The Grand Tour Part 8: Buckingham Palace, Camden Locke, and The Upstart Crow

   I don't know if this counts as part of our curse or not, but a week or two ago I tripped in Emma's kitchen and fell on my left knee. It never got a very bad bruise, but it hurts terribly, and after a few days  I noticed that my whole knee, and the surrounding area, was green. So I guess it thought it was bruised, because after that it looked like a healing bruise. Several years ago I tripped over something in our kitchen when being greeted by our dog, Piper, and fell, slamming my right knee cap into the floor. It hurt much more than this knee, and for ages afterward. Just as it was almost better, I was carrying a basket of laundry around to the side yard to hang, when I tripped over a twig and fell on the right knee again. I slammed it into the sidewalk that time. It was so bad for so long that I finally consented to go to the doctor, who told me that I had detached the muscle from the knee, and would just have to give it time to heal. I think I might have detached a muscle this time, and dag nab it! This was my good knee! I suppose it's not as bad as Ken's injury: When we went to Ivy's opera, on Ken's birthday about a week before I got my injury, he fell going down the stairs in the theatre, and hit the side of his face on the arm of one of the seats. He didn't get nearly the great black eye I got in the summer of 2021, but he got a small one, and he bled like crazy from the two cuts on his face, and the side of his face is still swollen and hard and has a big red blotch. 

  For those of you who wanted to see some pictures of the costumes Ivy worked on, here are some pictures from the Gilbert and Sullivan extravaganza. Some of the clothes were what was on hand, (including some of the cast's own clothes.), some were from the costume department, and some Ivy designed. Some of those she actually made. There weren't as many real 'costumes' in this one, because the concept, (not Ivy's idea), was that the ghosts of old timey Gilbert and Sullivan performers were waiting for eternity to go on stage so they were hanging around backstage in their underwear. Ivy wasn't crazy about the concept, and neither was I. In their day, those women would not be hanging around, in front of the people they were haunting, in their underwear, even if they were dead. (I know I wouldn't be caught dead in my underwear!)

  Anyway, this post isn't about black eyes. It's about our trip, (A travel trip, not a falling one!) last Fall. Boy! It's been months already! We left in October and got home in November. We've been home for over  three months already! And I wanted to have the trip posts done by January. HAAAA!!!! Anyway...

  Our second full day in London with the girls was all over the place. Emma went out early on her own and perused the Kinks landmarks in the neighbourhood we were staying in.  And yes, this airb&b was better than some of the others on the trip, and not as good as some. There were stairs, which were still a problem for me, because my leg was still bothering me a lot. My back was also still pretty bad. I kept picking Ken up to stretch my back muscles out. Once I even resorted to picking AJ up, since Ken wasn't doing the trick and AJ is a big guy. 

  Since Emma was on her own, everybody else went off on their own too. Ken and I went out as a pair. We headed first for Oxford Street. We bought a souvenir Queen Elizabeth 70th Jubilee plate. I tried the McPlant, a plant based burger, at McDonald's. 

  That was the first 'burger' I'd had from McDonald's in close to 40 years, since I stopped eating meat in 1988, and  I never ate McDonald's very often anyway. My opinion? The burger itself, which was a Beyond Burger patty, was a bit dry, and not very flavourful, and there was way too much ketchup. I wanted to try the McPlant because I wasn't sure it was available in America, (Turns out they tested it here, but cancelled the test here in August of last year. I don't know what area they tested it in, but I hadn't heard of it. Usually we get a lot of stuff tested in Columbus, because Columbus is supposed to be very representative of the country in general. I hadn't heard of the McPlant being here though.)

  Ken and I saw yet another American candy store. We had already seen one in Edinburgh, and we ended up seeing two in London, and more elsewhere on the trip. The chocolate is so good in Europe, why do they worry about importing American chocolate and paying such high prices for it? Because the prices were crazy.

  We continued on until I found the alley that leads to Soho Square. I used to spend a fair amount of time in Soho Square in the 80's when I lived in London. My train came into Charing Cross every day, and I'd cross the street and walk down Charing Cross Road to Shaftsbury Avenue, and go to Soho Square. I'd sit there and eat my lunch, write my letters, talk to friends I'd met in London, and while I was there, try to get Paul McCartney's autograph, since his office is right there. (You can read my post about meeting Paul HERE.) So it was somewhere I was really familiar with. The place has changed a lot. It was still a little surreal to be there with Ken. 

  I wanted to see if Paul's office, MPL, still handed out promo items to visiting tourists who asked. That's why I dragged Ken there. Guess what: they don't. The current secretary was a bit surprised at my question. I assured her that they used to, back in the 80's. 

Tammy World was disappointed Paul wasn't there, but she wanted her picture taken in front of the office. That's it to the right of her head.

  While we were there we took pictures and got rained on. (Of course. It always rains wherever I go. Remember?) Then we walked to a place in Soho, proclaiming itself as having the best pies in London...oh. Sweeney Todd just occurred to me. But we had the vegetarian pies anyway! And also, I doubt they were the best pies anywhere. They were only okay.

  While we were eating our pies we got a message that Emma had been at Battersea power station, which is now a mall (!), and was heading for Buckingham Palace, So we headed over to the Palace to try to run into her. As I said in a previous post, nobody's phones service was working properly, so we couldn't just call each other, and messages were delayed until we were somewhere with Wi-Fi..

Me, at Buckingham Palace. Get the Palace in this time Ken.

Tammy World wanted her picture taken in front of the Palace too. Still raining.

  We waited for ages, but no Emma. We finally decided to move on. My leg was hurting, and Ken needed a bathroom.  We took a walk through St. James's Park, only to find the toilet was closed. It was very pretty though, and we saw some interesting birds. That doesn't help when you have to use the toilet though. 

  We ended up coming out by Sotheby's, while they were loading some very expensive cars into a truck. Ken talked to somebody who said they had just sold a James Bond car. Then we discovered we were also outside St. James's Palace.

   Here I have a blank in my memory. I can't remember what Ken and I did in between St. James' Palace and the next bit, other than sitting, (in the rain), in front of a café to use their WiFi. And unless they suddenly turn up some day, (and I hope they do.), Ken misplaced most of the memory cards from our trip when he rescued them from the house. So I have no way to jog my memory. So let's skip ahead...

  I do have a few pictures on my phone that have reminded me that Ken insisted we try to get to the Victoria and Albert Museum, even though I told him it would be closed before we got there, because I wanted to see Queen Mary's doll house. He wouldn't stand an argument. So we hustled. 

Me crossing the street. Where is the 'wide load' car that should have accompanied me?

Yes, that's a Christmas tree. It was the first week of November.

My leg was killing me. We got there just as they were closing, of course. 

The face of pain. Note the bust of Ken next to me. That's a joke. We always say Ken looks like Einstein now.

  But it didn't matter anyway, because the dollhouse isn't even there! There are apparently several branches of the V & A, and the one we were in never had the dollhouse. (I had thought it was sort of outside London proper. This one seemed way too central, so I was confused anyway.) I guess it's at Winsor Castle. 

  After that it was getting late. We had to be at the theatre in Shaftsbury Avenue to see The Upstart Crow, based on the comedy series by Ben Elton, that evening. Emma had the tickets on her phone though, and we hadn't been able to get in touch with her. Eventually we headed to the theatre because I wanted to make sure there was no way we could be late. I wanted to wait in front of the theatre so we didn't miss the kids when they got there. We were super early, and as usual, Ken was starving. He wanted to go get something to eat and come back. I didn't want to miss them. So I sent Ken off to quell his 'hanger', while I waited at the theatre. He didn't like that, but I insisted. It was raining, of course. My leg was very painful by then. One of the nice men at the theatre arranged for me to be able to sit in the lobby because of my leg, where I watched for the kids through the open doors. Ken got back and it was getting close to showtime. I asked the man at the ticket booth if there was any way we could access our tickets without Emma, in case they didn't make it in time. (I was fully prepared for that, after everything else!) He got some information from me to ty to verify that I knew Emma and was part of her party. It helped that we have the same last name, but not that I could barely remember her email address. (I never use it these days!) He printed out two tickets for me, (and Ken), warning me that if I was lying and the real owner of the tickets showed up and showed their tickets, that we would be kicked out. I assured him that was fine with me.  Fortunately, the kids turned up just in time. We saw the play, which was very good, and even met it's star. David Mitchell, who plays William Shakespeare, afterward and he signed our programs.

David Mitchell and a gushing AJ.

  The next day we had to check out of the air b&b. Ken and I went off and took our luggage to Kings Cross, where we found somewhere to check it for the day. 

Tammy World found a bike at the place where we checked our bags. It was the start of many cool bikes she saw. Luckily she already has one, because they would have been hard to get home without mashing them, 

We had arranged to meet the kids at a place called The Yorkshire Burrito, in Camden Locke. So Ken and I had a look around Camden Locke, and finally found the Yorkshire Burrito, We waited in the rain, (Yes. It was still raining.), and finally the kids showed up and we ordered lunch. The Yorkshire Burrito is so called because they serve a 'burrito' style Yorkshire dinner rolled up in a Yorkshire Pudding pancake. It was actually really good. We got the vegetarian one, which is described as: "Giant Yorkshire Pudding filled with Sage and Onion stuffing, Roast Potatoes, Spinach, our signature Gravy and wrapped up like a burrito."  After we ate, and AJ had ordered some additional food, which, unbeknownst to me, I was supposed to be watching, and then which was eaten on by pigeons, and then knocked to the ground when I discovered it was being eaten by pigeons and shooed them off, the kids went to head off to the studio where they were to see the Russell Howard Show. We went through Camden a bit more. We met this guy, named Milo, who was quite a snappy dresser.

    I don't think I bought anything in Camden Locke. Ken bought some magnets.

Tammy World wanted her picture taken in front of a pub called The World's End, because that's going to be the name of her family's house, (without the 'the'),  if I ever get it renovated. I had trouble getting them both in focus at the same time though.

  Eventually we had to head back to get our luggage, and catch our train for Hull. Since the kids had tickets to the Russell Howard show that evening, they were staying an extra night. 

  The next post will see us return to the north.

The Grand Tour Part 7 : Nottingham, Sudbury, London, and Disasters Aplenty

  I have been extremely stressed, worrying about trying to get the damage to the house fixed, and all the things that are ruined, or ruining from being wet, in the house. I guess it's lucky it's cold in the house, because there's no heat, which will prevent mildew and mold at least. I have felt stupid even doing posts, but maybe it will take my mind off things. I am going to be 61 soon, and I think this stress is going to kill me before I get there. On top of everything else, Ken has lost the memory cards with our trip on them. I have one left, and it's only from Paris to the end, so about 2 days of our 5 week trip. He retrieved them from the house, and doesn't know where they are.

  But I have some pictures on my computer, and I still have our phones, so let's make the best of things.

  Our trip picks up with us in Huddersfield. Ken's sister Diane has a very small cottage, so she kindly set us up with a room at an old pub which is now a bed and breakfast. The pub is still there, although unmanned. They use the trust method of sales...and also have a security camera. Ken enjoyed playing publican and sent this picture home to friends and kids.

   It was a nice place, but I found the  shower stall opening to be so narrow that I could hardly get my giant butt through it. It was quite uncomfortable.

  The day after Halifax and the Piece Hall we hung around Huddersfield with Diane, her daughter Jane, and Jane's fiancée Toni. We went to a museum, only to find it closed. It was still good for some cool photographs.

Of course, I can't show you the cool pictures I took, because I don't have the memory card. But here is me taking some of them, from Ken's phone.

  Then we went to a 'farmer's market'. I put that in quotations because it was actually a store. It did carry a lot of farm fresh items, and Ken was excited by the meat counter. I said to Ken, 'take a picture for Mick.' My sister was bored and lonely, so I was frequently sending her pictures of me and Ken at various spots. I thought 'Castle Hill' in the background would be interesting.

But Ken cut the tower off the first two times.

The tower Ken. That was the point. I'm getting frustrated.

Okay, gross. Not what I had in mind, but you're done Ken.

 I finally gave up and just took a picture of the hill myself. Of course, we don't have my memory card now, so settle for one of Ken's.

  I bought another Bakewell Tart...

I got overexcited and forgot to take a picture until the next day, as I was finishing it.

...some full cream chocolate milk, and some gooseberry yogurt. My idea was to try things we don't have at home. When's the last time you saw gooseberry yogurt?

  That evening we spent with family. We had sort of a mini Christmas, as I passed out a bunch of the presents we had brought. There were two kids there, so it was a bit more fun than when we just handed out a few adult gifts, Kids are where the real fun is in gift giving. They seem to be so much more excited than any adult ever gets. I love it.  

  The next day we were due to meet the girls and AJ in Nottingham and have a look around there, since that's where Ken's mom and her family were from. Ken still has cousins there and we were due to meet them for dinner. Ken hadn't seen any of them in nearly 40 years, and we weren't even sure how many of them might show up. But first, remember how we had brought a curse on everyone we knew, that started with the trip? Well the curse reared it's ugly head again this day.

  Emma and company had landed in Germany and flown into Birmingham. There Emma rented a car to drive herself, her boyfriend, AJ, and Ivy to Nottingham. We were driven to Nottingham by Diane's daughter Jane, and Diane and Toni came along. When we got to Nottingham we had trouble meeting up with the kids. Finally we located the parking garage they were in, only to find someone hooking up their rental car, in preparation for towing it away. Emma had tried to avoid a pedestrian and hit a curb, blowing a tire in the process. She then had no car, so there was no way we could all go see the castle, and the Robin Hood statue. We didn't want to run off and leave the kids, and Emma had to get the car taken care of anyway, so we all hung out, having hot chocolate, (me anyway) and snacks, and waiting to check into our airb&b.

  Emma was so sleepy once she slowed down that she could barely stay awake at the family dinner with the cousins that evening. And a BUNCH of cousins came. I was so pleased for Ken that so many of them came out to see him. He had a great time. AJ decided that he was too tired to attend the Dave Gorman show they had tickets to, with Emma and Ivy that night, so I got a free Dave Gorman show. Yay me. But poor Emma kept falling asleep. I kept poking her to wake her up, and no, she actually appreciated it. Ivy was wide awake. She must have gotten a lot of sleep on the plane. Emma eventually went up and stood at the railing, so she couldn't fall asleep. 

  The next day we  were originally going to drive to Sudbury to see the prison where Ken was born, when his dad was a prison instructor and the family lived on the grounds. There's a diner there, outside the grounds, run by prisoners, and I thought it would be interesting for foodie Ken to eat there. Then we found out the diner was closed on the day we were to be there. Sudbury ended up being a bit out of the way for the time we had anyway. We were also thinking of visiting Bakewell, of tart fame, and getting  some goodies, on our way to visit with Ken's former boss, from way back in the early 80's, Les. Then we were to go on to Birmingham to return the car, and catch a train to London. We ended up driving straight to see Les, because there wasn't time to stop in Bakewell. Les is a lovely man, in his 90's. He offered us cake and mince pies he had baked himself. His tiny mince pies were perfect! I can't make things look like that. But Les is an artist. He paints and draws beautiful things. 

Ken with Les. Those are some of Les' paintings on the walls behind.

He painted a couple of Christmas cards he sent us over the years. They're gorgeous. Some day I'm going to frame them and put them up. When we got home he sent us a little cat painting. Ken has talked about Les all these years, and we got to know each other a bit through letters and Christmas cards. I'm so glad I got to meet him. I cried when we left.

  After we left Les' house we headed to Birmingham  to return the car and catch the train to London. We had been very lucky with the train strike, that had started about the time we got to Britain. It was only on scheduled days, and they all fell between days we were supposed to be travelling. The same went for this day. But... 

  The curse continued. Someone sadly chose to end their life that day, by jumping on the tracks somewhere between Birmingham and London. How did that affect us? The train to London was cancelled. We waited quite a while to see how we were going to make it to London. We had to take two buses and a train, and got to London late at night instead of about 5:30 in the afternoon.

  The next day was Ivy's birthday. Em had planned a lot of stuff, but we got a late start because everybody was exhausted, So we started the day with cake to celebrate Ivy's birthday. Emma had planned a trip to a bakery called Cutter and Squidge. 

Me, Ivy, and Aj at Cutter and Squidge.

The cakes were beautiful, and tasted great too. We all got something different so we could try several cakes.

And I got more hot chocolate. Bad me. That's AJ, Ivy, Emma, and me.

  After the cake Ivy wanted to do some shopping in Carnaby Street and throughout Soho a bit. Ken had really wanted to go on the London Eye the last time we were over, and didn't get to, so Emma arranged the schedule for her, Ivy, and I to go shopping, and Ken and AJ to go on the London Eye. So off the boys went, and we went shopping. 

The birthday girl in Carnaby Street.

  While we were in Carnaby Street we went to the best place for socks and awesome photo opportunities, Monki.  

Emma and Ivy in Monki.

  I bought a bundle of socks with eyes and some cool black and white checked ones. They have stuff besides socks, but I'm a bit old and fat for it. But I love their socks!

  Now, this is where the curse kicked in again. We shopped a bit too long and were running a little late for  a surprise Emma had planned for Ivy: a tea cruise on the Thames. The boys got off the London Eye, where Ken was disappointed that the constant rain had ruined most of his photo opportunities. On the ground, things weren't perfect either. Ken attempted to take a picture of something, and missed a step on a curb. He fell and his camera flew. When he was righted by AJ and some friendly passers by, he found that his camera was not working. Not much is going to upset Ken more than not eating except breaking his camera. But, the guys headed to the pier for the cruise. Emma herded Ivy and I toward Piccadilly Circus. Ivy had no idea where we were going, and Emma was trying to surprise her, so she just said 'go ahead of me. Go straight'. She was trailing behind trying to arrange an Uber. I was still limping because of my bad leg. Ivy turned a corner, but I was close behind her. But when I turned the corner, she was gone. The only place she could have disappeared to so quickly was the tube station, because the stairs were straight ahead. So I ran, sorry, limped, down as fast as I could to see if I could catch her. I didn't see her, so I kept hobbling up and down the stairs, trying to be a link between Ivy and Emma. Emma showed up, panicking because Ivy was nowhere to be seen. The curse had also meant that nobody's foreign phone service was working properly. So we couldn't just call Ivy, or even message her. Emma ran down to the platforms, at my suggestion, to see if Ivy was there. She didn't think Ivy would have gone down there, because she didn't know which platform to go to, but I said she probably went the area where all the platforms spread out from. In any case, she didn't see her, so she came back up. Somehow Emma finally got hold of AJ, who was able to get hold of Ivy. Ivy had gone down to the platforms, waited, and then came back up. and kept going straight, ending up at Trafalgar Square! Em  told her where to meet the guys, and arranged an Uber for us. By this time the guys were having to try to get the boat to wait on us. This was a prebooked, very expensive tea cruise. Our Uber cancelled. Em arranged another Uber. We waited. That Uber cancelled. Finally the third Uber came, and we jumped in. We still arrived too late. We all missed the tea cruise. So everybody was upset about that. It was a thing.

  Ken was super upset about his camera, that was no longer taking pictures. He was forced to use his phone and my camera after that for the rest of the trip. He was not pleased. The good news is, after we got home, one day it suddenly started working again! And it survived the fire.

  Eventually calmness prevailed. We walked along the pier or whatever it's called. We took some pictures. 

We walked down to the edge of the Thames and picked up some interesting lumps.

  

Not sure what they used to be. (Thanks to a reader for telling me, they are lumps of flint, once used as ballast on ships.

  And we ended the day by eating some expensive cheese. It doesn't get much better than that.

  Next time we'll see more of London.

What I Did on My Summer Vacation: England Day 5: London Day 1, Part 2, Pollock's Toys, The Disney Store, and Covent Garden

  Well we're up to the London part of our trip, and there was so much involved in day one I decided to do it in two parts. Here's part two. (You can read part 1 HERE.) I should mention at this point that my friend Cheryl had persevered, and shown up despite a debilitating cold. She had loaded herself up with cold medicine and was making the best of things. She wasn't feeling great, but she wasn't letting it get the best of her. 
  After we gave up waiting for Robert-the-No-Show we had to decide where to go first. Ken was very upset, but determined to still try to get some enjoyment out of his trip. Since we were in Trafalgar Square at this point I suggested places within walking distance: all the way down to the Houses of Parliament, which were visable from where we stood, Covent Garden, which was a short walk, or Oxford Street, also a short walk. Emma and Ivy wanted to shop while they were in London, and Oxford Street is a big shopping street. I kept trying to give Emma opportunities to go to Oxford Street because I knew they really wanted to buy some clothes in London, and she kept turning me down. I think she was confused as to why I was suggesting it at the time, but I got blamed later for them not getting much time to shop there. To be fair, it was mostly Ivy doing the griping. It's hard to please everybody in a group anyway.When we originally found out we were going to London we tried to get the girls to tell us which places there they were interested in visiting. They didn't have many ideas, especially Ivy, whose answer to 'What do you want to see?' was, "Stuff." I made some suggestions, and they actually turned down Covent Garden at the time. I was a bit disappointed, because I had heard so much about Pollock's toy shop. I'm not sure I had gone when I had been in Covent Garden years ago. (I was in my early 20's. I was still trying to be a grown up. This is where Emma would ask me, "How's that working out for you?") So I wanted to go, but as I think I said before, I deferred to the girls and Ken because I lived in London for three months and I figured, that was fair.I had had plenty of chances to see what I wanted to see then, so if I never got around to it in that amount of time,that was my tough luck.
  But when given the options, the choice was Covent Garden. The girls seemed to agree on that.Emma was very enthusiastic about it.So I got to go to Pollock's after all.

Emma, Cheryl, Ivy, and me, outside Pollock's Covent Garden shop.

There are two Pollock's, fairly close to each other. One is the larger shop, which shares the building with Pollock's Toy Museum. The other, which we visited, is the smaller shop actually in Covent Garden.(For those of you who haven't heard of it, Pollock's started in the 1800's, selling miniature paper theatres. They still sell paper theatres of various sizes, along with modern and vintage style toys.) I was most interested in seeing the very tiny paper theatres. The super tiny ones weren't very detailed though. The next biggest size was detailed, but very expensive.

The paper theatres at the top were a couple of inches tall, and, as you can see, cost 40 pounds! That's a over $60! In the front you can see tiny paper dolls,boxed games, and other 1/12 scale items.

There was a mix of vintage and new toys in the glass case as you entered.

There were some beautiful painted pewter figures.

They have wire jointed arms and legs, and are about 1 and 1/2 inches tall.

My favourite was the little girl in the red dress, right behind the pink teddy bear. I didn't manage to get a picture with her in focus! She was more than I wanted to pay. The small teddy bears were (in pounds), 9.99 to 11.99, and she was much higher.

They had an Alice and the caterpillar that  liked, but it was way out of my range.

There was a Mad Tea Party set and some other great Alice goodies in the case downstairs by the entrance to the staircase which takes you up to the shop.

I very nearly bought a miniature Alice tea pot and tea cup set. They were about 1/6 scale. Somehow I managed to talk myself out of it. The cup was a bit plain, and it was still so early in the trip.There was a long way to go, and I might find a lot more stuff I would want more. You know how it is. I was tempted by some of the 1/12 scale miniatures, but as I always do, I managed to talk myself out of things by thinking, "I could make that."
   I had promised myself I would let Dad treat me to one big splurge while I was in England though. Dad passed away last year, and there was a very tiny insurance payment I split with my sister. (Dad didn't understand how the insurance policy he always thought was going to pay out about $10,000 would shrink over the 40 plus years since he took it out.)  So I've been holding it back. I planned to use a few hundred of it to fix the house up a bit, and put some of it on Dad's head stone. But I thought it would be nice to have one thing that I wouldn't buy for myself, that would sort of be a gift from Dad. Before I left I researched the A Girl for All Time dolls. I knew they were English dolls, so I thought they might be cheaper there. I have always kind of liked Clementine, but I wasn't sure about her.

The idea behind the A Girl for All Time line is that the dolls are all members of one family, throughout history. Clementine is the 1940's girl.

In some of the pictures I'd seen of the Girl for All Time dolls there seemed to be something just a little off about their faces that made them look a little strangely shaped. I really wanted to see these dolls in person. At Pollock's I found Matilda. I got so excited I forgot to photograph her!

This is a stock photo of Matilda, the Tudor era girl. The dolls are 16" tall, and all vinyl. They have jointed elbows and knees, as well as the usual joints.

In person she was actually beautiful, but pretty pricey. She was more expensive than she would have been if I had ordered her at home and had her shipped. So I left her behind. Besides, Clementine was the one I  wanted to see most. If I was going to buy a doll from that line I definitely wanted to see Clementine first.But now that I had seen one of the A Girls for All Time dolls in person, I could see why some people love them so much, The clothes were wonderfully made and the doll was beautiful.
  I spotted some cute hand made art dolls on a stall, and took a few quick pictures to share with you. The pictures came out great and the detail in the furniture that came with the dolls was wonderful. But in looking at my pictures I noticed a sign down in the corner of the picture that I hadn't seen when I took the pictures. (I was moving pretty fast at this point, trying to find a bathroom!)

So I can't show you the dolls, even though that would be free advertising for the people who make them. I can only give you this link to their web page: Hobo Designs.  I wish I could show you the old lady sitting in that great chair, but I can't, and she doesn't seem to be on the site. She was called 'Gran', and she was 275 pounds.
   I also saw these sweet dolls at a different stall.

Very cute, but I don't think they are meant for play That's a shame, as the look would appeal to kids. I could see these done as soft dolls, couldn't you? Or even jointed vinyl dolls, or small PVC dolls with a dollhouse. Hey! I should work for these people!

They're called Dumpling dolls, and their bag says The Dumpling Doll Company. I Googled The Dumpling Doll Company and it took me to their site, which is actually Mrs. Dumpling's Dream Company. If I could give them a word of advice it would be to settle on one name for easy identification and location. The dolls are cute though. Apparently they were originally made from dough, but are now made of a more permanent material. (Haven't we all made figures or Christmas ornaments out of that dough stuff you make at home, only to have them start to crumble after a few years,or be eaten by bugs while packed away in the attic?) The site is a nice one. The company has a sweet idea behind it:

"The aim for our project is to create a fresh wholesome little brand producing and presenting items that are designed to appeal to the child within us all.
The ethos for the brand is to be, that no matter what age we are, we all deserve to be allowed and encouraged to hang on as long as possible to the belief that anything and everything  is achievable and that dreams and aspirations should  always be encouraged, nurtured and never let go of.
Mrs Dumpling’s world is universally attainable to everyone, no matter what age, creed, colour or persuasion the only entry qualification being an unfailing belief in the magic that lives within us all!"

  The site has a couple of  games for kids. (I tried the Snow Ride game and although kids will find it pretty easy to do, I'm afraid I did plow through a few snow men and trees trying to get my mugs of cocoa and hot pies!) They seem to be trying to get their own tv show using the doll characters.I wish them luck.
 I didn't think there was that much in Covent Garden to keep the girls so long, and I kept trying to move them along to Oxford Street. I wanted them to have time to shop there.They got all interested in a shop selling tea and tea items, and really wanted to stay in Covent Garden for quite a long time. Ken and Cheryl and I killed some time looking at all the cool stuff on the stalls, and looking for a bathroom and a place to convert dollars to pounds.

We bought Fuzz a deerstalker hat. (Like Sherlock Holmes. I told you he loves costumes. Maybe he could get that Sherlock Holmes job after all...) I had to get advice from Cheryl, since I'm not very familiar with the show, to get Fuzzy the least Benedict Cumberbatchy one available. I also bought some key rings with miniature do dads on them.

They're pretty good 1/6 scale. The Big Ben could be 1/12 scale for sitting on a mantel or something.

  Cheryl bought a bag for me to take with me, so I could load up all the goodies I had brought over for her. At some point we needed to get them to her hotel. Cheryl got hooked on root beer when she was over visiting us all those years ago,and it's apparently hard to get over there. I brought her just about every root beer flavoured thing imaginable, including hard candy,(in England they would call it 'boiled sweets'), 'magic shell' for ice cream, root beer Chips Ahoy cookies,syrup to make ice pops and snow cones, and a lot of syrup to make your own pop. Oddly enough, when we got to Gloria's on day one we found out she had gotten in some root beer for us. I don't know why. I also discovered that English root beer tastes awful. It's not like American root beer at all. Cheryl said she couldn't get root beer, and if that's what she had access to, she was right. 
We finally got the girls to leave Covent Garden. We were all hungry by then and Ken went on ahead a few streets to scout out an Indian restaurant. The one he found had a guy outside trying to encourage people to come in. Emma said it reminded her of Babu Batt on Seinfeld, and she hoped that wasn't a bad sign for the restaurant!

Cheryl was starting to feel the effects of her cold. We were unfortunately seated right under a vent. I loaned her my sweater, but we were worried it was going to be bad considering her cold. As we were discussing whether or not we should ask to be moved to another table for Cheryl's sake another employee came over and told us he had turned off the air conditioning for her. Now that's service!
  The food was good too.

After the meal the girls checked out a Top Shop. At this point it was starting to get late and Cheryl was feeling pretty tired and worn down from her cold. So she headed back to her hotel, after setting us on the right course for Oxford Street.We arranged to text each other in the morning once we had gotten ourselves moving, to sort out where to meet.  
  It was then my job to get Emma to the HMV music store on Oxford Street before they closed. Since it was getting close to closing time for most of the shops I was panicking and starting to move very quickly. I went from bringing up the rear to leaving everybody behind. Unfortunately, what used to be my every day run down Shaftsbury Avenue headed to Oxford Street was blurry after all these years and the changes to London. I wasn't sure of my route.We found a large music store first, where she did buy some things.

Fopp!

And I asked directions to Oxford Street. As it turns out, I was right, and we were almost there. I found HMV and The Disney Store on Oxford Street. Emma's friend Felicia is a huge lover of Disney. She was assisting Fuzzy in taking our dog Piper out while we were gone, so I wanted to bring something back for her. The Oxford Street Disney Store is the largest Disney Store in Europe.Emma did a cruise through and picked something out for her.

This blurry picture is one I didn't know Ken took, of me, fleeing into the Disney Store before they closed. That's me on the right.

It has three floors. The entrance to the lower floor is a huge castle.

With Rapunzel on the ramparts. Notice the floor has sparkles and looks like a night sky.

Ivy on the left.

There's a Frozen department...

Yes, that's a boat hanging from the ceiling.

...and a Star Wars department...

This guy is life sized.

I think Yoda was bigger than life sized.

This is that mean looking young Yoda from the recent movies.I don't like him.And hey, if Yoda was 900 years old in the original movies, and Luke was in his early 20's or late teens even, how come Yoda was so much younger and fitter in the recent movies, when Luke is just born at the end of the third one? Are you going to tell me that Yoda was in that good condition, but once he hit 875 it was all down hill from there? Guess that's when Jedis start getting those 'Over the Hill' cards...

...and there was a Toy Story section.

Waaay bigger than life size.

Ken asking the help a question.They were more than happy for us to take as many pictures as we wanted.

I saw the new Aladdin Animator's doll.

Had you told me they were making another boy in the line I would have been excited, but I don't like him! His face looks scrunched and his open mouth---even though it has teeth, and you know I love that!----just isn't quite right. He also looks like he;s wearing pink glossy lipstick.
  And do The Avengers belong to Disney too?

Stan no! Not you too! (My pet peeve is Disney owning other people's stuff, like The Muppets and Star Wars.)

There's a huge Cinderella's carriage.

 There are seats inside for people to pose for a picture. Ivy wouldn't do it.

The back of it is a pumpkin.

   After HMV and the Disney store everything was pretty much closed. (In fact, I ran over to HMV when I was done at The Disney Store, and Emma pretty much closed HMV down. They had to tell us they were closing.
  From there we caught a bus to the tube station and saw some of London by night from the upstairs of the bus.

Then we took the tube back to the hotel and collapsed for the night. The hotel room had two floors, so the girls could be in the same room and I'd feel safer for them. It was pretty cool anyway. They were upstairs above us, like a balcony.
  Next time: London Day 2!