wilma-bride
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- Joined
- Jul 13, 2005
- Messages
- 22,681
Since I was up ridiculously early this morning (due to Rhiannon going away for the night and leaving her alarm set for 6.30 
), I thought I would post a quick photo trip report from our day out in London yesterday. I'm pretty sure Nat's got loads more photos, including the ones from Dinosaurs Unleashed! so feel free to add them Nat.
As it was Matthew's 9th Birthday, we decided that we would take the kids for a trip to London. We set off from Chippenham at 8.25 and caught the train to Paddington.
Meanwhile, Nat, John and the kids had left home and were driving to Stanmore Park, where they planned to catch the tube.
We had arranged to meet at the Natural History Museum, our first port of call, around 10.15. Unfortunately, the best laid plans were thrown into disarray by the non-operation of the Circle line and the fact that we got on the wrong underground train twice (due to misinformation by London Underground staff).
We arrived at the museum just after 10.30 with no sign of Nat and John.
After trying unsuccessfully to get hold of them, we decided to go inside and get a drink while we waited. Eventually, Nat phoned to say they were ont he Circle line, which confused us since we knew it wasn't running, but we told them we were in the Deli Cafe and would wait for them there.
Half an hour later, with no sign, and following a phone call from a stressed-sounding Nat, we decided to head off to explore the Red Zone (volcanoes and earthquakes).
Although we'd chosen this area because we thought it would be of least interest to the others, it was acually quite fascinating and we really enjoyed it.
The earthquake simulation was great, althought he Disney fan in me was ever present!
As we left the red xone, I tried to call Nat again and found out they'd arrived and were in the museum. I asked if she could see the Atlas statue and, when she said yes, I realised she was actually right below where we were standing.
Finally, the day could get going
We quickly 'ran' through the red zone again, then headed off to blue zone for the dinosaurs.
Halfway through the dinosaur exhibit, I spotted a woman that I swear used to be in the Bill or some other police-type drama, however I couldn't think what it was that she was actually in or who she played and it's still bugging me even now. I wanted to take a picture of her, to see if Gary might be able to place her since he wasn't with us at that time, but I couldn't do it discreetly so didn't bother.
We wandered through a couple more exhibits, including mammals and birds, but it was already time for us to leave so we could get to Oxford Street for Matthew's Birthday surprise. Nat had booked tickets for Gary, John and the two boys to go to Dinosaurs Unleashed! (an interactive dinosaur exhibition) and we had to be there by 2.30 for their session.
We left the museum and caught the tube to Oxford Circus. After realising we were at completely the wrong end of Oxford Street, we route-marched everybody up the street. As we passed House of Fraser, there was a massive crowd outside and we realised there was a girl in the window singing. A quick 'google' this morning has revealed that she was the winner of the Retail Trust Search for a Star competition. I don't know what her name was but she was really good.
After we dropped the men and boys at the exhibition, it was time for some girly retail therapy. Nat headed straight for Primark (you can take the girl out of Hinckley but you can't take Hinckley out of the girl
), but since I'm allergic to Primark, I took Ellie to Next and New Look instead.
Next it was off to Selfridges for a good look round and, since we were feeling a bit peckish, Nat treated us all to gorgeous cupcakes from Lola's.
Ferrero Rocher for Ellie
Rocky Road for Nat
And Oreo Cookie for me
We sat in the stair well, like a trio of winos, eating our cakes. Then it was back to the shopping. We hadn't got far before Nat managed to sniff out a pub and so we had to stop for liquid refreshment.
In memory of Chilly's reception last weekend, we had a couple of our personally invented cocktails
The boys were almost done so we met up with them and headed back to the tube, for the journey to our final stage of the day - a meal at Giraffe.
Continued in the next post...
), I thought I would post a quick photo trip report from our day out in London yesterday. I'm pretty sure Nat's got loads more photos, including the ones from Dinosaurs Unleashed! so feel free to add them Nat.As it was Matthew's 9th Birthday, we decided that we would take the kids for a trip to London. We set off from Chippenham at 8.25 and caught the train to Paddington.
Meanwhile, Nat, John and the kids had left home and were driving to Stanmore Park, where they planned to catch the tube.
We had arranged to meet at the Natural History Museum, our first port of call, around 10.15. Unfortunately, the best laid plans were thrown into disarray by the non-operation of the Circle line and the fact that we got on the wrong underground train twice (due to misinformation by London Underground staff).
We arrived at the museum just after 10.30 with no sign of Nat and John.
After trying unsuccessfully to get hold of them, we decided to go inside and get a drink while we waited. Eventually, Nat phoned to say they were ont he Circle line, which confused us since we knew it wasn't running, but we told them we were in the Deli Cafe and would wait for them there.
Half an hour later, with no sign, and following a phone call from a stressed-sounding Nat, we decided to head off to explore the Red Zone (volcanoes and earthquakes).
Although we'd chosen this area because we thought it would be of least interest to the others, it was acually quite fascinating and we really enjoyed it.
The earthquake simulation was great, althought he Disney fan in me was ever present!
As we left the red xone, I tried to call Nat again and found out they'd arrived and were in the museum. I asked if she could see the Atlas statue and, when she said yes, I realised she was actually right below where we were standing.
Finally, the day could get going
We quickly 'ran' through the red zone again, then headed off to blue zone for the dinosaurs.
Halfway through the dinosaur exhibit, I spotted a woman that I swear used to be in the Bill or some other police-type drama, however I couldn't think what it was that she was actually in or who she played and it's still bugging me even now. I wanted to take a picture of her, to see if Gary might be able to place her since he wasn't with us at that time, but I couldn't do it discreetly so didn't bother.
We wandered through a couple more exhibits, including mammals and birds, but it was already time for us to leave so we could get to Oxford Street for Matthew's Birthday surprise. Nat had booked tickets for Gary, John and the two boys to go to Dinosaurs Unleashed! (an interactive dinosaur exhibition) and we had to be there by 2.30 for their session.
We left the museum and caught the tube to Oxford Circus. After realising we were at completely the wrong end of Oxford Street, we route-marched everybody up the street. As we passed House of Fraser, there was a massive crowd outside and we realised there was a girl in the window singing. A quick 'google' this morning has revealed that she was the winner of the Retail Trust Search for a Star competition. I don't know what her name was but she was really good.
After we dropped the men and boys at the exhibition, it was time for some girly retail therapy. Nat headed straight for Primark (you can take the girl out of Hinckley but you can't take Hinckley out of the girl
), but since I'm allergic to Primark, I took Ellie to Next and New Look instead.Next it was off to Selfridges for a good look round and, since we were feeling a bit peckish, Nat treated us all to gorgeous cupcakes from Lola's.
Ferrero Rocher for Ellie
Rocky Road for Nat
And Oreo Cookie for me
We sat in the stair well, like a trio of winos, eating our cakes. Then it was back to the shopping. We hadn't got far before Nat managed to sniff out a pub and so we had to stop for liquid refreshment.
In memory of Chilly's reception last weekend, we had a couple of our personally invented cocktails
The boys were almost done so we met up with them and headed back to the tube, for the journey to our final stage of the day - a meal at Giraffe.
Continued in the next post...
:
Did you buy anything during your retail therapy sesh? Hope Matthew enjoyed his birthday 
Perhaps she is jealous of those cocktails!
the Jubilee line was down so we were taken by bus to Wembley park, this wasnt a problem but the bus had to stop at 3 tube stations on route and seemed to take forever !!! from wembly park we hreded to baker street and then got hidiously lost again due to serious mis-information by the tube staff ! at one point we all clearly heard an announcement reporting no line closures other than the jubilee line whilst standing on a circle line platform that clearly wasnt operating 
luckily another passenger prized the doors open !!!!
