Up to the rigs and down to the jigs in London Town

It's been a while since we have been away, so we trekked off to London this weekend. Ostensibly it was to visit the Queen (not really) but really it was to go see Sodbaby's Godmother M and comprehensively quality test her cocktail cabinet.

Well, Sodbaby had a wonderful time. She saw the Queen's house ("who's the fairest of them all? ME"), she saw lots of squirrels, she saw some lions and tigers at the Zoo. She saw Peter Pan's big clock at Westminster. She made friends on the train, friends on the bus, friends on the tube (city types playing boo FTW), friends in the canteen at HM Treasury. And she was spoiled rotten by M and her husband, who Sodbaby decided should be called The Postman.

There's just something about that girl and I'm really not sure what it is. She's clever and pretty (I'm her father, I would say that) bit that's not it. She just has presence, she makes friends everywhere, she gets strangers on rush hour tube trains playing with her. I don't know how she does it. I'm so proud of her. As her Godmother says, she's skipped the Princess stage and gone straight for Empress.

It was wonderful to get away and so nice to see old friends. It's this sort of weekend that makes me sad all my friends are scattered to the four winds. I just don't get to see everyone as often as I'd like. The only positive is at least that having a friend in every town saves on hotel bills, and I'm enough of a dab hand at rail tickets to snaffle a bargain. It's just finding time to see everyone.

On a tangent, Sodbaby will be two next month. She's not really a baby anymore, as anyone who knows her will testify. Ideas on what to call her? She thinks ma'am will do but I'm not quite ready for that yet...