Our British Besties

We have officially bid farewell to our amazing, decadent and eccentric 12-day Russian cruise and for the past two sleeps been in Winchester with our old family friends originally from South Africa. More-or-less 23 years ago, my mom and Lorinda Gardner (aka mommy Gardner) met at a gym where they discovered that both of their two daughters were of the same age. Both mommies went on to have three daughters who ended up being the same ages as my sisters and I. So, we all had our own same-age best friend the second that we were born. At the end of grade one, to my utter dismay my best friend and my sister, mom and dad's best friends, the Gardners, left South Africa to live in England. Since that day we have visited our long-lost friends every few years and stayed with them in their home in Winchester.
Over the last two days we had indulgent meals together; ate macaroons, scones and clotted cream; went to a typical British pub; walked through flowering gardens and most importantly shopped! Primark is officially my favourite store of all time. It is cheaper than Mr Price, but the quality isn't as crappy. It also includes an enormous variety of items ranging from dresses to panties to blankets to lint-rollers. It was absolutely great! As you can see in the pics, we left with a really BIG bag...After that we came home to put our sore feet up on the couch and watched a bit of Trevor Noah. Today we spent majority of the day catching-up. Laurienne, the oldest, has just been accepted to complete her PhD at Oxford University and Shené, the middle one (aka my besty) attends drama school and was busy preparing for an important audition this Friday. Unfortunately Monique, the youngest, is actually in South Africa so the "little ones" couldn't be together. We all had a good time though reminiscing and laughing with each other as usual.

After a long busride and painful tube ride (not the ride specifically, more the lifting our 25kg bags up the stairs), we finally arrived in London and ate some supper at the nearest mall. I had a seafood risotto. Super good! London is just as dirty and grey as I remembered and is bustling with thousands of people. Often people describe Londoners as reserved or even on the verge of being rude, so I was extremely shocked when my sister had help carrying her bag twice by two different men. It was so refreshing and probably two of what my mom calls earthly angels :) Although London looks the same, I am definitely viewing it in a new light, not only because of those two acts of kindness, but because it is suddenly looking very exciting. Maybe it is just the cosmopolitan-ness of it all. Either way I am looking forward to London fun tomorrow!