Weekend in Oxford

 This was a couple of years ago while Mahi was still in a stroller so I hope I remember it right!

We went over the October half-term and I think that's the best time to visit such a historic town. We stayed with a friend close to the town centre so accessing all the attractions wasn't a problem.

As it was Halloween Season, Oxford Castle did their Haunted Castle event. This is the first ever Haunted Castle the kids ever attended so the kids always look back at it fondly. We had a few jumpy moments in the dark. It was great!

The next day, we obviously did the colleges. I mean just being there was an inspiration. It was the weekend, and the library was full! The chapels, dining  halls, gardens, it's just this amazing feeling!

We then we went around the town centre doing some shopping and trying to find black macarons (Lucky was literally throwing a tantrum to eat Black macarons!!!!!). Alas, no such luck! We settled on normal macaroons. I loved going around Oxford. It's still like old times in most places.

We ended our trip by visiting the Ashmoleum museum! I remember the Roman and Egyptian sections of the museum which was so comprehensive!

A great weekend!

Indoor fun with kids in London

    The British weather can be so unpredictable and we are mostly cold even during summer so here's a list of indoor places to visit with kids.

Free

• National History Museum, South Kensington - one of my favourite museum becuaue of the dinosaurs
• The Chocolate Museum, Brixton - a tiny museum dedicated to all things chocolate. With workshops happening throughout the the year, its a great place to entertain the kids. (https://mummylife0912.blogspot.com/search?q=chocolate+museum)
• Science Museum, South Kensington - such a great interactive museum to learn so much about science
• V&A, South Kensington - I love this museum since it's all about learning about different cultures and eras
• National Gallery, Trafalgar Square - maybe for older kids who love art
• National Portrait Gallery - Leicester Square - a cute little museum but again maybe for older kids
• Tate Modern -  some great exhibitions and installations which would cultivate your kids' imaginations
• Somerset House, Waterloo - Usually have great exhibitions for kids and a stunning ice rink during Winter
• Saatchi Gallery - Some great kid-friendly workshops held on Sundays
• Southbank Centre, Waterloo- we usually attend the Imagine Festival every February but it has some great events throughout the year
• Museum of London, London Docklands and Barbican - everything to learn about London's history. We especially loved the Great Fire of London walk hosted by Museum of London to complement what the kids learn in year 2.
• British Museum - I don't like to visit this much due to all the stolen goods but it's such a stunning place to learn all about different eras
• The Petrie Museum - perfect for anyone in love with Egypt's history
• Royal Observatory, Greenwich - man interactive things to do to learn about space. Includes a planetarium (shows needs to be paid for) https://mummylife0912.blogspot.com/2018/04/royal-observatory-greenwich.html
• National Maritime Museum, Greenwich - all about the seas. The play areas are our favourite! They also great hosts family workshops!
• Cutty Sark - For all your little sailors!
• Horniman Museum, Forest Hill - a great museum with aquarium, gardens and butterfly house
• Imperial War Museum, Lambeth - a great place to learn about WW2
•  Heath Robinson, Pinner - a small museum dedicated to a local Harrow artist and illustrator
• Headstone Manor Museum, North Harrow - a museum to explore Harrow
• Feminist Library, Lambeth - a great library with a range of literature from female authors
• Royal Army Museum, Chelsea - a great museum about the army's role in the different wars
• National Archieves - close to Kew Gardens and every 1st sunday hold family workshops. A great treat for a little historian

Paid attractions

• Kidzania, Westfield
• Harrow Arts Centre, Hatch End - multiple shows, workshops and classes
• ArtsDepot, North Finchley - another great space for shows, workshops and classes
•  London - 4hrous of unlimited fun for kids where they try their hands at different job
• Transport Museum, Covent Garden and Acton - the ticket you buy is valid for a year so you can return however many times within a year. Everything to learn about Tfl for any transport crazy kids!
• Golden Hinde , London Bridge- a replica of  the first English ship that went around the world. A great day out to experience history. Some of the areas are outdoors. https://mummylife0912.blogspot.com/search?q=southwark
• The Clink Museum, London Bridge - a small but a bit scary museum. Maybe for Halloween?
• Shakespeare's Globe, London Bridge - if your child is learninf about Shakespeare then this is the perfect place to take them! Plays, workshops and festivals, they have it all!
• Tower of London, Tower Hill - another great historic place and who doesn't want to see the Crown Jewels
• Discover Children's Centre, Stratford - Perfect for primary school children to see their favourite books coming alive. https://mummylife0912.blogspot.com/2018/06/discover-children-centre.html
• Buckingham Palace, Green Park - who doesn't want to see where the Queen live
• Kensington Palace - Diana lived here. Do we need to say anymore?
• Various English Heritage Sites - free if you are a member
• Various National Trust sites - free if you are a member
• Shrek, Westminster - let's visit our favourite orgre with special appearances from the Madagascar team
• SeaLife, Westminster - sharks and all other underwater creatures. Combo tickets with Shrek and other nearby attractions available
• The Old Operating Theatre, London Bridge - a hidden museum with an interactive session about operating back in the days
• The London Bridge Experience, London Bridge - perfect for Halloween with scary people chasing you!
• The London Canal Museum, King's Cross - a great museum to learn about the canal ways in London which also offer canal rides on the narrowboats! https://mummylife0912.blogspot.com/2017/11/halloween-treat-3-london-canal-museum.html
• London Dungeon, London Bridge - Another spooky experience! https://mummylife0912.blogspot.com/2017/11/halloween-treat-london-dungeon.html
• The Florence Nightingale Museum, London Bridge - a little museum all about Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole
• BFI - we love Sunday Family Days where they do movie previews with great workshops to go with it!
• Madame Tussauds, Baker Street - see your favourite celebs up close
• Cartoon Museum, Oxford Circus - A great museum all for cartoons. They also do great half-term workshops for kids
• Bentley Priory Museum, Stanmore - An important place in the history of the Battle of Britain, this is a stunning place to learn all about its history and the pivotal role it played during WW2!
• Musicals and Theatres
• Crazy Golf
• Trampoline parks
• Charles Dickens Museum - hold lots of events suitable for families and a great little museum to walk through where Dickens lived!
• Madame Tussauds - quite an expensive day out but really worth it if your family love the entertainment world. Some sections are 

Playing as an adult

Do you go to the park and swing on the swings or slide down the slide? Well, I do! There are time when I don't feel like it but often, I'll be the adult who will happily queue amongst kids half my size to use the swings! It's not embarassing! I love connecting to my inner child. I'm ignoring my daughter comments about how immature I am. Life is hard as it is. You need to forget the world and become a child sometimes to still be able to love life!

Playing as an adult is a must! How else would you relieve your stress? I love playing with my kids most of the time. It makes me forget about adult life for a little while. When you spend time with kids, you see life through their eyes and it's so beautiful (although don't spend too much time with a teenager... it's so dark and depressing, if you are anything like my daughter!) Mahi is full of POKEMON, video games problems! I feel so accomplished when I solve one of those problems with him! I wish I had problems like that for real too!

Playing is also keeping us young and rejuvenates us. Have you been on a zipwire. I love that thrill and it always makes me laugh when I go on it! You need these experiences in your life even as an adult.

So play! Who cares if people look at you? It's your life. Stay young!

Being Tamil

 January has been recognised as Tamil heritage Month in the UK following in the footsteps of the Candian Government who established i back in 2014. There are approximately over 450,000 in the UK alone. Tamils are from both the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu and the North and East of Sri Lanka. 

My parents are both from the North of Sri Lanka (although my mother's side is a bit more complicated). Shortly after they got married, my dad emigrated to France amidst the civil war and my mum followed a year later and the rest is history.

I believe that my identity as a Tamil is defined by the civil war. In order to elaborate this more, I need to explain the civil war and Sri Lanka. In the North-East part is heavily populated by the 'minority', Tamils. The rest is the 'majority', Sinhalese. When the British gave Sri Lanka independence on 4/2/1948, they do what they always done and messed it up by giving the power to the Sinhalese. As with any country, there was always racial tension between the Sinhalese and Tamil but this newly found power gave Sinhalese the green signal to do whatever they wanted to do. And what was their aim? To make the whole of Sri Lanka Sinhalese. And how did they do that? First, they did the casual discrimination by  touching our education. Tamils needed to have high marks to enter university whereas Sinhalese can go through with average marks. And other sectors followed suit such as the job market. As with any injustice, we protested for our rights. The government obviously didn't like that. So step 2: violence.  Progoms started  at regular intervals where Tamil businesses, homes and religious establishments were vandalised and burned down not mentioned the copious amount of people who were murdered! W had enough. We wanted our rights, our own land and our livehoods back. So naturally, step 3: rebel groups formed to fight for our own land. The most successful group amongst these were  the LTTE aka Tamil Tigers led by Prabakaran Velupillai. The government didn't back down. The North was became more and more restless all culminating in civil war which started in 1983. For 25 years, the LTTE found to have our own land (Eelam). For 25 years, we fought for our rights. For 25 year, we found for our Tamil language. May 2009, it all came crashing down. A mass genocide happened while the world was watching. Tamils were bombed in no-firezone. Schools in the north were targeted. 1000 and 1000s have 'disappeared'. May 2009, the Sri Lankan government won! 

So to me being Tamil means saving my heritage. The Sinhalese government tried to erase us but they can't. I got my language, my Tamil. It is one of the most complicated but beautiful languages. Growing up in a suburb just outside Paris where you were the only brown one was hard in terms of  cultivating our culture. Therefore our language was very important to us. We always talked in Tamil at home. Movies were our way to learn about culture and improve our language skills. My parents seeked other tamils and soon parties, events, etc... followed where you could mingle with people that looked like us and understood us! The Tamil french community was very small at the 90s so I don't remember going to temples in my early age, as I don't there were any at that time but I could be wrong. I also started to attend Tamil school when I was 10 in order to learn how to write and read Tamil. Through reading Tamil, my dad introduced me to poems and stories. My love for my language increased even more. Now, my kids are slowly learning Tamil. I wished I started when they were babies. But, with both of them attending nurseries from a very young age, we encouraged them to speak in english at home so they don't have an issue with communicating.  Laksha is able to do all 3 but needs a bit more confidence in talking. It took us about 6 years to get her here. Mahish is a very work-in-progress. However, he is the one that loves watching Tamil movies  more. He is slowly starting to pick up from these movies and through Tamil class. We celebrate all Tamil festivals at home and learn the importance of each festival. I'm an atheist so I don't go to temples or church but I make sure that my kids know the story of all the Gods that I use to believe in. We have a prayer room with all the Gods photos in them so if they wish to pray, they have that space. 

Another way for me to fight for my identity as a Tamil,  is in all forms where they ask for ethnicity, I fill it as Eelam Tamil. Hopefully, this will be picked up from the Census done in 2021, as I know lots of fellow Tamils did the same thing.  In all my jobs or through volunteering, I proudly present my history. Colleagues from my last 3 jobs didn't know there was a civil war in Sri Lanka and therefore I educate them. Not long ago, I heard one of my white colleagues educating a new staff member about our fight for independence! This is why it's important to educate the ones around us because they will become our allies in our fight for our Eelam and Eelam Tamils!

Independent bookshop crawl

As you may know, I'm a huge bookworm! I love books , holding and smelling them! They are my babies. I always wanted to do a bookshop crawl but with work and kids, I never found the right time. But towards the end of autumn, I had a great opportunity and planned b crawl.

I looked for independent well-known bookshop. As you may expect, there were too many of them so I wanted to pick bookshops which are quite easy to get to and came up with an itinary which will cover most of these bookshops within a 4hour period (I was on school run duty that day unfortunately). I mapped out my route very carefully and pleased that out of the 10 bookshops I wanted to visit, I only had to cut 2 out of my route! Map in hand, I bought a one day travelcard (there was going to be a lot of me going and out of zone 1! Then, out of my 400+ books on my TBR (to be read list), I picked books which I couldn't get from the libraries and were uncommon. That took me 2 hours for me to score through my borough's online libraries to see which ones weren't available in the libraries!  I also set a 'budget' but as you'll see, that went straight out of the window!

Here was my route:

1. Libreria - got off Liverpool Street and was a 15minutes walk from the station. It was such a nice cozy bookshop and the staff were so welcoming and knowledgeable. I manged to get 3 of the books that was on my list. If they didn't have the book, they were able to order them from their supplier!

2. Word on the Water - on the canal, off King's Cross Station. This opens at 12. The bookshop is on a narrowboat and I loved this unusual setting. It had 3 compartments, even a children's section. I managed to find another 3 books from there! I think I spent more time taking pictures of the quotes and items then looking for books in their small collection.

3. Leicester Square - this place is filled with independent specialist bookshops! I first headed over to Cecil Court. These bookshops were highly specialised. Some just about Alice in Wonderland, some covered first edition books only, etc... Then on the main road, there were more bookshops. I managed to find a few more books from my lists from. Don't forget there's also a massive Foyles too that I used to visit quite often when they were hosting family events but I didn't venture in this time. In total, I have no idea how many bookshops I visited at Leicester Square but it was at least 5!

4. Hatchard's - Picadilly Circus. Right next to Fortnum & Mason, this bookshop was magical. It is a bookshop straight out of a movie. It is now my favourite bookshop! It has 5 floors and this is where I blew about £100 in books and threw away my book lists and just went absolutely crazy! I literally had no control! 5 floors of books!!!!! How was I supposed to control myself. Thankfully, it was affiliated with Waterstones so I was to collect many loyalty points! You have to visit this shop. I went another day with my kids and they loved it too!  You must visit this place even if you are not a bookworm!

I was then meant to visit Daunt books in Marylebone but didn't have the time so I will need to fit it in on another day! I did go to their Notting Hill Bookshop over the summer which was a beauty so I can't wait to visit the main one on Marylebone! I just need to leave my bank card at home!

Halloween Special - Canterbury

 What better way to spend Halloween but in a gothic city like Canterbury! Our arrival in Cantebrury was like none other with lots of free chocolates at the station. This set our moods in high spirits. As everything that we wanted to do was within the town centre, we had plenty of time to stroll around too.

We first headed to the Roman Museum and the history of of Canterbury under the Roman Empire. It was quite good with kid-friendly exhibits and activities. They had some great artefacts too. There's an entrance fee but it wasn't too much! The gift shop was very tiny though. Just by the museum was the Canterbury Cathedral which was breathtaking! They gad some works going on but you can still see most of the cathedral from the outside. We didn't go inside as we weren't too keen about it. 

The town centre had some very interesting shops such as the Harry Potter shop, Goth shop, American sweet shop and the Japanese shop.

Next on our stop was the Westgate Towers! The Westgate Towers was previously a prison.  It now hosts a restaurant, bar and 3 different escape rooms!  We pre-booked one of the escape room (crime and punishment) which was hosted in actual prison cells. You can still see names of  prisoners and other interesting engravings on the walls of the prison! Anyway, the escape room was fantastic! It was our first time doing an escape room and it was stressful but exhilarating! We were totally mentally drained by the end of the hour! We couldn't escape the room but we were quite close! I will highly recommend if you are heading to Canterbury. The towers also hosted halloween games which even my 12 year old really enjoyed with lots of treats at the end of each games. You can also go to the top of the Towers to see the view of the city and an amazing view of the Cathedral.

I desperately wanted to see the Abbey Ruin (which was free for us because of our English Heritage membership)  but couldn't make it on time before it closed so that will be for another time. We then walked to the old ruins of the Canterbury Castle.We couldn't go inside as it was dangerous but walked around the perimeter of the castle.

As it was getting darker, we pre-booked a chilling punting ride on the local river. The kids found it quite spooky. With spooky tales of Canterbury, dark waters and 1 scary person jumping on us unexpectedly, it was fantastic!  

Overall, we had a fabulous time in Canterbury. This is where, according to my youngest, he will settle when he's older!!

Matlock Bath

 As the leaves change colour and the air gets crisper, we ventured out to Matlock Bath. What a picturesque little village to welcome the arrival of autumn! We saw saw old mills and limestone cliffs  on our way. We booked everything online as it was cheaper and with NHS discount, it was reasonable.

As this was a day trip, we headed straight to our point of interest with was The Heights of Abraham. Please note that this is closed during the winter season.  The heights are named after a supposed resemblance to the Plains of Abraham, also known as the Heights of Abraham, in Quebec where James Wolfe , a British Army official who won over the French in Quebec, died in battle. The Heights are located on top of a hillside. The access to the hill was either through cable car or there's walking pathways. We used the cable car obviously. It was great! My eldest is scared of heights but she managed to suppress her fear. The cable car lasts about 5-10 minutes and stops for a few minutes in between for us to enjoy the view. The view is truly glorious. We went at the right season as we saw the different colour of the leaves from a height and it was beautiful.

Once we got to the top, we went to the 'bottom' of the heights to visit the first cavern, Rutland Cavern. The Heights have 2 caves. It was used for lead mining extensively. As we went during Halloween season, we had the Witch Grotto in the Rutland Cavern. Although it was a very short tour, the main chamber had been beautifully illuminated.

Then we slowly (and painfully) walked our way through to the top. On our way, we saw old disused mineshafts, 2 different play areas, the viewing point and scenic views. The climb was a bit steep, if you are using the stairs but there's plenty of places to rest. Once we got to the top of the hill, there's a tower where you can see the whole of Matlock Bath! Again, I can't recommend enough to visit Matlock Bath during Autumn. The scenery is indescribable.

Next, we went to the second cave, The Masson Cavern. This was a proper cave tour with an excellent tour guide who explained the history of the tour. We all love cave systems and this didn't disappoint. The tour lasted between 30-45minutes.  The main chamber had beautiful illuminations and you could also see some gems in the walls of the cave!

When we came out we headed to the fossil shop. As I birthed a future palaeontologist, this was a place of great excitement for him where we saw dinosaur fossils. Underneath the fossil shop was the museum which told us the history of Matlock Bath. What interested me was the literary connections, Matlock Bath had with authors like  Jane Austen and Mary Shelley!

The Heights has an excellent restaurant, 1 cafe and 3 average gifts shops. However, if you are into your gems, then the gift shop located in the Fossil Museum is for you.

Once we finished the Heights, we just walked around the town. We went to a nearby park to relax. There was also a waterfall nearby (Lumsdale Waterfall just on the border of the Peak District National Park) however, by the time we got there, it got dark and so couldn't actually see the waterfall. But we did see some ruins of mills which spooked us off a bit with the night setting in!

In Matlock Bath, there's also Gulliver's Kingdom, the mining museum and an aquarium. Not too far from the there is the Crich Tramway Village. We couldn't fit everything into our Day so we'll be returning to the Peak District soon!

PS: We have now been to Crich Tramway Village in the village of Whatstandwell which is literally surrounded by green and houses sporadically located! This would have been better for younger kids when they are  amazed by everything! My 13 and 10year old were more entertained in walking and playing in the woods rather than the play area and climbing on the different tramway. The tickets are valid for 1 year so you can visit as many times as possible. There’s also cafes and places to eat too. During school holidays, they are plenty of kids arts and crafts too! I loved climbing and experiencing the different trams even though it was the same route we used.