The royal baby has arrived... Prince George of Cambridge!

Time is flying by!!!! I am super excited to have started work and get on a somewhat regular schedule (vs sleeping till i wake up). The first week of work was the usual... trainings, meeting tons of people and trying to remember everyone's names, and then getting through more on-line training courses :) The best part of getting to know all the other newbies that are joining at the same time as me. Luck would have it that there is another girl from Raleigh that is joining on the same day as me! I have meet some really awesome people from all over the world and we have already hung out several times since then... It is a great feeling to start making connections right away. 

After the first week, we had a pretty relaxing weekend and meet up with some of Jeff's work mates. Saturday we went to a new area of London for us, Barnes Pond. It is a little bit further south than we have been before and it was totally worth the extra effort to see it. We have found that each area/neighborhood that we visit each has its own very unique personality. This area was very peaceful and calming. 

Here are a few pictures near the bus stop...

Here are a few pictures at the pub we meet Ryan at and grabbed some dinner.

And yes, London has enjoyed so much beautiful, warm weather the River Thames is drying out. Have no fear... it rained all day today and it appears the typical London summer is back. I am sure the water will be back to normal levels soon... and I will be taking my vitamin D to supplement my sunshine :)

Sunday, I dragged Jeff out of bed and we went to get a proper english breakfast. We walked over to the Holland Park area and found a fun store to explore....

And of course they had one of Jeff's favorites :) Texas Pete... he puts it on everything, so good thing it is close by!

We picked up a few other things... some treats for a few fellow american friends and some betty crocker cake mix (which was a total disaster... i blame the oven! haha)

Later on Sunday, we meet up with Jeff's friend from Raleigh who is wrapping up his secondment in August. It is always great to hear the stories, tips, and tricks if you will, of everyone that has been here for a while. We meet up in Shoreditch at a lovely beer garden. Then it was back to the grind at work Monday morning.

Week 2 started out great! Tuesday was pints after a market event for my team, Wednesday the royal baby arrived and then Thursday it was 'pond hopping drinks' for a fellow Raleighan moving back home :)

The announcement of the royal baby was big news! The news was all over BBC and facebook, so it was hard to miss. BBC was down at the Palace interviewing people that went to look at the royal announcement. I thought it was super funny that half the people they talked to were Americans. In some sense it seemed to be just as big of a deal at home as it was here. I think the English were more excited at the possibility of an extra holiday for his 1st birthday than the actual birth! haha Non the less it has been a very exciting time to be here and witness history! This british summer is starting to be epic with Wimbledon, the royal baby, the beautiful weather.... what more could you ask for. Well one could say it is hard to top the Olympics that were here last years, but we thought no better way to find out than to actually visit the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park for the Anniversary Games and Open Festival! Stay tuned for more details and pictures to come soon.

Happy 1 month anniversary London....

...and what a month it has been! Our lives have completely changed with many first as a couple, new jobs, new home, and a true culture immersion in London :) I still have to pinch myself sometimes to realize everything that has happened and to embrace the changes that are yet to come. This past week has been bitter sweet as I realized it is my last week before I start my new job and it is back to reality! haha So I tried to make the most of it... and the weather was so beautiful it was easy to do.

I found a very lovely yoga studio that is right off the tube line that I will take to work. It has classes early and late, all with varying levels and styles. There is a very large skylight that fills the studio which is very lovely. I have been twice and know that I am going to fit right in! 

Wednesday Jeff and I met a friend from his work to watch a movie in Hyde Park. Pirates of the Caribbean was playing on the big screen. It was really funny to see everyone sitting around with the huge headphones on! There were so many other events going on around the park, they only channeled the sound to those who paid and got a headset. We brought a blanket and a picnic dinner to enjoy the movie.... And of course there were some characters dressed up as good old Jack Sparrow that were quite entertaining as well.

Thursday I went on an adventure to find a GP (General Practitioner) for Jeff and I to register with. The health care is different in the sense that you have to register with one doctor and that doctor does everything for you.  The GP also has to service the area that you live in. I was able to find a GP that was less than 1 mile away from our flat. I was able to pick up the paper work to complete and now all we have to do is 'post' it back to their office. Yes, everything is posted not mailed :) Also on that side note... the post office to pick up a package is different than the one that you mail things. There are similar bins to drop off mail like at home, only they are red. 

Friday I meet Jeff for lunch and we enjoyed food from a very American establishment... Chipolte! and it was just as good here as it is at home :) The prices were every similar as well, only they were in pounds not dollars. One thing we have noticed when eating out is that there are no fountain drinks. All drinks come in a bottle or can. One exception we have found is that subway seems to have fountain drinks (but we haven't been there yet).

After lunch I enjoyed a very leisure  afternoon in the park across from his office. The weather was too good to resist laying out to read some of my kindle and the local paper. The local paper can be found everywhere on a daily basis. People will pick them up and just leave them on a seat on the tube or bench. After giving it a read through, I attempted to complete my first set of british puzzles. They had the normal word search, sudoku, cross-words and a few others I had not heard of. I ha success on a few... but the cross words were hard! haha While we have been here a month, I am still not completely up to speed on the lingo here. A friend recommended a book, Watching the English, by Kate Fox, to help with some of the cultural differences. Stayed tuned on how the books goes!

Here is a view of the London Eye from the park.... LOVE it!

Later that evening we checked out a new neighborhood pub, The Eagle. I saw it was rated with one of the best beer gardens in London, so we just had to check it out... especially since it was pretty close! There was a company event going on that evening, so we could not really appreciate the full beer garden; however, we were able to snag a table and enjoy the sunshine for a little bit. I think we will be back :)

Saturday was a very busy day! After walking around for lunch on Friday, I realized there were so many squares that we still hadn't visited yet.. so I put them on the list to check off! First on the list was Trafalgar Square. They had a huge literacy event going that was sponsored by Nook. There were famous people there doing reads... including Hugh Grant and several West End plays. 

This is the stage where they were reading from and there were screens on each side for the kids to follow along. 

We even saw some 'wild pigeons' hanging around :)

Next on the list was Leicester Square.... and there was lots going on here. We visited the M&M store and dropped our names into the Book of Moron lottery. Apparently every day at 5 pm you can put your name in a pot to get tickets for 20 pounds! That is a steal!!!! The show is sold out until the end of August and they are never half price. Unfortunately luck was not on our side though... 

The M&M store was pretty awesome though!!! They had everything you could think of in there... and of course we had fun with the pictures!

It was 4 floors!!!! 

The wall of goodness... tunnels of M&M to take home with you!

After our sweet visit, we moved along to Bedford square with a little detour through Chinatown. 

Even the street sign was in Chinese!

When we finally got to Bedford Square, we realized it was closed to a private event. Everyone was all dolled up for a Great Gatsbyish evening... so we didn't even attempt to make it in. However we did find a random gem on the way. We happen to stumble across the UNC house for their study abroad students. 

And if that wasn't enough for our Saturday... we carried on into the evening at the Hidden Film Festival in London. It was our first film festival so we had no idea what to expect. On top of that, it was one of the first Hidden Film Festivals meaning they didn't reveal the names of the films they were viewing until that night. For a brief re-cap there were 6-7 short films that were all excellent! The first one had the guy from Napoleon Dynamite and several others had the film directors present to discuss their films after the viewing. 

Phew that was a busy day! Sunday was much calmer with us visiting the Borough Market for the Bastille Festival. It was the only free event to celebrate the French National day. It was much calmer than normal, which was vey nice. Here is a picture of lunch :) YUM!!!

After such a busy week, these two kiddo's were ready for a relaxing afternoon at the flat after our Borough Market visit:) The tv shows are limited but we have found a few that are rather entertaining... 'Don't Tell the Bride' and 'An Idiot Abroad'. I think you can tell who likes which show ;) It was a perfect afternoon to relax and get ready for the week ahead though. 

Stayed tuned for updates on my first week of work. Cheers!

I fancy the heat wave and proper hamburgers!

This past weekend was the 4th of July and  surprisingly there were a few celebrations for America's Independence Day from England in England herself :) 

On the actual 4th of July we went to a pub that came highly recommended from a few of Jeff's American colleagues, White Horse. Once we got there, it was clear why they recommended it... It was full of Americans :) haha But really there American flags flying for the celebration, there were american microbrews, and the pub actually serves you (vs you going back up to the bar to be served). They had a huge grill area where they were cooking up some hamburgers, hotdogs, corn on the cob.. all our favorite cookout items! We had a lovely evening and will definitely be back!

The 4th was the start of this 'heat wave' they speak of. It feels like a wonderful North Carolina spring day to me :) It certainly made it feel more like summer than we first arrived! Hopefully it is here to stay for a while. Interesting story on the news though... Londoners are so not use to the heat that they had a spike of emergency calls on Saturday of 33%. The contributed the increase to people drinking during the day and then becoming dehydrated in the evening and the sun catching up to them! 

Friday all 18 of our boxes of stuff arrived at our flat at 830 am! Needless to say that I spent all day trying to unpack and find places to put everything. Lesson learned... we have a lot of stuff that we don't need! I re-arranged the closet like 3 times trying to get everything to fit and I ironed a ton of shirts. I was able to fit everything in though... the key is to go vertical.  Here is a picture during the middle of the unpacking!

Saturday we went with Jeff and Giorgio to their friends 4th of July party. Jennifer and Neal live a little further out of London and had a gorgeous house to host the party! Jennifer is originally from the States, so she went all out on the decorations. I loved them all! The ballons, the red, white and blue star banners, the USA banner, super cute daisies, and all the table decorations :) The food was just like a good ol' fashion cookout too! The classic hotdogs, hamburgers, coleslaw, potato salad, broccoli salad, cheesecake, a flag shaped angel food cake with strawberries, watermelon slices and oreos! As you can tell.. I ate way too much, but it definitely made it feel more like summer and a true celebration. Thank you so much for having us! 

Sunday was a little more low key with more unpacking and watching history being made with the men's final match at Wimbledon. We made it through the last box of kitchen dishes and got them all washed, dried and put away. The match between Murray and Djokovic will be talked about for years to come! It was the first time in 77 years a Brit won the tournament. The Queen herself called Andy and congratulated him for his win. His win was retweeted over 55,000 times! It has been all over the papers and news programs. Pictures of the match are everywhere... from the many different emotions his girlfriend experienced throughout the match, to moments after his win where he is on his knees in centre court to when he climbs the stands for celebrator hugs and almost forgets to hugs his mum! For a girl that didn't know much about tennis beforehand... she has a whole new appreciation for the sport now :) Jeff of course loved every minute! 

Monday I took a little day trip to Bath to look at potential wedding venue. It was an adventure of its own because it my first time leaving the city.. much less the trip was by myself. It was a cute historic hotel with lovely views of the country side and of course the city is full of history! We are still talking through what we are looking for on our big day... so no pictures for now.  I am sure we will figure it out soon though! All this free time on my hands.. certainly helps me get more ideas (not sure if that is a good thing or not though!) 

Today I am off for more errands for the flat, exploring a new yoga studio, and movie in the park tonight!  Hope everyone has a lovely day! 

Time to celebrate!

After many rounds of interviews and much debating I was able to reach a decision on my next career move... I am joining Deloitte as a Manager in the audit advisory practice! I am very excited about this opportunity and can't wait to start on July 15!

After completing my paperwork this morning I set off to enjoy the day! First thing on the agenda was a hair cut :) Along the way, I decided to stop and smell some beautiful roses. I absolutely love all the roses here!

On a side note... I was able to explore Holland park some last week. It is one of the larger parks and had great little quiet spots to relax and enjoy the green space. Here are some pictures from my walk.....

Another beautiful rose garden

Kyoto Garden in the Park

After the haircut I set out to find some food and I just happen to stumble upon this super cute pub. It has plants all over the side of it and there was loads of character inside too. And of course it served Thai food, so I loved it!!!

Next I stopped by the grocery store on the way to pick up a few things. I find myself going there just about everyday since you have to carry everything you buy all the way home :) It tends to make each trip a little lighter! haha On the walk home, it turns out that there is a movie being filmed at the end of the street. I asked someone on the set and it turns out the filming is for a documentary. 

I am standing at the end of the street here looking at the set. The Westfield Shopping Mall is behind the set and our flat is behind me. (PS. I found out the Westfield shopping mall is the largest shopping mall in Europe!!!)

The flat on the end appears to be one used in the film. 

Last but not least... here are some other random photos I have taken and a fun fact or two I learned this weekend. 

Look at how deep the tube goes here!

Cool art!

A great view of the Shard! This is the tallest building in London and is said to offer some great sights. We will see if I ever make it to the top of it given my fear of heights!! haha

Fun fact: Rocket is the same thing as arugula and Courgette is the same thing as Zucchini.  

I am currently relaxing at the flat now, watching the very close Murray match, and looking at wedding venues to visit next week. Wimbledon has had so many upsets this year! They even gave a nickname to last Wednesday because of all the injuries and upsets.... Black Wednesday!  

I would love to hear how everyone is doing at home! We set up a phone plan that allows us to call home now... so shoot me a message or email and we can set up a phone date!  

Making it home!

My oh my has it been a big week! I will start with the flat.... 

We moved into the flat a full week ago today. Moving the bags went fairly smoothly... the challenge came into where do we put all our stuff! haha I was able to get some soft drawers to put in the closet shelfs, so that really helped with the clothing that we can't hang (like socks and such). I also realized that there were no plugs in the bathroom for the hairdryer. So I added an extension cord to the list. We received our router this morning, so we now have internet at home! YAY! I still have to get a phone cord and then we can make some long awaited calls home :) 

We found this place, Argos, that has been great at finding these little things for the flat. It has a very different concept than what we are used to though. It has a store front that is filled with these catalogs. You find the item you want, check to make sure it is available, go to a kiosk pay for the item and then go to the collection area and wait for your order number to be called. I would say this is very similar to Walmart quality but less since you can't really see the item before you buy it.  

The shower is another story in itself... We were really struggling to take a hot shower from beginning to end. The shower would start off nice and hot then it would make this very strange noise and it would go cold, then it would get hot again. Overall, it would get cold at least 2 times during the course of a normal shower. The shower head was busted, so we thought that might be the root cause of the weird temperatures.  The landlord sent us a new one and I have had very nice hot showers for the whole shower..... Jeff on the other hand has not had such luck. We turned the boiler on the ego setting, which means it takes a little while for the water to heat up rather than it being hot on demand. Hopefully leaving it on the hot on demand at all times will fix the issue. 

I did have an epic failure this morning though... I locked myself out of the flat and Jeff had to come home and let me in. Thankfully I carried my phone out with me so I was able to text him. I was trying to be productive and take out the trash... and I even thought to myself 'don't lock yourself out'. Well it happened anyways :( The doors are kind of strange here. You have the front door to the building that has a lock on it and always locks when it is shut. Then you have the front door to your flat that always locks when you shut it. Additionally, there is another dead bolt type lock that you use when you leave. I knew it was only a matter of time before one of us locked ourselves out of the flat, but it could have been much worse if I didn't have my phone with me. 

Yesterday we went to a flower market, Columbia Road, that Jeff and Giorgio had mentioned to us the other day. It was a beautiful day so we would enjoy the weather and take a stroll through it. And by beautiful, I mean the sun was shining in every direction and it was super warm! Look at the forecast of the rest of the week and you might see what I am talking about :) 

And believe it or not, with all these beautiful flowers around I still went home empty handed. Our shipment should be delivered this Friday, which will have my flower vase to put these gorgeous blooms in!

The rest of the week we explored our area a little more to see what was around. We found a few really good places to grab a bit to eat and have a pint or two. I would say my favorites are the pizza place and a pub that serves Thai food. (Thai food in the pubs seems to be very common here.)  Sunday Roast would be comparable to our sunday brunch, however we didn't get a change to experience the 'Sunday Roast' this weekend but there is always next weekend!

Stayed tuned for job updates!

Flat Hunting, Job Interviewing, and Market Exploring!!!

It has been another exciting week in the "Big Smoke!"  

The flat we found the week before didn't end up working out for us. The tenant decided to not move out after all... even though he had moved overseas?! Go figure. So we hit the 'letting market' again to find another place. We found another great spot, but the landlord wanted a 2 year contract, which is very unusual. Our relocation company suggested that we not accept and continue our search.... So I set up a few more showings for Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Since Jeff started work on Monday and we had to be out of our temporary accommodations soon, the pressure was on to really find a place. Unfortunately, we had exhausted our options in the area we liked (Fulham) so we branched out to an area a little further north to West London, vs Southwest London (Barons Court/Shepherds Bush) . I saw 3 properties on Monday and 3 more on Tuesday. I found one that would work great on Tuesday! It has plenty of closet space, a combined living room and dining area, bathtub and storage in the bathroom, already has a tv, is fairly close to a tub stop and was a good price! (Even though I never thought I pay this much for a ~400 SQFT flat... Raleigh is really a bargain!!! haha)

I put in an offer that day and it was excepted!!! We are moving in tomorrow afternoon :) Here are some pictures from the website... more to follow once we settle in some.

The bathroom

 The Bedroom

The floorplan

 The Kitchen

 The living room

In between the appointments to see flats, I had several job interviews this week. I interviewed with 3 different companies. 2 were follow-ups from phone interviews I had prior to leaving the US and 1 was with a new company for the 1st round of interviews. I have since been contacted for the 2nd round with them! Fingers are crossed that I can secure a job with one of these amazing organizations.

Jeff's week has been fairly busy as well. He started on Monday and has been getting into the swing of things at the office. Clearly the London office is much larger than the Raleigh office. The human GPS did a fantastic job at figuring out his way to the office with out his smart all week too! (It took a little longer to get his phone unlocked since it was on a corporate plan, so we only had my phone for the first week or so we were here.) 

To celebrate the big week, we went out to dinner with some friends of a friend, Giorgio and Jeff! We had a blast catching up with them! We meet up at a near by tube stop and then walked over to a Vietnamese restaurant. They had been several times before, so we left the ordering up to them and they did not disappoint! We loved it all. 

Afterwards we went out for a few drinks. I had my first go at a Pimms and Lemonade (aka sprite)! It was delicious! It is similar to Sangria but better. 

Cassie thank you so much for introducing us to them! and Giorgio and Jeff we had a great time! Can't wait to meet up again soon :) xo

This weekend we had a few loose ends with the flat we had to take care of, but afterwards we went out to explore the city some more! We started out with exploring the Sherhard's Bush area some.. since this is where we will be living now. Our flat is about a 15 minute walk to one of the nicest and biggest shopping malls I have ever been to before! It has 18 theatres on the top floor, all the prestigious stores (think Tiffany, Christian Dior, Jimmy Choo, Prada, etc), several champagne bars inside the mall that are set up as 'kiosk' in the middle like at home, the biggest grocery store (Marks & Spencers) that I have seen so far, and numerous restaurants along the outside of the mall.  This could be a nice to live near... or could be super dangerous! haha A fifteen minute walk in the other direction, leads to a much quieter area that has 2 large parks and some nice local grocery stores and pubs. I think we will really enjoy this location :)

Later in the afternoon we started to explore the Covent Gardens area. There were several isles of arts and crafts, as well as street performers. Here are a few fun pictures!

The Apple Market at Covent Gardens

Jeff talked me to give this guy some change.. and then took enough pictures to tell the whole story! Enjoy!

(I had a hair in my mouth.. I promise I was't picking my nose:) )

On Sunday, we went to the 'Museum of London' to learn more about the cities history. It was an interesting place and had some pretty cool exhibits. There is so much history here, it is amazing!

Jeff having fun with the hat and buckets firefighters used to put out the great fire :)

Some fun facts for the week: Men do not wear undershirts period. There are foxes that roam the streets in central London. Black cab drivers go to college to drive a cab. (The mini cabs do not and are half the price of a black cab!) 

Hopefully I will have more updates this week on the job front. Keep me in your prayers and thoughts!

Cheers!