Back now from a lovely weekend, only slightly marred by bad rain. It's raining hard again now, and it was still dark when we got up. I'm going to call it, summer is officially over.
Weekend started with a dash to Folkestone West station where we left both cars. I'd come straight from work and Clare had come from home, picking up the boys from school. Traffic was worse than expected so didn't leave me much time. Train packed with noisy school kids, but we got a table and off to London!
We stayed at Premier Inn at Tower Hill again, but the one nearest to Monument. Probably won't again, more later. Quick bag drop off and then a walk to (gasp) somewhere new for dinner!
Homeslice was a pizza place I had wanted to try out for a while. I knew there was one in Covent Garden but this one at Mansion House was fairly close to our hotel. It's a trendy noise place, not ideal for family dinner with small children as it turns out but not that bad either. They just about managed to squeeze us in without booking but I think it meant some bigger groups coming in just after us were squeezed onto smaller tables. We had beer, in old style pint glasses with handles. Clare and I did anyway, the boys had fizzy drinks. They sell pizza in slices, or in twenty inch size only. Clare and the boys shared one salami and rocket pizza between them and could not quite finish it. I had vegan mushroom and chilli and pine nuts or something, and could manage it all, but only by leaving the crusts. Was good, I liked it, very tasty. Then a walk back to the hotel, for the boys to go to bed. Only a slight variant on our usual routine, Clare went out first to the Brewdog, and thing one and I sat in the bathroom for thing two to go to sleep. Thing two did not go to sleep. In the end I had to put thing one to bed anyway and they chatted and I got cross. Then Clare came back, I went for a couple at the nearby Walrus and Carpenter and all was well again.
Was busy in the pub, busier than last time I was there. They have EIGHT real ales on and two real ciders, I had a porter and a cider and went back to the room.
So several pints and a massive pizza how would that affect my parkrun in the morning? Yes I finally did it, a London parkrun. And not a record, but not bad.
Congratulations on completing your 36th parkrun and your 1st at Southwark parkrun today. You finished in 64th place and were the 60th male out of a field of 327 parkrunners and you came 3rd in your age category VM45-49. Take a look at this week's full set of results on our website1. Well done on your first parkrun. We have set this as your PB.
Not my first parkrun of course but my first one at Southwark. This was a good one, a friendly crowd, I met some other tourists there. Quite a long walk to the park, but that was nice too, over Tower Bridge and then through an unfamiliar part of London. Got there a bit early, so time to look around. There was another event going on in the same park which was briefly confusing. Lots of volunteer organisers at this one, though they say they nearly couldn't do the event because they didn't have enough. They had pace setters for various times which was good. I tried to keep up with the twenty minute guy but in the end even the twenty two minute guy overtook me. It was wet, I was not wearing my good trainers, I did not have anything to listen to (forgot my headphones on this trip), it was an unfamiliar course, and also of course pizza and beer...
After the run I should have headed straight back to the hotel. I called and they were just on their way to breakfast, I could have been there before they finished. Instead I was passing a nice looking "yoga cafe" with all vegan treats, so I stopped and had my breakfast there. I had a little cake, looked like a cheesecake, and a coffee, and sat and relaxed. They had their Premier Inn unlimited breakfast and we were to meet up again after at Waterloo. Sounds the journey to Waterloo for them was more stressful than mine, but I was starting to feel a bit foolish still in my running shorts and damp t-shirt. All sorted in the end with not too much hanging around and off to the aquarium.
Aquarium (actually London Sea Life) at County Hall was very crowded. We expected it to be, as it seems like a good indoor (ironically dry) activity for a rainy day but it was even more overcrowded than that. You can take buggies in, and the beginning bit especially is quite compact, so it was quite claustrophobic. The boys really liked it, at least to start with, but it got a bit much by the end. The bit with the penguins was very sad, they look so unhappy, mostly facing the wall. I would not go here again, I should not have gone here in the first place. Still, interesting experience for the boys.
Next for a cafe stop. Actually we all went in the All Bar One and got a pint. Me a shandy, Clare a beer, boys a diet coke, and some nuts. This was nice and relaxing, more so than I expected a London pub visit with the two boys to be. We sat at a table and played hangman.
Now perhaps the highlight of the trip for the boys, I knew the Namco arcade was also at County Hall. Would it, could it have a Cruis'n'Blast that they had enjoyed so much on holiday? Not just one Cruis'n'Blast but two, so they could race each other. They loved this. They played that, and a snowboarding game, and racing motorbikes, and a few others, and would gladly have emptied my bank account to play all day. Clare had sloped off to shop during this bit, so just I had to be bad cop and tear them away. And then we found more games on the way out, including Mario Kart. This is a BIG place, they want to come here again.
Off to meet Clare after this, a long walk in the rain. We went via Trafalgar Square but the boys didn't want to get too close to the protests going on there. Enormous police presence but no hint of trouble. We walked through Chinatown and up Wardour Street to find Inamo, a place we'd heard of with fancy computerised menus and things. They could only seat us a bit too late for our tiddlers, and we were all hungry, so we went for our first Wahaca instead. This was delicious.
Now to head home, in the heavy rain. To avoid the walk shall we get an Uber? It can't be that much, let's treat ourselves. It was that much, because we accidentally booked it to the wrong hotel. Didn't spot this until we pulled up outside, it was the other Premier Inn where we stayed last time. It's only about ten minutes walk but because of all the one way systems it did add a bit to our (already expensive) taxi bill. The other contributing factor was just how bad the traffic was. A fairly expensive mistake.
Definitely my turn to go the Brewdog tonight. I had a really good "death by coconut" beer, and then a disappointing porter, but still, nice. Clare went out at 10 after I got in, she really likes her Brewdog.
Sunday morning we all had the Premier Inn breakfast together. It's not all that nice really, not for me, but it's good value. If it had Linda McCartney sausages or something in there I'd love it. It's good for people who are happy to eat the sausage, bacon, fried egg etc and value the quantity. Were deciding what to do for the day, as it's still raining and so most outdoor things would be of limited fun. We eventually settled on Forbidden Planet, so got the bus there. The bus we should have got last night instead of the expensive Uber... We got separated on the bus but it was good to be able to see them via the bus CCTV! Clare left us again at this point to try and shop elsewhere but we spent a happy hour in the Forbidden Planet megastore looking at toys, books, comics etc. I bought a bargain Captain America t-shirt, the boys bought a book each, one got a poster and one some sweets. Actually I still have the sweets and may save them for his upcoming birthday.
After this our weekend starts to wind down. We caught up with Clare again in another shop and looked for some things for party bags for an imminent seventh birthday. Then the boys and I got the tube to Kings Cross and Clare went back to the hotel to get the bags. We sat and read our new books in a cafe while we waited for her, then the train home. All over until next time.
Took me a long time to write up, over two days. There was work to do and I had to go to a PTA AGM too.
We always say Tower Hill is the best location for us, easy access to Kings Cross and some handy things around there but we're going for something different next time. Few small issues with this one, the breakfast is a bit crowded, and we had epic issues with our room keys. Every time we left the room we had to go back to reception to get new keys as they wouldn't let us in the room. Mostly though we have decided this location is inconvenient at the end of the weekend. Probably going to go for Kings Cross next time so we can grab the bags and get on the train instead of having to go via this location, which tends to be a pain on a Sunday. We've done the attractions in this area too.
Paul Clarke's weblog - I live in Hythe in Kent. Married + dad to two, I'm a full stack web engineer, + I do js / Node, some ruby, other languages etc. I like pubs, running, eating, home automation and other diy jiggery-pokery, history, genealogy, Television, squirrels, pirates, lego, and TIME TRAVEL.