London - Day 6 (Kent)

aaahhhh...finally, some sunlight! not a moment too soon too, as we plan for a drive-around the next couple of days. hubby went off to budget on marylebone road to get the mpv we booked. not a good sign when the guy behind the counter said they've given away our sharan to someone else. they said they tried calling but we didnt pick up. well, ye lah since we're using local number now. note to self - lain kali confirm kan. but still upset cos we paid all, so why release the car...urgh!

anyway, they gave us another mpv - bigger at no extra charge. not too happy about it as we were very uncomfortable in it. plus they only had 2 car seats which is bad in case we get caught by the police and the boys are all used to being in the car seats. darn it!

we he got to the apartment with the huge carrier, we slowly made our way out of london town. not so easy with us not knowing the way and the carrier being, well...huge to say the least. we managed to get onto the M20 after about an hour - complete with salah jalans and u-turns and all.

we got to canterbury at 1pm. a bit later than i would have wanted. had lunch at mcdonalds at the end of the high street. i got a bit of a shock seeing all the new roads and shops and shopping centres on and off the high street. last time it was a pretty quiet street. we walked around half of the high street, we didnt take the strollers as the roads looked a bit icy and hubby was carrying akmal and i had to pull the very keras ariff. took pictures here and there and i showed hubby some places, the ones i remember that is.

then we drove up to the university. that too has changed. there's building next to becket court and i couldnt see eliot college from the road (sob sob). and the road to park wood was very clear - unlike 15 years ago. there were buses weaving in and out and if i'm not mistaken, there's a bus service all the way to darwin college - dulu orang darwin had to walk the furthest. there's also a couple of flat-like accommodation at park wood, after ellenden.

hubby wanted to stop to let the boys play in the snow so we stopped behind the library, next to gulbenkian theatre. amir fulfilled his dream to do a snow angel and even akmal threw himself into the powdery snow.

then it was off to ashford mcarthur glen. the satelite navigation took us through the countryside roads so we could see the snow-covered hills and valleys. by the time we got to ashford it was dark. still regreting the late start we made. the outlet was nice. easily found, good parking spaces, good shops and not many people around. finally we can shop in peace (other than a scream from the boys every now and then). a pretty good amount of damage was done and we left the place happily.

until we got to the parking lot. it was snowing pretty heavily. some cars had trouble turning and reversing on the icy road. that was the start to a 2-hour nightmare for us. it was bad enough we didnt like the huge carrier, it was even worse being in the dark and in the heavy snow with it. we prayed and prayed and prayed to reach home safely. i kept telling hubby - ok, another 40miles...ok, another 30miles. there were times when i almost cried because we were so in the dark on the roads and the condition was terrible. alhamdulillah, we made it home safely.

i'm hoping for a better weather the next couple of days as we have plans outside london city centre. we also have learned not to start the day too late and end it earlier. whatever it is, drive when there's sun, then we'll be ok, insyaallah...