Shayne's Day #15: The one with the burlap sacks

So, with Jake out the door to his first day on the job (looking super snappy I might add in his handsome navy suit) - details of his day will come from him :) - I embarked upon my first solo venture! As you know, I completed the 'haul' from our corporate housing to our new flat this morning. In my mental inventory of the things we had left in the flat, I imagined filling two large, burlap, Tesco shopping bags (with ladybugs on the front!) with the 'necessity' items we needed to keep there overnight. I put 'necessity' items in quotes because, when trying to cram all of these 'crucial' items into the ladybug bags, I had to ask myself, "Were the tweezers really that important? How about the ketchup? Good thing we kept a LITER of cider in the fridge (this by the way is true - you can buy liters of alcoholic cider)!" This reminded me of the time Jake, Suz, Chase, Kevin, Lowe and I were held up at gunpoint and the gunman asked for our 'loot.' We of course handed over EVERYTHING; however, looking back we always joked that if we were held up again, we would ask the man with the gun to define 'loot.' Did he really need Suzanne's scuba certification card? If I ever need to haul 'necessity' items across the city of London again, I will take a closer look at the 'necessities!'

So, onto the tube I went - here was the look I was sporting: side satchel purse, side satchel laptop case, scarf, two huge and overstuffed burlap sacks, and a liter of cider. I shimmied myself into a tiny nook and wedged the bags into the corner of one of the cars. I got to witness a school field trip on the tube by the way (rush hour, one teacher, 18 kids, kids about first grade, moment of silence for this national hero of a teacher - they get on way too slowly, she is rushing them so her class doesn't get cut in half by the closing doors, little eyes are looking EVERYWHERE, , she gets them ALL seats - miracle in and of itself - she breathes a sigh of relief, little girl tugs on her sleeve and says, "I need to tinkle."). So, with a good scene to keep me busy I stop paying as close attention to my own bags. I hear that we are approaching the next stop and WHOOSH - the nook I am tucked into is actually a door. My 'wall' flies open and the rush hour people are pouring in. My burlaps are flying. As I grab everything out of the way I again ask myself, "Really - we kept the ketchup!"

With the tube fiasco behind me, I walked down to our flat to drop everything off. I turned back around and headed down Upper St. to purchase cleaning supplies and, of course, an iron. I hadn't had one for over an hour and was going through withdraws (I don't expect anyone to understand this besides one, Seamus Keith). With household items in tow, I walked back home and proceeded to scrub down the flat. I don't want to underestimate the word the scrub here. I was on my hands and knees - Cinderella style - making little mini circles with a sponge on our bathroom floor for over three and a half hours. At one point, I stood up to see if my efforts were in vain, and learned that they were not. There was a LINE down the middle of the bathroom floor separating where I had scrubbed and where I hadn't. It is safe to say that one could now eat spaghetti off the linoleum outside our shower. If you are curious, I burned through about 8 sponges in the process, have a blister on my thumb, and photographed my progress. I have never been a crazy clean freak, but there is something about other people's left behind gunk that gives me the heebie-jeebies!

The day ended with my husband coming home from work - so fun. He had more excitement in his voice than I have heard a long time, and that just makes my heart feel warm! We came over to a little coffee/wine bar, had a lovely meal and are taking advantage of the free wi-fi while we have a pint. I am pretty sure we look like an apple commercial.

Lessons Learned: 1) Burlap sacks are pretty spacious, 2) Having an iron makes me feel like all is right with the world, 3) When your english landlord tells you the flat has just been cleaned, he does not mean by US standards!