mybigadventures.com

Happy new year everyone. We went bowling on new year's eve but upon our arrival it turned out we had gone to the wrong place. Hollywood bowl were very good though and transferred us across rather than making us go to the correct centre. We hadn't played for ages but had a fun couple of games - I even managed a couple of strikes! We did a bit of shopping before heading back to finish off the side table that we made on Sunday. We did actually finish it on Sunday, but decided it was a bit tall so it needed a bit more work. It's our first experiment with copper pipe and uses one of the old table leaves for a top. We're pretty pleased with it really. We had steak frites for dinner which has become something of a tradition before seeing in the new year with fireworks on the TV and outside.

After a bit of a lie-in today, we headed out to National Trust Polesden Lacey. It was very busy and we were told as we queued in the car on the way in that both the main and overflow car parks were full and it was one-in-one-out. In reality, it turned out there was loads of parking (although we were directed in to a bit where it said no entry). We started with some lunch at the cafe, which, despite being very busy, seemed to be working better than most National Trust cafes we've been to and shared a cream tea and a sandwich. We decided to have a wander around the garden which was typically bare for this time of year, though we were impressed by the clever touches that included a Polesdon monopoly game that you could play and over by the bees, mini stockings as "even the bees have been caught up in the Christmas buzz".

We also got timed tickets for the house, going in for the last entry at 3. It was decorated up for a 1930s Christmas with at least one Christmas tree in each room, and an impressive tree in the entrance hall. There was lots to see including some amateur dramatics with several actors dressed up in period costume performing fictional scenes from the time period with some talk of the abdication of King Edward. We finished off our visit with a wander around the shop, before heading home for a bit of New Year bake off on the TV.    

We had booked tickets to visit St Paul's cathedral today, so, after a cheeky Eggs Benedict for breakfast, we set off for the station. It was an easy journey on the Met line, getting off at Barbican and then walking for about 10 mins. When we arrived, we were a little concerned by the snaking queue, but Ben joined the queue while I went to check out the business with tickets and lo and behold, we could skip it! We pretty much went straight in and wandered from there, looking at all the churchy decor and then we embarked on the journey upward... And it was quite a journey! About 259 steps upwards and it got steadily narrower and higher. We stopped first at the 'whispering gallery', then up to the 'Stone gallery', ending up on the 'Golden gallery' and looking out at the spectacular views across the city. 

From there, we went right into the depths of the cathedral, into the crypt, where we had a very welcome cup of tea in the cafe. Then we drifted into the crypt, admiring all the tombs of famous people - Wellington, Nelson, Wren, Turner et al. Quite a celebratory gathering! We then had a little wander in the area surrounding the cathedral, up towards the Millenium Bridge, and Ben took lots of photos of the buildings as the light was lovely - gathering darkness but with sunlight beaming through. 

To make the most of the afternoon, we went to visit the Museum of London, having passed it on our way in to town earlier. And it was free entry! And a surprising tardis of a museum, with room after room of exhibits! We drifted around for a while before heading home on the Met line, stopping at Sainsburys for a few essentials for our turkey pie dinner!  

The turkey dinner went down well with everybody on Christmas day, but it wasn't just the family that were tucking in to dinner, in the garden the squirrels and birds have been busy stuffing their little faces with fatballs and seeds. Over the last couple of days the feeders have been very popular with squirrels performing their usual gymnastic tricks to pour seeds into their mouths.

It is quite funny how they creep in stealth mode along the fence stopping occasionally frozen on the spot when they think someone is looking! The feeders have also been frequented by a range of tits including coal, blue and long-tailed and also a pair of robins and a pair of nut hatches. It's all given me quite a few opportunities to try out my new camera lens so all good!

Today we went to the cinema to see the new "Mary Poppins returns" film, it really was rather good and seemed to fit very well with the original, I would definitely recommend if you haven't had a chance to watch it yet. Back home in the evening, we continued to use up the contents of the fridge, and with this in mind, we "had" to make chocolate ice-cream to use up the left over cream that was on it's expiry date. What a nightmare eh!?!   

Merry Christmas everybody. I hope you've all had a wonderful day and are having a nice relaxing evening.