11/21/10

  Sunday funday!  I woke up after sleeping pretty well and got to work packing up the rest of the hotel room.  I wanted to make sure everything fit in our suitcases and we didn't have loads and loads of stuff to carry.  Sean got back from his trip in the early afternoon and he was antsy to check out and head over to Chiswick.  We got a cab and loaded it up with all our stuff.  It barely fit in the station wagon.  It was kind of sad saying goodbye to the hotel and small staff of people that worked there.  They were all so friendly and very helpful.  But we waved goodbye and headed over the river.

Our little utility room right when you walk in.
The tiny washing machine is now in that space.
The water heater is in the big cabinet on the left,
but there's some good storage for some small odds
and ends and a place to put shoes. 

  It was nice to drive for a change instead of taking the train.  We drove through a REALLY nice neighborhood called Barnes then over the green and gold Hammersmith Bridge.  I think I want to head back to this area someday for a long walk around.  Before we knew it we were at 303D! I was excited to see Sean's reaction to the place.  We both took a slow walk around the flat commenting on things we liked and the things we were surprised with.  Sean was pretty upset that he didn't have a desk yet and that half the furniture was missing.  Then he saw the couches.  I think he was in shock with what they called a "couch".  I spent the entire day on Saturday cleaning and the place was still a mess.  What is really upsetting is that the landlord said he was getting professional cleaners to clean the place before we moved in.  I should have left it messy and made him get people in there to clean but I couldn't wait and I didn't want to unpack all our stuff into a dirty house!
  After inspecting the flat Sean and I went to "The Old Pack Horse" pub ready to inhale a much needed meal.  We were expecting the regular pub food but were a bit confused when we saw the menu only had Thai food on it.  It was still decent and we were happy to not be starving anymore.  We headed to Sainsbury to buy some food to start stocking our cupboards.  Nothing too exciting but it's funny how everything just takes so much longer to do here because we're not used to it.  Just finding things in the grocery store took forever.  Nothing looks the same and then we want to compare prices and then we have to convert prices. OYYY oy oy!
   The rest of the evening was filled with cleaning, cleaning, and more cleaning.  Sean tried to get some work done but couldn't get any internet, not even on his phone.  I guess we live in a black hole.  Either that or the big brick buildings that are surrounding us are blocking any service we can get.
  Our options for dinner that night was either cereal or sandwiches.  I still can't cook anything because we have no kitchen supplies so we tried to buy stuff we didn't have to cook.  We also had to buy bowls and silverware since those things are also in the boxes we haven't received yet.  Not wanting sandwiches or cereal we headed downstairs to the fish-n-chips place and stuffed our double chins with fried food. It was pretty good! But then again, most fried food tastes heavenly.

  We tried to get a good night's sleep but that was pretty impossible.  The coils in the mattress were poking me so I had to sleep on top of the comforter which meant that I pretty much froze the rest of the night.  There was lots of tossing and turning, Sean kept trying to sleep diagonal on the bed since he's wayyyy too long for it, so I had to keep shoving him over.   It was anything but comfortable and relaxing.  I missed the hotel and made me miss home.  :(

There's a lot going on in this photo. Let me explain. This is Sean.
These are our mini couches.  They are rock hard and I don't
think the fabric that is covering them is real.  It's fake. Notice how
they barely go past Sean's knees.  Notice those white tags. Those
are to let us know that they are fire retardant.  Dang, I wanted to
burn them and destroy them.  See the iron railings behind Sean?
That's our little balcony.  I will throw the couches out there, into the
alley below.  Ok, see the car down below on Sean's left side?  That
is our cab driver that brought us from the hotel.  He was an old
man that insisted on pulling all the way into the alley to unload us.
We told him "no, it's too narrow" but he insisted.  That's him down
there 15 minutes later still trying to back out.  Do you like the purple
curtains? Did you notice the little wheels under the couches?
 I guess if we have visitors it's safe to say that they will
NOT be sleeping on the couch!  

Here's Sean relaxing.