she meant she had married ‘a jew’. Oh ok, I thought. A jew – and also kind of wondered what his jewishness had to do with it – but I imagine for a Vietnamese middle-aged hairdresser this was worth mentioning to me. He had been a customer for 10 years and then they got together and have been married for 2 years. There was a great deal more to the tale than this – but I could not accurately reflect the intimate detail in this space.
My hair was cut ‘n coloured for a very reasonable price by US standards and looks fine so I imagine I’ll see more of Tina and hear more rich stories of her life in the US and her scattered family in Hong Kong, Paris and Houston.
The rest of my home alone activity has been pretty normal. The only other thing to note is I have booked my driving test for 31 March. We (Debbie, my instructor and I) went out to the DPS – Department of Public Safety (which seemed like it was many miles away) to register and it was a painless enough. The only shock to the system was leaving the house at 7.30 and navigating rush hour traffic. Debbie drove there, thankfully. However, she did have her mobile phone in hand the entire journey and sent numerous texts pertaining to the appointment at the DPS as well as other texts to her husband while driving. And I mean while driving, not when we were stopped in traffic. It is just endemic here – everyone has their phone to hand while driving – it is truly horrific.
Ok, now to the 10 things I have done in Houston that I have not done before:
However with regard to number 10 – the weather is so unpredictable as reported before. We are once again colder than Aberdeen but sunny.
Here’s hoping it brightens up for the girls’ visit next week.
Yee Ha for now and I’ll keep y’all posted on the Rodeo!
Ok, so this is not the worst thing going on in the world right now.
However, it is mightily irksome when you pay (or will be paying) for a service that just doesn’t live up to the hype.
But enough of that – you don’t want to hear me wingeing. You want to read tales of derring do in Houston.
Not too much derring or do just now in Houston. Domesticity has crept up on me and apart from my remote work for RGU, I do seem to manage to fill the day perfectly well with rather mundane activities. The latest major excitement for me has been the arrival of a wide variety of online purchases for the home. Would they live up to the pretty pictures on the websites? Would I remember what the h**l I bought anyway?
I have to say that almost without exception, the delivery of items has been wonderful. They are left on the doorstep routinely which also means I don’t have to hang about in the house and as we are in a gated community, it’s pretty safe.
Less enjoyable is assembling flat pack furniture. That’s not been a tremendous joy and has filled many hours that I won’t get back. On the plus side – I can now use an allen key (or wrench as it is rather inaccurately described in the instructions) quite well without breaking my nails. And I can do the bedside tables (or night stands as they are called here) from World Market blindfold. My pb is around half an hour.
Ordering things online has been a bit of a challenge due to the language barrier. Normal household items here have different names so a lot of guesswork has to be done to get to what you want via search on the internet. Now as I am a Search Engine Optimisation expert (well – not really but more so than most) I understand the importance of using the correct keyword in your web content. But when you don’t even know the right keyword to use in the first place, it all gets a bit messy and random.
So here are some useful translations: curtains are drapes and are usually sold singly rather than in pairs though why anyone would only want one is beyond me; curtain poles are, therefore, drape rods; valanced sheets for the bed are rather attractively known as bedskirts; and a corner unit for one’s kitchen is a breakfast nook.
One thing which has been most unreliable here of late is the weather. We enjoyed some wonderful sunny warm days in January and I know I annoyed many of you with my pics of the pool at the apartment complex. But today, once again, Houston has been shivering in temperatures of 3 degrees. I now look at the temperature and it has climbed to 7 and only just overtaken Aberdeen for the first time in 3 days. On Sunday we were sweltering in 24 degrees and it was muggy. We ventured out on Sunday evening to a local hostelry and Maurice wore his shorts. Within half an hour of leaving the house, the temperature had plummeted, the wind was up and the cold front had made an unwelcome appearance. Maurice’s knees (and perhaps some areas further north) were blue.
Today – from the 3 degrees of this morning – we are due to reach the balmy heights of 13 by 5pm which is a pretty large leap in a day. Early next week we are set to be at 26 again. So never a dull moment here – nothing predictable about the weather at this time of year – but here’s hoping it settles down a bit. The heating/aircon systems are getting a bit confused not to mention this ex-pat.
So on to the Xfinity saga. I really won’t bore you with the entire debacle, but suffice to say it has been one of the worst customer experiences of my life. With the exception of Orange/EE. And perhaps BT/Scottish Gas/Sky at times.
The Orange/EE issue was with my UK mobile. For some reason Orange take 28 days to send you a new pay as you go SIM. O2 sent Maurice his in a day. We wanted to cancel our mobile contracts but keep the UK numbers going with PAYG SIMs. Needless to say my SIM had not arrived prior to leaving the UK but arrived via re-directed mail some 2 weeks later. Then it became inordinately difficult to get anyone at Orange to understand what I wanted to do. I spent the best part of 2 hours on 3 separate phone calls only to find the issue was not sorted, and that Orange had the cheek to charge me yet another month’s payment for the monthly contract I had been trying to cancel since the end of November! I have since spoken to them, emailed them, and cursed them – to finally receive this week a refund of the month’s charges. My UK number is now transferred to a PAYG SIM but I dread to think what will happen when I try to top this up online from here….
Ok – back to Xfinity. We have never had ‘on demand’ since we subscribed nearly 4 weeks ago. So at the end of last week we made serious efforts to finally get this fixed. Only to result in us having no tv at all – nothing. And the final straw was a general ‘outage’ on Monday which took out phone and internet too. There was more to the story than this – including many, many phone calls to their helpline – which is of course automated. I can practically recite the options and the disclaimer which informs us that they can tell there are problems on our line. And all of this from a voice that very frustratingly, can’t listen to you. It asks for voice responses then tells you ‘sorry, I can’t understand that response’ because the automated listening device can’t understand my accent. I have resorted to the most ridiculously exaggerated American accent to try to get the thing to understand! Finally, when you do get a real person, it is really hit and miss who you get and if they are at all interested in your problems.
These technical issues were finally resolved by a very capable young man called Melvin who came to the house yesterday. We did indeed have a signal problem which after 3 hours he has fixed – for now. Excuse my pessimism.
It has made me contemplate the complexity of the infrastructure in a city like Houston: a huge sprawling city with many construction projects and service provision issues. Is there a point at which a city gets just too big to cope with all the major service demands? Maurice and I have concerns for rubbish – or rather garbage – disposal. Unlike Aberdeen we have not one but two refuse collections per week, including a recycling collection which we use extensively. But disposing of garbage, sewerage and other unmentionables in a city of this scale must be immensely challenging. Especially in a consumer society which loves its packaging and also its polystyrene, plastic and other non-biodegradable products.
But they do seem to dispose of it remarkably well here. You don’t see much litter on the streets and certainly not in the public parks. It must be a major industry.
A sadder tale is of the number of homeless ‘pan handlers’ we see around the streets. Many take up positions at busy intersections with traffic lights and appeal directly to car drivers and passengers with their scrawled notices proclaiming desperate times.
One of our ‘local’ homeless has taken up residence in what can only be described as a very large rubbish bin near to Burger King and Pizza Hut. He is known to the staff in these establishments and appears to use their toilet facilities, and, one can only presume, he gets the odd scrap of food from the surplus there too. He must be very cold right now.
What has brought someone to a point in their life where living in a refuse container is the only choice they have? In a mega-wealthy country, as the USA is, it is a social disgrace. Do they have a choice? We are led to believe there are shelters for the homeless and that not many of the pan handlers are truly without a roof over their heads. But surely to goodness if you could choose a shelter over a rubbish bin you would.
Wouldn’t you?
Here are some images of the area near where we live – just a few words this time (skip the words and scroll to the gallery if you must…)
The weather is very Spring like just now – beautiful clear blue skies – and not hot at all.
We are lucky to have Hermann Park on our doorstep and hike and bike trails and a lovely walking area nearby.
The only downside about living in the Medical Center area is that we hear emergency vehicles pretty regularly, including the odd helicopter. Mind you, we lived under the helicopter flight path in Bridge of Don so no worse than that. There are very few sirens at night – no need, I guess, as the area is pretty quiet. We have witnessed a sort of strange Medical Center rush hour at 6.30pm – not sure if it’s due to shift changes or visiting time but apart from that – pretty quiet. Much like Cornhill Road only the hospital acreage is a tad larger by a factor of 10 – Foresterhill occupies 125 acres and the TMC (Texas Medical Center) over 1300. The largest in the world, apparently, and I can believe it!
Those so inclined can find out more about the TMC:
To navigate the images, click on the first one and then use the scrolling bar – or swipe or whatever your device lets you do!
We have been reunited with our possessions!
Our main shipment arrived on Friday, finally, after a long wait. Scheduled for 9.30, it arrived at 2pm – all 84 boxes.
84 boxes is apparently not that much – these guys have seen 500 or even 1000 boxes before and spent days unpacking! 84 seemed like a lot to me.
Now many of you know that the packing up process was very stressful. Especially for Maurice. The packing up guys went on ‘auto-pack’ towards the end and it was anyone’s guess what was going to finally arrive in Houston.
There was a leather jacket that was a particular mystery. And the contents of the garage.
So we were pleasantly surprised that the unpacking process was a lot less stressful. Partly because of the unpacking team who were stupendous.
Here I have to mention that Texas still has remnants of southern race issues very much in evidence. One of the most notable manifestations of this is in the racial stereotypes you encounter in everyday life. Certain occupational groups are made up, in the main, of entirely one race. This is quite jarring coming from a relatively tolerant society, and of course the stereotypes in Scotland are slightly different anyway.
The entire unpacking team were African American. I guess I should not be surprised by this but it was a little disconcerting to be referred to all day as Miss Katherine (or Miss Caroline later on when my name had been muddled up with another). I guess I’ll get used to it. It is just a southern ‘thing’ I was told by my adviser on all things Texan, Debbie, my driving instructor. I did feel like a character from Gone With the Wind or Driving Miss Daisy.
Unlike the Aberdeen team – who were also very good but a bit random – this team intuitively knew where to put your possessions to make it very easy for you to put away somewhere sensible. And they were very quick – I think it took around 2 hours to take 84 boxes into the house and unpack almost every box.
We have a few random items:
Less randomly we have the scorpion saw for our Texas Chainsaw Massacre moments, and, thank goodness, the leather jacket made a much appreciated appearance. This will be for the 3 days a year that it is cold enough and this coincides with a suitable opportunity to wear said leather jacket…
We have also bought a few more items, having realised that we left behind some things we should have taken. Take note anyone going overseas to live – take your ironing board, step ladder and a few decent tools for when you first get there and need to hang up mundane things like curtains. It soon adds up when you have to buy all of this stuff again.
I am missing UK tv. I do watch Eastenders and Corrie when I can via a tunnel I have dug to the UK t’internet….secretly. Which means that the Beeb and STV think I am in the UK and let me watch. Otherwise iPlayer and STV player restrict out of country viewers. Interestingly Channel 4 has no such moral high ground and I managed to watch the last episode of Homeland eventually.
But I can see Downtown Abbey and episodes that are not that old, on public broadcast tv over here – if I really want to. But much more entertaining – though on at a rather late hour – is the fan programme that comes on after Downtown Abbey. It is hilarious. Manor of Speaking is like the Strictly Take 2 for Downtown with all sorts of ‘behind the scenes’ observations on the plot and the cast and absolutely anything remotely associated. The experts include someone British whose main claim to any expertise would appear to be a posh voice and being British. Hysterical!
I am not watching tv much though. I don’t have time with all the other things that have to be done and fitting in 9 hours work. However, earlier in the year when the weather was not so good, I would have a tv splurge now and again. And I have started watching Game of Thrones and House of Cards on Netflix.
Game of Thrones is available on ‘on demand’ tv here – but our on demand tv is not working. Having reported on the wonders of Xfinity (=Sky) – I can get the ‘on demand’ on any other device including my phone, but not on the tv itself which is a pain. First world problems.
Our other first world problems include a dishwasher that leaked all over the floor and has to be replaced, a burglar alarm system that kept beeping at inconvenient moments and getting lost while trying to get to the dealership for our Texas number plates.
We are settling into a routine now with Maurice working, or away, and me at home working or dealing with all the officialdom, domestic tasks and various services that we have to set up.
I am still taking driving lessons each week with the lovely Debbie and will continue to take full advantage until I am ready for my test. We really just go ‘cruising’ around the neighbourhood or wherever else I want to go and chew the fat about life in general.
Debbie was widowed young, as was I, and has remarried so we have that in common. Her first husband was from somewhere Latin American and his family wanted his funeral to be there in his home country. Apparently it would have cost an enormous amount, $14,000 I think, to transport his ashes back to the US.
So Debbie smuggled him home in a protein supplement container. Half of him at any rate as I think half was left back home. Some of him has now been sprinkled in places of meaning to the family here, including on the floor of the Natural History Museum in New York.
With Debbie’s patience, (I had a couple of near misses on the freeway this week – eek!), hopefully I’ll pass my test and get my licence soon. I would like to get a car of my own so that I can get out and about a bit more. Perhaps a truck.
We are open for visitors and have a few lined up already. Plenty room in Staffordshire Crescent and lovely warm weather – we’d love to see y’all!
We’ve moved!
At last we have moved out of our temporary ‘Shining’ apartment and moved into a lovely town house in the Texas Medical Centre area.
Houston House
Although we have moved, our possessions have not quite made it. Rather annoyingly we have had to go out and buy some basics to keep us going and so have been introduced to some of the more interesting retail experiences of the USA.
First of all there is Rooms-To-Go. This does exactly what it says on the tin – and sells you complete room settings – to go. No waiting for 6 weeks (usually 8) for a new sofa – ‘pick a date and we’ll deliver’. Initially we were just going to get a cheap sofa. Well, half an hour of browsing later and we’d furnished the home.
We still have a lot to come from the UK so we didn’t go completely mad.
Honest.
The next on the list for essentials was Ikea. Just like Ikea back home. Unfortunately. But cheaper and with all we could possibly need So we piled high the trolley with linen and crockery and cutlery and 2 carefully chosen pans. All my pans are coming over from the UK so didn’t want to go over the top. One medium one and one smaller one for rice or pasta.
After queuing for what seemed like hours but was probably 10 minutes, everything was checked through except for – one of the pans. I had apparently chosen a display pan which couldn’t be ‘rung through’. What?
So I have one very small pan. No we were not going back in to brave the 5 mile walk to the pan section.
We managed to buy a couple of beds from the second hand goods website that Chevron helpfully provides to employees. The slight snag was that we had to pick these up ourselves. Now, the new car is a bit of a tardis – but being a ‘reasonably priced car’ in the sensible saloon category, it was not going to take a bed. Or even a mattress. So Maurice hired a van from U-Haul.
Sunday (Superbowl Sunday!) was our moving date so we hired a van to collect at 10.00. It was important that we had something to sleep on.
On our way to collect it, we were traveling along the freeway minding our own business in our reasonably priced car. Being Sunday, it was pretty quiet. When suddenly at a most awkward point on the road, where 5 or 6 lanes split to become two separate freeways, we saw a police car with its rear end sticking out into the nearside lane, our lane, with blue lights flashing having pulled over a car sitting in front of it.
We had to brake really hard and put the hazards on too, when suddenly from behind us careered a large pick up truck which screeched all the way around us and ended up swinging right around to face us. Meaning we had to come to a full stop – on the freeway. Bits were flying off cars all around us and somehow we, and our car, were unscathed.
Rolling down the window we asked the cop if he needed us as witnesses and he flagged us over to the hard shoulder. Basically his car sticking out had caused a chain reaction behind us. Looked like two pick up trucks had tried to take avoiding action, were going too fast or were distracted (drivers are always on the phone or texting) and collided. One was scraped down one side and the other lost bits and was left facing the opposite way.
We hadn’t really much more to add so the cop let us go – we were running late now to collect our van – and were very shaken by what we had just seen. No one looked hurt thankfully, but the girl in the truck that swung around probably had whiplash or at very least was left traumatised. What possessed the cop to stop his car where he did is beyond me.
A pick up truck is becoming ever more appealing as the second car.
At U-Haul we inspected our vehicle. Maurice thought it was not going to be big enough. So back to the office and we were provided with a truly enormous truck – more like a lorry – in the UK not sure we would be legally allowed to drive it. Maurice managed pretty well really.
Satnav took us to the locations to collect the beds and we also had another trip to Rooms-To-Go. We had bought a floor bargain which had to be collected in person. Unfortunately Satnav didn’t know about road works which narrowed lanes and took us on journeys through residential areas with our enormous cargo vehicle. A few tree branches were victims. Thankfully it was only vegetation that suffered.
The beds are great – practically brand new – and so at least we had something to sleep on for our first night in the house.
We went back out to get the next essential – a guitar amplifier….(sighs).
Right across the road from the Guitar Centre is Walmart.
We went to Walmart. This is Asda on steroids. But the only resemblance to Asda is some of the clothing – as the George label was in evidence.
This was a serious mega-mega store. Whole communities could exist in the aisles here, and do. Children were riding bikes, teenagers were playing video games, babies were probably born here. How they close the store – I do not know. Perhaps they don’t. How could you ever be really sure it is empty? Not easy.
This place sells everything. Not cars, but that’s about it, although, tyres and other car bits – yes.
This place was jawdroppingly massive and cheap. We had intended to buy phones for the house. But ended up with all our electrical appliances including a hoover and also an ironing board. I wish I had taken a picture of Maurice pushing the trolley.
By the way, mushrooms are quite expensive relatively speaking over here and there’s not much choice. Strange. The only explanation I got from my lovely driving instructor Debbie is that it’s maybe a taste thing, that and the way they are grown…hmmm.
I am very lucky to have a lovely, patient driving instructor. I’m getting better but still get sweaty palms on the freeway. And the near miss doesn’t help. Debbie brought me some home made jam and fresh farm eggs – which were delicious. She was given an Emu’s egg last weekend and it arrived at her home by post, wrapped in a disposable nappy. Taking over an hour to blow out the contents, she then made a frittata that fed 9 people with one egg. ‘Goodness, all the way from Australia?’ I asked. ‘No, Arizona’ was the unlikely reply.
Fresh produce in general is wonderful over here. Salads and vegetables are fresh and flavourful, crunchy and very tasty. I am still finding my way with choice – there are so many great stores – as with most things it would appear- you do get great quality at a reasonable price.
Mind you – a gallon of gas/petrol – $1.85. A gallon of milk $3.85.
In advance of our move we had to deal with another 2 priorities – tv and internet.
Xfinity is sort of like Sky. So we went to the Xfinity store to sign up for our service. The very helpful assistant explained everything clearly and outlined the monthly cost. But the service is very different from Sky. Firstly you don’t sign up for any specific period of time – it is just month to month and can be cancelled any time. You get presented with all the equipment you need in the store, in a nice recyclable red bag. You leave the store with a router, a tv cable box, coax and hdmi cables and an extra gizmo for a second tv. And you don’t pay a penny up front. That’s right, nothing. We will get a bill in arrears, monthly. But basically we were handed over a whole pile of equipment for nothing. No security. No credit card swipe. Amazing.
However, needless to say, connecting all of this up did not go quite as smoothly as expected, but they are sooooo helpful on the phone. Switching off and on again is their main technical assistance – eventually we were hooked up.
And Xfinity has apps. An app to turn your phone into a remote, an app to watch on demand tv, an app for your account, an app for everything. Hours of endless fun for me. We have HBO on demand so I’ll be catching up with Game of Thrones at last!
So much dross tv though. I never knew there were so many types of catheter. And Vein Clinics of America. Seriously, I am rather worried about my demographic profile. Clearly I am watching tv with many very ill people, judging by my ads.
BTW we supported the Seahawks – and they lost.
Ok have rambled on enough for this week. Here’s hoping our main shipment arrives this weekend, and I have more than one pan to cook with.
Images courtesy of Martin Parker. No I haven’t had a transformation or surgical help…yet.
Whole Other Country 
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