Dailies: The Kitchen

I thought the Yanks back home would be interested in the small differences in daily life in London. Especially those who haven't been out of the country yet.

There aren't many huge cultural contrasts that I can see so far, but many little changes that remind us that we are in a foreign country. It's been fun to figure things out.

The main difference is the accent of course. We want to save up for a video camera, so we can post videos online, a la Lomo Y Queso. I think it would be a lot of fun and interesting to make documentaries on London Life from our perspective. But we have a lot of other financial priorities, so buying a digital video camera/software would be many months from now. Anyway, it's nice to think about.

So, I think this will be my first installment of a series I'll call Dailies: blogs about regular errands we do. Our Moms and Dads will find it interesting, at least. If double click the pictures, they should appear larger in a different window.

Our apartment, over all, is really really nice. Not huge, but plenty big to have a few guests who want a cheap London vacation for a week or so.
Our kitchen is small, but really efficient. The apartment is a newer condo with shiny, unworn appliances. There is plenty of counter space.

The fridge is small, with the freezer on the bottom. It's tall, but very shallow. It's actually nice to have a smaller fridge because you're forced to go to the grocery store to get fresh food more often. We've been eating a lot of fresh veggies. Also, there's a farmer's market close by that is really cheap and deserves its own post. Yum! This pic is pre-shopping, so it's a bit more barren than usual.

The appliances were a bit baffling at first. We have a dishwasher that still confuses us sometimes. You have to put salt in it. I've lived in about a dozen apartments in the last few years, but only one with a dishwasher, so I don't know if that's normal back home or not. I don't think so.


Then there's the washing machine. Most London apartments have their own washing machine in the kitchen, right next to the sink. At first glance we thought it was the dishwasher. We were talking about this at a party, and the Europeans had never heard of having a separate laundry in the basement.


It took us a while to figure out the buttons. We figured the "play" button meant start, but other than that it was like a psychological experiment on zoo monkeys. If you don't set it on the 30 minute setting, it will literally go on for more than 4 hours. I stopped keeping track after that and went to bed, so I don't know exactly how long it takes on the normal setting.

This is the laundry detergent. The spherical cap doubles as a detergent dispenser while the clothes spin.

When we walked into the apartment for the first time, we were greeted by this:

What is that hanging from the ceiling? New-Age artwork? That, my friends, is our dryer. Apparently, everyone hangs their clothes to dry here. You see a lot of sheets hanging out the window. It isn't much of a bother at all really and is less damaging to clothing. The downside is that you have to wait a long time for clothes to dry before you can do another load, so you have to do a constant cycle of laundry instead of a big laundry day. This next sequence is my attempt to show you how it works:



The stove is nice, too. Although I have totally figured it out yet. For a long time, the dial just read STOP. Then Potunkey came over and fixed it for us so that we can bake. But there are settings that I don't understand. I might actually have to do some research on the internet to understand, because even reheating instructions talk about settings that I've never heard of.


Each appliance is electric, including the stove, and each has its own fuse. So in order to turn them on, the fuse needs to be turned on too. Light/fuse switches and electrical plugs look like this in England.

So, that's your overly detailed cultural lesson for the day. I'll end with the picture of a surprised Marty, which I snapped when he came home from work while I was taking pictures for this post. Enjoy.