Meeting family

I arrived in London at midday and was surprisingly awake.
What surprised me most about heathrow (well terminal 3/5) is the lack of security. There wasn't anyone around to check bags or accuse you of smuggling drugs in your surfboard case. They didn't even ask if you had goods to declare. I even tried walking through the declare corridor and neither of the two bored looking staff asked me anything. So much for security against terrorist threats. Although there weren't any rubbish bins around. They now use clear plastic bags suspended by metal rings so they can see any "bombs" that might be left in them.

My aunt met me from the airport and took me back to a friends place on the edge of London where I had my first experience of "snow", which was just a muddle ice pile on the side of the road which I kicked for a bit and felt thoroughly dissapointed.

The next day we met my aunts aunt/ my great aunt Barbara at the airport and drove down to Taunton (2 1/2 hrs south west of London) to where my grandmother and my aunts live.

Settling in was rather easy. I'm living with my grandmother (Nanny) and Barbara in Nanny's townhouse which is very posh. It is really comfortable. I have a room on the 3rd floor with my own bathroom. It overlooks the garden and a hockey pitch where the school next door play hockey most afternoons.

It's a 2 minute walk into town through Vivary Park which is beautiful, green and full of flowers you only see in books in Australia. Here there are crocuses, daffodils, pansies and now tulips (and probably a lot more that I don't know the names of but are gorgeous just the same). There is a stream and a bit of a lake with ducks, geese and swans. The new ducklings are starting to appear, but then so are the seagulls to snatch them and take them away :( I love walking through the park every day watching winter turn into spring.