This past weekend 8-10 October, I went to visit a very dear friend of mine in London. Kamal is "straight outta Benoni" & has been living in London for the past 4yrs already. He has married a beautiful lady, Hasita from Lenz (wedding earlier this year) and boy... have they made a life for themselves here in London - you gotta see pics of the view of the main business centre (Canary Wharf) from their apartment balcony in Greenwich North (approx 4 tube stops to Westminister Abbey station)... very central. The apartment overlooks the River Thames leading into the harbour.
On Saturday morning, Kamal took me around to all the places of interest in London, i.e. the Big Ben & London Eye in Westminister Abbey, Waterloo, Covent Garden Square, Picadilly Circus, Leicester Square, Trafalgar Square, etc, etc. Quite a lot to see over a short weekend so I will definitely be returning at least for 2 weeks next time. Lots of pics to see of my visit to some of the main tourist attractions. As you will see in the pics, it was yet another grey London day.
The best for me was going to the "Rand Savers" store in Covent Garden Market, everything from boerie rolls & biltong to Zamalek. Nothing like a taste of home when you're away for so long. Also, we visted Waxy o'Connors Pub - what a mysterious pub. The other highlight was seeing a big statue of tata Madiba right across the Big Ben in Westminister Abbey... if you say you're from SA, some people may know where it is because of the SWC world cup we recently hosted, but just say you're from the land of Nelson Mandela & then everybody knows where it is that you really come from - viva "Proudly South African".
On Saturday night, Kamal's cuzzie Paresh invited us for the "Ealing - Three Bridges Cricket Club" awards evening dinner & dance party. This cricket club is affiliated to Middlesex Cricket Board and they play league cricket all over the UK.
En-route we met up with Nilesh, another cuzzie from Laudium (PTA) in London for about 6-7yrs already. I was real happy to hook up with some cuzzies I hadn't seen in a long time (Laudium, Lenz & Actionville in London... I leave the rest to the imagination) - they went out of their way to show me a good time... that was, a few bottles single malt whiskies later. So, long story short, we had a great time - they have such a great circle of friends who made me feel very welcome and the fan base for team support is unbelievable - if one ever talks about team spirit, I sincerely felt it there that night. It was also quite interesting to have had a chat with Uncle Arnie (Anand) who went into exile to London from SA in 1982, his views of SA from the outside, after our democratic transition was very interesting.
Asta-la vista people... until next time! (just a tip... the boys are going to Amsterdam this weekend).
No comments:
Post a Comment