Yes,
This Blog has gotten weak as it has been at least two weeks since my last post.
My excuse remains that we still don't have a decent internet connection at home. But I promise to not let that stop me anymore.
On our sh*t list are the following companies related to our internet/cable fiasco
- NTL
- BT
- Bull Dog
Also... I blame our management Company who has told us we can't get a SKY dish because we live in a "conservatory" area. Well... the people below, to the right, and across from us all have them. I guess we live in the only "conservatory" area in London which consists of 15*20 feet.
The good news, not to jinx things, is that it looks like we will finally be making some headway in this area next week....
Work has been busy for both of us. I've been on a project that took me to Milan and Berlin for a day each... Since then it has been long days and late nights in the office including missing 2 bank holidays. The good news is that this is truly unique as nobody else was working when we were.... I just hope I don't get too many of these unique projects. Beth has also been very busy with her US client work... We just found out she does not have to charge VAT. I'm sure all of you were very concerned about this.
Some R&R is in the not too distant future.
This weekend we are going to Portsmouth http://www.portsmouth.gov.uk/
Last weekend we attempted to go to Windsor Castle.. Fortunately we found out as we were buying train tickets that it was closed for St. Georges Day. We'll go soon. http://www.windsor.gov.uk/
Instead, we went to the HMS Belfast which sits in the river Thames. It's the equivelent of the Intrepid museum in NYC... just not as intrepid. http://hmsbelfast.iwm.org.uk/
Beth's brother Jeff arrives on Monday... we look forward to his company. Next weekend, we plan to take Eurorail with him to Brussels....
Oh... PS.... Never put 220 volts through the antenna wire of your stereo... It might not work after that. Half the stuff I brought here is in a dodgey repair shop right now.
As they say here... Cheers
Friday, April 28, 2006
Previous Posts
- We went to a Scotch museum last week... This pl...
- Our neighborhood....
- Beth's office.... DOH!
- Our bedroom... The walls were very green... so we...
- Well, Still no decent connection at home. For al...
- Well, despite all the promising... WE STILL DON'T ...
- We move in to our new place tomorrow! We got the ...
- We went to Barcelona this weekend... What and ama...
- We've been by to visit Candy a few times in quara...
- I know it's a little out of chronological order, ...
15 Comments:
Rino...go out on the piss...have some pie and chips...and stop whinging about the internet connection (Terry made me write that)...isn't the BBC enough? (again Terry made me write that).
FULL STOP!
xo
Love, Jenn and Terry
We miss you both- baby is two days late already- ahhhhhhhhhh!
BBC 1, 2, and 3 just does not cut it.
You should have spoken to me about voltages, hertz (not the car hire company) and transformers before you left. It might have saved you some issues and money.
To be pedantic, you are not in a "conservatory" area but a "conservation" one. The idea is that they protect the architecture and the character of the area by not allowing things like satellite dishes to be bolted onto the exterior walls. I would ask your neighbours how they did it. Also, I have heard that you can get flat dishes which are very unobtrusive and which you might be able to get away with. Worth checking.
If you can't get Sky, get a Digibox. This box converts the analogue signal coming through the arial to Digital. The advantage is that you get a bunch of free channels as well as a bunch that you can subscribe to. For a one time fee of around 80 pounds for the box its quite good value. Comet or Dixons (who I hate btw) will have them.
just stop paying the rent until the management company finds some way to get you an internet connection - i'm sure that will light a fire under them given(1) you don't give a shit as such overseas issues don't transfer and to the 4 major credit reporting agencies and (2) they will never be able to evict you given the liberal squatting laws....but who needs the headache and that would be immature....
anyway, glad to see you are back blogging with a vengence. My sense is that whatever beth was cooking in the above picture it was probably the last edible thing in that epicurian hell of a country. steve looks good, I'll send you pictures of him when he's back here so you won't be lonely with your wife - does she know about you two....
same shit here - please come home already
Latest research suggests that you might wish to stay in that "epicurian hell"
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5377794
link doesn't work - please repost?
Charles and Dave,
I appreciate the commentary and the blabber between the two of you. It gives me great entertainment during the day. Did you both know that you are fellow colleagues?
Keep the arguement up... No... I have no opinions regarding anything that you have said thus far.
Charles - I would be curious to see what that link says, so can you repost?
Charles - also - We finally have a BT line and will be getting HomeChoice which includes internet, digital TV, and a better phone plan all in one package. If I'm not satisfied with the TV channels, I will downgrade the package and get SKY.
Rino - Your blogs brought back so many bad memories of my first couple months in London - like the time I cried at that god-awful store that reminds me of a Service Merchandise (Dixon's???), when the salesperson told me I would have to assemble something like a stereo myself. I've blocked the exact details out of memory. And my favorite tv channel was the BBC one where they broadcast 24/7 the "ministers" in Parliament wearing their long wigs, arguing over who knows what, when they should be concerned about the state of technology and customer service in that country! Glad to hear that nothing's changed in 7 years!
suzie q, the food sucks though right! c'mon...you can say it...we all know (except chaz).
ARGOS is the name of that awful store - for a really frustrating experience, go there. But SURELY they're out of business by now.
Ok, Olkie, I'll take your bait. The food wasn't "nice", unless you paid a fortune at a place like Nobu. Except the Thai food at some of the pubs, like Chuchill Arms, where you could get awesome pad thai for like 5 pounds. I practically lived on that stuff. And Indian food. Note: Thai / Indian, not British. :) Wait til the holidays Rino - you'll be forced to eat the Christmas "pudding"... yuck.
And finally, to follow up on one of Olk's other comments - and please note that I am just the messenger here - Rino, I have heard reference to you and Steve on more than one occasion as Brokeback CPA's.
Olkie - you making an appearance at my Derby shindig?
I tried the link and it worked for me ......
Here is the story anyway ....
Morning Edition, May 3, 2006 · A new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association comes to a conclusion that has surprised even the researchers who conducted it. Middle-aged whites in England are significantly healthier than middle-aged whites in the United States. That's despite the fact that the United States spends twice as much per person on health care.
The researchers from England and the United States were just trying to find out why poor people are less healthy than rich people. They looked at health data from thousands of people in England and the United States, all of them 55 to 64 years old, all of them white. They only looked at whites so they could isolate the effect of socioeconomic status without respect to race.
Michael Marmot of University College in London said the results astonished him and the other researchers.
"Americans have more diabetes. Americans have more heart disease. Americans have more respiratory disease and other diseases, as well," Marmot says.
That's twice as much diabetes in the United States. And nearly twice as many people in the United States reported cancer.
"It was a bit of a big shock," Marmot says. "I just didn't imagine we'd find it consistently across the board, with worse health in the United States compared with England."
In the categories of diabetes, blood pressure and cancer, England's poorest citizens -- those in the lowest one-third of income levels -- did better than the richest one-third of Americans.
The American researcher working on the study, economist Jim Smith of the Rand Corporation, said that, at first, Marmot and his colleagues didn't believe the data.
"The first response I got from my co-authors was the reason for this is Americans say yes to everything, so when they're asked if they're sick or not, they'll say yes," Smith recalls. "I said, 'No, I don't think so.' So we went into biological markers where it's not what people say --we can diagnose the disease ourselves. It's a real difference, and it's huge."
But why? Smith says everyone on the research team has a favorite hypothesis, including childhood health conditions, stress and obesity. But they all agree on the factors that aren't causing the discrepancy.
It's not the different health systems. With its higher health-care expenditures and greater availability of technology, the United States should score better, not worse.
It's not smoking; rates are about the same in the United States and England.
And the American obesity epidemic only explains some of the discrepancy. Whites in England are getting fatter, but they may have been thinner than their American counterparts when they were children.
Researchers are doing a new study on what is causing the difference. Some researchers have suggested that a factor called social isolation is at play.
"We have many people working an enormous number of hours," says Lisa Berkman, a social epidemiologist with Harvard University. "But they also have no time to take care of themselves or their families, as well as maintain a certain kind of community or neighborhood or set of ties."
And what about all of the English folk who've moved to the United States. Should they worry? Perhaps, if they've lived here for a long time.
British researcher Michael Marmot says that over time, immigrants tend to take on the health patterns of their new countries.
"The longer they've been in the new country," he says, "the more the patterns of health and disease tend to affect the migrants."
But Smith points out that once you're old and sick, you might as well stay in the United States, because Americans spend a lot of money to treat diseases of the elderly.
Argos is a catalogue store and, yes, it is still in business. You go in, look up the catalogue and order from it.
Dixons is a High St. (Main St.) electronics retailer. Overpriced in my opinion with rubbish service. For regular electronics or home appliances, I would recommend Comet which is more like Best Buy (Dixons is more like Radio Shack). For higher end stuff you should seek out a specialist store.
Prices for electronics are significantly higher in the UK than in the USA. That is why I got my daughter's laptop in the USA (she is at University in the UK - zero tuition) and carried it over when visiting. So, voltage permitting, try to buy stuff in the USA.
On the subject of food, please be advised that Indian is British. In fact, the humble curry is more the national dish than roast beef.
I'm surprised that you haven't found any good places to eat. I don't really know London but in my home town, we are spoilt for choice. If you like good Chinese food, I can recommend Yungs in Chinatown (Wardour St. at the intersection with Lisle St.). The decor is like a cafe but the food is great.
There is also a very good pub with a Thai restaurant attached to it in Hammersmith. Its on Hammersmith Rd., just past the Novotel on the way to Kensington.
Pub food is generally fairly edible and good value for lunch.
Generally speaking, I do agree that good food is expensive in London. But then everything is expensive in London.
Mmmmmm - Xmas Pudding with rum sauce and brandy butter. Scrumptious.
Did you try Eccles cakes or a cream tea with strawberry jam and clotted cream?
You Yanks don't know what you are missing.
ps. The first few months in any foreign country sucks. It was the same for me in the USA. Then it gets better, the bad memories fade and you start having fun. Finally, when you come home, you will be comparing aspects of the USA unfavourably with the UK.
Et Al,
I don't remember complaining about anything here except for the customer service related to getting Internet and TV service...
Argos is actually a jewel. We got a microwave and our portable telephones from there. Delivery is free (unless you would rather carry boxes down a sidewalk) and they came when they said they would. Prices could not be beat. We went to Peter Jones at first and I told Beth I would rather live in a barn than pay £45 for a garbage can.
Cuisine has been quite good infact. On the list of places so far:
- Bank (off the Strand) Actually ate there for lunch today
- Smith's of Smithfields (great steak - this time their electricity was on)
- The Place (swanky place in the City that Dominic Ricketts took us to)
- Asia de Cuba (much better than the one in NYC)
- Blue Elephant (Thai place in Fulham- AMAZING atmosphere)
- Noor Jahn (great Indian food in Kensington)
- We went to Brick Lane the other night... Ate at Chutney Kitchen - GREAT Indian food as well...
- Of course, traditional British Cuisine is in a class of itself. The Bangers and Mash has become my favourite. An English Breakfast is good if you like 1 egg and 5 varieties of meat to start your day.
Charles - Regarding your article on US vs UK Health. I wonder what the results would be if they compared the quality of dental health... Probably very different.
Thanks SC - that article gave me an urge for a cigarette and a bacon cheeseburger....
:)
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