My day in Greater London

A snowy shot of the back garden this morning! Thoroughly caked with snow.

I got a mercifully slow start this morning, which was very nice; had tea with Aunt Jackie, took a nice bath that didn't involve slightly oily hotel shampoo, then drove up to Wimbledon with Uncle Peter to have lunch with my grandfather, Brian. This turned into a bit of an ordeal, just because my step-grandmother Colleen apparently needed someone to jump her car off, so we agreed to meet Colleen at the Telegraph (a pub near their house in Putney Heath, which she'd walk to) and then drive her back home to jump the car off afterwards. Lunch was nice, but it was sort of amusing, because we didn't actually need to jump the car off at all. Oh well! It was still a nice afternoon.

I had a good chat with Brian after lunch (which ended around 4pm actually); we talked about my grandmother, "Omi," his first wife before Colleen, because when I was young and when Omi was still able to answer all these questions, I... didn't think to ask them. How did she meet her first husband Wilhelm? What was their relationship like? How did she and Brian meet? These sorts of things. Fortunately Brian could answer some of them, and it was actually a really informative chat. He was doing some work for the British government after the war (Second World War, logically) and met Omi while she was working for the German rocket industry. I'm not sure what she was doing there, but at any rate that's how they met.

My cousins came by the house tonight! In fact, Tor is keeping me company in my room right now. :) Here are some pictures of the glorious event:

My Aunt Jackie and Uncle Peter, at dinnertime. We had to talk Peter into the picture, he was most unwilling.

My cousin Gemma and her boyfriend, Alex.

My cousin Victoria ("Tor") with her newly dyed red hair! She's silly. (And also finished off that whole bottle of wine all by herself, the goof.)

The family~! Aunt Jackie, Tor, myself, Uncle Pete, and Gemma. Alex kindly took the picture.

And Molly, the family cat! She demonstrates here her ability to keep me from properly sitting on my bed, barring my access to Olaf the macbook. Anyway, she's quite cuddly.

Tomorrow, I leave for Oslo at 7:20am from Heathrow, assuming there are no delays. Hopefully, I'll arrive at 10:30, make the train to Oslo Central, in time to meet the ESN Student Group, and will next make my update from my dorm room at Kringsjå studentby!