This is the entry for June. We’ve had one week of nice weather and the rest of the time it has been wet and cold, but now that I am in my shorts and sandals I refuse to give them up! Of course the major events this month were the Queens Diamond Jubilee, Father’s Day and my 44th birthday, not particularly labelled in order of importance I hasten to add.
We managed to buy tickets for the River Pageant Festival in Battersea Park. The journey to Battersea was uneventful and not particularly stressful considering the number of people milling at the intervening stations. We followed the throng from Queenstown Road station to the park and dutifully queued up to gain entrance all the while waving our Hello sponsored flags. Jake, Mia, Antonia and Bea were very excited. Once inside we mooched about looking at the various attraction. We particularly liked to 1954/53? bandstand playing genuine 50’s swing music. Of the river pageant itself we didn’t see diddley squat. It was heaving with people and looking at those closest to the action they had obviously been there a while. Missed a trick there! It was a fun day out but we could have been better organised and had to be content with a partial view of one of the giant screens while being rained on intently.
Father’s day saw us back in Battersea, this time to the tented eden that is the rear of the Secret Garden pub. We had out lunch and some drinks there while the children ran around scaring away the other patrons :-). Afterwards we all headed for Battersea Park. The weather was good for a change. We had fun on the pedalos. Mia kept saying “boat!” so we just had to try one out! We had myself and Mia at the front and Amy and Jake pedalling in the rear. Competition kicked in and there was some wild pedalling to beat Colin, Adam and Teddy’s pedalo. After this we hired some recumbent bikes and a Nihola box bike. Jake loved this as did daddy!! All in all a brilliant day out. Thanks Amy!
My birthday weekend saw dropping the children off at Granny’s while Amy and I ventured into the heart of Kent to The Grasshopper Inn near Westerham for a free meal that Amy won when we were there on Mothers Day. I’d like to say that it was a good experience but the food was average and the service dire so I will leave it there. Suffice it to say that we will not be going back any time soon.
Amy is in the States as I write this. I have had 5 days flying solo. Jake has been playing Skylanders. We went out on Saturday and I bought him a new pack of three because he did brilliantly in his spelling 14/15 and had an excellent Year 1 school report. Mia has been in turns lovely and also very grumpy particularly after waking. I think she may be having a growth spurt but in the end who knows? I tried to give her plenty of rest this weekend as I thought that maybe she was just tired. I think it helped a little. Yesterday Jake was at Annabel’s party which was a drop-off affair. Mia and I spent a delightful couple of hours exploring Manor House gardens. We saw the ducks, studied squirrels, had an ice-cream in the Pistachios in the park(same franchise as the new one on Hilly Fields) and even dodged the rain by hiding in the old ice house which was open for tours.