babies | PK PERSPECTIVE

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 Continue reading →

Location: London Time: 3-6/03/10

As my lovely sister has not moved back home to Scotland yet I had to brave horrid, smelly London again to see her and her family. I made the decision to go alone and that way i could actually talk to my sister about the non baby subjects as well as actually get to spend time with the children without grandparents stealing them! I traveled the 6 hours by train from sunny but cold Perth, through beautiful snowy scenes which I wish I could of photographed and run across (something about virgin snow that makes you want to put silly footprints in!), and into flat farmyards and skies that got duller and more miserable until we hit the big smoke itself. It was a long journey with lots of reading done but fortunately I got a double seat by myself the whole way, of course the fact I was spread across both with my earphones in, wearing my hoody and giggling to myself may have helped with that. I blame the giggling my Shifting sands of the Universe Prophet of course as it was his texts about a never ending series of cheerleader movies that amused me so much!

Anyway I digress! Once in the City I had to make my way to Liverpool street Station to meet my big sis. I managed to find the right tube to take me there, surprisingly easy actually! I whizzed through the tunnels sensing the history lurking in the darkness and the mysteries they held, but made it safe to Liverpool Street. Now the thing is that London can be very beautiful if you look hard enough. Kings Cross, St Pancras and Liverpool street stations are lovely if you bother to stop and look, which most people don’t. Then there is my sis and her babies, obviously the most beautiful things in the whole city! And my saviours as they escorted me through the rest of the labyrinth that is the public transport system in London. And in east London I spent the next few days.

How big sis manages to cope with 2 babies all day everyday is a mystery to me as I was shattered after one day and there were 2 of us. She really is pretty amazing. Of course her Husband is very hands on and is brilliant with the twins but someone has to earn the money. The 1st night I helped with bath time and it was all splashing fun though a bit hard to amuse one while the other was being bathed, think an extra set of hands helped out there! As I am only auntie B (for Bero, don’t ask why!) I happily didn’t help with nighttime feeds and snuggled into my makeshift bed instead. Well some jobs are purely parents jobs!!!

Georgina and Tabitha at 3 months old

The city form Greenwich Park

The next day we went to Greenwich park and after being annoyed at the very small lift which the double buggie only just fit into (so much for being disability accessible, a wheelchair user would of really struggled) we walked into the Haven of the park. It is a pretty impressive park and has a random deer enclosure that you can only view from a rather small area, a duck pond that wasn’t dreamt, and of course the Greenwich observatory on the meridian line and the center of time!!! well ok maybe not the last bit, but it sounded good and it does have a time named after it. Once up the hill (which is pretty steep so somehow I ended up pushing) the view is pretty impressive, the city spreads out in front of you and you can see how it has built up over the years. London looks so urban beautiful and peaceful from up there, pity you can’t see that once in the dirt and grime of the streets. Us grown ups enjoyed the park but the babies slept through the whole thing! So much for educating them in the outside world. Once back home to east London it was onto feed time, then play time, tummy time, nap time and feed time again before bedtime. Pretty much non stop but the girls are so lovely with their little personalities starting to show through and smiles and tongue sticking out rewarding us it is worth every minute.

The 3rd day we went to the more local Westham park and fed the squirrels who came to take the nuts out of out hands, very cute. Again another little haven from the city and me and big sis had deep meaningful talks and some not so meaningful ones while again the twins slept through it all. Hard life being a baby and all. Then back home to feed and play times and a bit grumpy times for Georgie! But we had a new play mat to try out so that kept us all amused for a while. I helped Tabitha figure out how to co-ordinate her hands, which she was so intrigued by that she couldn’t help staring at them. Which I guess is ok when you’re 3 months old and only just found them! Amazing to watch them develop, you can almost see the thought process in their faces. It was bath night again so I was hands on Auntie B and found that 2 hands are not enough when there are 2 babies, but think I did ok and the girls didn’t seem too bothered if I made any little mistakes and big sis seemed impressed with my efforts. Phew!

So soon it was time to head home and although I was keen to get out of London I wasn’t so keen on leaving my sister and nieces behind. Must admit I’d got rather attached to them all again and as my sis guided me through the labyrinth again, which was even worse than normal as 3 lines were not running, I did feel a bit teary. Leaving sis at Bank so she could go to pallattes class as her other half was looking after the kids I wished i could stay longer or even better she could move closer to me, after all I know she would rather be in Scotland. But I had had a lovely few days and got lots and lots of photos of very cute babies, even though I had had a few flash issues. Had borrowed Ian’s remote for the flash gun so it didn’t have to be attached to the camera and it took a while to get the settings right and also if I moved the wrong way the sensor wouldn’t pick up the flash and of course the girls kept moving just as I was about to take the perfect shot! However I did get over 400 shots so got a good 50 that were usable. Now I’m back home safe and sound and in the right country I do really miss them all and may have to brave the big smoke again soon to see them all.

The girls enjoying the jungle gym

Tag Archives: babies

Smelly London again

Smelly London- again