“Home” for a month and looking good
Sunday, August 27th, 2006It’s been about a month and a half since my first posting in early July. I’ll try to be better about posting at least once a month. A lot has happened, the most significant being that we moved into our permanent home in Hampstead (north west London) on 20 July. We’ve been in our permanent digs for almost 4 weeks now. It actually seems longer, but we wound up spending 3.5 weeks in a temporary place first, and then recently vacationed back in the states for 2.5 weeks.
Our move was in the midst of Britain’s hottest July on record. We spent about a week, gradually transferring our 8 suitcases from our temporary apartment to Hampstead via the local bus and finally a taxi for the last few big ones. It was so unbearably hot, that I immediately went out to buy fans at Home Base (similar to Home Depot), and had to settle for a floor standing fan with dual 16″ power blades because all of the desk fans were sold out. Imagine lugging that home on the bus!!
The very next day, Jonathan and I scored desk fans at a cheap store in Swiss Cottage, which is a large neighboring village that has all of the large community facilities that Hampstead lacks — a hospital, a large library, an indoor leisure centre (aka fitness/sports center), and a Woolworth’s store which has come in quite handy. We even discovered a decent Chinese restaurant there, China Garden, that is run by Malaysians and has pot stickers (a must for our kids). When I asked the waiter if they had pot stickers in English, he didn’t understand me. I then tried Mandarin and he understood me perfectly, then clarified that I was asking for “peking dumplings.” 
We recently had our second delicious meal there and love their crispy duck. Its good to find a decent chinese restaurant fairly close to home.
We spent one week getting settled in Hampstead, then headed back to the U.S. to spend 2.5 weeks with my family and friends in NJ and NC (see Jonathan’s earlier blog entry for trip details). This was a trip we booked more than a year ago to celebrate my father’s 80th birthday, well before we even considered moving to London. As fate would have it, our return flight to London was scheduled for just a few days after the massive Heathrow terrorist plot was foiled. We were vacationing in the Outer Banks when we heard the news… there were no less than 4 lap tops brought by various members of my family and our beach house was equipped with wireless broadband…. sheesh! Luckily, the news came a few days before our flight which made all the difference in the world. We also flew Virgin Atlantic from Newark, so were not impacted by the many flight cancellations, just had a delayed flight, plus extra security check at the gate. Our kids were troopers through the whole experience and thankfully slept most of the red eye flight home.
Our Neighborhood
Hampstead is a quaint village in North West London (that’s NW3 for those who understand the UK postcodes). The main street is High Street, which is busy, yet charming. The streets are narrower here than other London neighborhoods, but therein lies the charm. There are a multitude of windy streets and little pedestrian-only alleys dotted with colorful shops. Hampstead’s biggest attraction seems to be it’s 800+ acre park called Hampstead Heath or, perhaps it’s the little creperie food wagon on High street that often has 20 people in line. Hampstead has had its share of famous residents (Keats, Freud) as well as moments on the Hollywood big screen (Notting Hill). A California ex-pat living in London described Hampstead to me as a cross between Portola Valley and Haight Ashbury. Hmmmm.
I really like the “neighborhood” that we live in. It is a gated complex of town houses with 24 hour security, and is walking distance to the bus stop, the tube station, and the school our children will be attending. Little did we know that this neighborhood is also a diverse microcosm of international families — american, australian, chinese, japanese and scottish to name a few.
Within our first week, both of our children became fast friends with the neighborhood children. Jason quickly hooked up with two chinese boys his age who are just as passionate about Star Wars as he is. Every morning they’d ring each others doorbells, whip out their Jedi light sabers and run around the courtyard looking to battle evil Sith lords. Some times, Madeline would open her “drink bar,” which she created with our front kitchen window and invite friends over for a drink.
Much to Jason’s delight, there is a teenage boy here who (believe it or not) owns a green light saber and has taken all the young neighborhood boys under his wing. He has taken fencing lessons so has been teaching them how to fence, er uh, how to do battle with a light saber. Of course, Jonathan had to check out his qualifications so challenged the boy, and learned a few fencing basics.
London is much farther north than what we’re used to, so the July days are very long and it stays light out till 10pm. Our kids have been having a blast playing outside all day long and occasionally coming home for a drink, bathroom visit, meal, or indoor break if its too hot. I never imagined we would ever find a place in the city that was safe enough for our kids to run around outside independently. It has made moving in a lot easier for us as we haven’t needed to worry about keeping the kids occupied while trying to furnish our place, etc.
Our kids have been playing alot of jump rope and “football.”
And they have been introduced to skate boarding.
The parent community here seems quite friendly. One very hot afternoon before we actually moved in, the Australian Mom (who I hadn’t even met yet) invited Madeline and Jason to join her kids in walking to “the milk shake factory” which is a big treat here because each milkshake costs £3 (about $6!). An American family was kind enough to lend us their air conditioner for a week or so. And yet another American family moving back to the states bequeathed us some digital phones, clocks, cleaning supplies, and some hard to get items such as their cabinet full of U.S. spices, Aunt Jemima pancake mix & syrup, nestle hot cocoa mix, and several cans of hunt’s tomato paste (evidently you can’t find “paste” around here, it’s all puree). This probably sounds funny to many of you, but we felt like we hit the mother lode. It was reminiscent of us clearing out our cupboards before we moved to London and giving away many items to family and friends. Inheriting all these items will save us many, many trips to the store without a car.
We’re feeling a bit more settled now and have had the chance to explore some local places this summer. I’m personally looking forward to visiting many of the museums, palaces, and castles, however we thought we’d save those for when the weather turns cold and rainy.
Princess Diana Memorial Playground
This is an amazing playground located on the northwest side of Kensington Gardens. We took the tube to Notting Hill Gate (since the Queensway station was closed) and it was about a 10-minute walk from there. This is a beautifully designed playground to honor the late princess which is completely gated with a secure entry and even has a nice cafe with picnic tables. The playgound is one of the best I’ve ever seen and seemingly the safest. They don’t let any adults in the park without a child in tow. There is a Peter Pan style pirate ship smack in the middle…
The crow’s nest was the most popular, and both of our kids managed to wiggle their way through the throngs of children to get to the top.
Later, we ventured into Kensington Gardens, from which you can access Kensington Palace, where Princess Di used to live. There is a statue of Queen Victoria in front of the palace which I couldn’t resist taking a picture of on behalf of my sister Victoria.
The kids admired the swans at the Round Pond…
And later, ran themselves ragged chasing the flocks of birds around.
Madeline and Jason have always liked the Peter Pan story, so I thought it would be fun to take them to experience this treasure hunt in the same gardens where author J.M. Barrie, was inspired to write the book.
Jason jumped on Captain Hook’s boat as he was shouting orders to have a fellow pirate walk the plank.
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The cruise took us past the infamous Tower of London and Traitor’s Gate.
Below is a shot of northwest London. We were hoping to be able to identify Hampstead from the top of the Eye. We think the green hill in the back is Parliament Hill, which is apparantly the highest point in London and located at the top of Hampstead Heath.
After our ride, the kids got a kick out of this street entertainer. I don’t know how this golden man kept his cool in the 90+F heat. Jason is still trying to figure out whether the man was real or not.
Parliament Hill - Hampstead Heath
Along the way we discovered a huge patch of blackberries just off the path.
There were a bunch of people busy picking and eating the blackberries and I remembered that our neighbor told us about this, so we decided to do join in. There were alot of ripe berries that were quite tasty. Madeline really got into inspecting the berries for their ripeness.
I got so pre-occupied with hunting for good berries for Jason to pick that I sprained my ankle by stepping in a hole. This was before we climbed up Parliament Hill. I was adamant to see the view from the top since we had come so far, so hobbled up to the top and it was worth it. I hope to take the kids back soon to pick enough berries to make a cobbler or pie. Yum!
We had picked a bright, sunny day to hike up Parliament Hill. The view was fantastic!! There were a bunch of people picnicking, flying kites, or walking their dogs. Jonathan attempted to take a picture that captures the London Eye between 2 buildings. If you look closely at the following snapshot, you can see the faint outline of the top of the London Eye just to the right of the white building in the foreground.
Jason later fed swans at one of the Heath’s ponds.
Jason’s 6th Birthday
We celebrated Jason’s birthday twice this year. The first time was a bit early, while we were vacationing in North Carolina with extended family — my father turning 80, and Jason and his cousin Erin both turning 6.
We then celebrated again in London with some neighborhood kids on his actual birthday.
Jason was so excited to receive a purple light saber for his birthday that he
didn’t bother to finish eating his “chocolate cake”.
