Mind the Gap...

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Doug and Tasha's Travels 2007

Tuesday,September 11th

We were very excited today, and couldn’t believe that we were actually leaving for England!!! Went to Greenstone Mall to meet Jared and Stacey for breakfast in the morning and we stayed there for a while. We then went back to Corinne’s house to do some packing. After we’d finished that, we hopped in the car at about 5 and went to the airport to see the “Elloplanes” according to Calen!. We were so busy getting our tax back, and making some calls to our family, that time went so quickly! Next thing we were on the Boeing 747. We were so excited about the freebies, and that there were about 100 different movies to watch on the in flight entertainment!(Meg would've gone crazy wth all the buttons!! Had a wonderful meal on the plane, starter of Salmon and cream cheese , main course was chicken stir fry, and dessert was a caramel sponge pudding! Yum… We then realised how long this journey was gonna be and thought about some sleep! Sorry what?? SLEEP?? What’s that?? Hehehe.. we didn’t think that this would’ve been such mission, well how wrong we were! We drifted in and out of dozes between 12 and 4 and after that stayed awake. Doug couldn’t decide whether my lap was better than the little pillow we got given or not, and with all his wriggling every five seconds I would get woken up after having tried to doze for ages! Soon, it was six o clock, and we were being served a true continental breakfast. At the same time , we were watching our progress across the Med on the flight map.. Cool… This was actually now the 12th of sept.

Wed 12th Sept

We waited on the plane for about 30 mins while they brought the stairs to disembark, quite annoying cause all we anted to do was see england!! We were finaly off and experiencing the cooler 12 degree London air! Little did we know that a 90 min queue awaited us at passport control!!! The joys of Zim Passports… This was actually terribly boring and poor Jay had to wait forever!! We finally left the airport and went to Jay and Clare’s home in High Wycombe, just west of London . A beautiful little town, and the weather wasn’t too chilly at all! We then went with Jay to sort out our int lines and he treated us to our first english pub pint!!I had a Magner’s Cider and doug had quite a gross beer thing.. We then went to Asda, which is a part of Walmart to do some shopping!! OOKKAAY… we were horrified!! So huge and so much variety!! Something we definitely weren’t used to at home!

Came home, unpacked and had a kip. The tiredness began to set in and we had a rather early night after a nice dinner of Cod and Chips!!

Thurs, 13th Sept

Yay! So excited!! We were catching the train into London for the day!! We caught a 36 pound train!! Quite expenive but worth the money. We then used oyster cards to get around London on the undrground, First stop was Marylebone st, then to Picadilly Circus on the bakerloo line! We arrived there, and wandered around for a bit. We then made our way to Oxford street, yay.. shops, shops and more shops!! Eventually found an internet café, for 1 pound an hour! We then made our way back to Oxford street to find Nick at a restaurant in Wallace Collection. Fancy, fancy! After that we went to find some grub, and eventually found a healthy Pret a Manger café.. The most amazing Sandwiches eaten at Marble Arch, with Pigeons walking over our feet eating our crumbs!We then decided to see Buckingham Palace.. So off we trotted down Park Lane, passing Hard Rock Café and many expensive hotels and cars! We then cut through Green Park and arrived outside Victoria’s Statue! Saw Buckingham and the shop.. Not as fantastic as everyone makes it pout to be! We thought it was just a plain grey square building! Enjoyed all the art and statues though..Then walked to Grosvener Gardens.. Started making our way back, and went through Hyde Park along the Serpentine Lake. We then went along Kensington Gardens and back towards Marble Arch. After arriving here ,we made our way along Oxford St to Oxford Cirus, catching a tube to Marylebone again!Rather tired, we hopped onto the train which took us back to High Wycombe, we had walked about 10 kms today!

Had a lovely Pizza for dinner and had a rather late night too. Night!

Friday, Sept 14th

We decided to stay in High Wycombe today, rather than spending more money and going into London! We thought it would be nice to look around here.. So we strolled around the streets of Wycombe and went to some travel centres as well. We started to feel a bit peckish at 12 so we ventured into finding a reasonable place to get some food. After great searching we resigned ourselves to the fact that Mcdonalds is still the cheapest option (and the dodgiest, and most fattening!!) and had some lunch there.. Doug had the Big Mac meal and I had the Honey and Mustard Chicken Wrap Snack.. Was so tiny that it didn’t even half fill the hole, so we later went to a coffee shop and grabbed a raspberry and apple muffin with some coffee. We then went to some shops and actually managed to find something we could buy without breaking the bank! Dougie bought a belt , and I bought some nice tops.. Doug then decided that it would be a good idea to have a hair cut.. I tried to persuade him out of this but, no luck.. We then exited a salon with a new Mohawked-styled Doug! He has now since then decided that he does not like this “do”, despite my effort to disuade him initially!! It isn’t actually all that bad!I think that doug suits any hairstyle! We then walked home but got incredibly lost on the way! And as High Wycombe is in the Chilterns, it happens to be a very “hilly” area to say the least!!! We got to the top of the biggest Hill, agreed after much aruguing that we were in fact lost, and flagged down a taxi!! We knew that we were really close to the house, and we would be ripped off by the taxi but couldn’t handle the thought of any more hills! So we eventually arrived back at the house and just chilled! We had pork chops and mash that night and ended up going to bed at bout 12.

Sat, Sept 15th

Today we went into London, but were very anxious cause we were going to drive there!! I had to have my first highway driving experience where people drive at maniacal speeds of 160 kms an hour!! Hehe..(doug was very very nervous). We managed ok, and we got to Jay’s work where we parked the car and walked to west Acton Tube Station. We then caught this tube to Regent’s park, where we had hoped to see Madame Tussauds, and The London Zoo.. Unfortunately , cause it was a Saturday, there were queues miles long and we decided to leave these plans for a week day, and go and meet with our Zim friends in Wimbledon. Had great fun at the Walkabout with Nick, Tiffy, Cass, Georgie and Peter. Doug and I had to leave early so that we could get back to the car in time and go home before dark. We got a bit lost on the way home as we didn’t wait for the Gps to find a satellite before we got going, and so we took the wrong turnoff! So we caught incredible traffic and were delayed about an hour! After much arguing, we eventually found the right track and got home alright! That night,Jay and Clare wanted to take us out for a true English Pub dinner.. Unfortunately we were too late to get the dinner, but got an awesome Kebab from Charlies Take away’s! We then ventured into a lttle bar called Antelope and stayed there for a few drinks and dances!We decided that the crowd got considerably dodgy and young, and moved to a much more clean, lively Irish bar called O’ Neills. Had some great fun there, and also danced quite a bit to the live band. As we had all exceeded the alcohol unit allowance, we had to call a taxi to take us home again. What a great night!

Sunday, Sept 16th

That day is what you would call a typical “lazy” Sunday! I think was also due to the fact that Jay and Doug were seriously Hung-over, and not in the mood to do anything too energetic! So we chilled at the house and had a lovely late braai for linner. I made an awesome Rib basting and Doug and Jay sorted out the braai.. However I must say that the basting contained some sugary substances, and of course this tended to cremate the ribs a tad, but they still tasted good!We all had an early night and prepared our plans for Monday!

Monday, Sept 17th

Today, doug and I decided to wake up early and go for a good run to try and get back into our healthy routine! We ran for about 20 mins, and were quite wrecked due to serious unfitness levels and serious hills! Felt great afterwards and we had a nice breakfast too. We then did some household chores, and drove into London for our next bit of sight-seeing. We caught the tube to Charring’s Cross, and walked along Strand street for a while. We then Had a Starbuck’s coffee, and walked to Trafalgar Square  After this, we decided to venture into St. James’ Park, so beautiful! From here we had a good view of the London Eye too.. After a stroll through St. James’, we made our way towards Big Ben ad the Parliament House in Westminster. They were really cool, despite the chilly weather, and we also went to the edge of the Thames. From here we decided to visit Westminster Abbey, and St. Margaret’s Church. They were also very beautiful. After this, we had pretty much exhausted the tourist attractions that interested us in Westminster, and so we decided to feed our shopping addictions and visit Harrods! We had to catch the underground from Westminster to Knightsbridge, and right outside the station it was. Wow… Harrods was amazing! Definitely not the shop for us commoners though!! It has every designer label you can think of, and even as a level for children! Don’t forget only designer clothes for babies too! They had even started putting Xmas deco up  The joys of the first world! We didn’t manage to see the entire store, cause we had to make our way back to Acton to get the car and go home! Apart from a bit of traffic, it was a quick journey home, and we then enjoyed a lovely pasta for dinner with Jay and Clare.


Tuesday, Sept 18th

We decided to venture into Windsor today and go and visit the home of the Royal Family! It Was about a 45 min drive from High Wycombe and we also had to fillup with fuel. This was the first time we ever had to do this, and the thought of putting your own fuel in was quite horrifying!! Ipilo Phinnias?? After some rather embarrassing moments of ignorance and a very humiliating enquiry, we managed to figure it out and paid! We then headed toward the castle and found a "NICE SAFE" parking.. notice the extreme use of sarcasm here.. To put it very simply, this safe parking was so safe that WE even couldn’t move our car from there!! Why??? BECAUSE OF A STUPID YELLOW ITEM ON OUR FRONT RIGHT WHEEL!! CLAMPED WE WERE!!! Not realising what a major thing this was we just happily went off to find the parking people and show them our receipt of payment, like good old obedient tourists.. “Why should we be clamped?” we thought, “ We payed in the beginning,AND we’re leaving an hour earlier than our ticket expires?” As I reached into my wallet to retrieve the famous ticket, BIG BOLD letters meet my eyes:- PAY AND DISPLAY!!! Great, forgot the display part!! Well, as naïve zimbo tourists how THE HELL are we supposed to know that!! So we protested like angry people, and i even shed a few tears!! British people can be exremely difficult..Basically the only way out of this predicament was to pay the 120 pound fine and then make an appeal to get our money back and explain that we were actually clueless of the procedure and need our money back!!
Very disgruntled ,we left Windsor, and had a rather horrible feeling about it. Hehe.. Returned home and shed more tears about our 120 pound loss.

Wednesday, Sept 19th

Stayed in High Wycombe today, and actually phoned a couple of places for jobs.. Were successful with a really nice larny little pub/restaurant in Marlow. Had an interview thing, but were bags of nerves as working illegally is rather scary- especially when they ask for National Security numbers on application forms. And other questions like ; What legal documents do you possess to say that you are legable to work in the UK!! In our case N/A, of course, and Deportment is a very scary thought!!hehe.. We left the interview and went to ASDA to get a few things for the house…

Thursday, Sept 20th

Today we decided to stay in HW again and do some spring cleaning! We also tried to find an internet café in desparate need of communication with the fam!! After a nice subway lunch, we managed to find one on Desborough hill and spent a couple of hours there… After this we went home and watched Over the Hedge and had some tea and biscuits… Nothing amazingly exciting! Nice to be chilled though!

Friday, Sept 21th

We thought it would be nice to go and see the Tower of London, and Tower Bridge in The City. It was quite a chilly day.. we still walked around lots though and saw quite a bit of the City.. Saw Sir Francis Drake’s ship and the original Clink Prison.Also saw St. paul’s Cathedral  We then walked through to Picadilly and grabbed a Starbuck’s frappaccino.. yum! After this we decided to head back home before dark as we still had to drive from Jay’s work!


Saturday, Sept 22nd

We had a very chilled morning deciding what we should get up to. We eventually went with Jay and Clare to Clare’s work so we could use the internet there. We wanted to see the price of Thorpe park’s tickets and send a few e mails. After this we decided to go and see Oxford. So after half an hour we arrived there and already decided that we were going to go Ice Skating  So we eventually found a car parking, and made our way to the rink. We had some fun there, especially when I gathered some confidence and speed on the ice, with the result that my bum hit the hard freezing surface before I could even blink!hehehe.. was quite humorous, I think if my face had touched the Rink I would’ve melted it!! Well after Doug complaining about his sore feet, we decided that we would leave the rink and go and satisfy our grumbling tummies. After some trekking, we found a cute little french café and had some fresh baguettes. We then decided to make a visit to Primark, a cheaper store which was also having a sale! We found some really nice things at nice prices too! After about an hour in here we thought we’d better make our way home before dark. So on our return home, doug and I cooked up some dinner, and then we went an watched a movie with Jay called” I now pronounce you Chuck and Larry”.

Sunday,. Sept 23rd

Oh dear! Our honourable intentions of waking up early and heading for Wimbledon were altered a tad, as we only rose from the dead at about 9 o clock! So we decided that Madame Tussauds would be for another day and we would stay and have breakfast with Jay and Clare. We ran to the shops and got some eggs then had a marvellous fry up, yum. We then packed some kit for our night at Dan and Rox and made our way towards Raynes Park at bout 3.30. We made a quick stop at Tesco’s on the way to get some wine etc for dinner, and then returned on our route. After about an hour, we arrived at their house and met them there. We quickly settled and Rox and I began to make some lasagna for dinner. We were all pretty tired,and we had to rise early, so at about 10 we made our way to bed.

Monday, Sept 24th

We woke up at about 6 am, as we had to get to Acton for Doug’s first day of work, so we needed to beat the traffic! Had a quick breakfast and then made our way towards town. The Weather was absolutely terrible, not so much cold, but really windy and drizzly. We were stuck in traffic for about an hour and a half, and my foot was getting rather sore on the clutch!! Arrived at Jay’s work, and got to some filing and other admin.. quite boring but it pays I guess!! Dougie worked really hard and learned some good stuff… Rather tired, we finished work at bout 6 and made our way back home!

Tuesday, Sept 25th

We got up early again today and made our way back to work!! I had the day off but doug had to graft! I spent about 7 hours on the internet and we left there same time again!Not much of an intersting day .

Wed , Sept 26th


As I had the day off again, and the internet wasn’t working there, I decided that staying at work could be rather boring! So, I ventured into London while doug stayed and worked hard again  Went to the British Museum, and walked up and down Oxford Street  I didn’t have such an amazing time, quite lonely! So grabbed a coffee, and caught the tube back to the office and then back home again!

Thursday, sept 27th

Today, we both worked really hard, was our last day!I had to do boring cash slips and other silly things while doug was working towards finishing a range rover that he had started. We actually only finished at around 6,so was quite a long day and we looked forward to getting home and having another lovely dinner with Jay and Clare.

Friday, Sept 28th

Today, both Dougie and I had the day off work, so we were really chuffed that we could actually lie in for a bit! It was quite a horrible day, so we thought it would be a waste to go into London and get drenched, so instead we did some washing etc and then went to the Station to organise our train tickets to Norwich and Great Yarmouth to see Lu. After we sorted these out, we then went to do some shopping for a bit of stuff for the house. The weather made us feel really lazy, and so went back home and watched a movie. Very chilled day!

Saturday, Sept 29th

We decided that we would use our Madame Tussauds tickets today, and ventured into Regent’s Park, London. After having a quick lunch, we then went to Madame Tussauds and were really impressed by what we saw! As we first walked in, we were met a typical Hollywood scenario, where you wander around between Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise. You feel so crowded all the time, but there actually aren’t that many “real” people it’s just cause the wax models look so real! After the Hollywood area, you go into a Sports area, where they have all the true Sports stars.. After this you get to the part where all the different leaders are, but I must say, some people were there that shouldn’t have been!! Uh hum… The best bit came next! This was The Chamber of Horrors.. wow.. it was really awesome, and it’s funny how the visuals and sounds make you so scared! I was actually biting Doug’s shoulder so hard to stop myself from screaming!! We then went to the part where they tell you about the history of Madame Tussaud and also show you the long process of making the wax models! The actual celebrities come in, and then have about 500 different measurements made of their bodies! The last bit of Madame Tussauds is a little roller-coaster train that takes you through the different eras of London History dating back to the Great Fire in the 1600s. Dougie and I then thought we would go for a walk down Oxford St before heading back home. Bad idea! As it was a Saturday, it was absolutely jam-packed, you couldn’t even move! We very quickly changed our minds and thought home would be a better option, also cause the tubes would be even worse if we left any later! We stopped off quickly on the way home to get some stuff for dinner with Jay and Clare.

Sunday, Sept 30th

Today was the day that dougie found his SA Rugby Jersey! As we had received some of our pay from working, we thought a trip to the shops was well deserved, and so we made our way to the nearest Sport shop. Much to Doug’s dismay, there was only a HUGE jersey left, and was then told that he probably wouldn’t find one in the whole of the UK in Medium! Because this was just not the answer Doug wanted to hear, we HAD TO find another shop! We then found out about a little SA Shop in Maidenhead, just outside HW, and they apparently had some jerseys. So off to the SA shop we went, and just Doug’s luck, there was JUST ONE left! Before I could even blink, Dougie had it on and said he had paid already!! Hehe.. We of course left with a little packet of biltong too  Had to rush back home to watch the Boks play, and after this we burned some energy with a run to the park.

Tuesday, Oct 2nd

We really wanted to do something nice for Jay and Clare to thank them for having us, so though we would cook them a dinner. So we went to Tesco’s after doing a bit of washing, and bought all the ingredients for our meal, which was Ciabatta steak rolls with Caramelised red onions and a garlic mayonnaise, and salad. We had even organised a dessert  Yup, such strenuous work over the stove to bake it too!! Hehehe.. Nope but tesco’s pie is just as good!! So we went home and prepared that for Jay and Clare before they got home.

Wednesday, Oct 3rd

As it was our last proper day in London, we thought we would go in, see the last bits, and also say bye to CJ! So we took the tube in, and after a short while there, had to get back to High Wycombe to pack for Jersey, and get ready to go out for dinner! Jay and Clare took us to a lovely Indian restaurant in Beaconsfield, where we had the most awesome curries ever! They were so amazing that Doug just could not contain himself, and eat slowly and in moderation!! He proceeded to finish the entire curry, garlic naan, and 3 pappadams,(don’t forget 2 cobra beers) all in record time too! He then of course felt the effects of his barbaric eating, and proclaimed to have a very full stomach! We all expected this, of course, but this was so bad that he actually didn’t eat at all the next day! He said that he was “still too full!” So after this wonderful meal, we went back home and finished packing up! Thank you again Jay and Clare!

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