Bournemouth Family Adventure Festival

I love active outdoor sports, not that you’d know it! I do very little but mainly because when you have kids you either don’t get the opportunity or if you try to get them involved it gets very expensive. However, if I’m ever going to get the opportunity again it’s good to get the kids interested early! We are lucky enough to have a skate park in the park behind where we live where the local kids ride their bikes and scooters. Callum loves going there to watch the older boys (not seen any girls there yet) and he can have a little scoot around and vows he is going to do stunts like they do when he gets bigger. I told him he needs to get a little braver first as there’ll be lots of falls before he masters any of the tricks and I started showing him YouTube clips of the professionals to show him how they fall off and jump straight back on again!

As a result I found out there was going to be a Family Adventure Festival at the Bournemouth International Centre (BIC) and the Animal Bike Tour was going to be there. Callum was very excited so I purchased a couple of tickets. An adult 2 day pass was £9 (£5 for a day) and under 5’s were free which I thought was very reasonable so I purchased the 2 day tickets.

It opened at 10am and we got there on the Saturday about 11am. There were stalls and displays going on across 2 rooms which included High Ropes (Go Ape style), vertical slide, climbing wall, the Animal Bike Tour display, Bush Surival demonstration, the Animal Man talk, Slacklining display, plus various stalls providing information on various activities, opportunity to buy clothing etc. Outside they had a Zip Wire.

This is how we spent our day:

• Vertical Slide (took Callum a monumental effort to climb up to the top of the slide but he was fearless going down).
• The Animal Man talk – fantastic show where the kids got up close to a number of animals - Giant African Snail, Tarantula (yes I did say Tarantula), Snake, Bearded Dragon, Pancake Tortoise, Meerkat, Owl, Chinchilla, Skunk. The Animal Man, Nick, really engaged the kids and would ask for a couple of volunteers to go up and hold or touch the animal – including the tarantula. The kids were very brave and the animals were so well behaved. Here is a poor photo of Callum stroking a Chinchilla.
• Animal Bike Tour – we caught the end of Martin Ashton, Blake Samson, James somebody on the bikes and another guy demonstrating parkour (free running). As this was the main attraction for Callum we went back to this again later to see the whole show.

 

• Zip Wire – we then headed outside to the zip wire. This was free to festival goers but also open to the public for £3 a ride. The queue wasn’t too long but we did have to wait about 20 minutes as it took time to put the harness & hats on everyone. Callum was so brave and followed instructions from the guys really well. Here’s a video of him coming down the wire and as soon as he got off he asked if he could go again. We didn’t immediately but we did go back to it at the end when Stuart went on it too.

Callum going down the Zip Wire

 

• Lunch – we ate in the cafe at the BIC outside of the exhibition. It filled a hole! Nothing amazing!
• Climbing Wall – Callum had a couple of goes trying to climb the wall. Both times he started well and managed to get to about 7 ft high before getting stuck but I’m really proud of him for trying and the lady said he was probably the youngest child they’d had on the wall.
• Slacklining – Portlebay UK Slackline Open competition was being held on the day we visited where ‘trickliners’ each performed their best high skill tricks against one another to compete to win a cash prize.
• 
  Animal Bike Tour – we left the slacklining competition to catch the full bike display. Having been to the bike tour down on the beach at the Bournemouth Airshow a couple of years ago, the display itself was much the same but with a few additional tricks and the extra couple of guys added a bit more diversity to it. I don’t think Callum really remembers seeing the show at the airshow anyway so he enjoyed it. Blake Samson was also kind enough to pose for a photo with Callum.
• Zip Wire – just before leaving we headed back out to the zip wire so Callum could have a second go. He insisted Daddy went with him this time and Stuart agreed that it was good fun!

We didn't visit many of the stalls as we weren’t interested in buying anything or signing up to any subscriptions or clubs. There were a number of freebies being handed out during the festival too. There was a bag with a few sample waterproofing products as we went in, a few freebies being thrown out to lucky people during the bike tour and you got a free waterbottle if you entered their competition to win a bike, there was a free bottle of the really good (in my opinion) P20 sun block and packets of flavoured popcorn (the bacon and maple syrup was rather salty but quite tasty) and juice were the things we picked up.

I would have liked to have caught the Bush Survival demonstration as they were showing how to skin an animal but then I’m rather gruesome like that. Otherwise we were happy with what we had seen when we left around 4pm. I did feel a bit sorry for Millie who had to just sit in her pushchair and watch – although she seemed happy enough to play with Callum’s balloon for a bit. I was a bit gutted there weren’t more activities that the grown ups were encouraged to try as, after all, it was a ‘family’ adventure festival not just a kids one but Callum said he enjoyed himself.

Although we had a good day, we felt one day was adequate and so gave away the tickets for the Sunday. Unfortunately, the feedback was that the demonstrations weren’t so good on the Sunday so sounds like we picked the best day, just a shame my friend and her family didn’t get to enjoy their visit as much as we did.

The Festival also held a number of free ‘fringe’ events during the weeks leading up to the main event in nearby Bournemouth boroughs. Callum and I headed to the Boscombe event being held on the Wednesday the week before where Callum got recorded throwing a tennis ball at 18.6mph (very good for a 4 year old apparently) but I wasn’t overly impressed with the small number of activities happening in the fringe events but the main event more than met expectation.

Disclaimer: This is not a sponsored post. All opinions are my own (or those of my family).

Book Review: Survival of the Ginnest by Aimee Horton

I had the pleasure of being granted the opportunity to read Aimee’s new novella prior to publication on 29 April in order to review it for my blog.

Firstly, I loved the idea of telling a story using one person’s Facebook status updates. Being a social media addict it automatically appealed to me. Although, I wondered if it would keep me turning the pages, I was foolish to think that because this is exactly what the very nature of this book does – it keeps you turning pages! It is a quick read and therefore a can’t put down in the same way that a book with short chapters pulls you in. I’ll just read the next status…just one more…ok just another…. Before you know it, you’ve reached the end and at the same time have been taken on a journey through a 4 year snapshot of Dottie Harris’ life in which time she says goodbye to the carefree spontaneous life you have while still a childless couple and then goes through 2 pregnancies, she shares with you how she copes with caring for a newborn, a toddler, 2 children etc not to mention juggling the family-work-life balance.

The amount of times I totally related with Dottie or where Dottie’s status updates said my innermost feelings that I daren’t not share myself. Thus making it a hilarious read where I often found myself LOL, ROFL or LMAO, or all of them at the same time, and left me curious to the comments she might’ve received in relation to that particular update. I confess, this novella also made me feel a lot less guilty about my ‘passion’ for wine which seems to have grown exponentially since having children even when I didn’t think it possible!

I think this is a great pick up put down read (if you have stronger willpower than me) for when you are in between books and trying to decide what next to read.

Survival of the Ginnest by Aimee Horton out on Amazon Kindle on 29 April 2013 with other ebook readers following shortly thereafter.

Current pregnancy ramblings - 32 weeks, 5 days

As the weeks get closer to D-day (due day/delivery day), I'm getting increasingly nervous I'm going to have another early baby. Callum wasn't 'that' early, he was just short of term, and all signs this pregnancy say I'm going to go full term. I'll most likely be joining the pregnant, overdue & fed-up club and end up being induced 14 days late! But there are also many similarities between this pregnancy and my last and what if this one comes earlier than the last?

I'm nervous that I am working up until 2.5 weeks before due date (1 week after the time Callum was born) and even if the baby is only a few days early, that doesn't give me much time to rest before baby number 2 comes. I'm really starting to get tired now so it does concern me that I might need some rest time.

Every little twinge or tightening makes me think 'please not now, not yet'. I've packed a lot of my hospital bag now but still have a lot to sort out for it. I'm starting to think of practical things like carrying my notes with me wherever I go and even the car seat!

I have the first of 2 extra scans on Thursday so hopefully the results of that will help me relax a bit more but I guess it's no real surprise I'm dreaming lots at the moment and often having nightmares.

I keep telling myself to chill & on the surface I am but I must acknowledge that this is how I am feeling inside!

Family Trip to Isle of Wight

Being as we are growing our family this year and having just bought a house, we are forgoing any kind of ‘proper’ holiday this year (*sob*). So when a friend of mine let me know Travel Lodge were having a sale earlier in the year, I booked a couple of nights at the one on the Isle of Wight. I’d never been before and Stuart had fond memories of going with his mum & brother when he was younger so we had recently discussed going ourselves as a family.

I managed to book Sunday 13 and Monday 14 May at the hotel and I booked the 10am Red Funnel ferry from Southampton giving us plenty of day there on the Sunday without having to get up at too ungodly an hour and then likewise for the ferry home, for the cheaper tickets and to give us as much day there as possible, I booked the 17.30 on the way back. The hotel room came to £20 for 2 nights for a family room meaning it cost us more for the breakfast (which was extra!) which, considering Callum was free and we had a £1 discount, wasn’t cheap!

Now all we needed was the weather! Surely not a problem in May – to at least be fairly mild in temperature!!

As May arrived it looked set to follow in April’s footsteps as a complete washout but thankfully on the Sunday we went, the sun was out and it looked to be a lovely day! I’d checked the weather forecast and, unfortunately, the Sunday looked like it was going to be the best and only good sunny day so we had thought it best to use that day to go straight to Blackgang Chine. Blackgang Chine, for anyone who doesn’t know or hasn’t been, is a theme park style attraction but for younger children. There aren’t many actual rides – just a couple of water slides (where you sit on a dingy) and a rollercoaster that was broken when we were there – it is more about stuff to see and walk around. There was a dinosaur world with rather tired looking dinosaurs but Callum wasn’t bothered and kids were allowed to climb up them (as Stuart said, Health & Safety hasn’t quite made it to Isle of Wight yet, and is all the better for it!), there was Frontier Land with cowboys & indians, a pirate ship play area with water cannons to shoot at each other, what 3 year old little boy wouldn’t love it??!!

It was perfect for Callum and, I assume because of the time of year, not too busy so no queues for anything. As an added bonus, because Callum was under 4, he was free. Making it a very reasonable day trip at £10.50 for each adult. I’ve paid more to go to a farm which had a lot less to do so I thought this was pretty good.

We were there for about 4.5 – 5 hours which was plenty of time to take our time going round the whole park and we were all pretty knackered by the end of it – particularly with my OAP style hips and back at the moment!!!

Stuart having been there before, it was interesting to hear how the park had changed a little since he was younger due to about a third of it disappearing into the sea from erosion but the bits he remembered loving when he was little were still there if a little different or in a new location.

Here are some photos from our day:

 
Stuart about to get eaten by a Tyrannosaurus Rex in Dinosaur World

On board one of the two pirate ships

Callum & Stuart enjoying the super whizzy slides that made up the Snakes in Snakes & Ladders

Getting wet! What a shame pregnant ladies can’t ride

Exhausted!

We headed to the hotel after the park which, apart from an empty bottle of cider or ale left down the side of Callum’s bed, was sufficient for our needs. No thrills but none needed! We dumped our stuff then headed into Newport town to get some dinner. We found an Italian/Mediterranean restaurant called Olivio’s where we had a lovely meal.

On the Monday the weather was a bit colder and more miserable. We drove round a few places and stopped off at Alum Chine to check out the Needles. The Needles Park was tired to say the least and is in desperate need a of a bit of TLC but we braved the treacherous looking chair lift down to the beach. We survived! The cliffs are famous for the layers of different rocks causing the cliffs and sand to be multicoloured with yellows, oranges, reds and blacks. I understand they used to let people buy bottles and fill them up with their own collection of multicoloured sand but they either don’t do that any more (they have ready made bottles in the gift shop) or weren’t doing it on the day we were there – perhaps it’s a seasonal thing.

We didn’t hang around with the weather being a bit meh, I’m sure it is a nicer experience if the whether is better.

For the rest of the day we just drove around the coast of the island (well I did while the boys slept!) and then gave in to the rotten weather and took Callum to soft play back in Newport! We ended the day with another lovely meal at the Bargemans Rest at Newport Quay.

Tuesday was home day but with the ferry not until 17.30 that evening we wanted something to do for the rest of the day. Again, the weather was a bit changeable but Isle of Wight is a bit lacking in indoor entertainment so we went to the Owl & Monkey Haven which is on the outskirts of Newport. Its quite a new attraction, less than a couple of years old I think, so it was clean and had a nice play area but not really much to see and we were done in less than 2 hours. Although £8.50 for adults and £6.95 for kids (3- 14) didn’t seem too expensive first off, for only a couple of hours where all Callum really wanted to do was play in the play area it was a bit disappointing really. We didn’t want to pay out for another attraction that day but with the weather like it was we weren’t fussed about hunting out free entertainment for the remainder of our stay either so after lunch we got an earlier ferry home!

Overall, I think we all had a nice time but it is definitely a fair weather destination. I would like to go back but think that even if the weather had have been nicer, a few days is enough or, being as its so close to us, even a day trip!