Click & Collect

When we signed the lease for our London house, we knew that we would not get a car.  There's really no need as we have all the transportation we need in easy reach.  A quick walk to the end of our block is the bus that takes us to and from the High Street (aka Main Street).  When we need to head a bit further out, we walk a short half mile away to the Underground Station.  

Not having a car has provided us many bonuses.  Among them, the kids get great exercise walking to and from the Underground station several times per week.  We get to see the variety of shops and parks in our neighborhood.  Finally, Matt and I get the chance to appreciate the beautiful architecture of the houses in our neighborhood (a post to come!).

Not having a car has provided a few inconveniences.  

- Whatever we buy we have to carry home.  

- We have no choice but to walk everywhere.  Even if it is raining (and it has been raining a lot).

- Not everywhere we want to go is easily travelled to by bus or train.  

I solved the first problem shortly after moving in.  I bought a granny grocery trolley.  Yes, the grannies use them, but so does everyone else.  It's hard to carry milk and grocery bags home, especially when the kids can't carry anything very heavy.  This beauty can hold two jugs of milk and 5-6 grocery bags.  I shopped for all of our Christmas groceries, knowing that the stores would be closed or highly picked over but the time I returned, and only the bag I could not fit inside was bread and eggs.  Not too shabby.  

When we want to go somewhere not close to the Underground, it takes quite a bit of planning.  Before Christmas we needed to go to IKEA.  Back at the 407 we had an IKEA within 10 minutes of our house.  This trip took around an hour.  It was a fun combination of walking, Overground train, Underground train, and more walking just to get there.

What do you do when you need large goods but have no way to transport them to your house?  Sometimes you need a new couch or dining table, but it won't fit through the Underground's turnstile.  

Let me introduce you to the amazing concept of Click & Collect.  

Click & Collect is a service that most of our common retailers participate.  Think of if like Peapod grocery delivery on steroids.  There are typically two ways to do the Collect.  Once you Click (order), the goods can either be Collected at a specific location for free the next day or delivered to your house for a low fee or even free at a time you schedule.

John Lewis is the department store we've spent a lot of money at to furnish our home.  Click & Collect here provides the option of home delivery for a small fee or free pick up the next day at it's partner grocery store, Waitrose.  We had John Lewis deliver our television to the house, but I chose to pick up Christmas presents at the Waitrose since I needed to grocery shop anyway.  

To solve the bed debacle from a week ago, we took the convoluted trip to IKEA and successfully found what we needed.  They so kindly offered to deliver the heavy as heck furniture the next day for £30.  That price was a deal to us since we had no car and a rental would be way more than that.  Plus they carried all the way to the top floor!

I tried to Click & Collect for Christmas groceries, but the Brits are such planners that all of the delivery slots were booked a week in advance.  For now, I don't mind doing my own grocery shopping.  As long as I have my trusty granny grocery trolley I have no worries.  

Just think if Click & Collect was widely used in the US.  My Target budget would go way down.  Maybe they'd let you click on a category called "Add something I didn't know I needed."  

Moving & Furniture Education

After almost one month, we are finally in our new home!  Even better news is that our container from America arrived on Tuesday.  Such a relief for the kids to be in their own rooms with their own toys.

The day was quite interesting.  Four young men arrived to remove the rental furniture and bring in the goods!  The kids camped out in the front window to watch all the fun while staying out of the way.

All of the men were extremely polite (like just about everyone else in Britain) and they were very careful with all of our boxes.  There were several memorable quotes of the day.

#1 - "You must have had a massive kitchen in the States," says the crew leader after dragging in the kitchen boxes.  

The funny thing is that we did not have a massive kitchen.  I was just quite creative in my space usage.  I'm finding that coat closet we turned into a pantry at The 407 was key to my kitchen organization.  I'll spare you a photo of the equally crowded table behind me.  

As more and more boxes piled in with a basement or storage room label, they ended up in the conservatory (sun room).

  

#2 - "Your mattress is not going to fit up to the top floor."

That wasn't the only thing; our dresser would not fit either.  Both pieces of furniture were at a proper height to fit into the stairwell, but when the guys needed to lift it up to the next step, they needed about five more inches to clear the ceiling.  The geometry did not lie.  No way, no how were they making it up to our room on the top floor.  The dresser made it up one floor and settled in Youngest Kiddo's room.  Lucky kid now has a pretty nice dresser.  Our headboard, footboard, nightstands & mirror easily traveled up the second set of stairs to our room.  Initially we thought about having the movers take our bedroom furniture back to their warehouse to store for the duration of our time in England since the main storage piece wasn't a part of the deal.  The figures came in that we'd have to pay £200 ($327) for transportation back to the warehouse, £70 ($115) a month for storage, and £40 ($65) a month to insure our furniture.  Once we did the math and figured out the cost for almost two years of storage would be around $4,000 we decided to save that money and creatively solve the problem in house.  Where is the box spring now, you ask?  Don't even think of becoming jealous.  I'm sure you'll see this new idea in next month's Better Homes & Gardens.   

For the short term, that's a big old American box spring in my entryway.  You'd think an easy fix is to buy a split queen box spring.  That would be easy in America, but not in England.  They have divans (dih-van) instead of box springs.

It is a huge box on wheels.  Some have drawers and some do not.  They are an all round toe stubber.  When we had our rental furniture I appreciated that they were on wheels so vacuuming was simple.  Trusty old IKEA has divans that are not on wheels, and if we can make the measurements work we will order up a split divan to use underneath our American mattress.  As for the box spring in the entryway?  It might go up for sale, or broken down for a nice fire.  We will see.

More photos and updates to come once we come up for air after an unpacking marathon this weekend.  For now Matt and I are camping in our bedroom with the mattress on the floor.  The kids are enjoying the toy disasters in their rooms.  I'm happy to have a home.

Case Study To Prove Helicopter Parenting Is Bad For Your Kids

I am not a scientist or psychologist, but I do pay a lot of attention.  More on that later.

One of Matt's colleagues graciously invited our family to her son's birthday party.  He was celebrating his 4th birthday at a climbing, sliding, and swinging place.  It was a bit out of town, but we knew the kids would enjoy the physical activity.  

I've been to these kinds of places before.  I know what they are all about:

• Kids screaming
• Kids tattling
• Parents disciplining other people's kids 
• Kids crying
• Germs

Hey, it wasn't about me.  My kids would thoroughly enjoy an adventure of their own today, and I had a fresh bottle of Purell in my bag.  Another bonus of the venue location - they got to ride on another train line.  So the family navigated up to King's Cross/St. Pancras station to get on the First Capital Connect up to the venue.

The layout of the venue was as expected: the climbing structures on one side and tables & seating for parents on the other.  The kids quickly doffed their coats and shoes and started playing.  

Back to my opening statement - I am not a scientist or psychologist, but I do pay a lot of attention.  In the three and a half hours at the party a paradigm shift occurred.  Past performance is not indicative to today's adventure.  

• Kids screaming - Yes but at a tolerable level on par with their play enjoyment
• Kids tattling - NONE!
• Parents disciplining other people's kids - NONE!
• Kids crying - One girl cried because she got hit by a piece of equipment, but she worked through her tears by herself and returned to playing.  
• Germs - duh

Here's my non-medically trained opinion on this - helicopter parenting is an unknown phenomenon on this side of the Atlantic.  They are actually almost opposite of this.  I have regularly seen parents pushing childless strollers at the mall and museums while their child zips ahead (sometimes a bit too far for my liking).  I get the sense that both parent and child have an understanding of each other's location, and both parties are OK with this.  A little freedom for the kids is a good thing.  

My new list of events that occur at the climbing, sliding, swinging place:

• parents relax with a cappuccino from the cafe
• kids play, play, and come tell mom and dad the amazing feat they just accomplished
• kids work out conflicts or don't have any
• everyone leaves content
• decontamination chamber when you arrive home

I won't say it out loud, but I might actually go back some time.  

That is if my Purell stash is full :)

House Hunting......For the Last Time?

On Tuesday we spent the day house hunting with our favorite relocation house hunter, Brian.  He took us out on our first hunts in October, and we were happy to spend the day with him again.

Back in October Brian spoke of different clients that brought their kids on the house hunt and how it adds a whole new level of stress to the day.  The kids really don't want to be in the car.  The kids get hungry.  The kids have to pee.  The kids have a meltdown by the third house.  We all had a good laugh about that, and we were so happy that they kids were back in the states with the grandparents.  

We had the kids today.  Oh, fate is a cruel mistress.  

Here's how the day started:

• On the walk from the bus stop to Brian's meeting spot, Youngest Kiddo had to go to the bathroom.  I learned back on our trip to Germany that when you see a clean bathroom, you use it.  In this case it was 9:30 in the morning and access to bathrooms was limited.  I snuck into a sit down restaurant to use the WC.  
• All five of us squeezed into Brian's rental car.  I got the middle seat to make sure Oldest & Youngest Kiddo didn't murder each other before we got to the first property.  It's been a long time since I had to sit on the hump.  That used to be the best seat in the car.  Not as cool as I remember.
• Youngest Kiddo thought it would be fantastic to run and jump all over the first two properties.  As.loud.as.he.could.  Matt and I just smiled and tried to deflect the estate agent's attention elsewhere.  
• After the second property, Youngest Kiddo said, "I have to vomit."  First of all it's hilarious to hear him say vomit.  What four-year-old kid says vomit?  Upon arrival to the third property, he sat on the front porch breathing slow and deliberately.  Matt and I tag-teamed supervision on the front porch and did not pay much attention to him, as this has happened many times before. 
• On the way to the fourth property, Youngest Kiddo looked at me to say in a pathetic, choking voice, "I'm going to vomit."  We were at a stoplight so I opened the door and Youngest Kiddo proceeded to vomit out the door.  I'll spare you the details, but the boy was not lying.  We had to decide what to do at this point - Matt ditch us to take Youngest Kiddo home or press on.  We took the risk to press on.
• At the fifth property, he was back to his jumping and running self.  I also have to add after using the bathroom at the property.  

It wasn't even lunchtime.

• The rest of us were starving for lunch, but we questioned what we should do with Youngest Kiddo.  He claimed that he was hungry, so we took another risk to press on.  You'd think we never fed the boy, he sure horked down his food.

Matt said I was going to sit next to him in the car for the rest of the day.  I was willing to take that challenge.  Do you notice I have not said a word about any of the properties?

We saw the whole range of properties - common terraced houses and high rise places.  I took many photos of the ones we liked.  One place was cute inside, but outside it as if "Wanted" posters should hang on the fences.  The hideous last place reminded me of a retirement high rise on the bad part of town, I did not want it digitally forever remembered.  Here's some good ones from the 10 properties.....

Youngest Kiddo was excited for the tiny, low sink.

Lots of storage in the reception (living) room 

Yes, that's a washing machine AND a tumble dryer - heaven

It was stuck in the 90's but the conservatory was gorgeous

Beautiful kitchen with garden in the back

Of the ten properties we viewed, we have one winner that we want and a back up if needed.  Another one of our other relocation representatives is negotiating the rent on one of the properties as I type this.  I sure hope for my sleep quality that it works out in our favor.

I'm sure Brian added many stories to his repertoire today.

My Favorite New App of ALL TIME

Traversing London outside of the Underground stations is a bit tricky.  The city streets are not on a grid system, and the streets names change randomly from block to block.

Underground stations are not always nearby, so a bus is often the way to go (plus it's a bit cheaper).  Up until now I've had to swap between a bus app and an Underground app in order to get where we need to go.  One main difficulty with the apps is that they had difficulty finding my actual location.  If I was not somewhere big, like the Tower of London, it got confused.

That is until I downloaded Citymapper app.   

It determines my exact location and tells me all of the transportation options (walk, bus, rail) and combinations of the modes.  It gives approximate times for each mode and tells what times the next bus or train arrive.  It's free and you also get New York City routes.  

Yesterday I found an amazing feature of the app.  When I scrolled through my options to get back to our apartment, one of my choices was jetpack.  Nice.  

This morning I tried to show the option to Oldest Kiddo, but it changed - to teleporter.  When I tapped it, the app told me that this mode was still in beta :)  Later in the day I needed directions and the fun option was a catapult.  It even came with a short video (gif?) of a person catapulting from point A to point B.  Hilarious.

The best bit of all, the app is free!

*These opinions are all my own.  I love this app!

Out And About Town

We've had some housing woes in the last week which put me into a pretty decent funk.  When we left The 407, I figured we'd be in our house long before now and starting up a home routine.  We left on November 15, and as of December 1 we still have no where to live.  That's a whole other post.  Despite cloudy skies in my head & outside, being out and about has been the best medicine.

On Wednesday I was searching out different London travel blogs to see if there were any free or inexpensive places we could go.  I came across Coram's Fields, which is just a short walk from our apartment.  The kids were content with the play structure just inside the gates.  They have no idea what the rest of the park holds.  I'm holding that in my back pocket for later in the week.

Today we went to the London Zoo.  I had a bit of sticker shock when we paid for our entry.  One adult and two kids was £51 ($83!).  A small disclosure, I'm working off a London travel book from 2006, and the prices have increased quite a bit.  I've ordered the newest edition.  I can apply today's admission to a family pass so we don't have to pay that again!

I think all of the families in London were shopping or elsewhere today because we had just a few people with us at each exhibit.  The animals were eager to be photographed today and many readily came up to the glass to check us out.

These are the bearded pigs.  They were adorable!

Oldest Kiddo was excited to visit the Reptile House because Harry Potter visited the same location in the first book.  No parseltongue was spoken today.

On our way to the edge of the park we had to cross a bridge over the Regents Canal.  This is a beautiful gem in the city.  If we were super gutsy, we could rent a houseboat on the canal instead of a flat or house.

Early last week we visited the London Transportation Museum in Covent Garden.  I've always enjoyed the shop here but never toured the museum.  The kids got in free so the £15 admission was not too bad.  The museum starts at the beginning of London's transportation roots to present day.  My kids were engaged the entire time!  They got to see carriages, trains, and busses.

Even the props are realistic, ew

We walked back through Covent Garden to find a cool Lego snowglobe.  It is comprised of over 120,000 Lego bricks put together by one guy.  One guy.  He's the only certified Lego professional in the UK.  I wonder if that's for a reason :)

 

Cheers to bright days and more fun family outings!

House Hunting.......again

When Matt and I house hunted back in October, we found the perfect place for our family.  It was a stand-alone house in the 'burbs.  It was a two story house with three bedrooms, a huge reception room, and a huge yard.  The amazing piece to this house was that the owner was replacing all of the carpet and appliances.  He was even going to add a dryer.

You have no idea what an amazing find it is to have a separate washing machine and dryer.  

Within two minutes of being inside this property I knew it was the place for us.  Then we walked out to the back yard.  Oh. my. gosh.  The back property line had a creek running through it!

The owner needed about two weeks to finish all of the improvements, which worked out great for us.  We hoped to move in on Monday, November 18 after spending a few days at a hotel in London.  However, that was not to be because we knew before leaving The 407 that he did not have all of the improvements completed.  Our new move date was to be Friday, November 29.  

Today is November 29, and we are still in the apartment.  

Mr. Owner decided he does not want to rent the property anymore.  I'll let Adam Sandler share my feelings.  

I think I would have preferred two weeks ago, but maybe I'm splitting hairs.

So we are back to the beginning of house hunting, and we've decided that we no longer want to live in the 'burbs.  I know I've enjoyed our time in the city, albeit in a small corporate apartment.  The access to the Underground and busses is a convenience we would not get in the 'burbs.  We've lived that life and maybe Mr. Owner's indecision was just what we needed to realize that.

I'm back to spending mass amounts of time on Rightmove and Zoopla house hunting yet again.

Contemplative

I love listening to my kids mimic the accent on the underground & elevator announcements. Their approximation is improving. 

I realize that getting outside makes the homesick blues not so bad.  There's not a lot if sun, but the fresh air really clears my head. 

I wonder when we will solidify permanent housing.  A corporate apartment is nice, but having our own belongings will make it home.

After an hour in the "dryer," I still have to hang most things to finish drying

We are still waffling between living in the city or suburbs. We can live in either, but they both have significant trade-offs. Today is the last day we will wait to hear about availability of the suburb house.  If it's a no, then we start the search all over.  

I'm planning for a weekend while Matt is at a trade show.  Three full days alone with the kids is a challenge, especially when cultural and retail options are mobbed on the weekend.   

We are trying to keep the kids engaged until they are enrolled in school. Fearful that it may take longer for them to start than we'd like. 

Always thinking about dinner.  I should investigate some websites that have helpful meal ideas for camping since my kitchen supplies are extremely limited.

The go to meal

Some days I am hesitant to drag my kids all over town in search of a store that might not pan out to have everything I think it might have.  They figured out "Let's go on an adventure," really means Mom has no idea where we are going.  I really need paper towels, bread, milk (for the 20,000th time), a frying pan, spaghetti sauce, and Q-tips.  As far as I know there is not one store nearby to get all of those things.  I miss Target.  

The whole family is thrilled to have the SlingBox for access to American TV.  Sometimes it's nice to see Matt & Savannah, Jimmy Fallon, Ree, and even just a little bit of news from the US. 

Finally, we are all so thankful for Skype and texts with family and friends. We love to hear what's happening on your continent.  

My Observations - Food

The family is settling into a routine now that we've been her for a week.  

I still struggle with making dinner.  I have many ideas but not the proper tools & ingredients to make them.  Since our temporary housing is a few blocks from the absolute center of London, our food options at the supermarket are limited.  The markets have what a city-dwelling person would need at lunchtime or on the way back to their small flat after work: ready to cook meals, grab & go sandwiches, small sized sweets, and basic beverages.  That does not help me when I'm looking to make beef stew or a big pot of soup.  I still have to get accustomed to the brands and what the bigger supermarkets offer.  The types of foods offered are drastically different than what I've bought in the US.  The amount of preservatives allowed in foods is minimal.  Take a look at the low fat yogurt.  Do you see any chemicals on the ingredient list below?  I feel better about my purchases, but they take a little longer to figure out.

On the plus side, the family has enjoyed several of the ready to cook meals.  We loved the chicken and asparagus wrapped in prosciutto, and tomorrow we will have a beef & vegetable stir-fry that was on promotion at the Marks & Spencer for £6.  

At least we are eating healthy and at home as a family.

Figuring Things Out

The apartment we're in has the necessary appliances to keep the household running.  The thing is that while I'm quite a domestic goddess, I know these appliances are not quite the same as back at The 407.  The property management company kindly left a binder with information about the area and the operating instructions for the appliances & technology.    

The first order of the day was to make dinner.  I have not cooked a meal in over a week.  While that does not sound like a horrible thing, eating out for 3 meals/day for six days stinks.  The family was looking forward to a nice dinner of pasta with a nice marinara & bread.  I procured the necessary cooking vessels and proceeded to turn on the stove.  At least I tried to turn on the stove.  The stove in this apartment is not the one pictured in the binder.  Their picture indicated it should have knobs on the cooktop, but ours has images on the cooktop that I figured worked like a touchpad.

Tap - nothing

Tap, Tap - nothing

TAP, TAP - nothing

I happened to be on Skype with my mom & sister right around the time I started to cook.  Whenever I have any cooking question I always call my mom.  So I turned the computer to the stove to show them the stove.  They both suggested a tap of the images, but it still did not work.  Then mom brilliantly suggested that instead of tapping I should hold on the image for a few seconds.  That was it!  Dinner was on the table in no time.  

Washing Machine

I am not a fan of laundry (really who is?), but we've accumulated quite a mess-o-laundry in the past week.  We referred to the handy binder for instructions.  The thing is the binder only told us what the buttons are for but not what we should use.  I let Matt take control of this project and set the wash cycle.  

Started the first wash at 7:30, and at 9:30 the washer finally stopped.  Not before I thought it was going to jump out of the cabinet like in Mr. Mom.  I will try the quick cycle tomorrow and see if that's any better.  

Jack Versus the Appliances
Mr. Mom — MOVIECLIPS.com

Those had better be the most clean clothes on Earth.  Apologies to the people who live below our apartment, we had no idea the washer would make that kind of noise.  The dry cycle is the next bit of fun.  

Revolving Accommodations

When we arrived in London we knew that we'd be in a hotel for a bit before our rental was ready.  Our relocation person emailed us on Tuesday right when the movers arrived to let us know the rental would not be ready for Monday, November 18.  Apparently the owner had difficulty getting the gas supply lines inspected as required by some rule.  That pushed our move in date to Friday, November 29 at the earliest.  There was really nothing we could do about it if we wanted this specific property.  The relocation person immediately sent us some rental apartments so we did not have to spend weeks in a hotel.  

Originally Matt made a reservation at the Hilton London Metropole weeks in advance knowing we needed some accommodations before our original move in date.  We stayed in a standard hotel room with two queen beds.  Apparently it was difficult to find a hotel in London that had two double beds.  I suppose many hotels are smaller, boutique variety and can only sustain one bed (a la NYC?).  The Metropole is just down Praed Street from another Hilton we stayed at with Oldest Kiddo last winter break.  The Edgware Road Underground stop was two blocks across the street.  We were thrilled to know Pret A Manger & Starbucks were across the street.  It was a great starting point for our daily touring of London:

Trafalgar (Tra Fall Ger) Square

Buckingham Palace & The Changing of the Guard

Tower of London

Youngest Kiddo marching like the guard

Hardy's Sweetshop - a tiny but cute shop near St. Paul's Cathedral with loads of hard candies in jugs behind the counter & softer sweets under the glass.  If you come to visit and really want a Pop Tart you can pick up a box for £4.99 (approx $8.00).  

By the time Monday rolled around, I was done with staying in a hotel.  It is not ideal trying to put kids to bed when the adults are not ready to sleep.  Sitting in the dark while the kids claim to not be tired, need a tissue, or any other excuse is exhausting.  By the way as soon as Youngest Kiddo wound down and actually put his head on the pillow, he was lights out.

We checked out on Wednesday morning and traversed our way across town to the corporate apartment for the next 10ish days.  One bonus of this apartment is that Matt's office is approximately a 2 minute walk away.  That's great for dinner time, he calls when he knows he's leaving in 30 minutes and then we eat at a kid-friendly time.  When he went to work while we stayed at the Metropole, his commute was over 45 minutes.  Now it's just as fast as his feet can take him.  

This is quite a lovely place inside and out.  Outside, it's right on the thick of the city on High Holborn.  We have immediate access to daily needs outside our door: an Underground station, grocery shops, drug stores, plus many coffee shops & pubs.  


Inside, it will fit our needs much better than a hotel room.  The kitchen is fully stocked with dishes, utensils, and a few small appliances.  We bought a Nespresso machine a few days ago, so that will find a nice spot on the counter.  The dishwasher is just to the left of the oven and the combination washer/dryer is the very far left cabinet in the photo below.

The fridge comes up to my neck and the microwave is on top.  The freezer is separate, and it even came with ice cube trays!

  

The main living area is opposite from where I stood in the pictures above.

We have two bathrooms.  This one is for the kids.

Matt and I were relieved that we have our own bedroom.  After being in the hotel for several days, we could not wait to shut the door!

The kids share the second bedroom.  We will see how long the peace lasts, but for now it is happy days.  

The best part? A patio!  I can't wait to spend time out there with the kiddos so they can run in circles.  There is also a fully-functioning construction crane across the street; that's kid gold in our house. 

We will call this home until we get the signed lease agreement for our new place.