under another sun

The chest infection I brought home still making me feel a bit rough. Still a lucky day as I had nowhere to go and nothing arduous to do. Instead Glenice, Heather and Maria came to visit down from Baskingstoke. Glenice is Beth's grandmother, Heather Beth's aunt and Lorraine's former sister in law, and Maria is Lorraine's niece. Lorraine and Beth happily cooking chickens and delicious potato spinach and goats cheese flans. I enjoyed hanging out chatting to Glenice again and to Heather, who I'd only met once before and really liked. Glenice is a stalwart at her church, and I told her about working with the religious charity and was interested to hear her opinions on them. Maria, who particularly adores Beth, is living an increasingly independent life away from home which she seems to be enjoying a great deal. Maria has a extravert and funny personality and talked to me several times too. Occasionally when things get hard to express Maria will look into a reflecti...

Obama cut Off with Toby and Romy to meet Gillian and Anna who was a local guide. We went out towards where Obama's old area was, and passed his house guarded by police cars. It is next door to a Synagogue. We also saw Hyde Park, including a lovely Japanese garden. Past universities and so on. Paused at Robie House by Frank Lloyd Wright. And we took the tour, while Anna took a break. It does seem to have a discernible Japanese influence. Fascinating place, although I can't say I particularly warmed to it, for reasons that I find hard to pinpoint. I would love to see the exquisite Falling Water one day however. After much more walking we stopped off at Obama's barbers. We popped our heads in where various people were getting their hair cut as you would expect. You could get an Obama cut for, I think, $23. Behind perspex was the actual chair, and I dutifully snapped this for lovers of kitch everywhere. Back to the hotel to collect Lorraine who had been shopping and chilling ...