Part 17 of Paul "Blue" Hartridge's travels throughout the US, and now England, visiting friends and family.

England Leg 5 - Back to London - 5/4/2004

Blue: Today I set off for London, to see the Queen... of course. Visited the Tower of London which was built in 1066, or at least that is when it commenced. Spent a couple of hours roaming around and taking in all the history of it all. Saw the Crown Jewels, spectacular! Walked for ages and ended up at Buckingham Palace, heard a bit of commotion, turned out to be 'Her' band playing afew tunes for the occasion of the state visit of the Polish President....10 minutes later I was graced with Her Majestie's presence as they travelled down, or up, the Mall to the Palace....a picture of the Queen's carriage with her and the Polish Pres, I believe if you look closely you will see him waving ( to me of course ) not the Queen......oh well.    After that, I headed off for something just as important, if not more....to see THE Zebra Crosswalk of them all....yes, the one and only in ABBEY ROAD where those famous and Fab Four walked across for the album ABBEY ROAD.. Absolutely knackered after all this walking, I then made my way back south to Brighton.   Now 1/2 time with Chelsea and Monaco. Blue *_*

Home Leg 1 - Singapore - 5/7/2004

Safe and Sound.... OK guys, stand down... I made it safely back home. Flying hours from London to Perth was exactly 16 hours, 47 minutes and 22 seconds....all went well except for noisy Pom's so all I got was 1 hour sleep. That's ok, I excuse them, who wouldn't be excited to be flying to West Oz, God's favourite place on earth! *_* Met by a 'friend', who took me back to my place long enough for me to freshen up whilst she went home and cooked me a dinner...oops, did I say 'she'? moving along.....anyway, good to see Gillean has beer in the fridge !! lol Just slept for 10 hours, "woke up, got out of bed, dragged a comb across my head..." unpacking that bloody back pack... YEEEHAAAA! Thought I had lost my fridge magnets for a minute but now they are covering my fridge, every one of them bringing back some absolutely fantastic memories of great places but mainly, great people and the great times I had with you all, the people I stayed with and the people I met up with at various places. It had to come to an end and I am sad about that, but, I just pray that you guys can make it over to Perth and stay with me and meet some of the others who have posted on here whilst I have been on my 'vacation'. The door is always open to you guys, no matter when it may be! Listening to Lisa's cd ( AtoZ and Jeanne's daughter ) right now.... sheesh....it's going to be hard coming down from such a 'high'.... Don't get to see my kids until Tuesday as today is Mothers Day here in Oz and they are down south at their Grannies. Will post some new pictures soon guys... Thanks very much for everything! Missing you lot. (but don't tell anyone) Blue *_* Strange Coincidences from the Trip: Meeting Jim Fox in San Diego who tells me a story about an Aussie submariner named 'Animal' - turns out Jim was on my host boat back in 1982. Seeing RADM Summer's gravestone out of all the hundreds of thousands buried at Arlington - I met him back in 1985. Meeting up with an ex-shipmate in London on ANZAC Day.

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