A whirlwind trip to London and back taking in Istanbul, Loughborough, Tewkesbury, London and West Wittering!!!
Am now back in Penang recovering from jet lag after a rushed but great visit to the UK. We have arrived back to dramatic thunder and lightening storms, the end of Ramadan festival of Hari Raya and the start of the Chinese Hungry Ghost festival. Apparently, all the dead return for a month and roam around and have to be appeased with food offerings, the burning of paper money, houses, cars etc and performances of street opera. Should be a good spectacle!!! All the hotel staff are dressed up in their national finery for the 2 day public holiday for Hari Raya which is a lovely colourful sight.
We flew home via Istanbul to see Sean and Lisette. It was a happy 2 days in scorching heat. We had lunch on the rooftop of the Seven Hills Hotel and looked across to the Blue Mosque. As we have seen many of the sights before, we just enjoyed the surroundings and the company! We did visit the Basilica Cisterns - an underground ancient water system which was a welcome respite from the hot sun, and took a boat trip on the Bosphorus from Ortakoy. Just before this, we had a leisurely Sunday Turkish breakfast on the pavement outside Cafe Kale, one of the many restaurants on the coast, under the newer of the two road bridges that join Europe with Asia. Eating and drinking on rooftops seemed to be a theme of our Istanbul jaunt as we visited trendy bars and restaurants discovered by Sean and Lisette in the 9 months they have been working here. We were also impressed by their knowledge of the city as they whisked us around by public transport. Glad that Taksim Square and Istikial Caddesi were bustling with locals and visitors and not demonstrators.Couldn't believe the very conspicuous wealth on show in Istanbul. Have never seen so many Range Rovers, Porsches and Ferraris being driven around a city!!!
Our next stop was Loughborough for Hannah's graduation. The weather was perfect and we had a very happy family reunion only missing Lucy who had been asked to go to Rotterdam by her boss (work can be so irritating!!!). Very impressed with the cake that Rob, Hannah's boyfriend, and his brother, Alex, had made for Hannah!!! Sean and Lisette made a quick trip over which made Hannah's day.
Managed to squeeze in my annual reunion with my school friends in Tewkesbury. Carol drove me there from London and we had a great trip stopping at a pub in Barnsley village near Cirencester for lunch. There is nothing nicer than sitting in a lovely garden in a Cotswold stone village in the sunshine. Can't believe that we left school so many decades ago!!! We had the usual laughs, too much wine and endless banter. Hazel's townhouse is right next to the river and overlooks the floodplain but is high enough to escape the flooding Tewkesbury has witnessed so many times. We enjoyed the historical abbey, 2 craft fairs, the quirky shops in the High Street and the spectacle of a passionate anti-badger culling demonstration. This comprised of many adults wearing full size badger outfits!!! In the pouring rain!!!
Time to move on back to London and catch up with Lucy and Hannah and check that the London flat is in one piece! I also saw my poor mother who is quite unwell and not on the right medication. After meeting with her medical team, am hoping for an improvement now that she is back on the medication that has kept her stable for decades. The girls (and the flat) are both good and we had a great night seeing the Commitments at the Palace Theatre. This has had mixed reviews but we loved it and all sang along to the Motown and film songs. Just time to meet up with the Bromley Kennys which is always fun and then a quick 24 hours in West Wittering in the sunshine before we found ourselves once again at Heathrow for the flight back to Malaysia. We flew smoothly back on Singapore Airlines which we had booked months ago as the timing suited us. Normally we have flown Malaysia Airlines as we did to Istanbul. Feel so sad for the victims of MH17 and 370 but also feel for Malaysia and the airline. The local paper is full of the sad stories of the families here who have lost loved ones. Can't believe that disaster has stuck twice for the airline that we have found so good this year. Think we all have to remember that the last disaster could have struck so many airlines.
We are flying to the Perhentian Islands this week to see their famed beautiful beaches and waters and then back to Penang to await the arrival of Kevin's brother and wife. They will stay in Penang and then we are driving around Malaysia together. Will fill you in when l next blog. X

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