Fortunately, William seemed to escape with only a small dose of the pox so the trip to London was well and truly on. It must have been something like 13 years since the last time I was in the Big Smoke, and I've always loved London so I was really looking forward to floating about the city again and doing a solo trip with William had a wee extra air of excitement around it. I was all prepared, we were both very excited, and Iain dropped us at Lourdes airport on the Friday at lunchtime.
I had quite a reasonable timeframe worked out for getting to the Saville Club but my estimates were quickly thrown out as the boarding for the flight dragged on, and on, and on. By the time we finally took off, we were over an hour and a quarter behind schedule. It was funny coming into Stanstead; I've been there so many times but virtually none of it was familiar. I think I spent the vast majority of of my 20s in a total trance! I'd pre-booked ticket for the Stanstead Express so we got straight down to the platform and a train was just about to leave. Perfect timing. An hour later and we were in Central London and ready to embark on the madness of the Tube. Now this was familiar! William was amazing. Listening to all my instructions about where to go, and when to hold my hand, and asking lots of questions about everything. You could see people all around us melting as his cute wee voice piped up: "Mum! What... ... ..."
We finally arrived at the Saville Club about 8.45pm. It had been a long day but we'd made it. Sheena and Ronnie were already there and very excited to see us (William). We managed to get some food sent up from the restaurant, had a much needed glass of wine, caught up with Nanny and Papa and finally fell into bed at about 11pm. William was exhausted.
We had quite a bit of time to kill on the Saturday before the wedding kicked off so I decided that I would take William down to Buckingham Palace. His only real link to this iconic building is that it's in the Minions movie (come on, he's three!), so he was utterly raging that he didn't see any weird looking yellow guys hanging around outside it. The weather was also crazy windy when we were there as you'll see from the photos. We met up with Gregor, Emma and Ronnie and wandered back up through Green Park to get the tube back to the Saville Club. Smart me also grabbed some sandwiches on the way home. You can often end up starving during the day part of a wedding!
Before we knew it, we were all downstair in our glad rags, ready for the main event of the weekend: Anna & Matthew's wedding! It was an amazing day. Anna looked beautiful in a very unusual dress with lots of colours instead of the traditional white, and Matthew's attire was also quite something else! Matthew had a best woman, rather than a best man, and she'd decided to dress in top hat and tails for the day. The whole guest list was just full of really cool, alternative people. It was short but lovely ceremony, then it was canapés upstairs followed by a beautiful meal. The speeches were all pretty standard apart from Matthew's that is. It was hilarious! I don't know if it was hilariously bad, but it was hilarious. Woodsie and I were at the same table, and he was in all sorts! Brilliant.
The rest of the evening passed in a total blur. A red wine blur that is. And that's likely to happen at a free bar. Ooops.
Sunday morning was brutal. I was ill and didn't even make breakfast. Sheena ended up taking William down for a feed. Classy parenting! I wasn't actually heading back to France until Monday so had jacked up a night on Legs' sofa but, as it was her Hen Weekend in Newcastle, she wasn't going to be home until late afternoon / early evening meaning I had a whole day to kill. Fortunately, Woodsie and the girls weren't flying back to Glasgow until early evening so we put all our stuff into storage at the Saville Club and headed out for a much needed wander. Woodsie was as dusty as me so fresh air, water, and having the kids together to entertain each other was exactly what we needed. We weren't staying that far from Hyde Park so we started wandering towards there and then decided to head on towards the Princess Diana Memorial Playground. It was the best thing we could've done. The playground was amazing and the kids absolutely loved getting to run wild after all the best-behaviour stuff from the Saturday. There was even a cafe so everyone got a feed (I had a banana and a cereal bar!) and they explored all the different sections to the playground while Woodsie and I battled on.
Spot Woodsie, having some quiet time:
We all headed back to the Savile Club in the late afternoon, collected our luggage and wandered towards the tube. These guys were heading to the airport and William and I were on a different line to go and meet Legs at Tower Bridge. Once again, my love of floating about London was indulged, and William, who had already walked further than his wee legs had ever carried him, did amazingly. Always listening to instructions and asking all sorts of questions about where we were going. His love of trains and things that move certainly kept him entertained! Finally, we arrived into London Bridge tube around 4.45pm and started wandering along towards Legs' place. William kept asking, "Is that her? Is that her?" to every woman that walked towards us and finally, yes, it was her! So, so good seeing her again. It's just been so bloody long. We hung out at the flat for a while for a cup of tea and a catch up, I met Marc again albeit briefly, and then we walked round the corner to Pizza Express for dinner. It was absolutely perfect. An early, child friendly dinner with lots of GF options to boot. It was exactly what I needed after the mad tiring day we'd had. We got back to the flat, made up the beds and William crashed out. I checked my phone and we'd walked over 10k. No wonder he was knackered! It was really brilliant catching up with Legs, especially in her home from home and seeing what her life is like in London. It's an amazing spot she's got there. Hopefully it won't be too long until we head over again for another visit.
Our flight out of Stanstead on the Monday was at lunchtime around 12.30. I decided that we needed to be away from Legs' place by about 8.45 to get the tube to Liverpool Street for the Stanstead express. When we arrived at the station there was a train leaving in less than 10mins. We grabbed some fruit and snacks in Boots and managed to catch the train. It was perfect. But Stanstead wasn't perfect. The London Marathon had been on the day before and the airport was absolutely packed out with runners all trying to get home. And it seemed like they were all flying with Ryanair. We finally got our bags checked and went to security which was also mobbed. By the time we got through, we just had time to grab some sandwiches etc (GF on the run is much easier in the UK) and get to the gate before the flight was called. It's mental. It was pretty much four hours from leaving Legs' place until the flight was taking off. We'd taken some photos on our way to the tube but other than that we'd kept a steady pace and it was still quite tight. I'm so glad we made that train otherwise I'd have been panicking. I was also checking and re-checking we were on the right train given my experience with Angie Dobbins back in the day!
LM :)
I had quite a reasonable timeframe worked out for getting to the Saville Club but my estimates were quickly thrown out as the boarding for the flight dragged on, and on, and on. By the time we finally took off, we were over an hour and a quarter behind schedule. It was funny coming into Stanstead; I've been there so many times but virtually none of it was familiar. I think I spent the vast majority of of my 20s in a total trance! I'd pre-booked ticket for the Stanstead Express so we got straight down to the platform and a train was just about to leave. Perfect timing. An hour later and we were in Central London and ready to embark on the madness of the Tube. Now this was familiar! William was amazing. Listening to all my instructions about where to go, and when to hold my hand, and asking lots of questions about everything. You could see people all around us melting as his cute wee voice piped up: "Mum! What... ... ..."
Sunday morning was brutal. I was ill and didn't even make breakfast. Sheena ended up taking William down for a feed. Classy parenting! I wasn't actually heading back to France until Monday so had jacked up a night on Legs' sofa but, as it was her Hen Weekend in Newcastle, she wasn't going to be home until late afternoon / early evening meaning I had a whole day to kill. Fortunately, Woodsie and the girls weren't flying back to Glasgow until early evening so we put all our stuff into storage at the Saville Club and headed out for a much needed wander. Woodsie was as dusty as me so fresh air, water, and having the kids together to entertain each other was exactly what we needed. We weren't staying that far from Hyde Park so we started wandering towards there and then decided to head on towards the Princess Diana Memorial Playground. It was the best thing we could've done. The playground was amazing and the kids absolutely loved getting to run wild after all the best-behaviour stuff from the Saturday. There was even a cafe so everyone got a feed (I had a banana and a cereal bar!) and they explored all the different sections to the playground while Woodsie and I battled on.
Our flight out of Stanstead on the Monday was at lunchtime around 12.30. I decided that we needed to be away from Legs' place by about 8.45 to get the tube to Liverpool Street for the Stanstead express. When we arrived at the station there was a train leaving in less than 10mins. We grabbed some fruit and snacks in Boots and managed to catch the train. It was perfect. But Stanstead wasn't perfect. The London Marathon had been on the day before and the airport was absolutely packed out with runners all trying to get home. And it seemed like they were all flying with Ryanair. We finally got our bags checked and went to security which was also mobbed. By the time we got through, we just had time to grab some sandwiches etc (GF on the run is much easier in the UK) and get to the gate before the flight was called. It's mental. It was pretty much four hours from leaving Legs' place until the flight was taking off. We'd taken some photos on our way to the tube but other than that we'd kept a steady pace and it was still quite tight. I'm so glad we made that train otherwise I'd have been panicking. I was also checking and re-checking we were on the right train given my experience with Angie Dobbins back in the day!
Before we knew it, we were coming into Lourdes. It felt like we'd been away for about a week but it had been absolutely brilliant. William was such a fun we travelling companion and I am already looking forward to our next mum and son trip together!
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