Kensington Gardens Hotel London

... very ambitious, I think). That way if I'm running late I'll still be able to make up time and if I get there as planned, I'll be able to slow down a bit and chillax before the internship.<br><br>So that's the plan! I'm sure it won't turn out exactly as planned, but that's part of the fun. Right now I have that mixture of excitement and nervousness I always get before a bit trip. Bring it on :o)<br>

... was not much separation of church and state here.<br> After a little shopping - Russell wanted a T-shirt - we made our way to our next show, Wicked.<br> Wicked is the backstory of The Wizard of Oz. It centers on the Good Witch and the Wicked Witch of the West, who turn out to be old friends.<br> It was another lively performance which we and the kids thoroughly enjoyed.<br> Tomorrow is our last day in London, and we plan to make the most of it.

... 2 hours! hehe We have seen nothing but nice cars around dad's house (all Bentley's, BMW, Audi, etc. etc. -- no honda's or toyota's hehe). After super, Luc and I went for a stroll down Oxford street to do some shopping (Yes, MaryAnn, the shopping is great in London!!! It has to be a very good deal though, since the GPB is 1.89 for each CAD dollar! haha). But we did find a store, called Primax which has ridiculously good prices...and Oxford Street is full of GAP, H&amp;M, French Connection ...

... so that was fun. <br><br>I headed into London on Friday 12th June for my Britbound arrival session where I got my UK SIM card, bank account and A-Z (map of London). I met a few people there &#8211; it was mainly kiwis &#8211; so will try and catch up with them at Britbound social events. That afternoon I wandered around with Nicola, a dairy farmer from Ashburton, we had lunch at St James park and walked down the Strand to St Paul&#8217;s Cathedral and ...

... bad!! There were only 6 of us, and our tour guide took us to the outside of the Tower of London, the Tower Bridge, a walk along the Thames, St. Paul's Cathedral, the financial district (whose bank has 10 stories of vaults underneath it.) and some other stuff. We also stumbled across what we THINK was a Burberry photo shoot. The two models had Burberry bags and were all Burberry'd out. It was cool. After the tour, we went to the Tower of London. Expensive ...

... story line is about the French revolution and a man named Gamelin that is appointed to be a magistrate. The play itself was interesting, but even more so was the overall atmosphere. It was done as plays were performed in the original Globe. There were very few props and parts of the play even went through the audience. As someone who is not extremely interested in theatre, even I found it very entertaining and something that was well ...

... and car traffic. I spent a few hours just taking in the city and reflecting on my day. Finally, I saw Avenue Q at the Noel Coward Theater that evening. The show was extremely funny and not quite what I expected. But I had a blast. After the show I took the Tube back to Nansi's house to recount the tales of my day. All in all, a fantastic first day in London!

... to get back to the normality of life on Canvey Island now that the knee is feeling much better. One thing we would both like to say is a very big thank you to you all for all your e-mails, phone calls and your kind thoughts while I was in the hospital, you have no idea how much that meant to us. Also a special thank you to our three son's Andrew, Chris &amp; Paul for dropping everything &amp; coming out to Bangkok at what was truly our hour of need.

... of this trip's activities. I wrote 2 pages of museums and attractions we can visit. And a diversity of bookshops, for myself. We're going to London Dungeon. I wrote a 17-paged booklet for my little brother, about London's history. He's sitting next to me and reading it, instead of Donald Duck magazines. I had been looking forward to this trip. I'm a bit scared. I think we're not gonna make it. Terrorist attacks, burning airplane ...

As I know some of you will come to see this journal as soon as you receive the notification email I sent out, I figured I had better put an entry in to start the ball rolling :) Whilst I don't officially go out to Tokyo until tomorrow, today I get to travel down to London to generally experience the joys of British public transportation (inc. taxis, buses, trains and the Tube)... This evening I'm going to be seeing Equus at the Gielgud Theatre ...