India

We had already booked our tickets to the US for Christmas but I still had some unused vacation leftover.  So, I decided to go back to Mumbai for 6 days before our trip on December 22^nd to Atlanta. Since it’s only an 8 hour flight from London as opposed to an 18 hour flight from Atlanta I thought, why not? I was very excited about the Mumbai trip as this was the first time back to the place I grew up in over 2 years.  These days it’s just easier for my dad to come visit us now that he is retired.

It was great to see my dad at the airport although I whizzed through immigration and security and ended up waiting for him.  The 6 days went by super fast as they always do.  One whole day was spent visiting my relatives in the small village where my dad grew up and another half day was spent with my uncle outside of Mumbai. The rest was really good, quality time with my old man including spending time at the school where he volunteer teaches. It’s a street school for underprivileged yet, absolutely amazing kids.

Train ride on our way to visit relatives

I’m not sure if your parents are like mine, but to get my dad out to a somewhat decent restaurant is like pulling teeth.  It is just not in his DNA… but I somehow convinced him to go to a couple of places. I must also say that my dad is a really good cook and I really enjoy his food but it is nice sometimes to take in what Mumbai has to offer.  In this case some incredibly delicious seafood for a quarter of the cost in the US and UK.   

All in all it was a great trip and Mumbai never fails to serve as reality check on how fortunate I am.  It’s funny…growing up I never once batted an eye at the homeless, the stark poverty, or the struggles of average Joe to put food on the table.  It was just part of the world I lived in, but now that I get to see it from a different point of view (for better or for worse), it most certainly shakes me to my core and reminds me about the big bad world we live in.

Monte Carlo & Nice

We had a free night’s stay at any Starwood Resort property that was going to expire December 21^st if not used, so Mo did a little detective work to find out that there was a Starwood Resort property in Monte Carlo and we could get a cheap flight via Easy Jet to Nice which is about a 20 minute bus ride from Monte Carlo.

Mo’s detective work consisted of doing a flight search on www.skyscanner.net.  This website is a great tool for determining the cheapest flight from any of the London airports to anywhere that you can fly on a given weekend or other range of dates.  We routinely use it during the week to determine if there are any deals on destinations that we may want to visit for weekends when we don’t have other commitments.  So far we haven’t actually done a trip that last minute, but it’s only a matter of time, I hope!

As with most Easy Jet flights, the cheapest ones are either first thing in the morning or late at night so we decided to book for first thing Saturday morning.  Our flight was at 7:20 AM which meant we arrived in Nice around 9:30 which was 10:30 local time.  After taking a bus to Monte Carlo, we checked in to our hotel.  We were upgraded to an ocean side room which is a nice perk of being gold status with Starwood. 

We didn’t waste much time. After dropping our bags and picking up a map from the front desk, we began a leisurely walk towards the city center.  Our hotel was on a beach just outside of town, but Monte Carlo is not large (about 3 kilometers) so we were able to cover all of the areas of interest on foot.  Our first stop, and not too far from our hotel were  several fancy car showrooms including McLaren, Ferrari and Bentley.  After gawking at the fancy cars and taking a few touristy photos, we continued our walk. 

The next site worth noting was the McDonald’s Restaurant, which I have bestowed with the award for the McDonald’s with the best view.  Imagine looking out over the Mediterranean while you chow down on a Big Mac and fries...does it seem as funny to you as it did to me?  Needless to say this was one McDonald’s we had to visit during our short stay in Monte Carlo, so we had breakfast on the rooftop terrace overlooking the Mediterranean on Sunday morning.

Next we walked through the Christmas markets and began the steep climb (via very pedestrian friendly staircases built into the cliff) up to the Old Town where The Prince’s palace is located.  We wandered the quaint, winding, stone streets for about an hour or so and had lunch at one of several cafes.  We made our descent down a different pathway for variety and ended up by the Monte Carlo Yacht club.  I’ve never seen so many superyachts in one place.  We wandered a bit more including walking by the famous Monte Carlo Casino as well as the high-end retail district and made our way back to the hotel for a short, afternoon nap.

After our naps, we got ready for dinner.  We chose a place that the hotel recommended.  Both our dinner and the restaurant were very nice.  It was located across from the Art Center so they had a fair number of patrons having dinner before the night’s performance.  After dinner we walked back over to the Monte Carlo Casino to check it out.  They observe a dress code, which we knew, and since we were dressed for dinner we knew that we would not be refused entry.  But we were wrong!  We needed our passports in order to enter and had left those in our in-room safe at the hotel.  It was okay though because we debated whether or not to go in since the tables were likely to have high minimum bets and it was 10 Euro per person just to walk in and look around.

Instead we stood outside the front doors of the casino and took in the Christmas decorations and the fine automobiles that filled the casino’s parking area. 

Sunday morning, as I mentioned, we went to McDonald’s for breakfast.  After we got ready, packed up and checked out of the hotel, we decided to walk to the train station.  I was not at all prepared for the stairs.  We went up too many steep staircases to count and though it was a nice cool 60 degrees or so I was sweating profusely by the time we made it to the train station.  We took at train from Monte Carlo to Nice and the views were amazing.  On the train ride, we decided that we needed to come back and rent a villa for a week at some point.

Our time in Nice was really uneventful.  We had about 4-5 hours before we needed to be at the airport to catch our flight back to London. We stored our bags in luggage lockers at the train station and set out.  We had lunch and did a little window shopping.  There were lots of people shopping.  Besides being the weekend there were only about two weeks left until Christmas so that should explain the crowds.  We walked along the Mediterranean where there were Christmas trees for sale.  We had a coffee at one of the cafes directly across the street from the Mediterranean around sunset.    I have to say that thought both Monte Carlo and Nice have similar natural surroundings, I prefer Monte Carlo.  It seems more secluded, is cleaner and calmer. What a beautiful part of the world.  Too bad you have to be a millionaire many times over to be able to afford to live there.  It reminded me of the best parts of California and Florida combined and now I dream of retiring there!

Driving Miss Daisy

Since we live in the area of central London called The West End, which is home to London’s live theatre—much like Broadway in NYC, it’s quite easy to keep up with the shows that are coming and going at any point in time.  When we moved in October, I made a mental note that Driving Miss Daisy was playing, starring Vanessa Redgrave and James Earl Jones.  I decided that for the casting alone, this show was high on my list of ones to see.

In early December I saw an ad announcing the closing of the show on December 17^th.  Almost immediately I began monitoring the discount ticket booth (TKTS) to score discounted tickets before the show was gone.  One Thursday evening, I checked the listing online and discovered that tickets were available for half off.  I gave Mo a call and we agreed that if decent tickets were still available when I walked by the TKTS booth on my way home from work, we would go that night.  Fortunately there were tickets available and they were in the center section approximately 15 rows back from the stage.  Just before I made the purchase I was told that Vanessa Redgrave may or may not be performing the part of Miss Daisy that night and that it wouldn’t be determined until just before the show would begin at 7:30 PM.  I decided to go for it anyway and I’m glad I did.

The show was amazing.  It was such a neat experience to see Vanessa Redgrave and James Earl Jones together in a live performance. Our seats were amazing and Mo and I very much enjoyed it.  Unlike the other shows we have seen to date, it was not a musical.  The set was very simple and if anything that only made the performances stand out even more.  Yet another great theatre experience.  We are really getting spoiled living so close to so much live theatre...and the TKTS booth isn’t bad either!

Shakespeare's Globe Theatre Tour

With some regularity, when we don’t have any set plans for Saturday morning, we head over to Borough Market which is to the south of the city (and the Thames).  On this particular Saturday, that is what we did.  Borough Market is always fun to walk around, there are many interesting things to see, and delicious things to try.  The market was selling fresh Christmas trees and wreaths which were really pretty, however we didn’t purchase either since we would be spending the holidays in the US.  Side note:  I know it is possible to get a “normal” size (6-7 foot) Christmas tree in the UK because I have seen many that size or larger, however all of the markets that we saw around town selling them were selling the 3-4 foot variety.  It makes sense because many people have to carry their tree home on foot or via public transportation, but nevertheless an interesting observation. Also at Borough Market, of particular note, were freshly killed wild fowl such as pheasant and duck, available for purchase, intact with feathers and all.  I assume that they would prepare them for you, but I’m not really sure of that.  Perhaps you do that part at home.  At any rate, I was amused enough to take this picture.

After walking around the market a bit more it was time for lunch.  We settled on sandwiches of chicken (for me) and lamb (for Mo) that we ate amongst the other hungry market-goers in the neighboring church courtyard.  It was very cold and windy, so we ate quickly and got on our way.  We wandered along our usual path back to the Thames which we walk along on the south bank until it’s time to cross back over to get home.  On prior visits, we had seen Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre along this path and I had thought that it would be nice to visit.  Since we really didn’t have anywhere to be, we walked in and got information on the tour and decided to sign up.  There was an exhibit about theatre in Shakespeare’s day that you could peruse at your own speed, with a personal audio device, as you waited for the guided tour to begin.

The tour was really interesting and mainly touched on the 3 Globe Theatres that have stood in the immediate vicinity over the years. The original Globe stood just a few hundred yards from the current site.  The first was destroyed in a fire and subsequently rebuilt. The second, like all theatres, was closed under England’s Puritan administration in 1642.  It was demolished in 1644 to make room for tenements, as it was no longer of use.

The theatre is open-air so the theatre season is limited to the summer. This summer, in honor of the international guests that the city will host due to the 2012 Olympic Games, the theatre is putting on a production of all 37 of Shakespeare’s plays, each in a different language. I’m definitely planning to try to make it to one, as I think it would be a great way to experience the theatre. 

Barclay's ATP World Tour Finals

Most of my close friends know that growing up around tennis made me a pretty big fan of the sport.  However, I lost interest somewhere in my mid 20’s after my college tennis career was over and really didn’t follow the sport.  Then a man named Federer came around and changed the way the sport is played.  Though on the same court with his opponent, it seems like he is playing a different sport altogether.  Instantly I was a fan.  As John Keats said, “A thing of beauty is a joy forever”.  It became my goal to watch the genius live.  Since then I’ve made 4 US Opens but didn’t once manage to watch him, as he was always off on the day I had tickets.

The view from our seats

London hosts the Barclay’s ATP World Tour Finals which is the year end tournament for the top 8 tennis players of the world, and I knew Federer would be there.  I happened to get tickets for a Tuesday evening session, and although I made an educated guess, I still wasn’t sure who would play on Tuesday evening.  The lineup came out and it was Federer vs Nadal! The only thing better than the match-up would be for Federer to whoop up on Nadal.

I had a crazy day at work so we got there about 5 minutes after the match began.  The stadium was small and although we were in the nose bleed section it was amazing.  Both Erica and I are huge Federer fans  and to watch him live was incredible.  If it’s even possible, he looks more effortless live than he does on television.  Needless to say, he was on fire that day.  Nadal did have some health issues so he was not 100 percent, but I don’t think it would have mattered.  “Vintage Federer” was there and he put on a show.  Federer quickly won the match 6-3, 6-0, and Erica and I were probably the only two people in the stadium who didn’t mind the total beat down of his greatest nemesis.

Roger signing autographs after the big victory

After the match we both ran down to the lower level to try to catch a closer glimpse of Federer in person.   We were both so giddy from the win and the chance to get that close to the greatest tennis player of all time.  It was definitely one of the days I will never forget and one experience marked off of my bucket list.

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.