Delightful!

I had another nice day here in London. This time I remembered to set my alarm, but I was already awake when it went off. Maybe my ability to adjust to London time is some gift from all my ancestors that came from here:

Grandmother on father’s side—she was from the part of London where it always snows and everywhere you go is uphill. There was apparently a severe butter shortage at the time since she never had anything but lard for her toast. She emigrated to America in her early 20’s, but her good English upbringing ensured she had a miserable life no matter where she lived.

Great-grandmother on mother’s side—family lore has it that she sewed for the Queen before emigrating to American. It would have been Queen Victoria. Seemed impressive until I read that Victoria often used local crafts people when she travelled. Still, it’s better than her having been a charwoman or the one who emptied the night jars.

Parliament and Big Ben

Leslie Howard, mother’s father’s first cousin—If you’ve seen Gone With the Wind, he was the ever-simpering spineless Ashley Wilkes. He missed the premier of the movie since he was due for duty--he flew for the Royal Air Force, and never came back from a mission.  Huh—just realized that one of the memorials I saw the other day was for blokes like him. Nice.

I figured out the camera and got some photos of the view from the office.

Buckingham Palace private gardens. Queen HATES that anyone has this view.

Have you ever seen a coffee maker like this? that thing on the right--milk fridge. Yep,  steams your milk automagically.

Had a tasty lunch at a Spanish restaurant right downstairs—I chose shrimp and calamari, and had a taste of a couple other things. I’m eating as much seafood as I can.

Got a fair amount of work done, and had some good chats with a couple of the devs here. Never thought working on the database would make me so popular.

After work Manuela and I headed to Liberty. She wanted to look for patterns for knitting gloves, and I wanted to apply for a VAT refund. Ended up getting a pattern book, some English wool yarn and larger needles. I wanted to get the yarn for a sweater, but there’s no way I’m bringing back 16 skeins of yarn, so I’ll make a scarf—6 skeins seems much more reasonable.

At the risk of disrupting the space/time continuum, I asked Manuela to take a picture of me wearing a shirt I made of Liberty cotton that I got from April of Fabricker in Austin, holding a bolt of the same fabric, standing in front of yet more beautiful cotton in the Liberty store.

I apologize for any abnormal behavior exhibited by your computer…

Okay last item tonight: a happy accident.

I left Manuela in the Oxford Circus station and headed back to the flat. I still needed fish sauce for curry and was happy to find the nearly Sainsbury Local had what I needed, as well as yogurt (Rachel’s Organic is very tasty), wine, champagne and washing up liquid (dishwashing soap in America).

When I got back to the flat, I realized that I had forgotten to get curry powder and that Thai Red curry is nothing like Indian red curry paste.

The good news is that it turned out anyway—tastes very much like Thai coconut soup.  Yum!

Drawing a bath now since there is a bath. The bathroom is tiny but very functional. I can sit on toilet and brush my teeth at the same time—the ultimate in multi-tasking.

Cheers,

Juliette

Life as a working stiff...

Today was my first day in the London office. I took the Tube—only 2 stops! It was so nice to finally meet in person the folks that I’ve gotten to know over the phone, email and Skype. Even better is that I was able to work on a couple of issues thanks for my database skills and access.

Manuela and I ran out to grab something to bring back to the office for lunch. We also stopped in Hotel Chocolat and picked up some “Eton Mess”. Very tasty little truffle: “A cult British dessert featuring tangy strawberry, crisp meringue pieces and creamy white chocolate.”

I had big plans to make chicken curry tonight, but headed in the wrong direction and ended up in Highgate at Marks & Spencer. I got everything I needed except fish sauce. I figured out where the market I went to on Saturday is, but my knee is hurting today, so I picked up a sandwich at Pret-a-Manger and headed back to the apartment.

Tomorrow we’ll go for a team lunch at a Spanish restaurant and on Wednesday I’ll have “Indian food with Indians”. Apparently the Europeans on the team don’t eat spicy food, but I really want to have Indian food here in London since I hear it is good. We do have one or two decent Indian in Austin, but I am hoping for a better class of curry here.

I tried to get some photos of the view from the office, but they all came out white, so I will try again tomorrow.

Juliette

A Lovely Day in London

London Day 2:

I started my day walking on Kings Road towards Victoria station. I found the office—not the prettiest building in London, but lots of nice shops in the area, and not far from Buckingham Palace. (dang it, I forgot to check if the Queen was in)

I never was photogenic, but here is proof that I was in front of Buckingham Palace or have pretty decent PhotoShop skills.

Cool buildings are everywhere. For someone who grew up in earthquake country, brick buildings are especially interesting to me. That section in the foreground really is about 6 feet wide.

I walked through the park across from the palace and up to Hyde Park. I had a full English breakfast at a café right on Serpentine Lake. The eggs didn’t have  a lot of flavor, the sausage was a little greasy, but the bacon was really good and the beans were tasty. I don’t think I want to know what black pudding is made out of, but I tasted it. Not sure what I think about it…

Chocolately goodness at Paul

My next target was Liberty (of London), so I hopped on the tube towards Oxford Circus.  Before I found Liberty I stopped at Paul and got a hot chocolate and chocolate éclair. The Liberty building itself is gorgeous, and I wanted to get a length of their gorgeous fabric as a souvenir. I settled on a very pretty blue colorway of an art nouveau Tana Lawn (photos later). I also got myself a needle case and a pattern book by V&A.

After Liberty, I wandered down Regent Street. I stumbled on the Manet exhibition, so paid the 15 GBP to see it. He is not my favorite impressionist, but I did want to see art while I was here. Walking back toward Regent Street I made to mistake of walking in to Fortnum and Mason. It is a food snob’s nirvana: Chocolates and candies of every kind, cheese, sausages, wine, champagne, tea. I had my first macaron—I took the cashier’s suggestion and got a passion fruit one. I’m not sure how to describe it, but it was really, really good. I am saving the dark chocolate poire and framboise truffles for dessert.

I must say I am really glad I made the coat and changed the back bodice lining since I am wearing it every time I go out. The knitted cap I made is also proving very useful, though I must remember that if you put a hat on with wet hair it is best to leave it on. I see lots of similar hats, so I fit right in.

An Amazing Meal

I wanted to eat somewhere close to the apartment last night, and found Pellicano just a couple of blocks away.

I was the only customer for about an hour, and enjoyed listening to the staff speak Italian. After I told the waiter that I was taking photos to share with my husband, he made suggestions on how to best show it off. When I told them my name is Guilietta, the waiter said he was from Verona!

I’ll let the photos of the food tell the story—everything was fresh and delicious.

Tomorrow I’ll be in the office, so probably not nearly as much to report.

Cheers!

Juliette

Blimey, London is Grand!

A great first day!

I arrived in London yesterday a little after 10 local time.  Customs took about 30 minutes, and my bag arrived unharmed. Although I broke down at the Dulles airport and had a Wendy’s spicy chicken sandwich and fries, I still think that was better than whatever they served on the plane, and since we were leaving at 9 pm, I wanted to relax and get some sleep as soon as possible.

I did manage to nod off a few times(thanks to eye mask, ear plugs and body pillow) so arrived not feeling too bad. 

Heathrow Express from the airport was fast, though it was a hike to get to the tube station at Paddington, and the stairs were tricky with 2 bags. I purged my bags right before I left, but still need to work on packing lighter.  At least I got a little work out. I missed a train change, so took the long way ‘round to the South Kensington station, but got my first taste of London.

I found Chelsea Cloisters with the help of a very nice local lady—I had turned down the wrong street and wasn’t sure I was even headed in the right direction, but I was just a couple blocks off. Thanks to Google street view, I knew what the area looked like and what shops were close by.

The apartment is perfect—separate kitchen has the requisite kettle, so I am drinking Lady Grey Tea this morning(when in Rome).

After settling in, I went to explore and wandered as I found interesting things, and found a local grocery (Waitrose). 

Lots of great selections, so I picked up some essentials: yogurt, bananas, mature cheddar, crackers, tea and HobNobs, and went back to drop them off.

After chatting with Wayne, I headed out again out to find the V&A, which is just a few blocks away.  I heard French from quite a few groups as I headed in that direction, and even more in the museum. I wandered for a couple of hours until I started feeling lightheaded (way past time for some food). 

I was determined to have fish and chips and a pint, and found a nice local pub (Hour Glass). They weren’t serving food for another half hour, so I got a pint of Carrington(I asked for something local). I moved further down the bar when I heard the loud American accent behind me. (I did NOT come this far to listen a fellow yank pontificate loudly). I ended up chatting with a few people—folks wanted to know my opinions of North Korea, gun control and general politics when they found where I was from. I learned that the Daily Telegraph is known by some as the Daily TORIgraph, that the UK election process is as confusing as the electoral college, and Di’s grandmother was fixing her up for dates after she left Charles. One of the bartenders is a young woman from Australia—she and the owner started baiting each other—when I told the customer waiting for his drinks that he had stepped into something with the two, the owner told me to “read your paper” and mumbled about Americans coming in with their comments. I consider this a personal victory as he said it in exactly the same tone he used with the bartender, completely in fun.

When I ordered my fish and chips, the owner disappeared behind the bar into what looked like a closet—turns out he had gone upstairs to make my dinner. The fish was beautiful—perfectly cooked. I doused everything in malt vinegar and some salt.

Not sure if this is common, but the salt and pepper were swapped—the salt was in the shaker with fewer holes.

Note to self: jetlag + hunger + pint of UK beer = impending exhaustion + morning headache.

Next time I’ll be sure to eat something before the beer.

I still managed to stay up to about 9, had a great sleep and woke up at 6:30 local time.

Not sure what I'll end up doing today, but plan to wander through a few neighborhoods and possibly hit a few shops--Liberty for sure.

More to come!

Juliette

It's getting to be that time...

One bag is packed, the other mostly packed. I've got tickets, pounds and euros, the sewing machines are in for service.

I really enjoying planning for a trip, and love gadgets that make things easier. I try to get things that are really compact and help me cut down on what I need to bring along.
This time I found a great adapter made by SKROSS.

The sliders are the side are for all the different plug types, and they lock in place. The piece at the top lets you plug in 2 usb chargers, so I have fewer plugs that I need to bring.
The only drawback is this is not a converter, only an adapter, so I still need the clunky plugs for the Macbook.

Another cool thing: a rechargeable backup charger for iPod and mobile phone. I know, "a what?"

You charge this thing up and throw it in your bag. If your phone or iPod runs low on batteries while you're out and about, you plug it in to this to recharge it. It's a little bigger than a lipstick, and works with any small device that charges via USB cable. I found a hot pink one at Tuesday Morning for $29.

And my last cool travel gadget is a filter water bottle. I drink a lot of water, especially when I fly and I hate paying the insane prices at the airport as well as contributing to all the plastic bottles getting disposed of. I did some research and picked one of these up last night at Bed, Bath and Beyond. The bottle with one filter was $10. I figure 3 fill-ups at a water fountain at the airport and this sucker has paid for itself. Additional filters are 2 for $10 and they are good for the equivalent of 300 bottles of water.

I plan to post regularly while I'm 'abroad' (I LOVE saying that--makes me sound so sophisticated.)

Juliette