London - Friends, Apartments & Shirl's Neighbourhood!
Friends, Apartments & Shirl's Neighbourhood!
After our big excursion around London on Tuesday (the 28th May), we decided to take a few days off to look around our current neighbourhood, do some boring things like shopping, washing, looking for apartments to possibly move into as well as job hunting.
We succeeded in having a look around the neighbourhood at least. We found our way to a park near to our current place of dwelling called Gladstone Park. It is a very popular place for people to come in the evenings and do their exercise whether it be running, walking their dogs, a game of soccer with the kids and we even came across some obvious Aussies having a kick of the footy!
The photo's can be found at : http://picasaweb.google.com/hillsj/WillesdenGreen
On Thursday (the 31st May) , we made a date to catch up with an Internet friend and his beautiful wife I had been chatting to for about 5yrs in Australia for an evening drink around South bank in London. Odd meeting someone you had only ever spoken to through typed words. Lucky for all of us, we got along fabulously (thanks Dave and Laura for a terrific evening out!) and I hope now that Steve and I made it to London (it still doesn't seem real somehow!) we'll have plenty of time to catch up regularly and get to know each other well. Besides, I think we plan to explore what this city has of interest to offer in the evenings. Just from riding up and down the escalators in the tube stations there are a multitude of advertisements for stage shows, like "We will Rock You", "Wicked", "Mary Poppins" and a whole lot more. We have taken a stack of photo's during the day here, but as you can see from our Hong Kong photo's a city comes to life in the evenings when all the lights are on. We think that London will take on a whole new personality with its grand light show.
On Saturday (2nd June), we made a serious attempt to find some apartments that we could possibly consider renting for the long term. Actually we dedicated most of Friday to Internet research on all the recommended websites for tourists such as ourselves to find rental properties. We made shortlist and picked up the phone on Saturday and started ringing around. We didn't have much success really, we got answering machines and our messages were never returned and those we did manage to catch had to consult with Landlords on time's that were possibly suitable to inspect the property. Those calls were not returned either. We did manage to make one appointment that afternoon. We set out on foot to meet the estate agent at this property in Willesden Junction. Certainly a challenge in itself, we missed the street it wasn't labelled well and we walked around in circles for a while. We think we actually walked down the correct street at some point but we just didn't recognise it! Hot, bothered and tired we made our way home and wondered whether there was a "Better WAY!" We also ended up in a seriously dodgy neighbourhood as well which didn't help things along either.That afternoon, we contacted the people we got our current accommodation through, they offered to pick us up and show us around the studio apartments they had for leasing in the area. GREAT! So we promptly made an appointment with them. *YAY*
On Sunday in our infinite wisdom, we thought we would check out Queen's Park one of the neighbourhoods we were going to look at apartments in. We jumped on the tube southbound and interchanged at one of the stations to head up north again (because Queen's Park was on another line). So we hopped off the tube, had a look around and started walking up one of the streets. Thinking it looked familiar (we had walked this way on Saturday), we thought to ourselves "This road leads us straight back to Willesden Green!". We could have actually walked from Willesden Green to Queen's Park instead of taking the tube. Realising what we'd done, we walked home back to Willesden having a good laugh. After that, we made our way to Regent's Park, Hyde Park and Kensington Palace (but more of that in our next blog!)
So (on Monday) we got to the boring stuff, eventually, well the washing anyway. Quite a new experience using the laundrette down the street after having a fabulous washing machine in our apartment in Australia. *sobs uncontrollably*..I miss MY washing machine! First of all the water here is very hard, lots of calcium in it. Secondly, we inherited from a previous resident's washing powder (which I now know is pretty ordinary) because it just isn't getting our White's clean! DARN IT! On washing day which seems to be Monday for us, I sent Steve off to do a small amount of groceries to be super efficient, and after having a big pout about my White's which cost us £2.60 the man at the laundrette informed me that my powder (put politely) was crap and that I should choose a different brand! *huff* Okay.. POINT TAKEN...
Later that afternoon, we got picked up for our appointment for apartment hunting. We got chauffeured around from apartment to apartment, it took about an hour and by the end of this excursion we had decided on a studio apartment with beautiful BAY windows. THAT SIMPLE! WOW! We move from Willesden Green to Queen's Park next Monday! Stay Tuned....
After our big excursion around London on Tuesday (the 28th May), we decided to take a few days off to look around our current neighbourhood, do some boring things like shopping, washing, looking for apartments to possibly move into as well as job hunting.
We succeeded in having a look around the neighbourhood at least. We found our way to a park near to our current place of dwelling called Gladstone Park. It is a very popular place for people to come in the evenings and do their exercise whether it be running, walking their dogs, a game of soccer with the kids and we even came across some obvious Aussies having a kick of the footy!
The photo's can be found at : http://picasaweb.google.com/hillsj/WillesdenGreen
On Thursday (the 31st May) , we made a date to catch up with an Internet friend and his beautiful wife I had been chatting to for about 5yrs in Australia for an evening drink around South bank in London. Odd meeting someone you had only ever spoken to through typed words. Lucky for all of us, we got along fabulously (thanks Dave and Laura for a terrific evening out!) and I hope now that Steve and I made it to London (it still doesn't seem real somehow!) we'll have plenty of time to catch up regularly and get to know each other well. Besides, I think we plan to explore what this city has of interest to offer in the evenings. Just from riding up and down the escalators in the tube stations there are a multitude of advertisements for stage shows, like "We will Rock You", "Wicked", "Mary Poppins" and a whole lot more. We have taken a stack of photo's during the day here, but as you can see from our Hong Kong photo's a city comes to life in the evenings when all the lights are on. We think that London will take on a whole new personality with its grand light show.
On Saturday (2nd June), we made a serious attempt to find some apartments that we could possibly consider renting for the long term. Actually we dedicated most of Friday to Internet research on all the recommended websites for tourists such as ourselves to find rental properties. We made shortlist and picked up the phone on Saturday and started ringing around. We didn't have much success really, we got answering machines and our messages were never returned and those we did manage to catch had to consult with Landlords on time's that were possibly suitable to inspect the property. Those calls were not returned either. We did manage to make one appointment that afternoon. We set out on foot to meet the estate agent at this property in Willesden Junction. Certainly a challenge in itself, we missed the street it wasn't labelled well and we walked around in circles for a while. We think we actually walked down the correct street at some point but we just didn't recognise it! Hot, bothered and tired we made our way home and wondered whether there was a "Better WAY!" We also ended up in a seriously dodgy neighbourhood as well which didn't help things along either.That afternoon, we contacted the people we got our current accommodation through, they offered to pick us up and show us around the studio apartments they had for leasing in the area. GREAT! So we promptly made an appointment with them. *YAY*
On Sunday in our infinite wisdom, we thought we would check out Queen's Park one of the neighbourhoods we were going to look at apartments in. We jumped on the tube southbound and interchanged at one of the stations to head up north again (because Queen's Park was on another line). So we hopped off the tube, had a look around and started walking up one of the streets. Thinking it looked familiar (we had walked this way on Saturday), we thought to ourselves "This road leads us straight back to Willesden Green!". We could have actually walked from Willesden Green to Queen's Park instead of taking the tube. Realising what we'd done, we walked home back to Willesden having a good laugh. After that, we made our way to Regent's Park, Hyde Park and Kensington Palace (but more of that in our next blog!)
So (on Monday) we got to the boring stuff, eventually, well the washing anyway. Quite a new experience using the laundrette down the street after having a fabulous washing machine in our apartment in Australia. *sobs uncontrollably*..I miss MY washing machine! First of all the water here is very hard, lots of calcium in it. Secondly, we inherited from a previous resident's washing powder (which I now know is pretty ordinary) because it just isn't getting our White's clean! DARN IT! On washing day which seems to be Monday for us, I sent Steve off to do a small amount of groceries to be super efficient, and after having a big pout about my White's which cost us £2.60 the man at the laundrette informed me that my powder (put politely) was crap and that I should choose a different brand! *huff* Okay.. POINT TAKEN...
Later that afternoon, we got picked up for our appointment for apartment hunting. We got chauffeured around from apartment to apartment, it took about an hour and by the end of this excursion we had decided on a studio apartment with beautiful BAY windows. THAT SIMPLE! WOW! We move from Willesden Green to Queen's Park next Monday! Stay Tuned....
