Destination London

'Twas the fourth of June in the year of our Lord twenty hundred and fourteen that the family of Hengs  (the Philip Heng Swee Choon branch) set forth for their sojourn of a lifetime.

There was grandpa and grandma, three children, one spouse and three grandchildren. First stop was London, England. We were going to be there for five days.

In answer to Patricia's prayer, British Airways was having its anniversary celebrations and air tickets to London were within our modest budget.

The day we set off was full of surprises: a taxi driver who did not materialise, a piece of luggage that had to be delivered to the airport by the maternal grandmother, one of the boys not in the best of health...but we know that God has many lessons in store for us as individuals and as a family.

Christy is all set to go

The flight was thankfully uneventful. John who was my seating companion was glad for the wide selection in-flight entertainment. He chose to watch Lego:the Movie and to play a computer game which was akin to Space Invaders. John is now a teenager; he looks like his father when Nathaniel was a teenager: bespectacled, with the teenager's bane, acne and a highly inquisitive outlook. He obediently tried to get some shut-eye. I failed miserably to get more than forty winks and was up most of the flight. The only consolation was the evocative "The Monuments Men" and intriguing "Philomena".

So we landed in Heathrow at five in the morning and joined the snaking queues of people. Geoff who was recovering from a weak tummy had to sit aside whilst we made our way through the lines like at a theme park. The immigration officers thought he was lost but we vouched he was with our group. Dad started to strike up conversations with strangers in line: a Saudi Arabian gentlemen, a boy and his family from the Middle East, a Bohemian couple with a tiny infant.

We cleared UK Border checks and sat in the arrival hall waiting to pick up our rented van during office hours.

Geoff is energised by some Tom Yam flavoured instant noodles

We had a quick breakfast of duck wraps and chicken sandwich whilst the children wolfed down a small serving of instant noodles using hot water from the flasks.

London...at long last!