London Calling

OK, so I’m guessing this isn’t the first time someone’s used the title of the famous The Clash song for a blog post, but its a first for us at least. London’s only 27 minutes away on the express train, but we really don’t make in in there all that often – what with all the attractions of Surrey to tempt us on our doorstep. But every now and then we get the urge and head in for a look around.

Our visits invariably involve a stroll through Hyde Park (because if we drive, we park there) and then, unsurprisingly, a look at some of the shops, and perhaps if time permits some famous tourist spots. So for today’s adventure, we bring you some pics from Hyde Park, some shops and some tourist attractions. See if you can name the locations…

So here we are at Hyde Park. Nice day for it.

 
Enough of that… what about the shops…

 
Guessed which shop yet?

 
It sells large bears, amongst other things.

Cruising the streets of Kensington.

A lesser known tourist spot… the home of Earl Mountbatten on Wilton Place.

 
Hurry up!

 
Get the London loook.

 
Its tiring work.

 
Which way is Australia?.

The Australian War Memorial at the Wellington Arch.

 
Lots to see…. all of the famous battle locations are superimposed into the wall

 
This is Wellington Arch… a relatively peaceful place in the middle of a busy London roundabout.

 
London bikes. Like a lot of cities, they’re everywhere now.

 
Ummm…. no comment.

 
Another park with autumn leaves.

 
Approaching our next famous London tourist location….

 
No hints.. this should be easy to guess.

 
Gates fit for a Queen….

Guards - surely this gives it away?

 
Another Keezee arty shot, but maybe not a great clue.

 
Yes, it’s Buckingham Palace! But what’s that’s behind… an ominous looking cloud.

 
Yes it was…. and a bit of rain to finish the day off – we are in London after all. If you don’t like the weather, wait 5 minutes .

Out and About with a Few Visitors

Before we download all our recent pics from the camera - and there's lots, so here's hoping Keezee gets the motivation to post them all - we have some more from Nana's camera that we hadn't shared yet. So here goes...

By the way, we get asked quite a bit what the weather's like where we are, so we posted a little widget on the right of the page so you can see for yourselves - Woking is just down the road. But please don't brag!



Here's Chriso and Alainya making their first blog appearance on Guildford High Street with Nana & co.


Lucy and Nana went to see The Lion King while Nana was visiting. This was their second visit to the West End - you may remember The Sound of Music. The other Keezee's haven't been to a proper London show yet (school nativities, aside) and are starting to get a bit jealous!


Before the show. If Caiti was jealous, she didn't show it.


Butter wouldn't melt in her mouth..... Caiti posing outside everyone's favourite pub, The Anchor


Keezee, & Nana, enjoying the nice late summer weather (and a drink), outside The Anchor


Atmosphere shot


Atmosphere shot, in the other direction. All of those long boats were full of punters visiting the pub.


The obligatory family shot, but worth posting to show you how happy the staff were that day - what's going on there?


Caiti getting ready for her modest (but surprisingly noisy) birthday celebrations, back in August.


The girls on their slip n slide in the garden. This is a nice photo to look at, if only because there's snow settled on the lawn as I look out the window today - oh how the seasons change so quickly!

Frozen Over

Here's a quick vid we did one Sunday a couple of weeks back, when we drove into London for a look at the Winter Wonderland funfair in Hyde Park. As you will see we had a bit of a cold snap at the time and it was freezing - so much so that the Serpentine (Hyde Park's famous lake) had frozen over. The ducks and birds didn't seem real impressed but all the kids were having a great time skimming ice across the lake.

There's also a bit of squirrel action at the end, for all you squirrel fans out there.








This is the same video as above, except it's li'ler - as Lucy would say in her recently developed cockney accent. This might be better for slower internet connections.

For fast internet connections, we suggest playing them both at the same time for a cool echo effect!

The Sound of Music

These pics are a bit old - from back in May - but Lucy would be devastated if we didn't show you our adventures from the day we went into London to see The Sound of Music.

Lucy and Nana were the lucky ones with the tickets, the rest of us spent the afternoon wandering the streets looking for interesting shops (Jo), museums (Keezee) and large statues (Caiti). A good afternoon was had by all despite a gross navigational error by Keezee, as he tried to find his way back to the London Palladium Theatre for the pickup. (Let's just say, we have now seen Goodge Street tube station from every direction).



Let's start at the very beginning (a very good place to start). Here's the girls all done up like Austrian Fräuleins, getting ready to go.


We love going into London for the day, getting a good seat on the train, reading the paper and then taking a photo of it all. These are a few of our favourite things.



Nana's probably not happy we've posted this pic, because she wasn't looking at the camera.... she was looking up at Big Ben, checking we weren't going to be late.


We bumped into our old mate, the bloke on the horse again.



A typical London shot... the cab, the Union Jack and the garbage truck.


We made it to the theatre with plenty of time to spare, and were delighted to find that Australia's second favourite son (after Jack 'Ruki' Baillieu), Simon Burke, was starring as The Captain.


We walked from Waterloo, but it would have been quicker to get a cab.



Keezee dragged the girls all through the British Museum, but they kept smiling regardless.



Caiti and her big statue. For the record, after this shot she decided to scream "Rooaarr" for the rest of the afternoon - brilliant!

Pea Soup and Fish Supper

We decided to drive into London last Sunday (Sunday's the day - free parking and no £8 congestion charge) to have a look at the ice rink at the Museum of Natural History. We were rather indecisive about it because it had been foggy around our place all day, and we weren't sure if we would be able to see much.

It should be about a 45 minute drive into town under normal conditions, but our indecisiveness meant we didn't leave until 4pm, by which time it was getting dark, and we decided to take the M25, which was living up to its reputation of being the world's biggest carpark in the fog, being a classic London pea-souper; so in the end it took us nearly 2 hours to get there. But despite dire predictions of our foggy demise from the front passenger seat, we finally made it, and found a park right out the front - ha!

We travelled back via the A3 - a much better option:
View Larger Map

It was quite a sight, with hundreds of skaters getting into it on a cold Sunday night. We enjoyed watching, but none of us had the heart to strap on the skates (I won't mention the fact you have to book weeks ahead anyway). But no worries, there was something for everyone... a Christmas market for Mum, a merry-go-round for the girls, and a public toilet for Keezee (who forgot to go before we left home).

We finished the evening off by eating alfresco in 0 degrees, as you do when you're hungry! We've haven't been eating enough fish and chips since we've been here, and the fish supper (as Nigela, Jamie and Gordon call it) is a national institution, so it was high-time to tuck into some cod.


Mummy and Lucy


Daddy and Caiti (who was fascinated by the skating).
Here's a short amateur photography anecdote for you........ We would have asked someone to take a photo of us all together, but it was too foggy to use a flash (honest - the flash lights up the fog - look at the photo below) and it was too tricky for a passer-by to get a good night-time shot on time exposure.



Arty shot of the merry-go-round with the museum behind, bathed in eerie green-light. Hmmm... the fog lifted a bit for this shot it seems.



Merry-go-round girls.


Fush n Chups!


Arty Shot 2: The nearly-empty rink between sessions.