Time To Empty The Head Again

If I don’t sit here and tip my head out, I’ll probably go mad. I might have to go and sit somewhere quiet though “ or put headphones on “ my other half just came down from hiding in our bedroom all afternoon, and is now flicking through garbage TV, and eating crisps as loudly as possible. Yes, I’m tired, and irritable. It’s been the kind of weekend that causes that though. The kids have been on holiday for the last week “ half term school holidays. That basically means our budget for the month has been blown to bits. Taking the kids to London this weekend contributed to that like a small nuclear device too. While worrying about money, the topic of summer holidays came up the other evening too “ and the idea of going away with our inlaws again. We did two holidays last year, and it nearly broke us (and that was just paying for meals out). I brought this up, and immediately got stared at, and not talked to for a couple of hours. So much for my vote counting for anything around here. I’ll just carry on going to work then, watching everything I earn going into a hole in the ground, and having no say on where it goes, or being able to spend any of it on anything I might ever want to. Add to that the fact that the kids haven’t seen my parents for nearly a year, and you can see how I might be annoyed. London was good fun though (for a given value of fun). We took the children together for the first time, dove-tailing with a school project at the infant school about the Great Fire of London. The journey was how do you put this eventful. Following vandalism on the line overnight, all trains travelling towards London were running late or cancelled. Finally arriving at Paddington, we discovered half of the underground was shut down for engineering work “ something that NONE of the journey planning web services had notified us of. Luckily my commuting experience came to the fore, and I found us an alternative route across the network. I think for the children it all just added to the adventure. Pudding Lane was remarkably uninspiring. There is a “Pudding Lane” in London now, but only in name. It’s a cut-through between two multi-storey office blocks, and bears no trace of what might have been there a few hundred years ago. The Monument to the fire is pretty spectacular, but unless you know where it is, you would never happen upon it by accident. It’s a shame in a way. Next stop was the Tower of London “ a short walk along the River Thames from Pudding Lane. For the first time in my life I got to see the Crown Jewels, and was surprised to learn that they are the real ones (at least according to the guide book). The foot thick metal doors on the jewel rooms was suitably impressive, as was the armed guard outside. Something I hadn’t counted on was being so emotionally effected by the movies shown of the coronation “ of the crowds cheering, and the scenes of jubilation. Perhaps that says something about me not sure really. Our final stop of the day was the Diana Memorial Playground on the corner of Kensington Gardens, in Hyde Park. Modelled after the Peter Pan stories, the centerpiece of the playground is an enormous pirate ship, which our kids spent a couple of hours running riot around with hundreds of other children. Sitting in the playpark was the first chance I really had during the day to just be quiet, and watch what was going on around me. My gaze kept returning to a beautiful woman, struggling with an unruly child that her husband took no part in helping with. He seemed preoccupied with standing and posing. Another family stood in the blazing sunshine in full suits, lifting a nasty little shit of a child onto the various climbing frames. The point where he kicked his grandfather in the chest almost made me laugh out loud. London was fun. Even though we only saw a tiny corner of the city, it opened the children’s eyes to many, many nationalities, colours, accents, languages, and a realisation of just how big the city is. The underground was fun, and the various trains and stations held endless fascination for them. When we finally arrived home yesterday evening, it was all we could do to keep our eyes open “ let alone make dinner, bath the children, and get them to bed. Today has been a much slower proposition “ filled with washing up, washing clothes, tidying the house up, and getting nowhere fast. We went to the pub for lunch, and met up with an ex colleague of mine, which in many ways provided a perfect break from everything. Having dinner that required no washing up, being waited on, and then walking in the park together was fantastic. And now we are here Sunday evening perched on the couch, each with a laptop, emptying our heads.