Last outing to London

On 21 March 2009, we headed out of Stanmore - once again bound for London. This was to be our last outing to the capital while living in Stanmore. Seems a shame as we loved catching the London Underground to Westminster and then strike out from there. This time however, the line was closed from Green Park. Now - for those of you who don't have kids and not used the tube, I'll have to explain that Green Park is not the most family friendly station for facilities in London...although their staff are wonderful........

Emily had declared that she wanted to see the Queens house.........so off we went! We walked through Marble Arch.....

After Emily had seen Buckingham Palace, after all that travel through the underground - the mile walk - the crowds, she took one look and said 'I don't like it, daddy'. After an inward scream & an outward smile, we had a bit of a pla around & a spot of lunch in St James Park.

A kerfuffle

Hi folks. We're back online now & all settled in the new jobs & new home!! We had an absolute nightmare getting broadband sorted in the new address. BT threw a hissy because there was still an active MAC on the address.....then found out they were the culprits, then seriously arsed us around with cancellations & broken promises.

For a full month of arsing around - being on the phone daily for at least an hour, this was the routine hastle I went through.....whats your order number? your name? your address? no sorry sir, that order has been cancelled. why? I don't know..can I put you on hold while I find out? I'd either wait until the phone went dead (about an hour) or after 1/2 an hour or so, someone would say...can I have your order number? your name etc...then say the order had been cancelled and they would promise to ring me back within the hour or within 24 hours. They never did.

So I told them to shove it, went back to Tiscali cap in hand, and was connected within a week. I wish I'd never looked at BT. I'd even changed my line rental from TalkTalk to BT which I'm seriously regretting. I'm chained to them for 12 months, but as soon as that time has expired, I'll be moving away from them.

Well, we've a small backlog of entries to get through and I've sung BT's praises long enough now.

It's good to be back
:-)

Off Air Again!

Hi to all!

Well, we've moved house, but we're having massive problems getting broadband installed. To spare you the details, it would suffice to say that the Longworths and Tiscali have parted company now. A shame because we've used them for years...way back when it was lineone as a matter of fact. All down to one very stroppy and nasty employee of theirs and a particularly unhelpful and abrasive attitude.

All's well otherwise. Sharon and the kids are fine and we're all settled. We're hoping to be back online properly in a couple of weeks.

Peace & love

Aldenham Park revisited

It was a wonderfully sunny day on Saturday, so it was time to get out and run the kids ragged! As tempting as it was to head into London again, we wanted to get them out into the countryside. Aldenham Park is a great day out. We've been there twice before with Emily and she loved it. Now it was Hannah's turn.

We started off with a lunchtime picnic by the lakeside. This picture doesn't really reflect how much the kids loved it; Hannah look asleep but she just wanted to get out!


It didn't take long before Emily got bored and started running round like a crazy horse!

Then off to feed the ducks.....

After that, we went to see the farm animals.....

We finished up at the play park to finish them off so we could get a decent nights sleep!!

As I said earlier, we'd been there a couple of times before. It's really good value and a fantastic day out. £4 for the car park and that's it! For a full day out in the fresh air, lovely picnic area, a place to feed the ducks, a myriad of farm animals to go and see, a well tended area of childrens activities for all ages....

........no, I'm not on commission from Aldenham Park; it's just one of those little gems that we need to share with you :-)

You may have noticed blurring on some of the pictures........thanks to Emily's first attempts at taking pictures and her insistance on holding it by the lens!!

I'll keep you posted on this weekends visit (where is yet undecided)

A day out in London for a trip down the Thames

We thought we'd get back into London and treat the kids to a special day. We took the Jubilee line to Green Park then got a cab to Hamleys toy shop for our first stop of the day.

Six floors of toys!! Emily and Hannah both loved it......Emily ran around loudly proclaiming 'Daddy, I want that.....Daddy, I want that'. Hannah was pretty laid back and was happy taking all the sights in.

There were rickshaws, or Pedicabs, outside the store. Sharon and Emily took one to Trafalgar Square. They both loved it, though Sharon was a little concerned about their safety in busy streets.

Hannah & I walked down to Trafalgar Square and met up with Sharon & Emily. The square was bustling with tourists and performers. I really love it there. It has a great atmosphere.

We walked down Whitehall to Horseguards, looked at the horses..err...guarding! Well, the soldier on the horse was guardng..but you know what I mean :-)

We walked past MoD Main Building and then through Victoria Embankment Park. It's only a small park but great for finding a quiet place to sit and relax in the middle of London.

From there, we crossed over to the Thames river bus and took a round trip up to the O2 arena (Old Millenium Dome) and back to Embankment. Both Emily and Hannah loved it. You cn either sit inside or outside. To be honest the kids loved it outside more. The boat moves along at a fair speed and the wake off the back of the boat transfixed them.

The kids had a great time although it's not a cheap day out. Still days like this get their little inquiring minds racing.

(Sharon & Hannah on the Jubilee line tube)

Holiday In The Peak District

Well, I'm back again properly now folks. I'd love to share some memories of a fantastic holiday we had last week in the Peak District. We hired a cottage in Whaley Bridge, a beautiful little town with a very friendy amosphere. From the cottage, we explored a fair amount of the Peak District an started Emily & Hannah off on my 'grand plan' of introducing them to the wonders of the outdoors proper - hill walking, scrambling & rock climbing.

Anyways, to start at the beginning....we revealed the 'nice things to see' to Emily on a freezing cold day. We made her walk a short distance to look at a beautiful waterfall off Snake Pass. There was a little bit of snow on the ground and lots of puddles to splash in!!!!



Another walk was in a park that, for the life of us, we can't remember the name of. It was in the Derwent Vally. It had a beautiful and well tended paths and some beautiful scenery All that aside, Emily just wanted to play football....and Hannah, as usual, just loved taking in everything around her.


Another park we went to was Lyme Park just outside the Stockport area. Both Emily & Hannah loved it, despite the fact that it was absolutely freezing (again!!). A worrying trend for me is that Emily has found a natural love for football!! Sharon & I really don't like football, and I can see that I'll have to learn about that sport in the future to encourage her....sigh.....
There was a beautiful house in the grounds at Lyme Park. It was closed to the public until March, but you could walk around the outside of the buildings. Sharon decided that Emily should not be deprived of a quick look inside and lifted her up to have a glance inside the house. 'What can you see?' asked Sharon. Emily ducked down and giggled. The window she had been lifted up to just happened to be where a big conference was being held. As Emily had peered in, scores of conference goers saw her pretty little smiling face for a split second....hope they didn't think the place was haunted!!!


In Whaley Bridge, there was a beautiful canal with barges that both Emily & Hannah absolutely loved. And of course, where there's water, there's ducks......
Another park we went to introduced Emily to the 'real' sport of hillwalking and a spot of climbing.. :-)

Emily & Hannah both loved the cottage when we eventually got back from our walks......
The cottage was called Cloud Cottage. A beautiful, old house in Whaley Bridge with a really lovely owner called Linda. I'd seriously recommend using her cottage as it's in a great location and she's a really nice person.

We'd have taken more pictures, but to be honest, we were more interestd in having a great holiday. Sorry. Still there will be so many more memories to share with you soon.

We're moving back to the Chilterns soon, so over the next few months, I'll keep you posted on how we're moving back to hills & vales...and when we move back to Ireland.....back into mountains.................can't wait!!!