Hever Castle

Out of a random desire to go places and see stuff, we hired a car and headed off to Hever Castle.

This was the childhood home of Anne Boleyn - known for her poor choice in husbands - King Henry VIII.

But it also has a fantastic garden surrounding it; three types of mazes, rose and other flower beds, and a huge Italian garden. Perfect for picnics and getting away from the hustle of London life.

Elly on the other hand was learning new skills...

Kew Gardens again

We took Elly to Kew Gardens for our wedding anniversary. Where we had a lovely picnic.

Below is some of the disguised wildlife in one of the glasshouses - the Temperate House - can you spot them?

Here's some more wildlife hiding....still managed to catch them on camera!

Elly's 6 month birthday

On Saturday 14 March Elly turned 6 months old and we had a little family celebration!

Opening her presents was lots of fun, though playing with the wrapping was probably the highlight for Elly.  But neither were as much fun as eating her cake!

Red Nose Day

Wearing Stella McCartney t-shirt for Red Nose Day. It sounds more posh than it is. :)

Sitting up

Tummy time

Cheeky girl

Coffee time

Elly looking happy and alert despite almost no sleep for a couple of
nights at a local coffee shop.

Trying out the new sun hat

...is that pink I see before me.

Another gorgeous outfit Nanny knitted for me

I have joined Google Latitude

Google have released an upgrade to their maps software that can show the location of your friends. It's called Latitude

Now you and Google can spy on me...

Happy Valentines and Happy 5th month

Loving the new high chair

Little hoodie

Still working on the 'tude.

Hanging out with Leandro

Checking out Wimbledon Common in the snow

...still no Wombles.

Dressing warmly for the big snow

The big snow

Snow Day

We're having a snow day. Steve can't get into work and neither can
most of London.

Our front yard is more than a foot deep - it was hell pushing the pram
through to go to the pool. But the pool was warm and fun and Steve got
to share Elly's swimming lessons...photos and video coming soon.

And it's still snowing; normally the snow disappears pretty quickly,
but not today...nor tomorrow at the rate it's falling - what fun.

Celebrating Steve's birthday and Chinese New Year

Our little teddy bear

Loving her toys

Elly is starting to laugh and play more as she gets older and this is the look we are seeing more often these days. How lucky are we!

Snow cute!

Snow gone!

Snow!

Splashing

Following Australian tradition, we're keen to teach Elly to swim. Maybe not an Olympic swimmer just yet, but she'll have to learn to out-swim all those killer Australian aquatic animals - with all the teeth, tentacles and spines. And that's just in the backyard pool.

So we went to the local pool for the first time today. It was a nice quiet day, and was a great chance to introduce her to the new sights and smells without too much chaos.

Things we learnt today:
- Elly is just fine in the water. There was wiggling and kicking and a determined look on her face.
- Her parents are also fine in the water, though ultra paranoid.
- The pram is too wide and doesn't fit in the change rooms.
- Then the pram then has to be parked in another part of the gym completely.
- It is a two person operation to juggle everything.

An interesting side-effect is that Elly now splashes a lot more in her bath, coating the floor. It is like she has discovered her swimming legs and wants to use them in small confined spaces.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from Bridie, Steve, Elly and... Santa.

We introduced Elly to Santa today. She was clearly aware that she was in the company of someone who would be bringing her presents, and was on her best behaviour. After all, it is important to give a good first impression.

Santa Skate 2008

Once a year the London skate community have their special Santa Skate. Hundreds of skaters donate some money to the skate, get a Santa outfit and go on a tour of the major sites of London. But this year was different - I went along too!

The weather threatened icy rain, the roads threatened slippery surfaces, and Santa threatened never to visit me again. Still I braved the elements and put on my big one-size-fits-all Santa suit, complete with white fluffy beard. Fully dressed I felt as warm as Santa, especially after he drinks the sherry.


It was a great skate - mainly for attracting onlookers and bemused motorists. Good clean fun was had by all. Though it is a pity I'm going to be getting coal this year in my stocking.

Shakin' a Tailfeather - part 2

Well, since Elly was all dressed up and it was the first Friday of the month, we actually watched the Blues Brothers movie. There should be no surprise that we have it on DVD.

Elly watched on bemused as her parents got up and danced the Tailfeather together, it has been a while but the moves are still there.

Shakin' a Tailfeather

It's the first Friday of the month and Elly is ready to shake her tailfeather.

Are you my mummy?

That's right, we have been to the Dr Who exhibit at Earls Court. Steve had a day off, so we prepared for a big day out with scary monsters and special effects. Prepare to be amazed!

The exhibit focuses on the latest series with Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant - with their sets, costumes and creatures. For example the gas mask from possibly the spookiest episode ever, where a child follows people around asking "Are you my Mummy?"

The exhibit has been on for a while.... and it shows. The moving parts of the exhibit just seemed to creak, if they moved at all. But it was good to be there on a weekday - there were only 3 other people and we barely saw them. So we had K9, Cybermen and Daleks to ourselves.

Along the way we made some buff new friends. Here's Bridie up on stage with some metallic gogo dancers:

Even Elly got to meet a Dalek. Though clearly she is immune to the terror associated with the Supreme Commanders of the Universe...

Hoodie

...and Dad's been teaching me to poke my tongue out!

Look what my Nanny knitted for me

Don't I look pretty - Nanny Shirley knitted this for me and it arrived yesterday - I couldn't wait to try it on!

Check out my groovy tights

Sounds like...

Happy Halloween

Wishing everyone a Happy Halloween - hope you like my outfit - what you can't see are the cute socks that look like orange cowboy boots - Mum's crap with a camera sometimes.

Love Elly xxx

Look who's smiling

Despite the rumours of grumbles and grizzles, Elly is starting to smile - and it is no longer wind!

We've met Humphrey

Whilst out and about in John Lewis, we ran into Humphrey

Humphrey is 3 years old.

He is a gentle and soft elephant.

Sometimes he gets a bit noisy (if he is being an indian) or grumpy when he gets tired but usually Mummy says what a good boy he is.

Contrasted with Elly who is 6 weeks old, a gentle and soft siren who tends to be noisy and grumpy when she is not asleep. Otherwise Bridie will agree that she is a perfect princess.

PS. We still didn't find what we wanted at John Lewis.

Pink

Our house is slowly going pink.

Bridie has never been a pink person. I think it has always been a bit too girly for her. And since we didn't know if we would have an Ally or Elly, we had managed to avoid pink presents too.

But no longer.

Not only do we now get lots of pink presents (which I find adorable), I have also taken the step of washing my red T-shirt with lightly coloured clothes. As a result we now have lots of pink stuff.

Except for the angry red look Bridie gives me whenever the topic of T-shirts comes up.

Happy 1 month birthday!

Elly has turned one month old.

We even came close to being awake for her actual arrival time of 2.43am (thanks to Miss Elly herself)

Britax Vigour 3+ roadtest and review

You may have noticed that our blog seems to be less about travelling and London life, and more about our new baby. It seems that the title above ('ramble about the travels and trials of London life') might be inaccurate to some degree now - or at least more trial and less travel.

We can solve this by unifying them into one big blog posting - about how we get our baby Elly to travel in London. If you don't want to read about prams/buggies then stop now.

When we went buggy shopping we wanted something small, light and zippy. So we chose the Britax Vigour 3+ - which is different to the Vigour 3 because it has a plus after it. Apparently. (I guess upping the model number to 4 was impossible because that is what they call their 4 wheel buggy)

Pros:
- Big wheels. I have always believed in theatre you can't beat a big prop. The same goes for wheels.
- Great maneuverability. Goes around corners easily, and can steer one-handed. Perfect for the mother-on-the-go-using-a-mobile-phone.
- Fits in the back of a VW Golf for when we use Streetcar.
- Wheels come off for fitting in even smaller cars. Actually got it in the foot well in the back seat of a small car.
- Not too expensive - at least compared to other options.

Cons:
- A pivoting front wheel can be a problem when making a big step up or down onto a curb as it can turn to the side and go off at an angle. Front wheel is lockable but at the expense of maneuverability.
- Wheels are soft plastic, but still somewhat solid - so can seem a bit hard against edges. Still Elly doesn't seem to mind too much.
- Back wheels are too wide to go down a bus aisle. This of course puts you at the mercy of bus drivers to open the rear doors. Though looking at the aisles, I'm not sure how any buggy could get down them.

We aren't even using the seat part right now as Elly is too small. Instead we have the Baby Safe Sleeper - a cot attachment that can be used directly in the backseat of a car. It also clips directly into the buggy, so Elly can go from house, to buggy, to car, and back again - all without waking her up.

Pros:
- one cot suits all - therefore minimising waking the princess.
- saves on buying a separate cot and car seat.
- attaches using the existing seat belts.

Cons:
- Heavy
- Fiddly one-hand release system doesn't always disengage. Combined with the weight makes it difficult to get Elly in and out of the buggy.
- I think it will only last 6 months before she outgrows it.
- Requires 2 of the 3 seats in the rear.
- Can be a bit fiddly to attach the seat belts to the hooks.
- Has a big unattractive Britax logo on the front

Summary
Are we happy - yes. Elly loves going on the bus, can sleep through the melee at Sainsburys & Tesco, and she draws stares because it looks a bit different.

Out and about in South Park Gardens

Elly had her first trip to the park today.

Unfortunately the weather wasn't quite what we had requested - instead of warm sunshine, we got cold, grey and raining. Not at all surprising in October really. So Elly was rugged up nice and warm, loaded into her hot rod buggy and given a protective rain cover.

I have this urge to paint flames down the side of the buggy - or to give it go faster stripes. But Bridie insists that would not be the sort of carriage for a lady. I offered to bling it out in pink and frills, but that idea didn't even get acknowledged. Perhaps it is best I'm not left in charge of decorating. (Though I might have to fit a GPS unit on there when Bridie isn't looking - just to geek it up a bit)

On a sunny day this park is normally packed with young families. So much that you can barely see green grass for the number of blankets, picnics, Frisbees and kids. We almost had the park to ourselves today - except for a gardener and a posh man in a suit who seemed out of place. Maybe he was escaping from the credit crunch.

Elly in action

A video from one of her happier (and quieter) moments...

Elly and a squeaky friend

Almost 2 weeks old

And still so tiny...

Day 5 - relaxing

This is Elly in one of her more peaceful moments. I could easily waste an entire day looking at her, if we weren't so flat out looking after her.

Preparing to hit the town

Zzzzzz....

It is amazing how long it takes to get her organised for a day out. After the clothes selection, packing, nappy changing, feeding, cleaning up the sick, extra packing, another nappy change, the list goes on and on. While she gets exactly what she wants.

In the end we got as far as our local Mothercare store before the excitement all got too much for her. So Bridie wheeled her home, and I was left holding the shopping list.

Day 3 in the big world

This is Eleanor doing her standard "I surrender" pose.

She came out with fantastically sharp fingernails. So the mittens are there to protect her little face, keep her hands warm and prevent her from gouging a hole out of her loving parents who get too close.

This is probably one of few photos where Eleanor is not wriggling around... much

Day 1. Eleanor Rose Bauer arrives

I'm not going to go into the gory details of the birth. But let's just cover a few points:
- I was exhausted and I was just the support crew
- Baby's are cute - a friend recently remarked that that really is their survival tactic.
- nothing prepares you for meconium
- birth plans are just that - plans. Anything could happen and for us it mostly did. About half of ours was trashed as events unfolded.
- Your midwife is crucial. We got a very good one and are very very thankful for it.

Anyway... we'll tell you the details some time.

Fruit predictions

This tomato grew in our garden last week. The product of random events seems to have created a boy tomato. Specifically a boy tomato that is happy to see us.

Now we didn't know the sex of our new baby, and I sorta believed this was a sign of what was coming. That and Bridie kept dreaming about having a son. It seemed that the pointers to the future were pointers ... if you get my drift.

But it turns out that you can't trust fruit in these matters. I think the best place for this tomato is in a sandwich.

Thames Barrier

Ian and I headed into London to check out the Thames Barrier on the weekend. It's big, shiny and stops flooding.

Now I have been damming small rivers since I was a kid, with rocks, sticks and mud. I could spend hours trying to halt the flow, with only temporary success. Sometimes Bridie even thought I was a beaver.

But this takes it to new levels. They can block the entire Thames in case of a super high tide and prevent all of London flooding. And, with any luck, they will be more successful than I was.