Tuesday 16th March

When I landed at Heathrow, I was relieved to see my bag on the baggage carousel.  It had successful moved from plane to plane on the three legs of the trip.

Nicky had organised for a hire car to pick me up from the airport. This worked well. The peak hour traffic was quite light and it only took about an hour to reach the B and B. Suzy was waiting for me there. After I had a shower, shave and changed into clean clothes, I felt much better.

The B and B seems very nice. It is a three storey brick house on a typical narrow suburban block. The owners live on the ground floor and we are on the second floor. It looks as though they have recently refurbished the guest areas because everything looks clean and new. They seem to do a good job of looking after their guests - right down to the new fluffy white towels they provide in the bathroom.

However the fluffy white towels gave me a surprise because when I was drying myself after my shower, I ended up with lots of white fluff caught in my stubbly beard. When I saw myself in the mirror (without my glasses), I was quite startled. I wondered what on earth had happened to my face. It took me a few minutes to get rid of the fluff from my face.

Next, we headed off for Nicky and John's place which is only about 2km away. We walked down to the centre of Golders Green where I bought an Oyster card at the railway station and then we caught a bus to Hampstead. The bus stop is almost right outside their place. They live in a unit in a refurbished English pub called Jack Straws Castle next to Hampstead Heath (a huge park). Apparently it is the highest point in the London area.

Suzy had told me that Amelia had a bad day yesterday and that she was still screaming when Suzy left that evening. This morning, Nicky and John looked tired and hassled because of lack of sleep overnight. Amelia was just stirring from a sleep when we arrived and so I was able to walk into the bedroom and pick her up for the first time.

Although she had been a strain for her parents, to me she looked like an absolute angel. She is very cute with delicate fine features. It is easy to forget just how tiny a newborn baby is. She has quite a good coverage of fine dark hair and a very fair complexion.

She seemed quite contented especially after Nicky gave her a feed. We all took turns to nurse her before she went down for another sleep. This routine continued all day. Everyone was commenting on how much better she was today. I was quite happy to claim all the credit but there was also a theory that Nicky was producing more milk today resulting in Amelia getting a better feed.

At 1pm, a nurse arrived to visit Nicky. She spent more than hour with Nicky and John giving them advice about caring for Amelia and informing them about the services offered by the various authorities. They seem to have a good support system here. Apparently a mid-wife had made several visits to see Nicky and the baby after the birth and now today's nurse had taken over the support role.

After lunch Nicky, Suzy and I took Amelia for a walk in her pram to the centre of Hampstead which is less than 1km away. John didn't come with us because he had appointment to go to the registry office to officially register Amelia's birth.

Our first stop was at the local O2 shop. O2 is telecommunications carrier - just like Optus or Vodafone. I wanted to get a UK SIM for my iPhone so that I could minimise my mobile phone costs while here on holidays. Suzy had come to this shop last week for the same reason but they couldn't get the UK SIM to work in her phone. We got the salesman to test it with my phone and there were no problems at all.

My UK mobile phone number is 07 547 792 483 and so I someone wants to ring me from Australia, the phone number is +44 7 547 792 483.

Nicky took us to a quaint cafe in a lane that serves excellent coffee. After looking at some of the shops, we tried my HandyCard at the Barclays ATM and it worked! I'd remembered the correct PIN number and the card had been successfully reset over night.

For dinner, we decided to all go to the Bull and Bush pub which is about 500m down the road. This is the genuine famous original Bull and Bush. However, Amelia wasn't as impressed as me and started to cry and so we decided to give up on the Bull and Bush. Instead we went back to Nicky and John's place and got take-away.

Suzy and I didn't stay long after dinner. We caught the bus back to our B and B for an early night. For me it had been a momentous day - seeing my first grandchild for the first time.