Sunday started with a Premier Inn breakfast, which the boys say they were looking forward to more than anything else. But this time it was disappointing. A shortage of cutlery and plates and various foodstuffs, so the whole breakfast line backed up and everything was in a mess. I did OK with mine, hash browns, beans, mushrooms, tomatoes, rinse, repeat. Thing one didn't eat very much at all, he was a bit off his food the whole weekend really. His proper food anyway he could eat sugar forever. Thing two ate very well, lots of everything. But not the best breakfast experience.
While I'm complaining about Premier Inn, what is wrong with the key cards? It goes wrong for us every time, we leave the room for a few hours, try to get back in, and the room won't open. We were on the sixth floor this time so it takes a little while to go back to the reception, queue up, they replace the key card without question (so it must happen all the time) and then the same thing happens again a few hours later. No we did not put the key card next to a magnet, though I don't think they work like this anyway. I think there's a huge underlying problem, and the more it is just accepted "ah yeah this happens I'll get you another card" how do they not slip up and open the wrong room for the wrong person? I didn't have to show ID again any time.
After the disappointing breakfast we trudged in the rain. We thought a bus would be more interesting than tubes, but this didn't work out so well. First bus we just missed, but only a short wait for the next one. Then changing busses we had about a half hour wait for the next bus, which was rubbish. Then when we got to the Natural History Museum people were queued round the block in the heavy rain. Thing two stood in a huge puddle while we were thinking what to do which must have ruined the rest of his day, but he does not complain much. We chucked in the museum at this point. It was mostly for thing two, what he really wanted to do, but with his wet foot he was happier not to wait around in the rain, so we left. Would three museums in one weekend have been too much anyway? We didn't risk another bus so got the tube away from here.
Tube at South Kensington was weird, all the trains were cancelled, except the one we needed. To try and compensate for the earlier mess ups we took the boys to Namco Funscape1, the arcade of their dreams. This is where we found Cruis'n'Blast again following our holiday and they always want to go back here. This time, even better than last time, as Clare came wit us, and we went to the bar. Febrewery number nineteen! Clare and thing one also did the Mario Kart VR which looked great and they say was great. Thing one was too small for it so I took him to play more Cruis'n'Blast.
From their, to another pub. Really we were looking for lunch, and we thought of a pub lunch, where we could get a proper dinner. We booked a gastropub somewhere, but they were only doing roasts and thing one did not want a roast. We went for the Red Lion in Westminsters instead as it was walking distance from the arcade. A very small pub, though we had booked a table, how was this going to work? There is a dining room on the first floor, and it has lovely panelling and old trad London furnishings, I really liked it. I'd like my study to be like this pub interior. I had roast squash, the boys had burgers and Clare had roast chicken. I'd say the food was only average but it worked out well for what we wanted, which was a dry sit down and a meal in a pub with a pint. Febrewery 20! I'm ahead of the game now.
From here back to Kings Cross on the tube. Clare jumped off at Euston to pick up our bags as we thought it would save a few minutes instead of walking back there from Kings Cross. We shopped a little at the station, which I think fulfilled the last of Clare's shopping requirements, so basically a successful weekend.
I nearly lost our train tickets on the way back. Thought I'd written my phone number on the outbound tickets for the boys to keep in their pockets in case we got separated. But no, I'd done it with the return tickets, which we needed. So a bit rumpled and damp (the tickets and the boys) but we got the tickets back, and safely home again.
A few complaints in the middle of the weekend, some lack of appreciation for HOW MUCH MONEY IT COST, and a lot of rain. But overall a good weekend.
Just toast for tea and a new Midsomer Murders and then bed.
Paul Clarke's weblog - I live in Hythe near Folkestone. Wed + dad to 2, I'm a full stack web engineer, + I do js / Node, some ruby, python, php etc. I like pubbing, parkrun, eating, home automation and other diy jiggery-pokery, history, genealogy, Television, squirrels, pirates, lego, and TIME TRAVEL.