African t-shirt printing at the British Museum

What was it? It was advertised as t-shirt making but the t-shirts were already made leaving the kids (thankfully) to just print them.

How did it work? the printing was done by carving shapes into polystyreen blocks; smothering them with ink and then pushing them onto a t-shirt. It proved quite effective. Didn't Buggy-L (18 months) try to eat the ink? thankfully he was asleep for that bit.

And what was so African? the idea was to use things from the African gallary to inspire the prints. The group met in the African gallery, the kids drew the shapes they liked from some of the exhibits. The gallary had a lot of sculptures and carvings a long with a lot of pots, some strange shaped knives and lots of fabrics. In other words a lot to be getting on with.

How did it come out? remarkably well; all the t-shirts I saw looked really impressive and it gave something good for them to take home

Going again? I'll keep an eye out for other things activities and I might try the block printing with the buggies again.

What: African t-shirt printing
Where: British Museum
Cost: Free
Try: Lots of activities at Discover

The Golden Hinde

Where better to go to celebrate international talk like a pirate day than a trip to the Golden Hinde, the reconstruction of Sir Francis Drake's famous ship.

Entering the ship we joined three hapless pirates; Stinky Pete, Malicious Mick and the otherwise nameless "Captain". Through various activities including storytelling round the captains table, a tour of the ship and a treasure hunt we learned of the death of Blackbeard, the cure for scurvy (as provided by the ship's barber-surgeon, how to fire a cannon, raise an anchor and, in buggy-B's case smear our mouth with pieces of chocolate. I never knew just how much wee and poo were required in the upkeep and firing of a cannon!

This was a first class day out for the buggies; highly recommended.

What: The Golden Hinde
Where: Southwark
Getting there: Short walk from London Bridge tube
Cost: £6 adult; £4.50 concession; prices change depending on activities
Again: Definitely! The group also do various other activities
Try: Museum in the Docklands
Top tip: Careful when walking around, unless you are less than 4ft tall.

Thames Festival

Despite TfL's best efforts to stop us we made our way into London for the Thames festival starting at Tower Bridge and working our way through the streets south of the river to the Tate in time for the fire garden.

Along the we found such wonders as walking on the Thames side (buggies get muddy and find old discarded stuff), watching Tower Bridge opening (its very clever), The Golden Hind (subject of a future post...) and The Dukes Box (unexplainable; I try below).

The walk started with various stalls from many conservation, history and wildlife groups in London. Much of this interests all three buggies so a fairly good start, it also gave a good view of Tower Bridge as it managed a fairy rare mid day opening.

The Dukes Box; a car trailor containing a folky country band playing strange cover versions of popular tracks and allowing people to select the next track using a typewriter (I told you it was unexplainable) provided a good diversion from walking for a while and was the best of the day (as opposed to evening)

Further down the way we found various eateries, shows, craft stalls, etc. An opportunity to walk along the Thames by the water searching for old clay pipes and other discarded objects. And finally to the Tate in time for the Fire Garden.

I saw this in Manchester when Buggy-D was very small and was awestruck. Essentially it is artistic pyromania provided by French street artists Compagnie Carabosse. The setting outside the Tate lacked the hidden garden magic of the Manchester show but was still amazing. Buggy-L flaked at this point but both other buggies wandered entranced.

On the whole the day was rather heavy on craft stalls and eateries and perhaps a little lacking in the pockets of magic that old London could have provided. Also many of the events lacked the river theme I was hoping for. Perhaps my lack of preparation didn't help; I only walked half the length of it and don't know what wonders were to be found further on.

What: Thames festival
Where: South bank from Tower Bridge to the South Bank Centre and possibly beyond
Cost: Free
Again: Next year perhaps; but with a little more preparation!
Try: Many summer festivals

Funharmonics concert - Transport of Delight

We arrived reasonably early to the try an instrument and circus skills in the South Bank Centre's Clore ballroom but already it was busy and noisy, to start with The Buggies kept their distance; however after a little customising and cajoling both bigger buggies tried a violin and buggy-B (3 yrs) also had a go at a 'Cello. The event staff worked with them with such confidence and assurance that they both got a huge amount out of the experience; full marks for this.

The concert, performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra, was a good balance of music against activity. Including a set of animations put together using drawing from a London primary school; this, I thought was particularly effective. The show was based around a transport theme, although this theme was sometimes rather over-tried in order to ensure a steady streem of popular tunes. That said, the best way to pressent music to young children, in my mind at least, is to provide a good supply of popular tunes in a relaxed, tolorant atmosphear with a confident and enthusiastic pressenter; full marks for this also.

There now seem to be a good number of groups providing music for young people. As we left my Grand-bug commented that when she was a girl she had to wait until she was seven before being allowed to a concert; what an oppotunity we have today!

What: Concert and try an instrument
Where: Royal Festival Hall (South Bank Centre)
Getting there: Walk from Waterloo or Embankment; map
Cost: £4 - £7 (Children) £8 - £14 (Adults)
Again: Yes; the group do three concerts a year
Try: BBC Children's Prom or concerts by Atarah Ben-Tovim
Top tip: Turn up early to try an instrument and work out where your having lunch in advance. Giraffe will be busy!

Boat making at the Maritime Museum

As always a day couldn't be better if is started with a trip on the Docklands Light Railway. This trip ended in Greenwich hoping to catch a sight of what is left of the Cutty Sark and take in a trip to the Maritime Museum. The museum is in the very impressive surroundings of the Royal Naval College, designed by Christopher Wren, which is always worth walking around on a nice day.

We only visited a small amount of the full museum on the ground floor; the only real hands on exhibits in this was a wave machine showing how waves form and break going up a beach, the Buggies all like to play with this. However, this was not the only thing that captured their imagination. An exhibition of the trans-Atlantic liners gave plenty to talk about, an exhibition of arctic exploration and a steam engine from a small boat also gave a lot.

So to the boat making; this was a paper craft affair along the cutout and glue together, the event was very popular and some kids made very creative models the Buggies, on the other hand, decided to keep things simple shunning even a deck for any would be sailors to walk about. Sadly, like many such events no real attempt was made to bring the museum into the activity, making boats could have been at the local children's centre and both Buggies would have got just as much out of it.

In conclusion a good museum for the Buggies and one we will visit again but if I'm looking for creative arts and crafts I would prefer something like the art trolley at the Tate.

What: Boat making
Where: National Maritime Museum
Getting there: Walk from "Cutty Sark" tube station or get the river boat to Greenwich; map
Cost: Free
Again: Definitely will visit the museum again to see the other exhibitions.
Try:
Arts and crafts: The art trolley at the Tate
Transport and boats: London Transport Museum, Science Museum, London Canal Museum
Top tip: Go on a nice day, although the museum is indoors the area is very nice to walk around.

Apple Day at Vestry Museum

Vestry Museum is one of Walthamstow's real treasures; housed in what has been both a workhouse and then the local police station the museum charts local history covering much of the last two hundred years. The best exhibit is the first petrol powered motor car built in Britain. A garden outside houses various herbs and flowers along with various outdoor exhibits including signs, sundials and a roman coffin.

Today's visit was all in honor of the apple.

On entry both bigger Buggies made a beeline for the car and various toy trains around the museum (no dinosaurs here for Buggy-D) and had to be dragged back to the garden. Apple cakes (complete with a paddy from Buggy-D), apple bobbing, apple drawing, apple crushing, apple drinking, apple growing were all on offer adding up to a surprisingly entertaining day. Not a vast amount for the Buggies but being local there were plenty of friends to be entertained by and there was always the fall back of some old toy trains and a very old car.

What: Apple Day
Where: Vestry House Museum
Getting there: Walk from Walthamstow Central; map
Cost: Cheap
Again: Yes
Top tip: Have a cake, yum.

Gamalan

With shadow puppets and the disappearing rooms so far the day had been quite a long one and the buggies were getting tired so we spend what little time was left listening to the Gamelan concert. I've heard a Gemalan orchestra once before in a Proms concert at the Albert hall; the intricate designs of the drums and gongs worked very well against the high Victorian setting, the setting behind this orchestra was the rather more incongruous Heywood gallery!

Surprisingly both Buggies listened quite attentively to the music and, even after a long day caused little trouble until Buggie-D had to answer the call of nature and we decided to call it a day and return home.

What: Gamalan orchestra
Where: South Bank Centre
Getting there: Cross the Thames from Embankment or walk from Waterloo; map
Cost: Free
Try: The south bank have many concerts in their free spaces.