Killing Time on the South Bank – 29/08/13

Editor’s Note: This is a mainly pointless post with some pretty pictures, all about what me and Eva did this afternoon. If you want to know what Nathan and Roo were up to, check here

It’s 4pm on a Thursday and Eva and I have been abandoned on the South Bank. Our boys are off watching the pirate dinosaurs show and we need to amuse ourselves. But, as Samuel Johnson might have said, if a Londonphile can’t entertain themselves on the South Bank for 50 minutes on a sunny afternoon, then you might as just give up and hurl yourself into the Thames. (Don’t. It’s low-ish tide, and there’s a good couple of metres of exposed sand and debris you might land on)
So, we’re sitting in the sand pit that stretches from Waterloo Bridge to Festival Pier. It’s not as exciting as last year’s rainbow sandpit, but Eva doesn’t remember that. She’s happy to potter about and put sand in her hair. Obeying sandpit etiquette, she took her shoes off first:

There’s always something to look at around here. Right now, there are skateboarders showing off, bandana-d Wahaca staff dangling electrical cables in a precarious manner and the distant squeal of children playing in the fountains (I’m a bit scared of the fountain since a friend saw a toddler lose consciousness after slipping there) A minute ago, a busker was playing “Sunny Afternoon” as Eva and I shared an ice cream and all is good with the world. He started his set with “Don’t Let Me Down” and finished up with “Space Oddity”, but it was the Kinks’ classic that had both me and the grandfather next to me singing along.

We also had a wander around the London Wonderground, where the boys are watching the show. It’s where the magners pasture was last year, and it’s decked out like a retro funfair. Including the terrifying skyride:

(Not quite so terrifying as this interactive face-screen-thing  inside the RFH. You make faces at it and it mirrors you. Spooky. Especially the one set in a birth suite at St Thomas’. Way too disturbing)

Anyway, back to the Wonderground…

There was space for toddling about there, and food stalls and deckchairs, but not much to do. So we moved on. We played in the sandpit for a bit, then we wandered around and saw some more interesting things, all to the strains of “Don’t Let Me Down” (again):

And an off-duty human statue, but I didn’t take a photo of him. Then we went to meet Nathan and Reuben and Eva hung out in a fake dodgem car, where she tried to eat some fag butts. Nothing Roo didn’t do at her age (at the White Lion, East Finchley).

The boys came out all excited about the PirateDino-ness, but that’s another story. So onto dinner, at the ever-awesome Giraffe. I still feel guilty about slagging off the ice cream place on Monday, so I’m pleased to say dinner was flawless.

Only a few minutes’ wait for a table, crayons, activity sheets and balloons provided without asking. The food arrived swiftly and they brought an extra plate so Roo and Eva could share one meal.

Neither child grizzled too much and it was lovely. We even got to eat our own food without it getting cold or having to break up fights. The wonders of a balloon!

Then just a quick photoshoot at Beanotown, before a scoot/walk home. Think we can count that as some successful time-killing!