Oh no, not us. Never mind that it is well below freezing outside and that the ferry is not full. I don’t feel like letting you go early. You can just sit over there in the parking lot and come back in the gate when it is time. Or you can pay an additional 90E to go early. Your choice, but we don’t do standby and it is your problem that you got here early.
Do you know what it feels like when you are wiped out from a drive, it is 0230 in the morning and the dude is not willing to let you take the freaking earlier ferry. There you sit in the car, wrapped up in your jacket with two exhausted teenagers who have been real troupers. They have slept off and on for the last hour or so. Now they are patiently waiting with me, waking when I turn on the car for a few minutes when the shakes get too bad so that we don’t turn into people-sickles.
The day could only get better from there.
We drove again through the UK customs point shortly after 0500, this time when we got to the Check-in the nasty little guy gave us our hang tag and directed us to our que.
Drive on at 0534, Ferry motors out around 0630 and we are exhausted at 0700 driving off in the UK complete with the one hour time change.
Singing “drive on the British side, keep to the left” under my breath, we headed up the A20 to the M26 Crawl-by to the M25 to the M3. A trip which is supposed to take two hours (200 km give or take) is a bit longer than that because of this thing called rush hour compounded with the trucks – seemed like thousands – that were sharing the road outbound from Dover with their goods.
In case you are wondering why the Ferry rather than the Chunnel – please compare 114E round trip complete with taxes for the three of us and van with 336E prior to taxes and I am sure that you will under stand. I will pay when I have to, but why on earth would I waste that much money? Especially when it would buy a lot of groceries or even more wool.
What am I saying? I definitely don’t need any more wool.
Rather than bore you with all the fussy around that goes with finding the place. Staying on the British side of the road. Getting checked in. Locating the housing people, unpacking the car, watching them unload and put together furniture. I will just say that it took forever for the house to warm up after standing there all day with the door open.
It is not warm in Camberley at this time of year. Yes, there are registers in the house. No, it is not possible to really heat up the great outdoors all by myself.
But we have a house!
And beds and tables and couches and chairs. Food in the fridge and adapter plugs for the water cooker.
More tomorrow when I brave Tesco.
-Holly
