Friday, we headed back up to Bishop's Stortford. We were looking for schools and homes. So, we started out by visiting Bishop's Stortford College. That was a total waste of time. They are a big school and highly rated. It has a beautiful campus and goes from nursery school all the way to age 18. I was really hoping they could accommodate us. But they only were able to accommodate 2 of the boys and then they were unwilling to because we would not be here for the duration. Ok, fine fancy-pants school, we don't need you either!
Then we headed to the information center. I headed to the train station again to try and park. Well all the spaces are for permit holders. Well, that is not going to be me! Colin swore he remembered parking by the center, so I headed into the center of town, small, teeny, tiny roads and all to find it. We made it and I parked behind another vehicle, all seemed good! We headed in and got a map, a list of letting agents and other helpful things. We had only been inside 5 mins tops. I hurriedly remembered where I parked and asked if I was in an allowed area. The lady looked out to where I was parking and said, "Oh, no, you can't park there! Hurry now, they are there to give you a ticket!" I instantly ran out and the Bobbie and cried, "no, please I will move the car right away!" I kept profusely apologizing as she repeatedly told me how lucky I was as she could easily ticket and fine me. That by not ticketing me she was saving me a lot of money. Phew, I am so glad she did not ticket me!
So, I then headed to the catholic schools. The receptionist politely gave me registration information at the desk of the school for the older boys as the registrar was on vacation. The primary school also gave me forms and let me know they had a wait list. Hmmm, this was obviously NOT going to be easy. I went to one more school, another primary school. The headmistress was wonderful! Liam and Cian went in and she gave us a tour of the school. Really it was not much different then Covington, the school that we just left. The teachers all had Smart boards. Instead of a computer lab, they had a cart and the laptops were brought to them. They had a rather small library area but they had a very big playground and a small area with trees that they called the forest (a mislabel for sure, but cute sentiment). Liam loved the school and really enjoyed the tour. Cian held my hand and was not so happy to be there. Poor guy grabbed my hand through most of the tour, which is kind of unusual for him. He is definitely feeling some anxiety and he is enjoying his break from school immensely.
What I ended up gathering from the very kind and helpful staff at the school was that I needed an address so then I could find the school. They kindly suggested some letting agents for me, letting is what they refer to as renting in the UK. So, I headed back into the town center and this time I was lucky enough to figure out where it was legal to park! (and I did not listen to Colin) :P
I finally headed to the letting agent. I visited as many offices as I could. I managed to find out that Londoners are moving in large numbers to Hertforshire or Herts (a UK county) because the schools are so good. So, currently there are not a whole lot of properties to rent. Fabulous.... things can never be simple, can they? Also, as you may have concluded, the best schools are all full. No real surprise, is it?
So, I met Sean back at the hotel, armed with all this information and we headed to Hertford to grab dinner. Well, because we did not have a booking (reservation) the two places that we tried did not have any space for us. So, we ended up in a pub and enjoyed dinner there. Sean and I were the only ones that ordered a traditional dish, he ordered the Steak Pie and I had fish and chips with smashed minted peas (which are very good BTW). The boys all ordered things that they could get at home and we warned them that at the next restaurant the would need to choose something else!
When we arrived in Hertford we parked in a garage. When we arrived we had actually missed the pay period so, our parking was free. But we had to be mindful of the time because the garage closed at 9pm. We arrived at the garage by 8:45 to find that in door was down, further investigation found that the stairwell and the elevator was locked. We started to get a bit worried. So, we looked around and asked questions and luckily saw the person who was locking up and he motioned to us to lift the door (where we entered). We tried with no luck. We headed to the exit and found it open (thankfully!). We left quickly, no need to get locked in!
We made a quick stop at a super Tesco (similar to a Meijer or a Super-Walmart) to look at their mobile plans. Then headed back to the hotel and called it a night. We were still pretty tired and trying to recover from jet-lag.
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