A bit of whimsy on the London Tube

Balloon-animals ran through the whole train of a westbound District Line service during rush-hour.

London – Seven months later

As of yesterday, I have officially been living in London for seven months. (Not counting the two months I spent here in 2010.)

I haven’t quite decided if it feels like a long time or not. Though, I have started thinking about going back home.

Looking back at the time I’ve spent here, I can definitely say that this experience has changed how I view the world. Probably the biggest thing I’ve learned is how to make do with a very small budget. I’ve learned how to cook for myself and have cut back on the amount of eating-out I do in a week. (Definitely good life lessons for the future.)

I’ve also learned not to worry so much about where I live. I share my house with several mice, and somehow it doesn’t really bother me.

I got a few messages from friends of friends who are planning to move to London themselves in the near future and were hoping for some advice. I thought I’d share some of what I learned, so far with all of you.

Things I wish I knew before I got here…

1) It is standard to only get paid once a month

2) Most rent prices are advertised by the week

3) There is no summer.

4) Apartments disappear quickly; when looking at flats, bring money with you and prepare to make an offer right away.

I was also quite shocked by the disparity in this city when I moved back the second time. The first time I lived here, I was in Bayswater, which is one of the most expensive neighbourhoods in London. Everything is very leafy and clean and massive Hyde Park is only a 10-minute walk away.

Now that I’m living in east end, I realize how little money people have to survive on.

There are, of course, plenty of cheap or free things to do in London, (https://thriftyabroad.wordpress.com/2011/03/04/free-things-to-do-in-london/), but sometimes it’s just nice to have money.

For example, I was looking at the prices of the Ice Bar in London earlier today. It costs £14 for 40 minutes in the bar. Now this bar is pretty cool, the entire thing is made of ice, but I could almost buy a week’s worth of groceries for that money. I guess my next project should be to find more cheap underground places to go out.

As for any advice…

I would recommend looking for a houseshare in zone 3. I’m living in zone 2 and it’s really expensive. In case you are wondering, I used Spareroom.co.uk to find the house I’m living in now. I love my roommates, but I wish I had gone for something cheaper.

Fixing the finances

One thing that I didn’t expect would be different when I moved to London was the way I got paid. In England, it is standard to only get paid once a month.

When you are used to getting a top-up of cash every two weeks, it can be pretty hard to budget your money to last the entire month. So far, I have sucked at it.

As soon as I get paid, almost half my money goes to rent, then more disappears to pay my cell phone bill, pay the gym membership, and pay for my transit pass. (I also put a bit in savings for emergencies.)

By the time I’ve paid all my bills, I have about £300 left to last me the rest of the month. Of course, I end up spending £225 in the first two weeks and then trying to make £75 last the other two — it’s doable, but not very comfortable.

I realized today that my problem was I didn’t think about my monthly budget on a daily basis. I ended up spending too much because I wasn’t doing the math of what I would need to last the month.

So, I’m taking a new approach.

From now on, I am going to take out £10 in cash every morning and only let myself spend that much for the day. Of course, I’m going to carry over any amount I don’t spend in a day to the next. It’ll also force me to save up a few days if I want to go out partying on the weekend. (Though to be honest the only way I’m having a night out this weekend is if someone pays for it!)

I will let you know how my plan goes. I think I will even start putting up a weekly tally on here to keep me honest. What do you think of my plan?

Thanksgiving in London

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

I am proud to say that today I cooked my first-ever Thanksgiving dinner. I’m living with four English housemates and, of course, none of them have ever had a Thanksgiving dinner. So I felt it was my duty to cook one for them.

Trying to find a turkey in London, however, is an exercise in frustration. I heard from my housemates that everyone eats turkey at Christmas, but it’s pretty much non-existent the rest of the year. I must admit, that I only started looking this morning, but I went to three supermarkets and Harrod’s and everyone looked at me like I was crazy, when I asked for a whole turkey. I would have had more luck if I wanted pheasant or quail.

Eventually, I decided that my best option was to buy turkey breast for the taste, and a whole chicken for the appearance of a turkey dinner. I took a picture, so you can all let me know if it looks authentic.

I guess I can officially say I can cook

The chicken was already pre-seasoned, so I just popped it in the oven. The turkey, however, I seasoned myself. During a quick Skype call home, my mom informed me that the proper spices for poultry, can be found in the old Simon & Garfunkel song, Scarborough Fair: parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme.

I ended up using parsley, rosemary, thyme and onion, but it was just as good. In case any of you want to make yourself some turkey breast tomorrow, all you have to do is put them on a piece of aluminium foil, line the bottom with water, add your spices, then roll the foil over the top. One hour later, you have perfect turkey breast.

Of course, you can’t have turkey (or chicken) without stuffing, so I made that too. I mixed some pre-made stuffing with bread, red onions, almonds, apples and more of the same spices. It was delicious if I do say so myself.

Anyone else celebrate Thanksgiving outside of Canada this year?

Becoming an Eastender

So yet again, I’ve neglected my blog. So many things have happened, and I haven’t really had a chance to sit down and write about it all. I spent a weekend in Stockholm, took a day trip to Oxford, and my big news, moved into a proper flat in London.

I am now officially an East Londoner, er-an Eastender. I suppose that means I should start watching the show, and maybe start speaking in cockney rhyming slang. Anyway, I thought I’d use this post to talk about my experience finding a flat in London.

When I first got here to London, I moved back into the same student residence that I was living in last autumn. But since I’m not a student anymore, they told me I had to leave by Sept. 1. About half way through July, I realized that I was going away for the last bit of August and beginning of September. (I’m going to France, Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic.) So I figured, I should find a place for Aug. 1 if I didn’t want end up homeless when I got back from vacation.

Since I didn’t have anyone to live with, I decided to sign up with some online flat-sharing websites to find a place. The basic idea of these sites is that you fill in all your information and they give you a list of places that match your criteria. Of course, they also try to make money by making many of the listings available only to premium members, i.e. not free.

Since I wasn’t going to play for the services, I didn’t really have that many places to choose from. Anyway, overall, I would say that it was an effective way to find a house. Especially since I wanted to move into some place with roommates who socialized and were all young, rather than just a random sharehouse. The websites I used were Easyroommate.com, Spareroom.co.uk and Flatshare.co.uk. I also tried Gum Tree, but found that you their weeding our program was not as good.

I would actually recommend one of these sites if you are looking for a flat (or all of them). Be warned however that most of the houses will be picked up very quickly. I made an offer on two other flats before I finally managed to get a place. Also note that most of the listings are looking for people to move in right away.

One of the fun events I went to with Spareroom was called Speedflatmating. It was held at a pub and the idea was to bring people who had a room together with people who were looking for a room. While there were far more people looking for a room then ones available, I did go see a really nice place at the end of it. It was unfortunately one of the two places that turned me down. Oh well!

I think I’ll finish this post with a Dos and Don’ts List.

• DO make an offer right away if you like the place. I waited four hours for one place and it was already gone.
• DON’T make an offer without meeting your all of your potential roommates. Bad people can really ruin a good place. (Not that I have that in my current place, but I lived with a terrible roommate in second-year).
• DO show up early and take a walk around the neighbourhood if you are not familiar with it. Figure out how far your place is from the nearest supermarket and pub… Is it within stumbling distance?
• DON’T forget to check out the rooms they didn’t show you. Go in the bathroom and make sure it locks, turn on the sink to make sure the water runs properly, actually lie down on the bed to see if it’s comfortable.