Hello from Sunny London

We are back in London again for a couple of days before heading across the channel to France and we have a small amount of battery time on the lap top - we have to date failed to identify a powere adaptor - so I willbe brief.

We have had lovley weather, although right now it is raining and it did drissle a little on the night of the wedding.

The flight was uneventful apart from the difficulty we all had adjusting to the sleeping upright position, in cramped quarters - I am afraid we have been mildly spoiled by the last two international flights in business class, certainly the beds in the Qantas aircraft were rather more confortable than the upright seats in Economy on Virgin Atlantic. The food was pretty good though and our request for childrens meals was honored and J at least enjoyed her dinner. (you know our boys, don't really eat much at the best of times).

My Brother J (I know all these J's are confusing!) and his mate C (who is also from Adelaide and is one fo the first friends that J made when he moved here in 1999) collected us from heathrowe and brought us back here to their home in Forrest Gate. Dad and F were already here and we managed to catch up with them for a drink and a chat at the hotel and lunch in a local pub after a nap in the afternoon we joined them again for dinner with J, L and baby T and C and his wife S and baby F...goodness I hope you can follow all of this, in an effort to preserve everyones identity it does get a little confusing.

We spent the next day in the city with Dad and F and we took a ride on the London Eye (except Dad - it is a height thing). It was impressive and certainly gave us a good view of London. Then we took a boat tour on the Thames, which none of us had ever done before, then a bus tour on the top of an open Double Decker, the children enjoyed all of this too of course, but the boys had a little snooze for an hour or so on the bus. The guides on the busses were very entertaining and gave us a good laugh for our money. Finally we took another boat back to Westminster and the Tube home. We had dinner in a the same pub as yesterdays lunch! When onto a good thing and all that.

The Wedding was fabulous, L looked beautiful and J very handsome, baby T had a very cute little suit and was perfectly behaved through out the day. He is a delightful little baby. The ceremony was lovely and our Miss J looked very grown up (and bahaved so too) dressed as a flower girl, she had a great day and enjoyed lots of dancing with loads of people (not the least with her Dad) at the reception. At times it was just Miss J and her daddy on the dance floor. Both W and M were little champions and behaved fabulously too. There were some moments of concern when they discovered the after dinner mints on every ones coffee cups/saucers and decided to do a little bit of collecting.

We (well in reality me - since I was the one to get up with him in the morning) baby sat Baby T after the wedding, we took over from the baby sitter about 10pm and took care of him until about lunch time the following day. He is such a good baby, he is alwyas happy, contented, playaful and laughing. The only downsine was the regularity of the soiled nappy - which happens just before breaky and was during my shift!!!

Unfortunately for J and L, some one was giving J some vodka at the reception and he passed out some time around 10ish and was carried from the scene, they did not make it to the hotel for their wedding night but slept on their friends floor. So, they spent the night after the wedding night at the hotel, got a good sleep and I took care of Thomas for a second morning, I have to say I was rather happy to do so and to spend some special time with my baby nephew. I can not imagine that he will remember me the next time I see him, and I hope that won't be too far away, but at least I have had soem lovley cuddles here this time.

We then hired a car and took Dad and F with us as we headed south to Bournemouth (actually Christchurch), we had a highly recommendable B&B called Beautiful South and we enjoyed some lovely weather. We visited Corf Castle and its little (very old) village, and Monkey World (I'll try to get the website so you can see soem more info about this place and I won't go on about it here).

We had a great selection of places to go for dinner and enjoyed some yummy food. We explored the Norman ruins which were buit about oh, um, 1000 years ago roughly.

For Dad's 70th Birthday which is on the 4th of August, we had a lunch at my Sister in Law's (hehe) parents house it was very nice. L and J ordered food from MArks and Spencers, yummo and we had loads of sunshine. D took the chn to the beach for a play, where they promptly made friends with other chn and their beach toys, in the morning. Dad had a nice day and it was also nice to see A and A who had been to visit me in Jerra when D was in Q8, and Dad's cousin G and her hubby S. L's family are lovely and made us all feel right at home.

Today we have driven back to London for a rest, to do the washing and repack for our next leg of the adventure. We will be back here for one day before flying back to NY.

OK, so it was not really brief, and I hope it was not too boring without photos, we might be able to get some photos on later, if we can get a cable for the camera. Otherwise, I hope there are more words to come soon.

Cheers djjwm