Update on the war front

So I thought I would update you all with whats new concerning the trip to London. Its just over a month away and we are all getting excited. We bought our tickets. We are flying out at 7:45 pm on Dec 31st (New Year's Eve) and landing at 7:15 am the next day. We already booked our return flight as well. We will depart London on June 26th at 2:30 pm and land back in Boston at 4:50 pm.

I finally got a laptop from work. This is great because I now can bring the laptop with me to London and use it in the flat. When I get over there I am hoping to get the company to buy me an Air Card. It's a modem that uses cell phone technology to connect to the Internet anywhere. For whatever reason I can't get one here that will work there. If that makes any sense.

Also the flat we will be staying in will be much larger then the original flat. The new one has two bedrooms. Get this its cheaper then the old one bedroom flat, so the people after me will benefit for years to come. I don't know the exact address but I know the general location and it is still within walking distance of the office and still nowhere near any tourist stuff. Once I have the address I will email everyone in my contact folder but I will not be posting it here. Wouldn't want any wierdo's we don't know visiting us you know.

For all of you visiting I should warn you the dollar has lost value against the pound so it will cost just over double for everything. Another words if your dinner comes to 20 pounds then it will show on your credit card as more then 40 dollars plus most credit cards charge between 2% and 3% to do the exchange. JOY! With that said it will be expensive to do anything over there and we will be accepting care packages HINT HINT HINT!!!!

Halloween

Hope you all had a great Halloween. I know the Kimballs did. At my work Halloween is a day no work gets done. We have a pumpkin carving contest and a costume contest. The vice president and a few others judge the contest. The group that wins the pumpkin carving contest gets a $5 dollar gift card to Dunkin Donuts. The winner of the costume contest gets a 100 bucks! Not bad. So this year I went all out on both fronts. I starting growing a beard two weeks ago for my pirate custom. I also worked for three days on the props for the group pumpkin. I didn't win the custome contest but my group did win the carving contest!

Here are some pics.

Halloween

So your Hungry

Okay so when you come to visit there a few things you should know about British restaurants.

First many of your favorite fast food joints are already out there so if your homesick you can get your BigMac fix. You have heard that the Brits call French Fries "Chips" The younger generation calls them fries just like us so don't worry about it. You will want to double check your favorite number. A number 10 my not be a number 10 in a British fast food place. Other then that they are the same and taste the same. KFC on the other hand does not have mashed potatoes.

Of course you did not travel all this way to pay twice the price for American fast food. If you decide to go to a real restaurant here are some tips. You don't normally tip the waitress. You also don't usually tip a bartender. Since you are not tipping they don't care about the quality of your service, so expect the worst service you have ever had.

When the waitress first comes over they will ask if you want still or sparkling water. Still is like bottled water and sparkling is with the bubbles. If you ask for still water they bring out a glass bottle of water. You may need to ask for more if you run out. They don't always automatically bring more.

The portions are much smaller. I went to a run of the mill British restaurant and ordered a steak. It was 6oz. Not 16 it was 6oz. That is about the size of a deck of cards. As your eating you will notice they don't come by to check on how you are doing or to bring you your check. When you want the check you need to ask for it.

If you manage to have enough left over to bring home don't. It is considered rude to ask for a doggy bag. honestly I could care less about offending a restaurant. I paid for it so I should get to bring it home.

If you decide to order take out like pizza or Chinese they call it take away.

Food terms
Bangers and Mash = Sausage and mashed potatoes
Rockets = a type of lettuce that has pointed ends
zucchini = courgettes
lima bean = butter bean
Eggplant = Aubergine

Scary British Food

Black Pudding is made from blood
Marmite is a spread made from the leftover yeast from brewing.

Toad in the Hole is sausages covered in batter and roasted.

Bubble & Squeak is like leftovers that have been fried in a pan.

Pie and Mash used to made with eels

Need I say more?

The First Trip

So I went over to London for a week on business to check out were I will be working and the flat were we will be staying. I did not get to actually see the flat. The company has not acquired it yet but Lucy (my english boss) told me what area it will be in. I have marked it on the google map found at the bottom of this blog. It is within easy walking distance to the office but as far as tourist attractions its in the middle of nowhere. It is near the Liverpool tube station so anyone staying with us can hop on that and get to a more exciting area of the city.

I did get a few pictures, but because I was working I could only go out at night and it rained two nights so many photo opportunities were lost. I'll have more opportunities later anyway.

Right near the flat is a cool Argentine steak house. In front of said steak house is a really radical lighted square. The lights change colors and the benches are made of glass block which glows with the changing spectrum of colors. The serving sizes of beef are measured in ML (no idea what that means mil liters perhaps) instead of ounces. I found the 400 ML to be equivalent to a normal American steak house serving. The prices seemed reasonable until you do the exchange rate, but still I feared much worse.

Notice in the picture below the word Passport is missing the P. I guess this is where they do the body cavity searches. Now that would put a damper on tourism.

Actually this sign was in the Dublin airport. I went over there for a couple hours to check out our office there and meet a few people. I would like to go back and check Dublin out some more. The people look like they came straight out of South Boston. The driver that picked us up from the airport looked and laughed just like Peter Griffin from Family Guy. Funny Stuff!

Near these classic British phone booths is Piccadilly Circus which is like Times Sq and on the opposite is a street full of brothels. Now you know where the red light district is.



In London they have a Smog tax and a Congestion Toll you have to pay when entering and leaving the city. However if you have one of these sweet rides below you don't have to pay those fines. Its an electric car for two.




Double Click on the photo to see the slideshow.

London - week 1

Townsend 275th Anniversary Parade

Today Townsend celebrated its 275th anniversary. There was what the town officials called a "Super" Parade. It was two hours long, and there were many vendors selling goods out on the town common. There was even a guy selling brisket, pulled pork, and ribs across the street from my house. Hmmmmm pork products are tasty.

Townsend 275th Anniversary Parade

Morgan's Pirate Party

Morgan's 5th birthday party went well. It was a pirate theme, and I dressed up for the occasion. We had a fun treasure map that lead the children around the house looking for clues that lead to more clues. My favorite clue told them to pop balloons to find a hidden clue inside one of the balloons. That clue lead them to the X spray painted on the ground telling them were to dig. The kids squealed with delight when they opened the treasure chest to discover all the great candy. Jay had sent up chocolate coins before the party and that really added to the look.

We played pin the parrot on Captain Morgan's shoulder. I had drawn the character from the rum bottle on poster board and colored him in. The winner of that game got to hold the key that opened the treasure chest from the previous paragraph.

Even the ants enjoyed the spoils of cotton candy left over at the end. I later burned them with starter fluid. Fire is COOL!

Morgan's Party

San Diego

I went to San Diego for two days on business. I'd never been to the west coast before, and had never felt jet lag. I woke up both days at 4am thinking it was 7. I did get to check out the Pacific and saw an air craft carrier, but I didn't have my camera then. I also saw a little of the oil lamp district but nothing note worthy.

The Boeing 757 going down to San Diego was like that crappy old bus you rode on for school field trips. The plane had duck tape holding the light fixtures together and the paint on the wings was chipping off. The old TV monitors were straight from the 80s and their plastic had yellowed and cracked. I felt really safe!

I had bought new shoes for work and they were not broken in yet and I started developing blisters so I ended up staying close to the hotel. Luckily the coolest mall I have ever been to was attached to the hotel. It was an open air mall with many ramps and stairs leading in all directions. It reminded me of the modern painting of stairs going in all directions in ways that are not logical.





Double click on the picture to view the slideshow.

San Diego

Test

I wanted to add a cool slideshow to my blog. I've been experimenting with picture websites and I really like snapfish but I could not figure out how to show my slideshow on my blog, plus people have to log in to see my pics. This slide show is done by Picasa which is not as fancy but its easy to use and I can do my slideshow.

As of Sept 17, 2007 I have three slideshows on my blog and have found that they seem to be slowing performance a bit, so I'm going to use a hyperlink that brings you to the slideshow in picasa for all my historical posts. Current posts will still show the pretty slideshow and provide the hyperlink.

Test

Photo Album Ideas

Need your Help

As we draw closer to our departure date I wanted to get opinions on what might be the best way to display all of our lovely photos. We could use this blog but it would not be good for several hundred photos. It is certainly a good place to show the best photos and make diary style entries but I think I should include hyperlinks that bring you to sites that make viewing slide shows or albums easier. I noticed sites like flickr and shutterfly seem nice. Shutterfly seems to be free and have many options that I like such as adding comments and organizing pics into groups. For example when we go to Paris I want those photos to stay separate from my Irish photos. Its also cool that you can order prints but that is not a requirement. Does anyone have any advice?

Thanks

Walsh (co-worker) just sent me this link which discusses various photo sharing sites. http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_45/b3958413.htm

A New Addition

GWEN

On Friday, Aug 10th 2007 Gwen Lorden Kimball was born in our home at 3:22PM. She weighed in at 9lbs 2oz, and 21" long. Below are some pictures of the new addition. Gwen should add an interesting twist to our adventure. Luckily Gwen is breast feed and we co-sleep which means we don't use a crib or bottles so there won't be a whole bunch of "stuff" for us to carry with us in our travels.

Where should we visit?

Places to Visit

Below are a list of places I plan on visiting or things to do. I will be adding to it. If you have any suggestions please let us know. I also added links to attractions websites if you want more info.

Check out this link http://www.visitbritain.us/

Tower of London

Hampton Court Palace - Has a cool maze like in the movie labyrinth

Kensignton Palace - has exhibits about Diana

Kew Palace - recently renovated. I believe it has some nice English gardens

Eye on London - biggest fairest wheel ever!

Bath - as well as other Roman ruins

Buckingham Palace - Official Royal Residence

find that crosswalk on the beatles album

London Zoo - I hope its better then the US national zoo in DC

London Aquarium - Biggest Fish tank ever!

National History Museum - I love history

Tower Bridge - like it sounds. Its a bridge with towers

Science Museum - Similar to one in Boston but its FREE

Tate Modern - wacky modern art place

National Gallery - Boring art like MFA in Boston but its FREE, and near Trafalgar Square

National Portriat Gallery - If I'm really bored

Spencer House - located in London. Wait they don't allow children under 10...Those bastards!

Winston Churchill Museum - I loved WWII stuff

Golden Hinde - Its a boat like the Mayflower but bigger.

LegoLand - Who knew they had one near London!

Places to see Outside England

Eiffel Tower

Euro Disney

Blarney Stone as well as the rest of Blarney castle

Edinburgh Castle - think William Wallace ... you know Braveheart ?

D-Day Battlefield exhibits - link leads to some tour site we may or may not use.

Brandenburg Gate - Berlin, Germany (if we get that far out)

Things to do

Have high tea with clotted cream

ride in the chunnel

ride a double decker bus

eat a deep fried mars bar

If I happen to be near by check out 10 downing st (prime ministers house)

Wine tasting - I don't much care for wine, but Katie would like to try it.

Per Jay's Suggestions

Windsor Castle

Westminster Abbey

St.Paul's Cathedral

Parliament (Big Ben)

Oxford University - Harry Potter filmed and Tolkien taught

Cliffs of Dover

The British Museum

Blenheim Palace - birth place of Winston Churchill

Docklands (east London) - Link lists lots of place in the area to see

Hyde Park

As for the fish and chips I don't like fish, but I might take a bite if Katie gets it.

The Flat

The Flat

The previous person who was at the flat sent me a few pictures, and they told me it is really small.

The Living Rm

The living room is small. It has a small TV, and table with three chairs. Luckily only three of the four of us are big enough to need a chair. The old flat had a sleeper sofa this one does not so potential guests will not be able to stay over to well. Rumor has it there might be a cot.

The Bath Rm

Notice the toilet has no tank like what you would see in a commercial building. The lever to flush is attached to the wall. Very weird

The Kitchen

The Kitchen is the most interesting. The cabinet to the far right of the picture is the fridge. Off the picture to the left is the wash/dryer. The washer dryer is a small one unit deal that washes then dries the clothes. There is a microwave in there somewhere as well.

Introduction

Welcome to the Kimball Family's trip to London Blog

Summary:

My company, Interactive data, has a program that allows workers in the US to travel to the London office for six months. They have a flat right in the center of London and within walking distance to the office. They pay for all the utilities and the flat has a washer dryer unit, tv, fully stocked kitchen and furniture. The only thing we have to worry about is food and entertainment. If you have not heard I am going over and I am bringing the whole family January of 2008 until July. There will be four of us cramed into a tiny flat. I am using this blog to cronicle my travels in England and Western Europe.