Month: November 2008

Four Cities in 16 days

On: By: Tony Papard

 PHOTOS: CAROL AND JOHN IN LONDON 

(Click on all photos to enlarge them, click again to enlarge them further)

 

Carol and John Clair, two friends from Wisconsin, made their very first visit outside North America this month, and we visited four cities in just 16 days. We saw all the main sights in London, Paris, Stratford-upon-Avon and Cardiff (Carol’s father being Welsh). We lost a day due to a flight delay which held them up in Detroit, Michigan, but they made it in the end.

 

 

PHOTOS: STRATFORD-UPON-AVON, CARDIFF AND MEXICAN RESTAURANT IN BATTERSEA, LONDON

We also caught a Legends of Rock’n’Roll show in Paris which was supposed to feature Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard and Chuck Berry. Little Richard had to postpone his European tour till next March due to hip replacement surgery, but Jerry’s piano-playing/singing sister Linda Gail Lewis replaced Richard and rocked the joint, as did Jerry. Fans rushed to the front of the stage during his first number and refused to return to their seats. Chuck closed the show, and invited girls from the audience to join him on stage.

PHOTOS: JERRY LEE LEWIS AT LE ZENITH, PARIS, NOVEMBER 14TH, 2008

It was nice meeting Carol and John after only having an Internet connexion with them for the past 10 or 11 months. We did pack a lot in so they could make the most of their visit, but even so we cut out some things so we could all relax and chill out some days.

PHOTOS: PARIS

Whilst in Paris, I also took the opportunity to visit the Alma Tunnel where Diana, former Princess of Wales, died in 1997. She’d asked me to place a white rose by the Flame of Liberty sculpture on top of the tunnel, and this is what I did, saying it was from me and also Andrew, her voice channel. He had promised to place a white rose at this spot each time he visited Paris.

And, as always on my Paris visits since his death, I lit a candle for my partner George in the Sacre Couer cathedral in Montmarte.

The accompanying pictures will give you an idea of places we  visited. I hope to be able to visit Carol and John in Wisconsin next year (possibly meeting up first in New York City), and hopefully there’ll be a return, more relaxing visit by them back here in a couple of years.

Meanwhile these belated globe-trotters (they’d never been outside North America till this month) are off to visit their son Sam in Bolivia for Christmas.

 

New U.S. President-elect

On: By: Tony Papard
Barack Obama
Barack Obama

Congratulations to our American friends for voting in Barack Obama as a hopefully progressive Democrat President to be inaugurated next January. Let’s hope the first Afro-American President steers his country back into the mainstream world arena, mends fences with Cuba by lifting the embargo, sorts out the financial and domestic crises, and withdraws troops from Iraq. Also that there is now progress on the follow-up to Kyoto in protecting our environment, and also in implementing the Nuclear Non-Ploriferation Treaty, which required the US, UK and other nuclear powers to abolish nuclear weapons as soon as possible, not develop new ones as they have been doing.

I have been taking an American couple around London, Stratford-upon-Avon, Cardiff and next week Paris, their first visit to Europe. They are elated Obama has been elected, and look forward to a new era in American politics, as we all do.

Below you will find some comments from Diana, former Princess of Wales, which she has asked me to pass on. She has also, rather cheekily she admits, asked me to place a white rose on the Liberty flame atop the Alma tunnel where she was assassinated, as her voice channel Andrew does, but he rarely gets the opportunity to visit Paris. Yes, Diana, I’ll certainly do that if I can find a white rose. Diana deserves to be remembered for her work on abolishing landmines, on reaching out to AIDs sufferers, the homeless, and for bringing up Wills and Harry to consider those less fortunate than themselves.