Hello all, What a tour we just had. We’re in Paris right now, but we just arrived from London. We had five full days in London, nowhere close to enough. We walked a lot, which has been a common theme in the last few weeks (considering the hiking done in New Zealand). On Friday we took a little while to get up and get going. We were tired from getting up to see the changing of the guards, and the long evening we had. So in the mid afternoon, after preparing dough for dinner, we took off to go to the Tate Modern (and saw the Globe Theatre on the way). This is a pretty incredible museum that has some fantastic work in it, ranging from Dali, Picasso, and Matisse, to Jackson Pollock, Cy Twombly, and Mark Rothko. We really didn’t have enough time in the Tate but we had done a lot of walking and needed to get back to the house to prepare dinner. Claire and I cooked home-made calzones from scratch, and ate with Peter’s niece Alice (James’ daughter from Perth) and her friend, as well as Peter and Ian. As we did every morning, we sat around drinking tea and coffee and chatting with Peter and Ian Saturday morning. Claire and I went off to Covent Garden to do a little shopping (mainly window shopping although Claire got a new pair of pants. Hooray!) The Covent Garden area is really nice - tons of shops and street performers, and we lucked out with a beautiful day. After walking around for a while we met Peter and Ian at their friend’s house where we had a cup of coffee before heading off to Slough to visit Dorps! Slough sounds a lot like it’s name. Go ahead and say it: Slough - exactly. In Slough is Dorps and the Burnham Abbey. Dorps is something like my fifth cousin, or Aunt. She is Peter and James’ Aunt - my grandfathers generation - but more importantly she is an amazing woman who is been living at the Abbey for over fifty years! And for many of those years was not even able to step out the front door. We had heard so much about Dorps (and apparently her about us) so it was quite exciting finally getting the chance to meet her. She took us on a tour of the Abbey and the Abbey’s garden, which I have recorded and made a video of. The video really doesn’t do the Abbey nor Dorps justice, but alas it was made quickly and without the equipment that would be needed to present both of their beauties appropriately. Dorps has a way with words, explaining once the old saying on time all the time, Ride is the name. As well as thanking us for giving her a mid-Lent treat - in regards to the chocolate cake that we shared over tea (even though it was Lent, and we were in the Abbey). After the Abbey we headed back into the city at which point Peter and Ian took us for a driving tour around London, across London Bridge, past St. Paul’s Cathedral and tons of old expensive housing in Kensington. After a bit of a drive we headed off to dinner in a kind of hole in the wall Indian restaurant that was to die for (or live for, I choose live for, I want to go back!). The food wins the prize for best meal out we had in London, and possibly best Indian food we’ve had on the trip. Needless to say, after all that walking around and all that good food, and good friends, we went to bed early that evening. On Sunday we went to the Flower Market on Columbia Street. The photos say it all. The colors here were amazing, the little shops were quaint, the vendors were loud the as the crowd was quick. Pete and Ian left with a small garden in their trunk and two chairs on our laps. They took us out for coffee, and some amazing, authentic bagels (English style) with cream cheese and salmon; delicious! While we were at the market Ian says to us -oh look, its Tom Stoppard, the guy with the long grey hair, he’s the most famous playwright in London, he wrote Shakespeare in Love. We proceeded to pretend to take photos of Ian while snapping photos of Tom Stoppard - it was hilarious. After the market, we were dropped off at the Natural History Museum where we walked through looking at dinosaur bones, whale skeletons, and stood in a to-scale female womb listening to a heart beat; the museum was intriguing. On our way back to Camberwell, we stopped at a pub called the Hoop and Toy for some beers (Have you ever noticed that pubs seem to have two random nouns thrown together as a name, its as if they named the pub while playing mad libs - The Pig and Whistle, The Dog’s Bollix, The Plough and the Stars). They had a 10 Euro minimum on credit card so we were forced to have 2 beers each and some potato wedges, woe is me. We came home for dinner, a fish stew and prawn salad made by Ian, and hitting #1 on the chart for European home cooking meal, its going to be a tough one to beat. After our meal Claire and I sat down to watch a movie. We decided to watch, How She Move. It’s likely you haven’t seen How She Move yet, unless you went to Sundance this year and caught a screening there. The reason we got to see it is because Ian directed it. He also wrote A Touch of Pink, which if you haven’t seen, stop reading this right now and go watch it!

Welcome back, I told you it was good. How She Move is good too and you should see it when it comes out in theaters at the beginning of next year. The next morning we got up, were taken to the tube station, caught a train to the airport and were in Paris by the end of the day. We are now staying with Tina, Marvin and their daughter Gigi, at the American Church of Paris, which is just fifteen minutes from the Eiffel Tower (can see it out the window) and right up against the river. Boo-yah! Until next time, enjoy the photos and the video of the Abbey.

-Whit