Tower of London

Mummy helped me make my own castle using boxes and toilet rolls. I cut out the turrets and bent them over to make a walk way for the soldiers around the top sot hey could look for the bad guys. Mummy made a drawbridge using some wool and a skewer and I can turn it to make the drawbridge go upnad down to let my kings and queens into the castle. We have a raven keyring that has to stay at the castle to make sure that government continues like at the Tower of London and Grandpa bought me a soldier with a gun that I broke off but Mummy stuck it back on and he is on guard in the castle.


There is actually a beefeater who goes to sleep with his wife in a jail - he told us so and he lives in the Tower of London. When we wanted to look at the moat I sat next to him on the wall and once whilst he was talking to us all about the olden days he pulled my hat brim over my eyes. I lifted it up and decided to put it back down again. We went up into the chapel and we had a little look around afterwards and I saw Anne Boleyn's grave. When we pretend to be olden days people Mummy is Anne Boleyn and I am Lady Jane Grey who was queen for 9 days and Daddy is Guildford Dudley (my husband who had his head chopped off too). Guilford Dudley's brother lived in Kenilworth Castle and our road is named after him. He was friends with Anne Boleyn's daughter who was Queen Elizabeth I and he made a special garden to entertain her and they have built it again at the castle and Nanna and Grandpa have taken me to see it.


I had a drink from a water fountain and got water all over my face so I dried it off on Daddy's trousers when I gave him a leg cuddle. We went to COSTCO and I had my picture taken but they didn't print me a membership card so I only saw it on screen. They had a water fountain and I got water up my nose and I was covered in water.


When Anne Boleyn was going to be executed Henry got married to Jane Seymour on the same day. Anne Boleyn had her head chopped off with a sword because it was quicker and less painful than an axe. The swordsman came from France specially to cut off her head. Most people had their heads cut off with an axe. Anne Boleyn was queen for nearly three years and had one little girl but henry wanted a boy but I think girls are better than boys.
We saw where they had their heads chopped off and we saw Henry VIII's armour. He had six wives and there is a poem to remember what happened to them that goes: "Divorced, Beheaded, Died, Divorced, Beheaded, Survived".
Henry pretended one of his divorced wives was his sister and she survived into Elizabeth's rule. She was called Anne of Cleves and wore funny hats. The last queen married again and died in childbirth. They gave birth at home not in special places like now and lots of mummies died in childbirth. I have lots of books about the olden days.
They cleaned their teeth with sticks and sponges nad other yucky stuff so they needed false teeth but they were made of wood or bone and hurt.They had horrible chemicals in their make up called Mercury and Lead and this made their faces white but it was posoin. i made my face white using ice-cream - much yummier.

If the ravens fly away we won't have a government and the beefeater said that England would break. He told us that they clip their wings to stop them flying off and one raven bit his nose when it was having its wings clipped.
In olden days they played tennis and football but they used balls made of pigs bladders which are kind of like balloons and they were covered in leather.
Some of Henry's armour had skirts on because men wore skirts or tunics in those days. He had flowers on his armour and they were Tudor Roses. they needed two hands for their swords as they were really heavy, now they only need one. Now there are fighting girls but there weren't in olden days. Joe told me that the girls have pink feathers to make them easy to spot when they are knights. We saw a giant arrow that they had to throw because it wouldn't fit in a bow. They would light it and send it into the enemy boat.
We saw traitors' gate which was very sad. Queen Elizabth went in there when she was young and her sister was queen. Most people who went in the gate were executed.




I sat on the king's toilet which is called a garderobe. If they did anything in the toilet it went in the moat making it very smelly and dirty. I didn't do anything in the toilet but could see straight down the side of the wall outside.
In those days only the kings and queens were allowed to wear purple and some of their clothes were made out of real gold. Henry had salt and pepper in a big gold box but we have it in a glass grinder.
We went on a boat on the River Thames to go to a restaurant near parliament. There is a bridge that opens up to let big boats through but it didn't open whilst we were there.
We went to London on the train and Nanna made lunch so I could eat chicken bones with my fingers like they did in olden days.


For our meal we had chopsticks but Grandpa used a spoon. I had special squeezy handles and a lovely sauce with noodles. It was very messy to eat but I had fun. I poured the sauce all over the noodles.
We went back to the station on a bendy bus nad I stood on the turning bit and I got turned around when the bus turned round corners. We had pudding on the train and I fell asleep on Daddy.