The Harwig Globetrotters

It's been a busy couple of weeks on this side of the pond.

Just in case you were curious, Helsinki is very cold and very dark around mid-December. Unfortunately, due to lots and lots of work during the week, I didn't really get a chance to do any sightseeting around town. I did get a very in-depth view of the main road via taxi (or taksi) from the city to the office park about 30 minutes away. But since those were around 8 am and 5:30 pm respectively, there wasn't a whole lot of sun to illuminate the voyage.


A few things I learned about Finland however:


1. The Finnish word for Finnish is Suomi (http://www.google.fi/).


2. You don't need to learn Suomi because everybody speaks English, which is awesome.

3. The normal greeting is "Hei", which sounds a lot like "Hey". So that way when you walk into a restaurant and the hostess says "Hei" and you respond in English, they naturally transition to English, but if you respond in some crazy Finnish tongue, they respond in turn.


4. The only other word I picked up was "Joo" which is pronounced like "Yo" and is an informal "Yes". The only reason I picked it up was becuase people say it about 20 times per sentence, much like you would respond to any question in English with "yeah" or "yup" or something to that effect.



On more globetrotting news, Laura and I booked a holiday last night for Christmas in Spain!


The original plan we had was to head to Italy for a Christmas/New Year holiday (that's "holiday in the British sense, aka "vacation"). However, as the date came creeping closer, we decided to abort those plans and stay local and possibly do some day trips around the UK. We were also thinking about doing a night or two in Paris, so Laura was looking up Eurostar (train) tickets online the other day.

That's when she stumbled across some very cheap last minute holiday packages on lastminute.com.


So we're leaving on Friday for Benidorm, Spain for 5 nights. It's supposed to be in the 60's, which will be a very nice change from London's current weather pattern. We're on the eastern coast of Spain, a little south of Valencia. We're both glad to be getting out of London for the holidays.

Also, Mike just got back into town last night after a whirlwind tour of Switzerland and Italy. Being the gracious hosts that we are, we're going to give him the keys to the flat, and then leave him to fend for himself for his last 36 hours in London before he heads back to Korea.

Twilight Zone.....

Since we're completely out of food in the flat and the grocery store randomly closed at 4:20 yesterday as we were walking up, Bobby and I decided to go out for some Italian last night at a restaurant down the street.  As we were sitting there trying not to gawk at the brits around us loudly popping Christmas Crackers and wearing the silly little crowns that come out of them, we noticed something heretofore unseen by us, everyone working in the restaurant was actually Italian.  The host was italian, all of the waiters were italian, the cooks were italian, the sparkling water I ordered was italian, everything.   We joked that in the states the best you would get was an owner with a vaguely Italian last name (as my italian professor used to say, just add a vowel to the end of your name and you're italian!) but all of the cooks would probably speak spanish.  

This was made more funny by the fact that a few friends of ours here recently informed us that there's a UK version of Chipotle.  For those of you (mom) who don't know what Chipotle is, its basically a kind of mexican Subway-like restaurant that makes burritos instead of sandwiches.  It's known for its 5,000 calorie meals and the fact that you can't move for days after eating one.  And, for those of you who really know Bobby, you know that if he had to choose between me and Chipotle, it would probably be a pretty hard decision for him.  He loves it.  So, needless to say, we were excited when we learned of a Chipotle-like restaurant in London.  When we asked our friends if it was the same as in the states they replied "Yeah, except that there are no Mexicans working there."

Whenever i'm living in a foreign country, I always get little bursts of clarity where it's like I suddenly realize that i'm not in America.  You don't walk around all the time thinking "i'm in a foreign place, i'm in a foreign place," most of the time you just don't really think about it until you see something that's so different that it reminds you of this fact.  I guess the lack of Mexicans in restaurants is a weird thing to jolt me into actually realizing that we're living in London, but thats what did it for me yesterday.  So, for the next 18 months (atleast), we'll be enjoying incredibly authentic and delicious Italian, Indian, Thai, French (the list is never ending) food, but I think we'll get a little sad and homesick when we're craving Mexican food and realize that there are only 2 Mexican restaurants in this city, and neither of them are authentic.     

Off to Helsinki

While Mike and Laura were busy romping around London, I was in the process of finishing up my current project for work and preparing for my next adventure.

I'm leaving on Monday for a week in beautiful, sunny, and warm Helsinki, Finland! Where the sun is out just short of 6 hours a day (seriously, sunrise: 9:15 am, sunset: 3:13 pm).

I'm actually very excited about it, a very small project for the week and a cool (ha!) new city to check out. I'll be taking lots of pictures, although most will have to be with the flash turned on I suppose.

Laura wasn't really jazzed about coming to Finland in mid-December for some reason, so she's going to have her own adventures around London for that week.

(race recap soon, with pictures)

Mike Roy and Laura romp about London while Bobby works...

While bobby works 10 hour days to support us, Mike Roy and I traveled about London this week while he was here visiting. On Tuesday, we took a free tour of the city and saw many of the major sites. Now, for those of you who know me, you know that I hate historical stories. What I do like are stupid factoids that are completely useless but will, for some reason, remain in my brain for years to come. So, while I can tell you very little about Westminister Abbey or Buckingham Palace, what I did absorb from the tour is this:



1. The Royal Guards don't always wear those big fuzzy black hats (sad). Some of the hats are over 100 years old. They are made from black bear fur and, by law, no bears can be killed just for their fur so they have to wait till one dies for natural reasons or is killed on accident to make new hats. Hence the need to reuse them...



2. This is Picadilly Circus. What's Picadilly mean you may ask? Well, during the olden times (thats as historically accurate as it's going to get here-sorry, I don't retain dates) this is the area of London where all of the prostitutes used to hang out. These "ladies of the evening" were referred to as "dillies". So, quite literally, this is where men would come to "pick a dilly".



3. Trafalgar square has a pigeon population problem. So, they are using some pretty unconventional means to try and control it. They're putting pigeon contraceptives in the food, and, possibly even cooler than that, they've brought in this guy with a hawk to hang out in the square and HUNT THE PIGEONS!! He just stands around with that hawk and waits for it to attack a passing pigeon. I watched for about 20 minutes and never got any good hawk-on-pigeon action so i'm thinking about going back to spend a day watching. It's amazingly fascinating.


4. The name of this building is actually St. Stephen's Tower, not Big Ben. Big Ben is the name of the bell inside of it and you can only get in to see that if you have a British passport.

Saturday: Cycling and Visitors

This Saturday is going to be quite eventful.

First (well, second really), Mike is coming to visit London. He's coming in Saturday afternoon and staying with us for a bit before heading off to the rest of Europe.

Before that, I'm going to be cycling in a race Saturday just outside of London. It's going to be a complete catastrophe I'm sure, but as long as I don't come in last, I will consider it a huge success.

Thanksgiving, British Style

So, as far as we can tell, the British don't celebrate thanksgiving. Originally, we thought about getting together with our 2 american friends and cooking a traditional meal. But, factoring in the alarming price of food in London, the fact that our kitchen is about the size of a matchbox, and the fact that it just takes way too much effort in general, we decided to go out to eat instead.

Quite a few american-themed restaurants were offering "traditional thanksgiving" dinners this week, but they were averaging around £35 per person for the meal alone. For those of you not up on the ridiculous $ to £ exchange rate, that's over $70 per person. Now, I do love turkey, but I don't think I $70 love turkey, especially since they weren't going to have my favorite part of a thanksgiving day meal- the from-the-can cranberry sauce.

So, eliminating going out to eat as well, we decided to just give up on the idea in general and go get some traditional british food for our traditional thanksgiving day dinner. I had fish and chips, Bobby had shephard's pie, and our american friends had equally traditional british fare (aka taking meat and putting it into a pie or pudding).

So that was our Thanksgiving, and probably a new tradition for the duration of our stay in the UK.

Laura got a mobile (finally)

Just in case you need to get ahold of me, my mobile number is +44 79 443 74170

Laura has arrived

After a long trans-atlantic haul, Laura has landed in London. Hopefully she'll have some fun plane-related anecdotes to share with all of you.

T-Minus 8 Hours to Laura

Laura should be on a layover in JFK at the moment, so in just a few hours she'll be landing in Heathrow.

As you might be able to tell, I've changed the title. Maybe with a little encouragement Laura will start posting about her adventures in London as well.

Time for bed so I can go pick her up in the morning.

Guy Fawkes Night

Remember, Remember the Fifth of November...

Right, so today is technically Guy Fawkes Night (or Bonfire Night), but the celebrations were mostly this past weekend.

The first thing I did to celebrate was to watch V for Vendetta again, to get into the mood. However, this fantastic movie has completely thrown off my view about what Bonfire night is all about. I assumed that since it was named after Guy Fawkes, that we were actually celebrating his attempt to overthrow the government (viva la revolution and all that jazz). Apparently I wasn't really clued into the fact that they burn Guy Fawkes in effigy at the celebration (which you normally wouldn't do if you're pro-Fawkes I guess).

So, it turns out that this is a celebration of the fact that they foiled the Gunpowder Plot. Damn!

However, I'm sticking with my original decision. When I celebrate the 5th of November, I'm celebrating the attempt to blow up Parliament! And when they say "God save the King" at the end of the rhyme, I'm going to say it with a distinctly sarcastic tone... so take that!

(Quick trivia: Guy Fawkes is where calling men "guys" comes from... now you can impress all your friends.)

So, I ended up going to a celebration at Victoria Park that was pretty sweet. There wasn't an actual bonfire, but the 100-foot tall burning skeleton of Guy Fawkes was quite excellent. And they had some of the best fireworks that I've seen in quite some time. About every 10 minutes they would have a flurry of fireworks that everyone assumed was the finale, and we would all clap and cheer... and then they kept going with more. Seriously, this happened at least 3 times.

I got a few good pictures of the fireworks and carnival area (and lots of shaky blurry pictures as well).

The big skeleton was moving around and lit a fuse that caused the Parliament tower/rocket ship thing to light on fire and shoot up into the air. We definitely need some flaming skeletons added to the 4th of July celebrations in the US. It's bound to be a winner.

Also, I am eagerly awaiting Laura's arrival in 4 days! And also eagerly cleaning the flat so she doesn't think I'm a total slob (or any more of a slob than she already realizes).

Booyah!

I'd just like to point out that I'm totally kicking Mike's butt for number of blog posts this year. Although, to be fair, his are a lot cooler... and have crazy characters in most of them.

But still... I've only been going since April. Take that Mike!

Low Speed Broadband

So, for about two weeks before I left for the US, my internet started slowing down considerably. And right before I left, I was having to restart the modem about every 5 minutes to keep online.

A few days ago I called BT, my telephone provider, since I have DSL for internet. I noticed that my landline phone sounded very crackily (it's a technical term). They said I had to plug in a corded telephone, not the cordless one I was using, and do some extra tests before they send somebody out. Well, I got lazy, didn't want to buy a new phone, and just left it alone.

I finally got around to calling Virgin (broadband provider) to see what was going on. I spoke with a very helpful guy on the tech support line who told me that my phone line was total crap. His little diagnostic test said that while my line was supposed to be running at 6 Mbps, it was actually running at 0.3 Mbps, barely dial-up speed. Hooray!

So I borrowed a phone from the lady above me and tested the phone line. Still crappy. Luckily, it should be all cleared up on Saturday when BT sends out a repair guy to my flat.

Only two more days of miserably internet to deal with.

DC Metro

So, I had a lovely week and a half in the US, and lots of time spent on the DC Metro and Metrobus. All in all, the tube still kicks the crap out of the metro, but the metro isn't as bad as I thought. The major difference is in how many trains they have running. On the tube it is the exception, rather than the rule, that you would have to wait more than 5 minutes for the next train. Same thing goes for buses.

Anyway, my first real annoyance is with myself, not the metro. I'm upset that I didn't look into public transportation when we lived in Ballston. On average I would have made it to the office in about 30 minutes. Obviously some days it might be much shorter, or some days longer if I just miss the bus, but overall I think 30 minutes is a pretty good estimate. Considering that on a really good day, I could drive the same route in about 20 minutes, but that on a bad day it might take me 45 minutes to an hour (especially in the evening), it would have been pretty easy to metro/bus it in to work.

Now, that was my first thought on the first few days I was riding the bus. Then came Thursday, when I just missed the train coming home at West Falls Church, ended up standing around while THREE(!!!) "No Passenger" trains went by, and ended up taking over an hour and a half to get to my Dad's house. So obviously, there are some downsides.

My only other really exciting adventure in public transit I had was first thing on Monday morning when my bus smashed in the side view mirror of the truck in the next lane over. Gotta love those top-notch MetroBus drivers.

Updates

Whoops. I seem to be quite good at letting weeks go by without updating the blog. My mistake.

Some ramblings on my week and a half in the US to follow, but for now some excellent news updates.

Well, there's only one update really, and it's that Laura is coming to the UK! We bought a one-way ticket last weekend and she'll be joining me in jolly ol' England in a week and a half!

I'm very excited about not being half a world apart anymore. Not only that, but now we can start exploring London and the rest of Europe... hooray!

The only downside is that I'll have to retrain myself to not leave the toilet seat up. But that's a sacrifice I'm very willing to make.

Born in the USA...

... well, actually, I was born in Germany.

However, I am in the USA now. I'll be here for a little over a week. In DC at work this week, then back home for a long weekend.

So far everyone is disappointed that I don't speak with an accent. Give it some time, I'm sure by the end of my UK tenure I'll be rapping British-speak with the best of them.

Along those lines, here's some more English-to-English translations for you:

ta = thank you
"Here's that report you wanted" "Ta"
(I guess it's shorthand or something, but getting an email that contains only "ta" in it is still very strange)

kit = equipment, clothes, accessories
"I'm biking after work, so I brought my cycling kit with me"
(here 'cycling kit' could mean jersey, spandex shorts, bike, shoes, or basically anything at all)

A Lemon Wedge?

Okay, this is the craziest thing I've seen in quite a while, and I thought I'd share.

I was eating lunch yesterday in the cafeteria and a man and woman sat at the table next to me. They were ordinary enough, so I continued to eat my lunch without really noticing them.

Then, I looked over because the woman seemed to be struggling with her meal. She had a fillet of fish (which was apparently grilled salmon). Next to her fish was a more or less ordinary lemon wedge. The problem she was having was that her butter knife wasn't sharp enough to cut off a piece of the lemon wedge.

Let me explain this with a little more detail. She was trying to cut about 1/4 of her lemon wedge off with a knife and fork. Not just the juicy part, but through the peel.

My first thought was that I'd discovered the most proper dinner guest in the world. The I'm-about-to-cut-up-my-Snickers-bar kind of proper that they make fun of in popular TV shows. It seemed like she was actually about to squeeze out a portion of her lemon onto her fish without actually touching it with her hands. Crazy!

But wait, there's more...

She finally gave up with the knife and fork, realizing that the lemon's rind was apparently impenetrable. She then swooped in to pick up the wedge like any normal person. Phew. I was relieved that I was sitting next to an actual human and not some dining robot.

And then... she took a bite.

Now, I realize that some people like sour foods. I'm totally comfortable with that. If you want to eat a lemon as you might an orange, go right ahead. But that's not what she did. She took a bite out of it like it was a hotdog (minus the bun). Obviously her knife had failed to slice through the lemon's pithy peel, but her teeth were doing a fine job.

I have no explanation for why anyone would decide to eat a chunk of a lemon wedge, rind and all, but I realized that I might be staring at some sort of pure evil in human form, so I picked up my tray and ran out of there.

Now, I'm not trying to judge her based completely on a 30 second encounter with a lemon wedge. Maybe she's from a lemon-eating part of the globe, I don't know. Does anybody know where in the world people eat whole lemons?

I'm at a complete loss for what happened, so I just thought I'd share it with you. Also, I'll be in the US in 2 days.

Coming To America

I'm leaving on Saturday (13 Oct) to head back to the US for a week and a half. My reasons for coming back are primarily work related (especially since they're footing the bill for the plane ticket and all), but I might be able to squeeze a few hours for social visits... at the bar... every night...

My plan thus far is to be in DC for about a week, then I'm heading back home for a long weekend, then back up to DC for a day or two and on Wednesday I'll head back to the UK.

Unless I pick up a new sim card this week, I probably won't have a mobile phone that works, so, let's all just plan on meeting at Carpool around 7 pm. And yes, I didn't specify a day for a reason.

More info to follow.

Seriously, People Are Weird

Okay, so I have been quite absent lately. My apologies. I had a great week with Dad visiting the city and was a little preoccupied (with drinking). Oh yeah, and that whole job thing, that also tends to keep me busy.

Anyway, I'd like to use this opportunity to comment on how strange people are through a couple of anecdotes.

I was getting into the elevator at the office a while ago after just purchasing a soda from the downstairs coffee bar. I had opened the can of Diet Coke (gotta watch that waistline) as a lady was getting onto the lift. She opened up conversation with this little gem, "You don't drink soda from the can do you?" I gave her a puzzled look as I brought the can to my lips and took a sip. She continued her enlightening conversation with, "Do you know how much rat poop is on that lid?" I think I tried to comeback with "delicious" or something like that, but she had reached her floor and got off.

Seriously though, is it necessary to strike up a conversation that at any point references "rat poop"? I'm not sure what Dear Abby would say, but I think it's a little ridonkulous. Let me drink my rat poop in peace lady, c'mon.

Another little tidbit of the human species that I really don't understand is the need for men to remove belts, unbutton, or otherwise take off their pants while standing at a urinal. That's why they invented the zipper thousands of years ago, so the cavemen could pee standing up and not moon the saber-tooth tigers, duh. Even with a button-fly it's easy enough not to become undressed while visiting the loo. I really just don't understand what's going on there. And more to the point, I'd rather not understand it, I just wish it would go away.

In light of my vocabulary changing to be more British the longer I'm here (notice 'lift' and 'loo' above), I've decided to add some English-to-English Translations to the blog. You should read up on these so you can fit in more when you come to visit me. Here's your first installment:

Diary = Calendar/Planner
"I'm not sure if I can meet then, I'll have to check my diary"
(and no, people who say this are not also 12 year old girls)

Half seven = 7:30 (or any other o'clock)
"I'll meet you at the pub at half 6"
(and make sure to say 'half' more like 'hof', you'll sound more pretentious that way)

Do = Gathering (or something, I haven't really figured this one out)
"We're having a leaving do for Tom's retirement next week"
"Can you make it for my birthday do this evening?"
(seriously, I don't get this at all)

Could Do = Yes
"Hey Jim, can you finish that report by 5?" "I could do"
(as opposed the the actual meaning of 'i might, let me consider it for a moment', crazy Brits)

Alright, that's enough for now. More to follow soon enough.

I have a visitor!

Hooray! Dad is in London for the week.

We snagged some dinner and a few pints last night with work people.

I expect that there will be many, many more pints in the near future as well.

Seriously, Stop Posting about Biking... Nobody Cares

Yes, I have become a little monotonous in my post topics. So I'll try to cut back on the cycling specific content in the future. But this one couldn't be helped.

The Tour of Britain started today with a short 2.5 km prologue around Crystal Palace Park, just south of London. I hopped on a train and managed to catch some of the amateur racing before the pro teams got on the course.

The amateur race was the London Grand Prix competition to win the Bob Chicken Trophy (I'm seriously not making that up). It was an hour long criterium race for the very fast, but non-pro riders.

The main event started at 3pm and consisted of a single lap of the course for each rider. They were sent off on one minute increments, and all finished somewhere under 3 minutes (aka, really fast). The winner was Mark Cavendish, a British native, and also the first British rider to claim the yellow jersey.

And now... for the pictures.

I took 553 pictures. Yes, that sounds like a whole crap load of pictures, and it is. But when you have a sport mode that can take 3 pictures per second, it's pretty easy to rack up quite a few shots.

Here are (nearly) all of the pictures. FYI, Picasa limits the size of an album to 500, so I had to trim back a few... I'm sure you won't mind.

If you don't feel like wasting lots and lots of time going through those, I've picked out some of my favorites.

I did have a lot of fun playing around with some new picture taking techniques. I tried a few dozen times to get that focused-rider-blurry-background shot, and managed to get a few good ones (one, two, three, four). It's tough to nail that shot though, they're going way too fast.

Also, I think that with 500+ pictures of cyclists, probably the best picture was of a lady bug. Oh well.

Pictures!

After plenty of procrastination, I've put up pictures from Pevensey Castle on Picasa.

http://picasaweb.google.com/harwig/PevenseyCastle

Laura's Coming To London

Hooray! Laura's coming to London (at some point).


There's still a lot of paperwork issues that we need to figure out before she can come out here permanently, not to mention how we are both going to survive in that tiny flat. But still, I'm super excited and you should be too.

Bank Holiday Weekend Recap

That was a fantastically fun, and painful, ride - all at the same time. I had some great weather on the way down, and the whole weekend. Once I made it to the castle and to the beach I had a very relaxing weekend of doing nothing much at all aside from recovering.

The “beach” term is a bit of a misnomer, since it’s basically 30 meters of rocks between the ocean and the road. There is a tiny sliver of sand right where the water laps up against the shore, but that’s about it.

Here’s the route I stuck to for the ride.

I managed to follow it just about perfectly the whole way down. There was maybe half a kilometer of extra distance added on, but other than that, it was a marvel of directional know-how.

There were two distinct points where I was planning on turning in my wheels for a train ticket. First, around km 80 or so, I was biking through Buxted and travelling up a hill for what seemed like forever. Both of my quads cramped up on the climb and I was not a happy camper. I stopped for a bit and stretched out, got some water, then I kept climbing… and climbing… and climbing. I finally crested the top of the hill and was glad I only had 2 hours left in the saddle.

The other main I’m-about-to-get-off-this-bike-and-just-take-a-damn-train-home moment was about 15 km from the end. My left leg managed to get the infamous and dreaded simultaneous hamstring/quad cramp. There’s nothing you can do to make it go away. If you keep your leg strait your quad goes crazy, and if you bend your knee the hamstring locks up. After another few minutes of agonizing riding, it managed to work itself out and the rest of the ride went on without incident.

All in all, I made it to the castle 30 minutes ahead of schedule (5:28 of ride time), then managed to find my way to the hotel a few miles away and enjoy a much needed shower and rest.

The ride home was much easier and a lot quicker… possibly due to the fact that I was “riding” home on a train. Oh well, I think the 150ish km of the weekend was quite enough for me.

I’ll put up some pictures in a few hours once I get home and sort through them all.

Saturday Bike/Train Ride

Well, in what's turning into a series of "where did Bob ride this weekend" posts, I had another very long ride on Saturday.

The goal for this one was to actually follow the path that I will take this coming weekend and make sure I won't get too terribly lost along the way. And in that effort it was a great success. I managed to ride from my flat to Gatwick Airport. (Here's a map from south of the river to Gatwick.)

It was a pretty nice ride for about the first 2 hours, a little bit more traffic-y than I prefer, but nothing too bad. Then it started to drizzle a bit, and that's just no fun. I rode in and out of the rain for about another 45 minutes to an hour. I really wanted to find the entrance to a footpath that will (hopefully) lead me most of the way down to the coast. I managed to find the path, and I took some pictures of the planes landing in Gatwick.

At this point, I had been riding for about 3 hours, and was exhausted. I also hadn't really prepared as well as I should have by packing some food or gel or something. So I decided to turn around and find some food along the way back.

Along the route there's a town called Redhill, and I had seen the South Redhill Train Station on the way down to Gatwick. After the turn, I biked back about 45 minutes to get to Redhill and I decided that I would find some food, give myself 20 or 30 minutes to recover, then try to make it back. But then again, there was always that train station as a fall back.

So anyway, I got a footlong Subway sandwich and devoured it along with some crisps. Delicious.

Then I hopped back on the bike and started to get back on my route, when I noticed my punctured rear tire. Fantastic. I stopped and did a quick tire change. As I got back on the bike, realizing how heavy my legs felt, how full and happy my stomach was, and that it would be another 2 hours back home on an underinflated rear tire... yeah, I bought a train ticket and went home.

The good news is that first, it was a really great ride, and I have the first half of my route planned for this weekend. Second, my route follows along train tracks almost the whole way down, so if worst comes to worst, I can always pop off the bike and be home in about 30 minutes.

I still need to do a bit more prep work, especially when it comes to having some food for the ride. But I think I can take care of that this week and be ready to make it down to the coast on Saturday.

Saturday Ride

I had quite a nice ride on Saturday, although it wasn't exactly as I planned (when does that ever happen really?).

I've been using Google Maps drawing feature to plan my route to the castle, and also I've been tracking the path of most of my rides in the same manner. So I'll share those with you now.

First off, here's the original plan for my out and back ride (part 1, part 2). I would ride from my flat along a canal towpath and then into the Docklands area of London. From there I have to walk my bike through a footpath that goes under the river Thames to pop out on the Greenwich side of things.

I actually did pretty well for that first part. Made it along the canal just fine, but I missed the proper turnoff. So I got a little lost and then recovered and made it to the tunnel. So far, so good.

After that, things got a little shakey. I had remembered the general path of how to get down to Beckenham, which is to say I remembered one or two turns and a few towns I should have passed along the way. I wasn't really sure where I was, but I made it to the Lewisham train station, which I knew was along the route. Then, I gave up. I decided to just pick a direction and start riding. So yeah, my path diverted a little bit from that point on.

Oh well, I managed to make it back to my flat in once piece, so I'd call it a successful ride.
Next weekend I'm actually going to print out section by section maps beforhand so I know where I'm supposed to go along the way. I think that will make quite a difference in my chances.

GBBF

How could I possibly have posted that last entry without mentioning the Great British Beer Festival I went to last night? Crazy.

So it's this huge event that lasts from Tuesday to Saturday and I went after work with some people from the office. There are hundreds, possibly thousands, of different hand pulled "real" ales at the festival... aka... heaven.

I sampled about 8 or 10 I think (only half pints each, don't worry) and had a great time. The guy who organized my little group is very into beer, as am I, but in a much more serious way. I like all beers, and while I may prefer . Therefore, I make the decision about which beer I'm going to have next based entirely on how clever the name is and/or if it has a cool looking label. I've used the same basis for picking wines and it works out so well. Plus, then you get to try things that you normally wouldn't if you were only drinking a specific type of beer (or wine).

So yeah, I can't quite remember all of the beers I drank, but they were delicious. Plus, I got a cool pint glass from the day.

Some more pictures

Here are a few more pictures I took last weekend outside of my flat.

http://picasaweb.google.com/harwig/MyFlat

It's way too annoying to put them in the post, Blogger really needs to fix that.

I should be writing this post from my couch, but sadly the internet isn't quite working at my flat just yet. Hopefully I can get it up and running in the next day or two.

Another bike ride planned for Saturday. Last week I was thinking about riding the first leg of my Pevensey Castle journey, but ended up just wandering for a while. This time I've mapped out the journey so I'll go for my first test run of about an hour out and an hour back. And hopefully I remember sunscreen this go round.

Tower Bridge

So I took these last weekend, but I've been lazy about getting them online. I was planning on taking some more, but it started to rain and I didn't want to get my camera all wet (usually bad for electronics I've found).

I also took some pictures outside of my flat a few days ago, but... you guessed it... I'm lazy. Maybe sometime this week I'll post them. Hopefully by Thursday I'll actually have internet at my flat, so I won't have to trudge in to the office to connect.

It was beautiful this weekend, so I went for a ride Saturday down to Wimbledon, about 45 km roundtrip. I didn't really have a route in mind, just wanted to head south for a while, but then I saw some signs for Wimbledon and thought it would be fun check out the courts. Sadly, I didn't find the tennis courts, so I went home. And, since I hadn't planned out a route beforehand, I think it's safe to say that I actually didn't get lost on the way home (as in, I did not deviate from a prescribed path). But yeah, I wasn't sure where I was for most the second hour. At least now I have a sweet farmer's tan/sunburn.

Work, Work, Work

Well, I've been busy at work, so there hasn't been too much going on over on this side of the pond.

There are still about 5 boxes left that I can't quite bring myself to deal with. I keep hoping that one day I'll come home from the office and they'll all be unpacked and put away nicely, but it hasn't happened just yet. Seriously, where are the unpacking fairies when you need them?

I had been all set for a mini-vacation this weekend. My calendar listed Tuesday, Aug 7 as a Bank holiday, so I was going to take Monday off and have a nice four day weekend cycle trip. Luckily before things got too out of hand, somebody let me know that Tuesday is not a Bank holiday and that my calendar was all messed up.

My plan has now shifted to the actual holiday weekend of the 25th - 27th of August. I'm going to bike down to Pevensey Castle on the southern coast of England. I'm mapping out my route now, but I figure it will be about 140 km to get there (it should look something like this). So I'll ride down Saturday for about 6 - 7 hours, take pictures and check out the castle and nearby beach on Sunday, then ride home on Monday. And, in the event that it all goes sour (aka, I can't feel my legs after hour 2), I can always find a train station and catch a ride home.

Also, I took some pictures of the Tower Bridge, but I've been lazy and haven't put them up yet. Maybe Friday.

Unpacking Continues

Well, I had quite a little spurt of activity the first night of unpacking, made it through about 25 boxes. All that's left are boxes (and boxes) of clothes. But I don't have the energy to deal with those just yet.

So, here's my living room, completely full of boxes.



And the bedroom...



And here's what I mean by "most of the boxes were damaged in some way"





So here are a few pictures of the casualties. So far I've only found 4 broken items: a mug, a plate, the glass on a framed poster, and a lamp.






And finally... I'd like to make a bold statement. The only thing that should ever be consumed from my series of etched pint glasses is cold, delicious Guinness. I mean seriously, how good does that look right now?

Boxes Boxes Everywhere

I am absolutely amazed, slack-jawed if you will, at how successful my move was. I was pretty sure that not hiring professional packers for most of it was going to come back and bite me in the ass. And then, when the van showed up on Wednesday morning with my boxes, all my fears were realized as I stared in horror at the scene that unfolded.

I'd say most of the boxes were damaged in some way. Some boxes completely crushed in on the sides/corners. Others more or less ripped open on the sides. And the idea that "This End Up" could mean anything was thrown right out the window.

So, I decided that it wasn't worth the extra money to pay somebody to move my stuff from the van up two flights of stairs into the flat, since the shipping company wasn't going to. I got a quote for two guys to come and move my 37 boxes, for £180. Really? Nearly $400 for no more than 20 minutes of work. I decided I could do it myself (and worried that I wouldn't be able to).

Essentially I've got three strikes against me now: I didn't hire professionals to pack it, the boxes were nearly destroyed upon delivery, and I decided I could move it in myself.

And yet, a light at the end of a very dark tunnel. I actually managed to get it all upstairs by myself (the driver helped with the heaviest box thankfully) in about 45 mintues. Nobody stole any boxes while they were there on the street, and it didn't rain until after I moved them all inside.

Still, I was pretty sure that I would have to buy an entirely new kitchen. I opened the first box, all wine glasses and extremely breakable stemware. Nothing broken! I couldn't believe it. Every glass I took out, I was holding gingerly in order to catch the broken pieces. But they came out just fine.

I had to get into work, but before i did that, I just had to find out about the rest of the kitchen. So I opened 3 more boxes. Two with glasses/mugs, and one box of dishes. Out of the first 4 boxes, which encompassed essentially 90% of the dishes and glasses we own, I had only 1 broken mug.

I'll have some pictures, and more details of the unpacking tomorrow.

New Flat

Hooray, I moved into my new flat!

My mailing address is now:
Flat 173, Corfield St
London, E2 0DN, UK

(But before you send me anything, send Laura some food, she needs it more than I do.)

I'm about a thousand times happier than I was with the first place. The landlord is great, and its fantastic dealing with just one person. We met Monday night to exchange keys and he bought me a pint at the local pub. Then he and his wife ran down the list of local pubs and the best places to go for dinner, for breakfast, local parks, etc.

And with that... here are my new keys

No seriously, the bottom key is strait out of 1926 or something. I can actually look through the keyhole.



Here's a rundown of my super spacious (aka, about 34 square feet) flat.

Living Room (actually a pretty good size, and with a fold-out couch for all of my visitors)



Kitchen (washer/dryer, dishwasher, and full size fridge). The fridge is actually a big deal around here, since most flats just have a mini-fridge. How could I stock that full of beer though, and have room left for ice cream and popsicles? Crazy British.



If you want to see any more, you'll just have to come visit me.

Tour de France - Prologue

That was awesome!

So I didn't get to see all of the race, but the prologue was so much fun. I've put a bunch of the pictures up online here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/harwig/TdFPrologue
I think that my favorite photo is this one:



Also, I officially love this camera. I took 300 pictures before the race even started. And another 200 after that.

Tour de France - Kickoff

What an exciting Friday. I took about 200 pictures, so to make it easier on myself, I'm just going to send you a link to where they all are, and then talk about them here.

http://picasaweb.google.com/harwig (and yes, I know that I love Google way too much)

First off, and most important, is the greatest pub ever created.



Can it get any better than "Ye Olde Cock Tavern"? I think not. I have a few more pictures of some pubs at that link above.

I found that the other day, and then took a picture while I walked from my office to Trafalgar Square for the kickoff of the Tour de France.

I was a little late for the kickoff, so there was no chance I could get close, but that's alright. They were parading each team up on stage and interviewing the top riders. I missed out on seeing Discovery, but I caught the last few teams that went up.

I had no idea how many people were going to be there, the crowds were crazy.

I'm headed out today to check out the Prologue, and then tomorrow for Stage 1 (which goes right in front of my office!). Hopefully I'll have some great pictures of the events.

Independence Day

Well, I don't think there will be any fireworks tonight, and I definitely don't get the day off work. I'd imagine this is a holiday that the British would just as soon forget ever happened. I'll just have to celebrate in my own special way (i.e. beer).

So it's been an exciting week over here, in so many ways. Obviously the terror threats have put the whole place on high alert. I can spot almost a dozen police officers on my walk through Liverpool Street Station. But people seem to be going about their business as usual, just with a few more delays.

The Tour fever is gearing up (man I love puns), and I'm super excited to watch the race this weekend. I haven't quite figured out my game plan for where I'm going to be, but look for a tall, blonde guy wearing some sort of orange and maroon on the TV (orange t-shirt if it's nice, maroon crew jacket if it's rainy). I'll bring my camera and put up any cool pictures.

I went for a ride around town on Sunday after finally getting my bike tuned up. I tried to stay away from the nasty city traffic and took a more leisurely route along the southern bank of the Thames. It was a short ride, but good to get back on the road. I probably won't have an opportunity to get back out there until the weekend or next week.

Good news on my living accommodations. I talked with the rental agency yesterday and they agreed to refund all of my money! Take that! Also, on Friday I signed my rental agreement for the flat at 173 Corfield Street in Bethnal Green. I move in on the 9th of July, so plan your visits around that date.

And finally, I've moved on from my adventure in the tiny hotel room and upgraded to the Holiday Inn Express in the Docklands. I've been eagerly anticipating a chance to say "... No, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night" but so far nothing has come up.

More updates after the Tour rides through town.

The Smallest Hotel Room I've Ever Seen

So I was so proud of my recent find online when I checked out lastminute.com to find a place to stay. I had been bouncing back and forth, just staying a single night, and I wanted to find someplace to stay for a few days at least.

So I found a great deal (about $160/night, ouch!) on a swanky 4-star hotel right next to Hyde Park. I was very pleased, packed up some stuff I was keeping in the office, and headed over there.

Now, for reference, here's a picture of what my hotel in Earl's Court looked like. It was small, just barely bigger than the double bed in the middle of the room (and very messy in this picture).

I didn't realize just how good I had it, until I opened the door to my new hotel room.














From the back of the room.



And the final amazing piece, the bathroom.



In the "shower"

So Many Conflicting Stories

Alright, so the flat situation seems to be working out. I've formally told the first place (good bye Elephant & Castle) that I will no longer be pursuing the flat. I've got another place ready to go. Everything just seems better about this place. It's cheaper, it's through a private party instead of an agent, and it's in a much better location (Bethnal Green). There's little green park right across the street, lots of trees, and the neighborhood is much better.

So I met with the actual owners of the Castle flat the other night and heard their side of the story. I'd like to break them both down for you, so you can realize what an asshole my rental agent (Ludlow Thompson) is.

Agent Story:
-Property is listed for £200 per week
-We meet and look at the place, I think I'm going to go for it, £500 deposit (ouch!)
-A few days later, "the landlord wants to do some re-decorating and fix up the place. They want to increase the rent to £220 per week." I'm shocked, but compromise at £210.
-I leave for the US, we're all set for me to move in on June 25th.
-I come back, "the landlord needs to add the water rates into the rent, now £220."
-I do my research and find out typical water charges for a full YEAR are only about £100. Not the £520 increase I just got hit with.
-"Oh, yeah, it's for water and for building maintenance costs."
-I'm pissed, but agree, pay another £500 towards the deposit. I just want to move in at this point (less than a week to go).
-Monday morning, I get a copy of the rental agreement. We're all set for picking up the keys tonight.
-Monday afternoon, "Oh, yeah, I just talked to the landlord, they won't be ready until July 02"
-KABOOM!


Landlord Story:
-We wanted to list the property at £230/week but Ludlow Thompson talked us down to £220, since they thought £230 would scare too many people off. They both agree that £220/week is what they'll list it for.
-The rental price never changed during this whole time from the Landlord.
-We got called about you, but we just got your references a few days ago (which I submitted within the first 3 days).
-You don't have a UK credit history, so we might require 6 months of rent up front (by the way, that's nearly 12 grand)
-Yes, Ludlow Thompson sucks. We've heard the same thing from other people.
-We always fix up a place before somebody moves in (re-painting, cleaning carpets, installing new fixtures, etc). Ludlow Thompson knows this, and they know we would not be ready on 25/06 (since that was the move out date of the previous tenant).


I talked with the agent again this morning, telling him I wanted out and I wanted my money back as well since this was not the original deal I signed up for.

My conclusion:
-The agent listed the price of £200 to "test the market." My £500 initial holding deposit was the beginning of "negotiations" for the price of the flat. At no point was I informed that we would be negotiating on the price. I asked him how much the flat was per week, he said it was £200. Period.
-Now that he's got my money and my "initial offer," he thinks up a way to get the price up where it was supposed to be originally (see: bait and switch).
-He manages to get me half-way there with a bogus story about the landlord suddenly deciding that he needs to fix up the place.
-He waits until I'm getting closer to the move date and springs the other increase on me (since it didn't work the first time). I counter and tell him it's bullshit, he makes up more lies, I give in because I really don't want to be in a hotel for the rest of my life.
-He doesn't communicate effectively with either of us, screws up the move in time, and then blames the landlord. "I told them that the flat didn't need to be re-decorated, but they couldn't change the schedule on such short notice" (i.e. 3 weeks ahead of time). Even though his company deals with this landlord all the time, and was well informed of their pre-move-in practices.

The whole thing reeks of horrendous business practices and terrible customer service. The only function they served for me was to rush me into taking my deposit and hook me into paying more than I wanted to.

If you're ever shopping for a flat in London, go with a private party or highly recommended agent. And whatever you do, don't use Ludlow Thompson.

Flat Fiasco

So after I posted that last night, I talked with the rental agent a few more times.

First of all, can I recommend to everyone on the planet to never deal with a rental agent to find a flat in the UK. My boss had a similar experience in finding a flat and then getting screwed over by the agent when he was shopping around. They're just crappy middlemen, and charge way too much money for not nearly enough service.

So, he'd been calling the landlord since I had responded by stating that the situation was "unacceptable and completely ridiculous." The landlord never answered his messages or called him back. At one point the agent was being sent strait to voicemail, which either means that the landlord's mobile phone died, or more likely, he turned it off after receiving repeated calls from the agent.

Around 6:30 pm, I had my final talk with the agent for the day. He said that he was unable to get in touch with the landlord so "tomorrow I'll give you an update." Interesting that he just glossed right over the fact that I need to sleep somewhere tonight. I explained that either the landlord or his agency would be paying for my hotel stay tonight and any other nights that the flat wasn't ready. Of course, this wasn't his fault, so the agency wouldn't be paying me, but he'd talk to the landlord. What's that? Waive all of the agency fees (about £250 = $500)? Well, those are sent to an external party that does the background and credit checks, so...

Yeah, basically I'm getting the run around from these guys. I'm supposed to get another update from him sometime today (chances of that being 1. good news and 2. before 5 pm are about zero).

Even if this guy does come through with the flat being ready tonight, I'm not comfortable dealing with them anymore. They've raised the rent twice from its posted price, and this last little bit has been the final nail in the coffin.

I'm also going to be looking at another flat this evening, so hopefully this new place will be nice (the location seems pretty good at least). The rent is right around the same amount, and the proximity to my work is much better.

More to follow soon.

So... Pissed... Off...

So there I am... 4:25 pm on Monday afternoon. I emailed my rental agent in the morning and asked about the lease paperwork and such. He said he was setting up a meeting with the landlord to meet and sign papers for later this afternoon. Super, I'm excited about my new flat.

Then about 6 hours later, no reply, so I emailed again. And got this:

Hi Bob,
I have just spoken to the landlord, he has informed me that the
property is still being decorated and will be complete and ready to move in
2/07. Not the best news, I know, he has asked me to extend his apologies to you
and assures me that the property will be ready on that date. He still wants to
meet with you this week.

Really? A week later than he's been telling me for the past month? On the day I'm supposed to move in?? That sounds fantastic!

(btw: 2/07 is July 2nd for all non-European readers... aka all of you)

More to follow on this horrible horrible drama soon (especially if I'm sleeping in my office tonight).

Pictures in Hyde Park

So, I bought a new camera. I've always had an interest in more serious photography, so this seemed like the perfect opportunity to give it a shot. Laura has the point and shoot (and is hopefully taking lots and lots of pictures). So I splurged and bought myself a Canon XT Digital Rebel.

I had thought about going all out with some crazy Nikon D200 or something, but then realized that I always do that, and then burn out on whatever crazy new thing I just bought. So this time I went on the low-end of DSLRs to see how it goes.

So I gave myself the assignment to go out and take pictures at Hyde Park (after some encouragement to get out of the office and hotel room).

It was raining a little bit, so for part of the time I was taking pictures with my camera hidden under an umbrella.

Here are a few of my favorites.

Here's a cool reflection at one of the entrances to the park.













I didn't walk around too much, so I ended up taking about 30 pictures of this statue. It was hard to get one that wasn't washed out by the flash or non-blurry without the flash.













And, this was the closest duck I could find and get a decent shot of.












There was a big pile of lawn chairs that you can sit in during the day (for $2 fee). I became a little infatuated with them.

It's like I never left

So, I'm back in London now. Same hotel. Same hotel room. Except this time there's the fact that I'm not leaving in 3 weeks.

So, the flight here was actually pretty nice. I was conspicuously sitting tall in my seat while we were waiting to leave the gate and one of the flight attendants came by and asked if I'd like to sit in the emergency exit row. Jackpot!

When I landed, I knew it would be an interesting experience with my luggage. I brought Laura's old hiking backpack (stuffed quite literally to the brim), and my bike (boxed up in an enormous box), along with my laptop bag and small backpack. It wasn't that bad to carry(to a point), I just looked like a pack mule.

The last time I came through Heathrow, I took the Heathrow Express Train from the airport to Paddington station and then transferred to the Underground to get to my airport. This time I thought I'd be smart and get on the Underground directly and not have to change trains in order to hop off at my hotel stop.

It was a great plan, and I successfully carried/pushed my huge bike box for about 15 minutes to get to the station. Then they informed me that the Piccadilly line was closed for engineering works. Awesome. I then hauled my stuff back the way I came for another 5-10 minutes to get the Heathrow Express (which was free because of the track work). Then I gave up and got a taxi because I was exhausted.

My next big step is to get my bike (which is mostly re-assembled) tuned up by a bike shop in the area so I can start practicing how to bike on the left side of the road.

That, and signing my lease so I can stop living out of a hotel room.

Cheers.

Skype Phone Number

So, those of you in the know have already signed up for Skype and chat it up with me daily for free from the comfort of your computer.

However, for those of you not ready to take that plunge, I've made it even easier for you. I got a phone number that you can call in the states and connect with me on my computer.

703.879.8867

If I'm online and you call that number, it will pop up on my screen and we can chat. If I'm not, or I'm busy with that whole work thing, then you can leave me a voicemail.

This way its free for you (does anyone not have free long distance calling at this point?), and free for me (sort of, I had to pay $20 to get the phone number for 3 months, but I think you're worth it).

Don't forget about that 5 hour difference, so please only call me to discuss your hangover the next morning, not while you're out on the town (midnight US = 5 am London = I'll kill you).

Just finished packing up with some spectacular assistance, movers come in the morning, so I'd better get some sleep.

Cheers.

Back To London

Well, I finally nailed down a schedule, so I thought I'd share it with everyone.

Wednesday - Packing up all my junk, along with some people who are joining in on the packing party fun (or drinking free beer and watching me pack up everything).

Thursday - Movers come and pick up my stuff at the apartment and drive it to Baltimore to drop off at some big container ship. "18-20 days" later (aka 4 months) it arrives in London and I hire a truck to move it to my new flat.

Saturday - Flying back to London (one-way ticket this time) late in the evening to get ready for my project to start Monday morning.

End of June - Actually move into my flat.

July 7 - Walk to St. James's Park and watch the Tour De France prologue!


On another topic, I've managed to purchase a charger for my cell phone so I can actually answer calls now. Good thing I'll only need it for the next 4 days.

Back to the States

Well, my flight takes off in just under 16 hours now. I can't wait for the upcoming 8 hours in glorious coach luxury. I'll really be able to stretch out in those spacious seats and get comfortable.

Oh well, at least there's free booze.

Plans are still up in the air at this point as to my return. It may be as soon as next week depending on how quickly things progress over here. I'm pushing for at least two weeks back home to take care of everything. If not, expect to be roped in for a mad-dash packing session sometime Tuesday-ish.

In other news, Laura is picking up her first volunteer in Uganda this weekend! I'm sure she'll have an exciting post about it once the electricity comes on... and they install that satellite dish... or more likely, when she goes into town for some sweet, sweet internet time.

My First Visitors

Okay, so they might not really count since they didn't come specifically to see me, but I'll take what I can get.

A few people from work were travelling and had a layover they decided to extend in London. They're only in town for a few days, possibly heading to Paris for part of the time. But in the meantime its nice not to have dinner by myself.

We met up for a little tour around Picadilly Circus and the surrounding area, got some Indian food and then headed back to the hotel.

I'm a very low-key tour guide. Mostly I pick a destination and then decide which direction to start wandering. You can find so many more exciting places that way, and you can avoid tourist traps that might otherwise snare you when sightseeing.

Its also difficult to actually motivate myself to do all of the tourist stuff without other people here. How much fun would visiting Westminster Abbey or the London Eye be if you can't share it with somebody else?

In the meantime I'm staying busy with work, and getting excited to be back in the States for a couple of weeks. There's still a lot to do on both ends (tax advice, moving, packing, signing my lease, etc).

Bank Holiday

Well, despite the fact that I thought I was going to get shorted one vacation day since Memorial Day is a US occasion, I was surprised to learn that I get today off too (as does the rest of the UK). It's a "Bank Holiday," which basically means that since the banks are closed, so is everyone else.

Its been rainy the past three days, and will continue for the rest of the week. It seems my good luck (and good weather) at the beginning of my trip has finally run out. Oh well.

I'm still finalizing some of the paperwork on my flat, but in the meantime you can check out the location (hooray for Google Maps) and start planning your visit. I should be moving in around the last week of June.

As far as the rest of my timeline, I'll be in London for the next week and a half (until June 8th). Then I'm back to the States for two weeks in order to get all the rest of my stuff packed and moved over here. Then I'm back here for good (mostly).

I was talking with my boss over some delicious pints over the weekend, and it looks like I'll be doing quite a bit of travelling once I get settled. He's currently in Paris, after just finishing a week in Lithuania, and then to he's off to Switzerland for two days. So I'd guess he's about right.

I'm very excited about travelling, as it will keep me very busy while Laura's in Africa.

Speaking of Africa, I've talked with Laura a few times since she's landed. She's settled into the village and is getting situated this week in order to prepare for volunteers coming out for the next few weeks in a row. It sounds like she's having a great time, plus she discovered that her room has an actual shower (while its not hot water, its also not a bucket bath). I'm sure she'll have an updating coming up by the end of the week (if she makes it to an internet cafe over the weekend).

Found a Flat

Well, I expected it to take a bit longer, but I've found a flat. I just talked with the agent in charge of the property and we're all set to move forward on it.

First, the greatest part is that the closest Tube stop is called "Elephant & Castle." Seriously, why can't the DC Metro have kickass names like that (how boring does McPherson Square sound now).

Its in Southeast London, about a 10 minute walk from the London Bridge south of the river Thames.

Supposedly there are some good and bad areas around the area, but I checked it out late at night and it all seemed up on the up and up. I was quizzing people on the street about the area as well. I'm not expecting it to be a fantastic wonderland, but its also not quite the same as being in Southeast DC.

Its also well within my budget, which means I can save up even more money to spend on flights to Uganda to visit Laura.

I should be moving in sometime mid to late June.

Once I get a new camera (Laura took the point and shoot to Africa), I'll get some pictures up so you can see my new digs. That probably won't be until I head back to the States though, so be patient.

Contact Me

After a full day of stopping into just about every mobile shop in London, I went ahead and got a phone. I actually have a really good plan for calling the US (only 5p/minute, about 10 cents). If you want to call my phone the number is 011 44 7942 259 097. Yeah, it's a lot of numbers. Please be kind to the 5 hour time difference from the East Coast to here.

I highly recommend Skype for calling over here (and for Laura as well). To the UK I think Skype is only 2 cents a minute to any regular phone number. And if you do get Skype setup, you can contact me with my username robert.harwig if I'm online at the same time.

Other than that, all that I've been doing the past two days is wandering around different areas of London for hours on end. It's fantastic. There's so much to see, and so many pubs to visit. Kudos to Mom for proving me right last night that ESB stands for Extra Special Bitters. Not even the bartender knew that one.

Snakes on a Plane

So I wrote the following while I was on the plane (with pen and paper, not even a computer), and thought I'd share. It's a little bit stream of consciousness, so just go with it.

-------
What began as a seemingly retched flight turned out to be much more agreeable soon after takeoff.

I checked in with my suitcase, garment bag and laptop bag, intending to only check the suitcase and have the garment bag ready to go in case of lost luggage issues. I was even careful to pack extra stuff into my garment bag so I could have at least one or two full changes of clothes at the ready.

As it turns out, my garment bag was too big. Seriously, who designs a soft garment bag that can't fit in an overhead compartment (which is crap, because it can, it just can't fit in there little measurement thingys). I was only further enraged at this when I noticed the girl across the aisle lug her trombone case (or some sort of huge instrument) into the overhead bin and take up nearly the entire space. Jerks.

After checking my bags, I went to the TravelEx counter to exchange some money. From previous travels, Laura and I have amassed a collection of small coins (Belize dollars, Euros, South African Rand) that I was trying to exchange for something of actual value to me (aka pounds). No such luck. The guy at the counter won't accept coins except for 1 and 2 Euro coins and US coins. Bastards!

Security went just fine and I made a bee-line for the Old Dominion Brewery in Terminal B. Paying $7 for a nice tall Dominion Ale is the only redeeming quality that Dulles has.

I had another hour to kill so I started reading a book my Mom had just sent up for me, A Man Without A Country, by Kurt Vonnegut. It was a great book, and very funny, but it turns out it was also a very easy read. I managed to finish it just before the plane took off.

Back to the main point. I was seated in Row 57 F... as in D, E, F, G . Not the best place for a nearly 2 meter tall person to be (go metric!). Amazingly, just after take off, the guys in D and G both moved into open seats near a bulkhead, so I got to stretch out across 2 seats, what a joy.

And also, I didn't sleep a wink, depsite all best efforts of earplugs, eyemasks, and alcohol. Oh well. I'm about to crash hard for the next few hours over here.

I'm in London!

I've just set myself up in the new office. Don't have much time now to say anything except that I'm here. Took a quick tour around the city while waiting to check-in to the hotel, lots of cool stuff. I definitely should have bought my new camera before heading over.

More update and a long rant I wrote on the flight over to follow.

Cheers.

Plane Ticket Purchased

Well, I just purchased my plane ticket for London ($950, ouch!). Good thing it's being reimbursed.

I'm heading out of here on Thursday evening for three weeks across the pond. Hopefully sometime in the next few days I'll be figuring out a place to stay. There's nothing like saving things for the last minute.

There's still a bunch that needs to get done; reserve a moving company, find a flat, pack up the apartment. It looks like it will be a pretty packed week trying to get everything setup before I head over there.

I'll be coming back here on June 8th for about a week to finalize everything in the States, move out of the apartment, and ship everything to London (not to mention a weekend in Blacksburg thrown in for good measure).

Look out for my next post to be sent from the UK!

Moving To London

Well, its (mostly) official. I'll be transferring to the UK branch of my company and working out of London beginning in May. In an interesting twist of fate, my wife will be switching jobs and moving to Uganda for a year. We're both very excited about our opportunities for living abroad. They are both going to be great moves for us individually, and I believe that our marriage will become stronger for the experience. You can follow her exploits on her own blog (note the great naming convention).

Things had started off slowly, after initial discussions about 2 months ago, everything started accelerating very quickly in the past week or so.

I'll be going across the pond in mid-May for an initial period (maybe 2 weeks or so) to search for a flat and get started on a new project. Then hopefully I'll have some time to come back and finalize the storage/moving/etc of all of the stuff I'll need.

The plan is to find a furnished studio or one bedroom flat in the city (so I don't need a car). That way I can also avoid bringing any heavy furniture and instead store all of the furniture I have now.

I've been doing some research about other Americans moving to London, and will post any insights into the process that I find are lacking out there on the interweb.