Hi Hashers!  I am sending you an e-mail updating you on our family in England.  I hope you are all doing well.  I’ll try to send pictures later.

 

Take care,

Maddie Oglesby (aka “She-by”)

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Dan and Madeline Oglesby [mailto:dmoglesby@ntlworld.com]
Sent: Sunday, September 26, 2004 8:20 PM
To: 'bcato@earthlink.net'
Subject: Hi everyone

Hi all.  This is my first official notice out to everyone that I have made it to England and that things are going well here.  Yes, it has taken a while to get this one out.  Now, with the kids in school, I feel like a have a little time to send out an update on our family.  We arrived in Cleethorpes, England in late May and stayed in a flat there for about 6 weeks or so.  It was very difficult for the kids to be uprooted from Melaka, since this was all they have ever known.  They missed their food, friends, and all of their belongings as did Dan and I.  We frantically looked for 2 cars and a house in the next few weeks.  Luckily, we found this quite easy.  Things sort of fell into place for us.  We each found a vehicle and a good home to rent in a quaint village called Healing Village.  We love it here.  There are great places to walk, and (currently) the weather is beautiful.  I take the boys all over the village in their little red wagon or on bikes.  However, we have been in our house since end of June and still have not met one neighbor!  I think they are a little private here J.  Anyway, we are feeling settled now. 

 

Dan is enjoying his job.  It is a big change in comparison to what he was doing before, but he welcomed the change and the challenge.  He is now really getting the hang of it and loves it.  He is meeting lots of people at work and comes home with new “English” vocabulary everyday.  Those of you in Melaka will appreciate that one lah.  We were assuming that since this was an English speaking country that was closely associated with the USA, we would not feel quite as foreign here.  Well, we were wrong.  We are learning almost as many new things as we did in Malaysia (well, maybe not quite).  But we are learning that we do feel a little more foreign that we had expected.  But this is good, right?  It keeps life interesting.  Maybe we are becoming expat junkies?? 

 

I am also doing well.  I have to say that I truly love it here.  The weather is great (I haven’t been through a winter yet) and there are not bugs here.  At least not any that is a nuisance.  There are billions of “harmless” spiders here, though.  I do not like them one bit.  I have been quite busy since arriving.  We are trying to do some traveling here before we eventually have to leave.  We have traveled to York a few times.  We explored the Jorvik Viking center and Clifford’s tower while there.  It’s really a great and “old” city with lots to do.  A few weeks before that I (without the kids….Dan was so nice to babysit) went to NYC to visit my sister.  We had loads of fun shopping and sight seeing.  We have visited a few castles around the area.  They are beautiful and make me want to learn all about English history.  I find this so interesting.  We had to pass through Sherwood Forest to get to one castle.  I thought that was pretty cool.  Probably the most fun that I’ve had since I’ve been here is a trip we took to Wales.  We traveled there to the home of Linda and Andy Renkes (a beautiful 600 year old mill that they are remodeling).  Mette and Bjorn Andersen also traveled there from Denmark for a visit at the same time we were there.  It was great fun.  A Malaysia reunion of sorts.  I am probably going to join the Humberside International Women’s Club.  They will be taking a trip to Dublin, Ireland soon, so I’m hoping to be a part of that as well.

 

The kids are also great.  I think they like it here; although, they do seem to miss Malaysia.  They are on their 4^th week of school.  Daniel goes everyday, and Colin goes 3 mornings a week.  It really is a wonderful school.  They both have to wear the appropriate tie and blazer everyday!  They have made many friends there.  Daniel has swimming lessons twice a week as well.  I have been nominated to be on the PTA committee, so I truly feel like a genuine soccer mom (I even have a minivan)!! 

 

Well things are going well here.  I miss all of the friends that we had to leave behind.  I miss things about Malaysia…especially friends and the Malacca Hash House Harriers!!  No, I have not found a hash club here.  There are some in England, but not in the Grimsby area.  Crap lah!  I hope you guys are all doing well…ON ON.  I’ll try to keep in touch as best I can.

 

Take care,
Maddie Oglesby

 

PS

My new e-mail address is dmoglesby@ntlworld.com

My home address is 9A The Avenue, Healing NE LINCS, DN41 7NA.

My phone is 00 44 1472 329307.

My cell phone is 00 44 07841 669962.