All I know is that it was a tremendous relief to actually GET to our little Blacksmith's Cottage. That's what the home is officially called, a beautifully redone old blacksmith's shop. It's adorable, really well done. But this entire area is incredible. John's ideal regroup, rest and relax is a hot beachy place on the Mediterranean. Mine is the Cotswolds (or near Sarlat in France, but since I hate duck paté I think it takes second place for sure.) It's just incredibly lush and green here, the homes all have English gardens, and beautiful flowers. There are rolling hills of green, punctuated by wheat fields, and then purple fields, but they aren't lavender and I haven't quite figured out what they are yet. I think they have banned poverty, graffiti, and all things unattractive here. It's where I'm going to come in my next life to be a novelist. Every other car is a Land Rover, and the dogs all look regal. if it's trying to be pretentious it doesn't feel that way to me as the outsider at all, it just feels like a little piece of perfect.
I'll back up though, so you can adequately feel the pain of the journey, which will give you a full picture of the sweetness of arriving at our wonderful destination. We left this morning late, 9:00 a.m. instead of the 8:30 we should have left. It was wicked hot, and John and I had to lug everything up the hill to the car. I was sweating like I just did a spin class. We rushed to the airport, dropped off the car, lugged all our bags into the terminal huffing and puffing. Not only do we each have a suitcase that literally is within ounces of the weight cut off, we now have two carry ons each except that two of them are really filled with boxes of plates, therefore Romeo and Gia can't carry them (and good luck asking the older girls, they are useless.) So we gave Romeo and Gia two smaller carry ones plus their normal backpacks, and then I have my computer backpack and the huge bag of plates (same for John.) We stood in line for Easy Jet, and despite being in the special "fast line" that we paid extra for, it was CRAZY slow and we literally got in under the wire because they stopped accepting bags at 10:10 a.m., and our turn put us in their face at 10:07 a.m. More stress and sweat.
Everyone was complaining, everyone was hungry, we had to race thru the airport to get to the gate, and Ava refused to get on the plan without some food despite John yelling at her, so that delayed us 5 minutes and by the time we got to the gate we were immediately boarded. Due to our late arrival, there was literally NO overhead baggage room, so we had to walk one of our bags to the back of the plane so it would fit in some random bin, and then the rest was rearranged and cramped under the seats. In doing that I pull a box of plates out of the duffle, and something either in the duffle or on the box was super sharp and sliced the inside of my thumb open, just below the knuckle. So it's bleeding a ton, and I'm trying to get a napkin and bandaid from the attendant while simultaneously directing the kids to cram our bags into the right places because another attendant keeps telling us that it won't fit. I'm going to need my wound glue for sure.
Seriously, total craziness. The flight itself was an easy hour and 40 minutes, and after we spent $35 in airplane food, the kids were civil again. I read the rest of the time and tried to keep my thumb from moving because it killed and threatened to bleed straight thru two bandaids.
Once we got there we had to lug everything onto a bus, that shuttled us out to Hertz, and after that we were able to get into our Volkswagen van (which is huge) and get out of there. The Brits drive on the opposite side of the road so it took awhile for John to get his groove on and not feel like he was about to get into an accident. It's tiring to drive like that at first, I can remember Thailand. It takes all your brain power to learn that simple new rule because the old rule is so imprinted on your brain.
The drive from London to our little village was only 2 hours, but it was the slowest two hours in the history of the world. Not entirely sure why, but it was like the twilight zone. I kept looking at the GPS on John's phone, it would say 35 minutes until arrival, and I then I would look away and hang out for what felt like at least 30 minutes and then I'd look back to see if we were almost there and only 5 minutes had passed. It was maddening.
The really good news is that John won't be driving like a maniac in England. They are known for their elaborate and thorough camera systems on the roads, and there is literally a camera sign every 50 feet reminding you so there is no mistaking the fact that you are under surveillance. I'm not exaggerating either, the camera's are far less than a 1/4 of a mile apart.
When we finally arrived, I was exhausted, my thumb throbbed and I don't think I could have handled showing up to a less than fabulous place. Luckily, it was pretty darn great. The country side is just incredibly peaceful too, I absolutely love it. We drove thru some areas where the houses all look like monopoly houses, with steep pitches and perfect boxy little shapes. Imagine the neighborhood where Harry Potter lives with his horrid Aunt and Uncle, that's it. They are cute and neat, and there's something quainter about it than our suburbia. They are new, but they are brick or stone, so they don't look as new as "new" usually looks. Our cottage is near Winchcombe, and the homes are all older, and more unique. Everyone's garden is amazing, you envision people working on them with such love (vs. a sea of gardeners doing it for them like you might find at home.). They are literally works of art.
Our sheets are linen, the house is modern and cool, but also old and quirky. There's a hot tub for the kids to play in, and a perfect little backyard that is totally private and lovely. I also snapped a picture of my first cup of English tea. The kids and I had a snack and drinks while John did a conference call and we were waiting for dinner. We bought snacks and drinks and enjoyed being able to communicate with the woman at the coffee shop who was super sweet and gave the kids extra biscuits and smiles.
I didn't do a great job of documenting any beautiful countryside, but tomorrow for sure! I tried to snap one of the highway overpass where it had a camera picture, one of the 5 million that I saw on the drive.
Signed ME {lv}
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