Part 4 – England:

    We were expecting the worst of the budget airline, Ryanair, but it turned out to be a very good flight with efficient service. We arrived at Stansted Airport, outside London, at 7 am, and I returned to stay for three nights at Benn and Nicola’s place, while Oki went off to stay with Adela, his stepmother, in Shepherds Bush. While I enjoyed a good rest and time with the family, getting to know Victoria and Olivia a little better, Oki did some shopping around Hammersmith, and paid an overnight visit to his friends, Ern and Sue, who live near Stowmarket in East Anglia. British railway fares are terribly expensive, and to go a mere 130 miles cost £72. The same distance in Australia would cost about £10. What a difference! That evening, Oki and his friends went to the Butt and Oyster pub at Pin Mill, and then watched the old, but brilliant, 1965 film “2001 – A Space Odyssey”.
   In the meantime, Nicola and I took baby Olivia to Kew Gardens one day, to stroll around the Christmas displays that were being erected, to wander through the greenhouses and to enjoy the beautiful gardens. Nicola took me to a lovely, old restaurant that has reopened inside the Gardens, and we had a delicious, healthy lunch together. We then took little Olivia to a fantastic play area for young children, a newish attraction in the Gardens, I think, with humps and tunnels and play pits for toddlers and preschoolers to enjoy. Olivia had an absolute ball. She is quite a climber, and I think she will be good at sport. She is a very strong, healthy little girl, and a well-behaved little sweetie.  Thank you, Nicola, for such a lovely day. XX

    Heading back to join me in the general family chaos at Twickenham, Oki found that Adam, Becky and 12 month-old Jasper had arrived from Hong Kong, where they now live, to spend Christmas with us. It was 21st December, and we were in the middle of celebrating Victoria’s 5th birthday party with some little school friends and their mums. That evening, Oki and I returned to some peace and quiet at the Twickenham Guesthouse, while Adam, Becky and Jasper stayed at a hotel just across the road from us.

    The following day, Oki and I wandered through Holland Park, had a pub lunch at The Swan in Hammersmith, and babysat for Benn and Nicola, so they could enjoy an evening out with friends. Everyone in the London family had been sick with vomiting, coughing, congestion and fatigue, and although Oki and I tried hard to avoid getting sick on our trip, the dreaded virus finally attacked us, and it was really nasty. Poor little Olivia was sick with the virus while we were babysitting, and we were on tenterhooks, worrying about her. Oki breathed a sigh of relief when Benn and Nicola finally returned home! He said it was the longest few hours of his life!

    We strolled around Richmond the next morning, popping into Waterstones Bookshop, and Bill’s Restaurant to check out the menu. Curious to compare Adam’s hotel with our guesthouse, we visited them at the Marriott Hotel at Twickenham Stadium. Their room was luxurious. They were very lucky to have been charged only half-price, catching a special deal at the right time. Poor little Jasper had succumbed to the virus too, and I don’t think Adam was feeling the best either. The virus was extremely contagious, and also long-lasting. As I write this blog, I am still feeling the last stages of that nasty English bug. After visiting the Marriott, Oki and I went to a very nice Malaysian restaurant in Twickenham.

    Now it was Christmas Eve. Two homeless people were in the breakfast room at the guesthouse, and we struck up a conversation with them. The local council, or should I say ratepayers, pay to put homeless people up, free of charge, in guesthouses and B&B’s, if the weather is a bit wet or chilly. One man was very intelligent, keen to chat, had been a welder, and had loved his job, but was suffering from paranoia, and couldn’t hold down a job. He was unaware of his mental illness, and blamed the world for his problems, but I can spot a paranoid easily from previous experience. We liked him, and I felt sorry for him. He needed proper medical care in a mental hospital, but I think those hospitals were all abolished a long time ago to save the government money, so now those poor people are out on the streets. The other chap was young and healthy, and also intelligent and keen to chat. He had no excuse to be homeless and living off the hard-working British people. He had a history degree and admitted that he just didn’t want to work. He preferred to fish. He said that he had checked out how to be homeless in London before he became so, to make sure that money and comfort would always be flowing to him from the taxpayers’ purse, when needed – an absolute disgrace.

    We attempted to go to the Science Museum in South Kensington, but when we arrived, we discovered that it was closed, so we walked to the Albert Hall and caught a bus back to The Swan in Hammersmith and then to The Old Ship in Richmond. We met my sister-in-law, Allison, and nephew, Charlie, at Bill’s Restaurant, where the whole extended family enjoyed a late Christmas Eve lunch. That evening, we went to the Richmond Theatre to see the pantomime, Peter Pan. The three little grandchildren all came along, and I thought the two babies would get bored after a while. However, they were absolutely pop-eyed at all the flashing, coloured lights, the music and dancing. The whole show ran for 2.25 hours, a long show, and the three children enjoyed every minute. I was very impressed that they could concentrate for so long.

    Christmas Day finally arrived, and Benn was so sick that he couldn’t join us for the beautiful Christmas lunch at the local restaurant, The Prince Bluther. It was such a pity. The lunch was delicious, but with two babies to care for, Nicola and Becky were kept very busy, and when I tried to take Victoria for a play in the play area, it was shut due to slippery conditions after the rain. When the children are older, such a lovely Christmas lunch will be less chaotic. These days in Britain, all public transport ceases on Christmas Day, something that never used to happen. For a big city to close down like that came as a shock to Oki and me. Luckily, Ubers were running, so that’s how we managed to get to and from our guesthouse.

    Boxing Day meant that the buses and trains were working again, so we caught the bus back to Twickenham, and wandered over to Eel Pie Island, and then to our old haunt, the Barmy Arms pub, situated on the Thames. Joining Benn and Nicola again, we went for lunch at the local Italian restaurant just near their house, and then played on Benn’s fantastic Occulus Rift, 3-D virtual reality machine. It was brilliant. With the goggles on, I had two hands that stretched out in front of me. I had to learn how to manipulate them before I could play the game. I was in a big room, and could see all around me. A nice, friendly robot kept coming over to me and handing me discs to put into a computer. Then I had to take them out, release them and put different discs back in. I just loved it. That evening, Adam, Becky and Jasper had to head home to Hong Kong, so off they went, still with the virus. Oki and I headed home, via the fish and chip shop.

    The next day was another extended family day. Charlie had invited us all up to his place in Harpenden, north of London. It was a long trip by public transport, but we eventually got there. His two little children, Mabel and Wilson, were there. They are well-behaved, quiet little children, aged 3 and 4, and being brought up by their mother as vegans. It will be interesting to see how they develop. Charlie is a good cook, and had prepared a delicious roast dinner for us all. Charlie has a good brain and is interested in many different subjects, so he is good to talk to. Many thanks, Charlie, for a lovely day. XX In the evening, Oki and I, for a change of scene, moved from the Twickenham Guesthouse to the Ibis Budget Hotel in Hounslow. Unlike Twickenham and Richmond, Hounslow is far more multicultural – in fact, there were very few English people to be seen anywhere. 

    In the morning, we wandered through the local market, viewing the population with interest. My old mother-friend, Jib, whom I met when Benn and Adam attended Sheen Mount Primary School in Sheen, in the early 1990’s, had arranged to meet us with her lovely husband, Prayoon. Originally from Thailand, they have lived in London now for many years, and own a beautiful flat overlooking Bushy Park in Hampton. After a delicious lunch, we strolled through Bushy Park, past a pretty pond and some deer, to a very popular café. It was such a nice walk, as you can see in the photos at the side of the blog. It was great to see Jib and Prayoon again, after so many years. Thank you both for giving us such a lovely day. XX That evening, we went back to Benn and Nicola’s to play more Occulus Rift, this time, playing the part of an astronaut sitting next to Neil Armstrong on Apollo 11. We did the whole flight from before take-off to re-entry and landing in the ocean – a fun experience.

    Determined to see the Science Museum again, being one of Oki’s favourite haunts as a teenager, we headed back to South Kensington. The place had empty rooms and looked a bit dilapidated compared with the old days. It was a disappointment. Many of the greatest displays were gone, and the detailed, informative and instructive structure of the museum had been swapped for themes of disconnected items – a little bit of this and a little bit of that, shown in shallow detail, or no detail at all. We headed down to the basement where one of our favourite displays was placed – the domestic area, showing the history of household appliances during the 20th Century. Old cookers, fridges, toasters, telephones, televisions and radios were on show, from the different decades, and our favourite appliance was the Teas-Made. This funny appliance contained a combination of an alarm clock and an automatic device for boiling water to make tea, so that when you were woken by the clock in the morning, your tea would be ready and waiting for you to enjoy in bed, before you got up. How ingenious! Towards the end of our time at the museum, I became very tired, all of a sudden, and had to keep sitting down, as we wandered from gallery to gallery. I even started wondering how I was going to handle the long walk back to the station to get home. I had no sign of the respiratory infection that Oki had caught, so just assumed I was fatigued. Oki, however, was suffering from a cough as well as tiredness, so we managed to drag ourselves back to the hotel to rest.

    While Oki stayed home and rested on the following day, I visited my lovely old mother-friend, Vanessa, from Sheen Mount Primary School days. She still lives in Sheen, one of my favourite areas of London, and it was so lovely to see her and have a good chat over lunch. Louise, her younger daughter, who had also attended Sheen Mount at the same time as Benn and Adam, was there too, with her two beautifully behaved little boys, Basil and Sonny. Louise had stayed with us for a few months in Sydney, so we knew each other well. We talked and talked. Thank you Vanessa and Louise for such a lovely and memorable afternoon. I hope we can do it again before too long. XX

    The next day, we moved back to our Twickenham Guesthouse. We had enjoyed our stay at the Ibis, but it was good to be back closer to Benn and Nicola. Another great Sheen Mount mother-friend of mine, Tina, and her brilliant husband, Trefor, kindly collected us from the Ibis to help us move our luggage, and then we went to the very nice Twickenham café, Patisserie Valerie, which has the most delectable cakes on display in their shop window. After a good chat, we strolled along the lovely, old Church Street, down to the riverside, and into the York House Gardens to see the sculpture. Tina and Trefor have visited Sydney before, in the blazing heat of Summer (never do that!), Melbourne, where their daughter, Bethan, now lives and works as a very successful primary school teacher, and Hobart to see me. They fell in love with Hobart, with its cooler weather, its beautiful big river to sail on, and its spectacular scenery from atop Mount Wellington. I hope they will come back to visit me there again one day.

    The 1st January was a write-off for the two of us. We were so drained of energy from the virus that we rested at the guesthouse all day, in the hope that we might recover. We didn't!! The day after New Year's Day, we were picked up by Tina and Trefor again and taken to their riverside flat in the lovely Teddington for lunch. Bethan was there too, and it was so nice to catch up with her again. After lunch, we strolled around the Teddington Locks, which allow boats to come and go up and down the river. Thank you, Tina and Trefor, for the two lovely days we spent with you. It was such fun. XX

    On our last morning in London, we went for a walk with Nicola, Victoria and Olivia to the nearby River Crane to feed the ducks, one of Olivia’s favourite activities. There was a big children’s playground there, as well as a café for the adults in this very nice park. At 4.15 pm, we said our goodbyes and headed to Heathrow for our 12- hour flight to Hong Kong. It had been great to see the family again, to get to know my grandchildren more, and to catch up with my three long-time mother-friends, Jib, Vanessa and Tina. Thank you all for giving us such a fantastic time, and most especially to Benn and Nicola. XX