The Famers' City Market

The Farmers Market has evolved

Hampton Hill's Farmers' City Market is open 7 days a week. Its indoors. Sells organic, local, ethical produce, has a cafe, coffee, free parking and is in direct competition to large supermarkets.

British seasonal fair

All the food in the cafe is sourced from store. I had venison sausages (from Birmingham) with calcannon, (mainly from Surrey). Lynne had lamb (from Suffolk) and asparagus (Surrey).

a new concept in shopping, sorry "retail experience"

The shop is not as expensive as you might think. It cant compete with some things, like milk for example. But other stuff like fruit and veg is cheaper than the supermarkets. Taste good too.

and Tara liked it

Not a farmer in sight, but there are some concrete cows.

http://www.farmerscitymarket.com/

London Zoo

The London Zoo in Regents Park is an astonishing £17.50 entry fee, per adult. A child aged 3 -5 £13.50. A discretionary £1.60 donation per person is added and car parking is £11.00. For the average family of four thats £79.40 to get into the zoo. This is the off-peak rate, it goes up in summer. Lions and tigers and prices Oh my!

Western Lowland Gorillas

London Zoo is “bringing down the bars” Theres no cages. Its all glass. You can get incredible close and it feels like theres nothing between you and Bobby, the biggest Gorilla of them all, 600 pounds of him. Born in the wild he still loves to beat his chest and mate.

Gorilla Kingdom is the flagship exhibit

You actually go into the monkey enclosure and walk through it. No glass at all! Rather perplexing after the carnage at Longleat Safari Park.

black capped squirrel monkey

But these little guys are no trouble at all, you are advised to keep fingers close to your body.
Theres about 20 of them scampering around. I feed em a couple of Farley's rusks.

kiddies zoo

Infact you can walk into most of the "exhibits". Not the lions and tigers of course. The poor lions haven't got used to the glass yet and charge at it roaring.

bugs life

Its exhausting chasing after Thames, looking at the animals. 4PM we call it a day. Didn't see half the zoo. Will have to come back another day. Gulp.

The return of T-Rex

Natural History Museum

They say you should always get back on the horse that threw you. For a while now I wanted Thames to have another go at that terrifying T-rex in Natural History Museum that scared him so much last year.

command vehicle

The exhibition starts nicely enough, with a few bones and plant eaters

....and smaller cute ones.

Inevitably descends into shock and awe tactics

could do with a dust

no ones remembers "smaller" Albert

And so we come to it. The super sensing, all moving, all roaring, blood dripping, 8 meter high, computer controlled animatronic Tyrannosaurus rex. Thames' little body is trembling as I carry him into the darkened room. I am reminded of another saying, once bitten twice shy. But hes six months older now and loves his dinosaur's. He still covers his ears, the loud roars and rumbling, but is more excited than scared and is all smiles. I try and film it but its to dark for my handy cam.




These short clips give you a feel for it. If you havent been, just go. Stand at the back screaming.

blue zone

Of course theres lots of other things to look at; mammals, including a life size blue whale, fishes, reptiles, human biology, thats just the first floor. When you have had enough looking you can do some touching. Down in the basement is the excellent "Investigate" room

dem bones

These aren't toys, these aren't bits of plastic, these are real artifacts from the museums vaults that you can get your hands on, play with, touch taste and smell.

dinosaur fossils millions of years old, careful

Amazingly I get to hold a meteorite from outer space, it weighed nearly 3 lbs, incredibly heavy for such a small thing, as old as the earth its self.

a real meteorite that fell to earth

This really takes the cake. The Investigate room takes going to a museum to a whole new level. We all had a fantastic time. Almost as good as the dinosaurs, almost. Rooaaaarrrr.

Science Museum

The Natural History Museum is right next door to the Science Museum is right next door to the Victoria and Albert Museum. They are all free entry and you could easily spend a week in each one. I reckon this is part of the reason so many people visit London.

early start to beat the crowds

Its also London fashion week and there's a sale at Harrods. All this at South Kensington.

I wanna see Dinosaurs!

The terrifyingly life- like animatronic T Rex "senses" its prey and turns and roars when you get near it.
This was a bit much for wee Thames.

I dont wanna see anymore Dinosaurs!

The excellent Science Museum has the excellent Water Garden and excellent Launch Pad.

Lots of hands on stuff for kids to do.


The girls having coffee.

Funny caption competition

Post a funny caption for this picture, taken at the Battersea Park Zoo .
Winner gets dinner for 2 in The Eel Pie.

Shiny and new

As the family grows and gets bigger so does the family car. So its time for a Citroen Picasso. I know I know. Its not brand-brand new, its Aug 2006 and has 11K on the clock. But its still under warranty and has that new car feel. Picasso is UK biggest selling MPV, and its easy to see why, because of the price. We drove it to Cornwall and back first weekend we got it, 400 mile round trip, first impressions very good, its an automatic, nice and roomy on the inside and has 6 cup holders.we always dress up to go in the new car

Ground Force

Summer is well on its way and its time to tackle the garden.
We want a new fence, cause the old one fell down.
Knock down a small brick wall and build a flower bed.
Finish the garden with about 20 new paving slabs.
Lay some turf in one corner for a nice feature.

We enlist Mark, Ruth, Wavey Davey, DaveyP, Tilly and her kids

Working on the Chain Gang

all done