Goodbye mum, Natural History Museum & Rogue One

No extra sleep for us today as we had to get up early(ish) to take mum to the station as it was sadly time for her to return home. We had a really smooth journey to Marylebone with mum getting an earlier trained than planned. It's been great having her stay with us and we've promised to go up to Stratford early next year. This made me smile and started off the day nicely.

After dropping mum we whizzed round to Camden for a lovely buffet lunch at our favourite vegetarian Chinese restaurant Qing Xi.

Our next stop was the Natural History Museum where we indulged in a favourite British past time, queueing!

 The queue was pretty long and it took us an hour to actually get in!

Still, there was some nice architecture to see on the way round:

It was worth the wait though as we finally made it through the doors and were greeted by the Natural History Museum's iconic exhibit.

We had a brilliant time although there wasn't enough of it and we had hardly dented walking round before it was time to go. Here's a random scattering of pics:

We are planning on making a return visit but next time will get there before the doors open so that we can spent a whole day there.

Our day wasn't over though as we popped into a nice Indian restaurant for a bite to eat before the finale of our day. Love the name of the restaurant:

The food was delicious and we treated ourselves to a glass of wine too :)

Which bring us on to the finale. Our last stop was the Science Museum IMAX Cinema to go and see Rogue One in 15/70mm IMAX 2D. K-2SO did the introduction:

Third time round and Rogue One is still as brilliant as ever. I'm not bored of watching it yet. The quality of the IMAX compared with standard cinema digital was astonishing and we'll definitely be doing more IMAX screenings in the future.

We had a brilliant day just doing stuff and spending time together and plan to do lots more of this in 2017.

Another lazy day....

...well it is the Christmas break after all. Sometimes it's good to just rest and rest we did. Although we got up earlier than yesterday there was no panic today which was a relief.

For some bizarrely masochistic reason we ending up watching about 2.5 episodes too many of the truly awful Storage Hunters UK. Talk about car crash TV, I think we were all just stunned and so couldn't reach for the remote LOL.

We did however enjoy Robot Wars: Battle Of The Stars and the very excellent Bronte drama To Walk Invisible.

Up with a panic and lazy day

Today was a nice lazy day, in the end. We got up at midday and that was only because Athena turned up! Getting up was a bit of a panic at that point LOL.

Once we had recovered from the rush we had a good time catching up though and enjoying a vast selection of lovely nibbles that she brought with her. She's still mad as a box of frogs but we love her for it. It was hilarious watching her to a tone deaf test that decided that she wasn't when we all know different LOL. She also got her wrist smacked for working when she should be taking a much needed break. Sadly she was feeling far below 100% and had to rush off early so we've promised to meet up again soon.

Mum and I had an adventure on the bus to Sidcup and a trip to Morrisons. I know it doesn't sound very exciting but it was a trip we haven't made before so it was fun LOL We picked up some essentials for dinner and headed back.

Mum and Toni both treated themselves to an evening drink and the rest of the night was spent with everyone feeling very chilled.

A trip to Eltham Palace

We decided to get out and about today to do get out of the house and have a bit of fresh air and mild exercise. Eltham Palace was our destination so we could take advantage of our English Heritage membership.

It's such a beautiful building and grounds with a rich history. I went a bit snap happy taking over 300 photos so I won't post them all on here LOL

Here's a random sample:

The weather was glorious and Toni, mum and I all had a fantastic time. Even better was the cafe offered a very rich range of gluten free options so Toni was very happy.

If you are ever in the area I would definitely recommend a visit to Eltham Palace.

Entertaining on Boxing Day

After a nice quiet and relaxed day yesterday it was time for Boxing Day visitations as we threw open the doors to friends and family. It was a bit of houseful with appearances from Helen, Keith, Morgan, Finn, Kinsey, Giselle, Bob, Jade, Aaron and Jamie.

There were lots more presents and loads of delicious food.

It was another great with everyone having a good time. Lots of fun and laughter with some of the best people we know. It doesn't get much better than this :)

Christmas day fun

There was no waking up early today which I have NO complaints about at all. When we did wake up we were greeted by a text from Sophie with some photos of the kids opening the presents that we sent them which was lovely to see.

Nothing to do with us but it looks like Kenzie might be thinking about getting into cosplay like his grandad, he makes a great Kylo Ren:

We got up at a nice slow leisurely pace and had a cuppa and some breakfast before thinking about anything else. Lunch preparations started at around one with no rush on proceedings (we did a lot of prep yesterday anyway). Another cuppa was accompanied by Shaun The Sheep: The Farmer's Llamas. I'd not seen that one before but it was most amusing. It wouldn't be Christmas without some form of Aardman Animations program.

While the last of dinner was cooking we enjoyed the hilarious Red Bull Soapbox Race on Dave. Red Bull Soapbox Race is an international event in which amateur drivers race homemade soapbox vehicles. Each hand-made machine is fuelled by nothing but sheer courage, the force of gravity and perhaps a little Red Bull. This unique, non-motorised racing event challenges both experienced racers and amateurs alike to design and build outrageous soapbox dream machines and compete against the clock in a downhill race. Here's the best crashes:


Dinner was amazing

After the noms it was present time:

This is what the present above does, it's amazing, a Disco Bulb!

There may well have been some sleep around the room at this point :) Once we were all awake we had some drinks and nibbles and watched more guff on TV. The guff finished off with Love Actually! PERFECT!

It was a quiet but lovely day spent with some of the most important people in my life. Even though Sam likes to play the humbug card even he seemed to get into the spirit of things which just make it even better. Good food, good company makes for a wonderful day and it was truly that.