Here we are...

Am currently sitting in the lounge of the Grasmere Hotel in Salisbury. It is 9.30 on Saturday morning & we have just finished a cooked English breakfast. (Saturday is cooked brekkie for me, all other days is cereal & toast. For Mark, everyday is cooked brekkie day). We will be driving around in our hired BMW today looking for a car to buy, that will not be a BMW. I can see Salisbury Cathedral from where I sit. It is also visible from the dining room & our room. That is on the ground floor. We have a back door onto a patio which leads onto a wide grassed area down to one of the rivers that meet just below this field. I'm finding it hard to believe these people when they tell me they're in drought! I'll post a piccie of how green the grass is when we can get our technology to work properly.

The first few days in London are a bit of a blur. It took about 36 hours to get door-to-door so we were pretty tired when we got in at 6.30am Wednesday morning. But we cleaned up a bit, had brekkie & then went out to get acclimatised as soon as possible. It was raining & cold & I had packed most of my warm stuff in the air freight so got wet. Have now bought an umbrella. Mark has his rain jacket but Wed morn left it in the hotel. Too tired to think straight.

We went to the National Art Gallery. LOTS of paintings from the 1600's, but we eventually found what we were looking for. Which were some of Turner's work, some Monet including one of his waterlillies, some Constable including The Hay Wain which is my favourite, Renoir, Rembrandt, & Van Gogh's Sunflowers. Went back to the hotel & slept for 3 hours, woke up, went to a great pub for dinner, then went back to the hotel to sleep again.

Thursday we went to the British Museum. Mark hadn't been before altho' I've been twice. Its very impressive - too impressive really, you get overwhelmed by the amount of stuff!! We looked at Roman, Greek & Egyptian stuff, & the Rosetta Stone, of course. Had lunch then went back to the hotel, got caught in some heavy rain, got soaked so went back to the hotel, dried off & had some more nap. Went to another pub for dinner, not so good, went back, watched some TV, Australia's Border Patrol, no less, then slept again.

Friday was the official 'march-in' at the High Commission. we went on the tube to get there & boy-oh-boy is it packed at 9am on a Friday morning!!! Still raining. Got briefed in, which took until 2pm then went back to the hotel, picked up aforementioned BMW, and Mark drove to Salisbury. Getting out of London was not fun, especially as we left the new GPS in the hire car in Adelaide (was found & James will post it sometime). Every one else in London was also trying to get out of London at the same time.

So here we are for the next 2 weeks, approximately. Car hunting today & tomorrow, house hunting on Monday. The place we were hoping to rent is off the list - the landlord wants to move his mother-in-law into it in 6 months so its no good for us.

Here are a couple of piccies of London - Mark in front of the Houses of Parliament; a horse guard; & the inside of St Margaret's church, which is next door to Westminster Cathedral but is free to get in (Westminster costs £16 ea to get in!)