What we'll miss...

Sunday 1 July is just around the corner, which means we're getting ready to say "Ta-tah" to merry old England. After 4 years there are a few things I think we'll miss most of all (and ones I'm slightly sad that Beatrice won't get to experience more), ... balanced out with some things we definitely won't miss!

What we'll miss:

* our friends

* our flat where we brought Beatrice "home"

* St John's Wood High Street, with its shops and horse parades in the early mornings

* Regent's Park and our churchyard playground just across the street

* the long summer days and nights (sunrise at 4am, sunset after 10pm)

* the pub - The Star, and all the others
* pints (Zack) and Pimm's & lemonade (Sarah)
* Jeroboam's with Richard and Anthony

* Panzer's and all of Beatrice's friends ("Where is Princess today?")
* our doctor's office 2 blocks away
* the weekly clinic for Beatrice around the corner

* mochalotta-frappachino-lattes at Starbuck's
* the flower stand at the end of the High Street
* walking to work through Regent's Park
* dinners at Jasandra and John's flat

* reading hour on Thursday mornings at the St John's Wood library (this week - a blue bear!)

* taxi cabs, especially rolling B's stroller into the back of them
* British humor (er, humour)
* the secret nuclear bunker

* the near total lack of "ummmm...like...you know...like...uh" peppered in people's everyday speech
* real swearing (and nudity) on TV (e.g., if you don’t want to see it/hear it, be an adult and change the channel)
* those ridiculously posh people who actually harumph and look/act like caricatures of English people
* British television, especially the property porn shows (Location, Location, Location with Phil and Kirsty, and Grand Designs with Kevin) and Little Britain, Catherine Tate, Nevermind the Buzzcocks, etc.
* the V&A
* the V&A giftshop
* the bus, especially riding upstairs

* the delightful signs (e.g., "We will dye for you" at a local drycleaner)

* 2 hour flight to Italy, 3 hour train (or 9 hour bus/ferry) to Paris, etc.
* walking the streets of London and not hearing English spoken for hours
* Eurostar
* having Auntie Bucik just a few hours away
* being so near the zoo
* red post boxes and the little blue par avion stickers

What we won't particularly miss:
* having to kiss everyone hello and goodbye
* all those damned stairs in our flat
* those 3 HOUR laundry loads with a newborn
* the idiots on the High Street honking all day long (or just when B tries to sleep)
* the dreary days that kept us out of the parks
* the incredibly short, cold, wet winter days
* "changeable" weather
* always, always being "American" here
* did I mention the stairs?
* having absolutely everything be more difficult than in the U.S. (can't move a bookcase in the car because first the car is too small, second no one we knows owns any rope, third there aren't any hardware stores nearby that sell rope, fourth to find a hardware store takes nothing short of a 1 hour long trip to B&Q which is all of 2 miles away, fifth...)
* driving in London
* having to add in extra vowels to random words to spell things "correctly" (e.g., humour, colour, speciality, gynaecological)
* paying 11GBP a month for a TV license
* paying council tax
* $43 for dinner last night - 2 small pizzas and a side salad take-away
* living in a country in which showers are still considered "novel" by many
* the Tube

* the BBC
* all 6 set of stairs (hmm, perhaps I already mentioned that one)
* the vegetables, excepting Panzer's
* Baker Street, Oxford Street, Victoria Station, Luton Airport, Stanstead Airport
* landing at Gatwick after the last train
* Brent Cross
* Royal Mail
* M1/M25 interchange (also known as a total lack of real highways)
* the WEATHER!

-

Only one more day…

Today was Zack's last day in the London office. After a work party last night both of us were feeling the strain of getting up this morning. Beatrice and I spent the day moving out of our flat (we're in Karina & Diego's flat until we leave), getting rid of our car, and doing lots of errands. We did manage to fit in a nice breakfast break with Cristina & Sofia too.