Tuesday, January 30, 2007

What a way to start the day

After work I went to buy linens at TK Maxx. I found it strange that all of the sheets were "hotel issue white" and the majority of them are sold as separates. In the separates there were lots of fitted and top sheets but the pillowcases all came in packages with duvet covers. I was luckily able to find 1 sheet set. Maybe it was just the store I was in but there definitely did not seem to be a plethora of options of thread counts, colours, styles, etc. From my foray through the bedding section I have confirmed that there are only 3 bed sizes - single, double, and super-king. A double is the equivalent of a Queen sized bed in the US.


If a bedroom is listed as a single it most likely can only hold a twin bed. One of the bedrooms in my flat has a double in it but there is no room to walk around. The bed is most likely going to be taken out in the next few weeks. This room should be classified as a single.

I got back to my flat and started to get settled in. I realized a few strange things that I didn't noticed when viewing the flat. For instance - the bathroom does not have a toilet paper holder, medicine cabinet, or a mirror over the sink. However, it does have a towel warmer which seems to be pretty standard for bathrooms in England. The other added bonus in the bathroom that I discovered this morning is a complete lack of water pressure in the shower. The bathroom has decent pressure however when I pulled the switch for the "overhead bath" there was barely a drizzle. As I moved the shower head around the drizzle stopped completely. My guess is that this is not normal so a plumber is coming to visit me on Thursday.

I made it to Heathrow for my flight to Amsterdam - all the hoopla over the proposed strike seemed to have scared many people away. The airport was quite empty. A BA representative tried to direct me to check in for my flight at BA instead of KLM thinking that I had inadvertently gone to the wrong counter to check in. As we were being pushed back from the gate the plane jolted which caused the flight attendants to stop their safety spiel. Turns out something happened to the towbar, the plane wasn't damaged and we took off.

I managed to navigate my way through the Amsterdam airport to the train station for my ride to Amersfoort where our office is located. At the Amersfoort train station it was interesting to see the hundreds of bikes that were racked up, seems like the most popular mode of transportation is the bike. Didn't have time to take pictures of anything, maybe tomorrow or on the next trip.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Ok, here I go with my first blog comment (for those of you that have been jonesing for my my dribble...cheers). the house looks great! Even the lack of basic emenities like a TP dispenser. After taking the long weekend before x-mas to look for flats with Dawn, I am thrilled with this flat. It was a real eye opener to see what were standard living emenities for the Brits (not bad, but different). On a second note: when I was in Amsterdam, I stayed with friends on a house boat on Grasweg . It was really cool. One day the gangplank broke with me and my friend and all the groceries. We all went right into the drink.

Anonymous said...

I have shared your blog address with Lorraine and Andy so they can follow your travels and adventures. I have also printed out your blog to share with grandma. The flat sounds it needs your tender loving touch. Who needs toilet paper holder anyways. Have a nice day. Love Mom

Amy said...

I had forgotten about all the bikes in Amsterdam. The train station there is surrounded by bikes. Probably close to a thousand. Motorcycle, bike and scooter were the preferred transportation modes since the roads were so tiny. All the houses also had pulleys on the roof because you couldn't fit sofas and other furniture through the stairwells. You lifted them up and throuhg the windows. Just like when we moved into my place. :)