Michael Morpurgo and the Imperial War Museum, London

Thinking of putting this photo permanently on my blog:

(It's a chunk of The Berlin Wall outside the Imperial War Museum, London)

Yes. I'm the nutter who takes photos on London buses.

Michael Morpurgo talking at the Imperial War Museum.



'Little Manfred' the wooden toy dog that inspired Michael Morpurgo's recent book.



A gun. (There were lots more).


First World War Trench Experience (obviously you can't tell by the photo but it was very smelly and a tad claustrophobic):


ds2 posing by a tank:


dd getting to grips with submarines


Perfect photo opportunity:


Ice creams by the Thames:


Southbank:

A wolf made of (?) straw:


Beach huts (they weren't there last time so I'm assuming they are part of something arty):


Yep. It's bigger than our kitchen.


'Rent a dog'. For a dog-mad daughter (on the side of a beach hut):


I think they call it dancing. Looks painful to me:

The end.

Pocket-sized guide to London (Part 2)

If you missed part 1 (shame on you!) that was yesterday's post, so go scroll down and read it!

Oh, and my apologies for all those who posted comments on my blog post about voting a few weeks ago. I had switched my comments thingymajig to 'moderated' after getting some well-weird comments with links to rather unsavoury websites. But although Google blogger was meant to email me when there were comments to moderate, it didn't.

And there I was, feeling like nobody loved me, when in actual fact quite a few of you had acknowledged my existence and it was Blogger that had bogged it all up.

So, anyway, on to Part 2, Monday's excursions in London...

While the boys had a tour and workshop at The Houses of Parliament and ds1 went up the inside of The Clock Tower (what we commoners know as Big Ben) I gave dd the choice of entertainment...a nice relaxing river cruise down the Thames, or a very expensive trip around the London Aquarium.

Guess which she chose? So, feeling mildly ripped off at the handsome price of £17.50 for an adult ticket (yikes!), but also chuffed that I'd been organised enough to print out a 2-for-1 voucher, we tackled Fish Land.

For the benefit of those who don't want to take out a second mortgage to spend an hour looking at fish, we took photos of everything that moved (and some things that didn't)...

...like the attention-seeking Starfish:

'Pick me! Pick me!'

And the Ray, demonstrating why you should never let an amateur perform liposuction and lip implants at the same time:

And a turtle on performance-enhancing drugs:


And a fish version of Marvin The Paranoid Android ('Don't talk to me about life'):

And small person in pink:

And small person in pink swimming with the fishies:

And a prawny thing, sealed in a bubble:

So, er, how thick is this glass?

Small pink child looking excited:

Not half as excited as the shark who has her on the menu as bite-sized pink sushi:

And a wavey, prawny thing:

Ok, that's enough for now. I have loads of videos of fish too, but I'll do some mastery on that and bore you with it at some future date. I have to confess, even though I shudder with frugal-overload, at £17.50, it was worthwhile.

In between waiting for the boys to come out of various workshops, dd and I had a wander. This is a bronze statue of Boudica near Westminster Pier.
Boudica is the gal previously known as Boadicea before someone realised that they'd messed up the translation and had been calling her by the wrong name for a very long time. I can't quite understand why there is a statue of her in the city that she encouraged a whole bunch of rebels to burn down, but maybe that's just because my historical knowledge is a bit patchy. Maybe someone can explain that for me.

Oh and here's Westminster Abbey, which looks rather splendid from the outside. As you may have noticed, most of our photos are from the outside. No prizes for guessing why.

And heres a pointy pillary war memorial thingy outside Westminster Abbey, which looks even better coming out of dd's head:

Yeah, nice hat luv!

And the Methodist Central Hall, just behind the Houses of Parliament, complete with London black cab for authenticity:

We took a stroll along the river and dd was particularly fond of the cast iron swans on the benches. (Note also the twisty fishes on the lamp post behind)

We came across Hampton Court Palace, a famous place that I know nothing about, but has something to do with royalty and Tudor stuff:

And just around the corner was The Museum of Garden History (in a church) and a lovely little park & gardens. I did get through the door to the museum, but then saw the entrance fee and changed my mind (seeing as small person would have been bored and I wouldn't have got to see anything anyway).

But the pond outside was much appreciated and totally FREE.

Dd demonstrates the slowest method of getting water to flow down a straw

(while I'm yelling 'Don't drink the water!'):

And after the play session in the garden we treated ourselves to a full 6 seconds on one of those telescope viewers. Just long enough to unjam the 20p coin and focus on a muddy bit of Thames water.

That's plenty for now. If I get a chance I'll post up some photos from Houses of Parliament (on the boys' cameras).

Pocket sized guide to London (Part 1)

Welcome to our perfectly formed, pocket-sized guide to London, first installment.

We had two days, one of which was to be spent at the Houses of Parliament on a Home Education workshop.

We'd booked a Travelodge in the Southwark area for Sunday night so decided on Saturday to visit the replica of The Golden Hinde in SE1, just along the Thames path. Fortunately I'd rung ahead and found out that the ship was booked pretty much all day for kids birthday parties. However the woman I spoke to (sonia) was wonderful and offered to squeeze us in inbetween the parties.

It's a replica of the original boat that Sir Francis Drake circumnavigated the world in, and has itself been sailed on the same route. Now it is permanently docked in London as a museum.

I have to say that the crew must have all been dwarf-like because even though I'm only 5ft4 (ish), I was bent double in places on the ship!

(ds2, being his charming self)

(and taking a shine to the Captain's seat)

We continued along the Thames Path and came along this marvellous artistic creation, just inside a market/shopping parade. At various times the parts of the machine spouted or whooshed water, other parts spun or whirred and about every fifteen minutes the oars moved. It had two model 'sailors' (just about visible in the photos) and sort of fishy lips at the front. The kids particularly liked the bum hole at the back that gushed water!

(The entrance to the Shopping parade, looking out at the 'Gerkin')

Then we came across HMS Belfast, just before Tower Bridge. I think that'll be a trip for the boys some other time (with dh).

And just before Tower Bridge there was a whole herd of elephants, well, artwork elephants, each one different. Some were mosaic, mirrored, spotted...

And one had clear plastic bobbles on it, which when you looked inside...

...contained a miniature city of elephants, complete with miniature skyscrapers!

And the kids found some irresistably artistic water fountains!

Not forgetting, along the river, this window-cleaners' nightmare:

(but very impressive and photogenic)

And then on to Tower Bridge...

Across the bridge to The Tower of London:

With Traitors Gate, which is, er, a very important and famous and slightly wet gatey thing.

Here ended the pocket sized guide to London, part 1. More to follow.