I've just spent a couple of happy hours - interspersed with getting tea for the children - removing sequins from one of my tops. You'd think it would be boring, but I parked myself in a comfy seat with a nice breeze coming in through the window behind me and patiently picked away.
The top is a really pretty black and white floral print, and it wasn't until I received it that I realised that some of the flowers had been surrounded by small black sequins and beads. It was remarkably uncomfortable to wear. Why don't designers think of practical things when they're coming up with these ideas?
Everytime I rested my arm against my side, the sequins scratched and dug into me. The simplest of tasks was impossible to do without an accompaniment of scratching and itching. Honestly, I sometimes think these people must live in LaLa land.
Anyway I think it's time for Alex to have a shower and go to bed.
Ta Ta
Sunday 16 August 2009
Friday 14 August 2009
Day 5 - last day of holiday from home and ....
Drusillas Animal Park in Sussex - sort of inbetween Eastbourne and Brighton.
We ummed and arred about driving this far, but it was so worth it. We even managed to get there fairly uneventfully for us. Didn't get lost or break down.
Drusillas is perfect if your children are under 12 I think. Huge amounts of things for them and adults to explore and interact with. The zoo is very cleverly laid out so that visitors are channeled through the exhibits towards the play areas and cafes at the end.
Animal Spotting books were handed out, and the idea was as you saw each animal you found the corresponding stamping station and stamped your book with a big red tick. The last thing in the book was Thomas the Tank Engine and you got a sticker for that once you'd had a ride.
And that's what I forgot to mention as probably the main attraction of the zoo for its younger visitors - a passenger sized Thomas the Tank Engine along with Annie and Clarabelle his carriages (plus one more carriage) Much to Alex's delight the Fat Controller was there to personally oversee the loading and unloading of passengers.
The animals at the zoo are mainly small mammals, farm animals and birds. From cows, goats and pigs to marmosets of all shapes and sizes, lemurs, meerkats, flamingos, owls, Penguins, a Serval and so on. I've already managed to forget the names of most of the animals there but they were all cute. And Llamas - don't forget the Llamas.
Probably my favourite animal though, was the tiny baby Meerkat tottering along looking as though if he slowed down his oversized head would topple him over. For such a tiny animal though, he had a fair turn of speed although I'm not convinced he was in full control of his legs. I think he just aimed himself at where he hoped to end up at.
One of the Meerkats had us in stitches as he'd obviously decided that the top of the infra-red lamp was the best and most comfortable place to be.
I've got a fair few, actually 148, photos of today but not a lot of the animal ones are all that good as I was shooting through glass most of the time and the reflections tend to blur the shots. I did manage to get a reasonable shot of the Fennec Fox with his huge ears - spot the difference.
Now one of these cute Foxes is in actual fact Alex in disguise and the other one is the real Fennec Fox. Have you spotted which is which yet? There were loads of these photo sets around the zoo and I think they made for a much more special experience for the young visitors.
The zoo did have several shops dotted around, and I managed to restrict my spending to a Drusillas Park cuddly Penguin for Amber and Alex's name made up of alphabet cards with various Thomas the Tank Engine characters on for Alex. Unfortunately the one thing that blew that completely out of the water was the dedicated Thomas shop at the end !!!!! Needless to say the old plastic had to come out for that one.
We left the park round about 3.30pm and headed off to look for the Long Man as I'd seen a brown sign pointing to him not far from the zoo on the way in.
After grabbing the above photo of him, we decided to explore the lane we were in and quite by accident came upon some lovely tea gardens offering cream teas. Well we couldn't very well ignore that could we? So at 4pm we had tea in a Victorian garden - with the wasps.
There was a little gift shop at the tea gardens, and I bought myself an old fashioned wasp trap - we get loads of the little buggers in our kitchen. It's basically a glass rounded jar with a dimpled base with a hole in it. The idea is that you smear jam around the rim of the lower hole, the wasps fly in and become trapped. Not sure what stops them from flying out again, but it works - so I'll give it a try.
After tea we pootled off back to the A259 through Eastbourne - well round Eastbourne - we're not that daft - and past Pevensey to pick up the A27 back towards Hastings. We then proceeded to spend 2 hours stuck in traffic jams which melted away suddenly with no indication of what had caused them !!! Don't you hate it when that happens. Where do all the cars go? Is there some sort of genteel black hole that scoops up all the cars in front of you, when it somehow senses you have reached the end of your tether and are about to hotwire the carhorn to the brake peddle? Does a hole open up and swallow them all? Or are they some form of hallucination created by the local tourist board in order to persuade you to pull over and spend even more money at the local Beefeater? That's what we did in the end, and despite the beefburgers and fries at lunch and the cream tea at 4 we still found room for Rump Steak and chips (OH) and minted lamb with dauphinoise potatoes for me - which was delicious. That, with added drinks and sausages and chips for Alex who at that time was hyper from the jam he'd scoffed at the cream tea, cost us £41. So an expensive day it was although, as far as I'm concerned, totally justifiable.
Anyway that's it for this year. We're planning the odd away day at weekends for the rest of the summer and beginning of the Autumn, but nothing on the scale of this last week. Which I am sure is probably very good news to our bank accounts.
Do keep a weather eye on this blog as I'll update it from time to time with the further adventures of the mad people from Kent.
We ummed and arred about driving this far, but it was so worth it. We even managed to get there fairly uneventfully for us. Didn't get lost or break down.
Drusillas is perfect if your children are under 12 I think. Huge amounts of things for them and adults to explore and interact with. The zoo is very cleverly laid out so that visitors are channeled through the exhibits towards the play areas and cafes at the end.
Animal Spotting books were handed out, and the idea was as you saw each animal you found the corresponding stamping station and stamped your book with a big red tick. The last thing in the book was Thomas the Tank Engine and you got a sticker for that once you'd had a ride.
And that's what I forgot to mention as probably the main attraction of the zoo for its younger visitors - a passenger sized Thomas the Tank Engine along with Annie and Clarabelle his carriages (plus one more carriage) Much to Alex's delight the Fat Controller was there to personally oversee the loading and unloading of passengers.The animals at the zoo are mainly small mammals, farm animals and birds. From cows, goats and pigs to marmosets of all shapes and sizes, lemurs, meerkats, flamingos, owls, Penguins, a Serval and so on. I've already managed to forget the names of most of the animals there but they were all cute. And Llamas - don't forget the Llamas.
Probably my favourite animal though, was the tiny baby Meerkat tottering along looking as though if he slowed down his oversized head would topple him over. For such a tiny animal though, he had a fair turn of speed although I'm not convinced he was in full control of his legs. I think he just aimed himself at where he hoped to end up at.
One of the Meerkats had us in stitches as he'd obviously decided that the top of the infra-red lamp was the best and most comfortable place to be.
I've got a fair few, actually 148, photos of today but not a lot of the animal ones are all that good as I was shooting through glass most of the time and the reflections tend to blur the shots. I did manage to get a reasonable shot of the Fennec Fox with his huge ears - spot the difference.
Now one of these cute Foxes is in actual fact Alex in disguise and the other one is the real Fennec Fox. Have you spotted which is which yet? There were loads of these photo sets around the zoo and I think they made for a much more special experience for the young visitors.The zoo did have several shops dotted around, and I managed to restrict my spending to a Drusillas Park cuddly Penguin for Amber and Alex's name made up of alphabet cards with various Thomas the Tank Engine characters on for Alex. Unfortunately the one thing that blew that completely out of the water was the dedicated Thomas shop at the end !!!!! Needless to say the old plastic had to come out for that one.
We left the park round about 3.30pm and headed off to look for the Long Man as I'd seen a brown sign pointing to him not far from the zoo on the way in.
After grabbing the above photo of him, we decided to explore the lane we were in and quite by accident came upon some lovely tea gardens offering cream teas. Well we couldn't very well ignore that could we? So at 4pm we had tea in a Victorian garden - with the wasps.
There was a little gift shop at the tea gardens, and I bought myself an old fashioned wasp trap - we get loads of the little buggers in our kitchen. It's basically a glass rounded jar with a dimpled base with a hole in it. The idea is that you smear jam around the rim of the lower hole, the wasps fly in and become trapped. Not sure what stops them from flying out again, but it works - so I'll give it a try.
After tea we pootled off back to the A259 through Eastbourne - well round Eastbourne - we're not that daft - and past Pevensey to pick up the A27 back towards Hastings. We then proceeded to spend 2 hours stuck in traffic jams which melted away suddenly with no indication of what had caused them !!! Don't you hate it when that happens. Where do all the cars go? Is there some sort of genteel black hole that scoops up all the cars in front of you, when it somehow senses you have reached the end of your tether and are about to hotwire the carhorn to the brake peddle? Does a hole open up and swallow them all? Or are they some form of hallucination created by the local tourist board in order to persuade you to pull over and spend even more money at the local Beefeater? That's what we did in the end, and despite the beefburgers and fries at lunch and the cream tea at 4 we still found room for Rump Steak and chips (OH) and minted lamb with dauphinoise potatoes for me - which was delicious. That, with added drinks and sausages and chips for Alex who at that time was hyper from the jam he'd scoffed at the cream tea, cost us £41. So an expensive day it was although, as far as I'm concerned, totally justifiable.
Anyway that's it for this year. We're planning the odd away day at weekends for the rest of the summer and beginning of the Autumn, but nothing on the scale of this last week. Which I am sure is probably very good news to our bank accounts.
Do keep a weather eye on this blog as I'll update it from time to time with the further adventures of the mad people from Kent.
Thursday 13 August 2009
Day 4 - Row, row, row your boat gently down the canal
Today, we both decided we needed a rest day as the last three days of frenetic up-ing and downing have reduced us both to whimpering wrecks.
However, in the true tradition of our family on holiday, we didn't just doss around at home all day. For lunch we toddled off to Pizza Hut in Ashford to partake of their all you can eat buffet - which probably would have been better if the icecream machine hadn't have conked out.
Ivan packed away 11 pieces of pizza with me coming in second at 6, Amber at 4 (she's slacking) and Alex at 2 and a cup full of sweeties from the defunct icecream machine. (Ok, ok I did have profiteroles as well)
The plan after that was to come back to Hythe and visit the Royal Military Canal whereon flocks of ducks have learned that Alex can bomb them with bread extremely accurately.
But this time I had a cunning plan (Milord) and Ivan found himself in the driving seat (so to speak) of a rowing boat whilst Alex and I pursued the ducks on their own ground or water.
What you need to know here is that Ivan hasn't rowed for probably 30 odd years and the last time was in a canoe. So we spent a lot of the time spinning gently round, to the amusement of onlookers on the bank. We proceeded up the canal in a series of zigzags and collisions with the bank, the bridges, other boats, reeds and tree branches. The only reason we didn't mow down the ducks and swans is that they were obviously very used to inept humans bumbling around and skillfully kept out of harms way whilst staying near enough to field any food that accidentally found it's way into the water.
Further down the canal a lone Cormorant posed on the bank for photos from his adoring public before diving into the water and proceeding to keep ahead of us at all times despite Ivan's frantic efforts to catch him up.
However, in the true tradition of our family on holiday, we didn't just doss around at home all day. For lunch we toddled off to Pizza Hut in Ashford to partake of their all you can eat buffet - which probably would have been better if the icecream machine hadn't have conked out.
Ivan packed away 11 pieces of pizza with me coming in second at 6, Amber at 4 (she's slacking) and Alex at 2 and a cup full of sweeties from the defunct icecream machine. (Ok, ok I did have profiteroles as well)
The plan after that was to come back to Hythe and visit the Royal Military Canal whereon flocks of ducks have learned that Alex can bomb them with bread extremely accurately.
But this time I had a cunning plan (Milord) and Ivan found himself in the driving seat (so to speak) of a rowing boat whilst Alex and I pursued the ducks on their own ground or water.
What you need to know here is that Ivan hasn't rowed for probably 30 odd years and the last time was in a canoe. So we spent a lot of the time spinning gently round, to the amusement of onlookers on the bank. We proceeded up the canal in a series of zigzags and collisions with the bank, the bridges, other boats, reeds and tree branches. The only reason we didn't mow down the ducks and swans is that they were obviously very used to inept humans bumbling around and skillfully kept out of harms way whilst staying near enough to field any food that accidentally found it's way into the water.Further down the canal a lone Cormorant posed on the bank for photos from his adoring public before diving into the water and proceeding to keep ahead of us at all times despite Ivan's frantic efforts to catch him up.
Day 3 - Dover Castle at last
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Not too far from home today, so we had a leisurely drive up to Folkestone Morrisons for breakfast and a little shopping, whilst the nice chappy in the carpark repaired the stone chip in the windscreen that we had picked up on our way to Groombridge yesterday. That done, we pootled up the A20 to
Now, the problem with
There is so much there that we didn't get to finish before the site closed - no matter we can use our card and go back to finish :o) But we did manage to get in a tour of the Secret Wartime Tunnels. So secret in fact, that you're still not allowed to film or take photos in there even to this day!!! Not that that stopped the foreign visitors. Interestingly there were a lot of German visitors in our group!!!
However, I think the highspot of the day was at the Keep when, with a bit of very impressive timing, we managed to stagger back up there just in time for the afternoon audience with Henry II and Prince John.
It all started at the bottom of the Keep with the King's Steward inviting one and all to partake in remnants of the King's meal - a couple of lackies - all in period costume - were handing out dried fruit and nuts!!!
The actors were very impressive and did not drop out of character even when faced with deliberately !! awkward questions and comments. OK, I did try it on.
Anyway, the Keep is very, very, very high and Prince John popped his head over the battlements to find out what the steward was doing and to tell him that he could see 
invited him down to visit us down and outs littering the castle grounds.
We were all invited into the main hall of the Keep for an Audience with King Henry II ….. and the steps were a killer. I just managed to get to the top and collapsed onto a bench carefully placed to catch unfit specimens such as myself going through cardiac arrest.
The Keep has recently been re-decorated in the style that would have probably been there during Henry’s reign and there are some beautifully embroidered canopies and soft furnishings in there. Some have been done by the Royal School of Needlework, no less.
My son, Alex, fearless as he is, decided to sit himself on the royal dais – much to the amusement of Prince John and the steward. I somehow, don’t think that they expected this to be part of the entertainment but they rose to the challenge admirably. In fact too admirably as Alex wanted to carry on talking to them and had to be persuaded to sit on the floor and watch the show.
The actors must have been boiling in those outfits as it was very hot and overcast today.
Absolutely brilliant time though, even though every slope seemed to be steeper and more precipitous than the last. And there seemed to be considerably more UP than DOWN whilst we were dripping around. I have got to have lost weight this week, even with the icecreams and cream teas and big breakfasts. We didn’t eat too much today, but I spent a fortune on drinks.
Anyway, here are some of the lovely decorations in the main hall and the King’s bedchamber.
Canopy over the thrones – difficult to see in this picture but this is goldwork.
Detail of one of the embroidered cushions in the King’s bedchamber and the box at the end of his bed.
Tuesday 11 August 2009
Day two - and we didn't go to Dover Castle ...
Instead we went to Groombridge Place gardens and Enchanted Forest just the other side of Tunbridge Wells.
What should have been a one hour journey turned into a 1 3/4 hour journey because I made the mistake of downloading detailed directions. My other half has the most amazing sense of direction, but even he couldn't make head nor tail of these instructions and we ended up in Tunbridge Wells going round and round, dodging roadworks.
In the end Ivan, ditched the instructions, got the map out and proceeded to use his directional ability to get us there.
It was well worth the effort though. The manor house is moated and privately owned so you can't go in there. But the gardens are amazing. The old outbuildings have been turned into the restaurant and the gift shop, but very sympathetically so the original exteriors have been well preserved.
All around the formal gardens there are very tame peacocks, mainly sitting on the roof when we were there - possibly they'd already been warned about Alex's bird chasing fetish.
The gardens are laid out in themed blocks separated by yew hedges. There was a formal garden with a large pond wherein large hungry Koi try to take your hand off. Water gardens and a knot garden follow, then a new maze which is too low at the moment to be really effective - even I could look over the hedges and see where to go.
To get to the Enchanted Forest you could walk up through the Vineyard and through the gate into it, or take a canal ride a short distance to the other side and start that end. We decided to take the canal ride.
The forest is perfect for active children and to be honest, for lazy adults needing some serious exercise. All of the things incorporated there were made of natural materials, so fitted into the scenery just perfectly. Playgrounds for the children, giant swings hanging from the treetops, a fort and a Tepee. There was a wild west explorer type person telling stories by the Tepee and further up a totem pole.
One thing I've forgotten to mention is that the forest walk gets gradually steeper and steeper. Getting to the Totem pole is extremely steep - you can't take pushchairs up there. Then you climb slightly higher before curving round and starting the trip down towards the Vineyard.
There are deer in the forest, and they are quite tame if the keeper is around. I was able to stroke one of them and his antlers were so soft with the velvet still on them. That was an amazing experience, being able to get so close to a notoriously shy wild animal. He even allowed Alex to feed oak leaves to him - typical bloke - stomach led as usual.
We had lunch in the restaurant there, which was also very nice. Ivan and I both had local sausages, chips and beans - sounds basic - but it was very tasty. Definitely would recommend a visit.
Despite the travel problems - ignore Google and AA directions as they are designed solely to make you lose the will to live - this was a thoroughly enjoyable day out and another one I would recommend. If you are in the area, at this rate you're going to need at least a week to get through everything we're doing and probably a year or so to get through everything that is in the area.
Onwards to Day Three.
What should have been a one hour journey turned into a 1 3/4 hour journey because I made the mistake of downloading detailed directions. My other half has the most amazing sense of direction, but even he couldn't make head nor tail of these instructions and we ended up in Tunbridge Wells going round and round, dodging roadworks.
In the end Ivan, ditched the instructions, got the map out and proceeded to use his directional ability to get us there.
It was well worth the effort though. The manor house is moated and privately owned so you can't go in there. But the gardens are amazing. The old outbuildings have been turned into the restaurant and the gift shop, but very sympathetically so the original exteriors have been well preserved.
All around the formal gardens there are very tame peacocks, mainly sitting on the roof when we were there - possibly they'd already been warned about Alex's bird chasing fetish.
The gardens are laid out in themed blocks separated by yew hedges. There was a formal garden with a large pond wherein large hungry Koi try to take your hand off. Water gardens and a knot garden follow, then a new maze which is too low at the moment to be really effective - even I could look over the hedges and see where to go.
To get to the Enchanted Forest you could walk up through the Vineyard and through the gate into it, or take a canal ride a short distance to the other side and start that end. We decided to take the canal ride.
The forest is perfect for active children and to be honest, for lazy adults needing some serious exercise. All of the things incorporated there were made of natural materials, so fitted into the scenery just perfectly. Playgrounds for the children, giant swings hanging from the treetops, a fort and a Tepee. There was a wild west explorer type person telling stories by the Tepee and further up a totem pole.One thing I've forgotten to mention is that the forest walk gets gradually steeper and steeper. Getting to the Totem pole is extremely steep - you can't take pushchairs up there. Then you climb slightly higher before curving round and starting the trip down towards the Vineyard.
There are deer in the forest, and they are quite tame if the keeper is around. I was able to stroke one of them and his antlers were so soft with the velvet still on them. That was an amazing experience, being able to get so close to a notoriously shy wild animal. He even allowed Alex to feed oak leaves to him - typical bloke - stomach led as usual.We had lunch in the restaurant there, which was also very nice. Ivan and I both had local sausages, chips and beans - sounds basic - but it was very tasty. Definitely would recommend a visit.
Despite the travel problems - ignore Google and AA directions as they are designed solely to make you lose the will to live - this was a thoroughly enjoyable day out and another one I would recommend. If you are in the area, at this rate you're going to need at least a week to get through everything we're doing and probably a year or so to get through everything that is in the area.
Onwards to Day Three.
Monday 10 August 2009
Day One of the holiday from home.
Today we went to Diggerland Kent, on the banks of the Medway. From the carpark there were amazing views over the river and in the distance you could clearly see the massive keep of Rochester Castle.
We had an absolutely wonderful time there. My 15 year old daughter got to drive an automatic four wheel drive car with the rest of us in the back and the marshal sitting beside her in the front. She didn't do too badly at all.
Alex got to have a couple of goes on his own as we stretched his age to 5 so he didn't miss out. He has the most amazing eye hand coordination for his age (4 1/2) and managed his JCB digging with less problems than some adults.
However, I have to admit that my favourite part of this visit was getting to drive a large JCB myself. Very bouncy but the steering is surprisingly light.
We thought that would be a complete day but we'd pretty much finished by lunchtime, added to which the park was filling up and the queues for some of the rides were getting very long. There was a large party of men and boys from a religious sect, wearing skull caps with their hair shaved close to their heads except for two long bits dangling down from just in front of their ears. I couldn't think what sect they belonged to although they looked slightly Jewish. However, unfortunately they were also hogging all the rides and making it difficult for others to get on, so we decided to call it a day and move on to Chislehurst Caves.
They were fantastic. They're not really caves as they're manmade - more mines really. They are carved from the chalk and flint landscape and there are 20 miles of them under Chislehurst. The tour took just over 45 minutes and our guide was great. He made the tour such fun, involving all members of the group, telling ghost stories and historical stories. The mines had been used as shelters during the 2nd world war and he had a wealth of stories about them. He even took all the oil lanterns away (no electric lights, lanterns only, makes it more interesting) and left us in the dark for a while.
If ever you are in the area I'd definitely recommend a trip to the caves, if only to talk to the guides who have a wonderful sense of humour.
Tomorrow, possibly Dover Castle - just down the road really and I have been before, but they've just recently re-opened the Keep after doing it up to look as it would have looked during the time of Henry VIII. Alex has never been and Ivan (who's a local and should know better) has never been to the wartime experience in the tunnels beneath the castle.
So far, so good, and I'm managing to keep up with knitting my Mum's cardi. Hope to have a picture for you all very shortly.
We had an absolutely wonderful time there. My 15 year old daughter got to drive an automatic four wheel drive car with the rest of us in the back and the marshal sitting beside her in the front. She didn't do too badly at all.
Alex got to have a couple of goes on his own as we stretched his age to 5 so he didn't miss out. He has the most amazing eye hand coordination for his age (4 1/2) and managed his JCB digging with less problems than some adults.
However, I have to admit that my favourite part of this visit was getting to drive a large JCB myself. Very bouncy but the steering is surprisingly light.
We thought that would be a complete day but we'd pretty much finished by lunchtime, added to which the park was filling up and the queues for some of the rides were getting very long. There was a large party of men and boys from a religious sect, wearing skull caps with their hair shaved close to their heads except for two long bits dangling down from just in front of their ears. I couldn't think what sect they belonged to although they looked slightly Jewish. However, unfortunately they were also hogging all the rides and making it difficult for others to get on, so we decided to call it a day and move on to Chislehurst Caves.
They were fantastic. They're not really caves as they're manmade - more mines really. They are carved from the chalk and flint landscape and there are 20 miles of them under Chislehurst. The tour took just over 45 minutes and our guide was great. He made the tour such fun, involving all members of the group, telling ghost stories and historical stories. The mines had been used as shelters during the 2nd world war and he had a wealth of stories about them. He even took all the oil lanterns away (no electric lights, lanterns only, makes it more interesting) and left us in the dark for a while.
If ever you are in the area I'd definitely recommend a trip to the caves, if only to talk to the guides who have a wonderful sense of humour.
Tomorrow, possibly Dover Castle - just down the road really and I have been before, but they've just recently re-opened the Keep after doing it up to look as it would have looked during the time of Henry VIII. Alex has never been and Ivan (who's a local and should know better) has never been to the wartime experience in the tunnels beneath the castle.
So far, so good, and I'm managing to keep up with knitting my Mum's cardi. Hope to have a picture for you all very shortly.
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