Notes from England - Housing Developments

Hi everyone!

It's been another busy couple of weeks since my last post, but we've a great deal to show for it. Helen and I have worked really, really hard on the house, and it's really coming together! I've included some pics below, so let's get started.

First of all, let me start with the lovely Helen. A few weeks ago, Helen went and got her hair cut and styled with a few red highlights through it. She'd been wanting to do it for some time now, but with the wedding, it was easier (for the hair style she chose for the day) to have more hair to work with. Her hair used to be below her shoulder blades...probably to the centre of her back. It's much shorter now, and I think it's really, really beautiful...so pardon me if I dwell for a moment. Besides...she wasn't expecting me to take the picture...hence the sort of surprised/amused expression on her face in the transition between the two shots.

Okay, so here's our living room! I adjusted the brightness/contrast on this pic because it came out really dull for some reason. The batteries were going on the camera, so I'm not sure the flash was working properly. The rest to follow look much better.

Anyway, we've got sofas, TV, DVD, VCR, Wii...we're only missing the Sky box...but that's a different post altogether. We've also put in a few different styles of display/storage cabinets, as you'll see. We stuck primarily with lighter birch and beech effect 'wood', just in an effort to brighten the rooms a bit. Aside from being a great way do display some of our more precious possessions like fragile figurines, etc, they're also very functional. They've allowed us to tuck our videos, DVDs CDs and everyday beat up paperback books away and out of sight.

Anyhoo, we really like how the colours came together. The feature wall (or accent wall depending on what home-decorating guru you ask) in the 'red berries' is fantastic; also Helen thought it would work really well to put a swatch of the berry behind the flower pictures on the walls, as it really helps them to pop out.

I couldn't agree more - it works fabulously. The unfortunate problem is that if you want to mask off a square for such a task, when you pull the tape back off the wall you tend to take bits of paint off with you. It's a real pain in the bum. So for all the masking I had to do whilst painting, you can imagine that there's a significant amount of touch-up left to do.

You can see the other wall here, and I think the three pics work fantastically together. The three small flower pics along with the large flower pic over the sideboard were from a little art shoppe in Bowness in the Lake District. Also, you'll note (if you saw the pics of the home before we decorated) that we replaced the bare-bulb with a proper flush-mount ceiling fixture. It looks really nice and, of course, really brightens the room.

Next is the dining/kitchen area. What can you say about it? It's fabulous...but it is what it is. We used the dining table & chairs along with the display/storage cabinet to sort of 'separate' the rooms a bit. It helps create a visual distinction between the lounge and the kitchen. I did have to take the radiator (next to the display cabinet on the left arm of the sofa) off the wall and re-drill and mount it so that the cabinet would actually fit there. Our measurement was off by something like 2 or 3mm. Don't you hate it when that happens?

As you can see, the soapstone for a kitchen floor works really well especially against the 'glamour' (light pink/beige) on the walls. Complimenting that with the warmth of the walnut cabinets and the contrasting dark counter tops really worked to our benefit, I think. We've noticed a few of the apartments whilst driving/walking by (not that we're nosey) have some very...different...styles. Anything from rainbow-like colours and cabinets to stark, sterile white with bare light bulbs dangling from the ceiling everywhere. Yeesh.

Moving out of the lounge we'll go down the hall (painted in a nice, warming 'wild honeysuckle)into the first door on the left, the spare room. Again, you get the lovely view of the park that you enjoy from the lounge. Here we have put the spare wardrobe, the single bed and the computer desk and filing cabinet. We've also got some more shelves in here for book/media storage. We like the idea of having things tucked away and out of sight.

We went with 'china blue' for the land of 'spare oom' and it works really nicely. The curtains, like the ones in the lounge, are a faux suede and do a really nice job of blocking out the sunlight. Like the hallway we've left the hanging bulbs up in the spare room, but have replaced the 'energy efficient' bulbs...which blinked and gave one a headache if one was around them too long...with standard bulbs. Then we found some nice ornamental shades to pretty them up!

As you can see, we've not really put up any pictures as wall decoration in this room. Instead Helen and I have decided to use this room to tuck our sharp and pointy, somewhat dangerous wall decorations safely away. Helen's 'Hadhafang' is sitting along the top of the little bookshelves next to the desk, but will ultimately end up on the a shelf on the wall next to all the other swords. Sitting out as it is, it just begs to be picked up...and that's probably not a good idea. Can you say 'liability'?


Anyway, Helen and I found it amusing that a sword like 'Herugrim' (on the wall, far right) which initially seems quite large, suddenly becomes dwarfed when compared to something like 'Anduril' (on the wall, far left). As many of you know, I've still got swords in the States ready to be shipped over to me, so the walls above the bed will be nicely fleshed out with our 'Lord of the Rings' collectibles when all is said and done. Just...if you stay over in the spare bed, don't sit up sharply whilst in bed. You may just regret it.

Further down the hall in the second door to the left we find the master bedroom. We went for warmth in this room, as with the lounge. Where the feature wall in the lounge was 'red berries', this feature wall is 'fireside'. It's a much darker red and just adds a great overall feeling of comfort and warmth, especially when complimented by the red faux suede curtains and chocolate brown accents. The throw across the foot of the bed is a chocolate brown faux bear fur blanket backed with a caramel-coloured fleece and is actually large enough to cover the bed from top to bottom. The painting of the sunset was also bought in the Lake District, at the same art gallery as the flower pics in the lounge. If I recall correctly it is inspired by a view the artist found in Ireland. There's also a fantastic panoramic picture of the Chicago skyline across the lake at Sunset that sits just inside the bedroom door...unfortunately you can't see it in this shot. Again, the reds in the sunsets really help bring out the warmth of the room. For the master bedroom we also put in a flush-mount ceiling light, much like the one in the lounge. It's made to match the lights on the night stand...so if you picture those, but turned upside down and with 3 bulbs instead of 2, you've got it.

Next is the en-suite. Although it looks like the same colour as the spare bedroom, this is actually 'clear sky' where the bedroom was 'china blue'. Trust me...they're different. It's a much colder blue than the one we used in the bedroom, and that works well for the bathroom. It feels like a nice clean colour. The floors are 'calcite' and the colouring matches quite well with the darkest grey of the tiles on the wall. For those keeping score, the picture above the toilet is a watercolour of the canals in Venice.

Also, as mentioned in previous posts, the towel rails are heated and the sole source of heating for the bathrooms. And as my posterior and elbows can attest...they are very warm! Still, there's nothing quite like getting out of the shower and having a nice warm towel to greet you.

The master bathroom is done in the same colours as the en-suite. We've gone for some nice watery-themed pictures to brighten things up a bit. To the left over the towel rail is a lovely wide shot of the Great Barrier Reef in Australia where Helen did SCUBA.

On the right over the bath is an incredibly beautiful picture of a waterfall. Don't ask me where it's supposed to be. It looks like a watercolour to me and there are a couple of Chinese-style characters on the lower-right corners. The style of trees in the image also suggest its Asian influences...but that's all I can tell you.

We also put a set of drawers just inside the bathroom door to put all the bits and pieces like shampoo, moisturisers, extra TP, (etc.) in. We don't want them hanging about in the bathroom making it look cluttered and messy. So, like with all our media, we've tucked them away out of sight. Also, in both the bathroom and en-suite we I removed the energy-efficient light fixtures and replaced them with some proper bathroom fixtures. Again, it's an effort to eliminate the blinking, headache-inducing problems of the e.e. bulbs, but as an added benefit they more yellowy colour of the standard bulbs adds a warmth that you can't get otherwise.

That's about all. If you continue down the hall any further you'll go 'round the corner and out the door. You can see that we've put up some mirrors at the end of the hall to help catch the light and throw it around in the darkness of the corner. On the left of the hall as you exit (not shown) is a beautiful charcoal drawing of Venice that Helen's parents picked up whilst on a visit before Helen was even born. To the right, which you can just see, is the wedding card Aaron gave us. It was such a beautiful picture, Helen insisted on framing it and hanging it in our new home. It's 'The Wedding Morning' by John Henry Frederick Bacon.

That's all I've got time for right now, friends. I've got lots to do and less time to do it. If you've got any questions or comments regarding this little home tour which I hope you enjoyed as much as I did, please post a comment below!

Take care of yourselves.

~Jer

PS - Thanks to everyone who came to the housewarming party on Saturday! We're really pleased so many of you could make it, and we wish that even more of you could have. There was lots of mini party-style food and plenty of alcohol to go around. (Last count was 7 bottles of wine drained and oodles of beer.) We really had a great time and we hope you all did too. For those that couldn't make it, we hope that the pictures will help to tide you over until you get a chance to visit us in our new home.

Notes from England - Long Overdue Update

Hi folks,

Wow...it's been a long time. I've not updated my blog since 9 March...and that wasn't even a 'proper' update. Where have I been? Well if you notice in my last 'NFE' update, you'll see that the wife and I have had some major housing development news. We signed on the house (okay...Helen signed on the house. Something to do with my not actually being a citizen of the UK, to say nothing for not having a job due to not legally being allowed to work in the UK at the time of signing, makes money lenders not want to have anything to do with you. Go figure) and have been trying ever since to move into the place. It's been quite a time-consuming process, at that.

I didn't have my spouse-visa until a couple weeks ago, so I still couldn't legally seek or be offered employment. So whilst Helen was off earning the £ to keep us going, I was putting my 'free time' to good use at the new home making an attempt at decorating, as well as being available for home deliveries of new furnishings, etc. (Helen and I think that at one point the whole of Ikea was situated in flat-pack boxes between the lounge, spare-oom and master bedroom.)

As many of you may know...I hate painting. It's one of the worst things when it comes to home decorating...in my humble opinion. But it beats wallpapering, so I got down to it. I will have pictures very soon, I promise...but I've only just finished the 'main painting' yesterday...hence my ability to write to you today! (I say 'main painting', because after we get the rest of the furniture in, we'll have plenty of 'touch-up' work to do) We're expecting the sofas in mid-April...hopefully in time for the house-warming party.

What else...well, Helen and I have been in the local papers a couple of times. For those readers in the States, there was obviously no possible way you could have seen these...and for those readers in the UK, if you missed them, here they are. The pics are bad...but they're fun to laugh at anyway, aren't they? And Helen and I are quite capable of laughing at ourselves...or we would never have agreed to the requested photo-shoot!

Basically, Countryside properties were interested in doing a photo-shoot for the Manchester Evening News for publicity purposes, and the paper was doing a piece on people moving to Warrington...so they collaborated. I guess our story...due to the fact that our relationship has a bit of an unusual aspect to it, being from half a world away from each other...makes for an interesting read.(?) Anyway...we agreed to do the photo shoot...you can see the result.

If you spot the 'you've gotta be kidding...is this guy for real?' look on my face, it's because...I guess you had to be there. It was like telling kids to say 'cheese'...but instead, he said, 'Nice smiles as well!'... ~ click ~ ...'Great stuff.' ~ adjust camera ~ 'Nice smiles as well!'... ~ click ~...'Brilliant stuff.'

I couldn't help but chuckle to myself, and it was all I could do to stop laughing at the man audibly. When the man decided to stand up on a hand-rail that goes 'round the park so that he could get a creative shot looking down on us, I thought he'd fall off and break something. Alas...both he and the camera survived.

I joke. He was actually very nice. But if you ever want to feel...akward...agree to do a photo-shoot for a local news agent. You'll never forget it...or forgive yourself. Fortunately, the worst photos...the ones of us faux-painting the flat...didn't make it into the paper. No...I'm not joking. 'Can you just hold the roller up to the wall? That's great. Just tilt it this way a bit...that's great. Okay...and if you could stand by your husband...like you're supervising!...okay...both look into the camera...nice smiles as well!'...~ click ~...'Great stuff.'

There was also a photo of us in the Warrington Guardian for the wedding, which I thought was great. It's a pretty good picture, even if it didn't scan in the greatest. Of course, Helen and I got to choose the photo ourselves...and even though I'm probably biased, when I look at the other two weddings announced on that page, I think ours is the best. The other nice thing about the write-up is that it mentions everyone in the wedding party...I think! So it's nice to see everyone's names there that were so special to us and helped to make our special day all the more wonderful. Josh, Jonny, Graham, Aaron, Amy, Alison, Kaitlyn...again...your participation in our wedding means the world to us. We'll never forget it.

In other news, we've been trying...and trying...and trying to get a phone line installed. We've been held up by BT. They suck. Apparently there is a problem with the conduit that the phone line for our apartment is going to go through. It's...dented or something equally press-stopping. But the thing is...it only appears to be our flat that is affected. Everyone else in the building was getting their phones hooked up on Monday.

What's worse is that we were supposed to have the phone line back on 13 March. (This is after calling them on the 2nd and being told it would be 2 weeks at the earliest appointment) But they called and said that due to problems with the ground cable, they had to push our appointment out two weeks. We also wanted Sky to come and install Sky+ (Americans think satellite TV with a DVR) which requires the box to call back to the service centere via the phone line. They were going to do this the day following the phone line installation. Since we didn't have a phone line on the 13th, we didn't have Sky on the 14th.

Then this week came around. BT should have installed on the 27th...Sky on the 28th. But with these conduit problems (which we've been assured have nothing to do with the cable problem that prevented installation on the 13th) we still have no phone line...no Sky. The worse part yet? We don't even want to stick with BT! We want Talk-Talk. They have a great international phone/broadband package. But since BT have basically a monopoly on all phone lines, BT still has to do the initial install, at which point Talk-Talk can take over 14 days later. Yep...so even if I got my phone line today, I wouldn't have broadband or international calling for two more weeks.

But I won't have my phone line today. It's been said (to Helen) that BT has no plans to fix the conduit causing the problem because 'It's Countryside's problem...not ours. Go tell Countryside they need to fix it.' They've said that if something isn't done by Countryside, they won't do anything until the 27th of April.

BT sucks. Period.

In happier news, I got a Nintendo Wii! It's fabulous! Helen said that she wanted to get me a new console. She said she knew I left all my old video games in the States, and she wanted to give me a fresh start in the UK. I told her she needn't do such a thing, but she would hear nothing of it. She insisted I choose one of the three new consoles, and we'd get it.

After considerable thought, I opted for the Wii. Reason being - some of my most favourite games are exclusives to Nintendo. Also, I don't play as hardcore these days as I used to...so I couldn't justify spending £425 on a console, when my TV cost £450. I know the Wii doesn't have the most power on the market, but it's got the most innovation. If I want power, I've still got the PC. (once it arrives from the States)

So anyway, Zelda is freaking amazing. I won't go into review just now as I'm only a few hours into it, and if you want a review you can always look elsewhere. But I will say that the Wii control scheme simply works for a game like this. It's made for a game like this. Swinging the Wii remote to mimic sword slices...aiming with the pointer to make shots with your long-range weapons...it's the way games like this should always be played. I'd never go back to clunky Gamecube controls now.

WarioWare - Smooth Moves is also entertaining...but really strange. It's best played with multiple people, I'm certain...as certain as I am that you'll feel exponentially more ridiculous in front of other people performing these 'tricks'. Anyway, it's easy to see why it would make a great party game...especially if alcohol is involved.

That's all for now, folks...more work to do today. Take care of yourselves and leave your thoughts!

~Jer

PS - Check out the new music list. Great stuff. New from James Morrison, all the way through to some cheesy 80's rock with Bon Jovi. I might even stick a great orchestrated version of the theme from The Legend of Zelda I downloaded.

Notes from England - Housing Developments...internal shots!

Hi all!

Just a quick post to show off some internal shots of the new home after I went on the 'home demonstration' today. Unfortunately, since some of the electricals weren't hooked up yet, it wasn't a terribly exciting 'demonstration' as far as demos go, but I got to see the inside of the flat and that was really, really exciting!

The walls still need paint and the floors still need...well, flooring...but you should have a good idea of what we're after with these pics!

I'll start with the kitchen area. As you can see, our cupboards are fitted as is the sink, the fridge, oven, stove top and hood. It's really come together very, very nicely! There's plenty of lights under the cupboards for over the counter, and there's track lighting on the ceiling which lookss good! The kitchen floor will be finished in a soapstone tile laminate. Can't have real tile on the 1st floor (that's the 2nd floor to Americans. The first floor is the 'ground floor' in England)

Across from the kitchen is our living area. here we have the door which opens out to our 'Juliet' balcony. It's really cool in that the door, which is a slider (great considering space saving features) tilts out at the top! Basically, you pull the handle out towards you, and the top leans into the room whilst the bottom stays in at the slider. This allows you to just 'crack the door' for fresh air. If you want to actually open the door, you just pull again and the bottom pops out and you can slide the door to the left. Slide the door back to the right, the bottom pops in, you push the top in, and close the handle. Brilliant! We (obviously) need to buy a light fixture for the living room. The living room floor will be finished in a light brown 'mushroom'-coloured carpet.

Leaving the living room you enter the hall. To the left you have the spare bedroom...the smaller of the two. Across from the bedroom is the main bathroom. Further down the hall on the left is the master bedroom, which has an en suite bathroom attached to it. The hallway continues on around to the right where, on your right is the service cupboard is, which will contain our washer/dryer. Currently inside Inside is the water heater, which is an energy-saving model designed to run at night when energy costs are at their lowest...so that's fab...and the fuse box for all the power to the flat. The hall turns left again at the service cupboard and continues straight on to the front door. I couldn't tell you why I didn't take picture of the entryway...I suppose it's because the service people were standing right there and I'd feel like a muppet taking their pictures...never mind! There are energy-saving lights in the hall and will need to be planned for accordingly.The hall floor will be finished in American Oak laminate rather than carpet due to the heavy traffic it will inevitably handle.

The main bathroom has the tub, (no shower) a basin and toilet. It also has water-saving features with half-flush toilets. Brits may be used to things like this, but Americans aren't. It's got a button in the lid of the toilet used to flush it. The button is spilt in half...sort of yin-yang style...one half smaller than the other. If you don't need a 'full flush', you use the smaller button. If you've had a bit more...'activity'...I'll let you use your own imagination for that one...in the bathroom, you can push the bigger button and get the full-on-flush that we all know and love. You can also see in the second picture that there's a towel rack on the left wall. It's a heated towel rack that is set to the same timer as the heating for the home. I.E., you set your heating to come on at 5 or 6 in the morning and when you go to have a bath/shower (if you're in the en suite) you have a nice toasty warm towel to greet you when you step out into what, after being in the nice warm water, may be a slightly chilly bathroom! It also serves as the radiator (as near as Ann & I can tell) for the room. The bathroom will be finished in a grey, slate-like 'calcite' tile laminate.

Next is the spare bedroom which is actually bigger than it looks on the plans. With our plans of a single bed, a wardrobe and computer desk in there, we'll have absolutely no trouble moving around as there's plenty of room. The windows are an interesting point in that there's actually little vents above the window (hard to see from the picture) that you can open for fresh air if you don't want to open the windows themselves. This will come in handy in the winter months, for example when you wouldn't want a window open but still would like fresh air. The vents are recessed into the top part of the window sill and slide down to let the air in. They are actually open in this picture...so you can see they're not obtrusive at all. There is an energy-saving light in this bedroom and the bedroom floor will be finished in the same carpeting as the living room.

The master bedroom is larger (naturally) than the spare bedroom, and also has the added benefit of an en suite. We used the same tile for around the basin and shower as we did in the main bathroom, and we used the same calcite flooring. The bedroom will have the same mushroom carpeting as the spare bedroom and the living room. There's not much else to say here, so I'll simply include the last couple of pictures which show the bathroom tile a bit more closely and there's a shot of the shower. Enjoy!

Notes from England - Housing Developments

Hiya folks!

Well things are slowly but surely coming together on the new house! The last post I seem to have made about the house was back in August!! A surprise, to be sure. But you can see it and then see the progress that has been made! Though, I could have sworn I included a more up-to-date post than that at some point...before we had brick.

Never mind...this will be an all-inclusive post! We'll walk you through from the ground up! As you can see after the jump, our plot of 'open air' was extremely promising! There was...well...space! There was air! There was a hell of a view! It was our little plot of air and we loved it to pieces. Since then, however, things have changed...for the better!

The walls went up fairly quickly. So quickly, in fact, that I never managed to grab a shot of them going up! Then...to be fair...I did still live State-side at that time! Never mind!

These shots were taken approximately October 14, shortly after I arrived in the UK permanently. You can see in the pictures here that the walls of the main structure are up...still in dire need of some cladding of some sort. You know...some brick and mortar?

Also, back in October we didn't even have a roof, really. It was started, sure...but it's hardly what you'd call 'solid' at this point...and you're not protected from the elements, what with roofing not competed and windows still being added! But it was nice to be able to look at 'our walls' properly! We were definitely on the move forward!

A positive aspect was that they seemed to start (as you can even see in the pictures sans walls) with the park area. This is good because it allows the trees and turf time to settle before people moved in! It also makes for much more interesting photos than a pile of dirt. Hehehe. Anyway, here you see a wide shot of the building, and you get the idea of how things will lay out when all is completed. You can also see by the brick 'pillars' on either side of the path through the park that the red brick and ultra-green grass create a beautiful contrast. Imagine when the actual building is completed and no longer 'blue'.

There are more 'old' shots, sure...but I won't bore you with those. We now have brick and windows. We're actually looking to complete on our mortgage by ~ fingers crossed ~ the end of the month. I'm actually going on a 'home demonstration' of our apartment this Wednesday, so I'll get to see how it looks on the inside! I may or may not take my camera with me. If I do, expect more pics!

You can see that not all of the 'Juliet' balcony railings are up yet, in fact none on the right side of the building. But you can see what they will look like when they are on. An interesting development is the addition of a 'bricked out' section of the two white 'towers'. This was not in the artists' original interpretation, and quite frankly I think it looks a bit odd. Then again, I don't get paid uber amounts of money to be an architect or building designer...so my vote matters little. Hey...I'm just living here.

It looks like...possibly...our address will be somewhere on Rylands Drive! Not sure...but I saw the sign...and wanted to snap a pic of it. In any case, all that remains to be done is to sort out flooring (due to a miscommunication with the realtors) and sign on the dotted line, as it were. Basically...exchange a poop-load of money and then we get to start moving in! We will be hopefully moving in March! Yay!

That's all for now, folks.

Comments? Questions?

Our home!

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Helen and I's future home. Lovely, isn't it? Sure, it's just a park with a space of open air, but it's our open air, dammit! Hehehe. This is the park that will sit immediately in front of our building. And our apartment will overlook the park itself. Lovely! We'll have a nice view as we overlook the park from our 'juliet balcony'. Personally, I can't wait to move in! The entire development is very beautiful, and it's locaded conveniently next to a grocery store and a Blockbuster! So there's no fear of lack of vittles, and we certainly won't be lacking in entertainment!

This is the main walkway up from the entrance. There are both two and three-story houses along here and every last one of them has already been sold! This bodes well for the place, and we feel quite comforted knowing that we're not the only ones that have been impressed. Along the right side just ahead are the show homes Helen and I went through. We did feel like we were slightly nosey as we opened every door in the place whether it served for a bedroom or the boiler. But hey...we're paying enough for the place we might just as well get our money's worth and know what we're buying! As you can see, the landscaping is nice, with tree-lined avenues and hedgerows.


This is one of the first houses you see as you enter Carrington Park. It sits on a lush green lawn on the right-hand side of the road as you enter and is, as you can see, a 2-story model. With an attached garage this is a beautiful home. Note also that everything is brick. I love brick. Brick and stone houses have always held a place in my heart. I never knew why and I still don't. But since visiting England and discovering that brick and mortar homes are the 'norm' (versus the stick homes which are the American norm) I knew this would be a fabulous place to have a home. Granted, we're getting an apartment, not a house. But Helen and I can't wait to move in.

Here's a shot of a grouping of houses as taken from somewhere around the front lawn of one of the houses at the enterance. (You walk past this fence and turn right to start up the entrance. These are on the other side of the street from the previous picture, and it gives you an idea of what the neighborhood, as it were, will look like all said and done. Granted there's lots more houses to go in and the apartment bulidings too, but when they're done this is truly going to be a beautiful place to live. You'll have to forgive the blue flags and banners, they are advertising the open house after-all. Couldn't have asked for prettier skies either, could I?

One last shot of some of the housing they've got. This is an example of one of the three-stories. It's a massive house and while the layout doesn't give each floor an incredibly large overal size, the total make-up of the home is very, very roomy and comfortable. The master bedroom on the top floor (away from the kiddies) the spare room and living room on the second floor and the kitchen and family room/sitting room/dining room on the main floor of the house. each house is immaculately constructed with what feels to be very solid material. (Very solid doors, stairs, hand rails, fixtures in the bathrooms, etc.) Nothing feels or looks 'cheap', which is reassuring when you're thinking of how much money is going into them.

That about does it for your guided tour of Carrington Park except for this artist's rendition of what our building will look like when complete. Oooh! We're very excited! I've marked our apartment on the image so you know exactly where we'll be. Very exciting times for Helen and myself. Wish us luck!