Driving in London

The best way to describe driving here is organized chaos. At first glance the roads here look like absolute mayhem. There seems to be no system in place and cars, bikes and pedestrians are just ripping around the streets at random. While there is still a lot of truth to that, after a couple weeks on the road I definitely feel like I understand it a bit more. A perfect example is the roundabouts. They look completely insane at first, with people flying in and out of them with blinders on, but after a while you do kind of get into a groove and now I really prefer them to intersections because more often than not you can zip through without having to slow down too much. It's that kind of difference that is pretty nerve racking at first but actually
ends up being a benefit.

As confusing as the roads are here, seeing as none of them seem planned and are almost exclusively old sheep walking trails or horse paths to the brothel, they are relatively well marked once you get the system. It's similar to the tube map, when you first arrive it's daunting, but soon you get the system and it all makes really good sense. Give them credit for trying to put some modern rational into the medieval mess they're working with.

Here are some of the interesting differences I've noticed, and since the laziest way to put your thoughts to words is a bullet list, here goes:

• While the roads here are chaotic, drivers in general seem to be much more alert and aware of their surroundings than in Vancouver. I'll leave that open to interpretation.

• There is no jaywalking here, it's just crossing the street, and it's common to see a parent standing in the middle of a busy street with their small children. Nobody waits for lights to change to cross at crosswalks either, we learned that early as pedestrians. You have to really pay attention to your peripherals here.

• Lights go yellow again between red and green so you get a head start. Seems a risky given people often run the yellow before a red, but there is just so much traffic here there are lots of little things like that to keep it moving.

• Motorcycles and scooters are allowed to pass you on the inside and there are tons of them always ripping by weaving between you and oncoming traffic.

• In the rare event that a street actually has a sign, it won't be on a post where you can see it, it'll be halfway up the side of a building or at knee height on the sidewalk behind a bush.

• GPS's are called SatNav's and everybody has one because there are no straight lines here. For me to get to work I stay straight on the A24 almost the whole way, but it takes around 100 turns to do so.

• Speed limit signs are few and far between, and are often just a tiny plate sized circle on a stick with nothing more than a number on it.

• Lanes end with little or no warning and everyone just kind of ends up back in one lane with no signals or proper merging.

• Street lights are never up high, always about 6 feet off the ground, and sometimes not even in front of you. I've been stuck a couple times where I don't get into the intersection before it changes, but I'm past where I can see the light so I just have to wait there until someone behind me lets me know it's gone green.

• Pedestrian controlled lights will go red for a bit, then flash yellow for a bit before going green so if the person has made it across you can start going. I love this.
• Gas is called Petrol and it's around £1.50 a litre.

• Cars are often parked on the side of a road clearly not wide enough for it, which shifts traffic over and makes any lines on the road completely useless. Just kinda have to go with the flow because it's not often clear where exactly on the road you're meant to be.

• On country roads there will be arrows indicating when a passing vehicle needs to re-enter their own lane. When you are new to driving on the right side of the road and you see an arrow in your lane pointing in the other direction it can really throw you off.

Hopefully the car allows us to see more of England outside of London. There is such a contrast as soon as you leave the city and I've really enjoyed every chance we've had to explore elsewhere.

-Justin

Jumping Through Hoops

While we were going through the process of applying for our visas back in August I had no idea how much of a foreshadow the whole ordeal would be for life in England. I'm sure everyone who moves to a new country struggles to get their feet on the ground, but I think the British just take it one step further. If there's one thing they love here it's office work, and they do their best to make sure that at least a dozen people at a desk have their hand in everything you do. In a country that seems to have run out of tangible industry it only makes sense that so many people here are making a living in made up positions that simply do not exist in Canada. If you're looking for a model of efficiency, London is not the place to start. Maybe Germany?

The amount of time we have spent in offices, on the phone, on a website, filling out forms, just to get to even a fraction as established as we were in Vancouver is amazing. It's been a real test of patience for me personally just to settle in to the system here and follow the many seemingly unnecessary steps.

Once we had managed to get a flat, a bank account, phones, internet, a local pub and shitty jobs, my next task was getting qualified as an electrician here. Sparing details, it meant submitting my Canadian qualifications for comparison, sitting a 3 day course and exam to challenge UK regulations, then sitting another safety exam and submitting easily the most complicated application I've ever done for an electricians qualification card I'm meant to have to work on proper job sites. Each step is a weeks or months long process costing hundreds of pounds and dealing with countless people and forms, I'm actually yet to even receive the card. For a trip with an undetermined but ultimately brief duration I kind of question the point. An experience nonetheless.

My latest challenge has been getting a vehicle. As you can imagine buying, insuring, taxing and registering a car here presents a whole parade of hoops to jump through, not to mention a parking permit and a UK license. I got a little extra practice when the first car we bought went 250 miles and then died in Wales, meaning I got to buy, insure, tax, and register another car, and apply for parking again. For a fee of course.

In the 6 months we have been here we have accumulated a pile of documents that is easily triple what we have in a lifetime in Canada (Note the thickness of that binder, ridiculous). The amount of paperwork these office people bombard you with is just staggering. Anything to keep the typing, printing, copying, signing, stamping and mailing going. Each task by a different person of course, possibly with an assistant.

-Justin

Adventures With M&M

"How come you can sell cider and wine after hours, but not beer?" I'm met with a wide-eyed stare from the sales clerk, who is discreetly putting my (highly classy) 2 litre bottle of strongbow into a bag.
"Shut up Genevieve! He can't".

It was the last night of Michelle and Matthew's visit and we were determined to party until they had to leave for the airport the next morning, so we hit up an off license for some booze to take home after the bar closed, which was illegal apparently. Despite our best intentions, and after successfully buying the illegal alcohol, we passed out immediately when we got home.

It was a great week with M&M, even though Justin and I had to work for a lot of it. They did a lot of fun things in their solo time; Camden markets, the zoo, Greenwich, the Thames river ferry, Thorpe Park, and even went to see Sweeny Todd.
Together we went to Harrods, which I had been wanting to check out since coming here (and need to go back!), had a picnic in Hyde park, saw a crystal palace football game, and went to quite a few restaurants and bars, with Michelle picking up the tab a few times (so nice!). The weather was absolutely amazing - about 18 degrees every day they were here. They were very lucky. It was a beautiful week.

Before they left I asked them about their trip and what they thought about things here in London, and I decided to include it in the blog. I tried to type out their answers as they were speaking them, so bear with my poor grammar please :)

What did you expect London to be like before you arrived?
Dirty, busy. Thought it would be overwhelming.

What surprised you about your trip to the UK?
How much diversity there is in the population. How easy it was to do things; transportation and getting around. And that there was no rain!

What was your jet lag experience like?
A mess. That first day really sucked. You wake up in the night, and you are up all day. But I feel normal now. The first day was fu@%ed.

What was it like sleeping on a futon for a week?
The first 2 nights were bad, and then we got used to it! We've had good sleeps the past two nights. Also it was funny that every time Justin left I woke up and talked to him. But I'd fall right back to sleep.

What was hands down the best thing you did while you were here?
The water taxi from Greenwich was pretty cool. The whole area next to the waterfront near the London Eye (southbank) was pretty cool too.
The football (soccer) game was the best experience. I loved how much the crowd sang and how bad they swore.

What were some of your other highlights of the trip?
Thorpe park was pretty cool, yea Fun.
Seeing you guys obviously! Nice to have people who know the area.

What would you not bother doing again?
I loved the zoo but we wouldn't do it again just because we've already seen it. Wouldn't do Greenwich again, not that we didn't like it, but it's just a one time thing.
There wasn't anything we did that we didn't like.

What are some of the differences you noticed?
The service is very different. No tipping, no waitresses. They never ID.

What advice would you give someone coming to visit?
Be careful with transportation, how much you spend on it, and where you can and can't use your Oyster card.

Were there any unexpected costs?
I spent way less than I thought we were going to, and we did way more than I thought we were going to.

Anything else you want to add?
Maybe next time we'll rent a car and go check out Bath and Windsor castle. Just get out of the city.
Yea we really wanted to do it but we didn't have time - We were here for such a short time.
We'll need to start practicing driving on the other side of the road at home!
We'll definitely come back, I never wanted to come to England before, we just came to see you guys, but it was a bonus that we actually really liked it here.


It was awesome seeing them, I miss Michelle so much already. We had a great time.
Matt comes tomorrow so bring on more adventures!

Hoping to see more of you on our new turf, because we miss you!
Gen