Paris In A Day

Yesterday seems like a blur and I still hadn't for filled my dream of sitting by the Seine sipping coffee whilst watching the world go by...................................................

Today was unfortunately going to be no different...

Rather than bore you all with the whole days events, I am going to show you by the power of photos. Please remember these points............................

1.Mr DG is 6ft 5ins and I am only 5ft 4ins.....................This results in him having a huge stride and I kind of have to trot along side him to keep up. The kids are very tall too so walking anywhere usually involves me lagging behind.

2. Mr DG does NOT do slow mooching around and prefers to march everywhere.

3. It is quite possible I may shove the map up his arse in about 20 minutes.

So, without further ado here is our 3rd day in Paris.......................................All of the below sights were seen in a space of 9 hours.

Off we go...............................Lots of walking.....................Ahhhhh look we are holding hands...............Pass the bucket.

 

There it is.................Why isn't it getting any bigger................................Wow.



 

 

A walk along the Seine...............................Nobody waved at me......................Still no coffee and a sit down. 

The Arc de Triomphe was gorgeous but very busy.......................A quick march down the Champs Elysees (think he was avoiding the shops).
 

 

 

A quick sit down while we put plasters on blisters.........................And we're off again......................Through the arches and.....................................Yippee..................The Louvre....................No chance of getting in though...................31/2 hour wait...............Sorry Mona Lisa, maybe next time. 

 

 



The very famous Lock Bridge at Pont des Arts.........................Thousands of locks attached to the bridge to symbolise love.........................We even did our own....................Although The Whirlwind almost dropped the key before we had time to make a wish. 

 

 

 

Finally after braving The Metro once more we ended up here.........................Jardin de Luxembourg...............................The most peaceful place ever. 

 

The problem now was................................We had to walk another 20 minutes back to our hotel where we all had a soak in the bath (not together) and collapsed into bed.

 

So there we are folks, what seemed like a nightmare of a trip on Monday morning after the big storm actually turned out to be a wonderful family holiday that we all loved. Yes we lost a whole day but it certainly didn't stop us from doing as much as we could. We cant wait to go back again and would thoroughly recommend going for a short break there................................My only advice...........................Wear really comfy shoes and plenty of plasters.

Hope you have all enjoyed my holiday blog

Lots of Love
Me
xxxx



P.S............................Look what I found

Day 2.....Hello Paris

After yesterdays little adventure I was hoping for a more relaxing kind of day..................WRONG!!!!

Mr DG had arranged a tiny trip to Disney Land...............................................The kids were beside themselves with excitement and cries of "I'm going on Thunder Mountain" and "I want my picture taken with Cinderella" rang out in our room. Honestly, you wouldn't think they are 16 and 12 would you.

With a spring in their step and a "la la la la la laaaaaa" (Disney Princess style) we were off. I was under the impression that we might just get magicked there but .............................Oh No...............................We were going on the Metro................................................................Mr DG was refusing to use a taxi (after our New York experience) and had instead purchased a week long Metro pass that would take us anywhere in Zones 1-5. I wont bore you with the ins and outs of the French underground but I will say that it was the most confusing, crowded, smelliest and dangerous thing I have ever encountered in my life. I held on to the kids as people jumped on and off at various moments narrowingly missing being garroted in the train doors and clasped the nearest handrail to stop myself falling over.

Once at Disney Land all thoughts of the Metro were forgotten and we were transported into the land where dreams are made..................................Or...............................Queues are formed.................And My God there were some queues let me tell you. Luckily the weather was beautiful so Mr DG and I spent most of the day holding coats and bags while the kids went on the rides which to be fair was great as I got to undertake in my favourite past time....People Watching.





One particular family grabbed my attention when I heard the Mum exclaim that her crown kept coming off on the rides, as I turned round I was greeted by the sight of a whole family dressed as Disney characters..................................I'm not even joking............................Dad was Aladdin, Mum was Cinderella, kids were Belle, Jasmine and a Wizard. Even the grandparents were dressed with Mickey and Minne ears and fleeces on. I stared for what seemed like an eternity before realising that they were staring at me staring at them. I smiled a kind of "Holy Crap" kind of smile and the Mother winked at me before telling me how they were all Disney Fans and they come every year hoping to get pictures and autographs with every character they can. The kids unfortunately looked like they wanted the ground to open up and swallow them as Mum and Dad suddenly squealed with delight as Winnie the Pooh, Eeyore and Piglet appeared, they ran off barging people out the way whilst screaming at the poor kids to get a move on.

After what seemed like an eternity waiting for our kids to complete Thunder Mountain we ventured on to the Small Small World ride, for those that don't know about it let me break it down for you..........................Boat Ride............Lots of mechanical dolls dressed up in various national costumes from all countries singing 
and
dancing
....................................................and very psychedelic scenery..................................Annoying song that stays in your head all day. The Whirlwind not only shocked me but to be fair summed it up by saying "Oh my god...............................This is what being stoned must feel like" I nearly fell out of the boat and worried for the rest of the day how he knew what "Stoned" meant.

The day sped past and before we knew it we were all Disneyed out and back on the train. Not sure if a day is worse or better than going for 4 days as we did last time but definitely worth a visit if you are in Paris.

As we collapsed onto our beds exhausted The Teenager said she couldn't wait for a relaxing day tomorrow looking at all the sights...........................Little did she know what was going to happen.............................................................................

More Soon

Love
Me. x

Paris Here We Come

As I write this blog I am currently perched on a temporary seat in the baggage hold of the 2.30 pm  Eurostar London to Paris. This was not how our adventure was supposed to begin but unfortunately due to Mother Nature having a strop last night and battering the country with her vengeance this is exactly how it has begun.

Last night we had resigned ourselves to the fact we were going nowhere and a week at home was inevitable.............................This morning however Mr DG had marched us out of the door into the car and plonked us all on the station with determination in his eyes and a no nonsense to the British weather kind of attitude. We waited for hours for the train to take us to London and watched as the time slipped away before us knowing that we had well and truly missed our ride to Paris, I will admit to exclaiming several times that I wanted to go home and give up but he was having none of it. I vented my anger at the first train of the day for a station full (and I mean full) of people only having 8 carriages and threw a epic tantrum when the announcement about unclaimed baggage rang out over the tannoy for the 100th time......................."I DON'T CARE ABOUT UNCLAIMED BAGGAGE.....................................................................WHY ARE YOU NOT RUNNING MORE TRAINS WITH MORE CARRIAGES AND GIVING US UPDATES ON THE TRAINS THAT ARE RUNNING"........................................

I know I should of cared but quite frankly we were all tired, hungry and fed up of standing on a miserable station. Trains on the other side whizzed past and we were just kind of left in limbo. I knew things had dropped to an all time low when an actual employee of British Rail exclaimed that he had no idea why they weren't running any trains as the lines were all fine...............ARGHHHHHHHH!!

Finally we managed to get onto a train with all of us standing the whole way to London...............Not fun when you have 2 kids and a bad back. Mr DG remained unnervingly positive and kept winking at me...................................................I vaguely remember thinking I might poke his eye out if he did it again.......................

Once at St Pancreas station we marched our way to the Eurostar ticket office where they very kindly managed to get us on this train....................................................................

Unfortunately they also managed to get everybody else that was late on the same train thus resulting in some of us sitting in the cheap seats................................The Teenager has had a total look of disgust on her face for the past 30 minutes as people from the posh seats are giving us that type of tilted head "Oh Dear, poor you........And you have kids" look which has sent her into a full blown Teenage "OMG WE LOOK LIKE WE ARE POOR" kind of mood...................Such Fun. The Whirlwind has taken a different approach and is relishing in the fact that we are right next to the bar and is spending most of the  journey fetching crisps, drinks and peanuts to us. He has expressed a concern about the choice of flavours in the sandwiches but has assured us that the staff are really friendly and have offered him a job..................................................Quick, type him up a CV.............

To be fair we are on the train when I honestly thought we would be at home by now and we are through the tunnel and in France.......................................................Its not quite what I imagined but we are here.

The Train manager keeps coming through and checking we are all fine (I think my notebook and pen are making him nervous) and has assured us that should any seats become available within the next hour he will let us know. I cant quite imagine under what circumstances seats will free up unless whole families may suddenly throw themselves from the train but I'm going with it anyway.

The Whirlwind is back now with some type of pastry, The Teenager has relaxed slightly and I think I even saw a smile and Mr DG is looking totally happy with himself and has just winked at me again.................................Right....That's it..................where's my pen..???

Will write again tomorrow
Lots Of Love and Au revoir.......

Me
xxxx

A Wicked Adventure.

One of the things on my Summer Bucket List was to go up to London and see a West End Show..........................................On Saturday this became a reality as myself The Northern Mother, The Teenager and her Bestie travelled up to see the show Wicked.

The journey there wasn't that smooth as our train was cancelled due to a signal failure which caused The Northern Mother to exclaim in a very loud voice that Public Transport was "CRAP" this in turn made several people smile. The rail personnel looked less than impressed.....................................................

Once at Victoria Station we made our way out into the immense station that was more like a huge shopping mall rather than a train station. The tickets clearly said "Apollo Theatre is right opposite Victoria Station"................................................What it didn't tell us was which bloody exit to take and we ended up almost at Buckingham Palace, after a quick cuppa with Queenie and Phil we headed back somewhat flustered and hot back into the station. Then Mum needed the loos so off we went only to find you had to pay 30p to have a wee, this resulted in Mum once again stating in an extraordinarily loud voice that no where else in the world would you have to pay money to meet natures call and "There wasn't even any soap or loo roll......and I bet that attendant just steals all the money and does nothing all day"....................................I have never hurried a wee as much as I did on that day and bundled her out as quick as I could.......................This could be a long day!!!!

The fun and games continued when Mum asked a policeman how to get to the theatre and he very stupidly missing the signs that we were stressed out, late and hot told us to follow the yellow brick road (Big Mistake Mr Policeman)....................Mum gave him that look that only a 67 year old stressed out annoyed woman can give and he in turn very sheepishly said "Sorry....Ermmmm....Just over that way ladies".

Finally we were in our seats and the show began much to the delight of The Teenager and her best friend who sang along to every song and knew all the words. The first half was amazing and I almost welled up at the Defying Gravity song. As the interval began I took a deep breath and looked at Mum who had this sort of strange look on her face "Well, what did you think...Wasn't it amazing" I asked..............."To be honest" she began "I didn't get it".........................................................I thought The Teen was going to leap out of her chair "WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU DIDN'T GET IT......HOW CAN YOU NOT OF GOT IT.....................HAVEN'T YOU SEEN THE WIZARD OF OZ"???.....................................Mums reply was short and sweet "Nope".........................................Oh dear, oh dear..................Its hard work sometimes I can tell you.


Anyway, the rest of the show was brilliant and I would thoroughly recommend it to anyone who likes musicals..................................................Just don't take a 67 year old woman who has never seen The Wizard Of Oz, it takes a really long time to explain it all I can tell you................................

Centre Parcs 2013

Well, we are back from our fabulous week long holiday to Centre Parcs at Longleat. We have never stayed  a whole week before and I would thoroughly recommend it. I could write a blog that might go on for several weeks but thought I would do something a little bit different this time by giving you a photo montage blog with little descriptions underneath this time. I will of course write a couple more blogs about the funny things that happened along the way.

Hope you enjoy them xxxx

Very comfy and super clean lodge, both rooms had en-suite which was great.



 Constant wild life which kept the kids amused all day.

 

 

We all enjoyed the Crazy Golf.

 

 

 The Falconry experience was just amazing (blog post coming soon).

 

 

There were loads of places to eat.....Right up my street.

 

 

The new Tree Houses.....If I win the Lottery this is where we will go.

 

 

Our little home for the week. So lovely and relaxing.

NY Diary...Final Day.

Day 6.....Our Final Day.

As we opened our eyes it struck us all that this was our last day and in 11 hours we would be in the air on our way back to England. The kids were excited about having another week off, The Husband was excited about giving his wallet a rest and I was .........Well, I was........Dreading the flight home. However we still had all day and I was going to try and put it to the back of my mind for as long as I could. The hotel had been super nice and said that as they weren't busy we could leave the room at 2pm instead of 10am.

We decided to go for one last big breakfast at what had become our favourite diner "Astros". A family run Italian/American place just down the road which served the best pancakes I had ever tasted.

The Teenager wanted to take some more photography and the boys were desperate to make their breakfasts go down before the taxi ride to the airport.


We took one last walk down 5th Avenue and marvelled at the rich doing their shopping with actual people/personal assistants carrying bags and boxes to cars for them. "One day" the Hubby said "When we win the lottery, we will come back here and have a good shopping spree" he teased.





All too soon it was time to go to the airport and we began our taxi ride to JFK. I have to say it was a better ride than the first one but that was mainly down to me telling the driver that the kids would throw up if he drove to fast. Once at the airport I was relieved the plane was on time and before I knew it I was sitting on the jumbo jet waiting to take off.

The plane journey was going well....Too well.....And at approximately 2 hours from our final destination my worst nightmare happened.....The captain put the seat belt sign on.....Oh my god....Oh my God....Calm down....Get a grip.

The Husband woke up as the air hostesses ran about waking people up and checking they had their belts on. I grabbed his arm and shut my eyes awaiting what was about to come, luckily the kids stayed asleep as the plane bumped around through the turbulence. After about an hour I noticed the hostesses getting up and carrying on as if nothing had happened "Is that it?" I asked the Hubby "Looks like it" he replied. "Well done you for not freaking out" he reassured.

I had done it.......I had taken a deep breath and conquered one of my biggest fears. To say I was slightly proud of myself was an understatement and I felt like I had climbed a huge mountain. We cruised into Heathrow without any other incidents and touched down beautifully with a slight bump as the wheels met the tarmac.






And that my friends is that....Our New York adventure was over and we were home safe and sound. I will never forget the looks of amazement on the kids faces as we took in the first sights of America and the smell of Manhattan. We have laughed until our sides hurt and felt incredible sadness at Ground Zero as we read all the names of the poor souls that died. I asked everyone to name one lasting memory of their holiday and this was what they said.......

The Husband......Looking down 6th Avenue for the first time and thinking how it looked like a slice had been taken out of Manhattan.

The Teenager.......Meeting Lady Ga Ga albeit a wax one.

The Whirlwind.....Finding a burger bigger than his head and seeing a Red Panda.

Mine......Mine was easy....It wasn't a place or a memory, it was a simple one really.....Mine was just being on a great adventure with my 3 favourite people in the whole world.

Thank you for following our journey and I hope you have enjoyed it.

Lots of Love
Me

NY Diary....5

Day 5.


After Larry and Clare had checked out we hoped and prayed nobody else would check in.....WRONG!!!! We now had a family of 4 from the deep south who sounded like the family from The Nutty Professor. In fact I was convinced Eddie Murphy was in there doing all 4 voices. They were even louder than Larry and Clare and proceeded to whoop and howl at the basketball they were watching. Instead of getting stressed about it which I would of usually done I figured that there was no way there would be any "Special time" as the kids were in there and just laughed hysterically at the whole situation. They sounded like a family I would of loved to of met and hung out with and anyone who knows me will tell you that within 20 minutes I had their voices off to a tee and proceeded to mimic them for the rest of the day. The best bit was when we met them as we left and they were every bit as brilliant as I had imagined. What a shame they hadn't been in there for our whole holiday I reckon we would of opened the adjoining door and had a great laugh. Turned out they were in New York as they belonged to a gospel choir and even joked that they must of sounded like The Klumps to us.

Anyway, today was my day and I had chosen a place I had always wanted to go to but had not had time when I had come before.This place had been on my bucket list and I was determined to make it this time......We were off to.......Central Park and more importantly The Zoo.




We headed off to the park (managing to dodge Johnny Cash who was still yelling at us to have a free ride) and immediately felt a sense of space and trees once we were inside. What a totally beautiful place it was, I couldn't take the smile off of my face the whole way round. We found the fountain from the opening sequence from Friends and watched as a man proposed to his girlfriend on one knee. Everyone cheered and clapped and I honestly had a tear in my eye as we watched on.

After a good couple of hours we decided to find the zoo........This proved a bit tricky as we couldn't find the entrance. Little did we know it was back where we had come in and a long walk followed.The Whirlwind began to get Denim chaffing and The Teenager moaned that she couldn't feel her feet.

As we walked a man approached us trying to sell us his CD, it was at this point reality left the building and we found ourselves in the tricky situation of being confronted by a rather large man holding a stack of Cd's. We tried to say no thank you but we were alone in a street with 2 kids and he was very persistent. I must admit my imagination ran away with me and I had visions of being mugged, shot and ending up on Fox News at 10.


However what actually happened was very different, he was a real a character and thought he was the next Puff Daddy, he referred to me as Muma Luv and The Husband became Big Daddy which the kids found hysterical. We somehow ended up giving him $10 and making a hasty retreat as he shouted after us what a great family we were.

Once in the zoo we wandered around still laughing at what had just happened. I was slightly disappointed that there was no lion, zebra, hippo or giraffe like in Madagascar but the animals that were there were super cute. The Whirlwind made friends with a Red Panda and remarked how it liked him because they were both ginger which made the whole crowd laugh. It was quite strange how it only looked at him and followed him around as he walked round the enclosure but this anomaly was solved as we realised The Whirlwind had a bag of pretzels hanging out of his backpack.

Big Daddy and the kids went into the 4D theatre and I waited outside as they give me a right headache. I sat in the sunshine watching the world go past and wondered what it would be like to live here. My mind wandered and smiled to myself as I thought of all the funny people we had met here, then..........."Hey....Its Muma Luv" a familiar voice dragged me out from my dream state.......It was him again....The man with the Cd's. He was walking past the zoo and had seen me sitting there "Oh..Um...Hi" I replied. He then stood the other side of the small fence chatting away to me for what seemed like an eternity before suddenly grabbing his bag and running off with a cheery "See Ya Muma, have a good day". I saw the reason for his quick departure......2 Police officers........I pretended to be on the phone just in case he was one of Americas Most Wanted and they thought I was associating with him..............Alcatraz here I come.

After all the excitement of the day we walked to FAO Schwarz and had our picture taken with Iron man....Not the real Robert Downy Junior one.........But never the less Iron Man. The kids got a teddy each which were adorable and we even managed to get a few sweets we had never heard of over here.

We walked home and laughed as the kids played hide and seek in the trees..."Love you Muma Luv" The Husband said, "Love you too Big Daddy" I replied with a wink.

Come back tomorrow for the last instalment.

Thanks for reading
Lots of Love
Me
xxxxx

NY Diary...4

Day 4.

Our American friends checked out this morning and had one final "Love session" before going. I instructed the kids to be as loud as they wanted and even turned up Lady Ga Ga on the Ipad, before accidentally on purpose throwing a suitcase at the adjoining door. As we left, so did they and I gave them the type of look only a mother would give. They in turn looked mortified and practically ran down the hall to the lifts. Bless them (I'm only jelous).




We were off to Tussaud's today as The Teenager feeling very disgruntled that she hadn't bumped into the real Lady Ga Ga wanted her picture taken with a wax one. The Whirlwind complained that he hated the creepy wax figures and we had done it in London last year so why did we have to go again.(We still laugh at the fact the only figures he wanted his picture taken with were Stephen Hawkins and Gandhi). I explained that if he did Tussaud's we would go next door to the Ripley's Believe It Or Not exhibition straight after, this seemed to work and we headed off.




Once at Times Square we found it easily.....Then we saw the queue.....It must of been 100 people deep and a slight groan echoed from every ones mouths. "Never mind" I said cheerfully "It will go down quickly, come on". We went to the back and stood waiting patiently, I tried my best to engage the kids but any mum or dad reading this will sympathise with me. Once they get over the age of 11 Eye Spy just doesn't really cut it and I received "the look" from The Teenager when I suggested it. After 1/2 hour of not moving forward The Hubby decided he would go and ask how much longer it was going to be. On his return I noticed a strange smile on his face....."Errrmmm.......This is the queue for the bus tour....Not Tussaud's" he whispered to me........."What" I yelled back, "Yep...There is no queue at all for Tussauds, we can just walk straight in"................ARGHHHHHHH!!!!!

I decided not to tell the kids the truth and try and earn some street cred back after the eye spy fiasco, informing them that we could go straight to the front of the queue as we were from England and they had been so well behaved standing for so long. I'm not sure if the eldest believed me but I was certainly not going to correct myself.
Both exhibitions were brilliant and we all really enjoyed it......Some more than others!!!!!


On our way home The Teenager decided she would quite like a Yankees hoodie and The Whirlwind wanted a cap so we headed on in to The Yankees store. I remained outside as The Northern Mother had phoned to check up on us. After what seemed like an eternity I popped my head round the door and discovered the kids lining up to pay and The Husband standing watching the baseball on a huge TV in a slight sport coma induced state........Bloody Typical.

We had dinner at Applebees (which The Husband assured us was mentioned in a film he had seen). Great restaurant and very kid friendly, food was immense and I even had 1 of my 5 a day by having green beans....Trouble was they were deep fried.....Think I'm just going to go with it from now on.






We then had a slow walk around Times Square which was amazing at night time all be it very busy and very slightly intimidating with all the people dressed up as characters who then expected money after having your picture taken with them. Luckily we had our very own 007 escorting us.......Think he had also enjoyed Tussards a bit too much as well..........






Think we will sleep well tonight.
Come back tomorrow for Day 5.

Thanks for reading
Lots of Love
Me
xxxxx

P.S....The Whirlwind finally got his chance in a yellow cab......And The Husband couldn't say no this time. x











This post has been published a day after the Boston Marathon bombings. My thoughts are with all those that were injured and lost there lives as well as the families of those that have been affected by this terrible tragedy. God Bless. xx

NY Diary...3

Day 3.

Today was Monday and we all awoke after a slightly disturbed night due to Larry and Clare having extremely loud "Special Time". I was glad I had kept all the earplugs from the plane and made everyone shove a pair in to save any embarrassment. I had decided that if it happened again tonight I was going to knock and have a discreet word with our American neighbours.



Today was slightly different as we were splitting into boys and girls teams, myself and the Teenager were off shopping for prom stuff and the boys were off to The Natural History Museum and The Intrepid aircraft carrier exhibition. We walked together for a while and got accosted by a man trying to sell us a horse and carriage ride round the park, The Husband did his best at ignoring him but he was very persistent and practically followed us all the way down the road eventually telling us we could have the ride for free. As we said our final "NO THANKS" he told us to come back once we had ditched the boys and to remember his name.....Johnny Cash............"Yeah" said The Teenager, "and my dads Elvis".

Once we had said our goodbyes the boys headed off (still walking at this point, no cab was being hailed). Myself and The Teenager got our map out and made our was to 5th Avenue at which point she remarked how we would definitely find some prom shoes here.........I explained gently that unless Donald Trump was going to pop down from his tower and declare us his 1 millionth visitor giving us $100,000 there was no way she was getting anything from this Avenue. We decided to hail a cab and make our way over to Macy's then Bloomingdale's then the shopping mall. Shoes, clutch bag, clothes, more shoes and sunglasses were purchased (all by her) and I ended up buying myself........A keyring.


By 3pm we realised we had only eaten cupcakes all day (not a bad thing) and found a salad bar to have a late lunch. I must admit I loved it being just the 2 of us shopping in New York and was super impressed we didn't get lost once.






Once back at the hotel the boys arrived back with The Whirlwind declaring that "Dad has made me walk all the way back AGAIN" and promptly dropping his trousers revealing a terrible case of Denim chaffing. Poor kid was not only exhausted but in agony too.
Feeling bad The Husband announced that if we wanted room service and a movie tonight then that was fine. We all jumped at the chance and settled back to watch The Hobbit whilst stuffing our faces with Macaroni cheese, hamburgers and chicken wings........................I am not confident we will fit on the plane home at this stage.

Another great day in this wonderful city had been had by all and we were all exhausted but extremely happy.

Come back tomorrow for Day 4.

Thanks for reading
Lots of love
Me
xxxx