Well, I hadn’t actually posted on here but it was talked about on my Mum’s blog that I had gone to St Thomas’ Hospital to check for Coeliac Disease, since my Mum was diagnosed with it last year and it is hereditary. I had my first blood test in December which was inconclusive so I went to the hospital for a gastroscopy in early February.
But lucky for me, yesterday I learned the news that although I do carry the genes for it, I’m not suffering from the disease and won’t suffer it in my lifetime. But because I’m a “carrier” my descendants may have it.
Still, that’s very good news for me. Sometimes I feel like I should have had it and my Mum should not, because she is the foodie in the family and I think it is much more of a big deal for her than it would have been for me. But, I guess you can only play the hand you’re given, as they say.
Karen came to visit last week. We went on the London Eye and did some shopping during the day, and we met up with Hannah in the evening. I’ve put all the photos on facebook, you can see them by clicking here. I’ve put some here as well.
Me and Karen on the London Eye!
An American tourist asked me if this structure in the distance that we could see from the top of the London Eye was the Eiffel Tower. I instinctively started laughing, until I realised he was deadly serious. And then I felt really bad!
It’s actually the Crystal Palace Transmitting Tower in South London, which gives most of London its TV signal.
Then we met up with Hannah, and the odd photos started:
I’ve just put 70-something photos up on facebook, and I don’t want to put them all here as well… but if you click the following links you can see all the photos! You don’t even have to be a member of facebook – anyone can see them!
A bit of a quick blog post, but then a picture tells a thousand words!
Some photos from when Karen came to London December 09!
The first time, we went to the Hummingbird Cupcake shop in Notting Hill. Awesome cupcakes, and huge queues, as you can see from the photos! We ate the cupcakes in Oxford Circus tube station because it was peaceful, and most importantly WARM!
The second time, we met up with Hannah and the family and had dinner at an all-you-can-eat Chinese food place in Maidenhead. It had the same menu as the Yangtze in Windsor for those of you that have been there and remember it. I’m not a huge fan of the food but because it’s all-you-can-eat I love it.
My cousin Karen has been over for the last couple of weeks. It was a great couple of weeks!
It started at 6am on 17 October. Bleary eyed I walked to the tube, caught it to Heathrow and met Karen as she came through.
Then Hannah picked up in her fantastic new Fiat. Well, new as in “different”. It was so wonderful that I couldn’t bring myself to take a photo of it for some reason. Oh well, next time.
We went straight to Stonehenge, and stopped at the Welcome Break on the way to sample the delicacies – cupcakes, bacon and eggs, and mushrooms that smelled like vomit.
Stonehenge looks the same as the last two times I went, but I still don’t mind seeing it because it’s cool and not too expensive to get in.
Sam came to visit at Hannah and JK’s house, which was cool, I hadn’t seen him in years.
We went out for a few drinks, which was fun. I didn’t care much for Smokey Joe’s (the place we went to in Maidenhead), but the company was good.
Another day we went to Thorpe Park (an amusement park in London). The best ride – Stealth – was closed, but it was still a great day out.
The last picture is of the tea-cup ride, which sounds so tame but was so fun because you spun it yourself. We got up a lot of speed. Hannah said “wouldn’t it be funny if the ride had stopped and we were all still pissing ourselves laughing?”, and it turned out she was right! I took a video on my camera… you can see it here:
Youtube has been having problems all day. At the moment I’m getting YouTube is down for maintenance and will be back shortly. If you can’t see the video please try again in a bit.
Karen spent a few nights staying at my house, it was good to have the company. Also she spent a couple of days in Paris, Eastbourne and Brighton. It was clearly all very tiring:
I left Karen and Hannah in Slough yesterday (October 31) at 4pm.
