Chapter 15 — Seeing Red

Bruges

---

Bruges had yummy hot chocolates. Me and Sienna both got a Death by Chocolate, which had marshmallows, M&Ms, whipped cream and an Oreo. We got the kid-size, because otherwise we may have actually died, plus Dad said the adult-size was too expensive. We had to wait in line for about 20 minutes because the cafe was so popular, but it was worth it. We also went to two Christmas markets, and did some ice skating on a rink over a river/canal (except it wasn’t on ice, it was on a weird plastic stuff that was less intimidating and slippery but got plastic fibres on you if you fell over), and I got some nice butterfly earrings because I’m on a mission to get a pair of earrings in every country that we go to.

London

---

We went to the Barbie exhibition at the Design Museum; saw Big Ben (which looks even better in real life because you can see all the gold and blue details), Tower Bridge, The Shard, and the Gherkin (which Sienna called the pickle and was really obsessed with for some reason); had lunch at the V&A cafe (where the characters in one of my books have lunch); saw a Paddington statue in Leicester Square and lots of Christmas lights at places like Bond Street, Regent Street and Oxford Street; went to a huge Lego store that had a Big Ben, a double decker bus with the Queen in it, Santa, a scene from Harry Potter, and a James Bond car with a working horn all made out of lego; the Disney store, Harrods, and a big toy shop called Hamleys. We also went to the Back to the Future musical which was really good, with super-cool special effects and the bit where he went into the past looks exactly like it did in the trailer. London was also my last week of Te Kura.

Liverpool vs Fulham

14 December 2024 | Anfield Stadium

---

We went to the Liverpool vs Fulham game. We saw Mo Salah playing, who is a famous football player. The coach said in his interview later that it was a great crowd. It was an exciting game to watch, especially after a Liverpool player was shown a red card, and it was a draw. And I wore my Liverpool top but it was too cold to take my jacket off, so no-one saw it. Mum sort of started crying at the start because she couldn't believe we were actually there. (Editor’s note: Dad may have cried a little too).