Sunday 3 January

It was Abi’s turn to activate her Christmas present today, and boy was she in her element! We left the apartment at 9am and caught the tube one stop to Victoria Station, where we boarded a double decker bus to the Warner Bros Studio Tour.

  
The location is almost two hours out of London, so the first Harry Potter movie was shown on the way there. That was great for the little kids who haven’t seen the movies or read the books. We had almost four hours to explore before we had to board the bus for the return journey, which was ample time. Although I had to keep checking on Absi who kept falling behind the rest of us because she was so engrossed in absolutely every little detail. I guess that is the culmination of reading all seven books in the series three times in one year!!

   
    
 There were many highlights, but two on everyone’s lists were visiting the Great Hall where scenes from the movie were filmed, and seeing the model of Hogwarts that was used for some scale shots. Abi took so many photos her phone battery died, so she then took another hundred on my phone. Once we sort through them all, she will organise them into a flipagram or movie or some kind of presentation.

   
 After spending almost half an hour in the souvenir shop with Abi, we boarded the bus and returned to Victoria by 5pm. We took our last tube ride to Piccadilly Circus to buy Jarrod a replacement Man U shirt (the one he bought two days ago was signed by man of the match, so Ross convinced him to frame it rather than keep wearing it), and stopped in at TGI Fridays for our last dinner in London (kids meals were £4.49). 

Aside: Belle has spent some quality time with Jarrod today, which made me realise how little time they spend together at home during term – Jarrod is always doing something extracurricular or studying, so while this forced break did make me worry about the length of time he would be away from his schoolwork, there are other priceless benefits as a result.

  Our research has taught us that Caffe Concerto diagonally opposite the Ritz does the best hot chocolates, so we grabbed one on the way home and spent the next couple of hours repackaged our bags and trying to fit souvenirs in! And now everyone is asleep while I wait for my last load of washing to finish 😊