Last weekend we took a trip to London. The boys had never been, but the main purpose of the visit was to continue in our journey to become French. We were trying to sort out the boys French ID cards, which is almost like a passport, and means we can stay there longer than 90 days. It was difficult to even get this appointment in the first place as the rules are one appointment for one person. Even if you have two children and you've travelled all the way from Liverpool. Even when the whole world has done two years of remote working, even when the planet is dying from people traveling so much, it's still one appointment per person and if you already have one appointment booked you can't book a second one.
We decided if we had to, we'd just get Percy done, because Eric is under 5 and therefore free on a train, but we were still hoping for a miracle. Surely if you have all the paperwork ready and Eric does his very cute "pretty please" surely someone would take pity on us. So we arrived at the embassy opposite the natural history museum in South Kensington and queued up with a few others waiting to get in. When we got to the front the security guard had a quick chat with Dan in French to make sure he did have an appointment and some ID, and he said "one appointment, one child." He wasn't even going to let two kids through the door! Dan pushed back a little bit, and the security goard got bored and was just like "argue it with someone inside." I wasn't allowed in because technically I didn't need to be there, even though it is easier for Dan to have a French chat without having to answer Percy's continuous questions the whole time. So I wandered the streets praying that it would all be ok.
One of the things you have to provide is the photos that will go onto their ID cards and earlier in the week Dan had taken the boys to get some done. He had them taken in Max Spielman, the same place as Dan had got his done for his ID card back in October. When the woman asked for the photos, Dan opened the envelope and a look of horror came across his face: he had accidentally brought the photos of himself!!
It's a good job I wasn't there because this would not have gone down well. Imagine spending hundreds of pounds on a London holiday only to not be able to do either boys ID card! "Don't worry," the lady said, "we have a photo machine here."
PPPPHHHHEEEEWWWW!!!!!
And after that they let Dan do both boys! Dan had prepared many arguments about how you can't do both at once, or how he could come back later in the day, or tomorrow, how it was half term and if we came another time it would mean taking the kids out of school. But the guy he was dealing with now started listing these arguments himself saying, "it saves you another trip." Honestly I can hardly believe our luck, and the way some of these things are falling into place makes me feel like this is all "meant to be." Or, if you want to be Christian about it, "God's plan."
On the other hand I really struggle with that kind of philosophy. What about when stuff doesn't go right? For example, we're trying to get a a new kitchen sorted at the moment so our house is more up to date for renting, and that is the opposite of falling into place. Does that mean anything? When we were about to move to a new house in 2016 and it all fell though and we ended up sort of homeless for 9 months was that God's plan? Now it's easy to think, "well I wouldn't have met a lot of my good friends if I had moved to Speke instead of Belle Vale." But what about all the people in Speke that I didn't meet? Anyway that's a whole other blog post, but I'd be interested to hear anyone's opinions on that kind of stuff.
While we were in London for that we thought we might as well do some fun London things. We did the London Eye and then all the free stuff, the museums and Sky Garden, which is my biggest recommendation. It was almost as good as the London Eye and completely free (but you do have to book). It's a very tall building and you can get the lift to the 35th floor. It's like a massive glass place with lots of tropical plants, but you can walk round and see the views in every direction. You can pay to eat in the fancy restaurant or just buy a drink or cake in the cafe but it is totally acceptable to not buy anything.
Another supposed bargain was top secret comedy club. It was around the corner from where we were staying in Covent Garden (we were actually upgraded to there from the more business kind of district and it was amazing to be in that very central area.) I got tickets for a Monday night show for £1 each, and it was quite famous people including Harriet Kemsley who I once did support for. What I see a lot of is new comedians doing their best stuff but this was the opposite: established comedians doing their new stuff. It was fun, but in a very packed non ventilated room I felt like my chances of catching Covid were super high. The weirdest bit of the whole night was when we had to pay to leave! It started off like they were just going to do a bucket on the way out which is fine, and I am happy to support live comedy. I often do gigs where I don't get paid, or I get paid less than my petrol costs so I really do want to support comedians, but I was not so happy to be forced to pay to leave. You had to line up on the way out and were asked "cash or card" and you were told if you had a job you should be giving at least £10. It was all a bit awkward.
Overall though it was a great trip and the boys loved it. Eric thought we were in a foreign country the whole time, I only found this out when he said, "You left the bedtime stories in England." When I explained we were in England he was shocked! I think its because we came down on the train with a suitcase and last time we stayed in an apartment like that we were in France. He's still pretty confused about France and stuff when we talk about going he often says "are we going tomorrow?" He can't really understand any time scale other than tomorrow.
We arrived back in Liverpool on Tuesday and on the train down Dan had a phone call to say he had won 2 tickets to see rugby (England vs Wales) and sleep over in a hotel for the night! Perfect timing for him as this weekend we set aside for a big house clear out. I think he might have faked that whole phone call just to get out of it.
We're now planning on leaving at the end of the Easter holidays. After Easter and my sisters wedding we'll move into my parents house for a week and we'll be back and forth emptying the house and stuff. We're trying to arrange a leaving party for Easter Monday, but nothing is sorted yet. On Thursday I took the boys for a much needed hair cut and as we were walking back I said, "probably one more hair cut before we move to France," to which Percy replied, "great can we do that tomorrow?!" As if the only things on our to do lists were two hair cuts. He cracks me up that kid.
