Saturday 10th December

I survived the night with Adam away and the biggest dilemma of the day was whether or not to take the pram with me to the playcenter today.

I decided that the thought of getting the pram on and off the bus was worse than the thought of either of the kids bolting, which I should add, neither are prone to doing. Its just these unfamiliar surrounds that are making me be a bit more of a nervy, helicopter parent that I would like to be. I did take the Mai Tai as security, knowing that I could easily throw Stella in there if she was being a pest (which ya know, she is prone to doing on this holiday).

We walked easily to the bus stop and the kids waited patiently, however, I assumed that standing at the bus stop was indication enough that you actually wanted to get on the bus. Umm seems not. A bus drove right past us, doh! (clearly I don't do public transport often) luckily another came within about 2 minutes. Phew!

The bus trip into Kingston is short, maybe 4 stops. We jumped off and started walking in what I thought was the right direction. It wasn't. but in typical me style, I found a friendly looking old lady sitting on a bench having a ciggie and asked here if she was able to help me out (of course had I been a man I would have wandered around for hours never being able to bring myself to ask for help). She pointed me in the right direction (the complete opposite of the way we were going) and off we went. We arrived at the playcenter around 11:30am and settled in for what ended up being 5 hours there.

We ate. We drank. We played. Well the kids played, I read. It was wonderful. Although English milkshakes are weird. It was room temperature and thick, strange. I thought it was just me, until Stella had some of hers and immediately said, "mummy I didn't want a warm milk, I wanted a cold milkshake."

At one point she emerged from the play area crying, upon asking what happened I was told "mumma that little boy hit me in the balls" Bahahahaha what the??? some further questioning established that a little boy had hit her in the ball pit area and not in the balls.

I also noticed that the playcenter was opposite a big bus station, so after we were done we wandered over in the hope that we could catch a bus from there. Indeed we could and just as we worked that out, one pulled in. Bonus.Another easy trip home on the bus then a short walk.

The kids were so tired that they didn't even have the energy to fight before bed. They both walked in the door and flopped on the beanbags with their iPads, ate dinner and then headed off to bed. Although as I sit here now, they have been in bed for over an hour and they are still farting about.

My in laws arrived today from Australia, and the kids are very much looking forward to seeing Grandma and Grandad tomorrow. They are also looking forward to daddy coming home.