Day One Done

We had a near cancellation scare coming from Nashville to Dulles, but
after running our butts off, we made our flight. Very uneventful,
really. I slept more on the flight than I ever have. Unfortunately, I
think that left me TOO relaxed and I managed to leave my damn backpack
on the plane-my Treonwas in it, along with my straightener, my itouch
ac adaptor, my FAVORITE gold ballet flats and my cash previously
pictures. Thankfully, I'd taken my dad's camera out and had my
passport and debit cards in my other bag, so it wasn't as bad as it
could have been. I'm trying to just let it go..no stress.

Great tour guide, Gwen, and our hotel in a. great Earl's Court location.
Very clean and my room is HUGE for London.

We walked around Covent Gaedwn today. That's one place I never need to
see again. I'm really done with it: lots of tourists, pigeons,
overpriced food and bumpy cobblestones.

Dinner was Indian-some sort of curry chicken. Quite good. Early back
to hotel to deal with that clusterfvck and get folks in rooms, luggage
sorted, etc. I threw everyone into a tizzy by taking the wrong
suitcase and not realizing it. after freaking out one of my group for
thirty minutes, I realized the mix up.

Scary that I'm taking thirty people to the theater tomorrow night on
my own, isn't it?

Mudt go eat-I do it every hour here, without fail. Tomorrow is PRIMARK
DAY! I can hardly wait!

I'm Tired of Summits, Thank You Very Much

As mentioned, I was in London on 7/7. What I hadn't realized was that the bombings were linked to the G8 summit. Somehow that had slipped my mind. That's making the news of the massive protests over the G20 a little more unsettling to me. I just pray that my kids' parents aren't watching the news like I am right now. It's going to be a traffic and security nightmare as it is. I'm thinking the less we're on the Tube, the better and the sooner we're out of London, the better I'm going to feel. It really pisses me off to say that, too, since there is really no city in the world I'd rather be in than London.

I'm packed and about to change into plane clothes and load up the car. It's going to be a long night, but I'm hoping the cough medicine will kick in and knock me out on the way over. I don't want to be jetlagging on top of all this damn stress.

Testing posting via text even though my phone won't work overseas.

Email Posting

Just testing blogger via email.

Here We Go Again!

Tomorrow I leave for London on another school trip--10 days to London, Paris, Florence and Rome. I'm especially psyched because I've never been to Italy AND I have a better camera thanks to my daddy letting me borrow his. This trip will be more about pictures (and clothing, of course) than the chotski I usually buy. One can only have so many tiny Eiffel Towers and Big Bens, you know.

I thought that it would be best to document this trip from the earliest stages since I'm all about detail in the beginning and not so much at the end. ADHD in action, folks. Some may remember the great suitcase search of 2005--that was quite a struggle and I'm sorry to say that the suitcase is not making the trip this time because it was so frigging big I kept overloading it on the return trip. I've had to throw away books and overpack carryons every time, so that sucker is in the attic and in its place is a gorgeous new black Delsey that was a gift last Christmas...and I've probably already blogged about it because I lvoe my suitcase, but it's just that fabulous. Much better.

I'm trying to keep it to one suitcase and one carry on, plus my travel bag (which is enormous beyond all reason, but will look very chic in Paris). Packing has never been my strong suit, but I'm trying desperately to cut down on the clothes so I can bring cool new clothes home. The weather is going to be tricky since London and Rome are quite different, but so far, fingers crossed, rain isn't a big issue and it should be fairly warm. I'm the Queen of Jackets, so I'm doing the travel-wardrobe layering look. Shoes are a concern, but I'll make them work. Black is very forgiving.

I've waited to pack until tonight--aka the night before I leave. This is unlike me. Usually I have most non-clothing items packed, but not tonight. I started at 7:00 and, well, you can see how it's gone thus far:

Phase I: Sorting it all out. This is a rough phase, made that much harder by the fact that I've managed to lose my French electric adapter. I do, however, have two that can be used on my next trip to Fiji.

Obviously, this is not all going to fit in the carry on...and I am NOT taking a bigger carry-on...I hope.

I'm going to take lots of black clothes since it's Europe and they hide the dirt, so I thought, "What the hell, let's get a shot of the lens cap, too." It was on purpose. Really.

Suitcase--until 7:45 this is all that was in it. Three jackets, a pair of jeans and a belt (leftover from my birthday trip to Jasper).

This is it at 8:29...there's a lot more in it. Progress is being made. Note the gray and black skirts on the top of the pile--you will see them in many photos. Not sure about that plaid coat because it's gonna wrinkle like hell. And that watch is about as ugly as it can be, but I needed one with an alarm...What that white stuff is, I have no idea since I don't usually pack much white for London since it all just gets icky.
I found the passport last week--for those who don't know, this is not always such an easy task. I'm very proud to announce that THIS passport is going to make it through 4 overseas trips! A personal record for Kim's passports. I had one that made it one trip and another that did three...well, technically, I think it actually made it to Mexico, too, but that wasn't really OVERseas, so this passport--#3--is the winner. Evil #2 hid in the storage drawer in my van and cost me $100 and a near heart attack when I was heading to London in 2005 (note the stamp in #3). I made it, though, and was there just in time to see the Olympics announcement, go to bed and wake up to the subway nightmares. I didn't realize I had the July 6 stamp.
I rounded up the pounds and euros to take along. That would be 22 pounds (I'm too lazy to find the symbol) and 3 euros and some change or roughly $31 and $4. Not bad. I found the ten pound note when I was cleaning all the Tube passes and receipts out of the passport holder. That's my trusty EF phone card there, too. It's been on several trips with me as well.

Now I have to go see if I can find my Top-Up card for my London mobile phone or else I'm afraid it's going to be useless. That I found the charger for the damn thing is a bloody miracle.

Trip Update.

I've been woefully neglectful of this, but I've just been busy and tired. Here's a summary and I'll update more later.

MONDAY
Flight from Nashville to Chicago. I slept at the airport and the entire way to Chicago. Short layover there--like 2 hours. Uneventful, if cramped, flight to London.

TUESDAY
Arrival at Heathrow. Waited about 30 minutes in Passport Control and then on to baggage where our bags were all waiting for us. Quick trip to the loo to change my clothes and we were off to Heathrow Connect to travel to Paddington Station. While there, we hit the ATMs for some pounds and EAT for some lunch.

Arrived in Paddington with our piles of luggage (as God is my witness, I shall never travel with a big suitcase again) and grabbed a cab to take us to the flat's check-in site. We were there at 11.30 and couldn't check in until 2.00, so we dropped our bags and went out--after I changed clothes yet again because I was FREEZING in a skirt and tights.

We walked up and purchased our Travel Cards to use while there--23.10 (so 46 bucks) or so each. The good news is that Five is able to use a child's 1 pound card for all day travel, so that sort of balances out. Once we had our travel cards, we headed over to Oxford Street for some shopping at Primark. Then we took a bus up to Westminster so that Five could see the Abbey and Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. He was suitably impressed. Rode the bus and got an idea of what was where.

Back to the office to check in. The trek from the office to the flat was hellacious, to put it mildly. Did I mention that I am NEVER taking a big suitcase to London again? We were nearly dead by the time we arrived. The flat turned out to be lovely--small, but it's a studio in London, so we expected that.

Once we had settled our stuff in, we headed up to Tesco Express on Queensway for groceries--ended up stopping at a Spar (?), too. Bought milk, water, butter, juice and the like. Early night that night--we were all half dead--ate leftover sandwiches and Five made mac and cheese (we brought from home).

WEDNESDAY

Five and I were going to go on a Beatles tour while Mom checked out the National Gallery, but I'm a bonehead and didn't check the brochure, so we were at the right location, but three hours too early. Ooops. He took it well--we're going next Wednesday instead. We had three hours to kill before we were meeting Mom, so he and I made it to Trafalgar Sq. from Tottenham Ct. Rd. via Leicster Sq. and Chinatown (there was preparation for a movie premiere going on in the square at the Odeon, which was cool to see). At Trafalgar we took pictures at the foot of the Nelson Column with the lions, then we decided to head down to see Buckingham Palace--we walked the Mall. Not a short walk, but not too terribly painful, either. We wandered around there for a bit and then walked on up to Victoria Station to catch a bus back to Trafalgar. Went into the station just to check it out, grabbed a snack from Starbucks and hit the bus. When we arrived at Trafalgar, Mom was waiting for us, so we all went over to the Pret there for lunch and then back for an hour to look at the pictures. Five was fairly bored, but did find some that interested him. I cannot for the life of me remember what we did that night--I'll have to check the pictures and figure it out.

THURSDAY
Big touristy event day: Tower of London in the morning and British Museum after lunch. This? is a helluva lot of walking. I mean a HELL of a lot. Feet were screaming by day's end, but we had a great time at both places. Excellent guide on the Yeoman Warder (Beefeater) tour--Paul. Spent a lot of time in the Egyptian exhibits at the museum. After all of this, we decided to make our way to the Eye for them to ride. I waited and read the paper--they enjoyed it. Only abouta 30 minute wait from ticket queue to getting on the ride.

Dinner in the pub.

FRIDAY
Leather lane
Silver Vaults
Borough
St. Paul's
pizza

SATURDAY
Portobello Rd
Camden Town
Kensington Gardens and Broad Walk
Waffle House in Bayswater
London Walk Ghosts of the Old City

Heading back

Five and I are leaving tomorrow for his first trip to London. We're packed and pretty much ready. I think it's a personal record--I don't need to run buy anything tomorrow, I'm not waiting on anything to finish up in the dryer and I am not dead tired or all jittery.

Will update once we arrive--assuming we survive the trip and the schlep of 100 lbs. of luggage from Heathrow to Bayswater--still not sure on the best method of transport. We're going to assess our level of deadness upon arrival and choose between tube and a train to get in from the airport.

Ten days, staying in a studio flat--we'll probably be bat shit crazy after all that together time in such a confined place, but I'm looking forward to the trip. Very excited to see how Five reacts to seeing the touristy things and also looking forward to hitting the markets: Portobello, Camden, Spitalsfiled and Borough for sure. Oh, and Primark on Oxford St. I'm soooo going shopping this trip. Can.not.wait!

Busy Weekend

We did a great deal of touristy-type things this weekend. So far, so good.

On Saturday we made our way to Camden Town for the markets. It is much better to visit them in sunshine than in rain and while wearing tennies instead of flip-flops as I did during my last visit. We wandered the stalls for over an hour and found all sorts of fun things. I got a very cute hat.

We decided to take a bus from Camden to the main part of the city, so we hopped on the number 24, which takes a straight shot into the heart of London, past all the touristy spots. A great route, but it doesn't stop at Victoria Station as I thought it did, so we ended up getting off at Pimlico. Typical for me--I have to overshoot my destination at least once every trip. It's much more frustrating when you have six other people tagging along, though.

From Pimlico, it was on to Harrod's for requisite touristy shopping and lunch in Knightsbridge. Much shopping was done, lunch was eaten in a very crowded McDonald's (where three of us carried in our Eat bags and just bought chips and drinks). Then we headed bac to Earl's Court to drop our stuff and make our way over to Covent Garden to look arounda bit before dinner. It was packed with people and I took two of the kids on a search for the Foot Locker. We were given at least four sets of directions as to how to find the silly place, but none of them were exactly spot on. We walked most of the way around the piazza of Covent Garden, then up the hill to the tube station and down one of the side streets. We made it all the way to Leicester Square and still no Foot Locker. Up another little side street--still no Foot Locker. We sat by a pillar for awhile, just assessing the situation and Matt asked several folks for directions, but none of them had any idea. Finally, we just decided to try one more street and set off back up the hill to the Tube and just on past it. Tucked in among all sorts of little shops, on a tiny little pedestrian street, we found it. We were jubilant. He was able to look around and find some shoes that he liked, but since they were 54 pounds, which is about $108 right now, he didn't get them. But we foudn it, which was most impressive.

Dinner was Chinese, but since Matt and Erin aren't big fans, we sought out another choice and ended up at Bella Italia. We had pizza and it was really good. Garlic bread too--yum.

To wrap up the night, we went to see Blue Man Group. Weird show, but that is to be expected, I suppose. Lots of flourescent lights, fluids flying and great percussion. I wouldn't go see it on my own again, but would absolutely take kids. It was very dynamic.

Sunday we headed to Oxford and Stratford--lots of bus riding for very little touring time, IMO, but it was nice to get out of the city. Stratford is incredibly overdone--very Gatlinburgish, so I don't really care to go back. Cute little shops and stuff, but overpriced.

Will wrap up the trip tales soon. Must recover from jetlag now.

Universal Truth

No matter what country or time zone you may find yourself in, it is no fun to be awakened from a dead sleep by the sound of a fire alarm at 1:47 a.m. Nor is it amusing when the damn thing goes off again, five minutes later.

This is the truth according to Kimmah.

fun with keyboards

not even going to try to use the caps because the shift key is in an unfamiliar place and when i try to use it, i end up with \\\\ instead. so no caps. sorry.

it's saturday--we're about halfway done with our trip . we spent today on shopping excursions. we started off in camden town at the camden market, which was fun. i found some killer coats and i am hoping that they will still have some type of coat in june when i come back...didn't want to buy one today. i bought a hat instead. it's olive and all distressed and soooo not something i would spend money on back home, but i like it, so bought.

then we went to harrods, which was positively mobbed with touristst and since i'm no longer eating sweets, sort of a bore for me. it was nice to see reactions to it, though. after that we went to lunch at mc'ds. yum. not. two of the adults and i stopped at eat. on the way and got a sandwich, then went to get fries. mcds was crammed full of people and we barely managed to get a table for the group, but we did. i saved half of my sandwich to eat later ebcause i can't eat a whole one of the ciabatta ham and swiss. well, somehow the stupid thing got thrown away when we left. that makes me ill, partly because it cost £3.53 9 (X2 for the dollar amount), but mostly because i was looking forward to eating it tonight when i got back to the hotel. oh well.

then we headed over to covent garden after stopping at the hotel. i wandered around covent garden, all the way back down to leicster square and then finally to soho looking for a foot locker for one of the kids. i thought we would never find it--we got different directions from every person whom we asked. finally, after almost 40 minutes of looking, we found it.

dinner was chinese, but all i would eat was the carby part and two of the kids wouldn't eat any of it, so we went and had dinner at bella italia instead. very good. we had garlic bread and pizza---carbs go better with cheese.

am off to go see blue man group now. it doesn't start until nine. i imagine i will be sound asleep 10 minutes into the show. i'm starting to feel the sleep deprivation today.

Bullet Points So Far

I need to write more, but I'm so freaking tired that I can't make cohesive paragraphs, so here are random notes:

1. I still adore the Tube.

2. Leicster Square gets less amusing and entertaining the more I go there.

3. London hospitals rock--they give out free crutches and health care to Americans who trip on bumpy sidewalks and get bad ankle sprains (not me, one of our group).

4. Wicked is a phenomonal musical.

5. there is really no reason to eat baked beans for breakfast that I can think of.

6. Americans have no room to talk about dominance and superiority until they can match the Tower of London in age, grandeur, backstory or bling.

7. EAT. is still my favorite restaurant.

8. I love to hear people say, "Cheers".

9. London women wear some bad, bad makeup.

10. I would move here in a heartbeat.

Weird Look-A-Like Things London

i cannot use caps--the shift key is in a weird place. those of you that may have read my french ramblings a few years ago will remember how fond i am of foreign keyboards--not much. so no caps, which is also nothing new for me in general use because i don't cap in posts or in emails, but i do try to observe some semblance of professionalism while blogging (stop laughing).

annnnyyyyywwaaaaaaay. on the flight yesterday--wow, is there more to that story, but will have to wait until i'm rested--i looked up from my seat in the fantabulous business seating and you will never guess who was sitting in front of us. seriously, go ahead and guess. you won't get it. i'll wait.
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jack black. i did a quintuple take and then asked the girl next to me who, as soon as i said, 'jack black' pointed to him. so i wasn't the only one. naturally, i was intrigued ebcause why would jack black be flying business class and not first class and why would be fly out of dulles. so, i had to get up and walk around and look. the full frontal facial view didn't have such a strong resemblence, but i am still reserving final call until i do some research.

then, tonight, we went to see wicked--best musical i've seen in a long, long, long time--and at intermission, i nearly tripped over a guy who looked really familar. cary--are you reading? i swear, it was brad the delt's twin. it was eery. he was with a woman and a child--the woman didn't look anythign like the chick--lisa?--frm college--at least not that my feeble memory can remember, but who knows. it was uber strange and if it wasn't him then he has a twin running around the uk at this very moment.

have had almost no sleep since i got up at 5.30 tuesday morning--it's after 11 wednesday night here, so i am leaving and will try to do a better, less psycho blog tomorrow when i've slept and showered.

Make That Kim In Nashville

Oy.

I've had some adventures in travel--kids with lost passports, running through Newark to make connections with 15 kids, getting stuck in Toronto for two days due to an ice storm, kid stranded in Chicago due to same ice storm, busses having minor wrecks, students getting sick, and then the whole 7/7 thing a couple of years ago, so this latest installment in Travel With Kim is not that extreme, really, but it is irritating and frustrating beyond belief.



Instead of lunching in London this morning, I am breakfasting at the La Quinta Nashville airport eating oatmeal and toast. It's all free (damn good thing) and we'll be leaving today for London around 1.00. We have $25 worth of food vouchers to use at the airport, so we plan to stock up on whatever we can for free. Then we'll attempt to get to Dulles once again.



The problem? Not weather, not mechanical--just flat out ineptitude. Evidently, from what was announced, United had TWO first officers show up for the flight instead of one, which didn't seem like a problem initially, just a delay. Welllllll, then about fifteen minutes later, and when we were supposed to be about to take-off, they announced that the flight was CANCELLED due to a lack of ANY qualified first officer. Seriously. From two to zero, just like that.



At first, I assumed they would just fly us to Dulles on another airline or let us go via another hub, but it soon became obvious that wasn't going to happen. No other flights to D.C. on any airline and precious few to a city where we might get to London at night. So we resigned ourselves to staying another night.



After much working and manuevering, the best ticketing agent ever, Stacy, rebooked us on a flight today to Dulles and then on to London (actually on two flights that arrive twenty minutes apart). Business Class. So I'm not as irate as I might be, provided I do actually get to sit in THIS on my way there:







Sooooooo, we'll see how it goes. Hopefully next time I log on here, it will be from London.

Airport Fun

Why do we have to be at the airport three fricking hours before our flights? Why, why, why. It is the dumbest rule ever. I normally wouldn't get here that early, but since I'm responsible for other people, I figured it was good to follow the rules, however stupid they are. So now I sit here, using the non-free internet in Nashville and drinking a $2.11 bottle of Nestle water. Yes, about 3.5 times more than I would pay at home, but they hold you captive with the new security rules.

It's a total racket.

Crisis Averted

New camera purchased, spending money diminished considerably. Now just have to wait until it's time to go to the airport. I hate waiting.

Typical

My digital camera is broken as of this morning. I tried to turn it on and the lens is totally screwed up and won't go back in. It just keeps saying reset camera. I did NOT need this today. Ugh.

Almost Ready

Most of the clothing is packed with room to spare. Carry-on bag is packed. Just have to put together my stuff in my laptop bag and I should be set. This is far too easy. I feel as if I must be leaving something very important behind. Not good.

Packing Sucks

I'm a terrible packer. I do this every time I travel--I try to plan out "outfits" and end up taking far too much crap wherever I go. When I get there, invariably, I only wear the same three things over and over, in different mixes, because the weather sucks, my other shoes are uncomfortable, or whatever. Yet, here I sit, two days before I leave and my suitcase is brimming with clothing. I can't make decisions, so I have about four lightweight sweaters. I have three or four jackets to take--lightweight, outfit jackets, not coats. I have long and short sleeved t-shirts. Jeans and pants. Etc. I wasn't going to take my giant suitcase because, well, it's giant, but now it's clear that I will have to if I intend to make any purchases or take things such as shampoo and a hairdryer (and I must take a hairdryer because those in the hotels that our tour company provides are usually not that great, if they are even present).

I read on a travel board where a woman said she was going to Europe for three weeks and she was taking two pair of pants, two skirts, three shirts and a couple of cardigans and jackets. At this moment I have at least five t-shirts packed--some long, some short-sleeved. And then there are the three light-weight sweaters and the jackets and the blouse or two. Granted, she's planning on doing laundry and I'm not, but SERIOUSLY? There is just no way. I guess since I am not really crammed for space--the big suitcase is not a big deal except being a bit unwieldy--I should just embrace the wardrobe and move on because I know that as sure as I leave a long-sleeved tee back here, something will stain one and rip the other and then I'll freeze to death. If I'm prepared, I'll just wear the black one over and over and y'all can laugh when I post pictures.

Crises Averted

Iran has released the hostages. This is great news on a number of fronts; selfishly, I am most glad because that means I don't have to worry about some international incident causing me grief on my trip. BTDT and I don't want to try it while accompanied by other people's children.

Second, I've found my passport and have placed it securely in my underwear drawer until such time as I put it in my carry-on bag. I would have put it in the freezer (in case of fire) but I was afraid we'd have another ice-maker melt down. The lock box isn't a sure bet either, since knowing me I'd lose the key suddenly. So drawer it is.

Now, on to the next disaster-in-the-making. As of just a moment ago, the UK/US exchange rate is 1.97. Fuuuuuuuuuuck. That's obscene. Truly. I was distressed about 1.75 last time. Who knew that I would be tickled to see that number again. This means that I will be bringing back no souvenirs for anyone other than my children. They will be getting whatever free shit is in the hotel and maybe, maybe a cheap plastic toy in the .99p bin. I'm aghast. This is going to suck rocks. I'm thinking my plan to go see a play on the cheap is a no-go unless I can get tickets for about 20 pounds (need to find the pound symbol key, but I'm too lazy).

Damn You, Iran. Damn You.

WHY can I not plan an international trip without some drama simmering in the background or exploding in my face upon arrival? Seriously, the last overseas school trip I took was in April following 9/11. Finally, after years of building up the idea, we get another trip together, albeit with a much smaller group, and dammit, an international incident involving Britain has to come up.

Perhaps I am a travel jinx?