A medical issue caused us to cancel our planned trip to the US for Christmas. So this year, we’re spending our Christmas and New Year holidays in London.
Regent Steet
Although we greatly miss spending time with the family, London is known as a great place to be during the Christmas holiday. There are some amazing light displays. And if you’re interested in shopping (we aren’t), Christmas markets abound, in addition to the plethora of shops that offer boundless opportunities for holiday buying.
Transportation for touristsOxford Street Christmas Lights
We do a lot of walking, and have seen many of the popular Christmas light displays. We also visited a Christmas market, complete with mulled wine.
Mulled wine on a chilly eveningCovent Garden
Christmas Day was a quiet one for us. A short walk in the neighborhood. Later in the day, some video calls with family (adjusting for the 5-hour time zone difference).
And, a traditional Christmas dinner. Well, maybe not traditional in the common sense. We’re having Christmas sukiyaki. Having lived in Japan for several years, we love the Japanese hotpot meals. That is our delicious Christmas dinner, rather than the fowl and dressing.
Merry Christmas to all…and best wishes for the New Year!
It’s been over 9 months since we relocated to London. It has been kind of a weird transition … from Tokyo back to Atlanta, then selling most of our possessions and moving full-time to London. After 9 months, it is feeling a lot more familiar. We have our favourite places to walk…restaurants…pubs.
Working for a British-incorporated organisation, I’m slowly and reluctantly adopting the British spellings (organisation vs. organization, etc.). Have to admit, there are still times when we struggle to understand British English. Some of the accents, and some of the slang, just doesn’t work in our American brains (I’m still struggling with “gobsmacked,” not to mention the Cockney accent).
It is enjoyable to see some of London that is off the tourist paths. We particularly like to walk along the Regent’s Canal, a part of a huge, intricate canal system that goes through the city. Interesting narrow boats, lots of historic areas, and just an enjoyable place to take a long walk and not feel like you’re in the middle of a big city.
Narrow boat on Regent’s Canal
The weather…well, it is England. Lots of days of cloudy, damp sometimes rainy, drippy, glop. What I didn’t expect was the wind. It is often really windy. Reminds me of growing up in Kansas, but with more drizzle and chill.
We have pretty much adapted from living in a 4,000 sq. ft. house in Atlanta to a 900 sq. ft. apartment 20 floors above the Quay (canal that was once used for shipping in this docklands area). It’s really kind of surprising that we don’t miss our big house more. We do have to be more careful about what we buy and how much stuff we have, as there isn’t a lot of extra space. But somehow, that really hasn’t been a big adjustment. Maybe because this apartment is actually about twice as large as our apartment in Tokyo. And there are some advantages…a lounge/terrace on the 56th floor, and a really nice gym and pool/spa facility. One major irritation — when the wind is really strong, the building has a dampening system to mitigate the sway of the tower. Effective, but it sounds kind of like a thousand irritated squirrels climbing on rusty springs in our ceiling.
View from the top floor lounge of our building.
My job has been interesting and demanding, always with too much to do and not enough time to do it. But I enjoy it, and hope that I am contributing to the organisation. My contract is for another 2 years…we still don’t know what we will do after that. Retirement…back in the US…somewhere else…just not sure where to go. But that’s a decision for a later time.
For now, we’re trying to take advantage of every day we have here. Seeing all we can in London…taking some local trips (Winchester and Alfriston have been really good ones). I still have travel with my job, which means an upcoming business trip to Tokyo (with a few personal days’ trip to Vietnam). So much to see, so many places we want to go.
Winchester Cathedral
So, nine months into this part of our life experience, I have to say I’m glad we made the decision to move to London. It hasn’t always been easy. But nothing in life is. It is an unusual opportunity, and we appreciate the chance to take advantage of it.
Four Years in Japan ... and now Three Years in London 