http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Europe , United Kingdom , England , Greater London en-us Tue, 05 Jan 2010 07:06:30 +0000 Tue, 05 Jan 2010 07:06:30 +0000 Today Nellie and Monk went with Floss and Flower to The Ivy Restaurant in the West End. Over the past few years it's become a bit of a tradition to meet up at The Ivy on the first Sunday after New Year for a long leisurely lunch to lick wounds after the rigours of Christmas.Photography at The Ivy is strictly forbidden but Floss risked surreptitiously taking a photo of Nellie. Sure enough this http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/Covent-Garden/blog-464679.html We have booked some accommodation in Bangkok Due to our state of disorganisation this was not our first choice it seems Bangkok is a popular place to go for new years but this should do us just fine.httpwww.furamaxclusive.comsathorn http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/Greenwich/blog-463245.html December 28th Arrived into London about an our late seeing as how we left about 90minutes late not to bad. The flight was decent actually flew by rather quick. Because of the idiotic terrorist acts on Christmas day America made a rule where playing flying over Europe can't use their multimedia systems until they leave US territory. Flying from LA thats pretty much half the flight. So we were una http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/Hackney-Central/blog-463214.html Day One And it begins cry havocItrsquos early to rise and already travelling with three laydees is a lsquochallengersquo. It will be a long four weeks methinks but then again it is four weeks in SE Asia just as Belfast sees snow and icy roads.Anyhow itrsquos a short hop over to Heathrow before the bags are thrown into left luggage for the day. Express into Paddington for the obligator http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/Whitehall/blog-461851.html Nellie and Monk have had a busy weekend. On Saturday night they went to Monk's nephew Mitchell's 18th birthday party held in the Zizzi restaurant in Bexleyheath where they took over most of the restaurant. It was a very sociable night however Monk did end up somewhat inebriated and was handing out Nellie's private telephone number to all and sundry. How's a girl supposed to stay on the straight http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/Hammersmith/blog-461698.html Well Friday was a mixed day. The last of the children finished school and so the family took off down to their house in the Country for the holidays. So it was the last time I would cook the 3 youngest any meals there or get them up or put them to bed or more importantly it was the last time that I would EVER have to pack them off for a journey. I HATE HATE HATE getting them ready for a jour http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/Knightsbridge/blog-461634.html Oooo my first every blog entry How exciting. Well today was hardly an interesting day I took 3 of the children I look after to see Father Christmas. Other than that it was well pretty normal. The youngest has a rotten cold so he was all fun and games this evening. Although saying that he did take his first steps with out support with me today He took three steps this morning although http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/Knightsbridge/blog-461053.html The past 4 months have been an experience to say the least. Teaching me things when I wasn't asking to be taught per se. Just some notes I took 'in class'. If you're comfortable you're not growing There is always room for improvement especially when it comes to budgeting money A huge bag of rice for less than 5 GBP is a SWEET deal especially since it's been 2 weeks and it is not even C http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/Canary-Wharf/blog-460877.html Nellie and Monk went carol singing again this afternoon at the Albert Hall with Floss Flower Katrina Moira and Urvashi. Concealed in Monk's manbag Nellie managed to get in without a ticketThe Christmas Carol Singalong is a yearly event almost as wellknown and eagerly awaited as The Proms in the summer. It's a mix of traditional Christmas carols and Christmas pop songs from over the decades http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/Kensington/blog-460218.html Today we went to our oldest nephew's birthday party. Jack turned 4 at the beginning of the week. We went over a little bit early to help them set up. They used a rec room type of place at the college where they live. My sisterinlaw had planned quite a few games pizza and cake of course. The games included Pin the Tail on the Donkey Simon Says and a slightly different version of Musica http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/blog-460007.html At work I open the window to hear the piano play and then sometimes I can watch a run. Sometimes the dance moves are slow. so slow and small that you can see the breathing body before the start of the dance. the movement before the dance and that non move is pure vocabulary the vocabulary the non move a concentrated thought building to a small physical bodily shake loaded with energy mov http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/Clapham/blog-459703.html Tonight was the annual Christmas Carol Service at The Royal Marsden Hospital in Fulham Road Chelsea. The Marsden is the leading cancer hospital in the UK and probably ranks as one of the best in the world. Founded in 1851 it was the first hospital in the world dedicated to the study and treatment of cancer. The service called 'Celebrate A Life' lets patients and loved ones sponsor a golden sta http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/Chelsea/blog-459192.html Celebrating Thanksgiving in another country is always interesting. Of course we don't get that day off even when working for a US company So I was in Leicester the week of Thanksgiving. However my brother and sisterinlaw decided to host a dinner on Saturday afternoon which was great. My sister and I headed over during the morning and had a chance to hang out and play with the nephews. I al http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/blog-458765.html Nellie's busy in the UK at the moment planning the trip for January 2010 to Laos Thailand Malaysia and Singapore. Today Irene's lifelong friend Floss and Monk were due to attend the 'Light Up A Life' ceremony at the Princess Alice Hospice in Esher Surrey where a light on the Christmas tree was to be dedicated in memory of Irene. Unfortunately the recent rain had made the whole area so boggy t http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/blog-458753.html So its Saturday 16th May 2009 and today is the day we fly out.Walking through the airport was an experience within itself the silence was eary but strangely relaxing. The previous night we had completed our online check in which left us with only our luggage to hand over. Next stop was Airport security. After 911 i knew it would be quite tough however having the hundreds of Airport workers str http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/Heathrow-Airport/blog-457698.html I missed the shot I wanted. Australians are really odd people mate. You see I unknowingly attempted to order some food at an Aussie bar They have quite a few throughout Europe by the way and when no one came to help me for several minutes I got up and went to the bathroom.Now as stimulating as that seems itrsquos not half as stimulating as INFLATABLE SHEEP DOLLS which were all SOLD OU http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/Acton/blog-457655.html When you can say this time next week i'll be... it's a pretty good time to start counting down. With a little bit of obligatory flapping over the packing and with a little more to do when i get home from dogsitting this friday we'll be off to Thailand and beyond.6 days to go.Not much travelling been done yet except between North and West London... http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/blog-457222.html Oh dear I remembered to take my camera with me on Friday and took loads of good photos. BUt when I got home I couldn't find a way to transfer them to the computer. The photos all showed up on the screen of my camera but when I connnected it to the computer it couldn't see them and the same thing happened when I tried using the card reader. It seems to be a problem with the card because when http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/Kensington/blog-456787.html Hey Gang thank you for subscribing we were totally surprised by the amount of people who care and are interested in our awesome trip. Don't be afraid to leave comments as well. We feel like we are talking to our selves over here ahahahToday was our big day on the big city WOW IT'S BIG. We found the most impressive things in London were not only they crazy architecture of the building billions o http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/London-City/blog-456586.html Wednesday Temp. 2deg wind chill 7deg. OvercastWoke up at 3am. Got up at 7am. Getting sick of boring breakfast in plastic box. Walked to Westminster Abbey not open 'til 2pm. Walked past Big Ben over Westminster Bridge along the Thames to Tate Modern Museum. Spent an hour there. Walked across Millennium Footbridge freezing to St Paul's Cathedral walked up to dome. Walked through C http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/blog-456566.html