In Which We Return Home
Aug. 11th, 2023 11:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
walkitoutIt is easier to pack up, when you have less to pack. We got out the door in good time and drove the hour and a half to Schiphol. Unfortunately, R. selected a non-existent or somehow problematic gas station (supposedly right at the airport, which if I had realized, I would have said no to). Anyway. He insisted and I wound up driving down an authorized somethingorother only lane before bailing out. We found an off-airport gas station after multiple errors of navigation by R., so I switched to listening to T., got the gas, got to the rental car return and left the key and headed into the terminal. From there, things went pretty smoothly. We had arrived a little more than 3 hours before when we started screwing up, and were there more than 2 hours before once we were really there.
We got to the gate — not too crowded at the airport, which was a relief. Crowd limits at Schiphol are working great, if you ask me altho to be fair, I know nothing. KLM did main meal first and got a child meal to A., but it was pasta with red sauce so T. ate it. My non-dairy veg meal was fine. When snacks happened hours later, she liked the cheese croissant but I got another child snack so I gave that one to R. I was fine. I had taken the ziploc bag I packed the kids’ vitamins in (gummy) and spooned the rest of the peanut butter into it and put that in my toiletries bag (I had ordered Once Again sachets, but they arrived _after_ I had already left on the trip, despite ordering well in advance *sigh*). I had that with one of the granny smiths that we had left over. I think I had the last of the mandarins, too, and some of the spice/nut bread. R. had a chunk of gouda and the rest of the suikerbrood.
I caught up on Odd Lots podcasts and also listened to a couple Speaking of Psychology encores and a couple The New Warehouse. TNW is doing sustainability / circularity stuff lately and it is great. I napped a bit, also.
Because we did not check anything, we did not have to wait to pick up bags. Passport control / customs was hilarious — the person directing the line and the person who we talked with were having some kind of a war. We managed to get through the confusion without too much drama but wow, it was definitely impacting on other customers. It was _less_ funny when the confused person was BIPOC, but in general, it was hilarious and given that both the perpetrators were themselves POC or BIPOC, I am going to just enjoy the humor and not take a stand. At least the line was short when we were in it.
We found our van. Our van was fine. It took 2 hours plus to get home, so that was not just the tunnel issue. I have no idea why there was so much traffic between 1:30 and 3:30 on a Friday in August. I got through the laundry and everything unpacked. I fed A. a grilled cheese and I had some granola and thawed out bread pudding. We started thawing other stuff for the next few days. Siena Farms had arrived, so I got that put away. The hold mail had arrived, so we recycled the junk from that. Nothing major to deal with, as far as I can tell. My Seattle area transponder has arrived from Good to Go, so that is nice.
Everyone but me went to bed really early. I stayed up and did Friday with Friends / zoom cocktail hour. I had had a couple woodford reserve nips on the plane (with ginger ale once, and neat with pellegrino on the side later), so I was not drinking. I was just trying to reset my clock.
I got up insanely early the next morning to feed the sourdough that had thawed.
We got to the gate — not too crowded at the airport, which was a relief. Crowd limits at Schiphol are working great, if you ask me altho to be fair, I know nothing. KLM did main meal first and got a child meal to A., but it was pasta with red sauce so T. ate it. My non-dairy veg meal was fine. When snacks happened hours later, she liked the cheese croissant but I got another child snack so I gave that one to R. I was fine. I had taken the ziploc bag I packed the kids’ vitamins in (gummy) and spooned the rest of the peanut butter into it and put that in my toiletries bag (I had ordered Once Again sachets, but they arrived _after_ I had already left on the trip, despite ordering well in advance *sigh*). I had that with one of the granny smiths that we had left over. I think I had the last of the mandarins, too, and some of the spice/nut bread. R. had a chunk of gouda and the rest of the suikerbrood.
I caught up on Odd Lots podcasts and also listened to a couple Speaking of Psychology encores and a couple The New Warehouse. TNW is doing sustainability / circularity stuff lately and it is great. I napped a bit, also.
Because we did not check anything, we did not have to wait to pick up bags. Passport control / customs was hilarious — the person directing the line and the person who we talked with were having some kind of a war. We managed to get through the confusion without too much drama but wow, it was definitely impacting on other customers. It was _less_ funny when the confused person was BIPOC, but in general, it was hilarious and given that both the perpetrators were themselves POC or BIPOC, I am going to just enjoy the humor and not take a stand. At least the line was short when we were in it.
We found our van. Our van was fine. It took 2 hours plus to get home, so that was not just the tunnel issue. I have no idea why there was so much traffic between 1:30 and 3:30 on a Friday in August. I got through the laundry and everything unpacked. I fed A. a grilled cheese and I had some granola and thawed out bread pudding. We started thawing other stuff for the next few days. Siena Farms had arrived, so I got that put away. The hold mail had arrived, so we recycled the junk from that. Nothing major to deal with, as far as I can tell. My Seattle area transponder has arrived from Good to Go, so that is nice.
Everyone but me went to bed really early. I stayed up and did Friday with Friends / zoom cocktail hour. I had had a couple woodford reserve nips on the plane (with ginger ale once, and neat with pellegrino on the side later), so I was not drinking. I was just trying to reset my clock.
I got up insanely early the next morning to feed the sourdough that had thawed.