Happy Holidays! GUEST BLOGGERS!!!!!

The Next Chapters of our Lives Blog has been hacked by three friendly 'yanks' from across the pond.  Dee Dee, Jason and Shaun have been here for the holidays with The Robinsons, and we are ready to spill all!  Okay, you actually don't get all of the dirt, but all of the papers here are quite 'sensationalised', so we thought we would hook you with a cheeky headline!

After cancelled and delayed flights, the Yankee Threesome finally arrived at Kelvin Grove for a fantastic holiday abroad with best friends.  For starters, upon a late arrival, Dee Dee and Jason's bags were thrown into the flat and everyone went off for a surprise Christmas Eve dinner at Oriental Fusion, where the menu had been hand chosen by their gracious hosts for the occasion.

Saturday 25, December 2010 (Christmas!)

‘They never left the flat that day….’ All met the morning with a traditional English Breakfast of ‘rashers’, mushrooms, beans, eggs, and potato cakes courtesy of Chef Jon and his lovely ‘Foxy’ partner, Miss Deb.

The stockings that had been hung by the faux chimneys with care, were ravaged with peals of childless care. Followed by, what would be only the beginning of MUCH frivolity. A mystery gift of an Hour with The Bean had us strangely curious….  For dinner, none other than a traditional Dickensian Roast goose ...

...with wild rice and chestnut stuffing was served with ‘mashers’ and enough food to, well, “stuff a goose!”  Okay…no laughter there, is there?... and now….. HEEERE'sss Dee Dee!

Whoo hoo! My turn! And so off we go to Bromley on Boxing Day to go shopping!!!! Oh yeah, there were pubs and eating, too.

Monday 27th we spent with the Crown Jewels at the Tower of London after a warm-up at the Horniman pub on the Thames.

After we rescued Shaun from the dungeon for ‘goosing’ a guard, dinner was spent at… wait for it….another pub.

This one was the Dartmouth Arms, where I had baked Camembert (OMG Yummy) and the carnivores feasted on venison chili.

Tuesday revealed the mystery of The Bean… a tour of the old Capitol Theatre and its’ resident ghosts by the local expert on this art deco structure from the past! FASCINATING!

Wednesday double header – I’ll leave the first adventure to Jason, but the afternoon saw us at the Dominion Theatre in the West End seeing We Will Rock You… the Queen Musical!

 Rocked, rocked, rocked!!!! But before that (enter Jason….)

“The game was afoot!”… Mrs. Hudson, Watson, Holmes. It was amazing. This was truly something for a Sherlock aficionado or anyone interested in Victorian times…

Thursday we ventured to the Borough Market to pick up noshing items for a get-together in Camden with some associates of Jon’s, and now our new London ‘mates’. Wild Boar Pate, cheeses, breads…

 ...we are really feeling like we actually live here, shopping, partying, riding trains, Tubes, and buses like native Brits!

Well, its New Year’s Eve here, and Deb has just filled us with the most bestest spaghetti ever.  Have no idea how we will get the dessert into our bellies... or how we will ever make it until midnight! You all will be celebrating tomorrow as we travel back across The Pond. What an amazing trip we’ve had, with the best hosts ever! Can’t wait to come back when there is a potential for sun, but at least the snow melted and many, many good times were had by all.

From the Clan, we are wishing you all a happy and prosperous 2011!

Dee Dee, Jason, Shaun, Deb and Jon

What's on Page 11 This Week? - Part 2

Well, the papers have been most interesting since our last similar post.  Below are the top three more recent and most amusing factoids we’ve learned from our Daily Metro and the Evening Standard.  Though not all have appeared specifically on page 11, as we read them, we must constantly remind ourselves that these items deserve column space on some level…

Vultures in Germany have lost their Freedom of Choice.  At a zoo in Germany where the zookeepers are of free spirit and believers in equality, two gay male vultures have been sharing the same exhibit for quite some time.  Getting ahold of this information, animal rights activists concerned about the extinction of vultures took action.  They orchestrated a legal mandate that the two boys be separated and forced to live and pro-create with female vultures.  The zookeepers had no choice but to acquiesce.

Get your free AK47s here.  A truck dealership in Florida held a promotion where any patron buying a new truck would receive a free semi-automatic weapon.  The proprietor assured that the proper waiting period and paperwork were involved with each weapon; he also reported that his sales increased 600% during the promotion…

Emma Thompson’s mother might be a witch!  How do we know this?  There are gargoyles and gnomes to prove it.  A couple of years ago, someone stole her two gargoyles from her front garden.  To deal with her loss and frustration, she posted a sign in the garden: “To the thief who took my cute little gargoyles – a curse on your house!”  Just recently, the two gargoyles magically returned to the front garden and were delivered with a note attached: “Please lift the curse, my life has been a living hell for the last two years.”  Grateful to have her “babies” back, she posted a new sign: “All curses lifted and garden order restored.”  Well, no one knows what exactly befell the thief over the 24 month period, but the rumors of bona fide witchcraft were afoot.  We learned about this only because one day last week, her garden made the news again when someone came in and smashed one of her garden gnomes, leaving small piles of colored ceramics where the gnome once stood.   The papers are now concerned for the well-being of the gnome smasher…

Our First Christmas Market – a Day Trip to France

A German tradition at Christmastime is to have a Christmas Market in the town square, where local artisans, restaurants, and pubs put up booths to display, cook, and/or serve their wares.  Over time, this tradition has made its way through most of Europe.  The closest such market to us in London is in Lille, France.  Fortunately, Lille is just “across the channel.”  So, we decided to make the journey.  We booked a Coach to pick us up in London, cross the channel, and drive us to Lille.  You can take Eurostar and get there in less than 90 minutes, but it is cost-prohibitive if you don’t book way in advance; we booked 4 days ahead of travel day.

So Friday night arrives and we know we need to turn in early because our Coach is to pick us up at 6:11 a.m.  Then about 7:00 p.m. Friday night we get a call from the tour company to tell us they don’t have enough bookings for a full coach (we assumed everyone is wealthy and took Eurostar) – they asked if it was OK to go in a passenger van instead of a coach.  We thought, “Why not? So long as we get there.”  No problem, but the pickup time now has to be 5:40 a.m.  Our first bus from the flat to get to the pickup point is at 5:06, so all will work out perfectly.  Which it did.  We got to the pickup point at 5:30 a.m. and we were off to France at 5:40.  One more stop at Maidstone on the way to Dover and then to Dover to catch the ferry.  Ferry is a bit of a misnomer – it is indeed a ferry, because it holds cars and trucks and such, but inside it is like a mini-cruise ship.  It has multiple restaurants and bars, two sets of on-board shops (duty free of course), a host of lounges, and a bank.

The crossing is 90 minutes from port to port (Dover to Calais). The departure was beautiful and we sang The White Cliffs of Dover (actually, no singing since we don’t know the lyrics, but we pretended).  The cliffs were beautiful. 

On board, we had coffees and some crisps (potato chips) and we exchanged our money into Euros at the bank.  We roamed about the ship and before we knew it we were in France!  We stopped just after the port at the city of Calais to go to the Pidou Superstore – the BevMo of France, but with unbelievable prices.  We bought a half-case of French Red Wine (which we have since sampled – it is delicious!).  Back into the passenger van to head to Lille.  At this point, we were getting pretty cold through and through as the van had minimal heat other than the body heat from the 14 passengers (which was ok for the first 2 hours, but not so much any more).

Arriving in Lille, we alight at the entrance to the Christmas Market

and we have 4 hours to play.  At the market, we went through all of the booths, bought some gifts and even selected our special Europe Stockings for Christmas at the flat (Debbie’s is in French even, Jon’s has Santas on Skis…).  We partook in one of our favourite things to do in France, eating Crepes while roaming about.  Debbie had her traditional Crepe avec sucre and Jon his Crepe avec chocolat.  They were made, as usual, right in front of us:

And they were delicious!

The Market turned out to be smaller than we anticipated but it was still very cool.  The whole town of Lille was decorated beautifully, complete with Ferris Wheel, giant tree, and a little Christmas Village.

We wandered all over Lille, and stopped for an amazing lunch at a local French restaurant.  Debbie’s Mussels were particularly good:

BEFORE

AFTER

All of the passengers made it back to the van right on time, so we had about 30 minutes to spare in our journey back to the ferry.  So, get this, we went to Belgium! Our third country in one day.  We stopped for only about 20 minutes, but it was long enough to put our feet to the ground in a new country and, of course, to buy Belgian Chocolates.

In the line waiting for the ferry, cold again (argh), we hear the fan belt starting to make that squealing noise that fan belts make when they are about to snap.  It is snowing like crazy and we are unsure whether the van will make it back to London.  Things were looking grim.

Our driver called to two coaches from the same tour company (that were returning from Bruges and Paris and were scheduled for the same ferry we were) – his goal to find out if they had extra room.  Wahoo – they had room for all 14 of us!  So we switched to the Bruges Coach and immediately we knew why they had called the night before to ask if a Passenger Van was ok (note to selves: when asked this question the next time, the answer is “no, that is not alright”).  The Bruges coach was fully heated, had very comfy seats (close to plush but not quite) and television screens and leg room.  We watched half of Avatar  on our return to London.  The Coach is definitely how the other half lives.

The Ferry crossing back in the snow was unreal – weird to see it snowing on what feels like the open sea, it was almost Titanicesque…

Arriving at our bus stop (the originating pickup point) at 11:00 p.m. we were grateful for a wonderful day and that we can be in three countries in the same day – amazing.  We stopped for hot chocolate at the local mart and almost missed our last bus home, but we made it.  It was a great start to the holiday season.

Hoping your holidays are enriching and more importantly, warm,
--Deb and Jon in South London

Christmas Adventure

Today I went Christmas shopping at a new venue.  I've tried alot of the shopping areas close to the flat but I set out on an adventure today.  I wasn't disappointed.  It only took one train from Sydenham to London Bridge, a tube ride on the Northern Line to Bank, a change to the Central Line of about 10 or so stops and then 3 blocks of walking in the freezing cold.  In Los Angeles we have a beautiful mall called Westfield Topanga.  In London I found out they have a Westfield mall also.  It is the biggest mall in Europe.  Whoopee.  Anyway, back to my trek.  I arrived at my tube stop.  Here is a picture of it.

Seriously, that is the name of the stop.
Anyway, the mall was beautiful and very high end, glitzy and pricey.  I could'nt even afford to window shop in some areas.  However, I managed to find some fun Christmas gifts for our friends that are coming here for the holidays.  Be afraid, be very afraid.  Just kidding, you'll love them.  Anyway here is a picture of the dining area on the top floor.

So, after a successful shopping trip I decided to retrace my route back to Sydenham.  I went back to White City......hee hee.....anyway.....got on what I thought was the right train and waited, and waited and waited.
Come to find out that the train I was on had terminated at White City.  I got back out on the platform and two German tourists asked me if this was the right platform for Shephard's Bush.  I told them I thought that it was but that the train wasn't going anywhere.  Another gentleman overheard us and pointed us to the correct platform.  The Germans and I get on and the train starts moving.  All is well........then the train stops in total darkness......I said to the Germans...."Well, I don't think this is your stop!"......Train starts moving and ends up in Shephards Bush.  Yeah.  Finally retraced my route and made it back to the flat.  Another adventure ends. Hope you are having many Christmas adventures.....much love.......Deb and Jon

My first Snow Day

Ok, so when I woke up this morning it was snowing. Very exciting. I have never lived in a place that snowed before. Jon was born and raised in Colorado and always spoke of how he wanted to move back there because he loved the snow. I would tell him......send me a postcard. Now, we are living in London, and South of the Thames, where it doesn't snow as much.....supposedly. Anyhoo....beautiful this morning, took lots of pictures and then showered and decided to brave the elements and go down to the cafe to hook up to the internet. It is even snowing more heavily now and I'm pretty much over it. Without having all the bells and whistles to connect here, check out the pictures on facebook. Keep in mind, those pictures are when it wasn't snowing as heavily and when I thought it was pretty. Is it spring yet?

Happy Thanksgiving or as they say in England "Oh, look it's Thursday".

As I sit in the cafe, wishing we had internet, I am reminded of all that I'm thankful for.
My health.....which is crap right now.....horrible cold.
My family.....who are a million miles away and one of them (Nikki) has a broken foot!
My friends....who also wish we had internet so that we can video skype.
My puppies...I wish I could scratch Annie's belly and smell Lucy's bad breath.
So.....Virgin Media, who had 3 weeks to get a permit called us late Monday night and said they would have to reschedule from Tuesday to sometime later in the week. ARRGH! But to quote our friend Shaun.."Since Thanksgiving is just a Thursday here, maybe we can hope for a Thanksgiving Miracle." Fingers crossed.
Seriously, and with all the love in my heart, I (we) wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving and know that we are thankful for each and everyone of you.
Deb & Jon

The Lord Mayor’s Show

Every year since the mid 1300’s, London has had a Lord Mayor’s Show.  “What kind of show is that?” and “Who/What is a Lord Mayor?” are the questions you are probably asking now.  Well, read on…The Lord Mayor is the Mayor of London.  He/She serves a one-year term and is inducted to the position on the second Saturday in November every year.  Before the induction, there is a big “show” which is actually a parade.  The parade starts at 11:00 a.m. and goes from Mansion House (the Mayor’s home) and proceeds to Victoria Embankment on the Thames.   At 13:00 (that’s 1:00 p.m. for you non-military and non-European types), the parade makes an encore performance going the other way (from Victoria to Mansion house).

Polling current London citizens, we learned that only about 1/3 of them even know what The Lord Mayor’s Show is.  Shocking!  As was true when we were in LA, we do things that are here and the locals have never heard of it or have never participated.  Also shocking!

A little history on The Lord Mayor’s Show – it has occurred every year for the last 650+ years with only two exceptions: The funeral of The Duke of Wellington and The Black Death.  There’s nothing like a Black Death to rain on your parade, n’est ce pas?  Also, the Lord Mayor travels the parade route in the original coach used in the 1300’s – it is like a Cinderella coach.  He is accompanied by his chaplain and two stewards.  The photograph below shows the coach and his chaplain from this year’s parade.

You will notice the chaplain is wearing his proper white curls!  We tried to get a photo of the Lord Mayor himself, but we were foiled by the camera gods that day and weren’t able to grab a snapshot (so much for our careers as Paparazzi).

We went to the show via train and tube, getting out at the Bank station.  There were thousands of people there, but Debbie snagged a great spot on the side of a big financial building on Cheapside Street (we don’t make these names up, really!).  It is peculiar to have a slew of banks located on Cheapside Street, isn’t it?  Oddly enough, the return route goes down a different street, called Poultry.  No “street” or “road” in that one, just Poultry.  We stopped near 1 Poultry before we went to Starbuck’s after the parade.  To prove it, we grabbed a snapshot of the building at 1 Poultry so you would believe us.

After the parade, we had a whirlwind of fun getting to a tube stop because they had suspended service on the Northern Line – reasons unknown (well, explained to us, but still unknown because the TFL worker was speaking very quickly).  Our stop, which was “5 minutes away” took us 25 minutes to get to, but we finally made it.  Then we had a yummy dinner of Steak and Kidney Pie and Chicken and Vegetable Pie – very English indeed!

We still can’t tell you the Mayor’s name (without looking it up), though we can tell you that the weekend before, we celebrated another Englishman, Guy Fawkes. But that is another story which we will post soon with pictures. 

With warmest wishes that your next party is not cancelled due to The Black Death,

Deb and Jon in South London

What's on Page 11 This Week?

The London commute is unlike most any other.  Add to that the Londoners' love for the daily newspapers and advertisers need to get the word out and you end up with a free newspaper every morning and every evening.  They hand out the papers at all of the Tube stops and Train stations.  Roughly 3 out of every 5 people take one of the papers to read on the train.

The morning paper is called Metro and the evening paper, oddly enough, is called The Evening Standard.  Each is full of interesting articles covering business, world news, entertainment, style/fashion, and US Politics.  As now avid readers of these free papers, we've come across an interesting phenomenon from the Metro (a bit more "cheeky" paper than The Evening Standard) - there is almost always a story you wouldn't believe was in print or couldn't believe is factual.  And it usually appears on Page 11.  Since we will be reading these papers every day for the foreseeable future, we've decided that What's on Page 11 This Week? will likely be a recurring post on the blog.

4 highlights from this week, ranked in the order of peculiarity and interest:

4. From page 11 on 11-Nov-2010:  You actually cannot get Cancer from a toilet seat.  This and several other urban myths were dispelled in this article, most of which were backed up by a government funded research project.

3. From page 11 on 10-Nov-2010: Not an odd one, but of interest to some - There is going to be a new television series that is actually an old series.  That's right British comedy fans, Absolutely Fabulous is going to start taping new episodes again in the spring.  If you've never heard of this show, then this will mean little to you!

2. From page 11 on 9-Nov-2010: A woman in Lewisham was grossly overcharged for her produce at a local grocery store (one called The Cooperative).  She only had about £2 worth of produce and was charged over £7.  In and of itself, this is uninteresting, but read on...in the supermarkets here, the cashiers do not stand at the register as they do in the US.  They sit in comfortable swivel-style office chairs (actually this is true in most of Europe).  At any rate, the cashier in question was nuzzled into her little cashier's space and began weighing the customer veggies - the whole time unaware that her large breasts were resting on the scale and causing the veggies to be overweighed.  The customer asked the manager what was wrong with the prices and the manager replied (and this is a quote from the newspaper) "It appears the cashier's boob was resting on the scale."  That's right, this is news in the Metro, at least on page 11!

1. From page 11 also on 9-Nov-2010 (a banner day!): this one is best started with the printed headline: Cricket's Balls are Biggest on Earth.  Seeing this, one would assume it is a sports-related story about the size of the balls used to play Cricket, a popular British sport.  NOPE.  This was actually a story about the Bush Cricket (one of the chirping kinds) and its Testicles!  According to the article, the Bush Cricket's testicles comprise 14% of it's body weight - making its balls the biggest on earth relative to the animals size.  Interestingly enough, this apparently shattered the previous record of 10.6% held by some beetle from Africa. 

So that's the news this week from Page 11,
Deb and Jon in South London

Deb's Journey to Ikea and I mean Journey...

So what does one do when it is pouring rain and you are bored to tears.....that's right you go shopping.  I knew that the closest IKEA store was about an hour away, but it was in a different direction than I had been before on the buses. First the "197" which was packed, and then you connect with a tram, then you walk.  OK, not so interesting, but what happened on the bus was quite amusing.

After a number of stops on the bus, I was starting to get antsy, fearing I'd miss the tram and be stuck in B.F. Egypt in the rain.  Apparantly I was fidgety.  A lady behind me said "Excuse me, where are you headed?"  I said "The East Croydon Tram stop."  She said, "Oh , that is the next stop, you're ok."  Then, as if rehearsed, the rest of the ladies on the bus said in sequence........Take the tram, marked Wimbledon.......It's on Track 3....Going to Ikea then?......(head nod from me).....another lady......take the Amberly exit.....We all started laughing and I waved my hand around the whole of the bus and said....."Thank you Bus"!  I love it people are so friendly here. 

Did my shopping at Ikea, wine glasses, we now have six, two coffee cups and some candles and decided I needed to eat before my next tram, bus ride home.  I went up to the IKEA cafe and had some of their famous meatballs and berries. There were two older ladies sitting at the table and we struck up a conversation.....mainly because I have a very strange accent....and we visited for about 45 minutes or so.
They were very interested in America's politics and why on earth we would leave Los Angeles for England.  They said they see we did not bring the weather with us.....I apologized.

So all in all, a good day, wet, but worth the trip.

P.S.  Just so you know, the blogging is a blast but don't think for a moment that I am not homesick and miss you all terribly.
Much love,
Deb

Dial W for "Yes"!

So, Jon got his new company phone this week - A Blackberry Bold 9700 with all the bells and whistles.  We had already secured a temporary phone last week for Debbie so that we had a UK phone number.  Debbie's phone is a Nokia-cheapo Model.  Jon tried a test text to Debbie on Thursday night, which she received on the 202 (Bus) returning from Blackheath.  The Nokia-cheapo does not have a QWERTY keyboard, so it is frustrating at best to type a text message.  The text exchange that ensued is below:

From Jon to Debbie:  Testing...do u receive this text?
From Debbie to Jon:  Roommate
From Debbie to Jon:  Hi
From Debbie to Jon:  Hi
From Debbie to Jon:  Lloyd's
From Jon to Debbie:  Leaving shortly, I'll call you later from the train station

Later that night, Jon finally figured out how to turn off the "smart typing" feature (where it figures out what you are trying to type instead of sending what you type)...or so he thought...

Day 2 of texting in England:

From Jon to Debbie:  Will you be near the phone at 3:00 p.m.?  I am asking a y/n quetsion so your phone doesn't thwart you.  If I get a Y from you I will call at 3. ok?
From Debbie to Jon:  www
From Jon to Debbie:  It sent me "www" - I will assume that is "Y"...
From Debbie to Jon:  W

So "W" is yes until tomorrow when we get Debbie a "big girl" phone (or what the English would call a "proper" phone).

Cheers!
Deb and Jon in South London

First Official Pub Crawl

We went to Central London so Debbie could introduce herself at the Soho Theatre where she had applied for a job while we were still in L.A.  The position was for a Writer's Assistant.  After 4 flights of stairs and an oxygen tank later she met one of the producers she had sent her information to.  Good news......interviews hadn't started yet......Bad news.....over 500 people applied for the two positions.
We took the "DLR".....(don't know what that stands for but we assume it is for some sort of light rail) to Lewisham, which is the county seat for the borough that we live in. It's a little rough around the edges but we visited the mall . Poundland and the 99p store are located there.......that's right, nothing too good for us! Anyway, in the center of the mall they were holding auditions for "Annie" with hundred of little girls singing "Tomorrow".  We listened to the first ten or so then decided we'd rather shop at Poundland.....didn't care if the sun came out tomorrow.
There was a great Farmer's Market going on outside and we chose a local cafe for lunch.  Jon had a "so-so" cheeseburger and Debbie had the lambchops and chips.  She expected maybe two lambchops but got five rather tough ones instead.  She asked Jon to put his foot on them so she could cut through them.We were the youngest and most mobile people in the cafe.....but on a sad and rather sweet note.....there was a lady who was elderly and had lost one of her friends that morning.  She was with her son and as she feebly stood up to leave, she fixed the collar on her son's coat.  Love between a mother and child is ageless.
That evening we decided to go to a pub in Forest Hill which is a city close to us and turns out we like that area alot.  It is by the overground train station that we use.  The name of the pub is "The Hob" Very quaint and popular.  It had a sixties band playing that night and we met the female singer's best friend, Sonia, who joined us at our table.  She is a curator at a Museum in London's Financial District.  She told us of an event coming up in November where the oviginal Mayor of London's Coach will pull the new Mayor by horses.  Everyone will be in Medieval dress, except for Sonia.  She said noone has asked her to do so yet and she is not going to say anything.  I think we'll go, sounds like fun.
So.........2 and 1/2 pints of Kronenberg for Debbie and 3 1/2 pints for Jon, we walked around the corner to Pizza Hut and ordered a pizza to "take-away".  We ate at the bus stop, on the bus, and on the way up the hill to the flat.  Finished our midnight dinner and passed out.

By the way, we figured out the boiler and we now have heat in our HOME for the first time in two years.
One last note of interest.  Saturday morning we took the bus into a town called Bromley, where they have a very nice mall, similar to the one in Topanga (L.A.) and it rained on and off.  At one point, when the rained stopped, we heard very cool jazz music.  Turns out, in the town square there were dancers doing the jive and they even have a web site. http://www.surreyjive.co.uk/  so apparently the sun did come out tomorrow.
Cheers,
Deb and Jon

Quickie Recipe inspired by a UK commercial for Philadelphia Cream Cheese

Kelvin Grove Chicken

Chicken Thighs (6) skinned, deboned and cut-up
1 red bell pepper - sliced
1 green bell pepper - sliced
1 small yellow onion - diced
4 large mushrooms - sliced
cooked rice
Garlice sauce
1 heaping tablespoon Philadelphia cream cheese
1 heaping tablespoon butter

Prepare rice, simmer till done.  Meanwhile, slice and dice then saute chicken in butter.  Add remaining ingrediants.  Saute until done. Add garlic sauce and cream cheese.

Spices used:  black pepper, salt, red crushed chili peppers, garlic powder and mixed herbs.
If you don't have Mowry's Garlic Sauce, use mayonaise and crushed minced garlic.

Put rice in a bowl, add chicken mixture to the top.  Yummy.

Cheers !

Calve's Liver and Knuckle of Lamb + Don't Touch Me on the Inside

Wednesday evening, 28 October 2010 - we got the bed all set up and then tried to conquer the heating problem.  The way boilers work here is that the boiler for hot water is the same boiler as the one used for heat.  Each room has a radiator that is activated by the boiler.  If you run the hot water, the heat turns off.  Well, to make a very long story short - we tried everything imaginable to get the heat to come on to no avail.  Without a mobile phone number and no Internet access, we had to wait till morning to ask Natalie the Landlord how to make it warm in the house.  So, we decided to go out to dinner at the pub.

Turns out the two pubs closest to our flat do not serve food, only booze (how very English of them).  On the heels of that discovery, we found our local Italian restaurant, That's Amore.  We met one of the owners, Gianni the Musician (the other owner, Bruno the Cook, was in the kitchen), who plays piano and sings on the weekends and waits tables and tends bar during the week.  The dinner was delicious, with Debbie especially enjoying her plate of Calve's Liver sauteed in butter and sage.  Jon tried it and didn't immediately vomit, so it was a good sign that it was good liver.  Debbie absolutely loved it.  Jon the daring ordered Spaghetti.  Upon departure, Debbie received kisses on both cheeks from Gianni and we promised to return.

Back to the flat, which was quickly becoming known as 12B Freeze-your-ass-off Road.  We tried for another hour to get the heat to work to no avail.  After a bit more unpacking, Debbie donned her flannel pajamas and Jon dressed like Nanuk of the North 2 layers deep (apparently you can take the Colorado out of the boy).  A new anecdote surfaced - Jon's hands were very very cold, so he tried to tuck them into Debbie's flannel pajamas.  This was not a good plan.  Debbie jumped and said "Don't touch me on the inside!".  We laughed for a while at that one as we drifted off into sleep.  We slept quite warmly in our new bedding.  In fact, we slept for 10 hours straight - our first night in an actual bed in 10 days.

Day 2 started with a trip into the center of London to meet Jon's bosses for a welcome-to-England lunch.  We ate at Daphne's, a great Greek restaurant, in Camden, where Jon's office is located.  Debbie took Amos the Boss's recommendation and order the Knuckle of Lamb.  According to Debbie, it was the most tender and delicious lamb ever served.  Adventurous Jon had the Chicken.

The next several hours were filled with two critical activities - getting a phone number and a bank account.  We had been told that you can't just walk into a bank in England and open an account. We, in disbelief, set out to prove everyone wrong.  Success!  We have a bank account now.  It has a balance of £0 while we wait for a wire transfer to make it across the pond...we also have a phone number.  The way it works is tricky: to get a bank account you have to have a phone number, to get a phone number you have to have a bank account.  Catch 22, eh?  So, we slept with the Bank Manager.

We got our appointment to get Broadband and Television in the flat - first available installation date is 23 November!  So, we can only blog and check e-mails when we find a WiFi hot spot (just noting this so you don't think we are unresponsive).  During all of the banking, phone, and broadband activities, we learned from Natalie the Landlord that we were doing everything right for the heat, but you sometimes have to try it a couple of times to get it to kick on.  We were inspired and hopeful that night 2 would be heat filled.  We stopped off at the store on the way home and got some yummy 3-bean spicy soup and rolls and had our first dinner at home. 

Turning in for the night, Jon suited up in the Nanuk outfit again (that's right, the heat was still not working and it was down to about 50 degrees [Fahrenheit] in the flat).  With Jon being sure not to touch Debbie on the inside, we put on a CD and shivered off to sleep.

The first 38 hours in England have been different, unusual, amusing, and sometimes frustrating (mostly the heater), but worth the wait!

Hoping to blog from a heated point of view soon,
Deb & Jon in South London

Stanley, Nigel, and Sudha - The First 8 Hours

First and foremost, we made it safely to England.  We hope to update this blog regularly now, starting with this entry, our second installment.  Upon arrival at Heathrow, step 1 was the UK Border Agent.  He started quite stoic with "What is the purpose of your visit?".  We said excitedly "We are moving here."  He answered with "Oh why?" (in a very sarcastic "what the hell are you thinking" kind of voice).  We told him about the job transfer and that we would be living in Sydenham.  He said "Sydenham! You mean where they post all the yellow street signs to announce the daily murders?".  We decided he was basing his opinion on Sydenham of 10 years ago (when it was more like a den of iniquity) as opposed to the charming and safe area it is now.  We never caught his name, so we decided to call him Stanley Penderfoldhamshire, the Border Agent.

After a problem with Jon's fingerprints (right thumb...fidn't dit...right index finger...fidn't dit...left index finger...fid dit!), we were on our way to baggage claim to collect our life stored in 6 very heavy checked bags.  All 6 bags arrived safely and fit snugly onto two rolling carts after we borrowed a crane to lift them off the baggage carousel.  Then out to the arrivals area to meet our car service.  While waiting for the car (problems because the flight was three hours late arriving), we grabbed some coffees and tried to maneuver the carts and coffees.  This did not go well as we were on an apparent double-sided incline where Debbie's cart rolled out into one street and I couldn't stop it because I was chasing my cart down as it rolled the other direction towards the other street.  Coffee went all over the bags but we met a nice English chap (who we now call Nigel the Helpful) as he maneuvered Debbie's cart back onto the sidewalk.

Sudha the Driver (this is an actual name, not one we made up) managed to pack all 6 bags + 4 carry-ons into his small minivan with room for us too.  This was no small feat as he was a smaller man, probably weighing less than at least two of the bags.  A quick stop at the letting agent to get the keys and we were at the flat.  Sudha unpacked the car and saw the tiny stairwell up which the bags needed to be moved.  He refused to let us do it alone, so he helped carry the bags all the way into the flat.  We love the British sense of propriety when it comes to opportunities to be helpful.

So, there we were in the flat.  We had officially become UK Residents.  Congratulations to us for making it through the 4-month process of getting here.  Then, it appeared we had no sheets or pillows so a trip to the store was in order.  Bus #356 was the answer.  The bus stop is about 200 yards from the flat and the bus drops you at the front door of possibly the biggest Sainsbury's in all of London.  We were golden!  Armed with our Trader Joe's and Conduct Happiness canvas and reusable bags, the first shopping trip began. 

Leaving Sainsbury's, we were loaded with bags and had to figure out how to get it all on the bus - 4 pillows, complete bed set, a wok, groceries, and a duvet; 3 bags each + the backpack filled with milk and soda jugs. we made it on the #356 and got back to the flat, tired but with the prospect of a sheeted and pillowed bed.  We noticed that it was rather cold in the flat...more on that in our next posting...

Till then,
Deb & Jon in South London

Planes, Trains, Taxis, The Tube, Overground trains and my aching feet!

We just returned from house (flat) hunting in South London.  What a rollercoaster ride it was.  We were successful though. With only a day and a half to search, we ended up in South London, due mostly to a co-worker of Jon's that said "Give South London a try.  You and Debbie are more South Londeners than North Londoners".  He was right.  We focused on North London because that is where Jon will be working, but South London is more suburban and the people are just more friendly.  We settled on Sydenham which is a charming town and near other very quaint towns like Forest Hill and Crystal Palace.  We got the lay of the land which included a number of pubs and met our local flower lady "Angie".  Apparantly some of the events for the 2012 Olympics will be held in that area.
We will be posting blogs all about our new lives in London, the walks that we take, the people we meet and anything else that might be interesting to you.  If you have ever received one of our Christmas letters, you know what I mean.