RandyDandy, an American Expat in London

Jay and I spent a wonderful evening on Saturday with a couple we met online, Srinivas and Eric. Met for coffee in Soho and chatted at a table outside until it we just couldn’t stand the cold, then went up to Charlotte Street for some great Indian food. Followed that up with another hour or [...]

Had to hunt to find a suitable “P” word for this one.
Woke up to some nasty weather this morning, not realizing until after lunchtime while checking blogs and news that it was one of the stormiest days England has seen in some time. Gale force winds battering the coast, flooding in many areas, snow [...]

Our view from the living area balcony, looking west onto central Croydon. East Croydon Station is just at the left base of the office highrise on the right side of the frame (excuse the leaning perspective!); an easy five-minute walk. We’ve seen some great sunsets, and the light in here on sunny days is just [...]

Finally. Our ship came in (literally) over the weekend, and our stuff quickly cleared customs. It took us a while to coordinate with the delivery company, mainly because we wanted to make sure we had keys to the new apartment, electricity and heat, “everywhere, like, such as, and.”

The past few days have been a flurry of activity, with apartment and house viewings here and there, weekend jaunts with Jay out to see Redhill and Wimbledon, and all on foot or public transport. On Monday I learned that the flashing green man on the crosswalk sign does NOT mean that the traffic light [...]

So one week out from our planned move to Clapham, Jay and I finally voice our misgivings about throwing so much $ at rent in order to live so far in to the city. And we figured out that with the money we save each month by staying in Croydon, I could go to school [...]

It’s harder here than it seems, especially when the weather isn’t friendly. Yesterday was pretty ugly, so I stayed in. The train station is a 10 minute walk away, and daily ticket prices from here into central London are steep enough to make me reconsider frequent jaunts into the city to explore, photography, etc. Croydon [...]