So much for global warming

Its been tipping it down pretty much consistently since half way through our week at Center Parcs. And if it hasn't been raining, its been about to rain.

This is the weather picture for tomorrow:-



God, its so depressing. It's not even raining and warm, its going to be 12 or 13 degrees. We're at the end of June for heavens sake!

I'm going to make mashed banana biscuits to try and cheer myself up.

In praise of....

... a babysitting service called sitters.co.uk. Basically, you pay them c.£12 a quarter and for that, they undertake to find you a babysitter for any date/time you require, there's a £4 booking fee, and then you pay the sitter the going rate for however many hours you use them for.

The babysitters on their books are all experienced, and a lot of them are childminders/nannies/nursery assistants doing it for a bit of extra cash; the sitter that we've used since the beginning of the year is a nanny during the day.

Usually, our sitter has nothing better to do than watch the tv, but she has had occasion to read Jacob his bedtime stories and put him to bed and give Sam a bottle when he woke up unexpectedly.

Anyway, they're a very good service if, like us, you don't have family on hand or baby-free friends to do the honours. And on that note, I'm going to book the sitter for a couple of Saturdays in the next month so Doug can wine me and dine me :-)

Trade Off

The trade off for having the time and space to put together the flat pack CD cabinet that's been sitting in its box in the living room for the past six weeks was to let Jacob play with the polystyrene packaging and a plastic fork.


It actually covered a much wider space and had stuck to all the soft furnishings. That said, he left me (and more importantly, the fixings for the cabinet) alone for an hour.

Luckily, I managed to make the cabinet and hoover up all the polystyrene beads before Sam woke up from his nap and decided to snack on them.

Center Parcs

We've just spent a week in Center Parcs (spelled incorrectly in every language, apparently) in Penrith, Cumbria. And we had an excellent time.


The park was larger than I thought and our lodge was a good 15 minute walk from the village centre; not a problem if you're an adult, but a real issue when you have the world's slowest walker, Jacob Winter, with you. So we hired a couple of bikes and a trailer for the kids to ride in; fine on the level and going down hill, but murder going up hill. And as this was the edge of the Lake District, there were lots of hills....


We had half-and-half very good weather/extremely bad weather - the joys of holidaying in England - but thanks to the "Subtropical Swimming Paradise" (that's the indoor pool to you and me) and a comprehensive programme of kiddie activities, it wasn't really an issue


Sam spent a couple of mornings in their creche - he's never been away from us before, so there was a bit of apprehension as to how he'd settle, but he didn't want to leave the first time and was beating on the gate to be let in when he arrived the second time. He also came to a Tots Tunes session with me and had a fabulous time banging drums and shaking cow bells etc.



Jacob had a fuller social diary; we went to a Tots Dance session, the creche, Magic of Mammals (polecats, foxes, sugar-gliders, chincillas), an Outing with Owls, pony trekking and decorating gingerbread men (and eating an awful lot of sweets at the same time).



Doug went quad-biking and an archery session; I just looked after small children. Next time we go, I'll arrange it better and get both kids in the creche at the same time while I go to the spa and get a massage or a facial.


Everyone enjoyed swimming and jumping about in the waves. Doug and I actually managed to get on the flumes, the rapids, the slides and the Canyon Ride, although he kept getting stuck courtesy of his "high friction swimming trunks".

Anyway, it was an extremely enjoyable (if expensive) week and we're planning to go back later in the year. Just give me time to recover first!!