These things occurred on Thursday August 15, 2024 in London, England
Our outing for the day was a day trip to Greenwich and The Royal Observatory. We received several recommendations from friends both back at home and in London to go and to consider taking an Uber boat for a change of pace. Chaim’s work schedule for the day was such that he could join us for the full day so long as he brought his laptop along with him. Once the boys were asleep after the MJ Musical, Chaim and I spent a considerable twenty minutes debating our timing for our day trip, taking into account our children’s likely need and desire to sleep in. If we took the Uber boat it meant taking a bus to a train to a boat to Greenwich. Our kids showed themselves to be great troopers so we decided a 12:20 Uberboat to Greenwich and a 1PM entrance to the Royal Observatory for the day should work just fine.
We let the boys sleep in until 10AM, confident that we would still be able to make our boat and entrance time. Chaim has an incredible sense of time and is a stickler for being places on time. Somehow, in the magic land of Kirbyville, time does not exist for our children. Chaim does a great job of telling me when we must leave, and the kids and I tend to foil his plans. It’s probably my fault since time and I have not always understood each other (to put it mildly) and there is a high probability that I have passed this wonderful gene onto the boys. That nice, easy start to the day feeling that began the day quickly dissipated when we realized we were running behind to catch our bus. Fortunately, buses in London come quickly and often. We successfully made it to the train and then walked to the dock near Tower of London for an easy pick up.
The Uber boat was a lovely experience and a neat opportunity to witness how boats are steered sideways for docking. It was too hot to sit outside in the sun. The boys opted to sit inside where there were tables. We had the foresight to bring a couple of games and their Kindles along with us just in case they wanted to play or read. There were very comfortable seats with tables inside the boat. The boys quickly sat down next two women and began playing a game of Prez. Chaim and I sat at some seats a table away.
Our kids can grow very animated quite quickly when playing games. I considered letting it be and then felt a bit badly for the two lovely women who appeared to be on holiday. After a moment, I walked over to their table smiling and said to them, “My husband and I are more than happy to have you watch our children for us, but if you’d prefer not to, we would happily trade seats with you.” They found what I said to be hysterical and started cracking up. Turns out one of them is a schoolteacher who said she would have been just fine sitting next to our kids. As an educator, I too would have responded similarly while thinking about how much I also appreciate my breaks. Not a second later they hastily switched seats with us.
The boat to the observatory took longer than we expected. We disembarked at 1:20 and had to turn an 18-minute walk into 10 minutes, with the latter half up a steep hill. The tickets said no entry if you miss your entry time, which includes a half hour window. Even though every other museum we’ve been to didn’t seem to care about whether we made our entry time within the half hour window, we took this very seriously for some unknown reason. As soon as we could, we began speedwalking through the crowded and narrow sidewalks and across the park. At the bottom of the hill to the observatory, the signs said we had a 6-minute walk ahead of us. We only had two minutes to spare. We might struggle with time, but our boys are amazing in a “crisis.” We turned that 6-minute walk into two minutes and entered huffing and puffing right at 1:30PM. To be perfectly honest, I do not think the woman who checked our tickets cared in the least because she barely looked at the ticket. I am fairly certain she would have let us in if we had arrived at 1:45PM.
When we finally entered the grounds, the boys were hungry so the first thing we did was find a table where we could sit down and eat lunch. I was pretty proud of myself because I was so good about packing lunches for all of us that day. Something I had not done a good job of the previous days. After lunch were toilets. Around 2PM with our physical needs met, we began exploring.
Before visiting, I knew very little about the Royal Observatory. The one thing I did know was that we could stand across the Prime Meridian, which is honestly the only reason I wanted to take the kids. I almost missed it! Thankfully, everyone else knew where it was. The boys took turns reading the signs and “teaching” us about what we were seeing. Amichai asked, “If you stand on both sides of the Prime Meridian will you get jet lagged?” and “What side am I on if I stand in the middle?” The first question made us laugh and then turned into a great minilesson on time, time zones, and jet lag. The second question got us thinking and talking. The answer is still up for debate. After the obligatory family photos, we continued through the exhibits and learned quite a bit about the astronomers who lived there, the development of time clocks, naval time clocks, and so much more. It turned out to be very interesting and the boys really enjoyed seeing all of the different kinds of clocks and mechanisms that were designed to try and tell time as accurately as possible.
Chaim’s meeting was rescheduled last minute so we leisurely strolled back down to the giant green space below the observatory. Amichai opted to read while his brothers played tag. It was so nice to find somewhere the boys could run and play without worrying about them ending up in traffic. Chaim took one of the boys to the Naval Academy to find a toilet, a pretty good distance away. As he was returning the other boys said they needed a toilet, which was a sign that it was time to leave the green space and start exploring Greenwich. We spotted an ice cream truck on the way out of the observatory grounds and bought a 99 for everyone before continuing our search for another toilet.
As we roamed the streets, we spotted a church and decided to pop inside for a moment to look around. The church had an exhibit titled, “50 Faces: Israel, Gaza, West Bank, and Occupied Territories.” According to one sign, the church members had been invested in supporting Christians in The Holy Land since 2009. Politics aside, I found it interesting that a seemingly small church in the middle of Greenwich would have an exhibit like that.
While Amichai and I pondered our encounter, the rest of the boys went in search of a toilet with Chaim. As it turns out, almost none of the shops, including food shops, have toilets. We were about to head back to the Uberboat when I decided to stop and ask someone who looked like they knew where to find one. The nice man pointed us to the one pub at Greenwich Market. We rushed toward it. The kind barkeeps let all of the boys use their toilet for free. Feeling relieved we wound our way slowly through the Greenwich Market. The boys were excited by someone’s used LEGO figurines. Then one of them accidentally dropped one and its arm fell off. We fixed it, put it back, and quickly made our way to another stall. It was a safe way to remember our daily lessons of “Remember no touching, unless you are prepared to buy the item if it breaks.”
Located in the center of the market was a stall titled Spencer Pyrography. We had never seen wood burning used as an art medium. The boys were enthralled and began asking Spencer all sorts of questions. Spencer was incredibly patient and kind, taking so much time to show them how his two tools work. At one point he said to the boys, “Adults are the ones who ask the silly questions like, ‘Is one of those [burning tools] colored? Kids ask the smarter questions of ‘How do you get color?’ or ‘Where does the color come from?’" Amichai looked at him like Spencer had just read his mind. How did he get color into his art if the only tools he used were burning tools? Turns out, he uses colored pencils to fill in color when he wants color. We must have stayed there for at least twenty minutes before realizing we needed to make our way back to our Uber boat.
After our wonderful day out, we met up with Carine and Simo for a nice dinner at White Fish because they weren’t going to be around over the weekend. We were excited to try genuine English fish and chips. It was delicious and we loved being able to spend time with great friends before leaving again. Chaim and the boys were ready to leave before I was. Understanding I was craving more time with friends, Chaim took the boys home so that I could have much needed friend time. After dinner, Carine, Simo, and I went back to Carine’s flat where Simo left the two of us to chat for hours. It was so nice to reminisce and look at old photos of our gap year together and previous visits that were forever ago. We could have stayed up all night talking, but we are old(er) and wisely chose to end our evening before midnight.
This kind of day always makes me reflect on the concept of time. The day began slowly, at ease even, and then was rushed. Then it moved at what felt like a moderate pace, slowed down again, then grew frantic when searching for a toilet only to slow down again as we headed to dinner. There were moments where time was out of our control, such as when we were on a train or boat. And yet, time ticked by steadily never altering its pace. Only our sense of urgency changed. It was a good reminder that while we cannot control how quickly time moves, we can choose how to embrace the moments of ease and approach more hectic situations in ways that bring us back to a sense of calm. This would come up again and again over the next few weeks, challenging all of us to practice patience, acknowledge what was within our control, and find new ways to overcome our anxieties and frustrations. It was truly a lesson in time.
