After our cold night, we'd found that my sister and her 2 girls had also been very cold. Somehow mum never seems to feel the cold - lucky person!! The swimming pool opened at 9am and that seemed the best option to get clean as the bath was so tiny and ours also had a big rust patch around the plughole that we were worried we might go through!!! The children enjoyed the swim and sister had her hot shower. The children complained the flume was very slow but enjoyed the jacuzzi thing.
By the time that was over with and it seemed a warm, sunny day, we decided to go to Alum Bay and the biggest, most expensive tourist trap on the Island aka The Needles Experience!! The children were most enthusiastic about the sweet shop of course!! We went down to the beach by the cable car. That was an experience and a half!!! Having not been on a moving cable seat for many a year, it was definately an art to get on and off that I'd forgotten but I suppose last time, I wasn't hampered by holding a walking stick and a petrified 7yr old's hand!! We got on alright and the other children got off with no problem but mum got a bit unco-ordinated and just about got off without a mishap. AJ and I were so chaotic, they had to stop the cars so we could get off which was rather embarrassing and must have petrified people on the cars who must have wondered why they'd suddenly stopped!!!
I think because it was sunny and clear that I could actually see the different coloured sand this time which I can't remember doing last time when I was there about 20 years ago. I think I was distracted by my niece then who would have been about 16 months old and playing 'ta' with her. By this I meant she sat on the pebbles and gave me a pebble and say 'ta' and I'd give her another one and she'd say 'ta'. etc etc. Luckily, her conversational skills have improved since then!!!
There was a little boat trip out to the point of The Needles (plus commentary, of course) which I went on with all 5 children. I really enjoyed it. I love being out on the water and hope there is some chance someone round here maybe able to take me out on a yacht again before I become too ill. Any offers or ideas?!!!
I'm not sure the children were so impressed by the commentary or the sights but could recognise we were on the opposite of the solent than usual!! They were more interested in listening to the i-pod especially 'Low' feat T Paine - see I did put it on my memo in my phone, Woody and cousins!!!!
Mum and sis enjoyed themselves sitting on the beach - probably enjoying the peacefulness.
Then it was back up by cable car. The children ran ahead and were already up in the cars before AJ and myself got on. This time on and off in a much more co-ordinated fashion!!! Unfortunately, the same couldn't be said for mum - sorry mum. You did really well actually!!!
Then it was time off for the children to play mini golf and visit to The Sweet Shop where they saw Banana splits being made. They were so excited about this!! We adults made the most of this opportunity by having tea or hot chocolate. I know for health and safety reasons, all these outlets put hot drinks in paper cups or polystyrene cups but it just doesn't taste the same. You would think I was 76 not 46, the way I like my tea in a china cup!!
We then discovered that the lens had fallen out of Woody's glasses yet again. Somehow we found the lens and little screw in mum's bag so having asked where the nearest opticians was, we headed off to Freshwater only to to find it closed. It was 430pm!! We were told to go to Newport which was 11 miles away and seemed to take forever and at 452pm in Carisbrooke, we found a little opticians who fixed it for Woody and didn't charge us even though we'd obviously not got the glasses there as his glasses are from a company not present on the Islands so that helped.
We decided to head for Newport for a takeaway but I don't think any of us appreciated the nightmare of Newport in the rush hour until then. It was truly awful and the 2 cars got split up with me heading for Cowes and sister heading for Ryde. Ryde seemed the best option so eventually we found a roundabout and headed back that way.
We ate in Weatherspoons which was packed out and the poor waitress had too many tables. It was also cold in the family area. The food came and I'd ordered sausages, mash, peas and red onion gravy. That seemed a reasonable damp meal for me but alas it was not. The peas were not even 'al dente' more like rock hard. The mash was lovley but the sausages were quite dry and there was not much gravy. I didn't even have ice in my drink as I knew that would make my swallowing worse but I still ended up regurgitating half my diiner into the bowl where the corn on the cob had been. It was horrible. I felt embarrassed and I know it upsets the children when that happens and goodness knows what the other diners thought. I tried again with a cup of tea but what I neeeded was red onion gravy. This turned out to be an impossibility!! The meals come ready made so there is no extra red onion gravy. After going into the words, cancer, large tumour, terminal and not able to swallow and full refund. I got some normal gravy!!! I really don't like gravy granules but I can't eat without it now.
I had a treacle sponge and custard for puds which was lovely and Laura, being the chocoholic she is had the last adult portion of chocolate torte which she said she would eat slowly but had eaten it by the time I was on my second mouthful!! The others just had ice cream.
On the way back to the site, we drove along the front at Ryde and I'd never realised you could drive down the Pier head there!!! I really wanted to come back and do that.
Back at the chalets with the fan heaters going and the radiator on at full heat instead of half heat, we quickly warmed up!! Just hoped we'd be warmer tonight. Hope i'm not boring you by going into such detail - if I am -you'll just have to skip forward to another heading eventually. we come home thursday by the way!!! Hubby wants the computer now.