Friday, October 30, 2009

first night out

the whole international move thing had me a lil' bit exhausted, so i didn't get out of bed until close to 1 pm today. christine actually woke me up when she came home for lunch. :-)

i ate breakfast (all bran cereal, surprisingly tasty!) then parked on the couch the rest of the afternoon looking at flats online. all i wanted to do was sleep, but i forced myself to eat a 2-bean veggie burger from tesco (best thing i have ever eaten) and take a shower. by the time christine got home, i slightly resembled the co-worker she used to know and not a really bad college roommate.

christine had done some research on cost effective but genuine english pubs, and selected the coach and horses in clerkenwell for our meal. we had a reservation for 7 but we were the only ones eating! everyone else in the place was still at happy hour, so we had the dining room all to ourselves. i'm still rockin' an american credit card (this bank thing is taking way too long) and i was looking for a meal on the cheap. we aligned to sharing a plate of chips and aioli (delightful) and i would have the hare meatloaf for dinner. rabbit! i would have never thought about eating this usually but it was £6.50. score. it pretty much tasted like regular meatloaf, maybe a bit saltier.


i had a carlsberg with dinner. apparently this isn't a "real" beer. :-) whatever, it was still good.


hi christine! our romantic dinner for two in the very large dining room.


is that a rabbit under there?

afterwards, we went to our local pub - the sekforde arms - for another pint (stepped it up to kronenberg this time) and to meet up with christine's london friends. we were sitting near the bar, and an older gentleman had set his drink down on the table so i said hi. we then wound up in a lengthy conversation about politics. i took some teasing for this later, but hey, this is how i meet people. even if they are in their late sixties, we could be great friends!

all in all a fun night, if not an early one. christine is still a little under the weather and i'm kind of jet lagged, so we were in bed by 12...

Thursday, October 29, 2009

hello, London

what a journey! anne, peter, and jeff borrowed the company van and dropped me off at CVG yesterday around 6 pm ET, which was an adventure in itself.


Jeff and Pete rockin' the back seat


Annie drivin' the company van

turns out that two of the three bags i decided to check were over the weight limit, so anne and i scrambled to pull out 9 lbs worth of crap from one bag and 3 lbs from another. i still had to pay the following fees:

$50 to check a second bag
$50 to check a third bag
$300 in weight overages (which i'm still pondering)

meanwhile, the van got a ticket for being parked out front! crap, crap, crap. i said goodbye to my cincinnati friends before any more fees could be doled out and off i went through security to wait for my plane. all through the day people were asking "are you excited????" and they seemed to be hoping for a squealy, chipper response, which i wasn't really able to deliver. excited? yes of course. but add "overwhelmed", "stressed", and "homesick already" on top of that and i just wanted to curl up in a ball. which i did, in my chair at the airport and on the plane. i sniffled as we flew away from the 'nati, then managed to pull my head out of my ass and buck it up. enough's enough already. i really hope i don't keep breaking into tears in public. :-P

the rest of the trip was pretty uneventful, with the exception of the five minutes i managed to lose my passport in my garbage can with handles, i mean, my shoulder bag. luckily i found it without incident and spent a relatively sleepless nine hours over the mid atlantic.

passport control here was easy, a few questions from the border patrol (why is passport control - in any country - always so HOT?), and i was on my way to baggage claim where i scored a cart (push DOWN on the handle to release the brake, you silly American), piled my three suitcases onto it, strapped on my backpack, slung my bag over my shoulder, and went to find my driver.

we had a nice ride into london, with him giving me a general tour and me asking dumb questions like "why do so many Tube stops have the word 'circus' in them?". he didn't know the answer and refused to make one up. :-)

an hour later we pulled up in front of the office, and i saw all of our familiar brand equity elements, right down to our signature trophies on the front desk. home at last! sad but the office is the closest thing i have to a comfort zone right now! christine came down to meet me and help wrestle the five bags back to her flat, which was right around the corner. the bags take up the entire living room and then some...oy.

back to the office then to meet with my new banking advisor, who helped me open a FREE account that offers a penalty-free cash forward until i can fund the thing. woohoo...i got some money, honey! i then met my new boss, her boss, and the receptionist who were all really, really nice. i'm excited to start work on monday. i need a routine asap if i want to preserve any sort of sanity.

as far as the city goes, i haven't seen much except for what was out the car window. a few notes to date:

- it gets dark here at 5 pm. i want to hibernate.

- the trees are sort of changed but not really. and they look like ohio trees.

- the buildings aren't that tall, which is cool because it makes the city feel more approachable.

- the traffic circle with big ben and parliament is pretty fun to drive around.

- there are a lot of red phone booths. i really want to climb into one of these bad boys and put on a super hero cape.

- the couch seems to be made of clay (hey, hey we're adobe!) so Christine has offered that I can camp in the bed.

- Christine's flat is very nice, although everything in the kitchen LOOKS like a cabinet but surprise! it isn't! door #1 is a fridge. door #2 is a...washing machine??

- my computer still thinks it is on ET time.

- the kitchen chairs are made of wicker and crackle when i move. hee hee.

- it's 60 degrees and sunny here today...booyah!

since I need to control my spending (woman, you are so NOT on vacation) and Christine is getting over a respiratory infection, we decided to make homemade pizza and drink red wine for supper. We also took a quick walk around the 'hood so I could get the lay of the land (read: spot the nearest pub) as well as do a store check. So much new packaging for me to see!

regardless of how surreal this is, i'm glad to finally be here. hello, London!

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

ohio, i'm leaving...ohio, i'm gone

name that tune! ha.

i've got about 28 hours left with you, Cincinnati. because i love making lists, i figured i'd make one about all the stuff i'm going to miss about this city. in no particular order...

- my pet european wall lizards. not just a rumor, these really did come from Italy, brought over by the Lazarus children to my very street! i saw it on PBS so it has to be true.

- Clifton Skyline at 3 am

- Dixie Chili at 3 am

- Sunday nights at the Comet, especially if the photo booth is involved

- takeout from Baba India, preferably eaten in front of Anne's TV while we watch and analyze Lost re-runs

- $1 hot dog night at the Cyclones

- the view from the Torrence apartment. if it's snowing so hard that the skyline is whited out for a few minutes, even better.

- Harry Potter trivia

- running with the Spot crew and tailgating in the parking lot afterward

- the Cincinnati office holiday party...I have a hard time imagining ANYONE could top last year's event

- Oktoberfest Zinzinnati

- Rockin' Robin's aka Knockback Nats and Toby's long and distinguished list of shots

- Pub Quiz night

- road trips with the fam, especially if said trips involve running

- Sunday dinner with my grandparents. Fettucini, Daddy burgers, homemade cookies, I don't even want to think about what I'm missing... :-(

- making whirlpools in Grandma and Grandpa's pool

- Lunch in Piatt Park

- Meeting Jules halfway at O'Bryon's

- It's Just Mud and chats with Pam

- Southgate House

- Maren and Chris' patio + red wine, Siena, and bouncy balls

- drinkin' beer on the front steps of the Torrence apartment

- running in Eden Park when Spring is in full bloom

- the Hyde Park Blast

- the Rusty Griswolds

- the Avett Brothers annual show

- my fellow Landorks

- the Pig with my dad

- Christmas shopping with my mama

- my stepdad's stories about candystriping

- cornhole and Mic Ultra with the fam, preferably in Uncle Danny's, Aunt Bonnie's, or Uncle Bob's yard

- cousin pub crawl night

- getting tackled by my nieces and nephew

- quiche week at Sunshine Deli

- grilled cheese at the Hideaway

- buffalo chicken egg rolls at Teller's

- carbonara at Scotti's

- the Crepe place on Court Street

i know there are more things, i just can't think of them right now. and yes, i'm aware that most of the list involves alcohol and/or food...whatever. peace out, Cincinnati. you've been a good home.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

oh my

I'm trying to be a good girl and get my affairs in order before next week. One of these said affairs is to get a bank account in the UK. Of course, my current bank doesn't have branches in the UK, which meant I had to open a new account with a global bank. It's a multi-step process apparently:

1) Go online (because there are no global banks around here) and open a US-based checking account. Done.

2) Call customer service to obtain a form to apply for a UK-based account + a credit card.

3) Be transferred to three different people, only to find that it costs $245 to open a UK account from the US.

Yeah. No.

I think I'm going to wait until I get there to open the second account. Either way, I'm going to lose money because I either have to pay to open the account now OR bend over and take the exchange rate on my US credit card. Sigh.

In other scariness, the third dude I talked to was based in the UK and speaking English, but I could only understand about every 5th word. :-)

Sunday, October 18, 2009

procrastination

I keep trying to pack. I really do. Yesterday I was up at 4:30 am (not on purpose) and decided since I couldn't sleep, I may as well put some more stuff into boxes. The problem is that I keep finding things I forgot I had, then spending too much time oohing and ahhing over them. Found object del dia? The Action Heroine's Handbook. I discovered this buried on my bookshelf and hence ended up sitting around reading for the better part of an hour, when I should have been...packing.

So, I'm a bit behind but I can tell you, I'm now an expert at things like how to ward off the undead or drink my opponents under the table. Highly useful in the UK probably.

I also find that I need to listen to music while packing (attempting to pack). I just downloaded some new tunes and keep listening to the same three over, and over, and over again (my neighbors adore me, I'm sure). If you're curious, these are the three songs the good people of Torrence and I have been enjoying for the past two days:

Heavy Cross - Gossip
Love Etc. - The Pet Shop Boys
Sentimental Hearts (Ludacris vs. She & Him) - The Hood Internet

Ok. Off to try to sort through my shoe collection....