Shayne's Day #19: The one with the flaming volcano

With the cleaning behind me I decided to do something fun around London! In the beginning, I was going to skip Keston all together, but I walked by and the building looked SO rejected and sad. Feeling guilty, I went in for a capp., visited my bartender friends, and stole their wi-fi signal for a few minutes.

While I was there, my phone rang (startled mind you, since I didn't know why my bag was humming and singing) and I was graced with a conversation from Ed Winji Lomi at the UK United Moving Company. Ed is the Senior Customer Service Officer for their UK division. He informed me that our case had been 'escalated' to his level as a top priority scenario. I had to laugh - this was like an alien siting or something. "AREA 51, AREA 51! A shipment lost over the Atlantic!" I think Ed was a little shaken after my explicit email he received regarding my opinion about our shipment arriving over 2 months after they packed our boxes in SD. You all know how I can get when I am really heated (I mean really heated). There are situations (few and far between I might add) that just make me so angry I finally blow. Well, Ed got the brunt of one of those moments. Poor Ed. I was much more collected when I actually spoke to him and he told me at the end of the conversation, "I really want to thank you for your kindness. After that email, I wasn't sure how this would go." So now Ed, my new BFF, is looking into our situation and is going to financially compensate us for the expenses we have incurred. Go Ed!

After bidding goodbye to Keston, I headed for the museum. About halfway there I stopped, turned around and went home to change. The weather was WAY to gorgeous for a museum. If you could have seen the 'summer' outfit I put on you would have laughed. A mismatched display of spaghetti string undershirts, PJ boxers, and slip on leather shoes - LOL. I ended up at the park on a bath towel soaking in the sunshine. Oh how beautiful the day was. I read, journaled, and took in the sights of the fab. London people watching.

I swung through the dry cleaners and met a new friend. Dry cleaners in Islington - check!

I ran home and changed and ventured onto the tube at rush hour. HA! wait... HA! Enough said. Met Jake in Notting Hill and met up with Jake P. and his two close friends who were in town from USD - Andy and Leah (Do you know them USD folk?). We also got to meet a bunch of guys from the Capital Markets group and their wives. They were all SO nice and we had SO much fun. Side note: Erin, one of the wives, was a supply teacher when they first got here! I am going to take her to lunch next week and pick her brain about how to get that party started!!! Chilled at a pub for awhile and headed to a great dinner. Another meat pie for Shayne (this one even better than the last!). Ended the night on Portabello St. (name sound familiar for any Notting Hill/Hugh Grant buffs?!?). We went to a 60's inspired basement bar and ohh'd and ahh'd at their famous drink: A flaming volcano! This beverage would not be legal in the states as it comes to your table with a three foot wall of fire spewing from the top of it. Awesome. I, for one, did not settle for the volcano as I am still recovering from the fish bowl incident of 2008.

Lessons Learned: 1)Irate emails connect you with company CEO's. 2)Novelty drinks with souvenirs floating in them - not for me.