Coram’s Fields Needs Your Help!

Posted on March 19, 2014 by katese11

While I was at Coram’s the other day with C’sMum, I noticed that they were running an appeal for funds. In case you didn’t know, Coram’s Fields is a private charity, not a publicly funded park, yet it flings its gates open to any child that wants to play. It’s beloved by NCTers and BLWers alike, and it needs more funds to carry on being a lovely space in the heart of studenty Bloomsbury. So, consider this a free ad for the joys of Coram’s, especially the recently changed bits…Consider it payback for the hours of free fun we’ve had there. If you’ve had hours of fun there too, you can donate here.

So, there’s a brand new sensory area that’s just opened at the back:

It has musical panels, touchy-feely panels and puzzles:

There’s also a new, accessible roundabout towards the back, where the cafe is -I forget what those things are called, but it’s something like a whirl of joy. Or something. Talking of the cafe, it seems that they’re looking for new people to run it so presumably Kipferl have moved their star biscuits and sausages elsewhere. C’sMum was quite distressed that there was nowhere to stock up on caffeine at the moment. So, ever fancied running a park cafe? Apply here!

And of course, there’s the traditional Coram’s pursuit of animal-bothering – in this case a chicken that Reuben wanted to set free to roam about:

I think he seemed quite happy in his house, with layers of fencing between him and sticky toddlers. Reuben also tried to liberate the grumpy goat, until we persuaded him that it was a bad idea (luckily, he still believes that goats like to eat his trousers).

Add on the zipwire, the paddling pool, the sand and water play area, the other sandpit, the multitude of slides and swings….that’s Coram’s. So, how did Eva choose to spend her first hour or so there?

So ungrateful. But she made up for it later, don’t worry!

I almost forgot to mention that there’s a new sand area too, in the sensory bit. Mr Coram, you are really spoiling us…

So, go for a visit…play, enjoy, take multiple changes of clothing once they turn the water on (normally May-ish) and don’t forget to donate!

Posted in Token attempts at fresh air (parks) | Tagged Central London, parks, slides | Leave a comment

A Guide to Solving Your Breastfeeding in Public Dilemmas

Posted on March 17, 2014 by katese11

After the Rugeley protests and the massive amounts of publicity surrounding breastfeeding in public this last week or so, you’d think that the world would have got the message. Not so much. The internet trolls that branded a mother a tramp for feeding her child have brought out yet more opinionated trolls, such as this comment on the Daily Mail website (where else?!):

“ITS NOT NATURAL TO DO THIS IN PUBLIC,,it is offensive….”

You’re offended? Have you considered your own offences against punctuation?

And:

“Another little self important woman who thinks that she has done something earth shattering by giving birth to a child! And why do mothers seem to think that babies need to be fed 24 hours a day, and they never sleep!”

Eva laughed so hard at that question that she pooped her pants a little.

And, of course, that old expressing argument:

“What I don’t get with these supposedly intelligent women is why they are seemingly incapable of expressing milk beforehand and feeding their kid from a bottle. Are they that desperate to make some sort of statement : “look at me, look what an Earth-mother I am”? That’s the problem with attention seekers – the minute they get the sort of attention they DON’T want they go off shrieking to the papers, or to court. No one is disputing whether breast is best but there’s a time and a place and in public is neither…”

Ah, I’m too thick to use a breast pump? You’re probably right – you need a degree in engineering to work one of those damned things. Luckily, I’m at peace with my stupidity and can just about manage to point a baby in the general direction of a boob. If only my parents had sent me to private school*

But my personal favourite is this one. I really, really x10,000 hope that this person actually lives in Tunbridge Wells:

“Disgusted, Tunbridge Wells, 3 days ago

Not everyone wants to see women breast feeding in public!!”

Anyway, for all of you breastfeeding mothers who have had your confidence swayed by this, Tunbridge Wellsians or not, don’t worry! I have prepared some definitive charts to help you make important decisions about whether or not you should breastfeed in public, along with the question of whether breastfeeding in public makes you an exhibitionist, and whether you should use a cover. Read on – all the answers you need are right here:

You’re welcome.

*My parents are off on holiday, so I’m relatively confident I can get away with this one. It’s just a joke, honest Mum. It was me that insisted on going to state school, after all…

Posted in Rants | Tagged breastfeeding | 6 Comments

Labor Day Review

Posted on March 14, 2014 by katese11

If you read my last post, you’ll know that I was off to far-West London on the District Line, having deposited the children, tired and full of sugar, on Nathan at London Bridge. The freedom was exhilarating. For a while anyway, until the tedium of the District Line began to set in. It’s a long and confusing line, which makes the most hardened of tube geeks (me) sob a little. So, it was more by luck than journey planning that I arrived in Gunnersbury, at the headquarters of Paramount Pictures.

Why was I there? Am I finally signing that 12-picture contract that’s been coming my way ever since my groundbreaking performance as Mary in St Barnabas’ Nativity Play 1984? (My future husband was a lowly shepherd…and we think he was an ally of his future brother-in-law in the king/shepherd rumble) No, that sadly wasn’t it. I was there to review “Labor Day”, a new film starring Kate Winslet and Josh Brolin. And eat some mini burgers and chocolate brownie squares while I was there. I also took in the scenic grounds of the Paramount offices, featuring a lake with swans. Surreal.

So, my verdict on the film. I’d like to say I enjoyed it, and I did but it was a strange kind of enjoyment that you get with the most tense kind of dramas (I had to get a neck rub after “Captain Philips”, I was so stressed). It never quite lets you relax – the masterly direction soothes you into a sense of homely calm, before jolting you out of it again. Kate Winslet is Adele, a nervy recluse, who inadvertently shelters a felon on the run (Josh Brolin)…and unexpected romance blossoms. It’s narrated by, and seen from the perspective of, her son Henry – you never get to see things from Adele’s point of view, though a handy piece of exposition helps explain why she the way she is. It’s a film about family, about love and – to an extent – about injustice, as the full story of Frank’s crime comes to light (although we never see him explain it to Adele, suggesting she just chooses to accept him as he is and ignore the reason he’s in prison – love is blind, after all). It’s from the director of “Juno” and there are similar touches in the lo-fi style of direction, but the writing is completely different and that makes it a very different film. If anything, it’s more like Kate Winslet’s previous work “Revolutionary Road” – and if a crucial scene in that film had you sobbing hormonal tears, then this may have a similar effect.

I’ve written a fuller review at tvandfilmreview.com, so have a look there…but it is definitely worth checking out. Just don’t expect a comfortable ride.

Posted in Reviewing the Situation | Tagged cinema, West London | 3 Comments

A Complex Day

Posted on March 14, 2014 by katese11

Remember that Google location map I mentioned, that while my children were poxed rather creepily followed me from room to room? Well, today will have made it go nuts. As I’m writing this, I’m sitting on a rush hour district line train towards Gunnersbury, which is almost as far from our new house as you can get while still technically being in London. Why am I off to Chiswick? Well, that’s a whole other post and that’s coming up. But first, the story of how I managed to drag two children round almost all of London and do some work at the same time.
I have many jobs right now. One of them involves going to various places and seeing various people and today I was doing that job. With both kids. Reuben left school when we moved house so he is currently out of education. If the thought of that panics you, imagine how I feel. So they both came with me, bumping the buggy down the steps at Hackney Downs, because I had entirely forgotten that it had them and eating their chorizo wraps in my office. Reuben deemed this all unfun, so it got to the point where I had done as much work as I possibly could, with copious amounts of bribes and other people playing peekaboo with Eva and finding Pixar trailers for them to watch. It was park time. But we were in Soho, which has long been established as a no-park zone, in many ways.So we jumped on a bus to Green Park, which was handily on the Jubilee Line…An essential part of phase 56765 of the day’s plan.

If you know anything about Roo, you might doubt that Green Park would be the kind of park that he would think of as fun. There are ancient trees and daffodils but not an awful lot else. He asked for a playground but the nearest one was the other side of St James Park, which was tediously far away. We’d hang out in Green Park instead. We did some romping through the daffodils (and left them all intact…phew!) and some roly-polys and had a snack and I was beginning to think we could comfortably waste as much time as we needed to, right there next to the tube. And then those fateful words. You can imagine what they were, but the short version is it involved some rapid googling to confirm that no, Green Park did not have toilets. Looks like we were heading to St James Park after all.

Now, I’m fond of St James Park. It’s very pretty in the springtime but there was no time to stop and take photos when we had urgent business to attend to. I remembered from a previous visit that there were toilets next to the playground, so we headed there, much to Roo’s satisfaction. But disaster! They are closed until March 31st! So, it was back over the lake towards Marlborough Gate and it was there that we finally found some. Job done.

It was definitely time for the first ice cream of the year. We have plenty still stuck to Eva that’ll last us till autumn:

And then a jaunt to the playground – it would have been a mean mummy that allowed them a glimpse of it but didn’t let them play. I am a mean mummy, but not that mean. They played happily, while I chatted to a Kennington mum who just happened to be there too.

We could have stayed for a while, but rush hour was looming and we needed to get to that Jubilee Line to get to London Bridge. So I peeled Eva off the slide, quite literally kicking and screaming and we walked back uphill towards Green Park tube, stopping only to pull some faces in front of Buckingham Palace:

Again, if you know anything about Roo you might guess that he’d be a little whiney by now. We’d been out since 9, it was almost 5, we’d got a train, three buses and a walk so far and he was flagging. Even the sight of the horse-top “knights” failed to chirp him up much. Luckily, we could just hop on the tube at step-free Green Park and be on our way.

Or could we? It certainly was step-free, but hopping on the tube seemed unlikely, given there was another mile’s worth of walking once you got inside. OK, so a mile might be an exaggeration but every few metres feels like miles when you’re a tired 4-year-old. It was a long, long walk. The Jubilee line is pretty far down, so we had to get two lifts, with a slog between the two. I wouldn’t recommend it for end-of-day tube-hopping. But we got to London Bridge, and a few false starts saw us bagging the only two seats and the only two sausage sandwiches in the world’s smallest Starbucks. Where they were playing “B-List Indie Hits of ’96” and that made me absurdly happy. When was the last time you heard the Longpigs in a coffee shop? Or Hurricane#1? Or Dodgy? Shed Seven?! We were quite happy then until Reuben made another game-changing announcement. Naturally, Tinybucks had no toilet so it was next door to pret where I promised to buy something in exchange for using the facilities. And we would have, except it was near the end of the day and the lovely man decided to give the kids gingerbread men for free. Score! Now, it was time to hand them over to Nathan (the kids, not the gingerbread men) and head to Gunnersbury for the next stage of the day….

To be continued!

Posted in Just wandering.... | Tagged accessibility, cafes, Cental london, parks | Leave a comment

Goodbye to Kennington

Posted on March 6, 2014 by katese11

You may have heard the rumours. You probably haven’t heard the rumours. There are no rumours. But if there were, they would probably be something along the lines of how us diehard South Londoners are moving to the far North-East….the land of Almost Essex. And those rumours would be true. On Monday, we turn our backs on 14-ish years of South Londondom and become those North of the River types who are always complaining about having too many tube stations and how Forest Hill is halfway to France. You may want to unsubscribe. I won’t blame you. But truth is, I have blogged Kennington and its surrounds pretty dry and am looking forward to discovering the delights of the Leyton Leisure Lagoon. But before we go, I’ve saved a few special pictures of our wonderful K-Town….a fabulous prize* for anyone who knows where they were all taken.

And there’s more. There’s a song. I’ll let it speak for itself. Goodbye Kennington…

*There are no prizes. The prizes are packed.

And just in case you think I’m overselling it, here’s Ducky Park…

Posted in Facts! And facts are important! | Tagged blogging, South London | Leave a comment

The Friends of London With a Toddler

Posted on March 1, 2014 by katese11

You may have noticed something new appearing both here ^^ and here >>.

You haven’t? Look again. LWAT has some sponsors…but they’re a special kind of sponsor. They are companies that really mean something to Team LWAT and they’re all awesome. Let me tell you why.

First up, we have The Dish and the Spoon, which LWAT readers will remember as being the winner of our “London’s Most Toddler-Friendly Cafe” award. They serve the most beautiful silky cappucinos, they host singing sessions with Becky of Nimble Arts and her puppets and it’s a little haven of loveliness, which is an essential destination if you’re ever in the Nunhead/East Dulwich/Peckham Rye area. Which is also the ‘hood of….

Maria Made It. You all know Maria. She’s selflessly eaten cake with us in the pursuit of the cafe award, and joined us on many adventures around South-East London. But did you know she also makes beautiful jewellery? Fine silver pieces, handprint pedants and lots more. Do have a look at her website and get a slice of handmade jewellery goodness.

And then there’s Wauwaa. LWAT has been working with Wauwaa since its launch last year, and they very kindly stream LWAT content on the site. Their site is a mixture of parenting news, video tutorial, hilarious blog posts from a very funny friend of mine and a shop with funky kids clothes. No word of a lie – both my kids are wearing Wauwaa clothes this morning. Look, Eva’s modelling one of their tops here…

So, say hello to our Friends of LWAT, click on their sites, buy stuff! I promise they are all especially lovely people…

Posted in Facts! And facts are important! | Tagged Friends of LWAT, Toddler-Friendly Cafe Awards | Leave a comment

A Bit of Blogmin…and a Bit of Shameless Begging at the end

Posted on February 26, 2014 by katese11

Have you ever wondered what your life would look like if it was recorded on a map? Well, thanks to the stalky and unsolicited wonder of Google Maps, I found out – and my map for January looked like a spider, with legs reaching out to Highams Park, Wood Green, East Dulwich and Roo’s school. The last one many times over. I didn’t ask Google Maps to do that but it was interesting to look at.

The reason I mention this is because the map for this week would look like on big red dot – appropriate as we’ve been housebound with many big red dots all over the children. Yes, chicken pox has moved in for the week and fun has moved out. “Tree Fu Tom Live” last week became a Tree Fu No-Go and I’ve watched every episode of “The Numtums” many times over. So, apologies. For once I have literally nothing to report back on.

Lucky then that we have an exciting competition running – the prize being a much sought after ticket to “In the Night Garden Live”. You have to enter via nightgardenlive.com, at the special LWAT competition page. It’s only open till Saturday, so make sure you enter now! And come Saturday, I have something else to reveal…!

Don’t forget to send questions in for our TfL webchat (date tbc) – drop me an e-mail at kate@londonwithatoddler.com. And one last thing….it’s nomination season for the MAD Awards again. There are some serious heavyweight bloggers nominated, so I don’t suppose I have a chance but if you fancy dropping me a nomination…click here.

Thanks!

Posted in Facts! And facts are important! | Tagged giveaways, In the Night Garden Live, MAD blog awards | 1 Comment

Competition Time!! Win Tickets to “In the Night Garden Live”!!

Posted on February 22, 2014 by katese11

I know I’ve been teasing you with this for a long time, but the In the Night Garden competition is finally here! We are giving away one family ticket to this toddler-spectacular, via the nightgardenlive.com website. All the details are on the competition page. Just click here for the LWAT page. Here’s the dates again, just in case you’ve forgotten.

29 May – 14 June: Live Quarter at The O2, London

21 June – 5 July: Old Deer Park, Richmond, almost London

12 – 26 July: Cannon Hill Park, Birmingham, not London

2 – 23 August: The Trafford Centre, Manchester, the North

30 August – 13 September: Queen’s Park Recreation Ground, Glasgow, the Really North

And that competition link…was it too subtle? I’m going to put it below here, just so that no-one misses it:

LWAT In the Night Garden Live Competition Link!!!!

The comp closes a week today, on 1st March so get clicking! Good luck!!

Posted in Reviewing the Situation | Tagged giveaways, In the Night Garden Live | Leave a comment

Imagine Festival #2

Posted on February 19, 2014 by katese11

I know I’ve already blogged about the Imagine Festival but we went again today, with another child to try things out with and saw some different things. So, stop me if you’ve heard this one before, but here’s our day out at the Southbank Centre.

We started out with a walk along the Albert Embankment, and one determined toddler decided that the buggy was cramping her style and she needed to “doddle” instead.

Silly girl – doesn’t she know she’s far too small for this kind of thing? Luckily, she soon realised her tiny legs couldn’t keep up and she got an “up” from Daddy:

Just, awwww…right? Anyway, enough of that kind of slushiness. We were at the Imagine Festival at half term, and it was hardcore. None of the serenity of the week before – there were kids everywhere, jostling each other out of the way for the prime position in front of the time mahine and drawing on the columns that didn’t have the drawing paper on. Anarchy. Still, Reuben loves a bit of anarchy and he got stuck right into playing with the jack leads on the time machine:

And the lights:

And a bit I hadn’t noticed before, with tiny solar panels you put your hands on:

Which in turn power the fans, which make the balloons move. Science-y!

There was also an orchestra playing but it seemed they were just practising for a performance later on. Still, they sounded pretty good as I picked out the mambo from “West Side Story” (I do love a musical). Reuben had been sold a trip to the South Bank with pictures of Eva’s butterfly biscuit from last week, so we furnished him with one of his own while we sat at a table and pored over the festival programme to plan our next move. They was something intriguing-sounding called “Land of Kids” on the 3rd and 4th floors (Blue Side) so we decided to go and see what that was.

I’m not entirely sure whether we found, but we certainly found something. They was nothing much on the 3rd floor, but on the 4th? A pirate ship! Of sorts! Reuben joined the crowd of children who were trying to see what was going on and somehow managed to skip the waiting list and be one of 20 children who got to join in with the pirate games. There were three actors dressed as pirates in the “ship” area, who furnished the kids with eyepatches and headscarves and led them through half an hour of pirate mime and general silliness. I’m still not certain whether Roo was meant to be involved, but he seemed to get away with it. This is him at the back:

I was chasing Eva around and calling estate agents, so I missed much of the piratical fun, but they seemed to be running from one side of the ship to another, jumping up to salute the captain, bending down to scrub the deck and…well, you can imagine how they interpreted “poop deck”. Meanwhile, Eva was enjoying the time-honoured RFH pursuit of watching the lift go up and down:

Apparently, the scrubbing, saluting and pooping had worn Reuben out to the extent that his legs no longer functioned. It was time for a quieter pursuit. Luckily, tucked away in a corner of the RFH there was the “Vintage Reading Library”, which had classic children’s books to read, and big cushions. The kids found one each and sat quietly for a few minutes reading:

But even sitting down becomes too much sometimes:

It was time to go home. On the way out, the lift at the back of the RFH was broken so we had to go the long way round. At almost exactly the same time, Reuben’s long-serving and long-suffering friend Scooty broke. Her back wheel spun no more. Disaster! Roo was heading for mega-whingeville until we spotted something so random it might just distract him:

It was a little farm at the end of the street market. What possible connection could farm animals have to a market, you might ask? Well, the pigs didn’t need to ask that question, given they had this permanent Memento Mori:

That’s right kids, you think about where your food comes from. It’s a dark note to end on, but happily, the animals distracted Roo from his scooter woes and he enjoyed petting them and trying to feed them straw. And then heading home to eat his sausages. Like I said, dark.

The Imagine Festival is on until 23rd February, which is also my birthday. So get down there quickly. And buy me chocolate.

Posted in Just wandering.... | Tagged imagine festival, pirates, southbank centre | 1 Comment

Tree Fu Tom Winners announced…and some LWAT news

Posted on February 18, 2014 by katese11

Oh, it’s all going on around here. After a heady night of playing Carcassonne and eating crisps, I’m bringing you some exciting news…remember a while back, I blogged on TfL’s campaign that seemed to pit wheelchair users against buggies? Well, TfL have agreed to talk to me about accessibility issues, the thinking behind the campaign and what the future of the network looks like. I’ll admit right now that I haven’t exactly figured out how we’re going to do the interview – I’m toying with the idea of a live webchat – but I want some input from YOU! LWAT readers! If you’ve ever struggled with a buggy on the tube or been faced with an unexpected flight of stairs, I want to hear from you. Wheelchair users and buggy users – your questions are all important. Naturally, I have some of my own but can’t wait to hear what you all think. Use the contact form at the bottom of the page, or sling an e-mail to kate@londonwithatoddler.com with anything you’d like to ask.

Meanwhile, I’m guessing you might want to find out who won those Tree Fu Tom tickets and DVDs, hey? Well, it gives me great pleasure to announce that we have two winners – one for White City and one for Stratford. Drum roll please….

For Westfield White City (20th Feb), it’s…..Raimonda Kemezaite!
For Westfield Stratford (21st Feb) it’s…..Xanthe Gazard!

Congratulations ladies, please send me your details and I’ll get the DVDs out to you. Wristbands will be waiting for you at the performance of your choice (see website for more details)

[contact-form]

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged accessibility, giveaway, tfl, tree fu tom | 4 Comments

London With a Teenager