On Thursday we headed off to Borough Market (near London Bridge) as Ben was on a mission to pick up some exotic and very expensive beer for a friend of his. Borough Market is an exotic food and beverage market and it was quite interesting to see the various items on offer. Ben did find the beers he was after so the mission was a success.
Around the corner was the Golden Hind (Francis Drake’s old ship) which I had hoped to visit. I private tour was going on at the time so we could only walk around the outside and take pictures.
From there we walked along the south bank over to Tower Bridge. On the far side we visited Katherine’s Dock. While we have no aspirations to sail to England and up the Thames we know one or two who might so it was nice to see the last stop up the river for sail boats.
We ate lunch there, most having fish and chips. Ben also wanted to visit the London office of company he works for. That was just around the corner to where Helen and I worked together meeting for the first time. We popped by there to show the kids this little piece of family history.
Ben visited his London office and the rest of us headed back to Camden where we relaxed for the rest of the day. In the evening John brought Bao round so we could all have some last contact time.
Yesterday, Friday, we had a few visitors. Before any of them arrived the five of us took a walk along the canal covering a good distance towards King’s Cross before turning back. Amy’s friend, Alison, was the first to arrive having flown over from Ireland where she currently works. Next to join was Helen’s travel companion from long ago, Geraldine. We all headed to Camden Market for lunch. There John joined us as did the kid’s cousin Adrian. We ended up in the pub for most of the afternoon.
In the evening the kids all went off to a club in London returning at around 5am this morning.
So it’s now Saturday. Helen and my last day in the Uk for some time. We’ll wake the kids around 10am (on prior agreement), sort ourselves out and vacate the place we’ve rented. We’ll have a brunch somewhere before parting ways. They have a hostel booked in London for their last two days. Helen and I will return to her sister’s place where the rest of our luggage sits. Betty will take us to the airport this afternoon. We fly out around 8pm.
We’ll arrive in New Zealand (horribly tired no doubt) Monday morning. The boat parts are still in customs awaiting our arrival in order to sign off for them. As we make our way from the airport to Whangarei I hope to get this all sorted out over the phone. Somehow I have a mountain of paperwork stacked up to sort out when we arrive. Yach.
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