So there are many similarities between England and Mexico that I have noticed in the last few days, for example, the grocery stores have the same look/feel. Nick and I went to Tesco’s to get all his favourite foods and to stock up for lunches on the road and when we went in it was really chaotic. There was stuff everywhere, the shelves were disheveled with empty boxes and the variety of processed foods was stunning. Oh, and the other thing I thought was cool was if you are doing self checkout, you get a hand held scanner and you scan through your items as you put them into your cart. They are verified at the end, pretty efficient plus you can manage how much you’re spending. Clever.

Went for a run around Great Dunmow to get a feel for the place and get my bearings. Sadly,  I got incredibly lost and ended up in many front gardens. The roads are all windy and higgledy piggedly and what appears to be a through road is in fact a driveway. Nevertheless, it was great to get out and stretch my legs after the long travel day. We are all still jet lagged and fall asleep about 6pm for naps but I think today will be a normal sleep cycle day for us. Anyway’s, I found a red telephone box on my run and was very excited until I opened the door and quickly realized that they are primarily used as a bathroom these days.

We are staying with Nick’s cousin John, his wife Liv, and their 2 kids, Charlie (6) and Emily (4). Everyone is very lovely and I had forgotten how busy a house with little people is. It’s also loud. Especially in the morning when I am trying to write and have coffee. And Emily likes to crawl into bed with us at all hours of the night. I don’t mind though, I’ll take cuddles anytime. Of course the children adore Nick as he is the “child whisperer” and they follow him around like the Pied Piper all evening. Their house is in this subdivision but it’s not like a subdivision as we would think of it in Canada. It’s a VERY skinny lane with brick houses, all jam packed into this community. It is very nice, quiet and I like how everyone knows each other. Its also a dead end road so you would have no business being down this end unless you live here or are a tourist out for a run and lost.