Sunday, May 22, 2016

A funny thing happened on the way to...

I'll explain the title in a few, but first, a quickie update.

It's been nearly four months since my last update. Life in the UK is really settling into a rhythm. Life a the post office is like any job really, you have your great customers and you have your really asshole ones. I can think of one in particular, but that's for another time... maybe in a resurrection of my old "Tales from the Hotel" anecdotes and stories, but ya know... at a post office.

About a month ago, I finally received the rest of my things that I had shipped over from the USA. Now, my move is officially complete.

I can now begin my photography in earnest. In fact, I'm scheduled to have my first large event shoot next month. I'm working on my macro photography and might even be working on websites and product photography for customers (I mean my clients) ;-)

So anyway, as to the title...

One of the big items that I had shipped over was my Canon Pixma Pro 100 printer. It's a $500 professional photo printer that prints 13x19" sized paper (that's pretty big folks). I was about to load it into Richard's car (taking it to the post office for a photo and ID photo printing service I'm offering) and I tripped over a floor rug, then over a big foot stool and I landed on top of the printer in the middle of a doorway, banging my chin and fracturing two ribs. UGH. All I can say is that it's painful... and I'm not just talking about my body. The printer was NOT working.

This also gave me my first experience with the thing known as A&E (Accident and Emergency). Richard took me to the hospital and we had to wait about two hours to be seen. Not too bad really. All they did was take my basics in the triage evaluation room (blood pressure, pulse/ox, temp) and then I saw a nurse, who gave me a weak painkiller and told me to suck it up (OK, she really didn't, and she was really nice, but what can you really do about broken ribs?) Didn't cost me a ten pence.

Not too bad for something that's included with being a taxpayer. In fact, If you can gloss over the fact that the healthcare industry isn't as hands on as American healthcare, it's really great. They focus more on letting your body do as much as possible and don't readily prescribe the meds like the USA will. It's definitely different that American medicine, but not really better and not really worse. Each has it's benefits and pitfalls.

I'm on the healing end. It's been three weeks now since the accident. Still a bit sore, but I'm on the mend. Today, I did manage to crack open the casing on the printer and FIX the printer! WOOHOO! I feel very accomplished!

I'm also trying out making chocolates. I've already learned how to temper chocolate and today, I've also made my first truffles from a mould. white chocolate outside and mint infused milk chocolate ganache on the inside. It's AWESOME!

So that's really it for now. Things are moving along and I'm really enjoying life as a Britton in Britain.

And yes, the accent is still changing. I've got more of a Canadian or mid-Atlantic (somewhere between American and British) accent. I can also mostly pull off a British accent. Wheee!

While you're here, click here to check out my photography website.

No comments: