We are off early; Lisa to Victoria station to go the airport and me to Euston to go home to Birmingham. We check out of the hotel and walk to Victoria station where I get a taxi. As we are saying our quick goodbyes I am thinking, “I hope she will be OK.” I know that she made it in from Gatwick easily, so she surely will have no trouble going back. But still she didn’t seem confident when I talked with her about trolleys and porters and explained how to check the train boards and how flight gates at the airport are not posted until the last minute. I wave to her as my taxi pulls away. I miss her already.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
There is no buffet car on the Silverlink to Birmingham and I have to wait until I get to New Street station to get a cup of coffee. At Millie’s, I get my required dose of caffeine and a cookie too—raspberry and white chocolate. There is nothing bad about it.
In the taxi to Glenelg, the driver asks where I am from and I say the U.S. He makes me laugh when he says, “I don’t know what it was, but something told me you were from the United States.” He has just had a death in his family and the holidays will be hard for him. He carries my bag to the front door and I give him a £2 tip.
Caroline and Tony and Lutchford are happy to see me. Tony gives me a lift to the University where I pack up my office.
I go to the bank to close out my account. I withdraw £200 leaving the remaining to cover any errors I might have made. Lloyds will mail a check to my U.S. address with the balance as soon as everything has cleared. The man helping me asks for my debt card. He says it will no longer be valid with a closed account and he snips it into pieces in front of me. I say sadly, “It took me so long to get that card and now you are destroying it.”
At noon, a woman I have only seen in the halls and don’t even know her name gives me a ride to the School’s Christmas party at Park House on campus. It is an unbelievable spread—hot and cold foods and all the beer, wine, and champagne you can drink. I have a couple of glasses of Merlot and toast the School along with everyone else.
Head of School Ken Spencer offers me a toast for my going away. He bids farewell to “Jody from Maryland” mistaking Maryland for Maine. Oh well. It is a sweet gesture nonetheless. John Raine gives me a wooden plaque decorated with the university logo.
It’s a nice party and gives me a chance to say good-bye to friends that I have made: Saroj, Peter, Francis, Jane, Mike, and Helen. They were all wonderfully kind and welcoming of an American with strange views about local government.
Jody’s UK Memories 
