Little bear's day out

My darling brother and his friend took little bear and I to the Royal Armouries in Leeds today. It was marvellous - for me.

Little bear had woken up in a very assertive mood, and I wasn't feeling much better as he woke me up at 3.30am to discuss the contents of the water bottle next to his bed, though he did go back to sleep in his own bed. But after negotiation, threats and promises I managed to get him ready to go out before his uncle appeared.

The Royal Armouries is foul to get to if you don't drive. As far as I know, the only bus that stops anywhere near the entrance is the open topped tourist bus. Once upon a time the Armouries stood in a sort of open peninsula, with the canal around it and derelict land and abandoned warehouses nearest. Now it is all built up with fancy shops, offices, hotels and designer apartments, together with a high rise, non free multi-storey car park. If I tried to walk from the nearest bus stop to the main entrance, I think I would get lost.

We had something to eat (ouch, the cost!) and then went to look round the tournament section with lots of armour. Little bear was okay, but I suspect he was thinking, 'yeah, yeah - another suit of shiny stuff' at the end. So while my darling brother and his friend had a look round the other parts I took little bear to the gift shop (ouch!) and then he raced around with a sort of collapsible plastic lance and a plastic knight's helmet with a movable visor.

One thing that unnerved me was little bear's complete confidence that he could just join in. He tried to gatecrash two brothers fighting with their new wooden swords and shields. The lads were around five years older than him, so I pulled him away. Then he was chatting happily to another lad who was nearby. Little bear just seems to wander into a group and decide to take charge. I think I definitely need to get him into sporting team hobbies, just to give him a bit more context.

Then we went to Hobbicraft. There is a big Hobbicraft store at Crown Point, Leeds, quite near the Armouries and we called in for some glass paint. I avoided the yarn, I avoided the knitting magazines, nearly avoided the children's crafts (make your own noise maker and make your own pirate ship sort of fell into the basket) and headed more or less straight for what I needed. Hopefully darling father will be converting his empties into vases with a glass cutter and then painting them and selling them at the Methodist's Christmas Fair. So I grabbed a random selection of glass painting stuff, hoped for the best, nearly cried at the total and came home.

Up until this point little bear had been pretty good. There had been some stern words needed in Hobbicraft and the Armouries about staying close and not barging past people, but really he was quite good. However things started to go wrong. I had left my keys at home and couldn't get darling father to hear the door. So we were locked out. We thought that we could go to darling brother's (@ forty five minutes drive) and little bear could play with the dog. Little bear loves the dog, who is remarkably patient. However before we had gone far we managed to get hold of darling father who promised to unlock the door.

Little bear was beside himself - he wanted to see his favourite dog, his best dog, it wasn't FAIR. He wasn't screaming or shouting but he was devastated. So darling brother explained to little bear that he could either see his best dog today OR darling brother would babysit on Saturday and bring best dog with him, and best dog could go to sleep on little bear's bed. Little bear brightened up immediately. I shall leave evil cat locked downstairs with a large supply of catnip.

I am impressed at my brother's negotiating skills.