Different Park, Different Day

This one is a short one, because there aren't really any pictures to go with it. The offer we put down on the flat in Soho was accepted, and we had to pay half an arm to get it pulled from the market. We also had to switch hotels, because our time had come at Chancery Court. So we switched to one that was literally across the street from Hyde Park.

It rained on us as we walked from High Holburn to Park Lane. We walked because we're probably the stupidest people ever.

The next day was cold and windy, but not raining, so we took the kids to one of the playgrounds at Hyde. Apparently there's a pet cemetery by that playground, which I didn't discover until afterward, or trust, I would have been poking around. I was too tired to take pictures, and M didn't do it until after I admitted defeat and hiked back to the hotel room to take a nap. But the ones he got came out pretty nice, I think. The first one looks like fake backdrop, no?

The Punks in Camden Town

. . .Are not right on the border between Westminster and Camden. I was disappointed. I was also a little disappointed that the walk from High Holburn (where we were staying) to Regents Park was almost 40 minutes each way. I guess you get spoiled really quickly by almost a week of "just 5 minutes up the road by foot."

So yeah, 40 minutes. Why 40 minutes? Not to see the park. Hahaha. I laugh at such nonsense. No, it was because M wanted to go to Pizza Hut. Yes, you read that right. We walked 40 minutes for a fast-food restaurant that a) we have in the States and b) had another location about a. . .5 minute walk from the hotel. It was worth the walk to stop by Regents, though. We only got to see a tiny portion of the park, which was the south-east playground. It was amazing. Pretty big, lots of (dangerous) stuff to do. The kids had a blast. Mini-Minion begged to go in the sand pit. All the kids had their shoes off, so I made like a sheeple and took hers off as well. Of course 60 seconds (maybe) later, she was done with the sand. And then her shoes wouldn't go on right, so it took way longer to put them back on than she was even in the darn sand pit.

Mini-Minion has been very independent lately, and she refused the baby swings. She is ready to sit on the big swings. But swinging frightens her a bit, so she just sort of wants to sit there, or barely move. I guess if it's fun for her, that's all that really matters at the end of the day.

That's sort of par for the course with her, though, because she really wants to do most things that move, but when they actually start moving, she gets really mad at the person who caused them to move. It's amusing about 90% of the time, depending on how much sleep I got the night before and whether or not food was involved immediately beforehand.

And here comes the problem. See the picture below? This was the last picture taken before Mini-Minion decided to cross a rope bridge meant for older kids, lost her footing, slipped through the side of the rope, got her foot caught, and semi-hung upside down by her foot for a fraction of a second before falling all the way into my arms. It scared her enough for her to start crying. . .and then she wanted to get back up on the bridge. Sigh.

That little incident obviously meant it was time to go home. We walked by UCL on the way back, and. . .we'll see. I just walked down Gower Street, so I didn't get the full effect. I didn't see the archaeology department. I'm waiting, hoping to be pleasantly surprised.

Mr. A's Wild Ride

Before we left the States, I promised Mr. A that we would take one of the sightseeing bus tours around London the first Sunday after we landed. So that's what we did. M stayed with Mini-Minion while we went. He said they were planning to find a small square with hopefully a bit of playground equipment. More on that later.

How interested was Mr. A in this long-awaited tour? So interested that he spent probably 75% of it carefully poring over the pamphlet he got on the London Dungeon. He even spoke over our live guide several times until I had to tell him, "Would you PLEASE be quiet and just listen?" So. . .he basically got nothing out of the tour. But it was a fun day for him, and he finally got to ride on the top of a double-decker bus, so it wasn't a total loss.

We got off the bus at the Tower of London so we could take our river cruise. Mr. A begged to go to a playground across the street, so I gave him 30 minutes to play. I was taking pictures of him, and it wasn't until I really looked at them on the camera that I realized, this kid is playing on this playground, and the Tower of freaking London is in the background. Just there. No big deal, right?

Before we got on the boat, Mr. A wanted something to eat. So like an idiot, I took him to a hole-in-the-wall place by the Tower. Why? Why? Seriously, why? Then, to add insult to injurious price, I ordered an American hamburger. Made by Eastern Europeans. In London. It tasted startlingly similar to the old ground up hamburgers they used to serve in cafeterias back when parents didn't care what their kids ate. I gave it to Mr. A, because his hot dog wasn't enough for him. He didn't complain about the taste.

Our river guide was hilarious, and I wish Mr. A had actually paid any attention to him. But he did like the cruise, and he picked up a few tidbits on it that I'm sure he's forgotten. As a side note, I explained drawing and quartering to him the other day when we were talking about the Tower, and of course, the guide mentioned it on the cruise, and of course Mr. A didn't forget about that one. I thought his eyes were going to make like a pug's and pop out of his head when the words "drawn and quartered" came out of that guide's mouth.

After our cruise docked, we decided to walk home. It was sprinkling a little, so we made a few stops on the way, which was really nothing short of serendipitous, because as we were approaching a street where we would have turned left to go north-east, who did we see coming exactly toward us (heading west -- that's important)? M and Mini-Minion! No joke. All of London, and we're a good 15 minutes away from the hotel, and we run into those two. M told us his sad tale of getting mixed up in London, and how he headed north until he realized the river was south, and blah, blah, blah. He had been walking for about 2-3 hours at that point.

"But it's ok," he said. "Because now I've finally figured out which way is which."

"So where are you going?" I asked.

"We were on our way back to the hotel," he said.

"So, why are you headed west when our hotel is north-east of here?" I asked.

He turned around, looked at some of the buildings, and said: "D'oh!" Poor M.

We all set off toward the hotel, stopping on the way on the street I'm obsessed with: Drury Lane. I get the giggles every.single.time we walk down it. Why is there no Muffin Man shop on Drury Lane? Someone is not taking advantage. So that will be my first investment when I'm rich. Then M can be the Muffin Man.

Drury Lane has a small square with a playground, and it has pretty cool equipment. So we hung out there for awhile until we all got too hungry and wanted to go home. It was a really long day.

In case you're wondering (some people do. . .), yes, Mini-Minion wore the same clothes two days in a row. Before Mr. A and I left, I said, "Have fun picking out her clothes!" Well, he didn't. He just picked up dirty clothes and slapped those on her. So I give him a B- for effort. But at least he tried!

Out of Greyscale, Life in Technicolor

London is amazing. I could gush on and on annoyingly about its amazingness, but I'll refrain. Mostly because I think you'll all see its amazingness in these blog posts. It sells itself.

The first night we were here, we walked over to Soho to take a look at the flat we're booked to view on Monday. LOVE it. Love the neighborhood, love the building, love EVERYTHING about it (except maybe the price, but what can you do?). Soho is ALIVE. Like Paris is alive.

The second day, M had to start work, so I took the kids to Russell Square to run off some energy. It was nice. Not really a kid park, but it was still nice.

Today we were going to go to Regent's Park, but I didn't think M would have enough time before starting work at 4PM, so we'll put that off until Monday. We went south to the river instead and walked across Millennium Bridge. The other side of the river usually has street performers when we're here, and it's fun to see what's going on. Today we stopped at a man with his dog doing. . .I'm not exactly sure what. The man had trained his dog to be obsessive in the "I want to marry you" way about balloons. The dog wouldn't give the balloon up. He didn't rip a hole in it surprisingly, but the gimmick was for kids to come up and try to take the balloon from the dog's mouth.

Mr. A went up first and was a little insane. I'm surprised he didn't scare the poor dog into jumping into the Thames. Yikes. M kept shouting, "Slow down! Don't lunge at the poor thing!" Mr. A just got caught up in the excitement.

Mini-Minion was up next. She mostly chased the dog and laughed, and I think the guy got a big kick out of her. It's hard not to laugh when a baby does.

A few feet down was this crazy area with a dance troupe and gigantic furniture made from astro turf. Obviously it was a huge hit with the kids. I won't lie. . .I kind of wanted to jump on it myself. I'd totally have that in the tacky house I live in inside my head.

The Trip Part 2

We got into Dusseldorf right on time, but it really wouldn't have mattered, because our layover was about 4 hours. We went through border control, and I got to pull out my shiny new passport for the first time. They didn't stamp it. Boo.

We had no idea which gate to go to, because our flight was so far away it wasn't even up on the board yet. That's never a good sign. :)

When we got off the flight, our stroller, which we had checked at the gate, was not waiting for us. M asked about it, and the flight attendants sort of shrugged and said, "Maybe it'll go through to your final destination." Gee, that's comforting.

We finally figured out where we were supposed to be going, and we headed for the gate with about three hours to kill. There was absolutely nothing by the gate, but we figured Mini-Minion would fall asleep again soon. The funny thing was, just our little gate section was guarded by border control. We had to have our passports looked at again before going to our gate.

Now comes M's favorite part of the day. The border control agent came up to us after about 10 minutes and says, "What time does your flight leave?" in German. I stared blankly, because I'm pretty sure my mind was like those eggs in the drug-free commercials of the 80s at that point. M said, "Sorry, we don't speak German." Theeeen, homeboy in uniform said, "She's German, no?" and points to me. Yeah. Yeeeah. M started laughing, and I launched into my embarrassing spiel. Guardman laughed it off, and explained he's closing down the area and asked if we can come back in an hour or two. So we exited and sat down at a cafe right outside the area.

We were all pretty dead at that point, but Mini-Minion passed out within 10 minutes of me turning on a movie on my iPad for her. We were in a booth, so it was pretty comfortable for her. I told M to take a nap for the hour or so we had left after eating, and Mr. A and I just hung out for the rest of the time.

While we were eating, I thought about our luggage situation and how we were going to get everything to the hotel. I'm glad I did that, but I'll get to all that later.

Finally it was time to board the plane. Mini-Minion stayed asleep not only through boarding, but also through the whole flight. So I slept, too. It was the first hour of uninterrupted sleep I'd had in two days.

We landed at Stansted, and clearing border control was a breeze. There was no line, and our luggage was waiting for us as soon as we got the carousel. So was our stroller. With a bent wheel. Bummer. We filed a claim, and I've got to call them about it. Apparently we've got to buy a new stroller, and they'll reimburse us for it? It's still a pain. The stroller is workable, but it's definitely got a little wobble to it now.

When I came back from filing the initial claim, M was staring helplessly at our bags with a bungee cord in his hands. "This is physically impossible," he said.

"No, it's not," I said. I was actually excited to see the bungee cord, because it made my plans even easier. I tied two of the bags together with the bungee cord, and two of the other bags together with a strap from my swimsuit (whatever in a pinch, right?). Thankfully we bought suitcases with the four swivel wheels. Mini-Minion stayed in her stroller with her backpack underneath, and I slung my purse and two carryons over the handles of her stroller. I dragged a suitcase behind me while pushing her, M pushed the two connected bundles of suitcases, and Mr. A pulled the carryon that wasn't hanging from the stroller. M had his backpack and laptop bag. It was hard, but it worked.

I booked a trip on Terrevision into Central London, and it was pretty great. The buses were nice and clean, and the trip only took 50 minutes for pretty darn cheap. Besides, they didn't limit our luggage, unlike some of the other buses.

I was pretty stuck on what to do when we got to London, though. My idea worked great for the airport, but I knew it wouldn't be ok on the tube. M said he remembered hearing about minivan cabs in London, so we decided to go that route. After a few minutes of trying to find one, we finally got someone to take us. It only cost 10GBP or so to the hotel, so I'm not complaining.

We made it to the hotel in one piece with our 10 million bags. It was really nice to sleep in a comfortable bed and to finally be done with the traveling part.

The Trip Part 1

Whoa, those last few days were intense. To be honest, I can barely remember them. They involved lots of selling and lots of cleaning. In the end, we sold absolutely everything that wasn't in our suitcases or in those 18 boxes, with the exception of a few stuffed animals and some DVDs that M forgot to pack.

Things were going great packing-wise until I looked up Air Berlin's luggage policy. Only one checked piece per person, up to 50lbs, and one carry-on piece that could weigh up to 13lbs. THIRTEEN. 17lbs if there was a laptop inside. Schnikeys. That really threw a wrench in the plans. It's my fault. I should have checked before I left all this stuff to pack. We had to buy an additional suitcase (for a total of 5 checked, because the additional bag fee was only $40). Even still, we weighed in at roughly 44lbs, 47lbs, 47lbs, 55lbs and 61lbs. Not terrible, but two of those would have been subjected to $25 per piece fees for being overweight. So we shifted things around a little bit, and everything was under except the 61lb. bag. Our carry-ons were 10lbs, 16lbs. and 24lbs. I was freaking out over those, but decided to cross that bridge when we came to it.

Our aunts drove us to the airport. I stayed up all night before repacking our suitcases, so I was DONE. I was sort of in and out of consciousness for most of the trip. The As behave well, and in fact, Mr. A was so quiet, we joked that we had forgotten him at home.

Our aunts had to leave as soon as our stuff was out of the car, so we made our way inside with 5 suitcases, a stroller, three carry-ons, a laptop bag, a huge purse (filled with books because of our weight restrictions), and two backpacks. M had the brilliant idea of checking our weights at an unused counter so we could sort ourselves out before checking in. We actually managed to redistribute the weight enough so that everything was right at the limit. We weren't charged extra at all, except for our additional bag.

We had to board our flight pretty quickly after getting to the gate. Mini-Minion was out before the plane even took off, and I had high hopes for her sleeping most of the flight. She slept for 3 hours, which isn't bad at all. . .except when you've got another 8 hours ahead of you. Air Berlin isn't the worst airline, I'm sure, but this plane was not designed for transatlantic flights. There are much better options out there. We sweated through most of the flight.

Mr. A was basically silent through most of the flight. He did sleep a little, but only for a few hours. Mini-Minion slept off and on, and generally did ok, but she did have a few brief freak outs. I've got to cut her some slack, though, because this all has to be so disorienting for her. At one point, though, I told her to sit down, and she told me, "I am NOT a child!" Thank you, The Little Mermaid!

Sorry

I know I fail at blogging sometimes. It's not really that I don't have anything to say. Here's a wrap-up of what's been going on:

- On 7/28, I got a call from the German Consulate saying my passport was ready for pickup. I was SHOCKED, because I thought it would be at least another 2-4 weeks before I heard anything. We made our flight reservations for 8/18 after they called.

- I picked up my pretty new red Reisepass the following Monday in Los Angeles in a horrible round-trip day that lasted just about 12 hours. That night, I filled out the paperwork for M and the kids to get their EEA Family Permits from UK Border Control, but the soonest biometrics (fingerprinting and stuff) appointment was on Thursday, 8/5. Boo to that! Mr. A couldn't get an appointment until 8/6 (triple boo), but Mini-Minion doesn't need one at all (huzzah!).

- M went in for his biometrics appointment on 8/5 and took Mr. A with him on the off chance they would allow him to get his biometrics taken right then. They did! So we overnighted our application to the UK Consulate. They got the package at 10:30AM on 8/6.

- We had our going away party on 8/7. It was a little hard to get everything off the ground for the party, because we were packing up our 18 boxes as well. My house is still trashed from it. :( But we had a great time, and it was fun to hang out with everyone. M was the hit of the party with his version of Ballroom Blitz.

- 8/8 we had to pack the last 3 boxes that were being shipped, go to dinner with my grandparents, and load up all the boxes in the back of a pickup so they could go down to LA the following day.

- Yesterday, I made the trip down to LA AGAIN. I could really do without making that trip again, and most of my goodwill has temporarily gone. It was another 12-hour day. But all 18 boxes are in the hands of the shipping company.

- Another good thing from yesterday: M got his confirmation email from the LA British Consulate saying they received his application and were processing it. Phew!