And that’s as close as you’ll get to me singing that cheesey song!
Mission: Attend British Mummy Bloggers meet up at London Zoo. Leave house at 09:00 to arrive at zoo just after 10:00. See plenty of animals, have lunch with the girls (and dads and kids), finish up at zoo all before closing at 16:00.
Mission screwup: The boy getting invited to a sleepover the night before. At the house of someone whose timekeeping is even worse than ours.
Yeah, this plan was never going to be easy to execute.
I dropped the boy off at his friend’s house late Saturday afternoon. It was dry. In the few minutes it took to get a tour of their new place it started raining. It rained through dinner, and was still raining as I fell asleep. I’m guessing it didn’t really want to stop because that rain was still falling when I woke up. Yep, at the crack of dawn, neither me nor 20something mum were impressed with the weather.
The husband and I did make it out of the house at around 09:30 after a fuss about suitable coats (there’s only two that do up around my oversized belly, one of which is the husband’s) and big umbrellas (neither of which we could find). But hey, at least the rain wasn’t so bad. And then a block away from our house it stopped. We could hope. Or not. Because it wasn’t to last. Dragging the boy away was a hassle - that kid has no sense of urgency – but it was done and we eventually arrived at the zoo at 11:00 and with only the bottoms of our trousers wet.
After convincing the boy that we had no money to spend on car rides or the merry go rounds, we tried to spy the penguins. For birds that normally reside in the coldest of cold, they were fairly well huddled up in their huts so no luck there.
Gorillas then. We passed the vultures heading that way. “Birds of prey!” the boy shouted, absolutely fascinated with them. Yeah, anything that might involve a little blood, guts and gore. I don’t think he was too disappointed when I told him they only ate roadkill.
The gorilla kingdom was great fun, even before we got to see the gorillas. Smelly elephant poo! Well thank god you couldn’t smell it. Weighing yourself in comparison to a gorilla. The boy is a quarter of a gorilla (or at least with the husband standing on the back of the scales), I’m half a one and the husband is three quarters of one. Just as we got to the indoor enclosure there was a gorilla passing overhead. The boy was definitely quite taken with them.
Then the reptile house seeing as it had started raining again. We saw lots of lizards who are probably all now questioning their lizardly existence after the husband loudly exclaimed “it’s a gecko!” at every tank. The boy seemed quite taken with the brightly coloured frogs. I guess it’s not every day you get to see them in yellow and blue.
And finally the part I was most looking forward to: the bloggy bit. Of course the boy felt it appropriate to severely limit my mingling ability by deciding straight off that he wanted to sit down and do some colouring. Lunch was revealed and I still couldn’t drag him away from that table. Luckily though, he was soon convinced.
I will admit, it was a little strange being in a room full of people that you know, but have no idea who they are. Put 30 US bloggers I follow in front of me and I’d be able to tell you who they were. However doing the same with 30 UK bloggers didn’t work quite so well. It seems we’re all rather shy of posting our pictures on the internet or using them for our avatars. I had more luck with recognising the kids!
“Vic!” Ok, who’s this talking to me? Oh I know, I recognise Baby Fifi who she’s holding. It’s Zooarchaeologist! So we lunched with her, DaddaCool and CafeBebe.
After he’d finished stuffing his face (not bad for a boy who didn’t want lunch because he was too busy colouring) the boy was definitely getting bored. Spotting my chance (and a large gathering of mummy bloggers loitering near the table) I herded him back to the colouring table. Look, there was a spare chair and next to a boy, not a girl. But no. “Mum, I want to play with you.” Come on! This is the kid who is never shy around other kids, but put him in a room full of other bloggers’ kids and he suddenly wants to hide from the world. Not a chance. I sent him and the husband outside to join DaddaCool and Toddler Boy playing in the rain.
Which of course left me free to speak to the bloggers I’d come to see. And look, isn’t it funny how once the food’s been eaten the men all disappear. It was great to get to speak with bloggers I’ve been following and ones I’ve only stumbled across since the list of attendees came out on Friday. It turned out I’d imagined some to be older than they were, others were thinner than I imagined. It seems that yes, that lack of pictures I mentioned definitely makes things interesting.
Of course the boy wasn’t going to let me stand and chat forever and he came to ask if we could go. He grabbed a goodie bag for him (and what could be better than Star Wars Clone Wars) and one for me (with much more appropriate content) and we ventured outside.
For all of three seconds, because it started raining again. We sheltered in the aquarium and unsurprisingly, there were quite a few other bloggers in there. Once we were done the rain had eased off so we managed to see some of the animals that were outdoor. Some of them were clearly as unimpressed with the weather as we were and were hiding inside. The boy was quite taken with the tapirs swimming in their little canal. I was definitely not taken by the smell!
The highlight of the boy’s afternoon was something I don’t think he’d ever expected to see in the zoo: the spider monkeys. Because what can be greater than seeing something out of Ben 10 up close? Apparently not a lot.
We were next to the bugs just in time for the spider talk. My body was starting to give up by that point and I took one look at the big hairy spider that was out of its tank, one look at the chairs on the other side of the hall and I knew where I was spending the next few minutes! Of course sitting down really wasn’t one of my smarter ideas because by the time the talk was over my pelvis had decided it would much rather be well on the way to seizing up. Yeah, we love this pregnancy lark. The boy was rather fascinated by all the bugs (must be a boy thing cos I really don’t understand) and the husband was thrilled to see the same sort of monkey he used to have as a pet when he was still a small kid.
By the time we came out of the exhibit it had started raining again. This time it wasn’t just any rain, it was the torrential downpour style rain that gets you soaked through in under a minute. We took a quick stop to try and see the penguins again as we were walking past and they didn’t seem bothered by the rain at all. I guess a bit more water doesn’t matter when you’re going swimming anyway. Then we decided to head back home, or anywhere dry at least.
Already soaked from walking out to the main road, I thought it might be a better idea not to walk backwards to the bus stop only to have to wait 12 minutes for the next bus, but to walk forwards and wait at the next one we found. Slight problem there in that we didn’t find a bus stop along the way. The walk back to Camden didn’t take too long but it was very wet. So, as we passed a shop selling golf umbrellas we figured it was worth the £2.99 to stop and get one. The husband was equipped with his huge waterproof coat so I struck gold with the brolly, except that the boy wanted to hold it, and there’s about 60cms of heigh difference between us.
Costa saved me from crawling under the umbrella towards the tube and we stopped for hot chocolate. Then the boy decided the packet of crisps he’d eaten wasn’t nearly enough so we had to stop at Burger King. Yeah, we’re all about the good nutritious food on the weekends.
Getting home after leaving the tube was a tad problematic. My pelvis had decided that the best part of an hour sitting down meant that it really shouldn’t have to get moving again and the husband took a few steps before realising that his knees had come to the same conclusion. The only one of us that wasn’t hobbling round like an old biddy was the boy! And then getting back out into the rain was a torture; it was colder and wetter than before and those wet clothes that had just started to warm up (cos they were never going to dry out on the tube) ended up feeling even more horrible than before. The first thing we did when we got through the door was create a pile of soggy clothes on the floor.
Despite the rain we had a fabulous time. Many thanks are given out to Susanna and the event sponsors Super Savvy Me for their hard work. And seriously girls (and guys), if you’re a British mummy (or daddy) blogger, go and join the group – you could be joining us next time.
LOL I know what you mean about not recognising people and I felt it rude to stare. We were all soaked too and today I am aching like crazy, but it was a really great event. Sorry we didn’t bump into each other though, but we’ll have to leave the secret identity guesswork until next time
Glowstars Reply:
November 30th, 2009 at 17:28
I think the funniest bit was going round staring at all these other womens’ boobs! We really should find a better place to stick our name badges.
Would loved to have met up with you all, however, the good old Atlantic Ocean was in my way!!
.-= Karen @ If I Could Escape said Musical Monday . . . Happy Ever After =-.
Glowstars Reply:
November 30th, 2009 at 17:29
Next time you visit you’ll have to come down south!
“My pelvis had decided that the best part of an hour sitting down meant that it really shouldn’t have to get moving again and the husband took a few steps before realising that his knees had come to the same conclusion. The only one of us that wasn’t hobbling round like an old biddy was the boy!”
LMAO! I have this picture in my mind of Nana from the Royle Family and Uncle Albert from Only Fools and Horses! LOL
.-= Milo said Reliving Wuthering Heights =-.
Glowstars Reply:
November 30th, 2009 at 17:29
Trust me, both of them have more movement than I do now. Sleep apparently didn’t do much to correct the situation.
Thank you! Lots of people have blogged about being there but no one else has really given me the blow by blow account of what it was like. Would have loved to have been there, but by the time I realised it was happening all the places were gone…. put me down for next year!
.-= Plan B said Life’s not a competition (allegedly) =-.
Glowstars Reply:
December 1st, 2009 at 11:12
You have to be like lightening, I think. It helps to spend all day every day online.
Oh help! What am I going to do when the baby arrives and I have to act like a responsible parent again?
Great post. And yes – was very funny squinting at random women’s boobs!! Good to meet you x
.-= Maternal Tales said Gorillas in the rain =-.