The rest

OK, time for more in the way of updates regarding our whirlwind non-stop tour. It's one way to keep me awake, I guess.

Wednesday 17th
Today we got up and left my mum's, bound for Yorkshire, and more specifically, Sheffield. More babies we'd not met followed as Sinead came round to say hi while we were at Mark's with Seamus and Ethan in tow, while Pete and Cloudy came for lunch along with Olly.

In the afternoon Joanne, Pete, Mark and I took a drive out to a nice little village in Derbyshire for a pint of tea (really!) and then in the evening the four of us headed into Sheffield city centre for a top-notch Chinese before Anna joined us at some real English-style pubs. The sort of pubs you just don't find in NZ.

Thursday 18th
We left Pete and Cloudy's this morning and headed off for the longest individual leg of out trip, down to Enfield. The trip was supposed to take 3 hours. We stopped for a bit of lunch for we were looking at 3 1/2 tops. But then we hit the M25. According to the satnav the final two miles was meant to take just under ten minutes. A traffic jam meant it took an hour. And most of that was the first of the two miles.

Once at Chris and Ros's we had a few hours to relax before Richard and Jenny and their two children (one of whom was again new to us) joined us for dinner. Chris and I even had time to go and pick some strawberries while Joanne had a little nanna-nap.

Friday 19th
More driving today, for a change, and more M25 fun. Traffic is always worse on a Friday. And the Dartford bridge/tunnel are especially fun. We got to be part of that fun too. Three times in fact.

We were due for lunch at Joanne's Aunt June and Uncle Ron's place in Basildon. Enfield to Basildon of course does not involve crossing the Thames. Unless you need to first pick up Joanne's Uncle John from Dartford first. And then bring him to lunch. And then take him back. Three times we braved the queues.

We made the most of being on the south bank though by ending the day with an extended saunter around the Bluewater shopping centre. Bluewater, in case you're unfamiliar with it, is like the size of half of Christchurch. It even comes equipped with a Ben & Jerry's vending machine. I wonder what ones of those puppies would cost...

The evening, and the driving part of the trip, ended as we headed back into London and back onto the Isle of Dogs to Chris and Lesley's flat.

Saturday 20th
You might think that us being back in London would mean no more manic days without a minute to breathe. You'd be wrong.

Today started with Joanne and Les, gym-buddies from times-gone-by, making a trip to the Reebok for old times while I took the car back to City Airport.

We rendezvous-ed at the DLR station at Canary Wharf and headed across London to Maida Vale and Richard & Heather's place for a barbecue and a game of kalookie.

Kalookie, in case you are unaware, is a card game, and we play the Jamaican variant. Mainly because we learnt it from and play it with Jamaicans. It probably won't mean anything to you, but I won, with 29 points. Which is a super-low score. Especially with us playing the full nine rounds.

In the evening, after I whooped the Jamaicans at their own game, Joanne and I headed over to Liverpool Street station to meet Mat & Cathryn aswell as Les so that we could wander over to Brick Lane for a much-anticipated curry.

I had been building this curry up for a long, long time, and frankly I blew it. I led us to a restaurant I knew was good (or was two years ago) and was packed, which is a good sign. They found us a table jammed into a far corner. That was a bad start, us being stuck in a tiny spot in a roasting hot restaurant. I then was too busy talking to Mat and Cathryn and not studying the menu enough. When it came to ordering I wasn't fully prepared and thus fell back on an old favourite of lamb pasanda. A good curry, but not the curry I had been anticipating. The onion bhaji, meanwhile, was all that I had expected.

Sunday 21st
Today was our last full day in the UK for some time and again food was central. This time our feeders were Debbie and Paul. And their son we'd not yet met, Joshua. Vaniah & Johan joined us too.

The time we spent there was all too short, and before we knew it it was time to shoot off once more, back to Canary Wharf and the barge again for both the 4pm and 6:30pm services. We were asked up the front at the end of each service to quickly give our old church family some prayer points for us, which was appreciated.

The evening ended, traditionally, in Wetherspoons with a diet coke and a bowl of chips.

Monday 22nd
Our taxi was ordered for 12:30 so the morning was free and we'd arranged to head over to spend a couple of hours with Marcus & Lina, meeting our final new child of the trip. It was great to fill them in on how things are going over here and at St John's specifically while also hearing about developments and progress at the barge.

And then, all too soon, the trip was over. We were at Heathrow. We were aboard the plane. We were over the Atlantic on the way home.

Wednesday 24th
30 hours or so later we were home. It's so nice to be home. The UK already feels like a lifetime away. It really doesn't exist when we're here. And that feeling will be even more evident once we start back at work tomorrow.

So, that was some trip. But so tiring. We had little more that a few hours with people here and there really. But we wouldn't have it any other way. I mean, we could have arranged a more comfortable schedule, but the trip wasn't that sort of holiday really. The aim was to be there for my sister's wedding, and catch up for a few good friends around the sides. Which we did. We could have added more people too, given time. But there wasn't any. 19 pretty much non-stop days. With 971 miles (1563km) driven thrown in. It was so great to see people.



I turned on phone when I got home to find 187 work emails waiting for me. I resolved not to touch them until tomorrow in the office. Another 16 arrived today. 203 emails will take me most of the day to get through, I reckon.

Joanne has her first day in her new secondment tomorrow. I've not mentioned it before as it was all being finalised, but she's got six months with the parent company of her current employer. It's a power company and a bigger office than she's in at the moment. Should present her a new challenge, which is good.