Royal County Hotel Reading

Day zero: Departure<br><br>Packing's done, but today&#8217;s list has a dozen or more things to do (all easy and mundane) &#8211; take meter readings, returning a forgotten library book, squeeze the car into the garage etc.<br><br>An early Christmas card is dropped off by Claire and Derek, near neighbours who amazingly in a few days are doing their own extended world trip, and whose paths cross ours in Cairns in four weeks time.<br><br>Steve is coming at 2.30pm to ...

<br><br><br>"Whatever can go wrong at the most inopportune moment, will" Sod's law<br><br>All I had to do today was to get the laptop ready for travel: clear out old files to make space for photos, transfer my planning files with all the hotel, travel and other necessary detail; and check in.<br><br>First the laptop email chose ...

Booked my ticket to the States 2 weeks ago and been sorting out all my stuff at Bekey's house since then. Seems to have been a relative success, packed up the last of my worldly goods and moved boxes to Mum and Dad&#8217;s house. Was pretty sad to be moving out, I&#8217;ve been living with my big sister for about 18 months and have really enjoyed it. Bekey&#8217;s taken good care of me (lots of delicious meals, yum) and we&#8217;ve had a lot of fun. Had lots of cuddles ...

... a glorious two hours sleeping face down on the airport floor with my iPhone as a pillow before having the novel experience of being the very first person through security just half an hour ago. As layovers go, I'd say its an all-around win. At this point, I have 45 minutes left in this country and thirteen pound coins that the ticket machine gave me yesterday, so you'll excuse me if I have to attend to some seriously overpriced breakfast.

... Stabucks stores (I have never seen so many Starbucks shops in my life!!). When we returned, our program treated us to lunch at a global cuisine restaurant called Giraffe. It was good, but I am oh so tired. We took a double decker back to our area and I abandoned the group for home, as they decided to have another drink at the pub up the road. I am exhausted! This is also an academic course, and there is much required reading to be done!!

... I finally decided that it was too cold. Anyway, we stood outside for two hours freezing but at least now I can say that I've seen it. It was good but I was expecting red coats. They played an Elton John song and I thought that was really funny. On Friday night, a couple friends and I decided to head down to a bar where another friend of ours works as a bartender. I have never been frisked ...

... from the people she bought it from and others she has planted. It is really quite intriguing and the whole home has a wonderfully peaceful feel to it. She made a superb meal of spaghetti bolognese and offered me a nice dry red wine. She is a very effortless sort of cook who does not make fancy - just what is needed. Then washed up (I dried) and put away. She also helped me to go through my gear to see what more I could leave behind. There is quite a lot, thank ...

... Okie... think I've glorified Heathrow quite a bit eh! Hmmn... maybe in the future I should become S'pore's ambassador to England huh... food for thought... Anyway aunty Prema's friends Nelly & Simon picked us from the airport after we landed. Nelly was from S'pore but she migrated to England 9 years ago( smart woman!) after marrying Simon, a Brit, who used to be a pilot for S'pore Airlines. Now he flies for British Midlands. Simon suggested that we visit Windsor Castle ...

... three days on the beach scares me right now!!! <br><br>PS, for those wondering about the name of the travelogue, it was bestowed upon me by the nincompoops I coxed who had limited brain power when it came to pronouncing foreign names!!! Although I prefer to think it was because of dictionary.com's second definition: A girl, especially a beautiful one. ;-)

... phone number that Sally had, I am without Internet at home. You don't really realize how dependent you become on these things until they are taken away. So, I am going to continue keeping travel journals, but I may not be able to post them for a little while. Hopefully you have been able to go back and take a look at the photos I uploaded on some of the previous entries. Until then, cheerio!