May 13, 2025
Len was up and at ‘em fairly early this morning while Ollie slept in for once in his life. We had hoped for a later sleep but knew it’d be good to get them outside for some fresh air and sunshine.
Our AirBnB in London occupies the garden level of a row house, a similar setup to our home in Hoboken. The boys have loved to say, “We’re living in Tina’s apartment!!” Tina (best neighbor ever!) rents the garden level of our row home in Hoboken. The apartment is a great set up for our family for these few days in London. After sharing a bedroom with the boys in both Zimbabwe and Mauritius, we’re thrilled to have 2 bedrooms here. But we are most excited about the laundry. We held off on doing laundry in Mauritius as the in-room laundry services were super pricey— nearly $5 USD for a pair of underwear alone. Kyle started a load of laundry and I woke Ollie as Len had been complaining of hunger in a non-subtle way by yelling “HUNGRY!!” over and over. The “Hungry!!” chant unfortunately continued until we were sat at breakfast.
We were out the door a bit past 8am in search of coffee and food. Ollie must have remarked at least 4 times on the walk, “Wow this looks just like home!” and we all agreed that it was refreshing to be back in a city that felt like home. We found a coffee shop around the corner, Black Rabbit Caffe, where Len continued to feed his Nutella obsession with a stack of crepes and Ollie scarfed 2 cinnamon buns. Kyle had a breakfast plate, I had a yogurt bowl and we each had a cappuccino and all in our total was nearly ~$70 USD. Definitely not in South Africa any longer.
Kyle then stayed home to continue the laundry march while I took the boys to the nearby Tesco Superstore to stock up on food, snacks and a few toiletries. When they were younger, maybe 2 or more years ago, I would bring them to target and they’d sit in the cart together. They were excited to try this arrangement and I was happy to have them contained and no longer complaining of tired legs. We also snuck in a mini math session where the boys were given a budget of 3 pounds to buy themselves snacks. Len was craving watermelon but it was out of his budget until we stumbled across the discount section where we found a mini watermelon 1.50 pounds. He add a box of fruit tic tacs to round out his haul while Ollie picked out a kinder egg and the same tic tacs.
After our Tesco adventure, we were back at the apartment for a quick lunch before heading to the park. Thankfully there is Tube station just a few blocks from the apartment that took us quite close to Hyde Park. The Tube experience brought more remarks on similarities to home, “Like the PATH train! and the Subway!!” Kyle and I made the mistake of paying for both boys but a friendly stranger then let us know the boys were free. I actually think we’ve been overpaying for the boys back home, too.
The rugby ball reemerged and we passed and punted the ball for some time. The boys were a bit rusty on the punts as we haven’t played in a few weeks, leading to some stray kicks going into the bike path and causing a commotion. Punts were soon banned and only passes were allowed.
We then made our way to the playground where Lenny was approached by a little girl asking to play (finally!). Maybe he was nervous or just overwhelmed, but after just 1 slide with his playmate, he was back to taking solo windsprints and meandering about.
We made our way the Serpentine to take out the paddle boats. It was a truly gorgeous day in the mid 70s with a bluebird sky, but the pollen in the air took us by surprise. Most of us had dry coughs for much of the afternoon and I had a few intractable sneezing fits but neither but a hamper on the beautiful day. The ice cream cones with flake helped with the coughing and provided fuel for a bit more rugby before heading home for dinner.
As requested, I made the boys “nachos from home” with beans, cheese and pico de gallo for dinner and we ate while watching Night at the Museum 3 which takes place mostly in London. We had plans of visiting a museum or two during our time in London but given our travel mishap from Mauritius and a family-wide exhaustion on the horizon, we’ve pared back our itinerary drastically to instead focus on rest. London is quite kid friendly with so much to do that I’m hopeful we can sneak in a long weekend trip sometime in 2026.
