7 Hours of 7 Incredible Things – LWAT is 700

Posted on May 17, 2021 by katese11

So, a landmark post. Normally I try and do something impressive for this milestones but we’re only just getting in gear doing “mildly active” things, let alone anything properly impressive.

But I have had two exciting trips out lately, and as happy luck would have it, I was out of the house for almost exactly 3.5 hours each time. So 7 hours of adventuring for the 700th post. That’s neat.

The reason I was Out Out was that I was, somewhat inexplicably, summoned to Guys and St Thomas’ for my Covid vaccination. I’m not sure why – I had the kids at Tommy’s but haven’t been a patient there since. So, in late February, I left Highams Park for the first time in 7 weeks to go all the way to London Bridge for dose #1. With more of that happy luck, my friend and neighbour was also adventuring to Guy’s at the same time for hers. It was a truly epic day out after so much confinement. I even saw my office building for the first time since March 2020.

And then last week, I went to Tommy’s for dose#2. Sadly without my vaccine buddy this time as she’d been there the week before. But it still felt like an incredible day out and for such an incredible reason…the needle that brings with it the prospect of more days out in the future.

There were so many things to see and do along the way but here are 7 Incredible Things I wanted to show you. Some good, some poignant….but all incredible in their own way.

1.Taking in some classic London views

 

Gosh darn, I have missed Central London…and look at the gorgeous weather I had both times to stop and gaze at these views.

2. The M&S Food Hall and Disappointing Wasabi

I must admit to being slightly overwhelmed by the M&S Food Hall at Waterloo. I knew I wanted something but had no idea what…so just wandered around in a haze, staring at the sheer variety on offer. I ended up with cold gyozas, an Eton Mess dessert and, of course, Percy Pigs. I was totally underwhelmed by the food stall we know as Disappointing Wasabi in Liverpool Street but underwhelmed in such a familiar “this is real life” way that even that was enjoyable

3. Seeing what’s changed in South London

South London was our stompaing ground for so long and we haven’t had a reason to go to Tommy’s for ages, even before lockdown. So it was exciting to see the new(ish) Mary Seacole statue. Waterloo also has a new entrance, which is (I think) where the old one was before the old one disappeared for ages because of the new development. But now the entrance is back and also, all this new development.

4. The spookiness of it all

Much as I loved being back in Central London, one very Central London element was missing – the crowds. Being able to walk over London Bridge or along the South Bank on a sunny day without a single person in my path was…unnerving. And Waterloo at 5PM? Deserted. All very strange

5. The Covid Memorial Wall

This was incredible in many ways, both good and bad. It’s hard to visualise just how many people we’ve lost to Covid but when you see the number of hearts stretching all the way down from Westminster Bridge to Lambeth Bridge, it really brings it home. I have walked beside that wall so many times – with dawdling toddlers or kids speeding ahead on scooters and even once when in labour – and it’s a long path. So many losses. And yet so much love expressed in the messages written on each one of those hearts. Not to be crass, but Vision really did sum it up….”What is grief, if not love perservering?”

6. All the Emotions all at once

Oh gosh, these were emotional days. Such a sense of relief that the end was in sight and gratitude to the amazing scientists that developed the vaccine and the amazing NHS staff who engineered the rollout. Sadness looking at the memorial and thinking of all the broken families this virus had left in its wake. General overwhelmedness of being out in the world. Nostalgia standing outside the hospital where I’d first cuddled my babies who (they tell me) are no longer babies. Just all the emotions.

 

7. The world’s smallest zebra crossing

Just to end this heartfelt post on a facetious note – what the heck is this outside Tommy’s?

So, the arm is packed *full* of Pfizer now and, if I’ve timed this right, you should be reading this on or after May 17th when far more freedom beckons (it is all about the 7s). Use it wisely, think of Michael Gove when you have your intimate, friendly contact and let’s never stop being grateful that we have it.

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More Covid-Safe Swimming – 15/05/21

Posted on May 15, 2021 by katese11

The prospect of indoor fun may be being dangled in front of us next week but, for now, there’s a limit to what fun can be had on a rainy day. Not that you’d know it was rainy from the gloriously sunny photo I took as we left the pool today but honestly, this was an anomaly. It’s been drizzling the whole day, if not outright chucking it down like it was a few minutes ago. So we decided to go for one of the few weatherproof options currently available and go swimming as a happy family unit.

I say a happy family unit but what I really means is two, fairly happy, sub-units. Eva and Nathan are the unenthusiastic shallow-end splashers and Reuben and I are the deep-end divers. Normally when we attempt swimming, it’s just the one sub-unit that goes and the other sub-unit stays home and plays on screens. But part of the point of today’s excursion was to get the sub-sub-unit happier with the whole swimming process so she’ll cope better with school swimming.  So we all jumped in the car and drove to the Feel Good Centre.

We’re not big drivers but there’s no denying that the Covid-safe version of swimming is much easier with a car. I still struggle to see why stripping off in the middle of a changing room and leaving your belongings on the side of the pool is more Covid-secure than using a cubicle to change and a locker to store stuff…..but, those are the rules. And while we’d normally cycle or walk to the FGC, it’s a long way when half the party is in swimshorts and it’s – as mentioned earlier – chucking it down. And the car is handy for leaving as much stuff as possible in so you can minimize what’s in the “Designated Bag Zone” at the poolside.

I can’t help feeling it’s all a bit discriminatory against people who can’t afford to drive or who choose not to drive for environmental reasons. But Reuben and I have done it on foot to Chingford before so it’s not impossible just…trickier. And a pre-swim shower would be really useful when your walk to the pool goes through the forest.

Chingford was my first choice, as it happens, but they didn’t have any slots for Saturday afternoon and it was going to be a tight turnaround after church on Sunday.  So it was the slightly more complicated FGC then, with its paid-for parking (top tip: download the Y-Pay app) and its chilly changing rooms. But it has a very deep deep end, which pleases Reuben and only mildly terrifies me.

Booking is all through the Better app, which I’ve had some issues with before, but it worked reasonably well this time. We had a ten-minute entry slot and kept our facemasks on through Reception and into the changing rooms. Then there was an awkward bit where we had to shed our shoes just outside the changing village and our clothes somewhere within it. The one-way system to get into the pool is well signposted but there’s no sign to say where you go from the kind of swim-ready that you can be outside in to the kind of swim-ready that you can swim in (or “beach-ready” as the sign outside the changing village optimistically put it. Hmm, was I *meant* to shave for this?)

So we were kinda messy and in everyone’s way but we muddled through the transition and found an empty section of the poolside bag zone to leave our stuff. The pool seemed pretty crowded but there was a complicated wristband system, which meant that a load of people cleared out around ten minutes in to our slot. I think our blue wristbands gave us 40 minutes in total but there were announcements to tell you when you had to leave. It was a bit confusing that the bands before us were also blue but a lighter shade and also confusing that the slot before light blue was gold, which was also the colour of the wristband they were giving out for passing the swim test. So a good system in theory, but it had its flaws.

Ah, the swim test. My old nemesis. Roo said he didn’t think he was going to do it today but a few minutes in the shallow end with actual babies and he changed his mind. I’ve never been convinced this is a good way of proving a child’s competence and would happily pay for them to just tattoo Reuben with “vaguely competent” and leave it at that. It always feels like we’re bothering the lifeguards to ask them to do it and, if the shallow end is busy, it’s almost impossible to swim through without putting your foot down. But today, they batched a load of kids up to do the test at the same time and some of the smaller ones cleared out of the way to let them through so that worked better than normal.

Once we were gold-banded and in the deep end Reuben was much happier. Our 40 minutes went very quickly but happily coincided with Roo bashing his head against my foot, so he was kinda ready to get out anyway. I’m not sure what Nathan and Eva were up to in the shallow end – it probably didn’t involve much actual swimming but neither of them cried so that was good.

Happily, we were allowed to use both the showers and the cubicles post swim so we could take the edge off the chilly changing rooms and dry off quickly. I wish the cafe had been open so we could have had a disappointing coffee and a chocolate owl but hopefully that’ll become a reality next week. We can only hope…!

 

 

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The Al Fresco Choir Rehearsal Starter Kit

Posted on May 11, 2021 by katese11

I’ve been complaining non-stop about the lack of choir action for a year now so it seems only right that I share what we’ve been up to lately. Yes, we’ve been able to sing! Only in a group of 6 and only outside but hey, it’s better than Zoom.

And while we’re sharing, I thought I’d also show you a picture of my outdoor rehearsal starter kit. There is a lot of it but I like to be massively overprepared. This is what I’m packing nowadays:

  • A thermos – a hot drink is good for the vocal chords and for warming yourself off once the sun goes down. My current fave is Turkish apple tea.
  • Chairs – one of our outdoor spaces doesn’t have any seating and some choirsters can’t stand for long periods of time. Not that any of our rehearsals are exactly *long* anymore but you know what I mean. I’ve been carrying wooden foldable ones around but I saw today in Tesco they were selling camping chairs 2 for £12, so I think I might be upgrading to something a bit more space age soon.
  • Foldable music stand – I found this little wonder on Amazon and it’s great. Packs down really small but is solid when it’s put together and even comes with clips and a little rope light that fits on the top.
  • Ukulele –  with such limited numbers and big open spaces, singing can feel quite exposing. Although we’ve always sung a capella, I’ve found that taking a uke or guitar helps fill in the sound a bit
  • Jumper – essential for when it gets properly chilly on the way home (or any time after 9ish)
  • All the usual Covid-era supplies – antibac wipes, gloves, antibac spray, hand sanitizer,  face mask. Not that you need a face mask for singing outside but it does keep your nose warm in between songs
  • Music in individual plastic wallets  – means you can pack them in advance for minimal handling
  • Electric Tea lights – for atmosphere and being able to see the sheet music when it gets dark
  • A shopping trolley to carry at least some of this stuff

One day we’ll be back inside…maybe even one day soon. But till then…wrap up warm and pack anything but light…!

 

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Adventure Island – 03/05/21

Posted on May 5, 2021 by katese11

Over the course of the last few posts, I’ve been trying to persuade you that we’re back to our old adventuring ways, now that we’re armed with an armful of Pfizer. But I know, 90 mins playing golf next to a roundabout in Walthamstow is not the kind of mad plan you came to expect from LWAT in our pre-pandemic days. Hopefully today’s plan fits the bill a little better. It certainly was a little insane and there was a real return to the old school LWAT haplessness. Plus, it literally has “Adventure” in the title. What more could you want?

In our first trip across the M25 since August, we decided to mark Eva’s birthday with a trip to Adventure Island in Southend. There were a fair few flaws when it came to the idea of taking an anxious girl to high-octane thrills theme park at the tail end of a pandemic when even like low-octane thrills stress her out….but I figured we’d work it out when we got there. The more pressing issue was parking.

The Adventure Island website assured me that “parking in Southend is easier than you think” but I didn’t find that too reassuring. I thought it was going to be very hard, so maybe it would just end up being moderately hard? Turns out the website was right – it was remarkably easy. We went past several signs on the way into town, which told us which car parks had spaces. We had to adjust the route a little towards the end so that we turned right at the last roundabout before the seafront, instead of left but as soon as we took the right, we saw the gigantic Seaway car park which had loads of spaces. It wasn’t cheap – and we had to download the Mobon app to be able to pay – but it was easy to find and just a couple of minutes’ walk away from Adventure Island.

Going well so far. What was trickier was actually getting in to Adventure Island. There’s a queue as you walk down into the sunken garden but no signage to tell you what anyone is queuing for, so it’s all too easy to do what we did and go down the other side of the path, straight past the line of people. Only to be turned back and have to do the walk of shame to the end of the queue. That’s the queue to get in, apparently. I’m telling you this so that you don’t make the same mistake as we did.

It moved quickly tho and once we’d done the Track and Trace check in, we were allowed to roam free. There was little point in roaming before we got the kids’ wristbands tho and this is another confusing thing that I’ll explain to you now so that you don’t have the pain of figuring it out.

We had vouchers that needed to be exchanged for wristbands. That’s the first thing to note. We’d bought them at a discounted rate through a local school but the bits of paper alone did not get us in or on anything. We had to go to the wristbands booth along with thousands of other people to make the exchange.

At that point, there are more queues for different windows but before you get in a queue, your kids have to be measured and stamped to say whether they’re over 1.2m or not. You’d hope at this point neither child would reveal a pathological fear of hand stamps but our hopes were dashed. So there was a mini-scene while we tried to figure out a way around this system. Eventually we just got into one of the wristband queues and hoped for the best.

Exchanging vouchers for wristbands was fine and the handstamp issue was solved by the child in question agreeing to get a stamp on the wristband, rather than the hand. What was slightly more confusing was the question of who even needed wristbands in the first place. I’d seen something on their website about blue, red and green rides and how adults could ride for free on the red and green rides if they were accompanying a child. Now, the system has changed. Adults ride free on some rides if the child is under 1.2m but if the child is over 1.2m they have to ride alone or the adult has to pay to go on it with them. Now, it all makes sense when you know but when there’s a disconnect between the headline “Ride for free if you’re aged 14+ and accompanying a younger guest!” and the reality, it can be a bit confusing.

It all worked out fine. The kids are 1.3m and 1.5m and I had wristbands for them both and they could both go on rides unaccompanied for the most part. Nathan and I didn’t particularly want to go on any rides so us not having wristbands didn’t matter too much. But for the early ones where Eva was nervous and Reuben wasn’t always prepared to babysit her, it would have been beneficial if one of us had the option to go on with her. But, as I say, it was fine in the end and only cost me 2xdiscounted wristbands, which is a bit of a bargain really.

Anyway, on to the actual fun bits. The park is divided into two ends, with an undercover bit in between. Most of the middle bit is closed off at the moment, for obvious reasons, and you have to wear a mask as you walk through. So we walked the length of the park first to decide which rides Eva might agree to go on and started at the far West side with the American Whip.

This was a remarkably tame ride, with a bit of spin at either end of the track (the aforementioned “whip”). Walking through the park and seeing the terrifying vertical rollercoasters had made me concerned that we wouldn’t find anything Eva-friendly, especially as the sight of the rollercoasters had put her on edge a bit too. But this was plenty gentle enough and Reuben was gracious enough to go on it with her.

Next door to that was a ride which I keep referring to as “Sk8ter boi” as they were blasting out the Avril Lavigne hit all day. I don’t think that was its actual name but it was skateboard-themed and alternated between that song and two others. “Heaven is a Halfpipe” was one that Nathan and I had confidently predicted but “Surfing USA” was a bit of a curveball, given the boi was definitely on a skateboard rather than a surfboard. Eva refused to go on this one or even look at Reuben as he went on but Roo described it as “epic”. And I sang along a lot.

After that we tried to find something else that Eva would like, given it was her birthday. The helter skelter seemed like a strong possibility but she had a wobble just as she got to the front so Reuben went on it alone. I think she was worried about all the steps inside – this was definitely one where it would have been handy for Nathan or I to have been able to go on with her and encourage her up the stairs. Roo was not enthused about that task so was a bit relieved when she decided not to go on, I think.

By this point, it was past 1pm and definitely time for lunch. The croissants we’d had in the car were not fulfilling the same role as a Harvester breakfast buffet does on our Legoland trips. I’d packed some sandwiches but was going with the flow a bit so happy to buy Reuben a hotdog when he asked for one. Slightly less happy to wait ten minutes for the hotdog but I used to be in the hotdog hawking trade and I know that those little snaggers can take their time, so I wasn’t judging. We also got a bucket of candyfloss for Eva that was bigger than her head (not *for* lunch, I should probably point out), a coffee for Nathan, a Coke for me and some chicken fillet bits to pep up the sandwiches I’d brought with us. So I’m probably wrong to blame the hotdog anyway.

There wasn’t a huge amount of seating but we managed to find a bench near the Helter Skelter and the West entrance to the park. It had a view of a truck and spiky plants invading our personal space but it was good to sit down.

I balanced my Coke in the plant pot and we were all set up. In a remarkable feat of comedy timing, it was just when I’d taken a messy bite of chicken fillet-enhanced sandwich that we were spotted by someone Eva absolutely idolises. I kinda waved hello while trying to wipe off the chicken grease but I’m not sure what kind of impression we made back, half buried in plant life. Ah well… I later found out that there were picnic tables up a flight of steps that Nathan had failed to notice when he and Eva were scouting rides up there but I bet they would have been all full at lunchtime anyway. Our bench a la spiky plant did us just fine and was very convenient for the toilets.

After lunch, the hunt was back on for a ride Eva might like. If you’ve been paying attention, you’ll know that Eva had one been on one ride so far on her grand birthday day out. So we split up and Nathan took Reuben off in search of thrills while I took Eva to the tamer seas of the Jumping Jolly Rogers. Not to be confused with the terrifying Jolly Rocker at Legoland, this was a very mildly exciting ride with the same velocity and altitude as a drive along Wadham Road. An enthusiastic staff member shouted piratey things at them and Eva seemed to be finally having a good time.

 

The next thing she wanted to go on was the Go-karts. Now, this is where things get confusing because their wristbands covered the majority of the rides but the Go-karts and the dodgems were both added extras. I was happy to pay a few quid for the karts if that’s what her tiny heart desired but hoped Reuben would go on with her. He did not want to and, as it turned out, wasn’t tall enough to drive anyway. Besides, he was off with Nathan at this point queueing for the Green Scream (his verdict: “terrifying”).

So I paid the £4 for me and Eva to go in a Go-kart together and had to leave all my bags on the side as I squeezed in in a somewhat ungainly fashion. I definitely understand now how I buggered up my knee getting into that boat at Legoland. Once we were in and seatbelted, there was a bit of a wait while the single-person karts did their race and the juddering and petrol fumes were making me feel a bit nauseous. But then we were given the green light and I tried to move forward. You have to turn the wheel as well as push the accelerator apparently. And try not to get stuck on your way out of the lane. Once we were on the track, I found my groove but didn’t fancy doing any of that aggressive overtaking stuff. I mean, I didn’t even have wing mirrors to check before manoeuvring! So Eva and I stayed in the left hand lane, going daringly fast on the straights but easing up on the corners. Despite the repeated mantra of “Use yer brakes! Use yer brakes!” I never found that I had to…I just took my foot off the gas a bit. Thinking about it now, that probably means I wasn’t going very fast.

Ah well, Eva enjoyed it. And Nathan and Roo magically appeared at the side of the track to cheer us on even though we were never going to be anything but last.

Seeing as big brother was back on the scene, I thought he could make himself useful and take Eva on the Pharoah’s Fury – a ride she’d noticed before but not been brave enough to go on alone. His head was still spinning from the heights of the Green Scream I think but he agreed because this one more or less stayed on the ground.  Eva later said that this one was her favourite ride, even though the forces made her squash Roo into the corner. Glad we read the bit about the bigger person sitting on the outside.

By this point, we were all ready for another break. So we climbed to the upper levels of the park, where everything was a bit calmer and shared a large bag of crisps together. This is when I found out there were picnic benches up there but even at 3PM they were all full, so I imagine they would have been overrun at lunchtime. We sat on the floor and breathed in some restorative sea air while formulating the next part of the plan. Eva hadn’t really spent much time in the Eastern side of the park and Reuben wanted to go on the giant turtle chair ride thing. So we headed that way and he did that, while Eva enjoyed more gentle thrills on the Viking ride:

And got one of those supremo hot chocolate things (plus more coffee for me and Nathan and a Coke for Roo):

The end was drawing nigh, even with the caffeine boost. The rain had held off all day but the skies were menacing and we were verging into “pushing our luck” territory. So we split up one last time, with me taking Reuben to do the Sk8terBoi again while Eva went on the ChooChooVille train and disappointed herself on the Hook-A-Duck. Then they went on the Jolly Roger boats together again and it was definitely time to leave.

It was coming up to 5PM when we passed the remarkably louche giant and went out through the West gate. Chips were definitely on the agenda and there were many, many outlets that would sell us those on our walk back to the car. We still had half an hour left on the parking and it would have made sense to grab some as we went past but in my brain was a half-remembered conversation with my boss, who is an Essex native. He’d said there was a much nicer beach called Thorpe Bay a mile or two down the coast and my romantic notions of how a day at the seaside should end latched onto this idea. I was sure he’d said there were chips there so we could just hop in the car, park up at the nice beach and buy some chips for dinner. Given we’d technically been at the seaside all day, I had seen very little of the sea and thought it was time to remedy that.

As you might have guessed, this is where it all gets a bit farcical, in true LWAT tradition. I definitely should have ignored any romantic notions and just bought the chips on Southend seafront. For one, the wind was getting stronger all the time and the chances of actually being able to eat on the beach accordingly reduced. For two, there were no chip shops at Thorpe Bay and you had to pay to park there. So we kept on driving. My phone was running out of battery but I had “chip shops near me” as a Google Maps option open already and directed Nathan to a place called Nessy’s, a little way inland. Again, parking was tricky as it was on a busy main road and the bays were on the wrong side of the road…..so we ended up round the back of a housing estate, which wasn’t quite the picturesque dining scene I’d envisaged. I mean, we’d eaten lunch in front of a truck so was it too much to ask for something a bit more scenic for dinner? And maybe just a little less broken-glassy?

We left the car on the estate, walked a few minutes back to Nessy’s and ordered our chips, battered sausages and burgers. Because of Covid regulations, we had to wait outside while it cooked and even I was prepared to admit it was getting a bit chilly. Eva huddled inside my coat while we sang her current favourite song – “Roar” to ward away the cold. Reuben leapt about to keep warm, inevitably jumping straight *into* something and Nathan was stoic but, as someone who hadn’t packed a coat, very, very cold.

I got it. There was no buy-in for al fresco dining. I compromised and agreed to eat in the car as long as we were somewhere near the sea. So we set off again and, with one false start, managed to park up on the main road going past Thorpe Bay. We had turned right into the parking spot, which meant we were facing away from the sea and it wasn’t yet 6PM which meant I needed to use the app again, with the last gasps of my phone battery, to buy another hour of parking.

But I got my chips at the seaside, even if we were in a car facing away from the sea with a gale-force wind blowing the door shut if I even tried to open it to – for example  – go to the bin. I don’t often share close-ups of my face on this blog but I think this illustrates how windy it was:

But hey look – seaside! Well, Estuary-side! And the chips were good so it all worked out well.

And then it was most definitely time to drive home. In fact, it was probably about an hour later than we should have driven home given the wind was pushing our little car all over the M25. But everyone agreed it was a fine day out. If any of this makes you want to do the same, you can find out more info here.

 

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Hampstead Heath – 24/04/21

Posted on April 25, 2021 by katese11

It’s been a while since we’ve climbed Parliament Hill. The last time was around the genesis of this blog so it was well overdue a revisit. Plus, with all the months we’ve spent mooching around our own house, an adventure was also well overdue.

And what an adventure it was! We had driven to church in Canonbury so the first adventure was driving over to Hampstead, a journey Google Maps suggested would be very straightforward:

Yet, when we actually got into the car AngelGoogle turned into AngelusGoogle and took us through a fiendish maze of tiny streets in the outer reaches of Islington.

Some of those streets were terribly pretty and lined with blossom-y trees but it was a bit hard to appreciate them when we were never pointing in the same direction for more than two minutes.

But we saw some interesting sights along the way, including Pentonville Prison. And at one point, we pulled up just behind this prankster:

Which had the kids both fooled and freaked out. Eventually we came out somewhere I recognised – a piece of pavement outside Kentish Town tube that I had definitely sung on at some point. But that meant I knew how to get to Hampstead Heath from there and I knew it wasn’t far, so that was good. A few minutes later, we were parking up on one of the residential streets near Gospel Oak station (no restrictions on Sunday) and wandered down to meet the rest of our party, a full 20 minutes early.

What to do with that spare time? Oh, if only a neon sign would give us an indication of what we should do…

So Nathan went to get us coffees and mango juice for the kids and shortly afterward, we met a delightful cockapoo who was desperate for someone to scruffle his head and call him a Good Boy. I apologise now if he was actually a Good Girl – we didn’t get into too much conversation with the owner past “can we scruffle your dog?”. And we did. In fact, there were many dogs wandering by on their way to the Heath, which kept the kids entertained.

But soon enough, our friends turned up and we followed the stream of dogs past the Mutt Hut and onto the vast expanse of green. It was Bunny’s birthday celebration and she wanted to picnic on the very top of the hill, so that’s where we aimed for. I said something foolish about how it didn’t feel as steep without a scooter and a toddler like last time…but that was before we hit the near-vertical part of the ascent. I may channel Fraulein Maria in several ways but not in the running up mountains stakes.

Still, you can’t beat the view from there:

And happily, we stopped right by a bench dedicated to Jim Henson who has indeed brought much joy to my life over the years:

It was both sunny and windy up there. The clouds to the East looked like a heavily redacted document but overhead there was nothing but blue skies, as Bing would say (Crosby, not the CBeebies bunny). Last time, we’d brought a kite and there was no wind to fly it. This time, it was as if Nathan was trying to fly a picnic blanket:

We ate our picnic and when the kids got restless, they decided to go into the woods and build a den with the den-making kit Bunny’s parents had procured at the Jumble Trail the day before. That kept them occupied for hours and us grown ups sat atop our hill, lazing in the sunshine and wondering what kind of trouble the kids were getting themselves into.

Some trouble, as it happens…but slightly unfairly. Reuben popped back out of the woods to tell us that some people in a uniform had ordered them to dismantle the den because, and I quote, “people might set fire to it”. Presumably that applies to any bit of wood in the Hampstead Heath area and it must be a losing battle attempting to stop any child ever arranging any of them, but we complied and took the (very fine) den down before we left. Wouldn’t want to put temptation in the way of the local arsonists. I don’t blame the uniformed people for enforcing the rule but I have to admit, I don’t *quite* understand it.

It’s has, however, led me to look up the set of Hampstead Heath Byelaws and there are some really quite specific rules in there that I wasn’t aware of, including prohibitions on sorting bones and mending chairs on the Heath. I think I broke one of the byelaws unknowingly by humming a few bars of the “Rentaghost” theme tune. You’d think that I, of all people, would be fully conversant with the laws around singing wouldn’t you?

The drive home also looked straightforward on Google, but we’ve been down this metaphorical road before haven’t we? And, thanks to a “Road Closed Ahead” sign on Highgate Hill, we went down – or up- many non-metaphorical roads. Although we turned off the road called “Hill”, I was pretty confident that we’d encounter the terrifying gradients of Highgate sooner or later and so we did, going past some beautiful 1930s blocks of flats and the imposing entrance to Highgate Cemetery. Luckily, the road became one-way at some point as I’m not sure what we would have done if anything had come down the other way.

There was more 1930s loveliness as we passed by Bounds Green tube, just before turning onto the North Circular:

On the way we’d seen more glimpses of memory places, from the unsettling (old bosses, old offices) to the undefined (something to do with a telly and Muswell Hill and some Brazilians). But it was lovely to bust out of our LBWF bubble for a day and breathe the rarefied air of posh North London. We noticed on the way out that there was an adventure playground reopening in May this year so Roo made me promise we’d go back. Mind you, I said on the last post that we’d be be back to check out the playground and that’s taken us almost a decade. Ah well….

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Jurassic Falls Adventure Golf – 16/04/21

Posted on April 15, 2021 by katese11

We’re still in Easter holidays here, for another few days at least. And today, Nathan and I were both off work so I decided we would have a Fun Family Day Out that I could blog about. There wasn’t huge amounts of enthusiasm for that, so we ended up with a Fun Family 90 Minutes Out that I could blog about. I know, I spoil you all.

Going far away was one of many things that was failing to raise any kind of enthusiasm. I think we’ve all got a touch of Stockholm Syndrome from being cooped up for so long. So we decided to go somewhere that was only the slightest toe-length outside Highams Park. We’d driven past the dinosaurs a million times on the North Circular and always said that it would be good to actually visit one day. Today was that day. It was so close by that it was barely worth driving but the location didn’t seem particularly pedestrian-friendly and I wasn’t sure exactly how we would get there on foot without having to either cross the North Circular or walk alongside it at some point. So, a 5 minute drive it was. Accompanied by a slightly hairy sharp left turn off aforementioned circular when we didn’t really have the opportunity to slow down before taking the corner. It’s set up to drive to but the driving is every so slightly scary. There’s a decent sized car park though.

Obviously, with These Times you need to book ahead for everything and I’d definitely advise booking ahead for golf as I think they were sold out of slots. It certainly seemed busy-ish. We had a 10:30 slot, showed our barcode to the friendly guy at the entrance and he gave us our clubs. Then we had to mask up to walk through a small indoor bit, where we got a pencil and score card and a ball each. The kids had shades of purple – Eva’s matched her rucksack, which was quite pleasing – and Nathan and I had shades of green. It was all very efficient and we took our masks back off as soon as we were through the building. They’re currently only allowing players to go round in household groups and the natural pattern of one group per hole made it easy to distance.

The less easy bit was striking a balance between actually playing the game and keeping the kids from melting down. I issued a decree that we wouldn’t be too strict about the rules and it didn’t matter if I shuffled Eva’s ball a tad closer to the hole on occasion. The main aim was to all still be speaking to each other by the 18th hole, which we were pretty much were. I also told the kids that the winner wasn’t allowed to brag too much so it took the competitive edge off a bit. Dagnam, I just wanted to give us the best possible chance of actually having a nice time.

It was pretty hard not to brag though, when I got the first three holes in 2 shots each. I’m normally terrible at crazy golf so I have no idea how that happened. I assumed Nathan was going to win (spoiler – he did, but only by a couple of points) and that the rest of us would all throw our clubs down and storm off crying at some point due to our genetic lack of co-ordination. But no, it went surprisingly well. There was one hole that took me 10 shots and there were a few where Eva got stressed so we either let her start again or just plain cheated to help her….but most holes we managed to do in a fairly efficient way. We did let the group behind us overtake around Hole 9 because they were even more efficient than we were…but that was shortly after one of those stressy holes and Eva needed a biscuit and a minute to breathe anyway.

It’s a very compact course but well laid out so you never have to cross anyone else’s path unless they’re overtaking. The dinosaurs are largely incidental but Reuben would have loved it when he was 4 and in his dino phase. I kinda miss that phase.

You never forget that you are right next to the North Circular. It’s a bit noisy and I can’t help wondering whether anyone has ever managed to chip a ball right over the fence and into a passing windscreen. Hopefully not.

There’s also no coffee, which is fine cause we brought our own but definitely something for tired parents to be aware of. The indoor bit has a refreshment stand with slushies and other cold drinks plus a few packets of sweets but no hot drinks as far as I could see. There’s a Turkish restaurant next door which would be a nice lunch stop in more normal times. Turkish food is one thing that Eva actually eats so that might just work for us.

Carrying coffee cups, clubs and scorecards round can be a little cumbersome especially when we also had to carry Eva’s cuddly corgi “Summer”. It was Summer’s birthday, you see, so she had to come with us. Luckily the course was dog friendly:

There are a few tricky parts of the course, especially the last hole where your ball is liable to fall into the disturbingly neon-green stream half way through the hole:

Reuben’s ball went in there first time so we had to fish it out and somehow it then ended up in a different neon-green stream. So we advised Reuben to hit the ball a little harder next time, at which point he hit it so hard that it went off the end of Hole 18, over Hole 1 and almost through the fence into the car park. It’s all about balance.

Talking of Reuben tho, here’s his victory stance after getting a hole in one:

It’s a bit Breakfast Club, isn’t it? I’m sure Nathan would want me to tell you that he got a couple of holes in one too so there you go, I told you. I never did get a hole in one but I got quite a few twos and threes, which I was pretty pleased with.

Eva, meanwhile, would like me to tell you that she got a slushie that was half orange and half lime. Here it is:

The tricky bits on the course were nothing compared to the trickiness of the drive home. A hard left off the North Circular is a challenge but a hard left back onto it even more so. Credit to Nathan that he made it with only a small amount of tyre screech. But then having to deal with the “part time traffic lights” roundabout straight afterwards might be an ask too far. Maybe we should just walk next time…

 

 

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Valentine’s Park – 07/04/21

Posted on April 7, 2021 by katese11

The adventuring continues! We’ve left the borough again today, after Sunday’s jaunt to Islington. I know, this is WILD after so many months stuck in LBWF. Today was a trip on the 123 bus with some friendly friends and a very friendly dog to the magical land of Redbridge.

I’ll admit, I might have thought we’d made a mistake when we went past this shop on the way:

I know Ilford is to the East of HP but I didn’t realise we’d strayed so far east that we were on the other side of Europe. And yes, let’s not dwell too much on what a “Taste of Dracula” might be.

But Valentine’s Park was barely sinister at all. It was as pleasant as it had been last time we visited, when I think I’d been surprised by just how pleasant Ilford could be. What it was though, was extremely cold. Ongoing Covid restrictions mean that pretty much everything has to happen outdoors at the moment, which is fine when the temperature is in the late teens, as it was on Sunday. Today, my phone reckoned it was -1C and, although I don’t quite believe it, it certainly was the kind of day where I should have reminded the kids to take gloves with them. Despite the prescence of a palm tree, this was no tropical island.

They did attempt to play on the the equipment for a bit but quickly got fed up with having cold hands and not being able to grip on to the climbing frame because their fingers had gone numb. Bear in mind, they’ve barely left the house this winter so it was all a bit of a culture shock.

Luckily it was 10:30 by this point and that’s when the cafe opened. A chance to queue inside for a few minutes defrosted them a tad and a round of coffees and hot chocolates gave them enough inner warmth to play a little more. First on the outdoor gym and then on a giant swing just by the stream.

It’s not immediately obvious that there’s a stream there but trust me, there is. We’ll get to that.

The restorative powers of hot chocolate and an oreo muffin only lasted a limited amount of time and before long, we were being pestered for more food. By 11:30, we gave in and called it lunchtime. The cafe provided us with many portions of chips and we put our picnic blanket down behind a little hut that acted as a bit of windbreak, keeping us warm enough to be able to eat the chips and have a bit more time playing on the giant swing by the stream before leaving for home.

Ah yes, that stream. I said we’d come back to it. Given that the theme of the morning was children complaining about being cold, what would be the ideal mitigation against further coldness? Well, I’ll tell you for nowt that sodden feet as a result of standing in the stream is not the mitigation you’re looking for, Eva.

It was definitely time to head home. On the way out, we encountered what Reuben referred to as “the army of pigeons” which, naturally, the boys and dog wanted to run through and scatter. It was only after they did so that I noticed several people sitting in cars, clutching loaves of bread and giving us most disapproving looks. Apparently Valentine’s Park has a strong contigent of pigeon fans. Best to keep them away from boys and dogs…

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Happy Easter!

Posted on April 5, 2021 by katese11

Happy Easter! We celebrated not only the Resurrection yesterday but also the easing of the Covid restrictions and some sunshine. Triple whammy! What it meant in practice was wandering around Islington after church a few hours and then wandering around Islington in a slightly more structured way for another hour or so, to complete the Easter Trail.

It’s been a long time since we’ve had one of those wandering-around kinda days so I thought I’d share a few pictures with you. Last time I mentioned Astey’s Row playground, it was under renovation and had some multi-coloured boulders whose purpose was very much tbd. Now, two years on, we’ve finally revisited and I can confirm that it’s some complicated climbing thing:

As you can see from the photos, it was quite gloriously sunny for April so we had the first family ice creams of the year from a tiny shop called Romulus Wines Merchant.

We also walked along large stretches of the New River, which was as stagnant as ever, but the pathway is quite pretty and there were loads of Good Dogs to say hello to:

And we hung out for a long time in Nightingale Park, eating our sandwiches on the concrete sun loungers and enjoying the sun:

Lastly, Eva spotted a series of trees on Arran Walk that she said looked like all four seasons in a row. She has a poetic turn of phrase but I can see her logic. Here’s summer:

Winter and Spring:

And Spring and Autumn:

(Not to be confused with Eva’s dogs of the same names)

By our usual standards, it wouldn’t have been much to blog about. But after a long winter of not really leaving Highams Park, it was so exciting to be somewhere else and on a sunshiney day as well! Bring on many more of these….!

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Let’s Talk About Women’s Health – IWD 2021

Posted on March 13, 2021 by katese11

 

Last Sunday, I virtually met with a group of Highams Park women (and one man) to mark International Women’s Day, for the fourth year running. This year was a bit of a different format to the previous IRL gatherings but still, some powerful conversations were had and we all went away with a lot to think about.

The conversation has moved on a bit this week, for obvious and horrific reasons. I’m not going to write about male violence today – other women are doing that so much more powerfully than I could – but it is, of course, on my mind like it is on so many women’s minds today.

What I wanted to write about is what’s been lurking at the back of my mind ever since that conversation on Sunday and happily, there is some small action we can take on it. I’ll come to that. The conversation was about how women’s health issues are misunderstood and minimised and just a few days after IWD, I found a prime example. Research led by the University of Birmingham has found that PCOS signficantly increases the risk of contracting Covid. Significantly! This is a condition that affects 10% of all women and a disease that is currently affecting the entire world and it hasn’t even made the papers. I found it because I went looking for it but the only sources I found were medical journals, not the mainstream media. Women’s health is just not headline-making news.

When I shared this on Facebook, the responses all told a similar story to what I’d heard on IWD – that our health issues aren’t taken seriously by doctors and women are made to feel like they’re being hysterical or over-emotional about their physical issues. Which is pretty circular and annoying when you think about it – the same hormones that give us these physical issues also give us extremes of emotion. Yet we’re not allowed to get emotional about it all?

Screw that! We deal with so much, compared to men, and we deal with a lot of it on a monthly basis. Ovulation pain, period pain, mood swings, pelvic floor problems from pregnancy and birth, issues to do with pregnancy and birth themselves, female cancers that don’t get picked up till too late. The whole gamut of symptoms that we are told are “normal”. It’s normal to be in pain every month. It’s normal to feel dizzy every month. It’s normal to struggle with breastfeeding or struggle to get pregnant. It’s supposed to be reassuring but it’s not. It’s patronising and minimising. We want our pain dealt with, our cancers diagnosed and our fertility issues addressed. What Would Men Do?

I said there was a positive to all of this and there is – the government launched a public facing survey on this exact issue to mark IWD. We have a chance to feed back all these injustices and, even if no action is taken on the back of this, at least our voices can be heard. All the context is here and the actual survey is here. It’s only open for 12 weeks, which sounds like ages but it’s probably best to get it done while we’re still thinking about it and before the next thing comes to knock us off course. Let’s take the chance to do something and have our say. It might be painful and emotional to fill out but I’d urge you to do it if you can. This needs to change. Let’s be heard!

 

 

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Back to Back to School

Posted on March 7, 2021 by katese11

 

Congrats, fellow parents. It seems like we’ve almost done it again. Primary aged kids go back tomorrow and secondary kids follow at their own, test-lined pace. After the 6 month school-hiatus of 2020, we’re all used to understating what we’ve achieved but consider this – this latest break from school has been double the length of the summer holidays but with no holiday clubs, no trips to the grandparents’, no playdates, no cinema, no McDonald’s, no soft play and, for our primary-aged ones, not even an option to legally meet up with another child in the park.

It’s insane, that’s what it is. Pre-2020 it would have been unprecedented. And all at no notice at all. When we got our kids home from school on 14th Dec then were told not to send them in on the 15th, then were supposed to send them back on the 16th but didn’t…we had no idea how long this next stretch would be. And that was just Eva. Roo had already been home for a week at that point. So in many ways, we were as ill-prepared as we were the first time round but this time there seemed to be an expectation that kids would actually do some work rather than just playing Fortnite all day.

We got into the groove in the end. We might have been ill-prepared but schools weren’t and the routine of live lessons and recorded ones began to give the kids’ days a soothing familiarity. Which is just as well because these 12 weeks landed neatly between the Go-lives of two phases of a project I’ve been working on so the idea of being able to take some time off work to homeschool full-time was a bit ludicrous. Don’t get me wrong  – I know we’re incredibly lucky to have jobs that we can do from home and I know our 12 weeks has been nowhere near as stressful as it has been for keyworkers who’ve still had to go to work every day. And our kids have been lucky, compared to the keyworker kids who have had to deal with the surreal challenges of virtualschool-in-actualschool.

Still tho, it’s been a bit hardgoing. And it’ll be nice to think that someone else will briefly be reponsible for one or both of them at some points during this week.  Let’s just hope they’re back for good this time…

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