Moving in to the Stadium

25-1-13
So we got the keys yesterday and have moved in most of the stuff we personally brought over. Also today, IKEA delivered our sofabed and a few other things. And the air shipment was delivered. Nice to have some clothes we hadn't seen in a while; about 2 months for Tracy. Tomorrow we get our new TV delivered and next week the rest of our stuff will arrive by sea and be delivered. Here's the thing with our life in London, either we get stuff delivered or we carry it home from the store. A box of cat litter gets a little heavy after a half mile or more. There's no carrying a TV or a major load from the grocery store on the tube, aka 'subway'. The major grocery chains here deliver groceries, and a lot of people do it. London isn't as car-unfriendly as Manhattan, but we have no intention of owning a car here.

So, what does the title of this post mean? If you aren't Facebook friends, you may not have seen anything about our place. We're moving into a football, aka 'soccer', stadium. Actually, a former stadium. Until they moved into their new stadium, the Arsenal Football Club, an English Premier League team, played their games where we now live. The team developed the old stadium and manages it, and they now play in 60,000+ seat Emirates Stadium just down the street. The pitch, aka 'field', still more or less exists. It now sits on top of a car park, aka 'parking garage'. It's a park now with trees, plants, benches, and water features. Nice. The east and west stands, along the long side of the pitch have been turned into flats and the north and south sides were torn down and rebuilt. The outside of the building still retains the art deco look from a 1930's refurbishment, complete with logo. (If only NFL teams stayed that long in a stadium). The marble halls can still be seen in the concierge area, along with a bust of Herbert Chapman, Arsenal's manager from the 1920's and 30's. The building is what is called a 'listed building', which means it is on a list of building with architectural or historic importance. Sounds like a big deal, but there are about half a million such buildings in the UK. Still...

We live in the East Stand on the ground floor, so we have a large garden, aka 'patio'. The trees and bushes obviously are not in bloom, but we're told it'll look really nice then. We have a 2-bedroom, 2-bath place that is still a little small, but that's London for ya. Here are some garden pics:

 The living room and both bedrooms open to the garden with a big sliding door. They face west, and I haven't been there at sunset yet, so we'll see if we have a nice view. Here are a couple interior shots of our kitchen and reception room, aka 'lounge', aka 'living room'.

So there's our new place. Quite a bit different from South Charlotte...and smaller.
And my camera has a spot on the lens, apparently.
Cheers!

The British Museum...All the Stuff They Stole

Another cold January day in London...sunny though. Tracy was off, so we decided to hit the British Museum. We'd done it briefly back in September when she was interviewing, but today was a longer tour. If you like history, it's a great place. If history museums bore you, oh well.

The Brits used their empire to acquire thousands of artifacts from all over the world. The British Museum is truly one of the great museums of the world. But it hasn't been without some controversy. In particular, the Elgin Marbles. These are sculptures taken from the Parthenon in Athens, Greece. After the Parthenon was mostly destroyed during wartime in the late 1600's. An English Earl, of Elgin, brought some of the sculptures that decorated the Parthenon back to England in the early 1800's and sold them to the British Museum. Their reasoning was that they were attempting to save them from further destruction from vandalism. Probably quite legitimate at the time. Less so now. The Greeks have wanted them back for a long time but the British have so far refused. It isn't my place to judge, but I see the Greek's point. Here are some examples:

Not everything was taken from outside Britain. Some of my favorites are the Lewis Chessmen. Likely made during the 12th century in Scandinavia, though nobody knows for sure, they were found on the Isle of Lewis (hence the name), Outer Hebrides, Ireland. They really have a lot of character in their faces and poses.

 

There are also the statues of King Maussollos and his wife, from one of the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World, the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus. The king's name is where we get the word "mausoleum".

Also, the Rosetta Stone:

Various Egyptian, Assyrian, Persian, and Greek relics:

Once outside, we walked through Russell Square and took some snow pix. It was still pretty, even though the snow was melting.

British Museum in background

Russell Hotel with Russell Square in foreground

And we can't forget the silly poses...

We should be moving into the flat in 3 days, so unlikely to post anything more until I can post pix from the new place.

Quaint Church Scene

We passed this at the St. Vedast-Alias-Foster church in Central London tonight and thought it was rather quaint. There were 5 or 6 guys ringing the bells by pulling ropes.

So What Country Am I In?

We've had some people ask about the difference between England, Great Britain, and the UK. It is quite complex actually. There's a great video on you tube that I'll post a link to later that explains it all, though I'll give the highlights here:
-England is pretty much one entity, and a country
-Great Britain contains 3 sovereign nations: England, Scotland, & Wales and is more a geographic term than a political one
-The United Kingdom contains all of the countries in Great Britain, plus Northern Ireland. It is a political term and is correctly called The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
-The British Isles include all of the above, plus the Republic of Ireland and several smaller islands like the Shetland and Orkney Islands, the Hebrides, the Isle of Man and a couple others.
-Then there are the Crown Dependencies, the British Overseas Territories, and the Commonwealth Realm,   which include Canada, Australia, New Zealand and many, many islands.
-All of those together are ruled by what is essentially a corporation called 'The Crown'.


Got it? OK, then there are the 2 Londons...


There is the City of London, and there is London. The City of London predates all of the above and was the original walled city founded by the Romans. A deal dating to William the Conqueror means that the City of London is a separate city from London with it's own mayor, The Lord Mayor of London, own government and some of its own laws. There's a lot of weirdness about the arrangement, and generally you don't  know when you go from one to the other, except when you see one of these:



There are dragons on major roads, facing out, that mark the border of the City of London, and London. I thank our real estate agents for pointing these out.

The older tourist sites are generally in the City, and the newer ones are in London. There was once a competing city of Westminster, but that eventually grew to surround the City of London and eventually just became known as London. They still call the borough of Westminster a city actually, and it contains Parliament, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, and so on.

Here is the link that explains UK, and there are separate ones to explain the 2 Londons.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNu8XDBSn10
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrObZ_HZZUc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1ROpIKZe-c

Other pictures from the last couple days:

Millennium Bridge, the Shard, and the Globe Theatre (far right under the bridge)

Closer shot, Tower Bridge in the distance

St Paul's from Millennium Bridge

The Globe Theatre

Buckingham Palace

Flat Hunt

We've been looking for a flat (apartment) for a month officially. It seems so much longer, and to some degree it has been because we were researching where to live and what we could get for our money since about September. There have been numerous adjustments to our wish list, mostly including raising our budget. I won't go into details on amounts, but our budget has gone up roughly 30% from where we started.

There have been several disappointments so far, but we think we have 2 properties that we'll be happy with. Our second choice looks to be confirmed, but we're waiting to hear back about our first choice. This after several top picks have fallen through. We thought we'd found a place on December 11, but negotiations broke down over the lease a couple weeks later. Then we were into the holidays, which apparently last weeks here, and may not be over even yet. Landlords, it seems, can be tough to get in touch with. They're on holiday in Africa, skiing in Switzerland, and so on. Tracy restarted our search after I'd already gone back to the States and had a couple more places fall through.

Finally I arrived and we went out again Friday. One choice is in an awesome neighborhood and is a great place, the other is in a converted soccer (football) stadium which has a great "wow factor". It appears this will be settled in a day or two. It really needs to be.

There are some very interesting things about flats in London. Most properties are converted 'somethings'. We've looked into converted schools, warehouses, churches, pubs, bakeries, and soccer stadiums. The majority are converted Victorian era homes. These are like 3-5 story townhouses chopped up into numerous flats. The bottom floor, called 'lower ground', usually has private access to the garden (yard). Some of these gardens are cement or otherwise paved, some nicely landscaped, some grassy with trees and plants...quite a mix. They are almost always walled in or fenced, sometimes with walls that stretch up several floors, making them feel like you're not entirely outside.

Another issue is space. Not uncommon in large cities at all, apartments can have very small rooms. There may be bedrooms that couldn't fit a double bed, or if they could, no other furniture whatsoever. Sinks in bathrooms may be smaller than a dinner plate. Strange floor plans may include rooms that you can't fully stand up in. We've seen very creative uses of space, like storage areas that you have to get down on you hands and knees to access; or above beds requiring you to stand on the bed to reach. Many kitchens have the washer/drier combo. This is one machine that does both, neither that well, especially the drying. They aren't vented to the outside, so it can take hours to dry a load consisting of 3 towels. And they're often next to the kitchen sink, mini fridge, or dishwasher (if you're lucky).

But it isn't all bad either. Some have tremendous charm, or at least once did. Views usually aren't much, but we saw one the other day with a very Dickensian view over rooftops and chimneys. Many appear very grand and elegant, at least outside. But all that we've seen are very different from suburban America, whatever your thoughts are about that. The most important thing is just to get one locked in, so we can feel some sense of permanence. Hopefully we'll have lots of pictures soon.

Here I Go

So I leave the US until further notice today. It was sad to leave our house for the last time. I'm glad I got to see some good friends last night, one last time before I see them next in London. That's right, they had better come visit. I'm sitting in Charlotte-Douglas airport waiting for my flight.This really hasn't sunk in yet, I think. I can't wait to see Tracy, it's been a month now, but I guess it'll sink in once I get beyond feeling like it's a vacation. This has been a stressful undertaking so far. Actually, the stress has diminished the excitement, even overshadowed it. I'm looking forward to that trend reversing soon! Really soon.

Unemployed

5-1-13 (Europeans put the day before the month, so I'm trying to get used to that)

Yesterday was my last day at WSOC-TV after 18 1/2 years. The day started out rough, I had a root canal go bad and had to have the tooth pulled, but ended so nicely. I appreciate such a warm send-off from my co-workers and friends. I finally got a cake! There are a handful of people that I missed, and I do feel bad about that (Toni). I hope this blog helps to keep me connected.

I came to WSOC-TV on June 20, 1994. One reason I got the job was that I had my friend Justin in Roanoke, who was a photographer at WSLS, videotape me while I was directing. I thought it would showcase my calm demeanor. The WSOC Production Manager at the time, Ron Shuping, was really impressed by that idea and I got the job. I think back on what I saw while working at WSOC: some terrible things like Columbine, the Oklahoma City bombing, of course 9-11, every election night (actually these last few were pretty good); but I also think about the literally hundreds of people I've met who came through WSOC. In fact, there were likely dozens who came through there that I never met. Heck, I worked with a schoolmate from college for 6 months before we ever ran into each other, and that wasn't even at work, we came across each other at Fuel Pizza. He didn't have the curly hair I remember from college, or really any hair, so I didn't recognize him at first. He asked where I worked, and that's when we found out we were co-workers. That was Blair Miller's brother BJ.

I met many friends there as well. I won't list them all for fear of unintentionally missing anyone, but the most prominent was, of course, Tracy. She was a Producer and we got together at a time when my relationships with Producers were a bit strained. She helped turn me around and now we embark on this adventure to London.

I also don't want to fail to mention Ron (Bubba) Johnson. My friend, my boss for many years, and an all-around SOB (Sweet Ol' Bubba). Thanks for everything Bubba!

This move to London opens up some new opportunities. Who knows what kind of work I'll be doing down the road. TV production seems obvious, and certainly that's what I'll be focusing on initially, but who knows? This can be a new beginning and something unforeseen could occur, and I'm not just talking about working in a pub!

Well, they come to pick up Pongo Monday morning for his flight, and I leave Tuesday. Tracy has been there since the week after Thanksgiving, now I'm ready for this to begin for me. Hang on Tracy, we're coming!