Finally...broadband @ my UK home

Today I came home from the Laundromat and saw the wonderful green light on my broadband router. This was supposed to be activated long ago, and after many long phone calls its finally working!

You may be wondering, "Aaron, you seem to have a great job with a great company, why would I be going to a Laundromat?". Ahh, a question my wife has asked me as well. It turns out that our dishwasher, clothes washer, and dryer, all languished while waiting for our arrival. We knew about this 2 weeks ago, but I'm learning that NOTHING happens fast over here (except how quickly the taxes start piling up). Yes, there is a 17.5% sales tax (VAT) added to nearly everything. And our first piece of mail we received was a letter from our borough (county) asking us to promptly pay our council tax (property). Shortly after we received a letter from the government asking us to quickly pay our annual TV license (you pay an annual fee to government just to have a TV in your house)...ugh



We are starting to venture out a bit more from the house now. Yesterday we spent time at Albert Dock in Liverpool, and then on to the great beach in Southport. Both are just 20 minutes from our house. I'm still getting used to how quickly you can travel what seem like long distances on a map. UK has about 54 million people and is probably comparable in size to Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio.

I'll definately be bloggin' more often now that I'm back online...feels good.