Ok, in honor of the David Letterman show (which I do not miss – but I do miss Craig Ferguson), I have a top ten list of things that I have discovered and loved since I moved here to London.
1. Effective and efficient home delivery – while I may bitch and moan about customer service inside specific businesses like banks or utilities, the one thing that has been consistent has been delivery of goods to one’s home. Specifically, I have waxed poetic about John Lewis in a previous post, however, the grocery companies have been great as well – specifically Sainsbury’s and Waitrose. With Sainsbury’s, it costs 5.95GBP to have whatever groceries you want delivered to your home either same day or next day based on when you order them online. In the three times that I have used them, they have been on time, friendly and practically put my groceries away for me. Waitrose delivers for free if you spend more than 50GBP, or you can even shop for yourself and have them deliver same day by telling them at checkout for less than a pint of beer at your local pub.
2. Train Station Grab and Go food – As part of my weight loss program that I was going through last year, the biggest thing that my dietitian said was to eat a solid breakfast as well as eat up to five or six meals a day. While I have not totally been as healthy as I probably should have, I now eat breakfast everyday. As I walk the half mile from my flat to Paddington Station in the morning, I have a plethora of choices. Eat – with their Simply Ham and Cheese on foccacia, Upper Crust with their wonderful Wiltshire Ham and Mature Cheddar on freshly baked baguette, the Bagel Factory where I can roll my own bagel or the two American standards: Burger King and McDonalds, with traditional English breakfast sandwiches as opposed to a Bacon Egg and Cheese biscuit. No reason not to eat a healthy, or not so healthy breakfast.
3. Same day, discounted tickets for West End first rate shows. I have only done this once – for the Children’s Hour with Keira Knightley, Ellen Burstyn and Elisabeth Moss. However, if you go any day during the week after 3pm, any of the first run shows will have tickets that have just opened up. And, they will still be even 50% cheaper than the TKTS booths in Leicester Square and Piccadilly Circus.
4. Secret squares and parks in unexpected places – Yep, they’re everywhere, including 120 feet from my flat. The boulevard Sussex Gardens is actually named after a small Victorian park called Sussex Gardens close to my house. Granted, it is in the middle of some busy streets, but, still. It’s a floral wonderland in the middle of some major chaos. And, these squares, terraces, closes and circuses are everywhere. Most of them have public spaces in the middle of them. Check them out.
5. Aesop skin products – Yes, I know they are Australian. And yes, I know they are relatively expensive. For the past five years, I was a diehard Kiehl’s user. As any gay will tell you, moisturiser is the key to eternal youth. And the last year, Kiehl’s just wasn’t working for me anymore. Enter Liberty’s men’s department. Liberty is a 150 year old department store, close to Carnaby Street, but, on the cutting edge of service and fashion since the 1960’s – Twiggy came from here. Yeah, I know. Anyway, John from the Aesop counter helped me in finding product that will help my psychosomatic skin in cleanliness and moisture. He was patient, kind and instructive in multiple ways. And, in the process saved me about 50% compared to if I would have bought everything on it’s own. Men, the Neroli Shave Oil is heavenly. Women, the Fabulous skin cleanser is perfect for combination skin. Get some trials if you can, which they will give generously at Liberty.
6. Wagamama – Alright, I know it’s a chain. But, and I will stick by this, it is a traditional Japanese ramen house. Sit down at a communal table, order noodles to your specification from the twenty different options on the menu, add some pork gyoza (because they are amazing, and yes, pork is God’s food) and a small sake, and you will have a beautiful dinner. Yes, it’s a little sanitized compared to the Pho places of Seattle, or the noodle joints of Singapore, but if you’re craving a relatively traditional Asian fix, hit here before they get busy. Multiple locations around London.
7. London Transport Museum – No, this isn’t just the transit geek in me talking. London (and NYC and Budapest, of all places) were on the cutting edge of mass transit in the 1830’s. This museum takes you from Hackney Carriages to Buses to steam trains to the tube and National Rail in a former Tube depot in Covent Garden. The history is immense, the impact of what these engineers dreamed is absolutely staggering, given the time that they developed most of the lines and capacity. I will go back again and again.
8. Beer of all shapes and sizes – Alright, I will say it out loud. Beer is cheaper than water here in London. Yes. It’s true – comparitively a litre of water is 1.99GBP, a litre of Stella Artois is 1.80GBP. Right. So, the national drink is beer. And you have choices of hand pumped ale at almost every local pub, commercial pints, like Stella or Carling and bottled beers. All of these taps include some sort of cider, and most bottles include an alcoholic ginger beer – which if made into a Moscow Mule would kill me, as I love anything ginger, and spiked with vodka, I would be a two drink date. Try all of them. Starting with the warm, handpumped ales.
9. Repeated first run TV – You can almost always find a rerun of first run television shows – not the least of which is Secret Life of a Call Girl. Yes, a guilty pleasure with Billie Piper and lots of boobs. I loved it on Showtime in the US and here it runs on ITV, where it’s practically Freeview. Even though I have Sky, I can watch SLOACG 4 times a week without DVR. Also, Glee or Grey’s Anatomy or Modern Family come on three times a week, even though it’s four weeks behind the US.
10. Free museums in London – there are ten free museums in London, unless you want to see a special exhibition. Anytime you want, you can go to see exhibitions from the British Museum and the Museum of London and others with out any cost. Check out this link for more.
American Expat in London 