The Queen and I

After arising at 3:15am in NY, it was nice to be picked up at the airport by Chris and Mette (Sylvia's rellies) and whisked away to a comfortable bed.

The next day we had set an ambitious 9am meeting with Andrew Macklan at the Stockwell station, where we were introduced to the comforts of the London Underground. They had padded seats and heaps of space - we were impressed.


We saw the sights - Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Picadilly Circus and whole heap of streets off the Monopoly board. Mark took a long time getting the flowers just right in the photo of Buckingham Palace. I'm sure the Queen would have been impressed.

We had lunch at a wonderful little Japanese restaurant in Chinatown, but the real food highlight of the day was FREE Ben & Jerry's ice-cream. We wore hats to celebrate.

We thought the day couldn't get any better, but our guide Andrew took us to Covent Garden and the New Zealand shop. That wasn't the highlight: it was when Mark said "hello Mike Carrigan". Yes, we bumped into Mark's ex-flatmate from New Zealand in the middle of London. We all went for beer to celebrate.

Chris and Mette cooked us a wonderful meal and plied us with whiskey and wine. The food continued the next day with a Italian lunch with Mike and Heather before jumping on a train to our final destination: Edinburgh.