I know I’ve been in London a whole week and a half and I haven’t updated yet… part of the reason is that I’ve been waiting for something interesting to happen. I’ve been busy working and interviewing scads of people last week. A few folks were in from the Mountain View office to help, so we had a few group dinners (I highly don’t recommend figuring out how to split a bill 20 ways, with some of them paying with credit and no one else having the right amount of change). But I’ve gotten to know more people from the London office, and had a first meeting with the developers coding the projects I’ll be working on over the next year.
Today I met with the relocation specialist who showed me a number of different flats in different areas of the city. Mostly I’ve been interested in Marylebone which has a really nice, quiet high (translation: main shopping/market) street and shady tree-lined residential areas. We also looked at some flats on Westbourne Grove in the Kensington area. Just as in the US, flats are priced based on location, building amenities (one I looked at had a plasma screen TV, a good sized pool, gym, sauna and *gasp* a free parking space!), distance from the high street or tube station, etc. The same priced flat in one area was brand new with a very modern kitchen and had tons of space, while others in a different part of the city had teeny matchbox bedrooms and dark kitchens. Because London is such an old city, they tried to make the best use of space as possible, and some buildings have flats below ground level. I looked at a few of those because they often have more room for the money, but the trade off for available light probably is too much for my taste.
London has been having a heat wave since I arrived – it’s been very humid and in the 80s and 90s every day. On Saturday it felt more like New York City when the day gave way to a mid-day rain storm to cool things down a bit. Everyone here keeps telling me how rare it is, how much I should enjoy it because it won’t last. Having always lived in California, I know I take for granted that we can keep the windows open most of the year and that it’s consistently sunny. So when I’m touring flats today and thinking how dark it is, I have to believe it’ll feel about 100x more so in mid-February when I haven’t seen the sun for more than 5 minutes since September. I have to say that although I know I’ll miss the warmth, I am really ready for the temp in the tube to get down below 85 degrees at 9am in the morning (and worse that evening!).
Monday, July 24, 2006
Friday, July 14, 2006
Start of a visit
I arrived in London Thursday morning and was checked into my hotel by about 1pm. Unfortunately the guy on the flight next to me who was insanely fidgety and the turbulence, I didn't sleep much at all. I slept for about 12 hours last night so I'm feeling pretty decent today, thankfully.
The hotel I'm staying at is in Kensington, and I haven't had much time to explore the area yet, but there are tons of nice looking bistros, small grocery stores, a nice Waitrose grocery store just past the tube stop (sort of on par with Whole Foods quality but less organic/natural-ish) and some independent shops. The sheer lack of independent retail stores here was a shock - all of the High (main) streets in the towns have the same chain stores, so there's little in the way of local character. But Kensington seems to be a bit different and definitely more "posh."
The plan for this weekend is to go on an area tour with Allen, a co-worker expat who moved here about 2 months ago. He was even kind enough to bring me a little present - a book on learning to understand the Brits, both in behavior and cultural nuance. There's an incident with some pants he related to me that hopefully I will just learn vicariously.
The hotel I'm staying at is in Kensington, and I haven't had much time to explore the area yet, but there are tons of nice looking bistros, small grocery stores, a nice Waitrose grocery store just past the tube stop (sort of on par with Whole Foods quality but less organic/natural-ish) and some independent shops. The sheer lack of independent retail stores here was a shock - all of the High (main) streets in the towns have the same chain stores, so there's little in the way of local character. But Kensington seems to be a bit different and definitely more "posh."
The plan for this weekend is to go on an area tour with Allen, a co-worker expat who moved here about 2 months ago. He was even kind enough to bring me a little present - a book on learning to understand the Brits, both in behavior and cultural nuance. There's an incident with some pants he related to me that hopefully I will just learn vicariously.
Friday, June 23, 2006
You're so money...
I've had the pleasure of gaining some understanding of how confusing taxes are when you're an expat. There are specific residency rules for California, the US and the UK - depending on the number of days you work in a certain country you're eligible to pay certain taxes, etc. The bonus is that I get out of doing my taxes for two years! Woo!
I'm heading to London for 3 weeks starting the 13th, and I'm going to get started opening the various bank accounts I'll need. My current bank doesn't have any European branches, so I'll be setting up a US account and a UK account with a bank that does. I will be paid in US$ (pray for a strong dollar!) and will then have to transfer money between accounts whenever I get paid. This should get interesting, with my luck dealing with banks lately. (For those who missed it, when I was in the UK last time, my bank turned off ATM access to all UK ATMs 3 days before I left even though I'd told them I was leaving, and took over a week mailing me a new card. I was able to withdraw cash if I went into a bank branch and asked them to do a cash advance against the credit card portion, but found this out Saturday at 3pm in a small English town where banks didn't open again until Monday morning and had already checked into a B&B that didn't take credit cards. Grrrr.)
I'm heading to London for 3 weeks starting the 13th, and I'm going to get started opening the various bank accounts I'll need. My current bank doesn't have any European branches, so I'll be setting up a US account and a UK account with a bank that does. I will be paid in US$ (pray for a strong dollar!) and will then have to transfer money between accounts whenever I get paid. This should get interesting, with my luck dealing with banks lately. (For those who missed it, when I was in the UK last time, my bank turned off ATM access to all UK ATMs 3 days before I left even though I'd told them I was leaving, and took over a week mailing me a new card. I was able to withdraw cash if I went into a bank branch and asked them to do a cash advance against the credit card portion, but found this out Saturday at 3pm in a small English town where banks didn't open again until Monday morning and had already checked into a B&B that didn't take credit cards. Grrrr.)
Sunday, June 04, 2006
Complimentary customer service... for a fee
Hank and I are jet-setting a fair bit before we move in September. We're heading to Kentucky next week for 5 days to visit Hank's family (and I'm hoping to taste some really excellent BBQ!). I'll be in London for work/flat-hunting from July 12 - Aug 3. Although Hank is invited to come with me to look for flats, I think he's opting out of the trip. I mean, being cramped into uncomfortable plane seats for 10 hours to be hauled around house-hunting just to fly back 10 hours and then have to do the flight all over again in less than a month - seriously, I just cannot understand why he wouldn't want to go! :P
Most of you are aware that I test software for a living, and let me just say that for my recent efforts attempting to book a ticket with British Airways, I found a few doozie bugs and was charged $20 extra for my efforts. (I'm kinda used to getting paid for that skill, so this was a shocker.) I was getting an error message on the booking page attempting to pay for the ticket, so I called two different help lines, and after an eternity on hold, spoke with a woman who told me to try it with a different browser. Sure, no problem - I went through it, still happens. She tried it on her system, and found a ticket $500 more than what I was seeing. I tried it again on my system, and this time, the SFO - LHR ticket price showed up as $-41!! Somehow it does seem fitting that airlines should pay you to fly on them. The return ticket price turned out to be the full price of the round-trip ticket plus the missing $41. So it still came out to be the same price.
No, it didn't let me 15 one-way tickets.
Yes, BA did charge me $20 to book the ticket with the "helpful" website support person to book the ticket because their website sucks. Gotta love customer service.
Most of you are aware that I test software for a living, and let me just say that for my recent efforts attempting to book a ticket with British Airways, I found a few doozie bugs and was charged $20 extra for my efforts. (I'm kinda used to getting paid for that skill, so this was a shocker.) I was getting an error message on the booking page attempting to pay for the ticket, so I called two different help lines, and after an eternity on hold, spoke with a woman who told me to try it with a different browser. Sure, no problem - I went through it, still happens. She tried it on her system, and found a ticket $500 more than what I was seeing. I tried it again on my system, and this time, the SFO - LHR ticket price showed up as $-41!! Somehow it does seem fitting that airlines should pay you to fly on them. The return ticket price turned out to be the full price of the round-trip ticket plus the missing $41. So it still came out to be the same price.
No, it didn't let me 15 one-way tickets.
Yes, BA did charge me $20 to book the ticket with the "helpful" website support person to book the ticket because their website sucks. Gotta love customer service.
Sunday, May 28, 2006
London calling!
I've been asked by work to head to London for a year to help build and get my team started across the pond. Woot! It's something I've been wanting to do for years, and Hank was willing to make another huge move for me, so here we go! My start date is September 1, 2006.
I will post to this blog periodically over the next 18 months or so to document our moving process, our adventures living in the UK and traveling abroad.
Here's the FAQ of what we know so far:
Who's going?
Me and Hank at first.
But what about those adorable, well-behaved kitties of yours?
If we don't want to put the cats in quarantine, they have to wait until 6 months after a rabies shot & blood test they got about a month ago. So they will be staying with some friends of ours in Mt View until about November when they'll come over.
How often will you be back?
I may fly back somewhat more frequently for work; I'll let you know when that happens. Hank and I also get one trip back we'll have to use before March. Again, I'll let you know what we schedule. We will most likely spend the holidays over in the UK.
What will you do with the house?
Dunno yet - we might rent it, we might not.
Where in London will you live?
I'm heading over there in July for a few weeks and will look for places while I'm there. Many flats come furnished, so most of our stuff will be in storage.
Will there be a spare room? Cuz I'm totally coming to visit!
We'll definitely look for a 2 bedroom place. No worries. Reservations will be on a first-ask first-served basis. ;)
What'll Hank be doing?
That's still being sorted out. He'll have a work visa for England, so no slacking for him, even if he says it's for "research".
I will post to this blog periodically over the next 18 months or so to document our moving process, our adventures living in the UK and traveling abroad.
Here's the FAQ of what we know so far:
Who's going?
Me and Hank at first.
But what about those adorable, well-behaved kitties of yours?
If we don't want to put the cats in quarantine, they have to wait until 6 months after a rabies shot & blood test they got about a month ago. So they will be staying with some friends of ours in Mt View until about November when they'll come over.
How often will you be back?
I may fly back somewhat more frequently for work; I'll let you know when that happens. Hank and I also get one trip back we'll have to use before March. Again, I'll let you know what we schedule. We will most likely spend the holidays over in the UK.
What will you do with the house?
Dunno yet - we might rent it, we might not.
Where in London will you live?
I'm heading over there in July for a few weeks and will look for places while I'm there. Many flats come furnished, so most of our stuff will be in storage.
Will there be a spare room? Cuz I'm totally coming to visit!
We'll definitely look for a 2 bedroom place. No worries. Reservations will be on a first-ask first-served basis. ;)
What'll Hank be doing?
That's still being sorted out. He'll have a work visa for England, so no slacking for him, even if he says it's for "research".
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