This post has some pics from my hotel room with an amazing view over the Thames to Westminster and the Houses of Parliament (and Big Ben)!! There's also a picture in the room (I should have taken some before the party when the place was clean) and of the leftovers in the morning! Also a picture of my "business card" from the hotel. You can't read it very clearly but its says my London residence! LOL! I was so posh!!
But now I'm on the bus to Luton Airport! Its been a manic couple of days!! I didn't think I would make it here! Of course I left everything until the last minute. The original plan was to have all my stuff packed and be moved out of my flat on Friday so I could spend the weekend in London and then head to the airport from. Well, I got most of my Africa stuff packed but my bag was too small and stuff was here and there and bits and pieces...and (quick side note - the bus driver is a crazy...he's shouting at people and bitching about having to do a breathalizer test in order to start the bus....goodness - its 9am! Way too early for this much rough English attitude-good thing I watched him take the breathalizer because he acts like a drunk LOL)
Anyways...so I just wasn't getting organized in time so I had to ask my flatmate if I could stay the weekend so I could come back to Oxford Saturday night and finish packing and moving out of my room. So after watching the Twilight movie (Breaking Dawn) in London on Saturday with the lovely Kelly - I had to rush back to Oxford. Luckily on Friday I was able to convince a man and van service to help me move late Saturday night (no one seemed to like the 6am Sunday option). So I had just enough time in the evening to clean up my room and shove everything in my drawers and get ready for the moving man to arrive at 9pm!! He was absolutely lovely!! I told him I would drive myself to the storage unit because I would have to spend a lot of time figuring out how to get everything to fit in the unit once he helped me get it there. But he actually helped me make it all fit (he either really likes a challenge or felt really bad for me when he saw what little space I had to work with)!! It took over an hour to unpack what was already in there and repack it so everything kind of fit! Poor man - I only brought the minimum amount of ££ that I haggled him down to - so he didn't even get a tip for all his help.
By the time I got back home it was 10:30 and I had to figure out how to get everything for Africa into my backpack!! LOL - it was almost more of a challenge than packing the storage unit! And I had to sort out my finances...oh because in the midst of all this drama fucking PwC (excuse my language) decided they would finally finish my 2010 US Tax return. Its only 7 months late!!! I have been telling them for 2 months that I needed them to finish because I was going to Africa and wouldn't sign off on it without at least a month to review it. And then because I have to fill out a 5471 for my UK company (which PwC wouldn't do) I had to tell PwC that they would be responsible for the $10,000 penalty for not filing that. So of course they finished my tax return on Thursday afternoon. I looked at it and immediately knew it was wrong - and so they luckily called me and tried to tell me why they were right and I was wrong and then told me I had to sign off on it and submit it before I went to Africa because the final deadline was now and they were worried about all the fees!!!! I had been worried about all the fees for the last 2 months-grrr!!! Bastards! Anyways - I decided to hire someone else that could do it properly - so thursday night I emailed one of the guys I got tax quotes from earlier this year and asked him if he could help! He responded before 6am on Friday morning and for a rather reasonable (but kinda large) fee he had all my tax returns sorted by Friday afternoon!! Amazing!!! PwC told me I owed the US government $4,500 while this guy did it properly (the way I tried to tell PwC to do it) and he got the result that the US gov't owes me $175!! Result...so the £700 in fees I paid him saved me like £2500+ and a lot of time and effort!! Yay!!!
So that fiasco happened while I was trying to get my life packed away...and I also learned on Saturday night when I got in my car to drive to the storage unit - that someone broke into my car (AGAIN)!! I don't know why people feel the need to keep breaking into my shitty car! Although this time I suppose they didn't break in since I have given up locking the door they just went in and had a look around. Of course there is nothing in there - but they threw stuff all over and made a mess. Oh well...hopefully now they know there is nothing in there they will leave it alone while I'm away!! But seriously? I have the crappiest car ever...why do people think its worth the effort of breaking into? If I were going to risk getting caught breaking into a car I would at least choose a nice one :P
I forgot where I was in my story after my rant about taxes and cars...but let's see packing - I think...so I jammed everything in my bag Saturday night and went to sleep for a few hours! At 5:30 this morning I was awake so that I could pack the rest of my stuff and take my last "few" things to storage. Those last few things turned out to be quite a few more bags (all my bedding and towels and kitchen and bathroom stuff). So when I looked at it all I realized there was no way it would all fit in my storage unit. Something had to go. So I decided the biggest thing worth the least amount of money was the divan bed base. Its huge and I think you can buy new ones for like £50...so at 6:00am I was back at the storage unit repacking it! Luckily it didn't take too long to get the bed base out and shift everything around to get the last stuff in. Then home for a shower and my last bit of computer time (basically more sorting out my money and paying my bills)!! Then I realized shit - I don't have time to clean much like I told my flatmate I would try to do!! Sorry Barney...I hoovered a bit and wiped down the bathroom - but then I had to make one last trip to the storage unit with my laptop and the small odds & ends I found in my last look around. So I threw those in storage rushed back parked and locked my car - called the taxi and was off to the bus!
So right now - I'm on the 2 hour bus journey to Luton airport with a crazy bus driver. My luggage is overweight, my hand baggage is over the size limit and I am tired and frazzled...but I have my passport and flight confirmation number - so no matter what I've got the minimum I need and I'm all set and on my way to AFRICA!!!
Now its time for a nap!!
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