This is our third year at the Festival and Eva’s at the top end of the age range – something I didn’t think about until I realised that one of her classmates from primary school had been promoted to helper status. So it might be our last one as punters but you never know – they may launch a follow-up “Festival of the Almost-Woman” for teens if we’re lucky.
We’d booked into the SEN session, which is shorter and quieter than the others…the shortness meant we should probably get there on time but Eva isn’t a fan of mornings. So we left slightly later than planned and paused to get hash browns at the Station Cafe.
Still, we made it there just 15 minutes into the session, which was pretty good going. There were sunglasses and ear defenders on the door so we collected some ear defenders just in case things got noisy but didn’t really need them too often.
We had a bit of a breeze around everywhere, both upstairs and down and stopped briefly to talk to a friend on the Girls Friendly Society. Eva also voted in their poll about school toilets. Then we went to visit the Sister Motion stall and were taken through to their studio in a quieter part of the building.
Eva was chosen to be the assistant cameraperson, which meant she got to call for “Quiet on Set” and use the clapperboard. We later sat down with the editor to see how it all came together and the the technology she was using looked a lot fancier than the free version I cobble choir videos together on. That’s Goals right there.
We didn’t have long to spend with Sister Motion as Eva was booked onto the 12:30 Bubbleology workshop. On the way, Eva bought a sage green crystal bracelet to match her outfit. Not sure whether it’s meant to have mystic-y properties but the colour palette is on point.
The Bubbleology workshop was run by Tammy King and was only for the SEN session as she’s autistic herself and wanted to do something specifically for that crowd. She described how blowing bubbles could avert a meltdown and increase calmness and there was plenty of opportunity for the kids to get hands on with the bubble mix. Eva even managed to get one of the touchable bubbles to balance on her fingers:
Incredibly, although we felt like we’d just got there we were already running out of time. Eva had seen a DnD stall earlier and wanted to revisit so she sat down and played the mini-est of mini adventures. Tho I think the normal rules were bent slightly for the occasion – Reuben’s reaction to “casting a fireball in a confined space” was a sad headshake – it was still a proper game and she and a couple of other girls managed to slay the dragon and steal its treasure. Even if one them was an octopus. I think the club was called Flamethrowers and Dreamcatchers but they’re only operating in Muswell Hill at the moment. I told them to look us up if they ever move eastward….they seem like a friendly bunch and Roo is certainly always looking for opportunities to play.
Oh and I almost forgot that we also got free ice cream from the Wuka Wheel of Fortune….or at least Eva did. I’m off dairy at the moment. Bah! Still, at least I got to hold her ice cream, while she played DnD.
On the way out, we saw this rather lovely representation of London:
The Business Design Centre always has some interesting artworks. I doubt I’ll get much time to enjoy them when I’m back there for work purposes in December….
We went to get some lunch at the usual place and then, partly inspired by the bubble workshop, stopped off for some bubble tea:
As we were in the area, it seemed almost rude to not visit Cass Art and luckily I got away with only funding a handful of pens and pencils.
But it was student weekend so they had free snacks, giveaways and a large doodle board outside. People who were clearly not students – unless Cass meant Year 7 students – had written “Skibbidi Toilet” and “Sigma” over the board <sighs in Gen Alpha>.
But someone had also drawn and labelled a platypus, which delighted Eva as she could add a hat and turn it into Perry:
She also added an eye, which is apparently her tag nowadays. I didn’t realise she’d joined the VFD
So a nice afternoon out even if I got rinsed for bubble tea, crystals and art supplies as well as lunch. This is what tween parenting is like. It might be our last FotG as punters but I’m sure we’ll find ways to stay involved. But for now, thanks for having us!
