Somerset, London, Wigan

Thursday morning the removal men were back with us bright and early, and by 9.30am we had packed the last of our bits and bobs, said goodbye to the house and Reading, and were on the road to Somerset.

By about 3pm the removal men had us unpacked and were gone, leaving us to enjoy the peace of our new (rental) home in the lovely village of Hinton St George. Hubby and I worked hard over the next few hours to get as much unpacked as possible and to get DC's room ready. We did a great job (if that doesn't sound immodest) and had a lot of clothes, kitchen items, furniture and all sorts of other things in the right places by the time the evening came round. We also had the chicken in her run in the garden of the house we've bought which is about a 2 minute walk round the corner. At 7.30pm we walked along to our local pub The Lord Poulett Arms where we had a fabulous meal. But by 9pm we were flagging and had to head home; we watched Coronation Street on the laptop (Sky only got fitted the following morning) and then headed to bed.

Friday we did more unpacking, furniture moving, had Sky fitted (VERY important!), etc etc and we also had to do a little bit of re-packing as at 2pm we left the tranquility of our new village to head back into the fray and drive up to London for a wedding (but not THE wedding!) Took about 3 hours to get there and we checked into a lovely hotel right opposite the Victoria & Albert Museum - what a brilliant location! We literally threw our bags in our room and headed straight back out again; we had a wander round the museum and then made the most of the glorious weather by sitting in the museum's John Madeski Garden (not a football in sight).I then left hubby enjoying his book, a cuppa and a scone and went for a bit more of a look round the museum and in particular the shop. Once we were both fully refreshed in mind and body we took a walk along the road to Harrods. It was about 7pm by this time and as we headed straight for the foodhall, I remarked to hubby on the chances of Harrods having any 'yellow labels' (ie reduced price food); well, would you believe it, it was 'buy one, get one free' on the cake counter and it would have been rude not to, wouldn't it?! We then took a walk around the rest of the foodhall areas and were sorely tempted by the smells coming from the pizzeria, but at £16 each, we decided to forego the delights of a Harrods pizza. We also decided not to partake of this particular brand of tea; hubby has decided to stick with Yorkshire for the time being.With our mouths watering we headed a little further along the road to Harvey Nichols with the intention of enjoying some fare from Yo Sushi, but along the way we were sidetracked by the Champagne Cocktail Bar and, since we were enjoying a child-free weekend, it seemed a shame not to partake of a cheeky drink - yum! We did manage to limit ourselves to just one cocktail each and then enjoyed some delicious Yo Sushi offerings. By 10pm we were happy to head back to our hotel.

Saturday morning dawned bright and sunny yet again, and we headed out early to enjoy a little more of London before we had to head off to the wedding. We walked up to Hyde Park and through to the Lido cafe next to the Serpentine, a lovely spot to enjoy coffee and cake on such a glorious day. On the way back I dipped a toe in the Princess Diana Memorial water thingy - absolutely freeeezing!

Then it was time to get our gladrags on and head to the wedding which was being held in the Orangery at Holland Park; what a fabulous place, especially on such a lovely, sunny, blue-sky day. Once the ceremony had finished we gathered outside on the lawn to enjoy champagne (lots of it), canapes and afternoon tea. Then we went off on a two-hour Routemaster bus tour of London, which was great; we learnt lots of interesting facts (did you know London postcodes are plotted outwards from Trafalgar Square?) and saw many places we'd never really noticed before - Westminster Cathedral, for eg. We then had a couple of hours free (we spent them in Costa as a torrential rain storm cut short our plan to have a little walk) before heading to a lovely French restaurant for the six-course wedding breakfast. At about 11pm we snuck away feeling pooped, and leaving the rest of the guests to party (til 4am, apparently!)

On Sunday morning we made a quick visit to the V&A to buy DC a little gift, and to Patisserie Valerie to buy cakes before setting off on the three-hour drive to Wigan, where DC had been spending some quality time with Grandma and Grandad.