Three weeks across the pond

Well I have been back in the states for the last week or so, but I did just spend 3 weeks in the UK and I am heading back Saturday. I feel like I am getting a to be a little old hat already on this whole transatlantic thing. In the last six months I have flow across the pond 11 times. I expect to do double that in the next six months. Someday I hope I get a chance to travel to Asia, South America, Australia, and even some parts of Africa. I have to admit that I really like spending time in England. Some of my first memories from Kindergarten are in England. I remember our row house, the school, traveling around ruins with my dad – I love castles, still do, I remember plastic dinosaurs and what was probably my first rollercoaster (at 5 way to go dad!), I remember being told there was a hedge hog in our back yard – though I never could find it, and remember other such flash back clips from my life. This time though I am 6 times older… er 30 forget – a –bout – it. And I am a traveling consultant, a job I still don’t know how I ended up with, but that seems to fit so far.

The area I am working in is on the southern coast of England. An area that is busy in the warmer months with people on holiday. There are profession sports teams (Cricket, Rugby, and European Football), good restaurants, some sites to see, and plenty to do. It is also a pretty area, very green with rolling hills, and the British country side is very scenic. I am also only and hour drive or train ride from London. So I can go to museums, shows, and enjoy the big city life too. My plan is to also drive and see as much of England as I can. Things you see in movies like the Cliffs of Dove, Wales, Haden’s wall, Stonehenge, and the like. Plus I think we will be able to make several trips to Germany, France, Scotland, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, and so on. We may even do some more exotic traveling to Egypt, the Ukraine, or far off areas of Eastern Europe. So I really do like the location and opportunity to be in Europe in general.. Though I do hope that my house is still there when I get back!

England is expensive there is no questioning that. You look at the prices in the stores for most things. Electronics, food, and such and they actually seem to be about 80% of what they are in the states. So a hundred dollar item maybe 80 pounds, the trick though is that the pound is double the dollar. So that 100 dollar item no becomes 160. So things are generally 60% except clothes. Wholly cow, do all you clothes shopping in the states before you think about going overseas for a while. Normal undergarments aren’t too bad. But if you want a pair of jeans you will pay 100-150 pounds easy. That is 200 to 300 dollars. I don’t think the last 6 pairs of jeans I bought combined cost that much, and gas is ridiculous. A lot more cars are diesel and Great Britton has the most expensive diesel in the world. About 1.25 – 1.30 GBP (Great British Pound) per litter, of which there are about 4 in a gallon (rough math). So like 5 GBP a gallon, now multiply that by 2 and you are looking at 10+ dollars a gallon of diesel. An Americans are complaining about 3.35, latterly 1/3 the cost.

Now I did have to figure out quite a few things that were a little unexpected. Believe it or not the biggest challenge was laundry! The hotel wanted like 2 GDP for sox, 4 GDP for a t-shirt or boxers, and 7 GDP for slacks or a shirt. I figured it out and my laundry would have cost me more than 120 GDP… 240 dollars, are you kidding me. So I had to find a Laundromat. Well the first time I looked I found a couple of them, but being late at night, 7 pm, they were closed. I actually went to the store and bought more boxers and t-shirts to get me by 4 more days to the weekend. Just what I wanted to do drag the wife to do laundry. Even then it cost about 15 GDP to do, insane. In fact the early closing time is a problem for doing most things. Shops close at 5:30 in general, most business shut at 5:00. So if you are a traveling consultant working from 7 to 7 your SOL.

Getting a phone was another issue. My ‘international’ or ‘world phone’ worked fine roaming at $1.35/minute. Even after I got it unlocked in the states I could not get it to work with a British network. I think it is something with either windows mobile or HTC phones, I don’t know. It sees the networks, it just won’t connect to them, even with a local sim card. Weird. So I thought I would get a pay monthly account with out a contract and buy a phone outright for the UK. Well they won’t pull you US credit, and you have to have a UK address for 2 years. 2 YEARS! So that was out of the question. Now I pay 15 pence a minute on a prepay. Fun. Funny though because with my prepay I can call Russia for 5 pence a minute. That just makes no sense, though I probably call Russia more than locally so, whatever. In fact it is now cheaper than in the states to call the wife with a phone card. However once she has a computer again I am looking forward to free Skype.

So it was also a pain to get an apartment, and figure out how to pay for it. As my current project manager doesn’t seem to like our housing people I had to set this up myself which is fine, because I had more options that way. But paying is a pain. I have to do the wire transfer or do a cash advance on a non-corporate card. That is just a pain. Period. But they pay the expenses on time so I guess it all works out. But I have to do more paper work this way. Hopefully setting up cable, internet, and house cleaning won’t be such a pain. At the end of my first 3 week trip I should be setup pretty well for living in England. I will have a decent company car, a nice apartment in an area that a lot of people vacation in, a UK phone, and all the other comforts of home. Actually since I will only be traveling every 6 weeks or so it will an adjustment.