Shortly after arriving in London, I went on a mission to find an outdoor store to stock up on some gear for a backpacking trip I was planning to the Lake District. I decided to head to the closest shops I could find to the office during my lunch hour. I was headed toward Chiswick, a 20 minute walk down the road from work, and I was more worried about getting back quickly than I was about exploring a new area. As I walked toward Chiswick, however, I was pleasantly surprised. It became much nicer (and cleaner), the sidewalks significantly widened, trees suddenly lined all of the streets, and a number of quaint stores, coffee shops, restaurants, and pubs could be found everywhere. When I got back to the office to inform everyone where I had been, they told me that it was one of those areas that everyone wants to live. That was after they all had a long laugh at me for mispronouncing the area (I'm not going to tell you how to say it correctly!). Since then I knew it was a place I would like and I went back every chance I got, which wasn't that often to be honest. But guess what? Now I live there!
See pics: http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/bbergey/24CranbrookRoad?feat=directlink
Since I'm going to be in London a while longer, I decided it was time to find a better flat. Mine was adequate, but it wasn't big enough and it wasn't in the best area. So I decided to start searching. I didn't try terribly hard knowing that I could stay in my current flat as long as I needed. I thought I would wait for the perfect place and if it came along then great! If not, I was happy staying where I was. After about a month, I finally found it. Nestled on a quiet street just behind Chiswick High Street(high street is another name for main street), my flat is what Londoners would call a house. It's three stories and four bedrooms. It has a large common room, a great kitchen, a dining/sun room, and even a small garden (or yard) in the back. My bedroom is about 4 times as big as my previous room and it's nice to have a common room and space to enjoy other than just my bedroom. Now I just need to get a desk and maybe a bookshelf and I'll be set!
I have three new flatmates, two guys and one girl. I know a lot of you are probably thinking that is strange since I usually live with girls. But I guess things can change. They are all really nice people in their mid twenties and I look forward to having them as friends. One of them works in a recording studio and is also in an up and coming London band. Another works for one of London's biggest banks in their corporate office. The third is a mathematics phd student.
The area near my flat is absolutely amazing. Within a 3 minute walk I have everything I could ever need plus a lot more. Within a 5-10 minute walk there is more than I will ever have time to explore. It's great. Already, I have a few local favorites. They include a board shop, two outdoor gear shops, a number of local pubs, the 2nd best natural food store I have found in London (first being Whole Foods), a great bread shop/bakery, a NORMAL LARGE SUPERMARKET (this is in all caps because it is incredible that I live less than a 10 minute walk to a normal sized grocery store...I am very excited about this), and one coffee shop/restaurant in particular with cozy indoor and outdoor seating. Of course there is are about 8 other grocery stores, a McDonalds, a great looking Kebab shop for the late nights, and around 83 Starbucks. The streets are also lined with trendy clothing shops and countless restaurants catering to all types of food and tastes. It's seriously a wonderful place to be. I'm also about the same distance as I was to the Thames River, less than a 10 minutes walk.
The best news? I have plenty of room for visitors! Multiple visitors at the same time even!
Overall, I'm not sure what I'm most excited about. The flat itself, the flatmates, or the location. I'm sure I'll have many more thoughts and experiences around my new flat as time goes on, so stay tuned!
2.21.2009
2.15.2009
Food, Whole Foods, A Museum, and More Food
If you couldn't guess by the title, this post is going to be mostly about food. Last month we celebrated Hayley's birthday Mexican style! Ellen and I came up with a menu including enchiladas, rice, beans, guacamole, black bean salad, and of course chips and salsa. Throw in way too many batches of my famous margaritas and it was a great night!
You can see way too many food pics here: http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/bbergey/WholeFoodsFoodFoodAndAMuseum?feat=directlink
I've recently decided to start expanding my cooking abilities to include traditional English fare. After visiting Whole Foods London a few more times over the past month, I've decided that it's by far my favorite place in the city. Most of you are probably assuming that it's just full of American stuff, since it is an American store. But wrong you are! Whole Food's specializes in organic and high quality foods. Most importantly, they focus on local products; whether it be produce, cheese, meat, dairy, etc. So as I browse the the endless rows of amazingness, I am more and more intrigued by local cheeses, real Spanish chorizo, freshly baked breads, and the traditional goodness that Whole Foods always offers. Of course, they do have their own selection of American items, along with other hard-to-find foods like Mexican, and one entire floor dedicated to a cafe that offers fresh sushi, burritos, salads, sandwiches, meat pies, gelato, soup, pasta, antipastas, and many more. It's great!
The point of my whole foods rant is that it makes it easy for me to find quality, local products for me to cook with. Certain names, like Dorset, Somerset, and somethingrandomShire, are everywhere. And here it means that the products actually came from these familiar places. So my first goal was simple; a traditional English breakfast bap (or sandwich). It included a freshly baked bap, English back bacon, and an organic egg. Add a side of beans and some fresh fruit and it made for an excellent after work-out brunch.
I also decided to finally check out the London Natural History Museum. Although I had seen the stunning building many times from the outside, I had never been inside the free museum. I had heard it wasn't really that spectacular, but there is currently a temporary Outdoor Photography of the Year exhibit that I wanted to check out. The museum itself was pretty lame. It included a lot of "stuffed animals," some dinosaur fossils, and a huge room filled with rocks. My brother would have loved it. The photography exhibit was well worth it though.
Last weekend we celebrated Ellen's birthday with a traditional English roast dinner. Hayley did most of the cooking, but I volunteered to make dessert. I purchased some apples and blackberries at the local market near work and decided to make Apple Crumble. It turned out pretty good, but I already have some ideas on how I'll change it next time. The roast dinner itself included roast lamb, roast potatoes, and lots of veggies. I was able able to try a couple of new things like mint jelly (for the lamb) and my favorite, Yorkshire Puddings (which are kinda like rolls). It was absolutely amazing!
Finally, this weekend my flatmate and I had a small going away dinner for myself. That's right, I have decided to move flats and more on that will come shortly. We started dinner with some french Foie gras on toast. Then my French roommate offered to make pancakes (crepes), and we had a great time making way too many of them and filling them with a variety of different toppings. Mine included ham and cheddar, tomato and brie, jam, butter and brown sugar, and lots of nutella and fruit varieties. It was great!
You can see way too many food pics here: http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/bbergey/WholeFoodsFoodFoodAndAMuseum?feat=directlink
I've recently decided to start expanding my cooking abilities to include traditional English fare. After visiting Whole Foods London a few more times over the past month, I've decided that it's by far my favorite place in the city. Most of you are probably assuming that it's just full of American stuff, since it is an American store. But wrong you are! Whole Food's specializes in organic and high quality foods. Most importantly, they focus on local products; whether it be produce, cheese, meat, dairy, etc. So as I browse the the endless rows of amazingness, I am more and more intrigued by local cheeses, real Spanish chorizo, freshly baked breads, and the traditional goodness that Whole Foods always offers. Of course, they do have their own selection of American items, along with other hard-to-find foods like Mexican, and one entire floor dedicated to a cafe that offers fresh sushi, burritos, salads, sandwiches, meat pies, gelato, soup, pasta, antipastas, and many more. It's great!
The point of my whole foods rant is that it makes it easy for me to find quality, local products for me to cook with. Certain names, like Dorset, Somerset, and somethingrandomShire, are everywhere. And here it means that the products actually came from these familiar places. So my first goal was simple; a traditional English breakfast bap (or sandwich). It included a freshly baked bap, English back bacon, and an organic egg. Add a side of beans and some fresh fruit and it made for an excellent after work-out brunch.
I also decided to finally check out the London Natural History Museum. Although I had seen the stunning building many times from the outside, I had never been inside the free museum. I had heard it wasn't really that spectacular, but there is currently a temporary Outdoor Photography of the Year exhibit that I wanted to check out. The museum itself was pretty lame. It included a lot of "stuffed animals," some dinosaur fossils, and a huge room filled with rocks. My brother would have loved it. The photography exhibit was well worth it though.
Last weekend we celebrated Ellen's birthday with a traditional English roast dinner. Hayley did most of the cooking, but I volunteered to make dessert. I purchased some apples and blackberries at the local market near work and decided to make Apple Crumble. It turned out pretty good, but I already have some ideas on how I'll change it next time. The roast dinner itself included roast lamb, roast potatoes, and lots of veggies. I was able able to try a couple of new things like mint jelly (for the lamb) and my favorite, Yorkshire Puddings (which are kinda like rolls). It was absolutely amazing!
Finally, this weekend my flatmate and I had a small going away dinner for myself. That's right, I have decided to move flats and more on that will come shortly. We started dinner with some french Foie gras on toast. Then my French roommate offered to make pancakes (crepes), and we had a great time making way too many of them and filling them with a variety of different toppings. Mine included ham and cheddar, tomato and brie, jam, butter and brown sugar, and lots of nutella and fruit varieties. It was great!
2.04.2009
Everyone Panic...it's a Blizzard!
Well everyone, the unthinkable has happened. That's right, six whole inches of snow fell on London earlier this week, basically resulting in a complete shut-down of the entire city. Many of you think this might be an exaggeration, but it's really not. In a way, I almost admire the way one of the largest cities in the world handles inclement weather. Forget about purchasing hundreds of pieces of snow removal trucks and equipment. Forget about buying and storing tons of salt and chemicals to reduce accumulation on the roads, or tons of gravel to increase traction. And definitely forget about overpaying laborers to use all of the expensive equipment. Instead, just systematically cancel all buses and public transportation, use the media to encourage everyone to stay home and allow the estimated billions of pounds (money) to be lost due to a loss in productivity during a weak economy. It was as if everyone knew what to do. Nothing. On the other hand, it's a poor example of how London, what some call the capital of the world, can deal with a twist to the norm. Regardless, it was a lot of fun and made for some great and unusual scenes throughout London.
See pics: http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/bbergey/Blizzard?feat=directlink
The snow started on Sunday evening. I had been in my flat since dark and as I got ready to leave, I noticed that it was snowing quite hard and the ground was already covered. I had plans to meet up with Ellen and some of her friends for a pub quiz that night, and what better excuse to get out and enjoy the snow on the way! I ended up taking a bus because it was cold and snowing, but I still had plenty of time on the sidewalks to enjoy the falling snow. By the time pub quiz was over, more snow had accumulated and it was really picaresque. I took the tube half way home and then caught a bus most of the rest of the way; a distance that only takes about 10 minutes to walk.
As mentioned above, Monday didn't exist for most Londoners. But since I can walk to work, I didn't really have an excuse to stay in. So I took my time in the morning and started the trek in. Most of the main roads were actually pretty clear. The sidewalks ended up being the most treacherous result of the snow, and it lasted an extra day or two after the snow had fallen. The snow had got packed down by the walkers to ice, then slush as it warmed a little, and then refroze at night. It remained to be an obstacle for a few days. The most dangerous part of my walk to work, as usual, was the 50 yards across Lyric Square to the front doors of my building. For some reason, someone thought it would be a great idea to create a huge square in the middle of Hammersmith with polished patio-style bricks. Sure, it looks nice. But anytime it gets wet, it's slick. Real slick. Top that with some snow and ice, and it's even worse. Then as the snow and ice begin to break up, it's like maneuvering across the Antarctic full of icebergs. One wrong step and the chunks of ice slide out from under you. I would have loved to sit in one of the coffee shops or pubs on the square and watch people fall all day!
Regardless of my sarcastic ramblings, the snow was actually really nice. London hadn't seen a storm like this in 18 years and it was great to see parts of London covered in snow. I hope you enjoy the pics!
See pics: http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/bbergey/Blizzard?feat=directlink
The snow started on Sunday evening. I had been in my flat since dark and as I got ready to leave, I noticed that it was snowing quite hard and the ground was already covered. I had plans to meet up with Ellen and some of her friends for a pub quiz that night, and what better excuse to get out and enjoy the snow on the way! I ended up taking a bus because it was cold and snowing, but I still had plenty of time on the sidewalks to enjoy the falling snow. By the time pub quiz was over, more snow had accumulated and it was really picaresque. I took the tube half way home and then caught a bus most of the rest of the way; a distance that only takes about 10 minutes to walk.
As mentioned above, Monday didn't exist for most Londoners. But since I can walk to work, I didn't really have an excuse to stay in. So I took my time in the morning and started the trek in. Most of the main roads were actually pretty clear. The sidewalks ended up being the most treacherous result of the snow, and it lasted an extra day or two after the snow had fallen. The snow had got packed down by the walkers to ice, then slush as it warmed a little, and then refroze at night. It remained to be an obstacle for a few days. The most dangerous part of my walk to work, as usual, was the 50 yards across Lyric Square to the front doors of my building. For some reason, someone thought it would be a great idea to create a huge square in the middle of Hammersmith with polished patio-style bricks. Sure, it looks nice. But anytime it gets wet, it's slick. Real slick. Top that with some snow and ice, and it's even worse. Then as the snow and ice begin to break up, it's like maneuvering across the Antarctic full of icebergs. One wrong step and the chunks of ice slide out from under you. I would have loved to sit in one of the coffee shops or pubs on the square and watch people fall all day!
Regardless of my sarcastic ramblings, the snow was actually really nice. London hadn't seen a storm like this in 18 years and it was great to see parts of London covered in snow. I hope you enjoy the pics!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
