My Harry Potter London Tour...

For my Birthday in London Sam booked a “Harry Potter London sights tour” before the tour I was a little disappointed because all over London were advertisements for the Harry Potter studio tour, a tour at the WB studio with the props and sets. The studio tour had just opened the week before and we had already tried to get tickets to this tour before leaving for London and were disappointed to learn the whole month of April was already sold out. Once my London three hour bus tour started I forgot about the studio tour, well I couldn’t really forget because there are advertisements all over and it really looked like fun, but I started to get excited about the next couple of hours. In the three hours we spent walking and driving all over London we saw a lot of sights and it was not obsessively focused on the Harry Potter movies, we saw a few monuments that had nothing to do with the wizarding world, a lot of things seen or mentioned in Bridget Jones, 10 Downing Street and there was even a reference to Narnia, which of course made Sam very happy. I also discovered that I do not know as much about the wizarding world as a few 13 year olds who I pretty sure English was a second language to, embarrassing! But for those of you who doubt my loyalty, I did have on my “Wealey is my King Shirt” even though you cannot see it under my jacket.

Here we are In Leadenhall Market, a place I thought was really pretty and we would never have gone to without the tour, I tried to recreate the movie scene with me walking down the street in the same area that Harry and Hagrid did. Laura apparently did not care about authenticity…

So we tried it again with Sam being a good sport… Here are Harry and Hagrid on the same street in the first movie…… Hagrid talking to young Harry… I am to short so you do not see me in the picture we took in Leadenhall Market...
Hagrid and Harry entering the Leaky Caldron, in the movie the area was suppose to be Charing Cross road which is known for it’s book stores, therefore for the movie the surrounding shops on this street were dressed up to look like book stores… Me standing outside The Leaky Caldron or as it is known in the muggle world an eyeglass shop…This is St. Pancras Station in London (we did not get off the bus here)… Here is St. Pancras Station as seen in the Chamber of Secrets, in the story they are suppose to be flying the car over Kings Cross Station, which is right next door, but this station looked nicer on the outside so they used the exterior in the movie... The knight bus dropping Harry off in front of a different Leaky Caldron in the prisoner of Azkaban, this one was really a flower shop that was across the street from Borough Market... This was that same street but during the day and with more people, for some reason Sam had a really hard time taking a picture of me in front of this street. I am not even sure I like this one since you can't see the detail that was there and in the movie, o-well you will just have to take my word for it …
They put a fake front over the door of the florist and painted everything to match, you can see the line left when they took off the fake front… Here we are in front of Millennium Bridge which was finished and opened before filming of the sixth movie Half Blood Prince, but not when J.K Rowling wrote the book…
This is me holding on as the bridge collapses from death eater attacks, I guess I should not be smiling…

This was one of my favorite places we stopped, I am not sure why because there was really nothing to see, but here we are at Great Scottland Yard, which is of course not only the place where the British police horses are now kept but also the location of the entrance to the Ministry of Magic. The visitors entrance through the red telephone box in the fifth movie was filmed here, but there is not an actual telephone booth there anymore and there was a police horse sanding there at the time. But in the Seventh movie the trio do use this spot to prepare to enter the Ministry. This is Ron on the movie…

This is me, same spot the movie just added a lamppost and people…

Number 13 Grimald place headquarters to the order of the phoenix , is actually number 25 on this street. It is easy to identify by the drain pipe running down the side, the special effects needed a straight line to make number 13 appear between number 12 and 14. Again we did not get off the bus here because the tour guide said it would be rude to get out and take pictures on someone’s doorstep, so this is a picture from the bus window. Sam was a little disappointed because about 3 doors down was a for sale sign and he felt this would be the perfect spot to finally take the plunge into homeownership, but alas it was not meant to be…
Number 13 Grimald place with Harry and friends standing in front in Harry Potter year five…
I could go on and on boring you with more Scottland yard, the building that inspired Grigotts wizarding bank and a few more buildings used in filming, but I think everyone has gotten the point that I had a good time

Borough Market...

Before we left for London Sam had a list of places he wanted to visit and things he wanted to do, he had a quite a few war museums on the list so I was excited when we made an unplanned discovery and got to spend a few hours exploring Borough Market. Borough Market is London's most renowned food market. We were told that this market sold lots of things to eat and you could find some pretty strange food items here. It was not all shopping though they also had some food stands set up which seemed to be a very popular place to pick up lunch. Sam got a cheese sandwich that we were told had been featured on some food shows, he said it was the best grilled cheese he ever had. I got a delicious veggie burger and Laura who is very cautious with food chose a bratwurst from the German stand, because we couldn’t get that at home.

Sam eating his cheese sandwich

One of many seafood stands

Some dead rabbits for sale, yes they are real!

Sam bought some Turkish delights to try, I abstained fearing the white witch of course (and because they were gross).

And finally Laura throwing a fit over some fresh juice we got at the market. I wish I could say this was rare but unfortunately on this trip Laura must have set a bad behavior goal and then set out not only to reach that goal but to exceed it.

Birthdays.....

I love birthdays for me it is usually the one day of the year that I don't have to worry about anyone else, for this reason I try hard to let the people close to me know through something small but personal that I remembered their birthdays.


But for the last 3 years I have dreaded my birthday, this year more than ever because this year I entered my thirties. I have been anxious about this birthday for a while now and even though Sam has tried to comfort me nothing has been able to make me feel better, because he can't stop time or change history. Every year that I age not only does my fertility decline but Laura also ages and the gap between her and any baby we may or may not be able to have widens. I know that any doctor I talk to now is still going to tell me the same thing that I am still young and they have not proven that fertility starts to decline until you are over 35; therefore I still have plenty of time left. To that I would say five years might not be enough time to have a healthy pregnancy and birth considering we have been actively trying to conceive since our last failed pregnancy two years ago. I know that looking at these numbers the best thing for us might be to consider ourselves lucky for the beautiful healthy seven year old we have and stop hoping for the miracle it will probably take to expand our family. Every month as Sam and I dissect our monthly activities looking for any clue why we are still not expecting we discuss giving up. We discuss how even though frequently it seems the world is designed for a family of four we could be happy and someday even feel satisfied with our smaller family of three. But every month I say the same thing just one more month then I will go through the boxes and bins of baby stuff that take up a whole corner of the basement, then I will stop testing for peak fertility one more month and we can set new goals. Turning thirty shows me that I cannot ignore time is passing, I can give us one more month or even fifteen for a second child but soon Sam and I will have to give up any option we ever had of a third baby, five years is just not long enough.