London Family Weekend Whirlwind

And so, I’m writing this week, actually in the zone. All of a sudden, Isla appears next to me, fanning me with a towel.

‘Thank you, I said. ‘But what are you doing?’

‘Writers need fresh air,’ she said.

She’s not wrong.

Hi. It would seem I’ve taken a blogging break. For no good reason, by the way.

I’m back.

There was that week I put my back out, also for no good reason. I twisted myself, and for a few days, couldn’t sit in my chair.

You can laugh.

There I was, alternating heat packs and frozen peas and ice packs. And I did try to blog from bed. But I was too distracted by true crime shows.

And as much as I complain about it, I missed writing at the kitchen table. Don’t tell my husband.

Then my kid turned five and we went to London on the same day, after she had her Sports Day.

When she was done running around in circles, she asked her teachers, ‘May I go and see my parents now?’

She sounded all of her five years. Plus thirty more.

What follows is a travelogue of our family trip to London for Isla’s birthday. And for baseball.

Stick with me.

En Route To London. Eventually.

Now. Before we left for London there was an issue with the accessible berth on the sleeper train we booked.

It was a whole family trip, so my Dad booked us weeks before.

The accessible ‘room’ wasn’t a family room so we got three. One for me and Neil and two adjoining rooms for my Dad and Anne and Isla.

Maybe the confusion arose because disabled people don’t have children, but the two adjoining rooms were booked, and whoever took the booking ‘misplaced’ the accessible berth.

And it was booked. By someone else. For half the trip.

The question then became whether we would drive farther down the road and catch the train at another station. Just before we piled in the car, we got a call to say the accessible berth, or bunks, were ours. As if by magic.

We actually took two cars and one excited 5 year-old to Inverness. ‘I can’t believe we’re going on the London Eye,’ she kept saying.

Neil and I went to London last year for a blogging conference, and also the year before for the Twin Peaks UK Festival. We’ve been telling Isla about the view from the top of the London Eye ever since.

She was so excited she asked me to take a photo at dinner before the train. ‘This is my excited face. Did you get my eyeballs? I have cute eyeballs.’

We boarded the train. We like to fly, but we’d taken the Caledonian Sleeper en route to Bruges for our honeymoon, and thought it would be nice for do the same train journey with Isla.

Except we kind of didn’t. Because extra people don’t fit in the accessible berth, even if they are your kid.

Isla, Anne, and Dad went to their rooms. I transferred from my chair to the bottom bunk.

Now, Gemma at Wheelescapades asked me what the wheelchair access is like on the Sleeper.

Well, I got on.

I have a manual solid-frame wheelchair. The back folds into the seat, but the frame does not. The wheels pop off and that’s it.

With me sitting on the bunk, Neil put my chair next to the sink which was next to the bunk ladder. The door closed. Just.

Caledonian Sleeper trains are meant to be getting an upgrade, but somehow not on our trip. Neil had just settled in the top bunk when Isla came through to say goodnight. Neil was able to push the door button with his foot.

I held a grab rail with one hand and my Kindle in the other. Through the wall, I heard my Dad reading stories to my daughter.

Excellent start to the trip.

Gelato For Breakfast

We cabbed from the station to the flat where we were staying. Not even tired, and with tickets to ALL THE THINGS. (We bought all attraction tickets online in a package deal. All other tickets included a disabled person’s concession.)

And I needed to pee. As I often do.

We arrived and got through the main door. There was an OUT OF ORDER sign on the lift.

Out of order, indeed.

We found another lift, with the help of the confused but helpful traveller staying there before us.

We hung out around the London Eye, amongst the food trucks and restaurants. I had breakfast in sunglasses, and then spotted a gelato cart.

My um, second breakfast was chocolate coconut gelato.

So many highlights on this trip already.

It’s Not A Ferris Wheel

‘I can’t believe we’re on the London Eye,’ says Isla, when we got into the pod. And that’s why it’s not a Ferris wheel. Because the pods are closed. Good deal.

When we booked, they did say to bring proof of disability. I mean, more than the wheelchair. Neil got on for free, too.

They didn’t actually look at my proof and we went around looking at buildings and other tourists looking at buildings.

Shrek and Us

If you ask Isla this was her favourite part. She wasn’t that into Shrek before we found the Shrek’s Adventure interactive tour thing, but we were all much more switched on fans by end, blinking and back in the sun. And Isla seemed very impressed I made it onto the Magic Bus.

‘That’s my Mumma,’ she said.

Indeed I am.

Penguin Time. Of Course.

Family time isn’t really family time unless we see penguins. Next stop (and this is still day one, with all of the attractions practically next door to each other) was Sealife London. I love aquariums. Everything is so cool and blue and peaceful.

And speaking of peaceful, I caught a photo of a mesmerised Isla exploring the deep. Complete with an interesting photobomb.

And then we went to wave at the penguins. They’re indoors, by a pool. Kinda depressing. Even Neil didn’t want to stay around for long.

We had dinner outside. The overly nice front-of-house dude almost insisted he help me down the stairs instead of an extra lap to the ramp. If there’s a ramp, I’ll take it.

London River Cruise

We ended our first day in London with a river cruise. Even I enjoyed the bits of history from the guide. I don’t remember any of it, I was too busy enjoying the sun and people watching. But y’know, stories.

We cabbed home again, but not before bumping into some more ice cream.

The place where we stayed had built-in bookshelves.

I had pleasant dreams that night.

My Phone Is Fried

London day two was also day twenty-eight without coffee for me. I explained my No Coffee Experiment over here.

Wait for it.

We took Isla to the park and it was HOT. I felt a pull to the iced coffee cart.

In a will she/won’t she that rivalled Ross and Rachel, I bought a coffee.

‘I’ve been off coffee for 28 days,’ I told the coffee couple at the cart, as they set me up.

‘Why?’

‘I don’t know.’

I thanked them profusely. I stared at the coffee. And yes, I instagrammed the coffee.

I got an alert that the phone was over-heating. Yes, really. That doesn’t happen on Skye. It switched itself off.

I drank the coffee.

I didn’t feel bad. We went home and put my phone in the freezer. Yes, really.

My full coffee–free journal is now up over here.

Checks Off The Bucket List. Kinda.

I have a list of things I’d like to experience. I don’t like to say it’s a bucket list, more like a life list.

Whatever it’s called, it has ‘See a Cirque Du Soleil show’ on it.

While looking up things to do in London, my Dad sent me a link to Cirque Du Soleil: Toruk, inspired by James Cameron’s Avatar.

Now.

I think Avatar is ableist bullshit. Apparently, I’m not the only one. But I watched a trailer for the show, and thought Isla would like it, so we got tickets.

While this incarnation of the show wasn’t ableist, my experience before we arrived at our seats might have been.

We booked seats together not far from the accessible seating. The issue with the accessible seating being that we could not all sit together. When we arrived at the venue, they were confused, and attempted to split up the family and put me in the accessible seating with just one other seat next to me.

I rather forcibly said that I’d prefer to sit in the row we booked, and walked down three stairs to get there. I wanted to mostly watch Isla’s face while she watched the show. I thought my acrobatic daughter would love what she saw, but it was too loud and blue for her.

Actually blue, not sweary blue.

Neil took her out to the concourse where she did her own dancing. They picked up my chair from the coat-check area, and I’m told she drove it all the way back to me.

Afterwards, Neil and I went for a date night London-style, and took the Tube to see The Book of Mormon. This is also a show I’ve wanted to see for a very long time. Like, ten years. It was awesome.

I should also say that we were met on the street by an access officer, who showed us to the bar before showing us to our step-free, level-access seats.

He met us at intermission and provided the key for the accessible toilet, and took us back to our seats.

I was amazed at the different attitudes to accessibility in the venues that day, and mentioned that this was the best and most equal treatment that I had received for the whole trip.

After the show, Neil and I went in search of dinner, and I heard the love theme from The Godfather being busked in Chinatown.

We went into the restaurant with the least number of stairs.

(Check out Carrie-Ann’s guide to London by wheelchair for more practical tips and places to go!)

We were seated next to a couple who I initially thought were on their first date. However the woman stood up and she very pregnant.

I got broody all over my beef in black bean sauce.

There Is Crying In Baseball

On day three, we had tickets to The London Series, between the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox.

Being a life-long Mets fan, I was kind of conflicted. But I was there with my Dad and my kid, we were watching baseball and I was having nachos for breakfast.

Because of yet another seating snafu, we were moved from our original seats to a box behind home plate. My best baseball seats happened at a game in London.

After the game, we lined up for merch, which was an experience even without buying anything.

We spent an hour trying to find a taxi, everywhere was closed to kids and we had pizza on our last night.

Pretty good deal.

On The Road Again

We actually rented a van and drove home from London to Skye. I didn’t drive, but I didn’t sleep either. And every time we got out of the van, I had to step on a piece of luggage to get enough leverage to get back into the seat.

After fourteen hours and one finished book, we arrived home and fell into bed at 5am.

Isla woke up a few hours later.

‘So, what are we doing today?’ she asked.

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