A fuller picture...

I was trying to decide whether to post some more photos but instead I thought I'd fill in the gaps between the previous photos with words...

On Saturday afternoon, having seen all the Great Aunts again and showed off the baby photos, I caught a train to London. Having alighted near St Pauls I decided to walk there and grab a couple of night shots. Upon contacting my youngest cousin, Roger, we arranged to have dinner at Brick Lane so I walked over there. Roger had been to watch Arsenal play that afternoon. To get to Brick Lane, I walked through Cheapside and down Grace Church Street (which I didn't get a photo of as they were doing lots of roadwork so I'm sure it wouldn't have looked anything like it did in the days of P&P). The Indian food we ate was very filling so I suggested we walk to the Tower of London for some more night shots. We ended up walking halfway across zone 1 and crossing the Thames multiple times, before getting tired and getting on the tube at Westminster.

On Sunday, Roger and I headed to Portobello Road which is mainly open on a Saturday but still has some stalls open on Sunday. It was busy enough for me! We then continued walking to Kensington Gardens and looked around Kensington Palace, the Elfin Tree and the Peter Pan statue. We got some obligatory photos of swans and also saw one of the Royal Choppers land. We then continued to walk to Oxford Street. It was packed. There were some great window displays ready for Christmas (including some with teddy bear puppets opening all the presents and trying out the toys...).

On Monday, I had a late start and then caught the tube to Oxford Street again for a little shopping at Hamleys. After spending too much money I caught the tube to St Pauls and walked across the Millenium Bridge again (by day this time). I then looked around Tate Modern until I was feeling tired so walked to London Bridge and start on my journey back to Luton (by underground and rail).

London - by night and by day - a selection

Peaceful???

Well the peaceful times in Crawley now come in short bursts. Yes, that's right, Darcy is home! :-) He's now also in fine voice (which Mark has been known to call girlie). Karen is pleased to be home but still frustrated that she can't do everything she wants to do. I'm looking at having a weekend in London before Mark goes back to school. Thus, lots to do, but nothing urgent.

Darcy Richard John Oakley b.20/11/07 5.57am

The thinker...
One last photo before visiting hours end...
... and then another because of his reaction to the previous photo
A proud Dad :-)
Proud Parents :-)
A proud Aunt :-)

Details, details...

The last week in pictures (well not entirely - but it sounded good)

'My' Couch

Luton Shopping Centre

Aunty Joan and Aunty Betty

Still Waiting

Well since my last post I've taken a drive to Luton. While there I caught up with my great aunts: Joan, Betty and Win (in that order). I also got to spend time with my mum's cousin, Karen, and her man, Dominic. I only stayed in Luton two nights, before I got a phonecall to come back to Crawley. Nothing much happened yesterday, though we did go to the hospital at 12.30am this morning to make sure I was sufficiently tired for this mornings drive (just kidding - there were far more important reasons for heading there). Now I'm back waiting at Crawley while Mark & Karen are at Haywards Heath.
I'll post a couple of photos soon, but as I've mentioned there's still none of a baby.

Waiting

Well very little is happening in cold England at the moment, so today I'm going on a bit of a holiday in a quest for an actual bed (and to see the relatives). Yep, that's right, my welcome to England found that the room I'd booked had been given to someone else. Now I have to watch my bank statements to make sure they don't try to charge me for it... Instead of a comfy bed, I've been thrust into the Aussie stereotype of sleeping on a couch for the last 4 nights. At least the couch was fairly comfy even if it was a little short.

Many of you will also be disappointed to hear that I haven't been taking many photos while in England so far. Never fear, more will be taken soon. I'm just trying to work out what photos I already have from last time...

Germany (some pictures)

Cars, Planes and Automobiles

So far this trip has been very interesting in terms of transport....

Cars- My car broke down on the way to the airport (two belts and a filter later it's working again). This meant that I used 3 cars to get to the airport - mine briefly, Ray's to Penrith and Amanda's for the rest. Luckily there was plenty of time for all this to happen, especially as it meant changing greasy car parts from one boot to another in the rain.

Planes - The trip to Singapore was delayed and then longer than expected so there was little time between getting off and reboarding - just enough to walk 50m and return... The trip to Frankfurt was hence also delayed but it was nice to receive a message saying I was to be met at the airport. The person I was sitting next to was unable to speak English so 'conversations' were very funny.

Trains, etc in Germany - The public transport system in Germany is quite good so my main issue with it was to do with jetlag and connections. Running 200m after only 2 hours sleep was more than my body could handle and the faintness took close to an hour to kick.

Planes (again) - The trip from Frankfurt to England was delayed (again) but still managed to arrive on time. It is one of the planes where you take a bus onto the airstrip and then board the plane celebrity-style. There were lots of spare seats on the plane so most people weren't sitting next to anyone. On this flight my main 'conversation' was to ask to borrow a pen.

Cars (again) - Picking up the hire car was pretty straight forward. Driving it to Crawley/Maidenbower was also pretty good. This morning though we've found that the babyseat doesn't fit so we're going to see if we can get a different model car before trying for a new babyseat.

Weight

For those interested in statistics, my bag weighs 9.5kg when it only contains gifts for those already O/S.

Long time no post...

Yes it has been a long time since my last post but given I'm about to embark on another adventure I thought it was about time I made use of this blog again...

Stay tuned.

Current status: preparing for a 5pm flight on Friday, November 9.