The end of the line {last days in Wales}

I haven't really wanted to write this post. I think it's the acknowledgement that in doing so I have to admit that we actually did reach the end of the holiday, although I've managed to get a lot of mileage out of it in blog posts I know!

The last 4 days of our holiday were spent with our brother, sister-in-law and nephew in Cwmbran, Wales. They live on the side of a hill (they call it a mountain but I'm not sure we would class it as such!) in a lovely neighbourhood which is less than 30 minutes drive to the centre of Cardiff, although the shopping centre in Cwmbran is so good that there's no need to go into the city very often. Both James and Ann-Marie are primary school teachers so the days we stayed coincided nicely with the start of their half-term holidays.

The drive from Somerset to Wales takes about 1.5-2 hours depending on traffic and our munchkins were kept quite entertained on the drive by counting the huge number of bridges that cross over the M5 and M4 motorways on our journey. We had a competition going to guess how many we would go under and it was a close game between my guess (40) and Noah's guess (55), with Noah taking it out closest at 52. Mylo and Mark's guesses were a bit higher so they were out of the running.

The newer Severn bridge that spans the border between Wales and England is impressive to drive over and you then immediately hit the toll bridge. Can you believe it costs nothing to leave Wales but 6 pounds to get in! There's about 10-12 lanes of tolls and then afterwards we nicknamed it The Wacky Races as all the toll lanes then have to merge back into 3 lanes of motorway without any road markings to guide the way.

We arrived just as Ann-Marie and Jack got home from school and enjoyed a cuppa and a sit down before heading out to an all-you-can-eat curry (quite the novelty) in Cwmbran.

Saturday morning James showed us his school which is in a very poor part of Newport before he and Mark went off for a 35 mile bike ride with a group of friends. Ann-Marie and Jack introduced us to the delights of Techniquest - a hands-on Science exhibition in Cardiff Bay and then treated us to GBK (Gourmet Burger Kitchen) for lunch.

Techniquest was well cool - the boys had a ball trying out most of the 60+ models and exhibits.

The shadow room light box was a big hit.

The whisper dish was pretty cool too - you whisper into the circle and have a partner listen to you at the other identical dish on the other side of the room and then reply. 

The disappearing body trick had us all amused.

And the illusion of this shrinking chair was pretty cool too - making us all seem much tinier than real life.

 GBK is a kiwi-owned burger restaurant set up in 2001 that has taken the UK market by storm.

For my burger-mad boys, it was the perfect lunch out!

Afterward we also took a walk through the Pierhead which is a gorgeously architecturally designed historical building which walks you through much of the history of Wales.

 Inside we found a cool gadget where you could write a message and then watch it go around the room.

When the weary bikers eventually arrived home, James realised his phone, bankcard and cash had fallen out of his pocket somewhere between local pub they'd stopped in for a drink at and home. Mark scoured the streets on foot while James and Ann-Marie retraced their route in the car - thankfully finding everything including the 20 pound notes scattered up and down the rain gutters but the phone and bankcard were unfortunately crushed (having been run over). This then left me at home in charge of cooking pizzas for the masses which was interesting not really knowing where to find anything in a strange kitchen! Mark and James then headed out for a night at the pub with James' friends and we got the kids into their matching onesies (I die from the cuteness!) and they played Chubby Bunnies - see how many marshmallows you can stuff in your mouth and still clearly say Chubby Bunnies - Jack was the clear winner with 7! After the kids were in bed Ann-Marie and I curled up on the couch for a night of lovely conversation, wine and chocolate.

No more room after just 2 marshmallows!

The clocks went back that night and so we had some even earlier risers than usual as Mylo, Noah and Jack were all sharing a room during our stay. The day itself wasn't up to much and we had ummed and ahhed about the idea of super-tubing (think big rubber tubes down a dry slope) so went out to Ebbw Vale to check it out. The town was centred around iron and steelworks - in its day housing the biggest steelworks in Europe but it's all closed down now. The rain and wind sadly put paid to the supertubing idea so instead we cruised around the Festival Park outlet shopping centre, everyone coming home with a bargain or two so it wasn't a wasted day out, plus the drive there was quite lovely.

 Aunty Ann-Marie treated the boys to a couple of mini car rides - look a Punch Buggy!

That night James cooked a gorgeous pulled pork roast for us all - we were salivating all day with the smell of it cooking emanating through the house - it was a hard ask waiting till 5.30pm to eat it! The biggest storm in 25 years was predicted to hit that night so we cuched in together, firstly watching Monsters University as a family before the kids went to bed, and us adults followed on with an episode of the new season of Homeland and a rather lovely new mini series by Ricky Gervais called Derek (about a 50 year-old care naive and possibly autistic care worker in an old people's home). It is both humorous and touching, one minute you are laughing your head off and the next you are in tears - I'll be interested to see if it ever reaches NZ TV.

We awoke on Monday morning thinking 'Storm - what storm?!' as we hadn't even really heard any wind outside. As it turned out, Wales missed the brunt of it but there was a fair bit of damage along the coast and closer to London and sadly a few lives lost. We'd been concerned about Mum & Dad driving up to Wales as they even closed the Severn bridge for a while but it had all settled down again by the morning, so we headed out to The Big Pit coal museum for the day.

Wales has an incredible rich history in iron, steel and coal, and a day out here is both fascinating and educational. The highlight is definitely the underground tour where you go down in a lift 100 metres into the mine and are taken around the mine by an actual ex-miner. To go down, you must wear a hard hat, light and battery belt weighing 5 kilos and hand over any contraband - no cameras, phones, watches - basically anything with a dry-cell battery that could cause a flame.

Right until the mine closed in the 1980's there were also ponies who worked down there 50 weeks a year hauling coal carts so we also got to see the stables they were housed in.

There was also the opportunity to walk through the real-life bath houses that were put in for the miners - greatly assisting the miner's wives who had less dust, dirt and grime to deal with at home from then on. It is also both sad and incredible that to think that until 1840 children as young as five and women had to work in the dark and dirty mines.

Ann-Marie took me home via the scenic route over the hill mountain they live under and I loved capturing the autumn colours that are now in full force everywhere in the UK.

Later in the day, Grandma & Grandad arrived for the night and we all went out to Harvester for dinner for one last hurrah, and when we got home set off a few sparklers to round off a lovely last night. 

We feel decidedly poorer for having to leave, but so much richer for the memories of these days spent together. We know not when we will all meet again, but pray that is not too long until we will.

How to make travel on the Underground {London Tube} fun for kids

Travelling on the Underground train system in London (or the Tube as it is more affectionately known) can be quite a daunting prospect when doing it with kids.

There's a lot to remember - stand on the right on the escalators, mind the gap between the train and the platform, stand clear of the doors, and hold on to a rail if you're standing when the train is moving.

If you've ever travelled on the Tube, you'll know that it's generally a bit of a somber experience, no-one really talks, most people lose themselves in a daily newspaper, playing on their phones, reading, listening to music on their headphones or snoozing. And if you think that anyone will give up their precious seats even when there's clearly 2 kids standing right in front of them - think again. Well that is a bit harsh because we did have the odd kind person but for the most part everyone is pretty well out for themselves.

Our two were pretty intrigued by the whole experience finding it quite the adventure, always following along with the route we were taking and counting the number of stops we were going each time.

So I think having us rowdy lot on the train was probably quite the novelty for most other commuters. And we passed the time with a new game: Renaming the Tube Stops. It was actually Mylo that came up with the idea because as he listened to the announcement as to what stop was coming up next he was clearly hearing things quite different to the rest of us.

You can see from the names crossed out in red that we had a go at renaming some of the stops we passed through - often with hilarious results. So without further ado here are new and improved tube station names:

Blackfriars = Black Flies
Mansion House = Ghost Mansion
Temple = Ten Pin Bowling
Embankment = Money Bank
Waterloo = Portaloo
Charing Cross = Carrot Cross
Piccadilly Circus = Mickey Mouse Circus
Russell Square = Muscle Square
King's Cross = King Ross
Tufnell Park = Jurassic Park (we'd just been to the dinosaurs and were on our way to Nikki's flat)
Archway = Arctic Park
Holloway Road = Bolognase Road (you can tell we were hungry and on our way to dinner for this one)

We ended up doing quite a few trips on the tube in the three days we were there so it really helped pass the time both to count the number of stops and to have some fun laughing at the funny names we made up. I'm sure I caught a few other people having a secret smile at our antics on the Tube too - hopefully we managed to brighten up their day as well!

Round the village - a photo scavenger hunt

On one of our quieter days in England with everyone still recovering from the lurgy, I decided to take the boys out on a photo scavenger hunt around the village to see how many different house names and streets we could capture.

There are many unusual house names - some obviously hark back to an older heritage - like The Old Police House, or The Old Bakery. Others take their inspiration from their surroundings, and still others - well it's a mystery but fun to capture nonetheless.

It was a fun filled half an hour of spotting and snapping until the camera battery ran out.

The boys got very quick at finding the next photo opportunity - although Mylo bless him was even game for taking photos of alarm boxes on the side of houses such was his excitement at capturing anything with letters on it at all!

We ended our little tiki tour of the village with a play in the park in relatively warm sunshine which was a joy as sunny warm days were definitely on the wane in the latter part of our stay.

This idea was inspired both by hubby suggesting we should capture some of the unusual names from around the village and Miriam's recent BMWB post of her photo scavenger hunt.

Lyme Regis - reliving golden days

Lyme Regis has always had a special place in our hearts. We made many a day trip down here in our youth as it is only a 45 minute drive from Mark's parents house.

This place appeals in all seasons, with it's quaint bay, the unique cobb and the history of the coastline and its famous Jurassic heritage. A walk on the cobb is not for the fainthearted though - with its sloping surface and the likelihood of a rogue wave crashing over the edge in rougher seas.

You can see millions of years of history in the cliffs here - it is officially the first place where fossils were found in England, and many a discovery has been made on the coastline. One local, Mary Anning found the very first Ichthyosaur skeleton in 1811 at age 12 and spent her life finding fossils in the Jurassic marine beds around the local area. Having these amazing treasures lying in wait just waiting to be discovered hasn't been without risk and tragedy though, as the unstable cliffs have had a habit of coming down and burying would-be fossil hunters under piles of rock and rubble at times over the years.

There were no fossil finds for us the day we visited, but there were two little people happy enough to ditch their shoes and bury feet in the sand despite the cooler day.

The amusement arcade on the foreshore was also chocka full of games to entice young and old.

I have distinct memories of playing this horse racing derby many a time with Mark and his friends on occasions when we came to the seaside in our youth.

Such a time waster really but good natured fun.

The boys tried their hands at the 2p machines - they really are a have but the boys enjoyed hearing the sound of the pennies tinkling down when they won a few back.

Then it was time for a wander down the promenade and through the back streets to find fish n chips for lunch - it's gotta be done at the seaside.

I love the colourful architecture in this town, so different to some of the somber one-colour stone villages not far up the road.

And Lyme to me is the quintessential English seaside town because without a pebbly shore could a shore ever really be truly called  English?

More colourful beach huts line the shore just as they did in Seaton a short way west along the coast.

After lunch, Grandma and Granddad took the boys to the fossil shop while Mark and I looked around the local museum which was fascinating both in its wealth of fossils and in retelling of local lore. 

This was our last day trip with Grandma and Grandad before the duties of re-packing and our final trip to Wales beckoned. Despite the fact some tummies were still getting over the bugs from earlier in the week, it was a gentle day packed with just enough excitement and nostalgia to satisfy all.