Going strong! For the second weekend in a row, we, true to our purpose, explore the new environs. Can we keep it up? The kids must be having second thoughts, for sure… Watch this space! Today we decided not to travel all the way to the city, but instead visit…
I remember that when I first came to America, I used to literally write at least one letter a day to many of my friends in Russia. After a while, that exercise became less and less important, I started to skip days, then weeks, and then – in probably 7…
The wife demands a rebuttal – the shirt did not turn the color of salmon, but rather a very pleasant pastel pink. I should still be a big hit in a gay neighborhood… Sunday afternoon, Popivker family had to deal with an invasion of voracious Burlaks. This was the first…
These newcomers to London started with an act of sabotage! I did three rounds of laundry without a problem while I was by myself. As soon as my lovely wife got to it, one of my best dress shirts turned from white to salmon pink!!!… The first full day together…
Well, the car is parked in driveway, the wife and the kids are sleeping in their new beds – the new chapter in our life has officially commenced. And life is pretty damn good, at the moment (no little thanks to a bottle of nice Cotes-du-Rhone)… For such an exciting…
I watched an unfamiliar billiards game on TV today – hold you jokes, I only have five channels to select from (one of those keeps running some documentaries about deer – !?!?), there is very little to choose from… The game is called Snooker, which sounds familiar, for some reason.…
I’m back from my old life into the new one. Jet lag is not so bad when traveling eastward, plus I uncharacteristically managed a couple of hours of shut-eye on the plane. But going to bed early today is definitely the sensible thing to do, so I’ll be brief. The…
Sometimes, things come up that you have not really considered when you thought through various pros and cons of a potential life-altering decision (such as starting a new life abroad). When they do, you feel stupid on multiple levels. Stupid, because you did not consider them in the first place.…
Everyone knows why we are doing it, right? I mean the London move. It’s because we want to be able to travel around Europe with more ease than is possible while living Stateside. Should I be at all concerned then that it has been two weeks and I went into…
Saturday was again spent on the run, and it was certainly a day of several firsts. I had my first full-day experience of using public transportation in suburban London. The atlas provided to me by the relocation agency keeps proving invaluable, plus I printed out several potential itineraries from the…
After a long post last weekend, almost a week-long silence. To my regular audience – and I know who both of you are – my sincerest apologies. I had planned on writing the blog at the end of each workday, but there is too much stuff to deal with during…
Driving on the left side of the road is not hard after all. After a couple of hours, I was still struggling with the turn signal and wiper handles being on the wrong side (they are positioned correctly – from my US-centric perspective – in newer cars), and had to…
Nothing to speak of as far as adventures are concerned, so here is a quick update on how commuting works out. First commute from the office was rather a disaster. I stayed in the office quite late, then left without checking the schedule. Subway ride was a few minutes slower…
First commute took 55 minutes on the way in – but I came to the station good 10 minutes earlier than the next scheduled train. Once I start properly timing it, it should be closer to 45. All the way standing, though, – not a single vacant seat on either…
Well, we are now officially the proud renters of a nice house in Southeast London. The first full day as an England resident started with several mishaps. First, I went to the offices to check emails and get some stuff mailed to me at the office address, and found out…
I promised myself many times that I will work on being witty and upbeat when posting to my blog, and yet this is the second post in a row that has me in not very high spirits. To tell you the truth, it must be a function of spending the…
I am doing it for the second time in my life. The times are obviously different, I am older, wiser – or so I hope – and wealthier than I was the first time I moved to live in a different country. It appears that there is both good and…
I am officially on UK payroll effective October 1st. We have our work-permit visas, we found a very nice place to rent in London suburbia, our own house is on the market, we already sold one of our cars and some other house stuff and even held a garage sale…
For those of you, who know us well, feel free to skip this post. For the uninitiated, here is the context: My wife and I are relocating to England. We have spent the last 15 years of our life in the great United States of America, became rather assimilated (I…
I guess for the very first post of mine I should warmly welcome all readers and wax eloquent on the subject of how this blog might change the world… Nah!!! If all goes as planned, this first post will be buried under a ton of others. Or not, and this…