Merry Christmas

For the first time in well over 15 years, I actually said these words to someone on Saturday who wasn't a friend or relative (read:  I know they celebrate Christmas, and thus the comment applies).  Not once, but twice! I was at Borough Market doing my usual Saturday food shopping, and at both the Flaxseed stand and the French Dairy stand (best French butter with sea-salt chunks, BTW...), both proprietors said "Merry Christmas" to me as I walked away and, instead of replying with my usual PC-ridden 'Happy Holidays!', I responded as well with 'Merry Christmas.'

I won't lie:  It felt weird to utter the phrase.  For better or worse, over the years, I've tried to be aware of the fact that not everyone celebrates Xmas-and thus 'Merry Christmas' might be irrelevant.  I've even taken it to the point of not buying 'Holiday cards' that overtly had any reference to Jesus, Santa, or anything that was clearly Christmassy.

So, when I got home from the market and told Simon about this-and about my previous behaviour, he effectively told me to get over it-Brits aren't that overly-sensitive about such a thing!

OK!  Well seeing as how I'm trying to be as accomodating of the culture in which I live (said with tongue firmly planted in my cheek...): Merry Christmas everybody!

A Blog Post about Blogging

No, this isn't one of those blog posts where people talk about the millions of dollars/pounds/euro they've earned off their blogs-though, that would be nice....This is just a post about 'my blog.'  Sort of.

Somewhere over the last 2-3 days, I hit what I would call a milestone-though if you would have asked me about this 2 years ago, I wouldn't have thought it important at the time:  25 followers of my blog, American Expat in London.

Somewhere in the world, 25 people seem to think that what I have to say is interesting/funny/stupid (insert additional adjective here...) enough to actually not only stop by & read what I write from time to time, but actually tick a little box that says, 'yeah. i want to know when she's posted something new.'  Crazy.

Who are you people?!?  I say that in jest-as for many of you, I've started to follow your profiles back to your own blogs and have figured that out for myself.  But, I guess for you 25, me, and anyone else out there, I can't help but wonder, what is so [insert adjective here] about someone's personal blog to make you want to follow it?

As for me, I'm beginning to discover a few blogs from folks that are also American Expats in London, the UK, or elsewhere in the world.  Stuck in the Toffee Pudding is my latest discovery of an American Expat blog, or vice versa as Brits living in the US with  Expat Mum. And regardless of which side of the pond they've come from/gone to, I find comfort in the common pain-points of being an Expat, as well as the joys of discovering new things.

For a few other blogs, the ladies seem to cook some lovely recipes-and based on what I've tried from their blogs-can say from firsthand experience that the pictures don't lie.  Thanks, Intrepid Chef-your latest post on Ice Cream Pumpkin Pie looks fantastic!

Though ironically, one of the reasons I started this blog-to easily keep my friends back in the US up to date on my life-I find that Facebook seems to have taken care of that nicely.  Instead, I simply seem to be updating people who I either know here in the UK (hello Simon), long lost friends I haven't seen in years (but who discovered my blog on my Facebook profile), or any other number of people that seem to pop by from time to time. Go figure.

And, let's be honest:  for most of us who have a blog & blog with any level of regularity, there is an eensie weensie kernel of hope that 'someone' will discover our blog, realize what amazing writers & story tellers we are, and offer us large sums of money to publish what we've posted about.  I know there is a part of me that thinks that would be cool. It's not why I blog-and certainly not what I think about when blogging per se. But, from time to time, as I contemplate 'my blog', the thought does creep into my head.

OK.  I realize I've gone a bit long winded here.  But, the past month as I've been thinking about my blog, these are some of the random thoughts that have been floating around, and if for any other reason than to stay true to the reason I blog, I wanted to get it down.

Oh, and completely random...I'd like to add a new 'Weather widget' to my blog-one that isn't so big & ugly.  Does anyone have any suggestions?  I've looked around, but can't find anything...

Thank You

It's a common phrase in the English language, but probably one that isn't used enough.  Nonetheless, at lunch today, a few of my British & American co-workers had a discussion about the different ways you can say 'thank you' here in England. Aside from the obvious 'thank you' and 'thanks', I think most folks are alsl familiar with 'cheers'-which, as it turns out can mean thanks, or a whole host of other things-like 'bye' or 'ok'.
But, one of my personal favorites that I'm hearing with increasing frequency the past 6 months is 'ta'.  In American-speak, on rare occasions, you may hear someone say 'ta-ta' as in goodbye, but apparently here in England, 'ta' means thank you.

I like it, but for some reason, can't bring myself to use it just yet.  I pepper a lot of my conversations these days with 'Brit-speak,' but I think it's the Brit-speak that is common enough that even if used in the US, folks would know what it means.  But, I guess because 'ta' hasn't crossed the pond yet  (has it?...let me know if it has!), I can't bring myself to use it.

I guess I just don't to come off sounding like some faux-Brit-speaking, Madonna-with-her-posh-accent-wannabe...

So, in the meantime, I guess I'll just keep saying thanks!

We're In! Hello Fat Duck.

This somewhat takes the sting of T'giving away... ;)

After talking about it for over a year, and actively trying to get a reservation for weeks now, we're booked for a meal at Fat Duck!

This is no easy feat: they only accept reservations 2 months in advance-to the date. And, as they book up usually the first 20 minutes of the day their phones are open at 10am, if you're not on the line at 9.59.59 am, you're usually out of luck.

I've tried for some time to no avail-and finally today, at 10.00.05 am, I got thru-and got a table! Oh, happy day. I wonder if it will be crass to take my camera and take pictures of everything?...

Simon's Birthday is Feb 2, so I've booked a Sunday lunch for January 31. I've decided to make an entire weekend out of the meal, but Simon only knows about Fat Duck (though, as I know he reads my blog from time to time, the secret probably won't last for long...). They're located in this adorable 'village' called Bray-about a 40 minute train ride out of London. I've booked a cute B&B for Saturday and dinner at The Hinds Head (the gastropub owned by the same chef as Fat Duck) for Saturday nite.

The tasting menu at Fat Duck is around £150/person, so it goes without saying that the cost of this weekend will basically be our entire entertainment budget for a good chunk of January! But, I'm so darned excited (chuffed as the Brits would say), I can't wait!

Turkey, schmurkey.

What Happened to Thanksgiving?

To me, Thanksgiving signals the arrival of the proper holiday season (regardless of what retailers in September or October would lead us to believe...), and even though I haven't always made a big meal-production out of it while living in the US-my ex-flatmate, Sarah & I decided to continue with the tradition we started last year and co-host a potluck at my flat this year.
We had 17 people lined up to come over, and I'm sure it would have been a blast-great food, flowing wine, fabulous people-American, Brit, and a few other nationalities I believe.

[Cue sound of the record needle scraping across the record]

That is until Simon came down with Swine Flu last weekend. I'm certainly not going to be one to put my friends in harm's way by still having them come to my virus-infected flat, so Sarah & I quickly tried to come up with a Plan B. Long story short, we ended up having drinks and dinner out (no turkey. no pumpkin pie.) at a local restaurant. And though the food was great, the drinks were flowing, and the people were fabulous, it really wasn't the same.

Especially now that I'm not living in the US, there's something about this day of the year in which I was *really, really* looking forward to a Thanksgiving, potluck meal. Poor me. This is all about me. Never mind the boyfriend who's already been out of work sick for a week. :)

So, I think I will have to rectify the situation this weekend: perhaps a small roasted turkey breast, pumpkin pie, stuffing, and a veg or two. No big production, no 17 people over or wine flowing by the gallon..but I do feel the need to make this meal. I guess there's a part of me that simply missed what the day's events would have meant-and, I don't just mean the caloric intake!

Armistice Day

And, just when I think I've gotten the hang of living in the UK, I get this email from our MD today at work:

"Good Morning all,

Today is Armistice Day. We have a number of external meetings, deliveries etc which happen around the building so as usual we haven’t asked for a standstill at 11am.

However, I do want people to feel comfortable to stop and reflect for two minutes at 11am if they wish to do so and would ask anyone playing music, using printers etc to stop or switch off for this period."

I think it's pretty cool that in this day & age, it's apparently still commonplace for people to pause for a few minutes to reflect. I can't imagine any email like this going out to people at a US company encouraging a 2-minute pause at work!

Moving to London? Part 2

Well, as expected, after my first Moving to London post, I've had a few other things come to mind that I thought might be worth mentioning. I tried to wait until I had several more things to mention, so there wasn't a constant stream of blog posts entitled, 'oh. one more thing.' :). In no particular order of importance..
1. If you have the luxury/flexibility/budget-and assuming you won't drive, pick a place to live that doesn't force you to rely on *only* one tube line. Especially the Jubilee. With increasing frequency as I've lived here the past (almost) two years, parts of a tube line-or in some cases an entire line will be shut for part if not all of the weekend. Yes, there may be bus-replacement service, but seriously...what would normally be a 15 minute trip for you may be a 45 minute-plus trip. You won't want to deal with this on such an ongoing basis. I have a friend who signed an 18 month lease in Canary Wharf a few months ago. The Jubilee line is the only lie that serves that part of town. He's effectively without tube transport at all on the weekends. Every weekend. For 18 months. Avoid at all costs...
2. Say goodbye to your American clothes dryer and hello to your new best friend-a clothes rack. Most London flats don't have the space here as in the US. I realize that's stating the obvious that most people know already. But, what most people don't know (I didn't until I moved here...) was that that in the never-ending pursuit of space-saving appliances in Britain, the invention of the combo washer/dryer simply means that your clothes will never, ever get dried in the machine. Not unless you wish to dry a load of clothes for well over three hours. Which, let's face it: who has the time-or budget to run such an appliance? Instead, you'll end up buying one of those multi-tiered clothes racks, just like you used to have in college. Joy.
3. With that being said, what not having a proper dryer also means is that your jeans will never fit you tightly again (god, how I miss the miracle-jeans-shrinking my American dryer provided).
4. www.tfl.gov.uk will become crucial to you knowing what tube lines are open at any given time during the week and on the weekend. You will save yourself endless amounts of frustration if you sign up to receive the weekly email that provides details on all the weekend line closures.
5. Customer service. I know this is one of the things I've talked about several times in this blog-especially early on, but I'm just going to come out and say it: The customer service is so bad-and there is so much to take care of when you first arrive-that the first three months you're in the UK, you will simply be perpetually pissed off. When I first moved here, I reached the point after having so many bad experiences, that I *started off* my calls to customer service already in a bad mood-and I'm definitely of the 'catch more flies with honey' belief. It simply couldn't be helped. Perpetually pissed off...
6. Timeout website. For me, it's an infinite source of information when trying to find a new place to eat, new pub to try, movie information...basically, all things entertainment. There are a ton of websites that go into more detail on individual topics, but for one-stop-shopping, Timeout is a great source of info.
7. I am soooo not a tax advisor, but I implore you: talk to a tax professional about something called the 'DDR.' It's a special (and somewhat unknown-though, I certainly don't understand why...) deduction that expatriates who *intend* to live in the UK for under two years-and who have been moved here by their employer-are allowed to take. The DDR effectively allows you to deduct all of your basic living expenses (rent, most utilities, council tax, food...), transportation to work costs, and transportation 'back home' costs. This is NOT an inconsequential deduction-most of your out of pocket expenses in the UK are for these very items. This can mean the difference between kissing 42% of your paycheck goodbye or keeping most of it. If there is one thing you do before moving to the UK, seek tax advice from someone who specializes in US Expatriate tax returns, and talk to them about this. DO IT.