Dino Day - London with a small child and your mother!

Well trawling through my hard drive at work I finally found the pictures of the trip to london i made a couple of months ago with my mother and my nephew Elliot, like all small boys Elliot loves dinosaurs, and so i thought it would be nice to take him to london to see them at the natural history museum, i asked my sister if this would be something he might like and got a big yes from all parties.

So i looked into getting train tickets, and after checking the internet we set the date, i also asked if my mum would like to come as the kids spend a lot of time with her and Elliot has some of the characture trates my sister had when she was small and I always had a hard time dealing with that so Mum was there as a backup, also I thought it would be nice to spend some time with mum as I don't see her as often as I use to.

So the train was booked, out of Leeds at 10:05 and arriving at Kings Cross at 12:25 - we would be leaving at 18:05 from Kings Cross and getting back into leeds at around 20:25 that evening, giving us 6 Hours to get across london to the Museum, some time there, something to eat and then back again and as we would be travelling out of peak hours the tickets were quite reasonable.

Mother would catch the train in harrogate and I would get on the train in knaresborough - two stops before, we would get to leeds with half an hour before the london train.

I called the ticket office and confirmed the train times from Harrogate to leeds and also that the train originally came from knaresborough, so all was set.

Now Zoom to 4 weeks later, I am suppose to get the train in knaresborough to get me into harrogate at 9:05, so I wander calmly the half mile to the trainstation with coffee and a bagel in hand to find the station totally diserted, I check the timetable on the platform to find that the next train is actually at 9:45!!!!!!!!

TOTAL PANIC, i have no way of getting to harrogate to get the connection to leeds!!! Whats more I have been hounded by mum for 4 weeks about being late every time i say I am going to be somewhere, also i have the leeds to london tickets in my pocket!! Visions of my mother sat on leeds train station with a small boy watching the london train leave without them and her having to explain why they are not going on the long awaited trip to see the dinosaurs run through my head!!!!

Luckly for me Amie had decided to take a day off so I call her as i am running the half mile UP HILL back home and get her to get the car started as I need a lift to harrogate! Off we go only to find that all roads to harrogate are full and of traffic, so I make a snap decission and we head for the next station on the way to leeds so that we buy ourselves an extra 5 minutes. I call mom on her mobile phone (yes sports fans she finally has a mobile phone & KNOWS HOW TO USE IT!!!!! although text messaging is totally lost on her!) and let ker know the plan. Amie gets me to the next station in time to see the harrogate leeds train go sailing past without stopping!!!!!! Mom calls me to inform me that the train is the express and doesn't stop until halfway to leeds! My day is just going from strength to strength!!!!

So back into the car and off we go to Leeds, Amie is as cool as a cucumber, me I am going out of my mind, and have decided that if I ever get my hands on the customer service agent for the rail company i will not be held responsible for my actions!!!!! fortunatly the rush hour traffic has passed and we manage to get to leeds inplenty of time, to Amie drops me off about a mile from the station and i walk the rest of the way in, fresh coffee in hand, i make it to the station with 20 minutes to spare and decide to go and track down the customer services person in the information booth and give them a piece of my mind, or at least tell them that they gave out the wrong information, to which i find out that they are still giving out the wrong information as the train from harrogate to leeds is run by one company and the leeds london train is run by another and the two don't talk to each other!!! Anyway I meet a slightly releaved mother on the platform with a hyper active 6 year old. the train is ready to go so we get onboard and find the reserved seats, finally i can relax!

Elliot informs me that he has a bear with him that is going to travel all over the world with his school friends and we have to take pictures of him and the bear when we are in london, my sister has provided him with a disposable camera for the trip and the near has a diary which we have to fill in, so to get the ball rolling i took the picture opposite of elliot and fozzie on the way to london.

Elliot likes trains and the trip down was a lot of fun, although about 2 hours in his attention span was shot and he spent most of the time sat on the floor under the table or climbing the seats and stuff. anyway as it was his day he had to decide how we would get to the museum, by taxi, bus or underground, once i explained what the underground was there was no compatition, we were going to use the underground (which i was quite glad about as its quick and not as expensive as a cab, and as he was a minor and it was out of peak time he travelled for free!)

So we arrived at Kings Cross and spent ages taking this picture of the train we came down in for Fozzies diary.

Then it was off to the Museum, one thing about travel in london is that from Kings Cross station it is a breeze if you undertand the Underground network, which I do, show a tube map to my mother and its like showing kryptonite to superman!!!

So off we went, we arrived outside the British Museum of Natural History at 13:05 (the reason I keep mentioning the time will become clear later on, so bear with me).

Into the British Museum we go, Elliots eyes went the size of dinner plates as we entered in to the museum and are met by a huge diplodicus, it reminded me of the first time i went there, i would have been about the same age as Elliot, but i do remember that the tail of the diplodicus was mounted to that it dragged along the ground, now is is mounted so that its in the air. i told elliot this in passing thinking that he would not remember it ,but to my supprise he told his mom about it chapter and verse a week leter when he got his pictures back, amazing what kids retain.

So out came the camera and off he ran snapping pictures of all the exibits in the main hall like a three foot high japaneese tourist! although he had to keep running back to us for us to rewind the camera, fozzie bear was in my mothers handbag and Elliot showed no interest in taking pictures that included the bear!

so we went around the exibit, which i must say is superb, everything was easy to get to and with it being midweek it was not too crowded.

there was an automated T-Rex at the end of the hall set in its own enclosure, the creature was animated and looked to have movement sensors built into it so as we moved past it it's head followed us and it growled and roared, it was most impressive, they must have spent a fortune on it, but i think it was the star attraction.

by this time we were only half way throught the dinosaur exibit and elliot was not interested in any of the other things and was more interested in taking pictures of the floor, a flashing picture of lightning, some gizzard stones and the LED walkway lights, mom tried to get his interest back by getting fozzie bear out, but Elliot was no longer interested so it fell to me and mom ot take all the pictures of the bear at the museum, see if you can spot fozzie in the picture on the right of elliot and the triceratops!

After the sprint round the dinosaur exibition we went to get a postcard to send back to school from the bloody bear and find stamps, elliot by this time has reverted into the sort of funny mood that my sister use to get into, fortunatly my mother managed to enguage his interest in picking out a postcard.

Once the card was filled in we went to have a look for the Blue Whale, i had heard that there was one in there and had never managed to find it, but the whole place is now very well signed and we got there with ease, quick walk round dragging a grumpy child and off we went to have a look at a cross section of a giant redwood, this is upstairs in the main hall and was one of the things that we thought would be interesting to elliot, and also because he was out of school for the day was also educational.

Apparently the tree that the cross section was cut from took 12 men 9 weeks to cust down, guess it was before the days of chainsaws and stuff. most impressive and of all the things in the museum seemed to keep elliots attention for the longest.

so after that we went down to the information desk to see if the museum had a post box to post the card back to school, they didn't , but we bought a book about the museum for show and tell at school.

then Elliot announced that he had seen everything he wanted to seen and wanted to go home now!! I checked my watch, we had been in the museum for 3/4 of an hour!! we had the best part of 4 hours left before we could get our train back to leeds! Mom tried to explain this to him and soddenly his face went like thunder and he started to sulk! We couldn't get an earlier train as we had reserved seats on the train back and they were non transferable!

So what do you do? stuck in london with a 6 year old who wants his Mother!!!!Mom and I looked at each other and laughed which sent elliot into an even worse sulk. So we left the museum and went to find a postbox card in hand.

Posted the card and decided that the London Eye would be a good way to kill some time, two tubes later we were on the embankment.

The houses of parliment, Big Ben, London Bridge, the London Eye, all these things were totally lost on him because he wanted to go home and kept telling us that, so i suggested we go over the bridge and have a close look an the london eye, which we did, elliot would not go on it and so we went and got something to eat and tried to kill some more time!

Then with three hours left before the train I had a brainwave, HAMLEYS TOY STORE!!!! Superb, so we left Mc D's and caught a taxi on london bridge to Oxford Circus and the largest toy store in london.

I love toys stores, and having worked in the industry in the past i can quite easily spend hours in a toy store, but just lately there seems to be nothing new out there, just the same old things spun out in different colours and stuff, even the old stuff is coming round again, Power Rangers and Ninja Turtles!!!!

Elliot decided he wanted a Nurf Gun and as he didn't have enough money we chipped in and gave him the extra, and for one brief moment the smile came back to his face!! then when he reolised that he had to carry it back the sulk came back with vengience!

So with 2 1/2 hours left to the train mom suggested we head back to the station and wait, so back on the tube, we arrived at kings cross with 2 hours to wait, i left mum and elliot sat on a seat and went to see if i could get some Krispie Kream doughnuts (Not a hope at 4pm in london) and found a pub on the way back that i use to drink in years ago so popped in for a quick pint (the place had changed, but i needed to relax before the trip back).

when i got back to the station things were no better, elliot was now kneeling on the seat with his head on his knees and his bottom in the air sulking! so as soon as the train was called we went and boarded, only 2 hours twenty left till leeds!!!! NO the engineer came on said that the train had only one engine working and it would take us a further hour to get back!!!! What can you do - SLEEP, I slept all the way back to leeds, and so did elliot. at leeds he seemed to be much happier, apparently he is a true yorkshireman, only happy with yorkshire under his feet!

Mom got him a happy meal in leeds and we got the train back to harrogate, i stayed on the train all the way to knaresborough and walked home. What a day!

Mom said that when elliot got in the car to go home he said he was never going to go away without his mummy and daddy ever again- so much for giving him a day to remember, I felt like crap, and in hindsight he probably was a couple of years too young to enjoy it.

After talking to Maryann the other day i feel a lot better about it as elliot seems to have forgotten all about the bad bits and remembers the good and fun bits, although his favourate part seems to have been riding on the underground.

So that was the great Dino Day!

I'm Back and Posting

Its been a while since i posted anything, lots of things have gone on and at this moment i cant remember any of them!!! so i will start with the most up to date stuff and work back and with any luck it might be interesting!first off a message to the people who make digital cameras...........STANDARDIZE YOUR CABLES OR USE BLUETOOTH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have had to turn the house upside down to find the cable to upload pictures, found hundreds all with the wrong ends on, anyway here we go.

Yesterday was Amie and Binnies birthday, we went over to my sisters for dinner, Maryann had made a Pork Pie and to be truthful i have no idea what else because this Pie was like ambrosia, food of the gods, like angels crying on your taste buds, i kid you not!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After the pie there was chocolate cake and singing and the usual lighting the candles many times so that everyone could have a go blowing them out, the small cakes had chocolate in the middle too.

After the meal I fixed the family computers again (it seems to be a ritual everytime i go round) and then i made paper airplanes for the boys.

This is the only picture I got of the birthday girls, and elliot, as per usual it was impossible to get a picture of my mother!

I was going to post the pictures from the London trip before my birthday, but i must have them on my computer at work, so i will have to post them tomorrow.

So in the absence of more images I will end this post here with a promise to post more before the weekend!