Gum Trees and BBQ's in London

Trip Start Oct 30, 2005
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Trip End Ongoing


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Sunday, June 4, 2006

The plane to London was not too bad, except for one guy who drank way too much and insisted on talking as loud as he could, meaning we didn't get much sleep. We arrived in London and queued up for immigration. There was one grumpy looking lady and the rest seemed ok... of course we got the grumpy lady and after proceeding to scream at us for a little bit, gave us our stamps right in the middle of our passports - not the best introduction to London.

Pete met us at arrivals and it was great to see the big fella once again. He drove us back to his home in Reading, and we had our first experience of the European summer - it was still light at about 9.30pm! (A big change from our last visit to London in Jan 2002, when it started getting dark at 4.00pm)

Arriving at Pete & Joan's, we were met by the wonderful Joan in their beautiful home, in a really peaceful and quiet part of Reading. Pete was very proud of having an (Australian) gum-tree growing in his yard, so he was never too far from home. We had a bit of a chance to catch up that evening with Pete and Joan, before retiring to get some much needed sleep.

As fate would have it, Pete had his corporate games that weekend (playing cricket of course!), so we spent the morning with Joan and their gorgeous baby Katelyn. That afternoon, we had a walk around Reading - really quite a lovely place, and saw the Abbey Ruins and of course "The Oracle" - a shopping centre that has made Reading a popular place to shop. Not that our Aussie dollars go that far when converting to Pounds. There were beautiful park areas, with locals sunning themselves as though they were at the beach. The sun was really quite hot, so we made our way back to Pete & Joan's. Pete had come back from cricket, and we were lucky enough to be spoilt with a BBQ, washed down with beer and wine. We entertained Katelyn with our "frog songs" that we had been practicing with our niece Maddie, and she gave us the biggest smiles possible!

Having a late night, we rose early to pack and prepare for our Morocco trip. Pete was kind enough to drive us to the airport again, so we were all set. Off to Morocco - our 4th continent in a week (Oceania, Asia, Europe and now Africa).
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