Braedon seems fully recovered so we got up early and went straight into London, to Hamley's Toy store. I knew Braedon would have a lot of fun here and we

Today was a quiet day - no photos today - Braedon is resting up as I think he is worn out and a bit run down. Mum has smuggled barley green into a purple drink bottle with apple juice and he hasn't twigged on yet.

Caught up with the washing, downloading photos, emails, orders....Went and done some shopping for Linda, mum and I went and left Braedon at home as he didn't want to go out.

So that's about this for this entry...

The afternoon tea party (sort of like a lunch) was held at the Bellevue Hotel on the promenade. We were a little early and was raining (yet again) while we walked up. The kids were so happy to see each other again. I must admit I didn't know many people there but was introduced to everybody. I met 3 vicars nan had known over the years. Lots of Nan's friends and old neighbors and of course family was there.

Another busy day for everyone, Nan and Linda got their hair done yet again while mum and I stayed at the hotel and just had a easy morning. I did take Braedon for a walk and we had alot of fun climbing down the stairs from the promenade down to the beach and under the pier, at high tide the little pier is completely covered in water and the big pier is unreachable so it was quite fun going all the way down and watching Braedon play, it was a bit nerve wracking as the sea was still rough. It is hard to imagine that the whole lot is under water and the sea up to the top of the wall at high tide.

Mum had told me seven generations of the Williams family (nans maiden name) had walked along the Aber promenade.

These photos were taken with my mobile phone as I did not have the camera with me. As we were exploring Braedon fell over in one of the sea puddles and was drenched. So we turned around and headed back to the hotel so he could change. The rocks are all covered with slimy chunkys of seaweed so it was very slippery, He wasn't really worried about being wet and cold and he had a bit of a a laugh afterwards.

Our first day in Wales we went down to breakfast at about 8.00 am. After we breakfast we went out to walk along the esplanade. I took some photos and Braedon wanted to collect shells and go for a swim. Hmm not likely too cold. It’s about 7 degrees here during the day

An early start today as we were heading off to Wales. It was so hectic before we left as we had to organise a taxi to Euston station and there were six of use running around trying to make sure we had everything, locking the house up, plus it was raining, trying to fit all the luggage in the back of the taxi plus a wheelchair was a tight squeeze but we managed.

We arrived at Euston station which was about 40 mins by taxi, and 40 pounds which in our terms is about $100 dollars. It’s very hard not to convert everything in your head and think it’s highway robbery but that’s the cost of living here plus wages are a lot higher I think.
There was a problem with the booking as Linda had booked mum’s, mine and Braedon which was fine, however the booking for Linda , Roy and Nan did not register on the machine so we needed to go to the booking office to see what had happened. It was not registered at all on their system so they needed to book tickets and pay the fares again. Linda was given a number to ring to check why the booking had not gone through.
Anyway we finally got on the train which was quite full. It pulled out on time and went quite fast compared to trains at home. We were going to change trains at Wolverhampten , however when we arrived we were told that the train to Aber was cancelled and we had to catch a train to Shrewsbury for a connection to Aber. Well we caught this train OK, however when we got to Shrewsbury we were told there was not train but a bus. Now the bus was full so we were given a taxi (minibus) to travel on the rest of the way. No cost!. The only thing was that it was freezing cold in the cab, and we were very squashed. It got dark very quickly and it was raining so we didn’t really see much on the way..... Braedon fell asleep on the way. All up took us seven and half hours instead of the normal five.

We arrived at our Hotel the “Marine Hotel” got settled in our room which looks right out over the ocean, the ocean is very rough and we can hear the waves crashing on the beach. Next on the agenda was dinner and we thought would go down to the restaurant to get some dinner as we all starving. We no sooner sat down to look at the menus and the fire alarm went off.... We had to evacuate the building out onto the front area of the hotel – right opposite the sea and it was freezing cold and very windy.

After 10 mins we were given the all clear to go back into to the hotel and the restaurant. We sat down again and ordered our meal. Braedon was starving and tucked into sausage and chips.

So that was our day today. ...

Yae! Finally some sunshine. Although we couldn't go out early today as there was a photographer coming this morning from the local paper to do a story on nan and take a photo for two.... He was due to come at 10.00 and he did. Took a couple of photos of nan on her own and also us with here. He left about 10.30, so by the time we got out of the house it was about11.00.


We caught the train to Bond St where we changed onto the Jubilee line which would take us straight to Canary Wharf. I had that canary wharf was an interesting place to visit from a friend of Linda's.

Canary Wharf contains the UK's three tallest buildings. This photo here are not the building though.


The interesting thing about Canary Wharf is the light rail that runs between all the buildings. We caught the Light rail train from Canary Wharf to Cutty Sark station. We walked to Greenwich pier and then took a few photos looking out to the sea and the HMS Belfast.

We would have liked to see the Cutty Sark, however we knew that it had been almost destroyed in a fire during 2007. So this was out, however I wanted to take Braedon to the maritime museum and Observatory.

We walked up the Thames Walk toward the Old Royal Naval College, and this is where I took many photos. The college is the great baroque masterpiece of English architecture, and located in acres of landscaped grounds on the River Thames.















The Painted Hall reminded me a lot of Rome.
The Painted Hall is decorated with stunning paintings by James Thornhill, and is part of the King William Court. This was planned to be the hospital's dining hall. The Painted Hall was not used and stood empty until January 1806, when the body of Admiral Lord Nelson was brought here to lie in state: he had been killed at the moment of his victory over Napoleon's fleet at Cape Trafalgar.


Next it was onto the Maritime museum. Looks small from the outside however is quite big and we did not do it justice. Braedon was not as interested as I thought he would be, it depended on what area we went into. Some bits were more interesting to him than others.

We had a quick coffee in the cafeteria and a look in the shop and then it was onto the Observatory. It was already getting quite late and a walk through the grounds took us up a steep hill to the top.


Our first stop was the Peter Harrison Planetarium.




During the evenings, the position of the Meridian Line is often marked by a green laser in the sky. I managed to get a reasonable shot of this although it was a bit blurry. It was all shutting to quickly for my liking 6.00 so we had to leave.