Living in London

On Friday night we went to a table tennis match! England's premier Table Tennis champion, Matthew Syed played another professional and several members of the audience in a challenge game at the Institute of Contemporary Arts. It was more fun than you might imagine. Matthew is quite a funny guy and gave us a great overview of the technique used by the athletes in his sport. We learned that the funny stance and the stomp many pros use when serving the ball is designed to hide the type of spin the server is putting on the ball. There were numerous members of the audience vying for a chance to play a few rounds with him, and it was a lot of fun to watch them striving to understand his spins and techniques. He will be a color commentator for table tennis matches at the Olympics next month, broadcast for ten days on the BBC.

-HrH

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Last night around 03:00 we were awakened by a high pitched crying noise, like a cat in heat, but much louder and vociferous. I looked out the window and saw a strange little dog-like creature running away from some bushes on the side of the building. The crying went on for a little while and then we fell back to sleep. Today, the tree trimmers are here and I asked them about it. The fellow didn't even hesitate to say "foxes." Apparently they are all around London. Adaptable animals I guess, although there are so many parks and wild areas in the city I guess there must be alot of good places to build a den. Remember this is where fox hunting originated.

Check out Urban Foxes for more information on wildlife in London.

-LmG

Our new TV is a beauty . . . but it is a bit smaller than the TV we have in Oakland. Fortunately, it is just the right size for our London flat.

-HrH

Yesterday Heather and I toured Cambridge University, about 45 minutes north of London via train. One of the things we did was visit the Cavendish Laboratory where Francis Crick and James Watson discovered the double-helix structure of DNA. We also got to see the Eagle Pub where the famous discovery was announced. Today, we read with sadness that while we were there learning about him, Francis Crick passed away.

We hired a Blue Badge guide, named Susan, to give us a customized two-hour tour of Cambridge. She was really helpful. We learned about the 31 colleges that compose Cambridge University, the history of the area, the stories of some of the Royal Family who have funded the colleges for the past 800 years, as well as some interesting details about the chapel at King's College that took over 100 years to build.

-LmG

8:30 AM: Sainsbury's for laundry detergent
10:30 AM: Launderette to wash sheets and rugs
12:30 PM: Return laundry to flat
12:35 PM: Home Base for mop and bucket
1:30 PM: Rush home for delivery of TV, stand, DVD player and audio system
1:50 PM: Receive delivery
2:00 PM: Back to Home Base for screw driver and hammer in order to assemble TV stand
3:00 PM: Assemble TV stand, install everything
5:00 PM: Sony store for cable to connect TV to DVD player
6:30 PM: Dixons for cables to connect TV to audio receiver
7:30 PM: Gloucester Station to meet Linda
9:00 PM: Shower! Whew! a long day of settling in

-HrH

No posts today. It's my birthday and we are off to Cambridge for a day of history and exploration.

-HrH

Our first catalog arrived in the mail yesterday . . . and so marks the beginning of our onlaught of junk mail. The good news is that I actually requested to be on the mailing list for this catalog. We shall see how long it takes to start receiving stuff that we did not request.

-HrH

Heather schleps home the day's shopping booty via one of the famed London cabs.

Without a car, the standard modes of transportation are bus, The Tube, or cab. London cab drivers must pass a very rigorous test called The Knowledge. It takes an average of three years to pass the test and only 30% pass on their first attempt!

The “All London” Licence requires you to have a detailed knowledge of the 25,000 streets within a six mile radius of Charing Cross with a more general knowledge of the major arterial routes throughout the rest of London. If you wish to work as a taxi driver in central London or at Heathrow Airport you need an “All London” Licence.

The drivers are truly amazing. You give them your address and they know where you live.

-HrH

British coins are not quite as easy to use and identify as the British currency. Pictured above is the
£2, £1, 50 pence,
20 pence, 10 pence, 5 pence,
2 pence and 1 pence.

The 10 pence coin in the middle is about the size of a US Quarter.

Although the £1 peice is rather small it is very thick (and heavy) in your purse.

-HrH

Growing up in Canada I became accustomed to colored bills. Then after 27 years in the US I learned to live with monochromatic money. How nice it is to be back in a land where different denominations are different colors. The British even go one step further: each denomination is also a different size, with £5 note slightly smaller than the £10 note, which is slightly smaller than the £20.

Until 1971, British money was made up of pence, shillings and pounds. There were 12 pence in a shillings and 20 shillings in a pound. There were many British coins with exotic names and confusing conversions. You can see them all listed on these pages.

Since 1971 British money has been calculated on the decimal system, with a standardized scheme of 100 Pence to the Pound. Thank goodness.

-HrH

The images found on these pages are intended for general information purposes only; they are NOT legal tender.Any use of these images to produce counterfeit currency is illegal and punishable by law.

A warm towel is such a simple luxury. Our flat in London is equipped with heated towel racks. When you run the shower the hot water first circulates through the towel rack resulting in a toasty warm towel when you have finished your shower. Very nice.

-HrH

We were very excited to learn that Whole Foods Market is expanding into the UK. The nearest store was about 1 1/2 miles from our flat so we combined our Saturday morning exercise walk with an excursion to Fresh & Wild, as they are called here. Although the store was much smaller than a typical Whole Foods in the US, they were obviously committed to the same level of quality for organic, locally grown foods. Whole Foods recently bought this store and is slowly adding its influence. According to the checkout clerk, new products are being introduced and the name will be changed from Fresh & Wild to Whole Foods in the near future. It is nice to find a little piece of home . . .   -HrH

In space starved flats in London, washer/dryer combos are installed in the kitchen as the norm for laundry appliances. Our flat is no exception. These units are only able to wash small loads of laundry and dry half as much at a time. Large items, such as sheets and duvet covers will have to be sent out to a cleaners or schlepped to a laundromat on a regular basis.

Sitting in our living room on a Saturday night listening to some Lyle Lovett and workng on our computers, Linda was doing a load of whites. As the dryer neared the completion of its cycle, Heather noticed the distinct smell of cotton being toasted. Linda rushed to the kitchen only to find that, although the dryer was stopped, it was still completing its cycle and would not unlock the door. She frantically pushed buttons and turned dials as wrinkles settled into her clothes. When the door finally opened a few minutes later the items were too hot to touch.

Nothing was burned and all is well. I guess we will use the lower setting on the dryer next time.

-HrH

While walking to the Tall Shop in a central London neighborhood yesterday I spotted a very strange building. Upon closer examination, it appears to be the headquarters building for British Telecom.

Very weird design . . .

-HrH

We are now live with Internet connectivity from our London flat. BT (British Telecom) was adamant that the service would not be available until Friday. I decided to be proactive and configure the modem and wireless router today (Thursday). To my surprise, the DSL line was already live!! Praise be to the provider of packets, the master of modems, the budha of bandwidth.

Thank goodness I will not have to schlep my laptop up to a smokey, noisey cafe just to get another internet fix. We are back online!!

;

A few more amenities to make life seem normal here. Although we have Arrowhead Springs bottled water piped to a faucet on our kitchen counter in Oakondo, we will make due with a Brita water filter here in the UK. The microwave is a basic, space-saver model. As long as it heats the beans for my English breakfast I will be happy.

-HrH

The UK electrical system is 240 V. The US is only 120 V. If you
plug a device into 240V that was only designed for 120V you get a wonderful shower of sparks and a blown circuit breaker. As a result, we have had to purchase many new items upon our arrival in the UK, as shown above.

Fortunately, many high tech gadgets, such as laptops, PDAs and the iPod all work fine with 240V.

-HrH

Newspaper and magazine subscriptions are handled a bit different here in London. Instead of calling the paper and arranging for home delivery, I simply went over to our local newstand across the street from the apartment and asked that they deliver the London Times every day. She asked me if I wanted any other papers or magazines delivered.

What a great idea! It costs an extra £2 a week and I can have any magazine or paper that I want. To change or cancel my "subscriptions" I simply walk back across the street and make my requests. Very cool!

-HrH

The French Connection UK is a popular brand of clothing for the young, urban crowd here in London. Unfortunately, their logo forces you to do a double take every time.

-HrH

We arrived back in London on the afternoon of July 9th. The move has been a bit more traumatic that we expected.

Click here for a list of a few of the surprises / challenges that we faced upon our arrival.

I am sure there is a huge bouquet of roses among the thorns here somewhere

-HrH