On Friday we headed to London on the train - it was Grandpa's birthday. We went the Ribblehead / Leeds / Kings Cross way which meant that we could have yet another serving of Wasabi sushi as our lunch - yipeeee. (Although you have to be fast with sushi and Tom as he will match us 1 to 1 on volume!)
We arrived into London exactly on time and were met by Grandpa, so he got his birthday hug. We then made our way across London and to Mortlake. Tom was straight into the garden plane spotting. I got the app working on the ipad and was made to make a tally of all the different carriers whilst he told me where they had come from. We only came in because we were both getting very very cold.
On Saturday we had planned to meet up with one of Matt's friends for lunch, but through a number of complicated turns of events this didn't happen and instead we met up with him at 3.30. This meant we had most of the day free, so we decided to spend the day riding trains and buses in town.
First of all we went to Green Park and walked over to see Buckingham Palace - Tom thought it was bigger than our house and that the Queen's dining table probably sits about 10 people! He liked watching the soldiers stomping up and down. We were there at the right time for the Changing of the Guard, but unfortunately not the right day! We will have to try to put that right another time.
Tom was happy sitting there for some time, before heading back to town via St James Park. Whilst we were in the park we saw a big Shaun the Sheep - dressed up as a king. Strange but interesting. Apparently there are 50 scattered around London. This then became the theme of the day - finding the Shauns and taking photos of them.
On the way to Piccadilly we came across a nice looking ramen shop so stopped there for lunch. It was pricy (it is Central London after all) but it was good, Matt said they were perfect, so it must have been good.
We then headed to Piccadilly, found another Shaun (this time an Axel Schaeffer themed one) and the Japan Centre were we bought a bag full of curry blocks for the Ingleton posse - we have introduced them all to Japanese curry and now they can't get enough of it so I have to take orders whenever we go near an Asian supermarket.
We got back via bus and train, it was a long day but a good day.
Sunday the boys had a day out looking at model railways whilst I went shopping.
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| Pub lunch |
Yes, today was a boys' day out in the car, to the Model Railway Museum in Pendon, near Oxford. The weather was absolutely foul, so a day spent sitting in the car, a pub, a museum, and then the car again was well-timed. In fact, the car was getting blown about quite alarmingly on the M40, but we arrived at a pub called The Plough near the museum and ordered our lunch: a sort of sausage-containing ploughmans and fish and chips for me. Tom, of course, ate a significant portion of both, although he wouldn't eat the very nice cheddar cheese. I don't think his mother was too impressed. In any case, the food was nice, the service was friendly, and our meals arrived extremely promptly.
With happy tummies, we drove the very short distance to the museum, where Grandpa managed to park in an extremely narrow space. Just as well he doesn't have a Range Rover. The museum essentially consists of two very large layouts and a couple of smaller ones, which weren't operating. Both of the large layouts are based on parts of the West country, one in the Vale of the White Horse, and the other on the edge of Dartmoor.
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| Dartmoor layout |
The attention to detail on these layouts was remarkable, easily up to Japanese standards - Tom is something of a model railway snob, having been seriously spoilt in that respect on previous trips to Japan. Sadly, both layouts were experiencing some electrical gremlins, meaning that trains weren't running as frequently as they might be, but Tom still got excited every time one came past, and had to chase it along the viewing platform until it was out of sight. Every so often, they turned out the lights so that you could see the level of detail that they'd gone to, for example individual beer pumps and bottles of whisky in the pub, a robin on a spade, a tiny white butterfly in a garden, etc.
Anyway, watching model railways is hard work, so we spent 20 minutes also in the café having tea and a bun, which gave us enough energy to spend a bit more time watching the trains.
The weather on the drive back was somewhat better, and the only traffic we encountered was a short delay on the South circular.
All in all, a good day.
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| Tom + Javelin |
Monday we had a train spotting day. Apparently it was very important to go to St Pancras to get the Javelin (a copy of the Kyushu Shinkansen). We took it to Ebbsfleet because it goes at full pelt between St Pancras and Ebbsfleet, it then slows down and goes at the usual British trundling rate. If you were wondering about Ebbsfleet - it is a car park, nothing more. However, you can see the Eurostars rush through the station, the Javelins stop and go and other trains going here there and everywhere. Luckily the sun was out so it wasn't too cold waiting on the platform.
Bob had bought Tom a note book to note down engine numbers, so we were there, pencil in hand noting all the engines we saw, yes it has happened, we really are true trainspotters. We (I) can't fight against it anymore. Oh hum! Luckily there was an M+S food shop at the station, meaning we could feed ourselves, Bob generously went for lunch and came back with a bag full of goodies - king prawns and dip and a hot sausage roll for Tom (he was in heaven) and sandwiches and a rather lovely cheesecake for us. Bob headed home after lunch, we stayed behind and watched 2 more Eurostars blast through the station and then headed back to St Pancras.
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| Water pumper |
We had some time to kill so thought we would head over to the British Library for a look around. We were hoping there would be a children's section, but no it is 100% for adults, apart from the shop which strangely was full of children's books. However, there was a nice cafe, so we sat down for tea and a bun and then headed to Stratford on the Javelin to find the children's playground in the Olympic Park where we were meeting up with Katherine and her family.
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| 3 course tea |
Unfortunately, Katherine was running late (an hour late) so we played by ourselves, until they arrived. It was very windy and threatening rain, but once Edward and Lily arrived, Tom had playmates and it didn't matter anymore. Helen then arrived with Isobel (Lily and Isobel are very good friends) and then Max.
The kids could have played for ever and ever but we had a date at Pizza Express to meet up with Phil and Anna so we dragged them away. All the children were lovely, Pete, Katherine's husband was lovely (he reminded both of us of Tim Milburn - just a taller version) we all felt like we had known everyone for a long time we all had a good time and all suggested to do it again. Tom and Edward sat together and shared games and playthings whilst the girls managed to get a table to themselves and ordered away.
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| Edward, Isobel, Lily and Tom |
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| The crowd |
Tom inhaled his pizza and then helped Edward with his second portion of pasta. That was on top of dough ball starter and chocolate brownie pudding. We were all chatting away. Helen is now 5 months pregnant and was showing nicely so there were plenty of jokes going Max's way about him becoming a father. Anna annoyed us all by turning up really late and then not eating anything when it was her that insisted on Pizza Express as a venue! Oh well, some things never change, she's always been like that!
However, the evening went with a bang. Tom and I were the first to leave, then the boys went to the pub whilst the girls went shopping (huge Westfield shopping centre at Stratford). Tom and I didn't get back to Pat and Bob's until 9.30 and that was after doing a 2 minute dash across Waterloo to just catch the train. He buzzed all the way home and was still buzzing when he went to bed. A good day all round.
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| Tom and a gorilla |
Tuesday our last day, we had Tesco vouchers for London Zoo. We got the bus to Hammersmith, then the train to Baker Street and then Grandpa treated us to a taxi ride in a traditional black cab. We then handed over our Tesco vouchers to cover our entrance fee - it was a hefty £97 for us all to enter, so we are really glad we had the vouchers, we ended up only paying £7 so for us it was a very reasonable day out! The zoo is quite big, bigger than Dalton zoo by some way, and had huge collections of some animals, especially in the reptile house which Tom really enjoyed: plenty of snakes, lizards, frogs and crocs etc.
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| King Cobra |
Tom and Matt's favourite was the King Cobra - which did look rather magnificent, but my favourite by some way was the White's Tree Frog - peeping out from behind a shower head. I still have a very soft spot for frogs.
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| White's Tree Frog |
Next stop was to see the gorillas. We (Tom) spent some time learning to be a gorilla, trying to climb trees, climb wooden frames etc. The gorillas weren't out today (too cold and windy) so we found them inside. First of all we saw the lady gorilla and thought she looked good, but then Tom pointed out the other one - he was so huge I can't believe we didn't see him to start with! He was a rather magnificent figure, sitting proudly on his beam. He didn't move a muscle but it didn't matter. Unfortunately it was too dark in his enclosure to get a photo, but he will stay in the memory.
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| Melati |
Next stop was to see the tigers. There are 4: JJ a male, and Melati, a female tiger with 3 cubs who are a year old so quite well grown. JJ was walking up and down strutting his stuff, whilst Melati and her cubs were in a separate enclosure, sat at the back, trying, I think to try to get out of the wind. Although they were far away, they were still very striking and regal looking. We ended up eating our waitrose lunch whilst watching them, hoping that they would do something whilst we were there. They didn't, but at least we were out of the wind too whilst we ate.
We then found a Komodo Dragon. Tom has been learning about these from his animal fact cards and was very keen to see one in real life. I think he was a little disappointed to find he didn't have wings, and didn't breathe fire! However, it turns out he is quite a famous character, having been in Skyfall - helping dispose of the baddies.
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| Penguin Shooting by |
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| Pretty butterfly |
Next stop was the aquarium - with plenty of fish of many different sizes and colours. After having a good look around we decided to head to a cafe for a sit down and hot drink (for the men anyway). We were surprised to find quite a good restaurant serving good looking food, and welcomed the opportunity to sit down and rest. Once restored we headed on to Penguin Beach. This is a new enclosure for the penguins. It is huge - there were plenty of places for a small boy to watch them darting round underwater. Tom LOVED IT. He squealed loudly with delight every time a penguin shot past him at high speed. He couldn't get enough of it - so we stayed for quite a while. This was certainly his most favourite part of the day.
Next stop was the butterfly house - there were plenty of them around. Tom wasn't convinced by them, but I enjoyed spotting them. Just round the corner was the bug house which we explored. Tom was mesmerised by the microscope showing off tiny bugs and spent a long time in queue patiently waiting his turn and was delighted to look at them all.
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| Climbing in |
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| Made it! |
After that we headed round the corner and were on our way to the African part of the zoo when we came across an interesting climbing frame of a bird. You had to climb into a cage which could then be bobbed up and down. I took one look at it and predicted that there was no way Tom would do it. He climbed up towards the cage and then started to cry not because he was frightened but because he was frustrated that he couldn't get into it! Matt managed to shove him up and then he and Grandpa bounced him up and down. I was speechless, but in a good way. I NEVER would have believed it if I hadn't had seen it. I was very proud though.
Next stop was the African enclosure so we could see my favourite animals - giraffes of course. First stop was the hippos - but they were being shy and wouldn't come out to say hi. Then were the zebras - they showed us their bums but wouldn't turn round to say hi. The Okapi was next - she was a little better, but was in quite a difficult place for us see her properly. Finally we got to the giraffes, they were sheltering from the wind and now rain, however, they didn't disappoint - a keeper came with a mother and son who were doing a feeding experience so we were able to see their long black tongues wrap around some carrots before crunching them up.
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| Great tail! |
By now we were all getting tired, so we decided to call it a day. We walked to the exit via the Lemur walk through. Tom seemed to have no fear at all amongst the lemurs - very strange as he is still very very scared of dogs and wary around cats! In fact he was so comfortable around the lemurs, at one stage I thought he wasn't going to stroke one! I will never fully understand him!!!!!!
Just as we left the zoo, the heavens opened upon us. It chucked it down! We were going to get a bus back to Baker Street, but it was so revolting we hailed another black cab. By the time we got to Baker Street, the sun was out again - it was pure bad timing! Oh hum, it meant Tom got another ride in a black cab, so he was happy.
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| In a London Taxi |
We got back to Mortlake around 5pm so it was a long day. I thought Tom would be difficult to handle today with him having such a late night on Monday, but he was very well behaved, couldn't have asked for better really. We handed him over to Grannie and Grandpa and then headed to Richmond for a night out.
We decided on Persian cuisine for the night (very exotic considering what's on offer in Ingleton) and were very happy with our choice. Great service and lovely food at very reasonable prices. (Note for next time - there was a very lovely looking Argentinian Steak House on the same street). We also did a spot of Estate Agent viewing - the prices in this part of London are astronomical. One selling point for a masionette going for £2.2million was that it has its own front door - that's a selling point - really! We felt very blessed we live where we do.
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| 3 of a kind |
Wednesday and it was time to say our goodbyes and return home. We had a great time and Tom had a ball - he was noticeably more stimulated this time, asking lots of questions and understanding more about what London is. He certainly loves his trips down and although we tried to show him some of the sights, his overriding memory of his time was the transport!
Anyway thank you very much Grandpa and Grannie - we all had a fab time.
We had an interesting journey home. We were delayed by 33 minutes going between Kings Cross and Leeds and had a 35 minute connection. This meant we had to sprint across Leeds station to get our train (the next one went in 3 hours time). We made it by the skin of our teeth and took a while to recover!. Our next door neighbour picked us up from Ribblehead station in a full on gale. We got home, put the heating on, washing on, made dinner and collapsed. A sign of a good break.
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