It just goes to show you......

So, half of my kids are in London for the holiday. Four days into the trip and they are loving it. They are amazed at how polite and helpful everyone's been. They saw Wicked with Idina Menzel as Elphaba -- the purpose of the trip -- and loved it. They've seen a lot and have lots left to see. It may, just may, snow around Christmas. ....Could you even begin to imagine how five young people from the deep south would freak out to experience a white Christmas -- in London?!

Suffice it to say, they are having the time of their lives. They took pains to prepare for this trip. They talked with several friends and acquaintances who have spent time in England and they read (as a group) a book by Kate Fox titled "Watching the English" which had been recommended by my son's anthropology professor. They so wanted to have some idea of how to behave and not come off as ugly Americans.

But......as they say about "the best laid plans...." They arrived at their Canary Wharf apartment last Saturday night -- late. It was cold (inside and out). The water was icy for showers. So......early the next afternoon (with the water still cold and no heat) they called the contact number -- which happened to be the same lady who had picked them up at Paddington Station the night before -- to ask if things should be warmed up by then.

She said, of course it should and tried to walk them through lighting the hot water (which somehow controlled the heat). When that didn't work, she said she'd stop by to check on things, and suggested they call the owner -- which they did. The owner was super nice, saying she had an engineer on call 24/7, so if Daisey (don't you just love the name??) didn't get things working when she stopped by, to just give a call back and she'd have someone out there pronto.

I say all that to say this...... As I was thinking about it (of course they had called to inform me of the problem), I started thinking -- maybe that's normal for England. Maybe they aren't used to being as warm as we in the US are, and maybe they take colder showers. Maybe my kids need to get that stiff British upper lip or backbone, or -- whatever it is.

I didn't mention these thoughts to the kids, but......when they called back to say things were working fine, they mentioned they had been thinking the same thing. My daughter, A , said they had wondered if they should have called the second time. They wondered if they were being wusses aka Pampered Americans.

So, now we all know that the Brits value heat and hot showers as much as we in the US do. Duh!

And....we feel kind of meek after wondering if another country enjoyed creature comforts as much as we. Ummm.... Isn't Britan where most of the creature comforts started?

And therein lies the point of this post. It just goes to show you, I guess. No matter how hard you try, you're likely to make mistakes.

We've got lots to discuss on their return. I think I'll chill a bottle or two of wine. ......I hear that's the British way to discuss things.

You live, you learn -- hopefully with some grace.