London With a Teenager

Northern Highlights – 14/09/13

Posted on September 14, 2013 by katese11

One of the very many criticisms levelled at this blog is that it’s too South London centric. Cause I live in South London and hang out here quite a lot, the Google map ends up looking a bit bottom-heavy. Like Eva when we haven’t changed her nappy for a while. So today, we made a trip that combined all kinds of motives and it happened to be in the north. Score!

So, the first thing you need to know is that it’s Amy Winehouse’s birthday today and it would have been her 30th. The second thing – that you may already know – is that we’re not massive Amy Winehouse fans. We have a casual interest, if any. So the idea of going to Camden on some kind of Amy-pilgrimage may seem absurd to you.

Unless, of course, you’ve been following Nathan’s blog “A Year of Celebration“. Then you’ll know that we have celebrated far less significant things this year. Why, just yesterday was International Chocolate Day and we celebrated that with a box of Nathan’s birthday chocolates (hang on, did I just imply that chocolate was insignificant? What is happening to me?!) Anyway, it’ll all be written up on his blog as soon as he can be bothered. So reason #1 – Amy pilgrimage, made easy by all the special events on in Camden to mark just this occasion.

Reason#2 – need more North London-related blog posts

Reason#3 – need to see obscure kids’ film that’s not on at the Ritzy. But it is on at Finchley Rd.

I love it when a (complikated) plan comes together. And if I could score a “Name That Hill” for the LWAT Facebook page, even better. I’ve heard they have hills in North London. That’s why I tend to avoid it.

So, we got to Camden Town tube around 11:30, after some tense discussion on whether to take the Bank branch or the Charing Cross (bitter, me?!). It was less crowded on the tube than I thought it’d be but there was still a bit of a scrum at bottom of the escalator – not ideal when you’re trying to manoeuvre a buggy onto it. But I did it with finesse, in my own opinion at least, and as soon as we got out of the tube I remembered why I used to kinda like Camden:

It’s Spiderman in a tutu. When we first spotted him, he was just walking past the tube, casually, as if this was something perfectly normal. And of course, in Camden, there is no “normal”. It’s a refuge for all kinds of freaks and geeks. But today, we weren’t shopping for knee-high boots, prom dresses or furry skirts – we were on a mission. And we’ve clearly gone soft as we shunned the “grabbing food from a street van and eating on the kerb” lunch option in favour of a shiny corporate place with soft seats and working toilets:

Ah, sue me.

After lunch, we spotted something both unexpected and exciting. There was a Wellcome Collection bus, full of curiosities that are temporarily homeless while the galleries are being refitted. I’m fond of the Wellcome Collection – some will understand why – and couldn’t wait to hop aboard. Reuben was keen to do the same, and zipped up the stairs of the Routemaster before I’d even finished chatting to the lovely girl on there.

And what wonders we found upstairs! A bag of congealed fat, a prosthetic hand and a board game that Roo assured me was “Round and Round” from “Charlie and Lola”. I’m not sure it was, but he seemed convinced:

There was also a feedback board, that I assumed was for drawing on. It was only after Reuben had scrawled over it in orange crayon that I noticed the feedback cards sitting next to it. Oops. Sorry Wellcome Collection. If it helps, you can display his artwork when you reopen. It’s very “edgy”

On leaving the bus, we found that Nathan had reverted to Camden form and was browsing a CD stall. He’d also bought some neon pink fairy wings and 8 inch high biker boots. OK, those last two bits were made up.

Then we saw some giant robots outside Cyberdog. Roo liked them too:

And then we saw some life-size models of men and horses in the Stables Market which excited him just as much even though they weren’t really giant at all. But he says they were.

And finally, we got to the Proud Gallery to see the exhibition of Amy photos they had on. While Nathan browsed long enough to justify this whole pilgrimage thing, Roo and I explored the venue. You see, it’s a bar by night, gallery by day which means you discover all kinds of interesting features like the pole dancing room (see top). But the decor is interesting by even nightclub standards. It’s still set out like a row of stables and each stable is a differently themed room. There’s one that’s a fake library, one that’s a fake garden, one that’s sponsored by Smirnoff and so is bright red. As you can imagine, the different rooms kept an inquisitively-minded 4-year-old occupied for a while:

Sadly, we never found the hot tub. But we did find the fussball table, which Reuben played with, while relating some rambling anecdote about how he played table football as a baby. Apparently. Meanwhile, Eva was asleep.

We’d planned to walk over to Finchley Rd (around a mile and a half) but the no 31 bus was right there, so we hopped on. Reuben had been asking to go back to the “funny bus” but seemed to accept a regular bus in its place. That dropped us at Swiss Cottage tube and we walked up the (massive) hill to the 02 Centre, to see “Justin and the Knights of Valour“. Reuben liked the stars in the floor of the foyer and spent a few happy minutes jumping from one point of the star to the next. I would have taken a photo, but I know what cinemas are like about copyright… Meanwhile, Eva was still asleep.

There was one more treat in store for Roo. It wasn’t meant to be – it was meant to be a treat for me, but that’s how it so often goes. There’s a new branch of Tiger at the O2 Centre and I wanted to a) explore and b) buy some vanilla sugar. I managed one of those, but also got conned into giving Reuben his first ever pocket money (well, he has started school now…it’s probably time) and letting him spend it on a lurid green and purple mini football. A bargain at only £1! Last time I went to Tiger, I bought not only the vanilla sugar but also some pens and a 3D jigsaw of a foetus (a gift from a foetal Eva to Nathan). I had to restrain myself from buying a bargain hobby horse. Such is the random wonder of Tiger – it has funky homewares, toys, bizarre gifts and many types of baking supplies. Reuben was disappointed that it wasn’t entirely stocked with toy tigers, but he soon got over that.

It was time to leave quickly before I blew our mortgage payment on tiny jam jars and innovative knife blocks. We went to Finchley Rd tube which is on the old part of the Jubilee Line, rather than the all-new swishy and accessible bit. So, I had to bump Eva’s buggy down, which finally woke her up from a 3-hour snooze, just in time for a tube ride home. But remarkably, we got to Waterloo in almost no time at all. I think the Jubilee Line might be my new favourite line, especially now that I’ve finally memorised all the stops on it. In fact, it was almost as quick to get from Finchley Rd to Waterloo as it was to get from Waterloo to street level, thanks to the slowest lift in the world. But the lift lobby makes a great mini-football pitch, played on scooters:

It was fun, North London., Thanks for having us. We’ll be back.

Posted in Just wandering.... | Tagged buses, cafes, cinema, eating out, North London, tube trains | 1 Comment

2007: A Seaside Odyssey

Posted on September 14, 2013 by katese11

Editor’s Note; This post is in conjunction with the Avis A-List Awards 2013. I was asked to write a travel-related post, and my first idea was that it would be on our trip to Australia in 2007. But a sunny, enjoyable, well-planned holiday doesn’t sound very LWAT, does it? So I decided to go with another set of trips from the same year. Australia comes into it near the beginning but…well, you’ll see. In case you don’t realise/can’t do the maths this is before we had kids….

In 2007, we suffered from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder or what I like to call O.C-side.D.Or maybe Obseaside Compulsive Disorder. Enough! We had clearly read a few too many of those Dave Gorman/Tony Hawks/Danny Wallace books that seem to think that what Danny Wallace’s girlfriend calls “stupid boy projects” are really fun! And they are. Setting yourself a reasonable aim like going to the seaside once a month is both fun and educational. And only occasionally terrifying (yes, Sheerness, I’m talking about you)

You may notice a recurrence of the name “Varnia” throughout our travels. Varnia was a conspirator in the madness. She is the best kind of friend to have on these adventures …she is spontaneous, enthusiastic and quite blindingly naïve. Plus, she totally perfected the art of the Car Snack. She earned her seaside-ing stripes by hopping the half-mile to the beach at Herne Bay in January with a broken pelvis. So, largely out of pity, we let her tag along for the rest of the year. She moved back to Melbourne the following year, apparently unrelated to the horror that was our trip to Sheppey.

Like so many years, January was where it all started. We went on a church weekend away to Herne Bay in Kent and – between train trips back to Bromley – I went on a stroll to the beach. I say “I” because Nathan was having a nap at the time. Little did he know that this would become a year-long obsession, otherwise he might have made the effort. Just like Varnia did, even with a broken pelvis. Now, there’s dedication to the seaside cause. At the time, it didn’t seem like a big deal…just a wander to the beach, that’s all.

And then next month, we went to Australia! That’s me, on the secluded beach at Rottnest Island, pretending that no-one was taking my photo. It was a good trip and included lots of time on the beach, including this paddle in the sea at St Kilda, Melbourne on the first day of March:

It was only in April that it suddenly hit us – we had been to the seaside every month this year! And wouldn’t it be fun to keep it up? Well, no but we didn’t know that then. At the time, we were sitting on the beach in Brighton, eating fish and chips with some antipodeans that we’d taken to the seaside as a kind of special Bank Holiday project. We thought that it would be like this all the time – friends, beer, rollercoasters, chips and sunshine:

Having made this resolution, we quickly found out it wasn’t easy to keep it up. May started with the announcement that the company I worked for was closing and the hi-jinks just continued from there! Hi-jinks like deciding to put the house on the market and spending the Bank Holiday redoing the bathroom. Luckily, with days to spare I was called down to Brighton to cover the shop there:

Phew! A slightly tipsy night ensued, but at least I got my beach trip in. And I crashed a wedding, which is always fun. I have no idea why the picture is back to front – blame 2007Phone.

A severe “Must try harder” for our efforts so far meant that we actually planned – yes PLANNED!- the June trip. We road-tripped down to Winchester with Varns and from there took a ferry to the Isle of Wight. We saw tigers and went on giant slides and visited the garlic farm. It was truly awesome and made us think that maybe we should plan things like this more often.

So, of course we didn’t get round to planning anything for July. July 31st saw us making a last-minute dash to the fake beach at the O2 Arena, which we hopped onto long enough to take photos before going home. It wasn’t particularly impressive, particularly as July really should be a good month for beach trips. But August would be better, right?

Wrong! This will probably go down as one of my greatest ever misguided ideas. Need a beach trip for August? Yes! Got any time? No! Hmm…let’s go somewhere in Kent that’s really close to London and we can go after work on a Saturday night. That kind of reasoning makes you end up on the Isle of Sheppey. At carnival time. In the rain. Not an experience I would want to repeat and Varnia was so scared she decided to leave the country for ever. No, really.

September was a busy month for us. I started the month with a new job and we finished it by moving out of our flat with nowhere to go to. Not the ideal conditions for swanning off on beach trips. Which is our excuse for this extreme low point in terms of effort – a trip to “King Neptune’s beach” at Thorpe Park while there for our friend Lottie’s birthday. Nathan’s “wet llama” look here shows the extent to which we were committed to recreating the seaside experience within the confines of Thorpe Park. If you stand by the log flume, it’s just like feeling the gentle sea spray on your face. Apparently.

October was triumphant – both spontaneous and very cool. Hoping to take our minds off our extreme homelessness, Varns suggested a magical mystery tour. So we took some friends along for the ride and went to Rye and Camber Sands. We had a run along the beach and beach boules before getting a bit freaked out by spooky Dungeness. What happened in Reading the next day is probably best confined to the Vault of Bad Memories.

November was generally a Happy Month, which Novembers rarely are. It was mainly happy because we moved into New House. Hooray! But before we could do that, we spent a stressful Friday trying and failing to exchange contracts and so were in the kind of mood where you a) go to the pub and drink whiskey, b) go to Primark and buy lots of clothes, c) go to Southend with a bloke called Dave you’ve only just met. The end result was a night-time trip to the beach while wearing a suit, followed by a groggy trip back to London the next morning, just in time for my uncle’s 60th birthday.

But that wasn’t all for November! Because faithful Varns had planned a proper beach trip for us too. It was an excruciatingly cold weekend in Weymouth, where we wore every piece of clothing we had, and drank warm wine in our B&B room but we had fun. There was coffee and fudge in Lyme Regis, and beer in Beer, along with pirate-themed crazy golf. It was the coldest weekend away I’ve ever had (look at Varnia and Nathan huddling for warmth), but it was fun.

And then it was just a matter of finishing the year in style. Or in Bournemouth. We were in Hampshire for Christmas anyway, so just nipped down to Dorset for a token trip to the beach. Again, it was pretty cold. But we ended the year with a sense of achievement. And a car full of sand and Car Snack crumbs…

This article has been written to recognise the author’s contribution to travel and tourism by Avis Car Hire on the A-List Awards 2013.

Posted in Just wandering.... | Tagged beach, chips, coffee, ice-cream, outside London | 2 Comments

A (Rick) Witter….

Posted on September 6, 2013 by katese11

Yes, it’s one of those posts where I talk about random bits and pieces, following the LWAT philosophy that hopefully something I say will be useful to someone somewhere someday.

First off, you may recall that I got quite excited about the arrival of a Nandos in Vauxhall. And now it’s open! I will review it when it’s not a week of settling a child into something or other. Eva started nursery this week, Roo’s starting school next week…there’s a whole lot settling in going on. And in case you’re wondering how ultra-attached Eva is getting on at nursery, the answer is “patchy”. But not horrific. Apparently, her friend H comforts her when she’s sad. Aww.

But the upshot is, no Nandos testing for us this week. In fact, we have barely left Kennington. The photo above was taken late last night, on a jaunt to Wandsworth to see About Time with Eva’s godmother Ellie. Ellie is always good quality company, whether it’s accidentally insulting minority groups or flinging herself in front of buses, and the Southside Centre in Wandsworth was far posher and nicer than I remember. One thing that caught my eye was this:

In case you have no idea what that is, it’s a burger restaurant called Spur that appears to have its own soft play. I know pubs with soft play in are common occurrences outside London, but a bit of a rarity in South London, especially somewhere that’s 9 minutes away from Vauxhall by train. Again, we will check it out and report back.

So, what did we do today? Well, Eva was in nursery for a full-ish day and Reuben and I were free to roam, for the last time before he starts school. It took me a while to decide what to do – my heart said grand adventure, my head said to stay close to Eva’s nursery just in case, and to try and do some of our massive to-do list. So head won. And first on the to-do list was Reuben’s head. I wanted his hair a little less shaggy before school starts, so I took him to Crazy Chimps to have a hair cut there.

Sadly, I didn’t get “before” and “after” photos, but you can be assured it is definitely shorter now. While he was sitting in his car-shaped seat and watching “Bananas in Pyjamas” on an iPad, I sat in the cafe with my laptop and a pot of tea and worked. Then he ran around crazily while I worked some more, only coming back to have a sip of juice every now and then. It suddenly seems so easy only having a 4-year-old to look after, especially when it’s in an enclosed space. He didn’t even have many fights.

While I was there, Sally told me a few things that were coming up soon – they are starting Zumba classes and kickboxing for kids, and they have a special deal where an adult and child can both dine and play for £15 (though the adults may not want to play) Check their website for more details.

Then we went to the ever-pleasant Tea House for cake with Reuben’s BFF before picking an only slightly sad-eyed Eva up from nursery. And that segues nicely into the last thing I wanted to tell you – the nursery, among other people, are exhibiting at the Pasley Park fete tomorrow. There’s free children’s entertainment, so if you’re local please do pop down and show your support! We’ll be 60 miles away, but there in spirit… More information here.

And before I go, here’s one more glimpse of the Promised Nand….

Posted in Just wandering.... | Tagged cafes, cinema, eating out, hair cuts, soft play, South London | Leave a comment

Let Me Get Sentimental For a Moment….

Posted on September 2, 2013 by katese11

My boy starts school this time next week. I think it’s safe to say he’s not a toddler anymore. Lucky we have the spare *wipes felt-tip off Eva’s knees*. So I’d like to take a moment to see how he’s grown. I’ve put together a little montage of Roo, in every month since he was born. Except one. Cause it didn’t fit. Apologies for the blurriness of the photos as he gets older…but he’s just a blurry child.

I could just look at this for hours. I love the way that he seems to change in every row. And you can see different moments of his life – the bad haircut of May 2011, the short-lived aviator phase of March 2013 and the time he turned into a zombie (3 down, 3 from right). I also love deciding which Roo looks most like Eva (the one above the zombie) If anyone’s interested, Roo’s favourite is the bottom left.

Happy school-days, Big Boy!

Posted in Facts! And facts are important! | Tagged school-age kids | 3 Comments

Hilly Fields – 28/08/13

Posted on August 30, 2013 by katese11

You may already know this from the Facebook page, but yesterday, we made the epic trip from SE11 to SE12. It wasn’t as easy as it sounded. As any London geek knows, postcodes are ordered alphabetically rather than geographically, so Kennington and Lee are next to each other in the list, but miles away in reality. But some friends of ours, last seen heading to the north at Kings Cross, were back in London and making their home in Lee. So we went to see Lee.

We decided to catch the train from Waterloo East. A consultation with C’sMum informed me that Waterloo East didn’t have its own separate entrance, even though it’s a separate station. You have to go through Waterloo itself. If you go in from Waterloo Rd, as we do, this involves a lift up to the concourse, then another lift and a bridge to Waterloo East, which then has ramps down to platform level. So, step-free but complicated. The plus side was that we had this massive lift to ourselves, which was perfect for dancin’.

So, we got to Lee and promptly headed to Lewisham to raid the 99p stores with our friends. Yes, that’s SE12 to SE13…exciting huh? But it was too hot for shopping for long, so we bought a picnic and sought out the leafy heights of Hilly Fields.

I first heard of Hilly Fields years ago, when a friend was in Lewisham hospital. A funny turn after going diving had landed her in there, among the geriatrics as they didn’t have space on any other wards. We were visiting her and commenting on the view when a random old lady piped up, apropos of pretty much nothing, “Hilly Fields!” So, whenever anyone says that I hear it in her frail, old, slightly mad voice. And we were finally visiting!

It’s a fair old slog from Lewisham centre. You have to walk towards Loampit Vale, then take a turn after the brand new swimming pool, unmissable in its garish multi-coloured squares. And then you go uphill. Sharply uphill, through some twists ands turn until you reach the expanse of green that is Hilly Fields.

First thing to know about the Hilly Fields playground is that it contains the lethal combination of sand and water. Maria, a friend of LWAT, suggests that you can remove sludgy sand with a dash of talcum powder. It’s a handy tip which I yet again failed to test out, mainly due to the lack of talcum powder about my person. The big surprise was that it was Eva rather than Roo who got herself in a mess, dipping her white socks into a water-filled sand hole dug by some not-so-small boys. They looked despairingly at her for wrecking their hole. I looked despairingly at her. She looked joyfully back at me as she splashed about and wrote off her dungarees too.

Honestly, those socks were white in the morning. But who can stay mad at someone who makes such cute footprints?

So, what else was there? Well, a few climbing frames, including one shaped like a train:

An assault course like the one at Pasley Park:

And all the slides, swings and sand play you’d expect, including a sand-pulley-system attached to a climbing frame, which required the small children to work together to get the sand up:

You can imagine how well that went. The play equipment wasn’t the newest – a plaque suggested it was built in 1996 – but it was a nice park, surrounded by fields that were a bit hilly, strangely enough. On one side, by the cafe, there were glimpses of an impressive view over South London, annoyingly blocked by a line of trees. Still, there’s a good view of Canary Wharf.

And some scraps of writing, burned on the path in a poignant way. You don’t see that in every park.

Anyone have any idea where they came from? I don’t.

There was also an ice-cream van, which is all the 4-year-olds really cared about. We visited, stocked the boys with enough sugar to get back down the hill, and then E, R and I headed back home from SE13 on the 436. Reuben fell asleep on my lap around SE14 and had to be rudely turfed out at SE15 so I could move the buggy. If only we’d gone back up the Old Kent Rd, we could have added SEs 16 and 17 too, but when you have two sleeping children, postcode games start to drop down the priority list. Turns out I’m not that much of a geek after all…

VERDICT: A nice spacious park with some good play facilities.

More details here (official website)

Posted in Token attempts at fresh air (parks) | Tagged ice-cream, parks, sandpits, slides, South London, swings, water play | 3 Comments

Captain Flinn and the Pirate Dinosaurs – 29/08/13

Posted on August 29, 2013 by katese11

Editor’s note: This is a GUEST BLOG! by Mr LWAT the Blogger’s Husband, as he’s apparently calling himself nowadays. If you want to know what Eva and I were up to, have a look here. If you’d like to read more of Mr LWAT’s work, look here

Are you a fan of Dinosaurs? “Yes, obviously. They’re fantastic.” Are you also a fan of Pirates? “Well, naturally, who isn’t?” And is your attention-span not quite up to watching a Pirates of the Caribbean/Jurassic Park double-bill? “Well that does sound great, but my pre-schooler might struggle with a four-and-a-half hour Pirate/Dinosaur fest. Couldn’t you suggest something more around the 50 minute mark?” Well fear not! London’s Southbank is currently home to Wonder Ground, which in turn is hosting Les Petits Theatre‘s adaptation of the literary classic Captain Flinn and the Pirate Dinosaurs.

While Mrs LWAT the Blogger and Miss LWAT the Blogger’s Daughter were busy killing time, Master LWAT the Blogger’s Son & I took in the show.

There were four cast members whose names are, after a brief yet unsuccessful internet search, unknown. There was the guy who looked a bit like Chris Martin from Coldplay – he played Captain Flinn/Pirate Stegosaurus/various sea creatures, there was the lady – she played Pirate Pearl/Pirate Triceratops/various sea creatures, there was the tall guy – he played Pirate Tom/Pirate Pterodactyl/various sea creatures, and there was the guy with the mad hair and a selection of accents – he played Miss Pie/Captain Stubble/Pirate Diplodocus/Pirate Tyrannosaurs Rex/various sea creatures.

Anyone familiar with Giles Andreae and Russell Ayto’s books may have noticed the Stalin-esque purge of Pirate Violet from the story. Get over it. Other than that, the performance follows the book pretty closely… with added musical numbers accompanied by Pirate Tom on the ukulele. Despite the doubling up of characters amongst cast members, the play ran very smoothly without any breaks for costume changes – there was pretty much at least one of them on stage at any time keeping the action going. Captain Flinn gee’d up the audience to be his pirate crew (which involved covering up one eye, making one finger into a hook shape and shouting ‘Arrr!’ now and then), however Roo was quite firmly supporting the Dinosaurs team.

The dinosaur and sea creatures were portrayed in a beautifully stylised “strings on view” manner where puppetry was required

There were some moments that might be a bit scary for little children (indeed the toddler boy that was to our right in the audience cried as Captain Stubble put a sheet over his head and pretended to be a sea monster) and the Tyrannosaurus Rex was indeed a fearsome sight to behold as he towered over Captain Flinn.

VERDICT: A great adaptation of a wonderful book – such an imaginative story of fantasy adventure was crying out to be brought to life within the theatre. The show is only running until 8th September – so no dilly-dallying about if you want to see it.

You can book tickets here.

Posted in Creating precious childhood memories or something (days out) | Tagged dinosaurs, pirate dinosaurs, pirates, southbank centre, theatre | 2 Comments

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

Posted on August 29, 2013 by katese11

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

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

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

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

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

Anyway, back to the Wonderground…

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

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

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

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

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

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

Posted in Just wandering.... | Tagged eating out, sandpits, South London, southbank centre, theatre | 1 Comment

An Afternoon in Brixton

Posted on August 26, 2013 by katese11

So let me tell you a story, all about my day. It’ll have some interesting bits, honest. We’ve been in rural Hampshire for a week, so decided to go for maximum contrast by spending our first day back in Brixton. Mainly cause I needed to review Planes.

Brixton was bizarrely busy when we got there, in contrast to the Bank Holiday ghost town of Kennington. It seemed like everyone was going to some kind of fiesta, without any evidence of such a thing happening anywhere in SW9 itself. My best guess is that people were gathering to travel to Notting Hill. That’s the only sane explanation for large groups of people wearing plastic fruit on their heads. Or it may be a fashion thing. I’m not sure.

We had some time to kill before the film, so we went to hang out in Windrush Square and enjoy the sunshine. It’s been redeveloped in quite a nice way, but there’s no avoiding the roar of the nearby A23 and the limits on just how fast a boy can scoot near the “big, busy roads”. Besides, this is still Brixton so it’s full of half-naked old men drinking Red Stripe. Nonetheless, it was a good place to have a sit down – at least Nathan and a sleepy Eva did, while Roo and I wandered around and took photos of the local features:

Then it was time to watch Planes at the Ritzy and Eva woke up just as we were going in. Eva has been poorly the last few days and so has been a bit cuddly and lethargic. Today was not a cuddly and lethargic day. Today was a loading up on sweet popcorn and dancing about in front of the screen kinda day. At least one child knows how to sit and stare at a screen:

It was dark, obviously, hence the shaky photo and the bleached out look of the boy..

After the cinema it was still sunny, so we went off in search of a bit of green space somewhere near the centre of Brixton. A tall order, you say? Well, I’d seen a park on the map that looked promising. It’s called Papa’s Park and it’s not the most obvious place to find. You have to turn off Brixton Road just past the railway line, here:

We wandered past some tyre shops and down a desolate-looking street and then we found it! A community playground with a cafe attached! And it was….closed

Time for Plan B! Next destination was Max Roach Park, back along Brixton Road.

It’s a bit of a random park – you’re greeted by a wire statue depicting a massacre, go past more semi-naked men and then there’s a brick thing with slides coming out of it into a sandpit. I didn’t really get a good photo of it, but you can kinda see it in the background:

And meanwhile, here’s Eva in the sandpit, burying my foot:

And Reuben on the seesaw with his friend for the day, Mr Platypus:

It’s a decent size, with a playframe and couple of rope-hammocks as well as the three slides into the sandpit. And, of course, a see-saw that’s perfect for platypuses. It also had a deckchair-type swing that Roo wanted to go on so badly that he was prepared to fight the current incumbent for it. Luckily it didn’t come to that:

It was getting late, but we had one more treat up our sleeves – ice cream! And this is where it all started to go wrong. I’d noticed a sign for a new ice-cream parlour called “Creams” a few weeks back, and had been watching progress eagerly. Now, it seemed to be open, and handily next to the bus stops home. It was a warm day, so we’d pop in there on the way home for a quick treat. What could possibly go wrong?

The short answer is: everything.

The long answer is eeeeeeeeeevvvvvvvvvvvveeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrryyyyyyyyyyytttttttttttthhhhhhhhhhhiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnnggggggggggggg

And I’ll start on the really long answer now. It’s almost too painful to recount it all and I honestly have some sympathy for people working in retail, as I did work in retail for a long time. I even worked in ice-cream retail and I have my Baskin Robbin’s qualification (see below). I know how tough it can be in a new store on a busy day. But, oh my. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen anything like it.

Let’s be positive for a moment. It looked good. The gelato was piled high, as it should be. The walls were glittery and they even had a discoball.. In fact, it did look a bit like a disco. But I like discos, so that’s OK.

Let’s move onto the bad, quickly as if I’m ripping a plaster off….

There was no obvious queue. The signs just said to order ice-cream at the tills but no-one was really serving there. People everywhere. No labels on any of the flavours telling you what they were. Reuben whining for ice-cream. No credit cards. When we got served after 10 mins, he asked us if we’d been seated. Obviously, no-one doing seating. Had to repeat the order several times because it was “too confusing”. Managed to pay and get seated. Guy assured us ice-cream would come to the table. Waited another 10 mins. Different guy asked us why we hadn’t collected it at the counter. Reuben whining for ice-cream. Told him what first guy had said. Caused mass confusion. People next to us still waiting. Receipt brought back, with notes scribbled on it. Asked to write down exactly what we wanted. Charged for 4 scoops, not 3. Let it go. Reuben whining for ice-cream. People next to us still waiting. We got ice-cream! Not exactly what we ordered. Let it go. Reuben eating ice-cream incredibly slowly. People next to us walked out.

I hate to be all negative, and I really do try and support new businesses. But this was just chaos. People were queuing out of the door as we left, and it looked like some kind of system was being implemented but our experience was confusion and frustration on every side (i.e. not just us) And far too much time spent without ice-cream. Look how impatient my boys were getting:

I like to end on a positive, so I’m happy to say that the ice-cream when it came was thoroughly delish. You just have to feel sorry for the people next to us who never got to try it….

Posted in Just wandering.... | Tagged cinema, ice-cream, parks, playground, seesaw, slides, South London, swings | 6 Comments

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