trains Archives - Journeys Are My Diary

Bank Holiday Weekend – Monday

August 31, 2015 by Bel 1 Comment

Last day of hols and while I’m updating this from home, I still wanted to compete the diary for our third and final day in London.

We woke up this morning, got ready and packed. It was raining so this scuppered our plans but we decided to head for the Museums. First we started with the V&A but the girls (and us really) just weren’t interested. Instead we headed for the National History Museum and while this was much better, it was so busy that we only lasted an hour before leaving.

We caught the tube to Kings Cross Station, just to make sure we were there on time, then headed out for lunch. We settled on Subway, with the plan of takeaway for dinner when we got home. After Subway we went back into the station and after some deliberation we queued for the Harry Potter 9 and 3/4 photo shoot. It took the whole hour we had spare and so then we caught our train and traveled back to Newark.

Mum picked us up from the station and it was chucking it down with rain! We got back to her house and then Chris drove us back home. We unpacked, ordered takeaway and settled in for the night. That’s where I am now. We’ve eaten takeaway and the girls are on their computers. I’m making my way through emails and browsing the net! It’s been a good weekend.

Bank Holiday Weekend – Sunday

August 30, 2015 by Bel 1 Comment

Again I’m updating from the Travelodge on our Bank Holiday weekend away! It’s been another lovely day, this time shared with Chris!

The girls and I got up and got ready this morning and went out to meet Chris. By 11am we were all together and after a quick visit to the Platform 9 and 3/4 shop (which is also online), we set off for Leicester Square. We had Five Guys for lunch, then wandered to Forbidden Planet. We were in Forbidden Planet for ages and even when we left, we wandered into two or three other other geeky shops while making our way towards slowly Ripley’s Believe It Or Not. Megan bought a Minecraft book and Lily got a little obsessed with Harley Quinn. I can see this is going to be a craze setting in!

Not far from Ripleys, we still had time to kill and so we went in the M&M shop. I’ve been before but the girls and Chris hadn’t (well not the London one, we went to one in Florida). It actually took us quite a while to walk around all three/four floors and the girls had their picture taken with all the M&M characters. Afterwards we headed to Ripley’s though and while we weren’t really sure what to expect, it was pretty good and took us just over an hour to look around. Afterwards we just sat outside for a while, our feet were hurting and we were trying to decide what to do. However we then went for another wander and ended up at Nandos for dinner. Again, Chris and the girls hadn’t been to a Nandos and I realised it was before Megan was born since I’d last been. We all enjoyed our food though and the service was great.

Finally we headed back to the Travelodge (another long trip on the tube and this time incredibly busy!) and chilled out. That’s where we are now – watching X-Factor! Chris is going for a shower, the girls aregoing to go on their iPads and we’re all just relaxing.

Shopping Haul - Minecraft and Harley Quinn Comic

Bank Holiday Weekend – Saturday

August 29, 2015 by Bel 1 Comment

It’s Saturday night and I’m coming to you live from a London Travelodge!! We’ve had a fab day, traveling on the train from Newark to London, then checking in and enjoying London. The train journey went great and everything was on time for a change. We traveled the tube to our Travelodge in Hounslow Central though and this took ages!

On the way back, we got off at Knightsbridge and met up with my friend Tim for lunch at the Disney Cafe in Harrods. The food was pretty expensive and the cafe was nothing special, but the service and food was good and the girls got “free” Disney ears. Afterwards we went to Harrods Disney Store. It was much nicer than a lot of Disney Stores I’ve been in and they did seem to have things that other stores didn’t. I bought Megan a beautiful jacket and to be fair to Lily, she got some Disney Infinity characters. Finally we headed out and went for a wander, before deciding to grab coffee and sit for while to chat. At 5pm Tim needed to go so we said our farewells. The girls and I did the London Eye (thanks to Avios Reward Scheme) which was great and then finally we traveled back to the Travelodge for dinner.

Dinner was very average but it hit the spot. We then went back to the room and collapsed. We’re now heading to bed, though we’ll probably watch X Factor first!!

Minnie Mouse in the Harrods Disney Store

Week 34 – Monday Round-up (well actually it’s Wednesday!)

August 26, 2015 by Bel Leave a Comment

Well this week I am super late in making my round up post! I’m almost half the way through the next week in fact. It’s been a really great week though, with high and lows of course but mostly good! The kids are still off for Summer Holidays of course, though it won’t be for much longer now! We still haven’t really “done” an awful lot, but everyone seems okay with that and we still have our weekend in London coming up!

The beginning of the week, we didn’t do an awful lot to be honest! The girls went to their dad’s on Monday and had to wait at my mum’s while my car had it’s MOT. It wasn’t finished until almost 3pm (after the work needed was carried out) and after it was done I needed to get new tyres as well. So I headed to Tanvic, waited while my tyres were done and then made a random decision to try to Hobbycraft in Nottingham. It was nice to walk around but fairly fruitless, I had Burger King for dinner and then headed home. Tuesday I went over to pick the girls up from their dad and we came straight home. I used the day to catch up on TV and work on my new shop website – as it was due to open at the weekend. I also booked my train tickets to see Amy on that Friday, a decision I had been toying with a little over the week before. Wednesday and Thursday were both working on my Closet Geek venture, either on the website, taking photos or actually sewing. Nat came over for the daytime on Thursday but we just sat chatting while I sewed so I was still able to get plenty of work done.

On Friday morning the girls and I got up and ready, Chris took us to Retford station. However our train to York was cancelled and this began an interesting day of catching replacement and delayed trains. In the end we got to Amy’s about an hour and a half late and after catching the bus to her house and having a cup of tea, the girls had their photoshoot – the main reason we’d traveled over.

The rest of the day was spent with the girls on their iPads while Amy worked on photos and I worked on listings for my site. We stopped for us all to eat pizza takeaway and then one by one the kids went to bed. Amy and I ended up staying up till past midnight, getting my site ready but by the time I went to bed, it was all ready to go. The girls and I then played a sort of musical chairs with the beds overnight, each of us taking time in a different spot in a bed. We managed to find one that worked for us all and finally got some sleep!

In the morning we were up at 8am, the kids had breakfast and I had tea. We packed up all our stuff ready as Amy’s dad was taking us to the station and I checked to make sure all the trains were on time. We got to Berwick station around 9.45am which was plenty of time. The girls got some sweets and I got a sandwich, then we waited for the train to come along at 10.13am.

On the first train we had plenty of space so the girls sat together and I sat over the aisle. When we swapped at Newcastle, we had about 30 minutes to wait so we all grabbed a coffee and waited patiently. The next train we decided to all sit together, even though technically we had the extra space again. I knew I needed to open my store and the girls wanted to sit with me.

At 12pm I opened my store, the newsletter sent out automatically (as planned) and Amy and I pushed the opening on Instagram! There were loads of hits and plenty of positive feedback so that was great! Orders came in during the afternoon and that was great too. By the time the girls and I got home I was far too exhausted to tackle anything. We’d had Subway for lunch and had takeaway for dinner – but it was pretty great doing nothing! Once the girls went to bed I watched TV but I shopped and browsed for fabric, bows and even replied to someone about a custom order!

Finally it was Sunday and though I should have been making orders and promoting my site, for the most part I was just lying around watching TV. The girls went off with their Grandma to the beach for the day so it was nice just to grab some me time. I did spend most of the day on my iPad looking for fabric, charms and ideas for my stock generally. I placed a few orders and worked on some ideas. Chris came home and we spent the evening watching TV and snuggled up on the sofa.

So that was my week! It was exhausting but it was brilliant. Not to mention my site is now officially open! If you get a minute, please go check it out. You can find it at www.ClosetGeek.co.uk – not only that but you can follow on FB, Instagram and Twitter, all at @closetgeeksite

The Railway Children – York Theatre Royal

August 7, 2015 by Bel 1 Comment

Yesterday we were lucky enough to see The Railway Children in York. I’d mentioned last week to my mum that it was on and we’d found a date that worked for us and booked tickets. I’d been hoping to see it in London but when it was as near as York, we couldn’t miss the opportunity.

The theatre for The Railway Children is purpose build, so as to have two platforms and room for a train to run down the middle. The play originated in York, at the Signal Box Theatre, but later moved down to London’s Kings Cross. Due to this month being Theatre Month in York, the show is there too (it didn’t moved, the one in London is still on as well).

The Signal Box Theatre is part of the NRM (National Rail Museum) which is a free museum featuring a variety of rail related items, especially trains. As such we decided to make a day of it, arriving at the museum with time to look around and also to eat lunch. At 2pm we made our way to the theatre and sat through a fantastic production of The Railway Children.

I have seen The Railway Children movie but it was some time ago. The kids did a Paper Chase around the museum which reminded us on the key parts of the story which was good, but for the most part it all came back to me while I was watching.

The acting was absolutely spot on and I couldn’t complain about it at all. The unique staging and experience is by far one of my favourite that I’ve been too and I would most definitely recommend it to others and even go again myself. It’s probably no surprise to those who know me, but I cried at least three times, the timing was impeccable and despite knowing the storyline, it still touched me.

If you are thinking about going, you definitely should. While its probably not for young children, both mine at 7 and 10 enjoyed it (though probably more Megan than Lily, as there were times when Lily seemed bored). It has a little jump part, a little dark and scary part but overall its a great family show. I thoroughly enjoyed it, as did my mum who also cried at various parts! Whether you manage to make it for York Theatre month, or go down to London to see it at Kings Cross, I recommend you give it a go. With regard to seating, Platform 2 on the back row was fantastic but if you have to pick anything, pick the middle no matter whether it’s front, middle or back!

Week 31 – Monday Round-up

August 3, 2015 by Bel Leave a Comment

I’m very behind this week so I’m going to make this quick! I have so much on and I’m trying to spend every moment sewing. However it’s also Summer Holidays and I want to spend time with the kids – finding time to blog is just not fitting into that balance right now! There hasn’t really been things that are noteable everyday, so I’ll just cover the things that are!

Wednesday the girls went to their dad’s and Nat came over for the day. It was really nice to see her, especially since it had been almost 2 weeks by that point. We spent a lovely day together, even though I was tired from lack of sleep (next door woke me at 3am and I was unable to get back to sleep). That evening I also installed Windows 10!

I don’t remember which day, but we also officially booked to go down to London at the end of August. We have train tickets and Travelodge booked now and just need to decide what to do while down there. I wrote a post about Planning a Family holiday to London on Saturday!

Sadly I genuinely can’t think of much more that I did! The girls started a YouTube channel called Double the Geek. I helped make them a trailer and that was pretty fun. Umm… what else? Chris and I went out to a dinner party on Saturday night, at my brother’s house. That was pretty nice and I got to dress up smart for a change, so it was nice to be an adult.

So yeah… that’s my week! Gosh that sounds so dull. It wasn’t though, it was nice and it was relaxing but I also spent so much time sewing that there doesn’t sound like I did much. I’ll update you soon on my sewing though!

www.ClosetGeek.co.uk

Planning a Family Trip to London

August 1, 2015 by Bel 3 Comments

As you probably know, we live in Lincolnshire and sadly not an awful lot goes on up here (especially when it comes to Blogger Meets and Events… but that’s a different story!). However this summer we’re lucky enough to be heading down to London for a weekend and honestly I can’t wait.

Although I’ve visited London several times, both with and without the kids, I still get excited at the prospect of going. Living near a city like Lincoln, is not the same as actual city life and for me there is just nothing quite like London for a day in a “real” city! This particular trip we’re taking down to London is specifically because a US friend is over for the week and we’re tying in seeing him. However we’ve decided to make the most of the Bank Holiday weekend and actually get a few days holiday in!

As I don’t currently work (and we’re trying to get the house ready to sell), we’re having to take the trip on a budget. I’ve bought train tickets and booked a Travelodge already, as those are the things that prices go up on if you leave them too long, but everything else is still open for deciding upon. I had originally hoped to take the kids to the theatre (we’ve seen Wicked twice, Phantom of the Opera, Cats and Starlight Express) but even though its Kids Week (kids go free throughout August), there doesn’t seem to be anything reasonably priced that we’re interested in. Matilda and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory were both options, but these are coming in over £100 for the three of us. The Railway Children is still a possibility though, but even that will be £60.

With that in mind, I took to the internet this morning and decided to find out what exactly there is to do in London, that the kids might enjoy.

Now before everyone shouts museums and art galleries, I want to point out that these things don’t especially interest my kids. We have done the Science Museum before and they loved that, but other than the Museum of Childhood out at Bethnal Green, I really don’t see them enjoying any of the others. This is sad however, as most are free.

I asked the girls what they would like to do and the London Eye was pretty much the only thing they could think of. For the three of us, this would be £47.25, or if we wait for Chris (he’s traveling down on Sunday to join us), then it would be £66.60. However Chris isn’t great with heights so we’d probably do this without him. I did also find a couple of alternatives to the London Eye. They are The View from the Shard – which is actually Western Europe’s Tallest Building. This is actually more expensive than the London Eye, coming in at £131.80/£95.95 (with/without Chris) if we go in the daytime or £91.80/£65.85 if we go at night. The other option would be ArcelorMittal Orbit (better known as London Orbit Tower) which is the UK’s Tallest Sculpture. Prices for this would be £26/£20 depending on whether or not we went with Chris.

The London Orbit Tower is in Stratford, which is also where Beach East is. This is a summer only event, which is free entry and includes Beach bars, paddling pool, funfair and more, all on Stratford Waterfront. If the weather is nice, this is definitely a possibility and it would be great to tie that in with the Tower too (which is also the cheapest of the “tall” sight-seeing options).

Aside from these attractions, I also discovered some others that you may or may not have heard of before.

– Ripley’s Believe It or Not
This is probably high up the list of things to do as Chris and I would enjoy it too. Ripley’s Believe It or Not is a sort of museum, filled with amazing art, unusual artefacts and strange experiences. It’s on 6 floors and though it’s existed for AGES, I have never been before and that makes it quite unique for me. Prices for us with/without Chris would be £59.96/£50.13 though Tesco Clubcard offer discounted tickets, as do places like Groupon from time to time.

– Shrek’s Adventure
This awesome attraction has not long opened in London and personally I think it looks fantastic. Similar to the type of rides and attractions you get in places like Orlando, this is something London is probably lucky to have. A 4D adventure, including ride and walk around, you meet several of the Shrek characters on your adventure. Prices £84.24/£60.84.

– Harry Potter Studio Tour
We’ve been before, but that doesn’t stop me wanting to go again – especially now the Platform 9 3/4 section is open and with it being Summer there is a special Sweet and Treats exhibition on. There is only availability on the Sunday at the moment so that would mean going with Chris too and the family ticket price is £101.

– The Enchanted Mirror, Hidden City
To me, this sounds absolutely amazing and even the kids are a little intrigued. A mystery/clue trail that runs from the V&A Museum and ends a “hidden” location. The trail is set around a fairytale story, loosely based on that of Snow White. The trail is said to be aimed at adults (i.e. the clues are hard) but that kids are welcome. It’s supposed to take 3-4 hours, depending on how easy you solve the clues, if you get lost and how many “taverns” you stop at along the way. Teams should be up to 4 people (though I have no idea if that includes kids or not) and the price is set at £60. I would absolutely love to do something like this but I would be worried the kids wouldn’t actually enjoy the walking and that Chris and I might not be smart enough to solve it all, without other adults in our group!

– Kidzania
I’d heard mention of this before but I had no idea what it was until my search today. A 75,000 square foot child-size city has been created, where kids can take on over 60 roleplay roles and experiences. It looks like parts of Eureka Museum but on a greater scale and honestly if I was a kid I would be itching to go. It’s a 4 hour experience and for a change adults are cheaper than kids (I imagine because it’s not really aimed at us). Prices are £89.00/£72.50 with or without Chris.

The weekend we’re visiting London is also Bank Holiday weekend. This means Nottinghill Carnival which is also a free event. Running from 10am till approx 6.30pm on both Sunday and Monday, the Nottinghill Carnival is apparently spectacular. I don’t know whether or not it will fit into our plans but I’d definitely like to catch a glimpse of the parades!

Finally something else I have wanted to do for quite a long time, is visit Harrod’s Disney cafe. Ever since getting back from Florida, there has been a distinct lack of Disney in our lives. While I’m sure it’s nothing like being in WDW itself, its probably the closest we’ll get for several years now. From what I’ve seen the reviews are quite good and the food is reasonably priced. Apparently it’s the drink prices you need to watch out for though!

Sadly most of the really fun sounding stuff carries quite a high price tag, so I’m not exactly sure how many of these things we’ll end up doing. However I’m convinced there is something for everyone and I’m sure that no matter what we end up doing, we’ll have fun!

Does anyone have any “visiting London” tips to share?