Author: seasidesparkles

My week .. Blackpool and the North West

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After the wholesome week in North Wales, week two of our holiday was loud, fun and busy. Blackpool rocked and we made very happy memories.

The first day was a bit of a nightmare, the weather travelling to Blackpool was awful, biblical rain and wind and with petty arguments in the car, we were all pretty fed up by the time we arrived. We then walked into a filthy caravan, which took all afternoon to sort as it was so bad it had to be fully deep cleaned by a whole team of staff. We did receive a decent compensation for the inconvenience but it was just a rubbish day.

Fortunately, we had a week fully planned and on Tuesday, we started with the Blackpool Tower. We did the Blackpool Eye experience which involved a 4d cinema introduction to Blackpool and then a trip to the top of the tower. It was so much fun and I thought the glass floor was a brilliant touch. The day was so bright and clear that we had amazing views all across the town and sea. We then went out for a meal, we have joked that the week was sponsored by Tesco as the tower trip, Bella Italia meal and Pleasure beach were all paid by our Tesco points, its a great little scheme which helps gives the sparkles to special times.

By using our Tesco points, we had to book all activities in advance and as the Tower and Pleasure Beach were weather dependent we became avid forecast followers for the preceding two weeks. Amazingly, the weather all week was great, with the best day being Pleasure Beach day! The Pleasure Beach was brilliant, the children loved the adrenaline filled rollercoasters and did so many rides. I joined for a few, Valhalla which was wild and wet and had me crying with tears of joy, the Ghost train and Wallace and Gromit. Mostly Mr S and I loved just watching the children having so much fun and simply embracing the family time.

When we had been planning our week, we had not known about the water park but discovered it on one of tram journeys and booked a trip. It was another brilliant session, there are so many slides and features, including the longest inside water slide in the world. As you can read, Blackpool was pretty full on!

Another highlight of our week was a trip to Manchester for the girls and a return to Anfield for the boys on Saturday. In an amazing stroke of luck, my son’s team were playing Liverpool away and they got tickets to the match. It was such an experience for them both, a truly memorable day to be treasured. As we had been to Liverpool the previous week, my daughter and I decided catch a train to explore Manchester. I was keen to see the Lowry exhibition and the new Media city. I love to plan, so organised our train travel, sorted the tram routes and our day’s itinerary. The Lowry exhibition was brilliant, it started with a 20 minute film which explained so much about the artist and his work and then the opportunity to see the pictures referred to in it, made them so much more interesting. There was also an exhibition adjacent on the work of Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler, we did pop in and saw some of the original notebooks and sketchbooks and learnt about the creativity and process of writing. After the Lowry, we walked over to Old Trafford and posed for a few photos to send to my football mad son before returning to the city centre. I did find the city centre mighty impressive with its grand old buildings (and Emily Pankhurst’s statue) but also felt it was such a contrast to the works of Lowry we had just seen with their depictions of poverty. We also visited the shopping area too, but there was less on the shopping list after our Liverpool trip and it was more browsing. My daughter was keen to go to Selfridges and was in awe of all the designers and being able to see Chanel bags, Laboutin shoes etc on display, she has a wish list for when she is older! As a treat in Selfridges, we lunched in San Carlo Bottega and had a delicious meal in a delightful setting. I did buy a lip gloss so my daughter could have an ionic yellow bag as a memento of our trip. As the boys were later than us in getting back to Blackpool, we explored party Blackpool on a Saturday night as we waited for them to get back in, my daughter loved it and is planning a return trip with her friends in a few years time (scarily she’ll be an adult then)

Our final full day was Sunday and we were in Blackpool early to watch the Women’s World Cup final, sadly it wasn’t to be this tournament but the Lionesses have achieved so much. It was lovely to see the pubs busy with everyone tuned in to the match and such a positive atmosphere. We then did a final walk along the promenade and bought rocks and gifts for family and friends before heading back to the caravan and packing.

I loved exploring north Wales and the North West on this holiday, its been so different to other caravan holidays and the trips to Manchester and Liverpool were brilliant. It’s made me want to do more city trips around the country and my planning has started.

My week .. exploring North Wales and Liverpool

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Over the past few years we have visited a number of Haven holiday parks around the country, Cornwall, East and West Sussex, East Anglia, Kent and Tenby and shown our children some of the beautiful beaches and countryside the UK has to offer. This year we decided to do something different and combined stunning beaches with some city trips too. We spent our first week in North Wales, for the outdoor experiences and then the second in Blackpool for the explosion of fun, fairgrounds and bright lights.

As it is a long journey we stayed a night at Trentham Gardens in Stoke. This was a lovely stop with easy access to the shopping and dining experiences, a beautiful warm evening walk and conveniently close access to the motorway. It was the best en route stop we’ve done and helped us be fresh and ready for our caravan stay. We had an early check in and started the holiday straight away, whilst I collected our food shopping the children were already in the pool, exploring and making new friends.

When we were planning our holiday, one of our priorities was a trip to Liverpool as our football made son wanted to do the Anfield tour, this needs to be booked in advance and the date available was the first full day on site, Tuesday. It did feel a little strange to unpack and then spend the first whole day away on a little adventure, but boy was it worth it. For me it was one of the best days of the holiday. We travelled through to Liverpool on the train, it is really simple and took about 90 minutes. This may seem a long trip on a holiday, but for us, who live in a very rural part of the country, its a typical journey time for a day out. Nothing is close to home! Whilst I am a football fan, I knew it wasn’t the ideal itinerary for my daughter so after breakfast together, the boys and girls split up, with the girls heading off to do a walk to some of the key sights in Liverpool before doing the Beatles open bus top tour. The bus tour was amazing. When I was planning our day it was the trip which kept on being highlighted for its 5 star rating and I had booked us on. My daughter was initially bemused by the trip, but was won over within minutes. We had a brilliant guide, who not only showed us the sites significant to the Beatles story but gave an excellent social history of the city too. Beatles music is played throughout the tour, with the guide playing relevant songs and also taking requests from the passengers, it is the ultimate feel good trip with lots of singing. We also alighted the bus at Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields for the tourist shots! I had dressed to complement the tour too, wearing my favourite long, pink and red skirt and strawberry straw bag, it was a fun thing to do and sometimes I think you need to embrace the moment. Following the tour (for which I did do a trip advisor 5 star post) we headed over to the Liverpool Eye, another great and enjoyable activity. The views on the eye were amazing as we were treated to blue, clear skies and could see lots. My daughter was keen to hit the shops and spend her birthday money, I was really impressed by the shopping in Liverpool and a very successful shopping trip ensued! We then met up with the boys who were so happy with their day too and headed back on the train. I loved how happy we all were about our Liverpool trip, it really was the best day.

After the busy day in Liverpool we then took some days to enjoy the holiday park. There were lots of activities swimming, the ‘Big Jump’, crazy golf and on Saturday we hired bikes to ride from Presthaven to Rhyl, a 13 mile return journey along the prom. I liked the simplicity of the holiday, wholesome activities enjoyed outside in the sunshine. We were so lucky with the weather, after the most miserable start to the summer holidays, we had two holiday weeks of blue skies and sunshine. Although we stayed mainly on the park, we popped through to Prestatyn a couple of times, headed into Rhyl on Friday night for a cinema trip to see the Haunted Mansion and then on Sunday drove through to Llandudno and Conway. Llandudno was gorgeous and I liked the cuteness of Conway with the castle, the smallest house in Britain and delicious Welsh cakes.

As the children are now older, we did use the evening entertainment too, the highlight being a stunning Tina Turner tribute. We also discovered that the local fish and chip shop did battered Mars bar and we surprised the children with one as a supper treat. I chose not to try it but the verdicts were positive!

I found North Wales to be a stunning place, the beaches were wild and natural and there was lots of outdoor activities to enjoy, a peaceful first week of the holiday before the fun of Blackpool.

My week .. the one with some fun.

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After last week’s dull but essential holiday activities it was time for some fun. The weather continued to be really poor but we made the most of it and adapted our days.

Sunday was carnival day but sadly also very wet and windy. We were prepared for the parade to be cancelled but then there was a sudden break in the weather and it was on. It was a much better parade than last year with lots more floats. My favourite part of carnival is simply catching up with everyone and there were so many people I got to see whom I haven’t seen for ages. A very satisfying afternoon.

On Monday, we visited the fashion museum which I’ve written a separate entry on and it has definitely inspired me. I’ve signed up to a V&A webinar and have been reading articles and books on fashion and style.

Tuesday was our 20th wedding anniversary, again the weather was mixed so rather than a lazy day on the beach, we walked along the next stage of the coastal path we’ve been walking this summer. This was more fun than it may seem, we were on a busy, vibrant part of the path and it was great to people watch. We also stopped in town for lunch where the children managed to take a photo of the two of us just sitting next to each other, a quiet celebration of our anniversary.

Wednesday was again horrendous weather. As I knew I needed to spend a day at work this summer, and had to take my son to football training in the afternoon I combined the two. My thinking was better to work on a miserable day than a lovely day later in the holidays. My son came into help me .. help is quite a loose term! He did paint my blackboard but then was keen to explore the school and my resources. I was quite exhausted by the end of my trip. I did wonder if the football training would be on because of the weather but it was and we went along to a very soggy session. I had promised fireworks and chips on Wednesday night, but again it looked unlikely due to the weather and I was looking forward to a quiet night in after a very busy day. However the weather cleared again and we headed down to town for the fireworks. We had an amazing view and they were spectacular. I was choked up when the announcer spoke about the little girl for whom the fireworks were in memory of, the line I hope these look good from heaven made me very emotional.

Thursday and Friday were spent packing and prepping for holidays. I am organised and prepared by nature, but spend a lot of these pre holiday days reassuring Mr S, he does find these days quite stressful when everything really is under control.

Finally, Saturday was parkrun day and one of the wettest ever! I only volunteered as I was taking my son to football and needed to be home quickly. In addition to a very wet parkrun, the football was so wet too. We came home damp and cold so went for an early night before our holiday on Sunday.

We are all excited for our holiday, we have a night in Stoke and then a week in North Wales before Blackpool for a second week. We have lots booked and planned, it’s time to make happy memories.

Finally the fashion museum

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Today, I finally achieved something that had been on my Gretchen Rubin inspired lists from 19for2019, a visit to the Fashion museum. This was my third attempt, as due to staffing issues (its run by volunteers) and a leak, my previous two visits were unsuccessful. However it was third time lucky and it is an absolute gem of a museum.

It felt that my visit to the Fashion museum was in the stars today, as even my morning Wordle puzzle had a fashion inspired answer. I absolutely loved the museum, housed in a Georgian period house. I went with my daughter and we not only admired the clothes, the tailoring and craft of the clothes but talked about the social history and of course chose our favourite outfits. For me the pale pink dress was my choice, whilst my daughter appreciated the dress designed by Bruce Oldfield. I took a photo of the 1950s navy outfit as my daughter noted it was very similar to the outfit I was wearing, down to the straw bag.

In addition to the museum, there was also a wonderful tea room and shop, so after our tour, we stopped for a pot of tea. The museum had such a lovely atmosphere and ethos that I joined up as a friend of the museum and look forward to many more visits, there are talks and workshops in addition to the exhibits. I am so pleased that I have finally visited the Fashion museum, its inspired me and is a truly wonderful little museum.

My week … the one with my 50th birthday

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This week saw the start of the school summer holidays. I have been so looking forward to the holiday but in reality this was a pretty dull week prior to my birthday. It was a week to catch up on lots and do the essential life admin, there have been visits to the doctor, dentist and hospital for routine appointments, a couple of football training sessions which mean a 40 mile round trip and holiday nails and treatments. The weather was also pretty poor, grey and drizzly so not the most inspiring way to start the holiday. I was feeling a little despondent with my week but then listened to a teacher podcast and it seemed my week was pretty normal for most teachers.

The highlight of the week was my birthday, as I celebrated my 50th. I’m not someone who gets stressed about my age, I’m happy who I am and how I am, and there’s no desire to try and be a younger me. I did feel a pressure from some parties to do something for my birthday when I was really quite comfortable with a quiet day with loved ones. I am the organiser and planner in our family and really did not want the stress to do this for my own celebration so left all the planning to my husband. I appreciated my day, it was me and who I am today. We started with breakfast at my favourite cafe in town and it was dry and warm to be able to sit outside in their colourful courtyard. It was here I was presented with my present, a certificate of ownership of a personalised plaque on the pier. Of course, our first stop after breakfast was to find my plaque on the pier. It is in a lovely spot and I am so made up with my gift. My husband did tease me that he knew I would question the u instead of you, but did explain there was a character limit and he couldn’t write the full word. I am so happy with my gift, I have been saying that I have been immortalised on our town’s pier. I love the thought of my grandchildren finding my plaque in the years to come, or friends passing and seeing it and thinking of happy times together. After our visit to the pier, we then walked the length of the beach, the sun on our faces and just chatting together ‘en famille.’ After a lovely al fresco lunch, I sat in the garden whilst friends and neighbours popped around, flowers were delivered and many messages exchanged. My neighbours bought me a rose in my name so Mr S planted this for me in our garden. As he did this, I also found the time to finish my book in the sunshine, these simple pleasures made my day. In all of this we also had a visit from Dyno Rod as we had discovered a significant leak the day before, happily it was easily fixed. The day finished with a Chinese dinner.

As it is now carnival week, there was a party feel at our parkrun on Saturday morning and I dressed up. I did keep my birthday quiet as I don’t like the fuss but had such a lovely morning with the carnival atmosphere and community fun.

Following our week of life admin, our future weeks look so much more exciting and fun, now we just need the weather to improve.

This month

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It’s the time of year where my life is hectic, family birthdays and celebrations, special end of term school events for the children and I combined with day to day life. I don’t want to complain or seem ungrateful as I know there will be years to come when I will miss this busy, full life, but as I write this at the end of term, I am relieved it’s all done and am able to look back at some very happy memories made over the past month.

Living in a seaside town, the place becomes so vibrant and fun in the summer and there is always something happening if you potter down to town. Over the last month we’ve had the filming of the Antiques Roadshow which my husband and daughter (coincidentally on an Inset day) attended, rowing regatta, triathlon, jazz festival, sponsored hikes etc.. As a family we’ve had days out to Weymouth, Bournemouth, Tankfest (which the boys loved) and spent a day at a local football club for a tournament. There have been picnics and meals out and home grown veggies for tea.

One of the most special times this month was an unexpected family reunion. My Scottish uncle has been very, very poorly over the last few years but is recuperating and was finally fit enough to travel and flew down to stay with my parents. As he is still frail, I decided it wasn’t appropriate for us all to visit, so my daughter and I went for a quick 24 hour trip after school one Friday night. It was a quiet and low key visit, most of the time was spent around my mum’s large kitchen table, talking and just being together, but it was just so lovely. Over the past few years, I have seen photos of my uncle, so was prepared for the transformation from my large, gregarious uncle to a frail, old man. However his mind was as sharp as ever and his witty conversation was spot on. I know its probably the last time I’ll see him, but it was not a morbid, sad time but life affirming and thankful meeting. Its been a unusual time in the last 6 weeks, as I have spent time with two of my uncles whom I haven’t been able to see for many years. Both meetings have been wonderful and spontaneous, arranged just days before they happened, and I am so grateful that they happened, they have been genuine highlights of my year.

During this month, we have celebrated two family birthdays too, one to go next week. I do try to post pictures of my bakes, but they are too personal and identifiable this year. For my daughters cake, I had edible polaroid style photos of her with all important friends and family create a border around and displayed on the cake. It was a lovely effect and an unexpected delight appeared to be eating yourself on a photo?!? For my football mad son, it could only be football so it was a cake personalised with his team’s colours and logo.

We have also been busy with parkrun and managed to squeeze some tourism in when we visited my mum at Marine Parade. It was such a tonic to do a flat, simple course in comparison to our tough, hilly normal run.

To end this round up, we have been to see the Barbie film on its opening weekend. Its definitely one of those event films. I did wear my pink skirt and there was a lot of pink in the capacity audience, I love when the audience embraces and becomes part of the film. The film is so different to any other I have ever seen, a pastiche of a Barbie world, fun, uplifting and kitsch, whilst also delivering a very strong feminist message. I really enjoyed it and am looking forward to another viewing in the future.

Dirty Dancing

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This afternoon, my daughter and I went to see the stage show of Dirty Dancing as a birthday treat. The tickets were a surprise from my husband because he knows how much I love the film. It has always been my favourite film but I was genuinely taken by my emotions this afternoon at the stage show.

I was excited for today and had planned all the aspects, from my watermelon nails, outfit and my old tote bag to a lovely al fresco lunch in the sunshine. There was such a gorgeous atmosphere in the town centre, it was absolutely buzzing, there was a European cheerleading contest at the large Convention centre with lots of practices happening in the gardens, as well as lots of people going to the beach to enjoy the sunshine or just strolling among the gardens and esplanade. It was one of those days when its just lovely to be there and share the happiness.

I have been reflecting on why I had such a strong reaction to the musical and I think it was a perfect storm of a few things. Firstly, I love the film and have lost count of how many times I have seen it. I was explaining to my daughter that whilst her generation has terrestrial, satellite tv and streaming, when I was growing up at the film’s release in 1987, we had 4 channels and had to watch films at the cinema. It was then a year’s delay for its release on video which we had to borrow from our local video shop. Dirty Dancing was the first film I actually owned, first on video and later on DVD and with limited choices, became my go to film. There was a time, in my teens when I think I was pretty word perfect on the script and yes I did cheer when the iconic lines were said today.

Whilst I may have watched the film, innumerable times, the CD soundtrack has also been one of my most played CDs ever. It came with me to university, to my year in France, to holidays played on my CD Walkman or trusty radio / CD player, it is pretty much the soundtrack to my teens and onwards. I love the songs, and it introduced me to so many classic songs, which led to further discoveries of some of the singers’ other work too.

Dirty Dancing appears such a simple holiday romance, but it is so much more and its abortion plot line was really quite unusual and brave at the time. Of the characters, I really could empathise with Baby, she was politically aware, determined, shy, clumsy, pretty much teenage me. Today I sat with my 15 year old daughter and felt the shift of change, perhaps I was no longer identifying with Baby, but the adults in the film. I was caught by the words of Mr Kellerman and Tito, the band leader, about the the passing of time and change. By the time the actors sang the camp closing song, I was genuinely crying and I really didn’t know where the tears came from. And then .. Johnnie appeared next to me for the iconic return to the ballroom. By perfect chance, I was sat in the aisle seat where after running down the aisle, he stopped before jumping onto the stage. I felt so part of it all and the happy tears flowed. But it wasn’t just me, my daughter noticed that there were others, all a similar age to me who had grown up with the film who too were crying. It was so emotional when we sang, cheered and danced through the standing ovation and encore and it took me a little while to compose myself and be able to explain to my daughter why Dirty Dancing was such an important film.

I never expected such a strong reaction to Dirty Dancing but on reflection I am pleased that I showed such emotion, its been such an important film in my life and it was an absolute delight to see it live with my daughter.

My week .. the one making plans

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Whilst I made the collage a week ago, it’s been a difficult and challenging time again at home (birthday season for adopted children is triggering) So here are a few sentences to go with the photos until normal service is resumed …

– After an 8 hour online queue, I got my first choice tickets for the Chanel exhibition at the V&A. We’re off to see it in October half term.

– Watermelon nails as in this nail cycle we’re off to see the Dirty Dancing live show. It amuses me to have matched my nails to the iconic line.

– The Ted Lasso finale was perfect. It was true to its ethos and whilst we may have wanted some neat happy pairings, they wouldn’t have been true to the characters’ development. Please, please can we have a spin off series.

– Finally after years of trying, we have the most beautiful sweet peas in our garden. They make me smile every time I see them.

– We had school sports day and the Olivia Newton John photo was one shared in our group chat as we decided on outfits. I went for blue shorts and our school polo. We had a lovely afternoon in the sun with students and parents.

– On Saturday night, my son and I had a great evening watching the Champions League final. I do know my football so we have pretty good banter, just a simple and relaxed night.

My week … on the Isle of Wight

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Over the past few years, we have enjoyed a UK half term holiday and it has always been a mini heatwave. This year was no exception with a week of hot, sunny weather, perfect for our caravan holiday. We were blown away by the quality and setting of our caravan, a beautiful 3 bedroom van with decking looking out to luscious fields.

We decided on the Isle of Wight as despite seeing it every day from our seaside home, the children had never visited it. The Isle of Wight is a bit of an iconic landmark for us, particularly for weather forecasting. If you can’t see the island from the beach then it is a very bad weather day as it is only 18 miles away. However, our journey to our caravan park was nearly 70 miles on road, including en route the ferry from Lymington to Yarmouth and onto Shanklin. I loved the ferry journey, its short and the sea was so smooth that we sat outside for both journeys, breathing in the sea salt spray and feeling the gentle breeze on your face.

Our children are now a little old for the park’s organised children’s activities so we had more off site trips. However they loved the sports courts and many an hour was spent playing football and hanging out with new friends.

We enjoyed lots of trips around the island. Our first activity was cycling the Red Squirrel Trail, which was a fantastic trip, cycling along the beaches and then onto a disused railway track in the heart of the countryside. The scenery was breathtaking and it was my favourite activity of the week, we also discovered the most picture perfect cycling cafe on the track perfect for a much needed drink in the warm sunshine.

Without a doubt, the children’s favourite activity was the Aqua park, it was so good we returned for a second trip later in the week. It is set in Tapnell park and having visited three aqua parks around the country it was exceptional for its organisation, safety, facilities and inflatables. Tapnell park is a beautiful venue, it is a farm for younger visitors, hosts a wonderful gastropub and has a stunning farm shop which sold refreshments for those watching and lots of Isle of Wight goodies which were great thank you gifts for our foodie neighbours. The children loved the inflatables, they were fun, with such a variety of challenges. We have so many videos and snaps of the sessions as the viewing area is so close to the action. It did help that we had two visits in stunning weather but tit really was a happy place for participants and spectators alike.

Another fun activity was a roller skating disco in Newport, the music was a great mix of modern and disco classics and the kitsch decor was perfect at creating a cool vibe.

As the Isle of Wight is such a small island, it was easy to travel around the island and we visited most of the popular towns. I enjoyed our day in Ryde where we discovered a community owned open air swimming pool and had a great session there, it had such a lovely vibe. It felt quite retro to watch that hovercraft whizzing over to Portsmouth from Ryde. We had been at the Spinnaker Tower in April and to look across and see it at a different angle was a nice reconnection to the great weekend. We stayed at Shanklin and I liked the old fashioned feel of the town, especially the old part which is picture perfect with thatched cottages and Chine.

It’s a little random for a holiday post but I must mention my holiday read, Alan Rickman’s diaries, they are brilliant, a real mix of cultural and political commentaries. The book is nearly 500 pages long and I had my Kindle with me at all times to nip into the book at any opportunity. I felt quite bereft when I finished the book. especially as I knew the very sad ending. There are some deaths which shock you and his, David Bowie and Victoria Wood within a few weeks of each other did make me sad, three leading lights in their fields.

I thought the Isle of Wight was perfect for a family holiday, it is a beautiful island with lots to see and do. It is very much a family rather than a party island but it fitted our brief superbly and we will have very fond memories of our sunny half term holiday.

My weeks … the ones with happy family times.

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Sometimes your planned week can change and offers you the most wonderful opportunity. The first week of this fortnight offered such a lovely surprise. On Saturday, I was planning on running and volunteering on a parkrun, doing a bit of housework, pottering and perhaps starting a little holiday packing. However I got a text on Friday afternoon to ask if my parents and uncle could pop down and spend the afternoon with us. What made this so special is my uncle lives abroad and was only in the UK for a short visit. I hadn’t seen him in more than 15 years and I was so excited to see him. When I was a little girl he lived with our family in London for a time and when we moved to Reading he was a frequent Sunday visitor for a roast dinner and catch up. My uncle was always so kind and fun and I only have lovely memories of him, following our meet up, he remains very much the same Uncle of my childhood.

Saturday was one of those perfect days you cherish and made me smile all week. I did manage my parkrun and got my 25 volunteering award and then ran down to town to collect the fresh ingredients for lunch. I kept it simple with the most delicious olive bread from our local indie bakery, a Greek salad, hummus and dips, local cheese and cold meats and fresh summer fruits. After weeks of rain, the weather was perfect and we ate outside. Not only did we have my parents and uncle, my daughter’s boyfriend also came and neighbours chatted over the wall. Following our relaxed lunch we walked along the beach and then stopped at the artisan ice cream shop, if you’re going to do the seaside you need to do it in style. The day was just so lovely to spend time with my family and catch up, it felt there was no time between our last meeting.

On the same day, our boys were away all day as they had tickets for the final home game of the football season against Man Utd, it was sad they missed the day but perhaps it gave us more opportunity to reminisce and chat. The boys had a brilliant day too and I’ve made a photo book of all the photos my son had taken with his team as they posed for photos and signed autographs as they went in.

Apart from work, my weeks were very much getting ready for our half term holiday to the Isle of Wight. A holiday means a holiday hair colour and cut, fancy nails , holiday playlist etc.. I also am a keen organiser and had many holiday lists so that we were all ready for our car packing deadline of Friday evening. We have a new car since our last holiday with a smaller boot but by replacing our suitcases with fabric holdalls, I think we can actually take more things in a smaller space!

We travelled over to the Isle of Wight on Saturday morning. It’s quite exciting going on the little ferry and then travelled across the island to our caravan park in Shanklin. The caravan is lovely and the campsite beautiful. So far we’ve only been here for just over 24 hours but have enjoyed an outdoor swim, a walk to the beach and had a lunch of fish and chips (and veggie options) on the seafront. We also have reservations for local attractions too during the week, which I’ll report back on next week. The weather is gorgeous and best of all predicted to remain so all week.

These last two weeks have just shown it’s family and community which can make you feel so good, the connection helps you be the best you. Life is always about appreciating and embracing the simple things in life.