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Remember those holidays where I just sat by a swimming pool all day and told you about the whole book I’d read that day? No, me neither, but the blog says they happened. In my brief window of me time today I managed to watch the new episode of Ted Lasso (a return to form, after a couple of rather too sugary eps for my taste- Brett Goldstein remains the stand out star of the show, which is impressive because everyone in it is excellent) and play patience on my. phone. I might have made it to 9.30pm.
But the kids are (mainly) having fun and this is all about them and to be honest, this is the way I like it. In the playground this evening, trying to get them to run off the energy from the doughnuts we’d bought them, they played with other kids, my 3 year old son showing supreme confidence in going up to and playing with much older kids, who taken in by his bravado, didn’t tell him to naff off. There haven’t been too many opportunities for them to make friends as the Center Parcs experience is largely enjoyed in family groups (exacerbated by Covid a bit). It’d be nice if there were some kids clubs for them to go to (at no additional cost - ha, Ian Center Parcs would never allow that) but I guess that there are so many people here that that would be impractical. We did book up a lot of activities but it’s slightly frustrating that there’s no room for spontaneity and hardly anything here that you can just jump into for free.
But the playground did the job and strong friendships were forged in five minute increments, until their new friends had to go off to do something else. But no matter, you just became friends with whoever else was there.
We also had a fun afternoon trip to the edge of the complex to allow the kids to have a go at driving some tiny landrovers. Phoebe was pretty adept at this from the off and Ernie picked it up pretty well, though I intervened to save him a couple of times. I was not an adventurous child and would probably have been overwhelmed by something like this, but luckily we never got to do anything approaching driving a fucking car in the 1970s - I didn’t even go on a bouncy castle until I was 20.
Sure, my kids are very lucky and this family has the privilege of having more disposable income than the one I was in when I was little, but I both admire and envy the way they crack on and give everything a go. I hope they will not lose this. And I hope they will understand how fortunate we are. Eventually.
Seeing them interact with other kids after all those months of isolation is special though
Not quite 100% confirmed but I think the other guest for the afternoon RHLSTP on 29th August will be Barry Cryer. That's going to be very special, so I hope we can get a decent sized crowd together -
join us if you can We are testing the streaming that day, so you will get to see this online if you have purchased a season ticket, and we're also providing a free link for all badgers. No guarantee of quality!
Retro RHLSTP today is the first appearance of a young up and comer called Richard Osman.
Listen here or wherever you get your podcasts.
