There's No Crying at the Embassy

We got back from Amsterdam Sunday night. Yesterday morning I woke up and immediately headed out to my appointment at the US Embassy. I needed more pages put in my passport, one of those strange realities that comes with living abroad and traveling a lot. When you first get a passport you can’t imagine filling all the pages, now I am on my second refill. My appointment was for 9:30am and I was called to the first window at 10am, not too bad. After turning in my passport and paying the $82 fee I sat down to wait. And wait. I happened to sit behind two people who were strangers when they arrived at the embassy but were besties by the time they left. By the time their wait was over they were making plans to email each other and go out with their respective partners. I mean seriously, besties. The first thing I heard them talking about, because I eavesdropped my entire wait, were the Mexican food options in London. That’s about right, and typical of two Americans living here. They then proceeded to talk travel plans, also typical, with the woman saying she’ll NEVER fly Ryanair again (a sentiment I echo) but that Easyjet has gotten a bit better, but still isn’t great. I guess I agree with that, although I do like the fact you can pick seats now, and we have never had a bad experience with them (I know, just wait...), so overall they are ok in my book. 

There were quite a few kids in the waiting room, including about four newborn babies getting their first passports. With many kids and babies comes a lot of crying. A saw one boy, about three, fall on the ground and start to cry. His mom took him and his brother to the vending machine to get a snack and while there I heard her tell him “you’ve got to keep yourself together. Everyone’s staring at you.” I half expected her to start shaking his shoulders while yelling, “KEEP IT TOGETHER, DAMMIT.” The strain of embassy wait times was clearly starting to show.

I was told my wait would be about an hour, in reality it took one hour and 45 minutes for them to sew in additional pages. I think in embassy speak a 45 minute difference is completely negligible. In total I was there two hours and 15 minutes, but it’s over and done with and I can continue to travel. Seeing as how you can get your passport back the same day, going into the embassy to get additional pages is well worth it. Not to say I’d like to do it again anytime soon, but it could have been worse, or it could have taken 2-3 weeks in the mail. A few hours of crying babies, stressed parents and error ridden BBC closed captioning (“word flew” - the lesser known strain of bird flu) is tolerable every few years.

Tulipmania

We're off to see tulips tomorrow. Luckily we are feeling better so we didn't need to cancel this trip as we did with our Germany trip scheduled for last weekend. I think Dave would have liked to cancel, he's a bit less enthused about touring gardens and tulip fields than I am. Can you ever imagine why? He knows I will be camera crazy, snapping away at every red, pink, yellow, orange, purple and multicolor tulip in sight. It could be a long weekend for him.

Here are some pictures from our last trip to Amsterdam, February 2012. We went to visit a friend while she lived there and while I would LOVE to post the picture I have of her, in awesome vintage glasses, I don't think she'd appreciate it. Maybe I'll just put it on Facebook...

Measles? That Sounds About Right

I’m finally feeling better, so is Dave. It took over a week, has been one of the worst colds/flus I have ever had and it even reduced me to googling measles symptoms since nothing seemed to be getting better. There’s currently a measles outbreak in Wales and in reading about it I got nervous that I was exhibiting measles symptoms. Now mind you, I haven’t been to Wales. But it’s close enough so I figured it’s possible that I could have been sitting on the bus next to a Welsh measles carrier. In addition, I am pretty darn sure I had the MMR vaccine at some point in my life. Surely I must have. But that didn’t reassure me and led me to investigate whether the vaccine loses its effectiveness. Maybe I needed a booster? Was I not immune anymore? Did I miss a key adult vaccination? 

When reading the symptoms I immediately identified a few that I was currently suffering through. Red eyes? Yes. Cold-like symptoms? Yes! Fever? Well I was achy the first day, so surely I had been feverish. Cough? Hell yes, in fact I had to stop my research for five minutes to cough violently. Tiredness, irritability and lack of energy? Sounds like me. Aches and pains? See: fever. Check, check, check, it had to be measles, that’s why I wasn’t getting better. Except…I was missing oh, just the measles RASH. And the white bumps in the mouth. And sensitivity to light. But in my sickened state that seemed neither here nor there. For about two minutes the other day I had measles, I was convinced. Then I came to my senses and realized how ridiculous that sounded. I think. Now that I am finally getting better I am pretty much, almost entirely, 99% sure I am measles free. But don’t think I didn’t check the back of my neck and ears for any sign of the rash. I don’t often look back there; any rash could have been hiding from view. The NHS website says the rash develops within two to four days of getting sick and I was on day seven during my googling extravaganza, had I been living with a rash for five days? Alas, no rash and most likely no measles, so I can go about my normal life, away from WebMD.

Moral of the story? Don’t self diagnose via the interwebs.

TGIM

Yes, I said it, thank goodness it's Monday. Dave and I both got sick last week and whatever we have lasted through the weekend. We were basically housebound, during what was a beautiful, sunny and relatively warm weekend. We did manage to take Riley out for some really good walks, but otherwise we were on the couch. I also went to a final goodbye dinner for my friend who moved away, even the flu (or cold) couldn't stop me from doing that. I am now awaiting an email from my three dining companions telling me I got them sick, with perhaps a few expletives thrown in for good measure.

I haven't been sick all winter, and in fact I can't remember the last time I was sick so I really can't complain. Although I will say that whatever we have has been a doozy. I have never coughed so much in my life. And isn't it always the case that coughs tend to come on the strongest between the hours of 1-6 a.m.? I'm now happy it's Monday as I hope, hope, hope that we both get better in the next few days. Surely it can't go on much longer?

Here are some pictures from the weekend to spice up this otherwise boring, flu-filled post:

We got quite cozy with the Kleenex this weekend. We have boxes scattered throughout the house.

Blossoms! Finally, spring has arrived!

 

We took our friend's dog for a walk on Sunday. Riley wasn't sure about having company on her weekend walk. She insisted on always being in front and at times had to push past Rocky to get ahead.

 

I took some pictures of her tonight. She wasn't too cooperative, but this one came out ok.

A Name Change May Be in Order

It's been decided. We're never coming back. Don't worry, we'll send for Riley. Dave has already figured out that working from here is doable, time difference wise. We certainly won't need our winter clothes, it has been upwards of 90 degrees so those can stay in London. And I happen to LOVE mango so I think I'll be fine here. Who knows, we may even get visitors living here. Therefore, from now on this blog will be known as "The Life of Riley in..."