Our new apartment

 Colhern Road Aparment

Here are some pictures of our new apartment. I picked up the keys yesterday. We're starting to move some of our things. DHL picked up our boxes from home yesterday, so hopefully we'll have them next week before we have to be out of our current apartment. I would really like for everything to be in there by Thursday next week, because we're going to Paris over Easter weekend! Michael is off that Friday and Monday, so we thought it would be a nice time to take a holiday. I'll make sure to take lots of pictures to share with you!

Fiesta Sizzler: A Restaurant Review

I have decided to become a food critic. Now keep in mind that I have absolutely no experience in this area. I do feel, however, that despite this lack of experience, I have an important duty to perform. My goals with this new role are simple but, I feel, extremely crucial to our palates, our pocketbooks, and most especially, our sanity. I aspire to direct locals and visitors to fabulous restaurants in the areas where we live or visit during our traveling adventures. I will admit that there might be an ulterior motive behind these reviews as well: to shut down those restaurants that I believe should really not open their doors to the public even one more day.

Today’s experience (and trust me I would not deign to call it anything else) takes us to Fiesta Sizzler on Kenway Road in London SW5 – just north of Earl’s Court Station. We walked by, and after glancing in at the laughing people, nice décor, and the reasonable prices listed on the menu posted on the window, we decided to try it out.

We stood inside the door for a minute or so and then a young man asked how many in our party, we replied “two” and then he began to bus a table nearby so that we could sit down. He removed the old dishes and brought 2 forks. Three or four minutes after that, napkins and knives appeared; then he invited us to sit down. Five minutes after being seated he brought us wine glasses.

We sat for at about 10 minutes without menus. Fortunately, though, we were treated to very comical entertainment – every 2 minutes (and you could almost set your watch by it) one of the cooks would appear from the kitchen and have to reset a breaker in the box that was located in the dining area. Once was an accident, twice would have made me reconsider where I had things plugged in, but after 5 times it was, well, hilarious. At least we had something to look at though!

After the “show” we finally received menus. We quickly decided what to order and then closed our menus – a sure sign of our readiness to order, or so we thought. We watched while the man who seated us and a young Asian waitress brought out food and drinks to several other tables without even glancing our way. After waiting for about 10 more minutes, an older Asian woman appeared and asked if we had ordered. We told her that we had not and she apologized and then hurried away. We looked at each other wondering if we would ever see her again. She did reappear in short order with a pen and a pad of paper. We placed our order (very slowly, however, as she was writing down everything we said word for word). Three minutes later Michael received his soda and water. I had also ordered water and a glass of wine, but they never arrived.

We waited for some time (I tried to stop counting the number of times the cook came out to reset the breaker) before our dinner started to arrive. The appetizer we had ordered had not yet come when they brought part of Michael’s dinner – the fajita meat, but none of the sour cream, salsa, etc that was supposed to come on the side. My plate arrived next and Michael asked about the appetizer and the fajita sides. Five minutes later the young man reappeared (without the sour cream or salsa) to let us know that the appetizer would take 4 minutes to cook. We told him to forget it. We had our dinner by then (or at least most of it), so we didn’t need it anyway.

A few minutes later we flag him down again to ask about the fajita sides. He acted as though this was a completely new concept for him. The older Asian woman came to the table to confirm that with the fajitas they serve guacamole, salsa, and sour cream (Michael had made the mistake of asking for cheese and this really seemed to confuse them). Michael told her not to worry about cheese or guacamole, and just bring the salsa and sour cream. She then disappeared into the kitchen. While she was gone the younger Asian woman appeared with our appetizer that we had told the young man not to order. Oh well, not worth worrying about now. We ate it – glad to have it, actually, since I didn’t eat all of my supper.

Now I have time to briefly discuss the food. We have time because it will be an hour (and I’m not exaggerating much) before the check arrives. The brevity will be due to the lack of any real flavor or especially endearing qualities that the food might have had to make up for the dreadfully poor service we had endured. Bland would be an understatement, I think. It was mediocre at best. I will say that it was edible, but nothing more remarkable than that.

One thing we have learned since living in London for a few weeks is that you must always ask for the check, as your wait staff will not bring it until you request it at least once. We flagged down the young man as soon as we saw him (for a while there was no wait staff in the dining room at all). We asked for the check and he nodded and began clearing the dishes from the table. While we waited for the check we listened to the last 30 seconds of “All the Way”, a duet with Celine Dion and some man whose name I can not think of at the moment. There must have been a scratch on the disc because the song would end then skip back to the same spot and play over and over again. After listening to that several times, believe me you’re ready for someone to put you out of your misery.

I saw the older woman again and waved, trying to get her to bring us the check. She looked away and then disappeared into the kitchen. After a few more minutes, the young man appeared with two plates of food and was going to put them at our table. We told him that we didn’t order anything else, but we were waiting for the check. He nodded then disappeared into the kitchen again. The couple next to us was laughing with us – what else could we do? Once the woman finally came out of the kitchen, I stood up and waved at her with both hands. I’m sure I looked funny – most everyone in the restaurant turned to look in my direction – but I didn’t care. I just wanted to get out of there! She finally came to the table and I asked for the check – AGAIN. She ran off then came back with a pen and pad to write down what we had ordered. How did we ever get our food in the first place I wonder? She finally got it figured up – we put some cash on the table and flew out of there as quickly as possible without waiting for our change – we might have been there until breakfast if we tried to wait!

We decided that this place needs to close so that we can get a better restaurant in that space – a Mi Ranchito (our favorite Mexican restaurant in Olathe) might do nicely there. Maybe we should talk to them about franchising! :-)

Interesting Tube Experience

So I'm riding on the tube this morning, minding my own business. Pretty normal tube experience, except that there weren't as many people as other days of the week at the same time. My guess is lots of folks stayed up drinking last night! It turns out that this is a very good thing this morning.

Anyway, so there's this guy next to me who had gotten on before I did and he has this huge bruise on his face like someone hit him with a bat. But he's minding his own business as most Londoners are wont to do on the Underground.

A little while later, I notice that he's asking the woman sitting in the seat next to where he's standing if he can sit down. I think that's a bit odd, but after she gets up to give him her seat, he starts to sit down and just falls over onto the floor next to me! He fainted (probably from the big bruise on his head) and the woman who had just given up her seat crouches down next to him to see if he's still breathing. I'm not exactly sure what to do (I'm kinda standing there looking like...duh, what just happened here, and what the hell do we do with this guy now?), when I mention to the person standing next to the emergency switch that maybe they should pull that to talk to the driver. Someone else told her not to do that because the train would stop and we were between stations. In hindsight, that's dumb because the train doesn't just stop if someone pulls one of those. It just means they can talk to the driver if needed. A minute later he wakes up, and so she waits until we get to the station to pull the lever. The driver comes back and sees what's going on, resets the emergency lever, and asks the guy if he’s all right. The guy says that he can go on (his office is close to one of the stops), and somebody else mentions that he should really go to the hospital. There’s some seat shuffling before the train gets going so the guy doesn’t faint again, and we’re on our way. At his stop, he got off the train under his own power, which is good, but I sure hope he goes to the hospital and not his office!

I just thought I’d share that little experience. POETS day of all days! :)

-- Michael

BTW, POETS day is the British equivalent to TGIF: Push Off Early, Tomorrow’s Saturday.

First day exploring London

Kensington Gardens

Thames Walk

Yesterday we spent the day exploring London. I put several of the pictures that we took up on our Picasa Web Album – just click on the picture of Big Ben to go to the rest of the album. I also included a map of our journey around town. If you click on the map above, it should open in a new window for you. I numbered a few key spots that I’ll refer to in this post. When you look at the map, the dark red area indicates where we walked, and the dotted blue line indicates travel via the London Underground.

Let me just start by saying that we walked so much yesterday – we’re both a little sore today. My pedometer showed 26, 714 steps when we got home and I took it off. That’s about 12.6 miles

We left our apartment (# 1 on the map) yesterday morning about 11am and walked up to Hyde’s Park (# 2). We spent some time admiring the Albert Memorial and taking some nice pictures. Then we walked around in the park until we got to the Round Pond in front of Kensington Palace. We wandered around the gardens and then had lunch at the Orangery at Kensington Palace.

After lunch we left the park and retraced our steps a bit. We headed for South Kensington Station (# 3) to catch the Tube and travel to Monument Station (# 4). Once we arrived, we walked past The Monument (after stopping to take a picture, of course) and across the London Bridge. We met up with some friends at the Borough Market (# 5), an outdoor market open to the public on Friday and Saturday. There were so many vendors selling everything you can think of. We had a great time, and I’m sure that we’ll be back. The picture I have from the market doesn’t do it justice. I just was so busy looking around that I forgot to take any pictures. If you look closely in the background of the picture you will see a lot of red and yellow umbrellas – those are all vendors at the market. It was incredible!

After making our purchases, we all decided to walk along the south bank of the River Thames. We passed several street performers, a sidewalk artist and the London Eye. We didn’t wait in line to ride on it, though. We’ll do that another time. We also passed under the Millennium Bridge, which is a pedestrian bridge that connects the Tate Modern museum to St. Paul’s Cathedral.

We made our way back across the river and over to St. James Park (# 6). On the way we passed Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. We walked passed the Horse Guard’s Parade and then through the park and along the mall toward Buckingham Palace. There were many flags surrounding the palace. Normally, all of the flags displayed are the British Flag. However when a foreign dignitary is visiting, then that country’s flag is also displayed. As you can see by the picture we took, the President of Ghana was visiting the Queen this week.

We made our way to Victoria Station (# 7) and hopped on the Tube headed for Soho (# 8). We went to a bar called The Star for cocktails then found a little Italian place for dinner. After dinner our friends took a cab home and we found the Oxford St. Tube Station down the street and headed home ourselves.

It was a long day, and we saw so much. I truly tried not to go on about everything as not to bore you with information you might not be interested in. However, if you are interested, I’ve included several links for more information about the various sites we observed throughout the day. Just click on something that sounds interesting. There is quite a lot of information. I admit that is one of the reasons it has taken me so long to write relatively little about such a long day. Every time I wrote of a place we had been, I wanted to find out more information. Consequently it has taken me all day to simply get this post completed. Oh well, at least now it is finished. I hope you enjoy!

12,006 Steps

The number of steps in the process to post a comment on the blog. No, just kidding. This was the number on my pedometer when I took it off last night. That’s approximately 5.7 miles. Insane, huh? I spent the day running all over. I made a trip to the pharmacy, and then spent the afternoon looking at apartments. I popped home for lunch and changed into my tennis shoes. I just couldn’t stand to walk in my boots anymore. Michael got home a little early, so we went out and got UK mobile phones. We can call each other now, yay!

My feet hurt, but that’s probably not a big surprise. I was surprised at how many steps I had actually taken yesterday without even trying. I started wearing a pedometer before we left home and my average was about 4000 steps a day without going to the gym or out for a walk. On those days I could hit 8000 or 9000. So, do 12,000 steps count as my cardio, Jon?

Now a couple more things about posting comments – I’ve been told that it’s still a little confusing. You can post comments on each post I write. At the end of each post you will see (in tiny print) “comments”, which you can click to read any comments or post your own. After you click on comments then you’ll be taken to a new screen. On the left you will see any other comments that have been left on this post and on the right a box for you to type in your own comments. After finishing your comment, enter the letters that you see on the screen into the box. Next, sign your comment by signing into your G-mail account, or just select “Other” and then type your name into the box that appears. If you choose “Other” you can just leave the website field blank. Then just click on the orange “Publish” button and your comments will be posted on the blog. If you don’t see them right away, don’t worry. Just give it a minute, or try to refresh your screen after you get back to view the blog (you can do this by pressing the F5 key). I have found that it isn’t the easiest to navigate back to the normal view of the blog after posting a comment, so I usually end up using the back button until I get back to it, and then I use F5 to refresh.

Also, if you want to read comments others have written you can do this in two ways. You can click on “comments” as mentioned above and you will see any other comments on that post. Or, you can click on any single posting on the left and you will see that post along with the comments all on the same page.

I hope this helps! Thanks for reading!

Picture of our washing machine

Hey everyone! Here is a picture I took of our washing machine. If you click on the picture you'll get to my Picasa Web Album where you can see a couple of other picture I took of the kitchen.

Mini Eveything

Laundry

Not a whole lot has happened around here since I last posted. The Greek place was great on Saturday night, and since its right around the corner, we’ll probably go back again. Yesterday we hung out here at the apartment and did some laundry. I will rant about that in just a minute.

Today we opened a bank account. They were very helpful and friendly. It wasn’t nearly as difficult as we thought it would be. We’re going to try to get our mobile phones within the next couple of days. Now that we have a bank account, getting an apartment and a mobile phone will be much easier. I also started looking at some realtors online and sending messages to agents who had properties similar to what we’re looking for. Tomorrow I’ll probably be out on the street making contact with those people in person. I stopped by the grocery store on the way home from meeting Michael at the bank this afternoon and picked up something to make for dinner. That still seems a little weird to me. I’m so used to shopping once a week for groceries. Oh well, I’ll get used to it.

Now back to laundry. I already mentioned how small this machine is. On the machine itself it says that it is a 4.5kg capacity machine (about 10 pounds, or just over a gallon). By comparison we have a super capacity Kenmore washer and dryer at home that has about a 25 gallon capacity. That’s a pretty big difference. At home we usually do laundry once a week on Saturday or Sunday, and sort into 4 loads. If we’re home, and we keep it going, we can finish laundry in about 4 to 5 hours. Yesterday it took me 5 hours to wash what would be a half load of laundry at home – 4 shirts, 1 camisole, 1 pair of pants, 3 pair boxer shorts, 3 panties, and 2 bras – and only half of that got dry. The rest I had laid out on my pop-up sweater dryer, on the towel warmer in the bathroom or over the doors of the lower kitchen cabinets. I was a little frustrated to say the least.

Tonight I washed another “load” with a few white undershirts and socks. It’s still in the dryer. The machine doesn’t buzz like the one we have at home, so I forget to check on it when it might be done. So, the clothes sat there for about an hour tonight before I remembered to check on them. Maybe after a few more tries I’ll figure out how long it takes to dry them, and I won’t have that problem. Of course by then we’ll probably we moving to our new apartment and I’ll have to figure out a different machine. Oh well, at least I’m in London!

Michael told me today that he might soon be going to Madrid for a couple of weeks. We don’t know when yet, but we’re hoping it works out so that I can tag along with him. I’ll let you know more details as soon as I have them.

Commenting on the Blog

We've talked to a few people (mainly our mothers) who aren't sure about commenting on the blog. We have changed the settings on the blog so that anyone can comment, even if you don't have a gmail account. So, I encourage you all to post your questions and comments. Don't worry about looking silly. Chances are if you want to know, someone else does too. Just be yourself. Add your comments. It will help us feel more connected with all of you.

So now that we've singled you out moms, everyone will be looking for you to post something. Love Ya!

Walk to Talk

In order to be able to set up our phone, we had to do a bit of walking today. When I looked at the map I told myself, "If you want to talk, then you've got to walk". Once we started walking, though, it really wasn't that far. We probably walked between a mile and a half and two miles today, and I feel like I could do it again. I guess all that running over the past few months is paying off, right Jon?

We slept in this morning until almost noon. That sounds late, but not really when you consider that by the time we both showered and got to bed it was about 4 am. After we got up we did a little research on local electronics stores, looking for any place that might have the power cord we needed for our phone router. We marked our destination on the map and headed out.

We stopped for breakfast at a little place down the street. The ham and eggs were great, and the coffee was good. The sausage, however, was a little weird. It wasn't as spicy as the sausage we are used to eating for breakfast, and the texture was, um, well, odd. I asked Michael to describe and he said it was like vomit. I don't know that it was that bad, but think of the consistency of canned cat or dog food and you might have an idea. Not that I've ever tasted those things but it's more the idea of what you think the texture might be.

After breakfast we wandered up Earl's Court Road and then along Cromwell Road looking for the electronics store that we had Googled before we left our flat. Once we arrived at what we believed to be the correct intersection we walked up and down the street looking for the electronics store. On about our third trip along the same street we noticed a tiny little electronics store. It wasn't the one we were looking for, and we didn't think they would have what we needed, but since we weren't having any luck finding anything else, we decided to try. It was so small that only about three people could stand inside the store, so I waited outside while Michael went in to look around. I happened to glance through the window and see him take out his wallet. My heart surged. I thought, "Did he find it? Are we going to have a phone today?" Sure enough, the clerk in the store helped him find exactly what we needed. He also told us that we had found the store we were looking for - they changed the name 5 years ago. I think Google is falling down on the job a bit there.

We came back to the flat and set up our phone (which is charging as I type) and our wireless router. We're both happy about that because two people with laptops and only one ethernet cable...not a good thing. So, Michael's hanging out on the couch, which is good for me since I have more room at this tiny little table now.

There's a Greek restaurant around the corner that I think we're going to try for dinner. Our plan for tonight is to try to get to bed at a reasonable time. We need to get on a better schedule so that Michael isn't exhausted when he goes to work on Monday morning. Tomorrow we're just going to hang out around here, maybe do a little computer research on realtors and available apartments. We both really like this area and it would be nice to be able to stay around here.

All of that walking made me hungry and there's an apple in the fridge calling my name. We'll be able to talk as soon as the phone is charged up. I don't know how long that will take, but if anyone tries to call before it's ready just leave a message. We can get still get our voicemail on the computer.

Talk at you later!

We made it!

So, we finally got here. Several things have happened – some good, some not so good – but my mother-in-law would tell me that’s a good thing because otherwise we wouldn’t have any stories to tell. So in honor of you, Diana, let the stories begin…

We’ll start our story at home before we even leave for the airport. We did successfully manage to pack up our suitcases, and by the way Travel Space Bags Rock! One note of caution, however, they make your suitcases heavy and the airline might charge you extra to ship them. We also packed up all of the items that we plan to ship once we find our permanent apartment – 9 boxes total. The sad thing is that our house doesn’t really look like we packed up 9 boxes worth of stuff. Perhaps that’s because much of it is usually stored in cabinets or closets, or maybe just maybe it means we have too much stuff. I don’t know, just speculating. Oh well, I supposed I don’t have to self evaluate too much about that for another 12 months or so.

We finished packing on Wednesday night in time to get to bed by 9:30 pm or so, then we were up before 4 am. We had arranged for a Town Car to take us to the airport, and I had spoken to the driver twice during the week and given him directions. He was supposed to pick us up at 4:30 am. At 4:35 we were a little worried. At 4:40 I called him and found out he was about 10 miles away. He had not followed my directions very well. For those of you who are familiar with Kansas City, I will say that it is not difficult to get confused when trying to follow US 169 – especially when it crosses and runs along US 69. Needless to say, he was not where he needed to be. We got him straightened out and he finally got to our house at 5am. Now since we had luggage to check, we had to check in at least 45 minutes before our flight so we were a little concerned about making it on time by the time we got our luggage in the car. The Happy ending to this story is that he got us to the airport in record time – 43 minutes – which is not bad at all for a 50 mile trip! I didn’t even look at the speedometer on the way there. I didn’t want to know. All I know is that we got there safe, and in plenty of time to check in.

We had a short layover in Chicago, but our flight from KC was on time and we got off the plane and realized that our connecting flight was scheduled to leave from the gate across the aisle. It was lovely; no running through the airport for us. Yay!

The flight itself was uneventful. We did get upgraded to business class, so that was nice. Warm towels, nice food, wine; what’s not to like about that? We were delayed out of Chicago a bit, so we arrived in London around 11pm local time. It was about midnight by the time we finally arrived at our apartment. The taxi we took was cool – not at all like taxis at home.

The short-term apartment we’re staying in is sort of like a hotel suite with a kitchenette. There’s a mini everything in the kitchen, but that’s ok since we’re only cooking meals for two. There’s also a washer/dryer in the kitchen. It’s an all in one unit – very interesting. I’ve been studying it, and we bought detergent and fabric softener today, so maybe I’ll try it out tomorrow. From the looks of it I’m going to have to wash clothes almost everyday because the machine looks only slightly bigger than a large coffee can. I’ll let you know how that goes.

It took us a while today to find out how to hook up our internet, but we finally got it going. So the good news is that I can send/receive e-mail, and update the blog. Now for the bad news…

A month or so ago we switched our phone service to Vonage. It saved us a fair amount each month, but more importantly allowed us to have a phone anywhere we had an internet connection. It also allowed us to keep our local number, get a virtual number in London, and doesn’t cost anything to make calls to the UK. We’ve really been pleased with it so far, and we were really excited to get our phone set up this afternoon once we got the internet up and running. We have a universal power strip that plugs in to a UK 220 power outlet. It is not a converter, though, so for any item we have that is not dual voltage we have to have a transformer. Well, we knew that. That’s why we bought a transformer before we came here. But in our hurry to set up the phone we failed to verify the voltage needed for the Vonage phone router.

Now for a little lesson about dealing with voltage in a foreign country: When you’re plugging something into an outlet and you hear a buzzing sound (you know that sound that a mosquito makes when it gets caught in the bug zapper?) that’s the time to remove the plug from the outlet, hopefully before you do any serious damage. It is most certainly not the time to look at each other and say, “Hmmm, what is that weird sound?” Because by the time you’ve finished the thought you’ll have heard a popping sizzle and see smoke coming from the plug. Trust me on this one, I’m speaking from experience. So now I’m in the doghouse (although I’m sure that Michael would have done the same thing had he picked up the cord before me) because the router for the phone was also our wireless internet router. Now we can’t be on the internet at the same time, so we keep passing the ethernet cord back and forth – not easy when you both depend on communication via e-mail. Tomorrow we’re going to look for a new power cord. Maybe we’ll get the phone set up in the next few days. I’ll let you all know when we do. Once we do, our regular home phone number will work and will ring here in London without charging you an international long distance fee. So for those of you with unlimited long distance plans that means you can call me in London for free! Just remember the time difference, please. Normally we are 6 hours ahead of Central Standard Time. However, Daylight Savings has been extended in the US, so from March 11, 2007 to March 25, 2007 and again from October 28, 2007 to November 4, 2007 we will be 5 hours ahead instead of 6.

Other than trying to fry our power cords and finally getting our internet set up, Friday has been a productive day for us. We got some information about setting up our local bank account, so hopefully we’ll get that taken care of next week. We also found the library, and a variety of little shops. Wine seems to take precedence over food. I laughed today when we walked by several places with signs proclaiming “Wine and Food” and they put the wine up front in the store.

This evening we went out with some of Michael’s Lombardi colleagues. We met for drinks in a hotel bar just off Trafalgar Square. The Square was easy to find. I mean it’s huge – you just follow the signs (I’ll have to rant about street signs another day because it’s getting late) and you run right into it. Unfortunately the hotel was a little harder to find. And when someone from London gives you directions and tells you to go past the museum and then take the tunnel on the right, please clarify. It is entirely possible that they meant a small road or side street, not what we might think of as a tunnel. This was true in our case. We wandered around the corner of Trafalgar Square looking for some kind of tunnel. Of course I should also mention that Michael was the one to get directions, not me, and it is entirely possible that he misunderstood the directions. At least I have a husband willing enough to ask directions, though, so it really doesn’t matter.

After drinks we walked to Covent Garden and had dinner at this fabulous Turkish restaurant. After more wine and terrific food – I highly recommend the lamb brochettes, which are marinated pieces of lamb skewered and grilled – we decided to call it a night instead of following the rest of the party to a bar. We found our way back to the Leicester Square Tube Station and headed for home. We were a little worried because several of the locals we were dining with told us that the Underground shuts down at night. I’m not sure what time that happens, but we were on the Piccadilly Line from Trafalgar Square to Earl’s Court from 11:30 pm to 11:55 pm and it didn’t shut down on us.

They are closing all of the Underground Tube Stations this weekend for repairs, so I think that we’ll stick close to the apartment tomorrow. I will say that we have done a ton of walking today. That’s good for both of us, though. I’ll let you all know what new exciting (or absolutely mundane) things happen over the next few days.

We're on our way!

It's almost 4:30 on Thursday morning. We're packing up the laptops (as soon as I finish this post that is) and then heading to the airport.

We have a short layover in Chicago this morning then an 8 hour or so flight on to London. We were able to get a corporate apartment for the first month, so we'll be able to stay there instead of a hotel while we are looking for our apartment. It will be nice to have access to a kitchen and washer/dryer. It will be much more relaxing than living in the hotel.

Well, I need to pack this thing up so we can go. I'll let you all know how the trip went once we get there and get internet up and running.

We got our visas!

The work permit finally arrived yesterday. It was supposed to be here last Thursday or Friday and we were getting worried because we already had our flights to Chicago and London booked.

We contacted the lawyer and got a tracking number. After contacting DHL we found out that the package had Michael's name and zip code but no address, so DHL had not been able to deliver it. After getting that straightened out we made the trip to Chicago today to get our visas.

We got up early and left the house by 4:45am. No luggage to keep up with, just our paperwork, so that was nice. I checked the bag multiple times on Monday to make sure we had all of the information we would need for our visa interview.

Our flight landed in Chicago on time, so we had a couple of hours before our appointments at the British Consulate. We took a cab downtown and went to a foreign currency exchange bank we had located before we left home. It was much cheaper to exchange our money there than at the airport.

The only bad thing about that was that the exchange bank was about 5 blocks from the Consulate. Not too far, really, except that it was 18 degrees outside! Quite a change from the 60 degree weather we were having at home. We had dressed for spring - light jackets, no gloves or scarves. Well, I had some ear covers and light gloves in my pocket, but don't remind Michael. He was a little bitter at the time. I didn't tell him that I keep those in every jacket I have - just in case I get cold.

We trudged through the wind and cold and made it to the Consulate at 10:00am, 45 minutes early, but they still let us in. We went upstairs and had to go through a security checkpoint before proceeding to a small room where we would wait for our number to be called. There were glassed in windows and three stations. It reminded me of tellers at a bank. There was a little hole on the counter where you slid your documents through.

We were number 68. When number 67 was called, we started to get a bit concerned because the interviewer was asking the young man, obviously a student, for all kinds of supporting documents, and the young man was rather flustered. When our number was called we approached the window. The "teller" was very friendly. He asked us a few questions about what we were planning to do in London, where Michael worked, what type of software he worked with. After Michael answered by saying “business process management,” the man laughed and said, “Oh, is that still the ‘in’ thing?” and then he launched into reminiscing about his time at “University” when he had a project that vaguely related to Business Process. By the time he finished his story we had showed him the work permit, marriage license and passports and he told us the visa was approved. It was that easy! The only bad thing was that we had to wait until 2:30 pm to pick up our passports. It was 10:15 – that’s a long time to wait in downtown Chicago with no car, no map, no laptop, and no idea what to do except freeze death if you walk outside.

We walked back down the block to a little corner bakery we had passed on our way to the Consulate. We had some breakfast and then Michael downloaded a mobile Google Maps program to his phone so that we could figure out what was close by. We headed for a mall that was a few blocks away – cold on the way, but then several hours of blissful warmth while we waited. We passed a Starbucks on the way and I made a mental note to leave a little early so that we’d have time for a Cinnamon Dolce on the way back. We found a game store in the mall and bought a deck of cards – they’re cool invisible cards – and played rummy, gin and spades after we got tired of looking around at the stores. We did find a few interesting things in the mall. There was the chocolate lounge, which was a small eatery with chairs and sofas where everything they served was chocolate. There was the olive store. I’m not kidding! It was a whole store for olives and every imaginable type of olive product. Our favorite was the Lego store. There was a life size Lego man sitting on the bench outside the store, and Darth Vader just inside the door. It was really cool.

After lunch, we left the mall and headed for Starbucks. It was halfway between the mall and the Consulate, so we didn’t have to be out in the cold that long. We arrived at the Consulate a few minutes early so we had to wait downstairs. When it was time, we had to wait for the security guard to finish dealing with tshe student who was ahead of us in line that morning. When we left we were given a card and we were told to keep it or we wouldn’t be abele to get back in to get our passports. Well, the student had lost his in the four hours he had been gone. I hope his year of studying in the UK goes more smoothly for him than his Consulate experience.

When we took to elevator back to the 13th floor, I was expecting to go through the security checkpoint again. When the officer just waved us through I thought, “That’s nice, but a little scary.” Unfortunately I often just say what I’m thinking and I looked at Michael and made a comment about it being a good thing that we hadn’t bought a gun while we were out shopping. Michael shot me a look, but it was too late. The security guard heard my comment and got a little upset. He turned the metal detector on and made me walk through it. He even said that a man had recently been denied a visa for making a comment like that. I told him that I was just joking and that I didn’t mean anything by it. I felt really bad, because he was obviously very upset. We did get our passports back and on our way out, I stopped and apologized to the guard. He was very nice, and also apologetic about the situation. I think he just wanted me to realize how serious the situation could have been. Then he also confessed that his wife had done something similar once and embarrassed him terribly. We were all laughing by the time we got on the elevator. Michael thought it was funny, of course he wouldn’t have thought that if we hadn’t been able to get our visas, but since it all worked out we can laugh about it now.

We headed back to the airport and got on standby for the 4:45pm flight, which was the last flight to Kansas City before our flight at 8:40pm. We were cleared and got to take the earlier flight home. It was delayed a bit, but we still made it home several hours earlier than we had planned. It gave us a chance to start packing the suitcases. Hopefully we’ll get everything done early enough tomorrow night that we can get some sleep.