OK. This is how it went down.
Finished work on Friday, as in - FINISHED work on Friday. Yup, my last day... for ever. Feels weird but good.
Friday night was spent packing bags for all of us in advance of holidays. Finally finished, perspiring slightly, powered up the laptop to find I couldn't get online. Cue major panic, cursing and some diagnostic stuff. End result is that Virgin broadband was down in our area and I was up creek sans paddle. IF YOU'RE READING THIS VIRGIN THANKS A BLOODY BUNCH... I hold you entirely responsible for the fact that I couldn't blog or print out my boarding pass for my flight the next day, which left me seething in a hideous Heathrow check-in queue for over an hour. Gah. W*nkers.
So the kids and Alpha motored off to France early Saturday morning, leaving me waving tearfully on the doorstep. Sad and lonely, I pootled on to Heathrow (scene of aforementioned chaos) to catch my flight to LA, then to catch another flight to Fresno - which is where I am typing from this very second. Exciting, huh? For those who don't know, I am a British/American hybrid with loads of family in Fresno, the fruitbowl of the universe (or something along those lines).
So hopefully you will get a load of posts from Fresno, where I'll be for a week, then back to London and on to France, where I'll be spending the rest of the summer with the kids. Bliss. If only Alpha could be there for the whole time too, but as I am now wilfully unemployed it's probably a good thing one of us can bring in a paycheck. Oops.
Anyway, the tally over my days of absence (hmm, nothing but a $ key on my aunt's MacBook, assume in GBP unless otherwise informed):
Friday - spent absolutely NOTHING! How impressive (and rare) is that?
Saturday -packet of crisps from vending machine, 80p; Diet Coke 99p; two books for the flight 13.98 -
total cost of 15.77 (unless you count the cost of my insanely expensive transatlantic flight...but let's not go there)
Which takes me to a total for the week of 128.46 GBP. Which sounds great until you factor in the basic expenses of 241.58 which leaves our bank for all the bills and stuff - see the complete breakdown here - plus the mortgage, income tax etc etc blah. Which leads me to the conclusion that you need to be a squillionaire to actually, properly enjoy living in London. Otherwise is bleaksville all the way, baby.
Finished work on Friday, as in - FINISHED work on Friday. Yup, my last day... for ever. Feels weird but good.
Friday night was spent packing bags for all of us in advance of holidays. Finally finished, perspiring slightly, powered up the laptop to find I couldn't get online. Cue major panic, cursing and some diagnostic stuff. End result is that Virgin broadband was down in our area and I was up creek sans paddle. IF YOU'RE READING THIS VIRGIN THANKS A BLOODY BUNCH... I hold you entirely responsible for the fact that I couldn't blog or print out my boarding pass for my flight the next day, which left me seething in a hideous Heathrow check-in queue for over an hour. Gah. W*nkers.
So the kids and Alpha motored off to France early Saturday morning, leaving me waving tearfully on the doorstep. Sad and lonely, I pootled on to Heathrow (scene of aforementioned chaos) to catch my flight to LA, then to catch another flight to Fresno - which is where I am typing from this very second. Exciting, huh? For those who don't know, I am a British/American hybrid with loads of family in Fresno, the fruitbowl of the universe (or something along those lines).
So hopefully you will get a load of posts from Fresno, where I'll be for a week, then back to London and on to France, where I'll be spending the rest of the summer with the kids. Bliss. If only Alpha could be there for the whole time too, but as I am now wilfully unemployed it's probably a good thing one of us can bring in a paycheck. Oops.
Anyway, the tally over my days of absence (hmm, nothing but a $ key on my aunt's MacBook, assume in GBP unless otherwise informed):
Friday - spent absolutely NOTHING! How impressive (and rare) is that?
Saturday -packet of crisps from vending machine, 80p; Diet Coke 99p; two books for the flight 13.98 -
total cost of 15.77 (unless you count the cost of my insanely expensive transatlantic flight...but let's not go there)
Which takes me to a total for the week of 128.46 GBP. Which sounds great until you factor in the basic expenses of 241.58 which leaves our bank for all the bills and stuff - see the complete breakdown here - plus the mortgage, income tax etc etc blah. Which leads me to the conclusion that you need to be a squillionaire to actually, properly enjoy living in London. Otherwise is bleaksville all the way, baby.
Comments
How hot is it there now?
Can you still fry an egg on the sidewalk?
It's up to around 110 - not tried the egg thing (hygiene issues, eiew) but I think it would be entirely possible.