London: Week One

I finally arrived in London!

David met me at the airport with a large bouquet of flowers and together we rode the tube back to our neighborhood and walked home. Then David had to head back to work. After sleeping off some of my jet-lag, I got to work organizing the house. David did a great job unpacking boxes and putting things in the correct area. All I basically had to do when I arrived was organize. I’ve attached some pictures of the flat at the end of this post.

On Friday, I also stayed home, deciding that my first day in the new office would be Monday. After David got home from work, we headed down to the high street to explore the area, eat dinner, and do some grocery shopping. We ate at an Italian pub (very strange, I know) and the food was great! Then we continued walking to the grocery store. When we arrived, we bought some staples and a couple of heavy-duty bags since we had to carry the groceries all the way home. The store is a 20 minute walk from the house, so we walked 40 minutes round-trip, half of the time carrying heavy groceries. I decided this was not going to work, so luckily I have discovered the greatest idea EVER – online grocery shopping! The Tesco delivery boy is my new best friend! It was always a chore to go to the store in Austin, especially after a long hard day at work. If we put it off to the weekend, we dreaded going to HEB when it was most crowded. In fact, David despises grocery shopping so much that I have to bribe him with treats to get him to come with me. I tell him that he can pick out one treat for himself… and it works! Anyway, I had heard about online grocery shopping during a business case study in college, but didn’t think that anyone actually used the service. During our house-hunting trip to London in April, Karen mentioned that she uses online grocery shopping. She showed me how to set up an account. The best part is the store tracks what you bought during your past visits and if there are sales on that item, they’ll send you an email. Or since they track your purchases, you can easily select whatever you bought last time by visiting your history page instead of searching back through the system for staples or brands you like. This saves so much time! I HATE hunting in grocery stores for obscure items! I don’t know how many times I’ve called my mom asking her where the so-and-so is kept. There’s no hunting in aisles here! You just type in the item you need and it gives you a list of items that match that description or brand. And the delivery is only a couple of pounds. If you select delivery during down-times like 9:00 on a Friday night, it’s even free!

On Saturday we explored the Richmond area. We found a chocolatier that was voted Britain’s best chocolatier for the past 3 years. So of course we stopped inside and bought some chocolate-covered sea-salt caramels and a bottle of dessert wine. We ate all of the chocolates, but haven’t opened the wine yet. Maybe we’ll save it for our anniversary in a few weeks. We also bought some cute furniture pieces and carried them back to our house. Later that night, we went out with one of David’s coworkers and met some other expats from Oregon. We had a great time hanging out at the pub meeting new people.

While I was still in America, David discovered his green thumb and started a flower and herb garden in our backyard. Sunday evening, we made margherita pizzas using some of the fresh basil from our garden. We ate outside in the garden, drinking wine and relaxing before my first day of work.

The first week in the new office on my new team went well. My new manager actually lives just around the corner from me (which is a huge coincidence considering how BIG the London area is) so he has offered to let me carpool with him. The commute is about 2-3 hours a day, though, so it makes the work week seem a lot longer. I left the house around 7:15 every morning and usually wouldn’t get home until about 7:00 at night. Luckily, the Dell Bracknell office encourages employees to work remotely, so I plan on becoming a part of that program very, very soon!

After a long week at work, David and I decided to treat ourselves by going out on Saturday. We bought tickets to Jeff Goldblum’s play “The Prisoner of Second Avenue.” It was really entertaining. Jeff and his co-star, Oscar-winner Mercedes Ruehl, were great! That was my first time being back in the heart of the city since April. The theatre district is right around the corner from Trafalgar Square, which I haven’t been to since 2004. After the play, we found a pub and ate dinner, and then walked around the area. We saw the coolest bus ever cruising down the street – a double-decker party bus! It was so big there was room for a bar, some couches, and a dance floor!

On Sunday afternoon, we had to stop into David’s office to print my boarding pass for my upcoming business trip and scan some documents so I can get a national insurance number (it’s like a SSN in the UK). While in the area, we decided to check out the mall and see a movie, “Inception.” It felt really strange to walk to the movies. It made us feel much less guilty about ordering popcorn and candy, though. By the way, they do not butter their popcorn over here, which makes us sad. But to offset the healthy popcorn, movie theatres do offer ‘Pick n Mix.’ Pick n Mix is just like the candy stores in the mall. You get a bag and fill it up with all sorts of different candy, and then you’re charged based on the weight of your bag. David was like a kid in a candy store (literally!) when we walked into the theatre. For anyone that’s ever had DIY FroYo with David, you know this is not good. David is always the guy who tops his frozen yogurt with gummy bears, bubble gum, M&Ms, fudge, etc. His FroYo is always around $10 because of his heavy, childish toppings! But I have to admit, we didn’t hold back and the Pick n Mix made the movie-going experience THAT much better!

We had a busy first week in our new home but we’ve enjoyed spending time together and exploring our new city!

Our flat

Entry-way

Our bedroom

Guest bedroom

Bathroom

Dining area

Study

Living room

New kitchen

Garden