England in Spring

It took me twenty-eight hours to fly from Australia to England...
I was there twelve nights
then it was twenty-four hours (whooo hooo!) to get back.

That's hardly time enough to get over the jet lag... Is it?

It was a busy, busy, busy
whistle-stop* tour to catch up with family
and wave off my daughter on her African adventure.
Happily we also celebrated a couple of birthdays, mine included.

We started with a day out in Burford,
a picturesque Cotswold market town
chosen for some good clothes shopping and a pub lunch.

Cotswold stone cottages in Burford

We had some lovely days out to the Cotswolds and Oxford
and stayed in Bristol, Stratford on Avon, London
and I even managed to buy a house!
Now that's a story I'm saving for a rainy day...

Here are some of my favourite blue photos from the trip.

Thatched cottages which look good at any time of year,
look even better when Spring is in the air
and the daffodils are dancing in the sunlight outside the front door.

Daffodils and thatched cottages, so British!

In Bristol, the Harbour is always so picturesque
With the colourful terrace houses of Redland and
the brightly painted house boats on the water.

Bristol Docklands with SS Great Britain

My eldest daughter arrived from Australia,
Forty-two hours her trip took her
as her flight was delayed, then eventually cancelled in Dubai!
Still there was no time for her to get over her jet lag,
we were straight off to London to get her visa for her new job in Africa.

The Liberian Embassy in Fitzroy Square
is in the basement of an impressive London terrace house
The house next door had a sign saying Virginia Woof lived here!
There is a massive Liberian flag flying
which could be easily mistaken for a US flag on first glance...

The door was propped out with a hand painted sign saying
"be careful, wet paint"
This was oddly reassuring, and in stark contrast to
when we went to get my other daughter's visa for the US,
security was so tight in Melbourne, that I stayed outside.

Liberian Embassy flying the national flag

Inside the Embassy at 2pm there was no-one.
Hmmm people are obviously not queuing up to visit Liberia!
My daughter gave in her passport,
a letter of support from her organisation, two passport photos,
One hundred and sixty pounds,
yes it's not cheap to visit the second most poorest country in the world!
and was told to return the next day...

The next day she collected her passport, easy
and was now all ready to work
in a remote community in Liberia.

Our family is now spread all over the world.
One in America, one in Liberia, one in England and two in Australia
But next week we will have four of us in New York!!
I'll sing to that!

Linking with thanks to Sally at Blue Monday

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* whistle-stop
adjective
1. 1.
  
  very fast and with only brief pauses.
  
  "a whistle-stop tour of Britain"

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