Our New Flat

We've been living in Brighton for 10 days now and have settled in for the most part. We still have a few things to buy, like chairs. It's sort of like playing house: nothing is real. The flat has new carpet and paint, so we're doing our best to keep it clean. Shoes come off at the door.

The red circle is where our balcony is hiding behind the leaves. You can put our postcode in google maps and get a similar view with street view. BN18QQ

My favorite part is the view of the park across the street. This morning we explored it again and found some ponds. Fun!

The kitchen is small but has a lot of storage. Some of it is beyond my reach, so a step stool is on our list of things to buy.

I had the kitchen mostly put together when I found another drawer! The one under the dranboard is functional. All the sinks I've seen over here come with the drainboard attached.

It's been a long, long time since I've cooked with gas. Now it strikes me as barbaric to have an open flame in the house. But it sure is faster than electric.

People here are amazed when we tell them how large refrigerators are in the U.S.

Now for that strange thing on the stove. It's a grill and I haven't had the courage to try it yet. Incidentally they call a stovetop a hob and the oven is a cooker.

This is the hot water heater. It's gas-fired and also heats the water for the radiators. How can anything so small do that? The ad for the flat said it had gas central heating. That phrase means something quite different here from what we were thinking.

Bill said I could have the whole closet in the larger bedroom and he'd use the one in the small bedroom. Wow, it has these built-ins so I don't need a dresser at all.

I even have a place for cosmetics, etc. and an outlet for my curing iron.

We bought some furniture at a charity shop. Bill had to remove a door to get it into the lounge (livingroom) but it made it. He said when it leaves it'll be by being thrown over the balcony.

We're still using those green plastic chairs at the table while we look for something better.

The Launch of the Brighton Centre

Last night was the official launch of the Centre for Young Adults in Brighton attended by the Mayoress of Brighton herself.

The centre is what used to be the Relief Society room and it looks like I didn’t actually take any photos of it. It has Ikea sofas, pillows, coffee tables and floor lamps. Plus two computers. It looks nice and the young people like lounging around there.

After some short talks the mayor cut the ribbon officially opening the centre.

I still have a hard time dealing with a chapel that doubles as a gym when the curtain is pulled or the podium is removed. It makes sense here where land is so expensive but it still bothers me.

The mayor stayed around and visited for quite some time. She likes that we make quite a bit of effort to reach out to the community.

The YSA committe did a great job of making displays of their activities. This shows a service project of newborn kits and other things.

Dancing with the Wii looked like fun.

Their budget allowed for catered food. I'm for that!

Foosball is very popular with them. I doubt that they call it that though.

Since he didn't get hurt it was okay to laugh at President Frost's pratfall. Hope the iPad is okay!

Even the elders got into the action.

Bishop Spiers takes on his son at ping pong.

The evening was a great success and everyone pitched in to clean up afterward. We look forward to the next year + here in Brighton with these youth.