Home sweet home
I'm writing this post courtesy of pilfered wireless access (belkin54g, I love you more than you'll ever know), which turns out to be an unexpected benefit of city life. Yes, I'm probably committing a minor felony or something here, but I'm not going to feel too guilty about getting free wireless access so easily right now. Almost nothing else has come easy this week, and so I'll take my perks where I can get them, thank you very much.
I never, ever, ever again want to live through a week like this one (or the few before it or, I suspect, the next few to come). Trying to fully furnish and equip a household in a minimal amount of time with no car, no knowledge of the area or its stores and no local credit is... well, it's daunting. I've felt for much of the week as if I'm in the midst of one of those weird dreams in which I'm running as fast as I can and yet don't seem to be getting anywhere. There is just. so. much. to. do. I have actually run out of paper on which to write "to do" lists at this point, which is quite the Catch-22 since I'll never remember to buy more paper unless I write it down somewhere.
Despite all of the glitches along the way, we have made some good progress. We dropped Julia at school as planned on Monday morning, received our keys about an hour later and were delighted to welcome the Ikea delivery team into our flat just moments after. "Aren't we brilliant?" we congratulated ourselves. Um. Yes. So brilliant that we inadvertently purchased the wrong size mattress for our bed during our Ikea showroom showdown last weekend. This snafu will take at least a week to work itself out, leaving us without any place to sleep. But wait! We had the foresight to purchase a lovely sleeper sofa during that initial Ikea run! We have a bed after all! Brilliant.
And really, that has been the story of our week; a rollercoaster of highs and lows both amusing and frustrating all at the same time. It takes an enormous amount of stuff to run a household, I'm gradually realizing. Every time I think of all of the things we already own and currently need, locked up tight in an inaccessible storage container somewhere in the state of New Jersey, I feel a little sick to my stomach. But I'm forcing myself to move on, and slowly, we are making things work here.
No, this week has not been especially fun. But the bottom line? I am sitting on a sofa in my new living room right now sipping a freshly brewed cup of coffee courtesy of my new Tassimo and writing this blog post. My daughter is happily installed a few blocks away at a school she seems to love. My son is happily resting in his new big boy bed, which is also a hit. Pretty soon, I'll get Evan up, help him into his stroller, and make the short walk to pick Julia up, stopping on the way to pick up a few household items which we urgently need. Julia will tell us about her day on the way home and then we'll all have a snack when we get back here. This routine, established over the past 4 days, already feels familiar to all of us. We live here now. In London. Almost exactly the way we pictured. And somehow, that makes it worth all the effort and aggravation, doesn't it?
I never, ever, ever again want to live through a week like this one (or the few before it or, I suspect, the next few to come). Trying to fully furnish and equip a household in a minimal amount of time with no car, no knowledge of the area or its stores and no local credit is... well, it's daunting. I've felt for much of the week as if I'm in the midst of one of those weird dreams in which I'm running as fast as I can and yet don't seem to be getting anywhere. There is just. so. much. to. do. I have actually run out of paper on which to write "to do" lists at this point, which is quite the Catch-22 since I'll never remember to buy more paper unless I write it down somewhere.
Despite all of the glitches along the way, we have made some good progress. We dropped Julia at school as planned on Monday morning, received our keys about an hour later and were delighted to welcome the Ikea delivery team into our flat just moments after. "Aren't we brilliant?" we congratulated ourselves. Um. Yes. So brilliant that we inadvertently purchased the wrong size mattress for our bed during our Ikea showroom showdown last weekend. This snafu will take at least a week to work itself out, leaving us without any place to sleep. But wait! We had the foresight to purchase a lovely sleeper sofa during that initial Ikea run! We have a bed after all! Brilliant.
And really, that has been the story of our week; a rollercoaster of highs and lows both amusing and frustrating all at the same time. It takes an enormous amount of stuff to run a household, I'm gradually realizing. Every time I think of all of the things we already own and currently need, locked up tight in an inaccessible storage container somewhere in the state of New Jersey, I feel a little sick to my stomach. But I'm forcing myself to move on, and slowly, we are making things work here.
No, this week has not been especially fun. But the bottom line? I am sitting on a sofa in my new living room right now sipping a freshly brewed cup of coffee courtesy of my new Tassimo and writing this blog post. My daughter is happily installed a few blocks away at a school she seems to love. My son is happily resting in his new big boy bed, which is also a hit. Pretty soon, I'll get Evan up, help him into his stroller, and make the short walk to pick Julia up, stopping on the way to pick up a few household items which we urgently need. Julia will tell us about her day on the way home and then we'll all have a snack when we get back here. This routine, established over the past 4 days, already feels familiar to all of us. We live here now. In London. Almost exactly the way we pictured. And somehow, that makes it worth all the effort and aggravation, doesn't it?
posted by Rebecca | 1:05 PM
7 Comments:
Life gets crazy. Then it gets fun. Congratulations.fq
I wish I could be their to help!! We understand how hard it is to move let alone to London. At this point it can only get better with each day. We miss you already!!
Maryann T.
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"Daunting" is such a nice way to put it. But - now! Now you have coffee and a place to sit AND free internet! Ok, the next weeks might hold more of last week, but right now it sounds like life is good. Yay, you.
Mmm, good coffee can make even the worst day better! :) And, how in the world do you convince Julia to talk about her day?! All I get after preschool is "I can't know" which is a combo of "I can't remember" and "I don't know" Arrrrrrgh! Three years old and the incommunicado teenage years have already started.
London
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