So, London.
I got up at sparrow-fart on Friday to take the 6am easyjet flight to Luton. This gets me to Hampstead at 8am if Thameslink is running on time and the weather is fair. As it was, the trains were not running on time, and it was bucketing down from the minute I arrived at West Hampstead train station until the minute I tapped on the door of my favourite family in Hampstead dripping wet! Never mind. A 9am start never hurt anyone.

Gabriel, Milene and I went to see the Andy Gotts exhibition at Getty Images which was pretty good. The pictures were taken over 8 years and you could see the natural progression as he gained more experience and expertise in both actual technique and in making his subjects more comfortable. Pretty good.

We picked up a Lebanese feast in Selfridges food-hall for lunch before heading back to Hampstead for afternoon nap-time (that was, for the kids AND me!). As always our stay was lovely. The kids are lovely, the food is lovely, our hosts were lovely. Everything was lovely. Thank you Milene & Gabriel.

Saturday morning we jumped on the Thameslink train again and headed across the Thames to SW16 or so… Streatham. We were to stay with the brother of a friend of ours from Canada. Not having any clue of who, what, where until Friday night we were a little in the dark. Story is, Gary & Annie were returning to the UK for an overdue family visit from Vancouver, they had limited time, so asked that instead of them racing up to Glasgow for a quick meal, we come down and spend the weekend with them with Annies brothers family in Streatham. Despite sounding complicated, it turned out perfectly.

The family was cool. Very generous, very interesting, very nice. We had a lovely weekend. We met a host of characters, who were all amazing. Oozing talent, curiosity, and intelligence it was such a pleasure to be included in the family. And they did include us. It was perfect. I can’t think how I can thank them enough…

Sunday night we made the trek back from the south of London, to the north to catch the last flight to Glasgow, while Gary and Annie continued to follow their hectic schedule meeting another brother in Steynes. As usual, we missed any chance of decent food, so dinner was cold, stale sandwiches at Luton, again… we really must learn. Take the second to last flight, or eat early in London before arriving in Luton. Seems so simple, you’d think we could get it right!

Now here in Glasgow, the grey skies seem to be set in place. Winter has come, the clocks have changed, the days are getting shorter and I’m dreaming of our trip to Kenya.

Seven and a half weeks to Christmas!