Lessons learned on Memorial Day

#1: Internet is a MUST.
This is so hard trying to live without internet! I feel cut off from the world and it's even worse because I'm in a class that's mostly online so I need access! Hopefully I will get my internet hooked up this week, if I can just find the time.

#2: DON'T answer the phone after you've been called off from work! Or, look at the caller ID before you answer!
I asked to be off work today because I've been working like a dog and haven't been able to take a break to breathe, set up my apt. or get my homework done, including a paper I have due tomorrow. Fortunately, the night charge nurse called me at 5 AM and let me know that I would be called off today. I stayed up long enough to take care of my SAU nursing student so he would have a person to be with today since I was not around and then fell back to sleep. At 6:35, said nursing student calls me to let me know he'll be late, he hasn't even left yet and he's supposed to be there at 6:30. Hmmm... great for SAU's reputation. I explain the situation to him and go back to sleep. At 7:33, my phone rings again. In my sleepy stupor, I don't pay attention and answer, thinking that it's Nathan calling because he can't figure out who he's supposed to be working with. NO, it's 1 North, the floor downstairs calling me to come in to work, "we're short a nurse, the director said you need to come in." I was livid. Don't ask a tired nurse/student with a paper due tomorrow who's been on and off the phone for several hours to come in 1 HOUR after her shift is supposed to be started (and I wouldn't get there until 9, when I'm supposed to be halfway thru passing meds) and take a brand new section of patients, because you know the other nurses won't do anything to get things started. I called my floor, got the number for the big poomba herself and called her at home on Memorial Day. After a discussion she let me off work. It is a real no-no to call somebody in to work after they've been called off, you are not obligated to come in because for all they know you've gone on with your life for the day. (Now, being put on call would have been a different matter.) I should never have answered the phone, I should have looked at the caller ID. What's infuriating is that 1 North didn't catch this problem until 7:30! I was stomping around my house cussing I was so mad. And then, after she told me I could stay at home, I was still so mad I went out for a walk, all the way to Kari's house to check my e-mail and write this blog.

#3 Food is important
I suppose I should say I started learning this 2 weeks ago in England when we weren't eating much and certainly not the most healthfully. But in the last week, I don't think I've had a solid, extremely nutritious meal the entire time. Except maybe when I was at the Heilmans. This camping out stuff stinks, which is probably why I should walk back home and start crackin' so I'll have a place to make food.

Camping out... at home?

I'm so confused as to where I'm supposed to be... Moving to Kari's, going home, going to England, coming back, staying at the Heilmans, moving into a duplex, Carrie here for the weekend, sleeping on an air mattress on the floor... I wish I could put pictures up of my new place like Carrie has but I don't have a digital camera at my disposal so you'll have to wait. My elcectricity wasn't turned on until a day late so I was put a bit behind schedule getting things together. So far I have my bedroom cleaned and a few counters in the kitchen. I had to dig thru a box to find a clean cup. Boxes piled everywhere. I'm wearing flip flops in the shower because I haven't had time to clean it. I've barely even been in that silly place. Too much trying to work before Technology and the Educator starts and trying to catch up on the two weeks of the other class that I missed while I was in England. Plus I'm precepting a SAU nursing student for 10 shifts, which is fun, but doing that means you have to stay so energetic all day long and on top of things, and teaching somebody something all day long is wearing. We are starting to reach the precipice where he knows how to do a lot of things himself and will just go do them without me prompting him all the time. Sigh... help... I want to sleep for 2 days. And then have 2 days to unpack and clean... ALL DAY!

Day 10: Lacock, a pub, and home we go

Lacock Villiage, the village of Merriton from the old BBC Pride and Prejudice. So old and quaint!

Lacock Abbey, home for about 25 nuns and 9 priests at a time. During WWII people found shelter here.

Inside the abbey. Parts of the Harry Potter movies were filmed here.

Our last English meal in a pub. We had veggie burgers and baked potatoes.

History was made at the London airport the day we flew out. The big plane with the blue tail is an Airbus built in France, the biggest plane in the world. It's double decker the whole way back. It took a test run from Paris to London the day we flew out. Everybody in the airport was talking about it.

Well, that's all folks! After leaving the ground almost an hour late and making our way thru customs, we got out of the Dulles airpiort and drove home, arriving at 3 AM. So far everybody's taking naps during the day except me. My head feels a bit weird, but I'm sleeping at night, even if I am waking up at 6 every morning. We really enjoyed this trip and I think everybody should go to England at least once in their lifetime if they go nowhere else. I'm going to miss it very much. . .

Day 9: Bath

If you imagine a large bowl covered with the greenest grass you can think of, a river snaking around the bottom, houses piled on all the sides, and a very old town piled all around the river you will have a semblance of what Bath looks like. When we started our decent off the mountainside into Bath we were all in shock at the view. It's like something from a movie or a book. Unfortunately, you can't get a very good picture of it. So here are a few pieces, your immagination will have to do the rest.

By the river Avon

The Roman Baths from the 4th century AD. Natural hot springs bubble up here and the romans made a temple with baths which were thought to have healing qualities. People from all over the world came here to get well. The baths are still steamy and all water tight. It's so hard to believe you're walking thru something so old!

This is only the biggest pool, a whole temple complex has been excavated and you can see several of the other rooms and baths, including that neat floor warming system with stacks of tiles that we learned about in archaeology (remember Lindsey?). In the Romans day, this water would have been clear but now, because the roof is gone, algae makes the water green.

Day 8: Blenheim Palace & the Cotswolds

Here's another house, this one's for the Duke of Marlborough. Sir Winston Churchill was born here and is buried in the town. His grandfather and uncle were dukes here. One of the dukes married a Vanderbilt by arranged marriage. This is only one view of the house, you can't see it all in this picture. The library in this house was the size of a narrow gymnasium with books floor to ceiling, a grand piano and a tracker organ almost as big as Southern's at one end. Sounds like the perfect room for my house!

Next we drove thru the Cotswolds, the country section in the middle of England. It would be just like this picture, you'd see a town in the distance surrounded by fields of deep green and yellow (the yellow was rape seed, your canola oil) and then you'd drive up windy roads to get to these little villages with cute names like Chipping Norton and Stow on the Wold.

I even found my own cottage!

See, I told you they are even in the country. . .

The infamous sheep pasture we walked thru between Upper and Lower Slaughter. When we went thru customs into the US, they had to check our shoes because one of the questions was "Have you walked thru a pasture?"

Day 7: Chatsworth and Warwick Castle, my favorite day!

Chatsworth is the home of the Duke of Derbyshire. This is Mr. Darcy's house, Pemberley, from the new Pride and Predjudice with Keira Knightley. Big houses like this for dukes and earls are all over the countryside and they let people come on the grounds most days just to enjoy their acreage, have a picnic, take a walk. You have to pay to get inside the house though. This arrangement would never work in America but the British are very respectful of other people's property.

This landlord has sheep, some have deer roaming about the parks.

The gardens were gorgeous here. This is part of the manmade rock garden. You could explore for days.

The side view of the house where Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy sit on the porch of Pemberley at the very end of the movie. The room where she walks through all the sculptures is in this house too. There are some amazing pieces of sculpture in that room! Here are some views of the inside of the house. Remember, this is just the house of one duke in one county, this isn't even a royal residence. It's no wonder our forefathers wanted to get away from all this hereditary hoity toity business.

The art in this house was amazing. The violin on this door is painted, but it looks so real!

Town beside Chatsworth

Warwick Castle

You can play "Where's Jaclyn and Stephanie?" with the pictures from this place. I think Stephanie counted 93 steps to get up in one of these towers, the circular kind. This is better than Disney! Where else in the world can you go explore a real medieval castle?

A birdseye view, the part you see in the middle is the place where the big muckey muck for the castle would live. It really is this green!

The town beside Warwick

Day 6: York

York is in the northern part of England and it's the same county (Yorkshire) James Herriot is from. People are a little more countryfied up there. To get there we drove through Nottinghamshire and Sherwood Forest, Robin Hood country.

This is Clifford Tower in the center of York.

Here's us on top of the tower. You can see the towers of York Minster behind us.


Here's inside York Minster. Most of the churches we went to didn't allow pictures inside so I've included these to show what the inside of a gothic church looks like since most look similar. They are layed out with a central circular area and then 4 branches off of that, 2 shorter than the others. This view is down the long side where people would sit. The heart shape at the top of the window is the "Heart of York." If you look up on the right side you'll see a dragon head coming out of one of the windows. They think this is a lever to open the baptismal font that was below it.


Here's the opposite side of the circular area, the other long end. The opening under the organ would lead you to the view above. This is the choir area and behind the photographer would be the altar. In some of the minsters, there were seats up around the edges behind the choir seats where knights sit. For example, Windsor is the home of the Order of the Knights of the Garter and a standard and helmet for each of them are at their seat. Famous people like Churchill, Norman Schwarzkopf, and the elder George Bush are members of this order, knighted by the queen.

The Shambles, one of the narrowest and oldests streets.

While in York we also saw the house of a Fairfax related to the Fairfax for which Fairfax, VA and county are named. This relative Fairfax was friends with George Washington. So many times during this trip we felt ties to these people. So many of our town and street names come from England. We asked a tour guide in this house what British people call the Revolutionary War and she said, "Well, it's really just our Civil War isn't it? Just like yours between the North and the South. And you're still fighting it a bit aren't you?" Hmmm . . .

Day 5: Sabbath at Newbold

The Newbold SDA church. Yes, that is grass growing on the roof.

Standing in front of Moor Close, one of the buildings, Tara lived here for awhile I think.

Walking in the woods around the school. So beautiful! Mom and I went off the beaten trail and had our first experience with stinging nettle. I just touched the leaves of a plant and felt like I had 20 bee stings on my legs complete with whelts! My fingertip was numb for a whole day afterwards.

Getting around in England

This part, getting around on the Underground, we had pretty well figured out but once you got out on the street... things got confusing...

Just in case you're from another country and forget, directions are at every intersection.

Here's a sign for a roundabout, a very simple one, sometimes they have 4 exits with streets "signposted". In case you can't read the sign on the left, it says diverted traffic, in other words, detoured traffic.


The navigator with her trusty AA (like our AAA) directions.

Coming up to a roundabout, about to the hit the rumble stips, meaning slow down. I've decided I like roundabouts actually. They keep traffic moving and seem much more efficient than stop lights.

These crooked lines mean no parking, but you rarely see them, people usually just park along the roads where they please.

Random strange sign. My question is: How do you not allow this? When a dog's got to go...

Day 4: The War Rooms & Windsor Castle & we learn how to drive

The room in the underground compound where Churchill planned with his war council during the bombings of WWII.


My tour guide and me. Not the statue, the thing I'm holding up to my ear.

The room Churchill used to phone President Roosevelt.

Windsor Castle: the weekend residence of the queen and the flag flying from that flag pole means that she was there while we were! This was the main residence of the monarchy in the 1600's.

The courtyard that leads to the queen's private residences on the right side. The arch on the left is the entrance into the state rooms where foreign dignitaries are taken to see the queen on visits.

Check out the transportation section to see how fun driving was...