So this is a little condensed, but I went down to London a couple more times while I was in the UK. One was actually the first time my second cousin and I met after talking on and off for years - we only realised this after planning the whole trip and meeting up at Lime Street Train Station. We got on really well and I'm so happy we met. She and her friends, who graciously put us up for a couple of nights, showed me London in a local way - her and I went to see Richard III with Martin Freeman at Trafalgar Studios, wandered around a few touristy sights, and then stumbled upon an old fashioned carnival on the Southbank - where we drank gin on a merry-go-round that was turned into a bar. And then they took us to a London house party.

 I think we rolled back home around 5am very tired and very tipsy - it was genuinely the time of my life catching the night bus across the city and it really exemplifies how I fell in love with London - slowly at first and then all at once.

Even now I have such a yearning to be there, nearly as much as Liverpool, which was effectively my home for 6 months (and might still be where I think of home as). We did some tourist stuff - Went on the eye, went to Baker Street (and Speedys Cafe from BBC's Sherlock) and that - but we also spent an entire day at the Warner Brothers Harry Potter experience. Later in the year I took my Aunty down to London for her birthday, where we saw Matilda the Musical, took pictures of Christmas lights, and did Madame Tussaudes.

                                       (the husbands)