It is no secret that I loathe Christmas music. I think it was the year I worked at Gap Kids for the holidays to make some extra money that put me over the edge. The same 30 songs in the exact same order played over and over again for almost 2 months straight is enough to send anyone to the nut house. However, pair that up with people coming into the store, singing along and commenting about how great the music is... well, that made me the pseudo scrooge that I am today! I say pseudo because I love all other things Christmas. I just wish we could leave the music out of the holiday!!!
Since we are heading home for the holidays this year Chris tried to convince me that we should skip the tree. Ha! Like he ever had a chance of winning that argument! I have been daydreaming about all my ornaments and fun holiday stuff since the 1st note of crappy Christmas music hit my ears! I almost refused to go on our weekend get-away to Isle of Wight because I wanted to get the tree on Friday. So today after work I got the bus to the Flower Station and picked out a tree London style. Basically that means that I picked a tree that I never saw unwrapped because when I asked the guy to unwrap a few he laughed! It was a rather grumpy laugh so I decided not to push my luck, paid for the tree and hailed a black cab! Yes, I brought my tree home in a black cab!!! I must say it was a bit easier than carrying it the 6 blocks home like we did last Christmas.
Luckily, when I got the tree home and opened it I was pleasantly surprised to find a decent tree. All that is left is to toss the lights and decorations on it and wait for the presents to show up!!!
Showing posts with label City Living. Show all posts
Showing posts with label City Living. Show all posts
Monday, November 30, 2009
Thursday, January 22, 2009
A day in the life...
of a very small, dual washer and dryer.
I am sure most Americans have heard of a stackable washer and dryer. However, a new concept for me is the dual washer and dryer. That is a single machine that washes and dries clothes...and it is very, very, very small. Doing the laundry is an all day or rather and all week event here in the Kipphut flat and requires a considerable amount of fore thought. I try to do a load every day in an effort to stay on top of things but with traveling back to the states and every day life, I have fallen behind. This is not the first time and I am predicting that it will not be the last. I have gone to the laundry mat ( aka launderette) but this is also an event and costs about 30 pounds to do 5 loads. So today is dedicated to laundry. Here is how it works...
First, I divide the laundry in to the following types of loads... some of which may sound familiar and some may not: whites, mids that can be dried, mids that can not be dried, mids that could be dried in a "normal machine" but turn into a wrinkled disaster when dried in my machine, darks that can be dried, darks that can not be dried, and darks that could be dried in a... you get the point. There is also the white towels, dark towels, dish towels and bathrobe loads. As well as the load of nothing but jeans that can only be dried for 25 minutes and then must be hung on a drying rack... the list goes on...
Second, I wash the first load which is normally whites because Chris is out of undershirts and socks. However, by now it is already 3 o'clock in the afternoon and one load takes about 2 hours so the rest will have to wait til tomorrow! Today is different in that I got up at 6:30 under the disguise of making Chris breakfast. In reality, I just wanted to see if I could do 5 loads of laundry in one day! Okay, I admit that I got a head start by doing 2 loads yesterday but they count because...well, I said so : )
Let me pause to fill everyone in on a piece of information that I omitted... if anyone is still reading this, that is... The fastest wash cycle takes 59 minutes and most full loads take between 50 and 75 minutes to dry. Towels take 90 minutes to dry, sweat shirts take 60 minutes plus about an hour on a hanger in the hall to dry and the bathroom rug never dries!!! Jeans and my pajama trousers can not be left to dry completely in the dryer because they wrinkle to unrecognizable levels. This means that in addition to the several hours in the machine many things spend another 60 to 120 minutes hanging on all available hooks, bars, chair backs, door knobs, etc...
Third, about half way through the drying cycle I remove everything from the machine to check for wrinkling, dampness and to determine how much additional time is needed. This takes about 10 minutes and inevitably ends in me either burning my hand on a hot button or zipper or forgetting to restart the drying cycle after replacing all the wet clothes. Neither scenario is fun.
And finally, after 2 or more hours I remove the clothes from the machine or their respective hanging locations, fold them and put them away... and then start on the next load.
The good news is that it is almost 11 am and I am about to finish up with load #4... maybe I should get up with Chris every morning...nah ; )
I am sure most Americans have heard of a stackable washer and dryer. However, a new concept for me is the dual washer and dryer. That is a single machine that washes and dries clothes...and it is very, very, very small. Doing the laundry is an all day or rather and all week event here in the Kipphut flat and requires a considerable amount of fore thought. I try to do a load every day in an effort to stay on top of things but with traveling back to the states and every day life, I have fallen behind. This is not the first time and I am predicting that it will not be the last. I have gone to the laundry mat ( aka launderette) but this is also an event and costs about 30 pounds to do 5 loads. So today is dedicated to laundry. Here is how it works...
First, I divide the laundry in to the following types of loads... some of which may sound familiar and some may not: whites, mids that can be dried, mids that can not be dried, mids that could be dried in a "normal machine" but turn into a wrinkled disaster when dried in my machine, darks that can be dried, darks that can not be dried, and darks that could be dried in a... you get the point. There is also the white towels, dark towels, dish towels and bathrobe loads. As well as the load of nothing but jeans that can only be dried for 25 minutes and then must be hung on a drying rack... the list goes on...
Second, I wash the first load which is normally whites because Chris is out of undershirts and socks. However, by now it is already 3 o'clock in the afternoon and one load takes about 2 hours so the rest will have to wait til tomorrow! Today is different in that I got up at 6:30 under the disguise of making Chris breakfast. In reality, I just wanted to see if I could do 5 loads of laundry in one day! Okay, I admit that I got a head start by doing 2 loads yesterday but they count because...well, I said so : )
Let me pause to fill everyone in on a piece of information that I omitted... if anyone is still reading this, that is... The fastest wash cycle takes 59 minutes and most full loads take between 50 and 75 minutes to dry. Towels take 90 minutes to dry, sweat shirts take 60 minutes plus about an hour on a hanger in the hall to dry and the bathroom rug never dries!!! Jeans and my pajama trousers can not be left to dry completely in the dryer because they wrinkle to unrecognizable levels. This means that in addition to the several hours in the machine many things spend another 60 to 120 minutes hanging on all available hooks, bars, chair backs, door knobs, etc...
Third, about half way through the drying cycle I remove everything from the machine to check for wrinkling, dampness and to determine how much additional time is needed. This takes about 10 minutes and inevitably ends in me either burning my hand on a hot button or zipper or forgetting to restart the drying cycle after replacing all the wet clothes. Neither scenario is fun.
And finally, after 2 or more hours I remove the clothes from the machine or their respective hanging locations, fold them and put them away... and then start on the next load.
The good news is that it is almost 11 am and I am about to finish up with load #4... maybe I should get up with Chris every morning...nah ; )
Thursday, December 25, 2008
What a Christmas!
It has been a whirlwind of activity the last 4 days. I can hardly believe that Christmas has come and almost gone! Tomorrow we leave for Amsterdam for a few days to celebrate my big three-0. We decided that we wanted to be lazy all day today so I cooked our Christmas dinner for Christmas Eve. We started with roasted red bell pepper soup and then I made a lemon pepper roasted chicken, sweet potatoes with praline topping and green beans with toasted pecans. We finished things with a homemade pumpkin pie... yes, we had pumpkin pie for Christmas. We didn't have it for Thanksgiving and when Chris was flipping through the cook book and saw the recipe he decided I had to make it! Everything turned out delicious. However, we had to do dishes every fifteen minutes because I kept running out of bowls, plates, utensils, etc! Chris loved the food but I think he was going to cry if I asked him to wash another dish.
After dinner we headed to St. Paul's Cathedral for Christmas Eve Midnight Eucharist. Neither Chris nor I are practising Christians or even all that religious, but St. Paul's is a landmark in London and Christmas services are known to be amazing. We got there around 10:15 pm and there was a queue of people down the side of the church and around the block! Services didn't start until 11:30 pm and I think Chris and I were both almost asleep. The church is breathtaking and it is amazing to think that they have been having services at the same sight since 604 AD. I don't think I have been to too many places with that much history. The men's choir sang throughout the services and I was shocked by the acoustics. They sounded splendid but we couldn't understand a word because they were singing in Latin! We even had the words (in Latin) in front of us and couldn't follow along. There were about 1000 (perhaps more, I can never figure this type of thing out) people at the mass and about 998 stood to take communion. About 15 minutes into communion we decided to make our sneaky exit and catch a taxi home. Unfortunately, sneaky was not in the books as I wore high heels and the floors are marble. I tried to tip toe but that just made me look silly so I clicked and clacked my way to the exit with Chris turning red behind me!
Father Christmas (aka Santa) had visited us while we were gone so we felt obliged to open our stockings. It is amazing how Santa always knows just what I want! We finally made it to sleep around 2 am... Only to get up at 9 am to open presents! Isn't it funny how Christmas morning instantly reverts us back to age 10?!? Chris and I both get giddy and giggly. I was ready to strangle him this morning because he insisted on having his coffee ready before we opened any presents! The coffee maker has never brewed slower... I think it was taunting me!
We are finishing our wonderful Christmas off with a yummy meat and cheese board with fig jam and Belgium beer... I love Christmas!
After dinner we headed to St. Paul's Cathedral for Christmas Eve Midnight Eucharist. Neither Chris nor I are practising Christians or even all that religious, but St. Paul's is a landmark in London and Christmas services are known to be amazing. We got there around 10:15 pm and there was a queue of people down the side of the church and around the block! Services didn't start until 11:30 pm and I think Chris and I were both almost asleep. The church is breathtaking and it is amazing to think that they have been having services at the same sight since 604 AD. I don't think I have been to too many places with that much history. The men's choir sang throughout the services and I was shocked by the acoustics. They sounded splendid but we couldn't understand a word because they were singing in Latin! We even had the words (in Latin) in front of us and couldn't follow along. There were about 1000 (perhaps more, I can never figure this type of thing out) people at the mass and about 998 stood to take communion. About 15 minutes into communion we decided to make our sneaky exit and catch a taxi home. Unfortunately, sneaky was not in the books as I wore high heels and the floors are marble. I tried to tip toe but that just made me look silly so I clicked and clacked my way to the exit with Chris turning red behind me!
Father Christmas (aka Santa) had visited us while we were gone so we felt obliged to open our stockings. It is amazing how Santa always knows just what I want! We finally made it to sleep around 2 am... Only to get up at 9 am to open presents! Isn't it funny how Christmas morning instantly reverts us back to age 10?!? Chris and I both get giddy and giggly. I was ready to strangle him this morning because he insisted on having his coffee ready before we opened any presents! The coffee maker has never brewed slower... I think it was taunting me!
We are finishing our wonderful Christmas off with a yummy meat and cheese board with fig jam and Belgium beer... I love Christmas!
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Shopping, Donuts and Walking...lots and lots of walking!
I spent today exploring the city... well, by exploring I meaning shopping. I decided to get my barrings by taking buses to the different areas. I caught a bus at Lancaster Gate to Marble Arch where I headed towards Regent Street. I picked up a Christmas present for Mike and then jumped on another bus to Covent Gardens. Once at Covent Gardens, I found a few streets of boutique shops and walked and shop until my feet where ready to fall off... that's where things started to go awry. I asked the shop girls in a boutique where I should go next and they suggested Canterbury Street. They gave me some basic walking directions and out the door I went... into oblivion. I was lost before I even lost sight of the boutique!!! I kept thinking I would walk a little further and if I didn't find the street I would take the next bus. The next thing I knew the sun was setting and I was still walking with no clear direction or knowledge of where I was going. I finally spotted a tube station and checked out a map... Did I mention that when I left the Flat this morning I forgot to take my map? I told Chris that he should stop letting me out without supervision... anyways, I found a map and located a bus route to take me to Kensington so I could go to Harrods to finish my shopping...er I mean exploring ; )
The bus dropped me smack in front of Harrods and I (you may have guessed this already) got lost in the store! In my defense the place is mammoth! Seriously, it is huge and the rooms are called Room of Luxury and Room of Luxury II. Eventually, I found what I was looking for and even picked up dinner at the deli. As I was looking for the exit, a flashing red neon sign caught my eye. It was nothing other than a Krispy Kreme Donut counter right in the middle of the prim and proper English department store... I quickly jumped in the queue for an iced, plump, delicious ring of heaven! I finished it before I could even pay for it... it was yummy!
Eventually, I found the exit and after scratching my head for a few minutes and looking up and down the street I decided to walk home through Hyde Park... how far could it be? Let's just say that I burned every Krispy Kreme calorie and then some! I walked through the Winter Wonderland which is like a fair with rides and yummy smelling food. About a quarter of the way throug the park I was begging for a bench and secretly hoping a cab would just show up and take me the rest of the way. However, I managed it and made it home with only one blister, a bag full of Christmas goodies and dinner!
The bus dropped me smack in front of Harrods and I (you may have guessed this already) got lost in the store! In my defense the place is mammoth! Seriously, it is huge and the rooms are called Room of Luxury and Room of Luxury II. Eventually, I found what I was looking for and even picked up dinner at the deli. As I was looking for the exit, a flashing red neon sign caught my eye. It was nothing other than a Krispy Kreme Donut counter right in the middle of the prim and proper English department store... I quickly jumped in the queue for an iced, plump, delicious ring of heaven! I finished it before I could even pay for it... it was yummy!
Eventually, I found the exit and after scratching my head for a few minutes and looking up and down the street I decided to walk home through Hyde Park... how far could it be? Let's just say that I burned every Krispy Kreme calorie and then some! I walked through the Winter Wonderland which is like a fair with rides and yummy smelling food. About a quarter of the way throug the park I was begging for a bench and secretly hoping a cab would just show up and take me the rest of the way. However, I managed it and made it home with only one blister, a bag full of Christmas goodies and dinner!
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Everyday Life
We are settling in to life here in London. Everyday I discover something new or different in the way we live. Obviously, there are some big differences such as no car but those are the easy ones... The tough bits are the small things that sneak up on you out of no where. The things that you don't expect to be different but in the end they are for no apparent reason.
For example, Christmas tree lights... now, in the states we are all accustom to the standard string of lights that have a male plug at one end and a female plug at the other with say 100 lights in between the plugs. If you need more lights, you plug a new string into the female end and move on, right? While decorating our tree on Sunday, I opened a brand new box of Christmas tree lights that I had purchased at a store in the neighborhood only to find that the lights are set up in a giant loop. Imagine my frustration as I started to string the lights on the tree... how do you string a loop of lights on to the tree? Chris set out to see if he could find the kind of lights we were accustom to and after visiting 4 different places found them but they were extremely expensive! In the end, it took us 3 days to decorate the tree!
There are also things that I expected to be different... like the food. I really miss good old fashion American breakfast food. Scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, toast or biscuits... my mouth is watering just writing about it. Traditional English breakfast consists of Canadian bacon, over cooked fried eggs (even by my standards), Cumberland sausage and baked beans! I am craving a good old fashion southern breakfast like you wouldn't believe. I am more than willing to make it myself but I can't even by traditional breakfast sausage! I have googled Jimmy Dean and Tennessee Pride to no end... the only thing I found was a recipe for making my own Jimmy Dean sage sausage by buying freshly ground sausage and adding seasoning. It seems a little desperate to make my own sausage but it may very well get to that point!
On a positive note, there are some changes to my everyday life that I really love... Walking everywhere is very refreshing and I don't feel nearly as guilty splurging on a chocolate croissant or a latte when I know I have a 5 or 6 block walk to get home. I love speciality shops! It is time consuming to go to a butcher, a baker, a veggie stand but it is so much fun to see all the different stuff and the fresh taste of everything is amazing. The markets on the weekends are also great and a little less time consuming than going to specialty shops. However, I think the best part of living in London is the people watching! This city is filled with stylish, eccentric, and incredibly entertaining people. There is nothing better than a cozy seat in a pub or coffee shop, close to the window where I can watch the world go by!
So if you need me, I will be out sipping on a latte, nibbling on a chocolate croissant, watching the freaks and lugging my goodies home via foot!
For example, Christmas tree lights... now, in the states we are all accustom to the standard string of lights that have a male plug at one end and a female plug at the other with say 100 lights in between the plugs. If you need more lights, you plug a new string into the female end and move on, right? While decorating our tree on Sunday, I opened a brand new box of Christmas tree lights that I had purchased at a store in the neighborhood only to find that the lights are set up in a giant loop. Imagine my frustration as I started to string the lights on the tree... how do you string a loop of lights on to the tree? Chris set out to see if he could find the kind of lights we were accustom to and after visiting 4 different places found them but they were extremely expensive! In the end, it took us 3 days to decorate the tree!
There are also things that I expected to be different... like the food. I really miss good old fashion American breakfast food. Scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, toast or biscuits... my mouth is watering just writing about it. Traditional English breakfast consists of Canadian bacon, over cooked fried eggs (even by my standards), Cumberland sausage and baked beans! I am craving a good old fashion southern breakfast like you wouldn't believe. I am more than willing to make it myself but I can't even by traditional breakfast sausage! I have googled Jimmy Dean and Tennessee Pride to no end... the only thing I found was a recipe for making my own Jimmy Dean sage sausage by buying freshly ground sausage and adding seasoning. It seems a little desperate to make my own sausage but it may very well get to that point!
On a positive note, there are some changes to my everyday life that I really love... Walking everywhere is very refreshing and I don't feel nearly as guilty splurging on a chocolate croissant or a latte when I know I have a 5 or 6 block walk to get home. I love speciality shops! It is time consuming to go to a butcher, a baker, a veggie stand but it is so much fun to see all the different stuff and the fresh taste of everything is amazing. The markets on the weekends are also great and a little less time consuming than going to specialty shops. However, I think the best part of living in London is the people watching! This city is filled with stylish, eccentric, and incredibly entertaining people. There is nothing better than a cozy seat in a pub or coffee shop, close to the window where I can watch the world go by!
So if you need me, I will be out sipping on a latte, nibbling on a chocolate croissant, watching the freaks and lugging my goodies home via foot!
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Time flies when your... living in London!
Wow... it is really hard to believe that we have been in London for over 3 weeks! I am slowly adjusting to the changes in life style... like carrying my groceries 5 blocks from the store to the flat. It is very clear to me why true city people shop daily instead of weekly or monthly! The good news, I am getting a work out without having to pay for a gym membership : ) I am also slowly learning the lingo or rather I am learning to speak "proper English." I have learned to say "hello" instead of "hi" and I am finding that my terrible spelling is even worse here! Oh, well... with time I will fit in like a giant red, white and blue American flag!!! No worries, it is nice to be different.
The main task at hand not that we have a flat is... a job! It is harder than I anticipated and I feel guilty not contributing to the bank account. I have perfected my CV (aka resume) and have started contacting the few people I know for help. Any advice would be appreciated!
I have to run now... I am using valuable free internet time and I am supposed to be looking for work!
XOXO
The main task at hand not that we have a flat is... a job! It is harder than I anticipated and I feel guilty not contributing to the bank account. I have perfected my CV (aka resume) and have started contacting the few people I know for help. Any advice would be appreciated!
I have to run now... I am using valuable free internet time and I am supposed to be looking for work!
XOXO
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