Today has been BUSY.  It's always busy moving and setting up your new life from schools, to finding doctors, to furnishing your home.  But moving to London has been somewhat busier than the average bear.  They do things a little different here, which is to be expected.  But seriously they do things SLOOOOW.  No wonder we have stereotypes as americans being crazed, fast paced, and neurotic.
They take their sweet time here with EVERYTHING.  It is going to take some getting used to.  Plus, to get very simple things done you have to jump through a lot of hoops.

Today I woke up and NEEDED to get my booty to a store and buy a UK version hair dryer and flat iron.  I had gone two days without either and let's just say the au natural version of my hair sans either is NOT pretty.  Picture a lions mane or Monica from Friends when she goes on vacation...

So I headed out by myself to Oxford Circus which I had heard from several people is the mecca of shopping here in London.  They were right.  Getting out of the tube and walking along Oxford Circus is an experience let me tell you.  It is really like a shoppers paradise.  Now, I am not a shopaholic, but I do love to shop!  There are all the big department stores and little shops you could ever dream of or want.



I headed to Selfridges, which I had heard from my realtor was a nice department store.  It was awesome, and seriously an experience in and of itself.  Where the UK lacks in customer service in A TON of areas, they make up for in their department store shopping experience.  You walk in and there are salespeople EVERYWHERE.  2 or 3 to a counter.  They stop you and want to help you find what you are looking for, ask you if they can do your makeup, get this for you or that for you, etc.  It is very fun.  I found a little kiosk selling flat irons and the girl gave me her little spiel on their product and since my hair was a hot mess, she told me that she would do it for me right there if I bought the iron.  Done. I finished my shopping on Oxford Circus buying a hair dryer and some other fun things at a huge Boots.

We all then went out to get my cell phone, or mobile, hooked up to a UK network.  Craziness.  Again, since we don't have a bank card from a local bank yet, and they love to have you jump through every hoop possible, we couldn't sign up for a annual contract.  Pay by month options only.  It has been so nice to have my phone activated so I can feel in touch with the world again, crazy as that sounds.  I have a UK number now that is very long and I still haven't memorized it.


Next we were off to IKEA, aka: my own personal hell.  I know people love this store.  I find it a necessary evil.  It is cheap and you can buy a lot, but it is HUGE and kids get bored so quick and by the end I am utterly exhausted.  This trip was no different.  We were there close to three hours between eating in the food area and shopping for odds and ends for the flat.  By the end, the kids were DONE. What made things even more delightful was that because we have been using our cards in the UK our US bank put a hold on them.  I so love when they do this especially when we told them prior to coming that we would be using them and that we are moving here!  Ay!  So after 45 minutes of calling and waiting and kids screaming we again became "that" american family receiving lots of lovely looks, we were out of there.  When we were setting up our delivery from Ikea, the sales guy behind the counter asked Tagg to just keep talking so he could listen to his accent.  It is funny, because as americans we obviously don't think we have accents, and I love listening to the British accent all the live long day. But, we have had lots of people tell us they love to listen to us talk.  After walking and taking the tube home, we got home an hour later.  Again, something to get used to.  Oh boy, am I tired. I will sleep well tonight.

We also got our first grocery order delivered to our flat.  It is SO nice to order everything online and have it delivered with NO CHARGE.  You have us there London.  Kings to you.  I got some cleaning supplies and had to laugh at some of the funny names.  Mr. Muscle is the one in back, which is like our Windex.  Cif is like an all purpose cleaner.  Bold is laundry soap.  Fairy is dishwashing soap, or as they call it here, "washing up liquid", love it.  And Plenty is our Bounty.  I love seeing all the different names for things in English.


Tomorrow our Ikea order is delivered, and I will get some pics of our flat and post them tomorrow evening.

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