Queens House / Museum Greenwich

My brother in law was visiting for a week so of course, we decided to the do the Tourist thing and head to Greenwich.

I must admit that I have wanted to visit Queen's House for some time and also the Museum next door. The architecture of Queen's House was a treat but I must admit I found most the paintings dull. The only one that I found fascinating was the one of Queen Elizabeth I that was a propaganda machine in action! The House is very easy to get around with a pushchair and the staff were very lovely about letting us in via the ramp entrance.

The Naval museum next door was also interesting. You could get up close to the boats and I enjoyed the P&O exhibition. Even the ubiquitous crowd of surly French students didn't dent my enjoyment. You aren't allowed to take pushchairs upstairs but an area is provided to store them. (Was a bit annoyed to see woman with pushchair on higher floor but hey ho). The cafe area is big and open and has the most marvelous window ceiling that I am sure would be amazing to be under in a thunder/lightning storm.

We then proceeded to stroll through Greenwich park up to the Observatory that was thronged with people from everywhere. And stood on the GMT line again. My only regret is that we didn't manage to get into the Planetarium.

After a quick dinner in the Gourmet burger place we took a final walk around the ruins of the Cutty Sark. Its a shame things have changed here...in my younger days I remember visiting and taking a pleasant stroll along the waterfront. Maybe when the renovations are complete, the Council will do something about that.

Paddling peeps!

Went to the Winn's Common playground today and saw the paddling pool is full of water. There were even kids playing in it.
Mine is still a bit young methinks but what a great thing to have especially on hot days. Bummer that the next week forecast is mostly rain but lets hope the pool stays open.
We had fun just running around the Common which I noticed is less poo-ridden than Plumstead common. Fun fun fun!

Dreading summer

Some of the classes I take tot to are winding down now as it's summertime. Even the regular playgroup that she loves is only going to run for one session a week and will stop mid August.
I am starting to be filled with a sense of dread that all the playgroups are going to be filled with older children and my poor tot who is on the small side is going to get trampled on. She already shows signs of nervousness around larger tots...how will she cope with larger, older ones?
I think I am going to be spending a lot of time in the park just kicking around a ball and trying to keep her entertained in our garden until blissful September rolls by.
Any suggestions for how to entertain a little one would be gratefully received.

Echoes in our nursery rhyme

My tot is learning to speak. One manifestation of this is to try to sing nursery rhymes but she usually only sings a word or two at the end of a sentence. It's an odd feeling that she no longer just sits there sweetly while I sing to her...its become a competition now.
One where there are demands for certain songs and strong outbursts of No! if I sing the one she doesn't want to hear.
So far this week, I have sung Ally, Bally,Ally Bally Bee at 16 times. I'm not sure I can take much more. I may become wicked and make up new rhymes each day to ensure there is no attempt to disrupt my melodic sessions.

Death by Norton 360

Been offline for a few days thanks to Norton 360 which killed my laptop. I luckily had made a backup of files a week ago (first time in years!). Unfortunately, Nero also played naughty and I only managed to restore some stuff.
After rebuilding my laptop, installing Norton 360 again, trying to restore backup, seeing death again, raging at the machine, rebuilding again, restoring with some success without Norton - I concluded that it was the work of the devil so I would get a refund.
The only good thing I can say about Symantec corp is that I got my refund very quickly last night at 1am. Makes me think they are dealing with Norton death so regularly that they have the refund machine working efficiently.
So now I'm on the hunt for a AV that won't kill my laptop!