A Fordhall Farm Running Club Party

Yesterday evening, I found myself back in the same field where I had enjoyed the Fordfest event two days previously. This time, Fordhall Farm were playing host to my Running Club's party to celebrate five years of affiliation to England Athletics. We were using the same marquee and the same catering from the beer festival. The acoustic stage where my daughter Taylor had played guitar and sang was still in the corner (although now it had a table on it!) bringing the proud memories flooding back. Different memories were ignited by the sight of the beer barrels stacked along the back of the marquee. We were welcome to help ourselves to any leftover ale and despite it being a school night, I would have gladly worked my way along the row of barrels but for the fact that I had driven. Reluctantly, I stuck to coke.

The party started with the choice of a game of rounders or a stroll around one of the picturesque farm trails. I opted for the walk on account of being useless at hitting a ball, too easily distracted to field and fiercely uncompetitive! I am no stranger to the walk but it was a beautiful evening and the setting sun gave it a quite different feel. It was lovely and we arrived back as the rounders game finished and the food was ready.

I am ashamed to admit that when I booked my ticket, I did not order the vegetarian option. I respect the organic farming methods practised by Fordhall and feel there is a certain honesty to visiting the pigs then buying the pork sausages from the shop. When I booked my ticket, the lure of one of their pork baps was enough for me to temporarily park my vegetarian diet off to one side. Had I known that I would also have been eating a pork bap two days previously at the Fordfest, I would most likely have settled happily for a bit of quiche and lettuce. I thoroughly enjoyed my meat indulgence but I do feel this morning as though I am sweating pork through my pores. Too much of a good thing maybe.

After the baps came the Cake.

I had baked some chocolate fudge cake and was really pleased to see that it all got eaten. There was an amazing selection of cake to choose from. I am wondering if there is a correlation between being a runner and making good cakes. I am happy to do further research on this hypothesis. The centrepiece was an amazing cake in the shape of a five to commemorate the five year affiliation and decorated to represent a variety of different races including mud runs. A fondant runner wearing the club's distinctive 'Where's Wally' fancy dress was buried up to their armpits in a chocolatey muddy puddle for a comic touch.

The best part of the evening for me was listening to one of the club members give a talk about his recent travels. Without the aid of a slide show, a script or a power point presentation, this charismatic young man perched on a table in a gloomy tent in a moonlit field and talked honestly and passionately about his solo cycle ride around the coast of Australia. I was captivated by his story (apart from the moment when a huge beetle flew past my head then got tangled in my hair - all I could concentrate on then was GET THIS BEETLE OUT OF MY HAIR!!!)

I will never be a traveller but in the sense that Life is a Journey, we are all travellers. I found the talk hugely inspirational and was surprised by how much his experiences resonated with my own values. The thing that he emphasised repeatedly was that the connections he made with the people he met and the kindness of strangers were more important to him and left a longer lasting impression than any sense of achievement of actually clocking up the miles or seeing the iconic landmarks that tourists flock to photograph.

I think I will remember this young man's words for a long time. I have learned a little more about Australia, a little more about cycling and lot  more about how far a little kindness can go.

To round off the evening perfectly, I got to take home a plastic bottle of one of the ales to share with my husband. We had a pint each before bed and saved just enough for me to have a go at making a beef and ale pie for dinner the following day. This time the 'beef' will definitely be 'beef style soya pieces'... but the ale will be real!

Off to sunny Spain...

Tomorrow, my husband and I are taking our two little ones and 15 year old Charis to Spain for a much needed holiday. As well as an opportunity to relax and enjoy a sandy beach (and hopefully some sunshine), it gives Charis a chance to practise her Spanish and get a feel for the language to help her with her GCSE.

I am normally terrible when it comes to holiday preparation. I pack for every eventuality and throw in a few more things for good measure. I invariably end up bringing back a whole lot of unused things that would have been much better off left at home! This time, I am breaking the habit and using "Travel Light" as my mantra. I am convinced that the less burdened I am with unnecessary luggage, the freer I will be to enjoy my holiday. I have packed frighteningly little but am determined that I won't have an eleventh hour panic and start filling additional bags with 'just in case' items.

I will be taking our Peppa Pig Mini Sketchy Fun for Addy's amusement and we will be trying out our Kiddy Guardian Pro 2 car seat for the hour long drive to the airport at silly o'clock in the morning (full report on how we get on with that to follow).

I shall be going to bed shortly to get a few hours sleep before our adventure begins so I shall bid you Adios for now. Back in a week!

Leave mum to do the packing while we chase bubbles!

Peppa Pig Minis

Travelling with little ones is so much less stressful if you take a selection of toys that are easily portable and can hold a child's interest. I am always on the lookout for such toys and was delighted to be sent a selection of Peppa Pig Minis from Golden Bear to review.

Mini Stick on Felts (RRP £9.99)

This set contained a good sized board with loads of big, bright, colourful, reusable, sticky felt pieces.

The easily recognisable characters from the Peppa Pig cartoon made this an instant success with my daughter, 4 year old Addy. She loved looking through all the pieces to see what she could use for her picture. She particularly like the sun and clouds. She happily told a little story as she used the pieces to build a scene.

Once completed, she proudly held up her creation and announced that she had made a beautiful picture. She then asked "Shall I make another beautiful picture?"

Of course there is no limit to the amount of beautiful pictures that she can make.

As this does not come with anything to store the board or felt pieces, I will need to find something suitable to make it useful as a toy for travelling.

Mini Dough Set (RRP £6.99)

The mini dough set contained two little pots of modelling dough, a cutting tool and two Peppa Pig moulds.

In terms of being useful as a travelling toy, I think it was actually far too messy. Having said that, Addy did love making Peppa Pig, George and George's toy dinosaur using the moulds and then engaged in some imaginative play with the characters until they became squashed beyond recognition from over enthusiastic handling! That signalled the time to remake them. It kept her entertained for ages.


Mini Sketchy Fun (RRP £5.99)

This was one of those little doodle screens that uses iron filings and magnets to sketch pictures and was probably the product that excited Addy the most. She loved the pink colour, she loved that it was 'Peppa Pig', she loved drawing on the screen with the special pen and most of all, she loved erasing her drawings with the plastic slider. She kept exclaiming "This is MAGIC!" and trying to impress her little brother by showing him.

Once the novelty of the 'magic' wears off,  I still think this will have great play value - particularly for a little girl that loves to practise her letters. I don't doubt that it will be hijacked at some point by older sisters for a quick game of noughts and crosses!

The Gallery - Week 66 - Travel

Apart from a school cruise on the infamous SS Uganda and a handful of trips across the Channel, I had not  travelled when I met up with my current husband.

He was living in Switzerland and had previously lived in France, Greece and the Caribbean. His passion for sailing had taken him to places I could only dream of.

Did I feel envious or inadequate? Not really. My life was different - more home centred, wrapped up in being a mum to my little brood. I had had opportunities to go abroad with my first husband but the truth was, I didn't enjoy spending time with him so they never happened.

My experience of the wider world was seriously limited.

Getting together with my well travelled husband, it seemed that this might all change. The children from my first marriage were growing up and there was nothing really stopping us. We had a romantic liaison in Barcelona, I visited him in Switzerland and there was the trip to Paris where we first met face to face after our internet and phone exchanges. I was starting to get a taste for it.

We booked a family holiday to Greece so my girls could be included. It was just before we left that I discovered I was pregnant.

Having a baby did change the focus of our relationship. Ideas of exotic travel were put on the back burner. We were more likely to be seen walking out of Mothercare than a Travel Agent and honestly, I wouldn't have it any other way.

We did manage a family holiday in France with my girls, the two children from my husband's first marriage and our new little one but we had to hire a mini bus to achieve it. It does all get quite difficult!

The photograph I have chosen for The Gallery was not from a holiday. My husband had to go to Switzerland to meet with divorce lawyers. It did not cost very much more to take me along so we decided to try and turn a stressful, unpleasant business into something more pleasant.

The baby took air travel all in her stride and we stayed in a lovely hotel with a balcony overlooking Lake Geneva.

Inevitably, the time spent in Court was horrible but what better way to unwind and relax than this?

My Top 5 Places I'd Like to Visit - Listography

Kate's Listography this week invites us to think about our top 5 travel destinations.

I have never been much of a traveller but I do harbour some fantasies that would benefit from an exotic location. It is on this that I base my list.

1. Tarzan Fantasy

The black and white Johnny Weismuller Tarzan movies I enjoyed as a child have left an indelible mark. I don't necessarily want to swing through the trees or wear a loin cloth but I would love to go on an African Safari, maybe to the Masia Mara Conservation area in Kenya.

2. Pirate Fantasy

My husband spent many years living in the Caribbean before we were together. I hope one day he will take me there (preferably in a pirate ship!) to enjoy crystal clear water lapping on deserted white sandy beaches. What I would love most of all would be to see sea turtles swimming freely.

3. Belly Dancing Fantasy

I used to do belly dancing lessons. I loved the sensual movements and the amazing costumes. To take that out of a musty village hall and relocate to a sultry Egyptian location (Luxor maybe to take in the pyramids) would be a dream come true. By day I could explore the desert on an Arabian stallion, by night I could wave my veil and shimmy to my heart's desire.

4. Wild West Fantasy

This is another fantasy rooted in my childhood from watching Alias Smith and Jones on TV. How I loved Pete Duel (who played opposite Ben Murphy in the title roles) until he shot himself dead and shattered my girlish dream that we would meet and fall in love and ride off on his horse. I would love to live the Wild West lifestyle in the Rocky Mountain National Park in Colarado where I am sure the songs of John Denver (another of my heroes who killed himself) will be ringing in my brain.

5. And finally..

What a travel destination the Moon would make. Imagine the fun of weightlessness and there would have to be some pretty spectacular views. Shame about the lack of oxygen though.