The Heart of the House - London Manor

The continuing tour of London Manor takes us to the heart of our home - the kitchen.  

Our kitchen is one of the nicest that we looked at over many, many house tours.  Some of the other houses had more modern appliances or brighter spaces, but this room fits our family's needs perfectly.  Do you remember all the boxes we had on move in day and the comment, "You must have had a massive kitchen in the states," from the mover?  Well I'm still working on finding a permanent home for several items.  Some super infrequently used items are repacked into boxes and stored in Oldest Kiddo's closet. 

Ours is an open style kitchen/dining room.  At The 407 the dining table was in the living room, and there was not good space for anyone to hang out while I cooked.  Now we are all together and the kids often play Legos or make a craft while I'm cooking.  It's a good slice of togetherness during the day.  I have to use all surfaces and nooks to their maximum because it is lacking in built in storage space.  Those baskets on top of cabinets might look nice, but they also hold a myriad of kitchen tools.  I actually can't tell you what I put in there, so I bet they will go unused until they are packed up when we move back.  

We reused a shelf from The 407 to give us additional storage space.  It houses the microwave and other big items that I had no space to give in the kitchen area.  The big basket on the third shelf holds all of my large baking tools.  I read many blogs that love open shelving in the kitchen, but I'm not sold on the concept.  For now, it prudently uses what we brought with us and serves a purpose.

There is one spot in the kitchen that I was thrilled to create.  See that ugly curtain to the right of the shelf in the above photo?  Behind it is my broom closet.  The quantity of fabric in the panel allows me to store my hoover (British for vacuum), broom, and mop with nary a thought that anything was behind it.

We purchased a new dining table when we moved in.  Our old one at The 407 was from our college years.  When the kids first started using utensils for their meals, the poor table received many a fork tine scrape or spoon whack.  There are even a few remnants etched in the wood from some raucous Pictionary drawings.  The new one is solid American Walnut, and it is bigger than we initially thought about buying.  However, the larger floor model was significantly cheaper than the smaller size.  The room can handle it & it's beautiful.  We must keep its size in mind when we house hunt the next time.  We will never get rid of this table.  

Our fridge/freezer is small, but with creative organization it works for us.  It is persnickety about temperature.  Food items in the back of it often come out partially frozen.  It also quickly goes from full to empty.  Two days of school lunches and dinners depletes the inventory down to condiments and yogurt.  Yes, I grocery shop two to three times per week.  The freezer is a series of drawers that is the perfect size for us.  I keep a few packages of ground beef (they call it mince here), chicken, and bagels on hand at all times.

Our landlord recently replaced the stovetop because the original one had a faulty burner.  When one cooks with gas, a faulty burner is not a good thing.  The replacement is not much better as it has persnickety temperature settings.  I've found adjusting individual burners to be an exercise in patience.  A millimeter turn of the knob makes big changes.  They are very powerful burners, and even the low-output burner can quickly burn things.  When I need to use more than one burner, the stovetop is quickly cramped quarters.  

It took me a few almost burned meals to realize I have a convection/fan style oven.  I have to adjust the temperature down by about twenty degrees for everything I make.  This is because the fan constantly circulates the heat around the food to make it cook quicker.  At least that's how I understand it.  An 8x10 dish barely fits in the oven.  The handles of the glass dish fit in between the rails of the oven rack frame.

I decided to use the stove hood for travel magnets.  We certainly plan to increase the quantity of the magnets in the next two years.  Now we have to buy a Chicago one when we visit home :)

That's the heart of our manor.  There's just a few spots left to share!

A4 Update - February 2014

'Ello, 'Ello!  February is our three month mark in London.  

At the beautiful Buckingham Palace.  The Queen wasn't home.

• The kids had a week off for half-term break.
• Holly walked 58 miles (again) - way less than hoped due to a four-day homebound stint with a full-family flu.  Pushing for 65 miles in March!
• Matt took a few work day trips to North England, but he was home every night.
• London logged 50.55mm of rain for the month.  The average is 38mm.
• Our internet and DVR got installed!  We've only waited since December.  The kids are thrilled to have the Disney Channel back in rotation.  I even missed Phineas & Ferb.  
• Planning our first holiday out of England.  We are having difficulty booking hotels since the entire country is vacationing at the same time, but I have full faith in Matt's hotel-booking skills.
• Oldest Kiddo finished the final Harry Potter book.  She's ready to go on the Warner Brothers Studio Tour.
• Youngest Kiddo loves letters and sounds.  He's always finding small words they learn at school in what we read at home.  

Hardest Part of an International Move

An international move is extremely stressful.  For the most part, we had to close everything in the USA before leaving for the UK.

Prior to leaving the USA

• cancel utilities, bank accounts, and set up mail forwarding
• sell/donate unneeded furniture, clothing, and home goods
• pack up items to store with family until our return
• sell the house
• pack the remaining household items
• get medical records for all family members
• leave family, friends, and jobs

After arrival in the UK

• tour with a relocation person for a house
• live in limbo in a corporate apartment while the homeowner has a mid-life crisis
• tour again with a relocation person for a house when the first place falls through
• apply for schools in the area
• secure furniture to replace what was sold or would not fit
• unpack the boxes from the US, and figure out we brought way too much
• find doctors and secure private health insurance
• get utilities set up*

In it's most basic form, that's what we had to do.  You'll notice the asterisk on the last bullet point.  Our relocation consultant set up our electric, water, and gas service.  She was unable to set up our telephone and internet. The telecom company is persnickety about having the resident calling.  No problem, it can't be that hard can it?

<insert foreboding background music here>

I'll try to make this as simple as I can, but it's messy....

• Matt called the big telecom company the day our tenancy agreement (lease) was signed in mid-December.  The first possible date for them to install was January 2, 2014.  No problem as they gave us proper access to the city-wide internet access.  We had to be near the window, but it was better than nothing.  They sent the hardware to the house in anticipation of the technician's arrival. 
• Technician arrived on January 2, 2014 only to tell us that we had no live line to the house.  He had to put in a repair ticket back at the ranch.  It will take "a while" to get sorted out.
• Still not a problem since we had the cloud wi-fi to use.
• Telecom Co rescheduled us for Monday January, 20 to resume the install
• On Friday, January 17 our cloud wi-fi stopped working
• Telecom Co emailed to say our order was cancelled, several calls cannot uncover the reason for the cancellation
• Since Matt works all day, I was given the job of trying to get the service reinstated
• Was told that the original order could not be reinstated because the service was terminated and have to start all over with a brand new order.

<insert yoga breathing and choice words for Telecom Co here>

• The first possible date for install was Monday, February 3.  She'd make a note on our account so they did not resend all of the hardware.
• A new set of hardware arrived at the house on January 30.
• On February 3, the Telecom Co technician arrived and installed the internet router, and we were online!
• Later on February 3 another set of Telecom Co technicians visited not knowing that their compadre had left an hour prior.  One guy checked the former technician's work while the other guy made small talk.  
• We relish in the wi-fi and the corresponding DVR for the television that needed the wi-fi signal

Never in my wildest dreams did I think it would take 8 1/2 weeks to get internet installed.  Gracious. 

Making the Most of Time - Touring Tuesday

There are many reasons why we accepted the London assignment.  The most prominent reason was the ability to visit beyond the border of the UK.  Yes, England has many, many, many worthwhile sites to visit, and I look forward to seeing many more of them over the next year and nine months.  See?  The time is ticking away as I type!  However, the rest of Europe and Africa are at our feet screaming for a visit.

The question arises of when do we take a holiday?  It's actually quite an easy decision since most European countries have strict rules about school attendance.  If school is in session, your child is expected to be there.  If you choose to sneak away because airfare is cheap, get ready for a potential fine from the school council.  It can be a few hundred Pounds if the school council is persnickety.

There is a solution for families that want to travel!  The kids have four terms in a school year - fall, winter, spring, and summer (until mid-July!).  Within each term the kids have a week off that's called Half Term.  Quite appropriately named, eh?  During that time families can travel as far as they wish, as long as you are back in school when Half Term ends.  All of the school councils in England (at least it seems) have Half Term at the same time, which means EVERY family is scouting airfare at the exact same time.  Obviously air carriers know this and the prices are higher during half term than other weeks.  

I know that we don't have to travel for Half Term since we live in an amazingly historical city.  We were happy to spend a majority of it at home this time.  Everyone is still recovering from a nasty flu from almost two weeks ago.   For one outing, I took the kids to a play in Greenwich (Gren-itch) on Thursday, rode bikes in the neighborhood, and played at the park.

On our journey, our train passed through South Kensington Station.  This is stop where you alight (get off) for all of the big museums (Natural History Museum, Science Museum, and Victoria & Albert).  I was astonished to see the number of people queued up just to climb the steps of the station, and I imagined the same crush of crowds shuffling along the museum halls.  Huge crowds are extremely unpleasant, and I was happy to pass on by that station.

Now we are trying make our plans out the next few Half Terms.  To pigeonhole the British, they are major planner-aheaders.  Weekend events for things such as the Warner Brothers Harry Potter Tour, are booked until April.  If I plan two weeks ahead, I think I'm doing great.

Now we are looking for some sunshine since England has had the rainiest winter since data gathering began.  I sympathize with my midwest USA friends who feel an equal animosity to the snow and bitter cold.  Also, we are looking for places that have activities/museums/attractions will keep the Kiddos entertained as well.  Oldest Kiddo is up for anything and if she can learn anything along the way she is game!  So far, we are thinking of Spain or Italy.  Airfare will probably help make our decision easier.

Where have you visited in Europe & Africa?  We're looking for the good, bad, and awful to make our Wish List.  Leave us a comment of your ideas!

Act fast!  The Brits are booking airfare now!

A Peek Inside Domestic Bliss - London Manor

A peek inside our London Manor continues.  This week we will take a little tour with a couple of the mechanicals that keep the manor humming.  Laundry is the job that never ends.  However, we are lucky that our house came with a washer and separate dryer.  Yes, we are lucky.  

The washer is a standard issue front-loading washer.  It does not fit much in the way of my top loader at The 407, but it does a fine job cleaning.  The pièce de résistance is the tumble dryer.  On our home searches very few had dryers, and I did a happy dance when we realized we picked a place that had one.  I can give up a lot of things, but a proper dryer is not one of them.  It is a difficult idea to wrap your brain around if not having a dryer is an extremely foreign concept.  I know, for a fact, that many households do not have dryers at all.  How do they do laundry, you ask?   Those without a dryer have two alternatives: 

• A washer and foldable drying rack - Everything gets hung to air dry.  I like to hang a lot of my clothes to dry, but there are some things that deserve a warm dry.  I certainly think socks and undies deserve a warm tumble as air dried laundry items have a certain crunchy element to them.

Laundry from back in the apartment - never a good spot to put this

• A washer/dryer in the same unit - When the wash cycle ends, it switches into heat mode for the dryer.  We had one of these in our corporate apartment; it was not ideal, but better than nothing.  If you've ever tried drying laundry with a hair dryer you have an idea of the quality.  I ran clothes through a dry cycle then hung them on the foldable rack so I could do more than one load of laundry per day.  

The dryer at our house is not without it's own idiosyncrasy.  This bad boy is known as a condensing dryer.  The vapors do not vent to the outside, they magically condense back into a water tank that has to be emptied every three to four loads.  The condensing reservoir is a little heavy and unwieldily to empty.  I always get the back door open before I remove it so I don't spill all over the floor.  

The reservoir is full

I think it weighs 5kg (about 10 pounds) when full 

I'll use the water for the flowers when we get some

All in all, it's a creature comfort I'm glad is at my house.  Stay tuned for next time; we can explore the kitchen!  Try to not lose sleep whilst you wait.  

V&A Museum of Childhood - Touring Tuesay

We took full advantage of the sunshine on Sunday morning.  The kids were happy to get moving once they found out where we were headed - The V&A Museum of Childhood.  I was surprised to know that we had to travel out to Bethnel Green (almost to all the way to Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park), as the original V&A (Victoria & Albert) is at South Kensington.  Hey, the sun was shining so we had no worries.

The museum is an easy two block walk from the Bethnel Green Underground Station.  On our way in I made sure to warn Youngest Kiddo that the museum had toys he could not play with.  I can only imagine the fits kids can have when they cannot touch the beloved toys behind glass.  The display in the museum's foyer related to toys in school.  A teacher/artist made a collage of the contraband he collected from his students over the years.  As his charges grew, so did their contraband.  Kids bring the darndest things to school.  

I liked seeing toys I had as a kid.  

Tenderheart & Birthday Carebear

It was also fun to see the "technologically advanced" computer-based toys.  Do you remember if your computer games ran off of cassette tapes?

Smartly, there were areas of toys for the kids to actually play with; it kept Youngest Kiddo entertained while the rest of us walked around the exhibits.  A few exhibits ran with a 20 pence coin, and it that was well worth it to watch the trains run through the model city.  

Oldest Kiddo at a big Wooly Willy table

Until March, the Museum of Childhood has a War Games exhibit.  We could see toy soldiers and different war-themed board games.  

The whole family enjoyed our visit to The Museum of Childhood.  We fully toured the exhibits in about an hour.  It has a cafe in the center for a quick sandwich or coffee.  Other than that, there is not much around the museum so we walked back to the Underground and rode to Stratford for lunch at the Westfield Mall.  

V&A Museum of Childhood

Admission: Free!

Nearest Underground: Bethnal Green (Central Line)

Greenwich Royal Observatory & Cutty Sark - Touring Tuesday

We have learned many things since moving to London.  The one I'll focus on today is when the sun is out you should be too.  Last Sunday the sun was high in the sky with big puffy clouds.

We took the journey to Greenwich (Gren-itch).  The family checked a new train line off our list, which made Youngest Kiddo super excited - The Docklands Light Rail (aka DLR).  Riding the DLR is not unlike riding an Underground train, except for two things: it does not go underground and you can see out the front window.  It reminded me of back in the day when you could ride in the front of the monorail at Disney World :)

Our adventure started at the Greenwich Royal Observatory, which is where time begins - GMT or Greenwich Mean Time.  The world's time zones are based off this line called the Prime Meridian.  Oldest Kiddo studied this just before we left Chicago so this was a great field trip for her.  She also found a plaque stating that the current location of the Prime Meridian had moved many years ago.  I guess a few feet doesn't screw up the watches of the world too badly.

 

The Royal Observatory is situated up a steep hill which provided for a nice view of the city.  

The Emirates Airline gondolas - we'll ride these on a calm day

The Orbital Tower at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park

Heart of London with the Gherkin in the middle

We took several obligatory goofy shots as one would when visiting.  Especially since we had to pay a few pounds to pass through the gate to the Prime Meridian.  We squeezed our £16 family entrance fee to the max.  

Hemispheres apart

We stopped at a Tex-Mex place for lunch.  I was astounded that the kids' offerings had neither Tex nor Mex on it.  Our waitress shared that British kids don't like tacos & quesadillas.  They are content with fish fingers and hamburgers.  How is a kid ever going to learn?  Toss a cheese quesadilla on there would ya?  If I only ruled the world.......

After lunch we crossed town to the Cutty Sark.  This beautiful ship had a good life as first a tea ship and later for cargo.  It was recently refurbished after a fire, and she is a beauty.

  

The self-guided tour starts below deck where you can see the construction of the ship.  I wish I had more time to read the information about the Cutty Sark's history, but I had Youngest Kiddo as my partner who had other ideas.  He wanted to drive the ship so the sooner he could get above deck the better.

I was smitten by the ship's masts.  I could only imagine what it looked like when the sails were out and the brave (or crazy) men that climbed them to keep the ship running.

We also marveled at another great view of the city.  

The London Eye on the left & The Shard on the right

The final part of the tour is to walk under the ship.  This vantage point helps you ascertain the massive size of this vessel.

We paid £36 for admission (Youngest Kiddo was free).  Greenwich is a cute town, and I can see how warm weekends would be jam packed.  If you decide to visit in the warmer months I highly suggest pre purchasing admission tickets.

Oh Loo Hoo!

When one moves into a new house, it's lovely to have friends over to show off the new place.  Living thousands of miles away makes this visit difficult.  Over the next few weeks, I will share some bits of our house.  I'll be strategic so that I can provide privacy and security for my family.

Now on with the show!

Our house has three bathrooms.  Three bathrooms that get a fair amount of use each day.  Back at the 407 we had two bathrooms.  We hardly used the one downstairs so I did not have to deep clean it near as much as the main floor bathroom.  Here I have to keep up with the cleaning to mitigate the limescale of our hard water.  That crust is a pain in the arse to remove.

We have a small bathroom on the ground floor (aka WC).  The bummer is it's location is in the kitchen.  I suppose if that was the only place to add a bathroom then we will take it.  It's quite small and the best photo I could get was from above.  The white paint gives it a blinding feeling most of the time.  

Up on the first floor (the 2nd floor to you in the US) is the kids' bathroom and the one we'll encourage our guests to use.  I figure guests don't want to do their business in the kitchen.  A little decorum is always appreciated.  It has a tub with a shower and a great set of storage cabinets.  Can you see the string in the bottom photo to the right of the door?  That's how we turn on the light.  Youngest Kiddo is too short to reach it :)

All the way up to the second floor (3rd floor) is our bathroom.  Our bathroom is only a few years old and we enjoy the modern, sizable shower.  The towel warmer is a novel addition to the room; the towels do not actually stay warm long enough to make a difference.  The shelf is one of our IKEA purchases that fits the bill for storage.  There is a frosted window in our bathroom so it's filled with light all day with no accidental peep show to the neighbors. 

That's scoop for the loos!

British Library - Touring Tuesday - Museum Mile

Now that the kids are in school I have the city at my feet. Aside from the casual errands, I can go anywhere (as long as I'm back in time for the dismissal bell).  I prefer the free attractions, but I'm willing to pony up a few pounds for an exceptional spot.

I recently visited The British Library up near King's Cross/St.Pancras Station.  It is part of the collection of museums knows as the Museum Mile.  Read about the other museums in the collection I've visited here.

Here are some facts:

It is the biggest library in the world.  The Library of Congress is second largest.

The really old items in British Library were originally housed at the British Museum (one of my absolute favorite museums).

The British Library is a huge vault of literature and artifacts, and it even has below ground storage.  You might be interested to know that this is a research library, and you are unable to walk the stacks and peruse the books of this library.  A majority of the public space is comprised of reading rooms for different academic disciplines.  If you have a specific research need, and the proper documentation to prove it, you can request to see specific texts to be delivered to your table.

The library receives a copy of every book published in England & Ireland.  That's over 3 million items per year.  I wonder how often they receive requests for the dime store romance books with Fabio on the cover.

For me, the highlight of my self-guided tour was seeing the center tower containing books collected by King George III from the late 1700's to early 1800's (the anniversary of his death was last week on January 29.)  The tower is highly controlled for humidity and light behind the UV glass.  The size of the books is impressive.  Many of the volumes on the shelves are well taller than 12".  I would love to get my hands on any of these books.

Aside from the books, the British Library also has a vast collection of literary artifacts.  I was able to view such impressive items as a Gutenberg Bible, the Magna Carta, the original Alice in Wonderland, lyrics to many Beatles songs in their handwriting, and much more.

Overall, I was impressed with the British Library even though I could not peruse the stacks.  I think I toured the facility in about ninety minutes.

British Library

96 Euston Road

London

NW1 2DB

Nearest Underground Stations: King's Cross/St. Pancras, Euston, and Euston Square

Admission: Free - special exhibits priced separately

A4 Update - January 2014

January was a slow month compared to December.  We are getting into a groove for daily life.

Aboard the Cutty Sark in Greenwich

• The kids started school! Yay!
• Matt spent five days in NYC for a trade show.
• We made the last furniture purchases for the house (chair for reception room & wardrobes for bedroom).
• Holly walked 58 miles since the kids started school on January 13th.  Can't wait to see what February brings.
• It rained for 27 of 31 days in January.  The average rainfall is 8.1mm and January 2014 totaled 88.38mm.  Imagine if that was snow Chicago friends!

What's Cooking?

When we first moved to London I posted about the ready to cook meals that are common at the grocery stores.  We've eaten some delicious chicken with prosciutto & asparagus, ham with honey glaze, and chicken roast wrapped in bacon.  We also love the stir fry kit that gets dinner on the table in less than 15 minutes.

Our favorite promotion is when Marks & Spencer has a Dine For 2 promotion that runs fortnightly (that's every two weeks).  We can get a main course meat, vegetable side, dessert, and a bottle of wine for £10 ($16).  It is meant to feed two people, but I can stretch it for all four of us.  It's quite a deal.

While that's a wonderful convenience, there are days when I actually feel like making a meal for the family from scratch.  I've made some new meals that we really like, and I bet you will like them too.  The two meals I linked below are from Mel's Kitchen Cafe.  I've made many things from this blog, but these are two of our favorites.  You should make them soon.  

Sweet & Sour Chicken - This dish is amazing.  I doubled the recipe the first time , but I did not double the sugar for the sauce; I used one and a half of the recommended sugar.  My kids inhaled it.  Oldest Kiddo said with a mouthful, "You know mom, this is really good."  I don't think I can ask for a better testament.  

Crispy Southwest Wraps - A superb dish to have on a Monday or Tuesday to use up the leftover roast or chicken from Sunday dinner.  It's a very flexible dish that for the most part accommodates what you have in the pantry.  The recipe as listed makes a lot of filling.  I bet you could freeze some if you have extras.  I gave our extras to the handyman that came to fix a few things to avoid another expat faux pas.  

Bon Appetit!