Smelly London again
Posted under: East London, 31/8-2/9 2010
The Sun Slidding Down Behind The Olympic Site
The time had come to visit my sister and her family in London again. So it was on to the 6 hour train journey on a busy train where I had a sandwich and plum drama, leaving myself little to eat, my walkman phone (cheap in the meantime one after the last took a leap down a drain) decided it only wanted to play music for 20 mins before going all weird and when I got on some woman was asleep in my booked seat! All in all not the best journey. However my sister meet me at kings cross with her beautiful girls and guided me back through the underground maze to her flat in east London. Where we played with pearl, stitch, McMickey and McMinne until the girls dad traumatised them with a surprise McMickey attack. After the girls had eaten, well thrown around, their dinner and they’d had their baths, the sun set over the Olympic site with a flash of colour and bringing beauty to the overly huamised area. I may detest London but it does have its moments. Natural beauty sliding down behind industrial construction. Leaning out the window on my tiptoes and balancing the camera on the frame I squeezed off a few shots with a a low ISO and not too low a shutter speed so I wouldn’t flood sensor with light and lose the colour in the sky, there’s always more light at twilight than the naked eye sees.
The next day we had a trip to Valentines park after Georgie had tried to sneak out the door in her dads work bag. We had a lovely and not too expensive lunch there and enjoyed the sunshine in the haven of the lovely old mansion grounds. We all played in the shade of a tree and I let my sister take control of the camera and although she was terrified of dropping it, she didn’t do too bad at all. In order to let the girls sleep a while we wandered around the park, which is small but enjoyable and had a wee look in the mansion and wondered at how there were different rooms for different times of day, to go with the different outfits I assume. If I had that there would be a large part of the day I would have to stay in the bathroom, wonder if it is better to make that the morning room as the afternoon one? Then it was back on the dirty tubes with all the rude people and through the busy stations with lifts not working so had to lift the double buggy up the stairs. God knows what you’re meant to do if you’re in a wheelchair! Then more photo fun at home with the girls, more throwing food around and smiling and laughing at each other and climbing and crawling or belly dragging and standing and bouncing. All in all a good day. By the end of it we were all shattered even McMickey who Tabby was tentatively touching again. So just after 10 I settled down to the lights of the city spreading out to forever over the horizon and worried about how Errols paw was to be fixed and if he could stay together until we got home.
On my last day after Tabby tried to sneak out in daddys bag (well anything her sister can do she can do too), we whiled away the morning with play in the cage, sorry the fabulous fun arena or play palace until nap time. Once naps were over we did a quick football photo shoot for a special photo for our grandad. My sister had both an England and a Scotland top, though she claims she only bought the England one to impress her now husband and only wore it once exclusively for him. So we dressed the girls in them and Georgie was not happy, but not surprising as she was in the England one. They say in the photo business, never work with children and animals and I can see why, we didn’t have much time and Georgie wouldn’t smile and they kept looking away for the camera, but we did get some very cute shots.
Tabby and Georgie on their football shoot
After this it was back to kings cross with me where I said goodbye to my wonderful nieces and fabulous sister who must be shattered all the time as I found twins are very hard work and that was with 2 of us there! She is pretty amazing and manages to stay happy and positive throughout the dramas of parenthood. Of course her husband and his wit help with that as does the fact that he dotes on his girls. After kisses all round I board the not so busy train back North with only a few tears in my eyes. Although I always wish I could stay with my sister and her family, I’m always more than glad to travel back up north, away from the flat plains where you can see for too far and back in to the hills and the chill of my beautiful Scotland.
