Busy days, part 3
We might between get round to writing parts 1, 2 and 4 but this is yesterday’s stuff before I forget.
We went down to London for the Breastfeeding Picnic on Parliament Square, to try to get the law outside Scotland clarified and strengthened in favour of protecting breastfeeding mums.
It was our first train journey from what is now our local station, so we had to find which platform etc. On the way down we tried to catch up a bit with Story of the World. As ever, I learned along with the children as my history is so poor - we did the Crusades, Richard I, Blondel, King John, the Magna Carta, and Robin Hood! Reading about the Magna Carta was very appropriate given that we were heading off to Parliament.
When we got there we had to take our life in our hands as Parliament Square is essentially a large, very busy, roundabout. There are lights and pedestrian crossings on the roads that lead up to the roundabout, but nothing to get you onto the roundabout itself. It’s also where Brian Haw lives - coincidence? 
While the children played parachute games with other protesting children, and Katy joined in the activist breastfeeding with A, I got lunch from a Tesco Express just opposite Parliament. It is certainly the least pleasant Tesco I have ever been in - designed to cater for MPs popping out for a sandwich and no other kinds of customer - one long queue down a single aisle to check-out staff who refuse to let you put your purchases in your own bag because they’re so much in the routine of giving you a fresh bag and they’re huuugely busy. When I fought my way back through the general ant colony Central London crowds I was struck by the comparison. Here was Parliament all iconic and important and grown-up, and all the crowds of adults in business clothes rushing about, and then also children playing on the grass and colouring in pictures, and mums feeding their babies. I felt we were reclaiming that bit of London for whole-ness.
Lord Avebury made an appearance, unfortunately while the organiser was feeding the meter. I didn’t realise who he was until afterwards, but he did look like a Lord: very smartly dressed, kindly elderly but spritely grandfather figure with a sense of quiet authority. Also a random MP showed up who seemed quite keen on proving his credentials by flashing his House of Commons ID card to lots of people.
The children and I looked around the statues - Churchill, Nelson Mandela (who unfortunately looked a bit like a zombie), Lloyd George looking flatulent / windswept, Jan Smuts looking like he was ice skating or ballet dancing and Palmerston - most of whom were just vaguely important names to me until just now when I added links to them ;-).
The police started blocking the road down one side of the square, and then a marching band went by with red coats, busbies and playing their instruments. Behind them was a column of troops, still in desert uniform, just returned from Iraq. They all marched into the Houses of Parliament somewhere.
After the picnic ended we had some time to fill before we could catch a train back, so we hummed and hah’d a bit and decided to go into Westminster Hall (the 1,000 year old, original, bit of the Parliament buildings) with its fabulous hammer beam roof. There was an exhibition about Parliament (more learning for me) and on the way in we nearly bumped into Des Browne, who was meeting important men in suits and uniforms (related to the soldiers who marched in earlier).
When we were chucked out of the exhibition at closing time we were starting to flag, so went to the cafe. It was interesting to see screens up showing what was being debated in the two houses, and who was talking. The cafe was great - stone vaulted ceilings, friendly staff, a nice cup of fairly traded tea for 75p, water jugs, lots of recycling bins and slightly bizarrely a small bottle of tabasco next to the little pots of UHT milk for your tea etc. I’d recommend it more highly if you didn’t have to wait 15 minutes to go through airport style security to get in!
The tube from the Houses of Parliament is surprisingly poor so we strolled along the Thames from Boudica (who J identified from the fact that she was a woman fighting in a chariot with blades on the wheels) to Cleopatra’s Needle, passing the Battle of Britain memorial and the London Eye on the opposite bank. Sorry about even more links than usual, but there’s loads of stuff that I’m discovering only when I set up the links, like the fact that the 32 capsules of the London Eye represent the 32 London boroughs.
We hopped on the tube for a couple of stops to have tea at Food for Thought. As ever the food was fantastic, and no trip to central London is complete for us without strawberry and banana scrunch from there to eat on the train home. We managed to just miss a train, but the one we caught was an express. I read a bit of Pippi Longstocking to K and L (J had already finished it) - another case of me experiencing something for the first time with my children. It’s excellent.
By the time we’d got home it was very late, but it had been a very good day. A tried to add excitement before bedtime by having a small climbing accident in the kitchen, and biting her tongue - loads of blood and little craters made in her tongue. She seemed OK soon afterwards, but she’s going through the extreme toddlerhood phase at the minute which results in lots of bumps and bruises. Photos on Flickr, apart from A’s blood-letting. We managed to forget both cameras, which was in some ways liberating as all we had was the feeble camera on my phone, so we didn’t stress too much over getting brilliant photos, but some turned out OK (as long as you don’t blow them up too big).
July 22nd, 2008 at 6:40 pm
Good for you! I’d have liked to have come, but baulked at the thought of 4 kids + Parliament Square.