The Queens After Party

Invite To The Party

Today was the big day. We went to the Queens Garden Party at Buckingham palace - Justin dressed in his best borrowed suit and me in my TK Maxx dress and M&S hat. Two other ladies were wearing the same dress as me. I wasn't surprised.

The Classy Couple?

We were told cameras weren't allowed and phones had to be turned off once entering the palace, but when we got there we realized it was ok to take a few pictures if you were subtle, and the rule mainly applied to taking photos of the royal family. As such we have some pictures of us enjoying the sights, but none of the Royal family, whom we got VERY close to.

The Queue Outside

We queued outside the palace for about 20 minutes and then were let in through the front gates and lead through two rooms in the palace to the back garden. Tents were set up for tea service and chairs and tables were in various areas of the massive green space.

After wandering around the garden and grounds when we first arrived for about an hour, and drinking some lemon and barley, we gathered around the garden terrace for the family to arrive. We knew the Queen was going to be there but the other members of the family alternate between the three days, and so we didn't know who else to expect. At about 4:00 the family was presented on the terrace and that's when we could hear people murmuring that Prince Charles, Camilla, and Kate Middleton were there, which everyone was very excited about.

View From The Terrace

Ushers in top hats made us form rows for members of the family to walk through the crowds, each one going down a different lane. We had no idea who would be coming down our lane, but we were standing in between two with a good view of both, so we figured we had a chance of seeing someone important up close.

Important pre selected people were strategically placed in the first rows of each lane, and we were in between two important groups of people. I figured it would be a great place to stand because we would be just as close, but not have to have a nerve wracking awkward conversation. And it was.

Royal Tea Tent Guards

Rumors were circulating about which lane Kate would be going down, and everyone seemed to have a different expert opinion. We heard the Queen was going down a lane quite far away from us, but we stood our ground hoping for the (second?) best. We saw Prince Phillip first in a lane beside us. He looked very old, which I think he is, but he chatted quite a lot with the guests he was introduced to. And then we saw Prince Charles, Camilla, and Kate heading our way. Prince Charles chatted with two ladies directly on my left: he was handsome, with a dark tan and bright blue eyes. He was charming and charismatic and seemed lovely indeed. I don't know what I expected but he really surprised me. Camilla was next down the lane talking to someone a few people away from us. She was surprisingly attractive, I didn't hear much she had to say though. Kate was last and talked to two people standing to my right and slightly in front of me. Basically my big head was right in between them directly facing her. I saw her famous engagement ring when she moved her hair from her face and it was stunning and huge. She was every bit as pretty in person as you would expect, with a brilliant smile and a few wrinkles around her eyes showing she has lead a happy life. She held a pleasant conversation about charity work until she was ushered on by her staff. I didn't expect to find them all so lovely and was quite pleasantly surprised by the whole thing.

After the meetings we went and stood in the queue for tea and little sandwiches. We walked towards the Royal Tea tent where all the important people were socializing. There was a pretty big crowd around the roped off area just hoping for a glimpse of someone special. It's was quite zoo like. We finished our tea and baby sandwiches then rushed to get a glimpse of the queen leaving. She was wearing a lovely purple skirt suit and hat and looked quite sweet and very old.

It was a once in a lifetime experience and I think both of us really appreciated the whole thing. We were a bit uncomfortable in our outfits and with all the formality but it was fun, interesting, and pretty special indeed.

Now off to Paris tomorrow...
Gen

Differences Part 3 - Personal Differences

We've wrote a couple posts about differences between London and Vancouver but haven't included many personal differences. Here are some:


We use transit for everything and they use a re-loadable card system here that you tap in with at every bus or tube station.

Justin does at least half the cooking.

We don't ever turn the boiler on so we live without hot water. (The shower has a separate heater).

It takes about an hour for both of us to get to work. 

We drink in public legally. And it's awesome.

Justin drives a super tiny car. 

We eat Indian food often.

We sleep at least 7 hours a night.

People make fun of how we talk. 

We can pay for things with exact change because tax is included in every price.

Justin usually leaves the house first in the morning. 

We look forward to seeing live music from up and coming bands.

We live without a microwave - It's actually ok, except for re-heating leftovers.

We don't drive through the city because it would take longer than transit.

We go out to watch football (soccer) games.

We drink lots of cider. 

We live with very minimal belongings in our home.

We have maybe 5 friends. 

If we want to go meet up with people we generally travel at least 45 minutes. But it's worth it to see one of your 5 friends.

Genevieve drinks instant coffee at home, not just when camping.

We wear the same clothes over and over again because we don't have many.

We hang our clothes to dry.

We don't eat typical North American fast food.

We're starting to pick up some British slang, and we're not taking the piss.

Genevieve walks twice as fast as she did in Canada but still slower than everyone in London.

We very rarely have people over at our house.

Cooking is more difficult because we have few knives, pots and pans.

We have to remember that CCTV is everywhere.

Just a few things... basically everything is different here but it's hard to describe exactly. We'll keep trying!

Gen & Justin

More Work Than Holiday

The term 'Working Holiday' has been leaning a lot more to the work end of the spectrum the last 6 months. This was to be expected, when you travel without the funds to dick around as you please working is an unfortunate inevitability. I've been hesitant to write about my experiences with work here because it's tough to find the humor in a situation while you're still drudging it out every day. Having just started my third job here, and I'm cautiously optimistic this one will see me through til the end of our time here, I figured I could share how the first 2 went without going off on an expletive laden tangent.

When I decided to become an electrician I didn't really want to do any kind of work at all, and I still don't, but as I was born with a plastic spoon in my mouth, I have to work. This is an alright job that keeps the mind and body occupied during reasonable hours/days of the week for a reasonable pay, good enough. So I came to London not too worried about finding work, everybody needs a sparky eventually. Sure there's a recession and times are tough here, but I thought if I just tried harder to find work than anyone else I'd be alright, and I did, and I was... sort of.

After doing as much online applying as I could I started cold calling every company in the phone book. Eventually I got an interview, which happened to be in some guys garage office, and he had gold teeth and corn rows. Good start. He wanted me to show I knew what I was doing, which I only kind of did as things are a fair bit different here. So he insisted I do a half day with him for free (Something I would laugh at back home). I obliged and went with him to install a couple kitchen appliances in the most disgusting council flat kitchen I've ever seen, no problems. The next day he said he wanted me to do 3 more free days to show I can work with the crew and do other stuff. I explained to him that in any economy people exchange their goods and services for money, and anyone who fell for his game was an idiot.

Second interview came from gumtree. This one was in an actual office with a normal looking person. The salary was low, but there was talk of bonuses and I figured it would be alright, so I took it. This was the job I had the last 5 months. Turns out the salary was for an expected 6 days a week, which was a point of contention between us the whole time, I maybe worked half of them, more than I should have. The work was fine, rewiring 2 Victorian houses, something new to me, a challenge. I was in a little over my head seeing as I had never done any work here and it is a fair bit different. Luckily enough they hired another electrician to do the permits and he worked a couple days a week on and off so I was able to ask questions.

Without going on too much, the owner continued to show his flaws as the job went on. I wasn't sure if he was malicious or just an idiot and I'm still not. People were frequently owed money, the owners were often lied to, the job is still going. It just wasn't a good situation in more ways than I care to mention. Over the last couple months the other electrician had been mentioning he had a job starting and would hire me when it did.

So 2 weeks ago that job started and I was able to quit the first one, finally. It was a long way away, 45 miles south, 3 hours of driving a day, and about £15 petrol a day. But I liked the guy, the pay was much better, and it got me out of a bad situation, so we bought a car (and then another car) and I started working for him. The work was fine for the first couple weeks as I sorted out my tax forms from the previous company and registered as self employed. Once that was settled and we again discussed my rate, this guy tells me he has shopped around and can get somebody cheaper. So basically I had put off my job search 2 months, bought a car, quit my job (shitty, but still a job) and worked 2 weeks before he decided to lower our agreed rate. This would be a dick move for anyone, but I actually trusted this guy and considered him a friend, so it stung, and still does. What he was offering was no longer enough to drive that far and pay that much gas every day, so that was the end of that.

My job search lasted all of 1 day, which was awesome, and the first sign of good luck of the job front so far. I started today, it's with a company of 80 guys and multiple jobs, similar to what I'm used to back home and so much more reliable. Everyone at the site I was at today was Aussie or Kiwi, and apparently the whole company is, so that should be funny. The pay is much better than the first two jobs (Finally surpassed the halfway point on what I made in Vancouver!) and the work is in Central London which is not such a bad commute and interesting to be right in the thick of London's work force. It's still early and there's plenty of time and ways for me to get screwed over again, but like I said, I'm cautiously optimistic.

I've tried to be concise, but work really has consumed the bulk of my time and thoughts here, and it's been an incredibly trying and educational experience. I've been the driving force for our staying in London the last couple months so I've really had to stay positive about my work situation. I guess I've been fortunate to be able to have any work, it could certainly be worse, but when it's so much easier back home it can be hard to make a convincing argument to stay here. It's been a very turbulent week, and a very interesting first 6 months of work in London, hopefully it's about to get easier.

-Justin

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

I'm Not Crying...

I started crying while I was sitting on the top level of a red double decker bus today. I'm not really sure why, but I had been on the verge of tears all day.

I first noticed it on my lunch break when I suddenly got teary reading a really awful story in the paper about a girl who was attacked. Then a couple of our regulars came into work and I got choked up after finding out they held a benefit last night to kick off a charity they started on their daughters name. She was hit by a bus a year ago and killed; she was only 12. And on top of that I was listening to Jewel for some reason when I started crying. I could have left that part out of this blog post as it is very embarrassing, but if I'm being honest, it was a factor.

I've had a lot on my mind lately because our renewal for our flat is up next month. It's hard to believe we've been here for almost 6 months already. Justin and I have been discussing how long we see staying here and we have pretty different ideas of what our future holds, so that's tough. I'm not sure about any of it yet. At this point it's a wait-and-see kind of thing.

Being here has given me a lot of opportunity for self reflection, and I guess that can be overwhelming sometimes, and sometimes it can catch you off guard. At least in a city as big as London you don't have to worry about running into someone you know when having a little cry on public transit.

Kind of a bummer post, I know. Sorry.
Miss you all back in snowy Canada, but not missing the snow.
Gen