Maiyegun on a boat cruise on River Thames, London December 30, 2015
As the summer season was packing its warm baggages, September 2014, few months after the birth of our son, Caleb, Stephanie and I decided to go on a family break (holiday) at the end of the year - not a decision we took too serious because of the time left, at the time. The time was too short but we couldn't keep it off our minds the thought of spending the end of the year in the City of London
In fact, our itinerary for the ending year was later hovered around the holiday - starting from the eve of Christmas planned as a night to open our hoard of gifts from the family and friends - Christmas day was spent with a family breakfast made by Stephanie; a Nigerian community in Scotland's house party later in the night - Boxing day was spent with the family in Erskine where Mum and Dad made us a sumptuous dinner, opening of presents that had Caleb humpy-bumpy around in excitement for his new toys from Nana and Grandad.
I almost forgot to tell you that after we decided to go on a family break at the end of the year, so we ended up paying for our hotel after critically comparing areas in and around London. Stephanie and I chose London because; one, her sister, Louise lives in England with her husband, Matt and the children. Other family members who lives in England were so supportive of us when Caleb came in the summer - we were showered with so much love and affection; visiting them on Caleb's maiden holiday was a brilliant idea that made London a destination of choice at the word 'go' - brilliant it was!
During the last day of our preparation, Stephanie and I decided to travel light; number one, We have Caleb to care for and the lighter our luggages, the better we would be in looking after him. Number two, we were on a budget holiday, therefore, travelling by coach was our better choice. So, we decided not to carry stuffs that were of immediate importnce - Food, and nappies for our son were left behind except the needed ones for the journey. They were stuffs we could buy in London upon arrival.
Because we planned to go shopping whenever we get to London, we both agreed to take few cloths until we get to London.
We paid for 5 nights at a location 30mins away from Central London. Our bus from Buchanan Bus Station in Glasgow was 10:30 at night and in order to avoid any delay and ensure hitch free journey, Stephanie booked our taxi in advance, but it never came. We later had to phone an emergency black taxi (the expensive lot) which we almost missed as well.
By 22:20, we were at the coach station and by 22:30 our bus was on the move. That's us on our way to London - a long held dream we both shared, even before the birth of our relationship.
"Love is friendship that has caught fire. It is quiet understanding, mutual confidence, sharing and forgiving. It is loyalty through good and bad times. It settles for less than perfection and makes allowances for human weaknesses." - To two of us, we were like baby eagles that were having their first sense of freedom, first flight and the sensation of possibilities ahead of them - that nostalgic feeling! As parents and adults in love, we were ecstatic, curious and at the same time fulfilled. Three of us - Myself, Stephanie and our son - the most important personality of the trio. It was an amazing feeling. More fun was it when our seats were just behind the driver and we could see the road clearly - and at times, not so clearly because of the bad weather.
After few stops for rests on the journey, we arrived the famous Victoria Coach/Train station at 6;30am. Fatigue, tiredness and distress almost ruined our arrival as Stephanie and I had some minutes of anger release at one another - smile - she was expecting me to understand the google map to our hotel on her phone - I was only interested in which train was taking us. The station workers or ticket attendants were not of any help either - our Scottish accents was our first barrier we faced in London. I still speak good English, sometimes without the accent whenever my chatter is not Scottish - I sometimes feels confused in between myself - laughs - to sound Scottish or to sound English? confused!
At the end when we both came back to our normal selves, we sorted our way by meeting at the middle of our different ideas; we opted for the Uber taxis. I think I was the first who mooted the idea of Uber - I read about it online and during the location search for our hotel on my phone, the app mentioned something like "Uber" and it stuck. So I advised she call the Uber
Stephanie downloaded the Uber app, and we requested for a driver - that was our first dose of technological ripoff, upon our arrival in London. The app was mesmerizing for a view, as you could see how many of the taxis are around your location, all on your phone - then within a min, a picture of a driver will appear on your screen with his contact number. Wow! I exclaimed. "This is London". But the joy was cut short when our driver won't understand where we were waiting to be picked up. Language barrier, I supposed, caused the misunderstanding which would later cost us £10 for cancelling a taxi with the Uber. Our driver was of Asian bloc, coupled with our own Scottish accent, we lost £5 that morning - for nothing!
A young black Uber driver later came to our rescue and was who gave us more ideas on how the Uber operates and do their billings. On Uber, you don't need cash before you can get a taxi - by downloading their app, your bank details will be requested and every time you book a taxi, the app will show your fare and same will be deducted from your bank account within 24hrs. Your driver will only pick you up and drop you at your destination.
How not to use Uber:
If you request for a taxi and on the phone with the driver, after 3 mins of no clear agreement on your location, cancel the request and start again. If your request lasts longer than 5 minutes and the driver still couldn't understand your location, Uber will automatically deduct £5 from your account for cancellation - this is what happened to us. It happened to us again when we left the London Eye and were staying somewhere around the Waterloo station - you will read about the trip to the "London Eye" later in this diary
We arrived our hotel in Deptford Bridge, Greenwich around 10:00am; but our expected check-in time was not until 3:00pm. But we met a nice young man who was a guest at the same hotel; He spoke to the attendant on our behalf if we could drop our bags with them, find something to eat until our check-in time later in the afternoon. But to our surprise, the attendant said we could drop our bags in our already booked room - he thought the room was yet to be cleaned for our arrival, but when we got in, the room was spotlessly cleaned - sigh! - "we are here at last!", I murmured.
We hurriedly took Caleb out of his pram, changed his nappy and made him breakfast. After that, Stephanie was already exhausted. So was I. We munched chocolates we took on the journey.
As we were planning what our first day would look like, in the arms of one another - watching Caleb snore to the warm ambience of the room that would house for 5 nights to come - a room we would later referred to as "...when we get home" - lol - we ended up falling asleep ourselves until we woke up later in the evening. Refreshed, we took shower and decided to go for sightseeing...
To be continued...
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