Have you ever decided to try a new recipe, excited for something different, and spent more time than necessary picking out the right one? Then, you eagerly sought out and purchased every ingredient even if it meant visiting multiple stores? Once ready, have you followed the instructions nearly perfectly and given undivided attention to each step? What happened? Was it everything you’d hoped? Would you do it again?
Although perhaps a bit dramatic, I would liken the above text to our initial experience of moving to London. The choice to go to London was an easy one; there was a interesting, one-year master’s program for Erik at one of the 40+ universities in the city. The choice of where to live and what we would need to have when we got there, well that was like trying to find the right recipe, sourcing the ingredients, and following the carefully laid-out plan. But the plan was ours to make – we didn’t have anyone else’s recipe to follow.
The toughest step was finding a place to live. We entered into a very hot, very competitive rental market on the heels of the pandemic when many were leaving their high-density dwellings for places outside the city’s centre. Since Erik’s school was located in one such desirable area, any of our inquiries or offers to rent homes were ignored or rejected. As foreigners, we were considered high-risk tenants and thus many homeowners demanded two-year leases and/or paying 12 months up front. We even hired a relocation agent to be our local representative and to negotiate on our behalf. Also, our ideal place would come with furniture so that we wouldn’t need to source it for only a year’s use. We quickly learned that family homes are almost never offered with furniture. We even reached out to Airbnb hosts to see if they would rent to us for a year. No luck.
Finally, we got a yes. It was an apartment in a completely different neighbourhood 45 minutes from Erik’s school. It didn’t have a yard to play in. It wasn’t very close to parks. It did come with some furniture (we were told to expect 3 beds, a couch, a dining table with 4 chairs, and a coffee table), and it was walking distance to a “high street”; the British term for the main street with the stores (and pubs). Although we had to compromise on our desires, we had found our recipe!
Next step was to source the ingredients. Given the list of items to expect in the house, we started filling an IKEA order and organizing delivery on the day we were scheduled to arrive. We booked our tickets, bought our luggage containers, started packing and sorting our things, and even got in touch with the internet provider to ensure that we’d have cell phones and internet when we arrived. We felt good about how everything was coming together – about how we’d collected our ingredients.
After a few hugs and tearful goodbyes, we made it to the Ottawa airport, checked-in our boxes, and boarded our first flight to Toronto. We crossed our fingers that our checked luggage would make it onto our flight to London. At the time, Pearson Airport was rated as one of the worst performing airports for lost luggage, delays, and ground crew shortages. We chose to take the 8:00pm flight thinking that we’d be able to fall asleep for the whole 7 hours. Nope. The best any of us did (Simon) was a 3-hour nap. We landed at 6:00 am local, quickly cleared customs, and miraculously saw all 8 of our checked boxes at the luggage collection area. Woot woot, off to a good start!
The next step was getting us and our stuff from the airport to our rental home. Uber was ruled out when we realized that our phones could only get connection using the airport’s wifi. We knew we couldn’t handle 5 people, 8 tote boxes, and 5 suitcases on any trains without a trolley. So, we found the taxi stand and resigned to the expense of two, maybe three cars. As luck would have it, one of the vehicles ready to go was a van which had enough floor and trunk space for all of our things. The five of us climbed into a regular cab and the van followed us to our “flat” in Chiswick (pronounced Chiz-zick). We unloaded onto the sidewalk and started contemplating how to kill the time before the agent was supposed to arrive with a key. That’s when our kind neighbour, in his bathrobe and slippers, opened his door and welcomed us. He had a set of keys for us: how wonderful!
The kids ran inside first to finally see the place. I came up last. It looked much smaller than it did in the photos and we were a bit annoyed to see that it was fully furnished, including kitchen items like plates and cutlery - we’d been told there wouldn’t be any and had already ordered our own. One bed seemed to be broken and was tilted at a slight angle. Despite having written it in the agreement, the carpet had not been cleaned and the fridge and freezer were quite small (apparently a “full-sized” fridge is different than an “American-style” fridge). The dining table was in the kitchen and created a very awkward space. The blinds were very hard to use and, in a couple of cases, broken. The small washing machine was just a washing machine; there was no dryer. My fatigued brain hyper-focused on these negative observations (I believe I even said “how am I supposed to feed a family of 5 out of this fridge!?!” followed quickly by “and there’s no toilet paper!”). Thankfully the kids were super impressed and very excited to explore every corner. Their enthusiasm carried me through.
The rest of the day is a bit of a blur. We were pretty tired from the excitement and the lack of sleep. We did have to leave shortly after arriving to allow the property manager to complete an inventory assessment; he basically spent an hour taking photos and making voice memos on everything he saw including nicks in the walls and stains on furniture. We grabbed a much-needed cup of coffee and walked to a grocery store to get a few meals’ worth of food and waited patiently (sort of) for our chance to get back inside and start unpacking. Our IKEA deliveries arrived without issue. Half of what we bought we no longer needed (I had chosen plates, cups, mugs, cutlery, bowls, pans, pots, tools, etc for what we thought was going to be an empty kitchen) and a few linen items were still missing. But we had all of the essentials (including toilet paper; ‘loo roll’), enough to build a bed for Simon, move beds around for the girls, and fix the broken master bed.
With all the essential work done, some of the unpacking completed, and a new list of “must gets” created for the next day, Erik and I flopped (carefully) into bed absolutely exhausted after saying goodnight to the kids. Then, from Simon’s little room, we hear, “Mom, I lost my tooth. Do you think London has a tooth fairy!?”. Sigh!
As I think back to that long and tiring day, I realize how fortunate we were to have so many large, logistical challenges fall into place with relative ease. Despite our thorough and careful planning, the recipe didn’t go quite as expected but it still turned out to be very good. Over the next several days, we adjusted to the new time zone, bought a whack of stuff including some desks for the kids and Erik, found online grocery delivery so that we didn’t have to limit ourselves to what we could carry, and did our best to settle into the space. I quickly made many mistakes buying groceries online; when the Nutella bottle is twice the size of the ketchup bottle, you know you’ve misjudged the volume. But in my defence, do you know how big a jar of Nutella is if it weighs 500g? It’s bigger than we needed it to be! Even finding certain products was tricky given the different names/terms for items. Paper towel is kitchen roll. Ground beef is minced beef. Cheddar’s sharpness is measured in levels of maturity instead of age. Slowly, we got used to judging volume using weight and remembering the local terms for things.
We found a great learning environment for the girls to attend three days a week. Simon made quick friends with our downstairs neighbour, Walter. My parents came to stay with us for a week after their tour of Scotland. We even got to do some London tourist activities, including seeing inside Buckingham Palace, all in the first few weeks.
It was a big step to move to London, but one that we tackled with excitement and careful planning (except for the visas - don’t ask. It’s still embarrassing). We did what we could, got what we got, and have really made the most of it! Stay tuned to hear about some of the trips we’ve taken while living here.