We've survived the first week! Though it feels like we've been here much longer than that.
It's been a couple days since our last update, so I'll start from Thursday. Jenny and I headed back out with our "neighbourhood specialist," Ellen, for the second round of flat searching. There were no new entries to the market in Islington for us to see so we explored new areas. We headed to southwest London on our first use of non-tube public transportation and looked at places in Battersea, Clapham, and Balham. When we exited the train, I had to check the timetables to make sure we weren't dealing with times like the Metra. We were relieved to see that they run every 5-7 minutes and almost 24 hours. We could live in this area!
Battersea has a giant park along the Thames, but it doesn't have much more to offer in the areas with available flats. Balham was too far south and felt like a suburb, which it is. But we did love some of the greater Clapham area along Northcote Road. The closest parallel I can draw is to the Southport corridor in Chicago. Lots of great looking, unique restaurants and pubs and boutique shops. We found a flat that's a block off of Northcote road. They're currently renovating the top floor/ loft so it was surrounded by scaffolding and the common area was being painted, but the flat itself was lovely and all of the work is supposed to be done in the next 3 weeks. We'll hold off on describing it in more detail for now.
So we put in an offer, below asking price, and also asked for some of the missing furniture to truly make it a furnished apartment. And then we waited... As of Friday afternoon we learned that the landlord is deciding between our offer and another. Our relocation team made a strong case for us, but we certainly won't be getting a deal on it regardless. We're back to waiting and, given our experience on Tuesday/Wednesday, we're a little nervous at this point. We've exhausted our time out with a specialist and we love the area so this one needs to come through. We'd be a half mile from the nearest train line and the commute to work should be about 45 minutes.
For dinner, we were lazy and didn't want to go anywhere. We broke down and tried out a taste of home, Domino's pizza. It wasn't bad, but it certainly wasn't as good as it is in the States.
On Friday we slept in...again. It's been great to catch up on sleep but very tough to get into any routine. That will all change when work starts next week, I'm sure. We figured out the DLR (Docklands Light Rail) and headed to the Tottenham Court Road area on a recommendation from Ellen for housewares. We found a few cool home stores that we will head back to when we have a place. It also appears to be the technology store section of London.
For dinner we took the tube to the Farringdon stop and saw where Whit and Kate lived (pictures to be posted from Jenny's laptop eventually - having some Internet access issues). We wandered the area in search of The Eagle, a gastro-pub that Whit loved, and found London's "Jewellers Row." With the help of a friendly cabbie, we finally found The Eagle. We arrived a half hour before dinner started so the place was nearly empty. The bar shares space with an open air kitchen and the menu changes twice daily and is written on chalkboard-style panels above the bar. The tables and chairs are an eclectic mix of mismatched old throw-aways, including some that look to be old school chairs. What a cool atmosphere! Jenny fell in love with a new beer, Staropramen, and I joined her after first trying the Eagle IPA, which was okay but not great. By the time we ordered food, the place was packed and people were already waiting for tables. I had an incredible dish - Huevos a la Flamenca - eggs baked in tomato sauce with ham, chorizo, and potatoes. It was fantastic. Jenny's dish was also really good, but not quite as unique as mine. She had polenta crusted plaice with aioli, roasted tomato, and arugula. We'll definitely be heading back again.
Unfortunately they didn't have the dessert we wanted so we headed out and stopped by a couple of pubs on the way to the tube. The first was called the Couch and Tomatoes if you believe Jenny and the Coach and Horses if you're anyone else. At that point in the night, Jenny calling it the Couch and Tomatoes was quite hilarious. We found a quiet corner by the door and chatted a bit. Jenny tried another new beer, a half pint of Leffe, which is probably closest to a Matilda, and I had another London Pride. Ah, dessert! It was fantastic. We split a buttermilk pudding with mini vanilla doughnuts (small, sugared doughnut balls), blackberries, and a raspberry sauce. Oh it was good. We hit one more pub on the walk to the tube, the Hat and Tun, and found a small table by the bar. Jenny had a half pint of a cloudy cider (not sure which one) and I enjoyed another Guinness. A couple of tube transfers later, we were back at the temporary flat a bit tipsy and finished watching "He's Just Not That Into You," which we started the night before. Friday was a great way to close out our first week in London.
Today, the weather is perfect. It's low 60's and sunny. We've really missed the sun with how rainy and chilly it's been this week. Glad the weather turned just in time for the long holiday weekend. We're off to explore Greenwich for some market shopping on the prime meridian. Hope everyone has a great weekend!
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