Saturday 22nd May: Met Jim at his apartment, and off to explore The Ciy and the Bankside precinct. Good to have a "local" as a guide. We headed to St Paul's, the Millennium Bridge, Bankside, Borough Market, Tower Bridge, lunch on the Thames, back through the Monument, Guildhall and then home by 4.00 pm - quite a journey for our first day!!

Tasty meal at Jim's in the evening, and met Emma.

Day 2 Friday 21st May:

The Emerate flight to London was great. Could not fault the trip - the service was outstanding. Dubai airport was something of interest - not a lot of signage to let you know where flights were leaving from - but it worked out in the end. Arrived at Heathrow on-time, and our passage through passport control and customs was a breeze. Jim phone on landing (Geelong were 13 points up at this stage!), collected our baggage and caught the underground to the Barbican.

Grabbed a couple of hours sleep and then Jim took us for dinner at a bar/restaurant (pic above) in the Barbican - very pleasant. Thought we would get an early night, but it was nearly midnight before we got to sleep.

An hour to go! The 23 kilos is a hard limit to be under - for some! But it was me and not Helene that was the problem. All sorted by the generosity of the under weight member of the party.

The last eggs from the fridge about to be scrambled, rubbish out, wash up, turn hot water off etc and to be ready by 12.00 noon.

Heard from Jim on Skype this morning - looking forward to seeing him. Also Maddie phoned, very excited for her news on the job front. Our lovely neighbour Anne came over to check that all was right with the world. What a great day.

The sun is shining; another special autumn day in paradise. Why are we leaving - we'll be back.

Not this year!

Will be missed

Three days before departure - that Icelandic eruption is causing a little concern at the moment. But, what's a few days delay in the bigger scheme of things! Most i's dotted and t's crossed - not necessarily a simple task! Life has become very complex and it will great to cut away all the extraneous gunk that we go on with on a day to day basis.

Not quite the same as last winter (see photo on left of "Smiley" at the MCG) but looking forward to the prospect of a new van in the UK.