Settling in at our Earls Court flat

Today marks the not-particularly-spectacular landmark of being two weeks since I moved into the new flat. Plumbing continues to be a bit of an adventure, but it all seems to be getting resolved pretty quickly (thankfully). At the risk of repeating myself (I don't remember how much I mentioned before), here's the story:

While waiting for the inventory guy to arrive before my move-in, I got a call from the real-estate agent saying "the landlady's coming over ... apparently there's an issue with the plumbing". It turned out there were a few leaks which were dripping water into the ceiling of the flat below ours. The previous tenants in our flat refused to allow the admission of plumbers, so the problem had been going on for months, leading to the basement dwellers being on the verge of suing.

A plumber came in on the first day, and "fixed" the leaks. The next few days, however, Feifei and I noticed how there was a slow trickle of water for hours after we took a shower. I grabbed a ladder, and climbed into the mess of pipes and tanks and knobs that exists in one of our bedroom closets. Sure enough, there's a reservoir which is controlled by a float ball valve which wasn't closing properly, thus causing a constant inflow of water which went out an overflow spout (and, apparently, straight to the basement). So we tied some ropes to force the valve shut and called the landlady to have it fixed. With the valve tied shut, the trickling sound stopped, but then we had to untie the rope after every shower for 15 min so that the various tanks could refill, and then retie the rope when the tanks were ~90% full. The repair looked really straight-forward, but the inflow tap was pretty much rusted solidly in the open position (so we couldn't shut off the water), and the existing valve was pretty much rusted solidly to the pipe.

There's actually a really great illustration of the mechanism (including repair instructions) I discovered this morning: http://www.diyfixit.co.uk/nflash/Plumbing/Ball/ball1.htm

The landlady's first visit led to an acknowledgement that "yeah, that needs to be fixed sometime ... I'm thinking of replacing the whole plumbing system, so let's wait a bit". Fortunately sanity (or perhaps the threat of being sued by the basement dwellers) settled on her, and she brought in a plumber. So now we have a new valve and the tap can be turned on and off. Problem solved! Supposedly there are still other leaks in the flat, but we haven't seen much of them.

Feifei arrived from Toronto at the end of June and brought lousy weather with her. We've had pretty much sub-20deg days ever since, with at least a smattering of rain every day. But it didn't stop her from heading out to the parks and museums, etc. during her first week in London. Sadly, her free time is now over, and she's rejoined the working world. The new job seems to be treating her well and, other than some concerns about being blown up by a car bomb (skimming cnn.com indicates London's recent bombings has made international news), she's generally all smiles.

Getting around

Wow has the weather ever been AMAZING!!! I've heard stories of snow back in Toronto, but I just spent the weekend in a t-shirt and a pair of shorts, walking along the Thames in my sandals.

So ... getting around in London. Well, the most obvious difference from Toronto is that everyone drives on the wrong side of the street. This is something you definitely need to be careful about, or else you risk getting flattened when you step into the intersection after looking the wrong way. The other big difference is that pedestrians do not seem to enjoy any right-of-way over cars. If you're at a four-way intersection and the north/south cars are going, the pedestrians have to wait, even if they're also going north/south. Cars that are turning east/west get priority over the pedestrians. Every intersection also has pedestrian crossing lights, which often will go on in all directions while car traffic is stopped. So, for example, you might have a cycle of n/s cars, e/w cars, n/s/e/w pedestrians. Of course, this all varies from intersection to intersection, so you really have to pay attention to your surroundings.

The transit system seems pretty decent, although people here complain non-stop about it (how expensive it is, how unreliable it is, etc etc etc). In that sense, it's just like being back in Toronto. The underground stations here are enormous, spread out over huge areas and countless floors. Some transfers between different tube lines in the same station may mean a 5+ minute hike with several escalator rides. Oh, and the escalators in the underground have a fairly strict policy about "stand right, walk left". If you're on the left half of the escalator and you're not walking, people behind you will NOT be happy (fortunately I discovered this by reading about it before I left ... not by making the mistake). And the escalators are LONG. Much longer than anything in Toronto, to the point where I find myself a bit disoriented if I'm walking up/down them (by the end of the walk, I feel like the escalator is level, and the normal ground is slanted).

Walking is a pretty good way to get from place to place here. There are pedestrian-only bridges crossing the Thames, river-side paths, and pedestrian-access-only street markets scattered about.

Alright, I know this note is a bit shorter than the others, but I'm afraid I need to get back to work. I'll try to write again soon.

The food

London has REALLY GOOD food ... but almost all of it is non-British. In general this seems to be a bit of an "issue". I'm doing my very best to try and live like a local, but I'm quickly coming to the realization that I'm actually behaving more like a tourist. The locals don't seem to eat a lot of British food, and they definitely don't seem to drink a lot of British beer. Most pubs serve Fosters and Stella and Becks and Guiness ... but if you ask them for "something local", they look at you blankly for a second and then apologize that they don't have anything like that. Now, it's not quite as extreme as I'm making it out to be, but I would definitely say that of the pubs I've been to, only 1 or 2 out of 5+ taps will be pouring local ale.

The smartest thing I did when I arrived, was to ask the hotel manager for some local places that serve local fare but that aren't toursity. So now I'm getting most of my evening beer at The Cleveland Arms, where they have a rapidly changing guest ale (I've been there three times and it's been different each time). In Toronto, people always comment on how much better beer is on-tap compared to in a bottle. I find that to be even more the case here. I don't know why, but the slightly less ice-cold, slightly less carbonated beer that they pump into glasses here is a LOT better than what I pour out of the bottle. And it's not much more expensive. In Toronto, a 500mL bottle may be $2.50 and a 500mL glass $6. Here, a 500mL bottle may be £2 and a 500mL glass £2.50.

In addition to the pub, the hotel manager also recommended a restaurant called Raffles, where I've been going to enjoy their "Big Ben Breakfast". For £3, you get two eggs, baked beans, peameal bacon, a full-size sausage, half a tomato, sauteed mushrooms, and two pieces of buttered toast. They have a newspaper review on the wall which talks about how wonderful the breakfast is there (which I'll agree with - certainly for the value), and how it's the perfect solution for one too many pints the night before.

Where I work, there's an enormous variety of cuisine. It's like Toronto compacted into a much smaller area. Before I started working, I dropped in one day to do some HR paperwork, and then went out with some of the R&D guys for Thai food (possibly the best Thai food I've ever had). This past Thursday I went out for lunch with the CTO and ended up at a place that makes great gourmet burgers.

And the grocery stores here ALL have LOTS of different types of prepared sandwiches and salads, etc. (and they're actually pretty good). I'd say that probably 50%+ of my food so far has been prepared sandwiches from Marks & Spencer (which is actually a department store, but has a big food section as well). They also have microwaveable British food as well, so I've been able to enjoy the TV-dinner version of beef stew, sticky toffee pudding, etc. It's definitely all better quality than the TV-dinner food Toronto has to offer. Also on the British food front, I went to one of the food markets today, so I have a freshly made pie (meat pie, not fruit pie) to enjoy for dinner tonight.

I was planning to also talk about the tube and the people here, but I think this note is long enough already. Plus it's a BEAUTIFUL Easter weekend here, so I'm going to head back out to enjoy it.

The next few days

Well, I can now definitely see why the tourists love London! Yesterday was a beautiful sunny day, and so I decided to start walking through Hyde park. This included a nice walk along The Serpentine over to the Diana Princess of Wales Memorial Fountain (which, while pretty, is not what I would call a fountain ... more of a lazy river). Then I crossed over to the Wellington Arch (I must say the monuments in London are ENORMOUS ... I'm having to plan my pictures from a hundred metres - or more - away). As I was about to pass through it, a police car started coming through from the other side. After it was a procession of some of the horse guards. So I headed through after that and went down Constitution Hill through Green Park, towards Buckingham Palace, just in time for the changing of the guard. It was neat, and long, but not as "wow" as I'd expected. Buckingham Palace itself is pretty nice though, and the gates around it are beautiful. My impression of the ceremony probably wasn't helped by the enormous crowd which had all gathered to watch the procession. As soon as the changing was done, almost everyone left. From here I walked into St James Park, which is a BEAUTIFUL area (I expect it must be absolutely stunning in the summer). The flowers were in bloom, and there were pelicans walking around, and there were tourists everywhere. Heading further, I passed by the Horse Guards Parade and then up to Trafalgar Square. As I was looking at the column dedicated to Nelson, I noticed that the Canadian Consulate is right there as well, so now I know where to go to get my passport renewed. Then I headed back south, past various parliament buildings, and over to Westminster Abbey. Maybe it's age, or maybe it's a lack of upkeep, but I didn't find this to be all that spectacular. But, right across the street, I was very impressed with Westminster Hall and Big Ben. The gold sparkled in the sun, and the bells could be heard for quite a distance. Then I crossed Westminster Bridge, which took me past the London Eye (something I guess I'll have to do at some point) and the aquarium. Somehow I thought the Thames would be wider ... although it didn't look as dirty as I'd heard. Then I hiked north to Waterloo station, and took the tube back to my hotel.

Not too much to report on the housing front. I've now seen two really nice places, and wrote down the phone numbers for a bunch of other places I want to check out. The first place, while pretty, is in Wimbledon ... quite far from the city and would require a transfer at one of the tube stations. The second place (in Maida Vale) was on the perfect tube line, but the owner seemed a bit weird. While the Wimbledon owner was pressuring me to commit, this owner was avoiding any sort of commitment or offer I tried to make. So I'm not sure what's going on in his head. Surely one of the places on my list will work out. I'm fortunate in that I only need it for 2.5 months (until Feifei gets here), so it doesn't have to be anything super-special.

And I guess that's about it for this report. I've now had an enormous portion of fish & chips, and I'm going to go try a traditional London breakfast after I send this note. Oh, and I'm on a mission to try to only have European beers (preferably from London - although I've already "slipped" and had a German beer), and not have the same one twice.

Sorry I'm not including any pictures. I left my memory card reader back in Toronto and haven't found one here yet. But they will be forth-coming :)

The first 28 hours

Well, I've now been here in the UK for 28 hours, so it's time for a bit of reflection.

The street maps don't do the city justice ... the road structure is a mess :) As much as some people complain about the one-way streets in Toronto, at least there's a pretty decent grid structure. Here the roads go everywhere, there are a GAZILLION intersections every few metres, and the road signs are pretty well hidden.

The other thing I was not prepared for was Oxford Street. I'd been told "London is SUPER busy", but I didn't realize how right they were. Yesterday I figured "ah, it's Wednesday @ 2pm ... how bad can it be?" ... but walking along Oxford Street was like walking along Yonge Street by the Eaton Centre on a sunny weekend afternoon. It was PACKED with people. I'm curious to see what it's like on a sunny weekend afternoon.

What else to report? Well, my first visit to MPC was ... so-so. The HR person (Emma) I dealt with was extremely friendly, but not entirely helpful in that she didn't have access to the paperwork I needed to move forward with my bank account or NI (National Insurance) applications. So I'll either try again tomorrow (I'd like to try and setup my bank account before the weekend) or just wait until Monday. The office looks pretty standard, although I only caught a fleeting glimpse. The HR people were two to an office (which gave them lots of space), while some of the artists were side-by-side-by-side at desks (much like at a cafeteria), crammed in like sardines. We'll see what my area is like.

I didn't really take in any tourist attractions yesterday. I think I may be wasting my free days a bit, but I'm trying to conserve my £ (the keyboards here have both £ and $ on them) since I know I'll need a hefty deposit when I find housing (apparently asking for 10-weeks in advance is not uncommon). Plus it's raining today. Interestingly, almost nobody is using an umbrella (ok, granted it's not raining that heavily ... but if this was Toronto, there would be umbrellas everywhere). I'm hoping that, if the rain subsides a bit, I'll be able to walk through Hyde Park, which is just south of the hotel.

The hotel itself is ok ... nothing special. The room is pretty tiny. The length of the bed is literally the width of the room (i.e., there's not an inch of free space between the head or foot of the bed and the wall). And I was smashing my elbows into the walls of the shower as I tried to soap myself. But it's home, for the time being. I felt a lot better after I unpacked my suitcases and took a long hot shower.

What else? I found a nearby internet cafe, and bought a 20hr pass (to be used within 1wk) for £10. So this is where I'll be camping out when it's raining outside.

People on the street are at least as distant as the people in Toronto. Yesterday I needed to ask directions a few times and tried targetting friendly-looking people. 2 out of 3 proved to be tourists. But, for that, sales people here in London seem to be a lot nicer than in Toronto, and definitely give the "we try harder" appearance, unlike the common "we will do the bare minimum" I'm used to. I was chatting with one person in a mobile phone store for probably 45 minutes, of which only a little over half was actually about phones.

I think everything will be just fine. There's still a lot I need to do before I'll truly feel settled, but at least I think I know what order it generally needs to be done in. I still need a lot of questions answered for me (what type of subway pass / mobile phone / internet service should I get?), but it's all not too stressful. Getting housing for a few months shouldn't be a big deal. Since I'll initially be looking for a "flat-share", I won't be dealing with any landlords but rather just people who own houses that they actually live in (which has the benefit of some small guarantee it can't be THAT horrible, and they don't care about credit checks, so long as I have an envelope full of £ for them). So now I just need to identify a survivable place not too far from the office. I'm looking on http://www.gumtree.com/london/london-short-term-flatshare_15_1.html which seems to have a ton of listings. Surely one of them will suffice for the time between now and when Feifei joins me in June.

Ok, that's it for now. I'll save any other "oh yeah" recollections to help bulk up the next email I end up sending out. :)

Oh yeah ... and I got to try a London-based beer already: "London's Finest" was served on the plane.