biggish data

All kinds of win.

SMB x2

Male

Wales

2008-02-21 05:33:00

Every time you appear in this thread, I'm eating peanut butter on toast. Conspiracy, I tells ya!

Stu

SMB x2

Male

Wales

2008-02-20 08:18:00

QUOTE (elmcitymaven @ Feb 19 2008, 08:23 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

A little blurry, but here's a mere smidge of the Shaw's selection (some Irish stuff in there too):

IMG00003.jpg 599.81KB 16 downloads

Just noticed Lucozade in that picture (bottom right shelf, hidden a bit). Looks like I have an errand to run...

Is that those Heinz treacle puddings on the right... and Birds custard to the right of it?

Oh man, I fancy some pudding and custard now.

SMB x2

Male

Wales

2008-02-19 15:29:00

I think driving 100 miles is a fair exchange for a bacon sarnie.

Drown it in HP Sauce. Nom nom nom!

SMB x2

Male

Wales

2008-02-19 14:11:00

Chocolate hobnobs are all kinds of win!

SMB x2

Male

Wales

2008-02-19 10:30:00

Morning!

Peanut butter on toast for lunch. Nom nom nom

Stu

SMB x2

Male

Wales

2008-02-19 08:37:00

I have decided that peanut butter on toast is amongst the Food of Kings.

nom nom nom.

Congrats on the 2nd anniversary, Gwen

Stu

Edited by SMB x2, 18 February 2008 - 08:54 AM.

SMB x2

Male

Wales

2008-02-18 08:53:00

Sshhh, it's Monday morning.

SMB x2

Male

Wales

2008-02-18 05:16:00

Congrats on the NOA2, by the way!

I'm waiting for the better half to come home from work so we can spend the evening on skype

Stu

SMB x2

Male

Wales

2008-02-08 17:00:00

We found Brit foods

QUOTE (Stinky Monkey @ Jan 13 2009, 01:21 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

QUOTE (SMB x2 @ Jan 13 2009, 07:18 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

We randomly found chocolate digestives at our local co-op here in Iowa and occasionally, we'll find other things as well. Stu still has to have family and friends send him HP sauce though.
I miss HEB in Dallas (I love their selection of cheese and bread) and I miss World Market as well because I could get Tim Tams there (not a Brit food, but still awesome!)

-Shan

so funny someone brought Tim Tams into the office today and off we all went biting off the opposite corners and drinking our tea and coffee through them, yummy...........they did not last long hahahahah

Tim Tams are awesome! I've never tried drinking anything through them though. Something new to try when I have them again!

SMB x2

Male

Wales

2009-01-13 14:28:00

We found Brit foods

SMB x2

Male

Wales

2009-01-13 14:18:00

Car Insurance

Progressive added Stu to my policy no problem (that was here in Iowa). The rates went up a little bit, but all they needed was his UK license number.
The rates will go down (and might be lower than when it was just me on it now that we're married) when he gets his Iowa license. Not sure if anyone else has had good or bad experiences with Progressive, but they were pretty helpfull to us.

-Shan

SMB x2

Male

Wales

2009-04-17 11:48:00

waiting on interview date!

I wouldn't worry too much. Easier said than done, I know. It seems like it takes forever, but the time will go by very quickly!

When we were waiting for packet 4, I think the people at the DOS thought I was crazy I would call so much (actually, they were really nice and understanding).

SMB x2

Male

Wales

2009-04-28 15:58:00

Baseball Anyone?

I grew up as a Cardinals fan, so I'm trying to get Stu to watch them too. I told him if he likes the Cards, my grandpa will love him forever and that's not an easy thing to do

SMB x2

Male

Wales

2009-04-28 16:04:00

A quick food recommendation

Stu seems to really like sloppy joe sandwiches and we found that the Heinz sloppy joe sauce doesn't have HFCS in it (and tastes better). He likes those along with tater tots (like little hash browns).
After reading this thread, we decided to try the Pims cookie/cakes to see if they were anything like jaffa cakes. Stu says they're a different size, but the taste and texture is almost exactly the same. I've never had a real Jaffa cake, so I have to take his word for it

SMB x2

Male

Wales

2009-04-17 12:02:00

A quick food recommendation

Stu isn't too picky about the food here, but we've found British butters and cheeses at our local co-op (along with chocolate digestives).
As for bread with HFCS, we try and avoid it as much as possible (it's in almost EVERYTHING though). We've found one bread that's ok and doesn't have it. Brownberry's I think? It's not the best, but it's ok. I really like the stuff from the bakery.

-Shan

SMB x2

Male

Wales

2009-04-08 11:32:00

Children, dual citizenship and what to do...

Sorry for the double post, but I just came across this article that might affect those with dual citizenship

New border controls could penalise Britons with dual nationality

SMB x2

Male

Wales

2009-04-21 11:25:00

Children, dual citizenship and what to do...

We're not expecting our baby until November, but we've already been talking and looking in to dual citizenship for him/her.
From what I understand, you report the birth abroad to the consulate. We're still trying to figure it out ourselves, but I hope this helps
http://www.fco.gov.u.../register-birth

My question isn't so much how you go about getting dual citizenship for your child, but if anyone has had any experience with it with their own children? Like did it cause any problems or anything?

Congrats adamn1 on your little girl and good luck with adopting your step daugher, Damian!

-Shan

SMB x2

Male

Wales

2009-04-21 10:59:00

Dual Citizenship- Your Opinion

Stu is definitely going to go for US citizenship even though there's a possibility we'll live in the UK in the future.
It means he'll be able to come and go from the US as he pleases, apply for jobs that are for citizens only (if he wants), and most importantly, he'll be able to vote, which I know he's itching to do!
Our daughter is a dual citizen. Now, no matter which way we go, she won't have to stand in line at immigration for either country.
If we do happen to end up in the UK in the future, I'd love to have British citizenship.

SMB x2

Male

Wales

2010-03-10 14:23:00

Money, money, money

xe.com is what i've been using for the past two years -- US bank account > UK bank account. I have exchanged thousands. they have pretty much the best retail spread you can get, though obviously still not as good as the interbank spread that institutional exchanges get..

Can you use XE.com to transfer as much as you want? When I originally moved here, I had to quote them the final figure for how much I was moving, which was basically the sum total of my UK savings account.

SMB x2

Male

Wales

2010-03-31 21:52:00

Official HPV Vaccine/New Police Certicate Thread

Printed out the form for this new certificate the other day (figured I'd get it a little ahead of time), and I was a bit surprised to see my photo needed to be certified by someone who wasn't a family member and was of one of the professions they listed. I was utterly stumped, until I remembered my GP could do it. But then I visited him and forgot to get him to sign it! Doh. Luckily I remembered my mum's partner is a civil servant (though they're not married so not technically family) so all's well!

Stu

SMB x2

Male

Wales

2008-04-19 14:43:00

Health care reform, anyone?

Or you could do like we did and have your baby at home ... safer, cheaper and nicer!!!

In fairness, the birth was entirely "free" as my insurance covered it, so I'm not sure how much cheaper I could have made it.

SMB x2

Male

Wales

2010-04-12 21:14:00

Health care reform, anyone?

I didn't quite appreciate how good the NHS was until I picked up my first prescription of 30mg lansoprazole (for cronic indigestion) from Walmart. I blinked at the cashier in utter incredulity when she asked for $150 for a month's supply, I was used to paying £4 with the NHS (and, of course, paying nothing when the Welsh Assembly decided to pay for all prescriptions).

Before I started a decent job here with good insurance, I was rushed to the ER with chest pains. It's pretty sobering, staring up at the ceiling whilst they wire an EKG to you, not something you expect in your early 30s. Anyway, mercifully, it turned out just to be muscular pain and nothing to worry about; until, of course, the bill arrived and I had to pony up $600.

So yeah, hospitals here are amazing. It was like staying at the Hilton when we stayed in our suite for a couple of days, after having our baby last year. Compare and contrast my sister who was in and out of hospital in 4 hours after her baby was born in the UK. You don't half pay for it though, and even having insurance doesn't necessarily make it much better. I mean, there's insurance and then there's insurance. And even if you're lucky enough to have insurance, through a decent job or something, there's still the endless battles with medical coding drones. Shan's trippled insured and our bills are still occasionally an endless parade of "why the hell are they billing us for this?"

Anyway, step in the right direction, although I appreciate why any degree of socialised healthcare is going to get up the nose of some locals. It's as alien to them as the notion of not having socialised aspects to society to me. I think there's probably a lot of good things in this bill which have overshadowed by the general debate. I like how large food chains (20+ locations) will need to provide nutritional information on meals. I think that's something we should do in the UK, with those big coloured salt/sugar/calories/etc labels on the front of food packaging.

As an aside (if you're still reading this long post

), hi everyone! Been a while since I posted, I can't believe I'm 3 months shy of having been here 2 years. In fact, I've been working for a whole year, and it's absolutely flown by. I think now is as good a time as any to share my insights into moving to the US, so hope to post that soon.

Stu

SMB x2

Male

Wales

2010-03-31 21:45:00

Getting US Born child British Citizenship

We registered our daughter back in February and had no problems (UKC Father and USC Mother).

We used passport form C2 (that is the form they want you to use for UK children born abroad)
Because we also went ahead and registered the birth, we included the following (which if I remember correctly, some are needed for the passport as well):
-Mother's birth certificate
-Father's birth certificate
-Baby's birth certificate
-mother and father's marriage certificate
-also included two UK size passport photos that we had done at our local Walgreens pharmacy

The passport form will also need to be signed by someone that has known you for over 2 years and cannot be a family member.

Once we figured out what was needed, it was pretty easy to fill out the forms and it took about 4 weeks to get everything back, so not too long.

SMB x2

Male

Wales

2010-10-04 12:06:00

UK electrical appliances in the US

QUOTE (ginger1981 @ Jul 11 2008, 05:19 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Hair dryers seem to be especially problematic travelling either way. I brought a US one to the UK, and when I plugged it in (with the converter of course) and turned it on a flame shot out of the back of the hairdryer. And then it was toast.

So I got one from Woolie's and when I brought it back to the US and plugged it in w/ a British converter it could barely blow hot...or blow at all.

So yes...hairdryers...don't bother traveling with one!

It's the voltage thing. The one you bought in the US had a motor rated for ~110V, but it was fed 240V in the UK. Conversely, the one bought in the UK was rated for 240V so when it was plugged in to a US socket, it was spinning slower than it ought to.

Here's what you're looking for on the appliance somewhere:

My old monitor here works on either US 110V or UK 240V, with a change of cable. From what I've seen of hunting around the house, appliances are far less likely to be dual voltage. Computer equipment is more likely, and I'd bet this NEC monitor was probably on sale outside the UK so they made a single model.

Stuff which has a power adaptor (like a laptop) means you're even more in luck. Even if the power adaptor can't cope with 110V, the laptop doesn't care what ultimately feeds it power. Replace it with a US equivalent and you're away. I did this with my Nintendo DS, which is a UK model but will charge just fine with a US power adaptor.

I've got a sneaky feeling I've posted this before, but I've only just woken up so bear with me

Stu

SMB x2

Male

Wales

2008-07-13 05:18:00

UK electrical appliances in the US

Bit late to the party, but I've got a bit of experience with this with being involved in importing US video game consoles into the UK.

As mentioned, stuff which works on dual voltage (110v/240v) will be fine. This is generally stuff that runs on dc voltage internally with its own transformers etc. Think electronics, like an LCD or something. Motors, things with filaments and the like will run on ac and will suffer when going to 110v, if they're designed for 240v.

You could buy a transformer which steps up the voltage from 110v to 240v for your vacuum cleaner or kettle, but given the power (in watts) it uses and the transformer you'll need, I'd say it'll be much heavier on the electric.

That said, for items you're really keen to bring with you because, well, they're yours, the solutions exist. First thing to do is check the label and take it from there. If you're unsure, by all means post here and we can check it

edit -

QUOTE (Poiteen @ Mar 3 2008, 01:32 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I've got a 4-way and an 8-way surge protector adapters, my plan is to bring them, so I would only have to get one or two step up converters to be able to plug in a bunch of stuff. Laptops, xbox etc.

See, you need to be careful here. An xbox needs about 100W if memory serves. I'm guessing a laptop is gonna knock around 100W for a newish one. Your step up converter needs to have enough power to drive the power requirements of all the things connected to it with the 4-way adaptors.

Your laptop power supply is probably dual voltage, for people travelling. Check the label on the bottom.

Stu

Edited by SMB x2, 03 March 2008 - 06:12 PM.

SMB x2

Male

Wales

2008-03-03 18:08:00

The 2009 United Kingdom Interview Thread!

Congrats to all the approvals and good luck to those with upcoming interviews!

-Shan

SMB x2

Male

Wales

2009-01-13 14:09:00

Brits in the USA

Stu's here in the US already.
We're In Iowa City, IA (GO HAWKS!

)

SMB x2

Male

Wales

2008-08-29 10:36:00

Brits in the USA

QUOTE (Jeraly @ May 29 2008, 07:41 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Southeast Wales? Sounds close to me in Bristol

He's not from Cardiff is he?

Outskirts of Cardiff, aye

Chicago BBQ? Burgers? Nom nom nom!

Stu

SMB x2

Male

Wales

2008-05-29 14:20:00

Brits in the USA

We both use this account as well.
Shannon=USC and Stuart=UKC
He's in Southeast Wales right now, but hopefully by August he'll be with me here in Eastern Iowa. We'll be about 3 1/2 hours west of Chicago.

-Shannon

SMB x2

Male

Wales

2008-05-29 10:16:00

Thank you Maven, Julez, and Tracy! Saving all our paperwork is a good idea. We'll have to start putting all that stuff in to a file so it's easy to get out this fall when we need it. At least this time around, we have a better idea of what to expect with USCIS, so hopefully it won't be so scary and frustrating. We can't wait until Stu can apply for citizenship so we can just be done with USCIS

As for our daughter's stuff, it was about $420 for both her passport and the registration. You don't have to get both though, you can get one or the other if you want.
Other than filling in all the paperwork and the pain of the cost (lol), it was pretty easy. If you need any help with it, let us know.

SMB x2

Male

Wales

2010-03-10 14:10:00

We haven't posted in ages, but thought we'd say hi and share that our little girl is now 4 months old and yesterday we recieved her British passport and birth registration certificate. So she's a Legit Brit now! It was pretty expensive, but worth it in our opinion since we'll be heading back to Wales later this year to visit and she can go through the citizens line with her daddy.

Pretty soon we'll be figuring out Removal of Conditions. Can't wait to deal with USCIS again...

Shan

SMB x2

Male

Wales

2010-03-10 10:02:00

Stocking up on cake sounds like a great idea with or without the swine flu.

SMB x2

Male

Wales

2009-04-28 16:09:00

We filed our K-1 at the tail end of 2007. I hope that means we can lurk in this thread?

SMB x2

Male

Wales

2009-04-08 11:35:00

As an interesting aside, about a month after Seven Seas delivered all my boxes to me, via UPS, I received an email from Seven Seas advising me that I could be entitled to an income tax refund if I'd not worked a full year up to April 5. Apparently, they'll contact HM R&C on your behalf and sort it all out, presumably taking a small slice of your refund as payment.

From their email:

QUOTE

A tax refund claim can involve substantial correspondence with HM Revenue & Customs which is time-consuming and difficult if you are changing address.

Absolute cobblers, don't use Seven Seas or any other middle man. Either ring HM R&C before you leave the UK and ask for a P85 form, or download and print it from their website. It's a straight forward form, and I had my £650 ish refund in a cheque (to my sister, as my nominee) about a month after I arrived in the US and sent off the form.

SMB x2

Male

Wales

2008-10-07 10:54:00

Slight update, seems it definitely was a UPS problem and not Seven Seas:

QUOTE

THE PACKAGE WAS MISSED AT THE UPS FACILITY, UPS WILL DELIVER ON THE NEXT BUSINESS DAY

Perhaps some crafty ####### took longer than expected to copy all my DVDs or something

Speaking of which, although everything in my boxes seems to be intact, worth noting that a few of the dvd cases for my console games have been squeezed, probably with the weight of other boxes on top of mine. It's caused quite a few of them to break. I guess DVD cases need particular care when packing.

Stu

SMB x2

Male

Wales

2008-09-08 15:19:00

Seven Seas delivered my stuff today. Having picked them up on 23rd July, I think that's 47 days until delivery today. Slightly annoying in that UPS (which Seven Seas use locally) seem to have split the consignment up, and my last box is still in Illinois, although still penciled in for delivery today. I suppose in fairness to Seven Seas, this is a UPS thing, not their fault.

For anyone interested in the particulars, I shipped 6 boxes in total. 4 of the big tea chest size (60x50x40cm ish), 2 of the smaller book ones (50x40x30ish), with each one weighing just shy of the 30kg limit. Cost about 450 quid in total.

Stu

SMB x2

Male

Wales

2008-09-08 12:58:00

Yeah, Seven Seas have been pretty decent so far. Apparently, my guff is floating somewhere in the Atlantic at the moment, due for delivery in approx 3 weeks or less.

If I had to be pedantic, I'd moan about the insurance they offer, or, more specifically, how you set it up. When it said "list all the items" in the box for the full coverage (at 5% value of the box), I figured saying "dvds 50 quid, books 50 quid" etc would be sufficient. No, you need to itemise every dvd and book individually. Good grief. Couldn't be bothered, went with the cheaper insurance which lets you say "dvds, 50 quid".

SMB x2

Male

Wales

2008-08-14 08:36:00

Worth pointing out that All Freight don't ship everywhere, which may or may not affect you. The closest they could get my stuff to me was Des Moines, which was quite a drive.

Went with Seven Seas in the end, so much fun trying to get only 30kg in a box. Books are so heavy

Stu

SMB x2

Male

Wales

2008-07-17 14:26:00