You Didn't Move Here for the Weather

After the rainiest April and June on the books, the rain continues stubbornly into July and the outlook is not good.

They say that England is in a drought, but it's flooding so we are a bit confused on that one.

Here's the next week's forecast and reminder that we didn't move here for the weather. Looks like we will have to get a tropical sun vacation on the books ASAP.

Le Gai Paris

One of the wonderful things about living in London is access to the rest of Europe. Rumour has it that you can pop down to Paris and back for dinner, and while that might be a stretch, it's definitely an easy weekend trip.

David and I spent last weekend in Paris. We took the Eurostar there, which goes under the English Channel to Paris in just over two hours. I'm pretty sure it took us about two hours to get from Santa Monica to Hollywood on a Friday evening once when we were living in LA, so this is amazing.

We had a fabulous time eating, drinking and exploring. We didn't do a ton of touristy stuff, but we did climb the Eiffel tower (about 400 steps up, and then back down) to have a glass of champagne at the very top.

We did walk around and see many of the big hitters (which we had seen before when we were students, but that was long before Instagram!).

Pompidou

Arc de Triomphe

Notre Dame

David's future car (basically a glorified golf cart).

And what trip to Paris is complete without some escargot? We had a delicious dinner at Le Coupe Chou. Paris, we will definitely see you again soon!

A Royal Birthday Indeed

Royals. What an interesting topic as an American. They are something we really haven't grown up with, and have only watched with fascination from afar. I can remember thinking that the Brits sure do get a lot of bank holidays for things like weddings and such. But now, we have actually experienced it ourselves.

For those of you who don't know, this year was the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. She's been on the thrown for 60 years. In celebration and recognition of this, the people of the UK were given not just one, but two days off. The four day weekend was filled with events such as a river floatilla where 1000 boats paddled down the river (in the pouring rain I might add). There were street parties, church services, parades, and all sorts of fun.

This also happened to coincide with David's and my birthday on Monday, June 4. And what a party it turned out to be! On that day we attended a street party our friends were throwing. It was a blast. There were probably 100 people, over 200 bottles of champagne, and a table full of cupcakes. It was epic to say the least. We couldn't help but get into the spirit. Check out some pictures from the weekend below.

Samira at the river front for the floatilla.

Floatilla happenings. Note the jumbo screens. They were playing movies of the queen when we were there.

The streets were all decked out.

Even Mattie got into the Jubilee spirit (against her will really).

We'd like to think all of this champagne was for our birthday. 

Let them eat cake!

Getting into the spirit!

The street party.

It's still raining...

The wettest April on the books, of course occurs our first year here.

Even Mattie can't take it anymore:

I guess we didn't move to England for the weather :)

Life on the Island: Day 121

It hasn’t stopped raining in weeks. The dog is depressed because her park hours have severely declined. Our vitamin D levels are dropping by the hour. But that hasn’t stopped us from making the most of our time so far.

Photo Credit: Frédéric Fabry

We’ve just officially finished four months here and it seems that we are finally getting to experience the English weather that everyone warned us about. 

Despite the rain, we have been exploring London and the surrounding sites as much as possible. Just this last weekend we did our third nine mile hike with the UK Explorers meet up group. Each month we go about an hour out of the city and have visited Kent, Surrey, and Buckinghamshire. On this last hike I learned a valuable lesson about approaching bulls. On the previous hike both David and I learned what Stinging Nettle is (and luckily its cure: the Dock leaf).

David has been running every week with the Hash House Harriers, and recently took part on a relay team at the Milan marathon. He’s now training for his first half marathon, taking place at the end of may in the Isle of Wight.

We’ve also gone on the Jack the Ripper tour, a day tour to Stonehenge and Bath, and spent Easter at the Plumpton horse races with our friends Brad and Katie.

Our English friends say that we have seen more than they have, and we aren’t slowing down!

So far, life in London suits us – that’s of course if it stops raining! 

Mattie and the Ducks

Went on a hike, Mattie indulged in a bit of duck chasing. Nuff said.

The NHS

The National Health Service. It’s like an exotic animal to most Americans who just don’t get the concept of nationalized healthcare. Is it socialist? Do you have to wait for months to get a doctors appointment? Well today I will answer all of your questions.

Most of you know that I’m a type I diabetic on an insulin pump. This of course has been one of my bigger concerns with moving to a new country. Will they have the same medications and treatment options? What if they don’t?

Why is there a picture of a white tiger in the middle of this post? I don't know, it seemed exotic.

The Adventure Begins…How it typically works is that you have a medical practice that is “yours” based on where you live. You go in, register with your practice by showing your passport and proof of address and then 24 hours later you can start receiving services.  

Last Tuesday David and I went and registered. That day I was able to make an appointment to meet with a nurse the following week to get my prescriptions sorted out.  Yesterday I went for that appointment.

I arrived to find out that apparently there were some clerical errors. I wasn’t properly registered, then they couldn’t find my appointment. Despite this, I was still able to meet with a nurse at the same time. Then the nurse informed me that I shouldn’t have met with her first, but should have had a New Patient exam first. Whoops.

So we get down to the reason I was there, to get my prescriptions. Did you bring the UK equivalent of your medications? Um…no.  So the search begins. She takes a look at the drug names and searches the computer database, no answer. Now we turn to books. Meanwhile I take out my hand iPhone and begin googling. Want to take a guess on who figured out what the UK equivalents were? That would be me.

Snafoos aside, within about 30 minutes I had prescriptions for two medications that we think are the equivalent of the US versions. Let the experimentation begin! Oh and did I mention that there was no co-pay or any cost for meeting with the nurse?

I then walked to my local pharmacy and dropped off my prescriptions. One of them I was given a three month supply of absolutely free. The other will cost me £7.40 per month. £7.40 per month, that’s like $12.

In the US our monthly medical expenditures between monthly insurance coverage, co-pays for prescriptions and doctors visits, deductibles, uncovered costs, etc. were probably costing us on average about $350 per month because I am lucky enough to have a pre-existing chronic illness. Here it will cost us about $52 (I also have private insurance coverage which costs about $40/month).

We don’t have it all figured out yet, but so far it seems pretty amazing. I have no idea how the private insurance works, or if we will need it (I’ve been told that it’s a fast-track ticket to specialists, and gives access to private doctors and hospitals). Nor can I really speak to the socialist nature of it, but it’s an amazing feeling to have your basic health needs taken care of as a right, not as a luxury. 

The oddest workday ever

Yesterday I woke up in the morning at around 05:15 for a business trip to Paris.  I was fairly restless through the night as this opportunity could really increase my exposure to many aspects of my company.  I walked to the St. Pancras International station which very far off on the left side of the panorama you can make out a little nob, that is St. Pancras.

Met up with a co-worker, got on the Eurostar to Paris, talked about strategy for 2 hours, got off the Eurostar, took the 10 line to the 4 line to the end of the line, got off spoke some bad French to find, 'Rue de Silly', got to the Office, talked to our contact, strategized, went to lunch, had a rare burger with Foie Gras on it, went back to the office, presented to 8 or so CFO's, ended the presentation, walked back to the Metro, got on the 10 line, switched to the 4, got back to Gare Du Nord, got back on the Eurostar, came back to London.

Yah, so basically I popped over to Paris, saw nothing, had some Foie Gras, and came back... Thats the type of experience I guess can happen when you are living here...

The Beer

How long did it take me to write a post about the Beer... a bit too long.  Let's be honest, its basically all the same here. English Beer should become the new definition of Session Beer. I can't even count on two hands how many Beers I have seen sub-3% out here... that's practically a juice box that has been sitting out for a few hours! What the hell am I going to do with a 2.5% beer? Beyond this they are all bitters.  This means that they are extremely malty, with a dry hop finish.  And don't be fooled by the different lables; Wheat, ESB, Old Ale... They are all the same.

This is not to say its bad. Its a hell of a lot better than that fermented yellow fizz that so many Americans call beer; but should instead hail it the same as what it's called when it exits the body. It's just sooo dammnnn homogeneous.

One of the main difficulties is that legally anything over 6% is taxed at the same rate that wine is taxed.  This is to curb binge drinking, but ultimately what happens is that the Brits just drink shots if they want to get pissed. As we all know from blue laws, people will always find a way to get drunk, no matter what is written.

What I do love though, is that though the microbrew culture is not in full swing, the culture is ingrained with beer.  No one will look at you weird if you want a beer for lunch, or on a Tuesday night think its a great idea to go running for 4-5 miles in a giant group simply so you have an excuse to drink (www.cityhash.org), which I might add is a total blast.

Even through it all, there is the tingling of the revolution. Brew Dog  has had explosive growth, with no signs of slowing down and a new brewery Camden Town, though not reaching as far from the Londoner palate has some very nicely balanced and crisp beers, extremely well made for food pairing. If you are ever in London, visit the brewery or grab a pint at a local pub, it is a truly enjoyable session beer.

The next 5 years, I believe, hold the same potential of the last 5 years in the US.  If anyone wants to get in on the action email me and I can tell you where to send your loads of cash... to become rich... beer rich ;)

Ultimately, its a million times better than Los Angeles, I can still find the same beers; its just a bit harder.

The Police

London...... London...... London....... so many police, that are so tremendously ineffective... at first site.  Before the new year the officials here in London politely asked the Occupy St. Pauls to vacate promptly. Due to my US upbringing I assumed this meant they would get about an hour before the pepper spray, batons, rubber bullets, and tear gas came out.

Nope, that is not what happened. In fact the only thing that has happened so far is the camp has gotten larger every time I run past it. They keep mainly to themselves, and frankly don't smell at all.  I do think that they could use some consulting on how to make their information tent more inviting. The main point is that although the have been sternly told to leave, their refusal has not led to an incredibly over the top response by authority figures.

We have also been watching quite a few of the cop shows. One cop pulled over some teens that were going quite a bit too fast around a circle.  Instead of just issuing a ticket the cop pulled the kid out, showed him how the inside of his tire was going completely bald because of how he was driving.  He also assisted the kid in changing his first tire.  The ticket still came, but a valuable lesson as well.

I like that the police that one sees on the street aren't even carrying pepper spray.  They are informative personnel with only the weapons of pen, paper, radio and the British legal system.  There are elite squads that do carry pepper spray, and even more elite squads that carry guns.  The more weapons they carry, the more they are trained, as the misuse of these often leads to public distrust like what happened this summer. What you would never, ever see here, is a university rentacop with minimal training, less education and a obvious hatred for college kids armed with military grade pepper spray or a NY cop with a vendetta against already contained women carrying the same.  What you generally see here is a mutual respect between public and public servants.

This all gives me the sense that the government is afraid, if only a little, of the people, and not the other way around.

Roasted Monkey Nuts

While on the topic of food, I discovered these today. Does this mean that baseball fans are monkeys?

Culinary Adventures

As I write this post, David is busy in the kitchen preparing some wild duck we picked up at Broadway Market today along with some Wild Boar ravioli.

The past few weeks have been filled with some new adventures in food. Some of which I’ve blogged about already (Percy Pigs and Haggis).

One of my favorite things about Europe in general, is the variety of food that is available to us. From the grocery stores to the markets, there’s always something new to try.

Recently we went to the Rivington Grill with our friend Theresa. They specialize in posh traditional British food.  There we saw something on the menu, you’d never see in the states: A warning to watch out for the shot pellets that might be left in game.

It was also there that we tried new things like mashed neeps (turnip), bubble and squeak (a fried patty of the remnants of Sunday roast – potatoes, carrots and such), and blood pudding. All quite delicious, although I can’t say I’ll try blood pudding again – didn’t like the texture. I think I get points for trying though! We’ll definitely be visiting the Rivington again.

Then there were these beauties (conveniently located next to my beer) that my colleagues introduced me to:

Basically they are Cheetos without the cheese, add fake roast beef flavor. Mmmm….no. I think that’s something you had to grow up on, but appreciate the opportunity to try all the varieties of crisps (chips) offered here. 

Haggis, Not a Myth

Readily available just in time for Robert Burns Day.

I have to admire the British use of most parts of the animal. However, I will not be trying Haggis. Sorry.

Percy Pigs

According to everyone here these are awesome:

I've been hearing about them for quite a while, but today my colleagues Brad and Pete thought we should buy some a client meeting. They are right, Percy Pigs are awesome:

And just so you know this is not candy, it's a sweet. They don't use the term candy and get quite upset when you use it. It's either "chocolate" (if it's chocolate) or "sweets" (for everything else). 

Siri is an Imperialist

Megan: “Yes, you heard me right Siri, I think you are an imperialist.”

Siri: “If you say so.”

Megan: “Why yes, yes I do.”

For those of you who don’t know, Siri (he in the UK, she in the US) is Apple iPhone’s voice assistant service.

After much ado about getting a “real” phone (see my previous post on surviving with a phone from 1999 until I could get an iPhone here, and David’s rebuttal to my post here), I have my iPhone. And it’s great, except for one HUGE flaw. See the below conversation:

Based on my research, this is a widespread issue and there is no way around it except to begin speaking with a British accent. So upon this discovery during Boozy Lunch and Museum Sunday (will explain in a future post), imagine three Americans taking turns to see who could get Siri to understand them.  We all lost, horribly.

No I didn’t say, “How many miles between here and Martin jealous.” (I actually said, “how many miles between here and Los Angeles.”)

I guess in the mean time we’ll just go on practicing: "The rain in Spain stays mostly in the plain. The rain in Spain stays mostly in the plain. The rain in Spain stays mostly in the plain…”

Getting a Phone from 1999

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Get yourself a pay as you go phone from the Car Phone Warehouse which has locations all over London. The phone that you are going to get is probably going to look like it is straight out of 1999, such as the one that Megan and I got.

You can get a real phone once you get a Current Account.  Rather than waiting until these are done, just get the phone, it will be very useful when you have out of town guests.

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Getting a Real Phone

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So you want to get off the plane and pick up your brand spankin new phone... aint going to happen unless you are willing to throw down a ton of money and get a month to month phone card for an outrageous amount of money.

What you are going to need to get to get a contract phone is to get a bank card by opening a Current Account at a local bank.  Once you have one of these you will be able to go into a phone store, the big ones here are: O2, 3, and Vodophone.

Once you have chosen your plan and you get to the store you are going to need your Passport as well as your Bank Card.  Outside of this you are pretty much set.  For Megans phone we went with the One Plan with 3 which cost us £99 and £35 a month... which ain't bad.

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Really!?!?!?!??!?!?!?! (Working Title)

To not confuse the viewer, this is a joint blog post. Megan's will be written like this and Davids will be written like this.

Today I was really egging for a good beer. There a few micro breweries round these parts. Initially I wanted to travel out to Lovibonds Brewery out in Henley-On-Thames (quite literally the name of the town, including dashes) due to the fact that the brewer Jeff Rosenmeier happens to be an expat just like us (recomended by Ed Murray from Shotover Brewing).

However due to short notice, and no idea how far we would have to travel, we chose to head up to Camden Town Brewery. After a bit of an ordeal actually finding the entrance to the place we saw that the entire place had no resemblance to a micro-brewery that was open to the public. After a bit of an internal argument we turned around and started walking back up the street... I then I thought of the song 'Sunscreen' given to the class of 1997 where he says, 'Do something that scares you every day,' and I promptly did an about face to head back in the direction of the brewery where we met the Brewer from Down Under named Nick, who, after we asked him if the brewery had public tastings, offered us a tasting of bottles from the collection of unfinished cases. Thank you Nick, Camden town goes into my breweries of choice in the future.

So totally against my will we end up at Camden Town Brewery and it ends up being a great experience. Their tasting room is currently under constructions, so instead of some tastings they just gave us four bottles of their beer. Totally awesome outcome. We leave our info and head out to the high street where David spots a store with a bunch of beers in the window. We head in and find all sorts of micro-brews from all over the world. David fills up on them and then we have the dilemma of actually carrying the 12 beers he just picked up.

We start heading towards our new neighbourhood (Camden, near Euston station) and find a great spot for lunch. I have "American" pancakes and David indulges on some babyback ribs that don't quite meet his expectations, then we head further south towards our hood.

Eventually we land in what we think is to be our new local pub. There's an old man (check). There's even a pub cat named Sylvester (double check!).

The pub is relatively empty, but has that distinct feeling that there have been some really great times. The only other table filled by other customers has four blokes from unknown origins, but known intoxication, which happens to be high. The locals all crowd around a small corner of the pub and discuss the decision to create a new high speed rail line that will destroy the neighbourhood, and most likely the bar. Luckily for us, that is still a few years off... hopefully.

A few of the guys from the other table get up to have a smoke, leaving one. We start talking, you know about this and that, and he comes over to sit by us, a bit ready to leave the group he is with currently... which we soon find out why.

Soon his friends join us at our table. We are engaged in conversation with our new friends when there seems to be a bit of commotion. The locals start coming over and telling the guys that they can't do "that" in public.

I look over, completely clueless and see a rolled up dollar bill. Wait a second...is that what I think it is. I've only seen this in movies, never real life.

Oh shit...we could lose our visas is my next thought.

Yes... we see some dudes doing cocaine... the table over. WTF Mate... WTF.

For the first time in David's life he considered leaving beers half drunk on the table. I go into hyper-drink-your-beer-and-make-up-lies-to-get-out-of-there-mode.

Nice meeting you dudes. Welcome to the neighborhood. Is pepper spray legal here? Regardless, where do I get some?

The End.

Getting a Bank Account

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Getting a current account here has been quite easy for us, but we have heard horror stories from some of compatriots. A current account is the English equivalent of a checking account.  A Current Account is also exceptionally important and one of the first things you want to do as you will only be able to get a phone from 1999 and you will not be able to get a flat without one.

After some discussion we decided ultimately with HSBC. The reasons we went with HSBC is because they have a minimal monthly charge on the advanced account, which does not charge you at ATM's outside of the country.  As well, if we end up moving somewhere else they will help us set up a bank account in that new country.

One of our friends actually started a bank account with Barclay's, but then had their account shut down without explanation.  Every Londoner that we have met and talked about this subject have told me that both Lloyd's and Santander are total Bollocks. Beyond these banks I have heard nothing else. 

It is also important to decide whether or not you are going to open a UK account or an offshore account. I will touch on this in a future post, however, for the time being, if you plan on being here less than three years, and know you will be travelling for work quite often, then open an offshore account. Any bank in London has offshore accounts and can help you with this.  We have decided not to open an offshore account.

To start our account we needed proof that we had intentions to be here for at least two years.  Banks around here really do not want to start an account for someone that only plans on being here for 6 months.  They also ALL told us that a credit card will be offered 3-6 months after we get here, to show that there is little risk we will just up and leave overnight after maxing one out.

Steps to a new current account:

Step 1: check out the banks, pick up some pamphlets and see who has the best Current Account for your situation.
Step 2: set up an appointment with a Personal Banker at a branch near your flat. You might be able to just walk in, but most of the time this is expected
Step 3: get your documents in order. You will need:

           Passport

           Visa

           UK Address

           Letter of Employment including verification of UK Address

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A Tale of Two Phones

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times; it was a phone that lasted 5 days with out recharge, and it was the phone that wouldn't allow you to update your twitter feed every 5 minutes.

This is a rebutte of my wife's last post explaining how terrible the phone is.  I would like to go point by point of what she says, and see if we can read between the lines.

All it does is make calls and texts - YES! A phone that actually makes calls and texts... consistently... WOOHOO!

It doesn’t even have a camera - At times I also find this annoying, however I have found myself reverting back to a time when I truly enjoyed the experience, rather than trying to document.  As one cannot measure the velocity and location of a particle simultaneously, a person cannot experience and document that experience simultaneously.

it does have a torch - Eh... sort of stupid... the screen is a bit brighter than the torch itself.

Writing out a text takes about 10 minutes - But... on the plus side you have a full 5 days of battery power, so you will have plenty of time to type those texts!

What she failed to mention was the fact that you can program a fake call!  Need to end a boring conversation in a somewhat rude, but understandable manner?  Fake call. Programmable to 5, 10 and 60 seconds from the time it is activated.

I also have rarely seen the phone come out and be placed on the dinner table just in case a text/email/facebook post important enough to stop a conversation pops up.  By having this phone everyone also knows that there are only two ways to contact us, which is pretty cool.  As well, I believe that I am getting a far better mental image of how London geography is due to the fact that I cannot completely rely on googlemaps.

Yes, it is true, this phone is straight out of 1999... but was communication back then so much worse than it is today?  Was it really so bad to enjoy the moments between your hello hug/handshake and your goodbye hug/handshake with just the person that you hugged/handshook? No, I would say not.  In fact I would say in many ways it is better, more personal.  This phone brings me back to the days when Clinton was president, our economy was booming, Airports were still fun to go to and there were rumors of this really neat technology that would let us listen to hundreds of songs out of an incredibly large 5GB iPod.  If this phone is bad, I don't want to be good. Let us all party like its 1999, period phones required.