I woke up a little conflicted today, time to go home, which is great, I've missed Rodd, the dogs and the cat......... but I've had such a wonderful time and there's still so many things I haven't seen and done!! We wanted to be at breakfast nice and early so we can get out and see as much of London as we can today so I reckon by around 9am we were in reception with our bags ready to check out. We left our luggage at the hotel for the day and walked down to Paddington, first stop St Pauls Cathedral, I think we took the long way cos we got the circle line to Mansion House but it might have been faster to get the Bakerloo to Oxford Circus and change to the Central line to St Pauls... oh well we got there in the end. St Pauls is very impressive from the outside but once inside it's magnificent, unfortunately we weren't allowed to take photos inside. Entry is normally 16 pounds but we used our London Pass. They have an audio tour which is very interesting and we all had one but as we were time poor we really didn't get the best out of it, they have prayers every hour that they do ask people to stop and be respectful of, we were fortunate enough to be here for the eleventh hour November 11th and the observation of silence for remembrance day.. this was highly moving and brought a lump to my throat, when the priest started prayers afterwards I got goosebumps, what an amazing place to be for this day. But the main thing we wanted to see was the Whispering gallery which about half way up the dome, you climb up 257 very wide shallow steps so relatively easy to get to, and come out in a circular (obviously) balcony area that is very thin and the floor is grooved from so many feet treading it for so long.. the Cathedral was built between 1675 and 1710!!! We tried out the whispering thing but it didn't seem to work for us, maybe there was just too many other people there trying it out. From here you can walk up another 157 steps which are solid spiral and enclosed, much like the ones at Warwick Castle that we walked up, GJ decided on the balcony that she'd gone as high as she could cope with so only Deb and I made this leg.... by the time we made it up and outside to see the view it was raining so we whipped around and took a few photos, this landing is a nice wide area with high walls that have slits in them to see through ... from here there was another set of stairs heading up and Deb got 2 steps up and said she wasn't going on.... these steps 119 of them... were also spiral but were metal, with no sides just a handrail so the further up you go the more air you've got under you... I took photos but I'm not sure if you can get the feeling of how toe tingling it can be... anyway I took the stairs all the way to the top and wow.... now this is a view.... much cheaper than the London Eye too!! You step out of the staircase onto a landing not even a metre wide with a waist height wall and nothing to mar the panorama before you... passing people can be a challenge as there's not a lot of room up there but if you're not scared of heights this is the place to get your view of London! Again, it was raining so my pictures aren't the best you'll ever see but I would love to be up there on a clear day. Ok so St Pauls done we walked about a block down to the river and over the Millennium bridge straight into Tate Modern Museum... we were all pretty wet and soggy by now so it was nice to be inside for awhile. There was a few things Deb wanted to see in here but as is our luck they weren't on display, they rotate the exhibitions... anyway we had a wander and then decided we'd go get a hot drink and snack to keep us going til we met Cass and Luke for a late lunch. From here we went next door to Shakespeares Globe Theatre, entry 13.50pp but was also on our London Pass ( the 3 things we used our pass for covered the cost of the pass.. we didn't get the best value from our pass but then we had one day we didn't use it at all cos we spent the day with Brian but I'd still recommend getting one ). As we got there they had a dressing demonstration which was very interesting and then just as that was finishing the 2pm tour was starting so we joined that. That was also interesting and I'd once again recommend doing this even if you're not an avid Shakespeare fan. About 2.30 we excused ourselves from the tour as we were all rather hungry and we organised to meet Cass and Luke at the Garfunkels restaurant near Paddington station for lunch... back across the bridge and into St Pauls underground.. funnily enough it all joins up under there, like an ants nest, and we ended up back at Mansion House station anyway so back on the circle line.. at one of the stations we briefly discussed getting out and transferring to the Bakerloo line to get to Paddington faster but we were all sitting down and just couldn't be bothered!! It was lovely to have one last meal with C & L and sit for a few hours just chatting & drinking wine, unfortunately I chose Potato and Leek soup and later regretted it as I should have had something more substantial to keep me going through the long trip ahead... We had... after extensive conversation regarding the pros and cons of the Heathrow Express versus a taxi verus a car service.. booked Classic Car Service for 5.30pm so left the restaurant just before 5 for the 5 min walk back to the hotel to collect our bags... along the way I popped into a few souvenir shops and grabbed a few last minute things... well I still had some pounds on my travel card so thought I should spend it! Cass and Luke insisted on waiting with us for the car, I'm going to miss my girl so much it's been so lovely to see her over here and see how happy she is. When the car hadn't arrived by 5.45 GJ went into reception to get them to ring for us and luckily she did because I don't think our booking had been dispatched.... oh well finally in the car around 6 and on our way, the driver was very nice, from Sarajevo and had only been in the UK for 2 years but spoke excellent english as well as 5 other languages! He took a liking to Gwendols and tried to persuade her to stay with him... Deb and I found it all very funny but I think GJ was a bit embarrassed! When we got out he insisted on giving us all a cuddle and European cheek kisses and lingered a little longer in his embrace of Gwendoline.... it was a nice end as we were all chuckling as we made our way into Departures. First thing we had to do was weigh Gwendols huge bag and sure enough it was over 32kgs so we spent about 20 minutes rearranging luggage. Checked in, bags dropped and we've still got a few hours before boarding so GJ of course took the opportunity to do some more shopping, I had a list of things I wanted to buy but we have 2 and half hours to kill in Singapore so I was saving my shopping time for there.....so up at the gate we sit at Starbucks and have a wine while we wait, and wait, and wait..... finally we boarded and took off 2 and half hours late... well you know what that means?? There goes the layover and my chance for duty free shopping!!! The flights was almost full and we had the 3 centre seats so GJ and I had aisle seats and Deb the middle, which she didn't like at all so GJ agreed to swap with her. 13 odd hours later we landed in Singapore and along with 20 other people did a mad dash from one gate to another and boarded our waiting plane to Brisbane... quick announcement by the pilot saying that we were just waiting for our luggage to be loaded and 10 minutes later we were airbound. The great thing about this leg was that it was practically empty so the second the seatbelt lights went out Deb and GJ bolted down the back to get a row of 4 chairs each and I stayed in our row of 3 seats.... makes for a much more pleasant flight when you can lie down and stretch out for a sleep... you can't waste time though cos some people don't realise you can do this so it's open slather, first in best dressed and all that! One good thing about being a vegetarian is if you order specials meals on a flight you get served at least 1/2 hour before everyone else, I had a lot of envious glances shot my way as I was eating my meals!! 8 hours later we were once again on Australian soil, I love those e-passports, quick scan, "nothing to declare? Welcome home" and you're out of there! Gjs boyfriend met us and drove us back to their place where Deb had left her car, we had a shower, rearranged the luggage and then Deb and I headed off to Hamilton to the Riverside Hotel where we were staying the night. It's a pretty basic place, nothing fancy but clean, comfortable and well located. We met up with our cousin Lyndal at the Hamilton Pub for a drink and then on to dinner, it was so lovely to catch up with her again and we chatted happily through dinner. By the time we came out it was pouring so Lyndal went off to get home and Deb and I popped back into the pub for one last drink, Deb was fading fast but I'd had a sleep in the afternoon so she very sensibly headed off to bed while I made a snap decision to catch a taxi to the Casino!! I started with $100 and played the Chocolate Wheel exclusively and when I looked at my watch it was 2.30am and I was up $150!!! So without even cashing out I hightailed it out of there ( falling down the stairs on my way out and cracking my head, scraping some skin off elbows and knees! ) and was back at the motel by 3am! I must say the next day I was regretting staying up so late ( and yes I had a few drinks too ) as I had to get up, find breakfast (an apple from the 7/11), taxi to airport and then the waiting.... and of course the plane was delayed by an hour!! So as I'm writing this 10 days after I returned home I have only really just after all this time, recovered from that homeward leg. For about 7 days I did nothing but sleep, I hate the term "jet lag" but I think I have to admit that I had a double dose and speaking to GJ and Deb they were both the same......... none of us suffered any jet lag on the way over to London so the only thing I can put it down to is that we had no layover in Singapore but went directly from a 13+ hour flight to an 8 hour flight?? In future I'll make sure I have a long layover if not an actual stopover.... So after this whole wonderful journey we decided we did a fabulous job of traveling together, sure there were times we got a bit snippy, but we all realised that sometimes we all had our grumpy moments and just allowed the grumpy one to work it out and get over it... we worked out how to make decisions so everyone was happy and Deb and I definitely drove Gwendols to distraction at times... she coped remarkably well, I mean ask yourself if you could travel for 3 weeks with your mother and Aunty??? The best thing though is Deb and I have decided we're going to do a trip to Italy together in 5 to 8 years... stay tuned!!