Highlights and lowlights from England

We arrived to Heathrow airport after 6 PM on March the 2nd. We picked up our rental car and drove to Thaxted to meet Sarah, Astrid and Wolfgang. The car was a cool sporty Renault Megane with credit card like key and a push button for starting and stopping the engine. The winter in England had been cold and it continued to be almost freezing. When we arrived near Thaxted, a snow shower had just powdered everything fluffy and slippery. The weather continued cold throughout our stay. Meanwhile Cape Town had its hottest day for quite some time: 40oC.

It was great to see the friends again. India and Sarah hit it off like there had been no time apart. After a while in Thaxted, we continued to our old home in Littlebury. We arrived there half past midnight to find the house freezing cold. After travelling and being awake for 20 hours I did not have the strength to find out what was wrong, so I phoned Astrid and Wolfgang and asked if we could come back and stay the night. Half an hour later we were asleep. Unfortunately Minna could not sleep comfortably. She kept asking me: "Heikki, how can you sleep when the water pipes at home are freezing." I could not, but only because I was spoken to. After six o'clock I gave up, got up, and drove to Littlebury. Soon I found out that all the boiler needed was resetting. Although oil level was dangerously low, there was still some. Incidentally, over the years we had run out of heating oil so many times, but only now learned from a neighbour that we could put paraffin oil or diesel oil into the tank to keep the boiler going until the heating oil delivery arrives! We did that and were able to keep the house warm until we got the oil six days later.

While the house was getting warmer, we, together with Sarah, Astrid and Wolfgang, had a dinner at the local pub. It was Friday night and the place was packed. A log fire kept the place warm and everyone was greeting us enthusiastically after a few months absence. That's what pubs are for: meeting happy people over a pint.

India and Sarah enjoyed running around together so much that next day we took them to a children's indoor play area near Great Dunmow, after a morning trip to the cinema. For the first time in her life India joined the other children and ran around quite independently. She still needed a bit a supervision and occasionally screemed out of frustration when she could not scale an obstacle, but the will was there. She is no baby any more.

Matias had great time visiting friends, playing, staying over for a night, going to scouts, school, and Great Chesterford Youth club. He was really sad to leave them all, and the house, behind.

Kati delivered a baby on Friday and was home a few days later. The sweet baby girl was so tiny it was hard to believe that India had been as small only a bit over two years ago.

Wolfgang had started learning skating together with Sarah, so we went to skate into an indoor hall at Chelmsford. For me it was quite a surprise that hockey skates were not allowed and only figure skates were available for hire. I've skated a lot all my childhood, but never with skates that had those annoying spikes in the front. I had to keep reminding my self that I can not skate the way I am used to. After a while I felt more confident and then it happend: I landed on the ice and banged my head on it. My glasses got bent and they cut a small bleeding wound above my left eye. India was so impressed by it that for days she has been willing to explain to anyone who has been willing to listen how "O-oh, blow, daddy liukuu (slides), kaatui (fell)"

To meet friends from work, we got a number of them over to the Ickleton Lion for a lunch. Good food, good beer, and good company, what else can one want.

We met Alexander, Christina and Panos for great Greek dinner and the next day collected Alexander from his school in Babaraham. He did not appear at the school yard, so we went inside to enquire. The secretary had not received a written statement of the arrangement and started huffing and puffing indignantly. She refused to release Alexander to me even after she had talked to Christina on the phone and in the end alerted the head teacher to handle this potential kidnapping situation. She dealt with the situation calmly and checked the After School Club where my name was found on the note book. No police was involved this time. Christina had to send an apologising mail to school.

The removal company had estimated that they can pack up our house contents in two days. They did so with the help of six people. Furniture and boxes ware transported away in vans and trailers with amazing speed. After two days we sat on the floor of the empty house. Too empty. We called after them and said that Matias's home work had vanished from their place on a shelf. We agreed to meet the packers at the depot in Haverhill next morning at nine. The only woman in the team was there taking the responsibility. She remembered doing it and could point to a range of numbered boxes likely to contain the papers. They were found in the first one in no time. This was real relief as Matias would have failed his homeworks had he not returned them in time.

Cleaning up was harder than we had expected. By this time, exhaustion was starting to take hold. On Saturday, when we were due to leave again, we finished an hour later than we had planned. Matias was quite upset and he did not feel up to saying goodbyes to his friends, so we locked to door and left.

On the way we decided to stop at Camden Town. We could not find all we needed, but as a result we were late again. We did not have a street map of London with us and we are not too familiar with roads North West of City. We got properly confused. We left towards North, ended up driving South-West, then after asking advise from a fellow motorist were speeding along A40 towards Oxford and North-West again. Turning left at North Circular we were heading South-West again but signs were not too clear and feared that after driving for an hour we had no way of making it in time to Heathrow. After asking for advise once again, we followed the motorist for further three miles and finally reached M4 and were at the airport in no time. Next time, have a map!