Half Term Holidays

So half term came upon us, just as well as we were all getting quite shattered!  Tom has a lot of sporting activities after school - he wouldn't have it any other way and it is expected these days if you apply to Uni that you have taken part in a lot of after school actives - being just academic doesn't win you places anymore.  When you think about it, kids at private schools are doing the equivalent in after school activities every evening until 5/6 pm, so it isn't unusual, but it does mean that by the end of a half term he is shattered.

On Saturday he took the bus to Hornby to meet up with Georgie after she finished work at the shop there.  This was to celebrate their 4 month anniversary.  They had lunch out and then came back late afternoon.  In the evening Bob came round for tea, we all went out to The Wheatsheaf as we were off on Sunday.  In fact Bob was off on Sunday too - for a mini tour, to meet up with friends.

Sunday saw us heading over to Wales to see Jude and Craig.  We set off in good time so we could do a walk with them after lunch.  We had lunch at Hawarden Estate Farm Shop, which we have been to a number of times before, and always been impressed.  Not so this time, everything was mega expensive and the quality not great - Matt got brown water instead of coffee, not a great start, and the bacon / sausage sandwiches were £8 each and not exceptional.  Not sure we will be back.

We then headed to Gwernymynydd and Jude and Craig.  We got our walking stuff out and headed off on our walk.  It was a 6 mile walk around their local area, not too strenuous (except a very long flight of steps and their driveway!) but nice nonetheless, the scenery around there is very lovely.  It was also helped by the fact that there were 2 pubs en route which we tried out.  I went for a pint of shandy each time...both times I lost half of each to Mr Tom who suddenly got a taste for it!

In the evening we went to a very lovely Indian and stuffed ourselves with very lovely food - 3 courses for £15 can't ask for more - and it was all fresh, aromatic and well, just very nicely cooked and then spent the night playing Monopoly (Matt won, I lost everyone else was in-between)

The next day we hung around a bit waiting for the Beluga to come, it came, we could hear it clearly, but unfortunately the clouds were too low, so we didn't see it until it had circled round and come back to land. Next time...

We then headed towards Bala, we stopped at Aldi in Ruthin for a stock up of sugar and chocolate for my cakes, we then, on the advice of J&C headed to Rhug Estate, a bison farm, for lunch.  We were expecting Bison burgers etc, but it was stuff on toast - so Matt had Welsh Rarebit, I had mushrooms and Tom had a bacon sarnie.  When we left we discovered a take out area where you could get bison burgers etc.  The whole place is a bit of a building site at the moment making it hard to navigate your way round.  Oh well, next time.

We then headed towards Bala.  We got there a bit on the early side (we couldn't check in until 4.30).  It was raining, so a walk on the lake was out.  We went into the town, found a nice butchers and bought some meat for the week.  Then a visit to the Co-op to buy the other bits and pieces to go with it all.  We did a circuit of the lake in the car - it was still raining, so we ended up in a pub playing cards until 4.30 when we found our lodge and moved in.  

The lodge is nice and big, warm, loads of storage space, but with very very flimsy walls, the most flimsy walls we've ever had.  Not a problem though.  We were straight into the hot tub which was lovely, then a game of Wingspan (of course we had brought it with us), tea, another dip, and bed.  A good start.

Tuesday was a murky day - so not raining, but thick cloud.  I had found out about a place called Fforest Park near Betws-y-coed where there was a 1km toboggan to play on.  We decided to head over.  It was one of these big adventure centres with treetop zip lines, trampolines, the toboggan, something called the plummet, and a sky ride thingy.  

We booked in on the toboggan, it was a lot of fun, made even better in that you sat in the toboggan and it took you to the top, so no climbing involved. At the top it stopped and then you pulled a lever forwards to go faster and backwards to slow down.  Simples.  You got 3 runs for your money, the first run I was a bit of a girl, braking as I went round as I didn't know what to expect.  The second and third times, I just whizzed down (I discovered that if you don't brake, the toboggan automatically brakes anyway!).  It was fun, lots of fun.

 

We all had video taken on our last run, we looked at the footage and decided I had the most fun expressions so we got it: 

We then had lunch in their caffi.  Very good it was too and the cheapest one yet.  We had discovered that the centre was doing £5 February, so if you had paid for the toboggan, you could do another activity for £5.  We decided on the 'tree hopper' which was a zip line / obstacle course up in the trees.  I was a little nervous before we started, you never know how it is going to go, but it was fine.  I loved the zip line bits.  I kept up with the boys until we reached one obstacle which I couldn't fathom - I kept getting stuck, at that point they just left me for dead.  Oh well, I'll happily do that again, even go for the bigger course next time.  By the time we had finished that course it was late afternoon, so we decided to head home.  Got back, had a dip, played Wingspan and then had the most delicious meal of lamb rump with potato croquettes and stir fry veg.  Restaurant quality, not bad when it was cooked in a gas oven.  We went to bed happy.

Wednesday was a grizzly, drizzly day.  It wasn't going to get much better, so we decided to head on a train to Llandudno Junction so we could spend the day at Conwy.  It was a slow, but scenic ride on the train, think we were the only English speaking people onboard!  We got to a grey Conwy, and immediately found ourselves a very local cafe for lunch - which was very cheap.  Matt discovered a new favourite sandwich: bacon, rosti, jack cheese - he was a very happy boy!

We then went to the castle. Conwy castle is a good one in that most of the walls still exist and it has plenty of turrets, so you can get a good clamber going.  In fact Tom was playing hide and seek in the turrets with us! After a good hour discovering every nook and cranny, we found a cafe to refresh in and then we headed out into the town to do a circuit of the town walls and see if we could do any souvenir shopping.  

The first shop we found had a huge array of red dragons, Tom fell in love!  Yes, we now have Llewellyn the red dragon to add to the mad house!  He is a fire breathing dragon too - and likes to scorch things.  Oh joy!!!!! We got the train home and headed straight into Bala to get ourselves fish and chips for tea.  We were going to eat out out, but we all wanted to get back to the hot tub, so fish and chips seemed the better option, it was good too, all freshly cooked to order.

Thursday dawned bright and clear - yay!  We had decided to stay local for this day.  There is a mini heritage train that goes around one side of Bala lake, so we walked to the station to get it and then thought we would walk over the hills back to the campsite.  It was a glorious day so away we went.  

   

The railway was cute and it was an enjoyable ride over and a glorious walk along the lake back to our accommodation.

Friday, we cleared out early and headed over to Chester to stay with the Watsons for a night.  We then split up.  I headed to London to meet up with Chananja and Reni and Matt and Tom went home - as usual Dutch and English holidays didn't match up.