York: Part One

I haven't been to York in years.  It's so long ago that I think I must have been at Middle School, which dates it around 1980.
I had a simple plan.
Take The Boy Child to York by train.
Meet Mum there.
Go to the National Railway Museum.
Explore within the City Walls.
Stare at the majestic beauty that is York Minster.
Stay overnight in a hotel.
Go to the National Railway Museum again.
Say goodbye to Mum.
Get the train back to London.

That didn't happen.
The train sat at a station for two hours after the train ahead of us brought down the overhead power lines.

We arrived in York four hours late.
Mum had checked us in to the hotel, which was conveniently next to the station.  Bag drop, supper (if you can call it that) in a well known burger place and an evening stroll.
The Boy Child was taken with the street theatre.

 The Minster was never more lovely in the early evening sunshine

 The Shambles were as interesting as I recalled.

The street names made us laugh.

Can you imagine living in a place where a road was built/named in 1505?

And we were treated to a beautiful sunset.

This carousel was in the grounds of our hotel.  The Boy Child called it the York Eye.

Bedtime for The Boy Child.

Mummy and Granny not that far behind him.
Hotel fire alarm sounded at 03.50 hours.  Building evacuated.  I was very glad Mum had read the Fire Evacuation Plan on the back of our room door.

We stood in the hotel grounds for half an hour.  In the dark.  In our pyjamas.

Nice looking hotel, isn't it?

They say that things come in threes.

In Part Two, we finally make it to the National Railway Museum.

Sharing a Cuppa

Hi, hi, I know it's a bit late, but have you the time for a cuppa?
You have?  Excellent.
How are things with you?
Here, we are looking at one more week of summer holiday before the adventure that is Year 2 begins for The Boy Child.  He's ready.  I know I am!
I have one more adventure up my sleeve.  We are off to York tomorrow in order to visit the National railway Museum and see Mallard.  What's that?  You don't know who or what Mallard is?  She's a steam train and still holds the world record for the fastest speed of a steam train.  She reached 126 mph back in 1938.  Sorry, The Boy Child's enthusiasm for all things locomotive has rubbed off on me.

You knew that I would have made an mini scrapbook, didn't you?  Nothing too big, but plenty of space for notes, tickets, leaflets and photos.
I've still lots to do this evening, so do forgive me if I begin to potter about.  I've sent the boys out with the pooch so that you and I could have five minutes to ourselves.  We're probably safe for another 15 minutes or so.  Do you have a dog?  Any other pets?  Our pooch is such an integral part of our family, it's hard to imagine life without him.  We were able to meet an 8-week-old Labradoodle puppy this afternoon.  He belongs to friends of ours.  And his cuteness is almost enough to make me want another pooch in the family.

Almost, but not quite.
I can hear the boys at the gate.  You're going to go?  Well, thanks so much for dropping by and do come again soon ... during the day when we'll have more time.
There might even be cake.  

This post has been brought to you in association with Abi's invitation to share a cup of tea.
  

This Weekend We ...

This weekend we went to see our Chelsea Pensioner friend in order to celebrate his 80th birthday.

 No matter that it rained.

This weekend we tackled a Track the Plaque walk around Knightsbridge and Kensington.  The boys were unwilling participants, but I took no notice.  Looking for plaques is a great way to discover the hidden bits of London.

This weekend was a three-day one.  Monday was a Bank Holiday; we had friends round for Pimm's and paddling pool fun.

Love that the two boys completely obscured our friend.

It was great that the weather a) didn't dampen our ability to be outside and b) stop the boys from running round our garden in a state of near nakedness.

How was your weekend?

Hello Monday

Hello Bank Holiday.
Hello last full week of the summer holidays.
Hello friends coming around for Pimm's in the garden.
Hello back-to-school shopping for stationery items.
Hello to BT sorting out our land line on Tuesday.  It's been down since Friday.  Still have Internet, thankfully.

Hello to the new bed for the spare room arriving on Wednesday.
Hello to a haircut.  I never did get to the appointment I had a few weeks ago.
Hello to a friend coming for supper and staying over on Wednesday.  Nothing like putting the new bed to use.
Hello to taking The Boy Child to York on Thursday.  We're staying overnight and meeting mum there.  It will be trains the whole time.  It's going to be great.

How does your week look?

Scrapbook Saturday

More pages about Florida and one about the Shard. 

Hollywood Studios; we liked this park best and visited twice.

 Harry Potter at Islands of Adventure.  Something of a damp squib, to be honest.

 The Boy Child's first ride on the water.

The many faces of The Boy Child.  Using Shimelle's idea from her 4x6 Photo Love series, one way to show off the photos of The Boy Child which don't really fit in to any other layout.

 Under the flap.

 Wednesday's visit to the Shard.

What have you created this week?

View From The Shard

 The Shard at London Bridge

 St. Paul's Cathedral

 Southwark Cathedral

 Tower of London

 London Eye, with Buckingham Palace behind on the left 

Official Portrait.  

Cost a small fortune, but purchased for the rarity value of the three of us appearing in the same photo.

Hello Monday

Hello to The Boy Child being back home.
Hello to taking him to see Planes at the cinema.
Hello to a family visit to the top of the Shard.  Three hundred and ten metres above London.

Hello to revisiting the London Transport Museum at Covent Garden.  We last visited in the Easter holidays.  Children go free and adult tickets last all year.
Hello to booking a short break to York for me and The Boy Child.
Hello to finishing off holiday homework.

It's looking like a reasonably quiet week.
How does yours look?

Scrapbook Saturday

More pages about Florida.
It's astonishing how much was accomplished in The Boy Child's absence.
One about the helicopter ride we took on our last morning.

One about the lovely oasis of calm that is the town of Celebration.

One about our villa.  I would recommend it.

One about The Magic Kingdom.

One about our Guest Assistance Pass.  All the Parks have help available for children with additional needs. Parents just need to ask on arrival.  Disney's Guest Assistance Pass is the best, by far.

One about an indoor roller coaster I was persuaded to go on.  Never again.  Facebook friends will already know about this.

One about a visit to Central Florida's #1 Best Kept Secret ~ Fantasy of Flight.  We loved it.

You might have noticed that some of the designs look similar.  That's intentional, as the album as a whole will have a more cohesive look and feel.

Simply a Moment

I'm sitting in my office and surveying the mess that surrounds me.  Perhaps The Brainy One is correct when he says that two desks is one desk too many in such a small space.
The desk with the computer on is littered with things that need attending to or putting away: a card for my nephew that should have been posted last week, an almost flat iPad Mini, a flat camera, a lukewarm cup of tea ...

My scrapping desk has pages about our recent holiday on it.  Some stitching is required.  The Summer Manifesto I planned to complete for The Boy Child still needs to be cut out.  Under the desk is a collection of card and paper, a few new Project Life items, the holiday album and the current Project Life album.
Goodness, what's happened to the carpet?  Close inspection reveals that there seems to be a fresh crop of dirty marks and dog hair.  I like how the pooch curls up next to me when I am scrapping, but not if this is the end result!
From the kitchen, I can hear the coffee pot filling, the pooch padding about on the floor tiles and the dulcet tones of Chris Evans on the radio.  It's time to swallow the last few mouthfuls of lukewarm tea and begin my day.
Spring cleaning of my office is first on the list.

08.55, 16 August

Alexa, of Trimming the Sails, invites people to share a moment with her around this date of each month. Nothing fancy, just a few well chosen words, or a photo, or a scrapbook page.
What's your moment?    

Home Alone

I'm not really home alone.
The Brainy One is here, as is the pooch, who has just about forgiven us for leaving him with the dog sitter when we went to Florida.
We went to our local gastro pub for dinner

But The Boy Child isn't here and I don't know what to do with myself.

Hello Monday

Hello to taking The Boy Child to Granny's.  By train.
Hello to a fair few miles under my belt this week.  Dropping him off, coming home, going back to collect him and coming home again.
Hello overdue haircut.

~ helicopter ride over Disney's Animal Kingdom ~

Hello pedicure.  A wee bit of pampering me-time.
Hello to lunch with my SiL & BiL at a lovely restaurant out in the country.  It's easily accessible from our bit of West London by train, so here's to no driving and a few glasses of wine at lunch-time.
Hello to saying a final goodbye to our American friends, as they leave at the weekend.
Hello to feeling very strange this week.

How does your week look?

Scrapbook Saturday

Look away now if you don't want to see pages about Florida.

I've made a page a day for the last week.  I'm using white cardstock, mostly and the patterned paper is Echo Park's A Perfect Summer.

 The ice cream shop in Celebration deserved its own double page spread.

Hand drawn and then stitched circles added to the feeling of motion for the SheikRa roller coaster at Busch Gardens.  I was very grateful that The Boy Child wasn't tall enough for this ride.

Kennedy Space Centre was one of the highlights of our trip for me.  The Boy Child told me on Friday afternoon that he no longer wants to be an astronaut, he wants to work at Mission Control in Houston.  I've a feeling that to work at NASA, you must be a US citizen.

 One World at Sea World was another highlight.

 And finally for this week, a page highlighting the unexpected.

What have you been working on?