**I'm posting an email I sent to our friends and family in September to keep it all in one place.**
Hi peeps,
Here's a wordy update of our first 3 weeks in London.
Week 1:
Overwhelmed and homesick. Tired from the whirlwind of packing up and then traveling first to Michigan then a week in Helsinki (for my work) and then finally landing in London. Why didn't we pack our friends? Where are our cats? Why do I have to do so much math?
Work, work , work (for Leslie)
Music writing, visits to museums and a budding relationship with A to Z street guide (for Peter)
Week 2:
Starting to figure it out and learn how to get around and find things to do. Met up with a friend of a friend - a fellow Seattleite who's been living here with his wife for the past 6 years - who helped us get oriented to our new city. (Thanks Mark and Chiyo, for hooking us up with Jim and Kim!)
More work, work, work + harassment from PK to go out all the time (Leslie)
Peter's bicycle arrives via air shipment. Menage a trois with bicycle and London begins (Peter)
Week 3:
Oh, crap! We need a place to live! And we want to see people! And I'm tired of thinking about where to live!
We started hitting the pavement to find a flat last Friday. After a full day's outing with the relocation agent, we didn't find anything and, worse, found the things that were actually available depressingly shabby - even in the nice neighborhoods. Cross your fingers that it'll be better after tomorrow's outing. Don't ask me how much it costs to rent a 475 sq. foot flat because you won't wind up with a pretty picture.
That being said, London has loads of things to do on the weekend, a lot if it free. After wandering around east London and seeing a lovely, spacious, affordable flat conveniently located in the 'hood, we met up with my colleague (whose name is also Peter and who hails from my Seattle office) and his family for dinner in Kensington. After dinner, we walked with them through Hyde Park at sunset. Such a nice end to the day after traipsing about in grotty easy London. Peter got a taste of riding around the tube with small children and wrangling their stroller with sleeping toddler inside while I got to talk to someone other than Peter (er, no offense Peter. I love you!).
After parting ways with Peter and his family, PK and I walked east on the south bank of the Thames and checked out some of the Mayor of London's Summer Thames Festival. The southbank is an awesome area, laden with arts venues and restaurants and a great foothpath along the Thames. This weekend it was chock full of vendors, street performers, makeshift DJ stands and dance floors. Our favorite was the fire garden exhibition at the Tate Modern. There were steel chimneys with blue-hot flames shooting straight out - and no perimeter roped off. I love that they do things here with no mind to potential litigation because if you were to actually go up and touch this crazy hot thing, you would, of course, receive medical attention, but you would never dream of suing since you'd have to admit your candidacy for a Darwin Award in the process. There were people camped out along the lawn of the Tate Modern, around smaller fire pits (but not just fire pits, smartly, simply designed fire pits). It was like a grown up steampunk version of summer camp. Did I mention that people were sitting around, enjoying the fires with glasses of wine, pints of beer, bottles of cider (pear cider for me) and Pimm's cup (Peter's choice)? That's another nice thing here: people can drink in public spaces and they do so without being total hooligans (with the exception of the football fans, anyway). The cost of our stroll along the southbank, visit to the fire exhibition, Peter's ride down a crazy spiral slide that looked like a fun house and drinks was: £2.50 + £3.80 BIG bottle of pear cider + £3.00 Pimm's = £9.30 or about $15.50.
This afternoon we met up with another one of my colleagues, Gus (short for Angus), who lives in east London. He took us on a personal tour through the Columbia Flower Market, Hackney, Brick Lane (land of scrumptiuous and cheap curry) and Sunday Upmarket. After all that walking, we settled down in the outdoor food vendor area of the Sunday Upmarket to have a late lunch and talk travel, politics, food, synth music and London. After bidding adieu to Gus (kisses on each cheek for me, a handshake for Peter) and watching him ride off on his one track bespoke (custom made) cycle, we headed toward Spitalfields Market to have a look at their vendor stalls. After viewing the outfits for sale and being worn by the general population, I'm pretty sure I can master London style by disregarding any notion of matching (pattern, color, texture, size) or seasonality or even decade and just putting on whatever I want. Excellent. Outfits here are so anything goes that unless I'm going to a nice event, I don't need to worry about it. In fact, I think I've been sticking out more as an American since I do try to match somewhat. Eff that poo from hereon out!
On our way out of Spitalfields, heading home (about a 15 minute walk), we came upon a public, group tango exhibition. Anyone was welcome to join and lots of people did. I was floored by all the people in the general population who know how to tango - and well! It was mesmerizing to watch the group and take in all the different styles and nuances. And the music! Among traditional songs, they also tango'd to a gritty cover of "Roxanne" and Depeche Mode's "Enjoy the Silence". Here's some video proof. We spent about 30 minutes watching everyone dance. So cool and inspiring. If these plain clothed people in sneakers can do it, maybe we can, too.
The next couple of weeks:
* Find a freaking place to live and move in. (Win lottery first, find buried treasure second and then find flat.)
* Check out the ongoing live sculpture performance art at the 4th plinth in Trafalgar Square, using everyday people volunteers as the centerpiece of the performance. You can see what's happening online, too.
* Get ready for our first visitors (PK''s sister and her roommate, who are currently hosting our cats at their apartment in Ann Arbor)
* Buy some more comfortable walking shoes that aren't "trainers".
* Sky Ride through London (Peter's gig)
* Hope that our renter signs the lease and moves in on the 15th (Thanks to Rylan & Cat, Mark & Ineke, Jacob & Laura, and Daniella for helping us get the last of the little bits of everything sorted out!)
* Take advantage of Ryan Air.
Hope you're all well and hope to hear from you soon!
xo,
Leslie (and Peter)
No comments:
Post a Comment