Snow

Clapham Station

On Saturday we woke up to a winter wonderland.  After moaning about being the only part of the country without snow, finally we got ours.  It was a good 4 inches deep and very fluffy.  Unfortunately we had planned to go to the Railway Museum in York today as it was supposed to be a horrible grey day (how wrong could that be - it was glorious - deep blue sky).  We would have delayed it but Matt had arranged to meet up with a friend there to talk ITI stuff.  So away we went - the main road was OK, but when we hit the road to Clapham station it was deep in snow and the station car park was completely untouched.  I was very worried we wouldn't be able to get the car out again when we got back - this is a problem as Clapham Station is in the middle of nowhere.

We had checked the train was on time before we left.  However, it didn't turn up.  We called the signal box in Settle and they were surprised we hadn't seen it as they thought it had been and gone?!  It eventually turned up 25 minutes late.  The Guard on board asked us where we were going, when we told him he basically told us to give up as the train was going to get later and later.  We did.  We dug the car out and Matt did some nifty manoeuvring to get us out of the car park.  We then headed to Neptis for a coffee and chat before heading back home.  In all, I think we were all happy we didn't get the train, the snow looked far more fun.

Leia the snowman

First thing we did was build a snowman and through snowballs.  Tom enjoyed himself (we were wondering as he hasn't really enjoyed the snow in the past).  He named the snowman Leia (not sure why - he didn't look anything like her!) We then got the sledge out.  Last year he refused to go on it.  This year he was a little more receptive to it, but it still took him a couple of goes and some time watching Mummy and Daddy doing it to warm him up.  However, once he did it once, you couldn't keep him off it.  We started going down the track by the side of the house, not exactly steep but it acted as a good nursery slope.

Learning to sledge

We then went in for lunch.  Afterwards we decided to go into the field for better sledging.  Tom wouldn't go in to start with (he's a little scared of the sheep), so he climbed the gate and watched Matt and then watched me.  He was then ready to go into the field to watch from closer up.  Then he had a couple of goes with Daddy and then he was brave enough to do it himself.  He had a whale of a time, he LOVED it.  We took it in turns: Tom by himself, Tom with Daddy, Tom by himself, Tom with Mummy, Tom by himself with only sporadic chances for me or Matt to have a go by ourselves.  When we did he would run behind us.  He didn't just sit on the sledge, he learnt to steer it too - he looked quite the expert by the end of the afternoon.  He expended so much energy - we expected him to keel over at some stage and want to finish, but no, he just kept on going.  If it was up to him he would have spent all night out there as well.  We didn't have any food in for dinner (we were supposed to be eating out in York) so we headed out to Avanti for pizza for dinner.  A great day.

Quick video of Tom sledging:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dx9p1lBTVqg

Can you believe it when we woke up on Sunday, all the snow had gone!  Leia was still around, but she had lost her head and was looking quite poorly.  The field in which we were sledging had turned back to a bog with a pond.  How disappointing.  And it was raining.

We racked our brains on what to do today.  This area is wonderful in good weather, but hard work in the rain, there is very little indoor entertainment.  In the end we decided to go to Hawes to the Wensleydale Creamery.  We had a really good time, it was only £2.50 for the 3 of us (special offer).  The museum was small but informative, there was a video room and Tom happily went in and watched it. A huge leap for him - normally he would whinge (at best) or cry (at worse) when faced with a cinema set up.  I think maybe he might soon be ready for an outing to the cinema which is good.

We learnt loads, the Creamery almost went under a number of times, finally being saved by a management buyout in 1992.  Best of all we got to watch the cheese being made which I found very interesting (I always find factory processes very interesting - even when I worked in one)  I could have stayed and watched for hours, but the boys were getting hungry.  We headed back to the main building where there was a Cheese Room.  This was a fantastic room - full of tasters.  There was no hard sell, so you could eat as many of the samples as you wished.  This was a good ploy, it meant we tasted all of them and then ended up purchasing £22 of goods (some of that was beer I hasten to add).  If they had done the hard sell, we probably would have got one at the most.  The shop was great as well - full of Wallace and Gromit merchandise which looked good as well as loads of locally made things.

We then went for lunch in the coffee shop - cheese on toast for me and sausage rolls for the boys???!!!! Next time I think we will try the restaurant - every type of cheese dish you can think of: macaroni cheese, cauliflower cheese, rarebit, cheese burgers, cheesecake, jacket potato and cheese etc etc.  Anyway a good outing.  We then headed home and watched Curious George - Tom's favourite film - he choose it when we were all ill and loves it, he will sit still and watch the whole thing through by himself, he giggles at the funny bits and cries at the sad bits, he certainly follows the story - another reason why we think he is ready for a trip to a cinema.

Oh Tom's counting has become really good recently - he counted up to 28 without error the other day and recognises numbers up to 50, although he gets the 30s a little mixed up at the moment.  One of his favourite places to practise is Asda - he shouts out every aisle number with glee - shame they only go up to 38!

Naughty Boy

Matt went to pick Tom up from nursery today.  He was told that Tom had spent some time on the naughty beanbag today.  He and Lily had got a cup of water and some playdoh, taken them to the toilets, locked themselves in a cubicle and dipped and licked the playdoh????????!!!!!!!!!!

Apparently Clare was at great pains to point out that Lily was the main protagonist, which makes sense as Tom would never have thought to do that by himself.  I couldn't keep a straight face when Matt told me about it (not great as Tom was in the room - but it was funny)  Anyway, he has promised me not to do it again - what a naughty boy!

Horrible colds

Fashion Victim or True Style?

We all came down with colds this weekend.  Tom had his mid week, I got it on Wednesday and Matt got it on Thursday.  It is unusual for all of us to be sick at the same time, but in a way it was quite good as none of us really wanted to do anything and we were all happy to mope around, huddle under the duvet in the lounge etc.  In fact Tom keeps telling me that he's tired all the time all the time now - this is because he wants to lie on the sofa with his duvet, not because he's tired!

Saturday Matt felt well enough to go to York for a translators do.  Tom and I were going to go as well and head to the train museum for a day out, but I felt terrible and knew I would not relish a 2 hour trip on the train and then time in the museum, so I decided not to go with him (sorry Tom!)

However, we still needed to get Matt there, so as we were having a lazy morning, I bundled Tom up in his pyjamas, dressing gown, cosy socks, slippers and hat and put him in the car to take Matt to Wennington Station.  It's a very cool outfit don't you think?  He thought it was a fantastic game.

I asked Tom what he wanted to do today and he requested a bike ride in Grange.  So we headed to Newby Bridge for lunch at Cafe Ambio (it's becoming a regular with us now) and then a circuit of Grange.  Being out in the cold helped me - I could breathe for the first time in ages.  Tom promptly fell asleep on the way home, so I then spent the next hour in the car on the drive waiting for him to wake up.  Then it wasn't long until we picked up Matt from Wennington.

Ruskin's View

Sunday, we all felt terrible.  Matt's eyes were very red and he looked terrible.  I looked better, but felt bad and certainly didn't have any motivation to do anything.  We decided we had to get out, so went to Kirkby Lonsdale.  We did our usual walk to Ruskin's View and then decided to carry on to see what else we could find.  It was a good walk in the end, took us through a little wood and took us to a field by a stream - perfect football / cricket grounds, definitely a place we could go with a picnic in the summer.

Tom and his sheep.

We then headed back to Kirkby and went to Emily's for lunch, then a quick stop in Booth's before heading home.  Once we had got back home, we were all feeling pretty rubbish,  Tom said he wanted to watch Totoro on the telly, we all thought it was a good idea, so we got out the duvet, mulled wine, crisps and soft toys and lazed on the sofa for the rest of the afternoon.  It must have done us good as we all felt a lot better on Monday when we woke up.

Sick Day

School again

Down by the river in Kirkby Lonsdale

So I took Tom to school again on Tuesday.  I warned him that I was going to settle him in and then leave him, arriving to pick him up again after lunch.  It worked, maybe too well!  As soon as he entered the classroom he said, "You can go now Mummy"  I had bearly sorted out his coat and book bag.  He told me again to leave, so I did.  I remembered afterwards that I forgot to do registration with him.  Oops.

I then hung out at Neptis doing some work and went to collect him at 12.  He was very happy, came zooming out and spent the rest of the day chatting about what he had done.  Something about painting a Polar Bear and then feeding it porridge.  Anyway he was very happy and buzzing with excitement even though he has come down with a cold.

We went into Kirkby Lonsdale afterwards for our usual river walk before coming home, it was such a beautiful day, snow on the hills and blue sky.

A walking weekend

Saturday we decided to go to Greenlands Farm as it is free in January.  It's a strange place Greenlands Farm.  The soft play barn there is great - well maintained, clean, okish food, reasonably friendly staff.  The farm shop is good and the cafe very good, but the actual farm is quite disappointing.  We went there in the Summer with my parents and thought it overpriced. Today it was only just worth a free entrance as there were very few animals, the play tractors were all broken, it was pretty disappointing, don't think we will go back until next January.  We were done in half an hour, so decided to head off somewhere for lunch and another activity.  We decided on Arnside which is on Morecambe Bay.  We were pleasantly surprised.  First stop was lunch which we found at the Rambler's Cafe - an extensive menu - you name it they had it, and very very good quality.  Tom had the biggest cheese scone any of us had ever seen.  Will certainly be back for more.  There were a couple of really good independent shops as well selling lots of unique items I've not seen else where, certainly a great place for future birthday presents.  Matt was also very happy as there was a viaduct here which takes trains across the bay to Grange-Over-Sands. We then discovered a walk along the shore, we walked about 1.5 miles away from the town and then turned round and walked back again.  It was a really nice walk, but not sure if it is there 24 hours a day, there was a lot of water and mud around giving us the feeling that at high tide walkers would have to dart up the cliffs to keep dry.  Anyway a good time was had by all and we will definitely be going back for a longer walk at some stage.

On the common

Sunday saw us in Ingleton again - doing another walk.  This time it was by the river, up onto a common, across the main road and then through some fields until we met the main Ingleborough path.  It was cold and muddy but Tom did really well.  He now says he 'loves walking' and I think he genuinely does.  He never whinges or complains and just keeps going.  He may say he needs a rest or a drink, but that is mainly because he likes sitting on benches more than because he is tired.  We ended up in Neptis as usual - had lunch during which we met someone who lived in The Smithy in Lupton in the 70's (she then moved to Clapham and lived next door to Alan Bennett) .  She was able to describe what The Workshop was like originally - basically the kitchen and dining room was the Smithy and the lounge a workshop - all very interesting and quite a coincidence.  I tell you everyone passes through Neptis at some stage.

First day at school

Ready for School

So today, we had another milestone, Tom had his first day in his new school.  I've had 3 hours free nursery education a week that I haven't been using for Tom since we got here, mainly because I haven't been busy with work and thought it mean to send him somewhere else when really there was no reason for him not to be at home with me - and anyway most days I enjoy his company.

However, with the move to Ingleton imminent, I thought it wise to enrol him in the pre-school there (attached to the Primary School) so he (and I) get some friends and get to know more people in the village.  So as of today he is a school boy in school uniform albeit only for 3 hours a week.  He looks so grown up doesn't he?

By all accounts he had a good day there.  I thought I was going to have trouble leaving him as he was clingy - I tried to get him involved in some activities but he was insistent on holding my hand whilst doing them.  Mrs Jefferies, the TA saw this and managed to draw him away from me with the promise of some trains, I then ran.  I felt a bit mean leaving him there by himself, however, he told me that he likes the teachers and he knows Fred from Smile, plus he's had two trial sessions so it's not as if it is completely alien. (Probably a case of me over worrying from all my first days as a new girl!)

Deciding it's a waste of time to go home and then come back I thought I would head into Settle as it is market day there.  However, it was also very grey and rainy so I didn't really enjoy it.  In fact I ended up speaking to Mum on the phone for an hour and then Rachel for half an hour.

I went to pick him up at 12.00.  I was put in the new girl position as all the mums were waiting outside and chatting away to each other whilst I hung around with a stupid grin on my face trying to look friendly.  I will always hate that feeling!  Anyway Tom came racing out and said he had a good day.  Mrs Colledge said he was fine all day and even sat still for storytime.  Tom said goodbye to Mrs Colledge by trying to kiss her - she managed to swerve to avoid it and gave him a friendly pat on the cheek instead!  Now that's one to embarrass him with later!!!!!!! (He's never done that at nursery!)

So a good day.  I haven't really got much out of him about what they did - one minute he said he played with 2 girls all day, then he said he played with Fred all day.  He definitely played with trains and cars and the story was The Three Bears.  Lunch apparently was Japanese sauce and potato - hummmm.  He finished off by saying he is now ready to go again when he is 4!  Well he'll nearly be four when he next goes...

First ride of the year

After an horrific week of rain, rain, rain and more rain (the poor sheep in the field next door have very little room to graze at the moment as there is a huge lake in it) we managed 2 dry weekend days.  I wouldn't say that they were beautiful clear days, but no rain equals good in our book.

Friday night we decided to go out for dinner.  We went to Whoop Hall which is on the A65 just outside of Kirkby Lonsdale.  We were disappointed (for the first time since we arrived here).  The food was OK, but nothing more than OK but the service was appalling.  I was curtly told off for not noticing the pie of the day was advertised on a blackboard around the corner from where I was sitting and then had an argument over whether anything served with the moules?  It was a polite question, 'Could you tell me if the moules comes with anything?' but the owner took offence and started shouting at me - I was stunned.  One good thing, when the moules arrived, I gave some to Tom and he ate them up and asked for more - I was so pleased, he preferred them over Matt's burger.  How many 3 year olds would try moules the first time they saw them and like them?  

Interesting light in Morecambe

On Saturday we went to Morecambe because I wanted to visit an appliance shop.  When we finally buy our house, we will need to buy a new oven as the current owners are taking theirs.  The whole in the kitchen is 90cm, so we will need a range cooker (yippeeee).  I haven't been able to find a shop locally with expertise in range cookers, but found there was one in Morecambe which is only open on Saturdays at the weekend, so I dragged the boys there.  Typical, they had just had a sale and most of their display cookers had just been sold off, meaning there were lots of holes in their display.  Not to fear I found a salesman who knew his stuff (wow) and grilled him.  I think I now know what I want.  Obviously I can't do anything about it until we exchange.  I also need to revisit the kitchen to check on colours etc.

Biker at the end of the Stone Jetty

Once I was out of questions we headed to the seafront and Tom got his bike out for a ride.  He did really well - and yes Granma he can ring his bell whilst riding with little problem.  He LOVED ringing it, at least people could hear him coming and get out of his way.  We took Matt to the Stone Jetty as he hasn't been there yet.  Unfortunately the cafe there was closed, but it was a nice walk (fast - trying to keep up with the boy) and very little wind.  We went to the pub in the old station for lunch - was a cheapo pub with average food but very good service and great architecture so would happily revisit.

Matt decided to leave us at this stage, wanting to stretch his legs and walk to Hest Bank.  Tom and I went back to the car and drove to Hest Bank and spent a good long while watching trains thundering through.  We then returned home for the afternoon and took all the Christmas decorations down.

Little walker

Little runner

Dales Scenery

Sunday Matt looked at the weather and decided it would be better to travel East so we headed to the Dales and Ingleton.  He had found a 2.5 mile walk in a book for us to do.  We have done it before, when Tom was in the rucksack but couldn't remember it that well.  It takes you across the rivers and up a hill across fields, back down again to Thornton-in-Lonsdale where there's a pub which has 365 whiskies.  The going was quite difficult - ie very soggy and muddy with the odd stream to traverse, and lots of sheep but Tom didn't whinge once, he was so good and a delight to have around.  He actually walked much further than Matt or me as he kept running between the two of us.  He was a little frightened of the sheep, but as long as he could hold a hand he was fine.  We were very proud.

We arrived at the pub, clogged in mud and found a welcoming pub.  Unfortunately it has changed owners twice since we last visited, so the whisky collection had gone - Matt was a little sad.  We had lunch whilst our boots dried out in front of the fire.  Unfortunately again the food was quite poor - £5.00 for a supermarket bread sandwich with poor quality filling, but the service was good.  We then continued on our way back to Ingleton.  Tom had a play in the playground and then we headed home.  We stopped off at Crunchy Harvest to see if the butcher would cut us some shabu shabu style belly pork - he did - yippee again. 

We thought Tom would nod off on the way home as he had exerted himself.  Although the guide book said the walk was 2.5 miles, Matt's iphone mapped the walk as 4 miles long which means Tom probably did about 4.5 miles with all his to-ing and fro-ing.  He didn't, he didn't even look vaguely tired.  We then had a lazy afternoon, and early dinner.

Tom the student

What's Tom Doing Now?

Tom's current quirks:

1) Hooks  - he is obsessed by hooks on cars at the moment.  He gets ridiculously excited when he sees one, and is always scanning the roads to find one.  You can imagine what he's like in a car park!  Living here we see plenty.  He has learnt to recognise Land Rovers now and knows when he sees one that there will be a hook. 

2) Eating slowly - this is a really annoying trait.  He has got himself into a rhythm of eating really really slowly.  He will chew and chew and chew and chew, swallow, sit back and do nothing until you tell him to take another mouthful.  This means that meal times can take forever.  We aren't sure how to stop him doing this.  We have sent him straight to bed when he has been really really bad, and no videos after dinner if he is bad.  I've asked him a number of times why he does it, but he can't give me a reason.  The thing is we know he can eat nicely as he ate very very well at Karen's.

3) I love you - he has started saying 'I love you' to me and Matt on a regular basis.  He knows we melt when he says it.  It is lovely to hear but at the back of my mind I'm wondering what he wants.

4) Train book at bedtime - Matt bought a ladybird book on trains in Sedburgh a couple of weeks ago.  It's a 1970's edition so not particularly in date, but Tom loves it.  He demands it every night before bed.  He really is a train nerd.

5) What you doing Mummy? - an infuriating question at times.  Tom loves asking me and Matt 'what you doing?' when it is plainly obvious what we are doing.  For example I'll be putting out the wet laundry - and I'll get 'What you doing Mummy?' to which I say 'What do you think I'm doing Tom?' and he'll say, putting out the washing.  Why does he say it then?  I don't mind the odd one, but some days he says it again, and again and again.

6) Wanting to write numbers and letters - as you can see from the photo above, Tom is beginning to look like a student.  He has shown interest in numbers and letters recently, so I bought him a wipe clean book with numbers, letters, vehicles etc in it, with lots of dots for him to join up to make the letters, draw the pictures etc.  He loves it and will quite happily sit himself down and practise.  He's got noticeably better in the week or so he's had it.

7) What's the time? - Tom's got really interested in the time recently and is always asking us what the time is.  He knows his o'clocks very well.  I've tried to teach him half past the hours but he hasn't got it yet - won't be long though.

8) Race you - for dressing / undressing  - I've known for a while now that Tom can dress / undress himself, but he is inherently lazy and always makes me help him.  I've recently discovered though that if I turn this activity into a game he will do it happily by himself.  So in the morning and at bath time I'll ask him if we should race to see who's the winner to get undressed..'Ready, steady, go......'  It works pretty much every time and before too long I have a grinning Tom in the room declaring himself the winner - he pretty much is always the winner as his clothes are all laid out for him whilst I have to find mine.  Anyway it works and saves me a job:0)

Manchester

Happy New Year everyone.  This year we celebrated it in style: for the first time in 4 years Matt wasn't ill so we actually stayed up to toast it in and then continued to stay up until 1.45 - that is almost a record for us - helped by Jooles Holland Hotenany and chatting to our friends Richard and Chananja in Holland via Facebook about Jooles Holland (they get BBC over their too - Adam and the Ants were on which is Richard's favourite band)

I then had the best sleep I've had in ages - woke up in the same position I fell asleep in which is always a good sign.  In fact I had such a good sleep that it took me a good while to get going. Plan for today was to go to Manchester to see Karen, Adam, Leia and Rosa.  (We haven't seen Karen and Adam together for roughly 2 years for one reason or another)  We were feeling very privileged as we are their first over night visitors to their new house.  They are living at the same address but have had a 2 story extension - it has made such a difference that it is pretty much unrecognisable and fabulous - I would have suffered from kitchen envy if it wasn't for the fact we are about to move to a house with a similar kitchen.

We decided that as we were visiting 'The Big City' we would take the opportunity to go shopping to buy things we can't get at home.  So, first stop was Wing Yip to do an Asian Shop.  We were quite successful including an electric table top stew pot so we can make Shabu Shabu - yahooooo.  There was also a toy shop which had a number of Totoros in it - so we bought one for Leia.

We then went for lunch at the on-site restaurant - 'The Glamorous'.  Dodgy sounding name, hey?  We walked - it was huge and full of Chinese - a good sign.  It was a busy place and we were a little lost for a while - there was a regular menu but also what looked like a bingo card on the table for which we couldn't work out its purpose.  Then ladies pushing trollies came up to us - they didn't speak very good English and carried menus with them which didn't really make much sense.  Someone came with some dim sum but we really didn't know what was going on so sent her on her way.  Then someone came with a trolley full of steamed buns.  We asked for some, the lady gave us a 'are you mad stare' but went to get them - we were mad as I think we ordered enough for a family of 10.  One portion was about 4 big buns, not one bun which is what we thought. Luckily the lady had a sense of humour and sorted us out.  We tucked into our buns and watched the activity around us and worked out what was going on.   The idea was to take a little of everything from each trolley - next time we will do so.  We did manage to get some gyoza though which was great.  A fantastic fooding experience - we will definitely be back.

Great fun on the Helter Skelter

We then headed towards Salford and the Komorowskis.  We stopped off at one retail park that had a huge Go Outdoors so we had an explore.  They had an indoor tent area which had about 100 tents pitched up.  Tom and I went to explore.  Tom went mad - running around, in and out of the tents.  He was so excited.  He always gets like that around tents.   We got a good idea of what we need, but decided not to do anything as we have to move house again yet and there really isn't any point in adding to the stuff we have to move.  We are planning to do some weekend camping this year - we are in such a beautiful area that it makes sense to explore it some more and we are keen for Tom to camp, it is a great gounding thing to do and also with him being an only child it gives him more opportunity to find and make friends whilst on holiday.

We finally got to Salford at around 2.15 and were greeted by Leia.  She and Tom were straight into friend mode and played together without needing us.  I felt like a loose end.  Tom took a particular liking to Leia's two vacuum cleaners and promptly vacuumed the whole house.  (Such a shame they don't actually such up the dirt).  One funny moment was when Leia got out an ironing board and iron and Tom asked her what it was.  Says a lot about me doesn't it!

Hugs

Around 4pm we headed out for a walk.  Adam and Karen took us to a city square with an ice rink and a helter skelter.  Leia really wanted to go on the helter skelter so Adam took her on it.  Tom didn't want to go on it, but after seeing Leia having fun he decided he did want a go, so off he went with Matt, and down he came with a huge grin.  He enjoyed it so much that when he went up for his second go, he tried to get on it by himself, Matt had to hold him back so that they went down together.  We then watched the skating and headed back to the house.  Karen made spag bol for dinner - Tom wolfed it down in seconds flat, asked for another portion - ate that and then had another portion.  What does Karen put in it?

Leia and Tom then had a bath together and went to bed, they were both spark out in minutes - it had been a busy and exciting day.

Sleep Over

We had a lazy morning, Leia, Tom and Rosa decided to have a sleep over in the lounge whilst we got ourselves ready.  Then we headed into Manchester.  Matt went off to do some electronics shopping whilst Rosa, Leia, Karen, Tom and I went to find Primark so I could get Tom some jumpers - he has suddenly grown out of all of his.  Get this size 3-4 was too small so I got him size 4-5 - that is the first time since he was 3 months that he has got ahead of himself in the clothing stakes.   We then walked in the Manchester drizzle to (Museum of Science and Industry) MOSI where we met Matt, had lunch (a fiasco - no food, staff not knowing what to do, ridiculous queues = let me at them!  I wonder if it is still BaxterStorey, if so their standards have got very low)

Tom and a train

We then had a play in the experiment area, before heading to the trains in the Powerhouse, where Matt and Tom did their stuff whilst Karen and I tried to make a bridge out of paper and straw for Leia (not great, but Leia was happy).  We then headed back to Karen's house and said our goodbyes and came home.  We were tired but happy - a good time was had by all.

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.