More lessons

Our air shipment arrived this afternoon. The movers were very friendly -- noticing a pattern yet? -- and the six boxes were out of their truck in no time. Tea's very happy to have her iMac back, as I'm sure you can imagine.

Then it was off to the bank to try to resolve a snag we've run into. We deposited a cheque from our Canadian account into our UK Barclays account early in the week; the latter is tied to what they call a standing order, and it's how our rent will be paid. (Incidentally, we filed that order with our letting agent, not our landlord -- this really is a different world.) About mid-week we got some mail from Barclays saying that the negotiation we'd submitted -- that's what they call the process for depositing foreign currency -- could take up to six weeks to clear! Suddenly bouncing our second month's rent payment was a very real possibility!

A coworker suggested that we might have better luck at a larger Barclays branch. This rang true for us, as the chap who helped us at the smaller branch, while very nice -- which was really odd, by the way, as most of the Barclays folks we've dealt with act as though they're doing us a favour by letting us bank there -- behaved as though he hardly ever did these negotiations. So, once the movers left, it was off to the larger Barclays branch to deposit another large cheque. (No, to answer that question that's hanging in the air now, we most definitely cannot keep doing this, if this attempt also fails.)

I guess now is as good a time as any to qualify my earlier gushing about this country's progressive use of the 'net: banking is well behind here. You have to deal with a cashier -- they don't call them tellers, which I actually prefer (although ATM is horrid) -- for just about everything: most of the bank machines (which they call cash points here) that I've seen literally say "Money Out" on them; you can only withdraw funds from them or check your balance... even top up your mobile minutes, if you'd like. The one "Money In" machine I saw in this branch required paper deposit slips; there was no place for your bank card.

And in case you thought that the "up to six weeks" was an anomaly -- which, of course, we are sort of hoping it is -- one of our claims was recently reimbursed in pounds (the details of why aren't important) and when we deposited that cheque -- from a Barclays account, mind -- into our Barclays account today, we were told that it will probably take three business days to clear. It's the same bloody bank! You just have to shake your head. Oh well, here's hopin' that the Canadian cheque we deposited today clears well before the first one.

As the title of this post implies, the 'learning opportunities' abound. :-) I'll continue with the appliances: our super snazzy dryer has a water reservoir. We didn't really give this much thought, and Tea's busy doing the second or third load of laundry the other night when the dryer starts to beep. As she did with the microwave and the induction cook-top, she immediately reached for the manual. Shortly afterwards, I hear her exclaim, to the tune of yet more beeping, "It's full of water! What more could it want?" :-) Oddly enough, the beeping stopped once we emptied the reservoir. :-) It's strange: the dryer doesn't vent to the outside, which is great for making a nice hot room (just off the kitchen) for getting the wrinkles out of hanging clothes.

Not to be outdone, I committed the stupidest act in memory -- forget recent -- this afternoon. Unsatisfied with almost melting Tea's hairdryer, which was actually quite scary, truth be told -- "Sure; it'll be fine. It says 250 VAC on the side." Ah, no, that bright red glow out the back of it is a bad, bad sign -- yes folks, unsatisfied with that darling moment, I plugged my newly-arrived shuttle (i.e., computer) in before flipping the little red switch on the back of the power supply from 150 to 230, at which point I could've sworn I was shot. The black streak out the back of it on the pearly white desk, and the accompanying burnt metal smell cued me to what actually happened: best case, I fried my power supply; worst, and most likely, case, I fried the power supply, the motherboard, and everything attached to it. Bravo, Jae, bravo indeed.

The shame I feel now, recalling it, can only be topped by that which I feel when recalling how I reacted to said event: to say that I behaved like an enraged orangutan, jumping around screaming a blue streak at the top of my lungs -- all the windows wide open; "Hi neighbours!" -- is to do a horrible disservice to ape-kind everywhere. A shameful, shameful display, to say the very least.

I wonder what tomorrow will bring! :-)

Update: Thursday, August 27: against all reason, my power supply sacrificed itself for the good of the motherboard. :-) I've just replaced the power supply, and I'm back in business, only $50 lighter (and very happy).

Settling in

Well, two more days down -- including our first day at work! We spent yesterday running a few errands and preparing -- both mentally and the laying out outfits variety -- for the big day. One highlight from yesterday that comes to mind is lunch at Café Rouge: I tried ratatouille for the first time (delicious!) and Tea had a fantastic french onion soup with an amazing selection of breads and olives. (Unfortunately I was so distracted by all the tastiness that I only got one picture from early in the meal -- that Belgian beer in front of me, Früli, was really refreshing, incidentally.)

On the way home we stopped in Waitrose again for our first real grocery shop. Of note was the Arla lactose-free cheese I picked up and the Manchego cheese that Tea picked up: the former was fantastic (even my tough critic agreed wholeheartedly), and so was the latter; it's made from sheep's milk, which I now know I can also eat. Very exciting for me... This is the best cheese I've eaten in years, other than a lactose-free smoked gouda that Tea stumbled upon in Ottawa a few years ago. One final note on my lactose intolerance -- yes, it's all about me today and every day ;-) : they have a different definition of 'high-fibre' over here, so, faced with eating straight-up All Bran again, I decided I had to spice it up, so to speak. My solution was flavoured yogurt, and, odd as it sounds, the Activa stuff doesn't seem to bother my stomach. It's a big relief for me, 'cause breakfast has always been the cornerstone of my day.

A few comments on their embracing the 'net over here: when we got home last night we decided to set up a grocery delivery for later in the week; you have to book your spot a bit in advance, so we figured the timing was good, now that we had food for a few days. The Waitrose site was amazing: you can easily pull up the sale items in any category -- my eyebrows went up at seeing Innis & Gunn Original for £1.66, with an additional pound off when you buy three (which I did, of course) -- pull from your favourites (we've been told), and Tea was most impressed by how easy it was for her to isolate which products in any category were dairy-free (e.g., freshly-made soups). The delivery comes this Thursday evening, so we'll see how that part of the experience goes.

Then there was booking this morning's cab (to ensure we were lookin' our best on our first day): we booked it on-line last night, got the confirmation, and then, just as they described in that note, the cab showed up right on time this morning, immediately followed by an automated telephone call informing us of that. In a word: seamless.

Finally, Tea ordered some power adapters for North American grounded (i.e., three-prong) plugs yesterday at a steal, and they were waiting for us at the Royal Mail office before we got off work today. (Tea was a bit nervous about using them with her precious Powerbook, but all's well, as I assured her it would be.) I'm stretching it with that last example, but truly, the 'net is useful here in ways it simply isn't (yet) back home.

We also came home to a fabulous message from Linda, the lady of our land-couple: Tea's fears about wardrobe space have been assuaged; more furniture is on the way. Those two really are amazing, I have to say. We've heard of a few problems with landlords now -- they have many more rights here than they do in Canada -- and feel all the luckier for it.

Finally, remember that essential equipment I picked up the other day? I have a new appreciation for proper -- read: big and sturdy -- umbrellas after today. We walked for a good hour 'n' a half this evening -- picking up the adapters and then supper at The Everest (Yum! Will I recognize when I've become addicted to Indian food?) -- through a series of downpours and showers, and I hardly noticed. As I mentioned to Tea, that sort of weather normally would've kept us in back home, but, as I understand it, we won't have that luxury over here; 'course Ottawans didn't really have that luxury last month either -- only six days without rain in the whole month or some such -- so it was great prep. for us!

Door lessons

Beautiful weather today: the sun shined throughout. Our initial plan to get out early and try the walk to work was delayed by some problems with the door locks; here's what I wrote just after James left:

As I type this, the pads of my girlie index fingers and thumbs are more sore than I care to admit, thanks to my many failed attempts at locking the back door. Luckily, James was just a phone call away, and by 10:30 a.m. our door lessons were complete. I use the plural because, unbeknownst to us, the front door, while incredibly simple to lock, is tricky to unlock (just the reverse of the back door, in other words). As James pointed out (with a smile), discovering that when we were stuck outside later in the day would've made for a much more entertaining phone call.

Happily, the third door that we were having a problem with -- honestly, it's like we don't have them in Canada -- also stumped James: the wardrobe simply wouldn't open. He kept fiddling with the key as we discussed other things, and then one particular heave worked; he suggested we leave it unlocked, and we heartily agreed.

Then it was out for some breakfast, followed by a walk to work. On the way, we discovered that they do have subways over here: that's their term for the underpasses that pedestrians and cyclists use to cross under roundabouts; they're very handy. We decided to walk back through the neighbourhoods of the St. Mark's area -- I was wrong when I said that our house was in that area; we passed the church of that name (on Church Street; imagine that) on our walk, and we were some distance from our place at that point -- and decided that it might make for a nicer walk or bike ride in the mornings than the main thoroughfare we'd gone out on.

Now, I was walking along, enjoying the tranquil beautiful of the streets -- note the picture to the right where Tea's just blurted out, "It's like Snow White's garden! The dwarves could live here!" -- and their impressive names (e.g., Shelley, Kipling, Tennyson, Shakespeare, etc.), when Tea points out that this could be considered a "dodgy area," given what some have told us. While initially I dismissed this as silliness, and I didn't for one minute feel uneasy, by the time we'd made it back to the train station I had counted half a dozen shirtless lads; many of them were driving around, and one was even being served in the convenience store. We probably won't spend too many evenings wandering those streets, but we both agreed that it'd make for a beautiful morning commute.

Next on our list was picking up some essentials (e.g., laundry detergent) at Waitrose. We walked along the Honeybourne Line again, and, feeling peckish, decided to eat in the store's cafeteria when we arrived. The meal of the day was a combination of a vegetable curry and a chicken jalfrezi with rice that was simply excellent! The bacon sandwiches seemed to be more popular, however, prompting Tea to comment, "Stephen would love it here!" -- We decided to qualify that statement later in the shop, however, noting the perfumed shoppers and utter lack of scent-free products. Be warned, my friend! ;-) -- Oh, and one final note about Waitrose: the cashier guessed we were Canadian -- she said my T-shirt was a give-away :-) -- which Tea was tickled about.

Once we got home -- Tuesday's forecast of heavy rain prompted my purchase to the right -- it was time to start the laundry, which naturally led to abandoning suitcase living. I only point out this minutia because it spurred a bit of a moment as we realized that the rather large house did not have -- well, by North American standards, anyway -- the commensurate closet and wardrobe space. We weathered the storm, however -- stiff upper lip 'n' all that -- and resolved to visit the topic again once our priority shipment arrives.

Note: if you're interested in seeing more of our pictures, I'll be updating my August album throughout the month.

We've arrived!

And so it begins! A decent flight with a strong tailwind got us to Heathrow well ahead of schedule. In an attempt to avoid the awkwardness of our Customs experience in June, we placed our landing cards in our passports such that the visa pages would be the first thing the agent saw. It worked well, except the agent then stamped those pages as they would any other blank page in a passport; you can't even make out my birth date or nationality now. *sigh* I think both Tea and I cried a little (inside) to see the fruits of no small amount of labour vandalized in such a fashion. Of course, we said nothing, and were through in no time; here's hoping the next Customs agent who looks at them doesn't bat an eyelash.

Oh, and one final note on Customs: I saw Michael Geist in line behind us with his family. I didn't introduce myself, however, so that's all I have to say about that.

Since we were well ahead of schedule, we decided to see if we could catch an earlier National Express coach to Cheltenham. Tea had paid extra for this option -- in case Customs tripped us up -- and for an additional fee, we were on the 7:15 a.m. coach, Caffè Nero snacks and drinks in hand.

We sent James, our landlord, a text message on the way asking if showing up early would be a problem. He said that so long as we didn't mind him under foot for a bit, it was fine with him. He's quite the funny guy, actually -- Tea says he reminds her of our friend 'W', and I can see why -- and we all hit it off really well. (We'd met his wife, Linda, on our house-hunting trip.)


Malvern Road BridgeAfter dropping our bags, and going through their list of important things to know and the inventory (they're very organized), it was off to Waitrose to see what the nearest grocery store had to offer. As if the fifteen-minute walk door-to-door (with convenience stores much closer than that) wasn't sweet enough, we got to take in the beautiful Honeybourne Line Cycle Path while doing so. Add to that that there are many lactose-free products available at Waitrose -- there are none at Tesco, and I was beginning to wonder if that was indicative of the whole town -- and a free delivery service, and you can understand why I was grinning from ear to ear as we left for home.


Our kitchen tableThen it was time for a nap; Tea's was only slightly longer than mine, ;-) leaving me time to finish The Falcon and The Snowman and have a good long chat with Kae.

We decided to have take-away delivered from The Everest -- a favourite of ours on the June trip -- for supper, and used the Waitrose and Tesco Web sites to plan what groceries we'd like delivered over the next two days while we waited for it. Our supper arrived in no time, piping hot; the balti chicken was just as good as I remembered, and it was a great experience all-round: I've never shaken a delivery guy's hand before! :-)

Bluesfest in Ottawa

We decided to take a break from all the prep. work -- just a few more weeks! -- and headed down to Lebreton Flats to meet Kae at Bluesfest. The name is a misnomer -- even the organizers joke about it now -- with Sam Roberts and Jackson Browne on the bill that night.

The bus was packed with riders carrying folded camping chairs by the time it reached the venue. We joined the throng that was being directed away from the busiest entrance, and were in and outfitted with our "of drinking age" bracelets in no time.


The array of food stands was really impressive. I don't remember having that wide a selection in years past, although the last one we went to was in front of City Hall (a few years ago now, I guess). Tea and Kae had hot dogs -- Tea, with poutine, and Kae, with sweet potato fries -- and I had a fantastic turkey and pancetta panini with a pasta salad on the side. The Indian food -- Rose's, I think -- looked great and seemed very popular, The Works was there; it was all very expensive, of course, but really tasty and well organized. We also enjoyed Kettle Corn popcorn and a Nutella-topped Beavertail before the night was through.

They had a bigger selection of beers and wines at "The Lounge", so I found myself there regularly. One of my many runs stands out, though: I was in line for another beer -- they had Creemore Springs Lager, which, unlike their pilsner, I really enjoy -- when I saw this guy making his way back down the line asking a question. When he got to me, he asked, "How many are ya gettin'?"

"One," I said.

"Would ya buy me one?" he said.

"Sure," I said.

His eyes had looked a little glassy, but that perked him right up. Clearly he hadn't had much success with the venture, and had expected more of the same. After a bit of head bobbin', chuckling, and muttering "Great!", he realized he hadn't given me any money and began patting his pockets. Coors was $6, so the five- and twenty-dollar bills to his name brought on a deep pondering as he tried to figure out how to ensure we both had enough legal tender to complete our transactions separately. Before I could tell him the fiver was good, he ran up to the front of the line to bum a loonie off his buddies.

That settled, Stephen, as he introduced himself, looked much relieved, commenting, "That's really good of you. I mean, I'm not a bad guy; just looking to get a bit more beer is all." -- the policy was two per customer per transaction, as I later found out, although I still kept buying one beer at a time all night for some reason.

So Stephen and I were chattin' away -- turned out he's a Newfie too -- and we're about two-thirds of the way through the line when he got that concerned look again. "Hang on now; what'd'you get outta this?"

"Don't worry about it, man," I said.

"No, no; you were nice enough to help me out, so I wanna do something for ya," he said, and wouldn't be dissuaded.

Funny enough, what he finally settled on -- again, after much deliberation -- was to buy my beer. This turned into a double rye 'n' coke once we were at the counter, but, hey, I wasn't complaining. We chatted a bit more after that, and, before breaking off to go back to our groups, Stephen said, "Good eye contact, man; keep it up." Hilarious! The kindness of slightly-inebriated strangers prevailed again!

Oddly enough, it was the festival atmosphere that really captured my attention that night. Sam Roberts put on a really good show, and we did wander over to take in some of Jackson Browne's performance, but, for the most part, we just hung out, chatted with other friends we ran into there, and made runs to The Lounge. After the bus ride home, we capped off the night with more good times and music in the form of drunken Rock Band! Superstar!

Back home (for a month or so)

Looking at our pictures from yesterday, I found the urge to blog was still there and thought, "Why not?" Yes, we're home for a bit, but very shortly we'll be back in the UK, so why break the habit.

I was up early yesterday and had some time to work on my drawing class before Tea got up. We decided to continue working on the inventory we'd started the previous evening -- the inventory of our books, music and movies has been done for some time, but now we've finished the furniture, most of the kitchen and some of the electronics. (I still have to take photos of everything too.) Tea dictates and I type; we both feel like we have the easiest job, which works out well.


She's about to have another piece
Then Kae came by for a visit, bearing a gift for our wedding anniversary: a fantastic chocolate cream pie! As you can see from this picture, we're already well into it a day later.

Then the inventory of the kitchen continued, but with the wine flowing now as we looked ahead to our anniversary supper at one of our favourite restaurants, Fiamma, just a short walk away. As you can imagine, our pace diminished -- at some point I started echoing Tea as I typed so she'd realize how far behind I was falling -- 'til Tea gave up entirely and called her sister. The two of them decided to have an interactive opening of the birthday presents Tea'd sent her -- over Skype -- and much hilarity ensued.

Then it was off to Fiamma. Foolishly thinking that the sidewalk was a safe place for a slightly-inebriated person such as myself, in one of those both-zigging-when-one-should-zag situations, I was almost run over by a young man on a barely-coasting bicycle. Thankfully, the rest of the walk was uneventful.

We began the meal with more wine, an anti-pasti tray, and PEI mussels in a white wine and garlic sauce. Yum! Tea had chicken parmesan with fettucine alfredo, and I had linguine pescatore with scallops, squid and more mussels. They really know how to cook pasta at Fiamma, and this time was no exception.

Then it was home for a bit of drunken cribbage. Tea was kickin' my butt all over that half-acre, so I decided to call it a night. At no point did I fall asleep in the middle of a hand -- ah, the advantages of being the blogger/historian.

Map of our London walk

As promised, a map of our walk through London follows, with pictures of us attached to markers along the way. If you'd like to see more pictures of the sights we saw, check out our Days 8 and 9 album.


View Our London walk in a larger map