Phrases often used

"Let's have a look..."

"Brilliant!"

Carl: On Work Experience

Sue is doing a great job in giving everyone a full description of our first few weeks; I thought I would add some color around the work experience.

First the tube; it is efficient but it is crowded, early and late. This is a little surprising especially the “early” part. I expected Londoners to start later and end a little later every day but it seems that they try to get ahead of the rush the way a lot of New York commuters do to the extent that the trains are crowded from 7-9AM and 4-6PM.

And the cars themselves are tight, like they were designed for “littler” people. The cars also don’t have as many seats as NY subways, actually providing dedicated room for standees and for people with strollers, vertical bags, etc. The buses are the same way and, as I think about it, this probably reflects the fact that public transportation is a big fact of life here (given the expense and difficulty of driving in London) and so public transportation is probably designed to cover a wider set of needs.

Finally I suspect that the tube will be quite hot in the summer.

But enough about subways and buses.

What’s it like to work here? So far pretty good though I am still not in a London rhythm. My mornings tend to be slow but about noon of every day, when the US “wakes up”; it gets pretty busy and can continue into the evening, especially now that the US east coast is 5 hours “behind” the UK with the UK having gone to DST this past weekend.

The office pace is definitely slower; lots of meetings, lots of analysis, slow to make a decision. And people are not candid with each other in public settings, like it’s not good manners to have a different point of view on a subject, in public. So you leave a meeting thinking things are agreed only to find out that, subsequent to the meeting, there may have been additional conversations that cancel out what was decided. Weird but the way it is until we have a chance to start changing culture and behaviors.

There is certainly plenty to do and, when the Thomson-Reuters deal closes on 17 April I am sure the London pace will pick up.

One final thing; everyone at Reuters works out in the open, no closed offices and no dedicated desks. You come in the morning and just take any desk that’s open, first come first served. Very different! If you need privacy you commandeer a “60 minute room”, an enclosed space where you can conduct a private meeting or make a phone call that you don’t want the whole world to hear. As you might imagine these rooms are in high demand. I think this kind of open office concept is extreme and, frankly, inefficient, but I am sure some space planner/designer is delighted with what has been wrought.

Well that’s it from me for now.

All the best, Carl.

Third Weekend in London

Saturday it rained – and we were stuck in the flat most of the day waiting for the Skye television to be hooked up.

(We ordered the super duper Skye package, and one of the channels we now get is an English language version of Al-Jazeera.)

When the technician finally left, we ventured out in the rain and hopped a couple of buses to a pub in Hampstead: The Holly Bush. After getting off the bus, we had to climb a hilly street to reach this pub. When we entered, we were struck by the warm and welcoming atmosphere. We were greeted by the bar in the first room; then, as we walked back further, the place opened up into several smaller rooms, each leading into the others, and each with four or five tables and chairs. The lighting was dim, and the walls were either dark wood or deep colours (not colors). The tables were large, chunky, and dark wood, with wooden chairs or benches. The floor was wood as well. Everything looked well worn and comfortable. In each of the rooms, there were clusters of people sitting around, talking, drinking, eating, and laughing. We selected a small table for two, and had our dinner there. It was a very pleasant evening.

Back at the flat we watched a pay-per-view movie on our newly installed Skye television: The Brave One with Jodie Foster. About twenty minutes before the movie ended, the service cut out and the screen got all snowy. We were unable to get the movie back on again – and I went to bed and to sleep. Carl gave up and watched something else. (If anyone has seen that movie, I would appreciate an email describing how it ends.)

Saturday night, we pushed our clocks ahead one hour - so now we are on Summer Time (Daylight Savings Time). There is now a five-hour difference between us and the east coast, and an eight-hour difference from the west coast.

Sunday brought us a return of the sun, so we went exploring London again on buses. The bus right in front of our apartment to us to our first destination: the Sunday arts market along Hyde Park. We walked along six or seven blocks, looking at the oil paintings, water colors, and crafts placed against the wrought iron fencing along the park. We came close, but did not select anything to buy. When we reached the end of the art works, we continued walking along until we eventually found ourselves in Notting Hill – where we walked along the main shopping area. We stopped off at a pub - The Old Swan – and ate a traditional pub dinner. Carl had roast beef with Yorkshire pudding, with vegetables and mash. (That’s what they called mashed potatoes.) I went even further and ordered the calves liver and sausage with mash. It was old fashioned English fare.

After our meal, we took buses across town to Buckingham Palace. Everywhere we looked out the bus windows, we could see the streets filled with people shopping and enjoying the sunny weather. It was as if every person in London decided to go outside today. We walked through the park by the palace and saw swans on the pond. Some people were lining up for ice cream from vendors in the park, some stretched out on the grass, and some posed with their friends for pictures. It was a beautiful day in the park. We walked up to the palace and saw the black furry-hatted guardsmen marching back and forth in front of the palace. Then we walked on further to the tube stop and took a train back to the flat.

Hash -- not just food

Last week on the phone, while conversing with a computerized voice, I heard, "Please enter your telephone number, followed by hash."
"Hash"??? I looked on the phone dial for some new and different symbol - but found none.
From across the room, Carl rescued me: "It's the pound sign."
OF COURSE.
The British have their own pound, and it has nothing to do with weight. It makes sense that they wouldn't call this symbol, #, the pound sign. Instead, it's HASH.

Earth Hour

Earth Hour, the scheduled one-hour shutdown of lights in major cities around the world, will take place in London on Saturday morning at 9:00. The impact here won't be nearly as noticeable as when it happens in Sydney at 8pm.

Skype

Skype has proven to be a convenient way to speak with people in the U.S. for free by using only our computers – with no phones involved.

Change in the Blog Format

I've had to change the format of this blog. I am obviously writing far too frequently, because I began to run out of space on the right hand side where the titles were listed. They won't be listed any more.

Exploring Neighborhoods and Activities

London, like New York, has many different neighborhoods. One guide book describes London as a collection of villages.

Our village, St. John’s Wood, is within the borough of Westminster. (London also has boroughs, like New York.) By the way, the name of our village, when said by the locals, is pronounced with the emphasis on John’s, as follows: St. John’s Wood. If you treat the name as a three-syllable word, the emphasis is similar to that of the following three-syllable words with the stress on the second syllable: discover, enhancement, and convenient. St. John’s Wood is an upscale area north west of the ‘city’ (the ‘city’ being the London equivalent to the Wall Street area in Manhattan) and has more trees and greenery than you see in some other London neighborhoods. The area has condos, apartments, and private homes.

Last week, I visited neighboring Marylebone (pronounced like ‘Marilyn’ without the ‘n’ and adding the word ‘bone’ to the end.) which is closer in to the city, heading south. I walked along Church Street with its many antique shops. One shop in particular, Alfie’s Place, filled three storeys with different booths selling all kinds of items like old jewellery (not jewelry) and clothing, and lots of 50s-style furniture and lamps. I’m not a big fan of 50s style furniture, though; most of the antiques in Connecticut look more appealing to me. As I followed Church Street down further, I came across an open market on the street. There were two to three blocks of streets filled with stands of delicious looking fresh fruits and vegetables for sale. Most of the people in the neighborhood looked to be of a middle-eastern background. A couple of women were wearing burkas; most of the others had on long skirts and head coverings. Many of the stores on the blocks were of the dollar discount kind – with very inexpensive houseware items. There were bargains to be had everywhere!

Inside one of the stores, I asked the owner if the market was here everyday – or just today. He said that the today – Tuesday - was a small version of the market, and that on Friday and on the weekend, it was much larger. (I must go back.)

One of the stores missing in St. John’s Wood is a hardware/ housewares store. It took me a while to locate that kind of store in surrounding neighborhoods. And, as it turns out, when I want to purchase something from that kind of store, I must walk long distances or ride the bus or tube – carrying my bags of purchases home with me.

During our first week here – I took a bus north to Finchley Road on a hunting trip for housewares stores – and I discovered a few up there. It was good to see that there were even more housewares available going in a southerly direction too.

Yesterday, a sunny spring day, I headed off on the bus in the opposite direction – north and east – to Hampstead, a beautiful village on a hill that overlooks London. One of Carl’s colleagues, Jane, lives in Hampstead, so we were familiar with it and had driven through it once with a London cabbie. I loved the tree-lined sidewalks filled with tables and chairs outside of cafes. There were lots of shops – including a housewares shop (yay!!)- and beautiful homes to look at down each side street. The High Street climbs a hill that is said to be the highest site in the London area. Jane’s husband told us a story he heard -- that during World War II, the people sat on the hill in Hampstead and watched the bombs being dropped on London.

Hampstead has a very active community of retired people who have formed a group called The Third University. They offer talks, classes, and seminars on all kinds of interesting topics. I plan to take advantage of some of those classes.

Another organization (it is written here as ‘organisation’) that I think is very interesting is called The Ramblers Association. There are several branches based in London, and many more throughout the British Isles. Hampstead also has a group of Ramblers. They are a not-for-profit group that focuses on walking and its benefits. They also maintain the footpaths in their areas. They plan regular group walks – usually on weekends and some weekdays – from 3 miles to 20 miles long. I have been looking for some Ramblers walks that are offered during the week – so I can go while Carl is working. Ramblers also plan occasional longer walks in the country or for the weekend.

There is also a group called ‘London Walks’ that for 5 pounds will include you in a group with a guide somewhere in London. You just meet up with the guide at a given place and time and join in on a scheduled walking tour. This one sounds a little easier to arrange – and I will definitely try it out.

I am also planning to attend meetings of some other groups – for the purpose of getting to know other people in the area. The local library has a book club, and their meeting is next week. I read the book – The Time Traveler’s Wife – and I’m ready to go! The St. John’s Wood Women’s Group, that describes itself as an expat group, will meet the following week. I’ve got that scheduled on my calendar too. Also, Sue, our English relocation advisor, has given me the name of another one of her clients who is an American woman my age who has moved here with her husband. I will call her later today.

Yesterday, I spent hours on my computer looking over all the courses that are offered at various locations around London as adult education. London must have the largest selection anywhere-- it’s a treasure chest of course offerings! I am looking for something I can take during the day once a week for five or six weeks. I still have not decided which course to sign up for: modern art or digital photography.

Lots happening!

BT

Today marks two weeks since we have been in our apartment. And this morning – just this morning – we had a major happening here. British Telecom sent an engineer to our apartment and hooked us up with a telephone – a real, live, land-line telephone!! This is a monumental occurrence in London. Nobody believes you are here until BT says you have a telephone and you have arrived. I can’t remember how many times I’ve been asked for a BT bill to prove my residency. We didn’t have a BT bill yet, because the engineer was back scheduled for a couple of weeks and couldn’t get to us until today. However, we did have an official letter from BT telling us what our phone number is. Thank heavens! (I actually had to show that letter when I joined the local library.) Believe it or not, until we got a BT phone line installed, we could not get our Sky television programming installed ... or our broadband installed for the computer. (Both of those are happening tomorrow - now that BT has graced us with their phone line.) Before today, we have been using our cell phones exclusively, but that only helped us to communicate, it didn’t give us anything near the significance and status of being a BT customer. I have to say, we have not felt officially here – not really officially here in London – until NOW - now that we have a BT phone line.

When the BT engineer finally arrived today – I welcomed him and told him I felt as if I were meeting God.

More about food

On a package of broccoli that I purchased and had delivered last week, there was a label listing the origin of the food as Kenya. The leg of lamb is from New Zealand.

Those fine asparagus spears and small green beans serve really well when steamed, then cooled and added to a green salad.

On and around St John’s Wood High Street we have several excellent food shops. There is one shop that sells only breads and baked goods – The Bread Shop. There is a butcher shop with a wide selection of meats (and quail’s eggs). In addition, there is a French bakery that carries very fine pastries. Believe it or not, there is also a Jewish Deli on the High Street: Harry Morgan’s that offers many typical Jewish dishes. We haven’t tried it out yet – but I’m sure it won’t be long until we do. Also, we have a grocer, Panzers, that carries many American-type foods that are not available in the regular grocery stores. (Surprisingly, chicken broth is one of those items that cannot easily be found anywhere else. Tomato paste in most stores is sold in tubes – and it is called tomato puree – extra concentrated.) Panzers also has a good selection of fresh vegetables and fruits as well as cold cuts.

We also have a Tesco’s – which is a chain of small grocery stores similar to a Seven Eleven store – but with more groceries and less junk food. Tesco’s is usually open when everything else has closed. There is a fairly good sized selection of American – type products in Tesco’s as well, because it is within walking distance of the nearby American school.

Carluccio’s - is a chain that sells Italian specialty foods, but also serves meals throughout the day. You can eat every meal there if you wish, from breakfast to supper, and then buy some fresh parmesan cheese or a delicious dessert to bring home.

Easter Weekend 2

Easter Sunday was a miserable, cold, snowy and windy day. For the first time since we arrived, Carl and I spent the entire day inside the flat. Carl worked on the taxes, and I read the book (The Time Traveler’s Wife) for the upcoming book group meeting at the library.

Monday was also a holiday – and it was still cold but sunny outside – so we took off as tourists again for the day.

In the morning we went to Greenwich – to the Royal Observatory. We saw the exhibits on clocks and longitude. We stood on the exact spot of the prime meridian -- zero degrees longitude. We read about the development of the first clocks – and the beginning of daylight savings time. The observatory was on a hill (of course) in a beautiful park adjacent to a college campus – Greenwich University. Greenwich was a pleasant village with several blocks of shops and eateries. It also had an open-air market with booths containing clothing and crafts. There was one Chinese man selling artwork created as paper cuttings. Another man sold plates and bowls hand painted from Israel. One woman was selling decorative items made from Juniper trees. It was easy to see how this would be a popular spot in the warm weather. (As it was, it started to snow again while we walked around.)

In the afternoon, we went to St. Paul’s Cathedral. Since it was the day after Easter, the church bells were ringing almost continuously – filling the air with melody. Inside was an indescribably beautiful cathedral, designed by Christopher Wren. Carl and I took the taped tour together. St. Paul’s was the first cathedral built after the Church of England broke off from the Catholic Church. It compared in beauty to many of the cathedrals we saw in Spain and Italy. Many of the domes inside are filled with multi-colored mosaics tinged with gold. They are very colorful and rich, and they sparkle in the daylight.

One very special feature at St. Paul’s was a memorial chapel dedicated to the 28,000 Americans who died during World War II fighting in Britain or on their way to fight in Britain. This chapel holds a prominent place right up in front of the main altar. As the story goes, an American official asked the British where we could build a memorial for the lost American soldiers in the War, and the British responded something like this – Wait a minute – it is not for you to build the memorial – it is for US to build it. So they built this very special memorial in this very special location in St Paul’s Cathedral. A centerpiece in the memorial is a large book containing the names of all those 28,000 lost Americans. Each day, they turn to a new page in the book.

A small snow shower on the way home didn't bother us at all. (None of the snow ever sticks.) We stopped in at a favorite place near our flat --Carluccio's--and had an early dinner before returning home to our television-less flat.

International City

When we are in public – either at a department store, or on a bus or a train, or just walking on a crowded street – at least one third to one half of all the other people around us speak another language or speak English with an accent other than a British accent. (As Americans, we fall into that percentage with the ‘other’ accent.) London is truly an international city.

Easter Weekend 1

The Easter holiday here gives everyone a day off from work and school on the Friday before and the Monday after Easter Sunday. It is a really nice four-day weekend. Banks are closed, but shops are open.

On Friday, we went once again to Oxford Street to shop for a rug, and additional lamps and tables for our flat. Afterward, we went to Marylebone High Street to see what kinds of shops were there. After having lunch at a pub, we took a couple of double-decker bus rides around the city to see some different areas. We saw Paddington, which has a very large station with an express train direct to Heathrow airport. We rode through Notting Hill, the neighborhood that loaned its name to the movie with Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant. We also went to Kensington – one of the areas we might have lived in – and walked along the High Street. It was jammed with people carrying packages and running in and out of stores.

Saturday began with a snow shower. Then minutes later, the sky was blue again and the sun was shining brightly. That pattern repeated itself several times throughout the day. One minute the sun would be shining in a clear blue sky, and the next minute, there would be black clouds overhead and it would start to rain. When it was cold enough – three or four times throughout the day, the rain would turn to freezing rain or sleet or even snow. At some points, the snow was falling so heavily and the wind was blowing so hard, it looked like a blizzard. Then ten minutes later, it was all gone, and the sun was shining again.

We went to the Museum of Natural History Saturday morning – along with every family in London who had children under 14. (I theorized that this was probably the busiest day of the year for this museum: the weather was bad, the kids were home from school, and Mom and Dad were home from work.) In spite of long lines (queues) and lots of crowds, it was a very interesting place to be. We spent two hours looking at exhibits on the earth and what changes it, the evolution of the earth, the evolution of man (Darwin was from England), minerals, and plants. I am sure we only scratched the surface; we could go back many times and see many more interesting displays.

Just down the block are the Science Museum and the Museum of Victoria and Albert. We will return on another day.

We walked and rode the underground and took buses, and came home for a late lunch: soaking wet and cold. The afternoon was a good time to read The Time Traveler’s Wife -- the current selection of the St. John’s Wood Library Reading Group. (The meeting is in two weeks, and this is a very thick book.)

On holidays and weekends, it is typical for several of the tube lines to have restricted schedules –or to be closed altogether - because of “engineering work” being done. So if you don’t drive a car, it can be more difficult than usual to get around during holidays and weekends – just the time you most want to go places.

Observations

The temperature has ranged in the 40s through 60s, mostly cloudy and with some rain almost every day. A couple of days have been very grey with downpours. Most days, though, the sun generally manages to make an appearance, however briefly, regardless of how rainy or cloudy it has been.

These conditions seem to be perfect for the colorful flowers blooming everywhere: crocuses, daffodils, tulips, pansies, geraniums, and many other beauties I cannot name.

I read recently on a local website that the British do not view gardening as a hobby, but rather as an art form. It surely seems like art when you look around.

There are signs on many street corners and the sides of buildings informing us that CCTV (closed circuit television) is monitoring us.

We met our back-door neighbors earlier this week – while we were both putting out our trash.
They are a couple around our age, from “Persia.”

Some words from Carl

Sue has kept you pretty much up to date relative to our house hunting and move over to London. I thought I might share just a few lines about what it’s like to start working over here and some of the differences in the British way of doing things.

First of all nothing happens quickly; there are layers of people and process and forms that demand to be respected and there’s no way of getting around them even for a relatively senior person such as myself and even for minor things. Oh well!

Second, given that I still have a large share of responsibilities that are US centric, the 4-5 hour time difference makes for a strange day. I devote the mornings, as much as I can, to London “stuff” and the afternoons and early evenings to US “stuff’, all of it over the phone or via email. I miss the human interaction. I know this will change as the London stuff takes up more and more of my time but it is an adjustment.

Another adjustment is the commute; I am back to riding the subway or tube as it is called here. It is very efficient, about 35 minutes on the train(s) to either of my two offices, with a ten minute walk to the tube station from our flat. So, all in all, a 45 minute door-to-door journey. I leave about 7:30 in the morning and the trains are already crowded at that point, a bit of a surprise for me, but people tell me that that’s what I should expect. There are a huge number of transportation choices in London, the tube, buses, various rail systems internal to the city and, of course, commuter rail lines to the various suburbs. Finally there is British Rail to the outlying areas of the country. It’s going to be a while before all this is sorted out and it should be fun doing it.

Finally just a few words about our experiences with Capital One, the credit card company. We opened a new VISA account with them because they don’t charge F/X fees for converting $ to GBP or vise-versa so it seemed like a good idea to charge as much each month to this account and just pay one bill in US $ and be done with it. Great theory if only the card could work. For reasons too numerous to mention I have been on the phone with their customer (dis)service people probably a dozen times in 4 days, from India to God knows where, trying to get them to lift various odd restrictions and holds on the card all, allegedly, designed to prevent fraud. You can’t believe how frustrating this has been and I am still not sure if the card works, but after my last conversation yesterday I think it might be OK. For someone who has spent a lifetime building up and nurturing an excellent credit rating this is really very frustrating.

Well enough minutiae for now.

Best, Carl.

An Englishwoman

On Wednesday, I went to lunch with Sue, the relocation specialist who worked with us to find this apartment last February. Before she became a freelancer in the relocation business, she spent 20 years as a journalist, and contributed to several of the London guide publications. As a result, she is stock full of interesting tidbits of information about this city.

When I asked her, Sue explained that the young men I see on several street corners selling an obscure newspaper were put there by an organization that was formed to help homeless people. The idea was that the homeless should have a job – rather than just beg for money, so they publish this newspaper (“rather dull,” according to Sue) and sell it on the streets. She says she just gives them money and lets them keep the paper.

On our way to lunch, we walked through a park with a hill. Sue told me that at the top of the hill is where people come on November 5 to watch the fireworks for Guy Fawkes Day. Then she recited the following poem:

"Remember, remember,
the fifth of November,
Gunpowder, treason and plot.
We see no reason why
Gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot!"

Apparently, Guy Fawkes, a Roman Catholic, with his band of other Catholics, planned to blow up parliament in 1605 – but their mission was thwarted as they were discovered and captured before they could do any damage. So today the British are still celebrating their victory (and perhaps warning others against ever attempting it themselves).

You can read about this British holiday at this web site.

http://www.internet-at-work.com/hos_mcgrane/holidays/gregory.html

Below is a message Sue sent last week. When I read it, I hear her British voice; I hope you can hear it too.

Carl -

Hi - I hope everything was OK at the flat in the end?

I don't suppose you have internet yet, which is why I'm sending this message via your phone... I was going to have tea with Sue tomorrow, but last week I lost my voice (not such a bad thing, some people said :) and now it's back but, in a new and rather disgusting turn, I am now coughing and spluttering - yuk! and I bet Sue won't appreciate my turning up and giving her an authentic English cold?

I am so sorry to have to cancel, and very embarrassed because of course I am never usually ill and don't believe in colds, which are only for weak-minded people.

I'm sure I will have stopped coughing by, say, Wednesday. I could come by then? Or Thursday, or Friday?

Kind regards,

Sue

After lunch, Sue put on her helmet, hopped on her bicycle, and rode home again. The trip took 50 minutes each way. She mentioned she didn’t want the still evident cough to stop her from cycling; that is her contribution to helping the environment.

Spitzer scandal and Camden Market

The Elliot Spitzer scandal has not gone unnoticed over here. Apparently one of the other clients for the prostitution ring was an extremely wealthy Duke or something (distantly related to the Queen) who is also married and with four daughters. There was a long article about him in a local paper, and believe it or not, they quoted the call girl as describing him as being dull and boring. She also revealed that he wanted unprotected sex but she refused. Now there's a real comeuppance. This man was not only publicly exposed for hiring a call girl, but he was criticized by that call girl in a newspaper article. (Carl says that prostitution is legal over here, but I don't think the author of that article approved.)

Today I took a bus to Camden Town. (Carl tells me that in A Christmas Carol, Bob Cratchett lived there.) Camden Town is the home of the famous Camden Market, which a London guide describes as being an historical open market and a large tourist attraction that gets very crowded on weekends. There were several tourists there on this Tuesday afternoon. One busload of boys looked like a high schoolers from Germany or Scandinavia. Many of the couples wandering through the booths spoke languages other than English. (Although that is something we have found all over London.)

The market area consists of five or six blocks of indoor and outdoor booths selling clothing, jewelry, and other personal items that would appeal mostly to young people. Items included t-shirts (many with skulls and crossbones), hats, sunglasses, belts and large belt buckles, black leather clothing with chains, shoes and boots, jewelry (including rings for all parts of the body), and intricately designed glass and brass paraphernalia used for smoking stuff. There were lots of signs for tattoos and body piercings.

One notable fellow was wearing black boots with a floor-length black leather coat covered with many silver buckles and rings. He had no hair on his head; instead there were 10 to 15 large yellow and orange circles (like large buttons) attached to his skull, with 4 or 5 yellow feathers sticking up at the top.

Groceries

My lack of knowledge of the metric system has once again led to a surprise with food. This morning, my online grocery order was delivered. I noticed right away that the package of flour and the package of brown sugar were both very small – about the size of my hand. When I originally ordered those products, I thought 500 grams sounded like a sizable package. Wrong again. I now know that 500 grams are equivalent to about one pound. What I wanted was the equivalent of five of those 500-gram-packages of flour.

As I was putting the food away in the cabinets and in the refrigerator, I noticed that most of the packages of food were smaller than the typical packaging we see in the U.S. supermarkets. Even the meat and produce seemed smaller. The half of a leg of lamb that I ordered looked like an extra-thick lamb chop. The asparagus spears were the size of green beans, and the green beans were half that size. I felt that British discipline and reserve was being thrust upon us with these smaller portion sizes. The message was, “You will not be an over-consuming American. You are in England now.” Okay.

Getting around with Google

Google is my good friend these days. All I have to do is enter my postal code (zip code) and the type of place I am looking for, either a movie theater (cinema), a hardware store (iron monger), a department store, etc, and click on Google Maps. I am immediately provided with a list of all the closest cinemas, for example, and for each one, Google shows me on the map where it is. Then I go to the London Transport web site to find the tube lines and the bus lines that will take me there.

Arithmetic

When shopping here, the arithmetic is rather simple. Look at the price in pounds – then double it. That’s how many of our battered dollars it will cost.

Adjustments and lessons learned

I recently discovered that I have a back door in my kitchen that opens to an area where another neighbor’s back door opens as well. My kitchen has two windows and a door with a window in it –all facing the same area. It is the top landing on the fire escape – and our trash cans are kept there. I noticed that the neighbor has planted some herbs in pots just outside her door. I plan to introduce myself to the ‘back door neighbor’ when I see her.

This back door is very neighborly during the daytime. But at night, when it is dark – my imagination takes over – and I am filled with thoughts of an unsavory person climbing the stairs and coming to my back door. Because of all the windows in the kitchen, I don’t feel very secure. I remember also, from living in New York, that there are creatures that roam at night – especially around trash cans. So, each night, the back door area becomes a threatening place for me. Last night, I closed the kitchen door and locked it so the rest of the apartment (‘flat’) could not be accessed from the kitchen.

I think I have lived out in the country too long; I have to get used to being in the city again.

Speaking of locks, our flat has the old fashioned kind of locks – the ones with keyholes, (that is, all except for the deadlock on the front door.) So our keys look like the kind you see in old English movies – or the kind they have for jail cells. Every room in our flat has a lock with that kind of key in it. You can lock the door from either side with the same key.

All of these old fashioned touches remind me all the time that I am in London, England.

Someone just dropped a letter through the slot in our front door. There is no bank of mailboxes in the lobby. (I think our building is too old for that.) Instead, the postman comes up through the elevator (the lift) and delivers the mail to each of the two apartments on each floor. The letter was from a neighbor – for the previous tenants. They don’t deliver mail here on Sundays.

The sound of the letter dropping through our mail slot and onto the floor startled me. I am not yet used to having people so close by. For the first couple of nights, when I heard the elevator door open or when someone was in the hallway just outside our flat – I almost jumped out of my chair. I have spent the last 25 years living in the woods – where there is nobody close to my house without my knowing it.

I am sure I will soon adjust to this new people-filled environment. Otherwise, I'll be jumping out of my chair on a regular basis.

We live on the sixth floor up – the top floor – of this building. Yet, here it is called the fifth floor. That is because the ground floor is called just that – “the ground floor.” The first floor up – what we would call the second floor – the Brits call the first floor, and so on.

You can see how easy it is for a misunderstanding to occur in a discussion between Americans and British – even though we are speaking the same language. Identical words don’t have the same meaning in each culture.

Another area where we can make mistakes is on abbreviated dates. The abbreviation, 8/2/54, to Americans means August 2, 1954. In England, it means 8 February, 1954.

A lesson learned: English yellow mustard is VERY HOT. If you spread it on your sandwich as if it were Guldens or French’s, your throat will burn, your eyes will water, and your nose will run – instantly. It is best to apply it sparingly.

Carl has visited the office where he will be spending much of his time working -- at least in these early weeks. They are, in fact, creating a new office for him out of a rather large area that has been vacant for a while. He reports in tomorrow - Monday- for the first time.

Today, Carl once again spent several minutes on the phone with Capital One. He was cut off three times and had to call back each time. He has been assured that the credit card is functioning properly and that there are no restrictions on it. Still, the card is rejected at some of the stores. What an uncomfortable feeling it is to be waiting at the cash register wondering whether or not your credit card will be accepted. We now warn all the sales people - so we can avoid the resulting embarrassment if it is rejected. If and when it is rejected, we just pull out one of the old standby cards and use it instead.

The reason Carl opened the Capital One credit card in the first place is because Capital One does not charge any fees for converting pounds to dollars. All of our existing cards charge the fee. With hindsight, I would say it is probably not a good idea to move to a foreign country planning to use a brand new credit card.

Dinner tonight is the reheated dinner that we never got to eat last night. I roasted a small chicken with carrots and potatoes -- which should have taken an hour or two.
After three hours when the chicken was still not fully cooked, we decided to take it out of the oven and finish cooking it for dinner today. We had sandwiches instead.
It turns out that our 'rule-of-thumb' estimate for converting Fahrenheit to Celsius was off the mark just enough for the oven temperature to be set at 300 instead of 350.

Thank goodness for the internet. I now have a complete listing of oven temperatures in Celsius. It is another lesson learned.

Observations and more shopping

Even though we speak the same language, I don’t always understand the Brits when they speak. I find myself asking people to please repeat themselves with the hope that I’ll catch their meaning the second time around. This is especially true on the telephone. Any public announcements made in the subway are completely lost on me. (But I never understood them in New York either.)

It is fun to note how two countries using the same language create different expressions for the same item or event. For example, in the pharmacy, the brochure promoting a pneumonia shot refers to a pneumonia ‘jab’. In the U.S. we have Yield signs on the road; here they have Give Way signs. In the subways, we have Exit signs; here they have Way Out signs in the tube. Also in the tube, they remind passengers often to Mind the Gap between the train and the station floor when you are entering or exiting a train.


When riding the tubes, a passenger must either purchase a paper ticket or an Oyster Card. Oyster Cards are the greatest invention! You pay for a card for a period of time – or for an amount of money. Then, each time you enter -- and leave -- the tube, you place the card on a sensor at the turnstile. It’s a very quick procedure allowing many passengers to go through quickly. Obviously, it gives the transit people lots of information about which trains are getting the most traffic during the day.

In addition, at each tube station, there is a special sensor that will tell you how much money you have left on the card. If you like, you can opt to ‘top it off’ or add more money to it right there.
Or, you can do what we are doing – register the card and then add money to it online whenever you like. (Of course now, I am sure “they” will know exactly where and when I travel any day. I imagine the terrorists would not register their Oyster Cards online – preferring to remain anonymous and use the station sensors instead.) We could use Oyster Cards in New York.


Because the cars are driving on the left side of the road, it takes a while to remember that you have to look the opposite way when crossing the street. I find myself looking both ways always, and never quite feeling secure when there is a lot of traffic. At the busier intersections around London, they actually have a written message painted on the street at the curb telling you to Look to the Right or Look to the Left. (I guess there are lots of us having the same problem).


The local butcher shop carries Lancashire quail eggs – they are sort of small with brown dots. (“Perfect for canapés,” the label reads.)
The local grocery store offerings that are equivalent to TV dinners have some interesting options: bangers and mashed potatoes, meat pies, fish pies, and souvlaki, to name a few.

The local newspaper shop, or candy store, carries newspapers from almost every country in Europe. There are also an equal number of papers in Arabic languages. We saw The Wall Street Journal on sale there as well. Of course, we can get all the papers we want online now.

Today we tried out the bus instead of the tube. Oyster Cards provide us access to the buses as well. We discovered that we are lucky enough to have a bus stop only a couple of blocks away from our front door with a bus that takes us directly to Oxford Street – where there are many shops, including large department stores like Marks and Spencer, Debenhams, Selfridges, and John Lewis. (Carl is especially thrilled about this.) It is much easier to carry our bagged purchases home on the bus than on the tube.

We purchased two more pieces of furniture at John Lewis that will make life easier and help us be more organized in our flat. And I think we’ll be able to use them at LBI when we return.

We have arrived!

We left JFK Wednesday around 7:30pm and arrived in London Thursday morning 6:30am local time. As we approached Heathrow, there was a brilliant red sunrise streaking across the sky. Looking down, I could see a patchwork of various shaped green fields all neatly bordered by darker green-- either trees or shrubs -- and lots of red roofs on all the houses.

Thursday was a bit of a blur. We slept a few hours at the hotel, then we met with the realtor at our flat to get the keys and do a walk through, we introduced ourselves to the porters of the building, we bought some groceries locally, and we tried out a French restaurant - Cafe Rouge - on St Johns Wood High Street. We also bought a cell phone for me, bought two Oyster cards (for riding the tube), and made calls to arrange for a telephone and cable tv service. One needs to have a licence (not license) to operate a television. And our telephone line cannot be installed until sometime at the end of this month because they are all booked up till then. (It looks like the phone company is the same everywhere.) We also made numerous calls to customer service for our new Capital One credit card, because it kept being rejected at stores. (Apparently the customer service people in India don't talk to the customer service people in the U.S.)

In addition, we placed an order for a load of groceries to be delivered on Monday. I have never bought food from the internet before - and it was an interesting experience selecting the British brands - most of which are very different from the U.S. (The web site is www.ocado.com if you want to check it out.)

While we are here, all of our large purchases will have to be delivered - as we have no car and will be walking or riding a subway or bus everywhere.

Fortunately, we are able to access the internet wirelessly in our apartment. We do, however, plan to get broadband service later.

At the end of the day, we returned to the hotel to sleep; the movers were due to come early the next morning.

Today, Friday, the movers did arrive on time with our items from home. They unpacked everything and took all the packing materials with them. If they had not done that, we would have had to pay to have the materials removed. (No more putting it all in the garage until the garbage man comes.)

After we had put away most of the items, we took the tube to Carl's new office to pick up our new bank cards that had just arrived. Then we took a different train to the John Lewis department store on Oxford Street. We purchased all the electric appliances that we couldn't bring from home because of the different plugs: a toaster, an iron, a coffee maker, a vacuum cleaner (or "Hoover" as it's called here).
We also bought two television sets, a tv stand, and an area rug for the living room.
All the while, we were having the same problem with our credit card being rejected.

Picture this: while I am looking at rugs and tv stands, poor Carl is sitting on a chair in the furniture department talking ONE MORE TIME to the customer service rep trying to get our new credit card unblocked. Finally he worked it out. FRUSTRATION!

All of our purchases will be delivered on the same morning - fortunately.

Tired and with aching feet, we took ourselves onto the tube and back to St. Johns Wood where we made a brief stop at the Tesco's express market to pick up items for breakfast tomorrow, then chose Tino's, an Italian restaurant, for what turned out to be a delicious dinner.

This is a whole new way of life with no car and no driving -- just walking and 'tubing' everywhere.

So far, though, we are very happy and loving it. The apartment is very nice. It is roomy and has all the basics one could need. And I think it will become warm and inviting after we add some more accessories. There is sunlight coming in all day long - and the view in the front is of the beautiful park. At night, we can see the city lights in the distance. I am still learning to identify the different buildings.


The British people we have interacted with - mostly salespeople or service people so far -- have been very helpful and friendly. Everyone is very polite -- even a beggar we saw on the tube. He came to our section of the train and addressed the crowd asking for some money. He didn't make eye contact with anyone, and he didn't hang around to make people feel uncomfortable. He was very matter of fact as he delivered his 'speech.' Then he apologized for taking up our time and moved on to the next section of the train where he repeated his speech before moving on again. In a way, he was very impressive -- definitely a British beggar.