Well, we have Ryan visiting for a long weekend as it is half term. Wednesday I left home around 1.30 and went to pick up himself. I didn't get there until almost 3.30 (I needed to LEAVE Pauline's at 4 to get to Flomerics to pick up John). So we got to Johns a half an hour late and then headed home which took FOREVER in rush hour traffic.
We decided on the way home that on the way home we would go try and get booked in for ten-pin bowling. I wasn't too keen as I am completely RUBBISH when it comes to anything involving hand-eye coordination but, to my surprise, I bowled quite well, when Ryan and John, normally quite good bowlers (John in particular) bowled really badly so, much to my joy, I won both games! We then headed to pizza hut and Ryan and I shared a cheesy bites pizza.
Finally, we packed him off to bed and, phew, went to bed ourselves.
Thursday, we had a quick planning session with Kristy and agreed to go to Marwell Zoo on Friday so just to decide what to do with our day. After some mulling it over, we decided to go to the IMAX theatre to see the 3d Sea monsters movie. I booked the tickets online and then we headed to the station. Once we were there, we found it easily and, once we picked up our tickets, we had a little time so ate a sandwich each and then wandered along the south bank a little bit where Ryan, having whinged about how freeeEEEEeeeezing he was, demanded that he have an icecream.
We then headed to the cinema and saw the film - it was fantastic and we both flinched and reached out to touch things at times, only Ryan laughed at the little kids for doing it, while still surreptitiously doing it himself. The film was very good but the little kid across the aisle from us screamed about 2 minutes in and then watched the rest with his glasses off.
We then headed to the Science Museum as Ryan wanted to go. On the way the whinging about his sore legs started... When we got there we realised there was a 3d motion simulator on the 4th floor and we bought tickets for that and walked up to see it. There was a short queue and Ryan then escalated the whinging further, including the fact that he was too hot this time instead of too cold like earlier.
He then whined that the Motion simulator was interesting but he was annoyed that they didn't make roller coasters like the ones in the simulator. He had insisted that he wanted to go to the science museum, but then would not actually look at anything. The only thing he enjoyed was the plastics exhibition, where they had hung wide strips of plastic from the ceiling to mark off the various areas of the exhibit which kids were having great fun in walking through them instead of around. He didn't stop to look at the exhibits.
We headed home. When we finally got home, and had popped the monsters stuff down etc, we gave him the choice of our DVD's to watch and he chose, much to Johns disgust, "Over the hedge",with the great lines "I likea cookie" and "I CAN BURP MY ABC's". We then followed with a film much more to Johns liking, Galaxy Quest, which, after some doubt, Ryan enjoyed too.
On friday, Kristy appeared around 10ish and we set off for Marwell Zoo. As is always the way, Kristy and I immediately started talking and didn't stop until we completely ran out of breath. We tried to include Ryan but he doesn't talk much even if you ask him direct questions. When we got there and were getting out of the car, Kristy asked him if he regretted going anyway with the two of us and he said, "Well you are very giggly", which made us laugh until we got to the gates! The Zoo is a small one so not very exciting (we took Tina to Longleat last time she visited and she complained all the way round but obviously impressed Ryan enough that I think he was disappointed in Marwell). We all liked the Maras and they became even more adored when we realised that, when threatened, they jump straight upwards and go "PRONK!" How can you not like an animal that does that? We wandered around at my pace (which is considerable slower than most) and looked at most of the animals and stopped for a while by the giraffes which were gorgeous. It was really only the last 1/2 hour that Ryan started to get bored and annoying so he did quite well. On leaving, we stopped and bought some tombola tickets and Ryan won a little snow leopard. Then, once we were practically back to the car, Ryan, having been asked five minutes earlier, declared that he needed a wee and we had to go all the way back to use the loo before setting off for home.
We got home quite tired and, having rung JJ to see if he was gonna need to eat when he came home, we had something and then booked tickets for Ratatoullie. The film was great and even JJ liked it and he normally hates animated films, but we all agreed that it was aimed at a more adult market than previous disneys. Once we got home, Kristy headed for home and we headed for bed as soon as the dogs had digested their meals.
Saturday, JJ is home so I am decidedly more happy today. We have booked to go to the London Dungeons today and have to be there by 10.30 so, once the new dog visitor has come and met the dogs, we hop on the train for London. We reached the queue to get in around 10ish and then stayed in the queue for almost 2 hours! It took another 1 1/2 to get round and you couldn't stop to read the educational bits, telling you about the dungeon and so on, because for hallow they had basically covered all those bits up and just left in the jumpy out bits. Having said that, despite me being terrified before we went in (I am the biggest woose when it comes to these things) it wasn't too scary and the only bit I didn't like was the boat ride as there were only four to a boat and John sat behind Ryan and I and kept tickling my ears and neck and making me jumpy. I shut my eyes all the way through just in case. I think in the unlikely event of zombie attack, I will be completely useless and will be one of the first to go.
For some reason PicassaWeb won't let me rotate this pictures - I will have another go another time).
Once we were done there, we got something to eat and Ryan and I snuck away and bought some doughnuts from Krispy Kreme and then we got on one ofthe tour buses (mostly to stop Ryan whining about his feet!). We ate the doughtnuts on the bus while listening to the comentary. Though we were quite disappointed as the seats were I was sat had a commentary panel that didn't work so I nicked JJ's and he said he wasn't interested. Eventually some other moved and I took their seat and we all had earphones that worked then but of course by the Ryan was bored and wouldn't use his.
Ryan had been moaning all day about wanting to go to Canary Wharf so, as it was only 2 more stops on the tube, we took him along. He was quite disappointed as he wouldn't listen when we told him it was mostly offices.
We then headed homewards and Ryan and John went to blockbuster and chose the Fantastic Four, which was better than I had expected, and picked up chinese. Ryan headed to bed, all the while proclaiming he wasn't tired, and we weren't long after him.
Sunday. The clocks went back an hour over night so we had an extra hour in bed and the not-tired ryan slept through until about 10-ish. I woke earlier than the other two and went downstairs to watch childrens tv and eat toast. When the other two finally emerged we started the process of getting Ryan to pack his things and have a shower - both of which were harder than they should be but never mind. We told Ryan we were going to drop him back at Pauline's, but actually we had booked a Go Karting session for that afternoon and were going there first. We told him that we were taking a detour due to traffic and then that we were lost and would have to stop at the handy karting track for directions. He was inside before he realised and when we told him was pleased but, in true teen-ryan style, was not particularly excited.
They were booked in for two 1/4 hour sessions. For the first there were about 8 drivers and Ryan did really well, recording the fastest laptime overall. This was like red rag to a bull for JJ and he went full on the next session and this time beat Ryan. However, they both were beated by the little boy who was the only other driver for that session and who obviously drove regularly and had a VERY pushy Dad.
We were going to eat before dropping him off, but after some dispute we got himself a burger and headed to JJ's Mum's to drop off Ryan. She insisted we stay for a cup of tea, which would normally be fine but we were starving and looking forward to a proper sit-down meal, somewhere like TFI's. By the time we left, the dogs had been left for too long on their own so we had to go home. I was particularly miffed as we don't actually get to eat out often and I was ready to eat anything that would stay still for long enough as I had only had a slice of toast all day. We got home and settled on pizza. Again.
