People like Bullets: Greetings from the Chicken Cottage in London

Friends,

After a great visit with John, Jamie, Cooper and my parents, I'm happy to report that we arrived safely in London this morning, and that, despite a height issue with our shower, everything is going exceptionally well (let's hope I didn't just jinx us). Caitie told me, "People like bullets in blogs", so I am writing some quick bullets to keep you interested enough in our lives to keep reading.

• I am writing from the Chicken Cottage, the world's only fried chicken restaurant/internet cafe. Hopefully we get internet at the house soon, so I won't smell like a drumstick every time I go on Facebook.

• The flight was great. Caitie got us upgraded so I would have legroom and she could get free bottle(s) of wine. We watched movies and tried to sleep, but we couldn't get in a decent slumber. This left us wide-eyed and empty-brained when we went through border patrol.

• Our driver met us at baggage claim and did his best to chat us up, but I was speaking nonsense, mostly, "yeah, that's amazing" and caitie threw in some half-interested grunts every five or so minutes. One thing I did pick up, though, was that our driver had recently taken Freida Pinto of Slumdog Millionare fame to a meeting, and that I was sitting in the exact same seat that she sat in. Apparently the driver thought this was incredibly exciting, as he raised his eyebrows and said, "So I guess you've sat on her by proxy!" Then he drove us past Abbey Road, which was very cool.

• We met our letting agent at our new "flat" and he gave us a quick tour of the place. It's pretty nice, actually, with two bedrooms, a big front patio with french(ish) doors, and a decent sized living room (futon/couch/etc). So we have room for visitors, hint, hint. The only problem is that our shower was meant for little people and people under the age of 10. I felt like Shrek in there, and that is not a good feeling.

• We slept from 10am-3pm. Big mistake, but oh well. At least now we can have an actual conversation and use words with more than one syllable. Befor our nap, we were saying things like: Mike - "Me like it, you like it?" Caitie - "Yeah", Mike - "Hot water?" Caitie - "Where's my shoes!" You get the idea.

• After our nap we went for a walk through the neighborhood (See the photos Caitie posted). Despite what Google maps told us, we are really close to everything. Only about a 5 minute walk from two different tube stops (West Hampstead and Finchley Road), and we are only a couple blocks away from two very good supermarkets, Sainsbury's and Waitrose. That's all boring/essential life stuff, though. Now for the fun items: we are surrounded by bookstores, small cafes, pubs, a movie theater, some art galleries and two very cool parks. We are going to explore some more tomorrow. Oh, and Caitie wanted me to mention that she found multiple places where she can get her nails done. Priorities, people!

• We had dinner at a great Indian restaurant called Erikia. I wanted to take pictures but Caitie said no (she had a shrek-like shower experience as well and wasn't happy with the way her hair looked, even though she looked great:)

• I have noticed one very important thing here: Lots of young(ish) men ar bald and have their hair cut close to the scalp. This is encouraging to me, as my hair is in its twilight years. Quite nice to be in a place where no hair is accepted, and, in some cases, fancy.

• We stumbled across the chicken hut and couldn't pass up the chance to use the internet amidst the smell of corn muffins and bbq sauce. We'll have phones soon (hopefully tomorrow), so keep an eye out for incoming calls from a faraway land!