Comfort Inn Reading South

... the keys and take us to the bus station where we can start our world trip with a free bus ride to Heathrow using our pensioner&#8217;s bus passes! <br><br>He arrives 45 minutes early, sends us into a tizz &#8211; the list isn&#8217;t finished. Marysia comes round to wish us bon voyage and very kindly gives Vanda a beautiful wrap; it&#8217;s great to have such wonderful and thoughtful neighbours. <br><br>At last we are away, and in the car, Steve offers to take us ...

... to work, then during the day we kept losing broadband connection. With an over booked plane it was imperative I checked in as soon after 7.20pm as possible so as I could to preserve our precious seats. Eventually after fraught nerves but good assistance from son Stephen I got the job done.<br><br>Off to bed with some relief.

... for them: clearing cupboard andwardrobe space, and giving the place a thorough spring clean. Vanda has spentweeks getting the (already very clean and tidy) house in tip top condition.There are places I&#8217;m not allowed to go now for fear of making them dirty oruntidy again.<br><br>As a riposte I preparedanother list: &#8220;The House Sitters Guide to Living at Nsansa&#8221;. At least Barbaraand Steve will know where things are and what to do if they go wrong.

... Bekey, Mum and Dad and then set off to Birmingham Moor Street for the first stage of my trip, train to Heathrow airport with Kate. Made a few last minute phone calls to Tina (little sis) and Tom and got to the platform with minutes to spare.<br><br>Kate provided a lovely picnic on the train and we spent a couple of hours making crazy plans, gossiping about work and chattering like kids. Between the 2 of us we managed to negotiate the London Tube system with all my bags ...

... Was lovely to catch up with the Cookes. <br><br>Mat and Jo flew in from Kenya later that afternoon so we drove to Heathrow airport to pick them up. Basically the rest of Sunday was spent catching up and drinking too much red wine!<br><br>We managed to have a cracking sleep in on Monday and then Noma wanted to head into Reading to have a wander around the shops, which gave me a great excuse to sit in a pub and drink beer all day. Although I did get a ...

... touring about Caversham (in Reading) and seeing the house Chris lived in as well as the parks he played in, the school he attended and the corner store were he bought candy - we had to reinact that - of course! We stopped in at the local church as they were having a fete and lent our support by buying a cake. Back to our hotel and dinner. Tomorrow we are off to Henely on Avon and Oxford.

... Hinduism" and it was incredible. I learned to much about the faith and am inspired by the peaceful and inclusive religion, as well as enlightened to the vast contributions it has made to science and the world. We then spent 15 minutes at a prayer service, which was very new and interesting. Monks were present, and women and men sat separately. When it was all said and done, we have one last discussion and left the temple. I stopped down the road with a couple ...

... down. Back to the car after admiring a hurdle or withey outside the Museum of Rural Life (still not open). Hurdles are a form of rural crafts. They are lightweight portable fencing structures that are used to enclose (or 'fold') animals such as sheep (i.e.: a sheepfold). In England & Wales that have often been woven from ash, willow or hazel withies, and made windproof with wattle, and so called 'wattle hurdles' (wikipedia). Drove on from there towards Wells Cathedral. It was so ...

... Everyone was wishing us Happy New Year too, it was great fun! In the afternoon, we went to the Botanic Gardens and went to the Orchid Garden, absolutely beautiful flowers and landscaped grounds, we even saw a snake or two!! Talking of snakes, I forgot to mention Guy had a Boa Constrictor around his neck at the Night Safari, I settled for crouching next to a lynx cat, the snake was horrible!! Singapore was really nice, would love to go back, again so much ...

... Christine. Judy at school was nice enough to loan me a gown to wear. Now that my hair is done I am freaking out about not having the right shoes and make up. Ugh! Being a girl can be a pain sometimes. Ok, I don't really mean that. I would never change my gender! After a frantic phone call to Lynn to help with the costume situation, she came to my rescue with shoes and various sparkly things and a flouncy thing to ...