So today was the day i'd been dreading and looking forward to for a few weeks.. the first 'Emma's Diary Bloggers Meet', a chance for us Bloggers to meet and also for us to meet Emma's 'Partners' (not sexual ones - although that would have been fun!).
We left Chelmsford around 8.45, the drive was about an hour and a quarter according to Google Maps Navigation, and to be fair that was pretty spot on.. The start time was 11am, so we had plenty of time, we arrived just after 10 and as we were uber early we sat at and had a coffee at the Starbucks in the hotel. We went to find the conference room around 10.45 and found proceedings well under way. I was a little confused, I soon realised that I'd got in a mucking fuddle and it all started around 10am. Shit.
We had some hurried introductions to (i'll try and remember everyone..)
@Melaina25
@ellatamsen
@jumblyMummy
@AnotherGoldfish
@liveotherwise
@TheRareBitBlog
And the event was off, all the bloggers had to introduce themselves to the group and the 'Partners'. There were obviously a lot of nerves, as standing up infront of a room full of strangers is tough. I was pleased how my intro went, everyone laughed when I hoped they would. Thankfully my opening of -
"Hello, the last time I was in a Holiday Inn with a load of women it was a *very* different occasion.
I’m joking of course.
It was a Travel Lodge, I’m cheap."
was a good ice breaker, I'm a natural clown and like it when people laugh at my jokes. I did remove the line.
"The most difficult thing men have to endure is weeing with an erection"
As it possibly wasn't appropriate and mildly patronising to men, that's not the most difficult thing we have to endure, women are.. ;)
After a spot of lunch we had some 'one on one' time with the 'Partners', everyone was very nice and friendly, and I've got a few blogging ideas from our discussions. Some of the 'Partners' had to shoot off early so we didn't get a chance to speak to them all, which was a shame. Just trying to think who I met... (I'm buggered if I can remember all the names!)
Philips Advent - I've never spoken so much about breast pads! A trio of great ladies!
Avon - Lovely, lovely ladies, had a nice natter with them!
BambinoMio - Again, lovely ladies who MIGHT have changed my mind about reusable nappies - we've got some to try for little man.
Aldi - What top ladies they were! Good honest Northerners, we're going to give Aldi a try.
Tena - Obviously a hard sell to a young chap like me, but Loz had a good natter, and I *love* their new app. Will cover that soon no doubt! :)
Neurofen for Children / Bonjela / Karvol - Lovely lady, big fan of all three of those products already!
Palmers - We didn't get to speak to them - although they left an AWESOME goody bag :)
Sanatogen - Again, didn't speak to them - but we got some free samples :)
It was nice everyone seemed keen to work with the Emma's Diary Blogging Team, although I did wince when they referred to 'Mummy Bloggers' in their presentations - what about us Dads eh? I really think that us 'Daddy Bloggers' need more recognition, but on a positive note all the brand partners seemed keen to listen to my thoughts, so, baby-steps!
We left the meet around 16.15 and got stuck on the M25.. it took two and a half hours to get back (that'll be the road karma for giving us a good drive there this morning!) . Still judging by the tweets everyone had a cracking time and I'm looking forward to future meets! :)
Friday, 27 January 2012
Thursday, 26 January 2012
Trains, Work, Blog then Bed.
Today has been rather epic. I was up at 6am because I had a meeting in London at 8.30am. I try to give myself as much time as possible in the morning before a meeting as I will often sleep through my alarm, and / or be slow getting ready. Today was a bit different, I was up, showered, dressed and eating breakfast in 20 minutes. Sods law dictated that something would go wrong, it did, sorta, the meeting was pushed to 9am. I nibbled my bagel slooooooooooowly and downloaded some new choonage for my iPod.
Even so I was on a train for 7.40 and in London for 8.15 ish. Not bad at all, my client is only 5 mins away from Liverpool Street so I had a little time to kill, so I ventured to Starbucks at Liverpool Street for a 'fuck off sized' Latte and a look over Twitter. The coffee slipped down beautifully, I must admit I do like my coffee now, I hated it when I was younger, but ever since I stopped smoking, coffee and tea are my vice of choice, that and the heroin.. (not really!!)
My client was running late, so our meeting started around 9.30 in the end, thankfully meeting this client in particular is always a joy, we've worked together for a long long time we have a bit of banter, call each other cunts.. etc. The meeting ended and back home I went. It was very different travelling back near 11 o'clock - I had a whole carriage to myself.. (not like this morning!).
This afternoon was mostly taken up with getting a haircut ready for the #EmmasDiary event (more on that later), giving IT support to my mother, who had managed to disable her WLAN (no idea how), and work. I'm actually fairly busy at the moment, self employment has its ups and downs and its dry spells, but thankfully since Christmas I've not had a dry spell at all. I've still got to do my bloody tax return too, although that shouldn't take me too long.
So yes, tomorrow I'm taking the day off and off for the little #EmmasDiary event. I'm feeling a little calmer about it all, I've been interacting with lots of them via Twitter and don't feel as if it's a room full of judgemental strangers now. Hooray! I've spent the last few hours working on my introduction to the group, I had envisaged a multimedia fuelled Powerpoint extravaganza, but something like that would probably make me look a cunt. So words will have to do. It's 800 words. I've no idea how long that'll take to read, I think it SHOULD be about 5 minutes (the allocated time), but I'll see how it flows tomorrow and edit it on the fly.
Right.. I'd better get some sleep, got to play road wars round the M25 tomorrow!
Even so I was on a train for 7.40 and in London for 8.15 ish. Not bad at all, my client is only 5 mins away from Liverpool Street so I had a little time to kill, so I ventured to Starbucks at Liverpool Street for a 'fuck off sized' Latte and a look over Twitter. The coffee slipped down beautifully, I must admit I do like my coffee now, I hated it when I was younger, but ever since I stopped smoking, coffee and tea are my vice of choice, that and the heroin.. (not really!!)
My client was running late, so our meeting started around 9.30 in the end, thankfully meeting this client in particular is always a joy, we've worked together for a long long time we have a bit of banter, call each other cunts.. etc. The meeting ended and back home I went. It was very different travelling back near 11 o'clock - I had a whole carriage to myself.. (not like this morning!).
 |
| Blurry train based panorama.. |
This afternoon was mostly taken up with getting a haircut ready for the #EmmasDiary event (more on that later), giving IT support to my mother, who had managed to disable her WLAN (no idea how), and work. I'm actually fairly busy at the moment, self employment has its ups and downs and its dry spells, but thankfully since Christmas I've not had a dry spell at all. I've still got to do my bloody tax return too, although that shouldn't take me too long.
So yes, tomorrow I'm taking the day off and off for the little #EmmasDiary event. I'm feeling a little calmer about it all, I've been interacting with lots of them via Twitter and don't feel as if it's a room full of judgemental strangers now. Hooray! I've spent the last few hours working on my introduction to the group, I had envisaged a multimedia fuelled Powerpoint extravaganza, but something like that would probably make me look a cunt. So words will have to do. It's 800 words. I've no idea how long that'll take to read, I think it SHOULD be about 5 minutes (the allocated time), but I'll see how it flows tomorrow and edit it on the fly.
Right.. I'd better get some sleep, got to play road wars round the M25 tomorrow!
Choo Choo.
Arrrgh.. This blog is currently being typed on a train somewhere between Chelmsford and London. I'm having to stand the whole way, and I have to pay £25 and another £5 for parking. I hate commuting. I can't believe I did this every single day, it's so depressing, not one single smile throughout the carriage. Even the smug bastards in first class look miserable.
Hang on.
There is a spare seat! Balls, it's nestled between two large blokes. Fuck it, I'd rather stand than be wedged in between those two trying not to nudge them.
*yawn*
Are we there yet?
Wednesday, 25 January 2012
Computers, Chuggers and Charity.
*Note if you don't like geeky, stuff scroll down until you see 'here'*
Well today has been a rather weird one.. I was expecting a fairly slow day. Alas, that wasn't to be. I had a call from one of my clients who I do IT Support for, their systems are bulletproof and normally any issues can be fixed with a little 'LogMeIn'. I got a call saying that someone had clicked on a spam link, and somehow managed to install some nasty malware 'Malware Scanner'. I had a little look via LogMeIn. It was a mess, all the icons had been removed from the 'Start' Menu and Desktop, nothing would open. I googled the process name 'XapxUnRSMme.exe' (or similar) and it seemed to be a fairly new virus, all the results were in the last 24 hours. Arse.
After some messing I decided I needed to sit at the machine, in Safe Mode and try and fix it, so I had to rush into London and have a look. Thankfully in Safe Mode I could kill the processes from starting up, although one of them was actually labelled 'Microsoft Corporation' as the author! Even stopping the processes from starting t left me with no files on the Hard Drive, or icons anywhere else. Obviously there had to be files on the hard drive or nothing would actually work.. I clicked. The malware had hidden ALL the files. It had. Damn I'm smart! Un hiding them helped slightly, all the folders were there under 'All Programs' on the Start Menu, but none of the shortcuts, they'd all been wiped. Fuck.
I did a full virus scan and scan with Malwarebytes, both found some residual nasties which I removed. I decided to try a System Restore and 'wind back' to Friday. After 20 minutes or so the restore completed, and everything was back to normal. Yay! A final scan came back clean and the computer was behaving flawlessly. I must admit I did have visions of needing to flatten the machine, but thankfully it didn't come to that!
Whilst in London I thought I'd pop in to YoYo Tech on Windmill Street, I'd actually been looking at graphics cards on their website last night and was tempted, as I was fairly close I could save on postage! Hooray! It was a damned cool shop, loads and loads of tech, and staff that weren't at all pushy, nice.
here
I must admit when walking around London I was amazed at the volume of 'Chuggers' that were about. I FUCKING HATE CHUGGERS, I really really do. Normally I have my headphones on and they tend not to approach, but as I left in a hurry I forgot my headphones. This left me open for 'attack', I'm never rude, or aggressive towards them, there are enough rude and aggressive people to go round, I just want to be left alone to move from A to B in peace. The first one approached,
'Hi Sir, How are you today?' said the overly cheery chugger.
'Wet' I respond..
'Ooooooooooooh' she responds in a saucy way. I thunder on past.
The next (literally 25 metres from the first),
'Not very nice weather today is it sir?' said the very punchable looking chugger.
'No, hence the umbrella.' I respond.
He mumbled something in response.. I carried on.
There was ANOTHER one again about 25 metres ahead, thankfully they had got some fucking idiot snared with their cheery 'give us your bank account details' banter.
The scene was similar on Tottenham Court Road, a long line of them, trying to interrupt people. They really are cunts. If they REALLY cared about Amnesty International, Blind Children, Retarded Dogs, whatever, WHY are they getting PAID? Charity is about GIVING, not TAKING. They bleat on about how important their cause is, but why are they not volunteering? Why are they getting paid by the hour?! I want to give to charity, but I don't want it to come charging into my day with a winning smile and a clipboard, I'll sponsor a friend, or make a donation.
The chuggers are similar to those other cunts who try and get you to switch energy suppliers, or broadband service, while you're out shopping, or minding your own business on the High Street. I don't want to think about how much my gas is, or if my broadband provider is the best WHILE I'M BUYING FUCKING CAT LITTER. Just leave me be, and I'll sort my shit out when *I* want to, and not a moment before.
Well today has been a rather weird one.. I was expecting a fairly slow day. Alas, that wasn't to be. I had a call from one of my clients who I do IT Support for, their systems are bulletproof and normally any issues can be fixed with a little 'LogMeIn'. I got a call saying that someone had clicked on a spam link, and somehow managed to install some nasty malware 'Malware Scanner'. I had a little look via LogMeIn. It was a mess, all the icons had been removed from the 'Start' Menu and Desktop, nothing would open. I googled the process name 'XapxUnRSMme.exe' (or similar) and it seemed to be a fairly new virus, all the results were in the last 24 hours. Arse.
After some messing I decided I needed to sit at the machine, in Safe Mode and try and fix it, so I had to rush into London and have a look. Thankfully in Safe Mode I could kill the processes from starting up, although one of them was actually labelled 'Microsoft Corporation' as the author! Even stopping the processes from starting t left me with no files on the Hard Drive, or icons anywhere else. Obviously there had to be files on the hard drive or nothing would actually work.. I clicked. The malware had hidden ALL the files. It had. Damn I'm smart! Un hiding them helped slightly, all the folders were there under 'All Programs' on the Start Menu, but none of the shortcuts, they'd all been wiped. Fuck.
I did a full virus scan and scan with Malwarebytes, both found some residual nasties which I removed. I decided to try a System Restore and 'wind back' to Friday. After 20 minutes or so the restore completed, and everything was back to normal. Yay! A final scan came back clean and the computer was behaving flawlessly. I must admit I did have visions of needing to flatten the machine, but thankfully it didn't come to that!
Whilst in London I thought I'd pop in to YoYo Tech on Windmill Street, I'd actually been looking at graphics cards on their website last night and was tempted, as I was fairly close I could save on postage! Hooray! It was a damned cool shop, loads and loads of tech, and staff that weren't at all pushy, nice.
here
I must admit when walking around London I was amazed at the volume of 'Chuggers' that were about. I FUCKING HATE CHUGGERS, I really really do. Normally I have my headphones on and they tend not to approach, but as I left in a hurry I forgot my headphones. This left me open for 'attack', I'm never rude, or aggressive towards them, there are enough rude and aggressive people to go round, I just want to be left alone to move from A to B in peace. The first one approached,
'Hi Sir, How are you today?' said the overly cheery chugger.
'Wet' I respond..
'Ooooooooooooh' she responds in a saucy way. I thunder on past.
The next (literally 25 metres from the first),
'Not very nice weather today is it sir?' said the very punchable looking chugger.
'No, hence the umbrella.' I respond.
He mumbled something in response.. I carried on.
There was ANOTHER one again about 25 metres ahead, thankfully they had got some fucking idiot snared with their cheery 'give us your bank account details' banter.
The scene was similar on Tottenham Court Road, a long line of them, trying to interrupt people. They really are cunts. If they REALLY cared about Amnesty International, Blind Children, Retarded Dogs, whatever, WHY are they getting PAID? Charity is about GIVING, not TAKING. They bleat on about how important their cause is, but why are they not volunteering? Why are they getting paid by the hour?! I want to give to charity, but I don't want it to come charging into my day with a winning smile and a clipboard, I'll sponsor a friend, or make a donation.
The chuggers are similar to those other cunts who try and get you to switch energy suppliers, or broadband service, while you're out shopping, or minding your own business on the High Street. I don't want to think about how much my gas is, or if my broadband provider is the best WHILE I'M BUYING FUCKING CAT LITTER. Just leave me be, and I'll sort my shit out when *I* want to, and not a moment before.
Tuesday, 24 January 2012
26 weeks and counting..
Well it's official, we're 26 weeks in! Everything with regards to the pregnancy is running pretty smoothly. Loz needs a GTT (Glucose Tolerance Test) to check for Gestational Diabetes, and also has to have 'Anti-D' in a few weeks as she is rhesus negative. Aside from that, the little man seems to be growing well and developing as you'd expect. I am eternally grateful for this; I come from a long line of 'worriers' and it's fantastic that everything is okay! His kicks and punches are getting stronger now, I've felt them too, although he does seem to be a cheeky blighter and stop as soon as someone puts their hand on Mummy's tummy!
As I've said before the time is slipping away very, very quickly he will be here in just 14 weeks! Thankfully for me, Loz is very organised, nothing will be left to the last minute and I imagine we'll be ready for his arrival weeks ahead of schedule. Thinking about it, we're not actually all that far off now. Most of the big purchases have been made, and we've even got his name sorted out!
We were both keen to have a name ready for the 20 week scan but we were a little tied to a tradition that is in our family. The tradition is that the son has the father's middle name as their first name (my Dad's middle name isn't Kip by the way, I changed my name from Christopher to Kip - long story!). Thankfully my parents were kind enough to give me a lovely normal middle name that we both liked as little man's name and his middle name is my brother in laws name. I'll keep you all in suspense until he is born!
The nursery is starting to look more like a nursery and less like the spare bedroom too; the drawers are filling up with little clothes, all neatly organised, washed and ready to go. Mother in law has knitted several sheep's worth of tiny clothes too - little man certainly won't go cold!
Loz does seem to have got her 'baby brain' now. Quite often she'll forget words or 'lose' things... Hah, good timing, my writing was just stopped to find some pasta missing from the Tesco delivery! It was on the list, but she couldn't see it - it was under some carrots she'd just unpacked *rolls eyes*.
I think the aches and pains of growing a person are really starting to take hold now. She's occasionally puffing and hobbling around, although this hasn't stopped her wicked sense of humour. She did play a rather mean trick on the Optician a few weeks ago...
'Oh I can see your circumstances are going to be changing soon' *looking at the little bump* smiled the optician
'Sorry? What do you mean?!' she replied.
*Panic look on the opticians face* 'Erm, you're, erm, pregnant?' He responded sheepishly.
'No, no I'm not!' she replied. His face dropped. 'Oh.. I..' he stuttered.
'Of course I'm pregnant, only messing with you!' she came back with.
It did make me laugh - that poor man!
She's had a few cravings, the weirdest was probably cheese-on-toast, with lashings of chocolate spread *wretch*. The most persistent one is Doritos. Cheesy Doritos, with sour cream and chive dip. I think the baby will be born orange and smelling of cheese! I did have to do a mercy mission to Tesco Express at 21.30 the other week to ease the craving for 'Chip N Dip'. I really don't mind nipping out on late night missions to ease the cravings, I appreciate it's not easy being pregnant, and I'll do my best to help make it easier.
Have any of you had any weird cravings, or have you had to go out late at night to ease your other half's cravings?
As I've said before the time is slipping away very, very quickly he will be here in just 14 weeks! Thankfully for me, Loz is very organised, nothing will be left to the last minute and I imagine we'll be ready for his arrival weeks ahead of schedule. Thinking about it, we're not actually all that far off now. Most of the big purchases have been made, and we've even got his name sorted out!
We were both keen to have a name ready for the 20 week scan but we were a little tied to a tradition that is in our family. The tradition is that the son has the father's middle name as their first name (my Dad's middle name isn't Kip by the way, I changed my name from Christopher to Kip - long story!). Thankfully my parents were kind enough to give me a lovely normal middle name that we both liked as little man's name and his middle name is my brother in laws name. I'll keep you all in suspense until he is born!
The nursery is starting to look more like a nursery and less like the spare bedroom too; the drawers are filling up with little clothes, all neatly organised, washed and ready to go. Mother in law has knitted several sheep's worth of tiny clothes too - little man certainly won't go cold!
Loz does seem to have got her 'baby brain' now. Quite often she'll forget words or 'lose' things... Hah, good timing, my writing was just stopped to find some pasta missing from the Tesco delivery! It was on the list, but she couldn't see it - it was under some carrots she'd just unpacked *rolls eyes*.
I think the aches and pains of growing a person are really starting to take hold now. She's occasionally puffing and hobbling around, although this hasn't stopped her wicked sense of humour. She did play a rather mean trick on the Optician a few weeks ago...
'Oh I can see your circumstances are going to be changing soon' *looking at the little bump* smiled the optician
'Sorry? What do you mean?!' she replied.
*Panic look on the opticians face* 'Erm, you're, erm, pregnant?' He responded sheepishly.
'No, no I'm not!' she replied. His face dropped. 'Oh.. I..' he stuttered.
'Of course I'm pregnant, only messing with you!' she came back with.
It did make me laugh - that poor man!
Have any of you had any weird cravings, or have you had to go out late at night to ease your other half's cravings?
You know when you blog, and you muse over hitting the publish button? That.
*Klaxon Sound* Socially awkward moment ahead!
Why?
Well... I don't like meeting new people.
Hmm no.. actually that's not true, I DO like meeting new people, I'm just not very good at it! I'm sure everyone will be wonderful, and lovely, but.. gahh. it's NEW PEOPLE! Really though, it will be okay, it'll be nice to meet other parents, chat, make connections and maybe friends.. But ARRRRGGGGGHHH NEW PEOPLE.
Thankfully the 'star' of my Pregnancy based Emma's Diary blogs, Loz, will be there with me. As she often says she's 'Penn' to my 'Teller', which is very true, she'll talk, I'll nod, and listen, and then maybe whisper something in her ear. Actually, I'm more Sooty to her Soo (I think that's how Soo in that context is spelt, rather than Sue *Googles* YES I'm right!). It helps in a way, I can get the lay of the land with a person and hopefully interject with something appropriate.
We've been asked to make a small introduction about ourselves to the assembled group, I think the last time I spoke like that was at my Dad's wedding.I've been musing over what to say in my introduction, I thought it might be an idea to open it with a joke.
'I've been told to the best way to conquer nerves whilst addressing a large group of people is to imagine them naked....... that's why I'm no longer a Headmaster.'
Yes.. That's right - I considered standing in front of lots of mums and make a joke about a fictional job as a fictional paedophile headteacher. *Sigh* I'm an idiot.
I'm sure it will be fine. It will, won't it?
Sunday, 22 January 2012
Phew! What a whirlwind!
So, the last 24 hours or so have been a bit of a whirlwind! We've just got home from the Splash Landings Hotel at Alton Towers. It all started yesterday lunchtime when Loz and I were musing at what to do with Georgia this weekend. What with Christmas and the like, we'd not actually done anything fun recently, it was all 'family admin' - you know, visiting people, doing homework, etc, all pleasant enough, just not FUN! Feeling rather random I had a look at the Alton Towers website, I knew when the park is closed the hotels can be pretty cheap..
Hmm it came up at £350 odd quid for a stay that very night, that wasn't cheap at all. Balls.
Loz said something along the lines of 'wouldn't it be amazing to pick G up from school and whisk her away somewhere'.. I agreed!
Then I looked a little closer, it had selected a suite. I changed the parameters and bingo... the price was much more affordable. We decided 'Fuck it!' and Loz called and booked it. We ran round like blue arsed flies finishing off our work and packing everything so we could actually collect G from school and leave. We also had to get Loz a maternity swimming costume too before we left, thankfully we did it! When we told Georgia at the school gates what was happening she was over the moon, and massively shocked!
The journey started off well, until the matrix signs told us that the M1 was shut, between junction 21 to 22.. and we needed to get to junction 24. Arse. I remembered that you could get to the Towers from the M6 too - that was at junction 19, so well before the troubles. Yay! Google Maps Navigation adjusted the course, and it suggested the M6 route would take about the same time as the original one! Yay! It wasn't wrong, although we ended up on some weird back-roads, we got there just after 19.30, not bad considering the delays and rush hour.
We checked in and booked a table for dinner, usually at this time Georgia would be in bed, but she was pinging off the walls with excitement, it was lovely to see. After our dinner she wanted to watch the entertainment on the 'Ship' in the bar. We sat in a corner, and G sat watching the singers, when she got bored he came charging back to us, and then ran round, played in the themed lifts and generally seemed to have a whale of a time. It was actually Loz who was flagging from tiredness , so we headed off to bed!
It wasn't the best nights sleep I've had, I like my own bed, and it was odd having Georgia in the room too! We woke at 8am and headed to breakfast around 8.45am, there was a little queue to get into 'Flambo's Exotic Feast', but we were quickly seated and had a pretty decent buffet breakfast. When we left the restaurant the queue was horrific, it stretched back very far, I was glad we were early!
We went back to the room and packed our belongings, ready to check out just before 10am as the pool opened then! We got to the pool and it was VERY busy, there was a very long queue, and seemingly not enough staff, we already had our tickets so G and I went to get changed while Loz joined the queue to hire some towels, she would meet us poolside.
Almost 20 minutes passed and there was no sign of Loz in the pool, I kept looking around, wondering if I'd missed her, keeping half an eye on Georgia going nuts in the water with all the cool massive floats. I was a bi worried that something untoward had happened, so we got out of the pool to look for her. On stepping into the changing room, she was standing looking very flustered and talking to a group of people. They have new lockers at Cariba Creek which cost two pounds to use, and when you open them you get just one pound back. A fair number of people were caught out by this as everyone assumed they'd be £1 (like most other pools), but on top of this, it appeared lots of the lockers were faulty, and eating all the money and not locking.
This had happened to Loz, twice! She'd found one member of staff who essentially said, 'Don't moan at me about the lockers as I can't do anything!', and she'd already been to the reception twice to complain but no one came to help. I don't like seeing anyone stressed, especially at six months pregnant, so we emptied Loz's locker and I carried her stuff to put in the locker I used. I had to battle past lots of angry people being very cross at the rip-off / broken lockers, there was lots of shouting, swearing and aggression, not very nice for a family resort! I piled the stuff into my locker and met Loz and G in the pool.
Thankfully the rest of the experience in Cariba Creek was very enjoyable, it was very clean and looked after, all the equipment seemed to be working and everyone seemed to be having a whale of a time. I must admit to shouting at some children, I think I was justified. I went to queue for a dingy for G and I to go on the 'Master Blaster', the queue is about 20-30 minutes long, and whilst it's not too bad, it certainly eats into your time. There was a group of four boys in-front of me, probably aged 10-12, I looked around, and suddenly the group had increased to eight. Without thinking my mouth just shouted..
'Er, what's with the pushing in lads'
They all looked a bit taken aback, I think I looked angry.. The fattest kid stammered 'Er.. Er.. Erm.. Nothing'
I pointed my finger at them.
'Now, shall I get that lady (the staff member) to come over here, or are you going to join the back of the queue?'
Without saying a word back to me, the queue jumpers solemnly wandered off to join the end of the queue.
Jesus, I don't do stuff like that.. I'd probably muster a loud 'tut' and shake my head, but the words and stern looks just seem to pop out. I wasn't aggressive, I think just 'stern dad', and of course I was right, they shouldn't push in, the queue is long enough without some little bastards making it longer. In the end the whole group left the queue.. SWEET! :)
G loved the Master Blaster, it is pretty shit scary for a flume, I thought she might be petrified, but she came off buzzing and saying 'WHOA! WHOA! THAT WAS EPIC!'. We all had a fantastic time in the pool, it really is a great place to go (if a little expensive!).
We went for lunch in the Secret Garden Restaurant, the menu was a little limited really, but the food was lovely, and the staff were fabulous, we had the same waitress that served us on our honeymoon!
The rest of the afternoon was spent playing 'Extraordinary Golf' (Mini Golf), and then going to Alton Towers to have a look around the aquarium 'Shark Bait Reef'. I'd not actually been in there before, but was really impressed by it. G and Loz loved the rock pool with the shrimps that you can put your hands into and the shrimps nibble on them, I refrained, I hate that shit..
When we left I had a little look around 'Mutiny Bay', everything was all closed and a bit sad looking, and we decided it was time to head home. Thankfully the drive back was VERY good, and we arrived home fairly tired, fairly poor, but VERY happy.
Hmm it came up at £350 odd quid for a stay that very night, that wasn't cheap at all. Balls.
Loz said something along the lines of 'wouldn't it be amazing to pick G up from school and whisk her away somewhere'.. I agreed!
Then I looked a little closer, it had selected a suite. I changed the parameters and bingo... the price was much more affordable. We decided 'Fuck it!' and Loz called and booked it. We ran round like blue arsed flies finishing off our work and packing everything so we could actually collect G from school and leave. We also had to get Loz a maternity swimming costume too before we left, thankfully we did it! When we told Georgia at the school gates what was happening she was over the moon, and massively shocked!
The journey started off well, until the matrix signs told us that the M1 was shut, between junction 21 to 22.. and we needed to get to junction 24. Arse. I remembered that you could get to the Towers from the M6 too - that was at junction 19, so well before the troubles. Yay! Google Maps Navigation adjusted the course, and it suggested the M6 route would take about the same time as the original one! Yay! It wasn't wrong, although we ended up on some weird back-roads, we got there just after 19.30, not bad considering the delays and rush hour.
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| Splash Landings Hotel |
It wasn't the best nights sleep I've had, I like my own bed, and it was odd having Georgia in the room too! We woke at 8am and headed to breakfast around 8.45am, there was a little queue to get into 'Flambo's Exotic Feast', but we were quickly seated and had a pretty decent buffet breakfast. When we left the restaurant the queue was horrific, it stretched back very far, I was glad we were early!
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| Cheesy Family Shot |
Almost 20 minutes passed and there was no sign of Loz in the pool, I kept looking around, wondering if I'd missed her, keeping half an eye on Georgia going nuts in the water with all the cool massive floats. I was a bi worried that something untoward had happened, so we got out of the pool to look for her. On stepping into the changing room, she was standing looking very flustered and talking to a group of people. They have new lockers at Cariba Creek which cost two pounds to use, and when you open them you get just one pound back. A fair number of people were caught out by this as everyone assumed they'd be £1 (like most other pools), but on top of this, it appeared lots of the lockers were faulty, and eating all the money and not locking.
This had happened to Loz, twice! She'd found one member of staff who essentially said, 'Don't moan at me about the lockers as I can't do anything!', and she'd already been to the reception twice to complain but no one came to help. I don't like seeing anyone stressed, especially at six months pregnant, so we emptied Loz's locker and I carried her stuff to put in the locker I used. I had to battle past lots of angry people being very cross at the rip-off / broken lockers, there was lots of shouting, swearing and aggression, not very nice for a family resort! I piled the stuff into my locker and met Loz and G in the pool.
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| Cariba Creek Waterpark |
'Er, what's with the pushing in lads'
They all looked a bit taken aback, I think I looked angry.. The fattest kid stammered 'Er.. Er.. Erm.. Nothing'
I pointed my finger at them.
'Now, shall I get that lady (the staff member) to come over here, or are you going to join the back of the queue?'
Without saying a word back to me, the queue jumpers solemnly wandered off to join the end of the queue.
Jesus, I don't do stuff like that.. I'd probably muster a loud 'tut' and shake my head, but the words and stern looks just seem to pop out. I wasn't aggressive, I think just 'stern dad', and of course I was right, they shouldn't push in, the queue is long enough without some little bastards making it longer. In the end the whole group left the queue.. SWEET! :)
G loved the Master Blaster, it is pretty shit scary for a flume, I thought she might be petrified, but she came off buzzing and saying 'WHOA! WHOA! THAT WAS EPIC!'. We all had a fantastic time in the pool, it really is a great place to go (if a little expensive!).
We went for lunch in the Secret Garden Restaurant, the menu was a little limited really, but the food was lovely, and the staff were fabulous, we had the same waitress that served us on our honeymoon!
The rest of the afternoon was spent playing 'Extraordinary Golf' (Mini Golf), and then going to Alton Towers to have a look around the aquarium 'Shark Bait Reef'. I'd not actually been in there before, but was really impressed by it. G and Loz loved the rock pool with the shrimps that you can put your hands into and the shrimps nibble on them, I refrained, I hate that shit..
When we left I had a little look around 'Mutiny Bay', everything was all closed and a bit sad looking, and we decided it was time to head home. Thankfully the drive back was VERY good, and we arrived home fairly tired, fairly poor, but VERY happy.
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