recap of week one

So, we've been here a week and are settling in. The apartment is really nice, but on the ground floor so the bedroom and bathroom have little tiny frosted horizontal slits at the very top of the room for windows. And the living room/kitchen has decent windows but they open to a tiny concrete courtyard (with nothing in it) and the ground floor offices of the hotel next door. Also, every time Nina and I want to go out, I have to haul the stroller up a flight of stairs, as the elevator doesn't come down here. It's nice and private, but I'm suffering from a lack of light. Click on the thumbnail below for pics

apartment

This week was mostly about going out and buying the things we needed that weren't provided in the apartment, which included but were not limited to:

• a mobile phone (outgoing calls made using the apartment phone are subject to a surcharge)
• a stock pot--three months without soup? I don't think so...
• over the door coat hooks--there was literally nowhere to hang them besides the closet in the bedroom. That doesn't really make sense.
• containers for leftovers
• mouse for laptop--I've become spoiled by having a desktop, can't hack the touchpad anymore
• a basket for Nina's toys
• lots and lots of groceries
• and more...

We also had a blind date that turned out very well, we met our new friends Emma and Hannah at a place called @bristol. It's very expensive, but a fun morning was had by all and we'll definitely be spending more time with them, though Emma works so it won't be as much as we'd like...

We spent Sunday afternoon shopping at Fresh & Wild, which is the UK's Whole Foods (it's actually owned by Whole Foods, complete with the 365 brand). It was nice to shop there, but godawful expensive, so I took Emma's advice and shopped Sainsbury's online and had it delivered. Sainsbury's has its own line of organic stuff, as well as lots of other stuff, with a click of the mouse it comes to my door. Much cheaper, though now I have a crapload of plastic bags...

Wednesdays there is a lovely farmer's market, which has a lot, considering that it's the end of winter here. It's also a five minute walk from our front door. This week we got:

• salmon pate
• fresh cheese
• seeded demi baguettes
• carrots
• squash
• parsnips
• potatoes
• apples

There are also stalls with fresh meat, fish, and eggs as well. I think that's where we'll mostly get that type of thing. Every first Sunday of the month there is a slow food market, which we hit today and got lots of good stuff.