Saturday, 03 June, 2006

As Suzanne said, we have been a bit busy lately. On the 16th of May, my sister arrived in London, so we showed her some of the sites we have been enjoying while here. Actually, Suzanne showed her most of the sites, as I was still working during the two days Andra spent in London. All too quickly, Andra was leaving town for more exotic locales, like Wakefield, and my parents were arriving. It is hard to believe that it has been ninth months since we saw them last. In some ways it seems like years since we were in San Diego, and in some ways, it seems like this is just an extended vacation. Friday, 19 May, saw us traveling up to Wakefield as well to celebrate Grandma's 85th. I have to reiterate, I prefer riding trains to flying. As I said in one of my December posts, a train ride is considerably more enjoyable than being stuck in an airplane. We arrived in Wakefield in the evening and went over to the Holiday Inn we were staying at to check in. While we were there we also saw my cousin Donald and Aunt Betty come through. I haven't seen either of them since we were in Glasgow in 2001. Neither looked like they have aged a bit since we saw them last. In fact, everyone looked fabulous. I wish I could say the same for myself.
In the blink of an eye, it was Saturday night and Suzanne was playing paparazzi and taking pictures of anyone and everyone who would sit still long enough for the shot. She got some great photos of the family (we will be posting some soon and sending out the CDs to the appropriate parties shortly). Grandma appeared to be in heaven the whole time, especially when the chef was whispering sweet nothings in her ear and giving her a kiss.
Not unlike a wedding, it was great to see everyone, but it felt like we didn't get to spend enough time with anyone. We left on the Sunday afternoon to head back to London, which ended up being a bit of an adventure. The train ride is two hours. It took us almost five to get back into town. The train broke down just outside of Doncaster and had to wait until a tow train could come and pull us back into the station. An hour + later, we were back in the station and rushing to get onto the next departing train. The new train was, of course, full to the gills, so we ended up standing for a few stops. But once a few passengers left, we were in the plush first class section, which is even better than your usual train ride. However, getting back into town three hours later than you were expecting to is not exactly bliss. The good news is that the tickets will probably end up being half price due to the delays. The next day, we headed off to Paris, which is an adventure that we will post about in the coming days.