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Published: December 16th 2007
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Back in the UK (20th July - 22nd October, 2007)
After our last stop in Greece we returned to London and Mum went to Spain for 10 days and I started work in Peterborough. For the next 6 weeks I worked in Critical Care on a respiratory ward. Back to nurses accommodation! Only this time I had the penthouse suite on the 7th floor!
There is always lots happening and the weekends always seem to fill up very quickly.
Henley-on-Thames
It was Rupesh's birthday on the 20th of July and I took him to a lovely B & B in Henley-on-Thames. Henley-on-Thames is a delightful town. We were here just after some severe flooding in parts of England. At a roundabout 5 miles out of Henley was a car half submerged in water.
High Tea at the Ritz
Mum had a couple of days in London before flyng home on the 1st of August. On her last night in London I booked us a table at the Ritz where we enjoyed high tea, complete with cucumber sandwhiches, scones, a large selection of tea and lots of little cakes. Rupesh was allowed to join us at the table
when the Ritz staff found him a tie!
English Football
We spent an afternoon at the Emirates Stadium in London watching the Arsenal Football Team. English football is really soccer to Australians although they won't like me calling it this. Rahal (Rupesh's friend) supports Arsenal and assures me that Arsenal is a far superior team to the Tottenham Hotspur's which Rupesh supports.
Edinburgh Military Tattoo
Six of us headed up to Edinburgh for 3 days for the start of the Edinburgh Festival which runs throughout August. Being the start of the festival we got very cheap tickets or free tickets in some cases to see lots of performances and comedians from all over the world. The Golden Mile is filled with people and street performers during this time. Eight months in advance we'd booked tickets to the Military Tattoo which was absoultely brilliant. The military bands that performed were amazing and very entertaining. At the end of the performace we watched a fireworks display errupt from Edinburgh Castle.
Peterborough Beer Festival
Peterborough hosts a beer festival every year. It is a huge event with live music and a selection of beers and ciders from mostly the UK
Henley-on-Thames
Picnic dinner in gardens of B & B and Europe.
Oxford
Rupesh and I had a great weekend in Oxford exploring this university town which definitely has some similarities to Cambridge. There and gargoyles and grotesques aplenty adorning the colleges.
Cornwall
Over the bank holiday weekend Rupesh, Bern, Elizabeth and I walked along the coast from Penzance to Lands End. It was Rupesh's first real hike and he survived! It was a beautiful walk and the weather was fantastic. We unintentially stopped at a poplular nudist beach for lunch on the Sunday. Along the coast we spotted a basking shark which was a good few metres in length. It had 3 fins that we could see poking above the water.
Proms
The Royal Prince Albert Hall near Hyde Park holds Proms each year with lots of different orchestras playing on different nights. Rupesh and I watched an brass band from Venezuela who were very entertaining. They not only played their instruments but had some very cleverly choreographed movements in there too.
Barking
After 6 weeks in Peterborough I had to look for another locum position as Peterborough no longer had funding for my position. Bern and Elizabeth were in desperate need of an OT
Richmond, London
Mum having her final Pimms and lemonade before going home. where they were working in the community in Barking, East London. And so the agency gave me an Alpha Romeo and off I went helping to establish an OT service in the community for neurological patients. Only the NHS would have 3 locums (Bern, Elizabeth and I) running a service! We worked together for the next 7 weeks and I moved in to a room in East Ham, very close to work. Unfortunately I also moved in with several cockroaches and mice. I convinced myself that these creatures could not climb stairs where my bedroom was!!!
Weddings
Krishna and Claudia (friends of Rupesh) were married in September and had two ceremonies. The first was a very traditional Indian wedding at Wandsworth Town Hall and the second was an English wedding with the reception at a lovely old building in central London with sensational gardens. Lots of celebrating over 2 weekends.
Kew Gardens
London has some really lovely parks and gardens and Kew Gardens is definitely one of them. Rupesh and I had a really nice afternoon in Kew Gardens enjoying some rare sunshine and exploring the greenhouses.
Scarfell Pike
Scarfell Pilke is the highest mountain in England
at 978 metres. It is in the beautiful Lake District among lots of quaint countryside. Rupesh and I spent the weekend at an old farmhouse B & B in Wasdale. A spectacular location in the middle of nowhere with stunning views of the lakes and mountains. And of course we climbed the Pike!
Southend
Southend is a bit like Brighton in England or even a little like St. Kilda in Melbourne but with far less class! It was only an hour drive from work in Barking so we headed out there one evening after work and walked along the foreshore and enjoyed fish and chips at a beachside cafe.
Stratford Upon Avon
This is where Shakespeare comes from! Bern and I spent the day exploring Stratford inlcuding Anne Hathaway's Cottage and Shakespeares birthplace. It is also where we found a cute little pub and watched Austrailia lose to England in the Rugby World Cup! We disappeared as quickly as we could from that pub being in the minority and all! In the evening we watched a performance by the Royal Shakespeare Company - Twelth Night with John Lithgow from Third Rock From The Sun.
Southampton
Bern, Rupesh
and I visited Kylie, Steve and Sky. Sky has grown a lot since mum and I first saw her in May when she was only 2 weeks old. We enjoyed lunch at their favourite local pub.
The Theatre and More...
Always lots of shows to see in the West End. Wicked was great as was the Vegemite Tales. The Vegemite Tales was about the lives of a couple of Australians who had come to London to live and work. We watched some county cricket at Lords - not quite the MCG but still an impressive ground and again the weather was kind. We watched Pete Murray in concert at Shepherd's Bush. I'm sure there were more Aussies there than English as Shepherd's bush is a popular place in London for Aussies to live.
Pembrokeshire Coast National Park
Bern and Elizabeth turned 27 in September. We went out for dinner at Belgos near Covent Garden. Belgos is a fantastic restaurant that specialises in mussels and Belgian beers. I also booked for us to go coasteering in Wales in the Pemborkeshire Coast National Park. Coasteering was invented in Wales and is basically a sport where you get decked out in
a wet suit, buoyancy vest and helmet and make your way along the coastline by swimming, climbing along rocks and jumping off rocks. Jumping off some of the rocks was a little scary! We also went rock climbing in the same area. It was a great weekend. And we also watched England lose the Rugby World Cup to South Africa!
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