Back in time

CarbBoy and I headed out today to meet up with A and her boys in Holland Park, which was a chance to bore on to CarbBoy about this (the arched window building) being where me and Mr B were married (13 years and 2 days ago). Despite an acting up mobile, we finally managed to hook up and had an amiable few hours wandering around the gardens - taking it in turns to chase after the very adventurous Will (who, I learned, responds very quickly to a panickedly shouted "STOP" when he was heading at top speed into a car park - even despite being in pursuit of a flock of peacocks at the time). A spell in a playground, then it was time to head off. A handed over an unexpected birthday gift for me - which turned out to be the most delicious cake inside a personalised cake tin.

CarbBoy and I headed off to Kensington High Street for some shopping. By the fourth shop he was flagging. When I suggested shop six he broke down completely and started sobbing with tiredness... So we headed to Hotel Chocolat for some restorative chocolate in liquid and solid form. Having ascertained that there are rather shockingly NO toyshops in the area, CarbBoy was inconsolable, even despite the chocolate, until a message popped up from Aunty Sue reminding us that Peter Jones is on the way home. That kept him going through the last shop, and the tube journey and emerging from the station he was delighted to learn that that HUGE building was the toy shop (I didn't explain about department stores...) He was spending his own money, but was under strict instructions to keep it hand luggage compliant... ie not too big. Sigh. How the staff laughed at us as we negotiated between the huge set of lego and the quite big set of lego... (Huge won.) Home then to find our host out. We sat quite happily on the curb, washing our hot feet with the last of our bottle of water to cool them down, and chatting with the slightly odd neighbour. (Another neighbour then called Sue to warn her about the dodgy types hanging around on her steps so she came home to let us in!)

Off then nearly straight away to the theatre show. Godchild C had a major role - with lots of singing and acting, and Godchild A was in the chorus, dancing and singing. Fabulous show (Honk) which had me laughing and crying at all the right points.

Home for a few quiet glasses of wine and a much needed long sleep.