In the morning, we went to see Lucia's veterinarian, to get a health certificate which would enable us to get Kettle into Spain. Then we caught a bus to a Metro station with the picturesque name of Elephant and Castle, where we caught a train to another suburb of London, to visit another of Terry's foreign correspondents, Dennis:

Dennis, standing in his kitchen.


A map showing the approximate location of Dennis' house, southwest of London.

Dennis has what they call a "shotgun house" - a long, skinny house, one room wide, so named because you can fire a shotgun down the length of the house:

Dennis' living room, with Terry and Lucia relaxing on the couch.


Dennis' kitchen, with glass doors looking out on the back yard.

...with a very nice back yard (excuse me - garden), where he has a summer house that he calls "The Jazz Den," where he plays his music - he's a keyboard player.

The yard is paved with flagstones, and has lots of plants. The summer house at the back is made of blonde wood.

When I went upstairs to use the bathroom, I discovered something I've never seen before. The toilet seat, instead of being the usual oval, was square! Okay, the corners were rounded, and the hole in the middle was the usual oval, but still...

Again, we took the dogs to a local park to let them run and play:

Kettle and Jeri running and playing in the park.

Then we all went to dinner at a local pub, The Robin Hood, and then we caught an Uber home, while Dennis walked back to his house.

We got up, packed up, said our goodbyes to Lucia, and caught an Uber to Heathrow. At the security checkpoint, a couple of the items in one of our bags made the security people nervous, so they had to open it up and check. Unfortunately, they had a long line of bags to check before they got to ours, and I was convinced we were going to miss our flight. And once they let us go, it was a looooong walk the the gate. As it happened, we didn't miss the flight, but it was close.

And so ended our week in London. The saga continues in the next chapter - Onward to Madrid!