Christmas

Right then, this is going to be a long blog!

So on the 23rd Mum and Dad finally made it up here.  In fact they arrived much earlier than we expected around 10.30 - we had only just finished breakfast and got dressed.  We had lunch at home and then decided to take a risk with the weather and go for a walk around Kirkby Lonsdale.  Tom got his bike out and went the 'long way' with Matt and Dad, whilst Mum hobbled with me along the short way.  We met in the churchyard and then headed to a cafe for Tea and a bun.  We were lucky in the end with the weather, only catching a short drizzle.

Christmas Eve
It was yet again another horrible day.  We decided to go to the Lakeland Motor Museum - we have been there before but it is interesting and undercover and we thought Mum and Dad would enjoy it.  We did all have a good time, Tom taught Mum and Dad about the TT, and we all enjoyed the old cars. We had lunch at the Cafe there - which was very very very good and then had a look round the Bluebird exhibition.

We came home, had dinner and then bed.  Matt had an interesting conversation with Tom:

M: What day is it tomorrow?
T: Tuesday
M: Yes, but what day is it?
T: Holiday
M: Yes, but which holiday?
T: Windermere Day
M: What?  No! Who is visiting you tomorrow?
T: Granma and Pop Pop
M: Yes, but Granma and Pop Pop are here already, who is visiting you tonight and leaving you presents if you've been a good boy?
T: Father Christmas
M: Yes, so what day is it tomorrow?
T: Tuesday...Christmas Day
M: Yahoo - time for bed!

Christmas Day

Henry the dog

So Father Christmas did visit Tom last night and there was a full stocking by his bed when he woke up.  Did he have a look?  No.  We could hear he was awake as he was coughing and moving around in his bed, but he didn't touch the stocking.  We had to go in and tell him it was OK for him to have a look, in the end he came into bed with us and unpacked it.  He must have been the only 3 year old in the country who didn't jump out of bed to investigate his stocking!

We eventually got up and then got dinner ready.  That meant looking at the beef and working out what to do with it.  We had got a 3 rib of beef.  It was ENORMOUS - so much so that when we weighed it on our scales the scales were overloaded - it was big.  I put Matt in charge of it.  I did the veggies so did a lot of peeling etc.  It was getting on for 10 by the time we were finished and could have breakfast and then time to investigate the presents.  Luckily we didn't have a small child demanding to unwrap everything, I think he was quite content having his grandparents and stocking toys to play with.

Around 11 we were ready.  Guess what - Tom had more than double the number of presents of anyone else, so it took him quite a while to get through them all, whilst I was in charge of writing down what was from who - think I just about got it all right.  No-one was ill today - a nice change as quite often a Branch Family Christmas was plagued by illness (never me though!)  Matt took it upon himself to right this and managed somehow to fall down the stairs whilst handing out presents.  The banisters held him, but one of his toes crumpled up and he felt distinct discomfort.  Apparently he had broken that toe in Japan and was pretty sure he had done it again.  It did come up in a good looking bruise - both back and front, but fortunately he wasn't in pain just discomfort so we carried on.

New trains

He did very well, Grand Central Train Station from Granma and Pop Pop which was a huge success, remote control train for his train set, a night time projector and various other things from Grannie and Grandpa, a remote controlled quad bike from Simon & co, a doggie soft toy/pillow from Vera (a huge hit - surprising considering he doesn't like dogs)  and then loads of other things from various people.  Thanks to everyone.

I did well - an iPad Mini from Matt and some fake Japanese food from Tom (winner of the most surprising novelty items).  I think Mum and Dad got some presents - but I didn't really see (something to do with a huge pile of paper in front of me)

We then had play time whilst dinner cooked and then dinner.  All I can say is that Matt did a superb job with the beef - it was lovely and rare.

Note to selves for future: 3 rib of beef - 220 degrees for 25 minutes, then 1.45 hours at 140.  It was perfect - melt in the mouth and perfectly seasoned.  It stayed hot for the 45 mins it took me to cook the veggies as well.  A perfect dinner.  Oh and goose fat for roasties does work - the roasties were good too.

We then spent after dinner relaxing - watched the Ice Age Mammoth Christmas which was pretty lame, but Tom needed to calm down.  He actually hit a wall around 4pm and got very very tired.  In the end he had an early bath and bed.  He was in bed for 6.15 - very early for him - it was a very exciting day for him and we were really pleased how well he took it, it was exciting but he didn't go manic.

First tattoo (a train tattoo of course)

We had a late supper - a HUGE cheese board courtesy of Pat and Bob.  It included half a huge brie which was very gooey and lovely, a huge chunk of Stilton, another huge chunk of posh Cheddar and a chunk of Hafod (Welsh?).  I supplied lots of biscuits and we did our best to make a dent.  It was certainly all good stuff, but when we had finished it looked a poor effort, we are going to have lots of cheesy dinners in the near future (heaven for me then! - thanks Pat and Bob)

Oh and today we worked out that at 1414 days old today was the first day in Tom's life that he didn't go out - not bad hey.  It was only because the weather was soooooo bad and there are no easy walks to do here that it happened.




Boxing Day
We had a lazy morning today.  We heard Tom coughing at 6am, but he didn't call out for us.  At 9am I thought I should go in and get Tom.  I went in, he was still asleep.  Ridiculous, he had been asleep for over 14 hours - oh well, I'm not complaining.

Today we had to say goodbye to Granma and Pop Pop as they were heading on their two day journey back home.  They stayed until lunch (usual Boxing Day leftovers).  We then said our goodbyes and decided to brave the weather and go out.  We went to Kirkby Lonsdale to do some recycling and to see if Booths was open and if so buy another ham as their Christmas ham was very very good.  No joy, it was closed.  Oh hum, as it was still lashing down with rain, we gave up, came home and watched Totoro.  Tom then had some beans on toast whilst we sat with him and went to bed and we had another cheesy supper - this time we over did it and neither of us slept particularly well - ooops!

Thursday
It was still gloomy today but we decided to go out.  I got some Lakeland vouchers for Christmas from Pat and Bob, so we thought we would go along and see if they had a good sale on.  They did have a sale, but unfortunately nothing I wanted was in it, so I decided to wait until there is something I really need for spending it.  We headed down to Bowness for a spot of lunch and then decided to revisit Tarn Howes as it had stopped raining.  This we did and enjoyed a very pleasant walk around the Tarn (apart from the two times Tom fell over and cried!)

Friday

Biggest layout ever

Today Auntie Jude and Craig came to visit.  It was another revolting day - at this rate we are all going to disappear under water. They made it in time for lunch so we had Christmas soup and cheese board - we have now made a dent and the brie is getting better and better - it is in fondue stage:  almost impossible to keep on a biscuit!

After lunch we did presents.  Tom was delighted to receive a tractor and trailer from Auntie Jude (he's been wanting one for a while - it is always the first thing he plays with at playgroups) and some more track pieces from Craig.  Now Craig is Tom's favourite train set play buddy.  Craig went away from here last time knowing exactly which pieces we were missing, did his research and came up with 2 T junctions and 2 wiggily woggily pieces - perfect.  It was still raining so the boys set to making the biggest train layout we have ever seen.  It kept them busy for quite a while and they did a great job as you can see in the pictures.

Then dinner - roast beef Japanese stew - very yummy.  Then Tom went to bed and we slouched on the sofas.

Saturday
It was still raining!  We had a very lazy morning.  Tom was up at 8, and at 9 he went in to see Auntie Jude and Craig.  I was sure they would be awake - oops, they weren't!  Oh well, I think 9am is fair game in a house with a 3 year old, most households would have to start around 6 or 7.  We all finally got up around 10am and had a cooked brunch (bascially everything in the fridge that could be eaten for breakfast was cooked and served up).

We then went into Kirkby Lonsdale for the usual walk, except we couldn't do it as the River Lune was way way way up, so much so that a part of the main path was almost flooded and the new path was completely flooded (a shame as they have only just laid it)  We then headed to Emily's for a drink, then it was goodbye to Auntie Jude and Craig (Tom wasn't too happy) and we headed off to Ingleton to look for range cookers (the owners of the house we are buying are taking the cooker with them) and see if there was a sale at Daleswear.  We didn't do too well at Daleswear, but I got some info on range cookers and found a cookshop tucked behind the appliance shop which sells all the good bakeware.  They did have a sale on so I got some cookie cutters for next Christmas for very little which was good - but could be quite dangerous once we move there.

We then had a very late lunch at Neptis, came home did some playing and then Tom had supper, bath and bed.  We had Christmas soup later on and went to bed.

Sunday
Nothing much to report from today.  Matt went back to work and Tom and I went out for a couple of hours doing a number of chores.

We are off to Manchester on Tuesday to see Adam, Karen, Leia and Rosa, so will probably have something to report back after that.

Where's Granma and Pop Pop?

So Mum and Dad were supposed to come up to us today by train.  However, it has been raining steadily in the UK for the last couple of days.  The result: this morning the train line was flooded between Exeter and Tiverton and there was signal failure in Plymouth.  Great!

Dressed for all seasons at the museum

I called Mum and Dad to let them know, they called the relevant people and were told that even if they were to drive to Tiverton the likelihood was that they would have to stand all the way to Birmingham New Street.  Now both Mum and Dad have heart problems and Mum has a bad knee - there is no way they could stand for that long.  So, they are coming by car.  They can't do the journey in one day, so they have driven up to Stafford and will be with us tomorrow lunchtime.  They will then have to leave on Boxing Day as mum has to be back for a Friday morning for an appointment at hospital.  So a 5 day stay has now been shortened to 2 days.  I hate the rain and the rail system!  It's such a long way to come for 2 days, such a shame.

It was a revolting day today and now Mum and Dad weren't coming we wondered what to do.  We decided on going to the Dock Museum in Barrow.  It was quite good: it was free and there were plenty of models of boats and things for children to do.  There was also a cinema room - we had trouble with Tom to start with here, but we did manage to get him to sit and watch and ENJOY the film - it was about the railway in Barrow which was a help - anyway it looks like we are beginning to crack the cinema thing.  We then had a very good and cheap lunch (for a museum anyway) before heading back.  We decided to go home via the coastal route - not sure why - we couldn't see anything.  

Tom wasn't very well behaved today - he was saying no to everything we suggested, sulking a lot and generally whingy.  He fell asleep in the car on the way home about 10 minutes after we started of = he's tired.  So he went to bed early today.  Let's hope he's in a better mood tomorrow when Granma and Pop Pop finally make it up here.

Getting ready for school

On Monday Mrs Colledge, the Head Mistress of Ingleton School and also the pre-school teacher came to visit us at home along with Mrs Jeffries - her Teaching Assistant.  This is a new thing that schools are doing - they come to visit your child at home so they can get to know them better in their home environment - that's their excuse anyway, what they are really doing is checking out the parents - working out which social group we belong to, if we will be trouble, if Tom will be trouble etc.  You may think I'm being cynical, but I asked Michelle who is a Primary School teacher if this was the case.  She started to give me the official line, but when I told her to tell me the truth she said yes, they are basically snooping on you to work out your circumstances.  So the house was cleaned and tidied, some select toys were on show, the wood burner was on (door closed) and we were working on a jigsaw together when they turned up (it is a little bit farcical isn't it?).

Anyway I think the visit went well.  They did ask us about what jobs we had, personal circumstances etc, but they did also ask questions about Tom and they did interact a little with him, but mainly it was about us.  I wonder what paperwork they fill in when they get back?

Tuesday morning Tom had a settling in session at pre-school.  I went with him.  They were doing lots of Christmas craft activities and a number of parents had been invited to come along and play with their children.  Some of the parents came up to me, especially those of boys as there are 16 girls and 4 boys in Tom's class, and said hello.  They all seemed very friendly.  Tom being Tom decided he didn't want to join in the craft acitivies so I didn't really get a chance to talk to them, he wanted to play vehicles and only vehicles.  The mums were then invited for mince pies and a chat whilst the children had storytime. Tom wouldn't let me leave him for storytime, he gave me that look which I knew meant that if I went against his wishes he would cry - he had me in his grasp - storytime is the only formal part of the day and the children have to sit and listen.  Tom wasn't interested and messed about, but I couldn't do anything about it as it would have resulted in commotion during quiet time - humpfh!  After that it was snack time and Tom was distracted enough for me to leave him, but by that time all the mums were leaving so I still didn't get to talk to them.  Oh well, Mrs Colledge said that they are a nice bunch - I'll have to take her word for it.

After snack time it was playtime.  Out of a huge shed came a huge amount of cars, trikes, bikes (including some kiddimotos), tractors etc.  Tom was in his element so I hung around so he could have a play.  Mrs Colledge was very good, coming up to speak to me, explain the reasons why she does certain things and putting me at ease.  I also saw her in Head Teacher mode telling an older child off for a minor misdemeanour which was good.

Finally the bikes were collected in and we said our goodbyes.  I'm sure Tom will have a good time there, I might have trouble leaving him there to start with, but once he's settled in, I'm pretty sure he'll enjoy it.  Also one of the boys, Fred also goes to Smile and they recognised each other and chatted to each other which is good.  When Mrs Colledge visited us she said that the boys in the class weren't boisterous boys, she was right, I met them all and they were all nice, calm boys with good manners etc.  I didn't see any boisterous behaviour from them at all - the girls on the other hand had some characters amongst them.  Some were very very bright as well.

Anyway, I'm sort of looking forward to him starting there.  I'm going to throw myself into school life as well in an attempt to meet people and get me and Tom some local friends.  Hopefully it won't be too long before we have moved to the village as well which will make everything much easier.

Very Busy Weekend

This weekend we headed back down to Telford for the first time since we moved.  It was the NCT Christmas Party on Sunday, after 2 offers of a bed for the night, we decided to make a weekend of it and go down on Saturday so we could see as many people as possible.

First stop was to see Rose, Martin and Abi in Stafford.  Usually when we go to see Abi, both she and Tom have an attack of shyness, taking quite a while to get over it.  Not today, Tom was at home almost immediately - he and Abi were running all over the place and having fun.  Fantastic, because that gave me a chance to cuddle baby Oliver, who was on good form and happy to be with me and jiggled etc.  He was full of smiles and get this - started rolling that day (he's only 4 months old!)  We passed a lovely 2 hours and were sad to go - but we had a schedule and so we said our goodbyes.

Iron Man

Next stop was Telford, where I dropped Matt off at Denzil's (down a seriously bumpy track - Matt wasn't impressed as we had just washed the car and it got really dirty again)  Then I headed to Lawley and popped in to see Jake and baby Thomas.  Tom and Jake played together very nicely which was fab, but baby Thomas wasn't at all happy and would not be cuddled by me, it was Mum or screaming so Mum took over.  Oh well, we managed a good chat and as I said the boys played nicely together.

Last stop of the day was with Sammie, Sophie and Jen.  They were waiting for us and had lasagne and garlic bread waiting which was good.  After a 'talking to' Tom managed an OK portion, but there was loads of distraction.  Sammie has a dog, which has always been a problem in the past, but today, he went up and stroked her - a real break through (although 15 minutes later he was crying because Misty looked at him!)  Sarah, Ruby and Jacob came round to say hi as well, so it was quite high energy.  It was late by the time the children went to bed.  Jen and Sophie went to sleep really quickly, but Tom didn't.  I think he had too much excitement.  I went up at 8.30 and he was still wide awake.  It didn't matter too much as he was lying in bed not making any noise, I think he was too hyped up by the events of the day to relax.  When I checked on him at 9.30 he was asleep - phew!

Sammie and I had a relaxed evening chatting and sprawled out on the sofa, putting the world to rights.  Me on Port and Sammie on Baileys, didn't get to bed until after 11pm.  Does that make us lightweights or hard core (not sure anymore - what's the benchmark for 39 year olds?)

Didn't have a very good sleep - not Tom's fault, not the Port's fault, just me.  I always find it hard to sleep in a strange place with Tom in the room - I wake up every time he moves, although he is just moving in his sleep - really need to get over it.  Oh well, we got up, had breakfast.  Tom then played on the Wii whilst I packed the car.  He has never played on the Wii before, he picked it up really quickly and was a complete demon on it.  He was a swordfighter and didn't take any prisoners.  Sammie and I were both impressed and a little shocked at his concentration and accuracy at winning against his competitors.

Before we knew it we were off.  We collected Matt and then headed to see Suzanna and Nate and Brandon.  Helen, Jake and Thomas turned up too (Thomas was in a better mood and allowed me to cuddle him which was nice).  Tom didn't play very well here, he wouldn't play with Nate at all - saying he wasn't his friend.  It was quite sad, but maybe it was because Jake was there - dynamics between 3 are quite different to dynamics with 2.  He clung for the whole time, whilst Jake and Nate played with each other.  He did try Nate's Iron Man helmet on after a lot of persuading which was the only break through of the visit.  Sorry Suzanna.

A good haul

Next stop was Eastwood Drive to see the Gouges.  We lost Tom immediately.  He was straight into Hannah's bedroom playing with the girls.  We saw him from time to time, but he was more than happy to play with Hannah and Becca.  Meant I got a relaxing sit down with Rose and Paul.  George and Marg also came round which was great, and Rose made us bacon rolls which were very very welcome.  It was really good to see everyone.  Our house looked pretty much the same except the fence has been painted and mended (way overdue).

At 2.30 we got to Oakengates for the Christmas party.  We were slightly worried that Tom may have 'burned out' at the Gouges, but it wasn't to be, Tom partied hard for the whole time he was there.  In fact I have never seen him party so hard ever, he really enjoyed himself, it was a pleasure to see.  One bit of bad news was that Mae couldn't come, she had a sickness bug so was left at home with Phil, such a disappointment, but although Tom's bottom lip came out for a moment, he then saw Olly whizzing past and decided that was a good game and joined in.

Matt and I were put in charge of Musical Statues, I tried my best but was rubbish.  I thought I was being fair and told Jessica she was the first one out, her bottom lip came out, and she cried, and cried and cried and cried.  I felt absolutely awful.  I had taken a prize for the winner, luckily Michelle (being a Primary School teacher and therefore more worldly wise in the world of children) had bought some consolation prizes for me.  I gave one to Jessica - she carried on crying.  I was the wicked witch.  I carried on with the game to its end, everyone else thankfully went out happily.  Jessica was still crying. I collected up the remaining consolation prizes and gave them to her as a prize for the best dress.  She continued to cry.  I went away, I don't think I was helping.  Note to self: never offer to do games at a party - just offer extra food!!!!

We had a good spread of food as always, chilli and jackets for the adults and the usual party food for the kids, then Santa's sack was found and presents distributed and then quiet time watching The Snowman before heading home.  It was a brilliant party.  Tom danced for half of it, he had some very cool dance moves which I've not seen him do before.  He made me dance with him for ages - I was out of breath.

Anyway it was a fabulous weekend - thanks to everyone.  We thought Tom would fall asleep as soon as we were on our way home, but it took him a while to calm down and relax, he did then fall asleep and stayed asleep for the rest of the journey and was happy to go straight to bed on our arrival home.

Sorry about lack of photos - we had such a good time we forgot to take any!

The tree

We had a quiet weekend this weekend, just as well as next weekend is going to be manic as we are visiting Telford and trying to fit in as many people as possible in the two days.

The tree with chief decorator

So on Saturday we had a useful day. We went to our local farm shop to order our Christmas meat (Beef rib), then to Ingleton to get Tom his pre-school uniform (a red fleece with Ingleton School's crest on it) and then into High Bentham for a look around as we haven't been there yet.  Discovered a good range of shops including 2 hardware stores, a butchers and a bakers.  One of the hardware stores sells cake drums as well which is good.  We had lunch there, it was a freezing cold day so when I saw beef stew and dumplings on the menu for £5 Tom and I jumped at the chance, very good it was too.  When we moved we dumped the old Christmas tree - we never liked it.  This year we decided to buy a proper one, so we headed out to a seller and bought one we thought would fit in our lounge ok.  The afternoon was then spent listening to Christmas music and decorating the tree.  Tom did a good job and was very excited.

Sunday dawned bright so we decided to head out to the Lakes.  First stop was The World of Beatrix Pottter Attraction (free to all local residents this month).  I wouldn't say it was a huge success.  It started with a cinema presentation which Tom didn't like, he kept asking to leave the dark room.  It didn't really get much better - he was grumpy and agitated for the rest of the museum and didn't really take an interest (just as well we didn't pay to enter).  He liked the garden outside but didn't really like the models or exhibitions at all.  Oh well, they were doing half price afternoon tea for 2 in the cafe, so we had that for lunch so all was not lost.

We then got the car ferry, Mallard, across Windermere and drove to Tarn Hows so we could show Matt the walk we did with 'Naughty Miss Vera'  It was lovely.  The colours weren't as good as before, but the sky was clear and the scenery looked so beautiful.  Tom walked round happily.  We even saw some Herdys - hurray - no orange one though!  We then headed into Hawkshead for a drink and a quick look around before driving back home with a very tired Tom in the back.  

View of Tarn Hows

New Parents' Evening at Ingleton School

I would just like to say how very proud we were of Tom yesterday.  At 6.30 Ingleton School were holding a parents' evening for pre-schoolers who will start at the school in January.  We got invited too as Tom will start doing a session a week in January - in an attempt to start getting him used to a school environment in the village we will be living in.

Obviously we don't have any family or friends here yet, so had a choice: one of us go, or take Tom so both of us could attend.  I asked if it would be OK to bring Tom with us, I was told it would be OK (although I could hear a little reluctance in the Head Mistress's voice when talking to her about it).  We gave Tom a good talking to before going and also said he could have some chocolate if he was good and quiet during the meeting.  He was the only child in attendance (which is what we thought would be the case) but he was as good as his word and was quiet during the whole session, he fidgeted, but he didn't cause anyone any nuisance, must have been difficult as the session took place in the pre-school room so there were lots of toys, books and distractions.

Hopefully he impressed the teachers.  He's going back to the school on Friday morning for a 30 minute trial session to give him a chance to see pre-school in action and then we have a home visit early January before he starts the following week.

Boys day out

Monday, Bob, Tom and Matt decided to have a boys day out to Windsor.  Here's a picture of Tom 'sleeping on the train'.  I believe they had a good time, including watching fast trains from the platform in Slough again.

'Sleeping' on the train

I had a 'me' day.  Spent 1.5 hours browsing in a book shop, ate sushi for lunch, found a fabulous Winter Wonderland full of beer kellers, mulled wine and every type of Wurst you can think of in Hyde Park (must take Tom there next year), a good browse around Whole Foods in Kensington High Street and just generally enjoyed my own company for a couple of hours.  Very selfish, but needed, so thank you boys.

Tuesday we came back home on the train.  Don't think we will drive to London again, the journey was so easy.

Science Museum Sunday

Watching the skating at the Natural History Museum

Sunday dawned clear and cold again.  After many debates about what to do we ended back in Central London and South Kensington to visit the Science Museum (haven't been there for a number of years). First stop was the skating rink at The Natural Science Museum for a look (laugh) and then to the museum.  We headed upstairs first and looked at flight section with lots of flying machines. 

Next stop was an area called Launch Pad, it was advertised as an area for hands on play for 8-14 year olds.  We thought we would just pop our heads in, but Tom got into the spirit of the place straight away and wasn't phased by the amount of people there or by the fact most of the children there were older than him.  There was one big sorting machine which allowed you to scoop up and transport little beads around an apparatus, it needed a team of about 6 children to keep it going.  Tom decided the wheel scoop was his job and kept it moving for quite a while.  In fact, in the end we had to drag him off it by telling him it was lunchtime.  However, we had to promise him that we would return as a bribe.  This we did, so he had another stint at the sorting machine, then he had a play on the other exhibits: making a bridge, having a go on a spinning wheel, trying to get a ping pong ball to bounce through hoops, etc.

I'm a bridge

Working the sorting machine

We then made our way down to the ground floor where we found Puffing Billy and The Rocket in the train exhibit.  We carried on to 'the purple room' where we found something called a pattern pod which was aimed at pre-schoolers and included an interactive virtual pond with goldfish swimming in it.  We were shown that if we slapped it, we could make ripples and if we held our hands out the fish would swim to us.  This fascinated Tom and he was delighted every time a fish swam towards him "I caught a fish", "I've got two, TWO fish" etc.

Eventually we were all tired, so decided to call it a day and head home.  Another good day out.

Transport Museum

On Friday we packed our bags and drove to Lancaster.  Settled the car into the station car park and then had a look around the town.  OK it is a city, but the town centre really is just that, a town centre, not much to it, although found two really good looking butchers and a fishmongers so we will be back if only to use them.  Matt and Tom went off to get their hair cut (both of them were looking quite untidy in the hair department) whilst I had a snoop around - this was my first time in the town.

Once the boys were done, we went for an early lunch in a rather dodgy town centre pub (sticky floors, toilets with no locks etc) where we got surprisingly good service and good value nosh.

We then headed back to the station and got our pendolino to London Useless (that's what Tom calls Euston - I think it rather appropriate).  The journey was very quick and smooth, it takes 2.5 hours to get to London as it only stops at 3 stations on the way.  There was enough to keep Tom occupied for the time as he was quite happy to sit looking through the window and chat.  Fab.  Bob came to meet us at Euston and then we flogged our way through London to East Sheen.

Oompus the Omnibus

On Saturday we headed to Covent Garden and the London Transport Museum.  We had thought that this might be a good idea and Bob and Pat also suggested it, so away we went.  Yes, it was a good idea, we had a brilliant day out there.  At first we were a little shocked at the price - £13.50 each, but in the end we decided it was worth it.  The museum was absolutely packed with things to do - many of which were aimed at pre-schoolers, but plenty to keep adults happy too.  I could quite easily have killed the best part of a day there on my own.

Riding on the front of a steam engine

The museum took you through transport through the ages.  The first vehicle was an Omnibus (horse driven carriage).  We know these already as Tom has an old book of vehicles which includes one called Oompus - Tom laughs every time we reach Oompus because it is such a funny name.  We were able to clamber aboard it which was good.

Driving a bus

Next stop was a floor with a steam train and the first diesel trains.  Tom made a beeline for the steam train (of course), we sneakily stood him right on the front of the engine for this photo.  We also found a modern London bus on this floor which Tom had a go on.  He looks quite at home in the driver's seat don't you think?
Next, we headed out of the museum proper to the cafe for some lunch.  Unusually the museum food was of good quality and cheap with good service.  Will happily eat there again.

The next section of the museum was dedicated to underground trains.  We had quite a bit of fun here, clambering on old carriages and getting to play with driver simulators - of both old trains and new trains.  Surprisingly the museum wasn't completely crowded (you would think it would be on a Saturday) so we all got a chance to have a go on the simulators.  (I didn't do too well, the emergency brake had to be automatically applied as I went through a red signal - something to do with being distracted by a small  boy shouting at me!)

Driving the underground

The Youngs riding the 1st electric underground train

Needless to say, Tom had the best time, in fact, he spent most of his time there mega excited, so much so that he forgot to go to the toilet and had an accident.  Shame. Both Matt and I said that we wouldn't be surprised if he had an accident as he was so excited, we should have acted on our instinct and not trusted him.  Oh well, it meant that we had to use the special parent and child toilet (we thought we had been transported back to Japan as it was a room with a large toilet and a mini toilet and plenty of space for changing clothes and a small and large basin - big thumbs up from us)

We finished off the rest of the museum which was dedicated to buses: trolley buses, routemasters and the latest bus, which had been chopped so just the driver's cab and the seats immediately above it were present.  Children were invited to clamber and sit in the driver's seat here as well, so Tom did.  We took a video of this, we will load it up here later this week.

Anyway, it was a very good outing and I would quite happily go back there again.  We went back to East Sheen via bus, train and bus giving Tom as much opportunity as possible to ride on the double deckers which he enjoyed.

It was a tired but happy boy that arrived back.

Now, when Pat and Bob knew we were going to be down this weekend they offered us tickets to see Fascinating Aida at the theatre in Richmond.  We happily accepted.  They also suggested that we would want to have dinner out as well.  So a proper night out.  We left Tom with them around 5.00, he didn't even blink, in fact he was excited to be left with them and from all accounts was well behaved and ate dinner and went to bed nicely.  We had a nice dinner in a local cafe and then headed to the theatre.  We had a great night out - Fascinating Aida were very funny indeed and the 2 hour performance sped by.  We treated ourselves to drinks at the bar before the performance and during the interval.  G&T for me and 2 x half pints of red wine for Matt (since when is half a pint a measure for wine?).  Result of this was that we got some chips to eat on the way home to help soak up the alcohol, haven't done that for a long while.

In all a very good day, we fell into bed exhausted but happy.