Kosher Kingdom

I found this place online and had such high hopes for it. I mean who could resist a name like Kosher Kingdom. I needed to find a kosher butcher for Pesach and some treats and this place came with a recommendation from a local chap.

Anyway, let's just say after two tube lines and exiting in zone 3, I quickly realized I was in London's equivalent of Brooklyn. Black coats and hats abound, and with my google map in hand, I found Kosher Kingdom. Which was a serious disappointment - there was no meat (though the man checking me out, literally, not figuratively, suggested a place down the road). There were tons of imported items from the real Brooklyn, but I actually wanted to try some local specialties.

Oh well. I went to the butcher and asked for a brisket and the guy looked at me like I had 2 heads, responding, how does Sunday sound?

Anyway, I'm quickly realizing that I must be the only Jew in the neighborhood (ok fine, Rachel and Dave you count too but are in Arizona)... there is not one shelf much less an aisle of kosher for passover foods... good thing my mother insisted on giving me chocolate covered matzohs to pack in my suitcase :) At the time, it reminded me of when she sent me kleenex my freshman year at NYU, but this is actually something you can't find in London! :)

Saying Goodbye

Jon went back to NYC today - very very sad!! I took this snapshot getting off the Heathrow Express

Good thing I didn't catch one at security because there were a lot of tears :( As my mother points out, at least we can speak on the phone as much as we want and when the internet gets installed in the flat, we'll be able to see each other on the web cam... I can only imagine how tough it was way back when the phone calls were expensive and flying over for a quick trip was out of the question!

Notting Hill

Our first weekend of relaxing in the UK so we decided to go to Notting Hill, Piccadilly Market and Covent Gardens to explore a bit.

In the evening, we met up with Dave and Rachel and some of their friends for dinner at a gastropub (pub in the front with a nice restaurant and good food in the back) a few blocks from our apartment called Admiral Codrington's and then out for drinks at a lounge.

Week One

OK, so now that we are settling into life in London, I thought I'd share a little bit about our experience thus far. Sorry this is so long!

We were off to the airport on Thursday afternoon – a mini van arrive to take us to JFK and the journey took us – almost 2 hours. Needless to say, Jon and I were pretty stressed out about missing our flight,so it was the amazing race (part II – because part one was the run to make our flight to South Africa last year) to get our baggage on the flight on us in our seats. After check 7 (yes seven suitcases), we were on our way and made it with no problem. We settled into our seats and woke up close to Ireland.

Before we left, my new group in London advised to use a certain car service from the airport. The journey was a mere £85 plus tip. As some of you know, I was quite nervous about our accommodations, so I held my breath when we arrived at our home for the next six months - Nell Gwynn House. We got our keys from the management office – Apartment 111. I asked if it was on the first floor and he quickly explained that it was not on the ground level,but I was skeptical anyway. Jon took the first batch of bags and let's just say he came back to me underwhelmed. We made it up in three trips and I checked out the new digs. We took some pictures that do the place absolutely no justice.

In fact it looks pretty great in pictures. I think that two of the London flats would fit into our New York apartment to give you an appreciation for the size.Pretty much anything I touched felt grimy and even though the windows were closed it felt like it was noisy enough for them to be wide open. It is a kitchen/living room combo with a tiny TV in the corner. The bathroom was so small that you have to close the door in order to access the sink and the bedroom had a double bed with just enough room around it to walk to each side. It was pretty horrible, but I whipped out the Wet Ones and started to unpack anyway while Jon set up our critical pieces – broadband and Vonage. We quickly realized that the broadband was not working so Jon made two trips down to the management office only to ultimately find out that the building internet speed was 2MB for the whole building. They were excited to report that on Monday the building was being upgraded to 8MB. As a point of reference, our friends live down the street and have a 2MB connection for their one bedroom apartment.

Since the internet is a necessary thing for Jon to work, I emailed my relocation contact at Citigroup and ultimately they agreed to let us move to another flat in the building. The second flat was #423, much larger bathroom, smaller living room/kitchen, smaller closet, and no space for folding clothes. We nixed that and got to flat #212. We took this as a sign – but there was a sacrifice for the 'upgrade': there is no broadband access until March 28. This of course caused a big problem to Jon so we spent the weekend trying to find a solution; won't bore you with the details, but yesterday it involved working in another FMA's flat during the day and an internet café at night.Today, he worked out of Starbucks and because all the Starbucks here close at 6:30-7 and Jon is working NY hours, that means visiting the internet café at night again.

So back to the flat- you walk into the apartment into the living room/kitchen. There is room for a small table, two chairs, a twin sofa, leather chair and a little round coffee table (maybe 12 inches across).



The kitchen is Pullman style so it is in the living room,but the good news is that it has a mini washer/dryer (in the same unit) and a mini dishwasher. There is also a mini-fridge and at the moment we can't access the tiny freezer because the only place we found to store our seven suitcases was beside the fridge so the door doesn't open far enough to get at the freezer.

The bedroom is ultra luxe because it has a small hallway of built-in closets/shelving. There are two 18 inch closets for hanging clothe sand a bit more space for folding clothes. Aside from that area (which only one person can pass through at a time), there is a double bed. The space between the bed and the wall is two and a half Sherri-sized shoes on each side. The bathroom is the most luxurious part of the apartment - it has a power shower (a key upgrade in London), but I am thinking about laying down a bath mat because the shower is really high up and I almost fall out of it every day ;) There are faux-marble tiles and a little window. The kitchen is newly renovated– with a granite top and a stove with a hood - as for counter space, I would estimate probably 14 inches of prep areas. There is a cupboard in the living room and the bottom part of there is a hatch door that links to the hallway for the trash to be taken out. Long story short,we put a bag in last night and started hearing the bag rustle - and each time Jon kicked the door, the rustling would stop. I have no words, but evidently a colleague did because I received a call from someone in NY today so who knows maybe we'll be moving soon?

Aside from the cozy apartment, things are going well. Jon and I walked all over the neighborhood this weekend - this is our local kebab place:




We even found a supermarket that has an "American" section with things like $0.89 Kraft mac n cheese for £3. Sadly, I have not yet found a distributor for Stacy's pita chips - I am told they exist in London and hope to find them soon as only have one bag left from nyc :) We live in a great neighborhood with lots of cute stores and restaurants so there is plenty to see. We had dinner at an Indian restaurant with Rachel and Dave on Sunday – Jon is now a convert! He just needed to try it ;)

Of course, we missed our Sunday night dinners with the Doumars so this week we decided to check out a restaurant in China Town near Leister Square.

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