Moving Day II

The actual moving took less than 25 minutes. Trevor picked me up at 9AM. I was ready almost an hour before. I had the bags lined up waiting to be transported. I felt bad that the luggages were so heavy and we were going up one level from my garden flat to the street, and then my new flat is on the second floor, so we were up one level again. I gave him 10 pounds. That's a lot for UK standard because they don't tip. Here are some pictures of my flat.

Kitchen, the tall cabinet is actually a fridge. I also have a combo washer dryer in the kitchen.

No more living out of a suitcase! Nice big closet.

The other half of the closet. So big that my giant suitcases fit inside.

Self explanatory!

Living room. It echoes in this room. One sleeper sofa, that's it.

Bedroom and another closet besides it. I picked a bright color quilt from Ikea.

Fish and Chips Take Two courtesy of Ikea. Much better that the one in Brighton. Plus the fish is baked.

Talking about Ikea, I went there the day I moved because I had to buy a bed sheet, blanket, kitchen and bathroom stuff. I love Ikea but I went there by bus. It took me an hour and a half... One way. Never again. Unless I can find a faster way to go there.

The flat was so quiet but that didn't stay long because I found out soon that all doors in this building are like fire doors, they are heavy. It doesn't matter how soft you close the door. It needs to slam a bit to close. The first day I was in the flat, I heard my neighbor play a violin. That doesn't bother me. It's having a concert every night. On the weeken, people were up late and getting home late. I can hear them walking on the street. Since I had no TV, I watched the Voice from NBC app. I used my woke blackberry as hot spot. Apparently that blew up my data allowance. I got a call and two emails from Tech Support group. They thought my phone got stolen. Oops. So, I was without Internet at home for a couple of days. That's a torture. Much worse than having no TV. I started looking for a broadband service and found out that there was no phone jacks in the flat. I emailed the flat management company, and they said they would send a maintenance guy over. I have a feeling this is to see where they can install a socket. By law, each residence must have a phone jack for safety reason, a land line for an emergency call. I really hope I can get one, otherwise to get a mobile broadband is a lot more expensive. 

I caved in on Friday night and bought 5 one day passes for British Telecom wifi. I used one and it ended a couple of hours ago. I'm at Starbucks right now. I love the area that I live in. It's a half a block from Marylebone High Street. Very posh area. There's a farmer's market every Sunday from 10 until 2 right behind me. It's not too big. There are a few produce stalls, fish, cured meat, bread, baked goodies and so on, maybe around 15-20 stalls. 

Yesterday I opened a UK bank account at HSBC, the good thing is I also opened a US account with them also, so I can transfer money between accounts without getting too ripped off on the exchange rates. Talking about money, Sarah told me that I got a letter from UPS, she took a picture of it and holy cow, that's my paycheck. What happened to my direct deposit? I need to find out from payroll. The good thing is Geraldine is coming to visit me before she goes to see her mom in Northern Ireland in a couple of weeks. Sarah sent the check to her and I will deposit it from my iPhone. About bank accounts, when I log in to my UK bank account, I have to use a HSBC token, you don't key your password on the website. Once you key your passcode on the token, it gives you a serial number that you key on the website. I'm used to this because at work, we use tokens to log in, but I didn't know they also do this for personal accounts. I happened to tell the HSBC person who helped me open the account that we can deposit checks from phones and she was so surprised and said how come they couldn't do that in UK. I thought the same thing about the security tokens.

Moving Day Part 1

I've been waiting for this day since I found the flat. The offer was accepted 3 weeks ago but the contract negotiation, paying the deposit and first month's rent took a while. I left work around 12.30PM today. Oh by the way, I found a gym by the office. It's a small gym but it was convenient. It's about 5 minute walk from the Woking station and another 5 minute walk to the office. It's 1.5 times bigger than the UPS gym, but no towels provided. Bummer! You pay 1 pound to use the lock at the lockers. Weird!  They nickel and dime you on everything. I ran 3 miles yesterday, the first time in a very long time (don't judge me!). I had a hard time figuring out what speed I actually had. The treadmill said 9 KmPH or 6 MPH. I don't think these two are the same speed, but I couldn't do math while running. I did the circuit class this morning. It wasn't the greatest class. The instructor was a bit annoying but at least I sweat. I need to find out how to watch Insanity on my iPad, so I can do the work out on my own. I miss Shaun T. Sssggggo!!!! (not sure why he says 'go' with the sound of 's' in front of it). 

Anyway, I haven't joined yet, I still have one more free tryout. I think this is the only way I could get my work out in. Morning gym session before work. The gym doesn't open until 6.30AM, that's so late, and other gyms are like that too. I guess Brits are not morning people. I have to be on 6.15AM train. That means I have to leave the house by 5.50AM to walk and catch the tube to the train station. 5.50 AM is actually not that early for an American standard but here is a different story. 

Back to moving day, I went home first and ate lunch.  The next thing I knew it was 2 o clock. I told the agent that I would pick the keys at 2:15. It's close. By a car, it takes 5 minutes, maybe 10 with traffic but I walked. I was late but it wasn't a big deal for them because I came to their office, not meeting them at the flat. I thought I knew how to walk from their office to the flat, but apparently not. I ended up on Bond street. Bond street is full of stores, a place to go shopping. At one point, when I was still lost and looked like an idiot because I was walking while staring at my blackberry to watch the little green triangle (which was me) moving to the direction that I need to go, I was caught in a total obscene mobscene. I was walking on a sidewalk across the street from a theater. In a minute, it was getting crowded and more crowded. Suddenly people in front me just stopped and people behind just kept pushing. I was sandwiched and inched slowly. People closer to street didn't move. It looked like they were waiting on a celebrity appearance. Finally after 8-10 mins, I got out, then somebody said Paul McCartney was in that theater. I was not scared but just very uncomfortable. I just kept saying to myself, watch the purse and don't get trampled. 

I finally got to the flat. I opened the door and saw the furniture rental, which is a double bed in the bedroom, a sofa bed in the living room and a round glass breakfast table along with two chairs in the kitchen. So minimalist.  Believe me it's not by choice but by budget conscious mind. I pick an expensive flat and I sacrifice on the rest. I didn't want to pick an expensive place but I only had 6-7 places to choose from because a lot of flats are not dog friendly and I didn't want to wait any longer since I had 2 days to do flat hunting. This is the best place and location.

I don't even have a TV or microwave because I don't want to spend more on rentals. I will survive. I just need an internet, broadband is what they call home wireless internet. I can watch NBC shows on my iPad, so far they don't block NBC app. I watch Parenthood and the biggest loser. Plus when I watched TV here, I ended up watching TLC channel. It's either Honey Boo Boo, Toddlers and Tiaras or Cake Boss reruns. 

This is my evidence that Honey Boo Boo came to UK. I couldn't believe it when I saw that on TV. I guess that's the other side of America, right? Not everybody looks like a Kardashian, oh that show is on also. I can watch Top Chef on TVseries.net. So excited! UK TV shows, even the morning news, are so boring. That's why I don't need a TV here. By the way, I have to go to Ikea tomorrow to buy bed sheets, blanket, kitchen stuff, towels etc.

I was meeting Larry and Lynne at the flat. This is to do the walk through. Larry represented the property management and Lynne represented me as a Spencer How client, the company that UPS used. My first impression of Larry is, this guy is nuts, super intense. He started going through the inventory and pointed little scratches on the cabinet and  floor, while recording himself on a tiny recorder. He was moving so fast and at one point Lynne said that she wanted to take a picture of a scratch. He sounded offended and said he had done this job for years and he knew what he was doing. Lynne didn't say or do anything wrong and was very apologetic. Several minutes later he was a little calmer and told us that he has done this for 14 years and he could count with his fingers how many tenants that he met. I was like, what? He said people normally are not present during the walk through, they just want to move in and out. He was so appreciative that we were there during this process. Larry became a bit softy later and explained that he came from a military background so he came off arrogant (that's the word he used) and very methodical in his process. Whew! I thought Lynne and Larry were going to get into an argument 10 minutes ago. 

Since the building is so historic and original, Larry pointed to us the chair moulding in the hallway was shaped by a small horse shoe or something like that. He showed us where the bath area was, which was by the window (outside of my flat). My living room doesn't have a fireplace but there was a bump on the wall where it used to be. Only two flats kept the fireplace which was used to cook. The fireplaces have an official antique stamp on them. They are worth a lot of money.

Larry was very informative. He educated us on the history of the property. This area in Marylebone is owned and managed by Howard de Walden Estate. There are 3 sisters who run the company, they inherented the business from their father, grandfather and great grandfather. Before the war, around 100 years ago, these Ossington Buildings were a Jewish slump. He asked me to guess how many people lived in one flat. He said 7 families. Holy cow! This is a 650 square feet flat. The building was never demolished but it was refurbished and it's now very nice. The wall is still the original brick and mortar. In the hallway, the corner edges are round or bull nosed. The chair molding also has the same design. It's because back in the days they used a small horse shoe to smooth out the edge. The Howard de Walden family was a nice family. They replaced the slump with affordable flats for working families. 

 I woke up at 4AM on Saturday. I couldn't go back to sleep. I did more packing. This is dejavu. I'm tired of thinking how do I pack such and such into these suitcases. My stuff grew since I came. Mostly groceries and cleaning supplies. I didn't go shopping but I did buy a pair of boots out of necessities. I bought walking shoes but they are Summer/ Fall shoes so they get damped when it rains.  

Chloe whimpered for an hour. She wanted to take a walk. I took her to Regents park. This would be the last time we go here. The new place is a bit further away from this park. It was still pitch black outside. After I moved my stuff, I have to go to Virgin mobile store. I need to get home broadband. The website was weird. I kept referring me to a phone company to sign up for a phone line even though Virgin mobile doesn't need a phone line to get the broadband service. More than one person warned me about the quality of customer service in UK, it's just not the same as US, which was surprising to me. We'll see. 

Talking about customer service, I actually had a pretty good experience yesterday. So... I live in a serviced apartment. It's like a flat except fully furnished and twice a week maid service on Tuesday and Friday. And I met them before, when they came to clean the first week I got here. They always locked the gate and the front door. I know their routine. Last Wednesday and Thursday, I came home and found the gate was wide opened, the front door wasn't double locked. I had a piece of plastic bag on the floor, the bedroom's night light was turned off (I turned it on on purpose because Chloe was in her crate in the bedroom). I was spooked. Who had been in the flat? Obviously not the maids, not their cleaning day, even thorough they switched days, nothing was cleaned. I emailed the sales manager, whome I booked the apartment with. I started nice, told him what happened, and ended with a sentence that basically said I didn't appreciate if they just came in without notice. Back in my mind, what if the neighbor upstairs because my keys could open their door the first day I got here. Why wouldn't it work the other way around? He came back to me within an hour after talking to the front office manager. He was so apologetic and told me that a basket of goodies was going to be delivered before I checked out. There was a box of chocolate on the kitchen table.

Camden Market

"The first time I heard about Camden market was when  Lauren and I talked about  Borough market. Borough market is more about fresh produce and ready to eat food. Camden is food truck kinda style and all kinds of stalls selling souvenir, clothes, gothic costumes, shoes and so on. She bought a coat there and it was reasonably priced. That was my destination on Saturday. Starting on Thursday, the weather wasn't that great. Cold, rainy, windy. I checked Saturday weather and it would be like that. Probably it was not the best time to walk around in the open market but I was pretty determined to go. I asked Jessica to go with me. Lauren is out of town. I would've asked her too otherwise. Jessica had a hard time getting out of bed because of her work's happy hour the night before. I wasn't in hurry because it was kinda cloudy anyway. But as soon as the sun was out, I told her to get herself out of the bed and meet me at the market. She agreed. To go to Camden from my place is difficult by tube. I had to take a transfer even though it wasn't far at all. I braved myself to take the bus. I used city mapper app that Amy told me. Bus #27 would take me from Marylebone street to right in front of Camden Market.

I was nervous that I would miss the stop but actually there was a monitor inside the bus that tells you the name of each stop. Driving to here is highly discouraged because of the traffic.

Since the market is huge and has different parts, I told Jessica to meet me below this Stables sign at 1PM. I knew about this sign from Google images. Even though I had never been there, I didn't think it would be difficult to find this giant sign.

My bus actually dropped me off across the street from this sign. Awesome! I got there early so I walked around. The market was like a zoo but I loved it. A lot of small stalls. I walked in to the first store and this was what I saw.

Can it be more London than this?

Perfect place to buy souvenir. Cheap postcards, fridge magnets, cheesy Tshirts, key chains and anything that has  Union Jack on it. The seller are eager to get you buy their stuff. I know I have to bargain if I want to get something from this place. I found a stall that sells coats (this is one of many that sells coats and it seems they all have the supplier). I like it, it fits well but it doesn't have a hood, and I really want to find one with a hood. London's drizzly rain is perfect for a hood. It doesn't rain hard enough to use an umbrella. The guy told me that it was 50 pounds. I asked if he could give me a better price than that. He said how much. I just gave him a ball park, 40 pounds. He said okay. I was surprised I didn't really to buy it now, so I said to him I would think about it and come back after I met up with my friend. 

The giant metal board tells you the history of camden market. This is also where Amy Winehouse used to hang out in her early days. This place used to be a horse stable. The horse stalls are now stores.

At 1PM, I went back to the Stables sign and met Jessica there and we ventured out for food. I had Thai food. It's £4 for a small tin container. Pretty good deal. You can mix and match whatever you want. I was eyeing on the chili relish, you could add all kind of sauces you want. Thai chili hit the spot. We sat along the canal. They also have old Vespas or motorcycles along the canal for people to sit on.

We couldn't find a place to sit, so we sat on the sidewalk along a canal.

After lunch, we walked around the market and found more food. I was hungry for sweets and saw these.

They were Dutch little puffed pancakes with Nutella on top. I grew up eating Nutella. Taste like my childhood. Just like in Borough market, they also sell Paella cooked at the spot in a giant pan. 

Walking around here made me realized that Borough market is so overpriced. 

I'm saving the Paella for the next visit. I'll be back!

Brighton

This weekend was going to be nice according to BBC forecast. I had dinner on Friday with my boss from the US and a couple of people from work. My boss' daughter happerned to be here for work too. she joined us for dinner. I went home first to take care of Chloe. Right before I left, Jessica, Amy's friend that I met last week, Facebooked me and said she wanted to go to Brighton this weekend. I was planning to  play tourist by touring the city on a double decker, but Brighton seems to be a good idea too. It's an hour South of London. It's by the beach but It's not a beach that you can swim in. I agreed to meet her for bruch on Saturday.

I went to dinner at Strada, an Italian restaurant by London Bridge. This is the view from our table. We were on the second floor. It was all glass wall facing Thames river.

Not a bad picture since it was taken from inside the restaurant.

A ship was passing through and the bridge was up. The food was good. We had antipasti for appetizer. I had seafood risotto and pistachio & dark chocolate gelato for dessert, and a glass of Pinot Grigio. It tasted even better since my boss paid!

The next day I went to Caravan by King's Cross station. This is one thing about London. It's easy to get around, especially I leave by two stations that run a lot of lines. I don't miss driving. I already my food when I looked at the menu at home. The restaurant was cute. It was a loft style. You can tell it was a refurbished building. Jalapeño corn bread, black bean and eggs. I had high hope but the food was disappointing. We sat by two British girls. One of them heard the waiter asked me where we're from. She told me that she went to Emory for grad school. Small world! 

Jessica and I talked about tomorrow's plan. We bought tickets from St. Pancras to Brighton. St. Pancras is a big station. King's Cross was even bigger. Both have tube and train stations. A half billion dollar was pumped into this station for restoration. It's the nicest train station I've ever seen. 

St Pancras has a nice architectural design also. Kings cross is where Harry Porter was filmed. See the cart that is planted to the wall?

When we were there, kids queued to take pictures posing with the cart. Cute. 

Sunday morning I got up early and met up with Jessica at the station. The weather was perfect, sunny. It's funny that my first day here was sunny too, and Trevor, the driver who picked me up said, don't get used to it. I've had nice weather pretty much every day since I came. 

The first place that we headed to was the Pavilion, this was the beach house that George IV built. He spent a lot of (tax) money to build it. Partially to get away from his crazy dad, Mad George. I learned that his hair was laden with arsenic most likely from his wig. It contained over 300 times the toxic level. No wonder he lost his mind. Poor Georgie. Back to George IV, he had Asian Fetish. All of the decorations were Chinese theme from the wallpaper to the dragon chandelier. He was also a foodie. He brought top chefs from France to work at the pavilion. 

The outside actually had Indian architectural design.

We walked along the pier.

No swim on this beach.

Fish, chips and mushy peas for lunch. They looked good, but actually they didn't taste good. You have to add salt because it has no taste at all, apparently that's how Brits make theirs, no salt in the batter, add salt and malt vinegar on the side. I had to have ketchup. They were stingy, only gave me one packet, had to ask for more. I hardly ate my food and so hungry 3 hours later. 

Walked around the lines. Nice restaurants and cute shops.

Finally good food! My first afternoon tea in UK or actually ever... The bottom plate is the sandwiches: cucumber, smoked salmon and cheese. The second tier is pound cakes with frosting, lemon and blueberry scones. They tasted more like biscuit, moist not dry. The lemon one came with lemon preserves. I could lick the tiny serving cup. So good. The top tier is chocolate eclaire and mini banana butterscotch pies. We washed them down with earl gray tea. They were actually plenty of options for tea, but we just went with the basic. 

I had my first taste of train issue on the way back. After we got to London, the train lost signal and sat on the track for almost an hour. Long day, I just wanted to go home. And the next day, on the way home, I got to Woking station, the trains going to London Waterloo were halted. Somebody got hit between Woking and Waterloo. Not sure if it's an accident or suicide. I had to take a train from Woking to Guildford, then back to Woking then finally Waterloo. I didn't get home until 7.30. Two days in a row. Below is the crazy tea house. Full of Diana's and Queen Lizzie's memorabilia.

My first work week (and many more) in UK

I started working on Tuesday, October 1. I used some vacation days before I started because once I started working, I knew it was going to be hard to leave the office. I woke up quite early. I think I set up my alarm clock around 4 AM. I had a little fear that I would accidentally slept in on my first day of work. I walked Chloe to Regents park. It was so weird to be there pitch black. I had to be very careful crossing the street, not because of the cars but the cyclists. Their little lights were blinking from a short distance and they zipped past me. It was crazy to think they still rode in groups in the dark. They had some light but it was still dark. After that, I took a shower, ate breakfast and headed to the tube station. There are two tube lines that run to Waterloo tube station, where I had to switch to Waterloo train station to take the train to Woking: Jubilee  (grey) and Bakerloo (brown). My temporary flat is within 5 minutes of walking distance to Baker Street station. The first day I took Bakerloo line, soon I realized that Bakerloo has 2 more stops than Jubilee prior to Waterloo. Mental note: take Jubilee, not Bakerloo. The tube ride itself is around 8-10 minutes. In the morning, the tube runs every two minutes. Since I got there around 7AM, the stations are not crazy busy. 

The purple line is the route from Baker Street to Waterloo. You see where Regents Park is on the map. 

This is Waterloo, huge station. As I approach the station coming from Woking, I can see London Eye.

Once I got to the Waterloo. I took two lifts to the train station level. Yes I said I lifts, not elevators. If you stand, you stand on the right. If you walk, you walk on the left. I walk, it's like stair masters. I struggle finding time to work out, so I take every opportunity to pump my heart rate higher. Once you get up to the train station, you see a giant board above you. I think Bakerloo has 18 lines, so it's like at the airport, you find what train line is your destination. 

Like this. Okay since I leave early, it's not this crowded.

It's more like this. 

The first day I took the train, I didn't pick the express train to Woking. Mental note #2: memorize the Express train leave times. The train ended stopping at several other stations. The fastest train is around 25 minutes. I bought a season pass ticket. You can choose 1 month, 3 or 12. I bought one month. The  daily rate ends up to be the same anyway for all season passes. 

The left is the season pass. The blue is the tube card, Oyster card. You can load up and it deducts the tube fee every time you go in and out of tube stations. 

The train ride is nice, smooth, not busy at all. I always get a seat, quite the opposite from tubes. Many people work in London and live outside of London. I'm going the opposite direction. Once I arrive at Woking station, it's 5 minute walk to the office. Total commute time is 45-50 minutes one way. It's long but it's much nicer than sit in Atlanta traffic even in lesser time. I pass a couple of coffee shops and cafés so if I ever forget breakfast or lunch, I can always grab something on the way. 

I'm not going to bore you with work details but just like anything, the first few days or weeks on the job are a lot to take in. I got home tired, my mind is exhausted from thinking. I slept well every night but I struggle to fit in work out in after work, commute and walking Chloe. I cook and bring lunch to work every day. I eat lunch at my desk, so I pretty much work all time from the I get in until I leave. I still have some responsibilities from my US job, so I use lunch time to catch up on that. 

When I move to my permanent flat in a few weeks, I will join a gym, not sure which one but I will find out. I don't miss training and racing, even after I read race reports, but I miss doing hard cardio. A few times I run and jog with Chloe, she's quite good. She runs straight most of the time. 

The last two days I ate bad, not bad food but just couldn't stop eating after I get home from work. I need to stop this, not sure why I'm doing it. Lack of workout plus eat a lot equal to gaining weight. I can't afford this because I can't buy a whole new wardrobe, everything is pricey here, and I feel blah. Talking about food, my big boss came last Friday to Woking. He was touring Europe for some meetings. A few of us went to dinner at Strada, an Italian restaurant by Tower Bridge. This is the view from our table.

A ship was passing. The bridge was up.