Fossil and Fossett adventures to date..

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2:30pm and I’m sitting in the Starbucks of Terminal 4 awaiting Mum and Dad’s flight to come on screen and tell me it had landed.. Still waiting 30 minutes later I then get the phone call to tell me that they have landed, still no notice on the screen, so I get Dad to double check his terminal, and sure enough I am back on a train and onto Terminal 1 just in time to meet them coming through the doors! (Yes, that is how big Heathrow is.. You actually have to get back on the train to get to your next station!)

I was SOOOOOOOOO excited to see them, but it did still fell a little incomplete and very strange without my little bro there too! Still, no time for tears, we had a tube to catch, and what an experience that was to be with their entire luggage kit plus a full suitcase just for me!

Petrified that Dad, who leisurely gets on and gets off letting people in before him and not wanting to push anyone aside, was going to get left behind Mum and I had to have one of us in front and one behind! Three change-overs later, stairs and grouchy Londoners and I managed to get them home and onto the couch before they crashed!

Shame for me, that couch is my bed while they stay (that’s right, the good daughter has given up her bed for the Oldies as they keep telling me that they have rights as my guarantors) so I woke them up and sent them to bed with their Milo, and two hours later they rose again, very proud that they had slept the night! According to an English clock it was still only 11pm, so they’re heads were still quite obviously in the Southern Hemisphere!

Still they were egger to start the next day, it was straight to the sales on Oxford Street for some serious shopping, and even more serious crowds!

Very excited by big the red things which admittedly I was too when I first arrived, we stopped for photo’s at the big red buses, big red post boxes and big red telephone boxes, it took some time, but we were able to get back to the important things, making the most of the Bag Boy and his wallet, Mum and I developed the system that one of us would start queuing, while the other shopped around and by the stage they found something worth buying the other would be near the top of the queue!!

Finally heading home, Mum and Dad discovered that Victoria and I really weren’t exaggerating when we said there is nothing in the fridge! So we headed out, by Double-Decker bus, to do some groceries, again a new experience for the oldies!

It was then their turn to experience a real English Roast, as Vic and I cooked up a storm with roasted lamb, Yorkshire puddings, veggies with creamy cheese sauce and real gravy - all the healthy stuff! And to the amusement to James and Vic, it wasn’t long until Rodney was back asleep on the couch, something that they always have teased me for, now they just understand that it’s genetic!!

Thursday is was off to meet Kristine and James in Pimlico for lunch, as they have been so kind to me while I have been here, and Wally, Kristine’s Dad who Mum and Dad entertained in the lead up to the AFL Grand Final was also to join us with his wife!

On our way we stopped off at Westminster and took the walk down the Thames river, past Big Ben and Westminster Abbey and the London Eye so they could get the full photo shoot! Nanna and Poppa have lent them their video recorder, which has been attached to Mum’s hand like a new limb, so of course the walk took twice as long as it should have as we stopped, paused, walked from one angle and then the next and then stopped for another red telephone box!

When we finally made it to Pimlico and Mum was tickled pink by the rows of houses and pillars! Sensing I was onto a good thing here, I gently led them to a few real estate (naturally Hamptons!!) windows, just incase they fell so much in love that they may consider investing, which of course would require a house sitter, which of course I would be happy to oblige!

Unfortunately, they knew me much better that I remember, and they were onto me straight away!

What was more unfortunate was that when we got there, we lost Wally! Apparently not an isolated incident, as the phrase “Where’s Wally” was in fact not in reference to the famous cartoon with the stripy red hat and jumper, but to Wally himself, who was often found happily wandering, but rarely where he was meant to be!

So instead it was just the five of us with Baby James, Isabella and Tabitha - all wearing their new Christmas skates (Baby James, decided that if you didn’t get on your skates, you couldn’t fall, so he crawled on all fours instead!).

On the journey home, Mum and Dad were starting to get very savvy on the tube, Mum would get very excited by the voice over telling her to “Touch in and Touch out!” although Dad was still struggling with standing right on the escalators (which can get you in big trouble with the locals), and so I was still yet to deem them competent!!

Friday Mum and Dad discovered that Oxford St was just training for the Harrods sales, and I don’t think that they thought we were ever going to get out! Harrods is famously the largest department store in England and houses 330 departments!

We thought we were being clever by grabbing all our purchases and taking it to the one quiet counter, to find out that we in fact had to pay where we picked up, and had to re-trace our steps all the way through the Food Hall, Perfumery, Arcade and Cosmetics picking up some silly information along the way - Did you know that Harrods had the first running escalator in England, and there used to be a man standing at the top with a plate full of brandy shots to give each passenger to help them recover from the excitement of the ride!!

It was then across Hyde Park, where Mum and Dad saw their first squirrel and across to Hyde Park Corner tube and off to Leicester Square before taking them over to the place Vic and I seem to spend most of our time, Covent Garden then through Trafalgar Square. We were all about town before our final stop at Sommerset House, to the see the infamous winter Ice Rink and calling it a day.

Showing his exhaustion, Dad decided that he was going to stop breathing and turn blue on the trip home (a little trick that he did the last time he was on his way to Heathrow for a change over and they wouldn’t let him back on the connecting plane!) - I still think that he just didn’t want to carry the shopping any more! So it was out at the next stop, to lye flat and put his knees in the air! Which, despite it’s seriousness, is a very funny sight! But of course, once Mum and I had taken the bags, the breathing return, his heart kept beating and it was back on the tube again with all systems go! (And they wonder why I worry 😉)

After another long night recovery, Saturday’s itinerary was not dissimilar to your average Japanese tourist, as we decided to combat Windsor Castle, Stonehenge and Bath all on a one day tour! This involved 6 hours of travel with our tour guide Rodney and driver Rodger who would swamp us with information on the way, throw us out to take photo’s and then answer questions on the way to the next stop!

Windor was amazing, and something that I have wanted to do since arriving in London! We overlooked the school of Eaton, where the young princes attended, passed the Queens Doll house and took a stroll through the castle and through the Church, taking quick happy snaps and back on tour!

On the roads the weather took quite a nasty turn, and by Stonehenge we seemed to be having a few difficulties with our apparatus! Mum’s umbrella seemed to like it better inside out, and the wind made it very difficult for me to even see the stones as my hair was whizzing about giving me a hefty case of the giggles! It did make for a very entertaining stretch of the tour, that would have otherwise been just a pile of rocks!

Drenched wet, it was onto Bath - not that any of us were needing one by this point!

The weather cleared up a bit, but being England it was still dark by 4pm (hence the reason most of the photo’s are by night!) and by the time we got there it was black! Walking through the Roman Baths was amazing, but just didn’t fill the same void that a new pair of shoes would, so we were back out in the shops of Bath searching for Mrs. Big Foot (aka - mwa!) as the English don’t make shoes larger than a size UK 8, not very nice if you’re only a size 9!

Tucking in and around and tracing over cobble stone and coble stone, Mum being a marvelous Mum found a small boutique for big feet - although they we also very daggy, so I believe my hunt is heading back onto the net, and back to Australia where my feet aren’t so big!! So again after photo’s to prove we were there, and a few post cards for the rellies, is was back on the three hour ride home was just what we needed, peeling off all the wet layers and cozying up for Dad’s essential nanna nap in preparation for the big night tomorrow night!

Sunday was much more relaxed, as the last day of the year should be, and I took them into Hillsong Church.

Not your usual Church, despite being the family service, Hillsong is actually staged in the Dominion Theatre with a big rock band, roaming lights and singers jumping around the stage. Walking in, it sounded like we were on our way to a U2 concert, but I think they enjoyed themselves, and as tourists do, we made sure we picked up some goodies for Tristan!

As we left, we just couldn’t help ourselves and it back on the streets to adorn ourselves for the exciting night ahead. Victoria had arranged tickets for us a Moulin Rouge Masquerade Ball, and this time it was Dad’s turn, and he left very successfully with a new shirt, belt and trilby!

What a night it was set to be! This was the side on London I didn’t think that they would be game to explore, but sure enough, the Oldies were determined and that takes us to New Years Night...

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Comments

[Cat]

stormy weather
i have to say the photos of stone henge really tell a story... and better than a post card shot for your album. you seem to have enjoyed your parents stay very much so far...