Over the past week we had the folks staying with us at our place. The plan was for them to stay with us in London for the first week and then back down with Greg and Kim for the second week. On Monday evening I met up with Uns after work at New Cross House for a quick drink and then headed home to the folks where we had the hot stone raclette for dinner, which was something different for them we thought. On Tuesday night, with the weather being nice, we had a steak braai at home and all enjoyed being able to sit and eat dinner outside.

On Wednesday we had decided to head down to Portsmouth for the day and check out the Historic Dockyard sights, something dad had always been keen to do. After a brief walk around the Dockyard, we started off visiting the HMS Victory, a 104-gun first-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, best known as Lord Nelson's flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. After that we visited the Mary Rose, a carrack-type warship of the English Tudor navy of King Henry VIII and the only 16th century warship on display anywhere in the world. The history of the Mary Rose is quite amazing, after having sunk back in 1545, it was raised from the seabed more than 470 years later and is now being slowly restored in the purpose-built Mary Rose Museum. They've been spraying a mist of fresh chilled water over her for the past few years and are now in the process of air-drying the hull for restoration purposes. Quite incredible how it's all being done!

After the Mary Rose, even though we had an all access pass, we decided against the HMS M33, a Royal Navy warship, due to time constraints and rather went on board the HMS Warrior 1860, a 40-gun steam-powered armoured frigate built for the Royal Navy and Britain's first iron-hulled, armoured warship, which we stayed on board until closing time. After a full and busy day around the Historic Dockyard, we left and settled down outside the Ship Anson pub for a well earned sundowner before catching the train home for dinner.

I decided to take Thursday afternoon off and met up with the folks in Greenwich, along with Greg, Kim and the boys who were up in London for the day. After browsing around the market, we took a walk over to The Cutty Sark, the old college buildings and around the town, before moving over to the Gipsy Moth for a late afternoon beer. From the Gipsy Moth, we hopped on a bus back towards Peckham, stopping in at the Montague Arms for one there and then home for a lamb braai for dinner.

On Friday after work I met up with Keithy who was over for the weekend for Brett's farewell, and since he was keen to say hi to the folks, we headed home and waited there for them for a bit of a catch up before Keith had to dash back into town for the farewell. The folks, Uns and myself then took a walk up to Chai's Thai Garden Restaurant for dinner, followed by a walk up to Telegraph Hill to view the lights over London and then a quick stop in at Skehans for a drink before heading home.

Yesterday morning we started off with a Skottel breakfast at home then headed down to Walton for Kim's birthday. We spent the afternoon at their place and then to Giraffe later on for an early dinner, after which Uns and myself caught the train back home. Today's just been a quiet and relaxing day outside in the garden in the sun, after a busy, but good, first week with the folks :)