A Humdrum Mum

Family and friends, tasty tea, cute cakes, succulent sarnies, scrumptious scones… what more could you ask for? Some sightseeing around Central London please. Oh, and on a vintage red double decker bus, if you don’t mind. What I’ve described is exactly what you get from the B Afternoon Tea Bus Tour. Priced at around what I paid for the Ritz afternoon tea some five years ago, you rock up at Victoria bus station and check-in to board the bus. The waiting staff guide you on and you find your booth. I manged to get a photo before anyone arrived.  The tea is set up for you and is sort of stuck down on the table with a little bit of material! Note the nice touches of the flowers adorning the sides of the bus and the tables with natty bus and shopper images. You settle in and order your first (of many) drinks. I had in my head that I’d be supping loose tea using a strainer out of a bone china cup and saucer. However that just isn’t going to work on a bus, I realise. So you are given

YES we found Bob! Escape rooms seem to be the new thing. You pay to be locked into a room, with your goal being to escape! But it’s a little more than that. Teamwork aids the solving of puzzles and challenges, with clues around you, be it icons or codes. There is not always just one room; often a second room is there for the finding. Based around a theme, this immersive style of game has really taken off, with even my mum completing one! I was imagining a quiz based on general or specific knowledge, but no, it’s not necessary to have any prior information. Anyone can take part. Last week, on a family day out, I “Escaped” with my mum, cousin and her daughter. The rules were explained to us before we entered and we were told that while there was a camera, there was no audio. If we required help (yes you can ask for help!), we needed to dance in front of the camera and help would come via the TV screen in the room. Our theme was “Taken” - our good friend Bob had gone missing and we we

I had loaded up my Kindle with books I thought I'd be interested in before my week long trip to Menorca in the summer, during which I managed to finish a record six books! As I'd chosen this book months ago, I hadn't actually remembered I'd already read An Unsuitable Woman by the same author until I came to write this review. The two novels share similar themes, but are different enough not to have noticed the link, unlike my Liane Moriarty book, which, having read four of hers now, all tend to be feature similar characters (good reads though they are). The Artificial Anatomy of Parks is Tallulah's story, past and present, starting in the present in her early twenties, called to the hospital as her father has had a heart attack. We learn how she grew up in a family filled with secrets (whilst obvious to us readers, not to the tender Tallie) and how she coped with personal tragedy. Not a likeable character at first (like the main protagonist in An Unsuitable Wo