What we've been up to

I am so sorry that there has been a hiatus on the blog for the last few weeks. There is really no excuse, except that I have been lazy! But there is quite a lot of news to catch you all up on so here goes.

The big news, I guess, is that Frans has started his REAL job. As some of you know, he was working temporarily at a removal company packing and carrying boxes and furniture. He enjoyed the work because it was nice to get out the house, do some physical labour and meet new and interesting people. But he was only ever going to be working there for a few weeks while he was waiting for the contract for the permanent job to come through. So Frans's job at The Royal Bank of Scotland started on the 7th of April, exactly two weeks after we moved into our new flat. He works in "The City" as the center of London, and particularly the banking sector, is often referred to. It takes him about 40 minutes on the underground to get to work in the morning and home in the evening. He's enjoying it at the moment, although he's still brand new to the project and there is a lot still to figure out.

While Frans was waiting for his security clearance to be granted so he could start working and I was still on school holidays over Easter, we had a few days where we were both free and we could do a few more touristy activities! We spent one day exploring the center of London. We started by going to see the Changing of the Guards at Buckingham palace. It was an eye-opening experience, partly because the demonstration was really impressive but also because there were SO MANY people there to watch! I have added a few photos we took but they don't really do the parade justice. Unfortunately, we didn't have a great view and so we didn't stay for the entire 45-minute parade.

Watching the parade through the massive
gilded gates of Buckingham Palace

A short video of the guards

The guards as they arrive at Buckingham Palace

 We then walked down The Mall from Buckingham palace towards Trafalgar square, passing across The Parade ground and spotting some on duty horse guards. At Trafalgar Square, we spent some time enjoying the fountains and massive bronze lions before heading to the National Gallery. It was beautiful, quiet and grand in the Gallery and I was so excited to see one of my favourite painting of all: Geroge Stubbs' Whistle Jacket.

Walking across The Parade Grounds

The National Gallery entrance as seen from Trafalgar Square

The beautiful fountains at Tafralgar

Fountains in the pools at Trafalgar

From Trafalgar Square we wandered towards Leicester Square to eat our picnic lunch. There were quite a few people with the same idea and the pigeons were having a good meal from the scraps that were dropped. From there we made our way to Hyde Park for a walk and it was really lovely to see the famous grounds. There were lots of gardeners busy at work preparing the grass and flower beds for spring and summer. I can imagine that the lawns will be packed with people soaking up the sun as soon as it is warm enough.

It is such fun living in a city where you can, on one day be a normal local, travelling to work, and the next transform into a tourist! This entire day of activities cost us almost nothing! We had already bought our travel cards for the month which meant that we didn't spend anything on transport. None of the sights we went to had an entrance fee and we took our own picnic lunch. Who said London had to be expensive?

A copy of Whistlejacket by George Stubbs

Moving house over the Easter Weekend

I have mentioned that we are moving into our own flat in the past few blog posts and this weekend that day finally arrived. We are finally in our own little place in Acton.

Moving our stuff from Sutton to Acton without the help of a car was interesting; moving house entirely using public transport was rather tricky. On Thursday, I had to be in Acton 9.30 to meet with the representative from the inventory company. They are in charge of documenting the state of the property before you move in so that if there are any damages incurred during the stay, you can be charged accordingly but not overcharged for things that were broken before you moved in. The process was much more thorough than I expected! He used a recording device and moved around the house identifying everything from scuffs on the walls to the number and type of glasses in the cupboard.

I had done this trip on my own because Frans has taken up a short-term job for a few weeks while he gets all the clearance necessary to start his “real” job. At the moment, he is working for a removal company packing boxes and heaving furniture from place to place. It is back-breaking work, but he is enjoying having something to do during the day and a little bit of extra cash coming in. He has met some interesting characters, many South Africans and Zimbabweans, and always comes home with a story to tell about a huge and beautiful house that he packed up and moved that day.

On the 4^th of April, Frans will start working at Royal Bank of Scotland as a Business Analyst – what that entails, I am not that sure. But it has something to do with making sure that the computer programmes and systems are complying with the necessary financial regulations that all banks are required to follow. He will be working as a contractor which means he has had to register himself as a Limited company.

We spent the Easter weekend in our new spot. We don’t have TV or internet access yet, so we spent a lot of time listening to the radio – which was actually quite fun and different from the “usual” entertainment that we have come to rely on!

Then we went to Hammersmith on Sunday to watch the famous head-to-head between the Cambridge and Oxford rowing teams. We had no idea what to expect and only knew that there would be hundreds of thousands of people lining the 4.5km stretch of river where the race was taking place. We met up with Paddy and Kerry at the station and arrived to absolutely pelting rain, luckily the weather cleared up fairly quickly and it ended up being a lovely outing. We managed to find a lovely spot on the Thames walkway with a bench and an uninterrupted view of the river.

On Easter Monday, Frans and I went for a long wandering walk. We walked through the closest park to us – Gunnersbury Park. The far end of the park is near Kew so we wandered through the streets of Kew for a while. We wanted to visit Kew gardens, but they were closed due to the weather. In the morning when we woke up there was rather aggressive wind and rain but by 10am it had cleared up to a lovely sunny day. We discovered later (thanks to Chantal in South Africa) that there had been a rather scary story, Storm Katie, which had lashed many parts of the UK! And this was presumably why Kew Gardens were closed. But we are very keen to visit again soon while it is spring and see the lovely blossoming flowers. Instead we walked along the Thames path spotting the Mallard ducks, swans and barge houses. 

Living Lightly

The process of moving to London has forced me to deal with a part of my life I was always uncomfortable with, but never actually took the time to engage. I have always wished I could be more objective and less sentimental when it came to holding on to things; silly trinkets, old jars that may come in useful and other clutter that I didn't ever take the time to fully decide why I was holding on to. Well, packing all my possessions into boxes to be stored for years or, alternatively, fitting them into a limited 30kg of luggage to take with me, has really made that process happen through necessity. 

We had decided that we weren't going to ship anything over to England and we would just survive with the combined 60kg of luggage that we could take with us on the flight. So, I had known that we would have to get rid of a lot of useless junk when we moved; it doesn't make sense to hoard items for a long period of time when they don't have a particular use. It started when I considered my wardrobe. I have managed to cart a lot of clothes along with me throughout my life and I often only throw something out when I haven't worn it for an unnecessarily long amount of time. I knew I was going to have to donate a lot of clothes, many of which I still wore and loved, because I could only pack a limited amount. I didn't think it would be practical to store clothes for 2 - 5 years in boxes with mothballs! As hard as it was to admit, I was certain I wouldn't want to wear them after that. 

So in preparation for this traumatic throwing out session, I began to seek solace from people who had done something similar before. I looked up people online who had purged their stuff for various reasons. At first, I was doing this as a way of fulfilling my desire to ponder on the future task at hand, rather than a deliberate act of learning how to do it. But, I soon began to become excited at the prospect of whittling my wardrobe down to those essentials which I love and need, and not have the clutter of items which I thought I may someday use, but never actually would! I came across some inspiring bloggers who give advice on simplifying a wardrobe as well as living a more simple and deliberate life when it comes to possessions. 

Caroline Rector, of Unfancy, is a proponent of what has become known as the Capsule Wardrobe. This approach requires that you pare down your clothes into 36 items per season. You pack the non-current-season clothes away and only have your 36 items in your available wardrobe. The process of selecting your 36 items is very deliberate and they are ones which you love and wear often. That way you are likely to get the most use out of those items and not have any extras cluttering up your wardrobe and mind. Obviously, this approach couldn't work exactly for me as I needed all my clothes, not only those which were seasonal. And I needed a lot of pieces which would work both in summer and in winter. However, I did find Caroline's "wardrobe planner" to be surprisingly helpful in identifying the kinds of clothes that I like and tend to be most comfortable wearing. I was quite sceptical at first but I would honestly suggest to anyone to take the time (an hour or so) to set to working through the steps to identifying your own unique style and preferences. Although I haven't done much shopping since following the process, I have walked through a clothing shop here and there and have felt much more confident knowing exactly what I am looking for, rather than overwhelmed by the masses of pretty things. 

Since arriving in London, I have discovered a video blogger called Aileen Xu of Lavendaire, who has set about recording videos cataloging her life while she attempts to live more simply, happily and deliberately. She posts videos about everything; from how she organises her desk, to her morning routine, in such beautifully edited videos that they have inspired me to create a life which is more conscious of what makes me relaxed and happy. 

Another interesting, albeit more extreme, online website I have come across, is called The Minimalists. These are two friends, Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus, who write about their journey towards living a truly minimalist lifestyle. They also produce podcasts, which resemble radio talk shows, in which they discuss the reasons for decluttering their physical and mental space of all the stuff that we are conned into desiring. Their approach is a little too severe for my taste, but I really found a lot of good advice on intentional living while perusing their site. A favourite article was this (very short) comment on the prospect of having a President who was a minimalist. There are some lovely quotes from Calvin Coolidge, the 30th President of the United states. My favourite is “Prosperity is only an instrument to be used, not a deity to be worshipped.”    

And so, although Frans and I do have a lot fewer items than we did when living in South Africa, the deliberate choice of it all has been surprisingly freeing. I am so grateful that we were "forced" to consider every possession we own and decide its usefulness. It has already made life so much easier and less cluttered. 

A fox, the River and Kurt Darren

This weekend we saw a member of the London wildlife that we haven't seen before, a fox! Frans and I were walking home from a lovely afternoon spent in Wimbledon watching the Super Rugby. We passed through a parking lot that we walk through on our way home from the pavement and as we came round the corner, we saw a little animal. At first, I thought it was a big cat, but he stopped and looked at us and we saw him quite clearly. It was lucky that we were in the well-lit parking lot or else we wouldn't have seen him in the dark! He trotted off into the bushes - where presumably he lives!

As promised, I've put together a few pictures of the Thames that I've snapped through the window of the train. There's one in the morning looking into the sun and one looking up the river. And then there's one at night looking at the neighboring bridge, Battersea Bridge. I'm enjoying crossing the river twice a day, but since we're moving to Acton just before the easter weekend, this won't be the case for much longer. And although I'll be sad to give up my train view, living 20 minutes from work is much more appealing than having an hour and a half long commute! We are so excited for our lovely little 1 bedroom flat very close to Acton Town station which meets all our needs AND has a little garden to have braais in.

We went to Wimbledon (aka little South Africa) on Saturday to watch the Sharks pip the Stormers in the aforementioned Super Rugby match. It was such fun to be surrounded by so many South Africans. We met up with lots of our South African friends there later that evening and it was lovely to catch up on everyone's news and make some new friends. Once the rugby had dies down, the pub morphed into something resembling a night club But the DJ began the night off with some good old treffers!! Dancing and singing along to Kurt Darren's Captein while in London was really quite fun!

Kingston-Upon-Thames

I've added links to some of the places I refer to so if you'd like to check them out, just click on the name. I hope this adds to the story a bit more!

Kelly and Kyle took us on an outing to Kingston-Upon-Thames yesterday. It is a single bus ride from here in Sutton, but it took us much longer than it should have because, for some inexplicable reason, there was loads of traffic! But Frans and I completed a crossword in the Evening Standard that I have left in my handbag from the day before. We were pretty proud of ourselves for completing the "quick" crossword - it took us at least an hour, but we got every last word.

Kingston is a lovely place, and is well known for its shopping experience. Although we don't have money for shopping at this stage in our adventure, it was the perfect winter outing on a budget because all the shops and shopping centers are heated. We started off in TK Maxx which is a store that I would never have imagined existed! It stocks name-brand products at knockoff prices, everything from clothes to outdoor furniture. We wandered around for a bit and ogled all the beautiful wares while Kelly got bought some things she needed. Later on that afternoon, we wandered around the Bentall Center and took a look at a bunch of shops that we don't have in Sout Africa. Although we didn't buy anything, it was fun to pretend!

We also visited a little pub/restaurant called The Bishop overlooking the river. It is styled so beautifully and could be a chic restaurant, cozy pub or cute coffee shop - all with the added benefit of overlooking the river. I have to mention at this point that I am falling in love with The Thames. My train in the morning crosses a bridge over the river between Clapham Junction and Victoria Station where I change onto the tube, and I love gazing out of the window at the water. The sun is up at this point in the journey now, but it's still low in the sky and glances of the buildings making everything sparkle. I'll try to get a picture tomorrow.

Here's a picture of Frans and I on the River Walk at Kingston and a picture of Frans and Kyle in The Bishop.

I said in my previous post that Frans and I were awaiting a referencing process to be approved for an apartment that we want to rent. Well, it has been successful and we are moving to Acton on the 24th of March - less than 3 weeks time! We will be living close to Acton Town station which will only be a short tube ride to my school and about 40 minutes to the center of town where Frans will most likely be working. It is a lovely little 1 bedroom flat with a bonus of having a private garden! How spoilt are we?! It is also close to Gunnersbury Park where there is a Parkrun every Saturday.

Back to the grindstone

I've taken a while to write this post, not least because I've started working - for the first time in almost 3 months!! Lucky me!! It's great to be back in an school though and, on balance, I am loving my new school. All the challenges I'm facing at the moment are only challenges because I'm new to the school and the school system and I'm joining in the middle of the academic year.
I am at a very good coeducational private school in west London. The staff are really friendly and welcoming and the kids are mostly lovely. Of course there are a few difficult ones but they're not throwing things at me. I'm slowly getting to know my way around the school, how the duty roster works, how the grades are named, which curriculum documents apply to which year groups and the various behaviour, homework, health and safety policies are.
My journey to work takes an hour and a half when I time it perfectly, and two hours when I don't. I'm trying to cultivate an attitude of stoic acceptance, but its quite difficult sometimes. Especially when the train is full and I have to stand for a fair part of the journey. But I do get a chance to get a lot of reading done. I've had a few days where I've managed to do some work, but that only happens when I get a seat and a table in the train.
We are hoping to move closer to my school but that is complicated in that we need to have a rental history in the UK to secure a good apartment. We've had to scratch up all kinds of references to prove that we are good rent-paying tenants! Holding thumbs that it comes together soon! :)

Week 3, The River and Work

Hello again to all of our faithful followers! I hope you aren't getting sick of my boring ramblings. We've had another week of doing some more of the same. :) 

We are still very much enjoying our time in London, and are so pleased that we took this leap. It has been a learning process figuring out how things work around here. The trick is to set up a bank account, to do that you need proof of residence. Not just one, but two. Getting a proof of residence is harder than you'd think... A letter from the Government Jobcenter with one's National Insurance number is one way, but all other options don't apply to us yet. (One way, we we're told by the sincere bank assistance, is to use a bank statement from another UK bank account...Clearly that isn't going to work for us.) 

Last week we went into central London and as we were walking around, we came across The Monument. It is a tall strucutre built between 1671 and 1677 to commemorate the Great Fire of London (which occurred in 1666). We had some time so we paid for our tickets and started the climb. There are 311 steps in a tight spiral up the inside of the column of the structure. It was exhausting going up but the views were really beautiful once we got to the top. The walk down was tricky and we held on tight to the rail so as not to tumble forwards down the tight stairway! Below is a picture of The Monument (disclaimer: I didn't take this photo as the camera on my phone is average to crap. This is just the first image you get when you search for The Monument on Google and happens to be a lovely picture) From the top you can see quite far, the second picture is a view down the Thames and Tower Bridge. 

After that we wandered over London Bridge, which is the first bridge in London and also was the only bridge across the Thames until 1729. Seeing that London has been the site of human settlement for about 2000 years, it is quite amazing that for 1700 years there was only one way across the river. There are now at least 33 bridges crossing the Thames. The river is really huge, and despite its thick, muddy colour, really majestic. I have loved the chance to walk along beside it or even just cross the river in the train. This was our second chance to wander along the banks of the river this week. We spotted the HMS Belfast docked in the river and went to have a peek. We decided we not to go on board as we weren't willing to pay for another admission ticket! But the sun had come out and the views with tower bridge in the background were quite beautiful. Frans even managed to coax a pretty picture out of his phone.

Earlier in the week we took a trip to Canary Wharf to the east of London. This is the area where the original docklands were and historically an area of poverty. Now it is home to the headquarters of many big banks and is a booming business industry. The buildings here are mostly modern and made of glass. This is contrasted to the old town of central London City where the buildings are much older, made of stone or brick and have elaborate detail carved into the walls and pillars. In Canary Wharf, there are building sites everywhere and the development in the area is charging ahead. We wandered along the river for a bit, but eventually we got too cold and had to go home!

Below is a picture from Canary Wharf of three of the iconic tall buildings in The London skyline. They are known as The Walkie Talkie, the Cheese Grater and The Gherkin. We are pretty sure those aren't their real names, but they're pretty descriptive, hey? 

I start work on tomorrow (Monday) and am really looking forward to it. I have been on holiday for quite a while and I'm excited to get started with something again (I'm sure I will be regretting those words next week when I am super tired and not coping with the work load!) As I've said, I'll be dealing with a long commute of 1 hour and 40 minutes or so... I'm still coming to terms with that!