Day 72 – Back to the USA

We woke early, finished packing the things we still needed in the morning and headed to the airport. It would not be a last day without drama however. I almost didn’t make it back. Our taxi driver was a little late and so when we drove to the airport, we lost Scott. When we got there, I realized that Scott had the money. So as I was sitting in the front seat, I started going through my purse to see if I had any other bills other than those in my wallet. When we arrived at the airport, we luckily saw Scott so he gave the money to the driver and Ainsley and I took all of the bags while Emily and Scott returned the car. Since we had actually made up the time with the taxi driver, we still were doing well. When Scott & Emily met up with us, we checked our bags and Ainsley & I went to customs to get our VAT tax refunded. Then we headed through security. (You don’t have to take your shoes off to go through security at Heathrow). Scott & the girls went to a restaurant for some breakfast when I went to stand in line to get the actual VAT refunded. I only got stamped at the first place.

While standing in line, Emily comes running over with Scotts cell phone saying that we had left a bag in the car. I was confused and thought that the only bag that could have possibly been left just contained shortbread, so I sent her back to Scott and continued to wait. Just as I got to the front of the line and looked in my purse and didn’t see my wallet, Scott comes over saying the taxi driver has my wallet and is driving around the airport so I could go get it. So I grabbed my passport & boarding pass and tried to get out to meet the taxi driver. One BIG issue, I have to go back through Customs. Luckily, very luckily, I got to go to the front of the line (we are talking saving an HOUR at least.) The conversation went something like this:

Customs officer: What brings you to the UK?

Me – My wallet, I left it in my cab

Customs officer – How long will you be in the UK?

Me- 5 minutes if I can find my taxi driver easily. My plane boards in 45 minutes for the US.

Customs officer – Ok, you can go.

It wasn’t that simple, I did a lot of hand waiving and quick explaining but I think she felt bad for me and let me go pretty quickly. I guess I don’t look like a terrorist – that’s a good thing. So I sprinted to departures, found the taxi driver, gave him a HUGE tip for bringing back my wallet, sprinted back through security and then ran all the way to our plane with 25 minutes until take off. If you remember my first entry about how far it is to the gate when we arrived, you will understand why I was dripping in sweat. At least I got a workout for the day. Shockingly, the girls and Scott had not yet boarded. Nothing like a little last minute drama. The summer wouldn’t be complete without it.

The flight back was pretty uneventful. It was not the “new” entertainment system which meant that they had 9 movies that looped 3-4 times during the flight. Luckily 2 of the movies were kid friendly. When the captain said we’d be landing in 5 minutes, the girls let out a little cheer and the British gentleman sitting next to me looked up. I explained that we had lived in Richmond for the summer and that we were all excited to be going home. He said he lived in Reading, near the Costco. I find out that there was a Costco 5 minutes before we land. Figures!

Hope everyone has enjoyed reading about our crazy summer. It is nice to be back.

Day 71 – Packing and Cleaning

So pretty much all day, we packed. Last night, I made cookies. As a break from the packing, we delivered the cookies to two of our neighbors (along with the 2 plates I had bought so I could use the microwave). We also gave one neighbor the extension cord that we bought since we had to borrow theirs before we bought our own. Then we headed down to Malcolm and Julia’s house to give Malcolm the remaining ½ of the Pimms that we bought on our first grocery store trip. When we showed it to Malcolm’s wife, she said it would not go to waste. She was actually surprised that we still had ½ left after 10 weeks. She was baking at the time, so I ran home and grabbed the baking supplies that we had purchased and would not be taking with us. The girls went out to Malcolm’s back yard and saw all of the fruit trees in his garden. He also keeps bees and canary’s. It was a wonderful garden. Scott came home around 5 to help pack as well. Then we went to the New Inn for our last pub dinner. I had to make a quick run to the library since as a part of my cleaning, I discovered 1 more book that should be returned. When we arrived home, Laura had gotten home from work. So we brought her some cookies and more stuff that we would not be taking with us. The girls said goodbye to Archie. It was a sad parting. Then we headed back to the house to go to bed.

Day 70 – A visit with Aunt Mary’s Brother, Madame Tousseauds and Lion King

So today, we made our last trek into the city. First stop on the agenda: visit with Michael. Michael is my Aunt Mary’s brother. He lives in London, in Earls Court – a station we were very familiar with. The last time I saw Michael was 25 years ago. He remembered me as a kid. We texted him right before we pulled into the station so we knew where to look for him. He was standing right on the other side of the turnstile. He looked pretty much as I remembered, a little less hair. He kept motioning to me and pointing to the girls to say that he remembered me looking like them. He couldn’t believe I have two daughters about the same age as Denise & I were when we first met him when he lived with my aunt & uncle so many years ago. We walked over to the Costa for some tea and muffins. (the same Costa I met the guy I work with a few weeks ago).

The girls brought some paper to write on which worked out very well as we wrote notes back and forth to each other. My sign language is pretty much where I left off when Michael taught me 25 years ago so writing was WAY faster. I was just amazed at how hard it must be to be deaf on your own in the city. Michael insisted on paying but when they said the tea was ready, Michael couldn’t hear them say it. I guess the Costa employee missed my pathetic attempt of sign language when we were deciding what to order. It was a very nice visit. It was Michael’s last day at his work – he was switching locations and some of his coworkers were throwing him a little goodbye party so he had to go. It was so nice that we got to see each other.

After that, we headed to Madame Tousseauds Wax museum. Since it was now September, we were able to use our Merlin Passes again. Madame Tousseads was pretty packed but because we had our trusty Merlin Passes, we got right in. The museum has 5 floors. You take an elevator to the top floor and then make your way down. When we got off of the elevator, we stepped into the “Hollywood” floor. We got pictures with Harry Potter, Miley Cyrus, Lady Gaga and a few others. The next floor was the sports floor. Not as exciting for any of us so we did not get any pictures. But we did see a bunch of people we (mostly me) recognized – Tiger, Beckham, Ali.

The third floor was all political/historical figures. There we recognized A LOT of people. The girls hung out with Martin Luther King and Obama. They posed with Lady Di, Prince William, and Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip. You have to do a double take when you see the picture, the wax figures look so real. The next floor was a scary floor that they were too young to get into. Then at the bottom, we went to see a 4-D Marvel Comics movie. The girls loved it. Our seats shook when the Hulk walked in the movie. And Spiderman looked like he was swinging right into us. It was a fun museum, so glad we ended up making it to visit. After that, we headed back to Richmond to meet Scott at the house.

Scott took the girls back to the city after a quick dinner to see the Lion King. I opted to stay back at the house to do some work and start packing/cleaning. Scott actually took the bus and the tube into the city – I think a first on his own for the whole summer. When they got to the stop for the Richmond Train station, the girls pressed the button to tell the bus to stop – Scott didn’t even realize it was the correct stop. The girls got off the bus, turned right to go to the tube. Then they automatically knew which gate to go through as well as what track to go to. Scott said it was pretty funny – they knew EXACTLY what to do since we had done it so often throughout the summer. They liked Lion King, although they weren’t as into the music like Wicked or Phantom. Then they all rode the tube back out, decided that the wait for the bus would be too long and took a taxi back to the house.

A great way to end the summer of non-stop activity.

Day 69 – Changing of the guard, Buckingham Mews

So, we finally made it to see (sort of) the changing of the guard at Buckingham. We arrived exactly on time which was late because the crowds were so big that we could not see much. The process takes 30 minutes and we lasted about 15 before we decided to head to see the Mews. As we were walking, I thought I recognized a song that the band (they had a band playing almost the whole time during the ceremony). I could have sworn it was the theme song from Hawaii 5-O. But that seemed wrong, so I chalked it up to bad memory. Then as we kept walking, the band began to play Thriller. Now there was no mistaking that. I actually saw one of the tourists doing the “claw” move in the dance. That seemed so odd to me to be playing Thriller at the changing of the guard.

Since we had all of our tickets stamped when we came to Buckingham a few weekends ago, we could get into the palace, gallery & Mews for a year. Since we had not seen the Mews, we decided to go check it out. The Mews is where the Royal carriages & horses are kept. We got our recorders and got to see and learn about the various carriages used by the royals over the years. We saw the carriage Lady Di & Prince Charles used as well as the one that Kate Middleton & Prince William used last April. We also got to draw our own carriages and decorate them in the kids room. And we even got to see some horses which of course both girls loved.

Then since we were in the city, we made a visit to the TFL lost and found to see if anyone had turned Emily’s coat in (she had left her fleece on the train one of the times we went to the city). Unfortunately, it was not turned in so. Then we headed to the tube station to return one of our Oyster cards (I kept one just in case Scott ever needs it when he goes to London for meetings). Then we returned home.

Day 68 - Errands, errands, errands

Today was a day of errands. First on our to-do list was to visit the library to return the books we had taken out. We had already returned everything to the Ham library so all we had to do was return to the Tudor Drive Library. After the Library, we took the bus into Kingston.

So after living here for almost 9 weeks, we came to the conclusion that we would need to purchase another luggage bag to bring the new stuff back. So today, we went to pick up our new (inexpensive) luggage bag at Argos. We probably walked past this store at least 10 times this summer and never went in. That was a bummer to discover it in the last week. Argos is mainly a catalog/internet based Amazon.com (which they have here as well). But what is unique to Argos, is that they actually have retail space as well. Their stores are for the most part empty of product on the floor. But they have rows of catalogs. When you find the item you want (or online as I did), you go to the cash register to pay. They issue you a number and you get in line while another employee (actually a few) go in the back to fetch the item. It was so easy. And a lot of their items are not too expensive. (They differ from Amazon which carries all sorts of brands.)

Then we headed back on the bus to Ham to the dry cleaners. I had to pick up Scott’s coat that he bought in Scotland. Over the summer, the dry cleaner owner and I gotten to know each other so we said our goodbyes. He is really nice, we had some really nice chats over the summer – he even gave me a break on the cost of the coat hem as a farewell present. Then we headed to the Sandy Lane playground for our last time. We stayed there for awhile. The girls started playing with 2 girls around their age who were visiting their grandparents. All of the girls had a good time. Figures Emily & Ainsley find playmates the week we are leaving.

Then we headed home for dinner and bed.

Day 67 - What we will miss about the UK (and what we won't miss)

Our last Monday in London was pretty uneventful. Most of the day was spent doing laundry and catching up from being on vacation. The girls watched some movies online. A few weeks ago, Scot downloaded a program that allowed the girls to watch movies in the UK online – something that is hard to do because of copyrights in the UK. We ran into it a lot. When I tried to order something from Amazon.com, it wanted to charge me international shipping because it could tell I was logging in from the UK. Crazy how “smart” the computer can be. It was also a day for trying to use stuff up. Our lunch and dinner comprised of some very off combinations:-).

We did make a list of the things that we really will miss in the UK and what we were really not going to miss. What we were going to miss was the following:

#1 – Public Transportation. We loved (especially me) taking the bus, the tube or just walking to where we needed to go. I know that as soon as we are back, it will be the car for everything – even if I want to take a bus, I still have to drive to get there.

#2 – Crosswalks. There is a special name for the crosswalk that I don’t remember but, how nice that cars stop when you step into one. Actually they stop if you look like you are going to step into one. We always looked to make sure the cars would stop (you never know – an American could be driving) but once we were in there, I didn’t have to hold the girls hands because I knew the cars were stopped. That does not really happen back home.

#3 – No-idling car. Our first rental car had a feature that turned the engine off when we waited at a red light. How cool is that! I think some cars – hybrids do that back home as well. But that car was a diesel and it did it. Just think of all of the gas and emissions could be saved in the Kiss and Ride line at school.

#4 – Yellow lights. In the UK ( and elsewhere in Europe), the stoplight turns yellow both ways. It signifies when a green light is going to turn red AND when a red light is going to turn green. Very cool to know.

#5 – My new dryer. Ok I actually will miss the dryer here – not the washing machine, just the dryer. The dryer has a resevoir to collect the water from the clothes since there is no dryer vent. So after every load of laundry, I had to clean the lint screen and dump the water. But I thought it was pretty cool feature. One time, I even watered the plants with the water from the dryer. I wouldn’t drink it but it was a different feature.

#6 – Relatively no bugs. Spring is always a fun time at home. At the bus stop, swarms of gnats buzz all around. But not here. We hardly saw any gnats, flys or mosquitoes (save Austria & Hungary). It was so nice to go play in a field and not be swatting away the bugs.

Now we also listed out what we would not miss.

#1 – Lack of customer service. In many of our dealings this summer, we noticed a general attitude that the customer was last, or at least definitely not first. It is probably a better attitude for life in general, but I am used to the way it is back home. There is definitely a concern for the employee rather than for making an extra pound. I told my boss that when I come home, I am going to go to the Giant at 11:55pm on a Sunday just because I can.

#2 – The old washer/dryer combo and new washing machine. I told a friend back home that when I got home, I would kiss my washer & dryer. She thought that was a funny thing to say but laundry in the 1^st few weeks of our time here was pretty horrible. Now that was before I got the new dryer which I ended up liking. But I still miss my washing machine. I can’t wait to do a load of laundry as 1 load back home is the same as doing 3 loads here (and they take longer – even the eco cycle on the new machine takes longer than a normal load back home). I like the fact that at least there is an eco-cycle on the new one. The old one was so old, the manufacturer didn’t even have the instruction manual.

#3 – Our house. It has been many years since I rented. And when we did rent, it was either in school or a rental community so the lessors really did a good job of maintaining the space. But renting from a private person who has never rented before definitely proved to be a somewhat downer to the trip. I miss our house where things are maintained. Sure, it isn’t perfect but if it is broken, we can fix it. Not have to go through a rental agency who then takes a week to get back to us because she has to clear it with the landlord who is on holiday and unreachable. I can’t wait to sleep in our bed with proper covers.

#4 – Air conditioning and/or screens. For the most part, it has been a heavenly summer for weather. I really don’t remember rain slowing us down too much. And given the heat wave back home, I felt bad to say it was 25C/72F and sunny. But on the few days where it pushed into the 30’s (Celsius), it got “hot” on the 2^nd & 3^rd floors. We opened the windows and discovered that there were no screens the first week. And definitely no AC. And usually, it really was not needed. Now I understand that the house is very old so the windows are probably not cookie cutter where you could install screens easily. But this was everywhere.

#5 – My car. I know that my #1 Pro-UK was the public transportation and I really did love being able to get around so easily. But sometimes, a car would be nice. I did get to drive last week in Austria so that was good – at least I don’t forget how to do it. But sometimes taking the bus with 3 bags of groceries during rush hour was hard and a car that I could just put my bags in was dreamed of. Pretty soon, that is all I’ll be able to do which is a little sad too.

Day 66 – Hungary and London Sunday Roast

We said our goodbyes to everyone early this am – except Lolo who was still sleeping. Norbert drove us to the airport for our flight back to London. The flight was uneventful. How nice that it is only 2 hours to another country (while flying over 3 others first). We arrived in London early so when we got back to the house, we quickly called the New Inn to see if they were still serving Sunday Roast and they were. So we quickly ran up there and had Sunday Roast. We had Sunday Roast the first Sunday at the Dysart and the last Sunday and the New Inn which was very nice – although truth be told, I liked it better at the first place.

Then we headed back to the house to unpack, do some laundry and head to bed. A very low key last Sunday in London.