Home ownership is a very grown-up thing, but renovating your house – the kind of renovation that involves planning permission, structural engineers, architects, skips, and steel – feels a lot scarier.
We’ve just started what we hope will be a 3.5-month renovation that involves knocking down walls and lots of structural work across all three floors of our house.
It will be worth it, people tell us. I really do hope so.
Sometimes it feels like all the fun things to do in London involve paying for something. But a penny saved is a penny earned, and that’s specially true now with the baby. So I wonder, apart from walking around in parks, what else is there to be done in London that doesn’t involving reaching for the wallet? Is walking around really the only thing to do with a baby around here? (Assuming public or private transportation to get somewhere doesn’t count as spending money.)
One thing I learned after moving from Portugal to the UK, is that Portugal has one of the best ATM systems in the world. Yes, I was as surprised as you are.
So I find it quite odd that I can’t do 1,000 different things at the ATM. I always thought it was standard.
I also find it odd that when I buy something with my card, it’s not immediately reflected on the bank’s website, or that a bank transfer is not completed within 24 hours.
But it’s only money anyway.
Restaurants in London aren’t as expensive as I used to think they were.
The British Pound has been quite low, sometimes as low as the Euro. This made shopping in Portugal more expensive, particularly in international shops, like clothing stores. A dress in London can cost £40 while in the same shop in Portugal it will cost €60, which was once true, but it’s not anymore. So my advice is: if you’re visiting London and like to do some shopping, enjoy; if you’re visiting Portugal, spend the money on food instead, it’s well worth it.