The Marvelous Adventures Continue – Part 2: More Phone Nonsense, School Previews, and the Beauty Shop

Friday – last day of June. Mom kept the kids at home while I ran Steve down to work. I say “down” because it’s south of us. Have to be geographically correct. While we were driving, he asked if I would like to go into London with Mom on Saturday. Earlier, we had talked about everybody loading up and riding the train into London and then taking a double-decker bus tour. He was asking if I wanted to go with just Mom and he would keep the kids. I told him I would talk to Mom about it and I would think on it. We ended up deciding to take Julie with us and leaving the 2 big kids with Steve…more on the London adventure in the next post.

After Steve was delivered and I returned home, Mom and I continued working on laundry. I timed the washing machine – it takes 2 hours to wash a regular load of clothes. It takes longer to wash whites and shorter to wash “half loads.” Then it takes hours to dry the clothes on the line outside. And everything is stiff.

We had leftover Indian food for lunch, then headed out to some schools. We looked at Park Lane Primary for Caleb and Goldilocks Day Nursery and Dickory Docks Day Nursery for Audrey. We got a prospectus from each and a phone number for the main Reading Education Council to get information on getting Caleb into school.

After we got home, I got online and booked tickets for Mom and I to go on the big red bus tour tomorrow. Steve will have to print them out at work since we didn’t bring a printer with us. I guess if I get desperate to print something out I can go to the library down the street.

Dinner was “American Food” – pizza from the ASDA. It was decent. Then the kids got their first bath in a claw-foot tub. It’s huge! Mom later decided to use the shower in our bathroom and was not impressed with it. It’s one of those with the big shower head that goes directly over you when you stand in the shower stall. You can’t get away from the water flow because the stall is so small, so you are essentially rinsing off as you lather up.

Mom also discovered that there are no plugs in our bathrooms. No hair-doing in the bathrooms, I guess. But no worries – we have our own beauty shop. Part of the teeny-tiny garage was converted to a beauty shop when the landlady and her family lived here. There are 2 gigantic mirrors, great lighting, and tons of plugs. The washing machine and a sink are also out here. Mom did her hair down there every day and I’m following suit. My hair dryer and curling iron are in there, as well as my hairspray and hairbrush.

Speaking of the landlady, Steve called her today and asked about a TV. It seemed she was reluctant to provide one and said she would call the letting agents. They don’t manage the property, just find tenants. So far we haven’t heard anything from either of them about a TV and it’s been 10 days. I think we’re on our own about a TV.

I called BT again and got somebody with half a brain. She actually told me that their system was showing some kind of error on the other line, but it wasn’t showing what the error was. She asked if she could put me on hold while she investigated it. While I was on hold, I was disconnected. Shame – she sounded halfway intelligent. At least we know that there’s some kind of error now.

Next installment: London!