Day 31 – Cliffs End - London

Today I am returning to London after my time here with Mel & Jim. They have to go to London to pick up their new car. They purchased a new car a while ago and have taken it to London to get a gas tank put in to it so they have an alternative to the high price of petrol.

Anyway they offered to take me back to London instead of having to go by train. I gladly accepted this offer and we took off early in the morning as we were going to be stopping on the way up to London. I actually slept half the way up the M20 and M25.

On the way to London we went to visit the Royal Horticultural Gardens at Wisley. The annual Wisley Garden Show is on this week. Mel & Jim are members of the Royal Horticultural Society and visit gardens at various times during the year.

There was a long queue of cars waiting to go to the show as we got closer to the gardens and it took quite a while until we were able to park the car in a designated parking area and that area was the size of about 5 rugby fields and it was nearly full of cars as we entered the area. We entered from the rear of the gardens and had to walk through all the forest areas of the gardens before we reached the actual area where the show was being held. These forest areas we walked through have many different varieties of trees and they look amazing with plenty of areas for people to sit with a picnic and look out onto the luscious green areas around them.

We stopped and had an early lunch at one of the cafeterias before walking into the Glasshouse buildings to look at the floral arrangements that had been judged in competition for the show. There were many great displays and I took a lot of photos of them. The Glasshouse area is set up with a lot of tropical plants and vines and therefore is very warm inside. There are many Australian plants in the area and a lot of varieties of orchids and other colourful plants.

Following this we walked through the gardens to an area where different retailers were showing their products, such as, garden furniture, tools, plant pots, watering systems, ponds, timber and concrete edgings etc. There was a lot of different ideas on display and it seemed that quite a few of the items were being sold as a lot of people were carrying bags of bits and pieces around whilst they were looking about.

We walked through some more of the gardens and then came across an area where plant sellers were displaying their plants for sale. Mel took quite an interest in this area and actually bought some young plants to take home for the garden. We then walked back through the forest area to the car and left for London.

We headed for the garage where Jim was getting the car worked on but the installer said the car would not be ready for another 2 hours so it was decided that they would drive over to North Cheam and drop me off near Stewart's and then come back. When we got to North Cheam Jim wanted to get some petrol for this car so pulled into the petrol station at Sainsbury’s supermarket where they were going to drop me off. Just then they spotted a Starbucks and decided to get a coffee so after filling up with petrol we sat and spent some time in the cafe chatting. Finally they had to go back to get the other car so we said goodbye for now, knowing we would see each other in Sydney in three and a half months.

From there I went and sat in the local hotel the Nosuch Inn. It is part of a chain of hotels and has free Wi-Fi so I was able to sit and have a drink and catch up on my Internet pages. I left there about 6pm and went back to Stewart’s home. Both he and Jeanette were at work but they had told me the code to the security system so I could get in. I had some trouble with the front door and was talking to Stewart as I punched in the code; unfortunately I did not have my glasses on and hit a wrong button. Luckily I was talking to Stewart on the phone and I was able to hit a button to turn off the alarm that had started screeching outside the house.

Stewart then had to ring the security company as the alarm is set to go to the police if no one rings to tell them it was accidentally started. So I was lucky I did not have a visit from the police that afternoon.

Jeanette had left some steak for me to cook for dinner so I did that and had it with some salad whilst watching some television. There were some game shows on plus highlights of the Rugby Union World Cup. Later Jeanette came home and I was able to help her in with the weekly shopping before we sat and talked for a while. Stewart came in and we talked some more before it was time for bed.