Sunday, November 05, 2006

The Fantastic Five

We had a magnificent trip to London with all five boys on Friday. The family railcard made it all very affordable. The spirit and endurance of the boys made it a joy.
A travellers tale would bore the arse of you all, but we took in:
The Tower of London
River cruise to Westminster
Walk along the Embankment and up to Covent Garden
Cookies and ice cream in Covent Garden
The Tintin shop
Dinner at Giraffe on Essex Road with John and Rachel Dixon, godparents of the oldest, first meeting with the twins and the youngest.

I can't believe how much Islington has changed. Even in 1999 (my era) there were more places to buy a candlestick than anything useful. Now it's changing again. Even Tesco has had to shut a petrol station to make way for apartments, All Bar One has gone, Clone Zone can't even make a fist of it (fnarr, fnarr) and the bookshop on Camden Passage has long since vanished. Alfredo's cafe on Essex Road had given up in about 1998, it's now open again as a slightly inauthentic sausage and mash gaff.

Still busy, still buzzy and high in my affections.

They boys loved Giraffe, even if the fish fingers were a bit of a surprise (salmon). Can't wait for that one to come to Manchester. They even coped admirably with Islington at mad hour and the cancellation of the train coming back.

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