Hello!!!!!
So, here I am in London...finally!!! The flight over was a bit long and tiring. I did manage to get a lot of sleep along the way and somehow managed to watch Iron Man 2 twice. The descent was really cool even without having a window seat, being able to see all of the different buildings and houses from my seat. Landing was no problem and we were actually early by about 25 min!! Our flight connected right to a gate so we didn't have to get on a bus on the tarmac either...just right into UK Border Agency to get quickly screened and then through to grab my luggage. I went into the "Nothing to declare" line...not that it mattered because there was absolutely nobody there to check anything anyways ha ha ha. After that I went out to the main terminal lobby and met Neale who was my driver. At this point things really started to real ha ha ha. We just jumped in the car and starting FLYING down the road/motorways. Of course I'm already disoriented because of the fact that I think I’m sitting in the driver’s seat and then on the other side of the road…really bizarre!!! We passed a lot of different boroughs and buildings along the way. Including some of the pics below!
Neale was a fabulous driver because he’s really personable and friendly and he knows a LOT. Since he’s constantly driving and picking up people as a business he knows a lot about certain areas of the city (plus he lives in South London). As we were driving he’s explaining different buildings and areas and stuff for me and he was also really impressed with my own knowledge of the different areas. We got into talking about football and he ended up throwing the game on the radio as we drove. When we got into Fulham-Hammersmith I asked him where Craven Cottage was (the stadium where Fulham FC play). They weren’t having a home match so it wasn’t busy in the area and he asked me if I wanted to see it. So we made a detour over to the stadium and he let me get out to grab a few pics of the grounds.
We also got to chatting about teams and such and he mentioned that he’s a member of Chelsea for buying tickets. Now….I’m definitely NOT one to be supporting Chelsea, but he asked me if I ever wanted tickets to a match to let him know. I’m definitely going to be capitalizing on that!
Once he dropped me off he said I could call him whenever if I had any questions and gave me his card. I was home!
The house is pretty cool. There’s just the main floor with a kitchen, living room/dining room and one bedroom. The next floor has 3 bedrooms (including mine) and a bathroom, and the third floor has a larger room for a couple. I have five housemates: 4 girls and a guy. Three female housemates: Britney, Kim, and Nicole and the other two are together in the room upstairs: Nathan and Meg. Meg is actually from Kingston which is also a good talking point! And Britney and Nicole are from London, Ontario! Crazy small world there!
Aaron (one of the two landlords) came over and gave me a copy of the keys, signed the month-to-month lease and showed me around the neighbourhood a little bit. I went out to the Mark’s and Spencer’s and Sainsbury’s stores just down the block to pick up a few things, basically quick groceries and beer!!! (see below). Back to the house to unpack and chill out for a while.
After talking to Geoff and deciding to meet up tomorrow….I figured I’m in London…I should go out walking! So I literally walked in a GIANT circle around Colliers Wood, Wimbledon, Wandsworth, et al and ate up quite a few hours. Just taking the air and trying to get some bearings of the area. It was really cool just walking around and knowing where I was.
It’s almost 9:30pm my time and I’m just chilling watching 40 Year Old Virgin with Britney and drinking a Timothy Taylor’s Landlord Ale. Tomorrow I’m heading into the big city for the first time with Nicole because she just got here on Tuesday and hasn’t seen much of the main city yet either. So we’ll head there and then I’m meeting up with Geoff for some authentic London pub experiences!!
Cheers, love, and rock the world!
Erik
YAYYY!!!
ReplyDeleteGlad all your arrival procedures went off without a hitch! I can't believe you're actually there... and that you took pictures while you were driving to your house like a tourist, hehe. You ARE in London though, so I guess you're forgiven.
P.S. did you notice that I'm actually reading this?! Thaaat's right. I have yet to actually write something of my own though, but we'll get around to that sometime.