To Town, The Apple Store, Hand Made Burgers, Apple Store Again, Creepy Crawlies tour, Boxing, Swimming with cubs

By unspoken consent a veil was drawn over the previous day’s turn of events and today we went into Town to do a number of things. Deb started two weeks leave today and had made plans for the kids to go to see the Natural History Museums travelling event “Edible Creepy Crawlies” which was being hosted in the Highcross Shopping Centre in Leicester. This wasn’t all that was on the agenda, we were planning to have a meal and Nat had to pick up some tickets from the GamesWorkshop for an event of theirs he is attending at the NEC next week. The first place we visited was the Apple Store in the Highcross where we spend an enjoyable half an hour playing with the superlative tech they sell. I enjoyed myself on and iPhone and an iPad while they may have done the same. Once I’m in there I’m oblivious to what’s going on around me. I seem to recall that Nat spent his time on an iPad and Hannah was playing with an iPod touch, this being what she wants for Christmas this year…has she no idea of the value of money…no she hasn’t after all… She’s A Girl! Eventually Deborah, the spoil sport, dragged us away and we went to get Nat’s tickets. He’s a Jammy Little Git; he (we) had paid for a standard ticket but after we’d left and he was checking it out he realised that, in fact, they’d given him a seminar ticket which entitled him to attend additional events and presentations. From there we went to get something to eat and decided to try the Handmade Hamburger restaurant. Good choice, expensive but the burgers were large and delicious; my blue cheese burger was scrumptious. After we’d finished eating there was still a half an hour before the start of the tour so, as it was close by, we went back to the Apple store…Oh Joy! The tour was great fun, we were escorted round it by an Indiana Jones look alike (although I think he may have in fact been an Australian), complete with bullwhip and giant bubble blower, who was humorous and good with the kids.

First we saw the photo exhibition, adjacent to the John Lewis’s store, and then we went to see the giant insect animatronics.


Finally we return to our starting point where “Indi” build a large balloon insect* that Hannah managed to nab. All in all a fun day out but it wasn’t over yet. By now it was 4:40 and the kids were supposed to be at the boxing club at 5:00. W raced back to the car park where we weren’t able, at first, to find the car. The clock was ticking but by some good driving and sensible routing we made it to the club just in time. Deb and I waited in the car reading, they don’t encourage parents to remain in the club during training, until the kids finished at 6:00. From here we sped on to Braunstone Swimming baths where Hannah’s Cub pack had arranged an evening in the pool. Our haste proved unnecessary because by the time everyone had arrived and sundry parents, including myself, had been dragooned into joining the kids in the pool it was 7:00. We were in the pool for an hour and it was great fun, luckily I’d forgotten that Hannah had painted my toenails bright green the previous week and so I wasn’t at all embarrassed by them until I remembered. No one appeared to notice or if they did they were too polite to say anything. Eventually we were home for 9:00 and after watching BB11 everyone but me went to bed. I stayed up alternating between playing on the PC watching TV and reading.


* Thanks to the “insect’s” remarkable resemblance to an octopus rather than an insect we named it “Paul the Octopus” in tribute to that world famous result predicting octopus of 2010’S Football World Cup