Lidos Hotel London

... this is long--sorry, two days at once. We're out and about for shorter times each day and nap as soon as we get back to the flat. More than about 8 days of urban sightseeing is too much for our age and stage, and we have four more days in London! I announced today that we are going to be making use of taxis, rather than taking the tube, at the end of the day--just too wearying dealing with the mobs and changing at various stations.

... ended up getting there six minutes too late to go in because—you guessed it—we got stuck in traffic. We ended up stopping off for a drink before heading ...

... us a great tour of N. Ireland. Next time we go cross the border to a foreign country called Ireland.

Chaos in Heathrow

Our flight to Heathrow was right on time. Maura had a freak-out moment on the plane before it left and her famous high pitched scream was introduced to all the passengers. Now to get to the subway. Wow. I thought I had a plan. Getting to our hotel required us to take the subway (the Tube) from the airport ...

... ticket (4 pound - don't even know what sort of ticket it was) and then went back and caught the Heathrow Express 1st class train to Paddington (it was meant to cost 20pounds, but i just flashed my other ticket and looked confused and they didn't care). At Paddington after more craziness I got a tube to Kings Cross. From there I should've got another to Russel Square, but had lost all faith in my skills and decided to walk.....
Well I walked for at least ...

Only 10 days to go and we will be on a 16 and a half hour flight to Rio..! I am starting to get a bit nervous, Jeff is still pretty chill - well apart from the occasional "I am not going!" ;) - , and all big things seem sorted. So now its just a matter of dealing with any last minute catastrophies and try and not be late for our flight this time so they don't have to call us out again ;) Only one more week of work is left and then we'll have to pack everything we need into ...

... whether even someone who is fictional can make virtual friends in this age of Internet communication. Within a week she had over 100 "friends". Tiffany decided to host her own birthday party in a bar, hoping to meet her new buddies. Everyone was invited, and her creator sat in the corner to wait and see if anyone turned up. After waiting for more than hour, nobody had. Tiffany would surely have been very upset - if she was a real person. This experiment shows ...

... Business or First Class!? It was already evening when we arrived at Heathrow, waited again in long lines for Immigration, collected our luggage and headed off on the tube into London. Getting out at Hyde Park, we then caught a cab to our hotel about 10 minutes away. Barry House hotel was a nice little B&B with two small connecting rooms on the fifth floor of narrow and steep steps, so getting all the luggage up there was a bit of a nightmare. Despite the late hour ...

... when it comes to cooking.) Spent the night at my cousin's house and then explored Camden market with my cousins the next day. Camden actually reminded me a lot of Santee Alley in LA-it had a similar set up. It was also nice to know that a much smaller portion of Camden had been burned down than I thought (the news made it seem like the entire market had been burned but it was only a pretty small part.) We ...

... of young people and a DJ was playing CDs. We meant to be in the room for only a few minutes but wound up taking a 1 1/2 hour nap. We freshened up and headed out to find an ATM and convenience store. We ate dinner at McDonald's and had a Big & Tasty meal, 2 Big Macs, medium fries and a large drink. Total was 8.30 pounds (about $16 US). And that was with a buy 1/get 1 free Big Mac coupon!

... a great time of worship and the word. Kath was excited to be shown around the school as she wants to spend her gap year there. It was an emotional 3 days and was soon over and time to go to Bonny Scotland for my Dad's 90th birthday. The line at the airport was long but it was dry and sunny and we talked to the people waiting and it was soon our turn. We were on the next flight and getting excited to see Scotland.