GOOD FOOD, GOOD CONVERSATION, FRIENDSHIP AND LOVE DOESN'T GET ANY BETTER.

I have had a weekend where each activity, or meeting surpassed the one before. It has been absolutely lovely.
I have come back with some of the images in my head, where hopefully they will stay for sometime.
It is almost too much to tell, it won't be believable that I've done as much as I have. So if you thought the list before I went away was exhausting, I can only suggest that you go make a large coffee, cause you'll need the caffeine to keep up here!

Actually I've just written my adventures all out and they go on and on, so I've cut a lot out

The point of my weekend has been meeting old friends, newish friends and total strangers. It has been made up of wonderful conversation, good food and champagne.

Suffice to say that everyone I have been with has made me feel welcome and cherished.
The weather has been fantastic, who'd have thought a bank holiday weekend would have sunshine in this country,certainly not me, as my shoulders are a testament to that fact!

The whole idea of going to London on this weekend was to meet up with Nicky who is visiting with her husband from South Africa. I crashed her 'do' with fellow children's authors. It was difficult to get a lot of her time there must have been at least 20 others there, all wanting to talk to her. But the bit that I did, she lived up to expectations,she is warm and funny and I only wished I could have spent longer with her. So instead I spent my time talking to her delightful husband D, we had a great conversation that leapt from politics to therapy and back again very fast.

Because Kit was in Paris till Saturday evening I had to find somewhere else to stay and I went to the lovely Mei's house where I met Fred her french partner who was so easy to talk to, just as Mei is. But I already knew that about her from my blog parties

The paragraphs above are the abridged version and now I'll get back to my waffling!!

Saturday, was a beautiful warm day so Mei and I went to walk the very famous Kofi,we went to what Mei referred to as their normal walk to the lake. It was a 7 mile round trip!!!We'd forgotten to take water... What was amazing about this walk was that in the part of north London that she lives one way up her road takes you into a busy high street and the other takes you to this countryside walk that goes on forever. You would not know that you were in London, with woods,streams, fields, farms,cattle horses, all so close to the edge of the capitol.

After lunch I set off again to meet up with my cousin and his son. We were going to have afternoon tea. They took me to this utterly amazing place called the Wolsey, it's next door to the Ritz. It is the most amazing Art Deco building that once was a garage sale room for Wolsey cars.... hence the name. I do like to help you out in spotting the bleeding obvious!!!

Afternoon tea in some places in England is a real old fashioned throw back to another era,small finger sandwiches, with cucumber naturally, and smoked salmon. Once these have been eaten, and although they were delicious, they are a forerunner to the main event of warm scones with clotted cream and jam..... gorgeous!! As if this wasn't enough, there were then three small cakes to be consumed each. Thank goodness that Jon's son was still at the age of hoovering all food around him, as I'd never have finished it otherwise.

The only thing to do after this was walk it off, through Green Park down into St James's,down Whitehall, passing the back of Downing St, Up to Trafalgar Square along to Piccadilly to hopefully meet up with Jon's wife, and her mother who was visiting from Canada, and had been taken to Fortnum and Mason's for her afternoon tea. Only to discover they were on their way to find us and were in St James's, so round we went again....

It has to be said that I was getting utterly worn out, and once we'd all met up they had to leave, and I couldn't go to Kit's till 8.30 when he got back from Paris, so I lay in the sunshine in the park for an hour with my boots off cooling my poor throbbing feet.

By the time I got to Kit's I reckon I'd walked 12 miles in one day.....
So I did it all again round Kew Gardens on Sunday with Kit and his delightful, gentle girlfriend, who I met for the first time. I think we walked about 6 miles in total that day.

And the highlight for me of my weekend was sitting in a pub by the river Thames having lunch with Kit and his GF and two of his very good friends, as the tide came in and the sun sparkled on the water. And I watched the boats go by. And the conversation was inclusive of me and I felt that I was as much a part of the day as anyone else. And felt very cherished, when they all wanted me to stay an extra night.

But it was time for home, in the late evening warmth, with the roof down and the warm air blowing through my hair I flew home up the motorway, well it felt like I flew!!

And what I've brought back with me is love that is shared between my family. But also given by bloggers to each other,as yet again the short cuts to relationships are in place when meeting up, that in no other meeting between people would be possible at such short acquaintance.

It is a powerful world that I'm part of and I'm blessed to be a part of it.