Lou in London

I finally got my listing from my estate agent/ relocation broker with places to see. It was a long day. Of course, I only wanted a share but they convinced me the day before that I should see studios too.

(Editor's note: Complete this post later)

I looked online for flats and walked around the neighbourhood where I wanted to live. (Baker Street/ Marylebone). I went back in the evening and saw a flat I saw online. It was nice, in a great location. I told them I wanted it. The next day they told me they gave it to someone else. Of course, it has still been posted on gumtree.com ever since so I think they were lying. Then again, they were French so it wasn’t ideal.

I walked all the way from my hotel to Trafalgar square, walking along the Thames river. I had lunch at subway, bought me a pay as you go mobile phone and took the original bus tour.

Basically it was just a 2 hour bus tour (double decker, open top) that just went through a route in London with a live tour guide. It was good to get an overview of the city layout but it was real cold up top. It must have been in the low fifties.

July 24

We landed at heathrow and took a shuttle to the terminal. The wait for immigration wasn’t really long at all. I showed my passport and work permit and it was all sorted. (Sorted here means it was ok). Then I collected my bags, walked through customs (the green aisle), and found my driver. The driver was set up by the relocation company.

My driver was this old woman who had trouble getting my bags into the car. I basically did all the work. I had converted some cash to pounds but when we got to the hotel, the driver would only take cash and not credit cards. I had to go to an ATM. Of course, it being London, it was cool and rainy.

My hotel basically was a long term studio with a SOFA BED. No air conditioning (which was OK as it never really got hot but not ideal). And the room was only made up once a week. It was in an area of town that was basically deserted on Sunday. It was pretty lonely. I napped, walked around the block ,read some, and went to bed. On my way walking around, some random drunk guy started talking to me, a young Australian and told me to meet him at a bar the following night. I had no intention of doing so but said sure, whatever.

July 23 – My parents took me and Sam to the airport (JFK). We had gone to a late lunch at Yura and then I finished packing. I was almost totally packed but it was still stressful fitting the last pieces into the three suitcases. At the airport, I could not find my itinerary so I had to wait in line at the virgin customer service to get my ticket printed. Of course the people in front of me were paying cash for like 10 tickets so it took forever. I got my ticket then waited in line to check in. When I was a few people away from the counter the system went down so it only added more stress and waiting to the day. Finally, I checked in but had to go back to the other line to pay an excess baggage fee. Then I was able to pick up my boarding pass and sent my luggage through the check-in.

We went to the security gate and it was tough saying goodbye to mom, dad, and especially Sam.

When I was up to the metal detector, they took my ticket and passport and told me to wait. It must have been because I had a one-way ticket. Then they let like 50 flight crew people through. It took a while. Eventually I got to the gate and waited a while then boarded the plane. Fortunately, there was no one in the seat next to me so I had both the window and the aisle.

I was not able to sleep on the plane but did watch Million Dollar Baby on the entertainment system. I might have slept for an hour or two on the whole flight.

I took out my contacts and looked into my bag for my glasses. I opened my glasses case but no glasses. I later found out that I had brought 3 cases and 2 sets of glasses. I was a little panicky there.