London

We were greeted at Heathrow airport by Parish (SA) and Sian (UK) and their two boys. We dropped of our luggage in Finchley were we stayed for two nights, thanks to Sian's parents who kindly put us up in one of their vacant apartments across the road from them.

Later that afternoon we went back to the Schertel residence in Ware. After 7 years in London, we were happy to see that Parish hasn't lost his BBQ'ing skills and with Sian's great culinary skills to compliment his. We spent the afternoon in the summer sun which I was told is not very common in the UK. I was of course very happy to have such perfect tourist weather for my 1st time to London.

Marc working for his lunch!

Parish and Sian

Euan and Connor

By this time I had made one observation about London and that was that out of probably 10 people I over heard talking, only 2 were English. Still can't get over that! Nor can the English, I'm sure!

Later that evening we met up with Donald and Gaylene (SA) in Soho at a bar/club called the "Friendly Society" or something like that. The bar had barbie dolls stuck to the ceiling on the one side and small mirror balls on the other. We went to China Town for dinner (We just can't seem to escape the East or is it that the East can't escape us)...
Gaylene, myself and Marc

Donald and Parish - The rainbow boys

Walking down the street in Soho

Most of the evening was spent reminiscing, as friends do that are scattered all over the world. Marc, Donald and Parish have been friends for 10+ years and it was great listening to the stories, achievements and dreams.

The next day we did the tourist trek around the Thames, London Eye, Big Ben, lunch near London Tower, saw the bridge being raised etc. etc. We tried to book a show but unfortunately couldn't get seats and the ones we could get seats for cost 60 Pound per person, which if you multiply by 14 is the price for a weekend away so we figured we'll give it a miss. Hopefully next time.

Marc posing for such a tourist shot.

The gang

Sian's family - Savaughn and Marcelle (SA), Ola, Parish and Brian. They must really like South African's as two out of the 3 sisters have SA men.
Pat, Sian, myself and Marc

We had a nice evening out on Saturday night - walking through Covent Garden looking for a restaurant. We had great dinner - Pizza and wine of course complimented by great company.

Parish entertained us with his excellent impersonation of Jack Nicholson in a Few good men.

Sunday morning we walked through Camden Market and I was once again amazed by the choices on offer (Wow) but of course it came at a price. R60 for 3 donuts... Marc, was very sorry that he had a sweet tooth and bought two.
Later that afternoon we checked into our hotel in West Kingsinton. Marc and I did more tourist things, walking around Buckingham Palace, Picadilly Circus, Burger King at Lester Squere.

It was really the end of the holiday for Marc as he had meetings the whole day Monday and one on Tuesday morning. On Monday I got to walk through Noting Hill, Portobello street, Hyde Park and the famous Oxford street and later that evening Marc and I went past Harrod's (it was closed, but I couldn't go to London and not at least see it).

Tuesday morning I packed up while Marc had his meeting and when he got back to the hotel we set off to take a bus, a train and our 2:35 plane back to Bangalore.

And here we are... Back in India, suffering from a little bit of culture shock after spending 3 weeks in Europe. It won't be long though, and we'll be back into the India swing of things.

A post on the India " swing of things" to follow shortly!