Blogs from Egham, Surrey, England, United Kingdom, Europe

Tim has the keyboard: We are off at last. Now sitting on the flight from Auckland to Seoul the past few days have been a blur of packing, tidying, grooming the property and generally losing sleep over the nay things we thought we would forget. Thanks to all who helped out as we have got ready. I know I will forget some of you but special mentions go to everyone who entertained Kirby and Gemma over the holidays while Linda and I stressed, Anna and Craig for the urgent loan of the trailer, to Alexa and Kevin for taking sheep sheering off the agenda for our final day, to Jean for helping out everywhere and to you all for your good wishes, cups of tean and coffee and an endless stream of goodbye meels. Finally a ... read more

As I normally find myself this time of the summer, I become awe struck at the entire process. We come here, take over, make our mark, pack up, and return home. I spent today cleaning out many years of "activities" materials. For the last couple of years I get some guys to move big boxes marked "Activities Office" into my office and have never had a real chance to sit down and look at it all. I found a box of rubber snakes, a letter dated 1982, a box of plaster of paris, a few blow up beach balls, a bunch of TASIS postcards that can no longer be printed since the negative was lost years ago, and various other things. It felt good to finally purge the last 25 years worth of stuff and finally ... read more

Last week I went into London and saw "Sister Act" compliments of my job here at TASIS. I guess due to the amount of tickets I purchase, I was given two free tickets to the show. It was incredible! Even better quite honestly than seeing Jerry Springer in Chicago. I have no pictures from my "move" as it was frantic. I was told on friday morning at 8.30AM that I had to vacate my apartment. Due to the amount of sick kids, a new sick bay had to be created. Unfortunately, my dorm was the biggest and I became homeless. I originally agreed to live at the B&B but decided to move back to my old neighborhood. I prefer the box I live in now (which is a guesthouse near my flat from last year). I ... read more

So the last few days have been quite busy. Sending off my first weekend of trips is always a bit hectic. As I was returning home to get ready for an evening in London to see Chicago I started chatting with the maintenance guys. In front of my building is this huge mound of dirt. Every day the guys rake the mound and finally I got curious. Turns out, this isn't just any mound. It's a Victorian Ice House (yes, in front of my window) that is a category 2 protected monument in the UK. They took me in the "restricted zone" and really what I saw looked like a huge brick well. Back in victorian times the people would fill the house with ice from the pond. They would then store their perishable food in ... read more

On Thursday I departed for my first administrative meeting in England during the winter. I arrived in Thorpe to find everything as I had left it for the most part. The new construction on campus finally started (after excavation in the fall revealed bones and ruins and had to be halted), yet the charm and the fantasy of the town remain even during the winter months. As I passed my favorite street sign "Fleetway Leading to the Gower" I continue to wonder what "the Gower" actually is. The little house named "Green Shutters" still has "green shutters" and I am still searching for a Hobbit to run out of the Orchard. My friends finally arrived ... from Greece, Latvia and California, and we jumped right into work. Ok, that is not quite true. We actually jumped ... read more

Last night was the big banquet and riverboat for the 6 week students. I planned the coach assignments, got my Friday evening trips off and went to get all dressed up for the night. As I am about to get into the shower I start thinking about the coaches and realized that if I didn't order the coaches who the hell did??? It hit me out of nowhere, 2 hours before departure, that I was lacking two 50 seater coaches to drive to the Festival Pier in London. Panic set in ... I called our contact and basically cried, plead, and told him I would pay 10,000 lbs for a coach and that I didn't care if he had to get them from Scotland, I needed those busses! He told me he would "work on it." ... read more