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...