I went to Westfield at Stratford on Thursday in the fourth week but mother nature had a different plan for me. Another culture shock, Advil does not exist here, just so you know if ever you are on the road in London, England and in need of a pain killer, don't expect to see advil or tylenol. Never the less I got ibuprophen and went home and hid under the covers for about 3 more days.
On the Saturday of the fourth week I made a call home to my Aunty Rose to see how she was doing and to see if she could help me make some more connections to people we knew in London. Aunty Rose was in pain and I ask anyone who is reading this to pray for God to keep her strong, prayer is always more powerful in numbers. My cousin Jason came to the rescue with a number for my uncle Paul's (who died earlier this year of stomach cancer) brother who lives in London. With that I got in touch and had set up a visit for the next day, Sunday.
Sunday morning, I was woken up by a call from my Uncle Richard (Uncle Paul's Brother) apparently I was suppose to have already been up and have called him to let him know I was on my way. So I rushed to get ready and left out to catch the train. Now I was under the impression that the trip was a short one, because hello I am already in London how far could it be? Well let me tell you it was like taking the train from Aldershot to Toronto union station and I was still in London. Well now I was in west London which was like a whole different city.
West London, what would it have to offer, well it offered a whole different type of population and everything didn't look the same ... so much. When we arrived to his house I had the pleasure of meeting his wife Carolyn who is amazing, a little facesty but amazing still ;). She was very welcoming and we had some similar interests so we hit it off right away. After dinner we went to see Sally or Aunt Sally as she is my Uncle Paul's sister. There I Met Nicola, Ria, Phil, Lamia, Shaylon and Paul Sally's Husband. All in all it was an eventful day and a nice change of pace. I ended up staying the night because it was to late to go all the way back to east London.
Monday I went back to east London early in the day and I packed some clothes and my laptop and headed back to East London for a week with my Uncle Richard and Aunty Carolyn. Those two are far from old and boring and kept me entertained, I wish I had recorded them driving, hilarious! Me, Sally, and Carolyn along with Sally's daughter Ria went to see Best Man Holiday! WHICH IS AMAZING! made me cry.
On Saturday Me and Carolyn Left a sleeping Uncle Richard at home while we went exploring at Parliament Square where Nelson Mandela's statue stood, I have some pictures below. We saw Big Ben, The London eye, west minster abbey which was so expensive to get into, and a few other statues of some historic people. We then ventures to Buckingham Palace to see the queen... she was indisposed at the time so I have to go back when she is free to have tea with her.
After that whistle stop tour we went to a carribean restaurant called Silva Linings, talk about home cooking! Carolyn knew the chef so we got some nice food compliments of the chef. We then went around the corner to visit a woman who Carolyn called Nan. She was so warm and welcoming and she treated me like she knew me fore years. She is going to be 90 on Jan 11th 2014 and this woman is still dancing and laughing like she is younger than me. Now if she can love life like that we younger generations have no excuse.
After that Carolyn and I went back home to see if Uncle Richard was still alive and then we headed back out to see Carolyn's younger sister unfortunately her daughters were not home but it was still nice to meet her and her dog Coco. After talking for a little and answering the general question how long am I hear for and if this is my first time in England, me and Carolyn went back home, thinking that was it for the night, but I was mistaken. We had to make one more trip out to visit her Older sister and her Kids who are my age. When we arrived there, all greetings aside I took a nice walk with two of three of the kids there to Nando's (UK version of Swiss Chalet) well that's what I equate it to. I will leave out the names because I do not want to miss spell their names! We all had a nice dinner together and after dinner conversation was spirited and I enjoyed being apart of it as much as I was.
Sunday I woke up and I felt like my whole head was swollen. I was suppose to attend church with Carolyn and she looked at me and said I was not going anywhere but back to bed, what a MOM. Either way that is what I did and I slept for a good while. Sally was making us dinner for that evening so I got up, feeling a lot better, got all dolled up and set out for Sally's house. Shaylon hid from me as soon as I walked into the kitchen, he is 5 yrs old and very bright. He claims he doesn't like me but we all know that isn't true, everybody likes me :). Lamia is very picky of who she goes to as she is 15 months, but not very social. She is the cutest thing but all she does is stare at me from across the room. She did finally warm up to everyone being around and ate her dinner sitting beside me, I cant holder !... But at least she sat beside me, I count that as a win.
There was mention of a Hogen Doze restaurant, now you know I have to experience that ! SOOOOO when I do I will take pics and post it on the blog and make you all jealous muhahaha. I am joking that is not my intention, to make you jealous but I can't help your reactions to things. Thanks for reading I hope it wasn't to boring to read. Feel free to leave comments I would love to read all of them, it lessens my home sickness, because I do miss you all very much especially for the holidays.
This week I have started to go out and wonder around aimlessly and see what wonders I find and those findings will be posted by instagram and facebook so keep an eye open!
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