So my first month in London could be easily summed up as a tad stressful. But there have been some wonderful moments. And, due to the lack of free time and internet access at home, here’s my first chance to give you a nicer view of life in London. I have many entries to catch up on, and I’m putting them in a completely random order.

After a week living in an flat in London, I had my first visitors. Dave and Melissa had a trip to Barcelona planned and decided to spend the weekend prior to that in merry ol’ England. Now, my initial plan had been to have had a nice long weekend and then some in my apartment before my arrival. Instead, I moved in on the that long weekend and then spent a couple of days in Brighton (more on that next entry!) . So I was not really moved in in any meaningful way. I had a bed, a couch and enough to cook for a single person and that was all. Yes, it’s not much different from life in Chicago where I never cooked, but I’m trying to turn over a new leaf.

Anyhoo, my preparation for my visitors required a trip Argos. It’s a department store without the store. You either go online and choose what you with to purchase or you go to the store and look through a catalog. when you see what you want, you just select the item number, pay for it and a few minutes later, you pick it up at a counter. I believe things like these used to exist in the US, but I’ve not seen them. My first trip there involved picking up a nice comfy air mattress for my guests.

Dave and Melissa live in Chicago, so they knew they’d see me again when I left for good a month ago. But, this was my last chance to see them for a while (which is sad). They had done a lot of the touristy stuff, so they were happy to be dragged along to see some of ‘real’ London. This mostly consisted of wandering my neighborhood (which includes a very very large Football stadium. In the end, the big events of that part of their trip involved checking out nice cafes nearby and seeing about the local pubs. We checked out three pubs, all within 5 minutes of my flat, and they were all nice in their own ways. I think, if I had to pick my ‘local’, it would be The Nobody Inn. Good choice of beers and they even have decent burgers (not easy to find in England).

Aside from that, we checked out some of the things that London has to offer. We wandered the Saturday market in Notting Hill, we did a quick tour of the National Gallery and we looked around Covent Garden. They did tons of other things without me (what with my having a job and needing to do my US taxes 🙂 ), but they can comment in this entry with all of that fun. In the meantime, here are a select few pictures for a visual reference taken from a pub called The Cock (no fooling!):

I told you it was called the Cock!!

Dave and Matt enjoying a pint

Dave and Melissa looking happy on vacation

It’s been a busy couple of weeks. Add to that the fact that I have no internet at home and I’m working until 7 and 8pm every night, and there ain’t much time for updates. I assure you, I have lots of fun to share and it’ll all get dumped on those of you who read this soon. For the moment, here’re some random things:

1. Tomorrow, I take my first trip back to the Continent. Alas, it’s not all fun and games. It’s to Stockholm, which isn’t exactly warm in April and it’s for work. But hopefully, the work will only be done at 7am on Saturday and a little bit of work really really early on Sunday and I can enjoy myself some of the time 🙂
2. I’m rich! Well, not exactly. But the British pound is now worth double the US dollar. So all you people still living in the US with it’s high trade deficit, flat incomes/savings and treasury bonds being sucked up by foreign countries, enjoy!

hee hee. I’ll have tons of pics and andventures posted this weekend, i hope.

I had my first commute today. If I’d only been going to my actual office, it would have taken 10 minutes. But then I wouldn’t have seen the following from the top of my double-decker bus :

1. A double eecker bus (duh!)
2. London Bridge (the new one)
3. St. Pauls Cathedral
4. The London Monument
5. Tower Bridge (the cool one)
6. The Thames River
7. The Tube

I have a bunch of entries to write with pictures. It’ll have to wait until I have more solid internet access

I like public transport. Mass transit systems, like the El in Chicago, fascinate me. I figure on day I’ll end up doing some sort of work for them (and then going insane with the horrible management of it). So, part of the appeal of moving to London was being able to experience the Tube up close and personal. This will be the first of what might be too many posts about it.

Today I wanted to focus on the Tube during rush hour. Now, from what I’ve seen, London has their trains running at full tilt during rush hour. there is maybe 1-2 minutes between each train. And yet it still doesn’t matter. People constantly stream down to the platform. I tried to get on the Tube the day I arrived to go back to my hotel from the office and it took 10 minutes to get through the turnstyle (imagine 200 people trying to get through 3 gates).

This morning it dawned on me that the London Underground is about one step away from becoming the Tokyo during rush hour. Right now,there are not people with white gloves. But there are 2 or 3 people standing along the platform to signal that the trains are as full as they can get. A train arrives at the station and there is NO room. Two people get off and somehow, 10 people squeeze their way on the train. It’s like nothing I’ve ever experienced in the US. And, having a blog and all that, I thought I’d share. Soon I’ll secretly snap a photo of it so you can really get an idea of how crowded it is. Once I’m moved (tomorrow, I hope!), I’ll be taking the bus! 🙂

I just posted some graphical representations of my new home (well exteriors), but I wanted to write a little bit as well. Since arriving on Monday, I really haven’t done much more than work and commute. I was pretty jetlagged the first few days so, after I went to work, all I wanted to do was sleep. Finally, I hit the weekend.

While I’m still living in hotels (4 more days!), I decided that it would be a smart idea to check out the surrounding area near my apartment. This is not the first time I’ve moved to a new place and, in the past, my first home in a new location might not always be the most ideal location (whether it be crime ridden or far from the necessities like groceries). I have been very nervous that this new place might be another one of those places. I hopped on a bus outside my office and was there in under 20 minutes (first plus!). When I got off the bus, I started looking around the high street (that’d be a commercial strip for those of you living in the US. They tend to have many of these so as to provide plenty of services for all the residents). While there were plenty of off license places (stores where you can buy beer), the shops around my street looked a little bleak (OTB and things that appeared shuttered). I trudged on, talking to Dina on the phone and suddenly hit upon the swanky part of Highbury (that’s my neighborhood. it’s also home to the Arsenal Football Club). Big ass houses and lots of green. Very pretty.

Once I made a loop back around to where I live, I found my initial concerns were unfounded. Within 5 minutes of my place, there are 4 or 5 smaller grocery stores (which is a normal size in England), a fish shop and a vegetable and fruit shop (that one is about half a block from me!). Here’s the vegetable shop:

I also managed to get a library card and just had a nice time soaking in the reality that this will soon be my home! I can’t wait until Wednesday.

I can’t move into my place until Wednesday, but they can’t stop me from wandering around and taking some pics! 🙂

That’s my street!

That’s the exterior of my apartment. I’m the second floor (here it’s the first floor)

Looking down Beresford Rd

Looking down Beresford Rd again

Ok, it’s official. In the beginning of April, I will be the proud tenant of an apartment that is NOT a cardboard box or a hotel room. It was a bit of an ordeal but, in the end, I have a signed lease and I’ve put down a crapload of money. I’ll get into the details later. For the moment, I’ll just post some pics from the listing. Enjoy!

Here’s the layout (yes, that’s 400 sq ft!)

Bathroom

Kitchen (part of the living room)

Living room

And here’s a link to a sort of panaroma . And if you wanna see where it is, here’s a google maps link.

Anyway, my latest jaunt to the UK is over. Time to pack and head back to Heathrow for a final trip to the US.

So you know how I said I’d be posting again shortly? Yeah, that didn’t happen. It’s been a busy, educational week. Until this afternoon, I hadn’t been more than one mile from my hotel since arriving there in the first place. I have tons of fun things to share and observations to make. Some of it I can’t actually disclose (woah!), but I’ll put together a hopefully(!) entertaining post tomorrow.

And a congrats to my dad on his declaring his retirement today! Sounds like it might only be a partial retirement, but he’s earned it and I’m excited for my mom and dad to begin their life of leisure together. 🙂

Perhaps it’s happening over in the US now (who am I kidding? it ain’t happening), but the British government and public have a whole lot of awareness about global warming and the environment. I’m watching the BBC morning news show, which is pretty much as useless as any morning show in the US, but they have a whole series right now where they are tracking a family month-by-month and looking at their carbon footprint. There are billboards and ads everywhere about water conservation and talk about your carbon footprint. And the UK government just increased taxes on flights which is supposed to go into environmental programs.

It’s just interesting to see how a different country is handling the environment.