England So Far

Things have been moving along in England. S...L...O...W...L...Y... Maybe I am just more impatient than I ever realized, but it seems that there are a lot of steps involved in order to get anything accomplished here. Part of the impatience on my part is that I want to buy a house or flat. It is a time consuming process and I would like to get settled sooner than later. There were a lot of steps along the path to buying a place that I glossed over in the planning. When I got hung up on my inability to get a bank account, pre-approved for a mortgage (called a "mortgage in principal" here), phone, and car quickly, it threw a monkey wrench in the whole planning time line.

It took me two weeks, but I finally have a bank account, cell phone (I got an iPhone; it's so good), and a car. I still haven't found a place to live permanently, but I am in a one bedroom apartment for the time being, renting month to month. Since I only got a car a few days ago, I only had yesterday to look at properties. The number one thing I learned is that actually going to the place and walking around the neighborhood is crucial. There are some nice looking houses that are in miserable neighborhoods. On the flip side, some pictures don't do some places justice.

My original plan was to buy a place for around £60,000, but there really isn't much in that range that is livable. My new target is to buy for under £90,000. Even at that price, the search isn't easy. Historically, at lot of the places I am looking at were only 1/3 of their current price 10-15 years ago. The past year has seen about a 20% reduction in real estate value, but many analysts suggest that the housing prices in Great Britain will continue to fall (some say by another 50%).

This is what £55,000 will get you in Leeds. I'm tempted, but it's in bad shape. Note the hole in the wall in the guest bathroom.

I understand that I could be making a costly mistake by buying here, but let me go on record as saying that I understand that and am willing to take the risk. Right now the pound is fairly weak against the dollar. For the past few years it has been around $2 to the £1. Right now the exchange rate is at about $1.55 to the £1. Who knows, maybe the pound will tank against the dollar, but historically, the current level seems to be the equilibrium. As you may have guessed, I'm hoping we get back to the $2/£1 in a couple of years when I will be looking to sell. At any rate, there is my line of thinking. If you ever hear me complaining that I made a bad decision, just refer me back to here.

Enough business time, right? How is England? In a word, it's cool. Cold on some days. It does rain a lot, but not in a bad way. It's also quite nice on most days when it's not raining. The temperature is lower than I thought it would be. I only brought one pair of jeans, so I have worn those every single day so far. I haven't washed them since I've been here, either, which is cool. The pants are starting to become shaped like my legs even when I'm not wearing them.

Back on topic. Ok, so cars here are cheap. I was thinking about buying a BMW, but there wasn't much room on the inside. I also looked at a Hyundai Sonata, but the seller's paperwork was messed up. In fact, the majority of the paperwork on all of the cars was wrong. Great Britain's nit-picky system of constantly filling out forms does not mean things are done right administratively, it just means that people go around the rules in order to avoid the bother. On every car I looked at (which is about 10), the paperwork was wrong. The strange part is that on many occasions I had to explain why I wouldn't buy a car from someone when their name wasn't on the title. People would get upset with me because they thought I was insinuating that the car was stolen. And don't even get me started on customer service here. I walked out on buying a Honda Accord I wanted because the dealer was flat out rude. Anyway, I got so sick of searching for a car that I eventually bought one without even really looking at it. I went straight to the paperwork and it was all correct! I got so excited that I bought it. I didn't even sit in the car. Stupid, right? Yes, it was. The car smells like smoke, the radio doesn't work, the power windows don't work, and it didn't even have the floor mats in it. But, I do have a car. A 2001 Daewoo Lanos. I could have bought a 1998 or 1999 BMW 318 for the same price, but I didn't. Hopefully it was the right choice. Believe it or not, the cost to insure the BMW was about $15 a month cheaper. I don't understand that at all. The Lanos seems to be an ok car, but I have to down shift any time I come to an incline. 1.3 liters doesn't make for a large engine unless it is in a riding lawn mower.


I'm off topic again... England... Lots of stones; houses are all made of stones. So are the fences. If you could see how many stone fences there are, I don't think you would be able to imagine a stone being left over anywhere in the country. Not to mention the thousands of hours of work to build the fences. Thousands of miles of stone fences. I went on a 15 mile walk today in a place called Nidderdale and was most impressed by the number of stones I saw. Countless... There are sheep everywhere. Literally everywhere. I heard today that an adult sheep only costs £14 here. That's about $25. I'm not sure how much a sheep weighs exactly, but that seems like a lot of meat for a low price. Plus you could make an awesome sweater in the process.... The roads are insanely narrow. When you drive through some of these old towns, which could be a thousand years old or even older, you realize that 1) city planners didn't exist during England's glory days and 2) no one ever suspected cars would be so wide. Also, you can park almost anywhere. It's great if you want to pop in and buy something at a store (which no doubt closes at 5:00pm... even most "convenience" stores do.), but it makes driving through the already narrow streets even more interesting... Parks are also abundant. The city I am in right now, Harrogate, is famous for it's parks, but they all seem to be so well kept. Flower beds, trees, ponds, stone walks, and well manicured grass. I think they must have more grounds keepers here, per capita, then anywhere else I have ever been.


I guess that is it for today. I need to get some rest. This will be a big week for me. Up until know I have been hanging out trying to learn my job by watching, but starting this Friday the person I am replacing will be gone. I need to start asking more questions, but I am ready to take over. Oh, yeah; I'm going to Germany the following week. That should be fun as well.