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Published: August 30th 2013
Mission: Get to London and reacquaint ourselves with the city and all of our old contacts.
We arrive in London, iPad still NFG (for those wondering NFG = NO FUDGING GOOD, because we are keeping this PG and cannot afford the swear jar anymore). As if set up like a comical stereotype to reinforce how much the Brits love queuing for things, the first thing every visitor encounters is a very lengthy immigration queue, however, I am pretty sure comedy in the immigration queue will get you the rubber glove treatment. We head for the tube hoping our old Oyster cards still work. They did and we were off.
Our first hang up was waiting to meet our guesthouse host, an old friend from years gone by. We stood on the corner, Canadian phone in hand, attempting to make contact by text (not wanting to pay roaming/international calling fees) although we had studied the way get to our accommodation on a map, we still felt mildly exposed standing on a street corner. Just when we were about to trudge off, making our own way, our contact, whom we will call ‘Melissa’ arrived.
She politely informed of us of
our first day’s set of task:
Step 1 – Shower and change of clothes. This was probably a good idea, as after 4 years away the Brits would be able to smell the North America on us.
Step2 – Attend a tea party at our residence. This was to be catered by our host and our friend Odin (aka Gunter, our man servant). It was a delicious collection of food, tea and scones. All and all, a perfect first meal in London.
Although this little soiree may seem like we are just lollygagging about, it was very important. Melissa and Odin have spent the last four years keeping up with old friends and have already arranged for us to see the one they call ‘The drama coach’ ('Ewa' for short).
Later, we were able to have a proper catch up with our other host, Melissa’s partner Ewan.
Two very cute kitties guard our current residence. Although they appear to sleep and just look cute most of the time, they are highly aware and highly trained. They guard the backyard perimeter and even the roof. They have tackled intruders such as moths, flies, spiders and toads
so far.
Sub-mission 1 – A new priority bumping all other sub-missions one space. Get our equipment (iPad) back up and operational. Although it would be nice to have a $700 paperweight, it does us no good on this journey. I tried all of the tricks I learned from my brief stint in IT, but alas, turning it off and on again only produced the same result. A scrolling white block across the screen. It was clearly a hardware issue, because plugging it into a borrowed computer, it showed up as ours. However, it would not let us access the iPad until we plugged in our secret 4 digit pin on the iPad screen. This is a bit of problem when all the screen shows is a scrolling white light. So I did the next best thing which was chat to an Apple expert, hoping to book an appointment, which did not flow with his plan. Their non-realistic suggestion was to try wiping the iPad and see if that helped. The actual quote was “so, to be clear, you do not want to try wiping the iPad of all information and software to see if that helps.” Had
we been able to do a back up, maybe I would have been game for a little IT fixit roulette. Got an appointment to take it in, however I was told that if it was a hardware problem, Apple would throw the iPad in the bin and just give us a new one. A thought that made us feel really good about our $700 purchase.
Our training has taught us many things, among them are: be skeptical and never give up.
So I trolled THE GOOGLE looking for people with similar problems, hoping to find some jaded ex-Apple employee who was willing to share iPad repair solutions for free, because Apple had fired him for getting lost on his way to work, even though he was using Apple maps.
Success, I found the grandad of ex-Apple employees, a 20 year veteran. This aged and wise 35-year-old claimed the problem was related to having a loose connection inside the iPad. I followed his extremely detailed and complex repair process and after one good whack of the iPad on my knee and three good slaps on the back of it, EUREKA. We were back to the land of the
connected. Two weeks on and the repair seems to be holding.
Sub-mission 2 – Which was the old sub-mission 1. Get a UK pay-as-you-go sim with a data component and get Kim’s blackberry unlocked to take any sim card. If we had not previously lived here, our budget to get all this done, would have been in excess of $100 cdn. However, we knew that with some wheeling and we could get this done on the cheap.
The sim card and data plan was easy: £10 or $16 for the month. What would be the nefarious activity of getting the phone unlocked in North America, is conducted in broad daylight for about $10 on every high street in Britain. Because I know there are a lot of ads in Canada right now bragging about how good prices are, for Canadians vs what Americans pay for mobile plans, I feel compelled to point out that in the UK Kim’s phone for unlimited data and texting cost us a cool $16 Canadian a month. Note that is no contract and no shopping around.
Sub-mission 3 – Which was the old sub-mission 2. Walk our old neighborhoods. This
exercise was for no other reason than nostalgia.
It feels strange to walk these streets with camera poised, wearing tourist clothes, yet moving at the pace of the locals dodging the ‘real tourist’ (as Kim says in ‘commuter mode’), because we know where we are and where we are going. However, big city rules are such that even if you do not know where you are or where you are going, you must still move quickly.
We are both experiencing some déjà vu. Because the landscape and skyline has changed so much, it feels as though either our previous time here was a dream or that this visit is a dream. New skyscrapers are taking the place of the old historic castles that used to be all over the city. Although the physicality of the city is changing the people remain same. Walking down Chiswick High Road, we both shared this realization as we recognized a local homeless man who was there consistently when we lived there.
For those who visited us while we were here last time, here are some notable old favorites that are still around. The Thai restaurant in the back of the pub
in Chiswick, Borough Market and specifically for BILL and ROY we visited the Lord Clyde, which still lingers under our old flat in Borough.
A detour also had us spend the day wandering the ever-evolving East London with our trusty guide Gunter (aka Odin, in case you have forgotten that from above). We saw some of the post Olympic development and rode the cable car to nowhere…laughing the whole day.
Sub-mission 4 - Which was the old sub-mission 3. Catch up with more old friends. Lunches and drinks in and out! So great to catch up so far with Ros, Ewa, David and Graham. It is nice seeing people knowing we will be able to see them again.
A scone experiment! What crazy fool would conduct such a risky move when three hungry people await lunch? Well it was none other than the world famous scone chef, Odin. His scone talents have carried him all over the world from Malta to Vancouver to London. People rave about his ability turn out wonderful scones and meals, even in hot conditions where the temperature outside the oven are only marginally cooler than inside (Gozo).
His experiment was
to make a series of mini scones, and fortunately he succeeded, because I shutter to think what Kim and Ewa might have done without their scone fix.
Sub-mission 5 – Which was the old sub-mission 4. See if we can handle being separated for an afternoon. This experiment was probably our most difficult yet. I attended a local football match at White Hart Lane (home to the Tottenham Spurs). If you are reading this aloud please read Tottenham as Tot in um. Pronouncing the ‘H’ makes baby Prince George CRY!
Thank you to Ewan, who gave his ticket to me. And thank you to his Mum who planned a family weekend at the same time as the Spurs’ season home opener.
Kim spent the afternoon pining for me…yeah right. She was laughing it up with Odin, shopping at our favorite stores (Marks and Spencer’s and Waitrose) and preparing a delicious meal for my return.
All and all this sub-mission was a success.
Sub-mission 6 – Which was the old sub-mission 5 (well by now, hopefully you should get the point). Book more travel. We have completed this task with some expert efficiency. Over
the coming weeks, we will be visiting Manchester, Edinburgh, Castle Cary and Oundle. Even better is that in all those places we will be seeing good friends.
Sub-mission 7 – Which was the old sub-mission 6. Write a blog to catch people up on our UK mission thus far. If you have made it through this whole mission and all its sub-missions, than we believe you will agree that sub-mission 7 is complete.
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Yuliya
non-member comment
Looks like you guys are having a blast! Thanks for keeping us updated and allowing us to live vicariously through you :) Sending much love!