Crafting and playing

Well today the excesses of the last week have caught us up. We did not wake up until 9 ish. That is like a 2pm lie in to us in this house! After breakfast we went over to Topaz which was having a craft demo weekend. I like to see a few of the ladies over there ( Jane and Leonie) but they had the added attraction of Kirsty Wiseman today.
Yes she is as funny in real life as her blog is! Got the tail of her Beastie bite today and the pleasure of a look at her scrap book. Truly inspirational - thanks Kirsty!

Food wise - much better behaved than the last few days. I have 3.5 points saved to try and pay back! I am doing the 7lb Aug Challenge on the WW site. I have not done any exercise today but plan a trip to gym in am for either a swim or work out before Steve heads to work. Emma wants to go to swim tomorrow which we should be able to do after we go out with Daniel and Jackie. I do not want or deserve another STS after all the walking and swimming I have been doing!

My Stampin' Up stuff should get here tomorrow. Oh such fun!! Perfect for my week off!

I have realised that I have uploaded our London trip photos in reverse order! LOL! I was tired last night!

So on Thursday we got to London at about 2pm. We headed to the hotel which which was in Kensington. We had to of course get LOST walking from the Tube! That's what you get when you hand draw the map cause your printer does not work on this machine!

The room was .... well lets just say adequate! Three single beds - air con not working (new installation not connected but they had taken the fan down), bathroom bigger than the bedroom, there was a flat roof just outside our windows so for security purposes I did not leave the windows open while we were out, and the lifts were just the other side of the wall next to Emma's bed! No pics of all that!

We dumped the bags and went straight back out to go to the Natural history museum. I had looked all the tube station locations to what we planned to do to save time. It was soooo hot in London. Thundery as well!
So we got to the museum. Steven wanted to surprise Emma with the big dinosaur. He covered her eyes and did a big reveal. And guess what her reaction was. "Oh - where are we going then"! Total underwhelmed by it all! So we went round the dino exhibition, the mammals, the fish and the creepy crawlies and then Emma hurt her hand an an exhibition so that was then end of that! The lighting was not photo friendly so you just have to go yourselves!

We had dinner at a lovely little Italian. I had a really great seafood Risotto. YUM YUM - squid, clams, mussells and prawns - delish and very filling HUGE portion!

Headed back to the hotel and as we were fit to drop with the heat we headed to the pool when we got back. It was small and rather strange .... not sure if was the risotto but we all had no buoyancy! We messed for an hour in there. Then showers and bed. I was shattered as I was up at 5 am!

Friday - we decided we would give breakfast a go in the hotel. I have NOOOOOO will power. Doh. I had a 15.5 point breakfast - disaster! I knew we would not be doing that again! The quality was not there so just not worth it. They did undercharge us compared to listed price by £12 so I did not complain too much.

We grabbed the tube to the Tower of London. We should have stuck to my first route but ended changing a few times. Mistake all for an extra 50 metre walk at the start! I had pre booked the tickets for the Tower so we fast tracked to the front - good ploy given the queues were 20 deep!
As we got in they were just starting an hour tour with one of the yeoman. Turns out he was the chief Yeoman. Looked the part completely and was very good at the blood and gore stories. we liked it - Emma not so much!
We then did the crown jewels - we were luck to not have a queue there. Good ploy to do at lunch time! As we came out of their they were doing a mini tournament. Our guy won - we cheered loud and had a good time!
We lunched in the cafe there (late as breakfast was huge!). It was really good value and quality and low on points - salmon salad. As we finished the guards were changing. these were the Coldstream Guards (DH just told me that!). It was getting late so after a few visits to some of the towers we decided to try and get a river cruise to Westminster to get the Eye done.
We found one but it did not take cards - what?! Neither of us had enough so we had to find a cash point. We found one in St Catherines' dock but we also saw a HUGE Yacht. It was owned by someone from Dubai. It was bigger than our hotel!
We made it onto the boat cruise. We got another bargain there as we used the LFT one so was a only a few £'s as Emma went free! The views were great and the weather was just perfect. We crossed the bridge to the Eye and there was a piper on the Waterloo bridge. Very strange to hear that. We got the Eye tickets and the queue was only about 10 mins. I would have been highly hacked off if I had of paid to fast track - but we did not!
The Eye was great. Emma was fearless and I felt fine - not normal for me as I am bad on heights. The weather was just perfect for it. Steven was showing off to everyone as he knew were all the sights were- without the use of the mini guide book I had bought!! turns out that was the best view we had of Buck house - more on that later!
We headed back to the hotel after a brief visit to the park Emma had spotted from the capsule. We called at the Tesco's opposite the tube and got supplied for a bit of supper instead of room service. By this point we had spent about £150 on that day excluding hotel so we had to so some belt tightening! I think I was asleep before both Steven and Emma!
Saturday - another latish start. Emma and I went for a quickish swim. We checked out but left the luggage in the hotel. We went to the bus stop with a view to doing an open bus tour. I did some haggling and got two rival firms to quote me. I managed to save £12 by doing that! So we set out on a not so clever weather day with our headphones and free rain macks! We changed to a live commentary one at Marble Arch and stayed with the tour for a full tour and then changed back to the recorded line to get back to the hotel. I strongly recommend this tour but would recommend not having a train to get 3.5 hrs later!
We got a cab to Kings Cross. Well that's what we asked for! As the Circle line was down the driver said that the traffic was horrendous and the cab would have cost us a fortune so he dropped us at Baker Street at an entrance that was closed! I just think he did not want to go to Kings Cross! Lazy so and so!
We made the Station with 40 mins to spare. They really NEED more seating there! We made the train no probs and Emma was good all the way home. We had some rather strange eats that day so we all had a funny tummy. Do not recommend the Burger king at Kings Cross. Even if you think you are hungry - you will pay even if not on WW!
Almost forgot - when we were changing the buses we went in M&S food hall. As we went past the poultry there were two young men with a rucksack - throwing in packs of chicken fillets that retail at about £10 a pack. think they took about 10 packs and just walked out! I could not believe my eyes! Is that what the credit crunch is leading to! There was not a staff member anywhere near and I doubt they could have or would have done anything even if they had been.
Back to the travel log. We got back to Leeds after some young people joined the train. Boy was I glad we were not doing a train any later than 7 as the language was bad then! There was a very entertaining hen party walking up the station. all dressed up with different outfits. I like Cleopatra the best but Steven liked the cave girl! No pics as was exhausted by then!
We got back to home town a little later after a change on train. We got a huge taxi that got 2 mins from station and then broke down! Lucky it was not too late or I would think we would still be there! so home just after 8 and a welcome bed awaited - after I did my blog pics of course!

So to summarise! A good time, an expensive time, an exhausting time, a fun time, a memorable time and 197 reasonable pics to scrapbook!

Hope that has not been too boring! Maybe a few hints in there if you plan on taking a tweenager to London!

See you tomorrow. Must charge phone - not had BB on for 3 days. Very liberating!