Homeward Bound

Still no comments from anyone... I am homeward bound from today and this is likely to be my last post as I am not sre what the internet facility will be like in Hong Kong. I have been using Darrne's Apple here and I think I will need to get one when I get back - it is very nice.

Last night we went to the ex-girlfriends for dinner. It was a very nice roast beef with yorkshire pudding and all the trimmings. The meal was excellent and the roast potatoes out of this world - all crunchy on the outside and soft and fluffy in the middle and covered in gravy - yum. The weather had cooled down a bit and we had a nice walk there and back to Balham. Angie's mother was also there. Very nice woman indeed and works in adult e-learning so I said I must put here in touch with Jenny I am sure they could swap notes. Her sister also lives in New Zealand from time to time but is back here at the momebt,

Those girls have been wonderful to me - very hospitable and lots of fun. The stories have been absolutely hilarious but I fear they may lose a bit of their edge in the re-telling.

Darren has taken one of my bags to work with him and I will take the other and meet him at Earls Court around 5 to head off to Heathrow. As I said I don't feel ready to come back and will be very sad to leave but then I guess all good things must come to an end. I am coming back cattle class which will be a bit of a come down after the royal treatment on the way out but I will be able to stop in Hong Kong and hopefully do some present shopping - otherwise you will all miss out and I will have to think of some other way of compensating Gilly for the scooping.

It is raining here this morning and my shoes are still wet from the last downpour on Sunday so I am pondering what to do about getting down to the cafe to have my morning latte, cake and read of the paper. I am going to enjoy it while I can because I had a text from work to say that Cabinet had signed off the funding for my project so it will all be on when I get back!

Ok so will try and give a ring from Hong Kong if I can - the mobile may not work though because it didn't when I tried to text on the way over - if not see you at the weekend,

Sunday

Well you will be pleased to hear that I made it to church today - went to mass at Westminster Cathedral wgucg was good except it rather resembled a building site as there is a lot of restoration going on. Still a very impressive building and it was completely full. Obviously quite a thriving community.

Last night I went out with the ex-girlfrieds Kate, Angie and Charlie. We had a really lovely evening. We started at the pictures seeing Wall-E which was a lovely movie and strongly recommended. We then went to a bar and then on to a very nice italian restaurant in Puteny. The food, drink and company was excellent and I thoroughly enjoyed the evening what a lovely group of young women they are - the boy is mad!

Darren was in Worthing last night and we have both just got back to the flat - I went to Oxford Street after church and spent about three hours in John Lewis. There was some lovely things in there quite apart from the clothes which had all the big names well represented. The housewares were particularly good and I enjoyed a very nice lunch of fresh sardines on bruschetta with salad. I did decide on an alcohol free day however - probably the first one this trip!

Tomorrow Darren is back to work and Sue and I will meet him for lunch. In the evening we have been invited to the ex-girlfriends and other additions to have a roast dinner - that will be the last night. I certainly do not feel ready to come home yet - no offrence to anyone there! Horrid to think that a week from now I will be back at work - Oh dear...

Back in London

Got back to Darren's flat around 10pm last night after fantaqstic time in Paris. We had an amazing thunderstorm in the early hours of Thursday morning. We spent the day at Versailles and this left us in no doubt about why France no longer has a monarchy! It was beautiful though... We did get a bit wet because it rained intermittently but it was a nice trip out into the country. We had a very pleasant dinner at the hotel and then spent Friday morning at the Jewish memorial in Paris which was also a very worthwhile visit. We lunched outside the Hotel de Ville and then I wandered the shopping streets and Darren went sightseeing. I ended up in Gallerie La Fayette but there was so much choice I found it impossible to make up my mind what to buy you all... This is also the case here - I can't cope with the choice in the shops. Hong Kong is going to have to be deovted to shopping!

So tonight Darren is off to Worthing for dinner and lunch tomorrow and will return tomorrow evening. The ex girlfriends are taking me out to a show and piano bar afterwards so that will be fun. I was supposed to meet up with `Liam and sunita tomorrow but I seem to have mislaid his number so wont be able to do that. I am sure that I will find lots to do.

Darren is back to work on Monday but I will meet him for lunch along with Sue - one of my team from Wellington who is out here attending weddings. Hopefully we will go back to Wagamamas in the evening for dinner which is lovely down by the river.

I am sorry to hear that the cats are causing strife and pong - Oh dear! I have missed them not many cats around here and not nearly as many silky little dogs in Paris as I remember from previous visits - I wonder what has happened to them?

Having not seen or heard any news for several days I gather Russia is about to invade Georgia and the Olympics is in full swing - so hope the world keeps turning for a few more days yet!

Best wishes to all.

Giverny

You will need to excuse any wierd typing because french keyboards are different... I am doing this at the hotel at the end of day two in Paris. It has been fantastic so far - the weather is tremendous around 30 degrees and lovely and sunny. Darren is getting very brown and I am getting burnt and wrinkled but who cares?

Giverney certainly exceeded expectations. We opted to walk there from Vernon and it was a lovely walk but took a good hour. I have lots of pictures of the garden and now tons more ideas - Oh dear! We had a lovely meal at the Hotel Baudy one of the best I have ever had. Now back at the Hotel exhausted.

Tomorrow off to Versailles hopefully a bit less walking - we have done - hours each day so far.

Hope the fur family are behaving well. Took a picture of an impressionist cat at Giverny for you.

Typing on this keyboard is just oo hard so I am going to give up now - obviously QWERTY is not the same in French...

Where are all the comments?

Off to Paris

Today was washing day - It was crawling out of Darren's room and down the stairs... All in all we had three loads in the flat washing machine and three majo

r loads in the launderette down the road. Had dryers going most of the day because there is no washing line but Tony and Darren each have a rack thing to hang their wet washing on. Darren's is only half a one because he broke it - not sure how given that it didn't look much washing had been on it! Anyway people were very nice and pointed me at a launderette which ended up being literally around the corner from the flat. anyway everything is now lovely and clean and there are neatly folded piles of clean sheets and towels. So Rabbit can now go happily off to paris knowing that the towels, sheets and vests have been washed and put away!

We need to get up at 5am tomorrow to get to St Pancras to catch the Eurostar so I shall turn in shortly. I had a nice restful day and I am glad that we didn't attempt to fly up to Glasgow for the day because I think it would have been cutting it a bit fine. Heather sounded very well. She says she has a slow heart speed and is needing to see the Doctor shortly but it doesn't seem to have slowed her down - she still seems to be getting about well although she is 88. It wouldn't have been possible to see her before we went down to the south west because she was on the continent with the family. It is a shame but I guess that is just the way it goes...

We went out to the pictures this evening to see Angus, thongs and perfect snogging. It was very funny and there was a wonderful Nummy cat in it which was worth seeing just for that. Angie came along as well and also David Roots who is another of Darren's mates. They are really lovely people and I am really enjoying meeting them all.

I am not sure that I will be able to post in Paris - I don't think we are going to lug the computer with us so it will depend on the availability of the internet cafes - still will do so if I can. Thanks for the offer of putting up the photos Richard. I will need to write captions for them all otherwise people won't know what is what. It might be easier to do that when I get back.

Darren has been busy composing today - he is doing the music for a pantomime and has done some great stuff. I am going to be sorry to miss it - however I think the audience will be replete with Spellers and Nicols!

So bye for now and hope that all is well and storm free at your end.

Back in London

Right, so this is the second time I am typing this entry because the last one mysteriously disappeared just when I got to the end. Where is Richard when you need him!

Glad to hear that you all survived the storm - sounds horrible! Also very glad to hear that my darlings are all lovely and brushed. Poor Jesse is she very fed up with visitors? I can't believe I only have 10 days left the time has absolutely sped by.

We arrived back in London this afternoon from Pewsey. What a fabulous time we had there! Brian and ~Peeps were very hospitalble and had arranged a wonderful programme. This included visiting Peeps" brother James and his wife Annabelle and their three lovely children and various hangers o.n. They have a beautiful house and garden just outside Marlborough and we got our own guided tour by the designer of the garden - Peeps" sister in law. It was fantastic and I have lots of lovely photos and ideas for when I get home. They were really nice people and this was a real treat.

We went home to have dinner of thai fishcakes which were very good indeed. We also had a lovely starter which included watermelon and fetta - everyone was regailed with stories of Jenny's fetta and I think there is a ready market here when the packaging has been perfected.

We stayed last night with Penny Powell who is a neighbour of Brian and Peeps in the square. She has two bedrooms and a bathroom on her top floor where we stayed. Penny's house was really lovely - very much to my taste with a lovely walled garden at the back. Penny is a wdow with two sons of similar age to Richard and Darren and she and Darren got on famously - so well in fact that they were still both up drinking at 4am this morning! It transpired that Penny was John Lennon's sister in law (first wife Cynthia). So now Darren has a great story of sitting up until 4am drinking with John Lennon's sister in law! She was an absolute sweetie and I do hope she chooses to visit NZ one day.

Peeps brother also told us of a garden in Italy called Ninfa which is an absolute must so now we are all going to save for a visit for my 60th in 2011 - so everyone get saving!

Well now we are back and settled down waching a DVD of into the woods with Tony (Darren's long suffering flatmate) after washing down some excellent Pizza with some equally excellent red wine. This may have had something to do with the disappearance of the previous post!

Angie (the delightful little "Bee" ) is coming around shortly to eat what remains of the Pizza. Tomorrow Oxford Street calls and then it will be getting ready to go to Paris early on Tuesday.

I am so sorry to hear about the dreadful weather you have been having. It has varied between very good and passable here. However, even when it rains it is warm and coming straight down - so you soon dry out if soaked. We do now own a very large Eden Project umbrella which comes with us everywhere.

I am quite proud of the way I managed to drive and find my way around the south west. The motorways are lovely to drive but the country lanes can be a bit of an adventure. As my co-driver was passed out in the passenger seat after his 4am with the John Lennon in law I also had to find my way back to the Heathrow Hertz car park - but all accomplished without incident. I am now looking forward to the train trip to Paris!

So off for now - should be able to blog again tomorow - not sure about the photos - I have 111 on a CD and another 11 on my camera but no one knows how to put them on the blog - where is Richard when you need him?

Anyway - for now its goodbye from me and goodbye from him...

Pewsey

Sorry to hear about the storm! Nothing about it over here of course... ope it was not your new fence Gilly!
We are now in Pewsey with Brian and Peeps. They have a beautiful little flat in the town square. This is right in the heart of Wiltshire. It is lovely to see them again and everyone seems very well. We stayed last night in a lovely B and B - Darren commented that he has been staying in such wonderful places on this trip and I would have to agree.

We had the most wonderful time in Cornwall. The only drawback was the complete lack of internet so that I couldn't tell you all about it. The Eden project was fantastic. We got soaked getting there but soon dried off in the tropical biodome. I have taken over 110 photos so far but haven't been able to download any yet - Maybe Brian will be able to help but he is busy making Thai fishcakes for dinner this evening at the moment and I don't want to distract him.

On the way up here we called in on Tony and Mo agan as by now Sophie and her girls were in residence and also Chloe was in town. Darren was in his element with all the beautifull Speller women - and there was certainly no complaining from them! Darren and Chloe had such a lot in common and she is great fun - they even had exactly the same hair. Once again I have photos. Tony enjoyed a bit of male company I think because he had a beer in Darren's hand before he had even walked in the door.

We are going to see Peep's brothers garden this afternoon - Darren is being very good about trailing around all the gardens but he seems to be enjoying it. We will head back to London tomorrow (Sunday) and then off to Paris early on Tuesday morning, I can't believe that I have been away for half of the alloted time alread - the time is speeding by. I do hope that Gilly hasn't been overcome with scooping duties and that everyone is surviving the storm season - doesn't sound too good at all! I will now go and look at some NZ papers to see if I can get any gen.

Probably catch you again in London.!