THE DONKEY HAS CROSSED THE POND

(and crossed back.....and back again!)

Greetings fellow donkey lovers, and welcome to another edition of Donkey Crossing! When we last wrote we were still basking in the glorious sun on Barefoot Beach, Florida and closing in on our final days in the USA. Since the last posting a lot has happened. First of all, we've travelled to another continent (and back again, but we'll get to that later): the third principal land mass on our magical journey...Europe...more specifically, Jolly Old England!

View of London's famous Tower Bridge from Waterloo Bridge. Notice the dark skies. That's 3pm on a winter day in London for you.

First stop was London. We love this city for many reasons, the most important being friends and family. We are very lucky to have scores of friends in London, as well as Rachel's brother Andrew and his lovely wife Eva. Typically our visits to London involve spending more time in pubs and friends' kitchens cooking, eating, laughing and drinking, than seeing the traditional tourist attractions. This trip was no exception. No photos of Buckingham Palace, the Queen or the Houses of Parliament, I'm afraid!Above: Andrew, Jason and Eva give cheers in the Tooting Bec flat before tucking into a beautiful dinner prepared by Eva. Andrew and Eva have lived in Tooting Bec, South London for over five years. Their flat is one part home, one part recording studio and one part pilates studio, and is much appreciated as temporary accommodation for their nomadic family members!

About fifteen minutes up the road from Tooting Bec is East Dulwich, one of London's hip enclaves. It's full of beautiful homes, trendy bars/restaurants, thousands of baby carriages and our mate Pete and his family (wife, Sarah and daughter, Eden). It's been a tradition to spend an afternoon with Pete and Eden in East Dulwich for the past couple years.

Above: Pete, Rachel and Jason do their best impression of a VW commercial as they cruise the streets of Dulwich. Eden was at nursery, while Sarah was hard at work. All five of us had a nice Asian "Wagamama" lunch together a couple days later.

After a week in London, I left Rachel there to pay a quick and successful visit to my family in Naperville, USA. The reason for my visit was Dad's (Marty) long-awaited heart valve replacement surgery. It was something I never could've missed, and I was very glad I made the trip back. The support my family received during, before and after the surgery has been overwhelming and we're all very grateful to the hundreds who have shown their love. Everything went well, the doctors are very pleased with his recovery and he's looking good. Take a look at the man below, just a few days after surgery, as he was up and about walking the halls of the Cardiac Care Unit at Edward Hospital.

Nice job Dad! We're very proud of your Strength and Optimism throughout everything...nice job to Mom (Teena) too for putting up with him!

Finally, a special thank you to my cousin, Jack Jr., for taking me to O'Hare Airport the other day as I joined Rachel back in England...he gifted me the cool Kangol hat too!

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Cheers everyone and Happy Holidays! Visit back soon for a report and pictures from Rachel's solo week in London and our first few days in the beautiful rolling hills of Yorkshire.