Phase 10 -- Phases of Living in London – Experiences

      

             Phase 1 -- Figuring it out:

• British time is from 00 to 24 o’clock!  My clock only goes to 12!  A bit of translation required until we can quickly convert 14:38, etc. in our heads.  Mike told me there would be no math!  ;)

• As for cash . . . the bills are colorful and vary in size, the coins are huge and it’s in units of pounds and pence.  Does that mean if I lose some money, I can lose 10 pounds?!?

•  Dates are genealogy style e.g. 3/9/15 does NOT mean March 9, 2015.   It’s actually September 3, 2015.

• Our apartment (flat) is a fun and funky, converted warehouse property perched on the Thames River in an area called Shad Thames.  Spices used to be stored here back in the 1800's.  It is a historical preservation building complete with loading cranes still attached to the canal side of the building.  It’s called Concordia Wharf.  Gazing out the windows we see numerous boats pass by, ducks afloat and pedestrians on the bridge/walkway below us.  Numerous travelers stop to take pictures of the historic building and we’ve inadvertently photo-bombed a few of them while we work in the office!

• It’s lovely and we are so excited to be here!   When the tide comes in the sound of the waves lapping in is wonderful.  Out our balcony, this is our view. One of my favorite buildings in London, the Gherkin (oblong building with intricate window patterns) is quite visible and it’s delightful to sit in the window or on the porch and take it all in.

•  The flat (no, his name is not “Stanley”) agent laughing told us there were two things that American prospects for this property were most excited about and wondered if we could guess what they were.  Without hesitation we responded it must be the full-sized fridge with ice maker and the little laundry room .

• Washers and dryers here are typically tiny and combined in one unit, often located in the kitchen.  Happily, ours are separate units in a small room of their own.  Our Christmastime experience in another London flat proved that the single units are noisy and the dryer took its time . . . 3 pairs of jeans took 5 cycles through and 2 days hung up after that to actually dry.

• Deciphering how the microwave and oven worked was amusing.  Most of the buttons are different, the temperatures are in Centigrade and the units are quite small in size.  Happily, dinner turned out well and was actually cooked despite us.

• Phones . . . phone numbers here contain 11 numbers (and sometimes more – they are not a standard number of numbers!) which means remembering my own number is unlikely!  Ha!  We currently have the flat phone for local calls in/out, the Magic Jack phone for calls in/out of the U.S., Mike’s international cell phone and my referred cell number.  When something rings, we just laugh.  And then the race is on to see which device it is, as all the sounds are new and we’re not quite used to them yet.

• Church was wonderful.  Awesome to know the gospel is true all over the world!  The membership is quite a multi-cultural festival with people we met from Fiji, Nigeria, Kenya, France, Mexico, Ecuador,  and Ghana to name a few.  It was a friendly group with 3 sets of missionaries and a sweet spirit.  Sunday found them/us getting a brand new bishop, too!  The building is located about a 15 minute car ride away from our flat.  Hooray for Uber!