Brain still jet-lagged, but
fortunately the bowels remain tickety-boo. At least something is working.
Remain hopeful that brain will soon become regular also.
Anyway, enough of the
gastrointestinal/cerebral update. Today was a bit quieter, owing to a number of
factors; everyone feeling fairly tired, early start tomorrow to catch the 8
o'clock train to Paris, and going out this evening to meet up with Cheryl and
Hugo.
Tubed it to Westminster, and then
a short walk past the really big clock-tower that frequently gets erroneously referred
to as Big Ben, and on to Westminster Abbey. Spent the next couple of hours
walking around looking at various monuments, plaques, memorials, tombs,
engravings and sarcophagi of dead people - famous dead people, but nevertheless,
dead. Amongst the memorials, a tribute to 2 local lads made good - the
Florey's. There have also been a number of bishops from Adelaide consecrated at
W'minster over the years, including one back at the turn of the last century with
the surname 'Nutter' - we were wondering if he was any relation to the 'Nutter'
from Yankalilla who 'saw' the image of Christ on his church wall few years ago.
Above all else, Westminster is, apart from being a repository of significant historical
figures, an absolutely astounding piece of architecture. As with most of these
public buildings and monuments, one cannot get an appreciation of their size
and majesty simply from a book or a photo - it sounds corny, but they do have
to be seen to be believed, especially when one puts it into context considering
the era in which they were built. Also happens to be the site of the oldest
known door in Englanddom - believed to date from 1052.
Back to the hotel to pack as much
as we can to take round to Cheryl's, as she has kindly offered to act as a left
luggage service for us whilst we are in Paris. We also wanted to give ourselves
enough time to get down to where she lives in East Dulwich before it got too
busy on the Underground or buses. Cheryl's excellent directions made it as smooth
as possible, and the kids had a front seat view from the top of the
double-decker bus from King's Cross station down to East Dulwich; and there to
be met by Cheryl and Hugo whom we hadn't seen for probably close on 17 years.
Once Cheryl had managed to extricate herself from Julianne's tearful yet joyful
reunion hug we all reacquainted and introduced each other depending upon who
had or hadn't been born the last time we met, or was too young to remember. Now
I realise of course that Cheryl will probably be reading this at some point
(hopefully before we get back, so as to curry favour with her!), but it is
without a measure of hyperbole when I say that Hugo is an absolutely delightful
young man, and a fine testament to both his parents - I imagine they are both
justifiably very proud of him. And, with due deference to Douglas Addams, it
was pleasing to see that Hugo, with due deference to 17 years of evolution, did
not attempt to lick ice-cream (or indeed any other form of foodstuff) off the
kitchen floor - well done to the public schooling system I say. And Cheryl was
just as we remembered her; it was as if we had only seen her a few months or even weeks previously. Such
is the nature I guess of enduring friendships. An absolutely delightful evening
of fine company and a wonderful meal of roast lamb followed by a delicious
sticky toffee pudding - Patrick commented that he even enjoyed the beans! Quite
an achievement Cheryl - Bravo!
And so it was back to the hotel,
a few suitcases lighter and our spirits significantly uplifted, albeit rather
tired - Isabel did very well to wake up enough to walk back from the tube
station and then promptly collapsed into bed. Tomorrow we march on Paris.
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