Days 20 - 25: Last Days in England | Around the World in 40 Days

Our last days in England was spent with family and friends whom we will miss very much when we leave, we also managed to sneak in a couple of day trips to Cambridge and London.
Cambridge is one of my favourite cities. The architecture is fantastic, the whole city oozes history and culture and yet it is also modern in the sense that it is kept abreast with the latest technology. It also has a vast array of shops ranging from souvenir to designer labels, and of course book shops and markets. Unfortunately we are only halfway through our trip we dared not to indulge in too much shopping, but we enjoyed taking in the sights by meandering through little alleys and along cobbled streets. This visit was intended to inspire them, not that I'm putting pressure on them or anything but it would be a dream come true if one of them could get into a college here.

We met with some very special friends, friends I met during my first pregnancy whom we kept in touch despite our moving away from England. We all had our first child within days of each other, even the subsequent children were born around similar times. One of my friends put this wonderful collage together, it was great to catch up with everyone after many years!

London was our last day trip in England, luckily the weather held while we were up there. When we got to Trafalgar Square I pointed out the Nelson's Column (shown top left in the collage below) to the boys and Jelly replied "Nelson Mandala?" No my dear boy, it was Admiral Nelson. Clearly we need to brush up on some English history. The Buckingham Palace was flying the Union Jack instead of the Royal Standard, which signaled the Queen was not home. So we didn't pop in for tea, maybe next time. We did climb the 311 steps to the top of The Monument (bottom middle in the collage below) that commemorates the Great Fire of London in 1666 that burned for three days and destroyed most of the London that was.

Well, this is the end of visit to England. Last night and this morning we said farewells to family which was the hardest part, hopefully we won't have to wait another seven years to visit again.

Today we leave for New York via Zurich, thankfully the weather that caused severe travel delays to the northeastern states seemed to have subsided somewhat, although more bad weather is being expect in Northern America. But at least for now, we can continue our journey.

Cheerio England, until next time... logging off from Heathrow Airport.

Days 11 - 19: Merry Christmas & Happy New Year | Around the World in 40 Days

Wow I don't know where the days went but suddenly we are in 2014! The last week or so has been such a whirlwind, I can't believe we will be leaving England in 5 days' time.

Our Christmas day was spent with DH's brother and family, they'd put on such a feast - it was a traditional English Christmas dinner of roast turkey with all the trimmings, followed by Christmas pudding and brandy butter (you can't get this easily in Oz!). We all had too much to eat, drank a lot (adults only), and enjoyed playing games which ranged from board games, quizzes to Heads Up.

After Christmas we travelled up to my FIL's house in Beccles, which is a small town in Suffolk county in the East of England, in the area that is known as East Anglia. My in-laws fell in love with Beccles many years ago and they bought a holiday home here and later moved into a larger house that can accommodate all the family. When we lived in England we used to come up for weekends and summer holidays, it has a very relaxed atmosphere compared to all the hustle and bustle of London. The top half of the collage below shows the Beccles town sign, some frosty leaves by the roadside when we took the dog for a walk, and a couple of photos of Great Yarmouth - a seaside tourist destination since the 18th century and one shows the signs that has seen better days.

Of course no visit to Beccles is complete without a trip to Southwold, a seaside town on the coast of the North Sea. Southwold is particularly special to us because it was my mother-in-law's favourite, sadly she passed away fourteen years ago just before her 60th birthday. The family put a plaque in her honour on the Southwold Pier where it faced her favourite spot. In the photo above you can see J polishing his grandma's plaque. The day of our visit was a typical wintry day with chilling wind and rain, but I can assure you on a sunny day the scenery really is quite stunning. 

All the family congregated in Beccles to see the New Year, there were 21 of us all together. It was an evening filled with laughter, food, games, and more food (and plenty of drinks too of course) - occasions like this really make us homesick for England, we miss the family the most.

Today is the New Year's Day, in a few days time we shall continue our journey to America. Next stop: New York City. I've always wanted to visit NYC, still can't believe we are actually going to be there!

In the meantime, Happy New Year!

Days 8 - 10: Meeting Family and Friends, and The Shard | Around the World in 40 Days

Day 8: Meeting with friends and family day

We went to see J's childhood buddy Jordan in the morning.  J met Jordan (who suffers from muscular dystrophy) when they were just five years old at year 1 in primary school. At that time Jordan could still walk but with difficulty, J was his little buddy and they'd been friends since. Jordan's mum warned me that he's quite different from our last visit seven years ago, but she needn't have worried, the two buddies picked it up right where they'd left off as if they'd never been apart.

In the evening there was a family get together, they surprised DH with cards and presents - DH turns 50 in January but his birthday is after we leave England, so he had a surprise party early!

Day 9: Rest day - we did go to see DH's aunt and had tea there, DH picked up some old photos to add to the family tree he's making.

Day 10: The Shard

DH's brothers and sister-in-laws booked the The Shard as a birthday present, so we all went today. The Shard is boasting to be the tallest building in Western Europe, standing at 310m (1016 ft). It's on the south bank of the Thames between the Tower Bridge and London Bridge, it's not far from where I used to work on Union Street. 

The view from the bottom.

The View at the top!

Please excuse the photos, the view was spectacular, only it would've been better if it was a better day. The weather bureau issued a severe warning for after the midday, so we didn't linger. As soon as we came down from The Shard we took the earliest possible train back, which was just as well, as most trains were cancelled in the late afternoon and evening due to storms and strong wind. It wouldn't be fun to be stranded in London just before Christmas!

Oh yes, before I sign off today I have to share this with you - the loo with a view, from the top of The Shard:

-- you can close the blind with the flick of a button, in case you don't want to share the view from the inside :P