Girls Night In

Somehow Deb and Sarah made it to the house. I was busy getting the house ready when I realized I told Deb which bus to take, but not where to find it. It's obvious how to catch it from the train station, but I had advised Deb and Sarah to take the National Express bus from Heathrow which brings people near the center of town, a couple of blocks from where the city buses depart the city center. Somehow they managed _despite the fact that a major construction project downtown was on fire_, entry into the city was restricted, and buses were being rerouted. Fortunately, apparently, someone shouted out "7 Cottenham" (the bus I told them to catch), they were directed onto the bus and raced out of town. The bus driver, apparently, had no idea where to tell them to get off of the bus, but a nice local lady was going to the same stop. Resulting in me hearing my name called from the sidewalk literally as I was going to unlock the front door after retrieving the kids from school. They were right behind us.

Sarah and Deb got a complete tour of the house, sat down in the conservatry (phonetic spelling), and received at least individual entertainment from that moment on. Sarah, I have to say, was remarkably good at engaging the kids. She learned much more than I have about what they think about school in England, and learning a foreign language. Olivia and Sophia played more cards in a night with Deb than they have in the last week (with Bruce), and I prepared dinner in relative peace. Nice for all, I hope.


They came bearing gifts. Deb apparently brought the perfect alcohol for Bruce's birthday, vanilla cognac, and a very nice purse I had instructed our cousin Leslie never to give away -- so she gave it to me. Hopefully I will have occasion to use it, there are lots of fancy things going on here, we'll have to get ourselves invited to something. She also brought the mapleine (that is how you spell it, we eat alot of syrup), ranch dressing mix, movies, and various computer items as requested. Thanks Deb, Dad, and Leslie!


With Deb's help, I managed to get up and shower the two youngers who'd had swimming the day before, and still make it to school with 2 or 3 minutes to spare. Bruce was gone for a whole week, and we were never late for school, I was late picking them up once. Sorry girls. From there, Deb, Sarah and I set out to walk to the car rental place, stopping by a couple of sights on the way. The first was the castle mound or mott, not sure what to call it really.


Then by King's College, the market square, tourist information, Lion's Yard (shopping), and finally towards the car rental place despite my desire to go back by Jesus Green before being encumbered by a car, then another mile or so because we had the address wrong. (Still not worth the six or seven dollars it would take to ride the bus!) So, we got our physical exercise, then for the emotional exercise.

Not sure which was harder, determining whether or not Sarah or Deb's credit card covered the car rental (so they didn't have to pay for Hertz insurance literally doubling the rental bill -- something to research before coming over) or the driving across town to get back to the house. After two pretty lengthy phone calls, we learned that Deb's card insures rental cars as long as you decline the rental agencies insurance, and don't sign a waiver of something, and, thankfully, both Sarah and Deb were very smooth drivers from the start. I'm glad they also decided to rent a cell phone, which I can call at no charge to them, and they can use in case of emergency and to make reservations at per-minute prices that are at least known. Although they're not answering just now at 10 am, their goal was to make it into Edinburgh by 10:30, maybe they're close. They are there to see a really good team play soccer, not sure what it means that the forecast is definitely for rain up there. Hopefully we hear how it goes.



Bruce made it home last night despite many road blocks including trains not running for various reasons. He's upstairs now reading Harry Potter the first aloud with the kids (Miranda has read the first five, Sophia is working on the third.) His friend Bill will be joining us tonight, just in time to celebrate the end of his thirty-something days tomorrow.