9 Feb 06 In the neighbourhood
First off, we just got news our shipment from New York has arrived in London and cleared UK customs! Delivery is set for Tuesday morning 14 Feb, the same day as BT is scheduled to hook up our landline. All other connectivity is dependent on having that landline working… It will be really fun to unpack those personal things here on the other side of the Atlantic, and to be able to change up the wardrobe I’ve been wearing for nearly 2 months!
Exploring our neighbourhood has been great, though a decent-sized grocery store (Waitrose) is a bit further away than we’d like. Closer by we have a Sainsbury Local and a Tesco Metro, both of which offer a couple of cold cases more than your average convenience store. Finding other home basics nearby is also a challenge. In one direction is the City, where shops and restaurants close down early in the evening and at weekends altogether. Really the best direction to go is underground to the tube and into a different neighbourhood for that stuff.
We are located very near to three particular markets: Petticoat Lane Market, selling lots of clothing, shoes, baggage and bedding; Spitalfields Market has plenty of art, crafts, kitschy stuff and some food; Brick Lane Market, which I’ve mentioned before, is a mish-mash of all things.
There’s no shortage of wonderful arty cafes around to have coffee, lunch and relax. There’s Coffee @ Brick Lane, Rhythm (on Whitechapel) and my favourite, Root, which is just off Brick Lane at Truman Brewery. They’ve got lots of comfy couches, great (loud) music and use candlelight during the day. Perfect place to write or curl up with a book.
Also we can almost see the Whitechapel Art Gallery from our window which we plan to visit this coming weekend. I forgot to mention previously that most galleries and museums here have free admission, but have several boxes where you can make a donation. Those boxes are often stuffed with currency from all over zees great big world :O)
So I’m on the hunt now for a stick-vac which is the perfect way to clear dustbunnies off hardwood floors, but I’ve got no idea where to begin…
2 Feb 06 Moving in
I’m writing this in an internet cafe around the corner from our flat. We won’t have phone or internet access now until at least 14 Feb, as we’re having problems with BT. They’ve got a monopoly on phone service here, so there’s no way around the lengthy wait!
The flat is great though, very comfy, especially considering we have none of our personal stuff in it yet. There’s enough furniture included to make it an easy transition, but clothes are still in the suitcase! We have managed to set up a bank account at HSBC on only the second try, and we’ve got all the utility services happening too.
I had to go shopping yesterday for bedsheets, a duvet and some towels which turned into a saga since I had to drag it all back on the tube during rush hour! Add the fact I transferred at one point going the wrong direction and it was a total nightmare… at least we had a comfortable first night sleeping in the new flat. Most things work too! The water pressure is quite pathetic though, and we need some weather stripping around the front door.
Other than that, life won’t be too settled until mid-month. And I’ll be posting from down the street when I can.
2 Jan 06 First
We’ve arrived in London! On the first day of the first month of 2006, and at Toronto airport we were upgraded courtesy of British Airways to travel in the First Class cabin! What a fantastic New Year’s Eve gift that was… these seats normally cost above CDN $6000. At Toronto airport we waited in the BA World Club lounge where they served a buffet dinner that included sea bass. Had a drink of wine there and a coffee with liqueur - a fine way to relax while waiting for a boarding call. We boarded in the express line then met with our ’sleeper’ seats which extended to full beds for the trip. Service included a late dinner with champagne and an early breakfast with fresh fruit and croissants. We also made use of the personal DVD players - I watched the Skeleton Key, a voodoo thriller based in New Orleans starring Kate Hudson. The whole thing was unforgettable really, so big thanks to that sweet BA ticket agent at Pearson Airport!
Perhaps the best feature of the first class trip was receiving a ‘fast track’ immigration voucher which meant we spent only a few minutes at the customs counter at Heathrow, and our bags were the first spit out on the conveyor. Yeehah!
Warning to our future visitors - don’t take a taxi from Heathrow into central London as it will cost CDN $180. Not a cheap lift by any stretch. The express bus is considerably cheaper at about 15 bucks ;)
Yesterday was simply exhausting with the jetlag, and we took turns napping through the day. There was the New Years Day parade happening along Piccadilly, but we had no energy to enjoy it, unfortunately. We called it a night at about 10PM then slept through this morning until 11:30AM. That may have cured the lag though as today we felt quite normal.
Today we walked from our hotel near to Trafalgar Square over to Canary Wharf to meet a physics colleague of Matt’s. We thought it might be a neighbourhood where we would want to live but changed our minds when we discovered the area is very carefully guarded to deter terrorists. In the nineties there was an IRA bombing there. Also Canary Wharf is primarily a business/banking district with few services such as grocery stores. At night it’s deserted.
The walk along the Thames was lovely, and reminiscent of the seawall in Vancouver. We passed the Tower of London, London Bridge, Tower Bridge and saw the Tate Modern on the southside which is in a former industrial warehouse.
On our way back to the hotel we ate dinner on an outdoor patio in Covent Garden, a lively market area. The weather is mild, but not much sun to be seen so far. All in all we walked at least four hours today, which felt terrific after all the travel and sitting we did through the holidays.
And we feel quite like locals already! As we passed by the throng of tourists at the Tower of London we found ourselves trying to avoid them and maybe even cursed at a few ;) It’s such a bustling city though, and it doesn’t seem so foreign right off as we expected it might.
Tomorrow morning Matt starts work at 8:00AM, so it could be a challenge for him to wake up on time. I’ll start hunting down lettings agents looking for a flat, but other that that we feel quite at home and ready to immerse ourselves in this new adventure!
31 Dec 05 The Visa Report: Part Two and Farewell Ithaca!
The transit strike in New York City was an event extreme enough to cause a ripple effect for us in Ithaca, so I can only imagine the mental anguish it caused in the city!
Back to Tuesday afternoon - after our contact at the visa rush service crawled back out from her pit of dread, she phoned back to say she did, in fact, receive our applications and should be able to process them Wednesday. Total relief. We arranged to have our passports delivered to my dad’s place in Calgary so we wouldn’t have to stay an extra night in Ithaca just to wait for a FedEx package.
The movers finished loading boxes into the shipping crate in their truck. All but a few boxes fit in one crate, though I don’t know yet how many cubic feet it amounted to. My original estimate was 250 and I think in reality it was less…
Cleaned out the apartment in the evening then retired to our room at the fabulous Meadow Court Inn across from Wegman’s on route 13 for our final sleep in Ithaca! We dumbed down with our friend slash truckdriver Brad and watched multiple consecutive episodes of Dog the Bounty Hunter. If you don’t know the show, just go ahead and click the link - Dog’s cleaning up Hawaii one scumbag at a time :O)
Wednesday: After a last breakfast at the State Diner we packed the truck and met with the landlord for a walkthrough. Then confirmed with the visa rush service that our applications were filed with the British Consulate - woohoo! - and drove back to the home country without much fanfare.
Thursday: Mid-afternoon we checked our email and each received notice from the British Consulate that our visas had been APPROVED ! When we landed in Calgary later in the evening my dad greeted us with the Grand Poobah of FedEx packages, containing two passports beautified with lovely UK Visa stickers expiring in 2011.
JOY!
27 Dec 05 The Visa Report: Part One
Last week we got word Matt’s work permit was approved, but that was two thirds of the battle required to gain entrance to the UK. We had to receive approved visas in time for our departure from Toronto Dec 31.
Plans to file our visa applications in the US were too epic and dependent on magical forces to work I think - our tight schedule was supposed to go like this:
Monday: Receive overnight package from London containing original work permit and reference letters from Quantco. Repackage those documents along with other Very Important Papers, our passports and photos. Send package to a visa rush service, the one specified by Quantco’s immigration lawyer and the one he gave us the address for, in NYC via First Priority Overnight FedEx (to be delivered between 8:30 and 9:00 am Tuesday) so the applications would make the Tuesday morning submission deadline.
Tuesday: aka Moving Day and Apartment Cleaning Day. Applications should be filed at the UK embassy, ‘rubber-stamped’ APPROVED (fingers crossed) then returned to us via Priority Overnight FedEx (to be delivered before 10:30 am) so we could leave Ithaca directly after on Wednesday.
Wednesday: Load truck bound for Toronto, meet with Landlord for apartment inspection, receive package with approved visas and drive to Canada.
We knew the plan was ambitious and tight, but it was possible… We’d have FedEx on our side, having paid top-dollar, and the rush service was accustomed to pulling this off like every day. Not much could go wrong, we just had to go through the motions, quickly.
The Notsogood Backup Alternative Plan involved filing applications in Canada but, according to the immigration lawyer, required an in-person appointment in Ottawa. An appointment was booked for Dec. 30 just in case.
Here’s how it all played out:
Monday: I waited around home Monday morning for the delivery, keeping busy packing and sorting stuff. At 10:30am I heard a rustle at the door, flung it open expecting to see a man dressed in fancy courier colours but instead saw a neighbour - the unfriendly one. This morning she performed an act of kindness by bringing round the package which appeared at the wrong door at least an hour and a half earlier as indicated by the screaming orange superbold ‘9:00 AM’ sticker on it.
I tore open the package and sorted in the work permit and official letters with our applications and other Very Important Papers and hurried out the door to get to FedEx. As a sidenote, the ultra-competent US Postal Service is an agent for FedEx so first I considered sending the package from there. Instead I ventured several blocks further away on foot, toward FedEx/Kinkos thinking it was the more ‘official’ choice. As it turns out FedEx/Kinkos is a most absurd amalgamation of two companies with the result being more Kinkos, less FedEx, complete with apathetic service and confusing retail setup: the ‘Information’ counter had no body, nor did the ‘Shipping’ counter. Totally flustered, I flapped my wings and yelled “I NEED HELP” and just got laughed at. Still, the package eventually got sent and my faith was now in the hands of FedEx.
Tuesday: The movers did their thing at home while Matt tracked the FedEx package online. He sees an update at 11am: Package delivered to wrong address. Now we’re in a complete panic, believing our passports and Very VERY Important Papers are lost forever, having been delivered to some random NYC newsstand.
I frantically call the visa rush service to inquire whether they received the package.
Ring Ring
“Hello, Michelle speaking.”
“Hi, I’m checking in to see if you’ve received our applications.”
“No we haven’t received any deliveries because of the strike.”
“Oh-oh, our applications have been delivered to some wrong address and we don’t know what to do, we’ve got to find it, then get it to you. Oh my god.”
“It doesn’t matter because of the transit strike we can’t receive packages and the embassies are on strike so we don’t know when we can submit any applications.”
“Uhhh, what? Oookay, bye.”
I hung up and called FedEx. The CSR informed me the package was indeed delivered to the wrong address, which she gave me, and suggested I should try calling the visa rush service again.
All I could think was that we were screwed, that our crucial documents were in the hands of some random person on Fifth Avenue in midtown, in the hectic city of New York, which was in a state of mobile armageddon - a transit strike! That we would never locate this package and it would be impossible to leave for London on December 31st.
to be continued…
15 Dec 05 Lawn chairs
That’s what we’re sitting on… the canvas kind. They’re quite comfy and smell a bit like campfire! Nearly all our furniture is gone - sold or donated - but there’s still some to go. And we’ve still got to part with some perfectly great electronic things since they aren’t compatible for 220V.
Say hello to the new socket:
Random electronics remaining: Wahl hairclippers, popcorn popper, coffee maker, paper shredder.
Movers arrive in 5 sleeps.
We’re patiently awaiting the approved work permit and will immediately need to file visa applications using a rush service. Time’s getting tight!
7 Dec 05 Good signs from the moving company
Finally! After soliciting around 10 moving estimates and speaking with several CSRs over the phone, we’ve made our choice of movers. It helped to narrow down the selection only to companies with FIDI/FAIM certification.
I’m surprised by the uncertain feeling I got dealing with most of these companies, but pleased by my current state of knowing we’re in good hands with the movers we chose.
Clarity is a virtue.
Directly after giving these guys the go-ahead nod, I received by email a personalized moving package consisting of the following documents:
We’ll have door-to-door service which means they pack the boxes, wrap the furniture, load the truck, transport to port and do the reverse on the other side. And they deal with customs of course.
So the only real worry left is making more stuff vanish from our apartment before they show up.
22 Nov 05 Finding a mover
This is proving to be a bit of a chore. I found various companies that do overseas shipping via Moving Scam and OMNI (Overseas Moving Network), and filled out a schwack of online quote request forms. Only three companies have responded in the past two weeks, but I can’t seem to achieve further communication (by email) with these people.
And we move in four weeks.
I guess I’ll have to resort to picking up the phone - HAHA!
15 Nov 05 Expatriate
1. One who has taken up residence in a foreign country.
2. One who has renounced one’s native land.
The last thing I’ll do is renounce my native land! I’m Canadian through and through, but it’s time now to face reality: I’ll be living as an expatriate for many years to come. The past 18ish months living in the US has been fun and sometimes troubling (politics, ugh) and I’ve even adopted some American ways. For example, I don’t say ‘aboot’ anymore and I chuckle when my family and friends say it over the phone. Prior to moving here last year I firmly believed that Canadians saying ‘aboot’ was an idea not based in fact, that it was just a joke that drove me nuts everytime I heard it. But it is very very… REAL! Also in the US I think I’ve gotten used to having access to more and different ’stuff’. Which means I’m going to miss Target! And I’ll miss the option of taking a last-minute trip into NYC, a city I love.
Then there’s the stuff I won’t miss, like when you say “Thank You” to someone and they respond with a blunt “Uh huh.” It’s an expression that rings ungrateful for my display of gratitude :) I won’t miss seeing cops with machine guns on the street guarding subway stations (in NYC) but then again hmmm, maybe London’s got some of that. I won’t miss not being able to work!
So what’s weird is now that we’re moving to the UK from the US I’m feeling a bit like a double-expatriate, at least in the realm of the world wide web. I’ve been cruising expat websites looking for shipping advice, and the best stuff is available over at the UK Yankee forum: Americans from Florida and California and Wisconsin discussing the best way to get your personal possessions across the sea. It’s been very helpful. I felt a bit left out, being not American, so I surfed on over to the forums at Canuck Abroad and Canadian Expats in the UK. Then I REALLY felt left out since I’m not in Canada…
I’m thankful all these sites exist though, and there’s priceless advice to gather from people who have already moved to the UK. At UK Yankee they’ve created three helpful topics: Things about The UK you wish you had known; Things you wish you had brought with you and Things you SHOULDN’T have brought with you.
Who knew you couldn’t get proper deoderant over there?
Then I saw this quote from Bette Midler and got a bit worried:
“When it’s three o’clock in New York, it’s still 1938 in London.”
11 Nov 05 The Flat Hunt
It’s doubtful we’ll be able to find a good flat in London from way over here in NY state, USA. The good news is that QuantCo will set us up in an apartment/hotel for the month of January, giving us a chance to pick a neighbourhood and find a suitable place. It’s been helpful to peruse classifieds online but when I see something great it sucks because it’s too early and impossible to go view!
So a few flat-hunting things stand out as noteworthy:
1) It’s expensive! We’re hoping to get a 2-bedroom but it looks like we’ll likely have to settle for one. Either way we’ll be spending somewhere around £1000 per month.
2) Rent prices are quoted weekly. Eg. £250/week. Multiply that by 52 and divide that by 12 so you can see how much monthly rent will be (took me awhile to figure that one out ;)
3) Most places come fully furnished.
4) Council tax. Renters are obligated to pay this monthly. Property tax.
The best sites for listings appear to be Find a Property, Foxtons and of course Craigslist.
From what I understand London flats are generally quite small compared to apartments in North America. We’re used to having limited living space, but I hear doorways and stairwells and such are tiny. So yeah, that enormous sleigh bed just won’t fit (not that we’ve got one anyway).
GET FED: