Let’s see if
I can sum this up (really this is a long one).
After our awesome trip to Ireland which went without a hitch, mostly
(excluding a closed bridge for maintenance which occurs once every 5 years when
the weather is nice for at least 4 days), we had a day in London. Our afternoon in London was fantastic; the
girls and I toured Westminster Abbey, we spent at least two hours in Hamley’s
Toy Store on Regent Street, and finished our night with a delicious pizza at a
bistro with live jazzy blues music! It
was the next day that our close call came; we were waiting at the hotel for the
airport bus to take us to the airport (we had the bus schedule, prepaid tickets
everything lined up), after about fifteen-minutes pass the scheduled departure
time our bus finally arrives…apparently the “other” bus was too full and they
called for a back up bus. We were then dropped
off at the wrong terminal after figuring out where we needed to be, we headed
to the correct terminal (a two-minute walk in the rain). We go in, look and look and look to finally
figure out you have to go back to the entrance, almost leaving the building to
go up three-floors for the departures desks.
Lines aren’t too bad if you consider fifteen-minutes not too bad. When we get to the counter the agent asks for
our boarding pass. We were quite
confused and told her that’s why we were here, to get one. She tells us that we have to “check in at the
kiosks” (everywhere we have traveled you can go to the counter for a boarding
pass, every airport, like a dozen airports in 10 different countries). Once we got our tickets we had to get in
another “check-in” line; thankfully Tony found a shorter line (waited only five-minutes
this time). I’ve been giving you time
checks for a reason we tend to follow the guideline to arrive at the airport
two-hours before departure….we have now lost a little more than an hour and we
are finally heading into security. Fortunately
that doesn’t go too bad it only took about fifteen-minutes and we didn’t get
stopped for any reason (O.K., maybe one or two of us had the honor of a pat
down).
We had two
things that needed to be done after security, Tony wanted to send in our VAT receipts
for a refund and we had to pick up two items at Duty Free for others. We made it through Duty Free pretty quickly
and we then stopped at a customer service center to ask where a drop box is for
the refunds. Turns out, the information
needed before you mail it is an “official” stamp from Customs. So Tony’s sealed envelopes had to be opened
and he had to go to the Customs office which was up two flights and on the
other side of the airport. By this time
we had about 20-minutes before boarding so the girls and I went to the gate as
Tony went to take care of the receipts.
The gate appears to be nearby, nice….wait…there gate 6, gate 5, gate 3,
where’s gate 4?! Sigh, no one is around,
another passenger saw the sign telling us to begin boarding! The gate is down two floors and it’s a bus
transfer to our plane that means the gate actually “closes” in 20-minutes (I
thought that only happened at second world countries or very small airports,
not Heathrow). As we board the bus the
girls are starting to really worry about Daddy, the bus is not even half full
so I know Tony has a little more time to join us. We are waiting, waiting, Ellie worrying,
Rylie crying, waiting, waiting. The bus
is getting fuller, of course it’s filling with Ukrainians since we are heading
to Kiev so they pile just inside the doors and refuse to move further into the
bus (hello, we are all leaving at the same time, getting on the same plane,
with assigned seat numbers, just move away from the door and make room for more
passengers). We keep hoping to see Tony,
I’m thinking another plane ticket for him will cost a lot more than the 60£ he’s hoping to get back.
Now from
Tony’s vantage he gets upstairs, gets everything stamped but he needs his
envelope repaired, but the lady refuses to staple or tape it for him. So he heads back downstairs, gets the first
lady to fix the envelope, but the stapler runs out of staples. He waits (what felt like forever) for her to
find the staples and fill it, she fixes the envelope, then he runs back upstairs
and down the hall to the mail box and then heads back to the gate, which of
course he will be surprised to discover is downstairs.
Mean while
with three-minutes left before the gate “closes” I see a glimmer of hope when I
see a family with a stroller running to the gate and struggling with their
stuff, whew, a little more time for Tony; well, maybe, maybe not. The guy next to me was nice, he said Tony had
at least one possibly two whole minutes to spare. At this point I had already decided
to stay on the bus and fly home without Tony if necessary (thinking it was the
economical choice). The gate check lady
comes to the bus and calls for Tony James….I was just going to say he should be
here any minute as I see him in his blue coat running down the escalator…“oh,
there he is!” By the way, they never
called his name on the intercom, I hear people getting called at so many
airports, but oh no, not this one. Have
I mentioned my heart rate, I suppose that goes without saying. I guess this is a good example of why you
should plan to be at the airport two-hours before departure, as we did, but
things do not always go according to plan at least it wasn’t a boring wait.
As you know we are able to take advantage
of many great shows or at the very least interesting. We had the privilege to watch a Chinese
Circus in Chernigov this past week. It
held us captive for over an hour and I could often hear the girls’ astonishment
at the feats of the performers. We even
had the honor to watch a Chinese Mask Change, very cool. The acrobatics and flexibility of the
performers was really amazing!
We’re slightly concerned this year, the
last few Decembers have been “mild” that is very little snow (less than 3”) and
not too cold (near -1 deg C). This December,
we already have two feet and it’s currently -18 deg C (0-F)….if this is what
December holds, you can see why we might be concerned with our “cold” months of
January and February. The girls built a
large snowball in the middle of one of the walking paths….it’s been pretty cute
because it has become a permanent winter fixture that everyone has to walk
around now. .png)
If all goes according to plan, this will
be our last Thanksgiving away from family and friends whom we miss so much during
this time of year. This year, instead of
staying in Slavutich not exactly sure what, where and how Turkey Day is going
to turnout – we decided to utilize our Euro Disney season pass one last time. We headed to Paris to celebrate our final
Thanksgiving abroad (It’s weird to think but…spending Thanksgiving in Paris,
really isn’t as exotic as it sounds). It
was a great decision, because in Disney fashion the Parks were fully decorated,
Christmas music was playing throughout the parks and it felt very festive. We were able to have a great time as a family
making ourselves nearly sick on rides before we headed out for a bite to eat…now
we couldn’t get Turkey, but how does a Tex-Mex feast sound (BQ ribs, chili,
cornbread and even apple pie alamode) – coming from Ukraine, trust me, it
sounds absolutely fantastic! We even had
“black Friday” shopping….all the gift shops were ours to choose from!
The French
school hosted a Halloween party. Kids
were in costume (all the kids except mine were in some sort of scary costume),
played a couple games and we had loads of sweets. The pumpkin cutout cookies we made were the
first thing gone! The girls had fun and
were so glad to wear their Athena costumes we got in Greece, along with dangly
“gold” Grecian earrings and all! The
next week Tony and I had a candy scavenger hunt for the girls to make up for
not trick-or-treating. They made out
with quite a big hall!
