Helloooo

Goodness. It's been a while. With all the traveling madness of the past week, I inadvertently had a blog break. Actually, I didn't even turn on the laptop for the last three days of our trip which was rather nice.

Thursday and Friday were spent in London, and Saturday through Tuesday in Manchester with family.

Two days in London will never be enough, so we opted to stay at the Park Plaza Westminster Bridge to maximise our time. Talk about central! Here is a shot from inside our hotel... 

We arrived tres early in London, so dumped our bags and headed out for a walk. The plan was to get to Buckingham Palace in time for the changing of the guard. Lucky there's some fairly interesting architecture on the way...

Once we crossed Westminster Bridge (you can certainly linger there all day) we headed to St James's Park. Most of it was sectioned off for the beach volleyball so we wandered alongside it in the shade. Poppet complained for most of this lovely walk, but did stop to jump for leaves at one point. I managed to catch a smile on her face! Typically for my kid, she doesn't care about being a tourist and finds her own fun. There's no forcing her to admire the scenery...

Made it! The crowds were starting to build up and the sun was beating down. The changing of the guard commences at 11.30 but most people arrive an hour beforehand (some are obviously there way earlier than that) so it's a long time in the sun. We remembered our sunblock but wished we'd remembered an umbrella to shade under. Long wait ensued...

Finally, the band could be heard in the distance and there was lots of marching and drums and guns (and bear fur hats, courtesy of Canadian bears apparently) and horses and crowds. Over the next hour we watched as much as we could from our vantage point up on the fountain, then Poppet was done. As we searched for an exit, we managed a closer look at the Horse Guard and then Princess Anne went past in a fancy Range Rover with a police escort. I didn't catch a shot of her profile, but she appeared to be texting (or tweeting?) and was no doubt heading to an Olympic event of some description.

We escaped the madness by cutting through Green Park and heading up to Piccadilly. I knew ice cream would put a smile on everyone's faces. It was really hot! Fortnum and Mason was our destination, they have a fancy ice cream parlour on the third floor and I wanted to have a peek at this completely British hamper-oriented department store. Gorgeous! I could have spent a whole day in there, but we had to push on.

It felt good to sit down and indulge for a bit, but it was almost time to check-in to our hotel. We also had an appointment with the London Eye so we walked fairly quickly back to the hotel. We vaguely batted an eyelid at Piccadilly Circus and Trafalgar Square, but did stop to look at this war memorial. The statues dotted around London are amazing...

That's probably enough photos for now, and I've only covered til lunchtime Day 1! We checked into our gorgeous hotel and had a rest before heading to the London Eye. But more on that later...

Gin and Tonic

Unbelievably, it's five years today since my Dad died. You can read more about it here.

Husband managed a Glenfiddich in his honour earlier today, but I've never been able to stand the stuff.

About to fix myself a gin and tonic instead.

Love you Dad.

image via here

Cheers.

London's Calling

In four sleeps will be in Ye Olde London Town.J

Just at the height of the Olympic madness. It's very exciting. We are booked to go on the Eye (I must be crazy, hate heights!) and have a fancy dinner reservation at a steakhouse called Gillray's. Bugger the steak, I'm more interested in the gin infusion cocktails they have on offer!

Mostly we will wander the streets, attempt to manage the crowds and just soak it up. We also have some lovely friends to catch up with. Yay! After two days in London, we'll head up to Manchester to visit family. Poppet's great-grandparents are there, her Grand-Nan is her pen-pal so it will be lovely to see them.

As I sit under the air-conditioner (apparently 'feels like' 41 degrees out there at the moment) I am drooling over the London forecast. Mostly sunny (remarkable) and a top of 22 degrees. I may not return until the Fall. This summer heatwave has nobs on it. 

Our Pin-Ups Pinterest board is filling up with lovely "Best of British" bits and pieces. Here is one of my favourites

image via here

This picture is courtesy of Maryanne from Handmade Kids. Maryanne scours the internet to bring beautiful handmade pieces for children to your inbox. She is a huge supporter of buying handmade and her site is a great place to lose yourself for a few hours. You can also find Handmade Kids on Facebook over here.

I'm not sure how much blogging I'll achieve over the next few weeks, but I'll do my best to keep in touch.

Pip Pip Cheerio!

That Was The Week That Was

It's only Thursday and I've had enough. Or rather, Poppet has. 

With great excitement she started a week of sailing camp on Monday. Poppet's never sailed before (neither have I) so was excited to have the (rather expensive) opportunity to give it a try with some friends.

She was a little nervous but happy when I dropped her off and when I picked her up she was ecstatic. They had just taken the kids out in the speed boat to a deep part of Lake Ontario and thrown them in. 

Awesome!

On the walk home, things took a turn. She was obviously tired, and started to fixate on how she couldn't steer and she was the only one who couldn't. Etc. She's an over-thinker, and being tired didn't help. As the sun went down I saw that my girl was actually quite sunburned. What is the point of being asked to supply sunscreen if the darn instructors weren't making sure it was re-applied?!! I was very cross. Even more so when Poppet woke around 10pm feeling nauseous. So she stayed home from day 2 of sailing camp because  a break from the sun was in order. We spent that day talking it up and overcoming her fear of steering, ready to return the next day. The instructors assured me that she would be given time to do re-apply her sunscreen, but it still seems like she is a special case and I'm not sure the other kids are putting it on as well. So many North Americans are just not up to date with the risks of sunburn. I'm pretty sure they all think I'm an over-protective mother. Ozone or not, over 2 million Americans are expected to be diagnosed with some sort of skin cancer this year, I doubt Canada's statistics are any different. I guess they'll learn in time.

The hard way, which is a shame.

Day 3 went well. Poppet got a better handle on the steering thing and loved swimming in the lake. Of course she was incredibly tired after another day on the water, but happy. Her legs looked a little redder than I would like but otherwise she wasn't burned further. 

Day 4 (today) saw Poppet wake up tired and sad and cranky. Thank goodness she still wanted to go to camp. It's a long hike down to the lake, so we took her scooter to her friend's house to speed things up. From there we were to walk three blocks to the Lake. 

On the final leg of our journey a wasp managed to fly up the sleeve of her t-shirt and sting her twice before I could release it. For God's sake! Much screaming and pain ensued. My friend drove us home and I scrambled for the tylenol. Three hours later and the pain is abating at last. 

image via here

I'm hoping we'll make it to Day 5 of sailing camp but please remind me next year no to re-enroll her! 
I will look for a drama class instead...

Jitterbug

Ever since these guys hit the charts I've loved neon. 

I coveted my big sister's ear-rings, stretch skirts and and fingerless gloves. Her issues of Countdown and Dolly magazine were pored over and we taped Countdown if we missed it. I may be stuck in the 80s deep down but I'm part of a rather large crowd, I suspect. And like me, that crowd is happily embracing neon again.

I had some fun last week, happily pinning away my favourite Etsy neon finds. Here's a sample...

image via here

image via here

image via here

image via here

If you feel like looking at some more you can check out my Pinterest board over here.

Speaking of neon, we're going out tonight to see this feisty lady who isn't afraid to rock the 80s neon look! Love Tune Yards. And this is one of Poppet's favourite film clips.

Night all!