Goodbye, Farewell and I'm still here.

It's been a rather sad time this weekend. I not only had to say goodbye to Cleland and Belle but also to Vic who heads off to Canada to begin her 11 week camp for kids over the summer. But before we get into that here's what I've been up to...

Cleland and Belle rocked up at the Village on Saturday afternoon after their wonderful tour of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales a little weary and down to their last pair of clean underpants. First stop was pretty much a given, the laundromat. We don't have a drier at the Village so usually we wash and then walk down to the laundromat with a big IKEA bag full of wet clothes etc to use the drier for the princely sum of 20p for 5 mins. I think Cleland loved the novelty of it all. Belle just loved the trashy magazines that litter the waiting bench! :)

As promised I took them up to Camden markets for the day for a wander through the stalls. As much as Cleland grumbles about "more shopping" he possesses a good eye for a bargain. He managed to find me a great travel skirt with cargo pockets. Only £6 too! I was a good girl and only bought a £5 cardigan ( I know I am a Nana!) and some gumboots for Karen with hearts all over them. It is festival season over here anybody who is anybody has funky gumboots. Cleland didn't buy anything but Belle managed to clean up. She has a pretty good eye for retro pieces that she can put together with new stuff. Plus she eats goat meat. So my hat is off to her. After we'd scoured the markets Cleland and Belle went on to the London Eye and I attempted to get home. Stupid London transport let me down again and they ended up getting home before me. Anthony and Matthew came over for dinner and I cooked satay chicken with rice, salad and garlic bread. Yes Mum, I cooked! And Cleland can vouch for me on this one too.

Unfortunately I had to work last week but managed get blood from the stone and got Friday off to spend with Cleland. In the meantime I did have daylight hours after work to kick about in London so we went on the Sinister London tour which took us through the story of Jack the Ripper. As there was not enough people for our tour we ended up being combined with the Pubs of London (who was I to complain?). In was really fun and low key as the guy who operates it is a sole owner/operator. He did everything - driving, talking, singing, dancing. All throughout the tour he kept saying "Okay my friends" after everything. Reminded me a lot of my tour guide in Pompeii who kept saying "Clicky, clicky" when he wanted us to take photos.

On Thursday night Cleland, Belle, Karen and I made the pilgrimage to Jo and Jonathon's place for dinner. As always the food was wonderful and I always love patting Pod. He was very friendly that night and even let Cleland have a cuddle too. Very unusual for Pod. But secretly I think he just loved being the centre of attention. Jo hadn't seen Cleland for 6 years and Jonathon hadn't seen him since he was 4 years old. To mark the occasion Jonathon introduced Karen, Cleland and Belle to Extreme Ironing. I'd already seen it, but thought that it had been one of those spoof shows until it appeared in the London papers last week as a report on an actual sport as silly as it is. If you are unfamiliar with the sport, check it out at http://www.youtube.com/. Just type in "Extreme Ironing" and off you go.

With my wonderful free Friday we had planned to go to Brighton for the day but a combination of dark clouds and last minute "must dos" lead us instead to spend the morning at Harrods for Cleland and The Globe Theatre for Belle. Cleland and I went to Harrods to visit the Egyptian Hall and the Dodi/Diana memorial. I'd never been and Cleland had wanted to wander around inside so we headed that way while Belle took in as much Zara time as she could.

Afterwards we went to Shakespeare's Globe Theatre to see an amazing production of Othello. In all honesty I am not a fan of Shakespeare's tragedies. Would much rather see a comedy (Much Ado About Nothing is my personal favourite) but the actors made the performance so compelling. The guy who played Othello just lived the part but it was Desdemona that took all of my attention every time she stepped on stage. Iago was played by the guy out of Notting Hill (Max, the character with the paraplegic wife) and he was also superb.

And after our last night together and a dinner at the Thai place at the local pub (Cleland's choice not mine) we had to say goodbye. And it was hard...

Then Sunday I spent the day having lunch and seeing the Fantastic 4 sequel with Vic and a curly Karen to say goodbye to Vic too.

And I am still stuck in London! Frustration is now defined as going to Heathrow airport and not getting on an aeroplane!