"By seeing London, I have seen as much of life as the world can show."

In the world of blogging you meet some amazing people, but a lot of the time never in person, which is really unfortunate. Emails can go back and forth for years and you can build some pretty amazing relationships with companies. So when the chance arises to meet one of these amazing people it can be both exciting and a little unnerving, especially as I worry that I come across a lot less confident in the flesh. So this week I was invited by Micro-Scooters to attend an event to showcase the new Emicro one, their latest electric scooter which (being a HUGE scooter enthusiast) I was really excited about. The meeting gave me and Opeie the chance to have a couple of days adventuring in London (with of course, our scooters for getting about).

If the thought of a couple of days in London scooting wasn't enough, on the train down we received an email to say that one of our previous trips to London had made it on to Micro-scooters blog, titled 'Opeie's no tube scooter challenge' , so Opeie spent the journey down there telling me he was famous and the news had made us even more eager to get some wheels under our feet. We got off of the train and headed straight for the science museum as per Opeie's request and after checking our scooters in to the cloak room we had a great look around talking about all the things we could see. Opeie informed me that he would like to do a Space project at 'Daddy school' and after watching a video of Charles Michel he would like to attempt some food art this week so I'm looking forward to that.

Ive talked about it before but the great thing about having the Micro-scooters with us in London is that you get to see a different side to this amazing city. The none visually stimulating dark tunnels lined with posters for theatre productions and movies becomes amazing architecture, interesting people (not crammed together like sardines) and beautiful street art. From a home schooling point of view there really is no better way to take in London for everything it is.

When we have the scooters with us we always do a little investigating around Hyde park, the park itself is so much fun on wheels and aside from all of the amazing things to look at it can be used for getting to different parts of the city quickly while entertaining the kids. I love that with the scooters we can go long distance, in great time and without the 'daddy my legs are hurting'.

We always try and investigate areas we've not been to before as I think its important to show Opeie that there is so much out there. In London EVERYWHERE makes you think, there is so much diversity and taking Opeie to places where he is asking questions and constantly looking about for inspiration for things he wants to do is what home schooling (for us) is all about.

Day two of our trip and we woke up and made a bee line for Southbank after being told by our friend Katy that we should check it out. Its somewhere we had been meaning to go during other visits but until we arrived there I hadn't realised how close we had been to there on a few occasions. We had been on the London eye last year and around that area and had almost made it there when scooting along the Thames from the Tate Modern.

There are lots of interesting things to do around London and so much of it is free, having the option to dip in and out of these places and not having to worry about spending a fortune is great. we popped in to the Tate Modern and had a great trip to the Horneman Museum, which had an interesting dinosaur exhibit on, aimed at children. But aside from all of the museums and culture there is a never ending amount of fun to be had outdoors and being on the scooters really opens that up to us. Opeie developed his own form of parkour while out and it was great watching him climbing up pillars and walls around Waterloo station.

By the time we reached the apartment late that afternoon we were exhausted, but I still had the Micro-scooter event to look forward to that evening, so I mustered up the remainder of my energy and made my way back towards where we had spent our afternoon. Rather than scoot there (which I really should have done) I decided to walk and I can honestly say it wasn't for me, haha. When you've been whizzing around all day on wheels and have been reaching your destinations it great time, being on foot just doesn't cut it.

There's something pretty fun about walking in to a bar and seeing those scooters that I adore so much lined up and ready for action. As always though I was a little apprehensive walking in, not having the troops with me to break the ice but Ive never had a warmer welcome. All those years of passing emails back and forth and I finally got to meet the lovely Dannii who made me feel very special. Dannii was the first person I ever spoke to since working with Micro Scooters so it meant a lot to finally meet her, as expected it was like we had been the best of friends for years.

Getting to chat to other scooter enthusiasts was so much fun and I met some really interesting people. the star of the show 'The Emicro' is a really awesome bit of kit. It is the first motion controlled electric scooter which had my undivided attention from the moment I pushed off. Instead of just getting on and being ferried about, the Emicro still needs a physical kick off and an occasional push and thrusting motion every now and then to keep up momentum, which I love as it continues to keep the scoot physical. The more energy that you kick off with the better assisted the battery and journey is, genius. Racing it along the side of the Thames was the perfect place to scoot and I could get up to a great speed, not quite the Emicro's top speed of 15mph though. As I scooted around it got me thinking how great the scooter would be for Seth, because of his muscle condition he has days where he struggles on his scooter, the Emicro could definitely keep him up to speed with us which would be great for his confidence.

During the event we got to see an Emicro being put together which was really interesting as I had no idea that the motor was in the rear wheel. I would love to get my hands on one of these to go out for a solo adventure to really put it to the test. With it needing only 60 minutes to fully charge you could do some serious distance in the space of a day, scooting from train station to train station while charging during the journeys.

The event was everything I was hoping it would be and as I said before I met some really amazing people. It makes all the difference when you turn up to events like this and everyone there is passionate about the products.

With a few more hours left of our London adventure the following morning, we made the most of the scooters before heading on our journey home. Micro scooters from day one have brought me closer to the boys and having these as something we can share has been very special to me. We are already planning our next scooting adventure which looks like it is going to be lots of fun so stay tuned.

'The wheels are spinning and the adventure is unfolding'

I don't know how the rest of you organise your photos but as a blogger my desktop is filled with a ridiculous amount of folders all waiting to be turned in to blog posts and slowly but surely I get through them when i have time. I take an insane amount of photos every day because we are always having so much fun and I love to document everything in photos even if these moments don't make the final cut on to the blog. Ive been meaning to write a post for a week now but with the summer holidays starting and my two fun loving thrill seeking boys fully taking control of my time i just haven't had a spare minute until now. I had the post all planned out in my head but as I scrolled through the 400 pictures that had made it through to the final round of blog judging, the images actually brought a tear to my eye.

I am the luckiest guy on the planet!! i still can't believe how much my life has changed over the last 6 years. Everything was turned upside down the day I met Mrs M. All the stupid things that at that time had meant a lot to me meant nothing. The only thing that mattered at that point was her and the way she was making me feel. What followed that day was a series of events that molded me as a person and made me a much better human being. I was introduced to Seth and the Dad that was desperately waiting to come out was released and then Opeie! I cant believe that something so small could have such an impact on EVERYTHING but there he was and I cant get enough of being a dad.

And that's where this post was supposed to start. It wasn't the perfect circumstances for one of our adventures but as with every bit of time we have together I like to think we fully embrace the time we have together. Mrs M had loads of work on and Seth unfortunately wasn't with us so we planned a trip, 3 days in the big smoke, just the two of us. I spent a few days organising things for us to do and I had the big plan of 'NO TUBE'. I don't have anything against the tube (the boys love it), I just wanted to make it more of an adventure by travelling about using our Microscooters. There was a moment where I thought maybe i had bitten off more than i could chew (travelling around London as a tourist is hard enough with a 4 year old) but I was feeling confident that me and my miniature counterpart could manage it (and it was going to be fun).

We had only been out for an hour on the first morning when i realised just how different London is on two wheels, I can see why so many people cycle. That uncertain feeling i get when waiting for a tube was gone and was replaced with smiles and a very excited 4 year old whizzing around desperate for adventure. I make it so clear on here just how much i love the time i spend with the boys, i put so much effort in with them both and i am continuously rewarded by how awesome they are both turning out, sometimes I am so overwhelmed by our relationship and although early into the first day this trip was making me feel that way.

We were staying near Paddington on the edge of Hyde park which turned out to be the most amazing place to stay in London as we had to go through Hyde park on the scooters to get to everywhere we had planned to visit. We spent the morning investigating and scooted from where we were staying to Marble arch and then got on to Hyde park and spent the afternoon there. I love Hyde park, you could spend the whole day there just pottering about. We scooted along the river and made our way over to the Diana princess of wales memorial fountain where we splashed about for a good hour or so, it was such a lovely morning.

I'm starting to realise I'm going to have to write a post for each day we were in London as I've just finished uploading the photos for day one and there's quite a few. After eating our lunch at the fountain we scooted over to the Serpentine Pavillion as we had driven past the Selgascano exhibition when we had arrived in London the night before and we were both intrigued. It was really interesting inside, bright colours and shiny transparent plastic. I'd have loved to have gone on the evening when it was all lit up. This is one of the things I love most about London, there are interesting things to look at and attractions to visit all over the city.

We were soon back on the scooters and we freestyled it a little and ended up at the Albert memorial. We had been there before with our friends Sam and Jamie on the way to the Natural history museum  a year or so before and Opeie remembered so many details from that day as soon as he saw it. We scooted round the statue on the nice smooth tiles having a race before making our way to Kensington Gardens.

While researching the area before heading out that morning Opeie had spotted images of the Diana Memorial Playground in Kensington gardens and that was our next port of call (see what I did there?). We got to play pirates and ride on a sea monster it was so much fun. Opeie was loving watching people roller skating through the park, there was a man with ski's on wheels and someone on a unicycle. It was full on entertainment for my little partner in crime and I was having one of the best days I had had all year.

An afternoon of Scooting had taking its toll on my sidekick and luckily thanks to the GPS on my phone we realised the memorial playground was just round the corner from the apartment we were staying. Opeie crashed out within 20 minutes of getting back which worked out perfectly as we had big plans for a late night out. We headed out early evening on route to Leicester square as we had been invited to the Premiere of Ant-Man at the Odeon and we were both VERY excited about it. First though we had to find some new shoes for Mini me as his old ones were rubbing. So bye bye to his light blue converse and 'Hey!' to these lush purple/blue ones (great choice Opeie!).

No tubes again! it was lovely making our own way to the things we had planned, London is so interesting if you take out the underground. Ant-man was AMAZING and as we made our way home me and Opeie chatted about the movie and all the things we love about super heroes.  Opeie is so much fun to be around and being a dad is so much more that I thought it would be. He is such a character and I am so proud of the intelligent and sensitive boy he has become.

 

It took us a while to get back to the apartment and we didn't make it back till 11pm, which was a really late night for Opeie. As we made our way back I almost jumped out of my skin when i spotted a police officer holding a rifle standing in the dark shadow of a tree. We don't see guns where we live so it really took me by surprise. He apologised and we got chatting and it turned out that his sister lived just around the corner from us in Shropshire, small world. By the time we had got back we were both ready for bed. It had been a long day but as i said before, one of the best i had had in a long time. I could spend all of my time with Opeie he is the coolest 4 year old i know (yes i know i am biased).

Our first day was over but there was still 2 left, i wonder what we got up to next...

Stay tuned for part 2.