The first week

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Well, getting to Heathrow was a bit of a challenge. I had to swipe one of those bell hop type baggage carts to get my luggage from my room to the bus stop just out the back of the hotel. At 7.20 in the morning there was already a huge crowd waiting for the bus. Whoopty doda. It was freezing outside and I think I lost all feeling in my toes while I waited. Once the bus turned up the mob mentality took over the group. Everybody wanted to get onboard that bus (including me). I had slightly resigned myself to the fact that I wouldn’t be able to get on that bus. If I could have I would have taken the luggage trolley with me, but alas I think the hotel would have had something to say about that. The pavement tilts ever so slightly down which makes it very difficult to unload while trying to make sure it doesn’t role away and hit the bus or that you put your stuff in the sludge. Did anyone offer a hand? Did they heck. They all stood around watching. Cheers guys, don’t mind me. By this point the bus was pretty much full, and the people still on the pavement had also resigned themselves to the same thing I had. However, I did step forward and asked the bus driver if there was any room for poor small me (or and my 100s of bags) . He asked which terminal I was getting off at, which luckily was 1, so he let me on. Hurrah, in your face all you cold unhelpful people. I would have turned and waved at them, but I had to put all my powers into not falling over as the bus moved on. Thankfully I didn’t fall over, because that would have been embarrassing.

At check in I did get hit with an excess luggage fee of nearly £190! WOW, thats a nice way to start the day. I was prepared for it, so it was no big shock. The check in lady was rather taken aback by my lack of arguing about the fee, but hey it isn’t her fault, I shouldn’t have packed so much. I did manage to get two bags through into departures though. Sometimes they can be really fun about it and say that you can only take one thing. Well there isn’t much to say about being on the other side. It was a pretty dull wait, only made a little more tedious by the VERY unhelpful person from Barclays bank. I phoned up to let them know that I was going away so to expect the card to be used around the world. First of the message I had to listen to was someone saying that due to the bad weather they were short staffed, and that the wait may be a little longer than usual. So that would be 2hrs then instead of the normal 1 hr. Well surprisingly I got through straight away(!) to someone in India! What?! I didn’t know India was suffering from large amounts of Snow. I explained to the lady that I was going to Germany first and then to Hong Kong, but after that I had no clue to where I was going or how long I could be there for. Saying she was very unhelpful is putting it mildly. I probably would have had more success talking to the chair. This lady insisted that she could only have my card put down for being out of the country until the Friday. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR! I’m sorry how hard is it to put on my record that I will be out of the country till August? Blimey. If we can put a man on the moon, why can’t they do this?

My flight was very uneventful, we were on delayed 40 mins on the tarmac because there were too many planes at Frankfurt that couldn’t take off because of the snow there. Well I got to Frankfurt in one piece and even got all my luggage. I let my new boss know I was coming through into arrivals, only to be told to get a cab. Joys. There is no story to tell of fights with taxi drivers and getting lost in the middle of nowhere. I got to the house all in one piece.

So let me introduce you to the family:


Mrs G - she’s the mum
Mr G - he’s the dad (and British)
Fred - he is 12 going on 13, and actually I really nice kid. Very helpful and good spirited.
Huggie Bug (HB)- she is 5, and a real doll. She has the sweetest accent, sort of a mix between Nicola Kidman (one of her Nannies was an Oz so she has picked up the accent), cockney and the little mouse girl (can’t remember her name) from Disney’s Basil the Great Mouse Detective. She loves to sing, and is always sings - she rarely stops. Oh she is so named huggie bug because she constantly gives hugs and kisses.


So as you can tell, I am not going to give anything away about their real names or the such. I do have to follow the confidentiality clause in my contract.
My job is very different from my last job. I don’t do any cooking! Which used to take up most of my day before, I don’t have to worry about cleaning or laundry. I literally get to play all day. On my 1st day I went sledging with them in the garden. Tuesday was spent mostly playing with duplo, Wednesday we were out in the morning running errands and going to the drs. Where Huggie Bug made up a very cool story about our Zip and our Shoelace running away (I will post it in another blog). Today we finished of our story, made up a new one, and started to build a snowman. We also went out to get hiking boots. So there you go, that’s what I have been up to - playing. I love my job 😱

That leaves one last thing - the packing. Ugh, I hate packing now. I have managed to get it into one suitcase, but the suitcase is tiny! I had it all sorted out yesterday, until we got the hiking boots today, which meant I needed to repack. I have left out about 1/3rd of my clothes. I think if I buy anything, I am going to have to ship it home. Prepare yourself mummy for some parcels . Thankfully, my clothes for the ‘cold’ country (that’s Japan) will be packed into the ‘cold’ country bag with the children’s things, so at least that isn’t taking up any of my space.

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Photos

2 into the 1
The two suitcases standing were packed full and the one lying down is the one I need to fill.

The process
The sorting of the clothes. The ones on the left are the ones going, and the ones on the right are staying.

My new luggage amount!
Wow I did it! All the cases I will be taking and the clothes in the bags are to go into the cold case.

Comments

[Ru]

Gators
Your crocs looks like something from a Madagascar movie gone bonkers. What are you feeding them?!

[Anita85]

HEY
Dont be rude about my crocs!