Harry Potter or the Queen? How about neither!

I feel like this trip needs multiple introductory posts! Knowing me that’s all you will probably get, introductory posts! I am soon either going to run out of material or writing skills or time! But we will call it time shall we? Not that it matters/ to the -1 readers I have. I am sure I am the only one that reads my posts! That’s a 10 X degradation from my readership 15 years ago! However I still have the urge to write and this blog does exist (so do the other half a dozen blogs I seem to have created! With 3 posts each! Talk about ambitious!) So anyway, here goes!

Tootsie turns 12 this year! I should have known that night when I started labor pains on July 4th.  Our life was defined by that moment! When Tootsie turned 2 and 3 we thought it was a great idea to take a vacation and celebrate the birthday on the road! In a few years it became more of an expectation! After Eiffel Tower for the 8th birthday there was no turning back! At 12 Tootsie thinks its the right of passage! We have had a birthday trip every year, marred only by the one year that the whole world took a break for COVID (well to be fair rest of the world took a break for 2 years, but we didn’t! Even then!)

So this year as we started planning our annual vacation, Tootsie chimed in! “I know, for my birthday I want to visit the Harry Potter sites in London and Scotland! And the sucker that I am that became the plan! A trip to United Kingdom, so be it!!  No Harry Potter trip is complete without a trip to London, Oxford and Scotland! So that became the base of our itinerary!

Now I must also mention Cheeky! He has grown quite a bit since my last rambling! He is now 17, and quite knowledgeable about all the ways the world has been wronged! Including all the racist references made by JK Rowlings and all the ways the Queen and the Kingdom have wronged the world! So we are no fans of either the Royalty or Harry Potter. With that, I say welcome to London!

That’s the story of the life of every parent with 2 kids! I can so empathise with my parents now! The kids somehow choose to have diametrically opposite tastes, you please one and the other is less than impressed! However my kids have learnt to be reslient as kids often are and stoic as long as you dont exceed the time boundaries! Which I have found to be about half day give or take! At which time its time to abandon the tour and get some food! 

I feel like every trip gives all of us life lessons! Them how to deal with happy mom that wants to click a 1000 pics and just won’t simmer down! Or how to try to tame mom and fall short or just be embarrassed! Me how to curb my enthusiasm and plan lot of down time and learn when to abandon ship and call it a day!! So what if we missed visiting the palace and watching  the Change of guard! As long as no one is killing each other we will call it a win!