The market and the first culture shock experience

We headed out this morning for the Blackheath Farmer's Market--a brisk, 25 minute, uphill walk which started out cold, but got warm fast. If we come back skinny, it's because we're walking a lot more than we used to. If we come back fattened up, it's because we have been going to a lot of pubs, eating cheese and bread for almost every meal, and adding milk to our tea and porridge...and it's not low-fat milk either.

The Farmer's Market was really neat--much smaller than the one in Dallas and stocked with local farmers' produce: farm raised and produced cheese and milk, fish, beef, chicken, eggs, bread, flowers, pies, jams. We purchased broccoli, salad veggies, some delicious herbed goat cheese (lunch), two loaves of bread, garlic and onions and trekked a few feet to a deli/cafe, where we crammed into a corner and had porridge (Claire) and pesto muffin with mushrooms and eggs (Jim). We are definitely not starving in London and thought it was funny that the "American Breakfast" at this cafe consisted of pancakes with scrambled eggs in between them, bacon as a side, and smothered in maple syrup--a combination of ALL American breakfasts!

Upon returning to our flat, we decided to do some laundry, which, apparently takes a rocket scientist (or at least a Brit) to figure out. Washers and driers in London seem to be typically very small and located in the kitchen. The one in this flat is a combo washer/dryer. You can fit about 2 pairs of underwear and a sweater into it and we have yet to discover how to get the soap to go from the drawer you put it in, to the actual load of laundry that you are doing. Also, once it gets started, the door seals shut and there seems to be no way to stop it, soap or no soap. And the wash cycle goes on for HOURS...doing laundry must be a day long process. Of course, if we can ever get our clothes out of the washer again, there is no way that they will dry in that thing, so we'll hang them on the drying rack in the bathroom. I suspect that our jeans won't be dry for a few days. If anyone in the US ever complains to me about their washing machine again, I will have no sympathy.

Jim goes back to work tomorrow and I will have to get around the neighborhood and the city for the first time by myself. With my incredible sense of direction and map reading abilities, I'm sure that I will end up someplace unplanned.

parks and parks and parks

Well, after rest and illness yesterday, we moved into high speed tourist mode today. We took the tube to Westminster where there were SCADS (good British word) of people. Jim forced me to have my picture taken in front of Big Ben (For some reasons, I'm not able to add pictures to the blog right now) and then we got out of there as soon as possible and took a less crowded walk around St. James Park, where we saw ducks, Canada Geese, Black Swans, and also some seagulls. Even England has seagulls and even people in England feed them. Sigh.

We headed through St. James park and marveled at the number of people who thought it was a good idea to stop in the middle of narrow footbridge, blocking all people coming and going, for a picture. Eventually we ended up in front of Buckingham Palace (more huge groups of people taking pictures not with the guards, but with the policemen, who were cheerful about it) and cut across to Hyde Park. The parks in London are plentiful and beautiful. There were people running and biking and playing soccer...and also an obese child selling hotdogs, which gave me hope that I will get a job here in London (sad, but true).

After Hyde Park we hit Oxford Street, which was the most crowded place of all. There are lots of department stores and shops (H&M!) There are so many different kinds of people here. The women wear tight jeans with boots over them or very short mini skirts with boots--always boots. Most of the men have some sort of spiked up hairdo and pointy shoes. We got off of Oxford Street and met up with....Dan and Meg!!!!

Sadly, we were so excited to see Dan and Meg that we forgot to take pictures, but we did have some pints, rode in a black London taxi to Hampstead, where they live, met their cat Jack and then headed out for the most expensive Indian (Curry, they call it here) dinner that we have ever had. It was delicious, though, and it was great to see our good friends, although we were unable to rally enough to go out again after dinner.

Now we are back at our temporary flat, where Jim is trying to convince me that it is a good idea to call the hostess of this incredibly annoying game show, Make Your Play. The goal of the game is to call in and guess a phrase, part of which they give you. Every time you call in, you get charged a pound. If you guess a correct phrase, you win 20,000 pounds, 50,000 pounds, etc. They play suspensful music and hardly anyone wins, but this woman chats you up on the TV, and tries to seduce poor, defenseless people ( I suspect that most of them are old) into calling over and over again until they get through and can guess. It's completely moronic, but somehow Jim is drawn to it. British TV is a hoot!

Still haven't taken pictures of the flat, but we'll do that soon. Tomorrow we head out to the Blackheath Farmer's Market, where we'll by farm fresh local produce.

A flat! (at least for now)

Today we moved from our very small and spare hotel room to a very roomy and cool "holiday stay" flat in Greenwich. We'll be in our temporary flat for 3 weeks while we seek permanent digs somewhere in London. Unfortunately, I gave in to my jet lag this afternoon and did not wake up from my long nap in time to take pictures of the flat in the daylight, but we will do that tomorrow and, until then, I'll describe it.

We were picked up yesterday evening by Patrick, the guy who represents the owner of the flat (The owner, apparently, is an artist...and not a very skilled one, unfortunately for those of us who are staying in the flat and are faced with her art for sale at every turn). Jim promptly tried to hop into the drivers seat of Patrick's car. We are getting better at not getting run over, but the steering wheel on the opposite side of the car phenomenon is still baffling us. We careened through the streets of London and invaded the privacy of a Nigerian lawyer who was staying in the flat while we poked through all of the rooms. The flat is three stories--tall and narrow--with a garden/patio in the back (too cold for that now, though) and a big, modern looking kitchen on the bottom floor, along with a sitting room which has a twin bed/chest built into the wall. Patrick decorated the room with lillies. In the kitchen, there is the smallest washing machine I have ever seen and there is no dryer, but, in the bathroom there are drying racks suspended from the ceiling, where we can dry our clothes. British flat design doesn't really leave room for washers AND dryers...or closets.

The second floor is where the main entrance is. There is a small living room with a TV and pull out couch. Down the hall is a spare bedroom and up some steep stairs is the third floor, where the master bedroom and a huge bathroom are. We have lots of beds here, in the event that anyone comes to visit us in the next few weeks. Can't say that for sure about where we'll end up permenantly.

The flats are in long rows down the street, with alleyways that lead to the Greenwich park, shopping areas, etc. We can hear the people next door walking around, babies crying, dogs barking. We're not far from the tube or the DRL (some other train system). Jim brought home a baguette and some delicious cheese that he got out in little markets here and there and on Sunday we'll line up at 10am to go to the Blackheath (neighboring village) Farmer's Market, where we can buy fresh local produce, milk, cheese, meats etc.

Tomorrow we are off to explore Hampstead Heath, where our friends Dan and Meg live. It's listed as one of the most beautiful walks in one of my London tour books.

Big ass crows

London is the home of HUGE crows...bigger than chickens (kind of like Texas pigeons)! They are eery and not easily scared unless you move toward them when they have food in their mouths. Those grackels in Texas who sound like squeaky tree branches would definitely lose a brawl with these monsters.

Londoners (or London posers)

I made it and finally we are together again...and in London. To me, it still doesn't feel like this is where we are going to be living.

This city is HUGE. You can see part of it in the background of the picture of me, where we viewed it from the top of Greenwich Park at the Royal Observatory:

We stood on the Prime Meridian, marveled at the home of the astronomer who's name I can't remember, and then spent the rest of the day Greenwich and Blackheath, walking through miles of green parks and winding through neighborhoods and pub and shop lined streets. We almost got run over several times...I'm especially having a hard time with remembering which way to look for oncoming cars and hope that I will not have to report that I have been run over by a double decker bus. Whoever came up with the idea to write "Look Right" and "Look Left" on the sidewalks has probably saved my life several times today.

We also are both struggling with the accents and do a lot of nodding and smiling, when we don't quite understand what's being said to us.

Jim spent some time practicing saying "Allo" and "Cheers!" on a public phone, while I accidentally asked some people what kind of soup "y'all" have and then made small talk with some people with a dog and then a guy selling purses. I'm not sure if my usual blabbermouth self is going to fly with the British, but we'll see.



"Allo, mate! Cheerio and blimey and all that!"

In between days

Well, one half of us is getting all settled in and acclimated to life in London, whilst the other half of us has entered stage 2 of getting to London in the first place--unpacking and repacking all of her clothes (and some of her husbands) in rural Louisiana. This is not as easy as it sounds, believe me, especially when the goal is not to have to pay anything extra for luggage on the flight over.

The upside of being in rural Louisiana, unpacking and repacking many seasons' worth of clothes, is that I am getting to spend some quality time with family and catch up on much needed sleep. But the countdown has begun and in T minus 4 days, I will be able to post some pictures of our first London adventures together and, instead of hearing about how awesome London is from a different time zone, I will be able to talk about how awesome it is myself! Jim reports that the parks are beautiful and everywhere, the tube is easy to use, the architecture is incredible and old, and that he has walked more in the past couple of weeks than he did in about a year in Texas. Also, that the food isn't bad at all.

I can't wait!

The Queen of U-Haul

If you never need advice on renting U-haul equipment, look no further! I am, officially, a pro. I have also become an expert car saleswoman (with a little help from my friends) and a professional packer.

Moving to London is going good so far. Jim already moved. I, on the other hand, am still in Dallas with our neverending stuff, but at least we are half way there and the other half (me) is getting there thanks to our awesome families.

A word of advice for any who are planning an international move at any point in your life: become a minimalist immediately! We filled a large U-Haul trailer to the breaking point and still have more to go. And that was AFTER getting rid of a large amount of "stuff." Fortunately, my neighbors are more than happy to take any furniture we leave on the curb, so things are working out.

Current house conditions: disaster. State of dust bunnies: Dominant. Current state of mind: frazzled. Current sleeping quarters: air mattress.

I love moving.