Hello from London!

[Kay]

Hi Folks,

I thought I'd introduce myself again as this is the new me.

This is day one in London and we hope to get a rented house today. Cor blimey (gotta learn the lingo), I hope it all works out. Then we'll have to buy some furniture... get an Internet connection!

If anyone has any questions about being an expat and living in Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia, you can try asking me. I may not be able to answer them all but I've been living overseas in various countries since 1989 - maybe some of you weren't even born then.

This is a big change for us as our home base was in Thailand for the last 10 years. UK is very much a foreign country for me. Perhaps you have some advice for me about living in the UK?

Kay

[JimWaller]

Glad to hear you made it safely to London! Does this mean people will start calling Dave "John" as you are now Londoners? "Alright,John? Yeah? Sorted!" (Please excuse the circa 1993 expressions.) Normally I'd remind you of some of the rules and point you in the right direction, but if YOU don't know your way around here we should abandon all hope. LOL

[Chabrenas]

Hope the flight wasn't too uncomfortable, Kay. You've come back to London during a period when it is a lively, interesting place. Good luck with al the nitty gritty of getting settled in and properly equipped.

[Kay]

Thanks for the good wishes.

The flight was amazingly good. I have long hated British Airways for many reasons but, given the options, they were the best choice for us this time. We flew premium economy and it was all very comfortable and really good. I'd do that again. We didn't have the usual stupid trolley dollies either. Both of the cabin crew who were attending to us were "mature" women (like me), and they were great. I'll have to blog about that somewhere.

The food was disgusting and the in-flight entertainment was moist and brown coloured. I had built up my in-flight library (on Kindle) for months in advance but didn't get around to using it.

Yeah, it was a good trip and they had my wheelchair ready too. Everything was great.

[Clinton]

Furniture - try freecycle.
Internet connection - use QuikInternet, they have fantastic support and a very reliable connection

[dsieg58]

our home base was in Thailand for the last 10 years. UK is very much a foreign country for me

I can relate. That was exactly the way the USA felt to me when I came back. It still does to some degree. Sort of culture shock in reverse. It took about 2 years for me to get semi-acclimated. I find I have more in common with foreigners and tend to hang out with them. I hope it works out well for you both.

[crabfoot]

Places you can wirelessly log on to the internet (insecurely) while sitting in the car park include
Tesco
Waitrose
ASDA
MacDonalds
Frankie and Bennys
are all good for half an hour or so, but the speed is very variable.

KFC used to be OK, but is tightening up - you only get 20 min without proof of purchase. Costa coffee only works if you are in-store.

[TryBPO]

Hey Kay,

It looks like you got out of Thailand at the right time. It appears their visa situation is getting...messy. I'm actually heading there in Sep and was planning to stay there 3-4 months (bouncing in and out), but I'm not sure how realistic that is now. Hmmm...

Best of luck in London with that sticker shock! That's the bad thing about going from most countries in SE Asia to the UK, US, etc.

[Kay]

Well, that was more a case of "Hello and goodbye from London". I managed about 10 minutes online, long enough to thank a few people, and then everything went haywire. With any luck we have at last now found a temporary solution until we get our "proper" connection some way down the track (next week). Why do some things seem to take so long in this modern city? This is the first time for years I've had problems like this - even when I've been travelling in places where you might expect to have difficulties.

Anyway, I'm back now (I hope!!!). Thanks to Clinton for holding the fort. Sorry to everyone who's waiting for a PM from me, I've sent brief personal replies.

And another horror is to discover that Dave McM has accidentally thanked me for my post in this thread. (Oh dear, LOL.) In all the time, nearly four years, we've both been members neither of us has ever thanked or repped the other. It was just an unwritten rule we had as we didn't want anyone to think we were trying to influence the thanks and ranking stats by using our relationship (we had our 20th wedding anniversary earlier this month). Either he thanked me because he was so happy about that or because he was so stressed out trying to live with me for the few days I didn't have an Internet connection, I don't know, but you can guess his reason if you like. (Meanwhile, I'm trying to figure out how to remove it - but it's not a priority to deal with that right now. Please just live with it for now.)

Cheers, and thanks everyone,

Kay

PS: I forgot to say that we got the house OK. It's pretty much as it was represented to us via photos from the lettings agent. If anything, it's nicer. We had a fox in the garden this morning - only about 3 feet away from the dining room window. Not unexpected in the suburban terrain we're in.