It was like I or someone took an arm off the giant squid from 20,000 leagues under the sea. It was delicious
Travel
Our 4th England-versary
It does not really feel like a long time until you really start to think about it. Then it does start feeling like a long time. It is so misleading thinking 4 years is not a lot if you are in your 40’s. Looking at the photos of us getting ready to move and I realise how little the girls were compared to now. The cliche is true. So much has changed and yet so much is the same.
4 years ago we were scared and excited. We had so much to do. So much to explore even beyond the physically just getting here. Today there is still so much to explore. We are still excited to be living here. So much so that this year we bought the house we were renting. M called it perfectly 4 years ago when we were looking at houses on our Thanksgiving week scouting trip in 2017. Of the 12-15 we looked at she flagged what became ours as the one she was most interested in. In the end it was down to this house and one other. The location and school options on our house won out. It is why we initially inquired with the former owners to purchase it right around a year ago near our 3rd anniversary here. We were delighted they were interested in selling. We looked around our neighbourhood for other options earlier this year. There were a few possibilities however when it became clear we could have the house we were in we knew our choice.
Lockdown’s and pandemic’s have slowed our exploring. Just not our desire to continue to explore this new country and continent. We are still excited for 4 more and many more years to come…
A small story about the luggage cart pictured that can almost summarize a big difference between NY & London.
Those carts in JFK are like $5 a piece to rent. They are for going from the car drop off to the check in counter. A trip that is maybe 2 minutes.
At Gatwick or Heathrow (in this story we arrived in Gatwick) the same carts are free. On top of that there are little kid carts throughout arrivals for one or even two kids for you to put your kids in for the very long walk to customs. Once you get through customs to get your luggage you can get a free cart for the much longer walk than in JFK for your luggage.
The Story of Our Experience With British Airways
In February we took a cruise to the Caribbean. It required us to fly from London to Tampa so we could goto Port Canaveral in Florida to get on the boat. We were meeting up with M’s parents. Since we wanted to go to Tampa and not the more popular nearby Orlando international Airport we had limited flight options. The only direct flight from any London airport to Tampa was British Airways out of Gatwick. Anything else would require us to transfer.
Since we moved to London in all of our personal travel to the states we have flown either Virgin Atlantic or Norwegian Airways. This was our first trip as a family on British Airways. I have flow BA before however I can only recall doing so in Business Class. Before we even got on the plane I had a major issue with using BA. There was no way to book a seat ahead of time in regular economy without spending extra money. If you wanted their low-end tickets you would not be able to pick a seat at all. Their standard economy tickets let you pick seats only when you checked in 24 hours ahead of time. As a family with two relatively small kids that’s not good enough. We need the ability to know we are together when we book our tickets. What good is it to be able to select your seats when you may not have been fast enough on the day to get 4 together.
That limitations not only required us to purchase the standard economy tickets. We also had to pay extra per person to pick her seats when I booked the tickets. Both together added several hundred pounds to the ticket price. Virgin Atlantic had no such restriction. If we bought their standard economy ticket I was able to book a seat. The same goes for Norwegian airlines and they are considered a low-cost carrier. This penny/pence pinching is very annoying. All other things being equal I won’t pick British Airways over Virgin, Delta, Norwegian in the future if I can help it. Business practices do matter people.
If that wasn’t enough their entire online check in process had left a lot to be desired. For both legs of the trip we were required to go to the ticket counter to input additional information. This isn’t the first time we as a family have flown internationally. We’ve never had to do this before however when queried we were told that something about our passports required us to see an agent. I just don’t believe that since we’ve done at least three other roundtrips to the states with no issues. In practice the lines weren’t too bad and on the way home they confirmed my TSA Pre was on my ticket so it worked out. It was simply not a seemless experience. The reason I bring it up is the oddity of because of that glitch we were checked into our flight with no boarding passes. I don’t know if that’s a thing for just British Airways or if airlines are now “checking you in” if you don’t even have a boarding pass. Are you really checked in?
What is funny to me is that the actual inflight service was pretty good. M pointed out the good service also. That does not change that before rhe flight even started I went into it with the negative thought in my head because of the extra cost of the seats. I appreciated the good service in the air. All things equal its not enough for me to choose BA again based on my purchase experience. Since I am not a frequent flyer with them it really doesn’t matter to them anyway! As always it does feel a bit theraputic to write about it though.
Photo shown is not the plane we flew on. That is a 747 I flew on going home from London when living in NY and we flew on something less spectacular that that for this trip.
W Sisters and The Story of Bun-Bun
Sometime within the past year and a half I started telling A that when I worked from home on Fridays I had lunch with her stuffed animal Bun-Bun. I don’t really remember why I did it. I thought it was cute so I kept up the narrative. I offered to T that her hamster stuffed animal was hanging out also. She wanted nothing to do with it so it was just Bun-Bun and I for Friday work from home lunch.
When I went to Bangkok last July I wanted to do something fun with the girls while I was away. I asked if I could take on Bun-Bun along with me since she and I were buddies. T at first also agreed to let me take her stuffed hamster (she is named hamster) as well. Then T backed out of it.
A was excited to let me take Bun-Bun. I took pictures throughout my trip of Bun-Bun on the plane, working as well as out and about in Bangkok. A seemed to enjoy it and I actually had fun doing it. The colleague I travelled with got into it as well. He offered to take pictures wherever we went. Flight attendants on different flights took photos for me. My friend even reminded me a few times if I wanted a photo opportunity. Overall it was a very fun experience.
With us all being home now due to the lockdown the other day A asked when I was going to do lunch with Bun-Bun. Today in the morning she showed up in my home office and brought Bun-Bun to me saying she wanted to hang out. I had to utilise the opportunity to get a picture of. I am barn having a cold brew with me.
Now I need to think of other stuff to do with my buddy Bun-Bun.
Things I Miss From America
Before moving I read a lot about people complaining about you cannot get XYZ in London. Many others noted (I believe correctly) that you will adjust better if you do not get held up by something not being available. You should flip things around and think of it as an adventure and try new stuff. That is the attitude I am taking in the 6 months living here so far as of this writing.
When we first moved here and i had go shopping for household stuff i was overwhelmed. I had no clue about more than half the brands I saw. I used that as an opportunity to try to save money and went with the brands that were relatively cheap. For most food and household items that worked fine. Instead of
Feedback from others was that the two main things people miss out on are certain consumer products and foods. As products go there were a few things here and there that I prefer an American version of. Mainly some clothing brands. I don’t buy that many clothes and what I do by last a while. When I need something I either wait till we’re back in the states or order it online to pay the shipping. When people visit I sometimes send them stuff to. It’s generally been few and far between.
The same goes for some over-the-counter medicines. Most of the stuff we get is local however there are a few things that we simply prefer from the US. Apparently we are nowhere near as picky as many other people we read about. As time moves on we rely on less and less from the states and simply have been adapting to what’s available.
As for food goes there is definitely plenty of things that I like that is not quite the same with what you get in the United Kingdom. For example New York style pizza is pretty unique. A good bagel and locks is possible to get here however not everywhere. The bagals are ok just not the same as New York. Before we moved I was worried that both of those examples would be things I missed dearly. In practice I do not. Don’t get me wrong when we were visiting New York I went for a good slice of pizza. My mom took us to my favorite pizza place growing up. We also made it a point to go to our favorite bagel place when we were in Forest Hills as well. It was just as good as we remember it. We enjoyed both experiences a lot. The experiences in New York are definitely not the same as those in London however we can still get decent pizza and halfway decent bagels and smoke salmon. I don’t even eat bagels as much as I use to. We have different morning rituals now. If we go out I like a good full English breakfast.
All the things I mentioned having a different version of them or not having them at all has been relatively easy to adapt to in London. For me there was one thing that I missed that I did not realize how much I missed until I was back in the United States. I realized early on that most places in the United Kingdom did not prepare burgers the way I like them. I think it’s around the fact that they have to cook them a little bit more well done then I like here. I’m not really sure though. I just know that in most cases hamburgers aren’t as juicy and delicious as I am used to in the States. In fact my favorite hamburger in Europe actually was in Copenhagen. I still eat burgers all the time when we are out. It’s my go to food. Although depending on the place Fish & Chips is catching up as a good backup option. I have not been sorely missing a good burger.
When we were in Florida in February to go on our cruise we went to lunch with my in-laws. It wasn’t anything fancy. We just went to Chili’s. The juiciness of the hamburger reminded me how a really good burger should taste. It wasn’t until then I realized I missed that. Shake Shack and Gourmet Burger Kitchen are really good however I just don’t think any of those places got my burger as juicy as the one I had in Florida.
Some people would be upset by this. They may even stop ordering them when they go out. Not me. I’m on a mission to find good burgers in the UK. That means if I go somewhere and it looks good on the menu I’m still going to order it. If it turns out to be so so then I know what to expect. The turns out to be really good although where to go back to. That will hold me over until we’re back in New York and I can go to outback or chilis or any other mediocre chain restaurant that will grill me a juicy burger.
Too Many Choices, What Lounge to Choose?
Since our move to London we have been flying more. We are taking advantage of our location to see Europe on our holidays. With this travel we have been using one of the credit card perks we have, airport lounge access. With MC and my American Express cards we can each get into Priority Pass lounges and take 2 guests. That means the entire family can get in a lounge without any extra cost beyond what we paid for the annual fee on the card. This benefit alone this year justified the annual fee. The way i calculated that was since we need to get to the airport early for flights especially with the girls. We would get lunch. Lunch was costing us £40-60 pounds. Since we can get food at the lounges i calculated each visit to a lounge to be worth that amount to us. By adding up all the times we used the lounges it works out to be a worthwhile perk.
Before our trip to New York for our summer holiday we debated what airport lounge we should goto. We were flying Virgin out of Terminal 3 at Heathrow. We had flown Virgin in June for our quick trip to NY. That meant we had already gone to a lounge in Terminal 3. We did not know if we should return to the Aspire lounge or somewhere new. In this case the No1 Lounge was our other option.
The girls are now old enough to start providing their opinion on subjects like this. Their opinion was they liked the lounge in Gatwick the best. That feedback was helpful however not in the context of where to go for this trip. That simply meant that anywhere we went in Heathrow would not meet their expectations! M was trying to remember if she liked the Aspire Lounge in Heathrow Terminal 3 or not. I liked it. They had the best breakfast buffet of a lounge we have gone to so far. What won me over, eggs and proper sausages in a buffet.
I had been to the No1 Lounge before. It was when i was by myself for work. I did not stay very long. The wait seemed long at the time so I had a drink and left. It looked nice though.
After more discussion than was likely necessary on the topic we settled for the No1 Lounge. We were curious.
The place was crowded. At first it looked like the lounge would be a total bust. M and I both were asking staff if there was anywhere to sit. Finally someone suggested we sit in the movie room. So we did. It was a nice sized room with chairs that had trays on them to eat off of. They were playing Despicable Me 3 or something. The girls loved it. M and I were happy since at first there was no one in the movie room. It was quiet. We ordered our food. The food came pretty quick. I liked my sandwich. The buffet was pretty good. Overall a huge win. Since they have since asked if they were going back there I think they have a new favorite lounge.
I am glad this is the biggest debate we are having:)
The Story of My Holiday Travel Tech
By the time this posts we will have returned from our Summer holiday. We went to NY for a month. I worked for two weeks out of the office in Times Square while M and the kids stayed at my mother and father in laws. I went up for the weekends. Then it was off to my mom’s for two weeks while i had off. I cannot tell you if I had a good time or not. Since i am writing this while still on the flight to NY. I assume it was a fantastic trip. This post isn’t about the holiday itself anyway. It is about the Tech used for this holiday.
FIrst and foremost in my mind when planning what to bring on this trip was how were we going to stay connected. Connectivity (Data, Video, Voice probably in that order) is scarily important in this day and age. It turns out for mobile phones we were pretty set already. M has a 3 PAYG SIM. I never got her on a contact. The cost of what she uses isn’t worth it on a pay monthly plan on EE or 3. In the end she stayed on the 3 PAYG she got when we first arrived. It has been fine. What i like about it is their roaming. The have the best roaming of any provider i have found in either country. With M’s regular plan she can roam in Europe or the US with no extra fee. In the US she can use her voice, text and data like she is in the UK. For data that is great. For texting that works since she uses apple messaging or whatsapp and doesn’t truely send texts often. Voice calls is the only oddity. She can make and receive calls in the US just like she was in the UK. That means in practical sense that she can call friends in the UK with her included minutes. If she wanted to call a US number it would be an international call just like if she was in the US. That’s annoying but not the end of the world. We have a voip provider for those people who don’t have FaceTime or WhatsApp.
For me i was worried i would have a problem. I do not use 3. I went with EE after a few months of being in the UK. I found their data network to be faster and more reliable. They did not have a roaming deal for the US as nice as 3. Their Europe roaming was good. After a bit of research and a call to EE support they told me that i could buy roaming in the US and Canada for £10 a month. I get all my data as well as texting and calling to the US. I haven’t tested this yet however if what they say is right for the £10 i spent i can make calls to US or UK numbers with my minutes. The only downside is people calling me from the US would still have to make an international call. I do have my voip provider with my old US mobile so that shouldn’t be a major issue.
To mitigate any issues receiving calls (if there is any) i did buy a US SIM card for the month. After some research i actually settled on Google Fi. I may not have written about it yet however i purchased a Motorola G7 so i could use its dual SIM function on this trip. I doubt i will keep Google Fi after the trip however i can cancel anytime. And the price was really good. Stress dreams aside from my use of Google services and their collection of everything i do when i use it. Seriously i had one. I will write about that another time. For the month i am in the states i figured i would try it.
Other tech I brought with us is lots of US adapters. Luckily we use mainly apple products so i had a bunch of US power plugs from our devices when we moved. I kept a bunch of them for this exact situation.
Another must is my Bose noise cancelling headphones. Great for the plane or when working in a noisy office.
For WiFi and other connectivity both parents houses are covered.
I also brought my Sony Alpha 8000 (i think its an 8000) mirrorless camera. I do not use it as much as i should since i am lazy and use my iPhone. However on a trip like this i will want it for some days. I am still amazed at how awesome the pictures it takes are.
I traveled heavy with other tech. I was working for two weeks so i needed my MacBook. It’s associated charges and adapters. I also brought a 5tb he’d with a backup of my data on it just in case. I also had to bring a USB headset for all the phone calls i will be on for work.
For personal use i brought my iPad Pro 11”. That is what i am typing on right now. It is basically my goto device for personal use now a days. I also had to bring my iPad Mini. One of the girls uses it on the plane flights. The Amazon Kindle Fires they had broke. Both in the span of a month of each other. We got a handful of trips out of them. They lasted a year and a half. For the $100 i spent on both of them it wasn’t a bad investment. I am not sure if i will get new ones. We have been surviving the past two trips with my iPad mini and M’s iPad. For now there is no plans to replace the much lower end tablets since the iPads work fine for the kids limited use case.
I packed one of my Raspberry Pi’s for the trip. I am not sure what / if anything i will do with it. I may need it as a VPN host somewhere. That is another blog topic on its own that i hope to get to. Either way the Pi was so small that i figured why not pack it. I just had room for it with my chargers and other adapters.
The last big bit of tech i would note is M and my 20,000 mili-amp batteries. I bought one for the family when we traveled. I also got each of us small 5,000 milk-amp ones for day to day use. M found she wanted/needed the bigger one so i started not having it in my weekend bag. I then got her one so she could always have one and so could i. So far this 7 hour flight has 48 minutes left and i used it to charge both my Moto G7 and my iPhone, plus my iPad Pro. The battery still has about 50% of its charge left in it. That is why i carry it. Well worth the £20 for it.
Basic Economy Does Do One Thing Right
Basic Economy is horrible,. I want to get that out there now. Why? Because I want to select my seat. I don’t want to get on the plane last. I don’t want a ticket I cannot change no matter what. Not even with a crazy fee. Even without kids and the need to be sure we are sitting together (not next to the toilet in the back row) I want to select my seat ahead of time.
What Basic Economy does well is make you happy to have Regular Economy. I have read analysts say this before. As I was doing the happy dance that we got 4 checked luggage on our flight to NY in July I realized how right that analyst was. It’s an international flight. I used to have 2 checked luggage per person. Now I get one and I am happy about it. Why because the ticket we had in June had none. I thought I would have to pay for checking some bags till I realized it’s included.
Well played airlines. Well played indeed.
Paddington2 Road Trip
When travelling we allow the girls their favourite stuffed animal and one other. A now has two Paddington Bears so when it came time to pack for our last holiday she had a fit when I told her she could only take one of them and something else. This photo of both in her bunk bed in Copenhagen shows who won that argument.
Is This Use of an iPad Too Much?
If you have read any of this blog at all or know me you will know I am a fan of technology. I think it can be used for great stuff. Recently on holiday in Copenhagen and Stockholm I had to wonder is there a too far in use of consumer electronics? The Square terminal with an iPad just seemed to fit when I first saw it. This I wasn’t sure.
In two different hotels in two different countries we saw a beverage dispenser that used an iPad as the interface for it. On the surface it seems pretty ridiculous right? That was my first thought. Then I remembered something I read a while back about the power of these devices. Basically the argument is that lots of devices that once had to be custom designed using embedded chips or custom software could now be done using a commodity device like the iPad and some sensors or add on accessories. In this case the iPad was plugged into a beverage dispensing system. I don’t know how much that rig cost versus an old style machine with a few hard coded buttons. It makes sense that it may actually be cheaper. The iPad is a pretty powerful computer.
Seeing this setup to me seemed ridiculous. I had to try it out. After thinking about it I now have a new perspective and think it may actually be an odd looking but good evolution of the technologies uses.