Can I please have a car to go grocery shopping?

As previously promised, here are a few more lifestyle adjustments we're learning to manage in London:

Challenge #3: Transportation

We currently don't have a car.  We will get one eventually.  Right now, we are just trying to get used to everyone driving on the wrong side of the road.  So here are our three current modes of transportation:

• The Tube/Subway - There is an Underground station a few blocks from our apartment which is very convenient.  Geoff takes the subway to work everyday which is great for him.  It gives him a little time everyday to read or do work while he's riding.  However,  I am not a big fan of the subway.  If I were childless, I would love the subway too.  But for Olivia and myself, it is challenging to use.  They certainly didn't build the stations to be small-child friendly.  They have lots of escalators and stairs to navigate.  If Olivia is in her stroller, then I have to get her out before we go up or down the stairs and carry the stroller.  The stations are busy with people and Olivia is little so sometimes I have to carry Olivia and the stroller at the same time up and down the stairs/escalator.  That's a lot to manage by myself.  Other times, we've tried to get around without bringing the stroller along at all and I've tried to make her walk, but again, she's little and there are so many people that I usually just end up carrying her.  But she's a growing girl and heavy!  So until she's able to walk more independently, she and I try to avoid using the subway unless Geoff is around to help us out.

• The Bus - Those famous double-decker red buses are everywhere around here.  London has a great bus system and we've started using it the few times we've ventured out of our neighborhood.  It's stroller friendly too!  Olivia is a slightly obsessed with buses, so she can't wait to get on to ride.  Her eyes are always so big taking it all in.

• Walking - This is currently our most popular transportation mode.  Olivia and I walk (let me clarify: I walk, she rides while I push her) everywhere every day.  We walk to the library.  We walk to the parks.  We walk to the grocery store.  We walk just for the sake of walking to get out of the apartment and explore the neighborhood.  Yep, we are certainly getting our exercise here!  Only downside so far is when it rains, which is does here frequently.  I have a cover for Olivia's stroller that helps keep her dry, but she doesn't like it because she can't see out of it very well when it's wet.  It's also very challenging to push a stroller one-handed with a 30-ish lb. kid it in while the other hand holds an umbrella trying to stay dry and do that at the same time as navigating narrow sidewalks with many people on them.  It is hard work and usually results in me just giving up on the umbrella and getting wet.  However, despite the rain, I do love the option of being able to walk.  In Houston, no one walks anywhere.  You get in your car and drive to go half a mile.  Whenever we get our car, I definitely plan to keep up all the walking because I enjoy getting out in the fresh air and it's makes me feel independent that I can walk where I want to go.

Nearby park that we frequently walk to.  This happened to be a beautiful, rain-free day!

Challenge #4:  Grocery Shopping
Due to the no car thing, grocery shopping has its limitations.  I'm basically restricted to buying what I can carry while pushing a stroller at the same time = not much.  This was especially frustrating the first week when we had absolutely nothing in our kitchen.  It's difficult to buy the basic groceries you need - spices, olive oil, aluminium foil, bread, rice, salad dressings, peanut butter, etc. plus all your fruits/veggies/meats/dairy - in order to prepare a decent meal when you're at a two small bags limit.  Also, I wasn't aware of a real grocery store within walking distance of our apartment. Every few blocks, they have these Express stores which are kind of like a gas station convenience store but with a little bit of produce, meat, cereal and bread.  While those certainly have their benefits when you need to grab one or two things really quick, they lack most things to prepare a good meal.  I wanted to cook meals we were used to eating in an effort to get some level of normalcy, but when trying to shop at these Express stores, I couldn't find half the ingredients I needed which resulted in some meals that were less than great and a lot of frustration.

Finally, I got smart and ordered some groceries online and paid the delivery fee since I obviously wasn't going to be making a big trip to the grocery store anytime soon.  Then last week, I found a real grocery store that has most of the things I need about eight blocks away.  (That's walking distance.)  I've never been so excited to see more than one option for lettuce!  Again, I'm still limited to the volume I can purchase, but at least it has options and most of the things I'm looking for.  I've realized that I'm just going to have to get used to going to the store every day or every other day, which for right now is fine since it's gives me and Olivia something to do.

So, so happy to see this!

Home sweet home? Not yet

Greetings from London!  We've been in our new city for ten days now.  We, along with nine checked bags, loaded onto an airplane for the 9 hour overnight flight.  Thanks to Anadarko Petroleum Corp, we got to fly first class.  Once you've flown first class for a flight that long, it's difficult to imagine ever having to fly again and not be in first class.  But anyways, here we are trying to figure out how to be Londoners.  We are currently living in a small furnished apartment.  The flat we will be permanently living in while we are here won't be ready until the beginning of November, hence the temporary accommodations.  Plus, all of our furniture and stuff from our house in Houston are in a container in the middle of the ocean right now and won't be here for several more weeks.  Our apartment is small compared to the home we were used to, but it's manageable for the most part.  Here are a few pictures of our current home:

Our street - we're on the third floor of the tan building on the right.

Tiny refrigerator which matches the tiny kitchen.  This is a pretty standard refrigerator size here, something else to get used to.

Here is a picture of the master bedroom.  Thankfully the apartment has two bedrooms so Olivia has her own room.  She has successfully graduated to a big bed - no more crib for her!

Living room/dining room.  It has two love seats and I can't wait to get our full size couch so that we can all sit comfortably for family snuggle time.

We're currently in a neighborhood of London called Marylebone.  All in all, it's a good location.  The subway station is 5 minutes away.  There are plenty of restaurants around.  There are two Starbucks within about 5 minute walks.  There is a large park called Regents Park that is nearby that I'm able to go running at.  The Sherlock Holmes museum is nearby. Not sure that we'll go there, but it looks amusing.  Fortunately, I've also been able to find quite of bit of things to do with Olivia.  The neighborhood library is two blocks away and so far, I've found four different playgrounds within 5-10 minutes from our apartment.

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As anticipated, moving to a new place brings with it lots of challenges.  Here are a few we've encountered so far. I'll post a few more later in the week.

Challenge #1: Living in the city can be hazardous to your sleep

Funny how moving from one big city to another big city can be so different.  Even though Houston is a very large city, and we actually lived in the city, not the suburbs, it is not the same.  City living here is very different and has impacted our sleep.  Or at least mine.  The street our apartment is on gets a decent amount of traffic, both by vehicles and people.  There are shops and restaurants around so there's always activity going on.  The windows in our apartment are incredibly thin.  I'm pretty sure there is no difference in the sound level inside the apartment whether they are opened or closed.  And since our apartment is directly above the sidewalk and basically the street too, we hear everything!  I've had a lot sleep difficulties since we've arrived.  I'm frequently awoken by cars, motorcycles, buses, people talking, people laughing, music playing, sirens, loud trucks, etc.  Or I haven't been able to go sleep altogether which makes for long nights of tossing and turning.  Maybe I need to invest in some ear plugs or something. Thankfully, it doesn't seem to bother Olivia and Geoff as much.  Occasionally, Olivia has come wandering into our room during the middle of the night if there's a loud siren, but other than that, she's out.

Challenge #2:  The washer/dryer combination

The washing machine/dryer machine in our apartment is horrible.  First of all, the washer and dryer are in one machine.  Strange, I know, so there's its first problem.  It's also pretty small in size and fits about half the amount of stuff that I am used to washing in one load.  The worst thing though is that it takes FOREVER.  A single normal wash cycle takes about 2 hours.  After the first hour in the dryer, the clothes are no longer sopping wet.  Just wet.  After the second hour, the clothes are damp.  By then I give up and just hang them on the clothes rack to air dry the rest of the way.  So we're talking about 4+ hours for one load that includes maybe four pairs of underwear, three-four shirts and some socks.  However, I am grateful that we have something in the apartment as an option as it would be worse to go to a laundry mat.  I can't wait to say good-bye to this thing in a couple more weeks.

Fun at the fair

Before our big move to the United Kingdom, I figured we needed to get a big dose of Americana and nothing says America better than a local county fair!  So a couple weeks ago, Olivia and I headed to the nearby fairgrounds to check it out.

First stop was the animal petting area.  Much to my surprise, Olivia was scared of the animals and wanted to be held.  Usually she doesn't have any fear when it comes to animals.  However, I can't really blame her for not wanting to be near them as there were a lot of animals is a relatively small space and they were all very aggressive for food.  One llama clamped onto the back of my shirt with is teeth and wouldn't let go.  I drugged him around for about a minute until he finally released.  Fortunately, he didn't tear my shirt, but he did leave a nasty mess on the back.

Olivia was much more comfortable with the animals and actually wanted to touch them when they were safely in a pen.  We also wandered around looking at the other animals that were being shown for competition.  I'm worried I am somehow raising a little high maintenance diva.  We didn't wander around for too long because the floors of the barns were naturally covered in dirt and Olivia didn't like walking in it because it was getting her shoes dirty.  Oh boy...I'm not sure what we are getting ourselves into with this one!

Next up was the carnival.  Olivia was very fascinated with all the lights and movement of the carnival rides.  She kept pointing at them and yelling "Mama!".  She and I strolled through the carnival area while I tried to find her a tame ride.  We came up to a little train ride which she got excited about.  She loves trains, or choo-choo as she calls them, so it seemed like it would work.  Well, it did not have a happy ending.  Once I got her buckled in, she had to wait a few minutes while other kids got on.  During that time, she started to realize that she wasn't with mommy anymore and wasn't so sure about what she was getting herself into.  Right as the train started to move, she decided she didn't want to ride anymore but by then, it was too late.  She spent the whole ride screaming in terror.

Being the awesome parent that I am, I thought the whole thing was pretty funny and stood there snapping pictures away of my daughter screaming.  I'm sure the other nearby parents weren't impressed.  In order to calm her down afterwards, a corndog was ordered.  Fortunately, this was a hit!