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.