It's an Exciting World

We had our first rainy week, and at first the mix of rain and ice on the sidewalks made for a very slippery shopping trip on Sunday. I got soaked and it was a cold walk, despite the temperature being higher than the previous week.

That evening we decided to see Avatar 2, and it was a decent movie. The visuals were amazing, but the story was a bit convoluted and many of the decisions didn’t make all that much sense. We went to Everyman again, and it was a nice theater experience. I think I chose the right seats and we got dinner at the theater. The only thing that was a little annoying was I had a tray of glasses and plates and nowhere to put it after I was done without leaving the theater.

We were finally experience true British weather with the endless drizzles. It was grey and lightly raining for several days in a row.

Our air shipment from California arrived and we unpacked it all. It was mostly kitchen things, and all the rest of our clothes and blankets. The shipment had a strange smell to it, so we ended up washing everything. The kitties were happy to have the soft blankets. We were also happy to have our actual blankets we normally sleep with. I certainly slept better, although Steph was too warm. We will need to dial in the sleeping arrangement and temp.

We also finally got our bank account set up and I spent a while tracking down how to do direct deposits, and automatic transfers for all the utilities, rent, and getting paid.

The next morning we hopped the train for Luton, and on to Prague.

We got back from Prague and gave the kitties lots of cuddles. There was surprisingly nothing really to clean up beyond some scattered litter. The kitties were doing well and just a little hungry.

I ran a lot of errands the next day as they are serious about their holidays in the UK. Pretty much everything will be closed on Christmas and the day after, Boxing Day. We will be walking around the city a bit to see what is going on, but I expect it to be pretty quiet. The Christmas markets similarly don’t actually run on Christmas, and they were all being taken down on our way back from the airport.

Christmas Eve evening we went over to Nancy and Punit’s place, which is just on the other side of King’s Cross. We met their friends Alex and Jonathan. Nancy and Punit had made an amazing spread of food, and each other person brought a little something to start with. I really enjoyed the conversation and the people seem like they would be great to hang out with around London. They introduced us to the reduced ticket prices, and a few other local gems that we need to look up. We ended up playing Sushi Go Party, which is a version of the game we hadn’t played before. I had a great time and we look forward to seeing them again.

For Irene’s last day in London we planned on going to her place for an afternoon tea. We stopped by the market and grabbed some pastries and fries. I brought over some pears, and Steph also grabbed some mochi. The food courts in Camden that had been closed most every time we walked by were open and we grabbed some mochi as well. Armed with that we met up at Irene’s. We had Dishoom recipe chai with some of her other local friends. These friends I think we got along with better, but they were somewhat jet lagged from getting back from Thailand.

I ate entirely too much as it was all so tasty, then I had to get back really fast as I was due to give some stuff away to clear up some space in our flat. This was stuff the previous tenant had left as part of us buying stuff off her as she left. Irene came to our place later and hung out while we finished our weekend chores. I called my parents, we finished filling out Christmas cards, and I delivered the bed to the guy who wanted it.

The day was cold and foggy, and that evening it began to snow. The next morning I braved the snow to go to a workout class and got some great pictures. I’d guess it was a little over 2 inches of snow.

I took some time the next morning to hang out with Steph and the kitties. I worked from home in the morning, not making it into work until after a noon yoga class. The kitties were so cute waiting to be fed, they self organized onto the shelves.

We tried a new yoga teacher from Better, and I liked the class much more. I also grabbed a number of plants from Waitrose, which we can use to cook, or to just have some more plants. I’m not sure how well they will grow, but it is worth a try.

Steph and I went to an escape room, Plan 52 by ClueQuest. We managed to escape with 5 minutes remaining, but needed 4 clues, mainly for where things were secreted away. Some of the items were very well hidden. The room manager said the typical number of clues needed was 12 and that we did very well. They have 3 other rooms and I think we’d want to do the rest of them. Two of the rooms require at least 3, so we’ll have to make some friends.

Thursday Steph and I had our first taste of Indian food since we’d gotten to London. It was amazing, and the breads we are used to being small bites were as big as my head. I got to the area a little early and walked around Covent Garden before dinner at Sagar.

We went to the Postal Museum which was much better than I’d expected. They had two buildings, one for the regular museum, and the other for the mail rail. It was really cool to see it all, and get a glimpse into how mail started to be sent and became a government agency. Most of the museums for things like this in the US start with an assumption of, “of course we need it to be like the other countries.” In this case they didn’t start with that assumption of “of course” but instead explained how everything started and the motivations behind each step of the mail system expanding.

Steph and I decided to head a little north on Saturday, to Hampstead Heath, a large nature park. The heath is the largest park near us, and we can easily get there on the norther line. It was gorgeous with the ice and snow, but also slippery. I was amazed runners were able to run up and down some of those hills because they were packed snow and ice. I only saw one person slip and fall, and I was expecting a lot more people to fall. Steph and I each had a few close calls. Once comically at the same time and we could have had a hallmark moment of slipping and falling together. We walked all over the heath then went to a small old pub, Old Bull and Bush. They had some decent drinks and a sticky toffee pudding that was really good.

After the bit of food we headed to Kenwood House for the Christmas lights display. They had a lot of interesting alternative light displays, but very few of the traditional string lights. It was about a 20 minute stroll around the grounds.

Then we headed back to our place to play the latest Demeo campaign with Adam and Tina. We got the boss down to 20 health, which we probably could have finished with another turn of attacks on him.

We had hoped to spend the weekend unpacking the air shipment, but unfortunately that won’t be coming until Monday. I’ll do some shopping today to get more things we’ll need long term. We’ll unpack Monday night and get more settled before jetting off to Prague.

End of the day on Sunday we had our book club meeting. It was great to see the familiar faces and have that consistency. We discussed the book The Lost Alchemist and chose to read Napoleon’s Buttons for December.

Steph and I started out the week by trying to find some of the home items that we needed, especially for storage in our new place. We found some chains online, but they tended to be pretty far outside the city and/or expensive. I knew there would be places nearby, but the little shops with lots of different home goods were hard to find online. We managed to find a place on google that had a few pictures, and those showed that they had mostly what we needed.

Tuesday morning we headed to Better in King’s Cross for some yoga. It has a nice workout area, but I think I prefer the classes at Frame to the class at Better. I’ll probably continue to mix and match the two locations.

Steph and I went to the close by theatre, Everyman, to watch Wakanda Forever. I rather liked the film, although the plot and character actions were not as well thought through as some of the other Marvel films. There were too many instances where characters had strange motivations or did things that made no sense.

We had a lovely morning walk around the neighborhood hitting up the local parks. We stopped by the St. Pancras Old Church Yard, then headed to the Camley Street Natural Park. Despite it being winter the parks were still quite nice to walk through.

We also dropped into Coal Drop Yards and looked at what shops they had. There was an interesting tea place, and the plant shop didn’t seem to have as many plants as I’d expect. We were pretty early in the morning so nothing was really open yet.

We then dropped by the Canal Museum, which is just a 30 second walk from our apartment. It was cute and interesting, but the kind of place we only need to see once. That is done now and we’ll have to find all the other cute interesting museums to stop by on weekday mornings. One important thing I learned from the museum is that SUPs are allowed in the canals at some points at least. They had pictures of people paddle boarding in the canals.

I went into work for some of the end of year festivities, which were scheduled quite early due to people leaving on holiday soon. We played a beat saber tournament, but it only had a few entrants.

The kitties are also doing great. I noticed that Archer chipped a tooth, and I think it was from when he snuck under a mattress I was moving and got squashed down pretty hard. He found a hiding spot that was too good and we had to block it off with some tape and cardboard. They seem to be pretty comfortable and are doing well otherwise. They are also causing all sorts of trouble. I had a decent workday until Archer was getting hungry. He opened the office door which was fine, but then he jumped up onto the desk and knocked my cuppa onto the computer. I set it out to dry overnight, but it still wouldn’t start. He can be a bad kitty sometimes.

We had dinner with Irene again, and had a quick walk around Camden. It was late enough that the market was closed, but we got to see some of the more interesting buildings and walked along the canal for a bit. We brought over some food and she cooked some for us. We will miss her when she leaves.

Steph and I were getting cold on our walks so I decided it was time to get some more cold weather gear. The closest affordable place that had an online presence was H&M. The other stores in St. Pancras Station were very expensive. I got a nice hat, a scarf, and some gloves. I decided to go with an English look.

At work when I went down for dinner they had a small holiday part going on. I decided to stop for an extra 20 minutes and make an ice sculpture. It was supposed to be a polar bear, but I think mine looked more like a hippo. I don’t feel too bad about it as I made it a lot further than anyone else.

Steph and I finally got around to our celebratory welcome dinner at Coal Office. It was nice, but way too loud for me. After dinner I took a walk to St. Pancras to see the Christmas tree. It was pretty neat with all the London landmarks. Any other tree would have had the clock tower at the top be Big Ben, but this one had Big Ben halfway up and the St. Pancras clocktower at the top. They also had the birdcage at King’s Cross lit up, which it hadn’t been every time we’d walked by before. Unfortunately when we walked by the fountains they seem to have been drained, probably for winter.

We met Irene and some of her friends at the covered market by Waitrose, which was really nice. They are interesting people, and have done a lot. Some of their recommendations matched some I’ve gotten from coworkers as well. Then we tried to go to the Postal Museum, but they were full. Next time we’ll get a reservation.

We went over to Irene’s again for dinner/desert. We first walked around the Camden Market, and it was interesting. They had all sorts of goods and food crammed into narrow alleys. Much of it was unique and interesting, unlike many other tourist trappy areas I’ve been to. There seemed to be a small markup for being there, but nothing too bad. It was nice and quiet, as everyone was getting ready for the England – France world cup game. We watched over dinner and Irene and I watched some youtube together after Steph went back to do a martial arts Zoom class.

On arriving and getting settled into London we had an amazing friend, Irene, who cooked for us as we unpacked, and showed us around the parts of the city that she knew. It was great having her here as we arrived. She also introduced us to some of her London friends.

The first week we visited her place in Camden, which is a half hour walk along the canal to get to. The walk itself is gorgeous, during the day and night. There are also lots of boats along the canal. Our apartment is right next to one of the major basins with many longer boats.

We went shopping at a few different grocery stores, just to see the neighborhood and what it had. We found a small, but well stocked pet store in Angle, the neighborhood east of King’s Cross. I spent some time working on immigration paperwork, and we both now have our long term permits.

Irene took us to the Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park one day. We met her there, although she was a little late as she misjudged the train routes and ended up going a few stops in the wrong direction. The Winter Wonderland was an interesting fairground. It had an absurd amount of Bavarian styled tents that looked like they were really meant for Oktoberfest. They had lots of shops, and even more food and drink. We did get a few spiced ciders, mulled wines, and hot chocolates. Looking around the fairgrounds there were a few tents that had regular prices, but you had to look hard for them, and they were a little tucked away.

We ended up in Thor’s Tipi, a large tent with viking themes and fireplaces. That was a nice place to relax before heading to high tea at The Beaumont. The high tea was delicious, and the atmosphere was excellent. The park just outside was also nice.

We took the tube to near the Tower Bridge, where the concert we were going to would be later. We walked by the water as I took some calls with people on the US West Coast. Then we walked over to the venue at All Hallows by the Tower. We were there for a Christmas Choir performance, that had a few sing alongs for the more well known songs. The church itself was amazing, and the choir was great. I especially liked the history and stories that went along with them, and the narrator that read out the stories was great.

The next day I worked while Steph redid the apartment to be more to our liking.That evening we met up with Irene and friend for drinks, and had a lovely conversation. We had an early night and I got a bit more done for move logistics.

The weekend was nice as we went shopping for more kitty things, then we joined Irene on the underground to head out to Woolwich to see The Burnt City. I’d seen it before and it blew my mind, so I had to take Steph and Irene. They both liked it, but it is hard to say if it blew their minds as much as it did mine when I first saw it. It was also great to explore the set more, as I missed a lot last time. I also got to see more of the story this time, as well as a different cast.

Sunday morning Steph and I tried out the Box Fit class at Frame and liked it. I also want to get over to the other workout gyms nearby and try out their classes and weight rooms, but that will have to be next week. We spent most of Sunday on logistics and planning for the apartment and our time in London.