We had been to London for the long weekend, to visit Sasi's friend, Revathi. Monday was holiday for us and I took Friday off from work. Ever since I got my driving license in UK, I wanted to do a long trip with the whole family in our own car. The distance from our house in Newcastle to their house in Hounslow, London is 290 miles (that is 464 kilometres). We hit traffic jams while going and it took us almost 9 hours to get there. All of us were quite tired and sick of being in the car for so long.
Revathi and John Mark's house is in an area called 'Hounslow' which is West of London and very near to the Heathrow Airport. Believe it or not, there's a flight landing every minute at Heathrow and their house is in the flight path. The planes go at about 400 meters above their house and noise is very loud when you are outside. But when you close the door and windows, you wont hear a thing! The sound proofing is so good. The kids loved watching the flights go by so close. The weather was also quite nice and warm.
Their house is in a good locality, situated at a walking distance from the Bus stop and Tube station. They even have an Indian grocery shop just opposite their house. We had a nice, relaxing time at their house. Visited 'Southall' which is primarily Indian shopping area and also has a movie theatre that shows mainly Bollywood movies. They also had one telugu movie 'Bommarillu' playing for one show only and I read the review that it is a very good movie but we didn't have time to see the movie. We will wait for it to download or watch it when we are in India next month.
On Sunday, I went to visit my college friend Mukesh Soni in Hemel, Hampstead. It is 35 miles from Hounslow. Sasi and kids were tired from our shopping trips earlier in the day so they didn't come. I had dinner at his place and came back.
On Monday, we started for Newcastle at around 1:30 p.m, after having our lunch. The return journey was absolutely fantastic. We were at home by 6:00p.m.! We covered 464 Kilometres in 4.5 hours with a single break of 15 minutes. The legal limit is 70mph (112kmph) but the top speed I did was 110mph (176kmph!).The kids slept for almost 3 hours and the drive was just fabulous. I broke lot of speed restrictions and hope that I wasn't caught on any camera. If you are caught you will be fined some money and you get 'points' on your license. When you have points on the license, the insurance premium goes up and when it crosses a set limit, your driving license can be revoked.
All in all it was great trip and we had a good time. I have also gained good experience of driving on British Motorways. We may plan a couple more trips later in the year.
Revathi and John Mark's house is in an area called 'Hounslow' which is West of London and very near to the Heathrow Airport. Believe it or not, there's a flight landing every minute at Heathrow and their house is in the flight path. The planes go at about 400 meters above their house and noise is very loud when you are outside. But when you close the door and windows, you wont hear a thing! The sound proofing is so good. The kids loved watching the flights go by so close. The weather was also quite nice and warm.
Their house is in a good locality, situated at a walking distance from the Bus stop and Tube station. They even have an Indian grocery shop just opposite their house. We had a nice, relaxing time at their house. Visited 'Southall' which is primarily Indian shopping area and also has a movie theatre that shows mainly Bollywood movies. They also had one telugu movie 'Bommarillu' playing for one show only and I read the review that it is a very good movie but we didn't have time to see the movie. We will wait for it to download or watch it when we are in India next month.
On Sunday, I went to visit my college friend Mukesh Soni in Hemel, Hampstead. It is 35 miles from Hounslow. Sasi and kids were tired from our shopping trips earlier in the day so they didn't come. I had dinner at his place and came back.
On Monday, we started for Newcastle at around 1:30 p.m, after having our lunch. The return journey was absolutely fantastic. We were at home by 6:00p.m.! We covered 464 Kilometres in 4.5 hours with a single break of 15 minutes. The legal limit is 70mph (112kmph) but the top speed I did was 110mph (176kmph!).The kids slept for almost 3 hours and the drive was just fabulous. I broke lot of speed restrictions and hope that I wasn't caught on any camera. If you are caught you will be fined some money and you get 'points' on your license. When you have points on the license, the insurance premium goes up and when it crosses a set limit, your driving license can be revoked.
All in all it was great trip and we had a good time. I have also gained good experience of driving on British Motorways. We may plan a couple more trips later in the year.
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