We had a little surprise at our house this morning in the form of our dining room ceiling collapsing. Yes, you read that correctly. I’ll show you:
That small hole in the middle picture represents the middle of the room — where the light normally is. So, yeah. Did I mention I just painted this ceiling a couple months ago? Peachy.
Honestly, I just have to laugh at the whole thing, as big of a pain as it is. Here’s what happened: We have a friend, Ian, crashing on our couch for a few days while he waits for his new apartment to become available. Ian was the third person to shower this morning… while Jeff was working upstairs and I was outside with the dogs. I came inside to find water dripping steadily out of the hole in the ceiling for the dining room light, the table covered in water, and parts of the carpet soaking wet.
Aside: Fortunately I had just placed a glass bowl (still empty) in the middle of the table yesterday or there would have been even more water everywhere. And I had just cleared off all the papers (many of them important) that usually are on the table. Ian’s laptop did get wet, as well as a couple books, but just on the surface. Hallelujah!
Next, just picture people running around gathering up old towels and buckets whilst simultaneously staring concernedly at the seams starting to bulge in the ceiling and trying to stay calm. I mean, how do you go about getting water out of a ceiling?
Step 1: Call your dad.
Step 2: When you can’t get ahold of your dad, check the internet for advice and then call your brother.
Step 3: Dig plastic sheets (used for painting) out of the basement to place under sagging ceiling.
Step 3: Poke holes in said ceiling with a screwdriver like the internet told you and your brother confirmed to be a reasonable idea.
Step 4: Give a prayer of thanks when your dad calls you back.
Step 5: Listen to the sagely advice of your dad, home-fixer extraordinaire, whilst watching concernedly as the ceiling bulge turns into the ceiling crack.
Step 6: Laugh at yourself and the ridiculousness of the situation when a roughly 4 ft. x 4 ft. piece of soggy drywall falls out of your ceiling, missing most of the plastic you so conscientiously laid down.
Step 7: Saw little drainage holes in the other piece of bulging ceiling to avoid repeating Step 6.
Somewhere in there is the step where you call around to find a plumber who can come on short notice so you (and your house guest) can take showers the rest of the weekend.
Well, we have a happy ending at least. Jim the Plumber—yes, that’s really his business name—fixed the leak no problem! He was great and even gave us a discount since it was a pretty simple fix and we’re on his way home. We still have a massive hole in our ceiling, but I can fix that on my own next week. After our out-of-town town family who are visiting us for the first time come on Sunday, that is.
When I started my England travel series, I never expected it would draw the kind of attention it did. At first I thought nothing of a couple comments from complete strangers on my Day 2 post, but when they kept rolling in I got curious. Imagine my shock and surprise when my blog stats pointed me to the WordPress homepage!
What the what?!? Then I clicked through to the travel page and it started to sink in a little bit more.
A big shout out to my friends Jon and Jaimie who told me to take a screenshot because that thought had not even crossed my mind. I spent the rest of the afternoon completely distracted—when I should have been busy writing the next day’s post—as I watched my pageviews grow by the hundreds. I ended the day with over 1,000 views, and had over 650 views the following day. (!!!) I knew I had better enjoy my 15 minutes of fame ’cause there was no way those kind of numbers were going to last.
However, I did pick up a handful of new subscribers (and subscribed to a few new people myself) through it all. I hope you new people will stick around. Don’t be shy! I enjoy interesting conversation (or gratuitous comments, let’s be honest) and often reply back in the comments.
I enjoyed another, oh, 15 seconds of fleeting fame a few days later when I came across this in my Facebook feed:
All this from a series I was sure only friends and family would take the time to read. I am glad others have been able to get some enjoyment out of our trip as well!
The newest Corduroy Mansions online serial novel started today! I’ve already talked about CM and Alexander McCall Smith in my review of 44 Scotland Street. A Conspiracy of Friends is the third novel in the series, but it would be easy enough to follow without having read the first two.
I’m especially looking forward to reading this next installment in the series after having stayed very near where many of the events take place. When recently watching this delightful video of AMS showing off some of the real-life Pimlico neighborhood spots he features in the book, I realized that our London hotel was just a quarter of a mile from Orange Square! If I had known, I certainly would have gone to see where William bought his infamous Belgian shoes.
I smiled all the way through chapter 1—it’s so good to have my daily dose of AMS back again!
This is the 10th and final post in my series about our trip to England. You can also read about my getting to the first destination; our first evening in the Cotswolds; seeing the English countryside by bicycle; visiting Cotswold villages and local farm animals; exploring Oxford and Blenheim Palace; our first day seeing the sights of London; seeing Soho, the Tower of London, and The Mousetrap; exploring Kew Gardens, the British Library, and the British Museum; and saying goodbye.
***
Well, after my daily England blogging blitz, I needed a bit of a blog break, but now I’m back. (Could I fit any more “b” words in that sentence?)
- During our time in England I didn’t notice a specific lack of overweight people, but upon my return the difference was striking. America has a problem with weight. Newsflash, I know. I just found the contrast startling—faced with the evidence with my own eyes.
- The weather was perfect: highs in the mid-70s, lows in the 50s-60s. It was like a cool fall day only with the feel and smell of summer. About like the weather here in Ohio for roughly 4 days each May—after the cool rains of spring and before the scorching sun of summer. Even the cloudy days were beautiful!
- While outside the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, we saw a little girl running around who had squeakers in her shoes. You know how some kids shoes will have lights in the heels? It was like that only with squeakers… that sounded exactly like dog toys. This being England, there were several dogs sitting nearby with their owners, several of whom were very intently watching the little girl running around! It’s hard to describe just with words, but there were quite a number of onlookers for this humorous little scene.
- I love how all the pubs and restaurants have the menus posted outside on the wall for you to peruse before deciding to go inside.
- While waiting for our bus that was never coming in Stow-on-the-Wold, we noticed a little terrier taking itself for a walk. The dog was carrying its own leash in its mouth, while the owner walked behind! At one point, the dog stopped to scratch itself, dropping the leash in the process, but the owner just picked up the leash, folded it back up, and handed it back to the dog.
- They have some, well, interesting food flavors. I saw a girl on the train eating “prawn cocktail” potato chips.
- In London, you can tell when you’re off the beaten path (i.e. out of the normal tourist areas) when you no longer see “LOOK LEFT” and “LOOK RIGHT” painted on the pavement.
- Butterfly bushes grow everywhere, in peoples’ gardens and wild along the train tracks.
- When discussing tea with our innkeeper in London—a self-proclaimed tea addict—he said, “Earl Grey is dishwater tea!” I wouldn’t have thought to put it quite that way, but I don’t care for it myself either.
Just a few of the five senses from our trip:
taste: tea, glorious tea, everywhere; fish and chips; treacle tart, sconces, and clotted cream; full English breakfast: poached eggs, sausages, “bacon,” baked beans, fried tomatoes and mushrooms; Digestives; Cadbury chocolate
touch: just the right amount of warmth from the sun; metal poles of the tube train; worn pages of “Rick”; messenger bag strapped tightly across my back; comfortable bed at the end of a long, full day
smell: lavender, diesel fuel, fresh air through always open windows and doors
sight: women in gladiator sandals and skinny jeans, man-pris, parachute pants, girls in dresses; crowds of Japanese tourists; ancient manuscripts and artifacts from all over the world; history at every turn
sound: rhythmic clickety-clack of the train; click of my camera shutter; English words (rather than American) spoken with fun accents—especially the little kids; extraordinary voices in harmony from ordinary people singing outside Westminster Abbey; psalms of praise sung in an ancient cathedral; baa-ing of sheep, moo-ing of cows, nay-ing of goats, whiny (and sneezing!) of horses; grinding bicycle gears; street musicians jamming in the Leicester Square tube station
This post is part 9 of my travel series on our trip to England. You can also read about my getting to the first destination; our first evening in the Cotswolds; seeing the English countryside by bicycle; visiting Cotswold villages and local farm animals; exploring Oxford and Blenheim Palace; our first day seeing the sights of London; seeing Soho, the Tower of London, and The Mousetrap; exploring Kew Gardens, the British Library, and the British Museum; and other reflections.
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Saturday, July 31—Today is a bittersweet day. We have loved our time in England and hate to leave, but we’re ready to sleep in our own bed, see the doggies, and stop living out of suitcases. Jeff feels this more keenly as he’s been away from home for two weeks now.
At breakfast, we asked Mark and Simon about the best way to get to Heathrow. They were very helpful, telling us which tube stations are easiest to navigate with luggage. Rather than go to our normal Victoria Station, we walked toward Chelsea and started from Sloane Square.
Mark told us to switch to the Piccadilly line toward Heathrow at Hammersmith. All we needed to do was get off our train and walk to the tracks across the platform. Well, there was a train already waiting on the other side of the platform when we got off our District line train. In a frenzied rush, we tried to figure out if this was the train we wanted. We saw the blue poles inside indicating Piccadilly and hurriedly boarded the train before the doors started to close. With a sigh we sat down and both started looking at the tube map to confirm our route. At the same instant, we saw that this line split in two directions and heard the announcer say, “This is a Piccadilly line train to Uxbridge.” The doors close seconds after the destination announcement so we grabbed our bags and made a mad dash for the platform. This whole exchange happened in about 40 seconds. If anyone was watching us from the platform, they must have gotten a good chuckle.
After that, it was a pretty uneventful journey to the airport where we said our goodbyes until meeting again at home. While we didn’t have the same flight home, our flights were both out of the same terminal within 30 minutes of each other.
I wasn’t looking forward to another long trans-Atlantic flight, but it wasn’t too bad. Jeff got to fly business class; I tried not to be too jealous of his legroom and comfy seat. I was able to get through a big chunk of my book, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and also watched another random episode of Bones and most of Avatar on that tiny screen. My seat neighbors weren’t too chatty, that is until the very end. We hit some bad turbulence as we were coming into Philly, and the girl on my right, who looked to be about my same age, suddenly started talking about how she hates landing even though she flies all the time for work. She apologized in advance and constantly. I did my best to reassure her and said, half seriously, that she could hold my hand if she needed to. She immediately grabbed my hand as we went through another patch of turbulence, and held on to me for about the next 15 minutes as we made our descent. She even let out a little scream once. I told her she was lucky that I was a doula so I was totally comfortable with holding the hand of a screaming woman.
Immigration and security were a pain and made me miss the relative ease of this process at Heathrow. This time I had a direct flight from Philly to Cincinnati, which was uneventful until I reached baggage claim. Yes—you guessed it—my suitcase didn’t show up. U.S. Airways was very nice about the whole thing, and said most likely my bag got slowed down going through immigration and would be on the next flight from Philly in the morning. Lovely. Except for the time delay, it really wasn’t too bad, and my bag showed up on the porch early the next afternoon.
Sweet Home Cincinnati
This post is part 8 of my travel series on our trip to England. You can also read about my getting to the first destination; our first evening in the Cotswolds; seeing the English countryside by bicycle; visiting Cotswold villages and local farm animals; exploring Oxford and Blenheim Palace; our first day seeing the sights of London; seeing Soho, the Tower of London, and The Mousetrap; saying goodbye; and other reflections.
***
Friday, July 30—Our last full day in England. The days have gone by much too quickly! But I suppose vacation is always like that. Time flies when you’re having fun, right?
This morning I was thrilled to be going to the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, usually referred to simply as Kew Gardens. We had seen posters for Kew all over London for the past few days. The gardens are located in the southwest corner of Greater London, the next to last stop on the Underground District line. Kew is massive (300 acres) and has the largest collection of living plants in the world. We only spent a couple hours there, but I could have spent days and days.
Me outside the Victoria Gate (main entrance) to Kew
The Palm House, finished in 1848, the first large-scale structural use of wrought iron
Lion of England
Largest plant in the Palm House
English lavender!
Waterlily House:
Plant Families Beds:
Grass Garden:
Rock Garden and Davies Alpine House:
Duke’s Garden:
We stopped in the Kew Gift Shop on the way out and I got a lovely bone china mug with English lavender on it and Cotswold lavender hand cream.
We had a quick, cheap lunch at the Tesco Express near the tube station and admired the picturesque area as we ate on nearby bench.
We got back on the tube and headed toward north central London to visit the British Library and British Museum. It’s amazing that both these places are free.
British Library:
Newton statue
Ping-pong outside the library
The British Library is one of the largest libraries in the world. It holds more items than any other library, and has the second most books, only behind the Library of Congress. Here we saw the “Treasures of the British Library,” including the Gutenburg Bible, many old Biblical manuscripts, the Magna Carta, the original Alice in Wonderland, Jane Austen’s writing desk, Shakespeare’s original Romeo and Juliet, handwritten music by Handel and Beethoven, and many other ancient, original manuscripts.
Next we made our way to the British Museum. However, we took a wrong turn on the way and walked 10 minutes in the wrong direction. Our feet were already sore from all the walking during the past week and already that day, but we managed to laugh at ourselves in our misery. All told we walked about 45 minutes until we reached the museum. On the way we saw University College London (one of the colleges of the University of London) and Barclays Cycle Hire rental docks—a new public transportation option (as of that day) rolled out by the Mayor of London.
We were able to fit this all into one day because the British Museum is open late on Thursday and Friday nights.
Famous Reading Room and Great Court
The Tale of Peter Rabbit translated into hieroglyphics
Ancient Egypt:
Fist bumping an ancient pharaoh
Red granite sarcophagus from about 2400 BC
Jeff staring down the ancient cat
Ancient Assyria:
Famous winged lions that guarded the throne room of Nimrud
Protective spirits from a palace in Ninevah
Ancient Greece:
The Elgin Marbles – the much fought over pieces of the Athenian Parthenon
Ares, god of war
We also saw the Rosetta Stone, but it’s next to impossible to get a good picture of it through the glass and hordes of tourists.
The Museum closed at 8:30 and we went off in search of dinner (more walking!). After at least one more wrong turn (even more walking!), we found Hummus Bros—the best concept for a restaurant, ever.
Hummus is the base and you choose a topping to go on it. Jeff had the chunky beef, and I had chicken with sundried tomatoes. All main dishes come with warm, whole-wheat pita bread. We also ordered carrot sticks as an extra and their fresh mint and ginger lemonade. I can’t even tell you how good this meal was. Man oh man. The hummus is garlic-free, but you could add a garlic mixture from the small glass pitcher you see next to our drinks below.
The placemats reflected the fun feel of the place with instructions on different methods of eating hummus, and what your preferred method reveals about you.
And, on top of their delicious food and fun atmosphere, their slogan is a pun! Yes, please!
Our feet were killing us and our bellies were full, but we decided to head back toward Soho in search of ice cream. After a couple more wrong turns, we found Scoop near the fish and chips shop from Wednesday and sat (yay!) and enjoyed big cones of fresh, fruity gelato.
