Birthday celebration

We had a lovely celebration at the weekend for my husband's birthday.

Firstly, we visited Broughton Castle -- a sixteenth-century moated manor house near Banbury. This is a beautiful place to explore. The castle itself is very interesting to wander round and the staff are welcoming and helpful. The gardens, which run down to the river and are full of cottage garden flowers, are lovely too. Broughton is privately owned, which seems to result in an unusually relaxed experience. Visitor numbers are small compared to the many National Trust properties that we have visited and there are some nice touches, such as guests being able to borrow picnic blankets to sprawl on the lawns. We thoroughly enjoyed our trip here.

Later on in the evening, we had dinner at our favourite Thai restaurant in Abingdon -- the Zabb Thai. The food, as ever, was beautifully cooked and tasty, and the service was superb. We love this place!

Eltham Palace

A couple of weeks ago, we celebrated  my birthday with a day trip to Eltham Palace, which is near Greenwich.The last time we visited was when our oldest daughter was a tiny baby, so more than fourteen years ago...

We found Eltham as interesting now as then. It was a royal palace for centuries, dating back to the time of Edward II, and Henry VIII spent much of his childhood there. Only the great hall of the original medieval palace remains, but this has been incorporated into the modern mansion, and it is really stunning.

The modern house that stands now was built in the 1930s. It is a beautiful mansion, with an enormous, wood panelled entrance hall. It is really interesting to see a stately home from this contemporary period when what you are used to visiting is ancient houses from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Even the kids were impressed -- they really enjoyed seeing something newer and different.

The gardens surrounding the mansion are also beautiful and we spent an enjoyable half hour strolling through them. We finished off with lunch in the newly-built visitor centre, which was very good. There is also an outdoor adventure playground, which will be of interest to families with young children.

We all thoroughly enjoyed our day out at Eltham Palace, and I would certainly recommend a visit.

Trampolining and barges

We had an interesting Sunday out this weekend.

It was our youngest's birthday weekend and she had decided that she would like to go en famille to AirHop, a trampoline park in Guildford. We therefore pre-booked an afternoon session on the trampolines and went to AirHop via Guildford centre for lunch. I've never been to Guildford before, but it's an interesting mix. It is full, predictably, of expensive shops (this is the heart of stockbroker belt, after all) and has some lovely old parts with beautiful houses and picturesque churches, but much of the centre is 1950s concrete at its worst, which is a shame.

AirHop itself proved a real hit. It was spacious and had lots of trampoline-based activities, which the kids loved. I was impressed by how it was run -- by a whole team of what looked liked sixteen- to eighteen-year-olds. They were really doing their jobs properly -- supervising the bouncers very well and keeping the place ultra clean. It was also pretty good value at £23 for two, including non-slip socks.

After AirHop, we stopped off at the National Trust's Dapdune Wharf, where we were able to learn about the barge traffic that used to pass along the River Wey from Guildford to London. Visitors can board one of the old barges, which is very interesting, as well as browsing small exhibitions on barge life and navigating the River Wey. The location is very pretty and there's a small cafe on site serving sandwiches and cakes.

All in all, a very enjoyable birthday weekend.

Colouring for adults

For my birthday back in February, my kids gave me a rather unusual present -- a colouring book and some pencils. It wasn't a child's colouring book, of course, but one specially for adults -- a beautiful volume full of intricate designs of gardens and flowers. You've probably seen this kind of thing in W. H. Smith. It seems to have become quite popular now.

I thought this was a great present. I was sure it would do me good to relax a bit and do something quite different from the kinds of things I usually do (work at the computer, sit in meetings, do laundry, etc., etc.). It took a while for me to make a start on the colouring book, but when I did, I found I really enjoyed it. I started with quite a simple design, and as soon as I'd finished, I moved on to a highly complex, double-spread garden scene. I've still not quite finished that one.

The whole thing is highly addictive. You have a few minutes to spare, so you get out the pencils, but then you find that you can't stop. You think, 'Oh, I'll just colour that flower and then I'll go and do x,' but before you know it, you've coloured a whole meadow of flowers and you've forgotten all about x.

I'm even going to buy myself another set of pencils so that I have a wider range of colours to work with...

So, the colouring book did turn out to be a good present. And if you're looking for something a bit different and a bit creative, I'd certainly recommend colouring for adults.

Birthday celebration

I had a lovely birthday weekend a couple of weeks ago, and felt very spoilt as the celebration extended over two days!

On the Saturday, we visited Lacock Abbey, a National Trust property in Wiltshire. Some of you may know that some scenes from the Harry Potter movies were filmed in parts of the old abbey. The cloisters were used, and one of the abbey rooms served as the potions classroom in the early films. At the time of filming, one of our friends was the house steward for Lacock and had to admonish Alan Rickman for repeatedly bursting through the ‘potions room’ door! (The repeated impact was causing damage to the ancient wood.) All of this was highly entertaining fare for our kids, of course.

Despite the fact that the weather was wet and miserable, we had a great time at Lacock. The house itself is beautiful and exemplifies several different periods of architecture. The abbey was also home to pioneer photographer William Henry Fox Talbot in the 1800s, and so there is an interesting photography exhibition on site. The National Trust owns not only the abbey, but also Lacock village, which we thoroughly enjoyed wandering round. We especially enjoyed the opportunity to explore inside one of the ancient houses in the village (currently a gift shop) and to visit the old tithe-barn, which is particularly impressive. We also enjoyed lunch (and tea) in the NT café – the food comes highly recommended.

On the Sunday, we ate out at a local Thai restaurant – the Zabb Thai in Abingdon. The food was delicious, the venue small and intimate, and the owner very pleasant and friendly. I would definitely recommend the Zabb Thai for all lovers of Thai food out there. And the kids loved it too!

Birthday treat

I had a fabulous day out in London last weekend, celebrating my birthday with my lovely husband and our two equally lovely children.

We went to see the matinee performance of 'Shakespeare in Love', which is currently playing at the Noel Coward theatre. The play was excellent -- really good acting and imaginative set. And the best bit was that the actors actually took several non-choreographed curtain calls -- not your usual two formulaic bows, but a genuine reaction to the audience's applause. The lead actress even looked surprised at coming out for the third curtain call, as if she'd been about to return to the dressing room, but had been ushered back last minute.

We then went on to dinner at Cantina Laredo -- a Mexican restaurant on St Martin's Lane that we had been meaning to try out for a while. It was very good. The food was extremely tasty and, because we were early, we managed to take advantage of the cheaper pre-theatre menu. The restaurant is huge and extremely busy, but still the staff are friendly and welcoming and the food arrives in good time.

All in all, a great birthday out!

An unusual birthday treat

My eldest child chose an unusual outing for her birthday treat. She opted to visit Crocodiles of the World at Brize Norton, which is the UK's only crocodile zoo. She got the idea from my aunt, who had visited recently and been really impressed, both by the place and by the extremely knowledgeable staff.

We turned up without much of an idea what to expect, but we too ended up being impressed. The collection comprises not only crocodiles, alligators and caimans, but also monitor lizards, tortoises and turtles. My kids particularly enjoyed the 'meet a python' session, during which you could touch or even hold a python, if you so wished. And the staff were indeed able to answer all our questions and were clearly very enthusiastic about their line of work.

I would definitely recommend Crocodiles of the World as an interesting, educational and unusual day out.

We finished off the day with a meal out at Abingdon's newest Indian restaurant, Majliss, which already has a branch established in Oxford, The food and service were both very good. Again, recommended!

Giffords Circus

We had a lovely, and rather unusual, birthday party for my ten year old last weekend. We took her, her older sister and three of her friends to see Giffords Circus.

Giffords is a small circus which tours Gloucestershire and the south west of England, setting up on local village greens. It was started ten years ago by Nell and Toti Gifford and is a little bit different from the other circuses that you can see in Britain. It is, I suppose, what you'd call traditional -- more like a travelling troupe than a Chinese State-style extravaganza-- and that's exactly what the Giffords were aiming for.

There are acrobats, fire jugglers, strong men, dancers, horse riders, a super-flexible gymnast... There's an absolutely brilliant clown -- the best I've seen -- not just hackneyed slapstick, but 'proper' funny. And there are various animals -- horses, dogs, doves, and even a turkey and a goose! The dogs, by the way, are dalmatians, which delighted my daughter, who is absolutely mad about dalmatians -- indeed anything spotty!

The show has an intimate, family feel. This is partly a facet of the small top, but it's also the fact that the performers clearly love what they do (we bumped into one of them in the loos, who remarked with a big smile on her face, 'It's not really work!'). You can also get a sense of just how hard it is to do the kinds of things that circus performers do -- one of the acrobats, who was trying to to do a backwards double somersault onto the shoulders of a tower of three of his fellows, missed first time. But they simply did it again, and it worked!

The show was beautifully produced -- very theatrical, excellent acting, gorgeous costumes. And the troupe is supported by a group of musicians who are extremely talented, including a singer with a fantastic operatic voice.

This was our first visit to Giffords Circus (I only found out about them because I happened to be flicking through a local magazine while I was waiting for my kids to have their hair cut), but I certainly don't think it will be our last. I'm already planning next year's outing!

Cultural weekend away

I had a lovely birthday weekend a couple of weeks ago, spending a cultural two days in and around London.

We visited two impressive stately homes:

Kenwood, in north London, has recently been refurbished. It is a beautiful Robert Adam-modelled mansion which houses a stunning collection of paintings. The grounds are very pleasant, too, and lead out to Hampstead Heath. We were lucky enough to have bright, sunny weather and so were able to take advantage of the outside tables in the restaurant area to eat lunch. Just about warm enough in the February sunshine if you kept your coats on! Kenwood is managed by English Heritage but, unusually, doesn’t charge for admission, so is great for family days out.

Hall Place and Gardens in Kent is a beautiful Tudor house with magnificent gardens displaying Tudor-style topiary. The house has an interactive display area in which both adults and children can learn a lot about everyday Tudor life. The house also hosts a programme of exhibitions. When we visited, there was an exhibition about the (now defunct) local textile printing industry. We also enjoyed lunch in the onsite cafe (not outside this time!). Once again, this was a good value day out for us – as National Trust members, we qualified for half-price admission and only paid £10 in total for the four of us.

The final element of my birthday weekend was an adult-only treat. The parents-in-law babysat while my husband and I enjoyed dinner out in London, followed by a trip to St. Martin's Theatre to see ‘The Mousetrap’ – great light-hearted fun, and very well acted and produced to boot. Highly recommended!

A day out at Chessington

It was my daughter's birthday recently and, rather than have a party, she decided that she would like a day out en famille at Chessington World of Adventures. So we duly booked the tickets. Tesco Clubcard vouchers to the rescue once again!

Now, we're not a family who often visits theme parks. In fact, we've only visited the one: Legoland a couple of years ago. We made the mistake there of going on the Jolly Rocker as our first ride. Not so jolly, as it turned out--iffy tummies and shattered nerves all round. So, we knew what to avoid at Chessington...

These are some of the things we did:

• We went on the Zufari, which was a very short truck ride round a dusty circuit to see a handful of animals--a giraffe, a a rhino and a couple of zebra. It was all very orchestrated--we went 'off route' at the end of the ride which took us through a (man made) cave in which we briefly stopped and were splashed with water from a 'waterfall'. Hence the wet floor of the truck when we got in... The waiting time for the Zufari was 45 minutes but they'd done their best to make it 'authentic'--right down to the fake dried and cracked mud path on which we queued.
• We watched the sea lion show, which was impressive. It's amazing what the sea lions can do. In the back of my mind, I wondered whether the show was cruel. But the sea lions appeared to be very happy and, as their handlers pointed out, they are intelligent animals and the training stretches them mentally as well as providing physical exercise...which is more than can be said for the big cats which you see in enclosures in these places with no space for anything other than prowling. That, I am sure, is cruel.
• We didn't go on many rides as such and all of those that we did try were pretty tame--the jungle bus, the log flume and the carousel. Thankfully we avoided another Jolly Rocker experience.

The children had a good time at Chessington, I think, and so did the adults--although I have to say that it's not something I'd choose to do, given an option. There's something about the whole theme park concept--the endless queueing, the going on stomach churning rides simply for the thrill of being scared, the entirely artificial environment (what on earth is the point of it all?)--that I just don't quite 'get'.