6837/19757
I had a couple of hours off from being a lifeguard today as my wife took the kids to a science class (my son wants to be “a science” when he grows up, but I think it’s because he thinks that job just involves making slime all day). It was fairly blissful, though I think I missed out on the best activity so far (they were making slime -he was right!- I wish I’d been a science too). And there was always a little knot of dread in the back of my mind, because in the afternoon my wife was going to the spa for three hours, whilst I looked after the kids with no activities planned. I think I had fallen into a trap.
I did try a morning run, but only managed 1km before I ran out of steam. It’s hard to know if that’s because I have lost fitness in the last few days or because all they cycling up hills with two kids in a buggy have destroyed me. I’ve been trying to get up the steepest hill with both kids in the back (combined weight of 30kg+) and can do it all except the very steep first part and I ferried them all over the site today, up and down hills, so hopefully I can get away with the pancakes and bacon covered in a lake of maple (though tasted more like golden) syrup. Once again I can’t work out if I’ll come out of this holiday 2kgs up or 2kgs down. But if moving around is the key, then I should have shed the lbs.
It turned out the 3 hour afternoon shift was a lot tougher than the 2 hours off had been relaxing. But I had fun. We went to an arcade where Phoebe was obsessed with the claw machine, though contended it was impossible to win. I then picked up a cuddly Buzz Lightyear on my first go, to the amazement of a passing family, though both my kids were doing stuff elsewhere and missed it. My triumph turned to comedic semi-disaster when the toy dropped into the prize bucket, but the bucket turned out to be stuck. So maybe I hadn’t won after all. Luckily I found a man who was able to open the machine and give me my prize. We only dropped about £40 in the arcades during the day, so as you can see. We were big time winners.
There isn’t much that you can do for free at Center Parcs - it was £12 to play football pool for half an hour, but the kids were bored of it within 10. We did spend some time on a beach by the lake where we almost made friends with another family and had a disappointing game of frisbee.
I only got the iPads out for the last 45 minutes, as we waited for my relaxed wife (always take the first shift) turned up to play ten pin bowling (I got a strike first ball, but again, no one was watching from my family, though the people in the next lane were impressed - I like to think they were the same people who saw me defeat The Claw). Once we’d realised that the kids could use a little ball slide to get their balls up the lane it was all good fun and the bumpers were automated so they came up for the kids and not the adults. Nice.
A barbecue before bed, where we ended with toasted marshmallows which turned the kids into drunk on sugar idiots who then ran around naked in the grass at the back of our room and then bounced on the beds as we attempted to calm them down. I think we only had ourselves to blame.
