November recap

December is here and that means a few things. It means that winter has arrived with all it’s cold weather and customary holidays. It also means Trisha and I have been residents of the UK for almost 5 months now. We continue to adjust. It would be easy to assume that the real challenge would be getting used to our new surroundings and coming to grips with various cultural differences. Those assumptions would not be without merit, but the real tough part has been dealing with the consequences of unplugging ourselves from our comfortable, familiar life in San Diego and trying to rebuild that stuff somewhere else. This would have been the tough part no matter where we went. Unless we went to Afghanistan or something I guess.

November was actually a difficult month for us. Thankfully there hasn’t been any major event or set-back (nothing like that computer debacle), but we have had to learn to do without some of the old conveniences and luxuries from our old life. My lack of employment had thrown us back to a lifestyle that I can only describe as “college-esque”. We’re not starving or anything but we ate a lot more PB&J that’s for sure. The worst part was probably just the lack of activity. We became paralyzed by the state of our finances, which is probably why we haven’t written much here. There just didn’t seem like a lot to say.

November wasn’t all gloom and grief by any means though. For one thing there was the weather.

I was expecting to come home to London and be confronted with constant rain, but for the most part the weather has been really nice. Well...it’s been nice to look at (it’s pretty cold here). We wake up in the mornings and typically experience the closing moments of the day’s sunrise with the sky full of soft orange and yellow colors. When the sun sets (a short time later at around 4:00pm), The sky is still remarkably clear and full of pinks and reds.

(sunrise over the Heath):




With November we naturally think of the Thanksgiving holiday. As there is no Thanksgiving here, November seems to really be the start of Christmas season. It’s as if the air gets cold and suddenly everyone is anxious to hang up their lights and wreaths. Neighborhoods hold little ceremonies where someone flips a switch to turn the Christmas twinlkers on, people pass out mulled wine, it’s all good and fun.

While we missed our families on the actual Thursday night of Thanksgiving (and celebrated by ourselves with a fairly meager meal of traditional side dishes, but no turkey), we did find our way out to Chiswick to celebrate with some fellow ex-pats. Our friends Bernhard and Nicole cooked up a fantastic Thanksgiving dinner and the rest of us brought a dish or two on top of it all which made for quite a feast.

(Bernard sets up our fantastic meal!):




We also had a few visitors recently. An old friend from our Sony days, Marla, and my cousin Lindsey both flew into town and made some time to visit with us. It’s always nice to be with familiar people in a new setting like this.

I guess the other highlight of the month was our trip to Somerset House to see the Dior / Rene Gruau exhibit. It’s always comforting to know that even when you are pretty broke you can see some amazing cultural treasures for very little money (or sometimes for free). Exhibits like these have contributed to a surge of creative energy in our house. Most days we find ourselves spending some time drawing, or crafting, or painting.

(Ice Skaters at Somerset House):



By the end of November I managed to find myself some employment. I’ve been working as a “Technical Director” for the same VFX company that Trisha works for. It’s not yet a long term gig but I managed to get a solid 3 weeks in before being told that things were slowing down for a few weeks and I should check back in January. Of course I wont get paid till the end of December but, it’s still a huge relief to get some much needed extra income.

The work itself has been quite stressful but overall good. I really enjoyed meeting some new people and my co-workers are all great people -- smart, hard-working and a lot of fun to be around. I even managed to find my way into the company Christmas party during my short time there which was really cool.

(company party):



Of course, this now being December, we are reminded that even though we are far away from home, the people we love are still with us, and are still supporting us. Our families have been so generous to us this year, and are helping to make December a much much easier month than November. In fact, with their help, we have even finally managed to wrangle ourselves a proper television. Trisha has really been missing this simple comfort and she was overjoyed to have one again. We brought it home yesterday (via the bus, which was interesting), and I don’t think she’s ever been happier!

-Chips