London With a Teenager

Paultons Park – 21/08/13

Posted on August 23, 2013 by katese11

I’ve got some shocks in store for you in this post. Firstly, I went to the countryside. I know! But don’t reel from that too much because here comes the next one….there are actual photos of me on this post. You can see my face and everything. I was a bit camera-light due to various tedious amounts of tech-fail and so Nathan was photographer for the day. You may see why I normally use my beautiful husband and kids to illustrate the blog rather than myself.

The third shocker is this – turns out you can hear “The Wheels on the Bus” too many times. It plays on loop all day at Peppa Pig World and it comes to something when the Peppa Pig theme tune seems like a welcome relief. Edgy, I know.

But I’m getting ahead of myself here. Because let’s start at the motorway junction near Paultons Park. Because that’s where we stopped. Not for engine-blowing-up reasons – oh no, that had been done a couple of days previously when we said a hasty and unexpected goodbye to our faithful car Astrid. We were stopped because our bright idea of going to Paultons in the school holidays had co-incided with everyone else’s bright idea of doing the same thing. The stretch between motorway and car park was tedious to say the least. The kids’ snacks were in the boot, partly down to bad planning and partly because I’m a little terrified of letting them eat in flash NewCar just in case they trash it. So, with Roo whinging how hungry he was and Eva whinging cause she could, we rolled slowly into Paultons’ car park.

Luckily, once we got into Paultons things were swift. No queueing at the gates and the crowds weren’t too dense to move through. Obviously, we headed straight to Peppa Pig World, as Reuben didn’t understand that our visit could have any purpose other than shaking hands with anthropomorphic porcine creatures. On the way, we passed old Paultons’ favourites that Nathan and I remembered from childhood, like the Wind in the Willows experience and the gold-panning. Being almost as old as we were, they were naturally looking a bit tired next to the shiny newness of Peppa’s domain. But the upside was they had no queues.

Unlike Peppa Pig World. Every ride had around a 30 minute queue for it, which wouldn’t be too bad by Alton Towers’ standards, but have you ever tried queuing with a grouchy toddler and an over-excited preschooler? If you’re reading this blog then yes, you quite possibly have. How much fun is it on a scale of 1-30?

So, we decided to be sparing with the rides. One in the morning, one around lunch and one right at the end of the day. You can’t take pushchairs into the queue, so we had to sling Eva and quickly decide what we would take with us for the wait. I decided on a back carry for Eva and a box of raisins for the wait, which end up with me having to kinda toss them to her over my shoulder. She was not uber-happy. For the ride itself, I switched her to my front and she was allowed to stay slung (the rides aren’t recommended for under 1s but she didn’t get questioned, even though she looks younger than she is). If you don’t have a sling and you need to queue with a 1-year-old and a 4-year-old for half an hour without a buggy, I’m not sure what you do. If you’re reading this cause you’re planning a visit, I would recommend going to a sling library and borrowing one for the trip. Three ride queues is 90 minutes worth of toddler-wrangling without a buggy. Fancy holding a couple of stone of wriggly baby for the length of a football game? No? Get a sling.

I had a new one. That’s entirely co-incidental.

This is us on the hot air balloon ride, which is not a hot air balloon. It’s mainly just a ride. I’m not too keen on heights, so felt a bit dizzy but maybe that’s because I was so darn hungry after all that queuing. Nathan and Reuben were keen to see the penguins getting their lunch. I was keen to get my own lunch, so we split up and I went to something that called itself a diner but was really just a McDonalds rip-off.

I didn’t care. I was too hungry. And besides, the kids loved their fake McNuggets. Judge away (you probably already do).

After lunch, I couldn’t face another queue, so we went for a play. Eva was finally unleashed from her sling/buggy/carseat constraints and ran about madly. But mainly she loved this tunnel thing:

You’ve gotta love that cheeky wink. You might notice that from this point on they’re in their wetsuits. There was a splash area called “Muddy Puddles” in the play area and, for once, I was prepared. I knew where my towel was. Which was just as well:

They could have stayed there all day, but we had things to be getting on with. We did meet Peppa and George while we were there though:

Then we just about felt lively enough to queue for Daddy Pig’s car ride, this time bribing Reuben to be quiet with an apple. I was driving, but thankfully didn’t actually have to steer or anything. But neither did I stop for this zebra, waiting patiently at a zebra crossing:

With such excitement, I decided it was time to check out the quieter side of Paultons (and for that you can read – the older and lamer part). So, we saw some tropical birds and found the bit of Paultons that still looks like it did when we went there in the 80s:

And if you visited in the 80s too, you might remember crawling through the tunnels and waving through these grates:

And the dinosaur walk hasn’t changed much since the 80s either. It’s a bit small compared to the one at Dino Adventure but Reuben liked it:

Eva, meanwhile, wasn’t passing comment:

And while she slept, we ate ice cream then Reuben and I went for a play in another water play area. Snooze-y-lose-y EK!

She woke up just in time for one more ride – the boats this time:

…more seasickness ensued. Time to get changed and go home. Sadly, the toilets weren’t Peppa Pig-themed, unlike the rest of the “World” (just check out those boats – how to you make a boat look like it’s a cartoon? Brilliant) There were queues for the toilets too, but they had changing facilities and double-sized toilet seats for ease of preschooler peeing. The gift shop had some good grandparent-presents in (though Reuben would have bought them all cuddly Peppas given the chance) but nothing savoury in it at all. If you want crisps, bring your own…

VERDICT: I hate to agree with a marketing slogan, but there really is too much fun for one day. We didn’t touch the sandpits, rollercoasters or even Wind in the Willows. Not to mention the rest of the Peppa Pig rides! Horribly busy in the holidays, but what else would you expect?

More details here (official website)

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Posted in Creating precious childhood memories or something (days out) | Tagged boats, days out, Hampshire, ice-cream, playgrounds, rides, water play | 4 Comments

LolliBop Review!!

Posted on August 17, 2013 by katese11

It’s finally happened! You may have noticed we’ve been talking about LolliBop for a while now and Reuben was particularly “percited” about it last night. So, you’d think we’d be raring to go this morning, wouldn’t you?

You would, but you’d be wrong. Eva decided to have an late-night grizzle party, culminating in the two of us downstairs at 1am watching Father Ted and writing about whirlpools. I finally got her back to sleep somewhere around the 2-3 zone, after calpol, teething powder, cursing and winding her like a baby. Come 8am-ish, I was strangely sluggish in the get-set-go department and she didn’t even bother to wake up till 9:30.

It wasn’t the best start, but a Starbucks at Waterloo and some eager scooting from Roo got us to the site around 11:30. We didn’t have tickets, so I felt a little Argo in the queue, but luckily we were on the guestlist, so got shiny red blogger wristbands and our own little bloggers’ lounge to hang out in. Score!

First off was Andy and Sid in the LolliPalladium. Now, whenever mothers get talking the conversation eventually turns to which CBeebies presenter you think is hottest. When I say eventually, I mean it could take years…so I may not have had that conversation with you yet. Anyway, my answer is always Sid and/or Andy. Mr Bloom is too obvious, Mr Maker is way too unobvious and as for Justin? We’ll get there later… But Sid and Andy always look like they’re up for a laugh so yeah, why not?

On an entirely different note, Roo and Nathan enjoyed the end of their show, with Roo dancing as best the could perched on Nathan’s shoulders. Eva in the buggy was seeing nothing but knees, so I hoiked her out for a go in our new sling and went to put the buggy in the buggy park, which was right next to the marquee on the map.

Sadly, the map wasn’t right. There was a flag which looked like it might have said “Buggy Park” but it was furled up and there was no buggy park in evidence. After the show, I asked the guy on the gate if there should be one there and he was non-committal. But he was guarding backstage, and his main priority was to make sure I wasn’t a crazy fan, about to hurl myself at Sid yelling “Let it be me!”

Apologies to my fbook friends – I may have re-used a gag there. It won’t happen again. Anyway, we went for a little wander around to see what there was to see. Being LolliBop, there was a lot! Hello Kitty was doing a personal appearance, I Can Katy was hanging out at the back of the kitchen stage and waved at us, there were a bunch of Mr Men posing for photos, and there were some people on stilts dressed like white rappers. Everywhere you looked, there was something. Was it over-stimulating? Why yes, but I don’t worry too much about it until it leads to a meltdown in the play area because a boy is sugar-crashing after his bear-shaped cake and desperately wants to see those Mr Men again.

But his sister was playing, so he couldn’t. Besides, there was a queue at the Mr Men and I didn’t want to queue for anything. So, we decided to get lunch.

Naturally, those of you who have ever been to a festival before will be chortling at this point as you consider the incompatibility of those last two sentences. Of course getting lunch would involve queuing. And at 1pm, it would involve a lot of queuing. So much so that it would be nearly 2pm before we got to eat anything. The consequences of this would be grave.

We chose the Byron burgers stall on the basis that the queue was half the length of the neighbouring Nandos stall. They didn’t do chips or any drinks that weren’t water, but they do make a tasty burger, so the kids were about to learn a bit of burger-appreciation. I queued with the buggy for ages, while Nathan and Roo went off to try and spy AlexBeebies on the main stage. They mainly saw some guys beatboxing “Seven Nation Army”. Then we queued some more and some more and then we paid and then we waited some more while our burgers were cooked. It was a pretty slow process. I know LolliBop put in extra food stalls this year to try and reduce queuing times, but you’ll always get delays when several thousand people get hungry at once. So, Nathan was waiting at the stall for the order and I sat on the grass a little way away, with the kids – who had decided to crack open their snackboxes and have a little starter by now.

And then….the horror.

If you know me well, you’ll know that I’m not the biggest Mr Tumble fan and we have Roo conditioned to leap up and switch the TV off whenever Something Special starts. But today, Justin was on the main stage and there was no off switch. Or a red button to summon iplayer and the Octonauts-y goodness contained within. I was too tired to move far, and anyway his nasal voice carried far beyond the area of the main stage. Besides, we had waited a long time for these burgers and we were darn well going to eat them now.

So, the set started and a little while later Nathan returned in full-hunter-gatherer mode, with our boxes of meat. I won’t dwell on the version of “The Music Man” that floated about us as we ate. I’ll just say that they were tasty burgers, the kids had a goodly amount of theirs and nothing was going to spoil that.

We’re so stoic. Didn’t stop us racing off as soon as Roo had declared his finished. But the Voice of Justin followed us at least as far as the portaloos, where Reuben discovered the delights of a manual flush. Then back to the LolliPalladium, where we were met and greeted by Postman Pat and some cloudbabies.

I had no idea what was going on the marquee – Nathan said it looked a bit like South Park. But Roo correctly identified it as “Tickety Too” and went in for a dance. He tells me he’s seen them in a comic. That boy’s capacity for remembering obscure cartoon names is astonishing. I wish he’d remember some useful stuff sometimes.

Sid and Andy’s second set was coming up next, and I was keen to get a better view this time – for the purposes of some blog photos, obviously. Reuben was keen to get the best view of all, as he was convinced that he was going up on stage like he’d seen some other children do in the first set. You know this’ll end in tears, right?! But I used the time-honoured festival technique of going forward as soon as the previous act finished and we got right to the front, by the stage.

After some entertainment from a guy from the GoGoShow, Sid and Andy were back and Roo was happy for a while. Even though technical difficulties meant they had no backing track (cue some improv’ed banter – Andy: “Who needs music?” Sid -“Errr…us?”)

Then they got to the bit where they needed some help. Roo and all the other kids in the audience stuck their hands up desperately, like they were answering a question in class and were super-keen to show off just how clever they were (not that I ever did that. *cough*). But just as Andy bent down to scoop one of them up, someone hissed something at him and a parade of pre-arranged children walked onto the stage. It’s no exaggeration to say that Roo was still sobbing about this at dinner time. But that’s showbiz, kid.

Sensing that we all needed some Time Out and with the rain just starting we headed to the Bloggers’ Lounge for a cup of tea and a sit-down. Eva had been peacefully sleeping on her Daddy throughout the Sid and Andy malarkey but woke up in the tent as Roo stropped about something or other. It was meltdown o’clock. But we loaded up on caffeine, apples and bear snacks and headed out to do one last thing before going home.

The Duplo tent! It would be rude not to. Of course, it’s the one thing that Roo really could have done at home, but he and Eva both thoroughly enjoyed stepping through the Duplo train into the play area and we had some peaceful minutes while they pottered about.

Then it was actually home time. Stage-related meltdowns and Justin-bombing aside, it was a great day. Everything is so geared towards children – from the child-size food portions to the bountiful freebies. And there’s loads that we didn’t get time to see – a whole play area, the WOW! toys tent that sheltered us last year, the Science Museum and Roald Dahl tents and all the craft stalls. But we did swing by the place with the bouncy toys and Shaun the Sheep’s Olympic arena. A very fun family day out – just be prepared for queues and overexcited meltdowns!

More details here (official site)

Posted in Creating precious childhood memories or something (days out) | Tagged cbeebies, East London, LolliBop, music | 2 Comments

Some Playground Love

Posted on August 16, 2013 by katese11

It’s been a busy week. To quote “Walking Through the Jungle” we have been around the world and back. As long as you take “world” to mean South London. And look what we have seen…

Yes, it’s some goat-on-goat action at Coram’s Fields. “There are two goats fighting” chirped Reuben and his little friends Thomas and C. Well, kinda. But it’s the kind of fighting that requires some privacy so we left them to it.

So, what did we do that won’t forever blight my search terms? Well, today we went to Orpington. Not really much to report back there, as we just went to our friend’s house where Roo played with “puzzles and bears”. On the way back, a fortuitous meeting with H’sMama led to a trip to the Tea House and the new playground next to it. These photos are actually from a previous visit, but I’ve been saving them for you:

Top tip from that visit – if you go to a park that’s natural brown and green colours, don’t also dress the boy in natural brown and green colours. You may well lose him.
But what a lovely small park in the middle of a load of estates, hey? The whole Vauxhall Walk area is getting a makeover, so expect more updates soon.

On Wednesday, we went to New Cross, to Fordham park with is also newish and natural-y. There are two areas – this is the one for bigger kids:

And this is the smaller one:

It’s covered in sand, most of which Reuben took home in his hairline, and Eva enjoyed showing off her new owl t-shirt, purchased at the Gap near Coram’s Fields. Which brings us back round to the goats. I decided that Coram’s was long overdue for some new photos, but as it happened I only got three. One was with the frisky goats. And here’s one of Eva that could, quite frankly, have been taken anywhere:

And here’s Roo and Thomas looking serious.

Tomorrow we’re off to LolliBop, so I’ll leave you with a video of what may be the world’s most excited 4-year-old:

Posted in Token attempts at fresh air (parks) | Tagged animals, Central London, LolliBop, parks, playgrounds, South London | 2 Comments

Does The Right to Breastfeed Anywhere Mean You Should Breastfeed Anywhere?

Posted on August 14, 2013 by katese11

Today I found myself in the uncomfortable position of siding with the Daily Mail on something. It wasn’t a good feeling and I hope it won’t happen again. It was the fault of some strangers on the internet – we got caught up arguing about a news story from the Fail and the more radical they got, the more I found myself forced into the so-called conservative corner.

The news story was on a mum who had been asked not to breastfeed in a swimming pool. It’s not the first news story of its kind lately – there was one just a few weeks back about Imajica Gilroy from Cambridge, who had been asked not to feed her son in a Jacuzzi. This week’s one concerns Stephanie Wilby, who has been incorrectly branded a “new mum”, despite the fact that she was breastfeeding her second child and so wasn’t exactly new at this mothering lark (MEN says she was at the pool with her 17-month-old as well as the 4-month-old baby). She was waist-deep in the water, gave baby Leo a snack and was asked to leave the pool.

Now, you’ll know that I’m not shy when it comes to breastfeeding in public. After 15 months of feeding Eva (plus 13 months of feeding Roo), the list of places I have fed or would feed start to resemble a bizarre version of “Green Eggs and Ham” – “I would breastfeed in a house, I would breastfeed with a mouse, I would breastfeed in a house, I have breastfed in the rain and in the dark and on a train, I would breastfeed in a car…” Hang on, no I wouldn’t. I mean, I have breastfed in a parked car in a car park (next to the scenic A316 no less) but I wouldn’t pop her out of her carseat and breastfeed her on my lap while a car was in motion. Cause I guess that’s the point I’m coming to….there are just some places that aren’t necessarily ideal for breastfeeding.

I just don’t get how breastfeeding in waist deep water works. And none of the radical breastfeeding mums could tell me. Surely it involves standing up while feeding, trying not to let the baby’s head go under? It just doesn’t sound comfortable, when you could get out and feed at the poolside on a bench.

Then there’s the hygiene issue of feeding in pool water – I understand that breastmilk isn’t the same as wee (and I’ve had plenty of experience with both), so the staff were wrong to make that comparison. But still, there could be leaks, there could be possetting…things you’d hope to avoid while in the pool. I mean, who hasn’t had a baby spew during a swimming lesson before? But I can testify it’s pretty embarrassing and ideally, you’d wanna mitigate the risk of possetting by not filling a baby with milk. Or is that just me? Pool water isn’t the cleanest and there’s something I find a little icky about encouraging a baby to open wide and chow down when you’re both surrounded by chlorine-y, baby-peed water (and if you have any doubt that babies pee in the pool, do an experiment with a swim nappy to see whether or not they hold liquids). Apparently if I get icked out by this, I shouldn’t go swimming at all. Clearly, that’s not an option. But again, I’d like to mitigate the pool water/baby mouth risk by keeping feeding wholly separate from swimming. Again, just me. And yes, I also have a lot of experience with a hysterical baby who just screams as soon as you hit the water (see the Reuben At Water Babies Days)

Mostly though, it’s just a bit odd. I always measure whether it’s appropriate to feed by whether I’d give Eva a snack in the same situation. Would you let a baby feed in a cafe? Yes, everyone eats there. Would you let them feed in the toilet? No, barely anyone eats there unless they’re a particularly stressed out mother, who has resorted to locking herself in the bathroom with a bar of chocolate to get away from that incessant preschooler whining (hey, who hasn’t had those days?!) Would I give Eva a snack in the swimming pool? No. Would I be surprised to see a baby having a bottle in a swimming pool? Yes.

The point is this – we have the right to breastfeed anywhere. But should we? How long before a mother is pictured in the paper clutching her small child because they were stopped from breastfeeding while rock climbing? Or cycling? Or any other activity that isn’t consistent with yummy-sleepy-milky time? If you saw the Cambridge story in July (and there was pretty wide media/Facebook coverage of it), you’d surely realise that breastfeeding in a pool may lead to you getting asked to stop. In turn, you might realise that being asked to stop breastfeeding anywhere may lead to you getting your own media/Facebook coverage. But does any of it help the cause of breastfeeding mothers? Or does it just make leisure centre staff and Daily Mail readers to consider us all even more of a pain in the arse than they already do?

So yes, I will continue to breastfeed in boats, with goats, in boxes, with foxes etc….but will I feed while spinning plates? Would I feed on rollerskates? No. Let’s keep breastfeeding as it’s meant to be – a normal thing to do in public that only involves mother and baby (or toddler, in my case). Let’s not deliberately feed in unlikely places in order to provoke a reaction and make some kind of point.

Or is it, once again, just me?

Posted in Rants, Uncategorized | Tagged breastfeeding, Daily Mail, swimming, swimming pools, tabloids | 10 Comments

A Final LolliBop Reminder

Posted on August 14, 2013 by katese11

In a matter of days, we will be rocking out with the likes of Sid and Andy, Dick n Dom…and Justin Fletcher. If you fancy joining us, there are still tickets available for all days, but act fast or you’ll miss out!

Just a couple of reminders – don’t forget that it’s at a new venue this year, the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford. I kinda forgot. Someone asked a LolliBop-related question on a local parenting group, and I almost answered before realizing that I was thinking of Regent’s Park, not Stratford. Make sure you know where you’re going before you set out!

There’s also the possibility of showers on Friday and Saturday. It rained a bit when we went last year, and it didn’t spoilt the fun at all (some of the acts are under cover, in marquees – we sheltered in the WOW! tent until it passed). But it would be sensible to pack wellies, waterproofs etc as well as sun cream and sunhats!

I’m excited. I don’t know if you can tell. But if you want to come too, snap those last few tickets up!

Posted in What I suppose you'd call "tips"....? | Tagged East London, LolliBop | Leave a comment

From the Ground Up – 11/08/13

Posted on August 11, 2013 by katese11

This might have been a bit of a treat for Nathan as well as Roo. Two boys, 70,000 pieces of Lego…how do you think it went?

The event was a workshop at the Royal Academy of Arts, to tie in with an exhibition they have on Richard Rogers. I was a little disappointed to find out that he was an architect, rather than the Sound of Music composer Richard Rodgers but I got over it. The idea was that children (and parents) recreated the London cityscape over a giant map of the Thames, but basically it was just an excuse to play with Lego. Lots and lots of Lego.

That’s Eva, hungrily eyeing up the stash. Surprisingly, she didn’t try and eat any of it – the notices all said it wasn’t suitable for 0-3s, so we had to watch her pretty closely. Cause, yknow, we wouldn’t have been able to sue anyone if she had choked on it. But she was happy to just pick the pieces up and put them back down again. And repeat.

But really, it was more for Reuben’s age. And Nathan’s. They sat for ages, making their buildings – Roo made a boat first, delicately layering the bricks and arranging them by colour and then he made a house with a tower, while Nathan made a station, with its own railway track. And I was quite pleased with my own effort:

You can’t quite see all the architectural features I built into it (like the mezzanine floor), but it’s still pretty cool. Nothing compared to some of these beauties though:

Oh, and here’s Nathan’s cause he’ll get cross if I don’t include it:

While Reuben and Nathan were busy constructing and reconstructing their structures, Eva got bored and so we decided to wander around the room and see what else there was to see. Like some cool infographics about London’s future:

I love an infographic! That one shows how well connected different parts of London are – I was pleased that we were in the dark red, for “well connected”. Then there was one showing the green space and potential green space in London. My Daddy was a Town Planner, so I have some interest in this kind of dorky stuff:

But mostly, Eva liked climbing the giant green steps and looking down at everyone below:

And going into the room next door, with the giant pink sofas and looking out at the Mayfair streets below:

Sorry, that was a superfluous photo but isn’t my girl just getting super-cute? Like rilly?!

And it was time to go to Nandos before a dash to church. We didn’t have time to look around the rest of the Royal Academy, but we did see this model when we were waiting to go in, which Nathan somewhat surprisingly identified as Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris:

And this giant pink beastie, which was just cool:
VERDICT: A free workshop where the boys and I got to play with unlimited amounts of Lego? What’s not to love?

More details here (official website)

Posted in Token attempts at culture (museums) | Tagged art, Central London, lego | 2 Comments

A Whole New King’s Cross – 06/08/13

Posted on August 8, 2013 by katese11

You might have roughly the same mental image of King’s Cross that I do – a cramped ticket hall, filled with cranky Northerners on their way home. And that’s just how it was, two years ago. The station was tiny and the goods yard behind it was derelict, after the shutdown of those quirky little clubs. I went to The Key once, for a Buttoned Down Disco Easter party and even then it felt like venturing into the middle of nowhere. Once the clubs had gone, it really was just a wasteland.

Or was it? Seems like it might have been a long-term plan, because the whole area has changed. It’s like Shoreditch-hip now. I’ll leave it to you to decide as to whether that’s a good thing or not. But there are trendy food vans and lots of arts students. And Tammy and I decided to explore. Well, kinda.

Tammy and Jake had invited us to come at play at the Camley St Natural Park, which I assumed was part of the new development at King’s Cross. Turns out it was neither new nor at King’s Cross, but rather tucked under the Eurostar platforms of St Pancras and nearly as old as I am. If, like me, you go up York Way and turn onto Goods Way you will see the new development first. The Natural Park is not so obvious. You need to carry on past the green steps (above) and the “natural wall” and turn right before the tunnel. Then it’s up there on the right. If you go spectacularly wrong, like we did, lured in by the big red arrows and the shiny newness, you’ll find the Visitor Centre just inside St Martin’s College and they will help you. Follow one of the aforementioned big red arrows.

So, we found it eventually, but it’s not obvious. And once you get there, the charms are equally subtle. There’s lots for kids to see and explore, if they use their minds a little, but Reuben’s not exactly that kind of child. He tore through the two acres in a matter of minutes, before declaring it another “boring park”. Honestly, it’s like having a teenager sometimes.

On second glance though, even he found things he was interested in. Like spotting butterflies by these stepping stones. Or (correctly) guessing which vegetables were growing – he’s either watched too much “Mr Bloom’s Nursery” or he’s just lucky. Or looking at the boats on the canal. Or trying not to fall into this entirely unfenced pond:

In case you were wondering, Eva was very firmly strapped into her buggy at this point. She can’t resist an open body of water. And yes, it was possible to take a buggy right round, but bits of it weren’t easy and the terrain (woodchip) could be a bit hard-going. I noticed there were nets for pond-dipping but I didn’t entirely trust Reuben to do that sensibly. So, we ate sandwiches under this gazebo thing instead:

Yes, Jake still likes dressing as Batman… So, we ate and pottered about a bit. It’s a nice, calm place but Reuben’s not too good at calm places and I think he’s inherited my mistrust of the countryside. So, after a while we went in search of a playground that was part of the new bit.

We never made it. Along the way we got distracted by this frozen yoghurt van:

Selling toppings from wheatgerm to haribo. Ironic, hey? Told you it was all getting a bit Shoreditch round here…

And then we got VERY distracted by the beautifully choreographed fountains that you could play in:

I could watch those for hours – they went up and down in a ripple, then they all stopped and you could play fountain chicken by walking the length of them before they started again. Eva was asleep, so Roo and I could scamper about a bit. It was more unanticipated water play, but this time at least I knew where my towel was and it was on the buggy! There was a small-ish problem in that it was a towel I was about to lend to someone else, so I probably shouldn’t use it to dry off soggy children. But then I figured that she wouldn’t mind. In fact, she didn’t know. But now she might.

Obviously, we didn’t have swimming costumes with us, but Roo played in just his shorts (yes those are the same shorts that got written off at Clapham Common in more unexpected water play. From now on, I will always expect water play.)

Once Eva woke up she just dived in, wearing her nappy:

Jake just went in in his Batman costume. Obviously.

As we sat and watched the children play, it emerged that Tammy didn’t know anything about the new bit – she’d just suggested the nature reserve because she’d visited it a few years back. I didn’t know anything about the nature reserve until I found out about the new bit. So, we were talking at slightly cross-purposes, but happily we managed to explore both without really meaning to. Sadly never made it as far as the playground, or the intriguing sounding “Skip Garden” but we’ll revisit once the rest of it is open!

More details here (official website)

Posted in Token attempts at fresh air (parks) | Tagged Central London, ice-cream, nature (really?!), parks, water play | 2 Comments

London Without a Toddler – Polyphonic Spree Live!

Posted on August 7, 2013 by katese11

For those who aren’t Facebook friends with me, I went to a gig last night. A proper, grown-up gig with no anthropomorphic primates and no children. For those who are Facebook friends with me, I’m sorry. I was a bit over-excited. I realise it’s not the first time anyone has ever been to a gig. But it was the first time I’d been to a gig in 2 years. And that’s worth getting excited about.

Besides, the Polyphonic Spree are more than just a gigging band. It’s almost a spiritual experience. As a Christian, I’m quite comfortable in corporate-worship scenarios but I had to keep reminding myself that this wasn’t actually one of those. Still, their music both lifts and gladdens the soul.

And yes, it’s all a bit cult-like. It’s something to do with the messianic poses Tim delaughter throws on a regular basis. Or maybe it’s how unnaturally happy they all look, all the time. Or maybe it’s the matching robes. The robes definitely help.

But it’s such a nice cult, with nothing to worship but melody and sunshine. And there’s lots of both. Latter-day ‘spree albums have been a bit downbeat, so I was worried it wouldn’t be as joyous as when I saw them in Reading, a decade or so ago. True, the newer songs met with a slightly more muted reaction than old classics like “2000 places”, but they soon warmed up. Like a worship song, the refrains are so simple and repetitive that you end up singing along, even if you didn’t know the song when it started.

The showmanship of the polys is, safe to say, unlike any other. Every gig starts with a white banner across the stage, on which Tim spray-paints a message before cutting it down to reveal the band. Last night, the message was “We are Friends” with a smily face. The crowd was quick to agree – he had us at “nds”. Before the gig, he’d been out meeting and greeting fans and then the band did their own roadying. This is not a group that likes distance between them and the audience. Even stage invaders (in robes, natch) were greeted with a hug rather than a nod to security.

Sound less cult-like yet? Nope, thought not. The set rolled on, with the biggest cheers and pogos for “Light and Day” and “Soldier Girl”. We’re getting a bit old for moshpits, but damn it my feet could not stay still for those songs. Hands in the air, leaping around, I felt almost like a teenager again. Or a cult member.

And then the strangest thing happened. I’ve been to many, many gigs and I’m fairly certain nothing like this has ever happened before. The band starting playing a riff that sounded like “Lithium”. Now, I don’t have the best associations with that song, a trauma that can be traced back to a university-era Battle of the Bands. One band decided to try and win by covering “Lithium” and changing the lyrics to “I’m so happy that today I found my friends in Wells Hall”. Meanwhile, the lyrics that I was improvising over 10-minute guitar odysseys were more like the Millwall chant of “no-one likes us and we don’t care”. You see, we weren’t interested in scoring cheap points through some kind of charm offensive. We would let the music speak for itself. Unfortunately, we didn’t really have the music sorted out either. The other band won.

So, that song has always been tainted with the feeling of losing, and the sound of borderline jeering. But what happened last night may not have just redeemed the song, but forever changed my memories associated with it.

I haven’t got to the strange bit yet, in case you’re wondering. You can imagine how this was going – an already-hyped crowd given the chance to let loose to a bit of Nirvana? Madness ensued. But that’s not weird. During an instrumental break, Tim delaughter launched himself into the crowd. That’s not weird either.

And then he got us all to sit down.

Yes, that’s the strange bit. He appealed for calm and them motioned for the whole moshpit to sit down on the floor around him. And they did. Like obedient preschoolers at Group Time, a crowd of sweaty, hyped-up gig-goers got down on the floor and waited for Tim to speak.

As I may have said on Facebook, this is DEFINITELY a cult. As Tim spoke, hush reigned over his disciples, all gazing adoringly at him, clamouring to touch him and hanging on his every word. If he’d waved bits of paper in our faces asking us to sign our worldy possessions over to him, would we have done it? Yeah, maybe. He’s a charismatic guy. If you don’t believe any of this happened, check it out here. You can see the back of my head on the far right during the interlude, along with my blackberry waving about.

But instead of signing our lives away, we staggered back out into the Shoreditch night, hearts lifted and heads full of music….back to stroppy toddlers. Sigh.

Thanks Polyphonic Spree…it was amazing.

Posted in Just wandering.... | Tagged cults, gigs, music | 5 Comments

Sunday in the City

Posted on August 5, 2013 by katese11

It’s not the first time I’ve had a bitta Pulp stuck in my head walking around London, but today’s lyric of choice was “oh, is this the way they say the future’s meant to feel?” Because, back in the days when my parents were young and dinosaurs roamed the Earth (or was that Mick Jagger?), someone decided that Future London would be all highwalks and high-rises. Yes, the Barbican was meant to be a vision of the future that (thankfully) never materialised. Today, it feels eerie and anachronistic. Today specifically was a Sunday, so the whole City felt eerie. The closure of most of the major bridges meant that traffic was minimal and tourists non-existent as we struggled from Moorgate to the scrap of green known as Postman’s Park.

And oh yes, it was a struggle indeed. Crossrail have achieved what I thought was impossible – making the area around the Barbican more confusing and impenetrable than ever. Our mission was simple – to have a picnic in Postman’s Park before church on London Wall. Our transport was subterranean, thanks to the aforementioned bridge closures. Our route was…err….complicated. Every way we turned, there were hoardings up advising that this way was closed and why not try avoiding the City altogether,cause yknow, we’ve made a complete dungheap of it…working in conjunction with the 10,000 other building projects going on in the Square Mile right now, all of which aim to ensure that there is more unaffordable, vacant office space blocking out everyone’s sunlight but it’s OK cause they all have funny names like “the upside-down, embedded cheese grater of death”. It’s ironic, you see…blame the arm of shoreditch creeping ever further down
Bishopsgate…and…” Did I slip into a rant there? Sorry. I think my point was that the City of London is looking a complete mess right now, and Crossrail – in the words of Morrissey – has so much to answer for.

So, the route from Moorgate to Postman’s Park, which looked so simple on ~~Lottie’s~~ my 2008 A-Z really wasn’t. We ended up going up an escalator, along St Alphage Highwalk past both Roman ruins and a disused 1960s social club, and through this building above, which got us back down on the other side of London Wall via another couple of escalators, one of which wasn’t working. At this point, I was very glad we didn’t have a buggy with us. Still, it meant we avoided most of the pavement on London Wall, which has a disconcerting habit of either disappearing completely, transforming into a vertical slope or going directly into an underground car park.

You’d hope, after so much hassle, that Postman’s Park was something to really blog home about. But it wasn’t amazing. It’s just a churchyard, which we knew before we left, and there isn’t much in the way of greenery. Reuben wasn’t forewarned about the lack of slides etc (how else were we going to get him there?!), so sulked and called it a “boring park”. However, it has its charms, really it does. There’s a fountain with giant fish in, that both kids liked looking at, and Eva happily pottered about between the flower beds.

And then there’s The Feature. Called the “Memorial to Heroic Self-Sacrifice”, it features a lot of tiles that commemorate ordinary people who died in heroic (and sometimes bizarre) ways. There are actresses that caught fire, and kids who saved other kids from drowning (sob!). This was one of my favourites:

“Upset from a boat” – what a lovely turn of phrase! There were also some which beg for further details:

Credit to the wall-makers, there was one from 2007 that blended in so perfectly that I didn’t even notice it until my friend Catriona pointed it out. I also love the Bakerloo-brown tiles.

So, a boring park for a fussy 4-year-old, but a nice green and quiet spot for anyone else who happens to be in the city on a Sunday. Though I wouldn’t bother unless you had to. It’s not really worth it….

Posted in Just wandering.... | Tagged Central London, Cross with CrossRail, parks | Leave a comment

Local News and a Not-so-local Trip Out

Posted on July 30, 2013 by katese11

I have exciting news. So exciting that I had to call Nathan at work and tell him. For phone-related reasons, he had to put me on speaker and so I think he was quite relieved when my exciting news turned out to be innocuous and not the kind of news that incurs any parental leave. But that is coming up later.

First, a trip to Whitton. Having been to East London three days running, I decided to do something different today and go as far west as I possibly could while still technically being in London. And that saw us lunching at a big, Wetherspoons-esque pub called “The Winning Post” on the A316 that Nathan and I have often noticed when driving back from Winchester. We were there to meet my mother, brother, sister-in-law and new niece CousinZ. It was a lovely lunch and very cheap. They had a kids’ menu, a big road outside for CousinZ to gaze at and they seemed pretty tolerant of small children running around. The reviews on the internet were fairly grim, but if you’re not expecting haute cuisine it’s a great meeting place halfway between Winchester and Vauxhall (and it’s a direct train from Vauxhall, which takes 20 minutes)

I may have gone overboard with the weather-proofing, as Reuben and Eva were both in head-to-toe waterproofs but, to be fair, it was raining on and off all day. Then Roo “attacked the rain wiv my rain sword” and that made it stop. Kinda

It was on the way home from Vauxhall that we noticed some exciting things. One was the playground next to the Tea House, which I may have mentioned before. It’s finished, and it looks so much better but it was a bit soggy for playground-ing, so we walked on by.

Last week, when it wasn’t quite so soggy, we discovered another new playground, with Reuben’s best friends J&A. If you know Kennington well, you’ll…still struggle to find it. But it’s behind the Hurley Clinic. Walk up Kennington Lane, towards Elephant and you kinda take a left at the Boris bikes. It’s hidden away and it’s small, but it’s lovely and untouched. Like the one next to the Tea House, it’s a “natural” kind of playground, all wood and green colours. Have a look:

I seem to have a LOT of photos of Reuben bouncing on things lately. All at his request, naturally. So, a small, hidden park but a very lovely one in the middle of a big 60s estate. Most convenient for post-doctors’ runarounds!

So, onto the exciting news and…what’s that Roo? You’ve done a what? No, I don’t want to have a look. Hold on there readers….

I know you would never doubt the authenticity of this blog, but just in case you do, let me assure you that that last interruption was 100% genuine. The boy has an amazing sense of dramatic timing that will one day seem him working as a scriptwriter for Eastenders, I’m sure.

Anyway, back to the point. When we walked into Vauxhall station this morning, I noticed some building work going on, under the first arch after you cross the road. Kinda opposite the Royal Vauxhall Tavern. There was a wooden revolving door and not much else. But by the time we got back, four hours later a hoarding had appeared and it turned out that the building is going to be a….

NANDOS!!! A Nandos! In Vauxhall! You have no idea how much I have missed having a Nandos within walking distance. The idyllic Saturday lunches of Camberwell can be revived, Vauxhall-stylee. This will change our lives. We will never need to eat anywhere else ever again. Oh my, this is gonna cost me so much money…

In conclusion, if I you have missed my earlier lectures on the subject, I love Nandos. This is the best news ever. And doesn’t involve buying new, elasticated-waisted jeans. Who’s going to join me there for a chicken pitta combo, mango and lime with peri chips, corn-on-the-cob and perinaise? Once more….Oh my, this is gonna cost me so much money…

(dum, dum, dum dum dumdumdumdum….credits roll over map of London)

Posted in What I suppose you'd call "tips"....? | Tagged eating out, parks, playgrounds, restaurants, slides, swings, West London | 5 Comments

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London Without a Toddler – Polyphonic Spree Live!

Sunday in the City

Local News and a Not-so-local Trip Out

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