Our arrival in London was fantastic. The flight from Lisbon to London flying Business Class was beyond my wildest dreams. Okay, it was just normal seats with a curtain drawn, but itwas still business class. EVERYTHING was free, our hostess even brought me 2 plates of food. They served a 3 course meal and as many G&T's that I could muster down without falling over.
Heathrow Airport was so big, so VERY big. Once we collected our luggage we must have walked at least for 10 minutes before getting to customs. The great thing about flying Business Class is that you get ushered to an express line. We felt so important. Seeing my sister when we arrived was the best ever. Suddenly there was a connection again. Meeting the nieces and my new brother-in-law was so cool. We had last seem Scott in 2005. We laughed and rejoiced for all of 15 minutes when Renata put us to work, cutting the lawn, peeling and cutting things, packing and sweeping things. This was not scheduled to be a holiday at all. The G&T bonanza was now starting to take its toll on me with the power in my legs slowly but surely giving way. My son Jason was an absolute Trojan and he worked like a man on a mission.
At this point we were under the impression that we were sleeping on the floor, but a close friend of Renata's offered for us to come and sleep at there place. Later that afternoon we took a walk down to Kate and Clive Penston's place where we were to rest our weary bodies. Walking into their house was quite amazing as you have to take your shoes off when you enter. I said to Kate that its at her own peril, seeing that I had my shoes on for over 24 hours at that point. Clive and another retrobate, Tom as well as Scott were busy watching soccer as it was the soccer world cup. We watched the end of the match with them made some small talk. Even though the sun was still up I felt that I needed to excuse myself and go to bed. I did not care that it was still light, my body was in no mood for arguments. Only then did I discover that it was already 21h45. I suddenly did not feel very bad at all but could not understand why the sun was still up. It was indeed strange.
It was a good nights sleep indeed and waking up in LONDON felt so good. Jason slept on the floor at Renata's house but was quite exhausted so it probably didn't matter at all. Friday too was being busy with wedding preparations. We went to fetch Jesse and Ashleigh from the Airport and enjoyed a re-union with the entire family. We received a LOT of instructions from enata who herself was very distracted by everything going on around her especially after the feuding neighbours decided on Friday afternoon to chop down a very large tree and causing chaos with everything that we had just planned. We did not let it phase us and kept on.
Debbie and I then moved into Thatcher's guest house about 10 minutes drive from Renata. Ashleigh, Jason and Jesse were going to stay at Renata's home. But KAte and Clive graciously offered their home for the kids to spend the entire time at their home. True British hospitality indeed. Saturday was wedding day, when we arrived at the house, everything was far from finished and I must say that I was quite a bit concerned as there was still lots to do. We tried to do as much as possible, enter 2 of Renata's ex colleagues to 'HELP'out
Let me tell you, these two ladies Debbie Ockended and Lesley Penfold were flippin amazing and with a smile, put the finishing touches to the reception which was held at Scott and Renata's home. For South Africans, it was held in the yard. I've never been so proud of the group of friends that my sister is a part of. Everybody got involved and contributed to this amazing wedding. I was blown away by the generosity of everyone. We had a blast with a small memory going to my mom and dad who had passed many years before.
For a few days after the wedding we did a lot of visiting and travelling around London. Well we spend 2 days as the first time we bought train tickets for 5 of us it cost R1540. I was so shocked i nearly died and had to sit still and process this all the way to the City Centre. The first day we walked a LOT, I think it worked out to about 10km looking at sights and sounds. Because we had only allocated 2 days to tour the Centre of London Town, we tried to get as much into the time there as possible. Trafalgar Square, Leicester Square, London Eye and many many Museums. We literally budgeted 45 minutes per Museum. For me visiting the museums was to go to the toilets. Did you know that you had to pay to use the toilets in London, R60 to take a pee, At my age when you see a toilet you GO.
We had a blast even taking a trip to Brighton to see Deborah Smethurst who took us to a genuine British pub for a pint and also ice cream. An interesting thing was that there is no sea sand only pebbles. Very unusual. We had an amazing time and i had promised never to go to London again due to the fact that life was so expensive for us there. The rand/pound exchange rate was not in our favour. We had fantastic hosts in Tom and Lauren who accommodated us, why, we don't know. A special thanks to my sister who suddenly had 5 extra bodies to feed and filling up her space. Also to my new brother in law Scott who was very gracious to allow us into his space. We left with sad hearts but huge experiences. We also left with empty pockets.
THANK YOU LONDON!!!
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