So it's Monday night, and tomorrow we hand over the keys to this temporary place on Kensington High Street, and head over to our "reggie" (regular) new home, as Sadie calls it, up in a neighborhood called Belsize Park, near the Swiss Cottage underground station. We're excited about finally unpacking, albeit a little daunted by the prospect of keeping house without daily maid service and full furnishings. This new place will be decidedly unfurnished, especially for the next couple of weeks until our big load o' stuff arrives from across the sea. Actually, I am told that our container has just landed on the English shores, but is in customs for an indeterminate amount of time. Given the various difficulties we've had with aspects of getting set up here (3 weeks for a bank account -- which seems ridiculous given I work at the place) -- I am not optimistic that we will see our stuff soon. And as Karen just reminded me, we have some contraband oregano and thyme that we shipped over that could technically get us into trouble. So we shall see. In the meantime, we'll be camping.
Will write more about the new place, but for now here's a few words about our old place -- Fraser Residence on the Prince of Wales Terrace in W8 -- on our parting evening. It's been pretty great. Decent size three bedroom with very high ceilings. Downside is that it's not exactly child proofed (it's been a constant struggle to prevent Parker from cliff diving off various pieces of architecture) and some ungainly steps to enter the building that are not easy to navigate solo. But positive points are many: great location just next to Hyde Park (actually Kensington Gardens, which we can see from our balcony), proximity to a couple of awesome boulangeries that seem to have been airlifted from Paris in one piece and dropped into South Kensington; also, the world's most elaborate Whole Foods (and probably most expensive) is nearby; a nice, helpful doorman; and lots of other great stuff nearby. And the maid service. Daily. Did I mention the maid service?
Can't really say it's been an easy month but we have made it and had quite a lot of fun along the way. The first two weeks were the toughest. Frankly, if it weren't for Karen's mother Fran it's hard to say how we would have survived the jetlag, the fussy kids, the sick kid (Parker, with diarrhea and very bad diaper rash that landed us in the ER, or A&E as it's called here), the chilly cool weather, and generally the feeling of dislocation. Karen can chime in about how she felt but I think she was going through a bout of culture shock. (Not that it's all that different, but little differences in how things work, as well as separation from family and friends, can cumulatively wear you down.) It was easier on me... I had work, which I have really enjoyed returning to over here, and I also feel much more at home, having lived in London in 2002-5. But it was a rough period.
Then sometime during the third week, the sun came out. Literally and figuratively. It's hard to say how significant this meteorological development was, but somehow during that week of sunshine and warm weather, we all snapped out of it. Parker's tummy turned it around. We all started sleeping. Fran got to do a little sightseeing. And it dawned on all of us that actually London is a pretty neat place to be. Lots to do, easy enough to get around (esp. if your willing to bleed cash and take taxis), and quite a lot of kids activities.
We suffered another shock with the departure of Fran after week 3, but fortunately we found another saviour: we have really lucked out with our au pair Andrea, from Hungary, who is fantastic with the kids and has really helped us get oriented. She works 30 hours a week and both Sadie and Parker seem very comfortable with her. And Andrea seems capable of managing them both, which is more than Karen or I feel up to much of the time!
In any case... the major hurdle that remains is to get moved and settled into our real place. Which begins tomorrow. More on that to come.
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