We've finally landed!

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We've arrived in london its now 7.40am on 19 aug. Waiting for car to take us to hotel. its about 15 deg. Tons of people coming through the airport and for the first time, seen so many African folks...very colourful and bustling people.

Anyway, whilst Ted was getting the baggage, guess who I saw and for the life of me couldn't remember his name when he was walking past ....Richard Carlton! What a tall man, daggy t-shirt and his luggage has been places. Wanted to say hello but would have sounded like an idiot if I called him Ray Martin or something like that.

Anyway, the trip here was quite a journey. We have been fed and fed on the plane .....the whole 23 hours of it! We had a one hour stop over at Singapore which made the journey even worse because the temperature was 32 degrees at 1am. The plane was quite muggy and I limited my intake of fluid because I was having alot of trouble with fluid retention - to be honest, am glad to be back on land again. The trip to UK is almost like going through surgery before you feel better again.

Well we know what security is like in Sydney, so we headed to the 'goods to be declared' area, we were the only ones declaring goods....half eaten chocolate and a little bag full of dried chinese lollies. On arrival at the counter, the customs man was sitting with this feet up on the bench, rather relaxed and for a moment we thought that we had interrupted his rest.

He asked us what we were declaring and we said, chocolate, and before we could finish, he told us to keep going, not to worry. We stood there thinking, this is got to be a joke really. He's probably pulling our leg and we'll get apprehended (like one normally does by the Sydney Customs) down the corridor where the real customs are.... so I said, "I also have some dried fruits and I believe they may have seeds in them" as much as I hated saying that because I didn't want to lose those lollies. No, even the word 'seed' which is taboo in sydney customs, did anything. He ushered us off and we walked away.....I think we were slightly disappointed. we' so used to the usual search and interrogration that in Sydney Airport that we actually felt quite insecure at Heathrow...for an airport that is practically the hub of Europe.

Anyway, moving on, we got on the bus (African learner driver); and of course we were the last ones to be dropped off at the hotel near Kensington. I suppose that was good because we got a quick tour of the area and the driving skill of the learner. We did receive an apology in advance from the instructor before we set off.

Finally we arrived at the hotel, beautiful hotel, everyone looked their best and here were Ted and I; totally knackered from the 23 hour flight but were lucky to find out our rooms were ready. I think they must do this for all Australian travellers.....we looked a wreck and they reckoned we needed a room.

The plan for today is to unpack, shower, go out and get some lunch, rest for a few hours, go out for dinner.

O'rite then, we will write again soon after we have rested and feeel refreshed.

regards
pat and ted

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