Working For The Weekend

Finally...our first weekend after my first week back at work was here and...IT WAS AWESOME!  I don’t know if it was because I had worked all week and rediscovered new appreciation for the weekend or if it was just really an awesome weekend all the way around...maybe both!

Sadly, I can’t remember how we kicked off the weekend on Friday night, but I’m pretty sure covering Saturday and Sunday will still make for an interesting and sizable post.

On Saturday we got up and went for a run down by the river (the Thames) which takes you by Big Ben and Parliament, Westminster Abbey and the London Eye. It’s really amazing how “in the middle of it all” we live! Then we got some breakfast as we headed back towards home.  Our first traditional English breakfast consisting of beans, toast, eggs, sausages and a rasher of bacon. According to Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacon  a rasher of bacon is one serving of bacon. Check out the link to learn more than you ever needed to know about bacon.  Then before returning home we went to check out the discount ticket booth to see what was on and discounted for the day.  Chicago (with America Ferrara a.k.a Ugly Betty) was discounted at 50% off and there were 12^th row center seats available for the Saturday 3 PM matinee.  We bought the tickets and went home. 

After doing a little cleaning, we got ready to go out for the day.  We finally dropped off the two second hand suitcases I had purchased for our move to London at a local charity shop about a half mile from our flat.  It was good to get them out of the way since they were kind of bulky and we didn’t have sufficient closet space to “hide” them.  Then we grabbed some lunch at Belgo Centraal and went to the show.  The show was great.  America did a fantastic job and our seats could not have been better. 

Saturday evening we took it pretty easy.  We walked to another part of town, called Fitzrovia, that we had not spent much time in but liked during our flat hunting visit in September.    We also stopped by our local TK Maxx to look for sport coats for Mo.  TK Maxx is the UK’s TJ Maxx and they are virtually identical except UK/European brands versus US brands.  We had success and scored two very reasonably priced sport coats for Mo.

Sunday we had some unusually pretty weather for November.  Since it was so nice we headed out early to a place called Spitalfields Market.  Markets are huge here on the weekend and it seems Sunday in particular.  Spitalfields is an indoor market with shops, stalls and restaurants.  Many design students sell their wares at Spitalfields.  A couple of streets over on Brick Lane is an outdoor market.  The market is largely stalls selling prepared foods with a few stalls, much like a flea market, selling used and new goods.  We started our time on Brick Lane with a bagel from the famous Brick Lane Beigel Bake.  We stayed long enough to share a couple of other items from the food stalls for lunch.  Brick Lane has definitely become a favorite for Sundays.

After returning home Mo researched and found a sports bar that was playing the Falcons game.  It was not an easy feat as only some of the football games are shown by the networks in the UK and the Falcons game was not one of them that weekend.  Mo found an online forum about American football which eventually led us to the sports bar that was playing the game.  We spent the evening watching the game and met some local Atlanta Falcons fans. More on our American football experiences and friends will be the subject of a later post. It was a great way to end a fun weekend.

Erica goes back to work

Back to life, back to re-al-ity! If there were a musical aspect to this blog, that would be the tune for this post.

After leaving my job in Atlanta in mid-September it was time to return to work. My first day was Monday, November 7th and I reported to a conference center about a mile from our flat. I was supposed to bring proof of my right to work in the UK which included my National Insurance number, a utility bill with my London address on it, and my passport and UK visa. Even though I had it all laid out on the table, ready to go, I managed to forget my passport and visa. I got to the conference center and got in line to check in and show my documentation and realized I had forgotten it.

After talking with an HR representative, we decided I should return home to retrieve the documentation because the training was not set to begin for another half hour. I decided to walk home as quickly as possible. After taking the tube to the conference center that morning, I realized it didn’t actually save any time and only added to the expense. I wasn’t thinking about it, but I was wearing a new pair of shoes I hadn’t yet broken in. By the time I got home, I had blisters on the back of my heels. I put some bandages on my heels, changed shoes, grabbed my passport and began the walk back. Needless to say, even though it was a cool day, by the time I made it back to the conference center, with documents in hand, I was perspiring. After supplying proper documentation to HR, I was escorted into the training session that had already begun.

There were a little over 100 people participating in the training as it was for all experienced hires working for the UK firm regardless of what office they would be working in on an ongoing basis. The remainder of the day and Tuesday was spent hearing about the firm, meeting a handful of folks that had also joined, and listening to some lectures. Both days were pretty uneventful once the paperwork was sorted out.

Just before lunch on Tuesday some general announcements were made and my name was called. I was told in front of 100 of my colleagues that there was a problem with the picture taken for my ID badge on the first day and that I would have to wait for Office Security to email me when it was ready. Great...I broke the camera!!! Moments later at lunch one of the folks I was sitting with commented on how she held her breath when they made the announcement about the ID badge, hoping hers was not the name they called. Lucky me...at least I am remembered!

The third day of training was a little more role specific and was held in one of the buildings on the London Campus.Yes, it’s a campus here, made up of 5 buildings. They named it the London Campus, not me. It was another day of lots of lectures and various informational sessions.

Christmas tree in the square of the "London Campus"

On Thursday, I reported to my office and my group for the first time. I spent most of the day meeting everyone and trying to remember their names and faces. I also got started on all of the new hire computer based trainings that I would need to complete in my first 30 days of joining. Everyone was really nice and welcoming. Upon entering the office I was surprised by the office set up. Everyone, with the exception of the equity partners, sits at a desk in a long row of desks. I’ll let you be the judge of it, but it kind of reminds me of what I think a call center would look like. In the US, since entering the workforce, I’ve more or less always participated in the “workplace of the future” or “open workspace” or whatever you want to call it, but the UK takes it to a whole other level. There really is no privacy whatsoever.

The row of desks where my desk is

The area of the office where the group I am part of sits.  There are approximately 35 of us.

Friday I got to work to discover that Friday is a casual day in the office. One of my colleagues is known to call it “Refugee Friday” because he thinks everyone dresses sloppily. I have to admit that casual here is a lot more casual than casual in the US, at least in the professional environment, but I will gladly accept the opportunity to wear jeans to work one day each week.

My desk

Since my first week, I’ve observed many cultural differences in the work environment. The most notable are:

• Titles and office hierarchy are strictly observed. Groups of each classification of staff take tea/coffee breaks together and go to lunch together, but there’s no crossover. At the time I joined the firm there were 5 managers. 4 were women and one a man. In December, 3 of the female managers left the firm. Basically my tea break/lunch crew is now non-existent. It’s really interesting to me because though I typically ate lunch with a colleague in Atlanta that was the same staff classification as me, I also had lunch with folks in all different staff classes and never thought anything of it. The only time I’ve experienced crossover in the UK is when we go out for a team wide lunch. This is definitely not a written rule, just a social norm that I’ve observed in the short time I’ve been working here. Mo tells me it’s basically the same in his workplace.

I’ll leave you with that to ponder. I’m sure I will have updates and new observations over the coming months and I will share them as they come.

Amsterdam

Prior to my first week of work, Mo and I went to Amsterdam for a long weekend.  The primary purpose of the trip was to meet up with our friend, Kristie, on her journey back to Atlanta after having been in Africa for a month.  We arrived in Amsterdam on Friday around midday and checked in to the hotel before venturing to the city center for a little sightseeing.  We spent most of the first day, walking around the city and getting a feel for things.  The weather was pleasant and Amsterdam is a beautiful city with all of its canals. 

While wandering around we looked for a cafe off the beaten path for lunch.  Time flew and we still hadn’t found a place so around three in the afternoon we settled on a ham and cheese toastie at one of the many cafes.  It was late enough in the day that lunch was no longer being served, so we had to make do with snacks that were offered any time of day.  Whether it was just the hunger or the beautiful surroundings, I’m not sure, but it was delicious! 

We continued our wandering since we were waiting for Kristie to arrive on Saturday before doing any real sightseeing.  The two main places I wanted to see were The Anne Frank House and the Van Gogh museum.  Of course no trip to Amsterdam is complete without a stroll through the Red Light District, which we did Friday evening before returning to the hotel.  I had never questioned why it was called the Red Light District but it became quite evident that it’s because there are windows lined with florescent red lights where the women stand advertising their services.  Well after we returned from this trip a friend told me about a tour she did while visiting Amsterdam alone.  Of course she wanted to check out the Red Light District but didn’t want to do it alone so she signed up for a tour guided by an American woman that has been living in Amsterdam for years.  Based upon her recommendation, next time we go to Amsterdam, that tour is definitely on the agenda because it sounds like such a unique way to explore that area of the city and I’m sure the commentary would be very interesting and entertaining. 

Communication with Kristie was extremely limited due to the fact that she did not have a mobile device and had spent the prior day in transit.  For this reason she ended up at the central train station in Amsterdam rather than the one close to our hotel.  Mo and I expected her to arrive at the hotel around 10 or 11 AM depending on how long immigration and customs took.  When we hadn’t heard from her we walked to the train station around noon.  After hanging out there for a while we decided to walk back to the hotel in the event that she decided to take a taxi instead of the train.  Again some more waiting and then finally we saw her walking towards us from a distance.  That crazy girl walked all the way from the central train station to the hotel.  It took her about 2 hours!  She didn’t mean too, but she got to the point that she was so far in she didn’t want to turn back.  Taxis were not abundant in Amsterdam so she was never able to flag one down.

Once she finally arrived she went to the room to drop off her bags, changed clothes and freshened up before we headed to the city center again.  We started off by eating lunch.  We were all very hungry...of course Kristie was probably the only one with the right to be so hungry after that walk!  Then we headed to The Anne Frank House.  The line was so long and since we had not purchased tickets in advance we decided to nix that idea.  Kristie had toured The Anne Frank House and the Van Gogh Museum on a previous visit so we decided to just hang out, enjoy the city, and save those sights for another visit. 

Kristie had a month’s worth of time and a lifetime worth of experiences to tell us about so that pretty much kept our day occupied.  We had a really nice dinner somewhere in Amsterdam, I can’t remember exactly where.  The restaurant went to great lengths to accommodate us and the food was exceptional.  Having had a day full of stories and a very satisfying meal, we went back to the hotel for a good night’s sleep.  Kristie’s flight back to the US and ours back to the UK were within a couple of hours of one another.  So we got up and went to breakfast in the hotel and then we all boarded the train to the airport. 

Saying goodbye was really hard that morning.  Kristie had already left for Africa when we moved to London so I was able to put that goodbye off until Amsterdam.  We had a great time with Kristie and I know Mo and I will go back to Amsterdam in the next couple of years to make sure we experience all that it has to offer, but this trip was really just about having a beautiful backdrop for spending time with a very dear friend.

IKEA Adventures

DISCLAIMER:  This post may be extremely boring to many and it’s the most lengthy to date, but IKEA was a major undertaking (you will see why) and so I wanted to make sure I captured the whole experience in an effort to keep our online journal complete and also serve as a reminder that I never want to do this again!!!

Our flat in London came with all basic furnishings and to be quite honest we probably didn’t need to add anything to it when it came to furniture, but in order to make things seem a bit more cozy and a little less basic we planned to supplement the furnishings that were provided with a few things from Ikea.  In addition to the supplemental furnishings, we also needed items like plates, cups, pots and pans, a television, artwork or other wall hangings to make our flat seem a little more homey.  We figured from all the money we saved not shipping anything over from the US we had a little extra to spend to make it seem more like home.  With that said, we kept to a pretty strict budget. 

Prior to my first trip to IKEA, on the Thursday after we returned from Madrid, I took measurements of each of the rooms that we wanted to add items to and compiled a list of items we needed, or wanted eventually, as well as a list of “must haves” for the first Ikea outing.  My plan was to use the first trip as a scouting adventure both for the items we might want to purchase as well as figuring out the best way to get to and from the nearest Ikea.

The trip to IKEA was quite a journey.  It takes between 45 minutes and an hour from our flat to get to the closest IKEA and involves tube rides on two different lines as well as a bus ride to the actual store.  Also, because many of the tube stations are being upgraded prior to the Olympic Games in 2012, many of the stations, including one used during the Ikea journey, do not currently have working escalators, so that meant a lot of stairs in that particular station. 

When I eventually arrived at Ikea around midday it was drizzling and I discovered that there was a massive Tesco across the street.  Tesco is a retail store here in the UK that’s about as close as you can get to a super Wal-mart or super Target.  They sell electronics, clothing and groceries among other things.  They also have smaller outlets all over town called Tesco Metro and Tesco Express.  Tesco Metro is our closest grocery store and the one that we frequent most often.  I did not take a look around the giant Tesco that day, but just made a mental note that it was there for any future visits.

So back to IKEA.  I spent a pretty decent amount of time, probably around two hours, walking around IKEA, looking at the furnishings, taking notes on my favourites and testing some of the items out.  Of course no trip to IKEA is complete without a walk through the marketplace.  And besides that’s where most of my “must haves” were found.  The “must haves” consisted of:

·         Laundry drying rack

·         Clothes hangers

·         Toilet paper holder

·         Pillows (up until this point we were sleeping on the throw pillows that came with the sofa)

There may have been a couple of more items here or there, but these were the most important.  It doesn’t sound like I had that much stuff to take home, but the journey by bus and then two different tube lines was quite challenging and I was extremely relieved (and tired) by the time I made it back to our flat.  All in all, my first trip to IKEA was not bad, rain included.  The store was not too crowded, the lines were not too long and the actual journey to and from was pretty easy and uneventful.

The following day, Friday, I spent all day unpacking, cleaning and in between I took breaks to do some more IKEA Internet shopping and list making.  To make sure I made the most of our budget, I searched for the items we were looking for and sorted the list by price so that I could easily find the least expensive item that met our needs and our measurement restrictions.

Armed with our list, Mo and I set out for IKEA by mid-morning on Saturday. Prior to going to IKEA, we went over to the huge Tesco across the street and purchased a few electronics and other items that IKEA doesn’t sell.  We scheduled a television and an iron for home delivery and purchased a telephone and some bathmats and rugs for the kitchen which we carried along with us to IKEA--thank goodness for shopping carts!  Keep in mind that the UK uses a different level of voltage for electronics so we needed items that would be compatible in the UK. 

For most of the furnishings we purchased at IKEA, I either knew in advance which ones we were going to purchase or had 2-3 options for Mo to add his input.  I’ll spare you all the details but Saturday was a long day. I think from leaving the flat until returning to the flat was 6+ hours.  By the time we made it to the checkout at IKEA we had one regular cart overflowing and one of the furniture carts overflowing.  After paying for our purchases, we got in the hour long line to schedule a home delivery.  To make things easy on us we planned to send all of our purchases by home delivery.  Remember we had Tesco purchases we were already carrying.  However, we found out when we got to the home delivery desk that IKEA would not send via home delivery anything they deemed fragile.  After standing in line for over an hour and making sure to read all signs posted about home delivery, none of which listed any restrictions for fragile items, I was furious to find out that we were going to have to carry some of the heaviest items back with us on the tube and bus rides. Namely an 18-piece ceramic plate/bowl set.  Not only was it upsetting but now I needed to repack and reorganize all of our purchases. IKEA’s customer service for home deliveries is seriously lacking at least at the Tottenham, London location.  I was furious enough that I just sorted out all of my stuff and repacked right on the floor in front of the home delivery desk.  We had to purchase two of the big blue IKEA bags to be able to make everything manageable enough to carry home.  These were in addition to 3 other reusable bags I brought along from home which were already partially filled with the Tesco purchases. I felt like I waited long enough so now they could wait for me.  I surely was not going to get back in THAT line!  Needless to say, with all of the heaviest items in tow, the journey back to our flat was not at all easy, but we did make it and I couldn’t have been happier that I would not need to make another journey like that one any time soon, and with any luck, ever.  Tesco and IKEA were both noticeably busier on the weekend, as expected.  I have a feeling that if we had gone a little earlier in the morning it wouldn’t have been so bad, but it just wasn’t possible.

Since that fateful day, I have made 2 more solo trips to IKEA.  The first was a few days after to return 3 small organizational baskets that didn’t quite fit in our TV stand. This time I went during a weekday because I knew the store wouldn’t be as busy and since I still wasn’t working yet, there was no reason not to.  I also picked up a few decorative items like plants, candles and some frames. Again it was an easy trip but the bags were heavy because of the candles so I was glad to get home.

The 4^th trip was around mid-December and I went to pick up a few more frames and some additional coffee mugs.  You would not believe how we go through coffee mugs while living in this tea-drinking culture!  I had previously purchased 6 of each of the glasses, plates, bowls and mugs and everything except the coffee mugs seems to be just the right amount for our ¾ size dishwasher.  But now after adding two more, we seem to have found the balance. I made this most recent trip on a Saturday, but I made sure to go early so it wasn’t bad at all.  I believe I arrived just a few minutes after opening and therefore didn’t have to deal with any lines or crowds of people.   

I’m glad to say that my IKEA adventures have come to an end.  Any future outings to IKEA will be the normal kind where I browse a little, maybe pick up a small item or two, but more or less just for fun. One of my friends here in London has requested to come along on the next one...but no telling when that will be...I think I’ve had enough for now!

Madrid

Mo had meetings in Madrid on Monday and Tuesday following the big move, so since I had not started my job yet, I tagged along.  For Mo, the majority of the trip was spent working but we did get to do some exploring on Sunday before work began on Monday.  We landed in Madrid around noon and made it to our hotel in the city center around 1:30 in the afternoon Madrid time.  After checking in and freshening up, we met up with Mo’s boss at a cafe at one of the many plazas in town.  I cannot remember which one though. From there we went to Plaza Mayor and had lunch.  There was a really funny “fat Spiderman” street performer that Mo’s boss remembered from a previous visit.  Check him out here https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=124418097599213. After our late lunch we walked around town a little and when we got tired we would stop at one of the many cafes to rest our feet from the walking.  That evening we shared some traditional Spanish tapas.  The favourite among the group was the grilled octopus.  Probably not my favourite because it was very salty.  Though Sunday was a long day due to the early flight, it flew by. 

Monday it rained all day which deterred me from much sightseeing.  I did manage to go out for a couple of hours and walk around and grab some lunch, but ultimately ended up going back to the hotel and settling in to the hotel with my book.  That evening we met up with Mo’s boss for dinner at a restaurant we all really enjoyed.    I even ended up going back there on Tuesday for lunch!

Tuesday was a much more pleasant day weather-wise.  I slept in and when I got up, in lieu of going to the gym, I decided to go out for a jog/walk to get an idea of the area of town we had not walked around on Sunday. After returning to the hotel for a shower I set out to do a little window shopping and then I walked to the Grand Palace.  This is the only picture I took while we were in Madrid.  I promise to get better about the pictures. 

On Tuesday night I was on my own for dinner as Mo had a work function that evening.  I went out for a delicious cheeseburger at McDonald’s (I know, so lame, but it tasted just like it does at home) and retired early.  We had another very early flight on Wednesday morning to return to London.  I think we got up around 4 AM to make it to the airport in time for our 6:30 AM flight.

All in all it was a nice trip, however it would have been more enjoyable if Mo had not been working so much.  I suppose that’s why they call it a business trip though!  It’s definitely more fun to share new experiences with someone else.  With that said, we definitely need to go back and take in more of the sights.  I have a feeling we will go back a few times during the next few years, at least Mo is likely to for future business trips.  Also, I’m sure that the city is much more enjoyable when the weather cooperates!

Moving Day

The next several posts are going to be a bit of backtracking to catch us all up to date so that we'll have a complete set of experiences for our online journal!  Now travel with me back in time...

We left Atlanta on October 21^st and after the 8+ hour trip we landed at Heathrow airport in London with 8 suitcases!  To make things easy, we hired a private car to pick us up.  Typically we take the Heathrow Express or tube into London, but with 8 bags to manage we didn’t think that would be feasible.  We found our driver without too much trouble and he led us to our van.  The van was HUGE for just the two of us but I guess they were trying to make sure our 8 bags could be accommodated in the trunk.  We had not yet received the keys to our flat so we had to make a slight detour by the London Relocation office to pick up the keys.  Once we had the keys in hand we proceeded on to our flat in central London.  The whole process of getting the bags to the airport and from the airport to our flat was actually not very difficult thanks to good friends on the Atlanta end and the private car on the London end.  By this time it was about 2:30 PM or so. 

Once in our flat Mo took a short nap while I began unpacking and cleaning.  Even though we had been up all night with just some napping on the flight over I was feeling pretty awake and decided that I should make use of the energy I had.  Plus, I knew if I napped too much it would be difficult to get to sleep that evening. Even though the flat had been professionally cleaned, I prefer to know that rooms like the bathroom and kitchen really are clean.  I suppose it was more of a disinfecting wipe down rather than a full on cleaning. 

Late in the afternoon, we headed out and walked around a little trying to get a feel for the area since our visit to this particular area had been so brief when we went flat hunting.  Also during the unpacking, I realized that though I had planned to bring a set of towels, I had packed them away back in Atlanta instead of in the suitcases to go to London, so we knew we needed to go and buy some towels before the stores closed.  We tried a number of stores and I wasn’t really pleased with the quality for the price I was finding.  (Now that we’ve been in London a while I know exactly where to go to get good quality at a fair price, but that day it was like finding a needle in a haystack.)  We ended up settling on some pretty decent towels for an almost fair price and headed back to the flat.  That whole search took longer than I would like to admit. 

Around 7 PM we decided it was time to go get some dinner so that we could get home and pack for Madrid and get some decent sleep before our 8:20 AM Ryanair flight.  We went to a Thai restaurant close to home and after sitting and waiting for service for about 15 minutes, decided we didn't feel like waiting any longer.  By now I was starting to crash and I just knew that I couldn’t make it through a long dinner.  We decided to go get a quick bite at one of the sidewalk cafes in Leicester Square--a much better choice!  We probably ordered, ate and paid in 30 minutes or less and were headed back to the flat.  After packing for Madrid we set our alarm clock and settled in for a good night’s sleep.

It was a long day, but a good one.  One we won't soon forget which I'm sure will be a theme during our time in London!

Happy New Year!

Hoping you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year's.  We enjoyed a week full of spending time with family and friends in the US before returning to London to celebrate New Year's.  We kept it pretty low key with a few friends from Atlanta, currently living in London.  We all met up at our place followed by dinner at Spice Market and fireworks in Parliament Square by Big Ben.  It was quite a unique experience to ring in the new year with Big Ben's chimes. As you can see, the fireworks were also pretty spectacular.  Glad to have had the experience, it will certainly be a New Year's we will always remember!