Moving to the other side of the world

So David and I arrived in London last Sunday and, surprisingly, arrived to sunny weather!

Our flight over was made more bearable by the noise-cancelling headphones that David bought for my birthday – for the first time ever I could actually fall asleep on the plane! This was great for David as it meant he didn’t have to deal with grumpy sleep-deprived Kaija on arrival. We had booked a town car to pick us up at the airport – I have always wanted to go through the gate and have someone waiting with my name on a board!

We are staying in West Hampstead, near some of David’s old colleagues and it has a lovely village atmosphere in the middle of London. Our studio is bright and comfy and has a great view of the high street and bus stop – very exciting.

David has had a couple of face-to-face interviews this week, a number of phone interviews (including ones that he has given in pubs, parks and on trains) and has a couple of final interviews early next week so fingers crossed.

We have also been looking for an apartment to move into. Have seen some lovely (and not so lovely places) in South and West Hampstead but you don’t get very much for your pound in this area so we are starting to look elsewhere.

Today we looked at some properties in other areas and found a flat in East Finchley that we are really keen on. It’s a little further out but would be great to get us set up and settled – it is quite hard to find somewhere to live when a) you don’t know the city and b) the quality of the suburbs vary so much street-to-street.

Yesterday we had a lovely day in Richmond and Richmond Park and found a couple of perfect places to live…..

And to the English weather – well, actually it has not been too bad. It has been sunny and 19 all week (compared to 19 and raining in Sydney at the moment). We are still rugging up in coats and scarfs while everyone else is in their summer clothes.

While we were in Richmond Park we came across this sign – we walked the 1/4 mile and didn’t find the Inner West of Sydney but found a great little pub instead. (BTW – notice the blue sky in the background!!!)

The races have been on at Ascot this week and while we haven’t been lucky enough to go we have seen lots of people dresses up in suits and top hats on their way out there. Yesterday we passed a group of girls all dressed up and ready for a big day out. One girl’s hat blew off and into the middle of West End Lane and they had to stop traffic so she could crawl under a car, in a beautiful dress, to retrieve the hat – very funny.

This weekend, we are taking a break from looking for jobs and apartments and are going to be tourists – galleries and sites here we come.

To keep up with everybody while we are away we will be updating our blog every week or so.

Hope everyone is well,

Love Kaija & David