First week in Derby

So after a 8.5 hour flight I was a bit nervous going through the corridors towards passport check is what the signs said. When I finally made it to the front of the line my passport was scanned and I was instantly asked "Why were you deported last time?" The lady at the desk told me to sit down and then when she came back she asked some regular screen questions. ie. "How do you know these people you are staying with? How much money do you have?" then I got stamped and I was on my way!

From there we sat down and played a little bit of catch up before our 3 hour drive to Derby. On the drive from Gatwick I saw a lot of trees impeding my vision of fields but the thing that I did notice was that the streets they drove on were in immaculate condition even in the city compared to Edmonton.

New Home

It was a beautiful day but since I was so tired and I wanted to set my sleeping pattern straight right away I decided to stay up. Mission complete.

12 hours later.

Cookie cutter houses

Breakfast in bed, I don't recall this ever happening. What a super awesome fantastic way to wake up! Food time = walk to Tesco, I believe the last Tesco that I went to was in Kanchanaburi in Thailand when my camera broke. I recall there being one in Guangzhou in China when I was living there too. Side note: The local art store Reams isn't more than a 15 minute walk away! Mind you Paint Spot was literally around the corner and across the street.

I noticed that from plentiful pile of  fliers for delivery that a lot and I mean a lot of it consists of Indian cuisine. Also for the last bit of news for the day is that it was the record high for October...26C. I have had the best luck with weather from the last week of Edmonton through Calgary till now.

Jet lag caught up with me I couldn't fall asleep until 8am and since Danny didn't want to awake me from my deep slumber I ended up dozing until the late hours of 6pm. Watched 'Aliens vs. Cowboys' before heading to bed early to get a good night sleep for a proper day exploring Derby.

Getting up at a reasonable time today for a day out. I quickly learned that my blow dryer I brought from Canada will only explode without a legitimate power converter. The day consisted of buying some house things, eating dinner (our lunch) at the food court, wandered about to the book store and the local art gallery at the QUAD (For the 'haha road exhibit', very Andy Warhol-ish). I have taken next to no photographs of the city I must rectify this.

After that we set off mini trip to Sandiacre...on this 35 minute bus ride I saw nothing but suburbs...mind you I fell asleep both ways.

Birthday celebrations! Bento boxes for dinner, this is when  I learnt that when you order a lemonade that you will get a carbonated lemon drink that resembles sprite. During drinks at Standing Order a converted bank with an immense ceiling, making good use of drink specials I learned a bunch of colloquialisms:

Lets see what I can remember... nappy = diapers, straight = tailor mades, crash a fag = bum a smoke, bap = bigger bread roll, cob = regular bread roll...etc.

After they turned on the lights and rang the last call bell at midnight (last call is at midnight?) We headed off....The old Bell since it's always open till 3am so I have been told. Oh here is a tidbit of information pool consists of red and yellow balls (yes there is still and 8 ball) and the rules are a little silly but that is just me saying that our Canadian rules make more sense.

Thursday evening: off to explore the local jazz bar on our way back we ran into a mini hail storm. I forgot my camera so I have no evidence of this event. Strangely enough it felt new even though I have seen hail storms the size of golf balls.

Oh fancy key...