Thursday in Parliament Square

Thursday was the first sunny day we have had here, and we set off bright and early, heading towards the Thames. Our legs are talking loudly to us, as we are unused to all the stairs, but each day is a bit easier and the benefits of all the excercise are obvious, so we stride on regardless! We chose the wrong station to leave the underground and found ourselves far from where we had intended, but the walk next to the river was good, and just when it all seemed too far, we saw a bus-driver standing next to his bus eating a sandwich. He was a very friendly man, and his bus was headed our way, so we took advantage of that and reached the Houses of Parliament sooner than expected - to our great relief!

 Rodin's 'Burgers of Calais' is almost alive, and we experienced a variety of emotions as we studied the magnificent sculpture. The light was good, so we were able to capture some clear shots of this remarkable work of art.We once again had a great day, and we know that we will be FIT by the end of this week!!

Camden on Wednesday

Wednesday morning dawned wet and cold, so we decided to test our new rain jackets on a trip to Camden market. To our delight, they are really wet-proof and warm, not a hint of the icy breeze creeps through - and they are light too, ideal for this unpredictable day. Camden is a fascinating warren of stalls and crowded with SUCH interesting people - I could sit for hours just people-watching! We found the Stables (Horse Market), an area we have not seen before, and it is scattered throughout with bronze horse sculptures, wonderful photography material. We had a lovely day, and arrived home footsore and tired, but pleased with our good outing.

 Life-sized horses

 pulling realistic carts,

and the coffee was GOOOOD!

Street market, Walthamstow

 We visit this stand every time we are in London. It is operated by a man and his two sons, and they compete loudly with each other, yelling "Pound-a-bowl" at the tops of their voices, in a variety of tunes and tones as they serve the passing trade. The fruit and vegetables look so good, one invariably goes home with a large packet of fresh produce!

We found an adaptor cord for my laptop here, without any trouble at all.

One of the stall owners reluctantly allowed me to climb up his ladder to take this shot of the street market - he must have thought I was crazy!

So many beautiful scarves, the fabrics are vibrant colours.

On our way at last!

Johannesburg International was not very busy in the middle of the weekend.

We thought we had loads of luggage, but no-one gave us a second glance!

We decided against self-check-in,













we are not quite THAT confident yet!

London!

We are in London at last, after the best long flight we have had! Johannesburg International proved not to be as trying as we had anticipated, as our wonderful travel agent invited us into the Premium Lounge as her guest - what a difference that made to our waiting time. It quite compensated for the rather wobbly start at PE Airport, where all systems were down and the harrassed young girls at the check-in counters had to resort to manual procedures, with hand-written boarding passes while long lines of exasperated passengers tapped their toes and grumbled!

It is wonderful to be with Gary & Veronique - they have recently installed an attic guest suite, so we are "up on the roof" and can see for miles over the London rooftops.  It is not as cold as we had expected, and although it is overcast, we are enjoying ourselves and looking forward to going to the market this morning - Walthamstow has the longest street market in Europe, and it is a fascinating, vibrant place to visit. We will be armed with cameras, so watch this space!

The final countdown!

Less than a week to go, and we are exhausted! After packing and repacking, we are finally down to a manageable bag weight, thus also lifting a considerable weight off what is left of our minds. This week a lot of last minute arrangements and checking, and even our townhouse complex Body Corporate AGM in the middle of it all, then we will be set to fly. Mixed feelings - we will be a long time very far away, especially as our dear oldies are not all that well, and on the other hand we will spend time with our "youngies", we haven't seen any of them for at least 18 months (and some considerably longer) and there have been so many exciting developments, it will be wonderful to simply spend family time again. We have been planning this trip for many months, and it is finally coming to fruition - we look forward to a joyful, exhilarating time!!

Gradually eating the elephant.....

What a great day it has been. Tea with special friends at the coffee shop, then our wonderful travel agent called to say that she has managed to get our two-bags-each-policy printed on our tickets for the entire duration of our trip for all flights!! This is very helpful and cause for huge relief, as we spent long, frustrating hours on previous journeys arguing with officious airline representatives, bureaucrats who wield their power with frigid, unyielding determination and refuse to budge. Then, just as we were rejoicing at that  achievement, another call, from the man at E Cape education, calling for me to come in and sign the papers that are needed so that the retirement information can finally be forwarded to National Treasury, so there is a pension somewhere on the distant horizon too - two major obstacle removed in one day. What a blessing, we are really grateful!

Now a simple, mathematical question - why does everything weigh so much more than it should? And the weight seems to be directly proportional to the importance of the item, so it will be amazing if we manage to to squeeze everything into the space we have!!! The challenge continues........

The trip plan

I did not realise that  some folk are not aware of our travel plan! We leave PE on 19 February to spend a week with Gary (Sid's younger son) and Veronique in London, en route to Calgary to Jane (Penny's daughter). She is getting married on 19 March, so we will be with her in time to help her with wedding preparations, and to have a visit. We fly from there to Chicago at the end of March, and will spend about 2 weeks with Greg (Sid's elder son) & Cherie, before buying a camper or a caravan&truck (haven't quite decided which yet) after which we will set off on a GRANDE TOURE! We plan to first go to the Niagara Falls, then down to New Orleans, and from there up towards the canyon lands and San Francisco. We will gradually make our way back to Canada, to Seattle, and will then spend time in British Columbia and Vancouver Island, before going back to Calgary by middle August. We will stay in that area until 14 October and then head back to Gary & Veronique in London, to spend a month with them before coming home in the middle of November.  It is all very exciting and the preparations have been a bit overwhelming, but so far we are definitely winning!

Countdown!

Two weeks to go and counting! Making to-do lists from the to-do list, trying to find a way to keep the rock pigeons out of the outdoor light fittings, banks, tickets, foreign currency (- how does one buy it when ECape Education hasn't even started processing my pension yet?) and I finally found some vests (yes, vests!) this morning, only to find that I no longer fit that size - oh well, I have come to terms with my body's expansionistic tendencies! And just as I am beginning to think that perhaps we should rather have gone fishing, Jane calls me to discuss the wedding and she is so excited - we are, indeed, priveleged to be able to make this trip!