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A trip to the Guinness World Records HQ - an Officially Amazing day

On Tuesday this week I was invited down to London to visit the Headquarters of Guinness World Records to celebrate their birthday. I took my 2 younger children and 1 of my teenagers, and not only did it go well, it was actually Officially Amazing and records were broken! We set off at 8am by taxi, tram and train, and 4 hours later arrived in time for a few photo's around the offices with life size cutouts and posters of some of the more famous and infamous record breakers! We were split into 2 teams ( we were on Bertie the world's fastest tortoise's team), and Craig Glenday, the Officially Amazing TV presenter and editor of the Guinness Book Of Records then kept everyone laughing for half an hour while he talked to the crowd about the world's tallest statues, one of his favourite spreads from the 2016 book. I had no idea the Statue Of Liberty was so small! He also truly delighted my 7 year old by showing us some dinosaur vomit. Nice! Then the part which delighted my 5 year old the most - a presentation and chat with the two guys behind the Guinness World Records 2016 Gamer's Edition - Stephen Fall and Stephen Daultrey. This has proven to be the most popular book we've ever had in our house. We were given it on entry, and my 5 year old hasn't let it leave his hand. He's even slept with it beside him. He's a fairly good reader for his age, but over the last 2 days he's advanced 6 months. Then we were whisked away by the poshest cab I've ever been in, to The Forge in Camden where there were some Record Breakers waiting for us to arrive, and several records for us to attempt.

Record breaking Marawa's Majorette's Hoola Hooped and John Farnworth (as seen on TV in Football Flick) showed us how Keepy-Uppy really should be done - and totally made the day for young Ben from We're Going On An Adventure Blog who has him as a hero. We all tried our hand at some of the challenges (although I decided against the more active stepping, star jumping, and hopping record attempts). Picking up as much LEGO as possible in a tower, but by only touching 2 bricks, was a challenge I rose to bravely, and I was doing well at the top of the leaderboard with 36, with my daughter on 27 close behind.... Then along came SuperBusyMum Debs and beat me with 37!! I was grateful I didn't have to perform under pressure with the cameras and crowd watching me though. Alas she didn't break the record on camera, nor did the young lady who came incredibly close at the 'step challenge'.

Also before the results were announced we were treated to a display by James Acraman the record breaking sport stacker - I'm stunned my boys haven't taken all of the IKEA cups out of the cupboard and tried that one yet! Two records WERE broken though. When the results were announced we found out John Farnworth had broken the record for keeping a ball in the air using only a back heel, and the young man JJ from Mummy From The Heart Blog had absolutely smashed the Minecraft record for collecting most wood in 3 minutes. We all had an awesome day, and it was a shame we had to end there and then travel all the way home. Our journey home was not boring though, we had plenty to read - and although we've all had a good look at the 2016 Guinness Book Of Records, it's the Gamer's Edition which has kept our youngest quiet so far..... The Guinness World Records 2016 and the Gamers Edition 2016 books are available now, rrp £20 and £10 respectively (and half price offers are currently around if you look!).

Guinness made a video of our day...

We were treated to our day out, and our copies of both books, by Guinness World Records, and a nicer bunch you could rarely hope to meet!
Posted by Jenny Leonard at 22:05