Myatt’s Fields play area – 23/07/12

Posted on July 24, 2012 by katese11

This blog seems to be a bit fickle of late. Look, it’s raining! Look it’s sunny! Ah crap, it’s rainy again…welcome to the Great British Summer. Well, this week’s weather of choice is “sun”, so we’ve been out and about for a spot of water play. Monday’s venue was Myatt’s Fields, a patch of green in the triangle between Brixton, Kennington and Camberwell. Chances are, wherever you live, it’s further away than you think it is. Wandering down Camberwell New Rd, I kept thinking we were almost there but we didn’t turn off until we’d almost hit Camberwell. Funnily though, I remember it as being quite a trek from where we lived in Camberwell. It’s really only close if you live in that triangle made up of the Roads Camberwell New and Brixton, and the Lane of Coldharbour. Nathan’s work colleague WorkKate lives in just that triangle, so she came along and met us there. With her baby that looked a lot like Eva. Nathan assures me he hasn’t got his Kates confused.

Anyhow, all those geographical reasons mean that we haven’t been there very often. The only time I’ve taken Roo was on a freakily hot spring day last year, when the water wasn’t switched on and they wasn’t much shade. It was all new and shiny but oh, so hot. We visited the one o’clock club with a friend, her friend and her friend’s friend, all with kids attached. Somehow, I ended up looking after a 4-year-old belonging to the friend’s friend’s friend, while his mother had her hair braided in the playground. The climbing frames seemed perilously high and open-sided for my then 20-month-old and I desperately tried to follow him round, while the four-year-old hit other kids and their mothers blamed me. Fun times.

This trip was better. Way better. For starters, the water was on and I do love a water play.  Secondly, I didn’t have to look after any kids that I didn’t know, with a subtle violent streak. In fact, it was my child that went missing and have to be retrieved by a friend. Whoops. It was VERY busy, OK?

So, what was there? Well, there were two climbing frames, including one shaped like a pirate ship. Neither seemed particularly hazardous but I guess that’s just that Roo has changed a lot since our last visit. There was a metal slide (see below) that was roastingly hot and had kids pouring water down it. The ground was also roastingly hot, which is a problem when your child wants to alternate between water play and any other play. Shoes on or off? Roo’s friends J&A had some handy fake crocs (Nathan calls them “focs”, which almost sounds rude but isn’t) which worked for both situations, so definitely something to consider if you visit somewhere with a similar setup. After a trip to Sainsburys this morning, Roo is also kitted out.

There was also an adventure playground corner, with what looked like an aerial runway. I went on one in Norfolk and had forgotten how much fun they are. I couldn’t persuade Roo on it though. The play area is all pretty new, and well designed. There is some shade, but it was crammed with buggies and people picnicking in between them. Better to do what we did, and find a bit of the wider park to sit in.

And there was water play! No paddling pool as such, but fountains , a water bubble (see Roo wrecking it above), arches which you can run through and get sprayed, and lots of other bits. It was a lot of fun but very VERY crowded on the first day of the holidays when the temperature has finally crept above 20c. Be prepared for a bit of splashing and a small freakout if your child is a timid type.

As we left the playground, someone had set up what looked like pirate DVDs along a wall to sell. You can never quite forget that this is Brixton…

VERDICT: A fun, not-quite-local water play area but very crowded. Didn’t check out the rest of the park, but there seemed to be a couple of nice looking cafes.

More details here (official website)

Posted in Token attempts at fresh air (parks) | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

Mile End Park – 21/07/12

Posted on July 21, 2012 by katese11

“Ooh, it’s a mess alright, yes it’s Mile End”. Typically for me, I couldn’t stop myself singing this as we wandered around Mile End today. And Jarvis, you were right. Mile End Park is a mess alright. Nathan described it as a park that someone had shattered with a hammer. On the map, it looks like a long, thin streak of green but it’s really not one park – it’s lots of bits of park, divided by busy roads, a railway and the occasional canal.  Apparently it’s been created bit by bit, from land that used to be housing or factories. You can tell. Very confusing for us, and equally confusing for Roo, who kept demanding to go to “the park” and complaining when we kept having to leave the park to get to other bits of the park.

That’s not to say we didn’t have an enjoyable day out or that it wasn’t a nice park. It was just bizarre. I’ll start – to quote Fraulein Maria yet again – at the very beginning. Well, not the very beginning but the bit at which we left the predictable confines of the Northern Line for the excitement of the wizard train. The wizard train wasn’t strictly necessary, as we could have got the Central Line to Mile End but who refuses a chance to take the wizard train?!

So, we DLR’ed from Bank to Limehouse and Roo was suitably impressed by the rollercoaster-like feel as you come out into the open. Then we walked from Limehouse to the bottom end of Mile End Park, which Roo wasn’t quite so impressed with. He was imprisoned in buggy, on the charge of “being a bit mad on the platform”, and it was quite a trek. To explain, we were in Mile End to celebrate a friend’s birthday with a BBQ in the far North of the park. The newly renovated children’s playground was in the far South tip. And it is a very long park – as you can guess from our DLR trip, the bottom starts in Docklands and the top almost hits Victoria Park. So, it’s long. But I was reluctant to visit that part of the world without checking ou the play area, so we left the house two hours earlier than needed and started at the bottom, then covered the entire park. You too can do this with an 11-week-old and a 3-year-old. If you’re mad. But really, it wasn’t that bad.

We started in the playground, then. And it was worth the complex planning and the walking around random bits of East London. There was a huge, bumpy slide that I made the mistake of going down with both children in my arms. With our combined weight, it was hella fast. Roo and I whizzed off the end, but I managed to hold onto Eva so she at least had a soft landing. There was a wooden climbing frame (see above), flanked by some totem poles and a spiders-web climbing frame with a trampoline in the middle (luckily I have A&E on speed-dial). There was a small play area for small children, which was a bit tame for Roo’s taste. There was a cafe and picnic tables. There were swings and -according to the signs – some kind of water play on hot days. Though that it obviously restricted by the “drought” we’ve been in. Arf Arf. Anyway, the point is, there was a LOT to do. We could have spent a lot more time there.

The sandpit was pretty spectacular as well. It had the prettiest rainbow coloured bridge, and canoes stuck into the sand. Various sand toys scattered around, which was handy as we’d neglected to bring any for Roo and he was stomping around, declaring “I. Want. A. PADE” for a while. And talking of rainbow coloured things, check out these outdoor instruments:

Aww, pretty! So, the playground was a hit. It had the feel of somewhere new and well-designed. But we couldn’t stay there forever. No no. For we had a Moment to capture. The Olympic torch was passing through Mile End the exact same time we had planned to be there (this was co-incidental), so we set off to find it. Along the way, we encountered some friendly Christians who gave us free coffee and biscuits (hooray!) and then we climbed onto the Green Bridge to try and get a good vantage point.

The Green Bridge – for those of you unfamiliar with East London landmarks – is a bridge over the A11, which is entirely grassy. It’s bizarre – you would barely know you were crossing an A-Road. It’s also accessible by buggy via a set of broad steps on the south side and a slope on the north side. I didn’t fancy standing on the A11 itself, trying to hold Roo back, so we picked a spot just over the bridge where we could still see the relay.

And there it goes! Turns out that at that distance we had a good view but couldn’t see much in detail. And the torch is quite small, as is the person holding it. So it was a bit like watching a traffic jam (buses with adverts on, moving slowly), followed by some men running. A bit underwhelming, and Roo had no clue what was going on. But at least we could say we were there.

So onto the main event (don’t worry, I won’t talk too much about it) –  a BBQ on the lawn in front of the Palm Tree pub. It also seemed to be the venue for a floating market – canal boats moored up against the side of the Regents’ Canal and were selling everything from antique books to Slovakian food. It was all very quirky and East London, but also very charming. In a way, I wished I had more cash on me to buy ice-creams and sweeties. In another way, I’m very glad I didn’t . Atop one boat, there was a mini-gig going on, under a parachute (see above) and -more excitingly – there was a curly-haired and friendly dog tied up opposite. Roo found the boats fascinating, and wandered along the canal with his Daddy, looking at everything. According to Nathan, they spotted some big fish. According to Reuben, they also spotted some eels, sea turtles, anglerfish and sharks. I blame Octonauts.

The market, sadly, is not a permanent fixture and will disappear with the Olympics. The canal boats and fish, I suspect, will still be there. So plenty more opportunities for small boys to waste the last of the grapes by feeding imaginary anglerfish. We also found a little slide in an overgrown bit just next to the pub car park.

And there was a little pond as well, next to the wind turbine. You gotta love a toddler near open, murky water…. Unfortunately we had to drag him away home before any real harm happened to him.

VERDICT: Mile End Park is quirky, unpredictable, scary in parts but kinda fun to be around. Just like the rest of East London.

More details here (official website)

Posted in Token attempts at fresh air (parks) | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Taking tea on Vauxhall Walk

Posted on July 20, 2012 by katese11

London is a city of contrasts – you know that already. Beautiful Kensington is right next to the world’s most complicated gyratory TM (aka Hammersmith), the pound shops of Peckham are minutes away from the designer shops of Dulwich. And Strata, an “architectural icon” and high watermark in “contemporary urban living” is on the Elephant & Castle roundabout. Laugh out loud.  This post has been a while in the making, but what neater way to illustrate London’s contrasts than with the tea-taking opportunities afforded to you by Vauxhall Walk, a small backstreet in South London?

First up, we have Mick Darnalds. It’s a builders’ cafe and burger bar in a railway arch, just behind Peddlar’s Park. I’ve only been there once, on a freezing morning, while Roo was playing on the swings. I needed to warm up, and the pound coin in my pocket was more than enough to secure me a plastic cup of builder’s tea. I had to wait for a while for the kettle to boil, and I felt somewhat out of place, but they were friendly enough. The guy even gave me a free chocolate penguin for Roo (I don’t know why I felt the need to point out that it was chocolate – it’s not like he would have given me a real live penguin). Roo didn’t notice, so I seem to remember I ate it in the end. Anyway, there’s your working-class option – honest, earthy and friendly to kids. I liked the name so much that I wrote into Shortlist about it and got featured on Danny Wallace’s page. True story! Here it is:

Whizz a little way down the street and you’ll find the middle-to-upper-class option; the Tea House Theatre. I believe I first visited it the same week as I visited Mick’s, which is why the contrast was so sharp in my mind.

It’s a charmingly eccentric place. Some people would be put off by the sign near the front door – apologising for their lack of speed over lunchtimes and stating that people looking for a quick sandwich would be best to look elsewhere. “We are not a coffee shop”. Indeed. And when I went there this morning, the service was somewhat eccentric – the credit card machine didn’t work, my friend had to ask for her toast twice and we almost ended up paying for our cakes twice. But these are minor considerations. It’s welcoming to toddlers, the cakes are exciting, the decor is kooky and the people are friendly. And that’s what matters.

The first time I went there, I was alone with Roo and he was asleep in the buggy (these were the pre-Eva days). I ordered a pot of apple tea (there is no ordering by the cup) and sat there for half an hour, reading. I could have stayed longer if I wasn’t on my way somewhere and the selection of books and papers certainly suggests you might want to. I definitely got nowhere near the bottom of my teapot, which was a shame as its teacosy had done a great job of keeping it warm for me. I remember thinking at the time that the place was a little too nice to take my unruly toddler, as he was bound to upset the ambience and break the (deliberately) mismatched crockery.

The next time I went there was for a 3-year-old’s birthday parties, so I had no such qualms really. The photo above is from that same party and is illegally filched from the Tea House Theatre’s own facebook page. I had some beautiful ones of my own, to illustrate this post but they disappeared with the death of the laptop. You don’t need to hear about my laptop troubles, but suffice to say I have many troubles. Hence no photos. So, I pinched this one. That’s Roo’s BFF and future wife there on the right.

(Another update – I found them! So I have scattered them through this post. Enjoy 🙂  )

Faced with the challenge of a party-full of sugared up toddlers, the staff coped admirably. I found out today that the owners have a toddler and baby themselves, so it’s no wonder. There is an abundance of high chairs and baby changing facilities in both the disabled and ladies’ loos And the ladies’ loos are lovely….really lovely. No-one seems to mind the mess or the disruption. Even the group having a business meeting there this morning seemed unperturbed by Reuben shrieking “doggy!” and running round in circles. Oh yes, and Reuben found a doggy there. That also helps. There’s an open fire,which is both lovely and troublesome but it isn’t lit at the moment (this should be obvious, given that it’s July…but not obvious to anyone who’s stepped outside lately). And some slightly sharp broken teapots outside. But apart from that, it’s a nice place to enjoy some cake and tea. Oh, and it’s also a theatre. In case you were wondering….

VERDICT: Eccentric, but friendly. Don’t go if you’re in a hurry

More details here (official website)

Posted in Cake and the finest wines known to humanity (eating out) | Tagged , , , | 13 Comments

The Discover Centre – 13/07/12

Posted on July 13, 2012 by katese11

Right, let’s get this straight before we get carried away – do not go to Stratford over the next month or so. It will be hell. The station was busy enough today and will be worse over The Olympics. You will never get out. Or in. Wherever you’re trying to go, you will not get there. And yes TFL, combining DLR, tube, Overground and bus station into one “hub” may seem like a good idea on paper but good grief, it’s confusing to those of us who just want to exit your station. Please!

Assuming you’ve taken my advice and visited Stratford after All This Nonsense has calmed down, you will eventually exit Stratford station and catch sight of the famous Stratford Rhubarb, just past the not-so-famous Stratford Centre. Walk towards the Rhubarb, for behind it lies a thing of wonder. The Discover Centre. And therein lies the point of this post.And it must be a thing of wonder to lure anyone to Stratford that isn’t in possession of a rare and overpriced piece of paper. I last went to central Stratford on New Year’s Day 2007 – a sorry tale involving having to hand some shop keys over to someone on our way back from Hampshire, with no car. Nathan didn’t thank me, even after I took him to Nandos.  I may have also visited a friend round there later that year, but that was only to move her the hell out of the place.  Tammy – as ever – bested me on this front, but her story of why she hasn’t visited Stratford for 20 years isn’t mine to tell.

So, the Discover Centre! It’s two floors of interactive-y goodness, loosely linked by a “story” theme. Activities for older children involve listening to and making up their own stories (there are booths for both listening and recording), and the whole place is meant to spark their imaginations. There are fake rivers, with crocodiles, there are monsters and dragons and a secret cave. Obviously, Roo isn’t at the story-writing stage yet, so breezed past the writing and the suggested activities. But that doesn’t mean he didn’t appreciate the monsters, crocodiles and secret caves. He played for four hours and still didn’t want to leave at the end. A recommendation if there ever was one.

The first section (after the cafe/foyer) was the Story Trail, home of the aforementioned secret cave. Roo could have spent hours on that alone – a simple mixture of a cave with climbable sides and roof. Scramble up one side, play with the blocks on top, wave to Mummy through the portholes and netting, scramble down the other side. Repeat. It was great fun, except when he had a tussle with a small girl and she gouged a hole in his face. Ah, East London. Roo came out crying that “little girl hurt me” and I did the “there there, not so bad” routine till I saw she’d actually drawn blood. Ouch! To be fair, it was dark in there and I’m sure it was an accident but still, it’s an impressive battlescar for a day out. And will do nothing for his phobia of little girls (thus far, it’s only one specific little girl at playgroup that he’s scared of…and she is a bit spooky looking)

So, what else was there to do on the Story Trail? An indoor slide, overlooked by a dragon, a helicopter with steering wheel, a puppet booth, dressing up clothes, a craft table, floor lights that make noises when you step on them…and a lot more. Everything was so tactile and interactive, and kookily designed. It was great.

I love this photo. Roo and I are wearing “knight hats” (his description..could be “night hats” for all I know), Eva is looking unimpressed and Tammy is just giggling at us in the background. And – like 95% of photos on my phone – it features my new wrap. I dyed and batiked that myself, with only a little help from a friend. I bet you didn’t know I was crunchy, hey? I never used to be…

So, onto the Story Garden. I love an imaginative outdoor space and this was really well designed. There was a huge pirate ship, which always goes down well with Roo (though he was not welcoming to stowaways), a wooden taxi, which Jake drove to “Number One Shop” at Roo’s request, outdoor musical instruments, a treehouse and a monster slide. Too much to take in, just reading that? Try being there. I loved the monster slide especially, though again Roo wasn’t happy about sharing it. The musical instruments were great too, and had their beaters attached to them, unlike at The Horniman Museum, so kids couldn’t run off with them and leave others musically frustrated.

So, the garden was a big hit. Lots of scope for imaginative play or -like Roo and Jake – just running around going “aaahhhhhhh”….like boys do. There’s also a lot of space for picnicking (tables and chairs on the patio and benches under a wooden gazebo), which I would recommend you do. Neither Tammy nor I brought lunch for ourselves and both ended up choosing between the world’s most uninspiring sandwiches in the cafe (cheese salad or ham  salad). The staff there admitted that the cafe is kinda peripheral to the whole operation and you could really tell. It was equipped well for a drink or snack, but not for lunch. Literally two choices of sandwich and that was it – nothing else vaguely lunch-like. A missed opportunity, I think. So…bring a picnic.

Lastly, onto the special exhibit in the basement – “Superheroes”. I didn’t quite follow the plot (something to do with missing vowels), but that’s what happens when you’re chasing a 3-year-old around. I think Jake may have been disappointed that the superheroes weren’t ones he knew (he was wearing his Spiderman t-shirt for the occasion), but Roo seemed to have fun.  It was set up in the form of a town, with different shops to duck into and do activities in.  There were buttons to press, a super car to drive, a supermarket to raid and a pulley with foam bricks that fitted into a wall (similar to the pulley system at The Science Museum). Oh, and a toddler-sized basketball court. Roo, as you can guess, loved it. Eva, as you can guess, was largely oblivious.

I’ll leave you with this image, cause you can really see his face-gash here (and attractive sweaty head). Remember kids, play can be dangerous….

VERDICT: A gem in the heart of Stratford – great for a full day of play. Could do with more of a selection at the cafe and more than one baby-changing point.

More details here (official website)

Posted in Creating precious childhood memories or something (days out) | Tagged , , , , | 6 Comments

Dinosaur Adventure – An LWAT field trip

Posted on June 23, 2012 by katese11

Norfolk. Very flat. But there are dinosaurs there.

We went on holiday! To Norfolk! It wasn’t actually flat at all, especially not the Neanderthal walk at Dinosaur Adventure. But we’ll get there later. Let’s begin at the beginning.

Dinosaur Adventure is – as you’d expect – a theme park based around dinosaurs. What else does Roo need? It was £9.95 per adult to get in, £12.95 for children over 3 and free for under-3s. Being both honest and tight, we took Roo on the day before his third birthday. So, he was 2 years and 365 days old but it’s a leap year so that makes him not yet 3. Talk about cheating the system!

The whole place has a (quite deliberate) Jurassic Park vibe. When we got there, Roo and Nathan ran off to play while Eva and I perused the gift shop and cafe for some breakfast. The lack of any other human beings in the gift shop added to that slightly creepy vibe. Luckily, a school trip showed up and shattered the peace pretty quickly.

Breakfast obtained, we caught up with the boys in the vast and very exciting outdoor play area. There was an under 5s bit, with a trampoline and small climbing frames as well as dinosaur models. Then there was “arachnophobia”, a large rope frame, and a treetop walk to a high slide. But all this paled in comparison with the MASSIVE dinosaur climbing frame. It was the size of a bus! Or a dinosaur! It was entirely enclosed in fibreglass (see top photo), so once Roo disappeared up the ladder in the dino’s leg, he could be missing for ten minutes before whoosing down the slide at either mouth or tail end. Nathan had gone around the frame with him a few times and assured me “he’s fine in there”, so I trusted him. He always made his way out in the end. I’d start to worry and then bleurgh! Dino would vomit or poo out an overexcited toddler


Eventually, we peeled him away to go on the Dinosaur trail through the woods. It’s as it sounds, except I was expecting the dinosaurs to be lame but they were actually pretty cool. The one above is huuuugggge – Nathan is in for scale (by his left leg). See? Huge! The dino trail kept us all entertained for half an hour or so, and there were a couple of abandoned jeeps and “field stations” on the way, to add to that spooky vibe. There was also a T-Rex spotting trail to follow, and stamps to collect around the park.

Emerging from the woods into the sunlight, we found another play area and a petting zoo, which included iguanas and snakes. Roo was a bit freaked out by the snakes, which is a far cry from the days when he thought “snakes on your brain” was a fun game. There was also a litter of tiny piglets, who looked a little like Eva. Sadly, we didn’t join the Deer Safari excursion (via jeep, extra £1.95 for adults), as it was overrun by schoolchildren. Also, after the dinosaurs I thought Roo may be a little underwhelmed by the deer.

So, it was back up to the main bit of the park, via the Neanderthal Walk. The picture above cracks me up, for some reason. Now, they do say in all the promo material that the dino trail and the Neanderthal Walk are unsuitable for wheelchairs, so we were a bit uncertain about taking the buggy. Especially as neither child went in the buggy all day (Eva was in the sling, Roo was walking). But a buggy is ever so handy for carrying all our stuff, so essentially we just pushed a shopping trolley around all day. Like hobos do.

Anyway, the dino trail was fine with the buggy cause it was all downhill (though I did forget the brakes once and nearly lost it to the clutches of an Ankylosaurus) but going back up the Neanderthal Walk was pretty hard work, and would have been even harder with a child in it. Consider yourselves warned.

So, what else was there to do? Well, there was lunch in Dippy’s Diner (pretty standard kinda fare for this sort of place), excavating bones in Xtinction, a sandpit, dino-themed miniature golf and go-karts. But in case this wasn’t enough, there’s also an indoor soft play area with massive slides. Needless to say, Roo fell asleep the minute we got back into the car!

VERDICT: A great day out and good value, especially if you aren’t paying for the toddler.

More details here (official website)

Posted in Creating precious childhood memories or something (days out) | Tagged , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Festival of the World (Southbank Centre) – 22/06/12

Posted on June 22, 2012 by katese11

It’s been a rather blustery day. Walking along the river, I thought Roo’s buggy might just be whipped away over the edge. Luckily, I had Roo to use as a counterweight, so once I put him in it the problem was solved. Or maybe I was setting him up to get whipped over the edge. Who knows?

We were at the Southbank Centre to a) meet our good friends Tammy and Jake and b) check out the “Festival of the World”. My friend over at Adventures with Gravel highly recommended it and I was waiting for a nice sunny day to have a look around the outside bits. Then I gave up on the sunny day and we just took cover in the Royal Festival Hall whenever it tipped it down. Which led us to our first discovery – the Festival Museum, located on the ground floor (i.e. under the ballroom). I went through it a bit quickly to really gauge what it was all about, but visually, it was great for toddlers. Every section had a different theme – starting with a fake outdoors (grass, sky, caves) and culminating in a passport office where you could use a computer to print your own “citizen of the world” passport. I didn’t quite have time to figure out how to do that, thanks to Roo charging off again so seems I’m not a citizen of the world. Bah.The photobooth was also out of order, which didn’t help.  On, the upside the “passport office” was decorated with brightly coloured toys, which Roo loved, and some pots and pans on strings, which made a tremendous noise when you banged them. Which Roo did, obviously.  As ever, I would have liked to have looked round the exhibits and read all the displays but that is not the way of the (now) 3-year-old. So, instead here are some grainy photos. I hate my blackberry. Oh, and happy birthday Reuben.

Wow, whatta lotta photos. And yes, that is a tiny Batman in the last one.

By now, the sun was peeking tentatively through the clouds, so we went outside equally tentatively, to have a play at “Rainbow Park”, the multi-coloured sand installation next to Waterloo Bridge. It was ace. The idea is very simple – dye some sand and arrange it in roughly rainbow colour – but it mesmerised Reuben for ages. And me too. There was a mix of textures, so it felt good underfoot and there were lots of things for Roo to climb on and jump off. Again, pictures will explain this better….

And as an added bonus, here’s a rare photo of Eva enjoying the sandpit. She loves it!

Be warned, you and your toddler will both come home with multi-coloured sand in your shoes. Be warned #2, there’s a Wahaca van serving burritos next to the sandpit and you will be unable to resist its mexican-y charm. Cash only, burritos are £6.00. Mmmmmm….!

But wait…there’s more. After a quick stop for a change (Roo), a feed (Eva) and some hula-hoops (Roo again), we went to have a look at “London Earth Creature” outside the Hayward Gallery. This was a play area designed by school children (among others), out of “earth forms”. There was a giant earth hut, which Roo and Jake enjoyed running in and out of, and some little earth caves to sit in. A couple looked like they were napping in there. As you do. More fake grass and, by now, a gale force wind blowing the boys and buggies around. As you can guess, they loved it. They was another street food van there too (Beirut this time)

It was almost time to go home, but there was one more treat for the boys on the way, in the form of giant letters dangling from the sky on Festival Terrace. I persuaded Roo to pose under an “R” but you can’t really tell it’s him. Jake was initially disappointed, until the last cube turned out to have a huge “J” on it. Eva refused to pose at all. Apparently, they spell out messages if you look at them from certain angles but I couldn’t really see it. Ah well, Roo can’t read yet so we could tell him it said anything.

If only I had a shot of Roo and Eva dangling off either side of that R/E cube, life would be perfect. Oh yes. But it’s not, so instead I got conned into buying Roo a ridiculously expensive croissant from Le Pain Quotidien. Everything on the South Bank may be free, but with all the yummy food available it could end up bankrupting you.

VERDICT: Go go go. Even if you’re only passing through, stop for a play

More details here (official website)

Posted in Creating precious childhood memories or something (days out) | Tagged , , , | 10 Comments

Diana Memorial Fountain – 26/05/12

Posted on June 5, 2012 by katese11

So let me start by saying, I have no particular affiliation with Princess Diana. I think she had a hard life but I was no sadder when she died than when any other celebrity dies (except Freddie Mercury). I was mainly sad that my Uncle Phil couldn’t take me up in a glider like we’d planned because the airfield was closed. I was 16. And maybe self-centred.

What I do have a strong affiliation with are nice play areas (as you may have already gathered). I haven’t yet visited the memorial playground but I will do in the near future. And I also have an affiliation with being able to paddle on a hot day. This last one clearly isn’t shared by Lambeth Council, who ignored the heatwave last week and stuck to their plans to switch water play areas on this bank holiday weekend. Which, in case you didn’t notice, was a bit of a washout. Sigh.

So, no paddling pools in Lambeth or Causton Street. What’s a girl to do? Go for some long-overdue princess mourning, naturally…

This was not my first visit to the Diana Memorial Fountain. Oh no. The first time I hung out there was on my friend’s hen do. As Best Woman, I had organised the whole thing to suit me and my then-not-quite-a-toddler (he took some of his first steps during the scouting visit). All-night clubbing was out, picnics in Hyde Park were in. It’s OK – if you knew her, you’d understand this was what she wanted… I choose the fountain as a handy place to picnic as it was close to the boating (part 1 of the hen do) and also the Serpentine Lido (an essential part of part 3, when she completed a “henathalon”. Honestly, if you knew her, this would all make sense….). Only two problems, Firstly, you can’t drink within the bounds of the fountain, and we had a bucketful of Pimms. This was brought to our attention by the fairly zealous FountainGuardPeople. Secondly, it was tipping it down. In August. So, the hen’s resourceful male friends erected a gazebo. Again, the FountainGuardPeople took exception to this. I maintain, there is no mention of gazebos on the “Rules of the Fountain” board. And the “no alcohol” symbol was a wine glass. Any sane person would take that as “no glass”, right?! A sensible suggestion around a fountain! Hence the plastic beakers and the bucket…..anyhoo, the net result was that we moved just outside the fence surrounding the fountain, to the part where the FountainGuardPeople had no jurisdiction. All involved were happy with the result, Incidentally, inviting male hens (aka “mens”) is a great idea. They bring gazebos and stuff!

Needless to say, this latest visit was less rowdy. In a way. The website implied that walking around the fountain was not allowed, so I was terrified of falling foul of the FountainGuardPeople again, and having to tell the toddler that he could look but not paddle. All through the veeeery long walk through the park, I was steeling myself for it, but my fears were unfounded. Every other family in London had the same idea (maybe cause all the paddling pools were empty?) and when we got there, there were hundreds of children splashing about happily.

Of course, experienced readers will guess what happened next. Roo had been napping in his buggy during the epic journey there and woke up next to the fountain. When asked if he wanted to play, what did he say? “No fanks”.

After a walk, a bus and another half hour’s walk? Ah, sod ya then! Luckily it was a Saturday and Nathan was with us, so I left sleepy boy with him and I took Eva in the sling, to dip our feet. Well, just my feet really. She was asleep too.

But there’s a happy ending. Somehow, Nathan persuaded Roo to first take his shoes off and paddle, and then change into his  wetsuit for full-on water play. By then, Eva had woken up yowling for a feed, so I fed her in the shade of the tree and watched them play. Oh, how the tables have turned Mr Bond….

Eventually, baby was fed and asleep again and toddler was not yet bored. So I got an hour or so of splashing about with Roo and Nathan (Eva way out of the action in the sling) and it was grand. Really lovely. The fountain is huge and is a loop of granite, with two currents running down from the top. Along the way, the depth changes to provide shallower and deeper parts, textured and smooth bits, faster and slower flowing bits. The whole loop took around ten minutes to walk, so we could have wasted hours there. You can climb in and out at any point, and there were three bridges to cross onto the grassy island in the middle. The only time the FountainGuardPeople tried to stop us doing anything was on one circuit, where one guy stopped anyone climbed up a little, ridged waterfall. Every other time round, Nathan and Roo clambered up it freely. I climbed out at that point cause I didn’t fancy doing it with a baby. Just in case…

The whole thing was very safe for paddling, on the whole. The ridged granite made it hard to slip and the current was never too fast or too deep for a toddler. Hence me being very happy paddling round with Roo AND a 3-week old. The ridges do make your feet hurt for a bit though.

So, overall a big hit. Roo was distraught to have to leave, but his Godmother was cooking us a BBQ, so we had to go. Naturally, we resorted to bribing him with an ice-cream from the stand outside the Lido. Naturally, on the hottest day of the year, in London’s most famous park there was only one person serving. Sigh. Eva and I queued for half an hour, while Roo and Nathan studied the duckies of the Serpentine, but the raspberry yoghurt ice-cream was worth it.

VERDICT:A great place to go on a hot day (and even on a rainy day), as long as they don’t try and enforce the “no paddling” rule

More details here (official website)

Posted in Token attempts at fresh air (parks) | Tagged , , | 5 Comments

Still here……

Posted on May 31, 2012 by katese11

And brand new shiny anecdotes to come, honest guvnor. This newborn baby thing seems to take up a lot of my time and occupies my hands. But watch this space, loyal viewers. In the meantime, here’s Reuben’s take on the Jubilee. Roobilee, anyone?!

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St James’ Park playground – 22/05/12

Posted on May 22, 2012 by katese11

Sorry for the radio silence lately. It’s almost like we haven’t been anywhere of note since the end of April. Oh that’s right, we haven’t. Meet the reason why:

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It’s Eva! She isn’t a toddler but she does live in London and she’ll be accompanying me and Roo on some of our travels. I doubt she’ll do much of note for a while but she’ll be there, wrapped in her Moby on my front…just like she was today.

Ah yes, today! Today was take two of St James’ Park, after the playgroundless fiasco of last time. Fiasco is a strong term. Let’s call it a mini-fiasco. A fiascoette, if you will…Anyhoo, they’ve finished cleaning up the playground and it was a lovely sunny day, so it was time to try again.

Luckily, it was open. And contained, which is always a bonus. We had a relatively successful picnic with Tammy and Jake, where Roo only wandered off a handful of times (it’s harder to chase him with a newborn hanging on to your boob. But not impossible). He has two new tricks that he was practising today. One is called “Help, Mummy! Stuck!”, which I believe is self-explanatory. He is never actually stuck. Almost never. But it’s a good excuse to get aforementioned Mummy to heave you out of places with her boob out. Joy. The other game is based on all those “Are you my Mummy?” books (see “hug” etc)…he walks just far enough that casual passers-by can’t see me waving. Then plaintively wails “Mummmy! Mummy! Where Mummy gone?” until someone takes pity on him. That someone is never me. Almost never.

So, after a few of these high-jinks we decided to take the boys somewhere more distracting. Playground! And it was open. Huzzah!

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Was it worth the return visit? Yes, I think so. It wasn’t huge (unlike these photos…I don’t understand what wordpress is doing today) but it had a slide, swings (3 sets), a seesaw and a sandpit. All the “s”s. All made of natural materials (which made for an extremely heavy log seesaw) and kinda sculpted to look like part of the park. I particularly liked the slide cut into some steps, also reachable by a little wooden bridge.

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There were also a few quirky touches – wooden things that looked like snails or possibly trains (with chains. Why chains?!), and a tiny wooden rocking-horse. There were also toilets, which I once again used my non-toilet-trained toddler as a passport to get into. Beware – the boys’ toilet is mainly urinals, which might blow your cover somewhat.


And now the baby’s crying (actually she started crying near the start of this post), so that’s it for now.Short by my standards, hey?!

VERDICT: A nice play area, not overly crowded and a calm kind of vibe.

More details here (official website)

Posted in Token attempts at fresh air (parks) | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

Magners Pasture – 30/04/11

Posted on May 1, 2012 by katese11

Good day Sunshine! I may have mentioned that it’s been a bit rainy in London lately so it was amazing to wake up yesterday morning and see a bit of yellow sunshine (as Roo calls it) poking through the clouds.

We were meeting Tammy and Jake at the Royal Festival Hall, assuming that it would be yet another rainy day. But it wasn’t! So we had lunch and left in search of somewhere sunny to hang out. The park opposite the London Eye is currently a giant building site (thanks to the Jubilympics), but Tammy spotted the Magners Pasture (part of the Udderbelly festival but not ticketed) and we thought that’d be worth a go.

And indeed it was! It was basically just a big beer garden (there was a bar and a food stall too), so I felt obliged to spend an outrageous £1.80 on a can of lemonade. But as “hanging out” tax goes, it was acceptable. We managed an hour’s hanging out before Jake wanted to go and explore other places, and Roo’s constant screaming at the pigeons was starting to annoy the grown-ups.

Ah yes, grown-ups. I think they see a beer garden on the South Bank as their “zone” and I’m not sure how all of them felt about the invasion of the preschoolers. But that’s their problem. It was a Monday afternoon – why weren’t they all at work? For the most part, the boys were pretty well-behaved and just spent ages playing with the giant Connect 4 set. Not sure they really understood the rules but never mind. Roo also liked the purple cows and the deckchair. Mummy also liked the deckchair but kept getting kicked out of it by Roo…

VERDICT: A nice place to spend a sunny hour or so. Just be prepared to leave when the grown-ups start giving you evils…

More details here (official website)

Posted in Just wandering.... | Tagged , | 4 Comments