I had the very best intentions to continue my UK travel blog. But then, life happened. I got off track. After all these months, it is time I get back to it.
Where did I leave off? Oh yes. Warwick Castle. So fun. I really want to go back to Warwick Castle and bring my younger two kids next time. They would have enjoyed it so much. My youngest, who is now fourteen, absolutely adores watching birds and learning about them. We have eagles, hawks, ravens, and falcons in our backyard and she's named all of them. She'd go nuts over The Falconer's Quest at Warwick Castle. You can find all the info on Warwick Castle online at warwick-castle.com
Okay, enough of that, I already blogged about Warwick, so I need to move on.
It is the day after we went to Warwick when one of my favorite memories was made. At the laundromat. In Britain they call self-serve laundromats "launderettes".
You see, my son met us in London after traveling to Israel for ten days. He arrived with a backpack filled with dirty clothes. A very unpleasant smelling backpack, to say the least. So everyday, he wanted his laundry done. But we were always on the move, and none of the hotels had self-service laundry rooms, like what we were used to in the states. He borrowed clothes from his dad the first five days of our trip, but by the time we were in Warwick, both my son and my husband had foul smelling backpacks and were out of clean shirts and underwear.
There was only one solution that we could all live with. We needed to find a laundromat somewhere. I searched up something close to our hotel in Warwick on my phone, and the only one I could find was pretty far away. Too far to walk. We were planning to take an afternoon train out of Warwick back to London, so my daughter and I called a Taxi to take us to a Launderette in Cubbington early in the morning while the men got their beauty sleep. I know, how primeval of us. Women doing all the work. But it evens out in our family since the men handle fixing cars and chopping firewood. We're all perfectly content. Also, my daughter and I viewed it as an adventure. We would get to see more of the area. And they'd miss out. Neener neener.
When the taxi dropped us off at the launderette, we realized we didn't have enough coins. And the coin machine was broken. We went across the street to a supermarket (there was nothing else around us open) and they said they couldn't give us change, that we should try the liquor store next to the launderette. So we headed back across the highway. Just as we went outside, it started raining cats and dogs. 🌂🐱🐶🥽
Drenched, we made a run for the liquor store and the fellow working (who looked like a teenager) gave us coins for a twenty pound note. I wasn't wearing my cheater glasses and had no idea how much the coins were worth. But once we got back into the launderette, my daughter counted how much we had in coins. "There's only five pounds here," she said.
"What? He cheated us!" I marched back over to the liquor store and told the young man he owed me fifteen more pounds in coins. He gave me a sheepish look, apologized, and gave me the rest he owed me. Maybe it was just an honest mistake. I hope that's all it was. Any which way, all is forgiven now.
While we were at the launderette, a very jovial man came in to do his laundry. "Are you from the states?" he asked us, detecting our accents. "I lived in the states for awhile, first in Boston, then in Nashville, Tennessee. I really enjoyed Tennessee."
"What were you doing in the states?" I asked him.
"I worked for a senator. Managed his house, cooked for him."
"Interesting!" I said.
"Also, I don't always tell people this, but I worked for Lady Diana too as her household manager."
"Wow!" I smiled and checked to see if the laundry was done. The man seemed very nice, but at that point I imagined he was probably pulling my gam.
While we were talking to the man, a woman came in to do her laundry and said, "Oh, you're from the states? I'm originally from New York."
"Really? What brought you to the UK?" I asked her.
"I met someone from here and married him. Thirty years ago. We divorced a year later, but I liked it here so much I stayed. Ended up marrying another man from here, and we were together for twenty-eight years. But he passed away a couple of years ago. But I made my life here, and can't imagine leaving."
Our laundry finished drying, and I tried to call an Uber. But I couldn't get any cell service. Now what were we going to do?
The woman from New York saw me trying to get cell service. "It doesn't usually work out here. Where are you staying?"
"In Warwick. Or Stratford, actually. The Holiday Inn."
"Wow, and you came all the way out here to do your laundry?" she asked.
"Yea. We don't known this area, and this place was what showed up when I searched on my cell phone last night."
"I'll drive you both back to your hotel. Have nothing else to do but sit and wait for my laundry to dry anyway," the woman offered.
"Are you serious? That is so nice of you. We can pay you," I said.
"No! I don't need your money. I don't have anything better to do anyway, and I can only imagine how awful it would be to be stranded in some other country without cell service, miles away from everything. I'm happy I can help."
Just as we were getting into the woman's car, the man who was inside the launderette, who'd said he worked for Lady Diana, came out and said, "I know you probably thought I was full of hog dung telling you I worked for Lady Diana. But here is proof."
He showed us a few pictures of him with Lady Di.
"Wow! You weren't kidding!" I said.
"You never know who you're going to run into at a launderette!" he said.
"That's for sure. It was great to meet you!" I said as my daughter and I climbed into the woman's car.
We enjoyed an interesting conversation with the woman who drove us the twenty minutes drive back to our hotel, and when we arrived, I tried to offer her money, but she refused to take anything. I said, "well, we're leaving the UK for France later today, so at least take the rest of our coins."
"Okay. I can use those for finishing my laundry," she said.
"Thanks for being a little heavenly messenger and giving us a ride. You were our hero today," I told the woman.
"I'm so glad I could help! It was a lovely time!" she said.
Once the woman drove off and we were walking back into our hotel, I looked at my daughter, and couldn't wipe the smile off my face.
"That was fun!" I said.
My daughter, who had been quiet the entire time, said, "I can't believe we just got in a car with a complete stranger."
It then dawned on me that for my daughter's entire eighteen years, I'd taught her to be wary of strangers, and never to get in a car with someone she didn't know. I'd just broken every rule.
"Look, I know. I always said never get in a car with strangers, and I pretty much just broke all my own rules...but sometimes, life throws us curve balls, and you have to follow your instincts. And I believe you have to listen to the Holy Spirit. I just had this peace that we were going to be okay."
"Yea. You really just did everything you always told me not to do. It's kind of all amazing. Everything that just happened. But you're right. The lady was really nice."
"I know. I have no doubt that God was looking out for us. He always does. Today, He sent us help just when we needed it. God sent us an angel of mercy."
Meeting beautiful people in off-beat places. Unexpected acts of kindness. There were so many life lessons in that trip to the Launderette in Cubbington. That day will always be one of my favorite memories from our trip.
Comments