29 May 2015 - Meeting with a faithful friend after 24 years and a walk along Regent Canal

Oh, sleep where are you....and why do you occupy so little of my life?!  Not complaining, just saying that daylight happens early this time of year which for a light sleeper like me means early wakings.  This morning I had two reasons to check the clock.  For one, Tim had been trying to organise a Skype call with one of his teachers and we keep missing her so it was imperative to connect with her today and given the 9 hours time difference we had to time it well.  So, at 6.30 AM, once Tim was connected, I could head off to the tube to meet my dear friend Winette from my days in London, for breakfast.

Ah...The London Underground

 Winette has been a faithful correspondent and friend for 24 years and I was so excited.  I waited under the clocks at Waterloo Station (a common meeting place it seemed) for 5 minutes before I saw the cheery face of my friend.  We hugged and squealed - of course!  We sat at the station cafe for breakfast talking non stop for 1 1/2 hours before she had to head off to work at 9 AM.  I will see her again soon.

Pancake project!

I took the tube back home and went off shopping with Annika before school.  School wasn't too bad today.  Luke is doing a unit on energy and today's project was pancake cooking.  We often do this but we obliged the curriculum and made pancakes and recorded the results.  Luke also finished his week's story about "Super Energy".  The Year 2 curriculum requires him to write a narrative or similar each week which, I think, is really challenging.  The standard set by the Victorian Education Department is high and I don't know how school teachers can ever supervise and assist all the kids in a class.  No wonder kids fall through the gaps.

And some Londoners live here

The weather has turned quite cool but with patches of sun after quite heavy rain earlier in the morning.  We had wanted to explore the other end of the Regent Canal toward Regent Park as opposed to the part to Paddington long which we have walked quite a few times now.  As soon as Kilburn High Road becomes Maida Vale Road, the houses become noticably more wealthy and so it continues through St John's Wood to the canal.  There is a mix of council housing blocks interspersed with very expensive looking houses and also canal barge residents.  London is certainly very diverse.  The path along the canal was peaceful with a few canal barges chugging by.

Warthogs at the London Zoo

We exited the path near to the London Zoo and had a glimpse of the warthogs over the fence!  I don't think  had actually ever seen a warthog!!!  Luke and I have just read "Jungle Drums" by Graeme Base about the littlest warthog, Ngiri, so he was impressed!

Statues in Regent Park

 The edge of Regent Park, which is all we had time to explore, was lush and green with some fetching wooden statues which beckoned us to see them at close range.

More statues in Regent Park

 Luke and I had a challenge to find Mailboxes with all three different - and we saw them all on our walk today!  VR, GR and E II R Royal Mail!

A VR Mailbox

Our mission to find a GR mail box

And an E II R Mailbox - task complete

We headed home to meet Pawel, the repairman, who had come to fix various electrical problems and bring us a new bed to replace the broken one we have slept in so far.  So, things are looking up here in London!