Living in London

I stopped at the bank today and asked for 2 rolls of £1 coins. (The washing machines at the laundrette eat 3 £1 coins for each load so I was trying to stock up a bit.) I experienced one of those awkward moments where, as an outsider, I have no idea what the local custom is. The teller looked at me as if I had asked for a ligabob from her wheatatsawhosits. She didn't understand my question and I didn't know how to ask it any differently. She finally asked me how many I wanted and when I said, "20" she offered me a bag of £1 coins.

It turns out that the British manage their coins in loose bags rather than nice, neat little rolls. As I was walking away I heard the teller say to her co-worker, "did she mean paper rolls?" Ahh, the local customs one must learn in a new country.

-HrH

I am entering into an intense period of job hunting and have not had enough time to make a daily post here. I am now part of a job search work team at Lee Hecht Harrison. I meet every week for 2 hours with fellow job seekers during which time we report on our progress and offer advice and encouragement to one another. The expectation is that I spend 30 - 35 hours per week in job searching activities. I guess the vacation is over

To allow our fans to keep up with the new postings, however sporadic they may be, we have created the option to join a mailing list. Every new post will be followed by an email announcing its arrivalt. Click here if you would like to be included on the list. We will notify you via email every time something new gets posted. You can always change your membership on the list by sending me an email and asking to be removed.

-HrH

We saw Jerry Springer - The Opera last night. The show has been running for more than three years in London and continues to play to rave reviews. One critic, described the show as an

English opera whose main character is an American chat-show host who is accidentally shot by a black nappy-fetishist aiming at the Ku Klux Klan, and sent to hell to interview Satan, Jesus, Adam and Eve as if his life depended on it.

David Soul, (of Starsky and Hutch) fame has made his home in London and stars as Jerry. He bears a remarkable resemblance to the original.

It is hard to explain how bad we thought the show was. It was irreverent and sacriligious to the point that it made us uncomfortable. I guess we are just a couple of conservative mid-western girls at heart.

-HrH

We have been in London for almost four months now and many people have commented on the high cost of living here. But just how much more does it cost to live in London as compared to the US? Well, based on the

few items selected below, on average it is 40% - 60% more expensive to live in the UK.

The calculations include the difference due to the currency exchange. First we list the price of a typical item in the UK. Then, we convert the value in pounds to the amount in US dollars using an exchange rate

of 1.83 dollars/GBP. Finally we compare this converted amount the typical cost in the US and calculate a percentage. The average premium of all the items shown is 63%

Item	UK Cost	US$ Equiv (x 1.83)	US Cost	London Premium
Typical bottle of wine	£8.00	$14.65	$10.00	47%
Launder trousers	£4.00	$7.33	$5.00	47%
20 oz soda	£0.90	$1.65	$1.25	32%
DVD: Star Wars Trilogy	£27.00	$49.45	$42.00	18%
Burgers and chips for two	£31.00	$56.78	$25.00	127%
Pol Roger champagne	£25.00	$45.79	$40.00	14%
Full spectrum bulbs	£24.95	$45.70	$28.00	63%
4 AA batteries	£2.94	$5.38	$4.77	13%
US gallon of gasoline	£3.10	$5.68	$2.14	165%
First class stamp	£0.47	$0.86	$0.37	133%

-HRH

Just how far is it from San Francisco to London?

• As the crow flies it is 5,350 miles (8,610 km)
• London is 950 (1,528 km) north of San Francisco
• and London is 4,563 miles (7,343 km) east of San Francisco

Thanks to Larry G for the graphic.

-HrH

Click each image for larger view
	London is 950 miles further north than San Francisco. This difference in latitude has a significant effect on the local times for sunrise and sunset in each city. The longest day of the year in London has 16 hours and 40 minutes of sunshine whereas the longest day of the year in San Francisco has only 14 hours and 47 minutes. On the other hand, the shortest day of the year in London is a mere 7 hours and 49 minutes of daylight. The shortest day of the year in San Francisco has 9 hours and 33 minutes of sunlight.
	Sunrise In the summer time, the sun rises at its earliest in London at 4:45 AM. In San Francisco, however, the earliest sunrise is at 5:45 AM.
	Sunset The differences for sunsets between the two cities are similar. At its earliest, the sun sets in London at 3:51 PM. The earliest sunset in San Francisco occurs at 4:51 PM
You will also notice on each graph that London switches to Daylight Savings Time in the spring one week earlier than San Francisco but that both cities switch back to Standard Time on the same day (October 31, 2004) I will gladly send a copy of the spreadsheet that contains all these calculations on request. -HrH

The word "queue" is one of my favorite words (along with "triage"). I just like the way it sounds.


I remember the first time I ever saw the word. I was about 10 years old and was spending the day at Cedar Point Amusement Park. Right outside of the monster of all roller coasters was a sign that said "Form Queue Here." I was impressed. I mean, Cedar Point is in OHIO! Wouldn't "line" been more appropriate that "queue?"


Now that I live in London, I find the word used frequently. At the airport on Thursday the gate agent asked everyone to form a queue and I overheard a fellow passenger say, "we (i.e. the British) invented the word."


In Passport to the Pub, the authors have captured very well the British attitude towards queues:

Many visitors have observed that queuing is almost a national pastime for the British, who will automatically arrange themselves into an orderly line at bus stops, shop counters, ice-cream stalls, lifts, entrances, exits and sometimes in the middle of nowhere for no apparent reason.

Well said.


-HrH

I flew back to California yesterday in order to attend a meeting of the Haas (Berkeley) alumni board on Tuesday. A few hours into our trip the captain encouraged us to look out the left side of the airplane for a spectacular view of northern Greenland. Normally that part of the country is covered in clouds but yesterday we were treated to a beautiful, clear day.


The sea of snow was punctuated by small ripples of snow capped rocks made for a stunning sight. The picture only begins to capture the view.

-HrH

One thousand and thirty pounds of our personal belongings arrived from California today. The movers were an hour early and the crew of three had us unloaded in about 30 minutes. We have now officially moved to London!

Linda is in Brussels so I spent the day unpacking boxes, trying to find places for things, and cutting my finger. (It took me forever to find the box with the bandaids.)

It is nice to have all our stuff here. Some of the most welcome additions include:

• sharp, Henckels knives
• our comforter
• popcorn bowls
• yoga mats
• our Calphalon saute pan
• organizer baskets and bins
• some teaspoons

Still, somehow, it feels like we brought too much. I guess it is because the smaller closets are stuffed to the gills with clothes. Perhaps we will take even less stuff with us the next time we move.

-HrH

I bought a file system today from the local Ryman's store. It is designed to hold hanging files (or "suspension files, as we call them here in the UK) so I bought an additional supply of hanging files as well.

Imagine my surprise (or dismay) when I got home and the hanging files would not hang on the rails of the file box? It would seem as if the rails were about 2 mm too far apart to support the standard hanging file.

I returned to the store and checked all the other file boxes that they had on display. They were all manufactured identically . . . identically wrong. I got a refund and bought a similar system from another store.

Quality is a funny thing here in the UK. I am still trying to figure it out. Stay tuned . . .

- HrH

Here is an example of what can happen without the oversight of a Home Ownership Association. This picture was taken of an apartment building on Gloucester Road. It would appear that there are satellite dishes on the roof of the building and each tenant has run a cable down the outside of the building and into their flat through the window. Very nice. - HrH

The Church of England is a warm and open place where all souls are welcome to worship.

However, if your are a member of the Church of England, or one of the Anglican/Episcopal churches you are hereby ordered to get thy butt into a pew pronto.

-HrH

First there was mix up with NTL Cable. Fortunately we rescheduled and are now enjoying countless channels of news and entertainment.

Today's SNAFU is more disappointing. Earlier this week we received notice from the moving company that our air shipment was due to arrive on 9/3. What excitement! Linda and I were planning on being in Brussels for the weekend so I cancelled my ticket (sacrificing $166 on the non-refundable ticket) and Linda scheduled a trip back to London on Friday night in order to help unpack on Saturday. (She will return to Brussels on Sunday to resume her obligations there.)

What they didn't tell us is that our shipment was only due at the airport on 9/3. It still has to get through customs and be scheduled for a delivery to our flat. We won't see our stuff until next Tuesday or Wednesday.

Who knew? We rearranged our lives and got our hopes up because we thought our shipment arrived today. Not understanding the intricacies of international moves, I am reminded of the old saying, "If you think education is expensive, try ignorance."

-HrH

During one of my interviews at Netlix here in the UK we were discussing the lowered expectations of the average British citizen. It turns out that all shipping addresses are validated against the Royal Mail database. Apparently, this database is fraught with errors. Most Brits believe there is only a 50% chance that an online order will be correctly delivered to their home.

I gave credence to this state of disarry this week. I ordered a USB Hub from the Linksys distributor in the UK. Yesterday the web site said that the package had been delivered. Unfortunately it wasn't delivered to me.

When I called today the only part of the delivery address they had right was 4 Walnut Court. The rest of the address was for a flat on the other side of town. I am still waiting to find out where my hardware is.

-HrH

Each day -- well, alright, most days . . . when the weather is ok -- we take a 3 1/2 mile morning walk in Hyde Park. We follow the same basic route each day. Half way through the trek we cross a bridge over the Serpentine Lake.

We have decided that this will be a great place to track the changes of the seasons. Each week we will take a picture from exactly the same location. As winter arrives we will have great timeline of the changing view.

-HrH

Tuesday marked the 7th anniversay of the death of Princess Diana.

Each morning we walk through Hyde Park in London. On the west end of the park is Kensington Palace, where Princess Di lived when she was in London. This morning we strolled by the palace gate and were moved by the amount of flowers and photos that had been left at the gate in memory of Diana. The picture at the left will give you some idea of how many people still mourn her loss and cherish her memory.

-HrH