Friday, August 18, 2006

 

Ekatarina's London relations

I'll start with some pictures of Ekatarina taken during the day.


Here she is outside Westminster Cathedral, looking forward to her lunch in MacDonalds, which is close by.













The next 2 pictures were taken very close to Buckingham Palace.
There is a children's playground in St James's Park.
Ekatarina enjoyed playing in the sand pit.












There are huge boulders and bridges to climb on in the sand pit.








After our walk to look at things we went on the underground to The Natural History Museum, which has a good dinosaur section.
The huge diplodocus skeleton in the main hall, which I remember from childhood is still there. Strange how it seemed so much bigger 50 years ago, when I would pace the length of it with my brothers.
We met the London relations in the museum - Matt. Suzie, Joel and Anna.
For those friends who are not familiar with my wider family I will explain.
Matt is my half brother. We have the same father. I was a child of Dad's first marriage and Matt was born to Jenny and my Dad after my mother died.
He is 34 years old - about 6 months younger than Ashley.
Matt is married to Suzie.
Unfortunately I didn't take a photo of Matt, who was busy with the barbecue.

Anna is 4, nearly 5, and as soon as she saw Ekatarina's dancing clothes that I had carried round London, she went and found her Snow White outfit.
The 2 girls played very well together.











Here is Joel tucking into the good food with Suzie.
Joel is nearly 7.














Ekatarina also enjoyed a good meal - cold sweetcorn, orange pepper and bread and butter.














After our meal, Ekatarina and Anna slipped away to watch a DVD - Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
By the time I took this photo, Anna was slowly getting ready for bed.
It was way past Ekatarina's bedtime when we got home.