Polly Visits

It's been about 6 or 7 years since I last saw Polly. She went on her holidays to New Zealand and never came back! So she made a visit to the UK this Christmas and a few of her old friends went to London to meet up at the London eye. Polly was with her partner Warren and her 2 lovely children, Phoebe who is 3 and baby Lucy who is 5 months old. Phoebe is mental and Cas loved running around the restaurant for HOURS with her, whilst we all dranks beer!

Nail, Kerry and Mikey came and it was great to see them. Like old times . . except with mental kids running around . .

Whilst we were in London for the weekend, we took Cas to see some sights. Namely the Natural History Museum and the Science Museum. January is the best time to visit London museums, there are no queues and they are not too busy.

Although Cas has been on the Tube before, this time, he hated it. It was too noisy and so we ending up having to catch buses, which was a real drag, as ten minute journeys by tube take over an hour on the bus.

We went to the Science Museum which has an interactive 'Garden' in the basement for children. Cas loved the water play and was there until we dragged him away kicking and screaming - literally.

The Natural History Museum is in such an amazing building. The building is as good as the exhibitions, the most famous of which is Dippy the Dinosaur and the big blue whale. Cas really enjoyed running up and down the halls and looking at the stuffed animals. Ones he really like he showed his tummy to!

'Hold me . . .' Mighty Boosh

Parties!

Cas has had a fantastic Christmas. Lots of parties with people to pester and toys to open!

Christmas Preparations

I was particularly well organised for this years festive period. I had finished all my shopping (nearly) by the beginning of December and had been planning the menu for our family Christmas day and the party I was giving on Boxing Day since November!

You can see in the picture above the stockings I made for us all to go on the fireplace for our little presents.

I took Cas to the Carols by Candlelight concert at St Giles's, The church was absolutely packed! I bet it is the busiest service they have all year! It was absolutely fantasic. Well the carols were, there were some dodgy sermons, particularly the fire and brimstone book of Genesis ones. But getting back to the singing - it was really enjoyable! We sat in the back in a heated little glass room, so that Cas could mooch about and play with toys, and I could still join in with Hark the Herald! Although some of my favourite carols were absent, for example, Ding Dong Merrily on High and a Partridge in a Pear Tree. Anyway it was still great and walking home through the graveyard, which, like the church, was covered with hundreds of tealights and dusted with snow - it was like a Richard Curtis film!

London Christmas 2010

We went to London in December to stay with some friends of ours Jackie and Jack and their lovely kiddies, Connie and Jonty. We thought we would do some Christmas shopping and take Cas to the Winter Wonderland at Hyde Park.

Last time I went to Jackie's house it was an actual building site. Now it is a fantastic restored Brixton Mansion! It was like staying in a posh hotel! Cas had a great time playing with Connie and Jonty, although he did pester them a bit. Moreover he loved pestering Toggle the dog. Poor toggle, will Cas never learn that dogs do not like to be bounced on?

We took Cas on the tube to Hamley's, London's famous toy shop, just off Oxford Circus. Beforehand we went to the Winter Wonderland, which was good. Large Christmas market and fair. We had some nice German Bratwursts and hot chocolate. But we also have a good Christmas market in Nottingham, so I am not sure that it was worth that particular trip!

It was terribly cold in London that weekend. We went to the Battersea park zoo. It is a nice city zoo, with some small monkeys and meercats etc. But it was so bitingly cold that most of the animals where hidden inside under heat lamps!

You can't see it in this picture, but literally moments before this picture was taken, a monkey sprayed pee at Chris and Cas.

Portmeirion

December in Portmeirion 2010. I think that December 2010 will be long mentionned for being 'that winter' when it snowed and snowed and the UK ground to a halt under freezing temperatures and snow . . However not so in Portmeirion! We couldn't believe the blue clear skies that greeted us, when everyone else was in a white out!





We booked a cottage called Dorlan Goch which was formerly at artists studio. It was plenty big enough for Chris, Me, Cas, Granny and Pete and Jess and Mart.

We went to have a nice family break and catch up to cheer us all up.

. On the Sunday we spent time mooching around Portmeirion Village. It is on a gulf stream so has much better climate conditions than the rest of Wales. Portmeirion is built on own private peninsula on the coast of Snowdonia .

Chris and I came here when we told mum and dad that we were going to get married. But we haven't been back since. It is still the same of course, but still really nice and hardly anyone there because it is not exactly tourist season - and anyway the rest of the UK was snowed in!

Pormeirion was the location for the TV show 'The Prisoner'- it was a cult TV series in the 1970's.

Cas is not a number . . he is a free man . .

The Prisoner was highly stylised. This is what it says on their website . . 'The surreal architecture of the village with its Mediterranean atmosphere coupled with the high-tech interiors, tannoys, surveillance cameras and piped music create a bizarre combination. There is great attention to detail throughout with no item too large or small to receive the Prisoner stamp from steet signs to cans of food to village credit cards, Mini Moke taxis and staff uniforms. Large and menacing balloons (occasionally referred to as 'Rover') patrole the perimiter.'

The Portmeirion Hotel is really really lovely. We went for Sunday dinner and it was very good. Even Cas behaved in his high chair, which was a bonus!

Biscuiteer

Ok - loads harder than it looks in my snazzy biscuiteer book that Boden sent me! Anyway have been biscuit making and icing over the last few days. I thought initially that we could do some kind of 'baking with mother' thing - but quickly Cas started to annoy me, by getting in the way and touching everything and basically 'doing it all wrong!!!!' - so I made him watch Fantastic Mr Fox again whilst I got on with them ......!

Space Cadet

Cas and I spent a wet and cold afternoon at the Leicester Space Centre. Their website said suitable for children of all ages . . but in reality it was not really much good for a 2 year old.

Still, we did have fun on some of the exhibits - Cas enjoyed playing in the space shuttle as their was lots of buttons, or beep beeps as he calls them, to press.

I like this photo as it looks like something out of Star Wars! All it needs is a Storm Trooper in the background.

In this photo he is making an intergalactic phonecall! All in all, we had a good time, but I don't think that it is something we will revisit until he is 8 yrs old! Some of the exhibits he was a bit sensitive about - he cried when things were too loud . .like the 'naughty noisy balls'!!