Nanny's Visit Part 2

The second leg of Nanny's visit again began on Thursday.

Thursday afternoon after my class, Nanny met me in Kingston and we walked around and had lunch and then I showed her some of the highlights of Kingston.  Then we both decided that we were going to take the buses back to West Drayton and so we spent about 2 hours on a bus.  Finally we were home and I got to see Chunk and the rest of the family and hang out once again!

Friday was a beautiful, warm day and Nanny and I decided that we were going to get to Windsor Castle.  We went and I was so glad that we did.  We spent the day walking around the grounds of the castle and seeing all that there was to see.  We barely missed the changing of the guard, but we did not let that deter us.  We went around and looked at the gardens and the chapel, the doll's houses and the rest of the state apartments.  I thoroughly enjoyed my visit to Windsor Castle but it didn't end there.  After we went into the Castle we went to get some lunch and then we were off on our feet again to the Eton Boys School.  It is quite famous here and around the world and so we went to see the grounds.  It was a beautiful place and it was nice to see.  I am glad that I got to say that I saw it.  We then walked back to the city of Windsor and just took in the sights and walked around and did a little shopping.  After, we hopped back on the trains like experts and we got home and took a quick nap before everyone got home.

Saturday Nanny and I went to see my Aunt Josie and my Aunts Jackie and Georginia.  We also saw their kids, Angela and Andrew.  It was a good time again and it was a wonderful visit.  Josie remembered Nanny, regardless of the fact that she is suffering from dementia and I saw that they enjoyed each other's company.  We then went back to Josie's house and caught up with all of the family and just enjoyed each other.  It was a good day and they all went out of their way to make sure that I felt like I was welcome in their house and made sure to make me feel like I would be able to get back there anytime I needed to.

Sunday, Mark, Sam, Nanny and I went into London.  It was a day full of strange occurences but I was a lot of fun and I wouldn't have traded it for the world, even though I did freeze throughout the entire day. First, there was a man that was a street performer that called me over and kissed a card and gave it to me.....it was very strange.

Then we went into a store and shopped around for a little bit, and then finally we decided to leave.  On the way out this teddy bear mascot caught me and took my hand and dragged me back to this man that was on stilts.  I took a picture with them and the teddy bear kept hugging me.  It was very strange, but a lot of fun and a picture that will always make me smile.

After that, we went walking down the road and we saw these people that were dressed in very strange ways.  They were dressed to raise money and my nanny was very excited to see them.  I got a picture with them as well.  The rest of the day was pretty uneventful, besides the couple of birds that got so close that I got scared and started screaming. I HATE birds and I HATE when they get close so I was very scared because of that.

After that, on Monday Nanny and I went to visit my Aunt Pat.  We hung out with her for the day and I got a new pair of boots.  After that, we dropped Pat off and we went back to the house.  We hung out for a little bit and then Sam and Mark came home and we hung out with them for a while.  After that Andrew came over and said goodbye to Nanny and we got to see the kids again.  It was a very good time and it was sad that it all had to come to an end.

I had to say goodbye to Nanny after that, something I was not looking forward to, but something that had to happen eventually.

I am glad that she got to visit and I am glad that she got to enjoy her time here!

Cheers!

Nanny's Visit Part 1

The weekend before Nanny's visit I had a visit from my uncle Andrew and his girlfriend Stella and their son Jimmy.  My Aunt Pat was also there and we went to eat dinner together and went shopping.  We just caught up and then, before I knew it, it was dark out and it was time for them to go home.  It was a great way to spend the weekend and then it was time for Nanny to come!

The weekend after we went to St. Paul's. Nanny was here and she came to visit!!!

I arrived at Mark's on Thursday night and Nanny and I tried to decide what we were going to do for the rest of the weekend.  We went out with Mark and Sam that night and had a delicious meal at the Plough.

One of the days we went to see my Uncle John at his house and went out to lunch with him.  We went to my Uncle Gary's house after and met his kids, Matt and Emily.  It was a good time and we had yet another delicious meal and talked.  The only problem was that I could not stop coughing all day and found myself to be pretty annoying.  It was a good day and it was great to spend a lot of time with my family.

The day after we went to see my cousin Andrew and his girlfriend Stella, and their son Jimmy.  We hung out for most of the day and just spent time together, we made plans for the next day to go out with Stella and her sister to go shopping in the largest shopping centre in Europe!

We got to the shopping center called Westfield's and walked around all day.  It was so nice to see all the shops and to go into the really posh shops and just pretend that I could afford the things that were inside! It was a great day out and I really enjoyed myself.

That night, Kate, Catalina and I went to see Trey Songz perform at the local club here, McClusky's.  It was a lot of fun, but it was really crowded and a lot of the people that were there were really quite rude and aggressive about being close to Trey.  Kate and I ended up just hanging out in the background and enjoying herself like we always do!

The next day we just hung out and then, before I knew it, it was time for me to go home again and go back to classes.

Classes were okay, but what was even better was the play that we went to see on Wednesday.  We saw Frankenstein and it was the greatest play I have seen in a REALLY long time.  It was just amazing and the way that they depicted the creature in a sympathetic light was totally awesome and I loved every minute of the experience.  It would be too much to try to explain why I loved it so much, but it was beautifully written and acted and I wish that I could have recorded the whole thing so that I could play it again and again.

After the play, we met up with one of my friend's friends, Charlie.  We went out in London and had a drink at a pub and watched the soccer games that were on that night.  We then came home and it was time again to go back to Mark's house and see Nanny!

St. Pauls

A couple weekends ago I went to St. Paul's Cathedral with Kate.  The other girls were in Portugal so we decided to make a weekend for ourselves and go do something that we have been talking about doing since we got to London.

St. Paul's is an absolutely BEAUTIFUL place and I cannot express how serene and wonderful it was.  The building is so big and so imposing, but the inside is so wonderfully peaceful that you forget how large the place actually is.  Kate and I just walked around the floor for about an hour, looking at everything and soaking it all up.

After, we both decided that we needed to see the tombs and the chambers underneath the Cathedral even though we both knew that we were not going to like what we saw/felt.  We went down for about a split second and decided that the tombs in the ground and the graves were too much to handle and instead we ran back upstairs and made our way to the Whispering Gallery and to the top of the dome!

The Whispering Gallery is absolutely amazing, you whisper into the wood and anyone around the entire dome can hear what you are saying.  It is amazing and Kate and I sat on opposite sides of the dome and whispered back and forth to one another, being throughly astonished by how the entire system worked.

Finally, we decided that we were going to make our way up to the top.  We began to climb the 500 odd steps there were to the top.  By the end, however, Kate and I were both so scared that we literally had to drag ourselves up the see-through steps.  I could not feel my legs underneath me but I made it all the way up to the top! I was so proud and then I was so amazed by the view.  It was beautiful and breath taking and ridiculously scary all at the same time.  But we did it, we made it and we got to take all the pictures of the London city skyline.

It was an amazing day, that ended with pizza in front of St. Paul's.  Kate and I had a laugh about that because who eats pizza in front of St. Pauls on a Saturday afternoon!?!

Later, we ventured over to Buckingham Palace.  On the way we walked through St. James' Park and we tried to enjoy ourselves but found ourselves overcome by our fear of the birds.  The birds are ridiculously large and scary.

Buckingham Palace is an absolutely beautiful place, as everything else is here in London.  I loved every minute of our visit even though it was freezing cold!

Anyway, it was a great weekend, nice and calm and relaxing and just what the doctor had ordered.

Cheers!