Hi All,

We have now passed step one of being successful adults in Fort Collins – we are no longer homeless! Yay! We have put down a deposit on a beautiful newly built apartment, just to the north of Old Town in Fort Collins. It is a one bedroom apartment with a big open plan kitchen/ lounge area, as well as a separate bathroom, closet and utility room. It is extremely clean and white, and we love it:

Fortunately for us the kitchen comes furnished with all the big essentials, so we have a massive fridge (I think both of us could sit inside it), oven, microwave and dishwasher! There is also a lovely double sink, a breakfast bar and a crazy amount of storage space, which is good.

The bedroom also has a built in wardrobe and a lovely view, although strangely no lighting of any kind. Apparently it is not uncommon in the US for apartments to be ‘naturally lit’, so whilst we have light on the kitchen end we will need lamps for the side near the windows. Lamps are very cheap and can be controlled from light switches so this is not a problem, but we did find this a bit odd…

Happily, our bathroom makes up for this by being almost impossibly bright:

It is also very lovely/ clean/ new, and has a big bath and shower and again, lots of draws for storage.

We’re now in the process of the worlds biggest thift shop pillage with the help of the amazing Rosemary and Chris (our US hosts), so hopefully we can show some pictures of it looking nice and furnished soon!

More to follow… 🙂

So we flew out last Saturday, spent 24 hours awake due to a flight delay and the time difference (we are currently on mountain time so 6 hours behind England) and looked rather a mess.

AND NOW WE’RE IN ‘MERICA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Fortunately for our tired and jet lagged selves, we have been staying with an English couple – Rosemary and Chris – who live out here in the pretty part of Fort Collins called Old Town. I think we have won them over by bringing English delicacies not available in the US (Bovril and Cadburys chocolate) but the favour has more than been returned with how we have been looked after.

As I write this, we are having breakfast and about to go out and sign the lease on our NEW APARTMENT (pictures coming in a post soon). We have also already in our first three days accomplished – in order: some sleep, getting a social security number, getting US bank accounts, getting a US phone number, exploring, learning to drive an automatic (ON THE WRONG SIDE OF THE ROAD?!….) and going out to celebrate at one of the best Pizza places in Fort Collins.

Notice that I am drinking a local craft beer called Fat Tyre which is a little bit like a cross between old speckled hen and Newcastle brown – but much more tasty.

More to follow

Rob and Cat xx

Regular viewers of this blog will forgive us for not posting up in the last week – turns out it is quite a lot of work doing a viva and moving country!

First thing first, we may have in advance underestimated how long and how much effort it takes to pack, clean and move house. We had picked up so many random things and mementos from out time living in Tile Hill and getting married. Fortunately we had the help of Mum and Dad (Margaret and Barry) as well as Mum, Dad, (Janet and Michael) David and Chris which made it all go smoothly-ish.

The amusing highlight of this was probably pianogate. We had inherited a lovely upright piano from the Channons around 2 years ago. In case you didn’t know, upright pianos are REALLY heavy. Annoyingly, after our initial plan of fly it to America fell through, our backup plan of donating it to charity collapsed after the British Hearts Foundation refused it on the basis of some small marks on it (uuuh, it’s a 40 year old piano, of course it has marks!). Fortunately our friend Max came to the rescue despite having never played the piano before – big props.

Of course the most difficult aspect was saying goodbye to our rabbits Whitey and Milkshake who have now taken up residence in Norwich with the Pecks. Here is Whitey waving goodbye:

Goodbye.

Not just a kind sentiment, or the title of one of Rob’s bands first songs; we went down to Bristol (/ Brissle / Glasssster) last weekend to see some family and help Rob chill after submitting his thesis. However, we were blissfully unaware of the scale of things to come.

On Saturday night we were treated to an evening with not just the extended Channons / Boultons / Marchs, but also the Cheethams, Pecks, Redfall, Neighbours, Travelers, Stapletons, Super Heath and more! As expected, Rob took a little more convincing to visit the dancefloor than Cat, but shapes were eventually pulled – though nothing to the level of Mia Boulton with what can only be described as the standing-bop-twerk – surely an instant classic.

On Sunday we were treated to lunch out at the rather fancy Tortworth Court with the Pecks and Cheethams.

The tasty food, good company and witty banter were much appreciated, especially by those with sore heads from the party the night before! Now all that remains is to get rid of all of the things in our house and pack.

PS/ Thank you to Barry and Margaret for planning the weekend.

Hello friends and welcome to our blog. In case you are confused why you are here or have stumbled upon this blog by accident, here are a few things you should know:

1. We are Rob and Cat (the Channons)
2. We are shortly moving to Fort Collins / Colorado / USA
3. This is where we will share our discoveries / amusing failings and keep in touch.

Or to summarise:

Ps// Thank you to Uncle Andy for the sign!