An important day today and one we have planned for some time. Jane - the wife of Colin’s cousin Gordon whom we visited back in October 2017 when we were in Sydney Australia has come to visit the UK with her friend and we are entertaining her for a few days. Sadly Gordon passed away just a couple months after our visit. We felt we had been lucky to be able to see him when we did. At the time we said should they (although we knew it would only be Jane) should visit the UK they had to come and see us.
Jane arrived with her friend on Thursday and now her friend is visiting her relatives in Brighton for a few days so we are taking the chance to show her around. We collected her from her rented apartment in St Margarets and after tea and Victoria sponge cake we headed to Teddington Lock. Jane had brought a small amount of Gordon’s ashes and wanted some to be scattered at the Lock. I found a little known flight of metal steps down the waters edge, no longer used by boats and she did the deed there. It is a lovely spot, right by the long lock gates and I have renamed the steps as ‘Gordon’s Steps’ so we can say hello to him when we pass by. It was a beautiful day - this is Colin and Jane by the lock keepers cottage. The lock keeper put on a great show on for Jane and explained the way the lock worked as I think it is the first time she has seen one.
Afterwards we walked into Kingston along the tow path and showed Jane the ancient Kings Stone that the town gets its name from and stopping for an ice cream at the recreation ground by the Kings Park before walking back through Bushy Park. On route the air ambulance flew in low and I rushed back to get shot of it where it had landed, just a few meters from where we had had our ice creams.
Later on we rustled up a three course British dinner (or supper if you’re posh!) of melon and prosciutto, lemon chicken and my new dessert speciality - Summer Pudding. Jane looked distinctly tired by this point so we dropped her back to her apartment in St Margarets ready for adventures tomorrow.
