London calling!

'ello 'ello! 

After a few kewl days in Dubai, we are finally in London hanging out with Bron's sister Shell and her brother-in-law, Graham. 

As we flew through the clouds into London Heathrow yesterday we knew that it would be a long time before we saw the sun again and we instantly missed it! It's amazing how you take the sun for granted, especially living in South Africa in summer. Since then, it has been grey with cloud and occasional rain. However, we are not feeling as cold as we expected for the 'warm' 6C. Inside is generally always heated, at home, in the trains and in the shops, and if you dress appropriately being outside is not freezing even in the rain. 

Perhaps the most difficult thing to get used to at the moment is the very short days. It is quite interesting arriving in the middle of Winter coming from a country in the middle of Summer. Usually one adjusts to the increasing cold and shortening of days through Autumn, however, we skipped Autumn this time around. At the moment the sun rises at about 8am and sets at about 4pm, giving about 8 hours of cloud-grey filtered light. 

Another thing to adapt to is actually going out and doing things in the dark and wet! Capetonians tend to stay comfortably at home when it is raining at night, so it is quite difficult for us not to go into hibernation mode. Shell & Graham are awesome role models though and are showing us the ropes. They are really good guides of the London scene. We need to pay more attention getting around on the train so we can do it on our own sometime! 

Yesterday, after Shell & Graham fetched us from the airport, we went to their place to drop off our gear. They are house-sitting at the moment looking after Squire, a Welsh Terrier. So we will be staying here with them for a few days. We had great plans of heading into Town to witness the New Year fireworks, however, by 8pm when we were still at home it became obvious that we were not going to join the 700 000 other Londoners with the same idea and by 10pm we were snugly in bed. We did not regret this decision though as a good nights sleep after a 21 hour day was just what we needed. 

After a very slow start today, we headed to Kingston for lunch at an Irish pub and some shopping at the sales! Bron got two very cool new coats to beat the chill. Justin spoilt Bron with a box of rooibos tea but is yet to join the new-coat club. He is however enjoying having an eager beer and whisky drinking partner, the many pubs to visit and the public transport to make it worthwhile! 

Tonight is a quiet night chilling at home. Plans for tomorrow include going to church, more shopping and lunch at The Hare and Tortoise (a very awesome Chinese restaurant that Shell & Bron discovered on their trip in 2004). This week we will do some site seeing and on Wednesday we fly to Dublin for a few days.

Until next time, enjoy the summer sun for us!! 

x

First trip on the train!

Buying train tickets...

! 

(Note Bron's new coat!)