England, Day 1 Part 2….. !!!!!Draaaaaaaaaama!!!!

At the end of the last entry, Kim was feeling much better and we’d gone to our little chain-pub-not-an-authentic-London-pub for a beer and a soothing jacket (aka baked) potato, and walked home again planning to have our showers and relax and get some sleep. As we’d been going for way over 24 hours at that point- although Kim did sleep for several hours during her Recovery Time after we got to the house, and I’d slept a bit on the plane. Still— eleven at night, time to rest.

Except for the ….. draaaaaaaamaaa!!!!!

Let’s start with Kim’s cat. Kim’s ancient, 22 year old cat who I love dearly, but will be the first to admit is a little, shall we say… bad-tempered. And Kim’s family, who I also am quite fond of, but who can all be a bit….. crazy-making. And dramatic.

Kim’s nephew stayed at her house while we were gone and took care of her two dogs, but she took her cat, Tig, to stay with her mom. Because last time we went to England and Kim’s nephew stayed at her house, he let Tig get out. Twice, at least. And couldn’t find him. Kim’s neighbor told her about it months later, when the nephew let Tig get out AGAIN and he was missing for days and we all feared the worst. The neighbor let it slip that the nephew had also lost the cat while she was in England- but he did come home that time. ANYHOW, Kim felt it best to leave Tig with her mom. Who is 85 and has very limited mobility, but loves cats and has kept Tig many times in the past 22 years.

Tig has to have a lot of medication, given his advanced age and health issues. Kim has to give him kitty dialysis along with several other medications. She knew her mom could not give the cat dialysis, which means sticking a needle under his skin and letting fluids drip in from an IV bag. He HATES it and has only in recent years gotten to where he’s mellowed enough that Kim can do it alone. Kim decided to give him one last dose before England since her mom was there to help. I think she does it once a week usually.

WELL, long story short, Tig got very upset at being carted to Kim’s mom’s house and then having a needle stuck into him, and he bit Kim’s mom. This was right before Kim needed to be meeting us at my dad’s house so we could drive to Charlotte and catch our plane. Cat bites can be quite dangerous, especially if you’re elderly and not in great health. Kim IS a nurse, and her mom had some antibiotics in the house that were left over from some other health crisis, so Kim washed the bite thoroughly, and told her mom to take those antibiotics, keep a VERY close eye on the wound, and have someone take her to the doctor immediately if it started looking at all red and swollen.

So of course Kim calls her mom to see how she’s doing after we get back from the pub. I was in the shower when she called. I come back to our room expecting some quiet time and sleep, and find Kim in A State. Kim’s mom says her arm has red streaks but she doesn’t think she needs to go to the doctor. Kim had already asked her nephew to take her to the doctor if it was worse, and of course her mom had told the nephew that it was fine and she didn’t need to go to the doctor. But now she’s saying it’s not really fine- it has red streaks! And then after Kim uses the most annoyed voice I’ve ever heard Kim use to reiterate the fact that this is serious and you don’t fuck around with cat bites, her mom says, “Will I DIE???”

Kim is all to pieces and blaming herself for trying to do dialysis on the cat and thinking her mom can help her and on and on, and she knows her Evil Jealous Sister will never EVER let her hear the end of this, and she’s mad at her mom for acting like things are fine when they obviously are NOT and then being a DRAMMMA Queen and OMG it’s DramaCity!

And then I get to have my OWN little meltdown. It’s getting close to one in the morning, and I realize I need to charge up my phone. Kim has run my phone nearly down with all the Cat-Bite Calls, because weirdly enough her phone isn’t working at all and she can’t figure out why. So I start hunting my charger. And I hunt and I hunt. And I think, SHIT, I’ve FORGOTTEN MY CHARGER!!!How could I forget my charger????? WHAT WILL I DO????

And then I find a charger…. and I realize oh, it’s MUCH worse than that. I haven’t forgotten my charger. I have SWITCHED chargers with Baker B. And my phone is about to die and I know Baker B’s phone was on two bars because I’d used his at the airport to call Hertz about the car when we were running so much later than we’d planned.

SO. My phone is going to die and I can’t charge it, Kim’s phone does not work at all, and Baker B’s phone is also going to die and he is not going to be able to charge it. And although I have my iPad and internet access, Baker B wouldn’t take my Netbook with him to Devizes so HE’D have internet. Oh, no, he’d just use the library’s computers! And he wasn’t planning on being online anyhow! Which means I have no way of contacting Baker B. At all. Baker B, who is alone in the country. By himself, on his first trip overseas (it’s actually nearly his first trip outside our timezone- we’d been to Nashville twenty years ago for a few days but other than that, he’s not even been out of the Eastern Standard Timezone) and he’s driving a car by himself in England and this is HORRIBLE and I DO NOT KNOW WHAT TO DO!!!! Except have a parallel melt-down with Kim.

It’s two in the morning. Kim is beside herself about her mom’s potentially deadly catbite that’s ALL HER FAULT, I am beside myself at having stranded Baker B with no phone and no way of contacting each other and it’s ALL MY FAULT and we are beyond exhausted and there isn’t much left to do but wail and then go to bed and TRY to get some sleep. And hope that we can come up with solutions in the morning.

I’ll post some more pictures of our London home since we’ve not moved beyond the first evening.

Stratford! Or Waltamstow. I have never figured out how exactly all these neighborhoods work. This is the way we walked to the Stratford tube each day.

Our house was on Ramsey Road. This was at one end of the road. I love the sign. And the house.

Cool doors and paving tiles.

That weird thing to the right of the tall building is the Orbit Tower at Olympic Park — it is the bizarre roller-coaster thing that no one could figure out. I still don’t know what it is, but you can see it from EVERYWHERE.

And a little closer. I’m pretty sure the tall building is new too. There is a lot that’s new since we were there last, thanks to the Olympics.

Stratford from the top floor of the Handy Starbucks. That is right before you get on the tube, so you can stop and get real coffee there.

Our lodgings! This is looking into the kitchen area. We ate our breakfast at the little table on the left every morning.

The garden. I don’t know what that gorgeous blue flowered tree on the right is, but I LOVE it. I’d thought we would be spending time sitting in the garden and relaxing, but we were running all day long and never got back until ten at the earliest, so didn’t have any garden-sitting time.

From the dining area:

From our room, looking at the bathroom:

Billy!!! Billy is the latest cat, who just showed up on our host’s doorstep. He has a microchip, but they couldn’t track his owners, so he is a resident now. He’s gorgeous.

Poppy!

Rosie! Rosie and Poppy are sisters. Rosie is inside more than Poppy, so we saw her the most.

You know, now I would not swear that the cat under the table is Poppy and not Rosie. They really do look a lot alike. However, I DO know that this is Poppy:

Cats in the window on our street. They look like Eddie!

And another cat. Our neighborhood was FULL of cats.

To be continued. Of course.