I took the children away for the night on monday. I met my sister with her 2 youngest girls at Drusillas Zoo. It was a fantastic day. I used my mobility scooter all day which was a good idea. The kids had a wonderful time enjoying the animals and also doing the 'Zoo olympics' which involved comparing what you could do to what an animal could do ie Woody weighs as much as a porcupine and could scream as loud a something else. They really enjoyed it plus they did the climbing wall and looking for dinosaur bones!! It was a really brilliant day and well worth it.
My sister then went home and we travelled onto the Travel Lodge a few miles away.
I had booked a family room of double bed, single bed and a pull out bed and I don't ever remember saying what age the children were or they saying what size the pullout bed was. The bed was king sized and really comfortable, the single bed was fine but the pull out bed was basically the size of a cot mattress. It was just a plastic covered piece of foam about 3 inches longer than AJ and he is only 7!! He was comfortable but whatever would you do if your child was older!! The bath was tiny and the kids thoought that was really funny!!
It was located by a Little chef, a burger king and an all night garage so it was convenient in that respect. We had a burger king that night. I'm obviously fated with fast food places. They had no ketchup and so we had to sneak some from the Little Chef!!
We all slept well and ate the next morning at the Little Chef. I think it must be at least 20 years since I've eaten at a Little Chef and I don't think it has changed!! The service was very slow and a little grumpy but we just laughed at them.
We then went onto Paradise Park in Newhaven. On the map it looks small so I thought I'd walk round it. Big mistake as it was hot I'd taken a lot of drink with us and what with a longer walk in the heat and carrying a heavy bag, I ended up feeling very ill and nearly fainted in the indoor play area. Woody again came into his own and got the first aider for me. She and her assistant were absolutely fantastic. They gave the children about £10 worth of tokens for the indoor games, got me cold compresses and cold water and really looked after me. A totally different experience than when I fell over at Chessington World of Adventures when hubby had to go off to buy water for me as the first aider wouldn't give me any!!
We then tried to get home to meet hubby to eat out. Well, we got stuck in a queue and there was no diversions and all what was happening was that the traffic was crawling round in a circle. The problem was a lorry had shred its load about 2 hours before and they had shut the A26 to clear it up. After 40 minutes of etting nowhere and having seen that everyone was shouting at the poor police support office who had closed the road, I phoned the police who told me that they would be opening the road up in about 40 minutes and to go up the A259. I told them tht the queue was statioanry, there were no diversion signs and that the poor PCOS was really being shouted at and all they would do was send a police car to backup the PCOS!! Very helpful!!
Luckily, there was a Brewers Fayre on the roundabout and after not being able to find the entrance, I abandoned the car outside someone's house and we walked back there for dinner. By the time we'd finished, the traffic was clear and I had a clear run home!!
It was so lovely to be able to do 'normal' things this summer as last summer my hip was so painful and my breathing was so poor, I hardly left the house and it was so miserable.
The children have been sleeping in the tent and we've now bought a bigger one and I've even slept out there. It was brilliant. It reminded me of my Guiding Days and adventure holiday days. Even my breathing seemed better outside. Last night, I was outside at 130am admiring the stars - it made me really happy.