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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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