Saturday, 29 September 2012

Rule Brittania

Arriving in England at 11am after a very smooth flight over Hudson Bay, Iqualuit, Greenland, Iceland and then onto Heathrow, we found ourselves very jetlagged. Although we popped our Melatonin...they did not work. Thankfully British Airways has a fantastic entertainment system and we watched a lot of tv.....a highlight was watching the "best exotic marigold hotel" a great movie and to make it even more real, we bumped into Bill Knightly today on Regent Street. Sorry no pix.

Auntie Bedge
We have spent a great 7 days here in England, visiting with relatives including my 84 year old "Auntie Bedge", my dad's sister. It was great reliving old memories from that side of the family and confirming lies and other stories...ha ha.....

England is an enigma for me.....the people all seem to be very happy and are all active and moving around and yet the cost of living here is astronomical.....Breakfast at this rather shoddy hotel we are staying at is $16.00 each, gasoline is almost twice the cost than in Vancouver, simple chocolate bars etc are around $5 each and more........But to more upbeat items......Pubs are very much alive and kicking here and Lois and I just came back from one up the road where we had a pleasant pint and a great Vindaloo. Today, we mastered the underground and hotel bus systems and made the trek into London to see the sights....the weather co-operated and we did not get rained on......much. We took the tube to Picadilly and then walked all over that part of London, across the river to the south bank and then back over to see the H of P , Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace ( the queen was NOT at home....and I phoned ahead) and then onto the insanity of regent street and the "exclusive stores". We looked for a tablet, but they were all at least 100 pounds more than what they are in Canada....another disappointment. But here are a few pix of where we were today;
Lois at Picadilly
Keeping an EYE on Derrick
waiting for 12 noon to strike
Hmmmm No one home.....where is tea?
 
 
 
But earlier in the week, we were exploring the region around Southampton, Gosport and Portsmouth and thanks to our great cousins, Pat and Dave Carter, we saw a lot and had a great time. They gave us the run of the house and drove us all over the place for which we were most grateful...Even picking us up from the hotel on day two in England. On Tuesday evening, we went over to their daughter Debbie's house and had a fun evening with hubby Steve and daughter Samantha....who had joined us earlier at Grandma and Grandads house. On the last day we had with them we went into Portsmouth and had a walk around. I went to the hospital where my mum died a few years ago while she was on a trip to England. The hospital is now closed, but I gave a few thanks to the staff who looked after her in those final few difficult days.
From there, we took the train up to London.
 
So tonight, we are spending a quiet evening in front of the telly doing some goggleboxing and watching Coronation Street and other intellectual pursuits. Our plane for Dar Es Salaam leaves Heathrow tomorrow in the early evening, so we will repack our bags in the morning, go down for our last "Full English" and then grab a nap before we encounter our second 9 hour overnight flight in a week. So until we hit Tanzania, thanks for tuning in and here are a few more pix of our trip so far.
 
Debbie...listening to Steve .....or not
Lois and Pat taking in the sailboats
Lymington on a sunny day

 
 

Sunday, 23 September 2012

Last sleep in Canada for a while

So it is an hour or so before we catch the ferry to vancouver that will lead us to our British Airways flight to Heathrow. This last week has been a flurry of last minute adjustments to our bags....trying to figure out what we need to wear for a week in England and then on to Tanzania. We have moved our furniture and stored the Jetta, cleaned the carpets and managed to have dinner and lunch and coffee with friends to say a 'ciao' and then get on with the last minute details.

We stayed with friends Joe and Anne for the last two nights in Comox and then moved down to the kids house in Nanaimo for another early morning visit by the grandkids and the endless ' lets play a game'. We are going to miss them, they are at that great age where they come up with all sorts of incredible child wisdom.

Yesterday, we went sailing for the day, with little wind and then the dinghy dock for lunch, it was a great way to spend a sunny saturday in the fall. Lunch was huge, so our dinner plans went awry and we ended up having a simple dinner at home....

And so....today, we are catching the morning ferry and then bussing it to the airport for our 6 pm departure and 9 hour flight over the pole to England. Pat and Dave our cousins will be meeing us on Tuesday morning to visit Auntie Beryl  and other cousins, as well we are promised a few pubs in the meantime.....sounds great to us.

We will blog again from London and hopefully post some pix
cheers for now
lois and derrick

Thursday, 13 September 2012

Murphys law

AS you can imagine, the last few weeks have been nothing but an exercise in buying boxes from Home Depot, filling them, moving them and stacking them......and to be honest its just about done...we have about a third of a 12x20 storage unit full to the rafters...stuff we have accumulated over the past 40 odd years and more.....
In some respects, this process is carthartic in that you really look at the stuff you have collected and have to decide which is really essential to keep and which is not......a lot of "stuff" went on its way...including at least 25 Kodak Carousel slide trays.....I kept the contents...We found items that we had given up for lost and some that were not supposed to be stored and clothes that reminded us of flower power and madras....(remember that).

So here we are about 10 days from departure and we are down to cancelling power and telephone. Gathering information about storing the car and scooter for two years. Introducing our renter to their new home for 24 months, reinuslating the attic and generally trying to remember all the things we need to do....which is where Murphy comes in.....we both know that sitting in row 25 seats d and e on BA flight to Heathrow a week from sunday, we are going to remember the one thing that we did not do.....such is life...and who knows what that will be right now...the other part of Murphy is all the things that are happening right now...other opportunities that we have wanted to accept and now find that we cannot.....its disapointing and really bad timing...but once again.....such is life and we have to look at the big picture and think on the fact that our next two years will be a gigantic life experience and who knows what knowledge we will come back with that we can share here...

So thanks for dropping in on the blog....I promise it will start to get more interesting in a couple of weeks time as we sit in hotels in London and Dar Es Salaam and with the addition of some pix...it might be worth reading....cheers for now and tune in next week
derrick and lois

the two who we will miss the most, but in two years...Disneyland yeah!!!!!!!!!!!