Living in London

Thanks to Larry for the great link to Passport to the Pub. I read the first two chapters on Sunday and felt embolden with my newfound understanding of British culture. Linda and I set off with confidence to our "local" that evening for a pint. To my dismay, the first place we stopped didn’t have any beer on tap! I was completely thrown, I was ready to stay "two halfs of ale please" and they had no beer on tap!

We moved up the street to a more traditional pub but they only served mundane beers like Carling and Fosters. We continued around the block to our new "local" where we had a delicious pint Young's, our new favorite Pilsner.

Perhaps I will read the rest of the guide before I try to conquer more of the local traditions.

-HrH

Today is a bank holiday in the U.K. What are bank holidays? See answer here

The British are disturbed that they have so many fewer holidays, and days off from work, when compared to the rest of Europe (a comparison they are loathe to make on any other topic by the way). They have actually taken a poll about what would be some good dates for additional public holidays.

"We work the longest hours, and have the fewest public holidays. It’s about time we caught up with the rest of Europe in the holiday stakes. So we asked the Great British Public which one it should be, and this is what nearly 20,000 of you told us: Results

"Commenting on the poll results, TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: “In the past, bosses have wildly exaggerated the costs of introducing more bank holidays, but our calculations suggest that the UK can well afford to bring in extra days. If we all were able to take a few extra days off work, rather than losing out, employers would benefit from less-stressed, more contented, productive staff."

Today we took a tour of London’s East End. This is the area that was originally to the east of the old Roman Londonium, where the winds would blow the smells from the tannery, the crematorium, and others away from the old city. It has strong parallels to the New York’s Lower East Side, including the City (London’s Wall Street), a rich Jewish history (here bookended by large communities of Huguenots and Muslims), and interesting markets and street history.

Londonium was surrounded by a wall, built originially by the Romans and added to over the years. Here is a picture of the last remaining piece of the wall with Sean, our tour guide.

-HrH and LmG

This weekend is Carnival in the Notting Hill area of London. To kick things off, Carnival organizers hold a Percussion Panorama north of Notting Hill. We went there Saturday evening and took these photos. It’s an amazing operation. Each “orchestra” with many, many steel drums and pans, is set up on a flat bad truck. When it is an orchestra’s turn to compete, the truck – rolling with the weight of drums, people, and all their accoutrements – pulls in front of the judge’s stand to play. The truck is absolutely hopping up and down with the energy emanating from the players. They appear to all be high school kids. Quite impressive.

Click to see the photos

On another note, this Carnival has some weird crowd and racial undertones, and the crowd can apparently get quite rowdy and unpredictable. You will see in the photos that many shopkeepers board up their storefronts and close for the weekend. This allows the graffiti artists many new blank canvases on which to work. It was interesting walking around seeing the neighborhood preparations, but we decided that the Percussion Panorama was enough for us.

-HrH and LmG

Interesting facts about the UK:

Does that mean that that 17.4% of the people who are working are illiterate? Nah . . . it doesn't work that way.

However, it might explain why the clerk at NTL Cable told me this week that an installer would be here today (August 28th) and yet scheduled us in their system for September 14.

Sigh . . . Nothing like waiting around all day for the cable guy.

-HrH

My first job prospect in the UK is with Netflix. They are currently expanding into the UK and expect to launch to the public in Q4.

Previously, I had submitted my resume through at least 4 different people. I even had Tom Campbell, the Dean of the Haas School of Business at Berkeley, forward my resume to Reed Hastings, the founder and CEO of Netflix. Yesterday, I met with the Managing Director of the UK expansion.

They hava a financial/marketing analyst position available that I am considering. The position is very junior for me but it may lead to other things within the company. Stay tuned . . .

-HrH

Popcorn is one of our favorite "meals" at home. Orville Redenbacker's Smart Pop tastes wonderful smothered in some grated aged Gouda. Unfortunately, microwave popcorn seems to be a rarity in the UK. So . . . to celebrate our last official night in California we enjoyed "something old and something new."

Something old was a splendid feast of microwave popcorn and something new was our new favorite champagne, Pol Roger. Winston Churchill’s loved this champagne and has been quoted as saying he needed Pol Roger in defeat, and deserved it in victory.

Off we go to London . . . where there is no microwave popcorn, but we can find plenty of Pol Roger!

-HrH

Yesterday we were up at 4:00 AM to catch a flight to LA. We were headed to the British Consulate to get our work permits so that we can work in the UK. To our pleasant surprise, the entire operation went rather smoothly. We arrived at the Consulate at 8:45 AM and waited about 2 hours. The agent processed our applications very quickly and without significant questions.

We then had to keep ourselves busy until 2:00 PM when our entry visas would be ready for pickup. After a leisurely lunch and some light reading at Starbucks we were on our way home with our newly minted visas.

We have passed a major milestone in our adventure. We can now both work in the UK!!

-HrH

Someone once use the term "London's swamp of a summer" and I think I have a good understanding of this phrase now. It is about 80 degrees here with 85% humidity at 9:30 pm. I am looking forward to returning to California tomorrow and spending almost the rest of August there, attending some meetings and getting the rest of our things packed up and shipped. We won't be posting for the next three or so weeks.

- LmG

We have finally managed to post the pictures from our tour of Cambridge. Take a look.

-HrH

Last night we had the most amazing and intense thunderstorms I have seen in years. Tons and tons of raw sewage had to be dumped into the Thames, heretofore known as Europe's cleanest revitalised rivers, because so much water came down in such a short period. They say one month of rain fell in one hour. Several people were hit by lightening in Hyde Park when they took cover under a tree. Fortunately I was home at the time and able to watch the whole thing from the comfort of my living room.

-LmG