Blair's Official Everything London Thread

[Canadian Turbo]

Re: Blair's Official Everything London Thread

The final stop of the trip was the German town of Neckarsulm, which is the headquarters of Quattro GmbH the makers of the RS line and special edition Audis, this is also the home of the R8 production.

The facility is essentially a large dealership where you can take delivery of your new Audi, pick up some souvenirs or have a nice lunch, they also of course have all the new RS models for you to check out and a very large Audi Exclusive department to help pick the special order combinations.













RS6 in satin black is so mean and so hot!!



















They also had a 30th Anniversary display with the history of the Quattro GmbH and RS cars over the years.











The previously discussed MK1 TT 2.7T

[Ur0Drivr]

Re: Blair's Official Everything London Thread

Thank you Blair. Awesome trip bud!

[Ponto]

Re: Blair's Official Everything London Thread

Oh wow that is awesome!

[Danaldson]

Re: Blair's Official Everything London Thread

nice! i would love to go there some day. also that a1 is sick.

[Canadian Turbo]

Re: Blair's Official Everything London Thread

Thanks guys it was indeed a lot of fun!!!

What A1 Dan?

[R_Ethug]

Re: Blair's Official Everything London Thread

awesome blair!

how was bart explaining to the other TTRS owner about his canadian plate ahhaha

[Canadian Turbo]

Re: Blair's Official Everything London Thread

awesome blair!

how was bart explaining to the other TTRS owner about his canadian plate ahhaha

He was a Brit so it was not too bad to explain, the undercover German police that pulled us over later in the day took a bit more convincing though

[Canadian Turbo]

Re: Blair's Official Everything London Thread

Well I guess it is time for another update as I am very close to my 2 year anniversary and it has been a while since I have updated this thread. Overall I am still very happy over here and I really do not have much to complain about. I am actually still not working so I can spend my time doing pretty much whatever I like, which of course can get a bit dull but it is indeed a nice break after working for 13 years non-stop. The economy and job market is improving here, however being on a limited visa makes it harder to find work, but I have taken a break from looking for a bit and no that my wife and I are in the final year of our visas we have to try and get an idea of what are future options are.

Regardless of those details, living here is still a lot of fun and there is just so much to do, that you almost need a full time assistant to keep track, plus a couple million to help make it all happen. At this point you are in music festival season, Wimbeldon has been going for nearly 2 weeks, British Grand Prix is this weekend and Goodwood was last weekend. There are big names in the theatres with both Martin Freeman and Benedict Cumberbatch doing Shakespeare this year and I am hopeful of getting out to both. There are even some more interesting events like the Back to the Future secret cinema screening which is showing the movie in a fully built replica of Hill Valley coming later in the summer, and I did manage to get a pair of tickets before they sold out too. There is also an abundance of free museums to visit and of course car spotting and people watching is still one of my favorite cheap activities, and depending on the part of town you never know what you will spot.

There are of course millions of people about and a lot of transit headaches that can easily put a wrench in your plans, but as long as you do a little planning ahead and give yourself plenty of time nothing is too difficult. With living in the suburbs too you do get to escape that chaos back at home and still have a little more space to enjoy too.

I am still finding the bulk of things not too expensive here; I am looking at new phones now (2 year contracts max here) and you can get new hardware for £0-29 (S5, iPhone 5s, Xperia Z2, LG G3, etc) up front and the max monthly is £40 which gets you unlimited everything, minutes, data and texts. Plus my company has agreements that you use your normal allotments/plans while away in other countries such as the US, Australia and a few in Europe which I have taken advantage of at least a couple times already. My wife did visit Calgary in May for work and she went to the Safeway upon arrival and grabbed a few snacks and drinks to have in her hotel and it worked out to be nearly $17 Cdn. For reference I did and equivalent shop at our local grocery stores website and it worked out to be £6.50, which even with exchange was significantly cheaper and you did get better quality items here too, like getting Evian compared with Dasani.

Well I am not sure what the future will hold and whether I will be writing a 3 year summary or not, ideally I would prefer to stay here but the decision is probably not going to be mine to make. Getting a visa renewal would provide enough time to get on to a permanent resident status if things continued to go well but I am really not sure at this point so I am just trying to enjoy things as best I can for the next number of months. If I begin working perhaps my views and life will change too, but I would like to give that all a try before my time comes to an end here. I truly feel lucky to live in one of the most interesting cities on the planet and I hope that experience can continue as long as I wish.

[Canadian Turbo]

Re: Blair's Official Everything London Thread

Well I have not updated this thread for quite some time but things here are still good and I very much enjoy being on this side of the world.

In the biggest news in quite some time, Sarah and I have just exchanged contracts and purchased our first UK home. It is a very small and very expensive flat in suburban London, but with prices here we just wanted to get into something and build some equity once again and it gets us on the ladder in such a crazy market, and it might actually be cheaper than our current rental, although with the drop in size that should be the case.

Anyway it is a brand new place (rare for here) and it is in a very nice part of town, and we will be getting the keys very soon!!!

The new building, we are on the ground floor in the back corner, but have a private terrace which is a big bonus, probably the best location in the building, and I even have a parking space to put nothing in!!

Just wanted to share!

[Spooling_turbos]

Re: Blair's Official Everything London Thread

Holy moly congrats Blair! What an achievement for you and Sarah. Now just build a detachable garage and you'll be set...oh wait..not Calgary anymore is it

P.S. spent a good hour this morning reading all 6 pages of this thread - some interesting facts and takes on living in London vs Calgary.
You've been to Calgary recently (was it a few months ago?) - what did you think of the city coming back after being away for some time?

-E

[CGY_GTI]

Re: Blair's Official Everything London Thread

That's awesome Blair, looks like a nice place! You'll just have to track down an Up! soon to put in that parking space haha.

[witchcraftz]

Re: Blair's Official Everything London Thread

Congrats! Go buy a scooter.

[nismodrifter]

Re: Blair's Official Everything London Thread

Congrats on the special purchase Blair.

[funkin]

Re: Blair's Official Everything London Thread

Awesome, looks like a wicked building, congrats!

[Ur0Drivr]

Re: Blair's Official Everything London Thread

Looks like a great place bud. Very happy for you two