Dr. Pepper

So for those of you who know me well you know that I have a little problem with Diet Dr. Pepper. Or you might say its a big problem I guess its all perspective. Anyway low and behold Diet Dr. Pepper doesn’t exist in London. In fact there isn’t much other than Coke and Fanta here at all. But if you try hard enough you can come close. Cue Dr Pepper Zero. Now its not quite the same but for someone with as big a problem as I have it does the job....if you know what I mean. So anyway, to date we had just utilized grocery delivery, which by the way is awesome, and they would just drop it off at the door. But on this fateful night there was no back up bottle in the pantry and no grocery delivery at the door. No problem I thought, I will just go two blocks down the street to the Tesco Express. Now Tesco is like the Homeland of back home. Not the best prices or products but it not horrible. So because nobody has a car every few blocks they have a Tesco Express or a Tesco Metro, which are much smaller and really just meant to get you through the night. Well this night the Tesco Express didn’t do its job and they had no Dr. Pepper Zero. Well since I was already in withdrawal and I had to have it we set off to the real Tesco. Its probably close to a mile from the flat but we were already out so what the hell. Long story short they were having a sale like 4 for the price of 3 on Dr. Pepper products and cartons of juice. Well not to miss a sale I had to cash in on the bargain and we loaded up our 4 two liters and 4 litres of juice. Now I had fully planned on getting two or three bottles of DPZ (you like the sound of that don’t you?) so I had my super packin’ sack. Its from the Home Depot, my mom got it for me for Christmas like two years ago. I swear the thing is like Mary Poppins travel bag. Its amazing how much stuff you can jam into the thing and it never seems to get full. Well it now weighed what seemed like fifty pounds and only has normal handles. I felt like a Sherpa or some sort of pack mule hauling it home while Kristen skipped down the road whistling away without a care in the world. Ok that part I exaggerated a bit but you get the idea. So a mile later I had developed a strange twinge down my left side which I was sure was a heart attack, and my right hand had turned into some sort of rock or claw from gripping the bag so tight. Took me an hour and half a bottle of DPZ to get to feeling alright afterwards, but eventually everything was all good.

Wore two shirts and two pairs of pants in bed last night. Not because it is so cold during the night, but because if you walk out of the bedroom in the morning not dressed enough you get frostbite on your extremities.

TV got hooked up yesterday, its awesome. Lots of cycling on TV here. Seems to be nothing censored after like 9 o’clock at night. I won’t get into the details but the documentary was far more descriptive than I ever wanted to see.

I tried to start reading a book on the train and shuttle bus this week to kill the time. Operative word there is tried. I apparently get a little motion sick on the shuttle bus. Got all the way to that hot, sweaty, mouth watering point right before you yack today. Needless to say book reading is not on the agenda next week.

Tired Puppy

Busy day for Hampton.....so tired she fell asleep in her basket of toys

The Train

Let me start by saying AAAARRRGGGHHHH!! Still no heat in the our flat. The Russian wonder came out again and apparently his last ditch effort to get the radiators working was to open one of them up and pour water out all over the floor. Needless to say that didn't work. Finally he gave up on the radiators, and called in the professionals. A guy from Bosch came out and decided we need a new pump or something. They have to order it so we can just hang out and be cold. Its not so bad, we have a electric heater that we can put in the bed room, but when I get up and take a shower its probably not much warmer than 60 in the rest of the flat. The other big change this week is that I have been going to Reading for work. I have to take the tube to the train station, catch a train, and then a shuttle bus to get to the office. Each leg takes about 30 minutes so its going to take some getting used to for sure. First trip was interesting for sure, we left the station going pretty slowly and then put the hammer down and were probably doing 75 or so. Well there wasn't much to see so I tried to doze off and catch a few more minutes of sleep. That didn't last too long....before I knew it our train going warp nine in one direction passed another train going warp nine in the other direction. I was out of it and not expecting the noise or air pressure, and just about crapped my pants. Its all old hat now and I have the trip down pretty well. I am looking forward to riding my bike out there in the summer but for now its reading a book or trying to keep up with the goings on in the US via my crackberry. Picture below is standing on the platform leaving the train station on the way home one night.


Inevitably everyday I run into some kind of hang up with public transportation. If its not a transit workers strike it is a signal failure, or a car driving off a bridge onto the tracks. I have just gotten used to the fact that you have to add 10 minutes to your trip for something crazy.

We went out one night trying to find dinner and unbeknownst to us ended up walking right past Buckingham Palace. I was taken aback by the whole situation. Its mind blowing having all these historic and iconic places so close. Who would have guessed that we would be here for 3 weeks the first time we see the Queen’s house (pssst the Queen actually doesn’t live there) by accident while searching for some chicken burritos. (pssst no chicken burritos).

Fountain in front of Buckingham Palace

I am taking this picture in the middle of the street.......trying to get a picture before the sun goes all the way down.

Tourists

This weekend marks the what I will call the official start or our European Vacation. So far its been all house stuff and buying this and that and trying to get settled. Luckily this weekend we got what was being described as a heat wave so we decided to venture out to see some sights. We didn’t make it very far because our Russian handyman Vasyl was supposed to come fix the radiators (which by the way he didn’t show......three housecalls and no heat) and ended up visiting Trafalgar square and the National Gallery. Its pretty cool the majority of the museums in London are free to attend so you don’t feel bad if you only see half of the exhibits. We essentially only looked at the things we knew about, Di Vinci, Monet, Michelangelo, and Picasso. Not the most recognizable pieces but pretty cool all in all. The Di Vinci, and Michelangelo stuff was the best. I have to admit it felt pretty surreal looking at a 500 year old chalk drawing. I would highly recommend a visit. But maybe not at this time of year every year. Which is the lead into the next highlight of our trip. Remember I said we went to Trafalgar square? Well yeah it was the African festival. Not really sure what the African festival consisted of, but kinda distracted from the normal scenery. I know they were protesting stoning at one point, and I think someone wanted me to donate money to dig a well, but other than that I didn’t pay much attention. Took some pictures overlooking the square and the stage of the African festival at what I would consider to be Typical London. You can see the Eye in the background

Made a quick visit to Piccadilly Circus on the way home, which seemed pretty stupid to me. They say its like Times Square, and I guess I agree with them but wasn’t much going on other than people and shopping. Neither of which was on my list of exciting attractions so it was rather pointless. We did have to make one last trip to finish off the necessities (including buying a bed for all of those coming to visit) so we ventured to Ikea on Sunday. I can tell the story really quickly by just saying that Ikea = Hell, but to put it in a little more perspective I will share some of the highlights. To get there we had to change tubes three times and catch a shuttle bus, which we missed. The store is without exaggeration twice the size of Mathis Brothers, in Tulsa. It easily had 10 times the people as Mathis Brothers as well. It felt like the midnight madness sale at Garden Ridge. Their stuff was pretty amazing and super cheap, but not sure it was worth all the congestion and people. Kristen broke the most expensive thing we bought before we got home, but other than that all was successful.

First Week

Well this week has been a number of uncomfortable situations one after the next which I am the only person that seems to be affected by.  Started the morning Monday with 16 text messages from the US Department of Homeland Security warning me that the threat level for terrorist attacks had been elevated, and that I should avoid mass transit and tourist locations.  Fantastic news for me as I was taking the tube (subway for Americans) to work and I my office is exactly 1 block from Trafalgar square and Parliament.  Luckily for me the subway workers tried to help the situation by going on strike and cut the number of trains running by something like 50%.  That may have scared off the terrorists but not me so I headed off to try my luck catching a the tube. The trains were running but instead of the normal every 2 or 3 minutes they came more like every 5 to 7 minutes, each one more tightly packed than the next.  Every time one did arrive the doors would open and everyone on the platform would exhale in disappointment in unison and immediately start looking at each other as if to say “you go, my ass isn’t going to fit”.  Finally one brave sole would summon up enough courage to wedge himself in and the train would head off down the track.  After 30 minutes or so I found a gap that looked my size and I smashed into what was an already over filled train.  Funny enough we had to make 9 stops before my stop, and each time at least one brave sole took it upon themself to get on.  Needless to say it was way too cozy for me and my first day.  Fast-forward to Wednesday, and I have gotten settled in at work, tube rides are somewhat commonplace now, and I am beginning to notice the smaller things now.  For one, the chairs here are by far the most uncomfortable on the face of the planet.  I am pretty sure we are shaped the same whether from the States or not, but wow my back absolutely kills me after like an hour and a half.  I need smoke breaks just to stretch.  On top of that its come to my attention that there is no need for cold water here.  Not so much when it comes to drinking but specifically related to sinks.  The water that comes out of the tap is like a thousand degrees.  Its like trying to wash your hands in lava or on the face of the sun.  You don’t even need soap, no germ in the world could withstand the heat.  

We are off

Well I guess this is as good a place to start as any.  I will skip all the boring stuff that led to this point and just say that we are embarking on a two yr adventure to London England for my work.  At this point its still 99% questions and 1% answers, but we are wheels up and on the way.  Today we said goodbye to our house and Tulsa and hit the road.  The puppies still have no idea what is going on, but at least seem in good spirits.  Turbo spent the morning barking at every man, person wearing a hat, and anything with wheels, and Hampton slept.  While we changed planes in Houston we saw Turbo making a whole hearted attempt to break out of her cage.  No dice puppy!!! Hampton just looked confused….Good thing she is pretty.  As I type this they should be taking a walk and getting some dinner.   12 hours from now we will be in our flat, but for now my future is 10 hours of airplane seat and numb butt.  Got four drink tickets so might not be so bad.