On Saturday, we went to Buckinghamshire Railway Centre, because Mummy had some Tesco vouchers that would expire if we didn’t use them up quickly. It had a steampunk festival on, so there were loads of crazy people dressed up in weird steampunk-y outfits.
We went with Matilda, Arthur and Seth, and because it was the weekend William could come too, so he did. The festival sounded really fun, and that’s one of the reasons we went; but I think that only Arthur, Seth and William really enjoyed themselves :/ You see, for Matilda, Tilly, Mummy and I we were all at a bit of a loss, surrounded by all this trains. So, for once in my whole life of day-trips, I have to say that this one wasn’t my favourite.
At the beginning, it was all a bit dull, because all you could really do was stand around model trains and things, of which only the boys were interested in. It got a bit better later on, when we were allowed to go inside the trains, and we went in the First Class posh one, with individual green velvet seating! We stuck our heads out the window and pretended to wave handkerchiefs about, and then all was well 🙂 We also went on a much smaller train, which had no roof and seats and things – only a long bench, though I have to say it was more fun than it sounds!
Through the middle, we spent a lot of the time looking at a model of a train track, and Seth, William, Matilda and Arthur had some fun using the controllers to slow them down and speed them up on the track. However, Tilly and I were still at a bit of a loss by this point, and we stood and watched the trains go rooound and rooound and rooound the track – Seth kept exclaiming, “Oh, er, er – could I – could I do that? Could I put that one on? Wait, Arthur, turn it clockwise – right – no, no, left – oh, do we have to, Mum? But – but he’s going to connect this one now! I can’t miss it!” And the same with the rest of the boys 😉
At the end, though, it got a bit more cheery, and we went in the museum, which I quite enjoyed. We also had a go at sorting out the mail. The man gave you a wad of ten letters, and in front of you was a board on the wall with a load of different slots, with labels at the top that said things like ‘Newport Pagnell’ and ‘Birmingham’ and things like that. You then had one minute to put all ten letters underneath the correct slots, by looking at the address and putting them in the slot underneath the label.
When we had finished sorting mail and looking at the trains, Nicola and Dean (their mum and dad) were very kind and bought us a huge Mr Whippy with chocolate sauce and a flake! It was really delicious! The ice cream lady put on a bit too much chocolate sauce, I think, because as soon as I said “Thank you” to Nicola, Dean and her, the chocolate sauce was glooping down my fingers, and I was ‘blissfully unaware’!
Out of ten, I would give the whole day out six and a half. I would rather go somewhere else than there again.