Me and Ingrid in Stash London

I just came back from my trip to London. Michael had a couple more vacation days this year that he didn’t use up (imagine that!) so he said that since I didn’t really have a vacation, he would watch the boys while I take a trip. I decided to go to London for shopping since it cost only 60 euros roundtrip.

It was a great trip! I got in late Saturday evening and took the train to Finsbury Park. Our friend, Christos was supposed to meet me there but I couldn’t find a taxi so he called a “mini cab” and picked me up. It was kind of a scary place to be, but at least there were a lot of people and cars coming and going, so I felt a little more secure. I ended up waiting about 1/2 hour there. But we finally made it to his place and we chatted while he fed me his fried chicken. It was really good, but he just sat there and watched me eat it, which was annoying (he ate earlier). His place was cold and when we went to sleep, the heater didn’t come on. He didn’t have any bedding for me either, so he took off his duvet cover and gave me that. When I lied down, I noticed that there was a plug sitting on the floor so I asked him about it and sure enough, the heater was just unplugged. Unfortunately for Christos, I snored very loudly so he couldn’t sleep. I felt so bad! I usually don’t snore (according to Michael), but sometimes when I’m really tired, I can really saw logs.

The next morning, I planned my route and all the things I wanted to do. I walked to the train station only to find out it was closed due to maintenence. Crap! I didn’t really know what to do so I walked back out on to the main street and caught a bus into the city center. I could’ve gotten off earlier and caught the subway, but it was confusing (even in English) as to what was open and what was closed. I finally made it to Oxford and Regent streets. It was soooo much fun to shop there. I can’t really explain why. Maybe because everything is in English? I don’t know. Or maybe because the shopping area is so much bigger than in Munich? I did a lot of damage at Hamley’s (toy store) and various clothing stores. Of course I bought nothing for myself, mostly gifts and stuff for the boys. I met Christos for dinner at a place called Toku. It was awesome, I loved the chicken karaage there.

Regent Street with Christmas decorations

After that, I went to Ingrid’s place. For those of you who don’t remember, she was my secret pal 8 and sent me all kinds of wonderful goodies like the cashmere scarf and cute sweaters for the boys and also got me hooked on Green & Black’s chocolate! Since there were a lot of weird and confusing train changes going on, I asked a guy how to get to Mortlake and he said that I take a train to Clapham Junction, transfer to Barnes, then take a bus to Mortlake. Crap! How am I going to remember that? So I walked a little further and asked the official info booth. Even though he spoke English, I have no idea what he said, and I even asked him to repeat it twice. Oh well. I went to yet another info booth and she told me to take a train straight to Mortlake. OK! Then I wondered why I got such conflicting advice. It turns out that the train took the LONG WAY to Mortlake and not direct. But it was ok, I got there. Ingrid met me at the train station since she just lives walking distance from it.

It was nice to finally meet her and chat about all kinds of stuff. She had a nice room for me filled with all kinds of stuff to read and look at. I swear, I could’ve stayed there a week without surfacing! She has tons of yarn/craft books, magazines, and even saved me some sudoku puzzles from the paper. How thoughtful! I had a great nights sleep and hopefully didn’t keep everyone up with snoring. I couldn’t do those “super sudokus”, it has 5 sudoku blocks connected, but was confused as to how it worked. I thought it was intuitive, but then I saw two 8’s in one row (printed), so that threw me off.

The next morning I walked to school with Ingrid and her kids, Ellen, and twins Lily and Edward. It gave me a real taste of how 5 year old twins are. They are really sweet kids, but I was amazed at how Ingrid handled so many things at once - lunches, who likes what on their sandwiches, 3 different school plays, getting them dressed, show and tell, etc. etc. Edward told me about his 3 different lunch bags and how they got lost or broken. So cute!

After that, I went back to Oxford Street, this time doing damage at Borders. I was really stupid and I should’ve just ordered the books online and have them shipped. But then I thought why should I pay the shipping when I can just bring them home with me. So I bought bucketloads of books and had to carry them all around with me. I was supposed to meet Christos for tea, but there was a bus strike today (Monday) and so he couldn’t make it. So I went back to the Japanese place again to get more karaage, it’s really that good. I went to the department store, John Lewis. As I was entering, this older woman held the door for me and I said thank you as I was going through. As I passed her, she said “THANK YOU” really loud and sarcastic to me and I realized that she didn’t hear me say thanks as I was coming in. So she gave me “the eye” and so I said loudly as she stomped away “I SAID THANK YOU, YOU JUST DIDN’T HEAR ME”. I really should’ve followed her and thanked her again to embarrass her more, but I had places to go and things to do. It still bothered me though that she didn’t hear me say thanks, because I really did appreciate her holding the door for me. I got my slow cooker and left for Ingrid’s place. This time the trains were working ok and I got there in no time.

Once back at Ingrid’s place, we chatted some over a wonderful dinner she made (couscous with peppers and onions), and then we went upstairs so that I could help her with her blog. She wanted to add some buttons, links and join a knitting web ring. It was easy enough and so I showed her how to do it. She was so happy to get these things added, even happier that she understands how to do it herself now. After that we chatted a bit more. She is really such a nice person and it was fun to talk about life, knitting and kids!

The next morning (Tuesday), I walked with them to school again and then we headed off to Stash, Ingrid’s favorite knitting store. It is run by an American woman and a French woman who has an American accent. I was even surprised that she wasn’t American! It was a real treat to be in a store where I could “fondle” all the yarns. Yes, there are yarn stores here, but they really lack the selection that Stash has. I miss being able to see imported yarns, especially american yarns. We spent a good 2 hours there and I also did some damage. I am excited to knit these little newborn boleros. Now if only people would have kids so I can give it to them. It is a more girly thing I guess, but it can also be for boys too. We went back to Ingrid’s place, I packed up all my stuff, then I headed back out to Waterloo station to drop off my heavy bags. Now, I am used to the wonderful UBahn and all of it’s escalators and lifts. Since the Underground is so old, it is mostly stairs and a few escalators. It was tough to get my bags to Waterloo. Then, when I was there, I noticed that they also had a baggage leaving place at Liverpool Street, which is where I need to catch my train to the airport. So, instead of leaving my bags here and have to come back here, I decided to go to Liverpool Street instead. Whew, talk about sweat! At least I got my exercise. I was bummed I didn’t put on my heart rate monitor. But all was well. It did cut into my time though and I was planning on catching a movie. Instead, I went to Covent Garden for even more shopping, but didn’t really buy much. It was an interesting place though and I promised that I would come back to spend the day there.

From about 4pm, I was in a mad rush to get to the airport and catch my flight at 6:30. I had to miss 2 trains getting back to Liverpool street because they were too full. They had all kinds of train troubles and it was also the beginning of rush hour, so I just had to stand there. I’m not used to this, on the UBahn, they are so big that I have hardly ever heard of people not being able to get on. Maybe with the exception of Oktoberfest. And if you did miss a train, it was only one. The next one for sure you would be able to squeeze on. Anyways, I was rushing to get my bag out of left luggage, rushing to get to the express train, then rushing to get to the ticket desk, where I had to pay a 70 pound fee because I had to check in my hand carry, which was too big. Then I was late getting to the gate, I was the last person on board!!! But I made it and I could finally relax. Then, getting into the airport (we were early), I sat outside waiting for Michael and I saw him pass by and look at me and he pulled forward to get out of the way, but then I saw him drive off! I was running after him saying “NOOOOOOO!” And then I didn’t know what to do. Should I stay here? I figured he would just circle around again and come back. I waited for more than an hour and finally he called me. He was waiting for me at the next gate! Apparently, the gate that we exited out of doesn’t have the “Easy Jet” sign on it, and he didn’t know where else to go. I didn’t want to move from where I was because I wasn’t sure that anywhere else would be better and I didn’t want to miss him again. Argh, comedy of errors! But it was good to be home again. I sure did miss my fambly!

Thanks to Ingrid and her family and to Christos for giving me places to stay and making my trip a memorable one! And also to my great husband Michael for holding down the fort for me while I went off and spent lots of money…