The Sparks went to Washington...

Saturday, 21 March 2009

Just over a week to go...The Countdown begins!

It has been a busy week! I think all our visitors had a good time and, with carefully staggered getting up times, managed to avoid total bathroom chaos in the morning! It was lovely to see everyone and we had a great time! Everyone has made it back to Glasgow okay and Stephen and I are now getting on with some serious moving home action.

Spot the family resemblance!
I see now what Kristen meant when she said to Paul
"There's a guy over here who looks just like your Dad".
l-r: John, Moira, Stephen and Jim
I was unable by this point to do late nights and early mornings...
in fact to be accurate I was unable to do late nights OR early mornings!!

We are being packed and shipped next week, so I need to sort out our worldly goods into what we're packing and taking with us on the plane (clothes and shoes), what we're sending air freight (clothes and shoes) and what we're sending sea freight (everything else). I also need to clear out the cupboards and dispose of the electrical goods....there is a lot to do and my to do lists keep getting longer as I think of other things to add. Gulp! I'm sure it'll all come together in time.

We've had a couple of hiccups though...I did an e-mail to all the relocation people involved in the move yesterday saying "Here's what I think is happening when" because I hadn't heard from the packing/shipping people in a while. I immediately got an e-mail and a phone call from them because they had us slated to pack on Monday. I had ALWAYS said Thursday/Friday. The girl was like "well if we pack you on Monday we'll get it on a ship on the 30th. If we pack you on Thursday/Friday it'll be the 13th April before we can get it on a ship". That's a shame, but I do not have time to get everything sorted out by Monday!!!! It does mean that I need to make a quick re-assessment of what we put in the ground shipment as we won't get it until mid-June.

We had a handyman come round yesterday afternoon to do a quick repair of the shelf in the closet. It had been groaning under the weight of my handbags... We had to move all my clothes off the rail and my shoes out from underneath in case he wanted to drill. The shoes made a very satisfying pile!!!!

The shoes....

Saturday, 14 March 2009

Walking the Mall

I'm sitting here enjoying the most fantastic aromas wafting up from the kitchen! Moira and Jim are cooking a curry and it smells absolutely wonderful! I am salivating already and they're only just beginning the cooking process!

We have a bit of a houseful at the moment! We've got Jim and Moira plus Stephen's mum, his brother John and niece Leanne. I'm so thankful to have our own bathroom on the top floor as I'm sure the queues for the guest bathrooms are like Disney!! What I don't see I don't worry about though...no-one has complained too much yet! Although John, June and Leanne only arrived yesterday so I guess we haven't fully pushed the capacity yet!

We've spent a couple of days at the Mall (the National one, not the shopping one!) since we got back from our holiday. There were a few museums we hadn't been to yet, so we've ticked those off now. The American History museum just re-opened last November after being closed for a couple of years so we have spent a fair bit of time in that. They have a really well done exhibit of the original "Star Spangled Banner" - the American flag hoisted after the Battle of Baltimore where it was spotted through the "dawn's early light". It was very moving. (What I mean is that I was welling up again! Especially as they had a montage of versions of the Star Spangled Banner playing in the background. Maybe its my age...)

We were back again today as we met up with John, June and Leanne. Stephen and I went to the Lincoln exhibit which we'd missed the other day. As we were leaving one of the employees had asked if we had heard of the discovery that the Smithsonian had made a couple of days before. As we had barely switched on a TV for 10 days we hadn't. Apparently Lincoln's watch was being repaired and the watchmaker had engraved something inside the watch. President Lincoln never knew it was there, but it was a legend within the watchmakers family. One of them contacted the Smithsonian very recently and told them, and when they opened the back lo and behold it was there as described. The watch was on display along with other artifacts so we stopped by the exhibit to see it.