The GOHO's

This morning we had a nice sleep in with no alarm set, which was great after our busy day yesterday. We got up slowly and headed at a slow pace towards Paddington Station to get the train to Richmond.  We had visited Richmond at the beginning of our trip with Julie and Paul and thought it was so nice that we might like to go and spend a few more hours there.  Good choice, because it was a lot quieter today than it was when we visited the first time.  We had a little wander through the streets, found the Ted Lasso store and of course, we purchased stuff. After this we decided it was time for brunch. We found a little cafe and orderer food and coffee and sat down.  While we were eating a lovely older couple came and sat down at the table next to us and they had a labradoodle with them who seemed just as ball obsessed as Poppy.  His mum even had a spare tennis ball in her bag for him. After brunch we decided to go for another little walk around Richmond and then he...

Today we ventured to the Warner Brothers Studio - Harry Potter.  We caught the bus from Victoria Station and had to be there for 8am.  So that meant an early wake up of 0600 (yikes) far too early when on holidays (just)!  We arrived on time even after a little mishap navigating which platform etc.  But we got there in the end.  We had a VERY chatty bus driver named Dave that gave us a little history of London and had some cool tunes for our hour commute. As being the first group into the studio it was a lot quieter than when we left so would recommend for people to do the same if you're not a fan of crowds.  The making of Harry Potter films was mostly done at these studios for over 10 years.  It was amazing how so many people were involved in the making and the enormous amount of work they put into it, to be the success is it today.  The studio tour is a real testament after all these years how popular the books/films have stood the test of time. ...

We started Sunday off with a trip on the tube to Camden Markets. Before we started doing a proper look, we stopped and had a coffee and breakfast first. We didn't make too many purchases here but just a few small things. After walking around and taking photos and doing some people watching, we hit the tube again to take us to Portobello Road Markets at Notting Hill.  No purchases were made here but it was nice to have a walk around and again do some people watching. From Portobello markets it was back on the tube to meet Pete (one of the guys from Adelaide that attended the conference with Carrie). We met Pete at one of his local pubs near the place he rented (1 bedroom loft apartment) with 8 other people about 20 years ago. We had a Sunday roast (including Yorkshire Pud) which was really good. After lunch we headed to another pub with Pete to have another pint (just to keep the economy ticking over). After this pub we said our goodbyes to Pete, as he was heading for another pub fu...

Today we treated ourselves to a sleep in of 0830 woo hoo!  But unfortunately our body clocks were saying GET UP at 0730.  But we got up and packed up as it was time to move on from the conference hotel and onto our Paddington apartment.  But first we had a 'Football' match to watch.  So we left all our luggage with the Park Plaza and headed to the tube station to get to Arsenal. We arrived into Arsenal and as soon as we came out of the tube station the atmosphere was already buzzing with all the Arsenal fans lining the streets, tents everywhere selling merch and food and the roads were closed for cars,  so we just followed the crowd to Emirates stadium.  We arrived at least an hour before kick off so we of course had to get some merch (so we weren't booted out of the members section)! Once we were kitted up we found our gate (and prayed to the Football gods) that our ticket would work.  It was all a bit cloak and dagger like - the tickets only arrived ...

 Well it has been a busy couple of days so apologies about not getting a blog to you yesterday. Yesterday (Friday) saw Carrie head for her last day at the conference and Claire head off to test the NHS (yes she is ok) and head to Battersea. Claire in need of some antibiotics did some research as to whether a doctor's appointment was going to be needed or just a trip to the chemist. Turns out it was just a trip to the chemist.  However after trying 5 different chemists on Thursday night (1st attached to hospital across the road and only does outpatient scripts, 2nd one the pharmacist had gone home, 3rd one said I needed a doctors appointment at a cost of 99 pounds, 4th one said needed to phone a doctor and pay for that and antibiotics at a cost of 180 pounds, 5th one was helpful but said I needed to create an account with them online). No worries I thought, I'll do that while we are at dinner.  Not so easy apparently as a phone number is required for final confirmation sta...