Categories: uncategorized
Date: 01 November 2009 21:10:40
What is it about my sister that means that every walk we go on tends to be a wild goose chase? Her walks have gone down in family history... and don't ever let her take you on a "short cut"!
She came to visit for a couple of days, arriving Wednesday. It was so lovely to spend some time with her. I am blessed with two lovely sisters - couldn't ask for better.
Wednesday was a bit of an unsuccessful day. We decided that the Smudgelet and I would meet her from the train and we'd spend the day in London. Good plan. Except that the world and his family had the same idea. You should have seen the queues. We needed somewhere we could take her suitcase or leave it in a secure place fairly inexpensively, which also rather hampered our progress, but everywhere we went was either extortionate in cost or the queues would have kept us occupied for a couple of hours or more. Our last resort, the Imax, was sold out, so apart from watching the "statues" on the Embankment we returned home having done a grand total of not very much at all.
Thursday's activity was a trip to town and a walk in the park. Lovely. The weather was glorious and the autumn colours a delight. The walk was slightly hampered by my mobile phone ringing repeatedly. "Mum, can you come back to where you saw me last... I'm stuck in a tree!" To think I'd been saying to my sister how pleased I was that the Smudgelet seemed to be getting a bit more adventurous again - I had to rescue him from two trees, he fell out of the third and then gave it up as a bad job.
Friday we decided on a long walk along the Thames Path. Oh how I wish my camera had been working as it was another stunningly beautiful day and such a lovely walk. A long walk... along a path sadly lacking in places to stop for a drink or a bite to eat or... well, you know the other reason that two middle aged women may want to stop in the middle of a walk! But it was a lovely walk. We were walking to Ham House, armed with National Trust cards to get us in free of charge, and having checked that they definitely had a cafe. Glad we checked they definitely had a cafe... maybe we should have checked the opening DAYS as well as the opening TIMES! Hmmm... And we discovered that there's not a lot in Ham apart from Ham House. The one good thing - there is, of all things, a German delicatessen and we were able to plug a gap with frankfurters on rolls and a refreshing cup of coffee.
Then yesterday we visited the Science Museum. It was a lovely day out in that we met up with my eldest nephew and his wife. I haven't seen them for about four years. But the Science Museum itself was a bit of an ordeal for my poor eyes, I have to admit. At least it reassured me that I wasn't imagining my eye problem. I also felt a little depressed to discover half the things in the museum were things I remembered from my childhood. How DARE they suggest that our washing machine, our telly, our typewriter, our hairdryer, were historical artefacts?
At least the times I spend with my sister stay for ages in my memory. :) And it was so lovely to see her.