THAT’S WHAT FRIENDS ARE FOR

WEATHER: A beautiful sunny day in London Town 23C

HIGHTLIGHT OF THE DAY: Catching up with friends x 2

BUMMER OF THE DAY: My last day in London L

BUYS OF THE DAY: I’m pretty all spent out – not much bought today

WORD OF THE DAY: That’s what friends are for!

Well I got a wonderful surprise last night, just before I logged off my computer, I saw a status update from Lisa (Angel Daughter) that she had just landed in London!  I didn’t think she was getting here till tomorrow, the same day that I was leaving.  I mean we had 5 weeks that we had discussed this several times, but still we had dates mixed up, lucky I saw her status!!!  So I sent her a text message at 10.30pm asking if it was true and was she here!?  So I got a reply back this morning saying yep she’s here, so we made plans to catch up for lunch at 1pm on ‘her’ side of town!!  What a wonderful surprise to see a friendly face especially today.

There are a few things make today a little different.  It would have been my mum’s 58^th birthday today. There isn’t a day that I don’t think of her and I am truly thankful for the opportunity I have travelling the world in her memory.  She was certainly a character and I miss her terribly. 

Today is also the day that my ‘old’ home has settled and is now 100% in Drew’s name.  My name has come off the title and deeds, which is a sad chapter closing, as I loved that house, which is no longer mine, but I will find another ‘home’ that will be I will make mine and when I am ready, to start a new chapter in my life. 

It is also my last day in London and on the European continent.  I am a little nervous leaving the comforts of Europe and heading to the African Continent, but it all can’t be flushing toilets, English speaking, green treed, Wi-Fi and internet access connected countries right?  This is why I travel to experience different cultures and to get out of my comfort zone, so I know when I land at 3am in the morning into Nairobi, that I will embrace the change with open arms.  But there is nothing wrong with being, not scared, but apprehensive on the next leg of my journey.

Now that I was meeting Lisa at 1pm, I decided to do a pre-pack, and just see how all my stuff was going to fit in.  Now that I have a bunch of new stuff, everything needs to find a new home in my backpack.  As I am now leaving ½ my stuff here at the hotel I was able to reshuffle a lot of things and I think I may even have some extra room in my bag at the moment!!!!  I am not sure what I am going to do with all the stuff I am leaving here when I return at the end of October, but I at least I will have options, and I can decide then what I’ll do.  I will need some of the stuff for my stay in Paris, as there are some dresses and a jacket that I will need.  So I was just thinking about this yesterday, I will need to catch the train from Paris to London, collect what I need, I think I may shop for some more replacement clothes while I’m back in London ( that would make another 3 months of wearing the same thing ) and then catch the train back to Paris late that afternoon.  I am in Paris for another 3 nights before heading on my French River Cruise for a week, back in Paris for 3 nights and then I head back to London for 2 nights and then fly to my next continent early November.  These last details are still a little sketchy, as it will all be dependent on the visa status, but it is the plan for now.  I just took my storage bags down stairs and I rekon there is about 8kg in those bags.  I paid my 50GBP for my 105 days of storage, so thanks Tune Hotel for giving me a great price and for keeping my bags for so long, it is really appreciated. 

So I caught the trusty tube to Paddington to catch up with Lisa.  We were to meet at the station, and once I arrived I was going to text her my point of reference.  Well Paddington Station is MASSIVE, but I popped out near the Hilton Hotel, so I text Lisa that I had arrived and I was out the front of the Hilton.  5 minutes passes and she text me back saying she was out the front of the Hilton and couldn’t see me.  Ding ding – there was more than 1 Hilton in Paddington, who would have thought?  So we both started to walk to the other and we met half way!!!  If we didn’t have mobiles, it could have turned really differently.  Well we went to a good ol’ English pub for lunch and we just talked and talked and caught up on the last 3 weeks.  For the record we spoke of the rest of our family members and how much we miss them all and looking forward to a family reunion with all of us some time next year.

As it worked out, where Lisa was staying was literally across the road from where I had to be at 5.30pm to catch up with some more friends, my United Airline Hostees Cheryl and David.  It is so good to be able to see these guys.  They are always so positive and I always leave their company with a smile on my dial and a spring in my step.  The best thing that came out of my Costa Cruise of the Middle East was meeting these two awesome people and I am looking forward to meeting up with them in their home town of Chicago next year.  I was lucky enough to meet 2 of their close friends, who also managed to snag a spot on the London Crew for this trip, Paula and Julie.  It was like I had known these gals for ages and just not the 4 hours that we spent together.  I will certainly be booking a United Flight when I cross the States, and I want to witness you four in action and just watch you deal with some of the dumb arses that you talk about with your stories.  I am also definitely going to ask for Mango juice, a hot chocolate and is there goat’s cheese in the salad?  Personal jokes are awesome and it was great to end my day in London having dinner with these amazing people.

So back to my hotel for the last night.  My transfer is collecting me between 5.45am-6.15am tomorrow morning.  Talk about an early start.  Well I can sleep on the plane, so I’m not too concerned on how late it is.  I’m flying Egypt Air with a 4 hour layover in Cairo, so it should be interesting and I will let you all know how it goes.

Now I am not sure on what my internet access will be like while I am in Africa, but I am pretty sure that I will not be uploading to my blog on a daily basis, but I want you to know that I will certainly still be blogging every day and uploading the days that are missing the second I get access.  So please be patient if there are no updates for a few days, but maybe I will be pleasantly surprised – or maybe not.  Going by the access we had in Morocco, I am not expecting much, but you and I will soon find out.

So thanks to Aimes, George, Lisa, Cheryl, David, Paula and Julie for making my last 2 days in London SUPER awesome, it was really great to see some friendly faces and have a laugh and recount stories and trips.  My lasting impression of today was waving goodbye to my United Crew, as I crossed the road and waved, past M&S and waved, past the post office and waved right until I entered the tube station and waved and blew kisses for the last time, and they were all still there waving and blowing kisses back.  You guys ROCK and I had a skip in my step and a smile on my face all the way home.

Good-bye London, good-bye to Europe and hello Africa and what you may have in store for me.  I am not a camper, and Drew will certainly testify to that, so my first component of my trip is 2 nights in Nairobi and then I am in a tent for 15 days, sharing with some-one I don’t know.  Let’s hope I get some-one nice, for the sake of sanity, and let’s see how I pull up after 2 weeks in a dome tent!!!!  For those of you who know my trip ‘spiel’ I have missed out on meeting my Greek Tycoon, but I still have a chance with meeting my African Prince, and a back-up for Africa as David pointed out, could be a winery owner in South Africa – now that would be pretty sweet.  I’d probably drink all the profits though!!!!!  Next time I blog I will be in Africa, I wonder if there is an IPod application to learn the African click click language?

See you in Africa peeps xoxoxoxo