One year since I moved to London

The 3rd of July of 2007 I landed in London. A lot of hopes mixed with uncertainty, a really very bad English, almost nobody known in my new city, just two colleagues from my office of Madrid but that had their own life here, a new apartment which cost me double price than a nice apartment in “La Castellana” de Madrid” but half size of my flat in Madrid. A new office, new colleagues whom I almost could not understand, a new boss, with a completely different style compared to the style of my previous one. A new way of working with a lot of procedures, with nobody to have lunch or coffee for a break. I still remember the first Friday when I left the office, I went to have two pints after work with some colleagues and after 1 hour everybody started to say, “Sorry I have to go, I have a dinner now” or “see you next Monday, I’m going to meet my friends now”. I thought and, me what am I going to do now? I just came to home where still I didn’t have TV. Next Monday, the same story, let’s connect to a conference call to not understand anything …. What a bad feeling I used to have after those meetings on the phone…..what a feeling was to walk in new streets for me.

But from the beginning I knew that I was doing the right thing. It is always the same, I have a strange ability to know whether I’m following the good path or not and to feel good with myself.

A lot of things have happened during this year. Today I can do my work so easily that my boss started to feel uncomfortable some months ago because I think he feels he is not in charge anymore. Tomorrow I’ve been invited to two parties, to an excursion to visit Brighton, I’ve renewed my contract with my landlord one year and I like much more my apartment in London than my flat in Madrid, the waiters of the pub of the corner recognize me like an usual customer, I stop to talk with my porter every morning before going working, I have a chat with the shopkeeper about football every day when I go to buy bread, "Torres is going to score on Sunday and Spain will come through, he told me this afternoon" on the 2nd floor of my office I know everybody, in fact I have to skip everyday people to have lunch and I have to refuse two emails everyday of people inviting me to have a coffee because I’m busy, this Sunday I’m going to meet a group of around 10 people to watch the quarter final between Spain and Italy together and the most important thing, although unfortunately I’ve struggled so far to meet English people, I can get by with my English. I can go to anyone in the office or in the street without the fear of not being able to understand them. I can walk down streets that I already know which makes me feel comfortable. I have new friends. But, very important: I can meet my Spanish friends from time to time or at least I’m in touch with anyone. The authentic friends are not lost because the distance. And of course I've met some of them in London several times, great. Just I only miss to have the opportunities to go my little hometown more often, once every two months is not enough to visit my family and to stroll along “El espolon”, I hope a new plan that I’ve started in May will bring me good results in the short term to have business travels to Madrid frequently, that would be really nice, I hope….

I’m the most fortunate person in the world (just because I have health, a strong reason to me to state this) and for sure I’m going to keep making the most of my time. Time flies and I don’t want to wake up one day and to ask myself “if I would be 20 years old again, I would do this”. I’m sorry but you were 20 and you didn’t, you had your time and there are no excuses. So if you think about doing something not to break with your life but to improve it, like moving abroad, seize your opportunity, it will be great (I might be thinking of someone).

The sleeping beauty

The visit to the Royal Opera House has been my most glamourous activity so far. We went to see the ballet “The sleeping beauty” by the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House.

It is the third theatre on the Covent Garden site and it started its activity in December 1732. Handel gave regular seasons here from 1735 until his death in 1759. A big fire destroyed the theatre in 1808. It was rebuilt very quickly but in 1856 the Theatre was completelly destroyed again. It was opened on 15 May 1858 with a performance of Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots. The theatre became the Royal Opera House in 1892 as the number of French and German works in the repertory increased.

The new building that we can see today was finally realized in December 1999 when the new architectural team of Jeremy Dixon and Edward Jones with BDP (Dixon.Jones.BDP) revealed the £178m Royal Opera House to the public.

The main anphitheatre is noble, evocative, elegant, sumptuos, stanning… Just to see the atmosphere is worth but in this case we enjoyed a lot the performance, with music from Pyotr ll’yich Tchaikovsky.

During the breaks, don’t miss the icecreams that are sold direclty in the corridors, they tasted really nice.

The black Prince

In the end, after several weeks planning to escape from London to the countryside, we did it. We swept to do a nice excursion, leaving the city. The destination: Canterbury. This resulted in a proper long Spanish lunch, in Whitstable a nice harbour, rather than a trip but we had still room for a special cultural visit. By the way, lunch was terrific; the seafood was comparable to the one from Galicia.

It was 5.30 in the afternoon and obviously the Cathedral was closed. But by trying every door that we found we could go into through a little one. We had the feeling that we were breaking some rules when we run into a priest who was entering some seconds after us.

‘We are sorry, we saw the door opened and we thought …”
“We are out of time, but don’t worry I can show you the black Prince’s chantry and even you can take a look at the Crypta”

That’s very kind of you!

‘Now, let me tell you a story - It seemed that in this time of the year, before the summer, there are no many visitors and the priest was no very busy -In the mid-sixteenth century, many French-speaking Protestant Walloons and Dutch-speaking Flemings came to England to escape the turmoil of warfare and religious persecution by the Catholic Inquisition. – I thought, we were not very open minded in Spain at that time! - . From 1661, persecution of protestants, became general and systematic and a huge numbers of French Protestants, known as Huguenots, fled to England. Some of them were settled down here in Canterbury and they were hosted in the crypt of the Cathedral. Some years later they were moved to this Chapel”

- Why is called the “black Price’s chantry”? we asked.

Well, in the 14 century, it was given its marvellous vault on the instruction of EDWARD the Black Prince to thank God the Pope’s absolution for his marriage with his cousin Joan, "The Fair Maid of Kent” despite her chequered marital history and the fact that she was a blood-relative. She was known at that time as "the most beautiful woman in all the realm of England, and the most loving." (you can see her in the picture, guess!).

Edward was an exceptional military leader and popular who died one year before his father and therefore never was ruled as king. He participated actively in the Spanish policy by supporting one party in the civil war in Castilla in favour of “Pedro el Cruel”

We come from those victims from Catholic persecution and we still keep meeting here to pray every Sunday. You are invited to stay for the next service”.

- Thanks a lot, but we are going to take a look at the crypt and we will come back to home. I thought that it wouldn't be a waste of time either to meet the descendents from those French people, what curious history.

This casual guide, propolled us to try other doors and again we succeed with another one. It led us to inside. The awesone interior left us without a word to say. It was empty and we couldn’t move freely as it was clearly forbidden by a sign in the entrance but at least we could catched an idea of the magnificient atmosphere that intended to reflect the heaven in the earth.

Snowing in April

It has been a very busy week at work, with my manager still on vacations. Hopefully he comes back tomorrow to the routine, welcome!

My only going out before the weekend was to watch the match “Arsenal-Liverpool” in a Pub very close to Lonsdale. No so many differences compared to the atmosphere that you can view in a Spanish bar. I liked so much every time the presenter shouted “Torres, Torres” with a fun English accent. After enduring my bad English accent for these months I have fun when I see the other side and hear English people pronouncing Spanish words. Afterwards we went for dinner in the same place. Upstairs there is a Thai food restaurant more than ok which name is “Walmer castle”.

But the main event of the week was planned for today. We had planned our first excursion out of London but weather forecast announced sleets during Sunday and they were right. You can see the picture taken at 10 this morning from my bedroom, what a disaster.

I had organized my time thinking of the excursion and that’s why I went out for dinner on Friday instead of Saturday. This time the chosen place was “Ping Pong”, in Notting Hill as usual, to have dim sum food. To be honest taking into account my experience so far, I’ve decided not to go to trendy places anymore; just well known restaurants because of its food, pubs and restaurants specialized in Asian food. This was ok. When I was having dinner I could realize the strange combination of people that had joined that plan: A Peruvian woman in her early thirties, a Peruvian colleague who is 27 a Dutch colleague and I in our mid-thirties, a group of 7 Dutch friends in their mid-twenties! When you are abroad, given that your social network is smaller than in your home country, you are willing to socialize with people that in principle don’t have so many things in common as your usual friends. But in the end the differences emerged and after the dinner we split into several groups and I end having some beers at Harlem, a pub in the same area, rather pretending dancing than doing it with only two friends out of the original group with more common interests I guess. We had a great time; we met people from different nationalities that reflect how international London is and how people from around all of Europe choose this place as a destination to live or just to spend a good time. For instance we met a group of Danish people that had came to London just to celebrate that they had been over budget in their company and their manager had paid it for them.

Yesterday I stayed at home as planned, and today after such surprise with the snow dropping intensely early in the morning, I decided to do the same again and stay at home. Soon I’ll be swamped with some visitors and I’ll have to take them to the most tourist places. And to be honest a lazy weekend from time to time is well appreciated. I’ve been reading the newspaper and watching TV although here although I haven’t found my favourite media company (the one that should equate El Mundo). On the other hand, even if you are very choosy, it is easy to find rewarded documentaries on TV. Today I was watching one about Stephen Hawking and other about Seton, the first ecologist in USA, both very interesting. A quiet week in the end, but next weekend no matter how the weather will be, I will dispose of it to be in the countryside, I can ensure it.

Mayfair

Yesterday I was strolling around Mayfair. I needed fresh air in a very lazy Sunday. It was due to a very lively Saturday when I attended two Birthday parties until very late ... too much for my age!.

Mayfair emerged in the eighteenth century as one of London’s first real residential suburbs. Soon it started to attract aristocratic London and set the westward trend for middle-class migration and you can see now the touch of luxury and elegancy in every corner. The borders remain among the prime shopping streets (Piccadilly, Regent Street, Bond Street). Too many things to see during one afternoon so I decided just to address the less popular streets, and I walked down from house along Park Lane until Picadilly street, but once I headed this street, after two intersections I turn on the left to get to “Shepherd Market”. A little warren of alleyways and passages now occupied by swanky shops and restaurants, plus a couple of Victorian pubs that I presume are extremely popular during the summer. Even yesterday there were plenty of people at their surrounds having beer and it reminded me somehow the atmosphere of people having the aperitif in the Barrio de Salamanca. It was too formal to be close to “La Latina”. Anyway this area is very charming and I recommend going there and I’m sure I’ll come back but next time with company to have a good Belgian beer. I’ve read that Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis spent a cool 17,000 pounds on a meal. Unfortunately my budget is not so high for a dinner but still I think I’ll be able to manage a good company.

Afterwards I headed Old Bond Street and after passing by the most expensive and well presented shops I’ve ever been so far in London, being home to all the leading multinational designer clothes outlets like Prada, Versace, Donna Karan, Chanel and so on I got the Royal Arcade an example of the traditional and elegant English shopping mall. Close by, are the auction house “Sotheby’s”, 34-35 Old New Bond St, where I stopped to admire the oldest outdoor sculpture in London (it dates from 1600 BC) and nearby a popular double statue of Winston Churchill and President Roosevelt. American bonds continue in Grosvenor Square where I went afterwards and where you can find the ugly US Embassy and a big statue stands in memorial again of Roosevelt. From there, I reached Oxford Street that led me again to my apartment at Kendal Street. I found out why that name, Oxford Street was the old Roman road that linked Londonium with Oxford.

In the end it was a nice walk, a little step to keep knowing this great City of London.

The Spanish connection

I’ve been enjoying a long Easter vacations: 6 days travelling around the south of Spain, and 4 days in my hometown… So let me tell you about my last interesting day in London: visiting Marylebone.

The outlying village of St Mary-by-the-Bourne was swallowed up in the eighteen century to become a mesh of Georgian streets and houses much of which survives today.

I usually visit this neighbourhood twice a week when I go to the Gym, it is just the one besides Paddington in the east, and I was curious to know what I could find there.

Last Sunday before Easter I decided to walk around it and it was worth it. I started at “the Wallace Collection” that is a national museum in an historic London town house. There are 25 galleries with French 18th century painting, furniture and porcelain with superb Old Master paintings and a world class armoury. In the middle there is the typical dinning room to have the English tea, really nice. I stopped to see “woman with a fan by Velazquez” in the great gallery, the largest room in the house. It was interesting to read about the identity of the woman, who was decided to be French rather than Spanish by experts, due to her neckline. Spanish women haven been always more traditional! The “treasure of the month” was a Bohemian Welcoming Glass dated 1609. ‘Lift me up, drink me up, set me down, fill me again and bring me a good brother again’ was written on its surface. It seems that the tradition of making toast is not new.

But the most special interesting moment in the afternoon was my visit to St Jame’s Church, the “Spanish place”. A Catholic chapel was built in 1791 thanks to the efforts of the chaplain at the Spanish embassy and It become a neo-Gothic church designed in a mixture of English and French Gothic. Inside you can see the Spanish Royal features and thre are even two seats reserved for the royals, denoted by built-in gilt crowns high above the choir stalls. That’s the first Spanish connection with London that I’ve discovered here.

Afterwards, I was walking down Marylebone High Street, much nicer than Oxford Street to see shops although the offer is of course much smaller and I found a very interesting place, a lovely library specialized in travel books, with a galleried hall at the back and a stained glass roof. Even if you had not the intention of buying something, you’ll do because of its super nice atmosphere.

And tomorrow, back to office, I’m really lazy to come back to work, but at least I’ve practiced a little tonight English. Let’s see if I haven’t forgotten to speak tomorrow!.

London, a quiet place

Since the last week I have the feeling that I’ve lived in a small town. This sounds very strange living in London, isn’t? Before moving here I had London in my mind as a very stressful city. But the reality has been very different. I might not be very objective because I live in a very central location and it might not representative of how London in general is, but the thing is that I feel more relaxed here than in Madrid since I moved here in July. Why? That’s because London is very much spread. There parks in everywhere, the buildings normally don’t have more than three or four floors that result in a lot of open spaces so in the end you never have the feeling that you are shut in, on the contrary, sometimes when you are walking down the streets it seems like you are not in a big city at all. Traffic is not so high except on the main roads like Oxford Street or Bayswater road. There is a little church besides my apartment that play its bells every hour the same as if I was in my parents house!

As I promised myself, I didn’t go out at night either last Friday or Saturday. I think it was a good disposal. In the end it was so calm that I almost didn’t leave my neighbour. Saturday in the morning I took the bus to go to a farmer market at Orange Square, corner of Pimlico Road and Ebury Street, SW1. http://www.lfm.org.uk/ I was talking with the farmers about cheese, meat, fish…I was queuing for fresh fish and I started to talk with two women about recipes, at some moment the grocer tells us “check in internet”. The funny thing is that she is telling this not only to me but also to the two women that are 50-something. Here, new technologies are quite popular! If you see the square, it could be a typical scene of a small town.

In the afternoon I was walking across Hyde Park. I’m drawn to come to this place almost every weekend. I was surprised because of the high number of people riding horses. Coming back to home, I cross Hyde Park Garden Mews, with the horses in the streets, and it seems like if I was in a small village. Looking at the entrance of the houses and at the little gardens I could appreciate the first flowers of the spring.

On Sunday, I organized a lunch at my apartment with an American girl, a New Zealander girl, a Spaniard and I. Very nice conversation and as usually when people don’t each other very well, we started to speak about trivial things like work, renting expenses, our countries but we end up talking about relationships. We hadn’t seen each other since beginning of December and all of us had something interesting to tell so that’s why after two bottles of wine nobody wanted to go home and the chat was still very lively.

Today I’ve had more social life in my neighbourhood. In Spain, social life at work is done at lunch time. In England is after work. “Do you fancy going to the pub? Already, it is only 5.30! Come on, let’s go to Victoria!” Victoria is a pub located only 200 m from my house so I couldn’t say “no”. “One of the best pubs in London” they told me very excited-. In addition, some English people came so it was a good chance to exchange opinions and views about our cultures. My colleagues were right, Victoria Pub has the typical warm atmosphere of the best English pub. They were speaking about the passion that English people have for team sports but they admitted that although they made up a lot of them like football, others have learnt to practice them better! “Dam it; it is incredible that we are not going to play the Eurocup!” “I have to admit the Cesc Fabregas and Torres are ones of the best of the Premier League!” After two pints of Leffe, Belgian beer that I’m getting used to having, I decided to go home, a little drunk to be honest. Instead my colleagues drunk at least 3 pints and they were fresher, how can they make it?

My neighbourhood is very nice but I’m thinking of making last weekend up by going out a little next weekend… !