Friday, 14 October:
We learned two very valuable lessons last night. The first was always pay the extra money for a full day travel pass instead of a single return. The second was don't trust any Londoner to give you good directions. In an attempt to find spices and hopefully crushed red peppers, we asked the local Tesco Metro stockist where there was a full size Tesco. The full size stores carry irons, electronics, lots and lots of food, so we figured they were our best bet on finding what we needed. We were told to go to Oxford Circus. Only a couple stops down on the Central line. Cool beans. So we walked to the Lancaster Gate station and bought two single returns, figuring that we weren't going to need to go anywhere other than Oxford Circus. 8GBP later, we walked away from the ticket counter a bit bewildered. An all day, two zone pass costs 4.70GBP, and we just paid 4GBP each for three stops down the line. What's worse, we had to return to Lancaster Gate, no hopping a different line to get to Bayswater station right by our place. Lesson one learned.
Lesson two involved us getting off at Oxford Circus and looking for the promised full size Tesco. We walked around for about half an hour in larger circles trying to figure out what we were doiong wrong. We started asking people where Tescos was and were told that it was too far to walk. After some confusion, we finally found free internet. All you have to do is walk into the gigantic Apple store just off Oxford Circus. The problem is that everyone in London appears to know about it, so after hovering for about ten minutes, we hopped online and learned that there was a Tescos on Goodge St. that did not have the Express or Metro after the name. Score, except that it was an extra tube stop down and we only bought single return tickets. I didn't want to chance a 20GBP fine per person if it turned out that we weren't able to use the tickets for a farther journey. So we went home, very frustrated, and called it a night.
And on to today. We bought three travel passes today for zones one and two, so that we weren't going to make last night's mistake again. Off to Goodge St. first thing to find the Tesco. We hopped the central line and got off at Tottenham Court Road, which is right next to Goodge. We walked up to Goodge St. and sure enough, there is a Tesco Metro. Note the Metro designation that was not on the website. Mildly frustrated, we decide that we are going to head to the one full size Tesco we do know of, in zone 3 off Neasden, right by IKEA. Did I mention that our travel passes are for zones one and two only. So we went all the way up to our favourite station, Willesden Green, which is at the edge of zones one and two. We got off the train and bought two single return tickets into zone three (they are MUCH cheaper if you are not going into zone one.) and went up to Tescos. The first four doors we walked up to were locked, so we were beginning to think that now that we had made it, we weren't going to get in. Finally we found a door that would let us in and started shopping. We found great deals on an iron, a pot, and some groceries. Most important of all... Crushed red peppers!!! We were saved! After some tears of joy, we finished our shopping, and left.
Because of the unseasonal warmth here, we have been trying to find a fan. Apparently they are part of the ziploc conspiracy, because they are very rare. We stopped at Homebase off the Finchely Road tube station and looked to see if they had anything. Yup. They had one fan. One in a store that is set up like, and about the size of, Home Depot. But now we can circulate air and try and get our clothes to dry a little faster.
Afterwards, we headed home and while Suzanne was making dinner, I went in to Dongle to see if they had a free broadcast digital television box. Apparently the Brits have this interesting plug on all their TVs called a SCART plug. I have never seen one before, but it allows the TV to show digital television. So after picking up the proper SCART cord and a box, we went from four channels to about fifty.
Suzanne made a wonderful pasta dish with tomato sauce and pesto. We had it with Italian bread and a spicy dipping oil that made for the perfect meal. And slightly more healthy than last night's fare.
Lesson two involved us getting off at Oxford Circus and looking for the promised full size Tesco. We walked around for about half an hour in larger circles trying to figure out what we were doiong wrong. We started asking people where Tescos was and were told that it was too far to walk. After some confusion, we finally found free internet. All you have to do is walk into the gigantic Apple store just off Oxford Circus. The problem is that everyone in London appears to know about it, so after hovering for about ten minutes, we hopped online and learned that there was a Tescos on Goodge St. that did not have the Express or Metro after the name. Score, except that it was an extra tube stop down and we only bought single return tickets. I didn't want to chance a 20GBP fine per person if it turned out that we weren't able to use the tickets for a farther journey. So we went home, very frustrated, and called it a night.
And on to today. We bought three travel passes today for zones one and two, so that we weren't going to make last night's mistake again. Off to Goodge St. first thing to find the Tesco. We hopped the central line and got off at Tottenham Court Road, which is right next to Goodge. We walked up to Goodge St. and sure enough, there is a Tesco Metro. Note the Metro designation that was not on the website. Mildly frustrated, we decide that we are going to head to the one full size Tesco we do know of, in zone 3 off Neasden, right by IKEA. Did I mention that our travel passes are for zones one and two only. So we went all the way up to our favourite station, Willesden Green, which is at the edge of zones one and two. We got off the train and bought two single return tickets into zone three (they are MUCH cheaper if you are not going into zone one.) and went up to Tescos. The first four doors we walked up to were locked, so we were beginning to think that now that we had made it, we weren't going to get in. Finally we found a door that would let us in and started shopping. We found great deals on an iron, a pot, and some groceries. Most important of all... Crushed red peppers!!! We were saved! After some tears of joy, we finished our shopping, and left.
Because of the unseasonal warmth here, we have been trying to find a fan. Apparently they are part of the ziploc conspiracy, because they are very rare. We stopped at Homebase off the Finchely Road tube station and looked to see if they had anything. Yup. They had one fan. One in a store that is set up like, and about the size of, Home Depot. But now we can circulate air and try and get our clothes to dry a little faster.
Afterwards, we headed home and while Suzanne was making dinner, I went in to Dongle to see if they had a free broadcast digital television box. Apparently the Brits have this interesting plug on all their TVs called a SCART plug. I have never seen one before, but it allows the TV to show digital television. So after picking up the proper SCART cord and a box, we went from four channels to about fifty.
Suzanne made a wonderful pasta dish with tomato sauce and pesto. We had it with Italian bread and a spicy dipping oil that made for the perfect meal. And slightly more healthy than last night's fare.
posted by Unknown at 6:56 AM
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