Finally, STP for the Bongo Pudding Lady

Our last full day in England was spent seeing some more of London. Our T.D., Paul, had to travel back to the north for his grandfather's funeral; while he was away on Saturday we were left in the competent (but not nearly so wonderful) hands of Salvatore. First the entire group went to the Tate Modern, which was better than I thought it would be. I enjoyed having a snack at a table from which I could gaze across the Thames at St Paul's. Then, most of the group wanted to visit the Tower of London so Tracy and I took the four kids who weren't interested in that and went by tube to the Victoria and Albert Museum, which I had been wanting to visit for ages. Of course there wasn't time to see all of it, but I enjoyed it very much. Then we met up with the rest of the group at Picadilly Circus. Because we hadn't had time for lunch, I was ravenous! We found a place called Burger Co. and I got the "posh fries" :
Posh Fries 3.35
Fries with sweet chilli & ginger dressing and chunky guacamole Everyone’s favourite

they were yummy!

We left the restaurant and were heading up Regent St so I could catch the train to Watford when I heard my name being called. CB was across the street and beckoned us over. One of the Canadian kids was having a migraine and needed to return to the hotel. We had no way to contact their adults, so Nancy (again, bless her heart) offered to take him back in a taxi. I felt bad about letting her do it but I really didn't want to miss out on my visit to Watford.

With no more problems, I found the correct train and settled down for a peaceful journey with my book. At the station, I was scolded for using a group ticket without being with the group, but was let go and warmly greeted by Mike and Tabitha. Joanne had prepared a lovely roast dinner of chicken, gravy, yorkshire puddings, potatoes, carrots and parsnips. It was fun to snuggle on the sofa with Tabs while watching the end of the first Harry Potter movie with the kids. At dinner, Tabs played a couple of Justin Bieber songs for me, much to Max's disgust. Sweet Joanne even made sticky toffee pudding for dessert. I felt very well-fed indeed! After dinner we had time for a bit of a cuddle with Amanita before Mike drove me back across London to the hotel, which was very kind of him. I think I would have gotten lost trying to find the hotel from the station. An odd thing happened on a road near the hotel; there was a barricade and when Mike stopped the car, a guard came over and swabbed the steering wheel. Then he let us go on. Mike said that he had never before experienced that.

And Then it was Sunday morning and time for us to leave our Canadian friends and T.D. Paul. All the kids and Paul gathered on the stairs at the hotel lobby at 6:30 a.m. for a group picture. Poor Paul, he had only gone to sleep at 3 a.m. after returning very late from the funeral. He nonetheless gathered us onto the bus and delivered us to Heathrow.