First Visit from Family!

My sister Lisa is on her way to India to spend almost five weeks there - three weeks helping at a girls' orphanage and two weeks participating in celebrations for a friend's arranged, Indian marriage. I'm so excited for her! Such an amazing opportunity and I can't wait to see the pictures! She paid the extra to have a stop-over in London for a few days. Her friend, Sarah, a Canadian living in Nottingham, came into town to spend Friday evening and Saturday with her and I arrived Sunday morning and stayed with her until she left for the airport on Monday morning. It was so fun to see family here and I loved having a chance to just hang out and catch up and talk about life.

Me and my big sister in Trafalgar Square.

Lisa took a similar shot to the one above on her camera and during dinner she started clicking through her photos and soberly said, "We're getting old. We're not 14 anymore."

She showed me one of her photos, a close-up of us together and it was strange to view it in that light. Already getting the beginning of "fine lines" - I just attribute it to lots of laughter. Most of the photos of us together are from when we were kids growing up. Here we are now, 28 and 30, not even close to being kids. All grown up and travelling the world. Our lives haven't turned out the way we thought they would when we were little, but the freedom to travel and go off on adventures is a wonderful blessing.

(As an aside, Lisa bought three of those scarves she's wearing and left one for me. She bought one for each of the Piechnik sisters, including Keri, soon to be the third sister!)

The Cenotaph.

The Remembrance Day celebrations are held here on the Sunday closest to November 11. We were hoping to avoid the chaos of the crowds out for the parade and ceremony and by the time we got into that area everything was over and the crowds had dispersed. It would have been fun to try to see the Queen, but not worth standing in a crowd for hours on end.

Lisa and the Parliament Buildings.

Lisa and Sarah visited Hyde Park, Portobello Road and Notting Hill, and had tea at Harrod's. Although Lisa was happy to just take it easy and visit at a cafe, she let me drag her around to see some iconic sites. I figure if you're in London for a day and you may never return, you have to get out and see the iconic sites. I basically did the same route Elizabeth took me on during my first day in London - Buckingham Palace, the Parliament Buildings, and Westminster Abbey.

The Parliament Buildings.

I got a good laugh when it started to rain and Lisa pleaded, "Can't we just find a place to go inside and wait it out?" without realizing it could take hours, days, or weeks to wait it out. It's still raining.

We attended Evensong at Westminster Abbey and got there early enough to go into the inner area and enjoy hearing the organ, the choir (men and boys), scripture readings, and a short sermon. The sun was shining just right on the stained glass on the walls facing us and we happened to sit next to a heater so Lisa was able to warm up a bit.

We headed back towards the hostel and tried to find a pub to order fish and chips for dinner (my first time ordering it in the UK!). We found a cozy-looking pub but it was full so we ended up sitting in the little restaurant area upstairs. It was empty when we arrived so we chose a little table in the corner with a view of the street below and quickly made friends with the waitress. We were curious about mushy peas so she brought us a little bowl to sample and she brought Lisa samples of some traditional British ale. Great service and we sat there for at least a couple of hours and enjoyed the chance to visit and eat yummy food. The fish and chips were delicious, but I still want to some day find a little mom-and-pop shop with "real" fish and chips. Something near the coast where the meal is served piping hot and wrapped in paper. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.

Some of you might remember my comment about how weird it was to see hotdog weiners in a jar at the grocery store. When we got to the hostel, I discovered this jar in our room on a desk piled with a bunch of other food obviously purchased by some guys.

It was my first time staying in a hostel and it wasn't bad. There were about 8 people in our room and I was thrilled that nobody snored. I didn't sleep well as there was a lot of noise from the street below and I think I was probably subconsiously nervous about sleeping in a room with a bunch of strangers. It's a bit of an odd experience, but at least I didn't have to see the naked guy sitting in our room. He passed us in the hall this morning and Lisa quietly murmered, "That's the naked guy I saw earlier."

This morning I tried not to think too much about Lisa leaving. I tried to just think about her trip to India and ignore the fact that I won't see family again for another three months. It's actually not that long, but Christmas is in the middle and I don't think that'll be easy.

After she left to head to the airport I decided to go to a museum - since I paid a lot to get to London, I figured I might as well stay as long as possible! I went to the Victoria and Albert Museum and went through the British Galleries, Fashion, Photography (most closed due to changing exhibitions), and bits and pieces of some other areas. It's an overwhelmingly huge museum (free admission) so I'll go back and finish some other day.

Along the walk to the station I went through St. James's Park and shot some photos of the autumn colours.

When I see these lamp posts I can't help thinking about the War Drobe in the land of Spare Oom.

Carol, I thought of you when I saw this little guy as I wandered through the park.

During the train ride on the way back to Hook a guy got on and sat in the row across from me - the way the seats are aligned, he was slightly behind me. He pulled out a sketchpad and I glanced over and saw some rough pen drawings of people and buildings. He flipped to the next page and I could see him repeatedly glance up at me as he sketched away madly. It was a weird feeling - it felt a little intrusive to think a stranger was looking at me so closely, but also flattering. Do you turn and let him know you can see him? Do you ask to see the sketch when he's done? My choice was to sit still and leave him in peace. I think I'll always regret not asking to see the finished sketch. And yet, if I had asked to see it and it was a horrible drawing, I would always regret asking to see it. It's probably better left to my imagination of being somebody's muse, if only for 15 or 20 minutes.