Give me your poor, your tired, your huddled masses. Just don't ask for a cell phone!!!

We decided to go off and get cell phones for me and the kids. After all, we are in a different country, customs are different, streets are strange and I just wanted the kids to have the ability to get ahold of me whenever the situation warranted without having to look for a phone booth. Although, I will say there are a plethora of phone booths available in London, not like the US anymore. When was the last time you saw a working phone booth in the US? Probably longer than you think. Anyway, I digress. So off we go to the High Street where we have seen in the past few days quite a few cell phone company offices. Chizz wants to go to Carphone Warehouse because it is cheaper but I am a purest and would rather go right to the source. We walk into Orange, probably one of the bigger providers in the UK on the level of Cingular or Verizon in the US. After explaining our situation to the young gentleman who approached us, he grimaced a bit and then asked "How long have you been in the UK?" Chizz told him that he had been here about 9 months and we have been here just under a week. Another grimace AND a chin rub! "Wellllllll" he says drawing it out quite a bit, "You know we will need to do a credit check on you and I can tell you right now they usually don't approve anyone who hasn't been in the country 3 years, but if you want to come back with some more documentation, we can give it a try." THREE years!! Oh my goodness. Mind you the area we live in is a US slum, crawling with Americans, most of which have probably not been here 3 years. What kind of documentation will we need? "Your passport, a bank statement with your current address (where you should have been for at least 3 months), a utility bill if possible, a business card on with your title on it. Oh what did you say your title was?" Chizz being the humble guy he is, starts to say "Broker" Grimace, chin rub AND shaking of the head!!! I jump in - "Actually he is the Operations Director". He seems slightly relieved ,because heaven forbid they give one of their cell phones to just anyone, although he points out that usually they like the titles to be pretty high up like the owner or president or something like that. For a cell phone!! Oh yeah, I forgot to mention - Chizz is a duke, no wait an ARCHduke, with a prince on his mother's side. Yeah, that's the ticket. For a cell phone for goodness sake.

We went home, had some lunch and then regrouped. Bringing more documents than we needed for the visa to move to this country, we went to Carphone Warehouse. The manager was very nice. He explained they represented 4 or 5 different companies. He thought we might have trouble qualifying for some over others because we had been in the country for less than a year but he ran checks with several companies. T-Mobile turned us down flat. O2 would give us 1 phone line with a large deposit and Vodafone would give us 1 phone line with no deposit. Two phone lines when we really needed three. So the kids each got a phone with the phone companies and I am doing a pay as you go type of phone. Actually it is not a bad deal. Calls to the US are cheaper than calls to the kids in London. Weird. Hopefully when we have been here for 3 more months, I can get a phone with one of the companies the kids are signed up with.

Phone packages are different. No shared minutes or group plans. Each phone gets its own individual bill. Not very many minutes, hardly any text messaging. Kiki has only 100 messages, 90% less than she used to have in California. We are thinking of having her messaging thumbs and fingers surgically removed in order to help her stay within her plan.

All in all we were in that store almost 3 hours. I am not kidding or exaggerating. 3 HOURS. Waiting for credit checks, being rejected, waiting some more. I certainly understand that as new residents of a country we are more of a risk than a resident that has been here awhile. We take for granted certain things that we believe are our rights as human beings. Cell phones apparently don't qualify. Now if I can jut get them to open a Crate & Barrel.

We are Here!!

Our travel from the US was pretty uneventful. Auntie K drove us to the airport on the big day (thanks Auntie K!) and screeched away from the curb, anxious to be rid of us. Actually there were a few wet eyes as we said goodbye. Chizz kept saying it is only "see you later" not "goodbye", which of course is really true but it felt like goodbye just the same. Since we were unsure how long it would take us to get through what was promised to be hours of security, we left the East Bay with just over 4 hours until our flight. Given the recent terrorist hubbub for flights between the US and London, I had made quite a few inquiries with the airline to find out how long it would take to get through security, could we bring Ipods and laptops and books, etc. The airline assured us we could bring all of those items but also assured us we would grow old in the line waiting to get through security. We arrived at the airport with about 3 1/2 hours to spare, ready to take on the security line. Nothing, Nada, Nil, No Line!!! We whizzed through there in about 3 minutes, 4 if you count the time it took to put our shoes back on. Of course, not to say that we didn't have some drama. They picked Snake's backpack out of the group and asked whose it was. We thought, oh just a random check, it will be quick as he only has a few personal items and his Ipod. They went through his bag fairly carefully and it became apparent they were looking for something. What?? Finally they found the contraband! When I reminded Snake that very morning to not forget his toothbrush when he had finished with it, he also packed his toothpaste. This is still on the verbotten list. You will be happy to know the skies are protected from the likes of Aquafresh kids bubblegum mint toothpaste and rightly so!!

What to do? What to do? What to do? Normally I would do some serious damage at duty free but no one could tell me whether I would be able to retrieve my purchases on the flight. I wanted to buy some perfume and liquid make up but since currently those items are not permitted in hand luggage, we thought it would better to skip it. It would definitely be more painful to pay for items and have to leave them at the gate then not get them at all. Anyway, Chizz is flying to New Mexico in Sept. to meet up with his college friends for a few days (filled with art galleries, museums and native american art I am sure) and he promised to make the purchases for me.

We spent sometime in the airline lounge before we left. Kiki was able to IM her friends up to the very moment we boarded the flight so she was happy. The very first Monday night football game was on TV, so Snake & Chizz were happy. And by mistake, they gave us drink coupons for 3 adults - so I was happy!! The flight itself was fine. We were able to get upgraded to business class which was quite exciting for the kids. We had three seats in one row, where Chizz, Snake and I sat and Kiki sat in the row in front of us, for some reason pretending she was on the flight alone. Snake slept the entire flight. He hadn't felt well in the morning which he had attributed to being a bit nervous about our adventure but I think he must have been sick. I felt sorry for him, as I don't think he ate a bite or watched any of the movies, he just slept for about 10 hours. I was half tempted to ask the flight attendant to move him to coach and credit us back half our miles. (Well really 3/4 tempted) Not to worry, Chizz & I drank our way across the pond so we attempted to cut our losses.

We were pretty tired when we got to the flat so we stayed around the neighborhood that night. I will write more on the flat later but I do like it. It does not have a level floor, wall, or window in the place but I kind of like that. It adds to the charm. The building was built in at least 1800 or maybe a bit earlier so I think it has held up remarkably well. It is pretty empty without furniture but hopefully will be full before we know it.

So far London is great and I have to pinch myself all the time because I can't believe I live here. Ouch!

Degree of Difficulty

As most of you know, Chizz only travels with when there is a degree of difficulty. In New York at the time of 9/11 - Yes. In Spain at the time of their terrorist train attack - Absolutely. Flying to the US from London on the day they bust the "Baby-Formula Cell-Phone" Scheme. OF COURSE!!! We haven't seen him in 3 months, the kids are I are excited and it only figures that this would be the day he travels. I fielded (?) about a zillion calls that day from friends and family that also figured out that they only knew one person that was destined to fly that day. His flight was delayed by about 3 hours. Only allowed his wallet and passport for a 10.5 hour flight. I would have died of boredom. Luckily one of Chizz's god given talents is the ability to fall asleep anywhere, anytime, in any situation, no position too difficult. So he slept, watched most of the movies and counted the dots on the carpet of the plane. Upside? He says it was the fastest he ever deplaned (is that a word?) in his life, no carry ons in the overhead compartments. Although the flight attendant still went into the spiel about "being careful when opening the overhead compartments because items may have shifted during flight". Careful of those shifting blankets and pillows!