Well, here we are back in good old blighty. We arrived into Heathrow at 3.30pm, beautiful weather, much better than California. There were no hold ups and we were straight onto The Heathrow Express. Fifteen minutes later we were on the tube, a couple of changes and we emerged at Stratford which is being regenerated, thankfully, for the Olympics. We were knackered! We plodded down to the hotel, into it's restaurant and Jim was snoring by 8pm. He woke up briefly so we could cry over the kids in Sierra Leone on John Bishops sports relief marathon, then back to sleep. I slept for an hour then I was wide awake, bright eyed and bushy tailed until 4am. How rubbish is that!
Anyway the call of the Westfield Shopping Centre was too strong to resist so off we went! That night we spent a pleasant evening in the pub, then strolling down the embankment before going to see Legally Blonde. It was fab! We loved it. Back to the pub then we stood in Trafalgar Square and admired the scenery, the buildings, the restaurants, the whole ambiance. Having visited so many cities in the past seven months we agreed - it's good to be British! London has such a buzz and it's not American!!
We were late to bed, slept deeply for a couple of hours then we were wide awake again. Oh man! I finally fell asleep at 5 am and woke up at 9.45. All stations go - we had to be at Bromley-by-Bow underground station by 11. We ended up running and arrived red-faced and panting. We caught up with our group and walked alongside the cleaned up river Lea past beautiful old mills.
Our guide was brilliant, she was funny and enthusiastic and told us lots of anecdotes about the area and it's people, how they lived and worked, how the area degenerated and how it has now been regenerated. There is lots of outside art and sculpture and the new cycle tracks are being used by lots of people.
We walked along the cleaned up canal tow path and onto the greenway where we heard lots of stories about previous Olympics, the various stadiums and what will happen to them after the games. She was so passionate about her subject that it was catching. The various stadiums are really impressive, particularly the Aquatics Centre and velodrome.
I can't wait to see the opening ceremony, acrobats will arrive in the Olympic stadium, coming down from the 16 lighting rigs you can see.
We've got to come back to go up the ArcelorMittal Orbit, the idea is you go up in the lift and come down the spiral staircase. It is pretty nice!!
We had lunch at the container cafe, do you think they've modelled it on Christchurch.
Fab food and long black coffee, just like in New Zealand. It was perhaps no coincidence that the girl who served us came from New Plymouth on the North Island. We had a nice chat about her home town!
The rest of the weekend whizzed past, we unpacked a bag we had packed last August which has been stored in my brother's loft. It was just like Christmas - I'd forgotten what was in it, hair straighteners, hooray! We have been spending the week catching up with friends, family and chores. Jim collected the car from my nephew's farm where he has looked after it very well. Thank you Patrick! He has taxed it, we've renewed our photo driving licences, I've been to the hairdressers, at last, the opticians and to the doctors to get my last hepatitis B jab. Thanks for feeding us Sheila, it was great to see you and the food was lovely.
I've had a lovely day today, visited school and surprised my lovely mate - and boss. It was great to see everyone, school was looking fab and there was a real buzz. I had a good lunch in great company then back on the train. We're going to Liverpool tomorrow to catch up with Liam and Alex and hear all their news. Our plans are becoming a bit firmer for Europe, we're getting excited all over again.
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