Hayden and I are tagging along on another of Adrian’s work trips. While he is presenting his work to a university, today I am giving Hayden his first glimpse of London.

When we checked in at the hotel yesterday, they told us they would guarantee a good night’s sleep or give us our money back. I laughed and pointed to our cranky little peanut and told them it looks like we’ll be staying for free.

I caught the Eurostar for a long weekend to see Mum and Josef who are house-swapping in England, and on Saturday Mum and I had a day out in London. We had some delicious Phad Thai at Thai Pot near Leicester Square, and then trundled down to the Lyceum theatre to see a matinee performance of The Lion King musical.

The place was packed full of families excited to see the adventures of Simba and his friends. The opening act, The Circle of Life sung by Brown Lindiwe Mkhize, was especially spectacular, as the whole theatre came alive with the animals of Africa everything from elephants rumblings up the aisle to hornbills flying overhead.

After the performance we wandered down to the Royal Horseguards Hotel for some afternoon tea. With silver teapots, finger sandwiches, warm scones and pastries, we nibbled our way through the afternoon while watching the hotel guests mingle in black tie for the evening out on the town.

A few weeks back, Adrian was invited to speak at Cambridge, and I tagged along for the weekend. I left our house in Brussels at 5:15pm on Friday, and I was walking down the streets of Cambridge by 8:35pm.

Our hosts for this trip were Grant and Michelle, Kiwis that we met in Australia who are now post-docing in Cambridge. They fed us, entertained us, and even put us up for two nights. They gave us a tour of the old and mysterious colleges, took us to a bakery that sold cupcakes, and showed us the Mathematical Bridge. I hope this won’t be the last trip that we make to visit this charming and picturesque town.

Being in England is so strange. In Brussels, when eavesdropping on fellow travellers I struggle to pick out a few common words – manger (to eat), travailler (to work), mes amis (my friends) – and see if I can piece together a vague understanding of the context. Over there, it is almost like I can read minds – as I can understand everything that people say to each other, even if spoken quickly or quietly. The announcements, the fine print, the instructions, all of these communications are instantly comprehensible to me. In Belgium, it takes me ten minutes to translate a text message, but over there, I can absorb a page of text in a moment. I can express myself quickly and easily. My linguistic burden dissolves whenever I travel north through the chunnel.

We were even able to pop down to London to go see a broadway play, because over there, most of the theatre is conducted in English. We went to see Avenue Q, a play about muppets on the wrong side of the tracks. I laughed, I gasped, and I cried as I watched the little monster puppets struggle with the challenges of life. Afterwards we had dinner at one of the many delicious curry houses on Brick Lane. We haven’t found any good Indian restaurants in Brussels yet, so it was a great chance to fill up on some cheap and delicious naan and palak paneer.

We ventured into the supermarket to pick up the little things that we can’t find easily in Brussels – crumpets, hot cross buns, korma and tikka masala and tandoori sauces, crème eggs and other Cadbury’s chocolate, and gravy granules.

Grant and Michelle have found that one delight of living in Cambridge is walking to the next town for a pub lunch, and then walking back. They took us for a picturesque walk past Midsummer Common and Jesus Green to The Plough in Coton. The food there was amazing – for dessert I had a toffee bread and butter pudding that just melted in my mouth. Not only that, our hosts cooked us a hot breakfast of pancakes or waffles every morning. Another reason to return soon.

I had such a wonderful time in London. I am so lucky that such a charming city is less than two hours away. How amazing it is to be able to catch a train under the English Channel and just pop out the other side. Best of all, our delightful hosts Luke and Shyla were waiting to greet us on the other side. While Adrian and Luke spent the morning at the British Humanist conference, Shyla and I celebrated our free thoughts with the rituals of shopping and drinking tea. They even graciously permitted me to spend the night in their georgeous apartment. I was bestowed with the presence of their cat, Suma, kindly watching over me while I slept. I opened my eyes in the middle of the night to find her perched on my pillow, staring intently at me. When I said “Hey Suma”, she freaked out and fled from the room. Luke claims that she was whispering “I’m just a dream – I’m a dream” as she disappeared. Playing with their charming kitty really made me want some of my own.

Over two days Shyla guided me through a bunch of wonderful British stores and I bought a range of scarves, Cadbury caramel eggs, and a “Keep Calm and Carry On” card. This is one of my favourite propaganda posters. It was one of three posters designed in 1939 during the war with Germany. While the other two, ‘Your Courage, Your Cheerfulness, Your Resolution will Bring Us Victory’ and ”Freedom is in Peril’ were distributed immediately, this design was held in reserve in case of invasion. The poster was forgotten for sixty years until it was discovered folded up at the bottom of a box of books by Stuart Manly of Barter Books. They framed it and put it up on the wall of their bookshop. So many people asked for copies that it is now one of their most popular products.