December Madness

Black Friday

It all starts with Black Friday... In US, and now here, in UK, Sweet November ends with an explosion of discounts, sending people in waves into the shops and supermarkets, fighting for their lives new TVs, coffee makers, iPads and X-Boxes. I heard a theory that during just December shopping period many merchants make 50% of their annual profits. Online stores went down within minutes and hours of opening...

I was wise enough to stay home on Friday evening and only dared to enter shopping mall on Saturday, it was still pretty crowded, tired staff told me that compared to Friday night on Saturday it was dead quiet. 

Christmas Mode

Then December begins and shops switch to Christmas mode. Discounts, heaps of useless stuff you will never use small Christmas gifts, decorations, candies, hot chocolate, streets turn into forests of Christmas trees brightly lit by myriad of coloured and white garlands, almost every house and every window becomes a fairy-tale-like cute display of owners' creativity. The city pretties itself in preparation for the darkest month culminating with the biggest holiday of the year.

You can see lots of Santas on the street. Trafalgar Square is on the news with the Christmas Tree being installed there. We went to see The Tree on the weekend, and were very disappointed - it did't look like the main Christmas Tree of the United Kingdom at all. It didn't even deserve any pictures. But Santas did...

Really Merry Christmas

If you didn't spend all your salary during Black Friday, embrace yourself for the month of entertainment. Every district has a Christmas market. Every district has a Christmas Tree. Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park. Winter Wonderland in Stratford. Ice rinks at British Museum,  Sommerset House and Hyde Park. Light Trail in Kew Gardens. Christmas Carols, Snow Shows, celebrities coming into London with the end of year concerts. Oh, and don't forget the tickets for every tiny attraction should be bought one, two, three weeks in advance. If you have enough money to see it all next problem you run into is the lack of time to visit all these places.

We chose two of them: Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park and Kew Gardens.

  

Hyde Park was packed on Sunday. I bought tickets to Magical Kingdom and Giant Wheel in advance, and on the day we arrived there were no more tickets available. If you enter through the entrance near Hyde Park Corner, you have to go through the long line of small shops and stalls - Christmas Market. The wisest thing I did that day was to leave all the cash at home. Most of the "everybody loses wins" games were cash only, so I had a perfect excuse to get rid of the annoying spielers. 

The Magical Kingdom was magically beautiful. It is a collection of ice and snow sculptures, beautifully arranged and lit in a tent with the inside temperature -8C. Seriously, when you get outside after having spent an hour inside, +6C in the park feels like Sicily in July.

The Giant Wheel ride was great - the view of the whole park lit and blinking and moving and singing was perfect!

On our way back from Hyde Park we bought a Christmas tree, and a bunch of decorations.

Perfect Christmas Dinner

In December groceries delivery suddenly becomes a problem. I usually book a delivery slot a week in advance and get to choose, in mid-December I discovered that most slots are booked until beginning of January and only inconvenient £6 times are left. Shopping fever was approaching its apogees.

On 24th of December the city is still crowded - people buy last minute gifts, wine and food and hurry home for Christmas dinner. Our merry international company of 10, where all the girls were russian and all the men were not,  bought, cooked and consumed a 3kg British turkey with american bacon with russian mayonnaise, 2 fish Italian style cooked by Italian, russian salad, French cheese and Italian cookies - all with Italian wine. Italian haute cuisine prevailed, but all the food was delicious. I personally haven't eaten for 2 days after Christmas dinner, which means it was a perfect Christmas dinner.

Christmas Day is quiet. No transport, everything is closed, everybody is at home, unpacking Christmas presents, enjoying time at home doing nothing, finishing that turkey or duck, minced pies and heap of candies from under the Christmas tree. People are also gathering strength for Boxing Day...

Black Friday vol 2

26th of December. Christmas is over. Gifts presented, food eaten, money spent. Time for merchants to empty their stocks for spring collections. 

Boxing Day is the start of the last mile of discounts. This year Boxing Day was Black Friday nr 2. Harrods full of people. Underground escalators looking like airport conveyer belts, with people barely visible behind and under the piles of shopping bags. Queues of hundreds and hundreds of people at the cashiers.  

By Sunday, 28th most of the madness is over. There are still discounts in stores, but most of the money is spent, everybody has got what they needed and didn't and is having rest before the last working days of the year.  

On Monday morning there are no more Christmas trees for sale on the streets, garlands are disappearing from the shops and restaurants and Tube is full again of people hurrying to their offices. 

Tomorrow we are going to the last entertainment of 2014 - Magical Christmas at Kew Gardens, and then, having documented our NY wishes, dreams, resolutions and plans, witness The Fireworks 2015 on New Year's night. 

Driving on the "wrong side" of the road

Today I had another important milestone - I drove a car in England. Yes, on the wrong side of the road, with the steering wheel on the right side. I used Zipcar for half a day to take my son to a golf party 20 miles from London. It would have taken us 2 hours and £15 one way(!) by public transport, compared to 40 minutes one way and a total of £42 (provided I will not get any fines and speeding tickets later) by a "car club" car.

Car club (e.g. Zipcar) is a nice feature, when you subscribe to a car renting service. You provide your data to the company, including a bank card to charge and a driving license scan, pay a monthly fee and can book a car, located in various parking spots across the whole London (and other European cities). The price for Zipcar in London for a VW Golf is £8.5 per hour including insurance and fuel.

You come to the parking spot by a certain time, unlock the car with a digital card or using an app on the smartphone, get in, find the keys, inspect the car for damages, report immediately if there are any and drive off. You have to return the car to the same place with the tank at least 1/4 full of fuel, and if you have to refuel it, there is a fuel card in the car, so you don't have to pay, it's just your rental time that you are "wasting".

What I was afraid of:

• I won't be able to shift gears with my left hand! - so I took a car with automatic transmission
• I won't be able to turn on crossroads whatsoever! I might even get sick because it's all wrong sides! - so I read an article in the internet "Driving for idiots" "Driving tips for UK visitors" and went through the route on Google Maps Street View to know where the tough "right turn" places are
• I won't be able to exit the roundabouts! I heard stories of people driving in circles endlessly unable to understand where they should turn to exit, having lost sense of direction.
• Angry and impolite drivers, that wouldn't let me in if I suddenly happen to be in the wrong lane (like turning instead of going straight). 

What it turned out to be - as usually, difficulties arose not where I expected them to be:

• Hallelujah to automatic transmission! Even put aside worrying about left-handed gear shifting, my both hands were so busy clutching the steering wheel I wouldn't be able to shift gears with any hand. 
• It took me a while to figure out why the key wouldn't come out of starter when I parked, turned out that I had to put the car into Parking mode before the car would allow me to leave it with the key in my hand.
• With this left-right-side mess I went totally dumb looking at the electronic handbrake - a button, that I had to press along with pressing the brake pedal. I couldn't remember whether I should pull it up or press down. So, I pressed the brake pedal, and my son pressed the magic button - and it worked.
• Turns were easy. Basically, if I entered the main road, I just looked both ways. I also looked where the cars drove to be sure where I should land after the turn. I kept saying aloud to myself at every crossroad "OK, I am turning left now, it's an easy turn, just keep left". And another funny thing that helped me is I told myself that normally my side of the car is never next to the curb. My right shoulder should always be facing the road axis line. It helped alot.
• Highways and big roads were really easy. Lanes are marked, crossroads are marked, traffic was existent, so on the crossroads I just followed the trajectory of the car in front of me. Before complex manoeuvres (like two-level highway junctions) I said out aloud where I am going, and took the appropriate lane beforehand. 
• On quieter roads, where there were no help from cars or markings I just drove very slowly thinking my next step every time. There were very little quiet roads in my part of London today, so it wasn't an issue at all.  
• I couldn't really understand what was the problem with roundabouts. Somehow it was pretty natural, just the other way around. :) However, I must say that roundabouts are considered complex in every part of the world, and I have never had any problems with them, even when learning how to drive. And I am really happy about that, because there are LOTS of roundabouts in London.
• Angry drivers turned out to be another false fear of mine. Either all of them were indulgent to my newbie driving because of Saturday, or it's not true at all, but I was let into the lane when I missed the right one, and I got honked at only once, when I literally stopped in the middle of the small road looking at the screen trying to figure out which way to go. I'd honk myself too!  
• I missed a scratch on the door, and, if you report it, you have to call in and report it in the first 5-10 mins of your booking time to prove it's not your scratch you are reporting. I noticed it just when I arrived at the place, so now I hope I won't get charged for it.
• I was some minutes late with returning the car. Since there was another reservation immediately after mine, I couldn't extend my booking, but luckily, when I called in I was told I won't be fined for such a small delay. Phew! 

I haven't seen my credit card statement yet, it takes several days to charge it, so I might follow up when I get to know what I have actually paid for this trip. :)

However, one thing is certain: it is so much more convenient to go around by car (well, outside of central London), than by bus-tube-train!

Emotional Confessions of a Migrated Mind

Last week I flew to Estonia for vacation, first time after leaving it 4 months go. It is a very strange feeling - to come as a guest to a city which was the source of all kinds of responsibilities for the past almost 30 years. 

The greatest thing of all was to see and hug my farther and friends. It felt like I’ve been away for only a week, but the joy of seeing each other was much higher than it used to be when we lived in Tallinn (and sometimes didn’t meet for the same 4 months in a row!). I have also understood, that I do not miss places, but I do miss the people. It doesn’t matter where you live as much as who you live with or nearby. Skype, Viber and Hangouts will never replace the connection and feeling arising when you sit next to a person and look them in the eye.

I thought Tallinn would feel small and quiet. It didn’t. It’s not that it’s grown big and noisy, it’s just I didn’t pay attention. But it is definitely more spacey, than London. Streets are wider, buildings stand farther apart, and it feels like there is more open space around. It is also cleaner throughout the day. London is so densely populated that streets, cleaned during the night, don’t stay clean for long. in Tallinn at the moment falling leaves everywhere create more work for the street cleaners. 

I didn’t drive for 4 months, and was a bit wary of losing my skills, however it seems it’s like a bike - you get in, turn on the engine and it feels like you drove yesterday.

I imagine it would have been worse had I driven in the mean time in London. Surprisingly, driving was something I missed a lot. I didn’t realize it until I took the car. Apart from being free and flexible in my movement around the city it felt more comfortable and private. I could turn on the music, and enjoy my being even when stuck in traffic. Unfortunately the SWOT analysis of owning the car in London showed that Ws and Ts outweigh Ss and Os.

The overall conclusion was pleasant: I didn’t have any regrets or terrible nostalgia about the city. I left with the feeling that I feel good both in London and in Tallinn, and flew back to London with a list of plans to host our friends and relatives in autumn and Christmas and spring, and ideas about new vacations in all parts of Europe. Thanks to Ryanair it’s rather free time that is a limited resource here, not money or possibilities. 

London prices

Is it true, that London is expensive? I'd say "yes" and "no". Everywhere in Europe it is possible to live both ridiculously expensively and manage to have all you need amazingly cheap. So, London, of all the other cities I know a bit of, is a very bright example of this controversy. Here is why.

First of all, I must say getting acquainted how Google products work turned out extremely helpful in London. Many products are extremely useful here, helping to find your way through the hundreds and thousands of shops and products and offers and prices: Google Maps along with navigation and public transport planning is indispensable. Daily. Everywhere. I try to keep my phone charged not so much because I am afraid to stay with no connection to people, but without maps and transport guidance.
Google Shopping - Product Listing Ads - amazing feature when I need to buy something, do not want to pay too much "just because" and have no idea where the shops are. Thanks to PLAs I found a great sports shop nearby and had a pretty nice walk through the woods to buy stuff for my son's trainings.
Google Certified Shops - shopping in UK I do tend to trust Certified UK shops more than others, especially when ordering online.
All three put together help me save time and money.

On a very high level: accommodation and travel are ridiculously expensive and clothing is unbelievably cheap (well, for me, coming from Estonia at least).

I am content with paying 140 pounds per month for a travel card, because I do like the quality of the Tube and bus transit, and my 11yo son travels for free on buses and for a symbolic fee on Tube. Also, kids' inter-city bus and train tickets do have significant discounts (50-70%), so I do see what I am paying for. One trick I did that saved me about 30 pounds per month is buying a travel card for 3 Tube zones (out of 6 in Greater London). I am living on 4th zone. With every next zone crossed the cost of travel increases. But this is true only for the Tube. "Slow" buses cost the same throughout the whole London. After having done some simple calculations I understood that I will add just 20 minutes of travel time every day and save some money, if I exit the Tube earlier and take bus from there. Considering that I can do part of my work and personal deeds on the bus from my phone, I am totally fine with that. I also try to travel to work and back home in off-peak times, when there are no delays and less people in transport.  

I heard the fuel here is the most expensive in EU area. Also, car insurance costs alot, parking is pricey everywhere, also in the outskirts of London, you have to pay a congestion charge when you enter the central London... So, I do not plan to get a car in the foreseeable future.

Apartments' prices, both rent and sale, are just crazy. The demand for housing in London is constantly higher than offer. London area allowed for building residential buildings is actually limited to avoid small satellite towns to be swallowed by the megapolis, so price of a square meter of any land and any property is skyrocketing, constantly. In addition, buyers create a vicious circle themselves - since property prices are rising, people are buying property as an investment and often do not even offer it for rent. So, many houses and flats in London are standing empty. New establishments often do not create new living space, which looks like a complete nonsense to me. Lately, the mayor of London declared that it would be reasonable to set a high tax for the property bought as an investment (i.e. when noone lives there). However, people who can afford 2-3 apartments in London will probably not have issues with paying additional tax, but the rent will probably go up more to cover for losses of landlords having one apartment for rent and yet another purely as an investment.

Groceries are a bit more expensive than in Estonia, but there are lots of good deals and discounts, which make "food in total" cheaper. Groceries home delivery is cheap (although somewhat unreliable).

To my surprise cosmetics I used in Tallinn was made in UK, so buying it here is a bit cheaper than in Estonia (due to additional transportation costs and margins).

Hairdressers are slightly more expensive than in Tallinn, although you can find a stylist 5-6-7 times more expensive and get an "haute couture" haircut too.

School uniform (branded) is expensive, mostly because it is a way to make money on things you MUST buy anyway. In general, kids clothing, if not "haute couture", is quite cheap, so luckily, pieces of uniform that are not branded, like trousers, is not a problem, but all kinds of sweaters, polo-shirts and blazers are a rip-off.

Nannies are expensive. I don't know the exact prices, but wealthy people wince when I ask how much it costs.

Sporting outdoors in recreation grounds is mostly for free and with a very good quality, BUT you pay an incredible amount of council tax (a tax for living in certain area) monthly along with your rent, which covers all those "nice-to-haves".

Lately, a wave of of "auction" online services has appeared. There are portals, where you can post a call for e.g. relocation and get offers from various relocation providers. You choose the one that suits you best (time-price-quality-wise) and can save up to 60% compared to major relocation companies. This is a big risk, however, to turn to an unknown company offering a good price, but with the help of reviews and recommendations (both online and from friends' network) you can actually find a good bargain.

Did I mention, discount is the magic of shopping in London. There are all kinds of discounts - "emptying sales", "3 for 2", "start of season", "end of season", "join now get free stuff", my favourite is from Merlin entertainment group owning lots of amusement parks and stuff in and around London. They offer free adult passes on... Kellogs packs, if you go with someone (either kid or adult) paying for a ticket. Since we do eat Kellogs sometimes at home, I buy "free pass" packs, and saved about 60% per visit. Also, many parks have "free days", tied to e.g. their birthday, season start, season end, or off-peak times - with enough patience and diligence you can always find a great deal.

Oh, one other important note for tourists. Permanent collections in state museums (Science Museum, Museum of Natural History, British Museum, National Gallery are free. This is a government policy targeted to educate people. Additional expositions though are not free, so look closely where you go and what you actually want to see.

Also, BBC Proms is a keyword for classic music lovers - cheap concerts in a beautiful Albert Hall in London, historically created to attract people usually not keen to listen to classical music to come and enjoy it for a much cheaper price than a concert would normally cost. I guess that works, since they are extremely popular here.   

As you might have noticed, I almost didn't include actual numbers here. They vary in time and by location, also depend a lot on the brand you are buying and where you are buying it from (online, offline, crowded transport hub area or a quiet road in residential district), the information I brought above is pretty general. There are plenty of sites on the internet with calculators and comparisons of prices in different places of the world, including London. Here is the one I used when planning my relocation. They proved to be true with minor variations both ways.

If you plan to come to London and need tips on how to minimise costs, ping me, I'll be happy to help.

Do you speak English? Vol.2

Another word I picked up from the conversation with a British client lately:

• arvo /ˈɑːvəʊ/noun, austral informal afternoon

And while looking for the previous one I had to look the next one as well:

• austral /ˈɔːstrəl/adj: of or coming from the south: austral winds

Etymology: 14th Century: from Latin austrālis, from auster the south wind

Life by post

Everything in London circles around post and your postal address.

To register at the doctor you need to bring a proof of address - a utility bill, a bank statement or a council tax bill on paper - with your name on it and the address which you are trying to prove.

To find a school for your child, you have to move first, live there for at least a month, get first proof of address, and then go to school, at least they will talk to you. Before that a state school will not even talk let you through the door.

By default bank (I use HSBC, not sure about other banks here, but I heard they were all the same) sends you all the papers, cards and even PIN codes for the cards home by post. Statements are sent by post, you even receive separate notifications for every large transfer from and to your account - each and every one as a separate letter. You can change your settings in the Internet bank or by phone and become paperless, but it is not common.

All the utility providers, internet and phone providers, mobile operators also deliver you tons of paper into your post box unless you specifically opt-out of it.

I am using a smaller, and cheaper energy provider, which is supposed to be cool and modern. By default they send everything by post, although they have my phone number and e-mail asked during the registration. In a  week after I signed up for the service, I received a letter asking me to choose the way of payment - weekly by meter readings, monthly by meter readings, or predictive bill (where I do not provide them with a meter readings, and the company guesses how much I consume and sends me the bill with the "guessed" number. In the end of the year they actually come and check the meter readings themselves and either refund me extra money I have paid or send me another bill to pay what money they are missing. In the latter case next year predictive bills amounts increase). When I ignored the first letter, in a week the second one came, exactly the same. After 2nd letter I decided to call their customer support and the result was that they were extremely happy that I am going to read meters myself, enter them online and do not want paper bills, but am happy with e-mail. Now I have a so called "fuel discount" of 20 GBP per year just because I opted-out of paper.

The same story with internet providers - I receive a letter notifying me that soon I will receive a bill for such and such amount and this is because... - then goes a list of services which I already know since I ordered them myself and they do not change from month to month. In a week I get another letter - this time the bill itself. At some point I found a checkbox for that paper madness in my online account and I really hope I will not see paper wasting from them again.

On the other hand London Transport is striving to be electronic. In order to get your travel card by post you have to specify it separately. Ticket machines do not give paper checks unless you ask for it proactively by choosing a separate button. And this all is extremely convenient. You can top up your Oyster card or buy next week/month of travel card either online or at the ticketing machine on every Underground station. For every cash accepting ticket machine there are 2 or 3 card-only. Starting from July this year buses no longer accept cash, only travel or Oyster cards. In general, London Transport is incredible. I am totally delighted. Buses have no exact schedules, and I find it reasonable, since traffic and speed are never exactly predictable, instead there are approximate intervals depending on day of week and time of the day. Also, most of the bus stops have electronic tables showing information on coming in real time. Same as underground. I can talk about London transport for hours, and it deserves a separate post.

What else? Apply for National Insurance Number (the main number you must have as soon as you become an employed resident in the UK) by post, receive a small paper with 7 or 8 digits as a result - also by post. Loyalty cards, medical insurance card, driving licence - everything is posted.

A map of cycling routes for London - order online, posted to you in 2 days. Totally free, by the way. This is London Mayor's way of promoting car-free traveling.

Major supermarket chains offer home delivery of goods. Order online, pay online, and then either select a shop to pick your bags next day, or provide your postal code and order delivery home, starting from 1 pound per delivery.

My first experiment ordering stuff home was bumpy. I made an order on Saturday. The cheapest delivery slot, which was also very convenient for me was 9-10PM next Tuesday - just 1 pound, irrespectively of the amount of stuff I buy. So I placed an order, paid for it, and on Tuesday night was happily waiting for my toilet paper, eggs, toothpaste and a bunch of other things which I ran out of.
At 10 PM I've got an SMS that the driver is late for half an hour. But the driver didn't arrive at that day at all. I went to sleep angry as hell, with a small comforting thought that a least we can use our last roll of kitchen towel as a toilet paper and somewhere we had a "travel toothpaste" that would save us for several days. Egg breakfast however did not happen next day. I sent a furious online inquiry about my order asking two specific questions: where is it? and what compensation am I about to get for this?

Next morning, still being angry and looking for someone to blame I called their customer support. I was immediately offered a voucher as a compensation, and a new delivery time was found for me. New order was created, old one refunded, and in the end I did not even have to pay for the delivery. So, in the end it went well, but I will probably not order things from them that I need next day.   Post-factum, looking at the reviews online I discovered they are between 2 and 3 out of 5, but all the major supermarkets had a score like this, and I do not have any other in the vicinity, so I sighed, lowered my expectation on delivery reliability and planned my next order. At least their customer support was quick and polite. They probably find it cheaper to hire a bunch of people to take complaints than to plan for delivering their orders on time.

Buying online is very popular here, and it is understandable. The post is working well. It is convenient for customers - you can shop without leaving the comfort of your home, it is convenient for shops - less expenses on actual shops, it is even convenient for the city in general - people hang around less, there are less crowds in supermarkets, less chaos on the streets and in public transport. I find it very convenient. Also, most of people spend more when shopping online.

So, in general, the city is so spread and crowded that it is easier to shop online and use delivery by post or courier, than to spend time in traffic, transport and shopping malls. Instead,  while they pack and bring my order, I'll go work, read or go walk in the park.

Morning Commute vol 2

Today I made my conclusions from yesterday's experience and woke up half an hour earlier. I also went out 30-40 minutes earlier than yesterday and the result was dramatically different!

I used my advantage of boarding an empty bus and read my work emails during the 20 min ride to the station. Eventually, the bus became full, the driver even stopped opening the entrance door on some stops, waving people off to the next bus coming, but that didn't affect me since I took a seat on the upper deck and there it was all calm and chilly. You are not allowed to stand on the upper deck, so it is never crowded up there.

The tube station was half empty, I took the right train right away, it was also half empty, with seats available, and arrived comfortably to my office with total traveling door to door time today 40 minutes.

The main bonus though is that I have the annoying task of filtering through the emails done before I even reached my desk, and now I could concentrate on the important things.

P.S. This post was written on the Tube en-route from Highgate to Tottenham Court Rd.

Tube jams (aka Morning Commute vol 1)

Today I've got a new London experience: "tube jams".

I planned my commute to work to be 50 min long and I planned to read through my e-mails during this hour. I didn't succeed at either.

When I boarded a bus, which was supposed to take me to an underground station, all was fine. I live almost at the terminus of every bus line in that area, so most of the seats are empty when I enter.

So, first 15-20 mins of a bus ride I was indeed able to read. Then I disembarked, along with about 20 people and went down the funny twisted downhill road to the underground entrance.

This is where I had to stop. 

The gates leading to the escalators were just closed, there was a small crowd of people nervously looking at their phones and watches, and a polite female voice overhead informed every minute or so that the gates are closed because platforms below are overcrowded. As soon as they are less congested they will let us in.

We waited approximately for 10 mins, and I must say, noone complained. Maybe because 10 mins is nothing in London, and my planned arrival was delayed exactly by those 10 mins,i.e. otherwise transport runs smoothly. Maybe, because they are nice people. In any case, even when they opened one (just one) gate (of about 10 installed in total), people obediently passed one by one through this small "portal" onto the running escalator and down to the platform.

The trains were almost full. I am saying "almost", some other European would probably say "absolutely", but I've been to Moscow tube in rush hour. If you've been there too, you know what I mean. Here it was OK except I cannot read standing in between several people. Other people can, so I read what they read - London This Week - an article about where to go this weekend, a book, left anonymous to me, about some soldiers and armors and weapons. And so, I read until I realized I am on the wrong branch.

You see, Northern line I am using is tricky. It looks like this:

And I have to go from the rightmost branch of the upper split to the middle left branch of the lower split.

So, I had to take the right train while I was in the upper right branch. And I didn't.

Luckily, I realized my mistake before the train reached the second split. So, I pulled myself out at Camden Town (the dot on the crossroad above), went up and down the stairs and turned several times and arrived at another platform, boarded the coming train, which had less people inside and on I went. Halfway through the station I realized I am still on the wrong branch train. So much for changing platforms. Luckily (again) next station was Euston, where it is also possible to switch branches, which I did, this time correctly (I am not taking into account the fact that I first arrived at the platform heading North (back home) but looking at the 4 lonely people waiting for the train I quickly realized something was wrong there. Changing sides, and here I am - on the crowded Southbound platform again. Hoorray!) Two stops from there and I am in the center of the city, delayed only by 10 minutes in spite of changing trains 2 times.

Oh, did I mention that trains had to stop in the tunnel before every station because the previous train hadn't yet left the station. So, I must say the trains are indeed coming every 1-2 minutes in the morning.

Conclusions made: 

- 8 AM - 9 AM is definitely the rush hour

- the farther from the center I board the train, the better the chance to sit comfortably (although I consciously go to zone 3 (living in zone 4) to catch the Tube for purely economical reasons)

- boarding the right train will save me 10 more minutes

Tomorrow I am planning to start 10 mins earlier and see if it makes any difference.

Beyond your wildest imagination

London keeps amazing me with endless possibilities and ideas beyond my wildest imagination.

Traffic-free London

You think that's impossible? Very much possible.
Last weekend I spent in a traffic-free and transport-free central London, visiting beautiful parks and riding a bicycle.

Every year the City of London organises a transport-free weekend called Prudential Ride (that is yet another word I have never heard before). The centre of the city is closed for any transport except Underground, and opened for cyclists. All roads are free to ride and thousands of people mount thousands of bikes and merrily cycle around the empty streets. There are two main routes set up, both of them are pretty sightseeing, so you get it all - enjoy the city without engines and sirens, get a workout and see many major landmarks of London including St Paul's Cathedral, London Tower, Tower bridge, London bridge, Big Ben and many others.

I was in the city with my friend and we didn't plan on cycling. But the sight of people passing by, honking and cheering under the bridges (to get a loud echo in the otherwise totally quiet city) was contagious, so we hopped on a Barclay Bike and went along.

Cycling station next to St. Paul

All ages, all bike sizes 

"Abandoned" city

At some places the city seemed abandoned - streets empty and strangely quiet. On several crossroads there were even musicians - drummers - filling the air with a strong rhythm - maybe one of the reasons was indeed to dissolve the unusual silence. To me both the silence and the nice live rhythm were enjoyable. After a short ride we reached the Tower of London, where a huge exposition of ceramic red poppies is set up as a symbol of blood shed during the World War I. The sight is amazing:

There are 888, 246 poppies - one for each British soldier who died in WWI. The exposition will stay for some time and then every flower (which is said to be unique in shape and form) will be sold for 25 pounds. 

Night with the dinosaurs

Having enjoyed the sight we cycled back to the centre of the Central London and left the bikes at docking stations. Next we explored the famous Natural History Museum, which turned upside down my idea about history museums. This one seemed more like history-geology-geography-biology-anatomy-social science museum and it will take many weekends to explore it all - it is simply HUGE.
Luckily the entrance is officially free. You are kindly asked to provide a small donation of 3 pounds, but noone checks whether you donated or not. It is totally up to you. I marked this museum as a source of weekly exploring - one section at a time, plus numerous exhibitions. You can even stay for the night in Natural History Museum - sleeping next to the dinosaurs.

Music for the masses

Before we entered the Natural History Museum we passed the beautiful Albert Memorial and the Royal Albert Hall next to the Hyde Park.

Albert Monument

Albert Hall didn't impress me from the outside, so I didn't take any pictures of it, but next Friday I went to listen to BBC Proms in the Albert Hall. I am not a big fan of the classical music, but the hall itself impressed me very much:

Albert Hall from the inside

The hall is almost totally empty inside. All the seats are organized into 7-10 rows of circles along the walls one upon another. We sat in the upper circle, on the 5th row and although I have no fear of heights, I felt uneasy "hanging" from the wall in a colossal circular hall with high ceilings. The acoustics was amazing. If someone coughed at the other side of the hall, everyone heard it.

BBC Proms tradition itself starts from some old times, when British government decided to join poorer people to the classical music and sponsored regular concerts previously affordable only by rich people, to everyone. The tickets to the floor for BBC Proms concert cost as little as 5 pounds. You do not have chairs to sit on, but people just stand or even lie down and enjoy the music. The same 5 pounds is the standing gallery on the very top with a beautiful view over the whole hall. The rest of the tickets vary in price, but still affordable. We sat on the upper circle to the side of the stage and the ticket cost me 14 pounds. 

Besides the impressions from the museum and Albert Hall, I must say the Kensington area with the "Museum Street" and Albert Hall is incredibly nice, below is just one example of nice curvy building.

  

Wellcome to Mountain View!

On my second week in London I flew to Mountain View office. After 2 days in Dublin, one full day of house hunting, lots of new information, next Monday at 11 AM I was already leaving office and manoeuvring with my über-suitcase in a crowded Paddington Station. I took Heathrow Express (and if you are coming to Heathrow and have extra 30 pounds, I strongly advise booking a roundtrip from-to airport by Heathrow Express), sent a couple of e-mails from the train (yes, that is the beauty of it, aside from air conditioning and 15 minutes instead of 45 minutes trip to the airport), and in 15 minutes was manoeuvring further along the kilometers of tunnels and walkways of Heathrow.

I haven't flown for 15 years and was slightly afraid of a 10-hour flight and security procedures, but I was pleasantly surprised by the result. After a week of tiring days, I finally had 10 hours with my phone off, sitting in a pretty comfortable seat with a personal touchscreen display with dozens of movies, audiobooks and music channels.

The seat, although the cheapest economy, when reclined, also shifted a bit forward, making sitting just a tiny bit more comfortable. The headrest had "ears" that you could bend to avoid falling onto your neighbour while you sleep. I made a smart move and bought a travel pillow in advance, so with it, a pillow and a blanket provided onboard, I was comfortable.

I love traveling after a busy day or week. In this case seating for 10 hours, being fed 2-3 times, able to sleep for up to 10 hours, with an option to watch movies or listen to the music - that's a luxury I usually cannot afford at home.

The best thing about US (California specifically) is the weather. Of course, had I stayed longer or had I lived in US, I would have been upset by draught and losing electricity from time to time and many more things, but for a 4-day-hotel-business-trip CA looked and felt beautiful.

Since Silicon Valley towns have no public transport, I took a taxi to the office every morning.
No issues with it except Indian English. Every day drivers were different and every day they were Indians. And every day it took me 10 minutes to understand what he was trying to tell me. Even my favourite "I am a foreigner, could you please speak very slow" didn't help here. Because "slow" didn't make it any more understandable. They just replaced letters and vowels at their convenience and it was a wild guess game and a brain workout to understand what they said.

Another nice feature I discovered is a "square" - a small device plugged into the taxi driver's smart phone, reading credit cards. I was amazed. He swiped my card through this - literally - white square, it debited my card, I signed a deal on the screen and entered my e-mail address for the receipt. I was sure my card would be wiped out by the end of the day. Not at all. New technologies. Colleagues at the office shrugged and said it was a usual way of paying these days.

The office itself was nice. Very californian. I would have a hard time working outside: too cosy, nice and warm. But I imagine you get used to it.

The flight from US was as pleasant as the flight to US. The tip for avoiding a jet lag is to choose takeoff and landing times in the middle of the day and make yourself tired before you board. Then you can sleep on the plane (but not too much!), and when you land you still have enough time to get tired again before the night, but not too much to fall asleep too early. 

Do you speak English?

I thought I was fluent in English. Now I know I am not. Good, but not fluent.

Every day I read and hear new words and my dictionary is always open.

Two new interesting ones I got during the last weeks: revamp (I thought it was something to do with vampires) and triage (you might think this is some product evaluation period - not at all!).

triage

noun

1. 1.

   (in medical use) the assignment of degrees of urgency to wounds or illnesses to decide the order of treatment of a large number of patients or casualties.

   "a triage nurse"

   • the process of determining the most important people or things from amongst a large number that require attention.

     "a system of educational triage that allows a few students to get help while the needs of others are neglected"

verb

1. 1.

   decide the order of treatment of (patients or casualties).

   "victims were triaged by paramedics before being transported to hospitals"
2. 
   

revamp

verb

1. 1.

   give new and improved form, structure, or appearance to.

   "an attempt to revamp the museum's image"

noun

1. 1.

   an act of improving the form, structure, or appearance of something.

   "the brand was given a $1 million revamp"

   • a new and improved version.

     "the show was a revamp of an old idea"

   
   

A Sunday in the City

Today I am going to write about a (more) proper London weekend. This Sunday me and my new London friend went to walk in the City. We started with a Leighton House Museum which was highly recommended by TripAdvisor. Having looked at the museum's site, I was immediately inspired by the Arab motives on the pictures, and off we went. Sir Leighton was a rich and famous (within London at least, I presume) artist, who lived in the 19th century. The house, which was also a studio, is quite modest but very nice. The owner had a great taste, and house's interior is a pleasure to look at.

On our way to the museum, my friend took me through a beautiful Holland Park. It used to host one of the biggest properties in the vicinity - the Holland House - until it was demolished by German bombings in 1940. Even a brief glimpse on our way through the park made me make a mental note to come back here later.

Holland park is full of flowers, all for different seasons.

A smurf-house, or a dwarf-house if you please. Leftovers from the mighty castle.

Amazing gallery of paintings - actually one big painting separated by white arches.

Next, our plan was to go have a look at the Festival of Love at Southbank and the Wonderland next to the London eye. Since, it was quite far away from where we were, we decided to take Barclay Bikes. Barclays Cycle Hire is an amazing system for short bike rides: throughout the city there are bike stations with bikes, secured in the slots, and a payment machine next to it. Daily rent costs 2 pounds, however, this is only in case you use the bike for less than 30 minutes at a time. You pay when you first take the bike, cycle for less than half an hour, park it at the next station, and later during the 24 hour period you can take another bike at arbitrary station, and again, if you use it for less than 30 minutes, you are not charged anything extra. If you, however, go over your time limit, i.e. bike is not parked for more than 30 mins, every next hour started costs you 1 pound. This way you can move from station to station, park the bike, wait for 5 minutes, take the bike again and cycle further. The tricky part is that you plan your route, come to the next station, you have, say, 5 minutes to park it and... there are no slots available. So, you are here, standing with the bike at the station and eventually you get charged for overtime just because it was full. A slight variation of the above: you come, there are places, you park the bike, but your bike is the only one at the station now, you wait 5 minutes, in the meanwhile someone comes, pays for the bike and drives away. Now you are in the middle of your journey, you can take the bike now, but there are no bikes. My friend told me, that in spite of the bike company driving around and bringing bikes from one station to another to make sure every station has both bikes and empty slots available, still in the mornings the residential district stations are empty (all went to work) and central London stations are full (all came to work), and in the evenings it is vice versa - everybody is taking bikes from the hot spots in central London and driving them to residential districts.

In spite of all that, we were able to take the bikes and cycle where we wanted, at the same time getting our daily dose of fitness. 

Wonderland  and Festival of Love looked good. Lots of people, lots of music, lots of food - normal big city hangout on a great summer day.

   

Blues of Central London

One of the not so good things about the place where I live now is that it is a nice and popular wine and dine district. Within 50 meters from my apartment I have four restaurants and one pub. According to the level of noise I calculated that the pub closes around 12:30 AM - 1 AM. Or maybe it closes at midnight, and then last men standing finish their drinks songs outside, and it takes them half an hour - I am not sure. What I am sure of is that almost every day someone has a birthday, and he or she is celebrating it at Lamb Pub. I also learnt that weekend starts on Thursday, sometimes even Wednesday and ends on Saturday. Because Sunday to Tuesday it's pretty quiet out there.

In general, Londoners like to have fun after work. On my way home from the office I pass at least one pub and from 6 PM it's full of people. The sidewalk in front of it is also full of people, and sometimes, half the road too. People are obviously on their way home, just like me. But unlike me, they do not hurry to the safety and comfort of their apartments and houses, but stay to relax, chat and eat in pubs.

But, back the Lamb Pub under my window. The echo of the evening's fun I get to hear in the morning, when, at 7 AM the garbage truck is going all over the city gathering garbage bags from the streets. Here they have a funny way of handling garbage. At least for commerces, shop and restaurant owners, maybe house and apartment owners and tenants put garbage bags on the street in front of the house in the evening and in the morning a garbage truck makes a trip around the city loading them from the streets into its garbage-greedy belly. So, pubs and restaurants have one very specific type of garbage - empty bottles. And they get loaded into the truck as well. I don't know how they do it, but it sounds like they just pour a stream of bottles into the metal womb of the car. And it is LOUD. So every morning I wake up from the sound of hundreds of falling bottles. To make matters worse, the weather is hot, so all my windows are always open, and there is no escape from this noise.
To be completely honest, last several days I do not hear them though: either I got used to it or they changed the schedule.

And by the way, I checked the pub's web page. And I am absolutely right: from Thursday to Saturday it is open until midnight. It actually has pretty good reviews on the internet. I can also assure you the public is honorable, no teenagers or drunks. So, if you happen to be in Bloomsbury, London, try a beer or two in this lovely place.  

Enjoying London

This weekend I finally found some time to look around and to see where I actually am. The weather has been really really kind to me. Looks like London is doing its best to look nice and friendly to me (yeah yeah, I know it's just a heat wave over the whole Europe, but I'd like to think this way :) ).

I live in Camden Town now and every morning and every evening I enjoy a pleasant 15 minutes walk down the busy streets of West-Central London. Some interesting things I have noticed which are new to me:

• People run to work. Meaning that they are dressed in sport shoes, backpack on their back, they actually run to the office. I guess they have their towels and toiletries, the office clothing and makeup stored in the office. Not a bad idea, and defnitely cheap, considering London transport fares.
• Small cafes open early. At 7 AM you can already get a coffe-to-go on your way to the office. In addition to that, probably, due to the high competition (or maybe just because it is fun) almost every cafe has something amusing to attract you. Many of them have funny and original signs, and one next to my current place has a board with a new phrase every morning. Today it said "Water is essential for your life, because you cannot make coffee without it." :)
• Drivers give way to pedestrians (unless you are jaywalking :) ). I definitely didn't expect such behaviour in a busy London.
• Some places of central London are actually quiet. And I was surprised to see lots of small and big patches of greenery, gardens in the center, some with huge centennial trees in them.

 

By now I found 3 friends here in London, all leaving pretty close, all from Estonia, having moved to London for various reasons.

Last weekend we went to Greenwich. The trip to Greenwich with DLR is a beauty in itself. You pass by a modern district with nice houses, tall shiny bank buildings, walkways, water pools and bridges. 

Then the train dives under the river and stops on the other side - next to a famous Cutty Sark ship.

Behind it - beautiful British Naval Museum, Old Royal Naval College, University of Greenwich and the park itself - open, hilly, green and beautiful. On the top of the hill there is a famous Greenwich observatory with its Zero Meridian, and a beautiful view to the eastern London.

  

Househunting

letting

ˈlɛtɪŋ/

noun

BRITISH

1. the action of renting out a property.

   "the renovation of houses for letting"

   • a property that is let or available to be let.

     "large houses were subdivided into multiple lettings"

Finding a place to live in London is a Mission Impossible. Meaning, that it is possible, but (remember the movie) it costs ALOT, puts you under stress and in the end there is still no guarantee that everything will be nice and sunny during your tenancy or when you move out.

The good news is, the city and the state are totally aware of the situation, and there's BIG money involved, so there is a System (The System) built around letting. There are laws, guidelines, leagues and associations for landlords, letting agents, Code of Conduct for Letting, London Rental Standard, Letting/Rental Deposit Protection Scheme, and various organisations helping those in need, like Shelter and Citizens Advice.

I am still in the process of paperwork and agreements. The funny thing is, when I visited a London Transport page today to top up my travel card, there was a huge background banner for a London Rental Standard site, which was born in June, 2014, and is an agreement, signed by letting agents, registered landlords and the Mayor of London about terms, conditions, letting and protection schemes for both tenants and landlords.  It provides a bunch of reasonable documentation with list of things to check before going house hunting, during the process, before signing a contract, after signing a contract and when moving out.

And banks even give out special loans to "buy to let". Serious business.