Food, Friends and Family...and the Queen

• Elopfamily's Profile
• About this blog
• Entry from London

Trip Start Jun 17, 2008 Previous
Entry Trip End Aug 31, 2009 Next
Entry

  London, England, United Kingdom
Monday, June 29, 2009

You may recall that our last blog had a Moses/burning bush biblical theme. I was a bit worried at the time that it (more than any other entry) would result in me being struck down by lightning by a higher power.  Thankfully, all is well and we've seen nothing but clear skies in the last week.  As I write this, however, we are currently flying over the Atlantic Ocean and much closer to potentially angry lightning bolts.   I’ve therefore decided not to tempt fate by flirting with sacrilegious prose today.  Flirting with Sophie in seat 21DD is more appropriate anyway…no, scratch that… it’s completely inappropriate, but still fun.  [Editor’s note:  My husband’s little fantasy world is such a happy place – why spoil it for him…]

Yes, we are currently flying back to the land of real maple syrup, also known as Canada, also known as home.  We still have another five weeks of travel throughout Eastern Canada, but we are very excited to be getting back on home soil

London...Almost Home!

.  After an upcoming five or six days of working through the 100 items or so on our "task list" and getting reacquainted with our families, we will be happily rolling the Big Zeke (i.e. our RV) down the Canadian highways again.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.  We still have Southern Africa to close off, as well as five days in the U.K. 

The final statistics on South Africa/Namibia include the following:

-    11,500 kilometres driven (compared with 12,500 in Western Canada/Alaska, 7,000 in New Zealand, and 10,000 in Australia);

·    3 flat tires;

·    0 oil changes…oops!;

·    [1 slap from Sophie];

·    3 kilograms of Namibian desert sand vacuumed out of our rental car (and 1 kilogram tucked away in our luggage);

·    >1,000 wild animals spotted;

·    >2,000 wild rocks with ears spotted;

·    30 kilograms of boerewors sausage devoured (with 5 bottles each of mustard, ketchup, and chutney, (and many more bottles of South African wine));

·    5 kilograms added to my waist (see boerewors sausage comment above);

·    50 kilograms of charcoal used (FYI, that’s approximately 47 kilograms more than we had used in our entire life before this trip);

·    >200 Kokerboom Trees seen in the Quivertree Forest

Goodbye to Southern Africa

.  The Kokerboom (or “quivertree”) is an iconic (and beautiful) tree in Namibia that doesn’t flower for 30 years, and lives more than 250;

·    1 stop at a police speed trap;

·    1 “bribe” to cut the speeding ticket in half;

·    1 reprimand for paying too much for the bribe… “Dammit man!  You’re driving the price up for us locals!!”

·    1 laundry owner pointing to Tracy’s (proudly) hand-painted shirt from Peru and saying, “You have some really nasty stains!!”  (Her artistic self-confidence will never be the same…);

·    [Update – 2 slaps from Sophie];

·    2 popular South African phrases learned that have no meaning.  “Just now” as in “I’ll do that for you just now”

Kokerboom Tree, Namibia

.  One might suppose the person uttering this phrase is promising to do something for you imminently; but no, apparently “just now” can mean anything from five seconds to two days.  The second phrase, “jaa-nee”, literally translates into “yes-no”…if anyone can figure that one out, please let us know.

We can’t close off South Africa without thanking our incredible Johannesburg hosts and outfitters, Heidrun and Laureen (boerewors sausage kilograms #1,2, 27 and 28, and ten hours of US Open golf viewing) again.  Life was pretty sweet with them!  We also have to thank the Viviers (the friends of my parents, and I’d like to think friends of ours now) for their incredible hospitality and animal spotting tips (and for boerewors sausage kilograms #29 and 30).  Travelling is so much easier when there are great people like this willing to help!

Oh, and by the way we managed to do one last game drive in the very scenic Pilanesberg National Park near Sun City, north of Johannesburg.  We weren’t expecting too much, and we were pleasantly surprised with an upfront view of a white rhino and her baby…gotta love those game drives!

Next up was our last overnight flight (from Joburg to London), our last argument with a rental car company (“You can tell me all you want to look again, but I’m telling you that your Passat only has 4 seats!”…I smell a free upgrade), and our first opportunity for Tracy to drive on the left hand side of the road…I’m kind of glad that I never learned to drive a manual car!  For once it was me “suggesting” to her to stay off the curb

Kokerboom Trees, Quivertree Forest

!

The “spoiling” we received during our last weekend in South Africa continued in full force in the United Kingdom.  We stayed with Ann and Harvey (a cousin of my mother), who went far beyond the call of duty with all the fabulous meals, all the previously untried drinks (Pimms?), and all the previously tried drinks (wine/beer).  They even hosted a wonderful BBQ party for us (at which they had the Canadian flag flying high) so we could meet more of our British relatives.  “Jolly ho, those Brits are good chappies!”  No boerewors sausage, but I commented to Tracy that “the port and cheese plate more than made up for it, jaa-nee?!”

While we did two days of sightseeing in London, our best memories of the UK will be of spending time with Ann and Harvey.  We had mentioned to them that one of the things we’d like to do was see a stage show, and before you could say “Dancing Queen, young and sweet, only seventeen” […time out, I have an urge to flirt with Sophie again…] we found ourselves, courtesy of Ann and Harvey, dancing in the aisles of the Mamma Mia show…fantastic fun! (but perhaps “un-British” from a decorum perspective).

Rhino and her Baby, Pilanesberg NP

Other UK memories include:

·    The highly excitable tour guide who was standing next to us at Buckingham Palace during the changing of the guard.  The guards marched through a gate that was apparently different than normal.  The brash tour guide (I won’t mention what country she was from) yelled out, “They’re doing it wrong!!”  When I mentioned this to the Queen later in the day, she just laughed and said, “Bloody hell, those commoners”;

·    And speaking of bloody… At the Tower of London, it was amusing to find out just how many people had been beheaded there by the “reserved and proper” British.  “That King Henry the Eighth was one nasty dude,” I kibitzed with the Queen.  “I am not amused,” was her terse reply.  I’m not sure what upset her.  It’s not like she has ever killed anyone…or has she?!?;

·    Going on the “London Eye”…a gigantic ferris wheel type thing, that towers above London, holds 25 people in each of its 32 (10 ton) capsules, and has a circumference of almost ½ a kilometre

Required UK Picture

.  Nice views of Big Ben, way down there;

·    Shaking our heads at the headlines of the tabloid magazines, “London kills Michael Jackson!!!”  His untimely death is clearly a sad event, but the simple fact that he was practicing for a number of London shows is probably not grounds for leveling a murder charge at a city;

·    Having cousin Harvey plan out our London sightseeing by the minute.  Things are starting to make sense to Tracy with respect to my obsession with time;

There’s not much more to report.  We’ve spent most of the last eight days eating, drinking and being spoiled (Yes, global travel is tough!), and as we convalesce with our parents this week, I’m thinking it’s going to continue.  If the next blog is just a simple picture of my bloated stomach, you’ll know the week is going well…

Post your own travel photos for friends and family More Pictures

Buckingham Palace: The Wrong Gates?	View from the London Eye	Tower Bridge, London	London Eye Capsule
View from St. James Park, London	Big Ben and Friends	A London memorial	Hanging Out With the UK Relatives

Slideshow Print this entry Share

Previous Entry Next Entry