Live from Islington, London

Yes indeed I'm in London again after visiting my spiritual home - greater Manchester where my grandad came from. It's been a whirlwind couple of weeks - first finding out I had to come to England for family business, making plans and actually getting here was intense. Luckily I'm married to a doer and Jacky made all my arrangements while I got leave from school and made sure the school and my classes were covered. And so here I am. Where exactly? Randy and Pat's house in Islington (the Romanian builder 'Cosmin' is pictured in the doorway their back garden has scaffolding to put in a balcony and this was where I'm sleeping - on the 4th floor, up 41 steps from the kitchen - I counted them), north London to be precise. They are in Austria on a skiing holiday and they tell me they skim my blog so I won't dribble on this time. Just share some highlights - of course Fopp (3 pound, 4 pound CDs - amazing), a walk down the Mall towards Buckingham Palace(the daffies and horses) and a great view looking back to Westminster The trip to the Emirates stadium was immense - it's only 30 mins away from the shire where Pat/Randy have their house - they can even hear the faithful chant 'we love the Arsenal, we do'from their place.
I walked across the Westminster bridge for Jacky and took this picture of St Thomas's and its view of Big Ben.
The best though has been seeing all my friends at King John, spending time with Randy and Pat and their amazing wonderful friends, and seeing Christine and her children (Tom, Lewis K, and Fran)at the pub watching Liverpool absolutely destroy Aston Villa 5-0 (Tina should be sweating!).
and finally the new inspiration picture - this is on the walk Christine and I like to take towards the Peel monument that overlooks Ramsbottom and Holcombe Village. The white dog ahead of us is Sam - Christine's dog chosen by Tom. Inspirational? Oh Yeah!!

Love and peace from Highbury/Islington - W