Sunday, 28 March 2010

Portobello Road, Notting Hill


Saturday we ventured up to Notting Hill for a morning of antique shopping at the world famous Portobello Road Market.  The trip on the tube was a bit chaotic, as a few subway lines were under construction.  This means that we had to switch trains 4 times instead of a nonstop ride.  Jeri was like a pro weaving in and out of the crowds of people in the busy stations; I was searching for hand sanitizer.

When we arrived in Notting Hill we recognized how lucky we are to be in Chelsea.  It was fun but very crowded.  I can't imagine what it will be like during tourist season!

The market was just like you would imagine, busy, packed with stuff, tons of fruits and veggies, amazing cheese... but, there was no furniture.  We were hoping to run across some old Parisian chairs as we have been sitting on the floor for 3 weeks and counting.  Here are some shots of our favorite things... Jeri at the olde butcher shop, then ordering cheese, and me with my favorite sweets table.







Jeri did happen to find an awesome Mexican restaurant, so we ducked in from the rain and enjoyed a beer and a plate of nachos.  Isn't this the second time we have had nachos since we have been here?  





We ended the day by purchasing an awesome little sound system for our "reception" room.  Jeri  hooked up the whole thing, like a pro, in less than ten minutes!  It is amazing... we finally have music in the house.  We have been living in silence, so this is such a treat.  We listened to music all evening, cooked an amazing cannelini bean and carrot soup with fresh thyme and coriander (thanks Aim and Col for the recipe!), and we read travel magazines, researching for our upcoming trips.  It was pure bliss.

To conclude, we leave you with our favorite find of the day:




More to come...

Amy

Calendar

We just added a master calendar to our blog!

Let us know the potential dates of your visit, and we will add them here.  We want to be sure your guest suite is prepared...

Saturday, 27 March 2010

Happy Birthday Sean!

Yesterday was Sean's 25th birthday - HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!  It seems like yesterday that we were celebrating your 21st in Las Vegas!  Now the clock begins to speed up, I know it's hard to imagine, but trust me. When I got home last night Amy reminded me that it was her Uncle Jeff's birthday as well.  He was her Mother's brother and they were all very close.  He died when he was 40 but they all have very fond memories of him.  I thought it was pretty cool that Sean and Uncle Jeff share a special bday - both very special men.

Off to Portobello Road! :)

Friday, 26 March 2010

Week Three- At Home


March 26, 2010

It is Friday afternoon and I am waiting patiently for Jeri to return home from Germany.  She had her first official business trip as Regional Director of the European, Middle East and South African territories.  She left for Frankfurt on Wednesday, attended a conference all day Thursday (after getting no sleep on a twin bed that was hard as a rock), and made calls to clients this morning.  She is working harder than ever, and I know this was a busy, exhausting trip.  I am so glad she will be back home tonight-- an extended foot rub is in her future.

While she was away, I was able to accomplish quite a few tasks on our to-do list. In fact, I am currently observing a contractor work on repairing a couple windows that would not open in our house.  It seems that each day we have someone new coming to look at windows, deliver a television, turn on our phone, install a dish on our roof, deliver dry-cleaning, repair a gate, replace the stovetop (‘hob’ as they call it here), inspect our clothes for an insurance claim, etc. etc.

To make it fun, I set a personal goal of what I wanted to accomplish while she was away, and if I checked everything off, I would reward myself with a treat.  (Surprisingly enough, the reward was not a bag of candy).  Rather, I got a haircut this morning.  It was great to check so many things off of our list so that we can enjoy our weekend together, and the new ‘do’ will be a fun surprise for Jeri when she returns home:)  It is quite a bit different… a funky, European-like bob.  I also was able to participate in another indulgent treat and do a Pilates workout on Thursday with the owner of the Pilates studio down the street.  It felt great to be on the reformer again!  It is practically like having the equipment in our house…

As Jeri mentioned in her post, our air shipment arrived soaking wet, so at this point we are anxiously awaiting the arrival of our clothes in order to assess the damage.  I was busy re-folding clothes all week, and organizing our closets and drawers.  I also passed the time by vacuuming, twice.  Jeri bought me an awesome gift:  the pet-hair dyson!  I am smitten.  I have included some fun photos of our special delivery for your viewing pleasure...

Here we have a damp box, a dry spot, and a few bags of laundry...

I am looking forward to going to the antique market in Notting Hill this weekend.   Also, Jeri surprised me with a trip to Amsterdam in 2 weeks.  We are leaving on Friday April 9th, and will be there for 5 nights.  I am so excited!  We are staying in an exquisite hotel that happens to be in the book “1,000 Places to See Before You Die.”  It is such a treat!

Truly, this journey with Jeri is such a treat.

Amy

Happy Birthday, Uncle Jeff!


Week Three- Jeri in Germany

Wednesday, March 24

I’m on a flight to Frankfurt, Germany – my first official “business trip”.  I’ll attend a conference all day Thursday and make client calls on Friday.  I’ve finally felt that I’m getting my head above water (just barely) in terms of wrapping everything up in the States so I can focus on clients here.  Still quite a lot to do personally back at home – the house isn’t rented yet, although there are several people apparently interested.  It will be a big relief to have that done.

We’re finding out the “client service” difficulties of the UK…getting a phone line, internet service and cable has been challenging to say the least.  Setting up a bank account seems virtually impossible.  Slowly we’re getting everything in place.

I’ve been walking to work pretty frequently, it’s about a 40 minute walk through Chelsea, down Sloane Street, past Harvey Nichols, past Green Park and along Piccadilly down to Regent Street.  It’s a great walk with high end boutique shopping, great parks, loads of people and beautiful buildings to keep me occupied.  Once we get more settled I will run in and work out at the LA Fitness in the base of our building in the mornings and walk home at night. 

Amy’s been working hard at getting us settled in and into a routine, which has been awesome.  She walks me home from work sometimes and we always have nice, relaxing evenings together.  She’s making lots of different soups that are incredible!  We’ve learned to love beet root salad and make it often for dinner.  The kitchen is small so it limits our ability to get overly creative, but so far keeping it simple has been great.



We haven’t had a TV until yesterday.  So now we have a TV and a bed. J  Our air shipment arrived Saturday after having gone missing for 10 days.  It had been sitting in the Memphis airport in the rain, uncovered.  So we received 30+ wet corrugated boxes.  We had to go through everything to determine the damage.  We sent everything off to be cleaned and will have all our clothes back Friday to determine the damage.  Surprisingly, it has been easy to live on 1/10th of our wardrobe, shoes, dishes, etc.  We wonder where we’ll put everything when our big shipment (incl furniture) arrives in a month or so but I have t admit I’ll be happy to have a sofa!

Since I was sick the first weekend, last weekend was our first chance to get out and explore together.  It was a blast and the weather even cooperated.  We ended the weekend after walking all day Sunday by stopping into a local pub, QueensHead and having a couple beers (London Pride – yum!), veggie chili nachos and a great salad.  It was an unusual stop for us to make but after a day of walking and shopping was just what the doctor ordered.  Amy realized it was a gay men’s bar after we had been there for about 20 minutes…I was reluctant to admit it but after some observation realized that she was right.  I mean, what are the odds???? J

This coming weekend (I can’t wait!) we’re headed up to Notting Hill and Portabello Road, the antiques market mecca.  There are many things we still have to find…Costco, a yoga studio, good hummus, etc…but we’re feeling optimistic.

Amy’s starting work next week and is already making friends at the Pilates studio.  I’m excited for her and I think she’s going to have a lot of fun working down the street in the cool little studio above the art gallery.  She’s been a trooper and keeps my spirits up when I get the occasional thought of “what the hell was I thinking????” or the more common homesickness.

The civility of London is really amazing.  It’s a city larger than NY, but it operates in a completely different way.  The culture is very subdued, nice and calm.  Americans stand out because they’re often (unknowingly) loud, boisterous, animated and inconsiderate.  It really is true.  I’ve seen a few instances on the bus and at the coffee shop that made me realize why we’re perceived the way we are.  I’ve noticed becoming more aware of the cadence of my speech, the tone and the volume – just based on it being so conspicuous if I don’t.  People’s interactions here, for better or worse, are more civilized.  There seems to be a natural inclination towards diversity of thought and lifestyle and it’s demonstrated in people’s willingness to listen and look at things from a different perspective.  It’s not a subtle difference, it’s actually quite profound.

Religion (again, for better or worse) isn’t at the heart of things like politics or interpersonal relationships.  People embrace differing opinions and make no judgement based on any of it.  Politics are heated here, but the debates are civilized and seemingly based on issues, rather that political parties denoted by values deemed “religious” and therefore better.  No one has the higher moral ground and people see one another on a much more even playing field it seems.

There are social differentiators, I mean you should the cars in this city!  The people who have money here have LOADS of money.  Bentley’s, Ferrari’s, Jaguars, Mercedes, BMW are the cars of the day.  Flat black paint is the new “it”- it does look pretty gritty and cool I have to admit.  People are well put together, the men dress equally as esquisitely as the women and seem to enjoy their interactions with one another more.  They’re just more present, all the time.  I remember noticing that when I travelled to Italy on vacation but it’s weird to live it…I mean it’s great, it’s just an interesting observation.

Getting close to landing.  Mom, Jan and Jamie lived in Frankfurt with my dad in the 60’s so I’m going to call Mom when I land to find out where and see if I can find their old place.  That’s the adventure on this trip.

Oh, and I have managed to find my way to the “loo” at work, finally.

Jeri

Week Two


Friday, March 19

It’s 5:00 on Friday and the week is over….thank goodness!  We’re at the Starbucks a block from our house (the only place we can get internet access for another couple weeks) working on some of my homework from Boston University.  Amy’s my tutor. J

Our air shipment is finally in the UK and will be delivered to the house tomorrow morning.  Amy had to visit the home store nearby a few times in order to get some basics while we waited for our things, but generally speaking we’ve done fine. 

Work is a bit foreign.  Although I’m part of and resprenting the same business unit, the industry is much different here – it’s definitely a tougher gig, but that’s ok.   

Our neighborhood is fabulous and our place is great.  I’ve learned, with Amy’s help, to manage the bus system, the tube and find my way to work if I want to walk.  In fact, walking at times is faster based on the traffic – it really is a great city for walking. 

We’ve been looking for gyms that suit us and have decided that the one near my office is best. 

Our big news today is that Amy is going to be working at a very nice Pilates studio a half a block down our street.  She’s excited and they are even more excited to have her!  She’ll work a few days a week in the mornings.

We also planned our first trip to Amsterdam April 9-14.  I have to be there for 2 days on business so I thought it would be a good time for us to explore the area.  This gives us a few weeks to research our trip and decide what to do.  I believe THE tulip festival will be occurring while we’re there, which will be awesome.

The weather’s been like Seattle, clear and cold – until today – drizzly…just like Seattle. J 

Everyone has been very friendly here, no exceptions. 

Jeri 

Week One

We have officially been living in London for 1 week.  All in all it has been a smooth transition, and we are continuing to feel more at home each day. 
Jeri has been working hard, and had many late nights last week meeting with the Senior Leadership Team.  The exhaustion of moving did catch up with her, and by Friday she was bedded down with the stomach flu.  My poor sweet girl could barely move.  It broke my heart to see her so ill.  In an effort to find medicine and to combat the dehydration, I cried to exactly two store clerks, and one “chemist.”  Everyone was so nice to help me get her what she needed.  The people here really are quite friendly and helpful.  There is a certain air of ease and patience with which they go about their business.  This is beneficial, I have discovered, when you spill your change purse in the grocery store line and 3 people stroll over to help. Of course the patience must be learned, as we have also discovered when trying to set up a home phone line only to learn that it takes 3 weeks for an engineer to come to the house to set up.
We spent our first weekend sleeping off the illness and exhaustion (I am so glad she is better!), and by Sunday were able to get out for a meandering walk through our new neighborhood.  The weather has been wonderful, and we do like our home.  That being said, I am about to have it out with the washing machine. 
We are surprised to find how little we actually need to get by.  We have the essentials… a bed, two towels, a couple pairs of pants, toiletries, a few pieces of silverware, spices, two mugs, peanut butter from the states, and a coffeepot.  Our air shipment containing a few more essentials has been delayed (by ten days so far), but it has been refreshing to live with only what we need.  Consumption is innately less all the way around.  I walk to the grocery store almost daily ( I LOVE that!) and buy just enough for the next meal.
Things are indeed progressing, and we are looking forward to the reprieve this upcoming weekend.  (As it turns out, I may be able to start teaching Pilates soon, and Jeri is working harder than ever.)  It will be lovely to explore the city, eat lunch in the park, scope out a few antique markets, and perhaps take in a show.

Amy

On the Plane

March 6, 2010

The last few days have been a big blur of trying to fit in all the goodbyes (or see ya’s), packing up the majority of the house and desperately hoping that our visa’s and passports would arrive before our scheduled flight departure.

After relocating our Kiki (I miss her so much I can’t even talk about it yet), seeing our family’s as much as possible, welcoming a new baby nephew, celebrating both our Mom’s birthdays, wrapping up our current work responsibilities, seeing our dear friends and trying to not let the stress get to us…we are frazzled and completely exhausted.   

So now here we are an hour into our British Air flight to London.  Not for a visit but to live for at least the next 10 mths.  We arrived at the Seatac airport in true American fashion, 2 separate cars (Amy’s Mom & Dad, and Erin, Halvard & Henrick) and 14 bags to check.  One of our bags was 22 lbs over the limit so we had to move brown sugar (literally), pans and utensils to a previously packed backpack, increasing our bag count to 15.  This was fun.



I just made our first toast to “the adventure of a lifetime with the love of my life”.  I’m so lucky to be doing this with Amy.  She keeps me grounded, sane and happy.  After the last couple weeks of utter madness it is nice to sit back, relax and enjoy the 9 hr flight.  Or so we thought….Amy’s seat has no power.  So…no reading light, no reclining and no privacy screen.  She’s already drafted a complaint letter that will surely get us a response.  

The process of moving to a foreign country has so far allowed us to discover many ways that we work well together and other areas where our differences “compliment” one another.  We’re both misers.  We agreed that we would ship over essentials like paper towels, toilet paper, lentils, etc in order to avoid having to buy them there.  You’d think we were starving students, I guess with the cost of living in London we may very well be.  Amy’s high point was discovering that London has a Costco (now we just need to befriend someone with a large car).  On the other hand I am a “big picture” thinker (confident that we have plenty of time to pack up the few remaining things at the house) while Amy concerns herself with the minutia (“I mean is it really necessary to start packing a whole week in advance???” I asked many times last week. “Can’t we just go out for a run and pack later?”).  Needless to say we never would have made the flight if it had been left up to me….or gotten our bags packed….or gotten our visa’s on time.  We’re a good team. J

We’re most excited about all the visitors we’ll be having.  So far we have Mary coming in May; Jamie, Shell, Reed and Madi in June; Erin in July, Melissa and Joni in July; Sean and JR possibly in August; Shannon, Adam, Elizabeth and Theo in August; Barbara and John in September….party on!  We’re still working on a few others like Jan and Vince (London is SOOOO much more fun than Africa!); Kerry and Jim; Kim and Hunter.

Work will be busy for me, but I am excited about the new challenge.  Amy can travel with me when it makes sense and we can plan some pretty neat weekend trips.  We are considering a yoga retreat in Italy at the end of July and a cooking excursion in the south of France.  It sounds so elaborate but from London is so easy and inexpensive.

Jeri