Well, there you have it. The summer holidays are over. Done and dusted. Finito. Au revoir. I’m sad, because the holidays are a chance for me to spend more time with my brilliant son – although he would probably prefer to be back at school before the full six weeks are up, if I’m honest. These years are precious, so I make the most of them while I can.
Just this weekend, we made a quick sojourn up to London to fulfil a promise I’d made to Bryan some months ago. For his birthday, his nan and granddad got him a voucher for Go Ape, which was something he’d tried before and wanted to do a second time. I’d arranged a trip to London in May for us to do a few different activities (which I’d got him for Christmas and birthdays, as he’s asking for experiences now more than physical presents), but we ended up not being able to do Go Ape as the weather turned bad on the one day we intended to do it. Typical.
I then planned to go up last week and do Go Ape, but once again, we were foiled by the weather. So, this weekend was the last chance we had before school started again, so I kept everything crossed and checked the BBC weather app obsessively during the week. There was one moment when black clouds were shown as being over Battersea between 9am and 10am, which was precisely the time that we were booked to go. But, thankfully, the weather shifted, and it was lovely weather – light cloud, calm, dry, and not too hot.
I’d suggested to Bryan that we do something I’d done a couple of times in the past; travel up to London with the rise. I thought it might be a bit fun. Of course, that meant catching the train at 4.45am on Saturday morning. Bryan was both willing to try it and dreading the early morning wake up call. Fair point. We got everything ready we possibly could the night before, and I was then up at 3.30am to quickly shower before waking Bryan up at 4am. We blearily stepped out of our front door at 4.30am, but it was actually a lovely experience, walking to the train station round the corner in the darkness. We appreciated the stillness and quiet, and it was lovely to watch the sun slowly lighten the sky as the train took us up to London Victoria by 6.45 in the morning.
We reported to Go Ape in Battersea for 8.45 (having has an early morning sojourn around Battersea Park, which really is very lovely), and Bryan was ready to go for 9am. I will confess that I didn’t ascend to the Treetop Adventure with him; as much as I would have liked to experience it with him, I didn’t have the confidence. There were parts of the course I could have done, I’m sure of it, but a couple of points swayed as Bryan crossed them, and I don’t think I’d have coped with them. I’m dyspraxic; I struggle to balance on solid ground.
I got to watch him all the way around and cheer him on. It was a lot of fun, and he thoroughly enjoyed it. I was very proud of him, as you might imagine, and it tired him out. But …
In Battersea Park, they also have some “recumbent” bikes (also known as banana bikes – very slow slung, and your centre of gravity is very close to the ground while you recline in a near-horizontal position. We’ve done them before, and they’re a lot of fun, so we decided to treat ourselves to an hour on the bikes before leaving the park.
I was tired after all that, and it was only midday, so I could empathise with Bryan feeling very achy and tired. We retired to Battersea Power Station nearby and had a bite to eat – it’s an incredible building, and we only saw a fraction of what’s inside. There are apartments inside the building as well, and I’d love to see them, although I dread to think of the price.
There was a lot going on around the power station. They were showing the Paralympics on a big screen, and there was a lovely place to play nearby. We tried both briefly, but we were feeling tired (after our early start) and achy (although Bryan deserved that accolade more), so we decided to head home. We did go for a stroll from Trafalgar Square up to the train station, as I do like the route, and hopefully Bryan forgave me for that soon enough!
A lovely way to end the holidays. Today (Sunday) is a chill out day for us, before school and work starts again tomorrow. I’ve genuinely enjoyed this holiday with my son, and as sad as I am to be seeing him slightly less while he goes off to school, I’m excited to see him continue to thrive.
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