This is a picture of my good friends Willie and Suzanne Doig from Inverness.  We've been friends for about 10 years now; I met them whilst on holiday there once, and we kept in touch; then when I moved there we saw each other more often.  This week they've been on a city break to London, so I drove down to spend a day with them on Wednesday.

We met up at Tottenham Court Road, near to their hotel, and walked several miles sightseeing.  We had lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe.

My mate Toni was kind enough to let me stay at her home Tuesday and Wednesday nights, so that I didn't have to do it all in one day.  After all, it's 120 miles from where I live to London.  Toni and her friends Andrea and Kim took me to the Prospect of Whitby pub for dinner on Tuesday evening, and on Wednesday evening Toni supplied good old East End pie and mash for dinner.  One of the few things about London that I miss!

It's nice to be back home in Suffolk though; less crowds, less dirt and less traffic!

Yesterday I went to visit a lady from the Crafts Forum who lives not far from me.  Sue is quite poorly and is confined to bed but makes lovely greetings cards; next time I visit I'm hoping to help her with that and pick up some tips!  We'd never met before, just chatted on the forum online.

Her husband, Al, is a bit of an artist too.  He has some lovely oil paintings and I was blown away by the Dutch art form he practices (I can't remember what it's called).  It's a bit like the canal boat art, lots of beautiful patterns and flowers.  He decorates all sorts of things, such as wooden boxes, milk churns, jugs, you name it!

What a lovely couple; they made me very welcome.

But the weirdest thing, we were chatting about where we're from etc.  Sue is an Essex girl from Romford, and Al is from Shepherd's Bush in London.  I used to live on the Isle of Dogs in London.

I asked them how they'd met and they said it was actually on the Isle of Dogs nine years ago at a pub called The Nelson.

Now, when I lived on the Island I used to drink at The Nelson myself!  I and my friends used to go there regularly for the karaoke.  It turns out that Al is a friend of the proprietors, Rose and Peter, who of course are well known to me from our karaoke nights.

If Sue and Al met in there 9 years ago, chances are that I was in the pub at that time, so unbeknown to us, we may have all been in the same room before.  What are the chances of that?

What a small world it is....!