The first full week in England is already over, time for a recapitulation.

Last time, I wrote about the Smallford Sofa that has been my home and has made a hopefully temporary impression on my back for the last 8 nights. Today I am happy to be able to announce that it has been replaced by a proper, modern bed. A double bed even! After the second move in just over a week, and certainly not the last one I will endeavor this year, I am now settled in the lovely town of St. Albans, the town of bell towers, camera shops with bad timing, pubs and kebab shops that put cheese on your chips.

Last week I took a day off from running around to have a look in St. Albans, with the ultimate goal of buying myself a digital camera. I had selected the camera I want, found a shop through the internet, took the bus, actually managed to find the shop, asked about the camera, the last one they had was on the counter, ready to be sold to the happy customer! The guy that entered the shop just before me did indeed look quite happy with it..

After that disappointing experience and a nonetheless pleasant stroll through the town center I had to get back to all arrangements waiting for me. Luckily these were not much of a burden. Getting a bank account consisted of a nice chat with Emma about Holland, Hatfield and Hair straighteners. Getting my work place sorted was a bit more of a hustle. After finally gaining entry to the office of my supervisor, who wasn't there until yesterday, it turned out that the expectation to find my computer there was false. A bit more searching located it with the department's technicians, who were kind enough to pre-install it, so I only had to plug it in to be off digging through a big pile of papers relevant to my research.

With all that out of the way I was ready to start some real work the next week, so it was time for a nice weekend to get the energy for it. Friday this meant going into St. Albans to discover the pub, club and kebab scene. Some members of the adaptive systems research group, of which I am a member, arranged a night out with people of the astrophysics group, with which we share a hallway at the Science and Technology Reasearch Institute at the university. It turned out to be a pretty good night, even though I have to get used to English beer, drunk people at 10pm already and having cheese on your chips, I guess I will just have to experience it more often.

The next night was poker night, at the other house shared by members of our research group. The level of the game was about the same as I was used to back in Groningen, so it was good fun and despite a good start I ended up with a 10 pound donation to the local community of German and French poker players. When the new financial balance was determined, there were quite some gorgeous home made chocolate cookies, philosophical and political discussions interupting stories and random gossip about girls and finally a short ride back through the icey cold to the faithful sofa.

Even though it has done it's job well, the job itself was uncomfortable enough that I still looked for another place to sleep. The university supplied me with a list of temporary lodgings that I could try and after a significant drainage of my temporary English phone credit I finally found a place with still a room available. Being in St. Albans it is a bit further away. But there is a bed. After a small bus ride and a walk with all my current belongings trailing behind me in my suitcase I now live with a family consisting of a Scot, Maltese and their daughter and son of 17 and 6 respectively. And a bed. I can stay here until I can move into a room on campus at the 24th, enjoying the nice house and neighborhood, home cooked meals included. And a bed. All I need to get through the intellectually intens first phase of my work. Have I mentioned the bed? It's a double bed!

Now I'm enjoying some British football and a wine with the man of the house, but it won't be long until I start my research on the physical and mental benefits of a bed over a couch, which I have to call a sofa so as not to confuse little British boys with words of some weird foreign language.