Feet on the Ground

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Hello Friends! We arrived safely in London on Monday, June 10th. Our driver took us to our new apartment, which is at the Lambeth Bridge, facing the Thames River. Both bedrooms and living room have a terrific view of the river, and from our front drive you can see Westminster Abbyand Big Ben. The nearest underground is Vauxhall station for all you tubers. We were dead tired Monday, but still managed to take the tube over to my old apartment in Smithfield Market. It was Joan and Hunters first time on the London tube, and we hit it right at rush hour! We loaded up my belongings from the old apartment, and caught a black taxi back over to the new place. Our "apartment" is really a 5 star hotel. They created a separate wing for suites, and we are in a 2 bdrm/2bth place. We feel like the Royal Tennenbaums. Strange having a doorman and conciege greet you get home from work! They come to clean everyday, and drop off fresh towels etc. It's nice, but not like home. The kitchen is very small and doesn't have an oven. It's got a microwave, dishwasher, refridgerator and electric range. It's got a combo washer/dryer (weird), but it won't hold much more than a pair of socks. Overall, it will be fine for a few months, but that's about it.

Monday night we grabbed some Italian food near Westminster Abby. It was so-so, and but we were so tired it really didn't matter. I started work Tuesday morning. Rather than try to make my way in the London traffic (not to mention the fact they they put their steering wheels on the wrong side!), I just opted to have a car service take me to/from the office. By the time you pay the 8bps ($16) a day for London's "congestion fee", add about 20bps($40) per day parking, then another 40bps($80) per day rental...well..you get the point. The car service is a no brainer!

We ventured over to a little community in the West end of town called Earl's Court for dinner Tuesday night. We ended up eating at Pizza Xpress, which is a VERY good place to fill the hunger! We planned to take the tube back, but a) we caught the wrong one, then b) the right one wasn't operational! So we climbed out of the underground and grabbed a black taxi back to the apartment. The driver was "very creative" in his path back and turned a 15 minute 10 bps ride into a 30 minute 25 bps ($50) ride!! Oh well..the price of tourism!

Wed night was a little home cooking. Joan made some tacos, and we felt like we were back in Rockwall! We stayed around the apartment and watched a few episodes of the original Brit version of "The Office".

I had a meeting in Hanover Square Thursday morning, so Joan and Hunter met me for Lunch near Oxford Circus. It's only about a 10 minute tube ride from our apt. Hunter and I grabbed a cheese burger, while Joan opted for a club wrap. Pretty good meal, but I enjoyed the company better than the food. It's a good thing we had plenty of food at lunch, because Joan attempted to fry chicken for dinner and it...well...shrank! I've never seen chicken do that before. It's sort of strange, and we just looked at it and laughed. Joan though it looked like the turkey from "Christmas Vacation". I opted for some pasta!

We're planning to take a Jack the Ripper tour tomorrow night. Should be fun. On Saturday, we're going over to Notting Hill for some shopping, and then up to Camden Market. Not sure what we'll do Sunday, but we won't be sitting around the apartment! We've got some friends coming over next weekend, and we have tickets to the theatre for Saturday night. I'm anxious to see if I can understand the actors! ;-)

The job is going great! All the people have been terrific, and really helping me get situated. I'm planning trips to Dubai, Dublin, Nottingham and Munich in the next few weeks so I'll be busy.

Oh well -- gonna run now -- See ya'll soon!

Scott

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Comments

[Mumper]

1st entry
Glad that the three of you are settling in. I hated the washer/dryer thing when I was there. Never seemed to dry the clothes and it ran forever.

[Lisa Leonard]

You think London's bad come live in India
Scott - You blog is great. Very similar experience in India. Funny about the ovens - we didn't have one either. I forced Dan to buy one - had to have one for the $100, 8 lb buterball turkey I was cooking. (Please don't mention it to Dan - he goes off the chart - but hey if he can buy a camel I should be able to buy a oven - right?) It cost about 1K. Now that we are getting ready to leave the landlord doesn't want us to leave it and I can't find anyone to take it let alone buy it!!!! I always thought the food in London was so so BUT that was pre-India.

[McLaine]

Chicken :-()
It sounds like you guys are getting pretty well situated. When I read the bit about the chicken, it reminded me of the chicken at Dan’s apartment in Delhi – I never saw such puny fried chicken! :-()

[Lisa Leonard]

India Chicken
Tim - next time you are India we'll have someone take you to the chicken man and you can personally pick out the chicken you want to eat. That way you can pick a BIG chicken.

[Jim Motes]

Hardy's Rods and Reels
Scott, You probably know this but Hardy has a London Store. My uncle bought a fly reel there at a huge discount a couple of years ago.

[Kim]

Joan, Hope everything is well for you and Hunter. Everything here is HOT. We are having Robert's Grad Party tommorrow wish you were coming. I still have alot to do. Have you heard from Austin? Is he back from CA. I called and left a message for Amanda to call if they needed anything. Well just wanted to say hi and say we miss yall!

[The Daughter In America]

Nice
Glad to hear the details of the trip! HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!!!! Hope you all are doing well...Can't wait to get up there and experience all of the hullabaloo myself. That's right...I said 'hullabaloo.' I'm SO English.