London

... or more accurately, Stevenage and Watton-at-Stone.

To be honest, I wasn't expecting my time in London to be as eventful as it was. I arrived extremely annoyed, as passport control had taken 30 minutes and the official was downright rude and intimidating. I can see now why they have to put up a sign warning people about being arrested for assault. I'm guessing they're aiming to scare people who are trying to sneak into the country, but really, they could be a little politer about it...

Anyway, I was very very happy to see R and L there. And I was very quickly drawn into a night of intrigue... R had enlisted L, his mother and grandmother into an elaborate scheme to keep my arrival a secret from W. R and his mother were supposed to be at a craft fair, L was going to cook dinner for them all that night. To be honest, I'm really quite impressed about the amount of effort put into it... there were about 5 different plans about what we'd do when we finally got to R's house. In the end, he went in first, got W downstairs while I hid outside (in the rain!). Then, R opened the front door, put the light on upstairs and that was my signal to come inside and surprise him. And he was surprised... but I think more annoyed that he'd been 'betrayed' by so many people! He only slightly suspected, as people had been acting strangely that day... L had rung up and asked how R liked tomatoes, then hung up; R had cleaned the cooktop; etc.

But the scheming didn't end there... we went out to dinner at the good old Three Horseshoes, but just as we were about to leave, J (who we used to work with) arrived. Then on the way, we stopped and R jumped out of the car ('to drop something off I think', L said) and came back with 'Stella' J. All surprised out, we had a fantastic dinner there (nachos of course, and lamb shank). It was strange being back there. Not quite as good as I expected, since I didn't really know anyone there at all. Still, it did bring back memories...

The next day was spent watching the video of K & B's wedding, visiting people for cups of tea and wandering around garden centres / fish shops. We had a nice small lunch at another McMullens pub, then R left me at M's. I felt a little bad, b'cos I couldn't help gawking at M's house before I even said hello to her. she had done an amazing job of transforming it into a more 'Australian' house, with a large open-plan kitchen, big light, breezy rooms and lots of white walls... it looked wonderful!

We chatted about house plans, life & family (V is so mature and responsible for an 11 year old!), had a roast for dinner (I love parsnip chips!), then went to the George and Dragon for dessert. But the real excitement started when we got home. It turned out that M only had the back door key, which couldn't be used while a key was in the lock from the inside. She ran down to the neighbour's to pick up a spare key, only to find that that was also a back door key. I climbed onto the 'balcony' to get through her bedroom, but that was locked. Then we tried to break in by smashing a window with a rock and using a credit card on the front door. Finally, we had to give up and call a locksmith. Those people make it look so easy...