Seeing a Torch and a Biscuit, Solihull, England

To see our England photos, Click Here

England has been all about catching up. Hamish was someone we popped in on on our way back from the north. He was the organiser of the "Kayak the Zambezi" Festival we happened upon in Livingstone, Zambia, last October. Starting at the amazing Victoria Falls we rafted the river on the 

With Sally, ..., ..., Andrea, Tamsin, and Ruben

safety raft for the kayakers for a whole week and had the best, best time. To check out our blog of the festival click here. Anyway, Hamish was in good spirits in spite of being crazy busy planning this year's festival which sounded even bigger and better than before (hard to beat).  It was great to see another friendly face from our travels who could relate to our experiences!

Back in Worcestershire it was more visiting with friends: this time Andrea and Sally who I did my PhD with years ago at Warwick University. Great to see them with their lovely, obedient kids and watch their developing personalities. Andrea and Sally were on form and I was pleased that they haven't changed a bit.

Crowd waiting to see the Olympic Torch in Solihull

That same day we continued on to Katie and Simon's in Solihull.  Katie is/was my best and longest-standing friend. I've known her since I was 5 years old - a long time ago now!   **Mush

After a brief discussion, it was evident that Michelle fancied some wine with her good friends, and that we were going to spend the night.  It was a fun evening for sure, and quite late, as we were catching up until about 2AM.  We made a brash decision to all wake up early and go to watch the Olympic Torch relay as it was passing through Solihull about 7AM on the Sunday morning.  Waking each other up, we wondered why we had made this choice, as we were all on about 4 hours sleep and quite hungover!

Walking to the relay location, we seemed like we were the only ones, and we made jokes about the 'hordes' of people that we would have to push through.  Well, as we turned onto the main road, there

The Olympic Torch - not sure of the runner!

were actually hordes of people, all here at 7AM on a Sunday.  What great spirit from everyone, and gives us a good feeling about the upcoming Olympics.

We were in for a big surprise though, as while we were waiting, Michelle turned around to stroke a dog behind us, looked up and saw that it was my good friend Matt (Biscuit) from London, standing there behind us with his parents.  We had no idea he was in Solihull, no idea his parents happened to live a block from Katie and Simon, and as it turns out, they were out partying until 2AM at a wedding the night before also, and also hungover!  The stars really had to align for this chance meeting to take place, and what a great surprise it was!

Well, the torch did pass us eventually, and it was a bit of a blur.  The initial party vehicles passed, and then probably only about 10 seconds of viewing, but everyone was in such good spirits, cheering, high-fiving, etc.  But, we were still in shock about meeting Biscuit; it was a bit surreal.  We had breakfast at Biscuit's parents place, and it was great to meet them for the first time.

Simon, Michelle, Biscuit, Katie, Dad and Mum Biscuit in Solihull

After a bit of rest on the Sunday, we were off to Ledbury.  Snaking our way through some beautiful countryside, and past the Malvern Hills.  We managed to find our way close to Catriona's house.  Catriona is a friend that Michelle lived with in Kenilworth, Warwickshire, while she was doing here PhD.   Catriona now lives in a beautiful converted barn that is so her style.  We had a lovely afternoon walking in the woods, eating a fabulous lunch she prepared, and mainly just catching up with her. 


Back to the chance meeting - this is such a small world,  I love when stuff like this happens!!!   *Stub

With Catriona and her barn conversion