Centre Parcs

Last weekend I made the most of the fact that I will no longer be getting Mondays off and took my family to Centre Parcs for one last time. If we want to go again it will have to be during school holiday, and that costs mega-bucks. We arrived on Friday evening and went bowling. No one scored any great scores, but we had fun and Caitlin was particularly impressed by her glow-in-the-dark bra. There are photos but I won't embarass her by publishing them here!

On Saturday we did a team bike trail using a GPS device to follow clues round the park and then unlock a box with a prize in. There were four teams, we came last! Mostly thanks to Carl's fantastic idea for a short cut which turned out to be VERY long. Still we won a free round of crazy golf. We went swimming and had a nice meal in the Italian resturant.

Sunday was mothers day, so I had a nice few hours of rest watching the rest of them do the High Ropes Jacobs Ladder Challenge. They started on the frame above, and had to do various different things on the three levels, then did a build-a-stack-of-crates thing as they were standing on it. After that they had to climb the wooden ladder you can see in the background of the photo, in pairs. Ellie didn't like the first activity and only went to level2, Caitlin didn't like the ladder. Overall they enjoyed it.

After we had a lazy afternoon, did the Big Family Quiz and finished somewhere in the middle, then off for a night swim in the outdoor pool area.

On Monday it was lovely and sunny. We stayed all day. Crazy golf (again), cycling, Pancake House for dinner and more swimming. Sitting in the hot outdoor jacuzzi in the sun was wonderful. Shame we had to come back to reality really.

Deja Vu

If you are checking out this months posts you may be forgiven for thinking you had strayed into March 2011 again by mistake. Carl runs the half-marathon, I spend a day in London with Sarka. But no, it is 2012.

This time Sarka brought her head teacher, Petr, with her. We visited Madame Tussauds again, walked around the main sites of London: Trafalgar Square (above), Buckingham Palace, Houses of Parliament. But this time we also did The London Eye, well two of us did, Sarka preferred to stay with her feet firmly on the ground. And we had a nice pint of Guiness in a pub on the way.

I left them in Picadilly at 3.00, heading for Soho, and the delights of Oxford Street. I recommended Primark. I hope they liked it.

Carl runs again!

This is Carl, in his orange jacket, right in amongst the crowd starting the Bideford half marathon on Sunday. There were a lot of delaying tactics on leaving the house but I got him there for the start at 10.30.

And this is him finishing (3rd from last) in 2 hours and 49 minutes. Slightly slower than last year but at least he finished, which is more than the rest of us could do! He blames it on not having anyone to run with. So come on Ian, register quicker next year!