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Sunday 29th...Unfortunately our day of departure from Delhi did not start off too well with the taxi not turning up to take us to the airport...the reason..!!..their were not enough cabs, even though our booking had been arranged the day before...Ah Well..!1..after all we must not forget this is India and anything is possible here...As a familiar phrase used here we were reminded "No tension" and were dropped off by the guys at the Bar Regency, where we had stayed...Our flight on Finnair 022 departed a little behind the scheduled time of 1020hrs. and unfortunately arrived in Helsinki too late for our connecting flight on to London Heathrow....Once again, "No Tension" we were transfered to the next available flight at 1930hrs. with the offer of a couple of 8 Euro lunch vouchers for the inconvenience caused through what we were told was an airport staff strike from the previous day....It just meant we arrive in London a little later than expected....In all our travels in the past year, this has been the only hiccup, so we must not complain...."No Tension"....!!..We arrived into Heathrow approx. fifteen minutes ahead of time (2000hrs. local time) and were fortunate to get a clear run through customs before catching the metro to North Greenwich, a bus to Plumstead Garage and then a final hike up Ancona Road to finally arrive at Julie & Dan's place around 2345hrs...Not surprisingly, it shows the size of London, with the time taken as about the same as our Helsinki to Heathrow flight..."Nice to visit but not our choice for a place to live"....Phew..!!.. it was a long day for both of us and Julie's offer of a cup of tea was certainly a nice sound...We are here till the 3rd. of June before we start our return leg of this trip via Sth. Korea and it's great to see Mum has come down from St. Annes on Sea...She too has booked her trip to Australia & New Zealand for a six month stay, though she does not fly out till the end of June..More on that later in this blog..!!!!!!!!
Friday 3rd. June...We're on the homerun now...as our 12 month long journey starts to wind down..!!!..Our Korean Air flight departs Heathrow at 1935hrs. tonight for the 10 hour trip to Seoul and a three week stay with Songhi's family before the final leg of the journey onto Brisbane...We've had a short but very pleasant stay & break here in London with Julie, Danny and the two boys Elliot & Bradley...Thanks too, to Mum for travelling down from St. Annes on Sea ..!!..We are looking forward to seeing you in Australia at the end of June '11 and hope you have a comfortable & safe trip to Adelaide ...
Thankfully, Julie has a week off from work so she joined Songhi & I for a day's sightseeing in the city of London...Bus No.53 from here in Plumstead gets you all the way to Horse Guards Parade in Whitehall at a cost of just Pnds. 2.20..We walked through St. James Park to witness the changing of the guard outside Buckingham at Palace at 1130hrs. and then strolled down the Mall to Trafalgar Square for a short visit to the famous Tate Gallery...After lunch we headed for the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Cathedral before fighting our way thru. thousands of other tourists across the bridge to the London Eye .. We have been fortunate with good weather through our stay here and it's given Songhi the opportunity to see some sights of London which she had been keen to visit...A second visit to Aldwych on the Strand was with mum, with the main reason being to restart her Indian Army widow's pension which through unforseen circumstances had unfortunately been stopped since 1986...Thankfully, with the help of officers, both serving & retired (namely Col. Kataria, Col. Pathak & Col. Perriera) we can restart and resolve the situation... As wonderful as London maybe to most, I think a couple of days is quite enough for Song & I..too crowded and busy for us ..!!!!
Mum has headed back to St. Annes on Sea and Julie has accompanied her for the weekend.. Happy birthday to my sister Donna for her 50th. today..Enjoy the weekend & sorry we cannot be there to share in the celebrations with you....
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