Friday, February 2, 2007

Getting Settled

I managed to do a little bit of grocery shopping last night and decided to the rest with an on-line delivery service. Trying to stock a house from scratch there are a number of things that are needed and without a car the best way to do this was with the delivery service. Saturday afternoon my house will be stocked with groceries and cleaning supplies.

It was an adventure today getting my travelcard for the rail system. It turns out that you need a photocard to get anything more than a single day travelcard. There is a photo booth in the rail station where you can get a passport sized photo. The rail station then gives you a little photocard to use in conjunction with the travelcard. Not sure what the purpose of this is but who am I to question to the process.

I've started getting mail at my house which makes me feel like I'm at home. Of course it's bills which isn't so nice. One of the strange things about the UK is that property taxes are paid by the tenant of the property not the owner. The council tax bill came yesterday, they waste no time getting these out. The taxes are based on what the property would have sold for in 1991 and is based on 2 person occupancy. If the property is occupied by only 1 person you get a 25% deduction. It doesn't say anything about if the property is occupied by more than 2 people.

No Internet access at home until Monday so no posts until then. The weekend will be busy enough with the shopping and furniture moving I have planned. Stay tuned for the first interactive poll on the blog next week.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

when will you be getting a car? What is an interactive blog poll or what ever you said? I am glad that now you have some food in your house. When we talk tomarrow maybe youcan give me your address and you can get real snail mail. Love mom