09-11 London 1986

Kelly was twelve years of age and said with great angst, “Daddy, my nose is too big.” “Well”, I replied, "When you are older I will take you to London and you can examine the crypts of the Kings of England at Westminster Abbey. You have the nose of kings." We went to London and South West England for two weeks in 1986 with Kelly and her great Aunt Helen.
And what a hoot that was, watching Kelly examining the noses of all those dead kings. "Dad, they've all got my nose." A joyful memory.
You can’t go to London without visiting Buckingham Palace, and having a photo with one of their soldiers on duty. Aunt Helen was great fun to travel with and went along with everything we wanted to do.
The “changing of the guard” is another great experience at Buckingham Palace and brings thousands of tourists every day.
We stayed at the Tower Hotel next to the famous Tower of London and Tower Bridge over the Thames. And, of course, we saw the place where Henry Vlll chopped off the heads of his wives. That reminded me of one of my lines when speaking to a group. "As Henry Vlll used to say, I won’t keep you long.”
Kelly lost her diamond ring in the washroom at the hotel, and a local saw it and took it home, but told the hotel she had it. She said that her husband was in the jewellry business and told her never to trust security people at hotels. Kelly sent the lady a gold maple leaf as a way of saying thank you.
We loved wandering about the back streets of London. And we did our fair share of the London theatre life, shopping, restaurants and museums.
Most of our travel outside London was down through Dorset and Devon, and the scenery was quite spectacular. We had a small 12 seater bus which frightened me when I tried to navigate those small windy English country roads. But it seems everyone was more frightened of me and pulled into the bushes when they saw me coming.
The Charborough Estate in Dorset was like Downton Abbey in the TV series, and we stayed at a local Inn which seemed like a way the Estate was trying to raise money.
And how often do you travel from Canada to London twice in one year. 1986 was also the year for the 13th International Small Business Congress. In the photo, you can see Sir Charles Villiers and Lady Villiers and John Liu of Taiwan, with the Parliament Buildings in the background. Sir Charles was the godfather of Prince Charles who was a speaker at the Congress.