It's raining it's pouring

For the first time in my entire trip the weather is bad. It's raining and cold and windy. Can anyone guess where I am? England, of course.

Despite the rainy coldness of the London weather, Lynda and I had a great day together yesterday. It was just so good to spend some time with her again, and it was all so easy, picking up where we left off 4 years ago. Because I've spent quite a bit of time in the city already we decided to head out to Greenwich for the day and see what the time was. Transport was a highlight of the day, we went out on a "luxury catamaran" (contradiction in terms?) along the Thames, and came back on the DLR which is a driverless lightrail. Pretty cool.

The actual highlight of the day was wandering the shops and markets in Greenwich. Lynda and I are very bad for each other's shopping habits, but we managed to contain ourselves to cheap things we didn't need, as oppossed to expensive things we didn't need. We had particular fun poking through a vintage/mod shop with stacks of clothes, accessories and furniture from the 50s and 60s. This shop was called the Beehive and also had an excellent coffee bar with fairtrade coffee and sugar, and a trained barista. Australians in London take note: you need to go to Greenwich for a decent coffee.

In the evening Leila and I met up and took a coach to Southampton to visit Sam and Dan. Sam is the one that got away...she actually finished her PhD and took a position at Southampton Uni, so her and her partner are living here now. It was great to be back with Leila, I've enjoyed her company heaps while travelling, and we had missed each other being apart for a couple of days.

Sam and Dan have a really ncie apartment here in SH, but they're still not feeling very much at home in the UK. I guess it's hard to start a life from scratch again, without any base. They are being remarkably hospitable and generous, as this weekend there's going to be 5 of us staying here. They seem to be happy about it though, perhaps having some Australians from home around will help them feel a bit settled. Sam is so adorable, she had towels folded at the end of our bed, with mini toiletries, and had everything for breakfast laid out in the kitchen when Leila and I got up.

Leila and I have had a really lazy day so far, just doing things we haven't been able to do while travelling so much like lie about on the couch, watch TV, read, and use the internet for more than 15 minutes at a time. And seeing as though it's pouring rain outside, it has been the perfect day. Just what we needed.