Life in London – It feels so normal

The last few days has brought about a bit of a shift of perspective. On Tuesday we went to surprise a friend of mine at her work, and let her know of our stay in London. But now we have now gone from feeling like we were on holidays, to feeling like this life in London… this adventure, that it is just normal life.

It all started when we went to our friend’s work. She was out to lunch so we were able to tuck ourselves away in a corner of the office cafe while her co-workers organised a nice little surprise “meeting” that she would have to go to when she returned (where she would find us).

She was surprised. So all the secrecy (and little bit of lying) paid off.

Since then we have done Christmas Shopping, picked up our BRP cards, and organised the husband’s bank meeting and NIN forms.

But the most normal life has felt was this weekend. We met a friend and her dear little boy at Earl’s Court Station. She was standing waiting for us next to the TARDIS!!! I can not tell you how happy the boy was!

After grabbing some hot drinks from Pret, we walked to a nearby park and the kids played. We chased squirrels, chatted about the expensive housing market in London (and the UK in general) and drank our coffee/hot chocolate.

Our children tried to teach our friend’s much younger little boy how to play ‘Hide and Seek’, which was very amusing. He is just adorable.

It was so very, very normal.

In the afternoon we decided to catch the tube to Covent Garden (one of my favourite places when I lived here before). Everyone loved it there. If we were to start a life in London we would go to Covent Garden every weekend. We roamed the cobbled streets, watched street performers, sipped mulled wine, climbed a giant lego train, went to the lolly shop and had lunch.

It was lovely when we first got there (about 11:30am on a Saturday) but by the time we left (4pm) it is was flat out busy! So busy that when we left we walked down to the tube to find hundreds of people queueing to get to the trains. We decided to take the underground worker’s advice and walk down to Leicester Square station instead.

Life in London is so great if for no other reason than you get to roam around. It is always busy and there’s always something interesting to look at. Whether it is the Christmas lights, old business advertising still painted on the side of buildings that are now being used for new businesses (e.g. “carriage manufactory”), pristine looking women dressed for an evening out, or all the pubs serving their english fare on every second street corner.

The one thing that stresses me out is that the cars (in particular the cabs) don’t really worry about how close they come to the curb. TheSon has nearly been cleaned up twice from standing too close. Thankfully we have learnt our lesson on making sure he stands well back from the curb.

He also says people in Australia are nicer because they only cross the streets when the green man says they can walk. He is a little bit perturbed by the amount of people that cross the street when they are not allowed and is constantly commenting on how they must be naughty people. At least we have taught him when he is allowed to cross the street (good parenting – tick).

Today we met our friends at the Science Museum.

The science museum is located near the South Kensington Tube station. If you catch the tube, there’s a tunnel to the science museum. It’s great for wet weather. Instead, we decided to catch the bus to Exhibition Road and walk to the museum (about an eight minute walk). The buses are slower than the tube but you see more of the city (and they are a lot cheaper).

The science museum is a free exhibition, they just ask for a donation as you enter. It makes it really good value because you can split up your visits. We didn’t feel like we needed to spend our whole day there to make the most of the ticket price.

We looked at three sections of the museum; space travel, industrial age and a ‘who am i’ (about genetics and how we become who we are).

The kids found it really interesting, but they weren’t really in an educational mood. They loved the more computery/gamey/techy things. There’s a lot of take in there though; I think their brains were getting so full. Plus it is very dark in there. I think even our kids were in sensory overload so for kids with sensory issues it would be difficult.

We had a great day all in all!

We are looking forward to a day at the flat tomorrow though. Another day that will make life in london feel like a normal thing. ArgeyDad is off to finalise his NIN paperwork while the children and I stay at home. It will be a welcome rest.