London Calling...

Higgledy-Piggledy

It is a very nice neighborhood, night and day from my old place. It actually 'feels' like England. I walk down a little lane to get to the tube station, there is a daily street market around the corner, selling fresh fruit and veg, just like on EastEnders, and a pub on either end of my (very short) street. Fulham (now part of Central London) used to be a country suburb when the house was built, and there were fields all around what is now a very bustling area. My house was the home of a stable-keeper, or field-keeper, or something like that. It was far too early in the morning when my new landlord was explaning all of this to me, so I didn't quite catch all of the details.

One of the most interesting and challenging new subjects is my heating. Before I was on the 4th floor of a new-build high rise. I hardly ever had to turn the heat on, and in the summer it was baking. I am now on the ground floor of a 137-year old home, and you can tell! Its absolutely freezing without the heat--a real bone-chilling wet cold you can only seem to get in England. Luckily there are radiators in all of the rooms, and a nice warming towel rack in the bathroom -- the trick is getting them all set right, and not running out of hot water. If I leave them on during the night it gets too hot and if I don't I can't get out of bed in the morning because it is so cold. The furry pink hot water bottle burns my feet, so that isn't a very practical option (although I did try!). After consulting several co-workers, I learned the trick is to set your boiler so that it turns itself on and off depending on your schedule. So now I have it set to turn on at about 7pm, so it's nice and warm when I get home, go off about midnight, and back on again about 5:30am so that it's warmed up by the time I get up. Who'da thunk it??

I have made an attempt to include a Google satellite hybrid map so you can see where the actual flat is. View by clicking here. It takes less than 15 mins to walk to the river, and my new commute (on a double-decker bus) is one of the prettiest I could imagine, routing us through Chelsea, South Kensington, Knightsbridge, Hyde Park and Piccadilly Circus. If you're visiting me, I would say it's a £1.00 well-spent of doing this rather than one of the £20 touristy buses! That's an extra £19 to spend at the pub. The downside is that my journey to work has quadrupled from 15-mins to an hour. Buses aren't so fast... The upside is that I no longer have to spend my commute buried in someone's armpit... Another downside is that it now takes me far longer than the usual 2.5 minutes to get home from an Arsenal match. John and brother Ian couldn't stop chastising me the other night as we waited nearly an hour to queue for the tube, then another 45 minutes home! My new home is right down the street from the Chelsea football ground 'Stamford Bridge', but I am trying to ignore that fact. Because they are evil (sorry, Christine!).

Other than getting the flat sorted (and there has been lots to do!), it has been a fairly sluggish start to 2007. We had to come back to work on the 2nd which seemed just wrong. Apparently 50% of Londoners had a hangover and called in sick. I am not kidding. I was a bit sleepy all week, having become quite comfortable spending the majority of Christmas break lounging in my PJs with Piccadilly, it was difficult to sit at my desk all day and pretend to be professional. My friend Alex stopped by my desk one day last week and asked how I was. I replied that I was feeling a little sleepy and mumbled something or other about wanting to go home. His response was to tell me that I did not seem sleepy to him, but rather 'higgledy piggledy'. No other description could have summed up how I was feeling quite as well. Higgledy Piggledy is my new favourite phrase, and I suggest you all add it to your daily repertoire.

And you know a posting after a trip to Texas would not be complete without a few pictures of miss beautiful herself...

posted by Eleanor @ 4:43 pm