Butterflies and Scary Slides

by 3 Comments

This morning we woke up for the last time in our little cabin. I want one of my own, I'm not going to pretend I don't! They are the most gorgeous, relaxing and luxurious places to stay when self-catering. Check-out was 10am so we rushed around madly packing up. I tried to be efficient and dropped the plug for baby monitor on my big toe. I screamed, I cried, I sobbed, I wailed. There was blood, tears and swear words. Hubby tried to help by giving me an ice-pack: an 8×4 inch ice-block for my big toe. He got sworn at and returned with a cold, wet, flexible compress instead.

After we waved goodbye to the stunning Forest of Dean we headed to Butterfly World at Symonds Yat. I'd been there as an 11/12 year old and remembered it vividly. I wanted The Boy to experience it. We were the only people there and it wasn't that hot in the tropical house, so the butterflies were quite sleepy at the time. Turns out this is a good thing as it appears this is where my phobia of moths/flying things might have stemmed from. I assumed my memory of it was a happy one; apparently not. After the first butterfly flew within two feet of me, I fled back out and returned with a net and hat over my bonce. The Boy was initially disturbed as he wondered who this monster was and what she'd done with his mother. I'd post a photo but I look stupid so instead admire the prettiness of a newly hatched (1o minutes old) butterfly.

After I'd recovered from a near heart-attack (I managed 30 minutes in there, but then I had to flee whilst trying to pretend to the owners that I'd had a lovely time!), we drove back to Cardiff and stopped off in a soft-play centre that I'd wanted to go to for a while.

Jump is a fabulous play-centre and I now understand the peak prices. However, we went mid-week, mid-term so adults were free and 1yr olds (how convenient?) were only £3! A complete and utter bargain because we could easily have spent a whole afternoon there. There was the most amazing dedicated under 5s area I've ever seen in one of these places: a sensory room; a puzzle, dressing up and construction room; climbing equipment; a trampoline; a ball-pit; and ride-ons. In the main play area, there was three different climbing 'frames' with huge ceiling-floor helter-skelters (I rediscovered my 12 year old self who wasn't frightened of flying objects), bouncy castles, ball pits, bowling alleys, trampolines and air-hockey! We had a really good quality lunch served by helpful and friendly staff.

All in all a good end to our mini-holiday!

Bacon baps and perky pigs

by 2 Comments

I was woken up this morning by the gentle pitter-patter of raindrops falling through the leaves outside and a symphony of birds. As I turned over I could feel the dawn's light through my eyelids and smiled inwardly; holidays! The view that greeted me was a towering mesh of deciduous skeletons.

The night was a mixed bag. I flitted between sleeping soundly and then getting really hot legs and feet and having to throw off the bed covers; I'm used to a 7.5tog duvet at home not a 10tog! The Boy first stirred at 5.45, but then settled back down by himself until 7.15 (a full 12 hours in the end)! Hoorah for the great outdoors and fresh air!

We had a fabulous breakfast of variety pack cereals (like children aren't we?), croissants, pain au chocolat and coffee, accompanied by yet more bird song as the window in the kitchen slides all the way back to bring the outdoors in. Wellies on and up we squelched through the mud (by the way, the Maclaren didn't get bogged down at all) to the reception centre for our welcome talk. It's a lovely touch to have this chat explaining the facilities, the ranger's job (including activities for children and night-vision walks), the food & wine delivery service (to your room, ordered through your television!), the bike hire and the local attractions and walks. All of this is accompanied by a bacon butty and a cup of coffee. Vegetarian like me? No problem, would you like a croissant or an egg roll?

After lunch, we visited Dick Whittington Farm Park. We will never go again & I wouldn't recommend it. It's £6 for adults and children over 3 years old, and £5 for children under the age of 3. Babies who can't walk are free. Personally I think that's really steep, toddlers should be cheaper than that, if not free. I don't think I've ever heard of a place that charges for at least under 2s. The total cost was £17 and we were there for 1hr and 15 minutes. In that time, we spent 40 minutes in the reasonable-quality soft play area, which was packed: lots of weekend dads who unfortunately were spending more time on their iPads than playing with their children. The toilets are, um, functional but the floor is quite frankly filthy.

And so to the animals. Yes there are a selection of farm animals including pigs, some sweet lambs, donkeys, goats, chickens and geese. However, these chickens are in a ridiculously low pen which made me think of battery farming. I was not particularly impressed with the conditions that many of these animals were living in. The aviary is four foot by five foot housing a large amount of small birds, too many for that space. There is a 'tropical' house with a couple of terrapins, one tank of goldfish, some lizards and snakes, tortoises and something large and worrying, I forget it's name which is quite frankly probably for the best. To be honest, the place looked like a pet shop rather than something intended for visitors. 'Extras' on the farm included a snowy owl, a pedal-kart track (an extra £1) and a sandpit. I will admit that we were chuffed to see a couple of llamas, The Boy thought they were camels which I thought was quite an impressive connection to make.

However, back we came to out beautiful cabin which The Boy is calling our 'little house'.

Oh and his new favourite word is 'huh-woh', as in 'hello'. Very cute!

A much-needed break

by 15 Comments

Things have been fraught recently; I hate this time of year finding it really depressing, life has been monotonous, we've been knackered, and our summer holidays seem such a long way off in the future. I declared that we needed a break and investigated a couple of different options. I have only once been to Butlins (Pwllheli, Noth Wales) when I was in Year Six and I am sure that it has moved on a great deal since 1988, but I looked on TripAdvisor and was not overwhelmed with the standard of accommodation, which was a shame because the entertainment looked fabulous. Centre Parcs was the obvious choice but not at £800 for 3-night weekend break!

Then I remembered that my brother had been to a Forest Holidays site in the past. The one at the Forest of Dean opened in September 2010, and being only an hour away seemed ideal because The Boy is like his mother and does not travel well. We booked a Copper Beech cabin for the tidy sum of £250!

Today was the day for our mini-break. We've never actually been away as just a family before. We've been away with my parents, but not just the three of us. We finally managed to pack everything into the car and I withheld The Boy's sleep so he could doze off on the journey. Did he? Did he heck! He normally sleep for two hours during the day, he had 16 minutes in the car. He was distraught, I was distraught, hubby wasn't happy either!

We rocked up to the Bracelands site mid-afternoon. Check-in isn't normally until 4pm, but we were there an hour earlier and they were happy to hand over the keys. The cabins are at the top of a hill nestled into the middle of a forest which has carefully been cleared in strategic places to make way for 77 cabins, a Forest Retreat welcome centre and a few gravel tracks connecting them together.

This is the main difference between Forest Holidays and Centre Parcs; there is no swishy swimming pool, no soft-play, no chain-restaurants, nothing like that. There is a reception centre that has a mini-mart and there are the trees. That's it! Make your own entertainment together as a family. And this is exactly what we need.

We've already made a start at having fun together, just the three of us. The Boy has already experienced something new: splashing in puddles. Don't get me wrong I have taken him out but puddles in tarmac aren't quite the same somehow. He has thoroughly embraced the concept and we almost had to drag him away from them! The Boy was absolutely captivated with the cabin and the whole idea of trees being right outside. From the moment that we pulled into the space outside our Copper Beech cabin and opened the door, all that could be heard was the rain falling through the canopy of the evergreen forest and the birds singing in the trees. He was enthralled! It's due to rain tomorrow, but it's not a problem; we've got our wellies and waterproofs.