Have had a lovely couple of days catching up with friends. Sunday morning we picked up a hire car which I thought was going to be something like my I30 but was a Puegot SUV (or something like that anyway). Nice to drive. Had a GPS to get me to Kidderminster and had no problems even though it was foggy the whole way. I never real trust those things but this one did good. I had no idea what the speed limit was because there was not one sign on the motorway so stuck between 70 and 80 mph. Found out later it is 70. We were heading to see an old camp friend of mine. Hannah and I worked together in 2004 in the HC Hut at camp and she returned in 2005. I celebrated my 30th birthday with Hannah back in 2006. She now has 2 little ones, the oldest I met when she was a bub in 2011. Hard to believe how the time moves along. Had a wonderful day with her and family. Just not enough time. Hannah and I took the kids out for a bit to the local forest where they had set up a Gruffalo trail for kids and went for a walk looking for the Gruffalo. Mum stayed at home and chatted with Hannah's mum. That evening Hannah did our nails for us and what an excellent job she did. Unfortunately the time went way too quickly and it was time to leave with promises of hopefully it won't be so long between visits.

We drove to Birmingham Airport where we were staying at a hotel for a couple of nights. The only problem on this drive was locating the service station to fill the car before returning it so I didn't get stung with the car rental petrol price. Managed to finally sort it and returned the car. Considering the hotel is at the airport, it was very quiet, didn't hear the planes at all.

Monday morning we had a flight over to Cork, Ireland for the day. It was nice to walk over to the airport with no baggage. Mum had her handbag and I had a small daypack. Very free. Flight was uneventful and then we were in Ireland. This visit was for Charlotte, another ex camp friend who did a couple of summers. She is 8 months pregnant so no flying for her to visit us. Charlotte and her cousin and a friend stayed at ours for NYE a few years back when they were in Sydney. Had another lazy day just catching up and chatting. She did make us a beautiful Potato and Leek Soup. Got the recipe, will have to try it in winter back home. We went for a wander down to the local Cathedral. She lives in Cobh (which is pronounced Cove) and for a small population they have a nice Cathedral. Cobh is also famous because it was the last pick up point for the Titanic before it met it's fate. I was here back in 2006 meeting a friend Jenny who flew over from London for the weekend. I will be seeing her tonight in London.

Had a small wander through the town and mum picked up a couple of christmas decorations that were on sale in one of the shops (just to finish off our collection). Then it was time for Charlotte to take us back to the airport. Another sad goodbye but hopefully once again, it won't be so long between visits. Flew back to Birmingham and the great thing when you fly between Ireland the UK is you don't have to go through Passport control for some reason. Just walk through the airport and back to the hotel. I know the first time I did this years ago, I thought I went through the wrong door and had missed Passport control.

Had some dinner at the hotel and then booked some train tickets for our onward travel here in the UK. I had forgotten how expensive tickets are here if you don't buy them in advance. It really is ridiculous, especially compared to some of the prices we paid in Germany and Austria. Looking for a ticket from Leicester to London on Wednesday and then 8am, 9am and 10am train was £55 each, for the 11am train £25 each. 9am and 10am should not be considered peak!! Rant over.

Tuesday morning we had some free time so used that to go into Birmingham and do some shopping at Marks & Spencers. Mum has been wanting to buy some of their trousers for work since she bought some back in 2011 at a M&S store there. She was successful and got a few pairs and we bought a couple of tops each too. Just have to fit them into the luggage.

In the afternoon we went back and collected our bags and made our way to our friends place near Leicester called Barrow Upon Soar. Love english names of towns.

We spent the evening here with Andy & Kate. We met Andy originally back in South Africa in 2010 and he lived in Oz for a while after that too. Last time we saw them was earlier this year over Easter when they came to Oz for 2 weeks. Had a lovely catch up and met their 2 dogs. They headed off to work this morning and gave us direction on locking up the house as we were catching the later train due to the crazy train prices.

Arrived in London and treated ourselves to a taxi to the hotel instead of battling the underground with our luggage. I think we have done pretty well using public transport for all but one or two trips. The hotel is right near Paddington Station which means we can get the Heathrow Express train out on Friday, no battling with the underground during peak hour on a Friday night.

We got some lunch near the hotel and then repacked mum's bag with the purchases from yesterday, in preparation for leaving Friday. We then headed towards Convent Gardens where we had to arranged to meet my friends. Did some window shopping while waiting and then slowly as my friends finished work we got together. Another great night catching up with camp and non camp friends. Jenny and I met in Vancouver back in 2002 and even though we are both Australian have never seen each other in Oz. It has been Vancouver, Seattle, Ottawa, London and Cork. Crazy I know. Justin, Emma and Patrice are all ex Summit staff over various years. You can always tell a good friendship if you can catch up as if you only saw each other the other week as opposed to the other year. Again, not enough time but better than nothing!!