15th -23rd September, 2006 – Just chillaxing

Once Twum arrived, I settled into a bit of ADIDAS – eating and sleeping, knitting and typing up notes. I finally made it to the Indian embassy on Friday the 15th and got my application in. I was told to come back in a week’s time to get it. We met one of Twum’s colleagues who gave us his executive lounge pass so we could get free breakfast. Even more, we somehow befriended the Guest Services Manager at the hotel who was really lovely (and proudly gay!) and he gave us executive passes of our own, so we could use the lounge for breakfast and whenever we wanted. (They had free desserts during the day. You know I dropped in pretty often! J. The desserts were to-die-for!)

We spent some time over at Kathy’s doing laundry, and we had dinner over there a number of times also. We even went over with Annabelle to Baba’s Foundation, a Ghanaian restaurant, and bought some dinner. We actually slept over on Saturday night, then left Sunday afternoon to meet up with one of Twum’s friends from Achimota. Edwin met us in Croydon to take us to a sale at Purley Way, where we wanted to get a phone for Twum’s brother at a cheaper price. When we got there we learnt that it was in fact an auction, and that the afternoon section was closed. We decided not to wait for the evening section, and set off back to London. We made plans to meet up with Edwin for a movie that night, but those plans fell through, and we just ended up staying in.

The week went by with Twum going to work during the day and coming back in the evening to have dinner with me. Monday the 18^th was my birthday, so I took it pretty cool. We went to visit Twum’s aunt and cousin at Wembley Park later that evening, and bought a toffee sponge cake in celebration of my birthday from ASDA. On Wednesday evening Twum came back from work all pumped up and excited about going to visit some tourist places. We decided to go on a tour, The Blood and Tears London Tour, led by an Irishman called Declan McHugh. The tour was about the different murders and murderers, and the bloody history of England. It was pretty interesting, and we walked for about two and a half hours. The next day Twum and I went on the Big Bus Tour of London, and took a boat ride on the Thames. It was quite a lot of fun. Later that evening we tried to go to Wembley Park to get some stuff from Twum’s aunt Vida, for his parents, but they weren’t around, so we went to Thornton Heath to get stuff for my family and friends. Twum was leaving for Ghana on Saturday morning. (We had actually planned to go to Scotland that weekend in celebration of my birthday, but we couldn’t go because we found out that Twum’s flight was on Saturday morning, not Sunday morning.)

The next day (Friday), I called the Indian embassy and was told that my visa was ready. Since I had about two hours before the embassy closed, I decided to take a bus there instead of the underground. I wish I had known what a horrible idea it was before I did it. But you mostly learn by experience, no? So, I took Bus 8 to Holborn. I tell you, sometimes I act like I’m completely dumb. I didn’t know the bus route, and where in Holborn I should get off. I wasted more than an hour on that bus, and I did not make it to the embassy to get my visa. I finally got down at Bethnal Green, which is pretty far away from Holborn, took the Central Line from there to Liverpool Street, then took the Circle Line to Victoria. I was quite mad at myself. If I had at least gotten the visa after all that trouble, I would have been happier.

Twum left for Ghana early Saturday morning. His flight was at 7am from Heathrow. We had to go get stuff from his aunt on Friday evening, and came back to the hotel around 11pm. We finished packing and took a shower before going to bed around 1:30am. We asked for a wake-up call at 3:30am and took a black cab to the airport. That cost about 60 pounds. Really expensive!!! I stayed in line with Twum and got him checked in, and then we went upstairs to wait for the security gates to be opened. I think they had a specific time, around 5am, when the gates could be opened. There was already a long line snaking down to the arrivals end of the hall. Twum and I spend most of the time observing people, and trying to figure out when Twum should go and join the line. We finally joined the line at around 5:30am, and Twum got in around 6am. He called me on the cell phone, and because he had signed up for the Vodaphone deal where he would pay for three minutes of talk time, and get to talk for 57minutes more for free, I stayed in the outside departure area for a while chatting with him on the phone till he got on the plane and the plane departed. I was quite tired.

I bought some coffee and chocolate cake from the Costa Café in the departure area, but the cake turned out to be dry and quite a disappointment. It tasted like it had been made from a box. I went back to the hotel to collect my things, and then went on to Thornton Heath. Instead of going to bed, I stayed up checking email, browsing the web and watching TV. Later on when the household woke up, Annabelle and Thomas talked me into going to get my hair done that day. I therefore set out with Annabelle to Croydon to a Ghanaian hair braiding store, where I got my hair done by a guy! Imagine that! And a Ghanaian guy no less. So that was my first week with my husband. J