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

A Couple Sandwiches Short of a Picnic

Sandwiches are beautiful, sandwiches are fine.

I like sandwiches I eat them all the time

I eat them for my supper and I eat them for my lunch
and if I had a hundered sandwiches I'd eat them all at once!

I find this chorus from Fred Penner's classic song 'Sandwiches' running through my mind quite often here in London, because sandwiches are EVERYWHERE. I should have known they were a big part of life after meeting a girl who told me that "sandwiches were her favourite food". Who says that?! Londoners, apparently.

Sandwiches are the fast food of choice, and most places have meal deals where you get a sandwich, drink, and crisps or fruit for anywhere from £2.50 (at Tesco) and up. You can find sandwiches or these meal deals in every grocery store, at stand alone shops, drug stores, and even (so I've been told) the hardware store - with the quality being higher in the nicer chains. It's really not a bad thing, in fact I think North America could afford some sandwich infiltration as it seems easier, quicker, and healthier for the most part than McDonalds and other fast food chains.

At work we sell is sandwiches (of course) which we make every morning. As the shop is new we are trying to figure out what works and what doesn't, and last week we decided to scrap our BLT and come up with a new chicken sandwich option. After thinking of what we had on hand and looking online for inspiration I jumped into sandwich history and invented one to add to our menu - Chicken, caramelised onion, rocket, and paprika-lime mayo. It's delicious! And it's been selling very well.

With the sandwich mania being so huge in London, I can't imagine what it's like actually in Sandwich - the town here in the UK (visitsandwich.co.uk). I really want to go so I can find out. Also, it looks really beautiful.


With the chorus of 'Sandwiches' still running through my mind I decided to give the song a listen to in its entirety to see what the rest of it was like. That's when I realized - I think there may be something freaky going on with me and this tune; there are eerie parallels to my life. First thing right off the top of it, Fred says sandwiches are his favorite food (what!), and then check out this verse of the song:

Once I went to England, I visited the Queen.
I swear she was the grandest lady that I've ever seen.
I told her she was beautiful and could not ask for more,
She handed me a sandwich and she threw me out the door.

Well, I guess we know what's going to happen to Justin and I at the Queens Garden Party in May.

Cheers from London.
Come visit us and eat a sandwich!

Love,
Genny

(PS, if you want to listen to the song the link is here: Sandwiches)

Money... Well, Get Back

We have such a different relationship with money here, and not just because we are making less and our bills are more; It's almost a completely different way of spending in general.

I have been wanting to buy new shoes lately. I packed as many into my suitcase as I could, and even shipped a couple more over in a box once we were settled in, but 2 of those pairs have been totally ruined by work. I recently bought some nice boots at a charity shop but they have already fallen apart. So I figure I might as well spend the quid (I really wanted to type 'bucks' there) and get a good pair, but 70+ is a lot of money. So here I am still contemplating and not buying.

The thing is, it's not really about being unable to afford 'stuff'. It's that we'd rather spend our money on experiences than things - You find yourself weighing out whether you can get away with wearing coffee-covered-scuffed-worn-out boots for another night on the town, so you can justify buying a ticket on the EuroStar to Paris while your friend is there with a free flat to crash at.

Also Justin and I have a joint account here. Funny fact: Justin is listed as a homemaker on our account because I was employed and he wasn't when we opened it. They couldn't say he was unemployed because we would have been denied, so our banker had to fudge a few details. Another funny fact: Justin has become quite the homemaker since we have moved here, even cooking dinner a couple times a week.

At home in Canada our money was (and still is) very separate. In the past we've both been able to support ourselves and very rarely had to rely on the other financially, whereas here we can see everything the other spends, and how much money we make. It hasn't really been a big issue, but it has made me feel guilty if I purchase something just for me. I guess it's good in a sense because it makes you question what you buy before you buy it so you only get what you really need.

So maybe I'll buy some new shoes soon. I probably will. Screw it. I also really want a curling iron. And a pair of jeans. And a foamie to make our bed more comfortable...

I hear some sales calling my name.

Miss you all lots and think about home every day.
Gen

Booze Britain

Drinking is a pretty big part of British life, and there are a handful of differences I've noticed in the culture here that I thought were interesting:

Going out for a Drink

In London, people go out for a drink directly after work, rather than going home first like we're used to. This is because London is such a massive city it just doesn't make sense to commute all the way home and back out for a drink. London's underground also closes shortly after midnight, so everyone times their nights out to be much earlier to start and earlier to finish. London pubs are at their busiest between around 6pm until 10pm, which is quite a contrast to the pre drink and go out around 10pm attitude back home. People also seem to go out for a few drinks most nights, rather than save it all up for the weekend like we do.

This doesn't include clubbing, which is an all night affair, and I think they stay out until the trains start up again. I wouldn't even really say they're comparable because I'm pretty sure it's more drugs than drinking anyways.

Pubs in London are also just a bit different, many have bizarre names and appear to be decorated just how they were 100 years ago. Drinking outside the pub is often more desirable than drinking in the pub, and is completely allowed. Some ask if you want your beer for outside and give you a plastic pint, others don't care. Some pubs are brightly lit and don't play music which is popular with a lot of people who just want to chat over a beer. London beers are all room temperature ales, but all pubs have a selection of lagers that are cold, but it's advertised as cold on the tap like that's special. Cider is also a lot more popular, Strongbow is on tap everywhere and most places have one or two others.

Events

Drinking seems to be much less taboo than in Canada. At the Hyde Park Winter Wonderland for example, there were countless stands set up selling beer and mulled wine. Everybody was drinking freely wandering around, amongst families and children. Even the cartoons on the fair rides were often holding a beer. Both times we were there, however, I didn't notice a single incident. In comparison, every time I have been packed into the beer garden at the PNE, where everyone would rather be wandering around with a beer in hand, there have been arguments and fights and tables of drinks tipped over.

They also charge the same price for a drink at a concert or event as they would at a pub, rather than doubling the price like we're used to.

Accessibility

Liquor can be bought in every grocery store, and most convenience stores are called an 'Off License' and sell until late at night. Not only is this incredibly convenient, but it means there's no over taxed government monopoly and there's actually competition and beer goes on sale. Of all the things more expensive here, booze is one that's cheaper. Goes to show the gouging we get in BC.

There are also so many more places to go. Where Vancouver has all it's bars centralized on Granville or in Gastown, and a shockingly low number of local pubs, London has dozens of entertainment areas and thousands of pubs. This means not everyone is packed into small spaces on the same street and forced out at the same time, which everyone knows leads to trouble every weekend in Vancouver. A few more liquor licenses and a little less bending over for the vocal minority crying NIMBY would go a long way. At a time when drinking and driving is such a major concern the radius between local pubs in rural BC seems a little bit ridiculous in comparison to the abundance available in the UK.

Public Places

While there are the occasional signs prohibiting drinking on the tube or in certain parks, it is generally accepted that someone having a beer at the beach or wine with a picnic in the park is not a problem. The rules seem to be in place to give police the power to use their discretion with groups of people drinking and being idiots in public. This is such a refreshing attitude compared to treating everyone with a beer like a criminal in BC. People here can't believe we're getting $230 fines for having one beer at the beach. Having a drink and being drunk and disorderly are two different things, and I've seen way less alcohol related incidents in this city that's 10 times the size than I've seen in an average Friday night in Vancouver.


Both countries have problems with drinking. Britain's seems to be a deeper issue of alcohol addiction that is more of a problem in the homes of people who can't draw the line. I suppose it could be argued that a relaxed attitude to social drinking can lead to alcoholism, but that's along the same lines as marijuana creating heroin addicts and video games creating criminals. As far as people being able to go out and have a drink without being hassled by police or beating each other up, they seem to have it pretty figured out here.

Canada's problem is an issue of trying to over control drinking and dealing with the backlashes. Treat people like adults and maybe they'll start acting like them. Maybe once they realize drug prohibition isn't working they'll have a look at the results of their oppressive attitude towards drinking. I'm not gonna hold my breath on that one though, my beer will get warm.

-Justin