Trip to UK

Journey(12th Jan 2008)
Whenever the flight takes off from B’lore, I always realize that I underestimate the city’s size. It seems never-endingly huge and a very pretty sight from above.
As we were traveling on a weekend, we could not get the desired direct flight to London. It was Kingfisher to Delhi and then Virgin atlantic to Heathrow. In my excitement, I had stuffed our baggages with every possible thing that I could think of, exceeding the weight limit well beyond. Of course, we paid for the extra baggage(reimbursable-np ;)) and not only that, had to sadly part with rice, dal, some spices and clothes to the airport sweeper at Delhi to reduce the baggage’s weight. Someone was pleased afterall – the airport sweeper, who silently wished we had carried some more luggage!

The 10+ hour journey was not really boring. For one thing, there was my hubby’s company, then watching movies from the never ending list, sleeping and eagerly waiting like a kid for the food served :) …time just flies!

Heathrow airport is not all impressive, I must say. No way comparable to my all time favorite Dubai airport or even Nice airport. Had to pass through a really long immigration queue and also an equally long medical checkup queue! Majorly bugged. Anyways, we smartly skipped the medical checkup queue, since we had undergone the same thing in India recently. Phew. Noticed many Indians around, even the security officials at the airport were Indians! We Indians have marked e.v.e.r.y place in the world!
From there, we went to Newbury in a taxi-just 40 min drive and reached our oh-so-posh, warm and comfy service apartment at 10:40 pm. At that hour, we hardly noticed any ppl on the streets. Every single shop was closed, totally opposite to what we had seen in Dubai.
Of course, Dubai never sleeps, but UK sleeps at 8pm! That’s when all the shops and malls are closed.

Newbury
During winter in UK, the sun starts setting at 4:30 pm. Days are shorter. People follow early to bed and early to rise routine. The city sleeps at 9:30pm on an average! Man…that’s the time we are just back from our offices in Blore…or maybe not!

Newbury-not a big town, cannot see many ppl on the street, not even in the town centre. The scene on the streets anytime can be compared to a curfew scene in Blore ! We spotted just a handful Indians during our 12 day stay in this town, but there are couple of Indian restaurants here and there. No Indian grocery stores, though…was tough for us to manage with Basmati rice and channa dal for sambar/rasam!! No spices too…anyways, that was just 12 days, not bad.

The town as such is very green and pretty, excellent train connectivity to Reading, London or other places. Train station was just a 5 min walk from our place. Newbury is known as ‘Home of Vodafone’. That’s the only big company out there as far as I know. I hardly got a chance to walk much around our house due to the very cold weather..just used to go out only to ‘Sainsbury’ for grocery shopping – that’s a mall chain in UK..say like our Big Bazaar. It is very interesting just to walk around and stare at those different vegetables from different places/countries. We wouldn’t have had heard or seen some of the appliances/vegetables back in India.. Time just flies in grocery shopping…was never so interesting before!


Day 2, Sunday: Just enjoyed the stay and facilities in the apartment. Watched ‘taare zameen par’ on the 42 inch+ lcd home theatre system. Gud one, but very senti and sad :(.
Food- no issues. Kitchen was readily stuffed with all convenient things before our arrival. Friendly service, unlike our experience at Nice!!

Unlimited wireless internet access and thorough online info helped me in finding out and shortlisting rented houses in Reading. Information is so organized that house hunting can be almost 90% finalized just through internet. Area details, proximity to railway/bus stations and town centre, etc and also pictures of houses, both external and internal are accessible online. No hassle. And yes, internet info for everything –finding an Indian grocery store nearby or a route map to some place. It is perfect , in place and up to date. No need to ask anyone. Easy access to you-name-it at the click of a mouse. Totally impressive.

House hunting was a pleasant and interesting experience. We shorlisted on 4 houses and I made quick calls to respective letting agents, fixed appointments for property-visits – 4 houses in half a day, with an hour gap for consecutive house visits.
On the day of the appointment, we went by train to Reading and armed with direction maps of the houses in hand, quickly finished viewing all the 4 houses in half a day. Smooth. Very smooth and damn quick. Finalized on one too! With access to every possible info on internet and our specifications and requirements clear in mind, our house hunting was done in an absolutely no–regret and satisfactory manner.

Weather
Cold, rainy and cloudy. That’s what u should expect here. Ppl say it is not so in summer….well, lets see. Anyways, in the past 15 days, there were many sunny days too. Its really not that bad. But of course, theres no comparison in the world to Blore’s weather. It’s the best. (Maybe theres California?? Don know for sure.) So, if one has landed in UK from Bangalore, it is a tough time initially to walk around anywhere. Thermals+normal clothing+sweater+jacket+gloves+cap=no use. Still chilly. But ppl who are already used to cold weather like in Delhi, find it easy. After 10 days of inertia, now it is pretty much easier and enjoyable for me to walk around. No chilly issues :)

Monies
Yes, that’s the usage here…not money, but m.o.n.i.e.s …and its enjoyable when pronounced with a long mouth :)
Everything is , yes, needless to say, expensive. Especially house rents-crazy. That’s the most money cruncher. Next comes transport. The percentage of monies spent from our monthly salary to rent and travel is much greater than in India or even US. Something has to be cheap…and that’s broadband connection, phone and TV. Also electricity, gas and water. These are, well, cheap not in absolute terms of course, but the percentage of it spent is lesser when compared to again, India and US.
It takes atleast one week to get broadband internet+tv+phone connectivity….thats a long wait :(. But yes, almost every house has a broadband internet connection since the above three is installed as a package!

Accent and communication
As a novice Indian listener-victim, if I am targeted upon even one sentence in Brit accent, all I can apprehend are a few words here and there and depending on that, I take a wild guess on what the person is trying to say!! Well, so far, my guesses haven’t deviated too much from the point, anyways :) .
Takes some time to get used to this accent for sure for a first time Indian. Coz this is not like US accent, which is a piece of cake.

Reading(read -'Redding')
Am glad we found a house in Reading in a nice area situated though in the heart of the city, but with natural ambience and greenery around. A river stream flows next to our home, with huge snow white swans and ducks swimming occasionally! Just love it.

Reading is a bigger town and is the main connecting hub to London from lots of other places. London is just 40 min by train from here. Public transport system is amazing. If one is living in the city centre near the train station/bus station, I don’t see a need for a private vehicle. We once traveled 20 miles (Reading to Newbury) in 18 minutes flat by train!! The city centre keeps buzzing with people and activities. With lots of malls, Reading is known to be a shopping hub. Lotsa Indians and Bengalooreans around too.

Typical UK styled usually-not-so-broad roads outlined with brick buildings that have a slant roof…pretty sight. Houses here are prettier..similar styled and colured houses lined together, lots of greenery around, it looks like a fairy land. Sometimes its like, ‘Is this a painting or is this real?’
Another common feature that I have noticed in UK towns and French town, Chamonix is that there is usually a huge church right at the town centre and many not-very-broad roads branching from it and lined with restaurants and shopping places on either sides. This is a place where you can find people buzzing around with activities.
Also, the entire stretch, ie the town centre is made traffic free. These roads are covered with coloured tiles too instead of tar. It is nice to spend time here just walking around everywhere.

In Reading, there are lots of Indian grocery stores around too.. Thats a relief! And that brings sudden enthu to try out and experiment on lots of yummy new dishes!

We did lots of shopping in ‘Argos’ yday….microwave, airer, iron box, etc. This is a place to look for electronic items. Reasonable price and a great shopping experience. There are lots of free copies of huge fat books just at the entrance for customers which lists all the items available and their price range with snaps. Very convenient and again, no need to hunt for anyone to ask for any info. Theres also a machine, which displays the number of items available upon entering the id of the article. Cool.. No intrusive sales ppl too!
Another option of course is online shopping usually for couch potatoes or busy bees. Click, order and there it is at our door step.

During the later part of the day, we wanted to explore ‘Oxford street’. Walked and walked down the never ending stretch of Oxford street until our legs ached...Well, that’s where many Indians and Africans live. We didn’t like the area much but one advantage of staying in a house on this road/sidelanes is the proximity to many Indian grocery stores and restaurants. Seems we get Alu puri/samosa/pani puri and such chaats here! Hmmm.
Unluckily, yday these chaat shops were closed L dono why.

Anyways, shopping and grocery shopping too is a lively entertainment which we are enthused to do it here !
Since distance to town centre is walkable, that’s what we do…be it any shopping. Walk and walk around everywhere.. Like never before. Feels good for a change, that’s maybe coz of zero pollution and noise and organized traffic..And maybe we have even lost a couple of pounds! Oops…cant afford to do that here! Read it as weight ;)