So, here I am at the end of full day one in London. It is 11.30pm and we have been walking around since 9am this morning - I wish that I had remembered to bring the pedometer... Well, I had better back up a bit. The trip up to Auckland was forgettable. The weather was terrible and the flight was very rough ad late. We only just made it to the international terminal in time and got soaked dashing from the terminal to the bus. However, once on board all that was forgotten. The Air New Zealand premier economy was fantastic and well worth the investement.

I had a very nice woman who worked for Bendon next to me. She was only going as far as Hong Kong and then I had two seats to mysef for the second flight. The food was wonderful, the service was great. The only problem now is how am I going to survive cattle class on the way back!

We arrived at Heathrow to the classic british bureaucratic welcome. We had a ten minute walk from the terminal to the immigration and there were no toilets in between. At the immigration area we were herded like cattle into a huge pen to await Her Majesty''s officials. There were 18 desks but only 3 officials at the desks with a further five leaning against the back wall watching proceedings. People were getting crosser and crosser and I was remembering why I didn't live in England... An hour later I got out!

Darren was there to meet me and we set off for home, duly furnished with an Oyster card which is the latest way of getting around London cheaply. It is good - you just put it on a thing and it lets you through the gate and then you keen topping up the money.

We got home with two changes of tube. It was a fabulous day blue sky, warm and no wind! The flat is very nice and a good job had been done of tidying up before I got here. I slept like a log from 7pm through to 6.30 this morning. Today we went everywhere. Darren took me to the college where he had to work for a couple of hours. What a fabulous place to work, lovely people and a wonderful building and location right opposite the Albert Hall. He gave me a complete run down on the Englightenment ero and the history of Victoria and Albert and the marriage of art and science it was really fascinating. I went shopping at Harrods, Jaeger and Burberry - all had sales but the prices were absolutely sky high - so I didn't buy anything. After that we went to meet Angie for lunch at her work at the National Theatre on the South Bank. A lot of this area is quite new and very different to what I remember. Absolutely wonderful to walk through with all sorts of things going on and crowds of people around. Angie is very charming and entertaining and we all went and had a great lunch and made plans for the theatre this evening with some more friends. During the afternoon we visited the National Art Gallery and saw all sorts of paintings that we recognised - including the Hay Wain. We tried to get on the Londn Eye but the queue was horrendous and we thought that could wait for another time. This evening we went to see 39 steps which is a hit comedy show - very well done and absolutely hillarious - although by now I was starting to fade a little. The friends were all great fun - very nice group of people. Angie and Charlotte are taking me out on the night Darren goes down to London - I expect to have a great time!

Well I had better go now. Darren has fallen aslep beside me and he needs the sofa I am sitting on to turn into a bed. Off first thing in the morning to collect the car and head off the Exeter - will log in again to tell you all about that.