The One With Clare & Rosemary's Day Of Fun

I took a day off work today to take Rosemary out for the day to do whatever she wanted to do. Her immediate response? "Can we go to the National Portrait Gallery?" Can we ever! So we spent a good deal of this morning walking the corridors of the NPG. She knew a few of the people in the '1960's Britain onwards' section and we went to the Victorian and Tudor sections as well, as she's studying those periods in history at school.

Afterwards, we traipsed around Leicester Square a little, watching camera crews set up for tonight's premiere of Shall We Dance? starring Richard Gere and Susan Sarandon. Apparently, Mr Gere is in London tonight. Alas, we didn't see him at all. I was disappointed. "Why do you like Richard Gere?" Rosemary asks. Uhm, Pretty Woman? Helloooo?!

After lunch, we tubed to Knightsbridge so Rosemary could see the food halls at Harrods. She was pretty much in awe of everything she saw. And when we reached the toy section, she went crazy and started rushing from stand to stand to see everything! One toy was a mechanical panda that has movable arms, so when you hug it around its middle, it hugs you back and says things like, "I love you" and "I like hugging you". She absolutely adored it and did nothing but refer to it for the rest of the day. It was enough to make me go barmy. I wouldn't have minded buying it but it was £35 and its not even a special occasion... Maybe for her birthday! She did buy an outfit for her boy Bratz doll (Koby - how gay does that sound?) which was some compensation.

We didn't have time to make a stop at Hamley's so we made a quick stop to the Disney Store on Bond Street before heading home. Again, she went bananas and started hugging all the cuddly toys she could reach but she was easily placated with a Piglet jelly lollipop and fluffy keyring.

I like these days out with Rosemary. I don't get to spend a lot of time with her, as I work all day and in the evenings, she's usually occupied with homework. Plus the 13-year age gap does really show sometimes. It's more of an aunt-niece relationship than sister-sister. But we had fun and that's the main thing!