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Doctor Who and the Useless Sat-Nav...
Aug. 18th, 2008 06:22 pmHee - that sounds like a weird episode title, doesn't it! :-)
My friends Robert and Jane came down from Staffordshire yesterday, to take their kids to see the Doctor Who exhibition down Cardiff Bay. They stayed at a Travelodge down the road from me, and spent a nice amount of time here at the flat catching up. When they first arrived, Rowan was still up the Valleys with the in-laws, and their six-year old son Jamie was quite upset at not seeing him; he tried to refuse to go with them when they left to go visit another of Robert's friends in the city, even though we were trying to explain we'd meet up again for tea when Rowan got home.
We watched a couple of episodes of Doctor Who - Boom Town, Bad Wolf, and the first episode of Trial Of A Timelord (Jamie wanted to see it, but quickly lost interest), while Jamie and Sophie, who's three next week, played with Rowan's Playmobil. They also spent some time out in the garden with the football, making the most of a brief dry spell. Meanwhile, us adults chatted away and discussed the plans for going down the Bay today. They were half-hoping to catch some Torchwood filming, but that's pretty difficult to do. Plus I'm reasonably sure most TW location shoots occur in the evenings, and they wanted to get back home by about tea-time, as Robert's working tomorrow.
Once they'd finished visiting the other local friend, they called back for us, intending to get dinner at Harvester. However, it was already seven o'clock and the kids were getting tired (plus Rowan had his usual case of 'Post-Treharris Sunday Delinquency' syndrome) so we opted to just get some takeaway and eat back here. It was nine by the time they headed to the hotel, and Rowan was still so wound up he nearly made himself sick bouncing on the bed *shakes head* I gather Jane had similar problems getting the others to sleep, made worse by the unfamiliar surroundings.
They collected us again mid-morning today, and we headed down the Bay, Robert using his SatNav for directions, since it was easier than me - a non-driver - trying to direct him from the back seat. However, this proved amusing as it insisted on taking us down a fairly convoluted route (at least compared to the one my mother usually uses) and even took us clear across to the other side of the Bay before making us turn back around again - when we could have reached our destination five minutes sooner if we'd just not gone around those first two roundabouts! Not to mention the wasted petrol.
The exhibition has changed a little since I was last in there - back when it was free - but it's still not really worth the admission cost. Jane was kinda disappointed, and I think Rob probably was too, even though I had warned them it doesn't take more than about half an hour to get all the way through. The kids seemed to enjoy themselves, though, and I was helping Rhian - who's ten, I think - fill out the activity sheet where you find the answers to questions by checking out the exhibit descriptions.
After that, we made the obligatory journey down to Roald Dahl Plass to see the Water Tower, and wandered down to the faux Tourist Information doorway down on the waterfront. We then stopped at Cadwalladers, where the kids had ice-cream (I didn't, since I would have been the only adult who did...at least, not without stealing a few mouthfuls of my child's cone, anyway. *pout*) and then returned to the Red Dragon Centre, where Jamie and Sophie got their faces painted and Rowan did some artsy stuff. We had to drag him away in order to nip down to the high school Rob and I attended, before they started off on their long journey back home.
It was certainly entertaining to see Robert's reactions to the changes in Cardiff over the last fifteen years, and he was wishing he could have planned a longer stay in order to see it in more detail - but there'll be time for that again. After all, half of the town centre's a building site while they build this St Davids 2 shopping complex. Even I was a little surprised, noticing all the redevelopment on the marshlands opposite the high school, where we used to have some sports practise in the better weather. There's a new Welsh-language school down there, as well as a football centre of some kind.
Getting there from the Bay was again quite entertaining, as the SatNav's records are out of date and tried to send us down two different paths that are no longer accessible to private vehicles. Unfortunately, there's no point to me trying to describe the routes, since very few people on my flist have even been to Cardiff - so you'll have to take my word for it.
I do have a few pictures, though none of inside the exhibition, since the lighting conditions are pretty poor. Rob took a few, but we'll have to see how they come out. I still need to do my second Poste of Doome as well, with the pictures of July, but I'm at the wrong computer right now. Hopefully at some point this week, though.
My friends Robert and Jane came down from Staffordshire yesterday, to take their kids to see the Doctor Who exhibition down Cardiff Bay. They stayed at a Travelodge down the road from me, and spent a nice amount of time here at the flat catching up. When they first arrived, Rowan was still up the Valleys with the in-laws, and their six-year old son Jamie was quite upset at not seeing him; he tried to refuse to go with them when they left to go visit another of Robert's friends in the city, even though we were trying to explain we'd meet up again for tea when Rowan got home.
We watched a couple of episodes of Doctor Who - Boom Town, Bad Wolf, and the first episode of Trial Of A Timelord (Jamie wanted to see it, but quickly lost interest), while Jamie and Sophie, who's three next week, played with Rowan's Playmobil. They also spent some time out in the garden with the football, making the most of a brief dry spell. Meanwhile, us adults chatted away and discussed the plans for going down the Bay today. They were half-hoping to catch some Torchwood filming, but that's pretty difficult to do. Plus I'm reasonably sure most TW location shoots occur in the evenings, and they wanted to get back home by about tea-time, as Robert's working tomorrow.
Once they'd finished visiting the other local friend, they called back for us, intending to get dinner at Harvester. However, it was already seven o'clock and the kids were getting tired (plus Rowan had his usual case of 'Post-Treharris Sunday Delinquency' syndrome) so we opted to just get some takeaway and eat back here. It was nine by the time they headed to the hotel, and Rowan was still so wound up he nearly made himself sick bouncing on the bed *shakes head* I gather Jane had similar problems getting the others to sleep, made worse by the unfamiliar surroundings.
They collected us again mid-morning today, and we headed down the Bay, Robert using his SatNav for directions, since it was easier than me - a non-driver - trying to direct him from the back seat. However, this proved amusing as it insisted on taking us down a fairly convoluted route (at least compared to the one my mother usually uses) and even took us clear across to the other side of the Bay before making us turn back around again - when we could have reached our destination five minutes sooner if we'd just not gone around those first two roundabouts! Not to mention the wasted petrol.
The exhibition has changed a little since I was last in there - back when it was free - but it's still not really worth the admission cost. Jane was kinda disappointed, and I think Rob probably was too, even though I had warned them it doesn't take more than about half an hour to get all the way through. The kids seemed to enjoy themselves, though, and I was helping Rhian - who's ten, I think - fill out the activity sheet where you find the answers to questions by checking out the exhibit descriptions.
After that, we made the obligatory journey down to Roald Dahl Plass to see the Water Tower, and wandered down to the faux Tourist Information doorway down on the waterfront. We then stopped at Cadwalladers, where the kids had ice-cream (I didn't, since I would have been the only adult who did...at least, not without stealing a few mouthfuls of my child's cone, anyway. *pout*) and then returned to the Red Dragon Centre, where Jamie and Sophie got their faces painted and Rowan did some artsy stuff. We had to drag him away in order to nip down to the high school Rob and I attended, before they started off on their long journey back home.
It was certainly entertaining to see Robert's reactions to the changes in Cardiff over the last fifteen years, and he was wishing he could have planned a longer stay in order to see it in more detail - but there'll be time for that again. After all, half of the town centre's a building site while they build this St Davids 2 shopping complex. Even I was a little surprised, noticing all the redevelopment on the marshlands opposite the high school, where we used to have some sports practise in the better weather. There's a new Welsh-language school down there, as well as a football centre of some kind.
Getting there from the Bay was again quite entertaining, as the SatNav's records are out of date and tried to send us down two different paths that are no longer accessible to private vehicles. Unfortunately, there's no point to me trying to describe the routes, since very few people on my flist have even been to Cardiff - so you'll have to take my word for it.
I do have a few pictures, though none of inside the exhibition, since the lighting conditions are pretty poor. Rob took a few, but we'll have to see how they come out. I still need to do my second Poste of Doome as well, with the pictures of July, but I'm at the wrong computer right now. Hopefully at some point this week, though.
