Meeting Postman Pat, Speeding down the Thames and a Movember meal at Bocca di Lupo - all in a day's work on a day out in London!

Last Friday we headed up to London for an action packed day. We had been invited to a special screening of Postman Pat to watch some episodes old and new along with the trailer for the Postman Pan movie due out later this year.

We also got to meet the main man himself along with his sidekick, Jess the cat.

But first, we headed to the London Eye pier for a high speed boat ride along the Thames. Miss T had experienced the thrills of a RIB London voyage last month when we attended their RNLI fundraising day for a mini ride. J and D had been last year and so we were all extremely excited about going again. For mum and dad, this was our third time on these fantastic boats - I think we can safely say we are officially addicted and if RIB London Voyages ever need official bloggers - we will be first in line!

We had saved up our Tesco club card reward points which enabled us to get 4 of our tickets using those, leaving just one ticket to pay for. 

As before, we had a fantastic ride along the Thames. It was colder and windier than before so we were glad to be wearing the RIB London voyages warm coats. 

Then in the afternoon it was off to meet Postman Pat to celebrate the launch of the complete series 1 and 2 on DVD. The original series 1 has been digitally enhanced and all three DVD's we watched are available from Amazon.  

And what a blast from the past that was. The first episode we watched, from 1981, I seemed to vaguely remember from my childhood. It is incredible that all these years later Postman Pat with his black and white cat is still as popular as ever. 

Miss T and her black and white dog, meets Jess, Postman Pat's black and white cat

Now having Special Delivery Service missions alongside his regular round, Pat gets to do all sorts of exciting things in the more recent series'. 

Popcorn and beanbags to watch Postman Pat on screen

And things are set to get even more exciting with the Postman Pat movie trailer showing us a glimpse of Pat's hidden singing talents in front of Simon 'Cowbell'. With David Tenant providing the voice of another of the key characters, the movie is set to delight Postman Pat fans young and old. We can't wait!

Our day in London was still not done. A run around Trafalgar Square to chase some pigeons and then it was time for a special meal at Bocca di Lupo. 

Chasing pigeons in Trafalgar Square

This was the fourth and final meal of the Pan Macmillan Movember meals that daddy won with his funny video. It was really great for the kids to come with us this time. Although Miss T joined us for our meal at Caravan Kings Cross and for Oxo Tower brasserie, the boys had been at school on those occasions. But with it being half term last week they were able to join us this time. 

Our own Brilliant Chef has done his own write up about it on his blog, so I won't say too much about the food here. It was a very enjoyable meal. We chose several 'small' plates to share along with a couple of 'large' plates. It proved a great way of tasting several dishes. The food is Italian and seems to have a heavy influence of seafood as well as some more unusual dishes.  

I adored the creamy walnut sauce on the pasta we had and the desserts were heavily influenced by nuts too, which again I really liked. 

We would definitely recommend saving room for dessert if Grandpas balls are on the menu - they taste fantastic! You'll have to keep an eye out on D's blog to find out more. 

Disclosure: We were invited to attend the Postman Pat event free of charge and received copies of Postman Pat DVDs to keep. We have not been paid to write this post but wanted to do so to capture our own #PatMemories. You can follow Postman Pat on twitter and share your own memories using #PatMemories