Hi John
A belated response to your email. What a lovely lunch it was and a real pleasure to meet with you and Pat. I thoroughly enjoyed our get together and I was thrilled to bits with your reaction to the pie! Tee hee. I hope you have enjoyed it.
Love to you both
Deborah
x

Good Morning Deborah,
I hope you are enjoying your trip around the "old world", we may have a dismal climate but there are compensations....do you agree?
I was so overcome by your presentation of the pork pie that I had decided to have it embalmed and mounted on a plinth as a permanent reminder of your thoughtfulness but my true self got the better of me and I ate it! it was excellent.
Keep Smiling
John & Pat

HI John
I certainly am enjoying my time here and I have not one complaint about the climate. It has been very pleasant, mild and sunny until yesterday and even then although overcast it is very mild.
I had a call from my son today and he said there has been nothing but storm and tempest since I left!
I have been quite overcome by everything I have seen while I've been here. The countryside in this area is just beautiful and the old buildings are fascinating. I have felt transported (that's the Aussie in me!) back to another time and I swear I have felt, smelt and heard the sounds of another time. Quite fascinating ~ or I'm quite mad (perhaps both).
London left me speechless. To me, looking around each corner was like turning the pages of a book. It seemed a story unfolded with each twist and turn. I have never experienced anything like it before.
I am very grateful for the welcome, friendship and hospitality that has been afforded me. I am very, very fortunate.
So glad you ate the pie although the size being as it was, it wouldn't have taken up much space on a plinth!! So glad you enjoyed it.
Love
Deborah
x

Deb,

It's been a long time since we got a trip report! Where are you now?

You wrote, "London left me speechless." Me too! I visited there a few times (first time when I was 23) and vowed that when I retired I'd do a house swap type thing for a year to explore all I hadn't seen.

When I was rather close to retirement my company sent me to England for a year. I got my chance to see it all and found I only cracked the surface. I was an active tourist but it never ended.... Rome is much the same.

Trip report, please!

Mimi

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Hi Mimi
Debs is with tony and Kath in Linconshire.We had a lovely lunch in Harrogate yesterday and she is going to York for the day today.She has also been in Ireland for a few days.She has had computer anbd mobile problems but i am sure she will be back in touch when she gets home.She leaves on Thursday.

Dont know if you'l get to read this before you leave but have a safe trip back Deborah. Hagg.

Wonderful to meet you Deborah - have a safe journey home and all the best.

Ken

Hello Everyone
Here I sit crying in my gin and tonic because tonight is my last night here. What a wonderful time I have had. How welcoming you have all been (even those I haven't had the pleasure of meeting), and kind. I will never be able to explain fully to anyone what this trip has meant to me and the bond that I have found with people many would consider to be 'strangers'. It has been overwhelming and humbling and I have made life long friends, of that I am sure. I actually have to rush home to get some jobs done around the house before you all start turning up!
I have one major regret and that is that I haven't been able to meet up with you Hagg, and your family. Maybe next time! Or perhaps you can come Down Under and see the country by bike?
Mimi, thanks for your 'letter'. I have been at Tony and Kathy's since Monday and we haven't been still for a minute! Today we went to York. What a great place that is. I really loved it. The shops are amazing, quite apart from the city itself and the historic air about it. I learnt about the Vikings (all I knew previously was that Kirk Douglas was a handsome one once!), marvelled at the Minster. I just don't know how they were able to build such impressive structures back in those times. Fascinating!
Of course I wasn't disappointed and managed to have to walk up and down stairs everywhere just as I had to everywhere Angie and I went. I should have lost a couple of stone however the stairs and the walking have been counter-acted by the food (which I have enjoyed from day 1!)
So, my Pommie (hope that's PC and acceptable because it means no offence) friends thank you so much for having me, for caring about whether or not I have had a good time and for your good wishes for safe travels. If there are floods in Manchester tomorrow it will be my tears when I have to say my goodbyes.
I'll drop a line and post some pics once I'm home and on top of things.
Love to you all
Deborah
xxx

Hello Deborah

It was such a pleasure to meet up with you, Angie, Emma, Kathy & Tony, Ken, CathyS, Gwen and Russ at the Walk in London. Hope you enjoyed blowing the starter-horn!

I look forward to seeing your photos from your trip. Have a safe journey back to Oz.

Best wishes

Vinod

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Dr Vinod K Joshi,

Dear Debs,

What a lovely note. I wish I had been able to have more time with you and share a glass of Angie's 'lovely red wine' - although I hear she tried to poison Kath :-).

It sounds as if you have been given a right royal tour of some lovely places 'up north', by a group of lovely generous people.

Have a safe trip.

Much love,

Cathy

Hi All
Well I made it back home and have been battling to keep my eyes open ever since!!!! I wonder if I had kept going west and came home in a complete circle, if I would have avoided the jet lag?? It's most peculiar.
Back to work today and have spent all day recalling all of the various great aspects of my trip to interested customers. No wonder I'm exhausted ~ I've been travelling all day!
I won't have my computer until the weekend so once I'm organised will get some pics together.
Vinod ~ it was a real treat 'blowing the hooter' if only I had been able to breathe at the same time!!! Gotta love that 'warm up' session.
Cathy, I'm not sure that Angie tried to poison Kathy ~ perhaps it was just something she ate!!!! Whatever the cause, it was great to see her looking much healthier when I went to visit.
Hope you're all well. Will catch up again soon
Love
Deborah
x

Howdy
So much for getting 'some pics together' as mentioned in my last post on 12th Oct! Last night (17th Nov!!) I finally put the finishing touches to my journal and photo gallery.
If anyone is interested in checking these out, they are on my blog at LondonOrBust.
I hope you're all hanging in there.
Love
Deborah

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Dr Vinod K Joshi,