Tuesday, October 24/2023

 To Doug and Jenny’s in Thames Ditton to spend the day. One of the chief pleasures of visiting London. Arrive in time for morning coffee and the catch up begins. As we arrive we pass Jenny on her way to the village pastry shop. Acquiring the beautiful quiches - two ham and two vegetarian - that we have along with a salad for lunch. 

Then Doug and J head off to inspect the last remaining two properties of Doug’s post retirement occupation. In his pre-retirement days D was an engineer, and J says that all his renovations have the engineer’s precision, even in spots where a casual observer would never notice the attention to detail.

Meanwhile Jenny and I take a walk through the village, stopping down by the river where there is a bridge across to an island featuring a number of houses - once summer only but now year round residences, many with boat moorings. We’re back in time for a visit from Emma along with daughters Jasmine and Leila and Laura’s son Cody. We’ve hit a two week school break, although Jasmine, doing her GCSE’s this year, tells us she has an English test when she goes back on Monday.

Dinner for the four of us with more treats from the village pastry shop for dessert. And time to be on our way as trains from Thames Ditton only go every half hour. When we reach the platform there is only one man waiting and he points out that our train has been cancelled. Slowly it emerges that subsequent trains have been delayed and arrival estimations keep moving later. Our informant, who has been busy with his mobile, tells us that someone has been hit on the tracks and that the next train heading our way, marked as delayed, has not in fact left Waterloo. 

So back to D and J’s, who kindly put us up for the night - a very comfortable bed on the third floor in a room with enough good books we could easily stay for a year.