Christmas in London

Sick of hearing our limited selection of Christmas songs over and over, Leah & I decided to download a few new ones from iTunes today. For some reason, in the Weatherill-Down household, the staple Christmas album was always “Once Upon a Christmas” by Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton. This is a collection of your favourite holiday songs sung in a country style, that Leah quite rightly hates.

But to humour me she searched iTunes for “Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton”. iTunes' response?

“Did you mean: Kenny Rogers in Dolly Parton? Your search returned no results.”

A Christmas miracle!

Cole's Arrival!

On December 6, 2006 (great day 6.12.06), my sister Sarah and her husband, Kevin, proudly welcomed their son, Cole Kevin Anseeuw, to the world. He arrived right on his due date and was 8 pounds 4 ounces.

Sarah went through the labour and delivery calmly and with grace, with Kevin by her side. They spent a few days in the hospital getting accustomed to the new addition to their family and they are now at home helping each other with the new responsibilities. John and I are proud and very impressed with both of them.

John and I are very excited to have become uncle and aunt to such an adorable baby! (We still love you too Callie.)

Congratulations Sarah and Kevin! Welcome Cole!

Bratislava, Slovakia & Vienna, Austria

We’re back to our cute little London flat after another great weekend of traveling. This time we flew to Bratislava, Slovakia, had a day trip to Vienna, Austria from there and we were joined by our new Aussie friends, Jess and Andrew (their website, www.fushmush.net).

We arrived in Bratislava late on Thursday night and made our way to our hostel. It was in a neat old building and we got our first private, double room. Going forward, I think I will be adopting Jess’ motto of “I don’t do dorm rooms”. It was for sure worth the extra money to get a better sleep and to be able to spread our stuff out without having to repack it and store it in a locker all the time.

We did our first walk through the “old town” and into the main square where the Christmas markets were set up. We found a little restaurant for a late dinner and some cheap, good quality beer.

Bratislava is a smaller city with about 450,000 people. We were surprisingly impressed by the historic buildings in the old town but what we found most interesting were the remnants of communist rule. The old buildings are not restored to perfection like in Salzburg. The old town and the hilltop fortress/castle are situated on the north side of the Danube River and in contrast, on the south side of the river, as far as you can see are communist era apartment blocks. Before our trip we didn’t getting any rave reviews about Bratislava but we enjoyed it and appreciated it.

On Friday we had a leisurely morning, enjoying breakfast and wandering the Christmas markets. We walked along the Danube and then up to the hill top castle, which resembles an upside down table. One of the main sights from the castle is a tower on the bridge with a UFO shaped viewing area on top. It was calling our names so we ventured up it. From there we had a great view back at the castle, to the west into the Austrian hills (only three kilometers away), and to south the gray, endless apartment blocks.

We did a walking tour, which wasn’t much to rave about. We were hoping for a bit more information on recent history. Then we found a restaurant with neat, dark ambience and enjoyed some traditional Slovakian fare.

After that, we managed to get on the right tram and find our way to the Samsung Arena for a Slovakian Extraliga hockey game! HC Slovan Bratislava vs MS HK Zilina. Tickets were $4 and a beer was $1. Can’t get that in Canada!

The game was in an old Communist era arena, purpose built for something, not hockey, nor for merchandising and food/bev sales. We swarmed outside the doors to get in the small entrance. There was no concourse, and only a few places for beer stands to be squeezed in. Unfortunately, John was unable to find a place to buy a t-shirt anywhere. Aside from a few puck bunnies and the cheerleaders (more on that below), Jess and I were the only women there.

We got the tickets thinking they were in a great location; centre ice, not too far up. However, we did not expect to end up with the four worst seats in the arena! The seats were split, two on each side of a media platform, thus blocking the view of half the rink when sitting. The other half of the view was blocked by one of the many large red pillars that surrounded the arena in order to keep the roof up. Luckily, it wasn’t a sell out so we just moved into a corner with a great view.
It was Jess and Andrew’s first ever hockey game and they chose to cheer for Zilina, because Zilina had Australia colours on. John and I jumped on the home team’s band wagon and joined in with the constantly cheering fans (way more vocal than any Canuck game, and only a third of the spectators). There were two early goals making it a tie game, and then two late goals to keep it tied. HC Slovan Bratislava managed to pull out a victory in over time!

Unlike NHL hockey games, there were cheerleaders/dancers performing in the aisles. They reminded me of CFL cheerleaders, but slightly less talented and slightly more provocative. They performed a combination of step aerobics and musical chairs; step aerobics routines to the music in between plays and then as soon as the music stopped (and play resumed) they would sit down as fast as possible.

I found the whole experience very entertaining. It was likely the highlight of John’s time in Europe so far, but probably only increased how much he misses watching and playing the game.

Sunday we got up in good time and caught the 1 hour train to Vienna, Austria. (Round trip tickets EUR7, same price as a day pass for London transit.) Salzburg was grand on a small scale; Vienna was grand on a very large scale! We loved it too! There were impressive palaces, a majestic opera house, strikingly Roman Parliament buildings, luxurious hotels all lit up; I wish you could picture it as I do.

The Christmas markets were in full swing, packed with people, and much more significant than in Bratislava. The main market was set up in front of the town hall. The trees in front of the town hall all had large, lighted ornaments hanging in their branches. The windows in the gothic town hall were numbered 1-24, with one being opened every day revealing a picture. The best Advent Calendar I’ve ever seen!

We started the day with a trip around the centre of town on a tram to get an overview of the city’s sights, but more importantly to find a Starbucks for John. He was very desperate for caffeine. We all owe thanks to Jess for spotting one. After being sufficiently caffeinated, John was a new man, and we made our way through the heart of Vienna; past its big church, through the pedestrian shopping streets decked out with lights for Christmas, by the main palace.

We cruised through the smaller Christmas market and indulged in garlic hashbrown pancakes. Then we spent some time in the larger market, in front of the town hall; many different Christmas wares were for sale, along with mulled wine and local delicacies. We chose not to indulge in any mulled wine (see the Salzburg blog), however J&A enjoyed some. We did try roasted chestnuts for the first time (we have seen kiosks selling them in every city since Ljubljana so it was about time). For lunch we managed to find a table at the popular Einstein restaurant, and we warmed up over beer and wiener schnitzel.

After all that food, we had to burn off a few calories so we tossed a Frisbee around in front of the town hall. A&J are our teammates on our new Ultimate team, the Fugazees and like us, their previous team back home was called the Chuckers. Because we hadn’t had enough exercise, we decided pay EUR3 to walk up the skinny spiral staircase to the top of the church tower so we could have a view of Vienna. We were very disappointed when we reached the top. We were expecting to be able to go outside on a viewing platform, but there wasn’t one. Instead we had to look through windows in a small room in the tower which housed a gift shop and 75% of the windows were partially blocked by scaffolding.

It was dark by then and the city was lit up beautifully! We walked and trammed to Hotel Sacher to have some Sacher Torte. A&J got to cross both wiener schnitzel and the world famous torte off their lists. (John and I had never even heard of the torte before.)

We arrived back in Bratislava around 9:00 and enjoyed a light dinner, some more good cheap beer (Vienna was more expensive than Bratislava, and Andrew and John had to work at getting their average beer cost back down) and some great conversation before hitting the sack.

We left early Sunday and made the long trek back to London. It takes about the same amount of time to get from the airports to our home as it does to fly to these European cities. It was a fabulous weekend of exploring two different cities, but what made the trip were our traveling companions. Thanks for joining us A&J!

We’re looking forward to our next trip – Christmas in Denmark!

Salzburg, Austria

Last weekend, I was itching to find another weekend trip for us in November as our next trip is not until the first weekend of December. I lucked out and found a great deal to Salzburg, so we booked the trip!

Originally when we thought of going to Salzburg we wanted to go when it was snowing and we also hoped to have more time so we could venture to the quaint, picturesque town of Hallstatt in the mountains, on a lake, as recommended by Dad. We missed the snow by about two weeks, which turned out to be okay because we were a lot warmer and the hills on the side of the mountains were still beautifully green (imagine Sound of Music). We ventured into the region of Lakes and Mountains in behind Salzburg, which gave us a taste of what Hallstatt will be like. We’ll have to go back; maybe as a Slovenian/Austrian hiking trip. So many things to do…

We arrived in Salzburg Friday afternoon at about 4:30, after a smooth commute to Gatwick and smooth flight. After taking the bus into town, we walked the 45 min from the New Town, through the Old Town and to our hostel. Christmas lights and decorations were going up and stalls for the Christmas markets were being filled. Many stores already had all of their Christmas decorations out for sale and were they ever beautiful! We didn’t feel too bad about missing out on that as we are going to Christmas markets in Vienna and Bratislava in two weeks, and we didn’t have to deal with the hoards of advent tourists and shoppers.

Like Ljubljana, Salzburg is small with only 140K people. Salzburg has a grand feel to it. You could tell the city had been historically wealthy (from the white gold known as salt) with all of its tall, fancy, beautiful baroque buildings. The many churches fill the city with the ringing of bells on the hour. It didn’t take long to tell that Salzburg sells itself on Mozart and the Sound of Music (both of which drove John crazy).

We found a quiet, local restaurant for dinner and enjoyed delicious bacon covered, cheese filled sausages (not healthy but really tasty), wiener schnitzel and a salad with pickled veggies. Then we headed back to our hostel for the evening showing of The Sound of Music. I sat there with a huge grin on my face, humming along to the music and taking note of all the local sights in the movie. John sat there in disbelief, wondering how anyone could make, act in, or watch a movie where people burst into spontaneous song or have conversations to music. He opted for his book.

It was foggy on Saturday morning but luckily it wasn’t raining. We walked the empty streets of the Old Town, peeking inside some of its exquisite churches, waiting for the fog to burn off so we could hike up to the hilltop fortress. It was a steep slope up but well worth the view, and the sunshine that broke through the fog. Mountains, including the peak which housed Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest, green fields and hills, trees still full of colour, and the elaborate roof tops of Salzburg’s Old Town buildings. We spent the rest of our morning exploring stores, starting our Christmas shopping, and checking out the food market for our lunch.

We had a tough time deciding what to do for the afternoon. There are two companies in Salzburg that run different, expensive tours of the city and surrounding area; the most popular tour being “The Sound of Music” tour. Neither of us was interested in that, but we did want to see some of the surrounding area. We worried that a tour would be too “touristy” and we thought we should be doing some hiking of our own, even if it was just in the hills right in Salzburg. The other factor was that we didn’t have a lot of energy; John was at the end of a bad cold and my body was fighting it. We ended up choosing to go on a “Lakes and Mountains” tour and it was the right decision.

We met the tour at Mirabell Garden, featured in the Sound of Music. To any gardeners reading, you would have been very impressed at how beautiful the flowers, shrubbery and landscaping were, even in mid-November! Our group consisted of a couple from Spain, a couple from Iceland living in Salzburg studying music, two travel writers from Finland, us, and our guide/driver who was from Bosnia, studying law in Salzburg. Quite the combo.

We drove into the Alps, past breathtaking hillsides (again, picture the Sound of Music) and three lakes. We stopped in three different towns, St. Gilgen, St. Wolfgang, and Mondsee, to admire views, walk along the water or through the quaint towns. Once we left Salzburg, all the buildings were classically Austrian with oversized roofs to withstand the heavy snowfall and beautifully carved wooden overhangs and balconies. I loved them! I can see how the lakeside towns are popular spots in the summer, the green blue water of the lakes (not like glacial lakes but muted green blue from the sun hitting the limestone lake floor) made me want to jump right in!
Driving through the pass between St. Gilgen and Mondsee, we passed a striking Habsburg palace. It was painted bright yellow! Gold was the Habsburg monarchy’s colour. The palace was right next to the deepest lake of the region, 120 metres, deeper than West Hawk, but the lake itself looked no bigger than a pond. Next we passed a large rock face, resembling Squamish’s Chief. It’s called the Dragon Wall because, prior to people knowing what a Woolly Mammoth was, Woolly Mammoth bones were found in a cave there and people assumed it was a dragon.

We arrived in Mondsee and saw the church where Maria and Captain Von Trapp were married, in the movie, and then we hit up a café to indulge in some apple strudel and coffee. Wow! I’m now a huge apple strudel fan.

We got back to Salzburg in the dark and explored on foot a few more areas of the city we hadn’t seen. An outdoor skating rink and Winterlounge had just been set up in Mozart Square. The Winterlounge was so inviting; it had tables and fire pits, it was decorated with evergreen boughs, and they were serving hot drinks. Of course we had to indulge in the atmosphere and drinks, traditional hot alcoholic punches. The atmosphere was worth the cost of the punch; unfortunately, our taste buds could only manage a few sips of the punch. Then we found a healthier dinner and made our way back for quiet evening at the hostel (and yes, I did take in a few more scenes of the evening viewing of The Sound of Music). It turned out to be a great day! A perfect combination of the grand city of Salzburg with the picturesque surrounding lakes, mountains and quaint Austrian villages.

By the time we got to the airport on Sunday morning at 9:30, the fog had burned off and we stood on the airport deck in the sun watching the planes take off and admiring the mountain views.

Ljubljana, Slovenia

We loved Slovenia! The landscape reminded us a bit of the Foothills and Rockies west of Calgary, and we enjoyed the fresh air and less populated city of Ljubljana (compared to London). We loved it despite not making it into the mountains or to picturesque Lake Bled to go hiking, so I think we will be returning. As requested by my sister, we have posted more photos from this trip.

Our flight left midday on Friday, so we spent a leisurely morning drinking coffee and eating porridge as the sun streamed into our apartment. We should however, have been a bit more on the ball, checking for tube closures and delays online. We got to our nearest tube station at 10:15 and we needed to get to Baker Street for 11:00 to catch our bus to Luton Airport. We realized when we got to the station that we should have left sooner. Despite this, we still opted to take the slower, cheaper commuting option of the tube, vs the fast train in. As soon as the tube pulled away, we realized we should have taken the train. I spent the entire journey stressing and fretting about the possibility missing our bus and flight. Usually in cases like that I am thinking of all of the possible contingency plans but this time I was just willing us to get there in time. Plus, I wasn’t sure what our other options would be. I was a basket case. We sprinted through tube stations and through the streets of London with our backpacks on (Amazing Race style) and made it to the bus with two minutes to spare!! Just enough time for me to zip to the loo. I returned to John and the bus only to discover that we were booked on the 11:20 bus and not the 11:00! So, sweaty and frazzled we awaited the 11:20 bus. It only took us a few minutes to be able to laugh about it.

We made it to the airport in plenty of time. We traveled on Wizz Air from Luton Airport, both of which were more pleasurable experiences compared to Ryan Air and Stansted, despite the plane smelling of someone’s BO (reminiscent of the Seinfeld episode).

Slovenia is a miniature country and flying into the capital, Ljubljana (pronounced by us Libiana), gave us a good lay of the land. We flew over snowy mountain peaks and then things flattened out, except for many tree covered hills popping up all over the place. The flat land between the hills is treeless to make room for farming and towns. We got a great view of beautiful Lake Bled and its lone island with a church on it (photo at http://www.bled.si/).

It was dark when we arrived in Ljubljana, and cold. My toque didn’t come off my head the entire weekend except to sleep and shower. Before and after dinner, we roamed the downtown area admiring the Italian Baroque buildings. A river runs through the middle of the town; branches of willow trees hang over its edges and they are lit up at night. There were still a few leaves on the trees and plenty on the ground to romp through. Slovenia used to be part of Yugoslavia and we were expecting more ominous Soviet influence but it wasn’t there at all.
Both nights there we had long, big, hearty traditional Slovenian dinners; soup, sausages, bread, various meats with rich sauces. The food wasn’t cheap, nor expensive, but very good value for our money. John became a “Union” man – he really enjoyed the local brew called Union.
We stayed in a hostel, and yes, I survived. Cons: Bathrooms that smelled like pee (I’d like to believe the cleaning solutions were pee smelling), uncomfortable dorm beds and not very much sleep the first night. In the first four hours of the night, people were coming to bed about once every hour, and in the second half of the night people were getting up about once every hour. As a result, it seemed everyone was tired by the second night because lights were out in our dorm room at 11, there were no mid night interruptions, and people didn’t start getting up until 8 – yeah, a good sleep for us. Pros: Good chance to meet other friendly travelers (we had a beer with a guy from England on Friday night and got some great travel tips from a woman from London staying in the bunk next to us), very central location, cheaper than hotels and less dodgy than cheap hotels.

Saturday, met with sunshine, we were up to catch an 8:30 bus to Postojna (pronounced Postoina, check out http://www.postojnska-jama.si/?cat=7&lang=en). The one hour ride took us through villages, farms and hills dusted with snow. In Postojna, we did a two hour tour of underground caves, seeing about 3km of the 21km network. Stalactites, stalagmites, broccoli and spaghetti formations, fish with four legs, a bridge over a crevice that looked like it was in Lord of the Rings; not things you see every day.

After that, we took a cab 9 km up into the hills to Predjama castle, a castle built up on the side of a cliff. The site of the castle was much better in person and the inside of it greatly exceeded our expectations. From a room on the top floor of the castle, there was access to a large cave in behind. My imagination was picturing old rituals and ceremonies taking place back there (too cool!). We enjoyed a walk to the creek and up the side of the hill, and took in the views of the surrounding countryside.

We got back to Ljubljana at 4:30, as the sun was setting. So, we ran through the streets and up to the hilltop castle. From there we had a 360 degree view: mountains, hills, city, and SKY. We lucked out with a gorgeous orange sunset!

Sunday we did walking tour of Ljubljana. It gave us a good taste of the region’s history and of the architecture – the downtown buildings, the university (there are 250K people living in Ljubljana, 60K of which are students), the philharmonic academy, the Roman wall (those Romans were everywhere!) – and we ended the tour with a little boat journey up the river.
All in all, a great weekend exploring Slovenia. It gets the J&L recommendation.

It was Guy Fawkes’ Day in England on Sunday when we returned. The Brits celebrate Fawkes’ failed attempt to blow up Parliament by setting off fire works and having bon fires. As we flew in, we could see fire works sparkling across the country. The air in London was thick with smoke.

Leah’s Blog: October 18, 2006

John was in Amsterdam on business for the day, but was back in time to see an amazing concert last night – Xavier Rudd, making my little brother jealous.

XR is a musician/singer from Australia. He plays about 10 different instruments, and on average he is playing three at a time. At a few points in the evening he was playing five; three different drums, a rattle and the didgeridoo. He can keep different beats with different limbs at the same time as constantly circular breathing to play the dig!

I wasn’t a big fan prior to going, John was, although I new I would like him a lot more live. That was the case for sure. I’m always impressed with an artist if I can go to a concert and hear songs I’ve never heard before and really like them.

Tonight we are catching up on things at home. Tomorrow is dinner with a couple from Vancouver who provided us with a “How to get settled in London” reference guide via phone and e-mail. It was our bible and we are grateful.

Friday night I am attending an HSBC Diwali customer event. For the weekend we are heading to Ikea to get John’s office stuff, and playing Ultimate. Did I mention we would also be sleeping in?
Check out the first travel blog to Carcassonne, France (below or by clicking “Travel” at right)!

Carcassonne, France

What a weekend! Thank you John for the fabulous birthday and third anniversary present!

• To start our weekend off, we met up with some friends (Jess, Andrew and Nik, whom we met at Ultimate, and DTM) at Tower Hill for a Friday the 13th Jack the Ripper walking tour. Sounds very touristy I know, but it wasn’t so bad.
  
• We learned about the Whitechapel murders of 1888, and also several other London history tid bits, whilst walking around what used to be the walled city of London and into East London. There is still an evident dividing line between the two areas; the corporate district (glass office towers) vs. brick buildings originally constructed in the 1700s. Near Tower Hill there is a section of a Roman wall still standing; a hotel and two office buildings have been constructed around it.
  The horrific string of murders in 1888 were recapped in detail, including evidence, botched investigations by the competing Metropolitan Police and Scotland Yard (London City vs East End), suspects, and conspiracy theories.
  Oh, the history we were walking on. (Oh, how I sound like my mom.)
  Unfortunately, after the tour, we didn’t have time to enjoy the East End (Brick Lane) curry restaurants because we had to get home to bed for our early departure Saturday morning.
  
• We awoke at 2:45 a.m. on Saturday to start our commute to Stansted airport. The first leg was via car service to Liverpool Street Train Station, the second leg was the Stansted Express train, getting us there in time for our 6:20 a.m. Planes, trains and automobiles (in reverse order).
  The combo of Stansted and Ryan Air was an experience. It met our “low fare” expectations and for us was about on par with shopping at Superstore. We managed it without grief though; we each just had small backpack carry-ons and we found seats together on the flight out and back.
  The early rise wasn’t as bad as it sounds, for me that is, given that I am pretty much narcoleptic when traveling tired. I awoke raring to go when we arrived to sunshine in Carcassonne, France.
  
• We moved at a relaxing pace the whole weekend, soaking up our French, medieval surroundings. We lucked out and had sunshine the entire time.
  We were there three years and three weeks after our first visit in 2003 on our honeymoon, and we were there to celebrate our third anniversary and my three to the power of three birthday : )
  Carcassonne is home to a large, medieval, double walled village, of which you have free reign to explore. It is filled with neat old buildings, narrow cobblestone roads, shops, cafes, restaurants, a medieval castle, a basilica, a few museums and an amphitheater. The City dates back to Roman times, but the construction, as you see it today, is from around the 1200s.
  We started off our day with café au laits and baguettes with jam at a café in the medieval village.
  After the success of our Friday night walking tour, we signed up for a tour of the castle and ramparts for the later in the afternoon and then headed down the hill into the actual town of Carcassonne.
  We wandered a park on a river and the Farmers market and then had more coffee sitting in the sunshine. We also indulged in crepes.
  We thoroughly enjoyed our afternoon tour of the castle and ramparts, learning all about medieval warfare and the purpose behind all of the fortress’ features. We also checked out the gothic cathedral; I’m always amazed by the stained glass work.
  
• We checked into our hotel and then walked around the City, on the outside of the inner wall. As you walk around the City wall you can make out different time periods of construction, improvements to penetrated areas of the wall, filled in entrances, and holes where wood beams here placed.
  We then indulged in some wine/beer on a patio, people watching. You can see we weren’t moving at a very fast pace. After that we dined on traditional French onion soup and Cassoulet, and that pretty much put us to sleep.
  We hit the sack early, mainly because we couldn’t keep our eyes open, and slept for 12 hours.
  
• Sunday we did more of the same, café au laits on a patio, and omelets for brunch.
  We went to the Museum of the Middle Ages which wasn’t much, but it gave us a good history of the area and there was a neat exhibit detailing how an attack was waged against the City.
  It was then time to stretch our legs and explore outside the walls and the town. We followed a bike path through some vineyards and up a hill with a great few of the walled City.
  John hadn’t had his fill of gruesome things yet for the weekend, so he went to the Torture Museum, and I went and sat on the wall in the sun. He took photos and was quick to show me the picture of a real chastity belt – it did not look comfortable for any party involved!
  That completed our time in the beautiful city, so we grabbed one more crepe and jumped on the airport shuttle.
  
• While Carcassonne may be touristy, we highly recommend visiting it. Being inside the old walled town takes you right back in time and the café au laits aren’t bad either.
  
• John is booking our next trip as I write this, to Slovenia at the beginning of November! This time we’re flying from Luton Airport and with Wizz Air (I’ll keep you posted on how that goes).

Leah’s Blog: Week 3 - The last week of my 3 month vacation (sigh)

It took about four days for John’s body to recover from his Karate class. He was moving very slowly, barely able to walk up our stairs (entertaining for me). His mind was occupied with work and the frustrations of dealing with British Telecom in order to get our internet set up (he managed it by Sunday night, four days later than expected).

For my last week of freedom (albeit sans paycheck) I got up at a decent hour every morning and enjoyed my coffee and breakfast with John, ran errands, did yoga and went for several very long walks.
I keep finding cute little pubs to sample and on Friday I discovered the graveyardiest graveyard I have ever seen (pictures to be posted). It was full of different kinds of trees, some with leaves turning and falling, and the light shone through the branches creating random shadows. All the graves were around 100 years old with weathered, touchingly inscribed headstones that had all been moved and shifted over the years. A beautiful spot and a perfect place to get in the mood for Halloween.

On Wednesday I went to my new office to meet everyone and get a run down of things. (See more below from my first few days at work.)

Thursday, I met up with my old friend, Barb Crawford, from Calgary. London was Barb’s base for a month from which she traveled to Slovenia, Kenya for a safari and Florence and the Cinque Terre in Italy. She stayed in London with another old friend from Calgary, Avril Johnson.
After accompanying her to do some shoe shopping (oh how London keeps trying to make me a shopper…) we made up our own walking tour of London. Westminster Abbey, the Parliament buildings, Downing Street, along the Thames, to Temple Church (of Da Vinci Code fame) and to St. Paul’s Cathedral.
She joined John and I for a cheap dinner in Ealing that night.

Friday night we ate at a Wagamama Japanese restaurant, right on the Thames at the base on the London Eye. What a sight the Thames and all its bridges are at night!

On Saturday, John and I had our first Ultimate Frisbee game with our new team, the Fugazees (don’t ask me about the name, I have no idea). We both bought some cheap cleats to manage in the mud, and helped lead the team to victory.

Sunday was a classic London day of hard rain for five minutes, clouds for ten minutes, sun for ten minutes, repeat. We hit London’s main tourist attraction, the Tower of London; learned about royal beheadings and imprisonments, explored the castle, and viewed the crown jewels.
Afterwards, John met up with some Ultimate folk for beer and I headed home after to get ready for my first day back at work – ironing, making my lunch, going to bed early – back into the routine.

The variation to the old routine is that now we are also trip planning. Our first one is coming up in two weeks to Carcassonne, France. We’re investigating the next one to possibly Salzburg, the Rhine River in Germany, or Prague. I’ll keep you posted where we decided (likely all three).
We are also planning a trip to South Africa at the end of February. John is going to speak at a conference in Johannesburg, so with his trip paid for I might as well tag along. We thought we would do a quick safari and check out Cape Town.

John is booking tickets to an Xavier Rudd concert on October 17th as I write this and I’m hoping to get some to the Killers concert.

Tuesday, October 3, 2006
I just got home from my second day of work and was greeted by the wonderful smell of dinner cooking, and the beautiful sight of washed dishes and laundry in progress. I could easily get used to having my hubby working from home. I’ll have to teach him how to clean J That’s probably wishing for too much.
Work is going well so far. I’m still awaiting my official contract and an employee number so I can then order my phone, lap top and car, and access the system. I’m trying to learn what I can in the mean time before I take on my new customers.
I have been traveling to work by bus, which was quick the first day, but today I encountered some standard London traffic – I’m going to have to bring some Sudokus with me on the bus to keep me occupied and start mentally preparing now for when I begin driving as getting anywhere will likely take an eternity.
The Commercial Centre where I am working has a great dynamic; not too dissimilar to my old branch in Vancouver.

The Christmas party and our first pub night are booked in my calendar already.
Tomorrow I’m going to a dinner/speaker thing at the head office on Canary Wharf.

Leah's Blog - Week 2: Waiting (for our flat)

Hyde Park Suites turned out to be a great place for us to stay for a while.
We had a kitchen so we could finally make some healthy, cheaper food. We had a TV and a great balcony with a table and chairs to enjoy breakfast on. We were just a short walk from Bayswater and Queensway tube stations and Hyde Park/Kensington Gardens.

John got set up with internet access and was able to work for the week.
We were in wait mode – waiting to see if we would get the flat in Ealing. We couldn’t really do any other flat searching until we heard and I didn’t want to start my Ikea shopping for bedding and towels yet as I might risk jinxing us.

Monday morning I did laundry and walked through Kensington Gardens in the sunshine, down to the Kensington High Street HSBC branch to check to see if our money, and our Group Introduction Form (a form from HSBC in Canada that would allow us to open an account in the UK without having a UK address yet and without employer references) had come in. Neither had and I was frustrated. Things beyond my control, but things I was still able to stress over.
So, after making John lunch, I decided to be a tourist. I took the tube to the British Museum and spent the afternoon roaming it – old Greek, Roman, Chinese, British artifacts, a large reading room, and all inside a beautiful structure.

Tuesday, John took a few hours off in the morning and we went to Buckingham Palace to see the Changing of the Guard. It was noted on the sign just inside the gates, that on “rare occasions” the changing of the guard ceremony does not take place. Unfortunately, we picked one of those rare occasions. So we took in the surroundings and took a few photos of a Canadian Gate, with all the provinces coats of arms carved into it.
While we were there, we got a call with good news regarding our HSBC Group Introduction form. It had arrived from Canada and we were able to set up an appointment to open an account. No such good news regarding the flat yet. Only warnings that it may take longer than expected!!
John went back to work, and I took the Docklands Light Rail (DLR, an above ground train) to Canary Wharf. The ride enabled me to get the lay of the land and check out HSBC’s global head office.
I then headed to Piccadilly Circus and bought us cheap tickets to the Producers that night.
And after that, went to the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square. Now, normally I have learned my lesson with art galleries – I don’t go, as I have very little appreciation for the works. I thought I would give the National Gallery a chance because a) it was free, b) I had an afternoon to kill, and c) the building was beautiful.
Surprisingly, I ended up really enjoying my time in the gallery; not like a real art aficionado would, but in my own way.
Two paintings jumped out at me, both with black backgrounds. One was of a monk in a brown robe with a shadow on his face (very dark), and one was of a virgin praying, wearing a bright blue robe with a white hood. I couldn’t take my eyes off them and had to go back at the end of my cruise through the gallery to see them again.
I also enjoyed a room full of old paintings of Venice, and of course the Da Vinci cartoon.
In the evening, we made our way to Covent Garden, and the Theatre District to see the Producers. Our cheap seats put us in the second balcony. The beautiful, old theater and view from the 2nd balcony were worth the price of admission on their own (which was a good thing given that we were only mildly entertained by the show).

Wednesday morning we strolled through Kensington Gardens in the sunshine (again sunshine, what great weather we have been having) to go to our appointment at the bank. We got the account set up and our money had arrived! One large weight lifted off my shoulders. No such luck regarding the flat yet.
I spent the afternoon walking around Park Royal, the area where I will be working. I found the office, explored some of the business park, found the Asda (Walmart equivalent), and figured out how to take the bus back into central Ealing (where we were hoping to live).
After that, I checked out two parks not far from central Ealing: Ealing Common and Gunnersbury Park. I am so impressed with all of the green space in London.
That evening, we had a very enjoyable dinner with a VP of John’s company. He was staying at a hotel nearby, stuck overnight due to delays at Heathrow. Unfortunate for him, but it was a good chance for us to chat with him. He enlightened us on Cornish pastis and miners (several generations of his family were miners), and we got a great list of travel tips and good reading material from him.

Thursday, the day we were supposed to take possession of the flat in Ealing, and still no word! We were not very pleasant to be around.
It was a balmy day out. I sat on the deck and did Sudokus and walked down to the bank to get our draft to pay for our deposit and first month’s rent, should we get the flat. (For any bankers reading, you have to order bank drafts ahead of time here, you can’t just go into a branch to get one. They usually take three days to come in but I put a rush on it and got it in a day. In addition, the cost approx $30! I won’t complain, nor take complaints about the $5 cost for immediate Canadian bank drafts anymore.)
I returned to get good news on the flat front. We got it!!!! Good timing too as the water main ruptured on the street our hotel was on so we had no running water.
Before going to our meeting at the letting agent to sign papers and hand over money, I went to the park for a few hours, sat in the sun and flipped through the Ikea catalogue, planning my purchases for the next day.
We headed out to Ealing for the meeting at the agent’s office and then we went to the apartment for the walk through with the landlords.
Before the walk through we enjoyed a bottle of wine on the patio with our new landlords, a great couple! She’s originally from New Zealand, and he is originally from Croatia (he fled the country as a teenager, was a refugee in Italy for a while and then immigrated to Australia).
Our new place is the penthouse of a three story walk up. It is in a little development with a tree filled courtyard and intricate rot iron work (the Queen came to the opening of the building in 1984). It is a two minute walk from the Ealing Broadway tube station, right by a Starbucks, close to many restaurants and pubs and some great parks.
As like most places in London, it came furnished (minus bedding and towels). Overall is it bright and clean! Just what I like.
There is a big open living and dining area with doors opening onto the patio with a picnic table. It overlooks the courtyard, has views to the left of a church with stone steeple and some classic London roof tops, and to the right some classic London row houses. It also has a view of planes coming in to/flying out of Heathrow – a major selling point for John.
The bedroom also has doors opening onto the patio. I love the air blowing in at night (almost like being at the Lake).
The kitchen has a cute little eating nook and the classic half sized fridge and clothes washer/dryer combo. We a have microwave for the first time since living together; we’ve been missing out!
We only have a shower stall in the bathroom which is tough for shaving legs, but I never have baths anyways. The good part is that we have a “power shower”, which is rare here (it is a separate pump which gives us great water pressure!).
While, it is only a one bedroom, we have an area to set John’s office up and we still have lots of room for guests (so don’t hesitate to visit).
Oh, it also has a garage for the car that I will get with my job. Yeah! No searching for street parking and attempting to parallel park, whilst steering from the opposite side of the car!
We went back to our waterless hotel for one more night, thrilled that we would soon be moving into our own place. I was so excited at the prospect of unpacking and wearing different clothes, as I had been wearing the same ones out of one suitcase for two weeks.
John worked from the hotel during the day on Friday and I took out trusty First Class Transporters car service out to Ealing.
I had a hell of a time lugging our suitcases up the stairs to the apartment. I got the last one in, the massive hockey bag, just as it started to rain.
Before unpacking, I took the bus to the nearest Ikea and bought a comforter and comforter cover, bath towels and mat, dish towels, and pillows. It’s fun buying new stuff, and easy when you are buying the cheapest of everything (except for our contour pillows). I brought some nice sheets from home.
Then I hit the Dollar Store equivalent for hangers, a dish rack, garbage can, etc.
Unpacking didn’t take long as we didn’t bring that much stuff. Our wardrobe looks so neat and tidy because it isn’t crammed with clothes (I should remember this).
We both had wonderful sleeps that night; relaxed now that we were in a place of our own.
It was a hot, sunny weekend. We enjoyed coffee on the patio both mornings in the sun. We are so happy to have this place!

John had a lunch meeting at Covent Garden on Saturday. While he was gone I explored two other parks close by (I’m loving all the walking!), and did some shopping, not buying, just looking. I figured out what to buy to make an office for John, as cheaply as possible. (Another trip back to Ikea is required.)
Saturday night we had Dan the Man (DTM) and George over for drinks on the patio and then we went out for dinner at a pub near by. Lots of fun but John and I couldn’t keep up.

Sunday we played pick up Ultimate in Hyde Park with people we met the weekend before, and of course went to a pub for beer after.
Today I went to work getting the bills changed to our name (electricity, water, gas, Council Tax – I’m not looking forward to getting them), started the process of getting a National Insurance Number and registering with a doctor, and got an Oyster Card to enable slightly cheaper travel on public transit.
I walked to the nearest large grocery store and stocked up, then made a big dinner. I enjoyed it on my own reading travel books; John went to Paddington to attempt a karate class with DTM. He just got back and can barely move; the power shower will be a necessity. I’ve never seen him so sweaty!

Leah's Blog: Week 1 - Welcome to London

• We had tearful farewells leaving West Hawk Lake after two heavenly, relaxing months, Lake O’hara after hiking with my family, Kristian and Joy’s house the night before we left with all of our friends, and finally from YVR on Saturday with John’s parents. I almost forgot, farewell to our tans; how quickly they fade.
• We arrived at the airport with our four bags and computer carry-ons sans liquids, fretting overweight charges. We narrowly escaped the costs; our largest bag, John’s hockey bag, weighed 31.8kg, just under the 32kg maximum allowance.
• We had a smooth flight and were picked up at Heathrow by trusty Edward from First Class Transporters (he has driven us and all our stuff two times since then) and driven to the Kensington Close Hotel. The weather was beautiful and we strolled through Kensington Gardens/Hyde Park and had a nap.
• Our first dinner was in a great Princess of Wales pub. We had a beer and toasted our new adventure.
• Day two we explored London with transport via the tube, and checked out a short term flat to let in Chiswick (which we didn’t end up taking). We introduced ourselves to Marks and Spencer (we like the food part) and Boots (the drug store).
• We met Lenore Harris and her son Paul for dinner at the Sherlock Holmes pub near Trafalgar square. Lenore is from Winnipeg originally, knows both our mothers and has a family cottage at West Hawk.
• Day three, Tuesday, I had an interview with two HSBC Commercial managers from Northwest London and received a job offer, for two possible branches, Ealing Broadway and Park Royal. So after the interview I hopped on the tube and went to check the area out and look for a place to live. We spent a fair bit of time in Ealing over the next few days and really liked it. It also received a great review from our friend Jeremy Morin in Vancouver, who lived there for a while.
• We began to learn about how the London rental market works.
• Almost all flats/houses for rent are listed with a Letting Agent, much like a Real Estate Agent in Canada. They take your rental offer, check your references, take six weeks deposit plus the first months rent, and charge you and arm and a leg with their own fees.
• We originally thought we would find a short term let while we figured out where we wanted to live permanently. Then we discovered short term lets are about double the price of regular rentals (which are double the price of Canadian rentals).
• Regular rental agreements let you have a six month break clause in the one year lease.
  Most flats here come furnished, which is convenient for us.
• I saw a two bedroom place that was decent but a good walk from the nearest tube station, 15 minutes. I didn’t jump on it right away, thinking I could take John back to see it. It was rented the next day.
• That evening, I decided to give the HSBC job a shot. I’m nervous about a few things with the job, including learning how to drive here because I get a car with the job, but I’m excited about taking on the challenge. Commercial banking runs a bit differently here; I’m looking forward to learning about it and getting to know some UK businesses.
• Knowing that I would be working in or near Ealing, we decided to live there, for six months to start.
• John was attending a conference near Westminster Abbey, at work already.
• Day Four, Wednesday, John was at the conference again. I re-packed our bags, did some job paper work, checked out and got the bags stored.
• Then I hit the streets and the letting agents to keep searching for a place to live, but didn’t have any luck.
• After the conference, trusty Edward picked us up in his car and drove us to Blackheath, the borough where Dan (The Man, DTM) and Trish (TMax) live. Their place is a two minute walk from the train station and right near a huge open park (the heath). We stayed with them for four nights until Trish’s Dad came to stay.
• We had a great dinner out with them, Spanish Tapas, and got a feel for the London rain for the first time.
• On Thursday, John and I took the tube back out to Ealing. The first appointment with a letting agent we had took us to a great little one bedroom apartment in central Ealing, available right away. We didn’t want to risk losing it to someone else so we put a deposit down (non-refundable) on it right away to hold it. By putting a deposit down, the letting agent takes it off the market while he checks our references and gets the agreement ready.
• Since then, we have been on pins and needles waiting to see if our references all check out, they accept our offer, and the building’s strata council agrees to our lease. If all goes well we may be able to get in by Thursday, the 21st, but we’re not counting our chickens…
• Late afternoon, we started the process to open a bank account. It sounds like a horribly lengthy process normally, but I may be able to work a few advantages in that area. I did arrange to wire some money, so we can pay for this flat, if we get it this week.
• We got a UK mobile phone so we can stop spending a fortune on phone calls. It is really expensive to use a pay phone. Standard mobile charges are 15p (about 30 cents) per minute within the UK. It is only 5p to call Canada!
• We checked out Oxford Street, a very popular shopping area. It was a mad house – soooo many people.
• We walked down to Piccadilly Circus from there to meet up with an Australian colleague of John’s. Enroute we passed all of the very posh stores, and many rich people wearing amazing clothes! (Man, I’m not a shopper but London may make me one.) We also passed Tiffany’s and Co. They were having some high end customer party; blue carpet rolled out in front, tons of white roses and a saxophone player. There must have been some celebrities going to the party because the street was swarmed with paparazzi and tourists with cameras.
• Friday was more getting settled errands; more flat viewing, bank stuff, booking a place to stay starting Sunday.
• We met Dan after work at a pub in Kensington for a beer and then trained out to Blackheath to meet Trish for a great night in with pizza and a movie.
  That was the start a fabulous weekend of not doing “getting settled stuff”.
• On Saturday, Dan took us to an Ultimate Frisbee Hat Tournament. It was just like being in Vancouver playing! We played three games and man, are we ever sore today! Not playing for three months will do that to you.
• We met a whole bunch of great people, of course from all over the world, and not that many from England.
• One couple had just arrived in London last Saturday from Australia and they are doing the same thing as John and I.
• We got recruited to play on two different winter league teams.
  We hung around the field chatting and having beers and then went to the local pub. It was so fun meeting all these really nice people! At about 7:30 we went to another very cool pub, in Clapham, for the Ultimate summer season wrap up party. Clapham was a buzz of nightlife activity – tons of people, pubs, restaurants, and clubs. Anyone who wants to party, we will take you there.
• We made it an early night. Dan introduced us to kebabs, the post drinking food in London (much like $1 pizza in Vancouver).
• Sunday, we were tourists. Dan walked us through Blackheath to Greenwich. We cruised through the beautiful park, enjoyed the view of Canary Wharf (financial area), checked out the Greenwich Mean Time museum and then walked down to the Greenwich market and Thames waterfront.
• At the museum, we recreated a photo taken of John’s Grandpa straddling the Greenwich Meridian.
• At the waterfront, there was a really neat circus act which inspired me. See photo.
  Dan and Trish were great hosts and tour guides over four days. Thank you both.
  After our touring, Edward picked us up and drove us to our next accommodation, Hyde Park Suites. Edward drove us by Big Ben, the Parliament buildings, Westminster Abbey, the London Eye, and Buckingham Palace.
• We are booked in a Hyde Park Suite, a small short term apartment, until next Sunday. Hopefully by then we will have our own place to live, if not, we might be moving back to DTM and TMax’s for a while longer.

New Posts Coming Soon?

Leah & I are in London and as soon as we catch our breath, we will post an awesome blog. Guaranteed. Demand for new posts has not been overwhelming, but criticism of our lame effort to date has been.
Stay tuned, the new blog will rival Harry Potter in global anticipation, popularity & wealth for its author.

Best Tenant Ever

Leah and I are writing our first ever blog post!!