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).

How much is that fishy in the window. The one with the waggly fins....

Today, as it was still really cold outside, we went and looked at fish in a fish shop. The fish shop (not the one that sells chips) is probably the warmest place within 3 miles of our house, so itseemed like a good choice. The following photos aren't great cos I was avoiding using a flash (didn't want to be told off for scaring the fish).
And here is a fish

And here's another one, which you can't see very well, but it's the greenish brown blob with horns. And yes it does have little horns on its head. It looks rather alien-like.

And here's another fuzzy picture of a fish. I think he's smiling. Or perhaps blowing me fishy kisses?


And here's another interesting creature:



And today I made bread in the microwave. Yes I said MICROWAVE.

Ok, so I know that in the 'handbook for Earth mothers' microwaves are something akin to feeding your kids pot noodles in public. As for making bread in the microwave??!! Well that's scuppered my chances of ever getting promoted to even part-way Earth mother (and no doubt it would get me banished from the WI for the next 20 years)

Well don't knock it till you try it. And no I haven't actually tried it yet. I mean, I made it, but I haven't tasted it yet. Dh will try it for breakfast before he goes to work and if he survives then the rest of us might try it. Will let you know what it's like. If it's any good, I'll post the recipe. Only for non Earth mothers you understand...

Microwave bread before the microwave:

Microwave bread after the microwave:

Contemplating fish...

Dd1, sharing takeaway fish and chips with dh:

'Can I have some more fish, Daddy?'

'But there's loads on your plate, look.'

'But I only like the crust Daddy, not the insides.'

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The kids won goldfish at the allotment open day/fair a few weeks ago. We put them in the hexagonal fish tank with ds2's big goldfish. Each day we would look in. Slowly, one by one we found each fish not doing what fish do. One by one they went to the great fishbowl in the sky.

The little all-gold one that survied belongs to ds2. Ds2 is happy: it replaces the one of his big fish that died earlier this year. However, like a new puppy, the little fish constantly pesters and torments the older grandaddy fish. Do you think goldfish understand 'time out'?

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'Karate-chopping crayfish rule the world'

(caught at the sailing club this afternoon)