Puff Trains

Not paying attention (as usual)

Mummy had a cake to make today, so the rest of us headed down to Bridgnorth after breakfast for a day playing on the Severn Valley Railway - I don't think Grandpa needed his arm twisting very hard. We caught the first train south all the way to Kidderminster, and had a coach almost to ourselves - handy, as His Nibs was in full-on fidget mode and wouldn't sit on any given seat for more than about 10 seconds at a time. Having said that, he seemed to enjoy looking out of the window and impressing his grandparents with his ever-growing vocabulary. I think "river" was a new word for the day, which was hardly surprising as you can see for pretty much the whole journey.
As soon as we disembarked at Kidderminster, Tom legged round the end of the platform to where he remembered there was a miniature railway - he was spot on, and it was running, so he took Grandpa for a quick spin. We then had a quick look round the railway shop, with Tom seriously interested in some beautiful-looking model locomotives in a glass case. However, they were upwards of £100 each, and we don't have a train set, so they remained in the case.
We then caught the next northbound train, which was absolutely jam-packed - we could hardly find seats together. This meant that Tom didn't have as many wriggling opportunities as on the way down, and he sat quite nicely, mostly on Grandpa.

Beating up Grannie

We had lunch in the Engine Shed cafe at Highley - baguettes for the grown-ups and fish fingers & chips for the lad. It was all quite nice, but none of us could finish up. We then dispersed throughout the museum; Tom & me to the wooden train set, Grandpa wandering round the steam engines and Grannie buying jigsaws in the shop. I took Tom outside to watch a southbound train go past, but it peeped very loudly just as it went past us. Cue a few (but only a few) tears from Tom, so I guess us repeatedly telling him that when trains say TOOT!, they mean HELLO! has at least partly worked.
We the caught the train back to Bridgnorth, in a compartment of our own where he was changed from pants to nappy as he was looking very tired. Sure enough, he was asleep almost as soon as we left the car park.
Dinner was a curry for five at Abdul's, which we all enjoyed. Tom didn't eat his own weight in curry, rice, naan & poppadums (as he generally does), but he did enough to impress his grandparents with his culinary range.