Fun Days and Holidays

This post was originally written a week ago, so the first paragraph probably doesn’t make much sense now…

Having told you all back in March that I’m blogging wrong, I then went on to not blog at all, which is probably as wrong as you can get if your aim is to actually blog. Unfortunately this was in the most part due to me coming down with some sort of mega cold which left me barely able to function (but without the fever and sleepless nights of flu, thank goodness for small mercies).

On the plus side, it got the lurgies out of the way just in time for the Easter school break, which whilst not normally significant (because we don’t celebrate Easter and I work full time) this year I’d actually remembered to take advantage of the Easter bank holidays and booked 4 days off work (equivalent to a full week with the BH) so that I could take the kids away.

I was meant to blog before we went away to tell you how terrified I was of the whole idea. Long journeys! An entire week with the kids and no break! No adult company apart from strangers! Potentially having to listen to “I miss my Dad” / “I want to go home” whines and not being able to do anything about it! A week without sex Gaz!

Anyway, to ease myself gentle into the whole “being a parent” thing (because I might have them for most of the week but they’re asleep or I’m at work for most of that), I accepted an invite to join various other bloggers and “VIPs” at the Sealife Centre in Birmingham on Saturday 28th March. I was supposed to be telling you all about their new exhibit, the Sea Stars, in time for the Easter holiday. Unfortunately that’s not quite gone to plan.

Despite the bloggy failings, the kids enjoyed the Sealife Centre, and I took great delight in watching the guy introducing the main exhibit having to explain to everyone that the large male starfish had basically filled his tank with sperm (in an attempt to breed) turning it cloudy, which meant that we couldn’t really see him.

“Enthusiastic” starfish aside, it was great fun seeing both the star fish and some of our favourites from last year.

With the Sealife Centre visit done and dusted I could concentrate on panicking about my holiday and, as it happens, it was probably a good thing that I couldn’t splurge mega-panic all over your screens because the holiday was fine. It was even enjoyable. 5 whole days with sole responsibility of my children and I actually enjoyed it! I know, it’s crazy. The drive was long (around 4.5 hours to Norfolk from here) and with 2 stops it meant that we were on the road for much of day one and five, with a few tears towards the end because of achy bums and general boredom. It was a good break though and I think I had more cuddles with my babies than I have had in bloody ages.

While we were in Norfolk we paid a visit to BeWILDerwood adventure park in Hoveton (no, I have no idea where that is either) which was about 30 minutes drive from the Haven park we were staying at.

My little Izzy, who at times can be the most timid little girl in the world, was climbing along massive rope bridges and throwing herself down enormous slides like it was a daily activity for her. (I say little, but clocking in at well over 105cm I had to pay full price for her!) Oliver on the other hand was just shy of the 92cm size, so while he got in free was not able to go on several of the bigger pieces with his sister. This was fine for the most part but just occasionally meant that Izz would go off in one direction and Olly in the other and I’d be stranded in the middle trying to watch them both. Even worse, on more than one occasion Izz would get a bit stuck or wouldn’t be sure how to tackle a climb or whatever, and I would have to rely on the help of strangers and other kids to help her out. I can’t begin to tell you how helpless I felt standing at the bottom of one structure with Izz in frustrated tears stuck halfway up, unable to climb the ladder she was trying to tackle. Being a ‘single’ parent has a fair few plus points but days out are rarely one of them.

Anyway, tears aside we spent the whole day in the park, totally exhausting the kids (and me!) and all in generally having an awesome time. The kids want to go back next year – so that’s next year’s holiday sorted.

Back to the grindstone now though – oh well, fun while it lasted :)