The Time Bubble

Determined not to allow the on-going arctic conditions to imprison us inside, I have been hastily re-organising our schedule of Easter outings accordingly. So trips to parks are out - play centres are in. Now, despite past disappointments on this score, I approached the challenge with optimism, and hence at 9:30am this morning, with a little assistance from Sat Nav technology, we rolled up at the front door of Zoomania in Aylesbury. So what is Zoomania? Well for those of you that have ever been to the children's play area at Wyevale, it is a bit like that, except miles bigger, miles nicer, and not massively overcrowded. Well not while we were there anyway. That is why we went at 9:30am. Generally I have found Wyevale stressful - too many people crammed into one small area, massive queues to get in, can't get a table, time limits. Well none of that here. Oodles of room. In fact - I can't fault the place. You pay according to the ages of your children on a sliding scale -...

It just keeps getting better and better. Parenting - such a diverse and ever changing job. One that comes with no manual, no previous experience (unless you count Susie), and a constant joy. It might seem that one day is not that different to the next but it's all subtly changing, all the time. I have been a parent now for about five and a half years. Not long at all in the grand scheme of things, but long enough to appreciate the difference between the life I had before and the life I had now. How strange it seems looking back now to when I didn't have kids - I guess some would look back nostalgically and maybe even longingly to those days when they had complete freedom. OK, well maybe not complete freedom, there was still working for a living, but the type of freedom where you could go to bed what time you liked on a Saturday night and if you didn't want to get up until lunchtime on Sunday, who could stop you? Cruising off for a weekend in Rhyl with my friends - n...

Hi all, First of all - this is the last post I shall be sharing to facebook. This was mainly done to try and attract new readers and get more hits - but to be honest - number of hits on the blog is not the be all and end all of blogging unless you are aiming to get millions and make some money. I'd prefer any comments relevant to the subject matter to be actually put on the blog rather than facebook - as at least I know then that the person reading them has actually read it! As opposed to casual acquaintances I've haven't seen for years making obtuse comments based purely on the title. The comments have more permanence then anyway as opposed to the here today gone tomorrow nature of facebook. Speaking of which I am still trying very hard to wean myself off facebook - there are some things that I have to be on there for i.e. work and the racing game we do on Saturdays but the rest is a constant distraction for all the reasons I've blogged about many times before. ...

So, Saturday dawned after our first night in the caravan, and as on the previous day it was glorious sunshine and blue skies all the way. So we decided to go and have a walk round the local area, and found ourselves at the beach. Now this is the first time Jamie had been on a beach since he could walk, back in Ibiza last May it sounds amazing but he was only crawling back then. Croyde Beach is one of those which is very flat and therefore the tide goes in and out a long way. Now we had not gone prepared for the beach on that day i.e. no swimming costumes or towels, but decided to have a walk on it anyway. Whilst Ollie was happy collecting his "treasures" (shells, stones etc) Jamie instantly made a beeline for that great big wet thing in the distance i.e. the sea. Now I was messing about at this point trying to get the video camera to work. As Jamie approached the water's edge it was clear he had no intention of stopping, and ran straight on in - complete with shoes ...

So - having crossed Exmoor, newly repaired wing mirror still attached, we approached our next destination. Being self-catering though, we needed to stop off for some supplies, so in the newly acquired sunshine, google maps led us to Tesco at Ilfracombe. And what a momentous occasion this turned out to be. As finally my beloved Eastmans and I were reunited! Alive and well in Devon. Yes, indeed, it appeared that since leaving me so cruelly without warning earlier in the Spring, my beloved Eastmans had been living a well deserved retirement on the shelves of Tesco in Ilfracombe. It was to be but a brief reunion, just two packets, but I am glad we had the chance to say goodbye. She was very understanding too, and understood about my new relationship with the 15 pack multipacks of Wotsits from Iceland. Well a man has needs...and they were there for me when she wasn't. So - eventually after winding around lots of little roads with passing places, we arrived at Ruda Caravan Par...