wellll…..
We had a fab [if knackering day today, i am always surprised by how tired a day in london makes me!] we got up bright and early to catch the first possible train to london – which we did [1st poss with railcard that is], and managed to meet up with Michelle and Chloe succesfully en route. We got to the RI in good time for a KS2 lecture on the heart, including a dissection display. we v much enjoyed it, and met up with Nic, monster and teeny there. it was aimed at the ‘higher end’ of KS2 I think, but SB said it was fantastic and she really enjoyed it. they all loved the dissection, and to be fair, the home ed contingent was far less unruly than the school – possibly because being squeamish wasn’t going to be so funny as with a room of classmates!! Will flickr eventually, though notice Nic has started… BB and chris went bookshopping and cafe hopping, as the site now says no under 5′s. i asked about that, and they didn’t seem bothered, but we thought it might be a bit testing for BB, and it was the right decision, as she would have lasted 5 mins! Walking there and back we went past an art gallery [the selling kind] and SB was much taken by the contemporary art there. thinking we should go to tate modern again sometime
Afterwards we went to green park to let of steam and have a runaround, meet up with chris and bB, and have lunch. the children had loads of fun with the leaves, throwing them all over the place, burying themselves in them and climbing trees [getting told off by a couple in the process, that we then speculated about as they tried to eat their lunch!], and eventually said goodbyes and went our separate ways.
we went to the british museum. we only had a bout an hours museum time, so we wanted something to just dip into, and neither of the girls had been there before. It is, of course, an old haunt of mine! I lived in london for 7 years, and part of that time was doing a psychology degree at ULU – we went past the psychology building, the ULU building [i remember the bar and orchestra practice!] and told SB all about it – eyes agog at the thought of the enormous ULU library!
Anyway, we had a wander in and out of doors of the ground floor, just really getting a feel for the place, and stopping at things that caught their fancy. SB most taken by all the modern works of art / statues there – gold kate moss included. SHe particularly liked the piece of the man and woman and all the medicines they had taken rolled out, and pictures along the side [birth to grave stuff]. BB liked the african section best.
we spent a bit of time with the assyrians lion hunting, making sense of the frieze and counting dead lions. i was totally struck by how in the past UK and other ‘booty hunters’ had obviously gone round hacking enormous pieces off ancient cities, and couldn’t help but feel something was irretrievably lost. how much more majestic must the assyrian door entrance have been in situ etc. deed done and all, and maybe otherwise they would have been lost with ‘robbing out’ etc, but…
easy journey back on the train as we had a flask of coffee, books and nibbles to keep all happy. as we were getting off, one of my work colleagues got off too – having been in first class all that time!! irritatingly, BB fell asleep instantly on the way home and was unwakeable, but woke up at 9. grr, and SB didn’t have time to eat properly before judo, so by the time she had had dinner and got into bed it was nearly 10. after a going out day, you just need them to fall asleep quickly.
chris gone to bed, as the grumpy virus has reached him, and i am not sure they will make HE group tomorrow! both SB and BB said lots of funny things i would blog all day, and i have forgotten them all, sigh..
I think.
]they pretty much all got on like a house on fire for the whole session. we adults had a good natter [well apart from Max, who did a good job of making party tea and enabling fran to sort out the birthday cake].
bB managed really well too. she liked putting her arm up to answer questions and volunteer slightly releived he had more sense than to choose her. she did some remarkably loud yawns, but it was only after her loo break at 40 mins that she lost concentration, and insisting on scrambling over people for a mummy cuddle, rather than the next to her daddy 
but i was really impressed with her staying power. both girls would def like to go again. i did think he had a lot left to do, and rushed the last 10 mins or so, but it was good. and he didn’t mind the home ed third of the audience shouting answers rather than hands upping! but yes, SB was enthralled by the whole thing, and lovely yo meet up with friends, however briefly, so def worth the price of travelling.