Travels with Kathryn

I am starting to write this on Saturday evening with Gladiators on in the background – have I travelled back in time? I am certainly starting to feel like I really have come home.

When I set off all those months ago (23 August 2023), I did not have a fixed return date. However, I did have tickets to see Disney100: The Exhibition for today (with Steph), and this gave me an excellent thing to come back for. This may be the final weekend of my trip, but I can also consider it to be phase 1 in my 40th birthday year of Disney things, i.e., this, a planned trip to Walt Disney World in Florida and (hopefully) another opportunity to sing “Christmas!” at Disneyland Paris.

My day began with a trip on a London bus, where I got to drive the bus (i.e., to sit in the upstairs righthand seat above the driver), so I was very pleased:

So, Disney100 is an exhibition of more than 250 Disney artworks, artefacts, costumes, props, and other memorabilia from across Disney’s history. Its really rather well done as you start with an introductory film before the curtains open and the first part of the exhibition is revealled – all that is missing is a moving walkway to keep everyone moving at the same speed. I was probably most interested in some of the props (pictured below) and posters, some of which are below and the interactive dance with Mickey, which was too challenging for grown adults (i.e., us) to operate!

There were also a number of opportunities for elegant photo taking:

I shall end my reflections on the exhibit with a quote from it:

For 100 years, Disney stories, characters, adventures, and music have unlocked a special kind of magic in our lives – shared across generations, across time, and across our wonderful world… The true magic of Disney is how it makes us feel. As Walt Disney once said: “The inclination of my life – the motto, you might call it – has been to do things and make things which will give pleasure to people in new and amusing ways.”

The Wonder of Disney

So that was rather magical, and I did buy a little something in the shop on exit, but as I intend to wear it in Disneyworld, it’s more of an investment piece, perhaps?

We then decided to head to Canary Wharf for food, although it made me revisit my old employer (one of those prestigious places) but I managed to avert my gaze if not my camera:

I returned to my hotel for a relaxing evening (yes, watching Gladiators) and to get excited for my Big London Lunch tomorrow.

It is now Sunday evening and I have indeed had a lovely lunch with some of my London people today – if only I had remembered to take a photo! or even just a photo of my first roast dinner in many, many months. Anyway, such a wonderful meal reminded me of all the fantastic London people I know, and how much I am looking forward to moving back and spending time with them all, possibly in their spare rooms/sofa beds whils I attempt to find a job/somewhere to live.

Tomorrow is officially the last day and the last journey of this whole trip. Now as I am back in the UK it is unlikely to go smoothly – I knew when I booked that I was already subject to a slight issue in that there would be overrunning engineering works which meant I could not return to the nearest station to my Mum’s unless I was prepared to get a rail replacement bus for the best part of an hour. However, I did manage to book a train slightly further north, so a solution had been found. However, it is now Sunday night, and Storm Isha has arrived… Travel warnings are in place, the last train today from London Euston (where I will be departing from) has already left, the batteries in Mum and Keith’s cars are flat so who knows what will happen tomorrow?! I shall do another post tomorrow as I know this is the kind of fascinating content you all enjoy (I have also planned a final round-up reflection post to finish me off), but in the I would like you all to keep your fingers (and toes) crossed for me that I actually make it back tomorrow!