London was a photo bonanza, but also a family bonanza. By the way, as I type this, I am at the Cairo airport. It is not very crowded, for reasons you can probably glean, though there hasn't been much trouble lately. And the best part is that if you Google something, it comes up with an Arabic version of Google. I mean, the results are in English of course, but all the bits around the results, the ads etc., are in Arabic. Awesome! Anyway. Where was I? London!
My cousin Raffi lives in London, with her husband and children. They live in an area of London called Marylabone, which is not too far from Buckingham Palace, residence of the Queen. They live in a beautiful penthouse apartment overlooking one of those little parks surrounded by pretty homes. Her kids are a 7 year old, Henry, and a 4 year old, Oliver. They are both spectacular, and Henry is my little cousin I always talk about. I talk about him because we first met when he was 2, and it was love at first sight and has continued to be. Henry is not your typical little kid, for whom distant relatives are out of sight, out of mind. He remembered me after we parted ways, and asked when I was coming to visit for months after.
My cousin can't tell him too far ahead of time that I am coming to visit, otherwise he will ask her every day, several times a day, when I'll be there, and will I pick him up from school. And he remembers everything you say to him. Everything.
Here we are, me on the left and my cousin on the right, and Henry and Oliver between us. Oliver is very shy, so I was not able to get him to give me a kiss on the cheek all four days I was there. We made great progress, though, when they first picked me up at the airport I sat next to the boys in the back seat and Oliver was frozen in terror the whole ride. But pretty soon, much showing off ensued as well as chasing and squealing. I would tell Oliver I was going to grab him and smooch him, and he'd squeal, grab his blanky, and run like hell the other way. HAHAHAHAHAHA!
Raffi and I got a chance to catch up, this was the most time we've spent together since we were teenagers. We used to spend the summer in Salina, one of the Aeolian Islands, off the northern coast of Sicily, which is when we became really close. I wish that my other cousin, Lia, Raffi's sister, could have been there, but she works even harder than I do. We're a family of workers.
This morning I left at the asscrack of dawn - I was out the door at 5:15 am and on my way to the aiport. As an aside, I got ZERO sleep because my f*cking right hip was in such bad shape. I think I made a tactical error the last couple of days in London, and did not wear my trusty hiking shoes but regular sneakers. Back to trusty hiking shoes! Anyway. I also made the tactical error of telling Henry that I was leaving very early, before he got up. He was determined to see me off, so he woke up at 2 am, and then every hour on the hour after that, until I got up. Then he got up too, and helped me make tea and toast, and we said goodbye with many hugs and kisses. After I left, Raffi told me he cried inconsolably for several hours, then went to school. Poor bunny. He's like the little brother I never had.
Anyway, more blogging as I go. I'll try to keep them short so I can post a little bit here and there. The pics will mostly have to wait till I return, but I did post some to Facebook.