London Mug

Goodbye London Mug V5

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A moment of silence, please.

London Mug version five is gone. It broke on my birthday, which feels like the universe has a sense of humor.

It was sitting in the cupboard, perfectly safe. Or so I thought. I opened the cupboard and out it fell, because A hadn’t put it in quite right. Happy birthday to me. To her credit, she felt really bad about it.

So now I’m on London Mug version six. Well, M is on London Mug version six. I ordered versions seven and eight as backups after all this happened, which tells you everything you need to know about where we are as a family.

If you haven’t been following the ongoing London Mug saga, this is not a new problem. Back in 2012 I bought a mug in London. It has a graphic of London on it. We have since proceeded to break many versions of it, with every member of this family, at one point or another, being responsible for a London Mug casualty. Grogu has also been implicated. Nobody is innocent.

A couple of versions ago I was smart enough to buy two at once. One broke, I used the spare. I felt like a genius. Then this one broke and took out my last spare with it. No backup. Back to zero.

Fortunately, I saved the link to the place that makes them. They’ve been at it for something like 14 or 15 years now and it’s still in their standard collection, which is genuinely impressive. I ordered two more. Because I know us by now.

My rational, or possibly irrational, fear is that one day I’m going to go back to that link and I’m not going to be able to get it anymore. The mug stops being made, the shop disappears, and that’s it. That day will be a dark one.

But today is not that day. Today we are on V6 with two more in reserve and cautious optimism.

Rest in peace, V5. You were good to us, mostly.

London Mug Mark III Lives For Now

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After the untimely demise of London Mug Mark II M looked and found the name of who makes the mug. An easy search on the internet found a place selling the exact mug. About £20 later I ordered the replacement. I didn’t even have to go to Heathrow for this one like I did for the Mark II. The mug arrived right before our holiday (in February). This post is late getting published.

Hopefully Mark III has a longer shelf life than Mark II at 4 years or Mark I at under 2. If we are aging these thinks with a half life that means Mark III could last 8 years!

London Mug Mark II is Dead

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On my first trip to London for work in 2012 I was on a mission to get M the one thing she wanted. A mug. The specifications were such that I actually couldn’t find one that meet the criteria until I was at Heathrow on my way home.

About a year or so later T broke that mug after M left it where a toddler could easily grab it. And T totally grabbed it and broke it.

On my next trip to London I went in search for the same mug. I couldn’t find it until I was again at the same cheesy gift shop at Heathrow on the way home. That is how the mug mark II came into our house.

Flash forward to today. M texted me this photo of the broken mug. She wasn’t sure what she did but the mug fell off the table and is now destroyed.

I am torn. I would like to replace the mug (again). I also don’t know if getting a mug like that of NYC instead of London is appropriate now that we live in London and not NY. Either way I am going to have to ask anyone we know visiting to check out the gift shops in Heathrow for this mug.