Three weeks to go, and It's falling into place!

Well, three weeks from today we’ll be on a plane headed to London. I can hardly believe it. After all the challenges, roadblocks, obstacles and bureaucracy, the only thing remaining is our visas. They should be here shortly, so now we’re concentrating on what to take, what to leave, and the paperwork involved in paying our bills automatically so we have a functioning house and credit rating to return to.  With the help of our many friends and our credit union, I think we’ll be ready by September 11^th. If our visas get here on time, we’ll have two very heavy suitcases, two heavy carry-on pieces of luggage, and two heavy “personal items” - a backpack for me, a computer case for Maria, and probably wearing our heavy winter coats so we don’t have to pay extra money for overweight luggage on the plane.

Our yard sales the last three weekends have netted us enough funds to” set up house” in our new flat in Uxbridge, perhaps, if we don’t go too crazy and find some stuff on sale. Let’s see: sheets and blankets, pillows, food, towels, and maybe cookware and eating utensils to boot. We are really planning to stick to our “peanut butter” budget, unless we sell the two vehicles, the piano, and some art and/or get some serious “walking around” money from somebody between now and September 11th.

I’m looking forward to learning and the projects I will be involved in, and hoping that I can get some London actors to participate in at least one of these projects, as it involves the objective and subjective analysis of the impact of intimate knowledge of a playwright’s biography on his or her performance. I am also planning to suggest a system by which we can analyze the conflicting pieces of evidence in the “search for Shakespeare” and give objective values to these vastly different sources. (Sorry if that sounds a bit complicated – I guess I’m already starting to think like a true academic again.)

We do plan to see London, of course, and spend quality time at the many museums, galleries, and libraries – most of them free – that London has to offer. It is truly an amazing place, and we’re looking forward to exploring it. We’ll start with Uxbridge, of course, and that promises to be an enjoyable English village from what we’ve already seen in our previous visit in March. From Uxbridge, it’s a short trip into London – 35-50 minutes on the Tube, and we will definitely be taking advantage of the great transport system often!

 Back home, we have made arrangements for the cats, the house will probably be rented, and Lakeland is in good hands with Kathey and the gang taking care of the theatre and its patrons while we’re gone. Thanks again to all those who encouraged us, helped us, prayed for us, and given us much-needed advice on the preparations we had to make. You are the best!

We’re not fully ready yet, but we can see “ready” from where we are now.  We’ll probably re-pack a couple of more times each, and find another obstacle or two to overcome. Keep those good thoughts and prayers coming, and thanks for reading.

Less Than A Month To Go!

We're getting excited about leaving with less than a month to go before we depart for London, but many, many things remain to be accomplished prior to September 11. Sometimes the preparations seem overwhelming, but every day it seems that we get something else done that prepares us for the trip, and that's progress! Even if it's just getting our eyes examined yesterday and making sure we have great glasses and contact lenses for the copius amount of reading that we'll both be doing, we know that it's "one more thing" checked off our list, and we can go on to the next task at hand. Much of it, like the banking stuff and just paying our US obligations while we're gone, involves setting up automatic transfers amd withdrawals from our local credit unions and banks. It's routine paperwork but it takes time and effort.

And there are twists and turns in the road to departure that we have not anticipated that need to be negotiated. So far, we have encountered challenges with getting our visas, which we think we have now straightened out; we have debated with ourselves whether or not we can or should rent out our house while we're gone, a situation that we still have not resolved; we have had to pull out of our plan to ship several boxes to ourselves, due to the exorbitant costs of doing so, and we're now determined to pack it all up and take it in two large suitcases and two carry-ons; and we have decided to work out our financial concerns with a supplemental loan, in addition to the student loans we will get, so that we will not stress over money the entire time we're there, and be able to consentrate on enjoying the experience of the journey itself. Many more hurdles, expected and unexpected, remian in our way, we are sure, but we remian upbeat and positive that we can overcome them in time to take off on Sunday, September 11th.

Finally, we know that we do not go alone. Many, many good wishes accompany us, we know, and we thank you all for your prayers and good thoughts. Our own home becomes the site of an estate/yard sale this Saturday, August 20, from 8:00 AM to 1:00 PM, where we will hopefully sell some of our art collection ( we have too much anyway), the piano, and two vehicles as well as miscellanous stuff that deserves a good home, too. 

Cheers!

Now The REAL Preparation Begins....

We sent our visa applications off Monday, with yet another wretched passport-sized photograph from Wal-Mart, and they should be back here shortly. Now the really tough jobs need to be focused on: what do we sell at the yard sales? What do we pack for seven months of super-changeable weather in London? What do we mail to our friend Nigel ahead of time? (We already have two small but full boxes ready to go, and probably will mail 2-3 more in the next couple of weeks.)

Maybe it’s more positive to see what we have done. We have all of our prescriptions filled through April 2012 and our medical records – still have to get our eyes checked and possibly new glasses for both of us before we go. We have partially filled our friend Rosalie’s spare room in Henderson with stuff to sell at the yard sale next Saturday, although a great deal remains to be done before we’re ready for those events, too. We have a storage space paid for through next April and we have started taking stuff over to it too. More work is needed there as well.

We also have to get the house “renter-ready”, which is no easy task. We’ll probably pack all our junk into the back storage room and lock the door when we leave: that way, the new tenant(s) will be free to actually move about the house! On the positive side, we are reducing the amount of food we have in the freezer compartments, and not spending any more money on food than we have to right now. We are also beginning to set aside clothes in a “definitely-taking-this-to-London” pile: my dress shirts, ties, and socks are already picked out, with at least 5 pairs of my trademark black pants going with me for sure, and 8 t-shirts are in a box to be mailed next week. Maria is having a tougher time deciding than I am, but then again she has more clothes than I do.

And I have to finish reading the entire canon of the writer known as William Shakespeare again before I get there. On the positive side, I know six plays well enough to recite them verbatim, and I’m really familiar with a dozen more. That’s only half the plays, though, to say nothing of the Sonnets and the long narrative poems. I will be ready, though – even if I have to read on the plane! Amidst all this practical preparation and packing and logistical stuff, I have to also prepare to study and to excel once I get there. I don’t think focus will be a problem once classes start, but from now until then there will be plenty of things to distract me, that’s for sure! 

Maria already has an additional genealogy client already, and although she can’t work for UK pay, she can do a lot of research for anybody who wants to know their sordid personal past history! Let her know! It’s simple to get started, and you will probably be surprised at what she finds!

 Once we arrive, a lot of things will happen very fast, I’m sure. We will need to find a place to lay our heads at night, set up a bank account, make sure our London phones work, and visit Brunel so that we can take care of the financial stuff quickly. WE hope to be fully ready soon!