A warm welcome from the king
It's been over a month since England rolled out the red carpet for us and welcomed us into the country in spectacular style. I'm not sure who told them but somehow they found out we were coming and not only did they send out an honour guard to escort us from the airport as pictured below, the king himself greeted us as we got off the plane and made our way to the carousel to collect our luggage. You can see him here greeting my wife Faith. He basically told us that he had an anonymous tip-off that we were coming and that he felt compelled to come down from the throne room and greet us himself. We were appreciative of the gesture however told him it was not necessary to come himself, and that he could have sent his second in command, a prince or someone like that, to do the greeting. After all, we figured he'd be busy doing something else, invading France or some such thing.
OK, so maybe this isn't the king, England doesn't have a king at all in fact, and to be completely honest no one rolled out the red carpet for us either. We slipped into Heathrow airport anonymously with no trumpet's heralding our arrival and no formal greeting of any sort. Despite our fairly low-key entry into England though I can assure you we had an amazing time and will be back to see more of the amazing United Kingdom. It's been an amazing trip however as good as England was, meeting my niece has been the best part of this trip!
Right now we're in Finland and once again the king came to visit us...OK, not really...My brother came to greet us at the airport which was nice considering I haven't seen him for 12 years. We have been hanging out and catching up on those years and I've had the chance to get to know his wife and little daughter. I've had a lot of messages asking to see pictures of us, his daughter and requests for me to regale the steemit community with stories about our reunion however to date I haven't really said much at all. There's no real reason for it I guess, lack of time to write an effective post and the fact we're trying to spend as much time together as possible has meant I have stayed rather silent about it however at some stage, probably when I return, I'll write more.
Today was quite special for me as I got to go swimming in a Finland lake. It's quite warm here at the moment (unusually warm) however the lake was COLD! I manned-up and got in though. It was special because I was frolicking around with my 2 year old niece, playing in the water, splashing and trying to catch fish by hand. (There actually were no fish, it's just a game she plays). We had a great time, in fact we went to the lake twice today so I got a double dose of my cute little niece. My brother @tarazkp took a load of pictures and he'll be sending them to me shortly; They'll be treasured images for me and I'll probably share one or two on steemit at some stage.
Tomorrow is a new day and we've got a couple of things planned however all I am really interested in is spending time with my brother and his family. We'll be down at the lake again so I'll have to find the courage to enter the frigid waters once again however having the chance to play with my niece is an opportunity too good to pass up. I'll be in there for as long as she wants to pretending to catch fish and shivering my ass off!
We leave Finland bound for home on Friday so I have four more full days to enjoy the company of my family and intend to make the most of each of them. For me, the only one of my family living in Adelaide back in Australia, I value the time I have with family as I know it will be a long time before I see them again.
I'm sure he felt like a king seeing you again. Petty about the Vegemite though, it could have taken over Finland. Hope you get to keep your ass, but at least you don't have to worry about Great White and Blue-ringed octopus, which maybe the Vegemite could repel
Yeah, I think the most dangerous thing here is the adder. If you get bitten by it you only get 2 to 3 weeks to get to the hospital for treatment and if you don’t make it then it’s nothjnf a good lay down and a couple of Panadol’s won’t fix! :)
A little different to the bitey-creepy-crawly-people-killers from Australia and South Africa huh?
And then some, we have some nasty critters man and they are everywhere.
Makes for some interesting living for sure.
Hi.
if the king came or not to receive you that is the least of it, the important thing is that you enjoyed your trips if you had very good experiences and especially in family.
Greetings from Venezuela
I agree with you. Thanks for your comment.
Well, king or no king, I'm glad to hear you're having a good time with your family, Galen! I'm sure this reunion has been...intense, to say the least :D And I really do hope you make the most of your time (although some pictures of you guys would be nice, especially with that adorable little cutie of a niece ) <3
Have fun over there ;)
I reckon we’ll get some pictures today. To be honest we haven’t actually taken any of me and Taraz (maybe because we’re not that photogenic). We’ll make it happen though. It’s been a really good time and I think it’s going to be a difficult moment when we leave. Just thinking about saying goodbye to my niece makes me emotional, actually doing it will be much worse I think.
We’re going to the lake again today and I’m looking forward to “hand-fishing” with her again which is pretty much pretending that we see a fish and then grabbing into the water to “catch it”. So far we haven’t got any but we’ll keep persisting @honeydue
Not many people are greeted by the king himself. Congratulations!
How many fish did you catch? Are you going to cook the "fish" for dinner? I'm glad you're still having a great time with your family.
Haha, nah didn’t get any fish but she did some “swimming” (me whooshing her around in the water) and she’s saying g’day mate a lot so much progress is being made.
Ha ha, you're freezing cold, but she wants you to help her swim so you can't leave. Life is rough. At least she's getting better at her g'day, mate. It's difficult to do and only true Aussies can do it, so if she can do it correctly, that would automatically get her residency status in Australia, if I remember correctly.
Correct. A well-executed g’day grants immediate Australian-ness! :)
This is the best part for me.🤩🤩
Eagerly waiting for this pictures 😊. She is very cute and adorable. I wish you post them soon when you reach Australia.
Have fun with your neice! Happy vacation!!
Hey mate. Yes, it’s been a great vacation so far. Thanks for taking the time to comment.
greetings bro I see the extent of his travels very rich in creativity and fun I am glad to know that he is enjoying it a lot.
Great travels so far mate, thanks for commenting.
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That photo is amazing and very unique. Love it 😍
You got a 34.01% upvote from @ocdb courtesy of @galenkp!