I can’t say this one has been quite as good as last week, considering I had to revise and see my grandparents today, but the previous two days have been brilliant.

Friday:
I got up early and had Mum drop me at Toby’s for 10. We played on the xbox (again) whilst the kitchen designer was working downstairs, and the whole family headed off to the boat at half 12. It was a nice day to go out on the river: sunny and not very windy. I let them do their stuff for the first leg of the journey, seeing as I had no clue about anything boaty. We moored up in Henley for lunch, which was nice. The weather was awesome. After lunch we headed off again, further up the river. Sarah, Toby’s sister, and I were sitting on the front with our feet in the water, which was really cold; my feet were slowly numbing, but it kept me cool. Eventually, Toby asked me if I wanted to drive. Nervous, I took the wheel, but I did a pretty good job. I only nearly crashed about three times! I gave up after a while, and handed the wheel over to Toby’s Dad. We turned round and headed back up the river. Once we were moored again, we drove off to have dinner in the nearby pub.
Toby was most displeased that his Dad had ordered him a sausage before he noticed the steak menu, meanwhile I was rather interested in the stuffed fish in cases all over the pub. I’m not a massive fan of taxidermy, but fishing has been a family holiday since before I was alive. Before my Dad was alive, even. We go every summer to France; at least, we did before my brother grew up and decided to not come on holiday with us this year. We might book some last minute thing, but I’m not sure.
We headed back to Toby’s house once we’d all eaten. Toby and I sat and watched TV for a bit, before he thought I should be taken home. It was about 11 o’ clock, so it was fair enough. I’d had an awesome day, and really felt part of the family, which was great.

Saturday:
Another early start, but for an even better reason than Friday. I had to meet Toby on the bus at about 9, so we could be in Reading station in time for a train to London. Because of his season ticket (for work), he had an offer that allows him to take a friend to London for £10 each, which is really good. We got Mega Breakfast Subs in Subway (even though I’d already had breakfast, but I was hungry after smelling them in the station), and headed off to platform 5. It felt really strange to be venturing further afield than just Reading, but strange in a good way. It took ages of wandering up and down carriages to find two seats together, but eventually we did.
We arrived in London pretty early and got the tube to Oxford Circus to go shopping. We walked the entire length of Oxford Street and Regent Street, hardly going in any shops apart from HMV, Game and a couple of clothes shops. I was amazed by the eel and shark in the fish tank in Quiksilver… And we spent ages being little kids again in Hamley’s. Eventually the heat got to us, so we caught the tube back to the Embankment to get a drink and some lunch. We sat by the river as we ate, watching the world go by. Once we’d eaten, we wandered further up the South Bank. We did a bit of window shopping in the design shops, and had a penny-throwing contest into the buckets of the awesome sand sculpture builders from www.dirtybeach.tv. It was really cool, they’d made an awesome Bender from Futurama, and another did a really good sculpture of two heads. Toby took me hunting for the pub that he’s eaten at before, but then was sad when they’d switched to only serving pie. Shame. We did see a small pizza place near there, too, so thought we’d go back in the evening, after Harrod’s.
We grabbed an ice cream and wandered over the river, in the direction that Google Maps told us Harrod’s was. Once we got to our ‘destination’, it turned out we’d just walked about 2/3 of a mile in the wrong direction, but there was a direct tube route from near Leicester Square (where we were) to outside Harrod’s. Once we got there, I was actually amazed. Having never been to Harrod’s before – that I could remember - the scale of the shop, and the scale of the prices, was incredible. I was also amazed at the selection of sweets. We vowed we would return, once we’d been through the whole shop, to get soe lovely things for the way home, and for Sarah. We had loads of fun messing in the toy section, although it wasn’t as good as Hamley’s. We also ventured into the furniture section, mainly because my feet were starting to ache, but also because we’re strange and like looking at things we can’t afford. The fossils department was awesome, and we took the piss a little in the pet bit. They had four-poster beds for cats for crying out loud!
We headed back downstairs and bought a cupcake for Sarah and some insane marzipan fruits for us before we left to find the Pizza Hut that we saw on the way (it was closer than the Embankment), but were silly enough to walk straight past it. We had an awesome dinner and headed back to Paddington to get the train back. I think I fell asleep for a bit on the way home, at least I was very close to falling asleep. We got the bus back to Toby’s from Reading. I could have got off at my stop, but wanted to get back and give Sarah her cupcake. It was a rather pretty one: chocolate with chocolate frosting and multicoloured sprinkles. She was pleased. We then just sat downstairs talking to Toby’s Mum for a while, and eventually he persuaded me to go home.
I didn’t mind though, I was looking forward to a nice sleep after a long day in the sun, but it would have been nicer to stay with him all night, like last week.

Today, I just got up slightly later (10), and did some revision before my Grandparents came over at 4. They are still here, but I’m currently being an anti-social teenager… Oh well.