First Days in London Outtakes

While Matt and Jacob have done an excellent job in blogging the highlights of the early days in London, I thought you may enjoy the more mundane and ridiculous side of our adventure so far. The not always pretty, a little bit bumpy parts of adjusting to a new city and new country.

1. We made an awesome first impression on our neighbors!

New Years Day, Matt and I decided to make omelets for the family breakfast. Matt is more an omelet expert than I am, so I stayed perched on the couch while he began cooking. He was just exclaiming over his perfect omelet when a piercing noise cut through the silence. The smoke detector? But there was no smoke! None the less, the piercing squeal continued, echoing through the flat and we assumed through the whole building (there are 3 other flats in this building) as they are all connected. We searched in vain for the oven fan and found nothing. There was no turning this "smoke detector" off!

Matt climbed up on chairs to hit the re-set button on every "smoke detector" and noticed in very small print that they are HEAT detectors, not smoke detectors, which go off if the room gets too hot, which apparently the tiny kitchen did in just one omelet.

We began cooking all of our meals with the window open (chilly on a windy day like yesterday) until finally we emailed the previous faculty advisor to ask where a vent fan might be (we could see the fan, just not how to turn the thing on). He responded with a photo, saying that it took him until the last few weeks of his stay in the flat to figure it out as well. At least we aren't the only stupid Americans! (We are now fairly certain at least 2 of the 3 flats were empty on New Years Day, so only one of our neighbors must hate us).

2. TOMS shoes are not appropriate footwear for a morning at the park.

Monday, as Matt detailed, we decided to explore Hampstead Heath, a huge park just north of us. I love my TOMS shoes. They are comfortable and light and cute. So when we had 0% chance of rain according to weather.com, I figured they would be fine for a day of running around London, including a trip to the Heath. I didn't take British mud into account in my footwear selection.

We entered the park down a series of unpaved steps and began tromping around searching for the playground. The entire path was unpaved, sometimes a bit bumpy and grassy, others just mud and always a small incline. A little boy near us on the path had his bicycle and told his father "I wish we didn't have to do this part." You and me both, kid!

I was fine carefully working my way through the path with Zeke as Matt and the older kids forged ahead, until we hit a more steep hill. There were no little stones embedded in the mud to give me any traction. My feet slid out from under me and I fell (dragging Zeke down with me) sliding down the rest of the short hill on my rear. A pleasant father said "Looks like someone chose the sensible shoes today." Gotta love the British wit. Must buy boots pronto!


3. Objects pictured may appear larger than they are.

We had our first grocery delivery yesterday (the nearest large grocery store is quite a trek away and it isn't exactly convenient to travel on the bus or tube weighed down by the grocery load it takes to feed a family of five). I ordered several packages of fruit-apples, pears and strawberries- that were supposed to be 500 grams each (about 1 pound). They probably did weigh about that, but the fruit delivered was not exactly what I expected.
That would be my Iphone in the middle of the puny fruit that came with our groceries. Meanwhile the baby carrots are roughly the width of a baby's fist, though still short. And our kitchen cabinets were built for giants. Matt needs a chair to reach the top cabinets.
There are a number of quirks to our flat that we are both enjoying and laughing about. The kids and I are going to film a video tour so you can see for yourselves. 1000 square feet, but very efficiently used!