Depending on what timezone you’re in, today (Friday, 11th June 2010) is the three year anniversary of our move from New York to London. And what an amazing three years it has been! There’s no easy way to summarise everything we’ve done in that time, but one thing is for sure: I’m really, really glad I kept the blog (mostly) up to date. It’s so awesome to be able to look back on what we’ve done, where we’ve been, who we were with, etc. Good times!

After three years in London, I can definitely say this: if you want a good espresso, find an Australian (trained) barista. Loads of people know this to be true; Taylor St Baristas (which conveniently is right near my work) even use it as their biggest drawcard! But shops (and signs) like this are few and far between, and when you’re always on the lookout for good coffee, this isn’t an ideal situation. Unfortunately, there’s really only two things we can do to remedy this -

1. Go into the cafe business and become a barista for a living; or
2. Move to a place where practically every barista is Australian trained

And, though I’ve always thought that I’d enjoy going for option (a), we’ve decided instead that we’ll go for option (b).

Yep, you read that correctly: we’re moving home. It’s the end of an era.

Why?

Well, for two reasons, really.

Firstly, as already explained, it’s for the coffee. I guess the other option would have been to move to Italy – we’ve certainly been there enough this year! – but frankly, I’m not impressed at the way they look down on you simply because you enjoy a little bit of milk in your afternoon brew. That, and we can’t speak Italian. And we don’t have visas. OK, Italy would have been a rubbish choice!

But, perhaps a slightly more important reason, is because Kristy is pregnant, and we’re expecting the first baby Thomas in late September! And, as much as we love being in London (seriously; I could live here forever), we always knew that when it was time to deliver a baby, we’d be doing it in Australia. Say what you will about Australia’s public health system – we’d take it any day, over the NHS.

And obviously, given that the entirety of our immediate family is back in Oz, we have a much broader support network available at our beck and call. (Not to mention all the free babysitting!)

Where?

Back in the second-half of last year, we kept our wonderful parents busy running around Brisbane, looking for a new place for us to live. After loads of false starts, Mom and Dad came upon a private sale at Everton Hills which ticked all of the boxes. Everyone who checked the place out came back with positive reports – including the building and pest inspectors – and so we put in an offer. And after an arduous loan application, many late nights calling Westpac in Adelaide, and a settlement period that didn’t seem to want to end – it all finally went through at the beginning of January.

Our new home! We can’t wait to get back and see it for ourselves – as well as go on a crazy shopping spree to fill it up with furniture!

When?

It was tough to decide when we could move back with “time to spare” (before Kristy’s due date), and yet still have enough time here to feel satisfied when we left. Eventually we decided on finishing up work in July, then moving back in early August – dependant of course on the doctors giving us the “all clear” for Kristy to fly. So far we’ve been very lucky, fingers crossed it all stays that way.

That only leaves us about seven weeks in the UK. Seven weeks! Eeeeekk!!!

My stupid lens on my stupid D-SLR had been playing up for a few months. Instead of nicely taking a photo when I asked it to, the camera would report, “Err 01 – Communication between the camera and lens is faulty, check lens contacts.”. I have no idea precisely what that means, however I tried out every fix on the net that I could find:

• Detach then re-attach the lens;
• Cleaning the lens contacts with an eraser;
• Shouting at the camera

Each fix seemed to work for a little bit – perhaps long enough to record a few photos, but the problem gradually got worse over a number of months. By September, it was so bad that I couldn’t take any photos with the lens.

So, off to Jessops we trundled, where we did a bit of a swaperoo to see if the problem was on the lens (my suspicion), or the camera. Unfortunately, the tests were inconclusive, so we had to send both of them back to Canon for a service.

Ten weeks, many frustrated phone calls to Jessops, and a painful-though-it-could-have-been-worse £170 later, the camera and lens are both safely back in our possession. So far, we haven’t had a chance to give it a good run for it’s money, though preliminary tests show much promise – no signs of the dreaded Err 01 message anywhere.

We’re off to Canterbury this weekend which should provide us with ample photographic opportunities. If my lovely camera and lovely lens really are back, I’ll be snapping shots of Matthew and Emily so quickly, they’ll think they’re being followed by the paparazzi. Fingers crossed!

When you move to the UK, you’re supposed to exchange your Australian licence for a British one after living here for a year. So far as I know, most people don’t bother doing this, even though (in theory) car rental places shouldn’t rent to you if you haven’t done the switch-a-roo.

Jules and Shelley recently went through this process, which inspired me to do the same thing – and given that we’ve now been here for over two years, it was long overdue. Thankfully, it’s all fairly painless – you fill out a form, post it to the DVLA along with your licence, passport, and a couple of mugshots – and about two weeks later, you’re UK licence enabled!

So why did I bother doing this at all? Well, I’m glad you asked! It was for this!

No, that isn’t the cleanest rental car that you’ve ever seen – it’s our car! That’s right – Kristy and I are now the proud parents of a 2002 Vauxhall Astra! We picked it up this afternoon, and experienced two of the greatest pleasures that a Londoner can enjoy in a single day – 1) peak hour traffic, and 2) an Asda superstore. The joy! The pleasure!

We’re looking forward to all the adventures that having a car will bring! And, for “all” you folks who have just been hanging out for the right sign to visit – well this is it! Free taxi rides from the airport!*

So far the car is unnamed, but with the first letter of the number plate being a “D”, and the last three being “VSY”, I’m thinking it’s a “Doctor Veggy”. Votes?

* Free ride must be negotiated before booking your trip

This year I’ve subscribed to Sentanta-i so we can watch the State of Origin game. Unfortunately we won’t be able to do this until tomorrow night, so we’re trying to (as Kristy put it) “go dark” until then.

No spoilers, please!

Our first nephew – Owen – was born shortly after we moved to the USA. Each time we’ve come back to Australia, it’s been awesome to meet him again, and to see how much he’s grown since our last visit. We keep up with his progress on Marc and Meegan’s blog but it’s (obviously) not the same as actually being able to play with him for a few hours.

This visit was extra special because we also got to meet our second nephew – Reuben – for the first time. He’s only a couple of months old! And what a happy little chappy he was; he didn’t even complain when Nick had a hold!

We had morning tea with Reuben, Owen, and of course his Mum and Dad, and it was great to be able to spend time with them all. Hopefully it won’t be long before we get to see them all again; if only we could arrange to all be living in the same place at the same time!

As many of you know, we’re moving house this weekend, over to Putney. We’ll be moving in with Julian and Shelley, who are already half way through the moving process (due to unfortunate timings with their old lease).

Anyway, as much as we’ve loved living here in Chiswick (of course, it was better when certain people also lived here), I thought I’d compile a list of some of the things that I won’t miss about our first home in the UK.

Continue reading →

As you’ve probably worked out by now, we’ll be moving house soon, as we’ve come to the end of our lease and decided not to renew. And, since Julian and Shelley will also nearing the end of their lease, they also need to move soon. As such, we’ve decided that our two tribes shall merge – we haven’t come up with a new tribe name yet, but at the moment I’m favouring “Team Fantastic Four” purely for its originality.

Yesterday, we spent the whole day looking at potential flats. Though we’re open to moving pretty much anywhere, we concentrated on two places yesterday – London Bridge, and Clapham (plus their surrounding areas).

We started in London Bridge with a friendly estate agent named Amir. The first place he showed us was brilliantly located, but way too small for four people. Place number two was more reasonably sized, but a good 20 minutes of uninspirational walking to get to the tube. Plus, it had so many awkwardly placed doors that it was near impossible to walk around inside if any of them were open. Two strikes for Amir.

Next we headed down to Clapham – or probably Wandsworth, to be more accurate – where we met up with an estate agent whose name I instantly forgot (it didn’t help that we had been referring to her as “Birdy McBird” before we had met her). Birdy showed us through a number of beautiful flats in a brand new building, two of which were almost perfect! There were once again a few awkwardly placed doors (seems common in new developments), and we’re just a little unsure of the area, so a bit more research is required before we’d commit.

There were two apartments left on our list after that. When the lady showing us through the next one realised we were two couples, she instantly dismissed us with a flippant, “the owner will never go for that”, citing that he’d be too concerned about wear and tear. It was quite insulting to be honest (especially seeing what a state that the current occupants had the place in); we walked out without any nice things to say about her.

The final place on our list had a lot of potential (decent sized living areas, huge bedrooms with lots of storage) – however it was hard to get past the absolute pigsty that the people were living in (not to mention the water damage and resulting mildew). It was a total disgrace! It’s bad enough that the tenants clearly made no effort to tidy up for inspections, but oh my goodness – how can people actually live like that?! Disgusting! I just wish I’d have taken photos.

While we were at the pig farm, Julian got a call from an agent who had arranged another viewing for us back at London Bridge. Though the apartment was very competitively priced, it just wasn’t a winner (and once again, quite a mess – they hadn’t even bothered flushing the loo…). So our trip back to London Bridge was a bit of a waste in the end, but at least the sun was out, which gave us a glorious view!

In retrospect, the places that we looked at in Wandsworth were quite clearly the winners for the day, but we think we may be able to find something even better (still, they’re a very decent fallback). Keeps those fingers crossed, people! (A huuuggeee thanks to Julian for all his hard work organising all these viewings!)

Not much happening in life these days, which I choose to blame on sickness. My Vertigo seems to have passed (though I’m still a little light-headed), and I’m sleeping a bit better too – yet I’m still suffering from whatever virus it is that’s going around. On the plus side, Day and Night Nurse have to be the most amazing symptom suppressor I’ve ever taken. They make a HUGE difference!

Still, on a slightly exciting note, we received an Amazon.com delivery this week, containing a couple of Lonely Planet guide books. One is for Malta (yes a little late, but I want to go back), and the other for Costa Rica, where we’ll be spending our Easter holiday this year, with The Cookes! I can’t wait to see them again!

Oh – and since we have to enter South America via the USA, we’ll be spending a few days in New York catching up with people as well. Did I say “catching up with people”? I meant, “eating Chipotle“.

Two doctors in one week! Well, three if you count my lovely friend Suz in Australia, but I didn’t call her for medical advice, so probably just the two.

Anyway – tonight’s visit was to our regular doctor, and was pre-booked on Monday. (As an aside: I don’t particularly like that you have to book so very far in advance for a doctor’s appointment over here – hence why I had to go to the walk-in clinic on Wednesday. Still, to book on Monday and be seen on Friday is from all accounts somewhat of a miracle, so I guess I can’t complain too much.)

Today’s doctor – Doctor Drewry to be precise (though I’m sure my spelling of his name is anything but precise) has prescribed a nasal spray for me to start taking. Two pumps per nostril. He reckons that it will help prevent my issue of my nose becoming uber-blocked as soon as I lie down (which in turn makes me snore good, but sleep bad). Good news indeed; except that it will take up to two weeks before it has any effect! So now I’m trialling this system for three months, and if after that time I’m still having issues, he’s going to refer me to an ENT specialist.

On a related topic, lovely friend Shelley (yes I have more than one lovely friend) reckons I should try giving up dairy for a week to see if that clears up my sinuses. I’m not sure how I feel about this one though; lately it seems as though going dairy free and waving the “lactose intolerant” flag is the new vegetarian, so I’m kind-of defiant out of principle. Plus – what would I have in my lattes?!

(Latte shot especially for Gute!)

On Sunday whilst Shelley was teaching us how to play Pass the Pigs, I all of a sudden felt uber-dizzy. So, over to the couch for a lie down I went, and after some panadol (and about an hour), the dizzy feeling left. I still felt a little light-headed, but at least I was back in operation.

On both Monday and Tuesday I woke up with the same light-headed feeling, but by the time I got to work and filled up on some water, I was feeling generally better. Today however, whilst “enjoying” the nuances of CSS, it was dizzy spell number two – so off to the doctor I trotted.

He went through the usual rigmarole – checked my blood pressure (120 over 90, which I think is ok), looked at my eyes, ears, and took my temperature. Finally he came to the conclusion that I had vertigo, caused by a virus which is upsetting my inner ear. So now I’m taking some tablets with a name so long that no marketing department could have approved of it, with the theory that they’ll “dial down my balance sensitivity” and help me not feel so dizzy.

Well, we’ll see.