Hailing from 8 hours in the future
December 5, 2010
A quick photo montage …..
My first few days were spent in the country getting snowed on, so of course we had to walk the wide open fields with the dogs who romped in the snow. (This was only the first day.)
My first ride in a London cab was great. The cabbie zipped around all the local spots he could without veering off the path to our destination, showing us the park, stopping for me to snap a shot of Big Ben, and the church where Prince William and Kate will be married.
Did you know ….
that “giant prawns” are really just small-medium shrimp?
that black pudding is made with blood, fat and other filler?
that Marmite tastes like super concentrated soy sauce?
that tipping really IS only for good service around here?
that all plugs have an on/off switch?
that the exchange rate is positively abysmal and that converting GBP to dollars on every transaction causes heartburn?
that the temperatures dropped to 8 degrees below freezing Celsius and I survived? (ta-daaa!)
That’s thanks to PiC kitting me out – I’ve been double layering bottoms and quadruple layering tops before I put on the big coat, scarf, boots, hat and gloves everyday to stay warm. Mostly warm.
Second week shouldn’t be quite so cold, and the airports shouldn’t be frozen in either, I don’t think! I’ve been working like a fiend, 12-14 hour days and totally crashed this weekend so I missed a nice lunch in London. 🙁 But I needed the sleep and the quiet time, so I’m not going to beat myself up for it. I had a nice loooong walkabout town Saturday and ran out for some takeaway dinner tonight so I’m getting acclimated to city life again after being cozy in the country life for a week. Gads the country life was lovely. Everyone was incredibly friendly and so funny.
Bed early tonight, methinks….
Oh how exciting! i’m glad to hear you are keeping warm, or at least, not surviving the cold!
Oops, I meant to say “surviving the cold”…. without the “not”!
Have fun! (despite the cold). I’m a native of London, so I do know most of those things 🙂
Chilly but YAY to staying warm. I would have to bundle up just like you…probably with toe/hand warmers, too! Hope work doesn’t completely exhaust you the rest of the week. Good luck!
Talk about the weather making a liar out of me! Then again, it is still nothing cold-wise compared with where I’ve lived in the States. It’s just the damp makes it seem colder and Brits aren’t accustomed to dealing with snow and ice. So pleased to hear you are keeping warm. Love hearing about all the differences I now take for granted. Lovely pictures!
Love all your ‘did you know’ list. Hadn’t really thought about the plug on/off switch v the US before!
🙂
That looks extremely chilly! It never snowed the winter we lived in London, but we had some cold moments. As Shelley points out, the damp can make you feel colder than the temperature says you oughta be. Glad you bought all those warm clothes!
@stackingpennies: Victorious!
@mOOm: Hehe, I wish I’d known to ask 😀
@MoneyMaus: I was seriously considering handwarmers, wish I’d picked up earmuffs like FB had suggested.
@Shelley: to be fair, it was completely unexpected by EVERYONE!
I had hoped to be able to get away and maybe meet up with people, but it’s too bad the weather was completely terrible and I was utterly confused/jetlagged. Maybe next trip.
@laura: Everytime I thought: oh, I could get used to this! I realized I was out of my depth. 🙂 but not in a bad way.
@FaM: Everyone kept telling me that snow always confuses everyone every time it happens there. It was cute.