Monday, August 13, 2007

I have to start going to bed before midnight

because I have been very grumpy the past few mornings. But I need to let my toe polish dry (Greece tomorrow - sandals!!) so I thought I would post a quick update.

The move was eventually over. They were supposed to be finished packing at 4:30 on Thursday and load on Friday morning. They were still packing at 4:30 on Friday and the loading guy had taken over the packing (why didn't they send him on day one?). Anyhow it got done. I am just terrified of what it's going to look like on the other end.

Had a lovely night at Hotel Parc Belair, inclusive of dessert and coffee with Marie, Andres and Noah (who dozed most of the time) in the Parc and then got up for our Scandinavian adventure.

More details about our wonderful trip to follow in following posts... can I tell you (briefly - as brief as I can be) about getting there?

Marc gets the suitcase rammed on his toe getting into the elevator (kids fighting over who was going to press the button, I stepped back... ugly scene) We are late for airport (we are usually never late because Marc is always early, but usually there is no one there so we opted for the 1 hour check-in (ok in Lux). Long-term parking is full. Kindly man finds us a spot.

There are hundreds of people checking in. HUNDREDS. I've never seen so many people in the Luxembourg airport, I am sure it was some kind of record. Finally get called to the front of the line to check in. Phew. Then not so Phew. Only 3 of us can get on, the flight is overbooked to Copenhagen. We end up having to split up, Marc taking the kids and luggage (it was his friend we were going to stay with) and I was to follow via Paris to Stockholm and arrive 3 hours later.

Not so bad until I get the text messages about the luggage - Marc saw it refused for his flight ("Last call passenger...") and asked them to redirect it to my flight - which was leaving only 15 minutes later.

Want to hear about how I ran around Charles de Gaulle trying to find out where our luggage was? Naw, didn't think so. Or that my cell phone (or the extra cell phone - Marc had mine) stopped working because the pre-paid ran out?

There will have to be a post on my adventure buying a FRENCH SIM card for my phone (really, it's a post in it's own) that didn't even work outside of France (why would it? I was leaving the centre of the universe).

I finally got to Stockholm (in Business Class on Air France, TWO glasses of champagne thank you!), shopping on my way out for undies etc. I was bright enough to ask about the luggage (I had the tag numbers) and low and behold - they had ust arrived from Frankfurt with a whole bunch of others that must not have made it to Marc's flight.

I proudly drag the bags out to arrivals and... there's no Marc. Or Peter. That is one I will save for the post about the French SIM card (which wasn't working in Stockholm). Anna was there but we'd never met, and I wasn't supposed to have luggage etc.

Incidentally Marc was at the doctor who wanted to stich his poor toe but it had been more than 6 hours so it was too late.

It all turned out okay in the end. I finally decided to go back to the arrivals thing and wait for someone to find me (Remember learning that as a kid? Don't go anywhere, stay put.) Anna found me.

We are currently at our friend Liz and Andy's house. Got here yesterday evening and are leaving in the morning for Greece. I feel horrible but it hasn't even sunk in, I have so much to get ready in the morning, I just feel like crawling under a rock.

How spoiled does that sound?? I know, I should be smacked, don't like myself much for it.

It's just been hard travelling with two small kids on whacked out schedules and it's been REALLY hard being back in Luxembourg for a few days. Such conflicting feelings, excited to go, sad to leave. Home, yet no longer home. Too many emotions.

And then I had to hand over my car this evening. My 1999 Periwinkle Blue FIAT Bravo that Marc bought when he thought he was only going to be here 6 months. I LOVED that car. I shed not a single tear over the house, but Marc found me in Andy's garage last night hugging the back of my car in floods of tears. I mean floods, like when Juli has a 3 year old meltdown.

Only consolation - it has gone to a very nice family (Canadian) and I know Glenn will take good care of my baby. Even the kids cried and hugged Mama's car.

I think I should go to bed now because I am posting about crying over my car. It's just everything I think, everything all at once, and yet taking so long.

But I promise to write more about my SIM card adventures and all about our Scandinavian trip (which was WONDERFUL) at a later date.

Next post might be from our laptop in Ottawa!!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well, Tracy, I'm glad to see that you still have your sense of humor (now that you're going to be living in Canada you need to say "sense of humour"). Now that I THINK I know how to add comments... I'll see if this one gets posted on the first try. We got your postcard from Sweden... and I've moved Stockholm to the top of my "where I want to go" list. (Will you send a card from Greece?... my list will get longer, I'm sure). Have a wonderful vacation. Cath

Anonymous said...

how are you?

Thanks for writing this blog, loved reading it

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