London...where do I start?

Hi all, I have now been in England for about two weeks and the time has flown so rather than wait until I can post some good photos I will tell you a little bit about what has happened so far. I arrived in London on 14 September and it felt so familiar after Turkey. It was lovely to be able to stay with friends and feel very much at home. Another treat was to have Dave and his colleague Stu in London for the week and it was great to have some buddies to explore London with. We went to the V&A, the Tate Modern, the British Museum among other things. I am not sure if this happens to you but I sometimes get surprised about what I especially like and a definite highlight was seeing the Rosetta Stone! We went to some fabulous restaurants (Bret - I don't know you but thank you very much for the great recommendations!) and also did the obligatory architecture tours which was actually quite interesting. I was able to tell the difference between a corinthian and ionic column but this didn't quite evoke a suitable amount of respect so I chose to ask questions instead.

We went up to Cambridge overnight which was fun. Getting out of London was good and it is a beautiful town. The weather was perfect so our architectural walk (are you seeing a pattern??) was very pleasant. Dave and Stu and it was quite sad to see them go. This was compounded by having a 'mid-holiday freak out' so thank you very much to my very dear friends who talked me through this one!! It was also helped by the fabulous news of the Hawks being in the grand final and I have been wearing my Hawks scarf with pride ever since. I have had Australians coming up to me to wish me all the best for Saturday...hmmm...do they realise that I am not actually on the team?? Well, why split hairs? I will be going to a grand final party and watching it live which will be ace.

In the two weeks I have also been to Oxford which was another wonderful overnight trip and have continued exploring. It was nice to see Kath this last week and see a play with her. We saw the Mousetrap (don't you have to see the longest running west end production when you are in London?) which was really good. I have also seen Ivanov (a Chekhov play adapted by Tom Stoppard which starred Kenneth Branagh. It was pretty dark but really good. I have seen and done so many things in England but I should probably give you a rest!

I'll write more soon and hopefully put in some photos!

Go Hawks!