I have a large group of nieces and nephews ‘young and old’ and I love spending time with them. I wear them out and give them back and then they annoy everyone, telling them about their fun Aunty in London. They then say things like ‘when I grow up I’m coming to London and I’ll live in your house’, sweet but, ‘Not happening’….
A couple of weeks ago my best friend Liz was in London for work and during the day I had fun with Holly her boisterous 8 year old daughter. I’ve known my best mate Liz since we were 7 years old when we were oh soooo grown-up and coincidentally so is Holly.
Holly and I made a plan and listed out all of the things that we would do and see whilst together in London (3 days). After some discussion we agreed that on the first day we would stay fairly local in South East London. It’s fair to say that we took SE London on with a vengeance and we conquered a 4 mile patch of it.
Holly loved the Cable car near the O2 and North Greenwich tube, which took us across the Thames it was “cool” (if heights aren’t your thing you may want to give it a miss!) and we couldn’t get enough of waving at the passing cars and seeing the mostly smiling faces with added waves in response . We had a bit of a competition on waves and smile, she won hands down!! Holly wasn’t too happy that she had to be 10 to scale the O2, but something for the future, she’s already making a plan for a party on the O2 when she is 10, ‘if its available of course’.
The Thames Barrier was a hit and the slide and little playground there, a bonus. Racing through the tunnel and analysing the Thames river path depicted on the wall beside us was very informative. We visited the animals at the farm in Maryon Wilson Park in Charlton, the funny quirky mix of chickens with hats (very ornate) made us laugh, the deer and the pigs were also firm favourites. We then crossed over to Charlton Park where we used the outside gym and kids playground, checked-out the Jacobean Mansion there and finally relaxed for 30mins with a picnic and drinks from the cute little cafe in the hut. An ice cream was bought in Charlton village and we made our way home.
A little money was spent but a lot of the activities were free and resulted in a happy sleepy child and Aunty who both slept soundly until 10am. The following morning I was awoken by a gentle nudge and an ‘ ok so today it’s Shrek and the Eye, get up!’ To be continued……
