Sunday night we discovered our AK Air credit card had been compromised (someone was trying to book a hotel in Algiers). It isn't the card we have been using abroad but unfortunately is the one that all of our auto-pay things are on. Ah well, such is life.
Monday we ventured to the Brewhouse with Rocky. It was sunny and warm and nice to eat outside on the huge deck. I got the Ploughman's Lunch which seems to be an English thing. It is delivered on a wood handled serving board and comes with two huge pieces of ham, two large slices of bread, little gherkins, several whole pickled onions, two ginormous slabs of cheese (one is Stilton, like blue cheese and the other is an aged cheddar probably), chutney, an apple and celery. A little bit of everything to pair or make sandwiches as you wish. I must say, it is the perfect way for the kids and I to all share a meal!
Ethan went to school for one hour on Tuesday while I was there completing paperwork, two hours on Wednesday and four hours on Thursday. He seems to really like it and has settled in nicely. He gets all upset when he has to stop playing and leave when I come to pick him up (supposedly that is a good sign?).
Hailey seems to really miss him-she gets kind of upset when we drop him off. Either that or she has just been a cranky mess lately. :) I think she misses him.
Wednesday I took her to the Everyone Active Gym with me to sign up to join the gym. I asked if they had like a 3day or 1week trial pass or something to try out the gym and see if I liked it. No. So then I went to sign up (I had already checked out the classes and that location geographically would be the only one that would work--less than half a mile from Ethan's preschool and a short walk from the mall crèche where I would drop off Hailey before venturing to the gym). Here were my limited options: join for a year (which didn't make sense since we are probably only here until Christmas), join month to month (no contract but you were required to have it set up through an auto-withdrawal), or two week or pay per class/gym visit. After determining that the auto-withdrawal wasn't going to work with my US bank account, none of the options really made sense. Could I pay by credit card or cash? No. I guess I was stuck with the pay per visit (which is kind of a pain, ends up being more if you go even just twice a week which is probably what I will do.) Anyways, when I signed up for classes, they didn't charge me and said to just go scan my card. Um, ok. So there was some glitch that had me going for free only I made the mistake of bringing this up. So then we determined that the best plan for me was to pay two weeks at a time only when he went to set it up, he was informed that the two week plan is a one time only thing. (Both of the membership people had presented this as an option for purchasing over and over again). The guy felt bad for misinforming me but the lady (his boss) was just totally unapologetic and firm. Wow, just wow. They are so rigid and not accommodating in the least bit. They are just turning people away and don't seem to care. (Haha, completely different from every other gym I've been to where they give you a tour and a free trial pass and try to sell you on the place. And pull out all these different laminated cards from their desk drawer with all different plans/price points to try and find the one that works for you and get whatever business they can.) :) This particular gym doesn't seem like a very good business model if you ask me. Anyways, now I am throughly disgusted and just waiting to pay for my one time two week thing but it is taking forever because they can't figure out how to fix the glitch (dang it, should have just continued without saying anything) and mad because I am paying for childcare while wasting my time with this. So I say that I am going to go workout while they figure out this back-end stuff and then the crabby lady said I had to put my little purse in a locker. Which I didn't want to, I wanted to keep it on me. And she kept arguing with me and pretty much forced me to put it in a locker in order to go workout. Ok, now I was really angry at her and their stupid rules. (Oh, and you are supposed to keep your gym card on you to scan. Of course none of my workout clothes have pockets so I am totally going to lose the thing.) I hear the classes are really good though and my buddy Shawn that I did the introductory course with was super nice and apologetic at them being unaccommodating and rude. My goodness though, a little flexibility/ability to pay by other means would go a long way. Missing my R&T and Pilates back home that both came with friendly people and childcare. This here is a hassle and a half.
And then I've been on a weekend booking spree. I feel like we are always planning things last minute and don't have as many options and it is more expensive as a result. I didn't realize my bday weekend later this month was also Memorial Day weekend (which they have a bank holiday that day and a school holiday that week) and it was super expensive and took forever to find something as a result. We are headed to Cornwall though-I'm stoked that it finally worked out! And Cadbury World factory tour this weekend (my Mother's Day request). :) And I think we have our summer plans penciled in now so I can start booking plane tickets, hotels, campsites, trains etc. My head is spinning with all this research/planning but I'm stoked for our summer and fun travels ahead!
Here's Ethan putting together this really cool wooden puzzle (with certain pieces shaped like a castle or butterfly etc.) that Margie gave him:
And Hailey getting greedy with the pacifiers:
And this was how she was when I went to get her at 6-something this morning. This little escape artist got out of her sleep sack and Pj's on her own:
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