Well, we finally got the news we’ve been awaiting for two months. Paul and I (and the Boyz) are moving to England for two years!! ! !

Paul has accepted and been approved for a job assignment at his company’s (Alcatel-Lucent) offices in Maidenhead, which is outside greater London, west of Windsor. He’s starting January 1st. I’m going there hopefully at the end of May. The Boyz have to go through the 6-months rabies testing period before they can travel, so I have to wait for them. Which is fine, because I have SO much to do to wrap up our affairs here! We’ve had 2 months to contemplate it maybe happening, but now that it IS, it feels a little crazy!

Friends might remember that we went through this exact same scenario in 2000, and then the economy/stock market tanked and the deal never happened. (Though how ironic that the economy is ALSO tanking now!) But this time it’s the real deal. It’s a different job (in fact he’s going to be taking on two jobs) and it’s a much different company, essentially, from what it was then.

Maidenhead has it’s own website, and here is a little photo tour of the town.

For now, I plan to do as much custom glazing I can before May and wrap up most of the promised commissions. Everything else is on hold. I may not be able to do much glazing over there, because I can’t take my kiln and I need ready access to one to efficiently chinapaint the way I do. In fact I may not be able to work (earn income) at all while over there due to tax implications and whether I get a work visa or not.

Needless to say I am VERY thrilled that I will be in the same country as all my existing ceramics molds! If nothing else, I may just spend the year and a half learning how to cast chinas from my molds. My other immediate goal is to finish the Clarity sculpture and cast resins here so that I can take a couple masters with me and have molds made in the UK. Clarity might be the first china sculpture I produce entirely myself from casting to glazing! (I may just not sell anything I make there until I return home.) It’s all a big “we’ll see” at this point of course!

I guess this blog will turn into a journal about what it is like to move and live temporarily overseas. I am sure it will not be fun and easy—at least I’m hoping once I get there the hard part will be over!