Welcome to our UK Adventure!

Yes yes, I've been meaning to get this blog for several weeks now. Fortunately (or unfortunately?) I've been off sick the past couple of days (more on this later) and given the fact I have ADD, I can't just lie in bed and rest up. So, here we are.

Astrid & I toyed with moving to the UK for several months -- we loved our life in TO and it was hard to leave, but we knew we'd regret not jumping on the opportunity while we're young and still not overly responsible :)

We're going to make an effort to try and post at least 2 or 3 times weekly so that all of our friends and family back across the pond can stay connected to what we're up to.

After a slight delay sorting out my work contract, I moved over on June 18th. Astrid is still back in Canada, but is expecting to join me full time towards the end of August. I'm currently living in a corporate 'flat' (it's gorgeous -- a separate post with pictures to follow), and once Astrid is over here we'll ramp up our housing search and move out into our own place, likely around the end of September. We've already starting looking at places and since I've been involved in renting the 3 or so corporate flats we have here, I have a reasonable idea of the market. And I know what you are thinking: expensive. You are certainly correct. Rent here is insane.

I try not to think about the cost of living too much as it can't do any good. But for everyone's benefit I'll give a bit of a rundown. Generally things here are about 30-40% more expensive than Toronto, with the exception of of rent/housing, of which London is in a Real Estate bubble right now. There are some upsides though and some things are actually cheaper over here. Namely: beer, wine, bread (and baguettes!), cheese (3x cheaper than back home for high quality -- if you know Astrid & I, we love our cheese), milk (1 pound for a 2L), curry sauces(for stir fry and stuff -- 69p for a jar that makes 3 meals). So its not all bad. Pizza is expensive, although I have a dominos nearby, I've only been once. I'm ok with transitioning away from pizza and making lots of curry & rice dishes tho. :)

Here's our contact details until we sort out our own place:

56 Dennington Park Road (google map)
London, UK
NW6 1BD

Home phone: 0207 317 7143
(from Canada, dial: 011 44 207 317 7143)
Syd's mobile: 07920 008 035
(from Canada, dial: 011 44 7920 008 035)

Note: phones here are different. It never costs money to receive a call here, even on a mobile. If you dial a mobile instead of a landline, it costs roughly 5x more. I'll be on skype soon if you want to chat that way, and its completely free if you sign up for skype as well.

Anyhow, the next few posts are going to backfill the past month I've been in the UK so everyone can get caught up.


Enjoy!

Syd & Astrid