Life in London

We are now starting to get settled into life in London. We both have jobs and have moved into a flat, so we are pretty much sorted. As you know, Stu is working for Ford, and I have just started working at the Department of Constitutional Affairs on a two month contract. Although it's just a short term contract, it should hopefully lead to more other work. It's definitely nice to be back into a routine and to have workmates again. We moved into our new flat last week. It's a cottage (yes, that's right - a cottage in central London) in Chalk Farm, which is about 15 minutes from the Camden markets, for those that know London. The location is excellent. We're close to a tube station and the train station for Stu to get out to Essex, and we're within walking distance of both Camden Town and Kentish Town shopping areas as well as Hampstead Heath and Primrose Hill parks. There are quite a few organic shops in the area and some cool second hand places near Camden market. We are also smack bang in the indie music centre of London. The cottage itself is also good, if a bit strange. It's (we think) a 1930s art deco-style bungalow tacked onto a set of terraced houses. There is only one window in the place but both the kitchen and bedroom have skylights so it gets plenty of light. The kitchen is slightly dated but it's huge, with lots of bench space, and the oven bakes bread perfectly (always important!). Some of the walls aren't straight, which gives it a weird Tardis-like effect - smaller at the front than the back - and parts of the floor are sloped, but it seems pretty liveable so far. Most flats in London are furnished but unlike in Paris, this just means bed, tables etc and no kitchenware or bedding. So we took our first trip to Ikea last week and have already been back once since then! Ikea is amazing. Freedom in NZ is kind of aiming to be like Ikea but is not in the same league. Homewares at Ikea are cheap but still very stylish, and we've been able to kit our flat out very nicely at minimal cost. They also have a canteen-style restaurant serving Swedish food. Not bad at all.
We still find London quite ugly but have found a few pockets of niceness. The area we are in is actually fairly good looking, with lots of trees and coloured terrace houses (instead of the usual brown brick). One thing that we are not growing to love, however, is the Tube. Someone said on Friday that it will take 22 years of work before the Underground is up to a 21st century standard. That's pretty poor. Stu gets to work by train but I rely on the Tube and so have to spend about 40 minutes each day cramped, hot and sweaty. I am getting good at adopting the blank look favoured by commuters and have mastered the art of reading the free evening paper with one hand while standing up on the train. Stu read somewhere that if spending 40 minutes on the Tube is the equivalent of smoking a cigarette and I wouldn't be surprised if that's true. You always feel quite dirty afterwards.
We're really appreciating NZ now that we're in London. France was different because they really do have the best of a lot of things. London just doesn't have enough advantages to make us want to stay here for any longer than we have to. The bureaucracy here is also really bad, in fact worse than in France. We've come to the conclusion that France is very bureaucratic but very efficient - if you do everything they tell you to do, and supply the appropriate documents, you'll have no problem. England, while also very bureaucratic, is terribly inefficient as a country. For example, for some unknown reason it takes 3-4 working days for online bank transfers to clear, rather than 1 day in NZ. So, instead of paying our rent on the 11 of the month, we are required to pay on the 1st, so that the money can be transferred from our account to the rental agency, then from the rental agency's account to the landlord! We are understandably not impressed at having to pay again two weeks after moving in! In addition, we have to pay £106 for an inventory company to check over the flat when we leave. Yes, that's right - you need an inventory company to check you in and out of a flat here, and it takes them an hour each time. It's obviously not enough for the landlord and tenants to do this themselves. I guess we're just going to have to get used to this sort of thing.
While London may not have really been where we wanted to end up, it is great to have somewhere to call home again and I think we'll have a good time here.