There is a good little toy museum at Stansted Mountfitchet, next door to the really naff reconstruction Norman motte and bailey castle. I took my brother and his brood round there. The kids were bored senseless, but me and my bro had a whale of a time rediscovering all the toys we had played with as kids.
Quote: sootyj @ June 20 2009, 1:36 PM BSTN.B. the breaking the arm thing I heard was an urban myth, but they can drown small dogs.
I can assure you it ain't no myth!
Quote: sootyj @ June 20 2009, 1:35 PM BSTSo Abbotsbury is a place for (shudders) assylum seaking swans?
I bloody knew it! Some of those swans are quite clearly Albanian wearing down duvets and pecking children.
It's the ones with the bombs strapped to themselves walking through Heathrow you have to look out for.
Quote: AndreaLynne @ June 20 2009, 1:37 PM BSTI forgot to mention that the Air Force museum in Dayton OH is a great weekend trip. The Memphis Belle is being restored there, as is the Enola Gay.
Isn't the Enola Gay in Washington, DC?
The Air Force One exhibit at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library is nice. You can almost feel the history as you walk through it.
Quote: Timbo @ June 20 2009, 1:42 PM BSTThere is a good little toy museum at Stansted Mountfitchet, next door to the really naff reconstruction Norman motte and bailey castle. I took my brother and his brood round there. The kids were bored senseless, but me and my bro had a whale of a time rediscovering all the toys we had played with as kids.
You'd love the London Museum of Brands. It's about 50 cases of old brands and labels and stuff and almost hypnotically fascinating.
Quote: RubyMae - Glamourous Snowdrop at Large @ June 20 2009, 1:44 PM BSTI can assure you it ain't no myth!
It's the ones with the bombs strapped to themselves walking through Heathrow you have to look out for.
And releasing videos of them breaking the arms of contractors they kidnapped in Dorset.
The last time I checked the museum's web site, they had it listed there as a restoration project. They usually have 7 or 8 big projects going on at the same time. I think they were working on some old B-24s when I was there last.
The Sullivans in Buffalo was commissioned right at the end of WWII. It's been there ever since I was a kid and they have a surprising amount of it open to viewing.
Quote: sootyj @ June 20 2009, 1:01 PM BSTYou must be of the same generation as me. Because this was the days before proper theme parks when we were more easily pleased.
Did you do the hattrick? Robin Island aerial swing and the Needles cliff elevator?
Can't remember Robin Island, but we did the Needles thing and filled a glass lighthouse with various coloured sands. Those heady days! 
The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum website says they have the Enola Gay on exhibit. I haven't been to DC since 1991 and I think it's time for a return visit. The Smithsonian museums leave me in awe and the Air and Space Museum is my favourite of the bunch.
Robin Hill! God I'm a dope Robin Island was where Mandela's prison was.
Don't remember Robin Hill either.
I wonder if it was just parts of the Enola Gay's nose. That's all that's left, right? The Bockscar is there and that is awesome! Yeah, I hope to get to the Smithsonian in the next year or so. I could literally spend weeks there. But you should really check out Dayton. The collection is impressive.
Quote: sootyj @ June 20 2009, 1:46 PM BSTAnd releasing videos of them breaking the arms of contractors they kidnapped in Dorset.
A swan in a burka saying "Death to the geese". Demands include more birdfeed.
For swans, I would recommend Welney in Norfolk. In winter huge phalanxes of Whoopers and Bewicks swoop in at dusk for feeding, and the hide is more like a box at a football ground than the usual shed.
Great book and this place is in it.
Go here...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portmeirion
Be Seeing You!
The boot of my car is available for hire. I can repeatedly drive interested participants around some of the larger roundabouts in the town before taking them on to a secluded local beauty spot, sometime in the early hours. Bring your own gaffa tape, and cut'n'paste newspaper style ransom note.
Quote: SlagA @ June 20 2009, 3:18 PM BSTThe boot of my car is available for hire. I can repeatedly drive interested participants around some of the larger roundabouts in the town before taking them on to a secluded local beauty spot, sometime in the early hours. Bring your own gaffa tape, and cut'n'paste newspaper style ransom note.
I give it five stars.