Lovely weekend en extended famille

Dad and Jean arrived on Friday evening, not long after Hazel and Luke departed having drunk the gin supplies dry….. and introducing me to the dubious delights of Celebrity Love Island. Phil was so overwhelmed that he escaped to his computer….

On Saturday we walked over to Borough Market, mooched around and made limited purchases – including a lovely housewarming cheese platter plate from Jean. Leaving Phil to do food shopping and drama, we three walked on to the Imperial War Museum. Fortified by coffee and cake we visited their special exhibition on The Children’s World War II. It’s weird to think that dad was one of those kids – doubly so when the first item to trigger the nostalgia was a Mickey Mouse gas mask, which looked disturbingly like the one in the recent Dr Who episode that had Phil and I hiding behind our hands. It was a fascinating exhibition.

After more looking around at the WWI War Artists gallery and a restorative lunch in the cafe we caught the bus back to base. After a relaxing few hours with the papers, and ‘persuading’ dad to watch Dr Who aided and abetted by an aperitif, we wandered over to Carluccio’s in Smithfield for a very nice dinner.

On Sunday, dad and Jean went to church in our ‘local’, St Pauls (!), leaving Phil and I to rustle up a scrummy Sunday lunch, with nigel Slater’s ever-reliable cook book providing the roasting recipe for the Borough-Market-bought chicken. Phil’s parents arrived soon after midday and the meeting of the parents took place. With hindsight, I think I expected to be more nervous about it at the time, but it was all very easy, which was lovely.

We all walked off lunch exploring the Barbican conservatory, which is really more of an over-sized greenhouse than anything more Kew-Gardens-like, which I think it could have been. Phil found out that it was designed to hide the towers that house the stage scenery, and the greenery does that very well. There were some gorgeous cactus flowers in bloom, and you get some unusual views of the Barbican.

~ I’ve just done a search to ge a link for the Conservatory, and as well as the one from Barbican Living, I found http://www.explore-london.co.uk/ with its pretty nifty images of the Barbican, and this collection of photos of the City Highwalks ~

Tea and cake then homeward for the grown ups, leaving Phil and I to watch The OC…. we’ve a backlog to clear you know!!

One thought on “Lovely weekend en extended famille”

Comments are closed.