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.