A day out with James

We left at 6.30 to get to Whitley Bay in time to look after James as nursery was closed for the day.

It was a wonderful day. He was a delight. He seems to be getting through the Terrible Twos. He chattered all the time. We drove down to the lighthouse to play in the rock pools but the tide was in so that took a bit of explaining. Luckily I'd taken his scooter so he scooted along a couple of miles watching the seabirds and saw one come up with a fish.

Eventually we got back to the car after collecting lots of wild flowers, and drove to Patrinis for fish and chips. His big plate of cod and chips was only £3.75. Mr C was a big taken aback to be offered the pensioners special. For the same price as our haddock and chips we were given bread and butter and a pot of tea to go with it. James took ages to eat it as he was fascinated by the old people eating their dinners.

We then got the metro into Haymarket. James and Mr C got the seat in the front by the driver's cab. He was so excited and talked all the way about the tracks, trains we met, the station stops, how fast we went, going under bridges and into tunnels.

We headed for the Hancock to see the Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton. He enjoyed looked at loads of stuff but got a bit scared in the Egyptian section with the journey to the afterlife. Eventually he braved the snakes and rushed across. While he was playing there he made friends with some big children. I chatted to one mother who was Turkish and was home-schooling her children because they were too gifted to thrive in school. She was really interesting but I noticed her 9 year old needed the mother to tie her shoe laces and help her off with her jumper.

James was really tired on the way back. Possibly not as tired as we were. He was cross on the metro as it was too busy for us to get near the front. Luckily I'd got a snack to distract him. We called on #3 daughter to see Ella and Nathaniel. They had a crowd of friends there and we lost James. He'd gone up to Ella's attic bedroom and was playing quietly with all the My Little Pony rubbish. He just needed a relax.

He needed a little rest when we got off the metro, bottom photo on the grid. By the time we got him home Thomas was home from school and his parents were back from work.

We are away early in the morning to Kyrgyzstan and then Uzbekistan so I'm not likely to have much chance of wifi. I apologise in advance for lack of comments.