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We didn’t meet the Queen this year.

11 Tuesday Dec 2012

We didn't meet the Queen this year.

Buckingham Palace magically appeared as we tried to complete an errand. We wanted to find the Bank of Scotland for Dale to pay for his South Africa Conference fee. Don’t ask why, but it was supposed to be easy. However, the bank wasn’t where it was supposed to be and the Bank doesn’t actually exist and we went to the Halifax bank and all was well. On the way we saw Hyde Park, the London Eye, the German Christmas Market and a high street! Life is good. Now we are having supper with Valerie and a good sleep until we leave for India tomorrow. Let the adventures begin.

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Arriving in London

10 Monday Dec 2012

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We had a squished but uneventful 8 hour long flight  to London. We arrived, bought our Oyster Cards (electronic tickets for the subway system)  and took the tube to South Kensington Station. It took a few minutes to figure our where our hotel was despite having the instructions and a map. The street signs are often on a wall or a building rather than a pole. However, the building where they put the street name that we needed was curved and the sign was in the middle of the curve. The good news was that it a beautiful day in London so it didn’t hurt to do some walking after the long trip. We had to walk a little bit to find a good, non-indian resaurant for supper.

Almost time to go!

08 Saturday Dec 2012

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Well, we are almost ready to hit the road. We are spending our last evening this year having a quiet supper with good friends before we engage in some furious stuffing… I mean packing. We are leaving for the airport tomorrow afternoon. I just shut down our office and put up all the “I am away” signs. lets hope everything is there when I get back. 

We are only taking one suitcase each and we have to travel with less than 40 pounds to ensure that we don’t get hit with excess weight charges on some of our in-India flights. It is a challenge because we will be in London in winter weather, it is currently 39 degrees in Kerala India where we land but around 0 degrees by the time we get to the Himalayas. So we have a lot of layers and we hope for the best. 

 

Getting ready to go.

25 Sunday Nov 2012

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We are in the last two weeks of preparation for our trip to India. We had a big change to our plans when our guides and friends, Meenal and Sanjiv, decided not to go with us after all. Their dog is very ill and they couldn’t face leaving him when he is so sick. Therefore we are going to traverse the subcontinent on our own. We will be fine, I hope :). The adventure quotient on this trip has just gone up!

Capital Visits

08 Saturday Sep 2012

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We visited the Art Gallery of Alberta on August 21, 2012 with our niece Nicole K. It was her first visit to an art gallery and it was fun exploring the AGA from her perspective. The feature exhibit was from the National Gallery of Canada collection. They had a full room of sculptures by Louise Bourgeois. The next week I was in Ottawa and had a chance to visit the NGC. As we walked up to the Gallery we were met by Bourgeois’ statue Maman, a huge statue of a pregnant spider. http://www.gallery.ca/en/see/collections/artwork.php?mkey=101000. It was fun to see work by the same artist in two different spaces.Image