Clueless in the UK

[This is my first post. Jonathan and I have decided to share this blog.]

We’re currently staying in a temporary “serviced” apartment in a quaint little area called Little Venice (near the Maida Vale tube stop for those familiar). “Serviced” means that the place includes a full kitchen w/dishes, etc. and regular linen service which is nice so we could just hit the ground running with respect to getting our permanent place set up. One aspect of this apartment that I really love is that it backs up to a courtyard that is an amazing 3.5 acre communal garden that is only accessible to the residents via lock and key, so very safe for the children to run around freely. In fact on the day after we arrived the kids immediately made friends in the garden and I met a bunch of Americans who live there. It has become a ritual for us to go out there every day now and the kids love it.

So, we actually arrived in the middle of a heat wave with temperatures hovering around 90 each day and not cooling down much at night which causes everyone to sleep with their windows wide open (some of which are floor to ceiling height. I have to admit I was leery about doing this since none of the windows have screens and I was worried about (1) safety of the kids, and (2) bugs and birds flying in. It was so stifling though we gave in.

The day after we arrived, we were invited to a “Sports Day” with the school the kids will be attending next fall. This was held at the running track on Parliament Hill, which is part of the Hampstead Heath (a beautiful 800+ acre park in North West London). Despite the jet lag, we made it to sports day and spent most of the day in sweltering heat. It was worth it because we got to meet most of the families in Madeline’s class, and a few in Jason’s. Our kids were a bit shy at first, but very quickly made friends as someone invited them to play “football.” At the end of the day, the head teacher invited Madeline to join her class in a field trip to Lego Land Windsor on Monday. Turns out they needed another chaperone so, I was inexplicably signed up to go as well. We wound up bringing the whole family as it turns out, but that’s another story.

We got around to doing some furniture shopping the last few days. The closest major department store shopping to us is Oxford street. It is a pretty amazing sight. There is a tube stop right there called “Oxford Circus” and that is exactly what the area seems like. Huge swarms of people milling around at all times along with enormous double decker busses and tourists all over the place. I think the kids were a bit daunted at first. We shopped at a store called “John Lewis” which seems to be a cross between Macy’s and Sears. We can even buy the children’s school uniforms there!

Speaking of uniforms, our kids will now have to wear uniforms when school starts in the fall.
They have never had to wear them before. Jason was so excited when we got his “track suit” (which is basically a school tee shirt, sweat pants and sweat shirt), that he wanted to put the tee shirt on right away to be like the other kids. Madeline had mixed feelings about having to wear a checked dress or grey skirt, but after trying them on, she decided to wear the dress home. She also frowned upon hearing she had to wear a tie (required for upper schools students), however quickly became intrigued with learning how to tie it around her neck. In fact, she woke up the next morning asking for her tie to practice with it. Now Jason wants a tie too so that he can be just like big sis.

We stopped by their school for the last day before they broke up for the summer. I was tickled to hear Madeline already sounding like a British girl when she called down the lower school stairs in a lilting, “Is anybawdy down thayer?” Jonathan thinks I sound British too, especially when I’m talking to people on the phone. Hmmmm.

Today, we’ll be watching our first ever World Cup final, Italy vs. France. Despite England’s loss, it is still a big deal around here w/all of the europeans every where. BTW, surprisingly, Beckham has a pretty negative reputation around here. Everyone seems to think he is an over paid, over age pretty boy whose arrogance does not match his prowess. After seeing his performance in England’s loss to Portugal, I’d agree. Although according to the English newspapers, his wife, Posh Spice, seems to be respected as the leader of the WAGS (Wives and Girlfriends) of the football players. Their newspapers are really funny. Part serious and part tabloid.

Any way, we were standing in line at the local creperia (sp?) the other day and the Italian guy behind us started teasing the creperie lady about how Italy was going to destroy France in the final. The good humoured lady carefully pointed out that she was half italian and half french so either way, she was good. The kids had their first authentic crepe there. It was very different from the Louis the crepe man that we occasionally try during the ISTP skate nights. A really thick crepe, oozing with tons of buttery grease, yet extremely delicious. Jonathan and I tried one with an egg in it and it was delicious. We decided we could treat ourselves to these once in a blue moon.

One last story… Madeline and I were out shopping during rush hour the other day and the tube was so packed, she and I barely squeezed onto a train at Oxford Circus. We were packed in like sardines, had to go one stop to change trains, and I was so pre-occupied with making sure she had breathing space and trying not to seem hot and bothered, that when we got off, I made for the exit quickly. Luckily, Madeline spoke up and reminded me that we had to change trains. She has quickly learned how the tube lines work and often is my back up memory!

Well, the good news or the sinking feeling first?

The good news is, we have a dining room table, beds for everyone, linens and things, some kitchen supplies, gas & electricity, water and even (unless something weird happens) broadband from BT. So things are moving right along.

Today Sue was determined to find plates, etc., and she was off with Madeline all day and Jason and I were together. We actually ran into each other in Hampstead by our place and Sue was about to go find some plates and I was trying to find me and Jason a late lunch. Anyway, we separated again as I had to look over some things in the apartment but when I got back to the street I saw this store with some nice looking plates in the window, and I thought that it was worth looking into when I saw that Sue and Madeline were there, just around the corner to our place:

This store is making me question my decision, based largely on the assumption that we would have a tiny little kitchen (which turned out not to be true), not to get an espresso machine. They have a cool selection of coffee beans in the store, along with the plates and cups and saucers that we took home with us today. Starbucks will cost Sue and me about £5/day and while I like the notion of walking out to get a coffee and hanging out there with the old laptop and blah blah blah, I do really enjoy making espressos myself as well. We’ll just have to play it by ear I suppose. Somehow I think our coffee habit is not going to be the thing that breaks the bank in this little endeavor.

Yesterday we had a lot of fun buying beds from a place called City Beds. Sue got the name out of one of those “Moving to London” books. The whole family took the underground across the Central line to a place called Stratford. The directions were of the form, “Turn right after you leave the tube station, cross a pedestrian bridge, get to the other side of the tallest building you see, and you will find us.” All which turned out to be true. We were not sure about the neighborhood we were talking through, but what the hell. Here’s the guy we bought the beds from:

To give you a feel for this guy, his email address is something along the lines of “nevercontactme” at blah blah blah.com. He really was quite fun to chat with, quite a character. He gave us this ad from the past to take with us:

I am currently operating under the belief that we got a very good deal on a very nice bed for Sue and me, and frankly, Madeline’s bed as well. I won’t know about the bed until I spend a night in it, and I will probably never know if it was actually a good deal because I don’t care. But … the price sure seemed right. Oh wait! It was Pounds Sterling not dollars! Damn!

Just kidding.

We went long and far on the tube yesterday, including traveling during the height of rush hour. Here we are at Oxford Circus just outside the tube stop watching piles of people go down the stairs, trying to decide whether we wanted to brave the crowds or not. There are entrances to the tube in at least 4 different places around this intersection I think:

Sue had had an over-crowding experience during her trip by herself last time she was in London and was worried about the crowds with the children, but I just thought we should go downstairs and have a look before we assumed anything. Once we got to our line, Bakerloo, we saw that it wasn’t very crowded on that line at all. Jason tapped me on the shoulder to make sure I saw this woman sitting near us:

Jason wouldn’t stop staring so I decided to take a discreet picture, but then my flash fired by accident so I pretended I was taking a picture of Sue and Madeline across the train from me and Jason. That was some serious hair!

We like to begin our day with a walk to Starbucks. Once we get to Hampstead I am determined to try out a bunch of local coffee shops instead, but for now this is all we have. We walk along Randolph street and people always stop to stare as Madeline rolls on by on her Wheelies, or whatever they are called. I decided to catch somebody staring in action, and missed a bunch of great opportunities. This one will have to do for now:

What you can’t see is Madeline is actually wearing a tie. It’s part of her school uniform for next year. She and Jason have been fighting over it all day.

Anyway, this all sounds great and fun, and it is, but I keep reading the darn newspapers, and this is what I think from the newspapers:

1. we’re going to die via knife attack
2. we’re shortly going to be attacked by Islamic extremists
3. we’re going to be mugged on the Heath in broad daylight by a gang of 30 teenagers
4. this country, like ours, has stupid knee jerk reactions to lots of things and they are, as are we Americans, are moving backwards as a civilization

Here’s my take on them. #1 - at least we can run from a knife, unlike a gun. #2 - is this how everyone in New York feels? #4 - jesus, we’re a bunch of sorry whackos, we humans. It’s actually #3 that’s bothering me the most. I pictured Hampstead as this really safe place in the middle of a big city, but then today I find out that girls celebrating the completion of the A-levels get mugged by 30 young men bearing bicycle chains, guitars, bottles and other weapons. And it continues on with other victims, including a 22 year old man. Then Sue tells me that one of the parents at our new school told her, “Keep your children close at all times - there are lots of abductions.”

Oh for crying out loud, I thought this kind of paranoia was specific to the United States! Or … is it justified? I do not like the feeling of having to watch my kids all the time. Maybe Montana is the better approach than London.

This is the kind of stuff that messes with me. Getting beaten up myself is one thing - in fact, I hope to get beaten up preferably in a bar fight in London - but worrying about kids is just the worst feeling ever. And I thought of the Heath as a big playground for the kids. I guess not.

I also watched these two videos of Al Gore on the Daily Show talking about politics and his recent move An Inconvenient Truth:

and

today, and of course that’s not the most uplifting topic in the world. I want Al Gore to run for president, by the way, but only if the press promises not to destroy him like they did last time.

Last night was the hottest night in memory for me. I got almost no sleep, trying desperately to find a nice cool spot on my side of the bed, to no avail. Windows open all night didn’t help, it was awful. But I will say this for the Brits: at least they can forecast the weather. 5 days ago the forecast was for scattered thunderstorms this morning and a slight cooling trend, and boy were they right! Tonight should be great, for the first time since we got here. It appears that there’s is no lack of sleep that cannot be cured by a double tall skinny latte from Starbucks, however.

Today was a bit of an adventure for all. We decided to put the kids into school today, the last day of school until next Fall. Madeline and Jason had already met Madeline’s class, and spent a day with them at Legoland, where the kids showed me how to ride the rollercoaster with style and I showed them how to scream like a little girl. Today Jason had to meet his future classmates for the first time, and he was a little worried about being left there by himself all day. Here’s the kids on the way to school today from our temp. housing:

After a little cry, Jason was fine. Two of the boys he met immediately started talking about Star Wars and Legos and that was that. Here’s Jason in his class as Mom is saying goodbye:

Here’s the pub across the street, you know, the one I plan to stay between the time I drop the kids off at school and the time I pick them up:

Sue and I took off to Ikea, following the advice of Beth who is not clueless in the UK, is just pretending, unlike myself. I am the real deal, as you will find out shortly. Anyway, I was worried that I hadn’t taken down enough information for getting there, but off we went. Hampstead on the Northern line to King’s Cross, switch to Victoria line and head north to Tottenham Hale station. From there we took bus 192 on a 5 minute ride to Ikea. Success!

[Insert picture here - too bad I forgot to take one. I did have the camera with me.]

This was my first time inside an Ikea store, even though we have one less than 10 minutes from our house in CA. So, we wandered around trying to figure out what to buy, trying not to get too much stuff, trying to be conservative, etc. I think we did OK. We got some couches and kitchen stuff, checked out the beds, got some pillows. At the checkout counter they had to run the furniture separately from the misc. stuff we bought, which meant we had two credit card transactions from the same place, and that triggered fraud alert on our credit card, and suddenly we had a 10 minute wait ahead of us, with a pile of people in back of us in line. I will just say this: Brits are nice. They don’t bitch, they don’t moan, they wait patiently - or so my experience has been so far.

So two large bags in hand we reversed our trip to the train station, took the Victoria line south to King’s Cross and then made a mad dash to the north bound Northern line train. But, this tricky line splits and you need to make sure you know which train you’re getting on. So Sue hopped on the train and I was standing next to the door, focusing all my brain power on trying to figure out which train it was, and absolutely no brain power on the beeping sound coming from the train. Therefore, it came as a complete shock to me that the doors closed … on my arm … and part of the bag. Sue looked shocked, I am sure I did as well, I ripped my arms out of the doors and just stood there as my beloved was wisked off without me. I shouted in my best Last of the Mohicans accent: I will find you! Not sure it was love in Sue’s eyes as the train pulled away, the look in her eyes was more along the lines of Do I know you?

I missed the train after that as well, because it didn’t have the right destination on it (remember, the line splits). Then I heard over the PA: If your train doesn’t have your correct destination, get on it anyway and change at Camden Town. By now Sue was 8 minutes ahead of me and I had no idea what we were going to do, especially since we only had one cell phone between the two of us and - oh yeah - I left that in the apartment this morning anyway.

So I am on the train and as we pull into the first stop and I suddenly think to myself, Sue might be waiting for me here. So I look up and almost immediately I saw her face flash by. So, I jumped off the train and went running back to where I saw her, pushing people aside, in my best, slow motion dramatic run, and suddenly I realized she wasn’t there anymore … and then I heard the fracking beeps that I missed the last time, and turned and jumped through the closest doors I could find. I happened to be right at the junction between the two carraiges and I was able to see Sue at the far side of the adjascent carriage, talking with some woman, shaking her head in disgust, and then suddenly she looked up and saw my waving my hands frantically. At the next stop the two lovers were reunited.

There’s more to this story, you know, the part where I, and not her figure out how to get the rest of the way home, but I will leave that out because … I have no pride, I have no need for pride, it’s just not part of my genetic makeup.

When we got up the elevators at Hampstead station we were greeted with a really large crowd and only seconds later we could see why: downpour. I think I yelled MOTHER OF GOD a little too loud but you would not believe how deep the water was on the steep hill. It was not standing water, it was running down the street, and it was deep. I was blown away. While the wimpy Londonites stayed inside, Sue and I took off, Sue with the umbrella and my Marimba bag, and me with the two Ikea bags which we decided could get wet. And wet I was, completely, as we ran to the big and protected archway entrance to our street:

Clearly the above photo was taken on a dry day. It figures today I decided to wear glasses and not my contacts, so I had the new experience of having to wipe my glasses, like that guy in Jurassic Park, running down the street trying not to be eaten by dinosaurs.

The school kids were out on the Heath when the rains hit and they, too, were completely drenched. Jason was wearing somebody else’s clothes by the time we picked him up, Madeline stayed dry because she had an umbrella with her. Jason got so wet that his blinky light sneakers shorted out:

Those batteries will be dead by morning … It’s not as if we can put the shoes in the dryer and expect them to … you know … get dry. Here’s what happened to the rest of the things we put in the washer/dryer combo this evening:

I was able to get the utilities in my name tonight after a day or two of trying. There are so many choices for gas and electric and you have to find out which company was last providing to your property so you can take them into your name. I prefer one choice to be honest, not a dozen. So I have called lots of numbers and received a lot of help from a bunch of people. 50% of the woman I’ve talked to sound exactly like my Auntie Joan, and when they do the conversation invariably gets personal because from my perspective I’m talking to my aunt! So damn nice everyone is, I am not kidding.

Anyway, regarding the water utility I found out by reading a book and then talking to Hugo that the water that comes out of the kitchen sink is for drinking, and the rest of the water in the house is not. I find that hard to believe, I really do, but it seems to be the truth. I think the problem is that the water is so hard in London that you put a water softener in the loop, but a different loop than the kitchen sink. I mean, can I brush my teeth with the other water? We’ll see.

In Hampstead, my mobile phone has 5 bars one minute and 0 bars the next. I decided to check out the different stores as well as get opinions from people who live or work there. Orange seems to be the service of choice. I checked them out and they said they have an antenna on their roof, so that explains it.

After Orange I went to the Vodophone store which was just 100 feet away. I went in and chatted up that guy as well, and he said, “To be honest, vodaphone reception in Hampstead is terrible.” So I said, “Lend me your phone and I will walk across the street to my house and see how it is” and he said, “I have Orange!!” So then he whipped out his personal, Orange-based cell phone and compared it to one of the Vodaphone ones in the store. “Look!” he said. “Orange, 7 bars, Vodaphone barely 1!” I told him he was a great salesman and commended him for his honesty as I walked out the door.

Man, they have lots of great phones for free with a one year plan. Since we’re committed for at least one year that makes complete sense. I was looking at a couple of Samsung models (E370 and E900) but I am getting the impression that they will not sync over bluetooth with my Apple. There isn’t a single Samsung phone supported by iSync as far as I can tell.

The other ones are Sony Ericsson K600i and W810i. They both seem amazing, are quad band, seem nice and small, play music (yawn), have great cameras apparently, and many other things. Anybody have experience with these phones? If the camera is that good, maybe I can support my blogging needs with that instead of the other camera (which I still haven’t found).

Will people give me a hard time if I start saying “Cheers!” at the end of my blog entries?

I got some nice, helpful comments on my last blog entry. Thanks. Somebody else clueless in the UK found my blog and she helped me figure out how to get to Ikea via the tube, so we’re going give that a go. Her blog is a lot nicer than mine largely because of all the nice pictures. So, it looks like I’ll have to haul around my nice camera wherever we go. Check out her blog at:

http://downtownbeatons.blogspot.com/

Clearly I need to dig out the tiny camera and keep it with me all the time. If only the tiny camera didn’t suck so much.

Today I thought I’d show you a few pictures of where we’re staying in London. It’s a number of apartments fully furnished with a large private gardens which is shared with a bunch of other apartment buildings. One night out there Sue met a bunch of people, including Americans of course, some of whom want to sell us their used stuff. I went out there a couple nights and we met a girl who has lived there her whole life (10 years). It’s pretty large as you can see from these pictures:

Right in the middle of London. These private gardens are all over the place. There’s no way to get in from the streets so it’s a place to just let the kids run around. Still, we’re always down there with them.

Here’s the street in front of the building we’re in:

I don’t think the Brits saw the same episode of 60 Minutes I saw 15 years ago, or else they would realize that this is completely unacceptable, especially in 90 degree heat:

I love that they are organic and hate that they are at room temperature. Boggling.

On Sunday we went to Jens and Neguine’s house. I had a thought that I would take pictures of their nice family and stick it up on the blog but that’s kinda tacky. Anyway, we ended up agreeing to buy a bunch of their stuff off them and we’re going to cart it over to our place on Wednesday with the help of A Man and a Van which is what they call a … man … who has a van … which you can use to move stuff around. I am not up for lifting a bed or TV up zero, one or two flights of stairs. £80, two guys, how can you go wrong no matter what the exchange rate is!

After meeting with them we decided to try a Dim Sum place in downtown Hampstead. We got the kids noodles and tried to get potstickers, but they were really just Dim Sum style hunks of pork or shrimp or both. We spotted some edamame and ordered it and tried to get the kids to eat some. See, our kids are picky, seriously picky, embarrassingly picky. While its true they have at least 50% my genes so why is anyone surprised about this, I believe they have taken it to a new art form under the careful supervision of their two sucker parents. So, I tried to get Jason to try two little edemames out of their pods already. He kept nibbling at these tiny little things and finally I said, “Put them in your mouth and chew them like they are jelly beans.” He seems comfortable with that, I look away to get some for myself, and the next thing I know I hear a gagging sound followed by Jason puking the two little soybeans and something else he had moments earlier directly into his glass of milk. And then a minute or so later Madeline catches a glimpse of the milk and starts gagging herself.

If I had my little camera you’d be treated to a picture of it right now.

MOTHER OF GOD, what have we done!?!? Some things will never change.

Anyway, today is Monday and we went on a field trip with the kids’ new school, even though we’re not actually enrolled in it yet. In the end we ended up, Sue and I, being champerones on this field trip. Typical, although just two days after meeting the people in the school Sue is already volunteering? That might be a new record. I opted not to bring the camera today and I want to shoot myself, because my blog is my liiiiiiiiiife.

It’s official. Madeline and Jason do not like the UK hotdogs. This is good news in a way. Still, than brings the number of things they like in common down to about two. And people wonder (or maybe they don’t) why we go out to eat a lot. Still, we’re going to try to continue to force them to eat what they are given or suffer the consequences … until we break a few hours later and give them a snack. We pay the price either way.

Today is the second day in a row I have gotten up in the morning, skipped the naps, and lasted until bed time. This morning did not go so well in the caffeine department, however. We got outside at 8am I think, nice and cool after a horribly hot night, and when we got to the Starbucks there was this sign on the door:

[too bad I didn't have my camera]

“Due to an unexpected emergency Starbucks is currently closed. Sorry!”

Luckily the bus drops us off right in front of Starbucks in Hampstead, so we were just delayed half an hour this morning.

I was impressed with how well Jason and Madeline got on with the school kids, Jason especially as this is Madeline’s class, not his, that went on the field trip to Legoland. All he had to do to entertain the boys in Madeline’s class of two to three years older kids was arm, leg and hand farting, which you can see him performing here later when we got home:

This one is Mary Had a Little Lamb. Look at his concentration, his focus:

This one is Twinkle Twinkle Little Star:

Jason hasn’t applied himself to something like this his entire life, except piano (gun held to his head) and Kung Fu (sword held to his head). He’s very proud. But this boy likes to get the laughs, boy does he ever. Unfortunately he’s too young to figure out when to stop, which is our current most annoying issue with him.

As you can see we have been carefully disguising ourselves so people cannot tell that we’re Americans, what with Jason’s Cardinals shirt and my Montana baseball cap. My Dad reminded me that 7/7 is coming up and to watch our backs.

That reminds me, The driver that brought us home from the airport explained to me something that had been puzzling me since my last trip a month earlier: Why was there a ban on England flags on some taxis during the weeks leading up to the World Cup and then later that ban repealed? He explained to me that some people in England think that displaying the England flag is racist. (Who, you ask? Well, that’s left as an exercise for the reader.) Talk about political correctness!