Déjà Vu

If you have been reading me for a while then you might see a similarity to my posts when I go to London with a child or two. Last year I took Helen to London for a one on one mother and daughter day. I love these days. The dynamics change so much when your child has your exclusive attention. While I do wonderful things with the two of them together, days like today are very good for all of us too. And today was Emily's turn. The delay in her turn to go was only because she wanted to save money for this outing. She finally deemed that she had enough and off we went.

Our first stop was Oxford Circus. Emily wanted to look at clothes. I think that for a child to take their own money to a shop and decide for themselves what they wish to buy is a huge step in growing up. Such a responsibility, and it gives them a better sense of the value of money.

Plus, what a great girlie moment - wallowing in clothes shopping!

Our next stop in London is pretty well written in stone.

Chinatown.
Woohoo!
(Careful cultivation of a love of food since birth
means the girls get as excited about this as I do.)

Emily looked like this on arrival.

But a quick visit to the ladies with her shopping bags
and she transformed had to her new look.

Then there was the food!
Yay!

Gratuitous photos of food mostly to make the child who wasn't there sick with envy.

And I just love that the girls are so proficient with chopsticks now. Only Emily got to practise today though, obviously.

When we could eat no more we headed out for the other inevitable stop (for the present time at least) when we go to London. The Sylvanian Family shop. Those with a natural aversion to these toys please look away now.

After much humming and ha-ing purchases were made and catalogues for half the girls in their school were obtained. I got to carry the bag containing those. Lucky me.

Happily the time for the cultural element in the day arrived. Emily decided on the Natural History Museum after a long debate with herself. Does this façade ever fail to impress?

Unfortunately that façade had a line up in front of it that was long. Very, very long. Too long to stand in long. But, on the bright side, there are two absolutely fantastic museums within spitting distance. So we went over to the V&A. (Stop grinning, Nicky!) And we had a fabulous little wander. Emily was particularly taken with some Chinese artifacts and the fact that there was a Ming vase of about 450 years of age that she was allowed to touch. How often do you get to touch something that old during your lifetime? (If one person cracks a joke about my age I will --- well, I'm not sure what I'll do, but I'll think of something!)

We eventually returned to Marylebone for our journey home only to find it swarming with (noisy) football supporters. I was very much relieved to find that our train was not stopping at Wembley on our journey home!

Susan