Tips for a life in London

• My wife and I just moved to London, and will be here for at least two years. We are trying to make it feel like home; and there are a lot of things that can make a place feel like home ... or make it feel like a strange new country. I have many specific questions, and also welcome general advice pertaining to life in London. We live http://maps.google.co.uk/?ie=UTF8&om=1&z=16&ll=51.507914,-0.229447&spn=0.006491,0.014548 (just north of Uxbridge Road, five blocks west of the Shepherd's Bush H&C tube stop), and my wife will be studying http://www.vam.ac.uk/ (five minutes from South Kensington tube station): for service-related things, we are interested in a combination of convenience, quality and price, so the closer, better, and cheaper, the better. Any and all help is appreciated. Food and Drink-Related: (F1) Good cheap supermarket? (F2) Good bakery? (F3) Good farmer's market? (F5) Good cheese shop or some other way to get a wide selection of good cheese? (F4) Bulk food store? (F5) Specific food items: where to get fresh spices, rice paper for spring rolls, coarsly ground cornmeal, organic flour? (F6) Good restaurants? Particularly Thai, Indian, West Indian, Italian, "Vegetarian", and Chinese? These ones don't need to be so close to home... (F7) Good homebrew supply store? (Related to this: any easy way to get empty beer bottles, particularly if they have flip tops such as those found on http://static.flickr.com/25/53703252_0be51f47cc_m.jpg?) (F8) Our best neighbourhood pub? (The closer the better ... not more than a 5 minute bike ride by safe streets.) (F9) Good kinds of beer that it might take a while to stumble upon? (F10) This is a longshot, but: is it possible to get bagels in London that are even 10% as good as in Montreal? Bodies: (B1) A good dentist? (B2) Good men's and women's hair salons? We both would prefer good haircuts to cheap haircuts. (B3) A gym? This one could be near home or near the V&A... Shops: (S1) A good bike shop? Our nearest bike shop -- A Fudge & Sons, located http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=W12+8NL&ie=UTF8&z=16&ll=51.506452,-0.233063&spn=0.00613,0.021544&om=1 - is no good to me: they have a very limited selection of parts and seem to cater only to the bikes they sell, which are mostly hybrids with straight handlebars. I ride a road bike (10-speed) with drop bars, my wife rides a road bike frame with funky monkey bars, and I maintain both bikes. Price is of moderate but not paramount importance. (Related to this: are there any bike coops that have workshop space for members?) (S2) Cheap computer parts and supplies? If you've ever walked along Spadina avenue in Toronto, you know the kind of store I mean ... the kind where you can buy a hard drive without the case, and most things don't come in a cardboard box. (S3) Related to (S2): a store that services Apple Macs? How about one that services Acer notebooks? (S4) A well-stocked hardware store? (S5) Office supply store? (S6) Record/CD stores (yes, there are still people who buy music)? (S7) Good bookstores, both new and used, that aren't on Charing Cross Road? (S8) Anywhere that sells math books (for mathematicians)? (S9) Good thrift stores, both for clothing and other household stuff? Miscellaneous: (M1) Live music that doesn't cost an arm and a leg? We both like a wide range of music, and know how to use the Time Out guide, but if there's anywhere that consistently has good blues, folk, or country where we can become regulars, we want to know about it. (M2) How to keep up our French, and how to improve our Spanish and Arabic? Hammersmith and Fulham has what looks like a great community courses program but the ones we wanted are all full. Any easy way to find someone to do a language swap? (For French, we are not looking to take courses but for more for social activities, French-language movie theaters, or any other ideas you oh-so-clever readers have). (M3) A good, safe bike route from http://maps.google.co.uk/?ie=UTF8&om=1&z=16&ll=51.507914,-0.229447&spn=0.006491,0.014548 to http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?ie=UTF8&z=16&ll=51.499233,-0.176361&spn=0.006492,0.014548&om=1? (M4) If we need a daycare, do we need to get on a waiting list a million years in advance? (M5) Do we need some special card or identification number in order to work? I am British and my wife is on a spousal visa, so we both have the right to work ... just interested in the technicalities as it will be our first time working in the UK. (M6) Where to get rubber boots and raingear? (M7) Is our water hard or soft? How can we tell? (M8) Feel free to ask and answer your own questions; I'm hoping this thread will end up as a resource not just for me but for other people!

• Answer:

  http://www.upmystreet.com/ and particularly the FindMyNearest function is a good starting point to finding where some of these things are actually located.