A friend in need

My mate Ben has a terrible problem. His activities for the day include:

1. Shopping for birthday presents
2. Collecting the car from the garage
3. Getting dragged round shops all day

This is a fate worse than death for any man, let alone one who's only 5.

Mungleton to the rescue!! Jof just happened to mention that the Spinnaker Tower and HMS Victory are half price today to mark the 10th anniversary, so once BensMum has dropped the JoniBobs back home after their sleepover, he's coming round.

Played Lego for a bit, then hopped on a bus. This one only took us as far as the train station so we caught a train to Portsmouth Central and got off for Ben to go to the toilet. It said 20p to use it but he was small enough to get under the turnstile and avoid the charge. A second train took us to the harbour and we bought some boring school shoes in Gunwharf. They're quite clumpy so might make me look bigger.

In the queue for the tower we bought some bouncy balls and then went up in the super-fast lift. We investigated all the floors, Ben used the toilet again and got a medal (unconnected events) and we selected some toys but put them back before Bud could pay so that was nice. Eventually we descended, argued, climbed on a gun, went to the toilets again and had lunch in the Customs House. More guns later, we got a bus but didn't stop off in town because Jof's work was closed.
Once we'd got all of my toys out and scattered them on the floor, it was the toilet once more and television.

After a stunning 7 hours it was time to drive Ben back home, I tagged along - we played "My little Spy" in the car - and scored another hour playing with his toys while Bud acted the gitty goat at BensMum/Dad plus BensDadsBrother and his girlie, they decided that BathFizzerNight music should be Thin Lizzy so here we go. Bath (only 4 fizzers this time but a 7-reagent potion as well) started at 10 pm so maybe I won't get up till noon tomorrow. Hurrah for everything. Ben lent me his giant shark, I really must remember to give his lion back.