h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

[Amy P]

Ah, here's the stuff I've been waiting for! It may not be written from your daughter's POV but it's still extremely entertaining.

Deb

My niece is at imperial, I must asker which buildings she's in and/ or enjoys.

Oooh, cool, Bea. Although she'll probably turn out to be from Skempton and then I will feel bad for slagging it off. The toilets are nice? Although sadly lacking in baby change facilities.

I wish I had half the power to describe the world as you do Sol. Don't know whether I have ever said so before, but your style and ability to write really wakes my brain up.

Plus your kids must be having a wonderful childhood.

Day 3

I have spent today wondering around Harrods with my BFF for reasons which may become clear tomorrow.

Harrods is much bigger on the inside, although it often doesn't seem that way because the individual rooms are quite small and the ceilings are very low. There are an awful lot of them though and it is an absolute rabbit warren inside and so the store swallowed the very large crowd that was waiting outside when you arrived for the shop to open at the inexplicably late time of 11.30 without any effort at all. There was certainly very little sign of them when you wondered in late, having waited for BFF to battle the underground, admired the Christmas window displays and finished your coffee.

November is probably a good time to visit Harrods. You get the Christmas decorations minus the full on tourist experience of summer or the seasonal shoppers of December.

You then spent an inordinately long time being completely, but happily, lost amongst conspicuous wealth, before pottering off down the road to have afternoon tea at what they call a boutique hotel, where 'boutique' means 'small with a few added zeros on the bill'. Tea is served in a very pleasant sitting room sort of room, which I suspect is called a drawing room on the hotel website, on very pretty floral china under the gaze of a young woman in Regency riding habit over the mantle piece.

Ag of this parish came too.

I highly recommend having afternoon tea at a boutique hotel with Ag and BFF and me. You will be there for three hours without running out of things to say and you will never want to eat again. It is amazing how filling cream cakes can be, especially if they are not the oversweetened ones you usually buy in shops. The actual hot tea beverage was lovely too. I sometimes forget how very good very good tea is. Must stop using generic teabags.

Anyway. Fun.

Now I must go and iron things for menfolk and their return to work and school tomorrow.

Sorry, mixing my pronouns at the beginning there. Hangover from t'blog.

And blushing thanks to both deb and lanza there too.

Now I wonder why you didn't take the small people into Harrods? Probably for the same reason I don't think I ever took mine!

I was thinking about doing one of my days as a "5 places I've drunk tea in London", but I've never done a posh cream tea like this. It sounds fab! Make mine an Assam.

That sounds so grown up and civilized. Much more interesting than my Sunday (which seems to have been spent in front of the laptop reading journals!).

Deb

I have, in fact, taken the kids to Harrods before. I have even taken my husband to Harrods before. It's fine as long as you make up your mind that you will be treating it like some kind of maze, with very few pauses to look at designer clothes, but lots of time to look at hi fi separates and toys.

Sadly, deb. I doubt this will be a regular occurrence. *waggles eyebrows mysteriously*

I'm sure if I'd taken my son to Harrods when he was little he would have got lost!

* Puts 'tea with Sol and Ag' on bucket list. *

I wanna spend a day with Sol and Ag *pout*

It's very easy to tick that item off. Just come to London. I am now an expert in afternoon tea spots.

Day 4

So today is my birthday.

It is, in fact, my 40th birthday.

I find I don't actually have anything to say about that.

At all.

Hippo birthday!

Well survived

Remember forty is the new thirty

Happy Birthday!

Happy Burfday Sol.