After initially thinking "we're never going to be ready for that early train" we put an extra push into getting up and getting ready and getting out, and made it to the 9am train to London. We even got the free parking on the other side of Folkestone West station. It was not too busy but there were a few other families heading up to London to have some fun on this extended bank holiday weekend.
We didn't have any huge plans, but Clare wanted some clothes shopping, so I took the boys for a walk round the Olympic Park. We went on playgrounds and exercise equipment and a small climbing wall, and briefly considered The Orbit tower / sculpture / slide thing, but the slide bit of it was closed and the boys did not want to just climb the tower today. Maybe another day.
We all met up again, found the boys some snacks of pretzels and ice-creams and then sat outside The Cow for a drink. There was lots of music and things going on for the jubilee weekend, a nice atmosphere. We think we heard the RAF flyover around this time but we didn't see them.
Next to bowling at All Star Lanes, we could only get a booking for the boys and not for all four of us as it was very busy. Thing two has been a bit under the weather this weekend with a sore throat so he was quite disagreeable, especially when the bowling didn't go his way. All Star Lanes is a nice environment, it feels less like a crime is about to be committed than most bowling alleys, but it feels slightly less kid-friendly too.
Some more shopping, but I didn't spend as much as I might have done. I bought some boots but then Clare paid and nabbed them for my birthday. We had dinner in Cabana, a Brazilian themed place. They must have messed up our order as there was a huge delay, but were quite apologetic and knocked 20% off the bill which was good. It was nice enough and there was something for each of us, but we probably wouldn't go again. After dinner we bought some books; a crime novel that was raising funds for Ukraine12, and a reworking of The Magic Faraway Tree by Jacqueline Wilson1 for thing two, and then got the train and a taxi back.
We watched more episodes of Pistol when we got in, The Sex Pistols story. Will finish that today.
Back to books for a minute, I'm still enjoying Salt Lane1, a good crime novel anyway but with the added buzz of local locations, having also read sort-of the first one, The Birdwatcher1. I will get more of these.
I'm up earlier than I ought to be, but I do need to go and collect the car before we go swimming. So, will run up to the train station in my first exercise of the week. And though it feels like Sunday, it's still only Friday!
Paul Clarke's blog - I live in A small town. Married to Clare + father to two, I am a full-stack web engineer, and I do js / nodejs, some ruby, python, php ect ect. I like pubs, parkrun, eating, home automation and other diy jiggery-pokery, history, genealogy, TV, squirrels, pirates, lego, + TIME TRAVEL.