March - Paddy and Babies

With the snow all gone it was a good excuse to get back outside again. We had been for a walk along Regents Canal to Victoria Park with Tom and Gini so now we wanted to see what it was like in the other direction. Once we finally found the way down it was actually a really nice walk. Through Camden, Regents Park (roast dinner for lunch along the way) and on into Little Venice. It is interesting seeing London from a different angle and there are plenty of interesting things to see along the way, like all the canal boats and graffiti art, including a Banksy.

Being March it was also St Patrick's Day. In London they close off the streets of central London and have a big parade full of green and orange, leprechauns, Irish dancing and Irish music. It wasn't too bad as far as parades go. We then met up with Tom and Gini at Trafalgar Square for more Irish celebrations. There was a big free concert on there with load of Irish music, Guinness and big hats. The music was a bit melancholy for our liking and the crowd was massive so moved along to quieter surroundings at the Porterhouse, a massive Irish Pub in Covent Garden. The place has multiple levels and seems to go on forever and has random bottles of miscellaneous beer from all around the world in glass cabinets. Everything from Heineken to Guinness, to Speights to random miscellaneous beers from the 1973 Sussex Beer Festival.

March 15 was also the date of our 2nd wedding anniversary. We celebrated by treating ourselves out to a french dinner at Cotê followed by the musical Oliver. This was one we had seen a few times with various school productions etc but this was definitely the best rendition we had seen. The children were great singers and performers and Gryff Rhys Jones (from Alas Smith and Jones) was excellent as Fagan.

We also finally managed to catch up with the newest members of the wider Ritchie Family, Flyn and Harry. Greg and Nicole and Karla and James' babies respectively. We caught up with them all at the natural history museum. Emily was very very impressed with the Dinosaur Bones. Jess was more impressed with the babies. Very cute, and very cool to have some more 42nd cousins in the family.

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