Yesterday evening we decided to walk to the Water Tower that we can see from our windows. We checked out the St Matthew’s church on the way. It was open and had a well filled noticeboard and toilets and we took advantage of both.

The Water Tower is located in a park, the one Joan told us about that had been used to house a stray stag for a few days. Fortunately it was open again and we were able to enjoy walking around and having an ice-cream bought at the small cafe on site. We also bought a slice of their fruit cake for later.

We also decided to try to reach Lloyd Park, which I could see on my phone. There were a series of little walkways through the housing developments which eventually took us to the park. It is much more a large open space, with sports facilities and some bushland at the edges. People had brought small picnics and sat on the grass or on the park benches enjoying the sunshine.

Afterwards we were able to catch a tram at the Lloyd Park tram stop and zoom home in a few minutes.

Stephen decided he wanted to go the Natural History Museum in London. I thought I would like to go to Hyde Park, which is nearby. The museum proved to be a dead loss because it was so busy that he gave up. The building was impressive and beautiful.

We walked along to Hyde Park, had afternoon tea near one of the galleries. The first photo is of the tea garden, and the others are of a sort of art installation which was also a pop up cafe selling Fortnum and Mason products and drinks.

We then caught a bus to the Embankment, where we had afternoon tea at a Mexican styled place overlooking the book fair.

The whole place was heaving with people as we walked along to catch another bus back to Victoria, where we could catch the train home.

It was not our plan to walk so far, but my phone told me we had walked over 11 kms, up from our previous highest total of just over 8 kms. Once home, we had leftovers with added vegetables, fruit and yogurt, then a little chocolate. I was in bed by about 8.45 p.m. and slept until Stephen woke me up with a cup of tea at bout 7.30 a.m. That’s how tiring it was!

We had a session on Skype with Matt, he is looking well and seemed happy. Rosemary left him alone for a little while and he coped quite well with parents who can’t understand his speech. Stephen suggested we ask Alena to join us next time and he said ‘yes’ to that. Rosemary then came in and told us about their plans to go away for a couple of days next month on a ‘camp’, the whole house with volunteers and staff. She wasn’t sure quite where it was.

This morning we decided to catch a tram to a hill with a view towards London. On our way out of the building we decided to call on Joan, who holds a spare key to this apartment. She turned out to be a very interesting person, with lots of local knowledge. We were able to get a spare key, although Stephen had to pay 15 pounds deposit on the fob which opens the outside door. She gave us some literature on walks. We really enjoyed meeting her.

We then found a quick way to get to the local tram stop and went to a stop called Gravel Hill. It turned out to be one too far for the view, but we got there anyway. We could see back to where we live in East Croydon as well as London in the distance. We then caught the tram to the end of the line, New Addington. A very ordinary suburb, I was amused to find that it had a butcher, a post office and a hardware store, all things that Bill Bryson has said have disappeared from English village squares. I was a bit upset to see that meat in the window of the butcher was in the sun. There was also a market with a butcher’s van selling meat some of which was not being kept cold.

The above photo was taken with the Sony A6000 and Tamron 18-200 lens. We wanted to see the city, which was obscured in smog, so this is using the dehaze filter in Lightroom. Too much, of course, but it does help to really make it much clearer than it was in the original photo.

We went into a few of the local shops in New Addington were able to get a steamer and some herbs and spices. In the evening I did a simple meal with minced meat and veggies, using the spices.

Because the sunrises are quite late, a bit after 7.00 a.m. we were up for the sunrise this morning and took some photos. We also did this yesterday morning. It’s quite something to be so much higher than other surrounding buildings so that we have a good view. Perhaps we didn’t really need to go to that hill top.

Stephen had been looking for places that were accessible by train and of historical interest. We had a good day although the travel took about 2 hours each way. We came home via the shopping centre, quite lively because of Thursday late night trading.

Yesterday as we set off for shopping the rain came down quite heavily. We were well protected, so decided to push on as we had a few things to do. Although it was showering most of the time we were out the rain was actually very light and the temperature mild. We coped. Stephen went to the railway station for a special discount train card, we got two pay as you go SIM cards for our phones, checked out the library and a second hand clothing shop, and had a modest lunch at a very basic little cafe. 2 pound 20 for scrambled eggs on toast (1 slice of toast). It was just what we needed.

It was a difficult day in some ways with getting very frustrated over small things, most likely caused by jet lag. Still, we were pleased to have done some food shopping and Stephen was able to do his usual chicken curry for our dinner. We started getting ready for bed at 9.00 p.m. and were in bed at 10.00 p.m. We slept well and Stephen had to wake me up at 6.30 am for cup of tea.

So far we don’t have coffee making stuff and I am having some cups of instant coffee to help me cope.

I noted our safe arrival on Facebook and we rang Matt to let him know. Yesterday morning for us, yesterday afternoon for him.

We have a couple of planned outings with friends, and looking at the possibility of Ron coming to stay for a couple of nights next month. Apart from that we have yet to decide what we want to do. We have some more shopping to do, including things for the house (no vegetable peeler!). But we are sort of getting the hang of things with a lot of up and down the stairs because we haven’t learned to plan to avoid this. Also because we are using the shower downstairs rather than one of the baths upstairs.

We set off a little after 10:00 pm Perth time and arrived here a little after 3:00 pm London time. We managed to doze, but not sleep on the first flight. I was lucky enough to have a spare seat next to me on both legs of the journey and could get rid of the side arm rest and stretch out a little. Stephen’s knees were hitting the seat in front of him so he couldn’t really stretch much. Nevertheless we seemed to have good energy for changing planes at Dubai and then getting here by train. It was sunny and a bit smoky/foggy yesterday when we arrived, in fact it felt much like the sort of days we have been having in Perth, with all the burning off making our atmosphere quite smoky. It felt nice to arrive in sunshine, quite cheery. Ours was the second stop from Gatwick, so although it took time it was fairly easy. Finding our apartment block took a little more work, but I think we will find it an easy stroll without our roller cases from now on.

I posted our arrival status on Facebook yesterday evening, and this alerted family here and in Perth – how neat. I didn’t think Matt would have a chance to look on Facebook, so we rang him this morning using Skype phone. 5.5 minutes cost less than a quarter of a cent.

Stephen has started his own blog: travelswithsusanblog.wordpress.com.

The apartment seemed a bit shabbier than the photos and there was a smell from the fridge which I have identified as dried spilt milk. Although I’ve cleaned it up we will need to get a lemon to freshen the inside of the fridge. Everything feels a bit better this morning as we are beginning to settle in. We slept quite well until about 5.00 a.m., then had cups of tea in bed and read our iPads.