Shayne's Day #17 - The one with the beautiful weather

Let the scrub down continue! Today my battle was with the living room, hallway, and kitchen nook. At first glace, one would think – clean, but, once in the groove, I wiped down tables, floorboards, blinds, and de-cob-webbed the ceiling! Fun, Fun!!! J Went to my favorite internet café again for a little bit and enjoyed a cappuccino at a table next to a huge open window. The sun was out (maybe the first time since we’ve been here) and the weather was crisp and BEAUTIFUL!!! The internet café, Keston Public, opened up their wall sized windows and the row of seats just inside the place basically became covered, outdoor tables. The streets were bustling with people excited to get some Vitamin D and the park by our house did not have one available blade of grass, it was awesome.

Walked down to attempt the phone thing again. PS: This cell phone thing has become my arch nemesis. I WILL win the battle – just don’t hold your breath! This time I went knowing that I would need to buy a pre-paid sim card for Kim’s (Thanks Jake’s mom!!!) old phone that she let us take. Well, there were about 15 people in line and only one employee. It was, after all, 3:00 which is about 2 hours after most people like to hit up their local pub. After 10 min. the same guy was still at the counter and I gave up. Thank goodness I did because I walked next door to another cell phone store and was told the phone I had was 2G and the sim cards run on 3G and higher (whatever the heck that means!). So, laughing I got on the tube and headed down to Southwark with a few pounds (money, not barbells) and a good book!

Sidenote: Tonight, I did get Anna’s old phone (one of the girls Jake works with). She is British and this was the phone Jake Plummer used when he got here. We KNOW it works, I am SO excited, and I will be hitting up CarPhoneWarehouse tomorrow to get a sim for it. Perhaps, the battle of the phones will end manana. Stay tuned.

The tubes were packed. Like the kind of packed where you walk on and are hit with a WALL of heat when you shove yourself on there. I took it as far as I needed to in order to get my bearings, got off, and walked the long way over to the pub to meet Jake. It was lovely. Birds chirping, sun shining (if only I wasn’t in my peacoat! – refer to yesterday’s post about the moving company! Haha). I got to the pub early (as I hoped to be!), got a cold cider from the tap and sat outside for about 45 minutes and read – DELIGHT! Jake arrived after work and we caught up for a bit. Then we headed down the road to meet some of the people from his team at the Windmill. It felt great to be in the old stopping grounds and the people from EY were so nice. We had a lot of laughs, a few glasses of wine, and shared a lot of stories. We of course took the opportunity (while we were in the area you know!) and had Culture Grub for dinner. Perfect end to a perfect day!

Lesson Learned: Before you move to Europe, learn Morris Code. It will be the easiest way to stay in touch with your loved ones.