Move In Day!

So after much stress and frustration we finally got approved for our flat. We could move in basically anytime but figured it would be best to just wait until I got back from France. Before, however, we went in to sign the tenancy agreement and do a walkthrough. We met them Wednesday morning at 10am. It was the man who had shown us the flat and the landlord himself. They are both very nice and that’s who we will be dealing with for any issues we have, which is good.

                First, they walked us through the flat, taking inventory of all the furniture and any damage that is already in place. We get a copy too. Then they showed us the boiler and gas and water meters. They were very helpful with our questions. It didn’t take as long as we expected; only about forty-five minutes. Sarah had to work that afternoon so she left shortly thereafter, but I was going to show the place to my parents so I waited around. We weren’t moving our suitcases or anything until Sunday but we did bring over some of the household stuff we’d bought, so I spent the time waiting for my parents setting that up. It wasn’t much: some toilet paper, dish soap, garbage bags, etc. But it was less we would have to do Sunday. I also brought over the sheets I had bought and the blanket and housecoat my parents had brought over. So I made my bed and put a few things in my closet. It already felt more homey after getting my sheets and pillows in order. And my Batman blanket on the bed.

                Also while waiting for my parents I ordered our internet connection. I’ve never done it before. We literally chose our provider, Talk Talk because we had seen their advertisements on the tube. See, Mad Men? It does work! Also Sandra and Imogen use them, so we knew how well it worked. We didn’t bother ordering TV or landline, just simple broadband internet. Unfortunately, it will take until Wednesday to get it live, which means we are going to be internet-less for the first few days. At least we have our phones. It seems to be the cheapest provider, which is good. We don’t need anything fancy. Just a way to get our emails and watch Netflix.

                I went to the tube station to get my parents and show them around. I think they liked it but I can’t be sure. Then we left and I wouldn’t return until Sunday. Sarah booked us a minicab while I was in France. It was going to pick us up at 1pm. She had stressed that we had a lot of stuff (seriously, it’s like it multiplied over two months) and they came in a van. Yay. Then we drove to our new place. We dragged all our stuff upstairs and began unpacking. Sandra gave us a lovely moving out present: a much-needed iron. It was so nice of her and something Sarah would end up needing the very next morning.

                Sandra came by around 4:30pm to see the place. I had finished unpacking all my stuff. I showed her around and then she and I left to go walk around the neighborhood. There is so much here! There’s dozens of restaurants, several bakeries, three grocery stores, several pubs, a nightclub, a few lounges, a dry cleaners, and more! It’s very well serviced, by the look of it. Sandra was impressed with the fact that it had a lot of houses, which apparently typically has less crime. She also found that it was very multicultural, instead of there being one dominant culture. All signs point to us having chose well. She left after our walk and me and Sarah headed to Sainsbury’s to buy a few things. She finished unpacking and then we christened the flat in the only way we know how: with red wine, pizza and One Direction. We ordered pizza from the Domino’s around the corner and drank our wine out of one of our going away presents (it’s a wine glass that holds an entire bottle that says ‘finally, a wine glass that fits my needs!’). And we had One Direction night, of course. We watched their documentary, This Is Us, first (we watched their performance of Teenage Dirtbag four times because we have problems) followed by their concert DVD. We are already the worst neighbors ever (they better get used to our monthly One Direction nights) but it was an excellent and very fitting first evening in our new flat.  

The Weekend and Also, My Parents Came to Visit

Friday

I had to line up a lot of work because my parents were coming to visit so it was a pretty busy week. I started on Saturday and had applied for work for the next week. My job apparently decided I was working too much (I see I’m taking time off the next week, they see a really tired employee come day six) so I ended up getting the Friday off before my final Saturday shift. Sarah and I saw this possibility coming (she also had Friday off) and had decided to use the magical world of StubHub (www.stubhub.co.uk) to see if we could get half-decent, day-of tickets to see One Direction. That’s right. We woke up to find that tickets had dipped to our pay limit (we were going Sunday already so we weren’t going to pay more than a certain amount to see them Friday). The boys were playing Wembley Stadium for three nights and this was their first show. Our tickets were in Standing Yellow, which was in a back corner of the football pitch.

I met Sarah at Oxford Circus at 3:00pm to go grab the tickets. In Canada, when you get tickets off StubHub you get them emailed to you and you just print them off. Here you go to StubHub’s last minute ticket center. Which meant we got actual tickets! They were really cool. They had One Direction’s faces on it! We then walked to find some food which ended up leading us on the scenic route to Baker Street, where we eventually settled for some little cafeteria. I got some crappy lasagna (my mom makes the best lasagna all other lasagnas suck) and fries. Sigh. Then we headed up on the train to Wembley. You can always tell who is going to a One Direction concert because they are female and probably wearing their faces everywhere. We weren’t, but only because I left my hoodie in Calgary (and Sarah’s One Direction duct tape). The scene at the train station was madness. There were girls everywhere. The gates wouldn’t open until 5:00pm so we had half an hour in the craziness. That being said, the view from the train station was pretty cool. The stadium is in full view across the pathway, there were double decker buses riding on the bridge in front of it, and a giant One Direction billboard plastered across the front.

We waited outside longer than necessary, until Sarah realized that Wembley Stadium was outside. It was organized chaos to get in. We all had specific entry gates and they would only let about fifty people in at a time. The arena itself is huge. Normally the area with concessions is jampacked but it was so big in there it didn’t seem very busy. We sat on some couches we found and listened to a radio program that was recording from the stadium. Everything got pushed back half an hour so it was a lot of sitting. Their opening act, 5 Seconds of Summer, also opened when we saw them in Vancouver. We skipped them then, too.  Finally, at 8:00pm we went to our standing section to wait for the concert. They played some really fun music while we waited, like Bruno Mars’ Locked Out of Heaven, which definitely made the waiting easier. Then it started. I screamed and danced and freaked out. It was good times. I love Harry Styles. And I’d get to see it again Sunday!

Saturday

The next day was a bit rough, mostly because we didn’t get in until late as we missed the last train and had to take the night bus. I had to get up at 10am to work. When I’d finished at 8pm, Sarah and I headed to Trafalgar Square to meet my parents, who had just come in from Canada. They were jetlagged and tired and had been walking around all day so all we did was walk to Covent Garden so I could grab some Shake Shack to eat. It was a tasty burger.

Sunday

                Sarah, Sandra and I had all cleared our schedules to hang out with my parents all day. We started off with Sunday buffet brunch at Babur, the Indian place Sarah and I had eaten at nearly two months before. We were cautious not to fill up (Sarah and I have learned from our mistakes). From there we took the train down to London Bridge. My parents really like walking, and I don’t, so I tried to find a happy medium. The walk from London Bridge to Waterloo takes about forty-five minutes and has a lot of nice things to see. On the walk you pass Southwark Cathedral, Shakespeare’s Globe, Tate Modern, the Millennium Bridge, Oxo Tower, ITV Studios, BFI, and more. My dad wanted to see The Old Vic, so we walked a little past the station so I could show him. I also freaked everyone out by pointing to a restaurant and giving the exact date Harry Styles ate there. Oops.

                From Waterloo we headed to my parents’ hotel, the London Edition. First we stopped to pick up our second round of One Direction tickets. We were in the stands this time, in Club Wembley. Everyone but me and Sandra had a nap at my parents’ hotel. We got to Wembley Stadium around 5:30pm this time and there was far less of a crowd waiting outside. We walked the whole arena again before grabbing some surprisingly tasty pizza and some not so tasty popcorn. We skipped 5 Seconds of Summer again. They announced that the boys would be coming on at 7:45pm, but it was more like 8:30pm again. This time Sarah and I could see the whole stage, though the boys themselves were very very small. That’s the problem with arenas. There’s not really a good seat. If you’re close, you can’t see all the action. But if you’re in the stands, you’re far away just because of the size of the place.

                This concert was even more fun than Friday’s. I danced around and screamed and acted like a fourteen year old. It was really great. Did I mention I love Harry Styles? We had to catch the train because everyone needed to get up early. Again, it was organized chaos. They didn’t want everyone rushing the station so they held us back until everything was clear. The police were so well-prepared. They brought a microphone and a record player and started playing One Direction songs through the mic! It was funny and thoughtful of them.

 

Monday

                I was working Monday night but I had the morning and afternoon off to hang out with my parents. My dad had booked a Rock & Roll Tour of London in the morning. It was very informative. It took us all around Soho, Highbury & Islington, and Camden, showing us many sights of the British music scene. They tailor the tour to your interests, which is good and bad. Nobody said they liked The Rolling Stones or Led Zeppelin, so we, unfortunately, did not hear much about them. I said Joy Division, though, and they actually found a way to incorporate them into the tour, which was impressive.

                Our tour finished around 12:30pm in Trafalgar Square. We went to Covent Garden to meet Sarah and introduce my parents to the wonders of Nando’s. They were impressed. Afterwards Sarah went back to the flat and my parents and I went shopping briefly, before I went back to their hotel to get ready for work and they walked down to Harrod’s.

 

Tuesday

                Another early morning as Sarah, Sandra and I headed to Victoria to meet up with my parents. We had booked a coach tour of Stonehenge and Bath. The coach wasn’t completely full, which was nice. Everyone mostly slept on the drive out to Stonehenge. Even our guide stayed quiet, after acknowledging the fact that everyone was probably going to fall asleep. Good call. We got to Stonehenge in about an hour and a half and had an hour to look around. The tickets were included in our tour, as were the audio guides. You have to take a shuttle partway up to Stonehenge and then walk for a bit. Sometimes I really like audioguides but today I was just not in the mood to listen, so Sarah and I just walked around. You’re not allowed to get close anymore, because people suck. They would try to push the rocks over or deface them in some way. That, and the ground is unstable after all these centuries. Stonehenge has actually been a tourist attraction since the 17^th century or something like that.

                It was pretty cool to walk around something so old, but it’s also kind of overrated. I thought it would be bigger or more imposing; that I would somehow feel insignificant when standing there. But honestly, it’s just some old rocks in a cool pattern. My dad thought we were going to Easter Island and kept asking where the giant heads were. After we took the shuttle back down to the Visitor’s Center and went in the exhibition. It was basically a museum dumbing down what was said on the audioguide. What is Stonehenge, why did they build it, etc. My favorite room was a room of theories about Stonehenge’s existence. It’s up for debate and I like conspiracy theories like that. Then we were back on the bus to head to Bath.

                The ride to Bath took another hour and we sometimes drove through some countryside villages. I was more excited to see Bath than Stonehenge. The city is beautiful. The buildings are a mix of Roman and Georgian architecture and it’s a really cool combination. They also primarily use these kindof gold-beige stones which are so pretty. When we got off the bus our guide took us on a walking tour of the city. We saw the exterior of the Roman Baths, the Royal Crescent (which I found really cool) and some other famous landmarks. Mostly I just really liked walking around the city, taking it all in. I don’t think I could spend more than a day there, but it sure is nice to look at.

                We had forgotten to book tickets to the Roman Baths with our tour except for Sandra who booked separately from us. By chance, there was one token to enter left over, so Sarah and I used the two to see the baths. They were really cool. It’s basically the ruins of a spa. After walking through it they have a miniature of what the baths would have looked like. It was really cool to see how it would have looked. It really did look like a spa with a bunch of swimming pools and hot tubs.

                After we finished at the baths (we skipped the audioguide again) we met up with my parents and went looking for a bite to eat. We visited a pub which actually had some really good chicken wings. It’s really hard to find good hot wings in England. They are my favorite. But these were fine. We did a quick walk through the shopping area which turned into us almost missing our bus. There wasn’t anything left to the tour after that, just the drive back to London.

Wednesday

                Sarah and I spent the morning at our new flat (more on that in another post). I met my parents to show them the new neighborhood and then we headed to Camden. My parents had taken an interest in it after our Rock & Roll tour so I took them to the high street so they could check out the markets. It, unsurprisingly, wasn’t really their scene. We did shop at H&M for a bit and grabbed some lunch at Wetherspoon’s. My dad tried the veggie burger and loved it. My mom tried the purple drink and loved it. Then we headed down to Oxford Circus where we shopped at H&M (again), Debenham’s and TK Maxx.

                Sandra met us down at Oxford Circus and we went to supper at Belgo, the mussels restaurant. I’d been to the one in Bromley with Sarah but this time we went to Covent Garden. The food was just as good (my mother is hard to please and she really liked the mussels) but the restaurant was really crowded and loud. Oh well, it was still a very satisfying final meal with my parents.

               

Being Productive. Sort of.

                Sarah and I don’t have work until Thursday (her) and Friday (me). We had hoped to work Tuesday and Thursday but things didn’t pan out that way. But the six eight hours or more days in a row absolutely murdered me so I can’t say I was too upset to have four days off. It also enabled us to get some stuff done (and a lot of sitting around).

                On Tuesday we finished up our flat application. We both had to fill out an application form that the landlord sends to his referencing company. It’s a little stressful because there’s so many variables. At the end of the day, though, it is the landlord who makes the final decision based on information received from the referencing company about how risky they consider Sarah and I to be. He keeps talking about filling out paperwork, though, so he obviously thinks this is going ahead. I hope it does. I’m tired of living on a couch. I’m ready to start settling. Besides Sarah and I both filling out the application form and sending it off, we also had to pay £150 for the referencing. It seems like a lot but we have learned over the last few weeks that in the grand scheme of things they can charge you for, that’s not that bad.

                We thought paying the fee would be difficult. For some reason we were overcomplicating it. Our original plan was to put the money on Sarah’s UK bank account then go back to the flat and transfer it to the landlord via the internet. In reality all we had to do was hand the bank teller the money and they put it right on the landlord’s account. Duh. We’re stupid. It was so easy and it transferred really quick. By Wednesday morning I had an email from the landlord saying he had received the payment. After our visit to the bank we stopped by a couple discount stores to start picking up some stuff for our eventual flat. We know that it will take some time to make wherever we live feel homey but we need to start grabbing some stuff. Most important is sheets and we managed to buy some sheets and a blanket for incredibly cheap. We literally walked up and down the aisles grabbing essentials you wouldn’t normally think of, like garbae bags, toilet paper and soap. They might not be as important as pillows but could you imagine going to wash your hands and having no soap? Ew.

                We spent the rest of Tuesday binge-watching Gossip Girl (we’re several episodes into season 4 now). Wednesday we had booked the day off of work because we had tickets to Clarence Darrow, a play starring the greatest actor to ever walk the fact of the earth: Kevin Spacey. He is mine and Sarah’s favorite actor. The play was a one-man play at The Old Vic, where Kevin Spacey is the Creative Director. The stage is just a small piece of floorboard in the center and the seats go full circle around it. This was the Dress Rehearsal, as the opening night was later that day. Our tickets only cost £10, as the theater reserves one hundred seats for under 25’s.

                The play itself was just okay. It’s about an American lawyer, played by Kevin Spacey, who basically just narrates his life and his court cases. Some parts were interesting, like when he fought for teaching evolution in school or against racism. Some parts made me want to fall asleep. Kevin Spacey was fantastic. I imagine doing a one-man play is incredibly difficult. He’s just an absolute legend. So he was great to watch but the play itself it boring. Oh well, at least I’ve seen him live.

                After the show as we were walking to the bus we ran into a girl we had worked with all weekend. It was funny because I kind of forgot that we know people besides each other now, and running in to people we know is an actual possibility. It makes me feel more settled here. We took the bus back to the flat and waited for Sandra to get back. Last week Sandra decided to brave the crazy and come to the One Direction concert next weekend with Sarah, me and my parents. She even suggested we watch my One Direction movies to warm her up. Well you don’t need to ask Sarah and I twice, we are more than happy to watch ALL THE THINGS.

                And so Sandra came home and we watched This Is Us, their documentary, their Up All Night concert and most of their music videos – some of them several times. We also ate Chinese food. It was kind of a perfect day: Kevin Spacey and One Direction. And now I’m super excited for the concert June 8^th. Right now Sarah and I have June 6^th off so if we don’t get work we’ll go on StubHub that day and see if we can get super cheap tickets and see them TWICE! IT’S PERFECT!