ONE YEAR IN THE UK

We've been in the UK for a year, now... A good time to take stock of what we've done.

* We moved to the UK with a few bags and boxes of stuff and ended up living with DB's parents until August.
* We WWOOFed at a couple of different places in SE England - planting trees, laying hedges, pruning woods and gardens, cutting back brambles, digging holes, etc.
* We visited Brighton and Bristol and went to Westonbirt Arboretum.
* J helped redesign a diversity monitoring form at the Ramblers.
* We helped press cider with a friend in Oxfordshire.
* J did a major editing job for a Legal Aid report.
* We visited Norfolk a few times.
* J volunteered at the London Short Film Festival.
* D had an interview for a Masters place at Brighton University (spoiler: he got it).
* J volunteered at Burgh House and Hampstead Museum from January to September.
* We started a walk from London to Norfolk and got about a quarter of the way (would love to finish it at some point - we just ran out of time).
* D volunteered at an opshop managing their music and media department with great success.
* Spent time with old friends from Australia and the UK and made some new friends here.
* We did a 3 day walk along the snowy tops of the South Downs.
* J did a 12 week internship with Cancer Research UK.
* We did a lot of walks around London and explored it more than we had before. We also did quite a few walks in Bucks & Herts.
* D volunteered at the National Portrait Gallery library doing indexing and cataloguing.
* J did a 3-ish month internship with the Bat Conservation Trust.
* We house-sat for friends in Islington and looked after their cats.
* We saw Stewart Lee, the Infinite Monkey Cage (with Brian Cox), our friend doing stand up, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy stage show with original cast (and Phill Jupitus as the book), several films/film festivals (there are lots of fests in London).
* J did a 3 month-ish internship with the Ramblers.
* We bought a tent and went camping in the back yard, in Wales and in Epping Forest.
* We went to Wales! It was lovely (again). Can't wait to go back.
* We walked the Grand Union Canal (Paddington/Regents Canal arm) from the Thames at Limehouse Basin to the junction with the GUC proper. We also walked the Wendover and Aylesbury arms.
* D volunteered briefly with the Ramblers and built them a small library database.
* We didn't get to go to Norway because the UKBA kept J's passports for a ridiculously long time (they still have them) for a simple transfer of visa conditions.
* J got a job as marketing officer in East Sussex.
* We moved to a tiny old terrace house in Battle with a carload of stuff + a couple of kindly donated bikes.
* J did the Constable Scramble with the folk from Burgh House.
* We bought a car (well, D did all the work).
* D has just started his Masters at Brighton University.