Well it was a massive contrast when we arrived back in London from Kenya….we were very lucky to land as Heathrow closed 1 hour after our flight touched the ground!!
This meant our bags got stuck on the plane – and arrived on the conveyor belt an hour later covered in the fresh snow from outside! This was also the first time in two years that we had arrived at an airport to someone greeting us at the arrivals hall! Our friends Nic and Gavin had skidded there way through the snow to pick us up!
We were due to stay with our friends just south of London at their home is Surrey, so it gave us a great time to check out some other parts of the region that we had missed – like the Queens other house at Windsor Castle….all covered in snow!
It was great to catch up with English speaking friends again, and the week in London was spent cleaning (both ourselves, clothes and backpacks), as well as having a small shopping spree at Sainsburys Supermarket! It was great to head to the supermarket for a taste of REAL food again! By real we mean pizza, chips, coke, chocolate…and finally fresh veggies that hadn’t been boiled to something unrecognisable!
Our first night back was a great treat – with snow falling and closing roads, we were stuck at home. This evening was also Waitangi weekend, so in true Kiwi style fired up the BBQ (after several attempts) and had a BBQ in the snow, followed by beers, which then lead to some ‘National Nude Day’ style photos in the snow!
We made several stops into the city of London, like picking up our winter clothes from Barry and Stephs home – as our summer clothes and singlets weren’t liking the UK weather! Followed by a tense visit to our previous Landlord who STILL hadn’t given our bond back, and then sorting out the UK bank accounts before we left a week later. It was all the jobs we didn’t want to do but had to!
The rest of the week was spent eating great food, drinking great beer, and having an all round great last week in the UK…but before long we had to start packing….
We are pros at this now – and thanks to British Airways, were allowed two suitcases each up to 23 KG’s each. We were nervous as we had a LOT of stuff to take to Toronto! But we chucked on all the coats we could, to take as much weight out of the bags!
It was nail biting in the check in at Heathrow….(made a little easier after spotting ‘Extras’ star and Jordan’s idol Stephen Merchant walking through the terminal) we were excited to weigh the bags and see that we had got not 1 but all 4 bags spot on 23kgs!! This meant we didn’t have to re-pack! Yay!
It was now all to real – as we jetted off to Canada!
