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Having a week of work in the middle of our fortnight holiday maybe wasn’t the best idea, but part 2 of the vacation began today. We were going to Center Parcs! Because that’s who we are now. And because a holiday isn’t a holiday unless the parents are so tired that they can’t work for a fortnight!
I have never been to Center Parcs before, but we’d beaten the system by doing a supermarket shop yesterday which I’d packed into an ice box this morning (where necessary) so that our food would survive til 4pm when we’d be allowed into our accommodation. Take that Ian Center Parcs!
Unfortunately we were 20 minutes down the road when I realised I’d forgotten to pack our 4 pint bottle of milk (though my in-laws can at least use that as they look after our house and cat - back off burglars unless you want to face off with my mother-in-law). We’d thrown away two pounds. And then it turned out that the well stocked supermarket on site wasn’t really any different in price from our regular supermarket.
Ian Center Parcs wins this round.
It was a bit overwhelming to begin with, as we attempted to work out where things were and how everything worked and waited for the barrier to be lifted so we could drive our stuff to our room. But for once I’d made a good call when I risked booking a pool session in on our first afternoon. This was a lot of fun, even though the wave machine wasn’t working and adults weren’t allowed on the easier waterslides (the more adventurous ones look a bit scary). The kids loved it though, which is lucky because we’re doing this six more times.
We picked up our bikes, though our son is maybe a bit too little to go under his own steam (he has his own way of pedalling, which he insists is the way he wants to do it, where he pushes the pedals forwards and backwards rather than using one circular motion - the fucking idiot. He’s insistent that his way is right). I think our accommodation is too far away from everything to go through the torture of following his laborious progress and then having to carry his bike whilst pushing your own bike so might see if we can swap to an adult bike with one of those little carriages behind it tomorrow.
We did a fair amount of walking around too, so I suspect I won’t need to do too much exercise to stay fit. We were certainly wiped out by the kids’ bedtime, apart from Ernie who I said I’d get to sleep, which was a challenge. It’s too much to expect him not to be excited and I worked under the assumption that he’d conk out eventually if I kept things dull enough for him. And after about an hour (that felt more like ten) he was holding his hands up in front of his eyes to block out the light and his eyes were rolling in his head and finally he was down. Everyone was now asleep apart from me.
I did get to sleep after maybe an hour of playing games on my phone - this was my holiday me-time, and the saddest victory of all time for a man trying to prove he still had it. Or anything. I didn’t sleep well though. It’s going to be a long week.
Another great name revealed for the news series of RHLSTP. Bob Mortimer will be the first guest on
6th September. It’s sold out, but add your name to the waiting list
