Fri, 21 Nov 2003

author Tim	location Emerson Valley, Milton Keynes, Bucks, England
posted 18:34 GMT 23/11/2003	section Europe2002/Europe/UK/England/Milton Keynes ( all photos )

Milton Keynes Again ( No photos )
(Continued from London 4)
We eventually found our way into Milton Keynes, through most of the 138 roundabouts, on the phone to Meaghan as she gave us directions to their incredibly hard to locate new house. The directions I had printed out from Multimap were basically useless, but eventually we were there.
Their place is a nice little open-plan two-story house, plenty big enough for the two of them and in a nice quiet street.
After dragging our bags inside, and of course a cup of tea, Peter went off with Dave in search of accommodation for the night. Dinner came in the form of a great pasta and salad, after which we spent the night chatting on various topics from travel and sport through to politics, and of course language differences between English and Australian.

author Tim	location Emerson Valley, Milton Keynes, Bucks, England
posted 18:04 GMT 23/11/2003	section Europe2002/Europe/UK/England/London/London 4 ( all photos )

Final Farnborough Frolic ( No photos )
It was time to battle the London traffic for the final time, Peter expertly piloted his new Peugeot 307, which he calls "Son of Percy". He purchased it from the same place we obtained Percy from after being impressed with the original Percy. This one is of course newer and better, with enough buttons to keep the driver occupied for years to come.
Our first stop was Farnborough, where Peter and Liz's mother Margaret were brought up. We drove up Starts Hill Avenue to look at the house and around the area in general. There is far more traffic and traffic lights of course, but not a lot has changed with the house itself.
Next it was on to the cemetery where Peter's parents (and hence Liz's grandparents) are buried. There are plans afoot for a new memorial plaque, but that won't be organised for quite a while, so we braved the rain to have a look around before deciding to move on.
It was of course Peter's birthday! So, a celebration was called for, and the venue was to be none other than the Change of Horses, our favourite Farnborough-ish pub. We had lunch there, our shout for Peter, and I just had to order one final serving of spotted dick (photographed here with Liz and Peter) before we left the country. Liz and I gave him a Swiss Card for his birthday, purchased of course on our way through Switzerland.
Back on the road, we battled south London traffic to get across to Pearly, where Margaret Knight lives, a friend of Peter and Margaret from way back. We had visited her with Margaret quite a while ago, but arrived a little too early this time. We went for a walk up on "the common", meaning a grassy reserve. In this case it was up on the hill, and a wonderful reminder of how beautiful London can be on the outskirts, complete with fog and drizzle. Wonderful.
After a bit of a walk through this area, excellently preserved from development by the Corporation of London, we went back to Margaret's house to find she was now there. We didn't have a long time to stay around, but a cup of tea and a chat, getting her up to date with at least some of our travels since we last met worked out well.
We wanted to get moving, as we had to get through rush our traffic up to Milton Keynes to stay with Meaghan and for the night. As it turned out, the traffic on the M25 and then the A1 was horrific, the journey taking several hours. We sat and listened to the radio to all sorts of characters ringing in with their opinions about the two news headlines - George Bush's visit to Tony Blair's local pub where he ate Fish, Chips and Mushy peas. The town had its usual population of 1500 swelled to 3000 just with security staff and media for this event. The locals were amazed as they told tales of how Bush had said the place was nice and other assorted small-talk.
The next story of course was the impending Rugby World Cup final, where the excitement was reaching fever pitch. The next morning we would see how it all played out.
During this, we drove onwards to Milton Keynes.

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