Tuesday was our last full day in London and also the last time we could catch up with one of our many family friends in the UK. So we boarded a train at about 9:20am to head out to Tilehurst, near Reading, to see Millie. Millie’s a friend of our grandmother’s and also the stepmother of a friend mum had in school, so the connection goes back a long way.
It took about an hour and a half to get there by train. Strangely a return ticket to Tilehurst cost about half as much as a return to Ipswich, yet the journey’s longer. Can anyone figure out how that works?
We spent our time reading through free newspapers and completing the Sudoku puzzles (this time I didn’t stuff them up).
Millie was there to meet us at the station at 11. She’s 84 years old and still able to drive, though she says she only really drives around the village. We went back to our house, a familiar sight as I try to visit her every time I come to London. Her husband died some years ago now but when we visited her when we were younger, we’d all play a game called Harry.
You start by having a plate of different coloured smarties. The person who’s “it” goes out of the room and everyone else chooses one of the smarties. When the person comes back in the room, they start to eat the smarties, one by one, and when they pick up the chosen smartie, everyone yells, “Harry.” The plate is replenished and another person has a go. A simple game but made all the more fun for the suspense (and the chance to eat a heap of smarties).
This visit we didn’t play Harry but instead sat and chatted, then ate lunch and then a sit and talk in the garden. Another warm day in London yet sitting outside is a bit cooler than being indoors.
Donna and I talked about our travels, work and study, as well as the family back home and a bit of the past that we shared. Red kites (birds, not the ones you fly yourself) flew overhead, hunting something. The pigeons in the tall trees in the garden were fighting and flapping. Donna nearly dozed off.
We headed off to catch the train at five to three, sad to have only a short visit and to not be able to see each other for a while. It was wonderful to see her though, and looking so well. I’ll have to Skype her soon and regularly thereafter to stay in touch.
More games of Guillotine on the trains home, evening up the score a little bit more, though Donna remains in the lead.
In the evening we had tickets to see a circus-type show called Limbo which was playing as part of the Udderbelly Festival on South Bank. It was due to start at 7:15pm but as it got closer to 7 we were told it would be 30–45 minutes late. We sat down and waited. Finally the doors were opened and was filtered in with the rest of the people, who move so limply, without purpose and generally mill about. Frustrating!
We chose some seats with a good view, sat down, and waited some more. In all the show was an hour late in starting, with no explanation either. Luckily, it was amazing.
There was a band and five main performers, who each demonstrated a particular skill or skills in a circus-like spectacular. There was contortion, fire-breathing, sword-swallowing, dancing (tap mostly but simply flawless), balance, trapeze, a guy got stabbed through the stomach and…I’m sure there was more.
Great energy, two very hot male performers with such strength, beauty and grace, and one of the female performers, called Heather Holliday, was so sexy. A 1940s classic beauty who could swallow swords and breathe fire. Such presence.
It lasted about an hour and 15 minutes, which felt about right yet the audience would have loved more. We nabbed a program as people were leaving and saw that it was put together by an Australian director and premiered at the Adelaide Fringe Festival earlier this year. The performers come from around the world, including Australia, Montreal, Avignon and New York. It’s on for a while in London so if you’re there, make sure you check it out.
Afterwards we went for dinner at Giraffe on South Bank, had some really nice food (including yummy desserts) and were served by a gorgeous, tattooed waiter who was just dreamy. His name was Karolis. Couldn’t quite pick where he was from but he had an accent. Swoon.
We then walked along South Bank, looking at the lights over the Thames, stunned by the sheer number of people still out and about at 10:30 at night on a Tuesday. Walked up to the London Eye and I saw the new gardens which were under construction when I was there last year. It was nice way to wrap up our trip and so nice being outside on this warm summer’s evening.
Really couldn’t have hoped for a better last evening in London.
Travels with Dan 
What do you say, eh?