Thursday, May 20, 2010

Goodbye London

Alicia, Charise and Wyona are headed for the airport this morning.

We have had an amazing few weeks with them here.

At one point there were many guests with sometimes 12 of us at the dining room table.

The hide-a-bed was in use as well as both air mattressess, which were discreetly tucked behind couches during the day.

I clocked into my 70th year to heaven while I was here.

Alicia was the youngest person here -- 10 years old.

Every other decade was covered by someone.

Today Alicia pulled her suitcase out of the apartment, leaving for Medicine Hat.
Our apartment was full of early morning checks.

Check to see you have your ticket.

Check to see you have your passport.

Check you have a scarf for the breeze is cold on the train to Gatwick. .

Check for your Oyster card.

Check that all of the bags or in a row and at the elevator.

Count -- one two three four.

Even when we got to the street, Wyona stopped to make one last check on the ticket confirmation -- that blue plastic file she has in her hands -- before she got on the bus with the early morning travellers.

Now things are back to a regular day in the life of Greg Bates.

The BBC is playing classical music.

He is getting ready for an early morning stroll down the empty Regent Street, then poast Green Park, Hyde Park, Barkley Square and into Gosvenor Place.

Charise gets the last picture goodbye.

She spent yesterday with Alicia doing the last of what they love to do.

Pret a Manger turned out to be their favorite snack spot.

Taking pictures of the hundreds of elephant art objects that decorate the street was where they pointed their cameras.

Greg has never seen Sister Act from anywhere other than the front row, so in honour of the last night, we all accompanied him to the show from a different point of view: front and centre in the premium seats, buying them last minute at cut-rate prices.

The theatre had electrical problems at the matinee and was still experiencing them, so while the stage was lit, the air conditioning was off when it wasn't absolutely necessary, so people were fanning themselves with their programmes at the intermission.

We took the lovely 10:30 pm stroll home, passing by an African street musician who was making an amazing sound with only multiple-sized white plastic paint buckets and a few of his mother's kitchen pots.

A good final evening in London was had by all.

Arta

4 comments:

  1. It is hard to believe that you have only a month more to enjoy your 70th heaven. Your blogs are my insight into the richness of your heaven. So full and rich with under currents of love and gratiude for every one around you.

    My love to you.

    Kelvin

    ReplyDelete
  2. once you get the camera mastered, it will be time for the video blogs! I would like to hear the drummer!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Re the drummer, I would have lingered on the street to listen to him for quite some time, but the rest of my group moved along toward home.

    Greg has probably seen similar perfrmances often in Africa.

    The drummer was on the south-east corner of Oxford Circle, just by the Belgian Waffle stand, which was now his backdrop, for it was late evening and the sweet stand was closed for the evening and the smell from toasted waffles covered in chocolate was gone.

    There are often other groups there -- most often rock musicians, or in the case of the Salvation Army band that I saw, at least, people in relgious uniforms having nstruments that rock.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Charise arrived safely and Alicia was headed to Med Hat red-eyed with Marcia and Art. Lurene woke up Charise tonight to say good-bye as she flies off to London. Charise mentioned that she was going to vacuum the lawn tomorrow. Jet-lagged still!

    ReplyDelete

If you are using a Mac, you cannot comment using Safari. Google Chrome, Explorer or Foxfire seem to work.